Meet the Quintis kids! I had a ton of fun writing this chapter, by the way.

Florence had been told that responding to loud children by releasing a smelly chemical was actually much more inappropriate than doing that to adults. That was a shame, since she could use a break, however brief, from the Quinn – Curtis children (or Quintis, or whatever that silly amalgamation of their parents surnames was) shrieking.

To his credit, her boyfriend was doing his best to keep them entertained, since he knew she struggled with connecting with children. He had to deal with amusing them and with the screaming. She just had to cope with the noise.

At least, that was the case until Ellie came running over to her, in that funny way that fourteen – month olds run, with her arms out "Vorensssssse!"

She was glad that while Ellie couldn't make the F sound yet, the little girl was starting to use multiple syllables. Vorense was a much more pleasant name than Vore.

"Hi, small thing," she said, reaching down and lifting Ellie to her hip. "Are you having a good day?" Ellie's response was to grin, scrunch up her nose, and screech. "Why don't we try that quiet game next?" She asked. "It's this really fun game where you don't scream in Florence's ear." To her pleasant surprise, Ellie did quiet down. She was less enthusiastic about the girl sticking her tongue out. But this was Toby's child.

Toby's miracle child. All anyone in the group talked about for months after Happy announced her pregnancy, just three months after the adoption papers for Tad were finalized. It had surprisingly been Walter, not Paige or Cabe, who had pointed out that everyone's obsession with how crazy it was that Ellie existed could eventually take a toll on Tad, their first child who according to their fixation on Ellie had the misfortune of having different biological parents.

I grew up knowing that my sister was normal and I wasn't. Don't let Tad feel like he's not enough. Ever.

Of course, none of them had ever for a moment actually considered Tad any less a Quinn – Curtis child than Ellie. But it was still a reminder they needed.

Maybe that was why Florence, who had taken so long to be fully accepted as a member of the team with no qualifications and still sometimes had flashbacks to the days when Happy thought she was going to single handedly destroy everything Scorpion had worked to become, had always preferred Ellie's older brother. But for reasons she couldn't explain, this tiny little dark – haired ball of energy currently in her arms absolutely adored her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by an insistent tapping at her temple. From the time Ellie was little, Happy had used that as a way of explaining to her that when her father seemingly spaced out, he wasn't ignoring her. "Daddy is thinking" she would say, tapping her own head. It certainly helped the girl from getting upset if she came over to her father and he took a few seconds to realize she was there. However, Ellie had taken to tapping on anyone's head if she was trying to communicate that she understood they were thinking.

"You're right," Florence said to the girl. "Thinking hard."

"Vorenssssse," Ellie said, tucking her head into the crook of Florence's neck. Florence smiled, glancing over at Sylvester, who was teaching Tad "Hot Cross Buns" on the little keyboard that was in the bag of toys that Happy dropped off this morning before going to visit her father. Tad's idea was to smack the keys as hard as he could, rather than the more delicate tapping that Sylvester was using in his example, but he was getting the notes right. Paige would be delighted. Florence wondered if Paige and Walter's baby would be artistically inclined or more on the logical side like Ralph. Tad looked a lot like Toby, despite not being related to him. Maybe Paige and Walter's child wouldn't be anything like either of them. Family was complicated.

"Spoo?" Ellie asked in a high pitched voice, her way of saying she was hungry. Florence would never understand why she would ask for a spoon instead of for food…actually, maybe it was the F sound again.

"Tad, you hungry?" She asked.

"HOT CROSS BUUUUUNS!" He screamed.

"Tad," Sylvester said, pulling the keyboard out of the four – year – old's reach. "Your aunt asked if you were hungry."

"No."

"Tad."

"No thank you, Aunt Flo," he said with a smile.

"That's better," Sylvester said, handing the keyboard back.

"Please don't call me Aunt Flo, Taddy," she said. "It's Aunt Florence."

Tad cocked his head. "Why?"

"Because…never mind. You'll understand when you're older."

"So the silence may be playing tricks on me here, but I think we're alone now," Florence said, gesturing to the part of her lab that had only a half an hour ago still been full of toys and shrieking laughter. "You wanna…head upstairs…and…"

It only took a split second of observation to know that he hadn't been thinking the same way. One thing she had learned about Sylvester very quickly was that while he seemingly had no limit to affection, his sex drive was almost nonexistent. If she left initiating things up to him, they probably would only get intimate once every month or two. She was interested less frequently than was probably average, but if it was up to her they would be doing it closer to one time a week. Oftentimes he would agree when she asked, but sometimes she had to accept that he really wasn't up for it and that it had nothing to do with her or his feelings for her.

He reached up to lightly scratch her back. "I'm not really in the mood, sweetheart," he said. "But I can use something on you if you'd like."

She knew he was grateful to her for not being pushy, and likewise she was grateful to him for understanding their needs were different and wanting to meet her in the middle. Leaning in, she pressed a quick kiss to his neck. "Sounds good to me."