Kihonne: Alright folks, I'm back with another chapter! This time, it's Kaz's time to shine! But first, it's shoutout time!
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LabGirl2001: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm proud of him too – he pretty much lost everyone at one point or another, between his family all walking away from him, his fight with Kaz, and his and Skylar's issues. He's really strong for not allowing that to turn him into a bad person. And yes, Oliver is a true romantic. He really loved Skylar. Anyway, if you liked that chapter, I'm sure you're going to love this one too!
Algernon23: I'm so glad you liked the chapter, particularly Oliver's growth as a character. He certainly has a crazy life, that's for sure, but it worked out pretty well for him. Please, don't get me started on Endgame. I'm going crazy waiting for it (I'm going to go see Captain Marvel on Thursday). It's going to be insane. As for Legacies, I should have a release date by time I update next. Right now, I'm expecting to post it at the beginning of April, but I want to be sure before I set a real date. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
SzymonS: I managed to deal with it the best I could. It's still up on one website, but the website is already pretty sketchy, so I don't think anything I do is going to change anything. Still, getting my story off of most sites is better than nothing. I'm glad you liked the wedding – I really was going for a cinematic feel to it. Well…I don't want to comment on the Venusians just yet. I don't know what I can say that won't spoil, but I think you're going to like what I have planned for them. Seraphina is going to be a pretty interesting character, that's for sure. You're definitely right that she has certain leadership qualities, though she's actually not the youngest. She'll be 16 by time the story starts, with Kaz and Dani's twins being 15 at the time. Though compared to some of the older ones like Ben and Naomi (who will be 23 and 21 respectively), they do seem pretty young. I'm so glad that you still like the Lab Assistant so much. It is a shame I didn't get to do more with Marcus, isn't it? He was so interesting to write. But seriously, thank you so much for everything you said. I really appreciate it. There is a way to check how many people are reading this story, sort of. The list only shows a month's worth at a time, and if one person reads 10 chapters in the same month, it looks like 10 different people looked at the story, and it doesn't take into account those reading on the apps, but from what I can tell, about 150-ish people read Skylar's chapter in February. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Kihonne: Anyway, on with the chapter!
Kaz: Kihonne doesn't own Lab Rats, Mighty Med, or the Elite Force. Those are owned by Disney. I only own this story, all the OCs, and anything else you don't recognize!
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2004
By time my new friend Oliver and I got to the beach, most of the teachers had brought the students up to the food court. My big brother, Kenny, was still on the beach though, talking with one of the teachers and a girl my age who was both crying and soaking wet.
"Dee!" Oliver recognized her I guessed and ran up to her, hugging her tightly when he saw that she was crying.
"What happened?" I asked, a little confused. The teacher looked like she was about to tell me to go join the other students, even though I didn't go to JK like Oliver, but Kenny spoke up first.
"It's okay, he's my brother. My mom couldn't find a sitter, so I had to take him to work with me." He told the teacher. She nodded.
"Danica here fell into the water." She explained, mostly to Oliver. "Thank god there was a lifeguard on duty."
"It was nothing." Kenny said quickly. Danica shook her head, pushing away from Oliver.
"I didn't fall! He pushed me!" She insisted. Kenny looked at the teacher, then at Danica.
"One of the other kids, sweetie?" He asked. She shook her head and he frowned. "An adult?" She nodded, pouting. "Could you tell me who?"
She frowned and looked up at the pier. I winced - that looked like a long fall. "I can't see him." She told Kenny. He nodded.
"Alright, I'll keep an eye out for scary guys who push people into the water." He promised her, a serious look on his face. She nodded, sniffling a little. Kenny looked at her teacher. "You should probably call her parents or something. I'm sure she's fine, but just to be sure."
"I tried, but neither are answering their phone. Thank you though - we'll keep trying."
"Do you wanna play with Kaz and I?" Oliver asked, looking at Danica. She looked at me, realizing I was there for the first time.
"No way!" I protested before she could answer. He looked at me. "She has cooties!"
"No I don't!" She retorted, upset. I nodded.
"Yes you do! You're a girl - all girls have cooties!" I repeated exactly what my other big brother, Kasey, told me.
"Kaz..." Kenny sighed.
"I'm not a girl!" Danica was getting upset with me now. She crossed her arms, even as Oliver looked at her, confused.
"Yes you are." He told her, frowning as he looked at her. She rolled her eyes, now more annoyed with me than she was upset at ending up in the water. Kenny and the teacher were looking at each other, amused.
"I'm not a girl." She insisted. She looked at me. "Can I play with you if I'm not a girl?"
I thought about it. I suppose... "But you have a girl's name."
She frowned. "No...my name is...Dani..." She trailed off, then shrugged. "Dani's not a girl's name. Can I play with you now?"
"Okay." I shrugged. "You can play with us."
She grinned and looked up at the teacher. "I can go play, right?"
"I'm still going to call your parents, but until then...stay where we can see you." She agreed reluctantly, shooting Kenny a glance. He was smirking, shaking his head at us.
"Cool. C'mon." Oliver grabbed her hand and Dani followed us over to where we'd left the toys.
2015
"No, no. I already got that one." I said to Dani, noticing as she lifted one of the comics out of the pile to examine. She frowned.
"You do? Ollie told me you didn't when I mentioned I wanted to borrow it." She replied, seeming confused. I chuckled.
"That's because he was already borrowing it." I mentioned. She shot her brother a look, shaking her head.
"Jerk." She muttered half-heartedly before going back to the pile. She looked up at me without raising her head. "I can borrow it when he's done, right?"
"Only if I can borrow your Tecton #234." I offered. She grinned.
"Deal." She replied.
"Okay, Kaz." Oliver finally joined the conversation, having come up with his would-you-rather question for the game we tended to play when going through comics. It kinda distracted us from the fact that we couldn't exactly afford them. "Would you rather have Freeze Frame's power to stop time but you have to talk like a chicken, or Tecton's immunity to pain, but you'd have to wear a diaper?"
"Oh, I'd wear a diaper for two reasons." I smirked a little, glancing between the twins. "Number one…and number two."
Oliver chuckled and gave me a fist bump while Dani just shook her head, a smirk on her face. "What about you, Dani? A pain-free, diaper-wearing life, or a chicken-talking, time-stopping one?"
"I'm with Kaz on the diaper thing." She decided without a moment's thought. She looked up, her bangs falling in front of her eyes again. She didn't bother to push them away, comfortable with them obscuring her view a little. "The diapers would just save so much time too."
"Agreed." I grinned at her. I was about to propose my own would-you-rather when something caught my eye. "Guys, there it is," I announced, "the Meteorite of Zandor."
"It's the source of Tecton's immeasurable powers." Dani sighed in longing, staring at it with big eyes. "It's so cool."
"I have to have this." I declared. "Hidden in the Earth's core for millions of years, forged from a supernova in the Balazar Galaxy-"
"It says made in Taiwan." Oliver pointed out. I rolled my eyes.
"Well, I still want it." I replied. He shrugged and I looked at the price tag, hoping maybe it would be cheap enough that I could get one of my brothers to lend me the money for it. But even if I did all my siblings' chores for a month, I still wouldn't be able to afford it. "But I'll never be able to afford it." I sighed. Dani took it from me, grimacing when she saw the price for herself.
"Everything here is way over-priced." She muttered, announced.
"Yes, but we can still pose with it." Oliver suggested, smiling. I grinned back and looked at Dani.
"Commemorative fake photo?" I suggested. She beamed and slid close to me, with Oliver leaning in on my other side. I raised my hand to take a fake photo of us, commemorating yet another random day in our friendship.
2015
"And the award for the most humiliated people in the emergency room goes to the boys stuck in the flying saucer." Oliver complained. Dani bit her lip, looking a little guilty at his words.
"Take that, guy with his hand stuck in the gumball machine!" I cheered, nodding at the kid. Dani followed my gaze and smiled a little, amused, before walking around to face her brother.
"Ollie, I've apologized like a hundred times." She insisted. He didn't say anything, so she sighed in annoyance. "But c'mon, when has something like this ever happened?"
"Do you want me to answer that?" Oliver retorted.
"No." Dani grumbled. I craned my neck, trying to see her, but I couldn't see past the entrance to the ER. Just as I turned my head though, a strange man in a heavy trench coat walked in. Huh, that wasn't suspicious at all.
"This is so typical!" As Oliver complained, I turned us both around so I could keep my eyes on the trench coat man. Dani frowned and followed my gaze as the man walked into the storage closet. "You two always do these crazy things and expect me to just follow you!"
"Hold that thought and follow me." I'd only been half-paying attention anyway. Without waiting for him to respond, I dragged him towards the storage closet.
"Where are we going?" Dani asked, following behind.
"The guy who just walked into this closet – I think he was Blue Tornado!"
"You mean the superhero who can spin at the speed of sound?" Dani grinned.
"And who is make-believe?" Oliver added, slightly annoyed.
"Have an imagination, Ollie." Dani scolded before looking back at me with a grin.
"I know it doesn't make any sense, but it looked exactly like him. The same crooked nose, the same scar on his cheek, he even had a wispy beard!" I told them.
"Well, so does my grandmother!" Oliver protested. Dani nodded in agreement, but still opened the storage closet's door for us. I dragged Oliver in, and Dani squeezed in behind us. But to my disappointment, the room was totally empty, save the cleaning supplies.
"Kaz, there's no one in here." Dani pointed out. I looked around, confused. No, I was certain that he was in here.
"I-I don't get it. I saw him go in here." It didn't make sense…
"Well, maybe one of his powers is to turn himself into a roll of one-ply toilet paper." Oliver grabbed a roll of toilet paper off a shelf. I rolled my eyes. "Now, enough damage has been done today, so can we please just go?"
"Fine." I sighed, knowing that the sooner we got this UFO off, the sooner Oliver would be in a better mood. I went to open the door, but accidentally hit Dani with it. She knocked it back before stumbling towards us – there really wasn't any room in this storage closet – and knocking Oliver and I backwards.
"Hey!" Oliver protested as he tried to regain his balance.
"Whoa." Dani stepped back a second later, staring at something directly in front of Oliver…and one hundred percent out of my line of view.
"Check it out!" Oliver gasped. A little annoyed that I couldn't see, I gasped dramatically.
"I know! My mom had the exact same mop!"
"No, look!" Dani ignored my sarcasm and turned the saucer so I could see what they were looking at. It turned out to be a glowing section of the wall that definitely hadn't been there before. It was broken into 25 square pieces, with weird, partial symbols on the majority of them. "It's some sort of puzzle."
"I think I know what it is." Oliver realized, turning again. I raised my hands in defeat as I was once again turned to face the door.
"Is it the maze where you have to help the rabbit find its carrot?" I asked, keeping my eyes on Dani's face to gauge her reaction to whatever it was that Oliver was doing. "Because if so, you're on your own. Those things are impossible."
Dani smirked a little, then a second later her smile widened. "It's the symbol of Caduceo, the legendary healer of superheroes." Oliver explained, confirming that he had finished the puzzle.
I spun us around, wanting to see. He was right – it was the Caduceo symbol, with the word 'Enter' in big green letters at the bottom and a button labelled M at the top.
"Oh, it says enter." I realized, reaching up to press the button.
"I guess the big decision here is whether or not to push the button…" Oliver started saying without realizing what I'd done. "You want to push it, don't you?"
"He already did." Dani replied cheerfully, stepping back beside us as the wall in front of me began to split in two. We exchanged looks as it opened up, revealing what looked like almost a whole new world on the other side.
2016
I stole a glance through my rear-view mirror, keeping an eye on Dani's window. We needed to leave soon if we were going to catch the movie on time (or, at least in time to see the trailers - I don't care what other people say, I find them interesting), but she was still stuck inside, unable to come up with an excuse to leave. She'd texted me that she was just going to sneak out once she had the clear, but so far, there'd been no sign.
I was starting to wonder if this whole secret relationship thing was a good idea. I mean, it made sense - Oliver was going to freak out when he found out about us, and not in a good way - but it certainly did make things difficult. I mean, I'd been waiting out here for nearly thirty minutes just so I could take her on our first real date. She was worth it, for sure, but I couldn't help but wish it was a little easier.
I looked away from her window to look at my reflection. I looked okay, I guessed. I wasn't sure if I should try to dress up, or just go more casual - this might be a date, but it was Dani. If I hadn't impressed her with my looks yet, it was probably hopeless to start trying now. Still, I figured I was probably okay with a decent looking jacket, a plaid shirt, and a watch my brother had likely stolen based by the looks of it.
A few seconds later, and something in the background of the rearview mirror caught my eye. Turning around, I saw the window to Dani's room slide open and a figure climb out. I chuckled a little as she carefully walked across the roof to the tree the three of us used to use to sneak in after I accidentally made Oliver and Dani miss curfew. She climbed down using the carefully hidden rope ladder she'd added a few summers ago before jogging across her lawn to the car.
"Hey. Sorry, Ollie kept wanting my help asking Skylar to this upcoming school dance." Dani apologized, climbing into the passenger seat. She looked nice, wearing a blouse her mom had probably bought for her and a dark jacket, plus a pair of earrings I knew she reserved for special occasions.
"There's a dance?" I asked, surprised that I'd forgotten about it. Shit. "Are we, uh...going?"
To my relief, Dani shrugged. "Liv was saying that she might make me go, but you don't have to. I'm probably going to try and get out of it anyway."
"Whatever." I'd been hoping she wouldn't want me to go. Not only would that be definitely awkward - I wasn't too great at slow dancing, no matter how easy people claimed it was - but it would certainly make it harder to keep this secret.
"You ready to go?" Dani asked, flashing me a brilliant smile. Before responding, I leaned in to kiss her, pressing my lips against hers gently. She kissed me back before breaking the contact after a few moments.
"Now I am." I replied, earning an amused laugh from my girlfriend.
2016
"We have to figure out a way to stop my mom and turn her not evil." Oliver declared, looking frustrated with the entire situation.
"You think that's possible?" Dani questioned. I looked at her in concern. She was doing a good job at hiding it in front of the others, but I knew that this was all upsetting her a lot more than she let on. "I mean, it's not like with Skylar, Ollie. Mom wasn't infected with evilness or anything."
"We'll figure it out." He insisted.
"We will, I promise." Skylar added, giving him a concerned look before opening her arms out to him. "You okay? Do you want a hug?"
Before Oliver could accept the gesture, Horace pushed past him and wrapped his arms around Skylar. "I really do. Thank you, Skylar." He cried. I chuckled a little - despite the fact that I knew Horace was feeling this loss too, it was amusing to see the adult being the most emotional of the group.
"I got you, buddy. Bring it in." I offered, offering both him and Dani a hug. But something strange happened a few seconds after they'd touched me.
"What the hell...?" Dani muttered as we started to float into the air. I stared at the ground in shock, confused as to what was going on. We were flying. We were actually flying.
"Do we - do we have powers?" I gasped.
"When we touched my mom while she was holding the Arcturion, we must have absorbed some of its energy." Oliver realized. I laughed.
"I did it! I finally have powers!" I wanted to add that this was the greatest day of my life. I almost did, but then I realized it might not be appropriate, considering how bad today had been for everyone else.
"Are you kidding me?!" Skylar nearly shouted. I looked at her and realized how this must drive her nuts, us gaining powers while she still didn't have hers. She stormed off before Oliver could try to reassure her.
I looked at he and Dani, wondering if they were just as ecstatic as I was. They both looked amazed and a fair bit happier than they had ten minutes ago, so I figured they had to be, right?
We finally had powers! I'd been wanting to become a superhero since I discovered that they were real! And even though Oliver insisted it would never happen, and even Dani didn't really think I had a shot at it, here we were! With powers!
"Something weird is going on..." Horace looked at us, confused. "Boys, did you two switch shirts?"
"They're floating." Alivia pointed out the obvious, staring at us.
"No, that's not it." He frowned. Oliver chuckled, then looked down.
"Okay, let's get down." He suggested.
"We could do that." Dani smiled in that way that she did, looking excited and wild and so genuinely happy. "Or..."
I didn't know what she was about to suggest, but damn, I was up for anything so long as I could use my new powers alongside my best friends.
2018
"Dude, you go to the left, and I'll take the right." I whispered as loudly as I dared, gesturing on the screen which path I was talking about. The point of the video game was to get more stars than the other team, but without knowing which part of the maze the star was in, we had to split up.
"Got it." Oliver whispered back, sending his character down the path I'd chosen. He glanced behind him when it was the other team's turn, then at me. "Hey, is she okay?"
I gave Oliver a look, then glanced at my bed. Dani was lying on it, half-curled on her side and fast asleep. Katy was stretched out on her back besides Dani, watching our characters with a strange fascination.
"I think she's starting to feel better." I shrugged. The flu had hit Dani hard, but she'd actually been hungry this morning, so I figured the worst of it was over. "You realize you're gonna get sick next, right?"
"Twin Syndrome." Oliver muttered with a scowl. I chuckled at the name I'd given to their uncanny ability to always get sick right after each other. "But that wasn't what I was talking about. She's been acting...weird, right? I'm not imagining it?"
"I don't know." She'd been acting a little strange lately, secretive, true, but I wasn't worried or anything. Dani just had her moods sometimes. Though if Oliver was worried... "She's been doing a lot of stuff for Alivia lately."
"Yeah, any idea what that's about?" He asked me. I shrugged. "She said recruitment, but I don't get why Alivia can't get her own guys to do that."
"She probably just misses Dani. You know how they were when we were back in school." I mentioned. He shrugged and turned back to the game. We both played a couple of turns before I asked, "You worried?"
"No. Dee can handle herself. I just don't like her shutting me out." He mentioned. I shrugged.
"She's sick." I told him, as if it were the only explanation needed for her weird behavior. And honestly, it was probably was. Dani was weird when she was sick. She'd get super clingy and not want to be left alone - hence why we weren't playing video games in the living room, where we could have the volume and the lights on - but she'd get super moody and snappy at everyone. "She feels like crap. Let her be cranky."
Suddenly, I felt something lazily hit me in the back. I looked behind me to see Dani attempting to kick me with as little movement as possible. "Not cranky." She mumbled half into her pillow, her voice hoarse with sleep and sickness.
"How long have you been awake?" Oliver asked suspiciously.
"Long enough to hear him call me cranky." She gave up on trying to kick me. I chuckled a little.
"Sorry, Dee." I apologized. She made a small noise of acknowledgement before sitting up. She rubbed her eyes with one hand before blinking at the harsh light of the screen.
"Whatcha playing?" She asked, sliding off the bed to sit between the two of us. I smirked a little as she leaned against me, laying her head on my shoulder tiredly.
2019
Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find Dani. She'd gotten enough information to Alivia before going MIA that we were able to figure out a good map of the base. I'd volunteered to check the cells, knowing that if she had been caught by one of Bridget's goons, she'd most likely be there (assuming Bridget hadn't done something to her, but I didn't want to think of her being hurt or worse).
"Hey! Hey, is anyone there?" I nearly cried in relief at the sound of her voice, confirming both her location and her well-being. I followed the sound of her voice until I found her cell.
"Now, before you say anything, I think I'm the perfect size for a storm trooper, right?" I joked, coming close enough for her to see me. I stopped short, actually seeing her for the first time in weeks. She was paler than she should have been, with a busted lip, bruising around her neck, and what I prayed wasn't actually dried blood in her hair. "Dee, you alright?" I asked her, worried. She stared at me, not answering for a bit, and I worried that she might have a concussion.
"Kaz?" She whispered after a moment. I smirked a little, pulling out the tools that Chase had given me so I could pick the lock on her cell.
"Liv came to us when you didn't check in. Now, Chase showed me how to do this. We have to hurry though – that explosion that Skylar and Calla set up won't distract them for long, and we don't have enough manpower to take them all on here, alright?" I said quickly, glancing at her briefly as I started to work on getting her out of here.
"Kaz?" She repeated herself. I made a mental note to have her checked for a concussion.
"Don't worry. Give me a second." I promised her. I grinned as I managed to get the lock undone. "Yes!"
The moment I opened the door, Dani threw herself at me, burying her face in my shoulder. I chuckled once in surprise, hugging her back. I could feel hot tears on my shirt, and I rubbed her back gently.
We had to leave quickly, I knew that, but it had been so long since I'd held her in my arms, and I'd been so worried that Bridget or Gao had killed her or something...I needed a second with her as much as she needed one with me.
"Please don't hate me." Dani whispered then, to my surprise. I pulled away and looked at her. Her eyes, one of them starting to bruise, were wide with guilt and teary.
"Never. Never." I promised her. She looked at me like I hung the moon, taking a deep breath. I smiled at her. "Look, I'm not saying I'm not mad, but I don't hate you. I will never hate you, Dee. Okay?"
She didn't answer, but nodded. and I offered her my hand. "Now, ready to get out of here?"
She smiled back, the first smile I'd seen from her in a long, long time. "You have no idea." She told me, squeezing my hand as she took it.
2021
"Oh my God!" Dani laughed in amazement, hands gripping the fence as she stared out at the city. "This is...oh my God."
I chuckled in amusement, following her gaze. I had to admit, Paris was even prettier at night than it was during the day. We were absolutely going to get into serious trouble for being up here if we got caught - technically, the Eiffel Tower closed to the public a little before 1 AM, but Dani had wanted to see it when it wasn't so busy, so we'd flown up here around 3 in the morning. It was absolutely worth it though.
"God, why, why didn't we think of this before?" Dani glanced back at me before going on the tips of her toes to try and see even more. This European vacation had been an incredible idea, and since we didn't have to book any plane tickets (thank you geoleap watch and our ability to fly), we could actually go to a lot of the places that we'd never be able to afford otherwise.
"It is beautiful." I stepped back a little, one hand reaching into my back pocket. I took a deep breath before adding. "Just like you."
"Kissass." Dani glanced at me briefly before looking back at city. Then she looked back at me, having realized I wasn't standing right at the edge with her anymore. "Kaz, what are you...?"
Her voice died in her throat as I dropped down onto one knee, staring at me I opened the box in my hands to show her the ring. "Look, I know we've only been back together for a few months now, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been thinking about this since before we even went to Centium City. So, what do you say? Marry me?"
For a long moment, I wasn't sure what she was going to say or do. I wasn't all that poetic and I wasn't the best at romantic speeches or anything like that, and it wasn't like the ring was the most expensive thing out there - it was a hand-me-down from my great aunt, ancient with only a single diamond. It wasn't anything flashy, and maybe this was a mistake, maybe she'd say no, maybe-
"Yes."
"I...What?" I stared at her, and she was beaming, eyes bright with tears not yet shed.
"Yes. Yes, I'll marry you." She repeated herself, her voice shaking with joy. I lunged to my feet, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her in for a long kiss.
2029
"So." Dani said, staring upwards
"So." I agreed, also staring up at the rafters. Even from down here, I could see Kira lying on one of the rafter beams, clutching it for dear life.
"I think it's your turn." Dani mentioned. I looked at her.
"You sure?" I checked. She nodded.
"Yeah. I pulled Kam out of the air ducts in the med bay last week. It's your turn to wrangle the kids." She decided, turning to head back towards the kitchen. I shrugged, that was fair.
"Alright. Wish me luck." I pushed off the ground, flying upwards until I was eye level with my six-year-old daughter. "Hi sweetie."
"Hi Daddy." Kira mumbled, cheek pressed against the beam. I crossed my arms.
"Whatcha doing up here?" I asked. She and Kameron had been flying around the common area earlier
"Stuck." She replied. I frowned.
"You're stuck?" I repeated. She nodded, not moving otherwise. I sighed and flew up a little higher so I could sit on the beam beside her. I knew it was strong enough to hold us - Calla had pretty much made every aspect of this place indestructible so that what happened to Mighty Med couldn't happen here. "Sweetie?"
"Yeah Daddy?" Kira asked.
"You do remember that you can fly, right? You're not going to fall." I told her gently.
"Too high." She muttered. I sighed and shook my head.
"Come here, Kiwi." I told her, placing my hand on her back so she would feel a little more grounded. She carefully unlatched herself from the beam and crawled into my lap.
"Why'd you fly up here if you were afraid of how high it was?" I asked her.
"Nyssa dared me." She replied. I shook my head - Nyssa was always trying to get the twins in trouble. Granted, I'd been the same way at that age when it came to Dani and Oliver. Actually, this was actually something I probably would have done too if we'd had powers back then.
"You know you don't have to do what Nyssa tells you, okay?" I reminded her. She nodded, but bit her lip.
"Can we get down now?" She asked timidly. I chuckled.
"Okay. C'mere." I motioned for her to wrap her arms around my neck. One she was snug and secure, I slowly flew down to the ground with her, making sure not to go too fast as to not scare her. Not that it mattered - she kept her face buried in my shirt the entire time. "Okay, we're down." I assured her once my feet were on the ground. I gently placed her down and she raised her face to give me a kiss on the cheek.
"Thanks Daddy." She told me before running off to play with her friends. I chuckled to myself, wondering if she'd get over this apparent fear of heights on her own, or if Dani or I would have to get her down from another high spot the next time she went flying.
2032
"Watch where you're...Frank!" Rio called, sounding a little frustrated as her son chased Dallas Krane and Nyssa around the penthouse. I chuckled a little, looking around for my own kids.
Calla and Chase had invited everyone back to the penthouse for a little party, celebrating the 40th anniversary of Davenport Industries' founding. Honestly, I think it was an excuse to try and get everyone together. It had been nearly about ten years since the Elite Force has been disbanded and as much as we'd all tried to stay close, it had been a very long time since we'd had everyone together. We still didn't have everyone here - to everyone's disappoint, especially my and Dani's, Oliver and Skylar had been unable to make it due to work commitments. We'd been hoping to get the kids together for a while, seeing as the only times we got to see each other were really when work permitted it and Seraphina barely knew her cousins, but I guess somethings didn't work out.
Still, aside from their absence, it was a nice party. The adults got to catch up, while the kids got to hang out. Emily, Charlotte, Noah, and Justine were at the dinner table, playing Scrabble (they'd been playing video games originally, but had stopped after Emily apparently cheated), while James was showing Kira, Rosemary DeCook, and Scarlet how to make a house of cards. I chuckled in amusement as Scarlet kept knocking it over when he went to grab a new card, pretending to be innocent when he looked at her accusingly. Ben and Naomi were both missing from the party, but I was pretty sure they were down in Mission Control, having heard them mention something about studying for their upcoming exams. Nerds.
After a bit, I finally caught sight of Kameron sitting by the fireplace, watching Noah and the girls playing their game. "Hey bud." I greeted, kneeling down next to him. He smiled at me before looking back at the game, while grabbing a baby dill pickle off his plate. "You know, I'm sure they'll let you play with them if you ask. Justine looks like she can use a little help." Emily was completely crushing her cousin, not going easy on her despite the five-year age gap between them.
"That's okay. I don't like Scrabble." He assured me. I nodded.
"Okay, then why don't you go play with Nyssa or James?" I suggested. He shook his head, keeping his eyes locked on the game the girls and Noah were playing. "Alright, what's up?"
Kameron glanced at me, an unusually shy smile on his face. "She's pretty." He said simply. That raised my eyebrows.
"Who is?" I asked, confused. He didn't say it out loud, but his focus changed a little. I followed his gaze to see him staring solely at Charlotte, the 10-year-old smiling as she tried to help Justine come up with a word she could use. "Charlotte?"
"I'm going to marry her one day." He told me, dead serious, then frustrated when I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I am!"
"Oh, I believe you." I told him. He nodded and continued to watch them play. "You know what might help?" I asked. He looked at me. "You could try talking to her."
He thought about it, and looked a little scared at the prospect. "I'm good."
I chuckled again. "Okay. You have fun." I told him before leaving to go find Dani. I eventually found her out on the veranda, chatting with Bree and Adam.
"The kids okay?" She asked, smiling as I took her hand.
"Perfect." I assured her, kissing her on her cheek.
Xxx
Kihonne: Alright folks, you know the drill. Time to review! I want to know what you all thought – was it good, bad? Did it kill you inside? God, I have to say, out of all the characters I've written for, Kaz was definitely in my top three, and definitely one of my favorite canon characters. Anyway, I'll be back soon (potentially on or before the 11th) with the next chapter. For anyone wondering what the remaining order is, here it is:
Chapter 37 – Chase Davenport
Chapter 38 – Dani "Short Circuit" Short
Chapter 39 – Calla Parker
Alright guys, hope to see you all really soon!