Disclaimer: Victorious and all of its associated copyrights are not my property and I stake no claim to them.

A/N: I couldn't quite find the right words to make this as long as the chapters usually are, and I figured I'd put it off long enough.


A bright light and a sort of heat on my face was what I woke up to. I opened my eyes slowly and blinked a few times, trying to block out the sunlight in my face. I rolled over to allow my eyes to adjust to the brightness. Jade was gone, as was her phone, which had been sitting on the nightstand. Due to a lack of any sort of alarm clock or even just a clock, I had no idea what time it was. I groaned and stretched and managed to drag myself out of bed. Despite the sun assaulting my eyes first thing after I woke up, I could see how Jade thought it was more calming to be woken up by the sun rather than an alarm clock.

Since we had already moved most of my stuff from the guest bedroom into Jade's, I grabbed some clean clothes from her – rather enormous – walk in closet so I could shower. About a half hour later, after I'd showered, gotten dressed, put on makeup, and mostly dried my hair, I left the bedroom and went downstairs. It was only as I was about halfway down the stairs that I remembered today was Mikey's birthday, and Jade's family would be coming.

"Look who finally decided to get out of bed!" Cat called out as I entered the kitchen.

"Bite me," I mumbled.

She grinned and pointed to the counter, "That's Jade's job. Anyway, she got your new phone this morning."

I picked it up and saw it was the same as hers, only white instead of black. I looked back up at Cat, "Where is she anyway?"

"She went to meet her dad at the airport. I think her aunt will be here in like, 15 or 20 minutes."

I sighed and sat on one of the bar stools, "I'm a little scared to see them again. Part of me feels like I shouldn't even be here."

She sat down next to me, "Well, I've got no relation to Mikey in any way shape or form, but you can bet your ass I'm staying anyway. Besides, if her family is as great as you made them out to be, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to see you, regardless of what's happened in the past. I mean, my guess is they'd only have a problem with you if Jade did, and that doesn't really seem to be the case."

I huffed. Cat patted my back, "Don't think about it too much, you might hurt yourself."

I snorted and shook my head. About 15 minutes later, I was sitting at the island with Cat watching Andre cut up some vegetables when Cujo started barking just before there was a knock at the door. Beck and Randy both left the kitchen, and a moment later, I heard Alyssa's voice, but couldn't hear what she was saying over the music Randy had turned on. Beck came back into the kitchen carrying a few bags, Alyssa had a rectangular box, and Olivia was empty-handed.

Olivia noticed me first and immediately smiled, holding out her arms. I stood up and gave her a hug. "Look at you! All grown up now!"

"Time tends to do that," I responded before I really thought it through.

She just laughed, "I'm glad to see your sense of humor hasn't changed any."

Alyssa set the box down on the counter and hugged me as well, "I'm so glad to see you, Tori."

I smiled, "You too."

The two offered greetings to Cat and Andre just before Randy entered the kitchen and said, "We got all of those boxes inside, so that should be everything."

"Thank you, Randy. Mother and daddy should be here in a few minutes, they'll probably have a few things as well," Olivia told him.

He looked at Alyssa, "How did the cake turn out?"

She seemed proud, "I think it looks perfect. I made it just how he asked me to."

"What did he want?" I asked.

Randy seemed amused, "When she called, she asked Mikey if he had a favorite superhero or anything that he wanted the cake to resemble. He said he did have a favorite superhero, so she asked who it was. I'll just show you," He lifted the lid of the box off to show us the cake.

It was two-tiered, the icing black with white stripes in a cage pattern around the bottom edge. Drawn in red and blue icing was the SFC logo on the top of the first tier, as well as Happy Birthday Mikey written in the same font, and on the very top of the cake, there was a pure black panther figurine coiled in a hunting stance.

"If you were ever curious who his favorite superhero was," Randy said as he leaned on the counter and crossed his arms.

Cat let out an "aww", and I just smiled, "That's adorable."

"Jade doesn't know yet, we were going to surprise her," Alyssa told us.

I glanced over as Alyssa's three kids walked into the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Cat giving a weird look to one of them, though I didn't realize which one until Chloe gave her the same look. They both seemed unsure of the other, and it was enough to draw the attention of a few others in the room.

"You..." Chloe paused, "You were were that girl that got like, the first perfect score Mrs. Lewis ever gave out, weren't you?"

A smile slowly spread across Cat's face, "I knew you looked familiar."

Chloe looked at her mother, "You remember how I was talking to you about that project we did last year where we had to do a complete makeover based on a single word, and how there was one girl who got the first perfect score the teacher had given out in her 15 years of teaching? That'd be her."

Cat almost seemed embarrassed. I nudged her, "So what was your word?"

"Power."

"I have to admit, it tripped me up. When I think of power, I think of expensive clothing, top of the line stuff, you know, things that would show your stature."

"I guess when I thought of power, stature took a back seat in favor of attributes like confidence, intelligence, and practicality. You don't get to the top of the food chain by having money or influence."

As she described what the felt power meant, I couldn't help but think what she described sounded like Jade. I could definitely see where she was coming from in how she felt about the word.

Cujo began barking once more, his tail loudly hitting the walls as he almost danced around the door leading to the garage. Randy picked out a piece of bell pepper Andre had already cut up, "His human is back."

The door opened and Mikey ran inside, with Jade's father close behind him. He slowed down a bit as he walked into the kitchen and saw so many people he'd never seen before, but climbed up onto a bar stool and looked at his cake with a huge smile on his face.

"You did an excellent job on the cake, Alyssa," Mr. West praised her.

She smiled, "Thank you, Adam, I'm pretty proud of it."

Jade walked inside a moment later as Cujo danced around her feet, nudging her hands with his nose and rubbing himself on her legs. The first thing it seemed she noticed was Mikey sitting at the island, and of course, she noticed the cake right after. She stopped walking, and just stared at it, as if she didn't know what to make of it. Her aunt left little room for questions.

"He wanted the cake to be based on his favorite superhero."

"It's you, Jay!" Mikey exclaimed, the radiant smile still on his face.

Jade finally smiled and messed up his hair. I could see she was trying to hide just how emotional it made her. "I do like that panther though, that's pretty cool."

"Isn't it? It's not edible, but it still looks pretty neat," Alyssa told her.

There was another knock on the front door, and someone who was already in the living room opened up the door. Alyssa looked back, "Is that mom and dad?"

Mr. West stepped back to look and shook his head, "No, that'd be Mr. and Mrs. Davis."

Mikey jumped down from his bar stool and ran to greet them. At the odd looks, Jade simply said, "Just because his father is a piece of shit doesn't mean everyone in his family is. Mikey loves them."

45 minutes or so passed as Mikey got to know the family he was never allowed to meet, and his paternal grandparents got to know the rest of the family. As many people as there were, I noticed one person in particular was absent. I found Randy where he was sitting atop the railing along the edge of the deck watching the family play in the yard.

"So where's Nate?"

"Should be here soon. Jade mentioned he'd be a bit late. Had to get his present ready."

I stood next to him and watched as Mikey begged and pleaded for Jade to "make him tall", and she eventually caved.

"Remember you have to stay still. Are you ready?" He nodded enthusiastically.

She picked him up and put him on her shoulders, then grabbed his feet and pushed him upward so he was standing on her hands. While those that had seen just how strong and fast Jade was were simply amused at the display, those who weren't completely aware let out a few different variations of "oh dear." I think the smile on his face put them a little more at ease.

Randy pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked it, "Guess Nate's here." He hopped down and walked over to Jade to tell her. She quickly let him down and said, "One of your presents just got here, do you wanna know what it is?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Alright, close your eyes and we'll bring it out."

Mikey closed his eyes and Jade jogged back inside to meet Nate. Randy knelt down to Mikey's height and asked, "Can you see anything? Are you peeking?"

"No!" Mikey immediately responded.

Randy held up one finger, "Okay how many fingers am I holding up?"

"12?"

"I don't even have 12 fingers, you loon!"

Mikey giggled and began jumping up and down, "Can I open my eyes yet?"

"Patience."

I looked back at the house just as Jade and Nate were walking back outside. In Nate's arms was a little German Shepherd puppy. A few people covered their mouths, most likely to keep from letting out a loud "aww." I just smiled as Nate crouched down and said, "Alright little buddy, you can look."

Mikey put his hands down at looked at Nate, then down at the puppy he was holding. He smiled widely, but seemed hesitant as he reached out to pet the dog. The puppy licked his hand, and he patted its head. "It's soft."

Nate smiled back at him, "He's two months old, just a little guy. He's yours if you want him."

He looked at Jade with an adorably hopeful expression, "Can I?"

"He's yours, little man."

"Here, sit down," Nate told him. He immediately sat down in the grass, and Nathan put the puppy down. He sniffed Mikey for a few seconds, licked his hand, then climbed into his lap and laid down. Mikey seemed too shocked to do anything other than smile and occasionally run his hand over the dog's fur.

"What are you gonna name him?"

"What's this all about?" I whispered to Randy.

He smiled a bit and shrugged, "She's hoping this dog will do the same for him as Cujo did for her."

"What do you mean?"

Randy just shook his head, "You'll find out eventually."

I wasn't entirely sure if he meant it to sound cryptic, or if that was just the way he said things, but I was curious as to what he was talking about either way. I saw Jade was standing a ways back with a small smile on her face, Cujo sitting by her side looking anxious, his tail wagging furiously, but he stayed put. After trying, and unsuccessfully, trying to get a name out of the kid, Nate suggested they let Cujo meet the little guy. He picked up the puppy and set him on the ground.

Jade said something to Cujo that I didn't hear, and at the speed of light he ran over to the puppy. I was a little impressed how much confidence she had in her dog to stay back about ten feet or so and trust he wouldn't try anything on the little one. As soon as he got to the puppy, he laid down in the grass, as if he wanted to get to his height, and sniffed him. The puppy showed the first spark of playfulness and started barking while running around Cujo as fast as his little legs could carry him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Olivia walk over to Jade and whisper something to her. She didn't say anything back, but just nodded.

Hours later, after Mikey had been introduced to everyone that he hadn't met yet and opened all of his presents, most people were packing up to leave. His grandparents had already exchanged phone numbers after talking about taking a trip to the San Francisco botanical gardens. Cat and Chloe had also gotten each others' numbers, vowing to go shopping sometime. The two Jacobs had spent quite a bit of time in the basement with Randy in Jade, since both were pretty into MMA and wanted to see her setup. The only person I noticed who didn't seem to be talking to someone constantly was Amelia, and while noticing this, I could see her looking at me quite a lot. I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to know why.

Still, as most people were preoccupied, she approached me as I was just watching everyone from the corner of the room while sipping a beer.

She immediately seemed a little scared to talk to me, "Hey...so, do you think you could help me with something?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Depends what it is."

"Well, I'm doing a project for school about drug addiction. What causes it, what the consequences are, what it's like...things like that."

It wasn't hard to guess what she wanted from me. "And you want me to fill in those blanks?"

Amelia just sort of smiled sheepishly. The first thing I thought when I saw that smile was that it looked exactly like the smile Jade used to give me when she knew she did something wrong. I shook my head.

"When is this project due?"

She bit her lip, "It's supposed to be some big deal for a final grade. We were supposed to work on a whole essay and presentation for the end of the year, we got our assignments a week or so ago."

I nodded, "Alright, well, since we're in the middle of a pretty nasty shit storm right now, and I kind of have to focus on not going to jail for my drug problems, if you can fill in everything else in the meantime, I'll answer any questions you have when this is over. Sound good?"

She nodded enthusiastically, "Thank you so much Tori."

Amelia walked off toward the direction of her mother. I had tried to stay on the sidelines as everyone gave each other hugs as they prepared to leave, but eventually, Olivia walked up to me and said the same thing she did ten years ago.

"You may not be blood, but you're still family." I smiled and she gave me a hug. Jade's grandparents also gave me hugs, with her grandma commenting on how beautiful I was.

I'd be lying if I said the compliment didn't make me blush.

After everyone had left, Jade told Mikey it was time to go to bed, so he and his puppy, who was eventually named Ace, followed her upstairs. I came up a few minutes later to see Jade still standing outside his door. I stopped next to her and looked over her shoulder. Ace was already asleep on a dog bed in the corner, and Mikey was asleep in his bed as he held onto a stuffed animal. It was only after looking closely that I realized the stuffed animal was a panther.

"He says I'm his superhero," she whispered.

"You're mine, too," I told her as I wrapped my arms around her.

She sighed, "I'm not a superhero. I don't have any special powers, I'm just a human."

"Yeah...well, so is Batman."

She smiled a bit but shook her head.

"Superheroes don't always have powers," I mumbled, running my fingers through her hair, "They just save you. You saved him from always being afraid of someone he was supposed to trust, you made him feel safe and loved. You did the same for me. Don't ever think that what you did wasn't a big deal. You made a difference, you changed the way both of us saw the world. It means more than you'll ever know."


A/N: If you hadn't already noticed, I couldn't help but toss in three different Batman references in this story. I actually didn't notice all three until I was proofreading...but still. This chapter was a little lighter as a sort of security blanket for the chapters to come.