Grant hadn't expected to feel angry when he saw Dr. Mysterio again. Although frankly, after eighteen years of radio silence, he hadn't expected to see Dr. Mysterio again at all.
As a child, he'd waited for the Doctor to return. Once he realized that the gemstone hadn't "passed," surely he would begin training Grant to use his powers responsibly. Like a Scottish Mr. Miyagi. Grant knew he needed that sort of guidance before deliberately using his powers. He didn't want to break things, scare people, or get the cops called on him. He definitely didn't want to attract the attentions of any supervillains. (If those even existed.)
But the days went by with no sign of the Doctor. Then the weeks. Then the months… When Dr. Mysterio finally did turn up again- after six and a half years!- he was less Mr. Miyagi, more frazzled study hall teacher who'd caught a favorite student with their Gameboy out. Just shut it off, put it away, and I'll roll my eyes and pretend I saw nothing.
It was then that Grant fully realized that Dr. Mysterio had given him superpowers by mistake. A mistake that he wasn't even bothering to fix.
And now, after another eighteen years, he'd come back to lecture Grant on responsibility towards children?
"No man worthy of the title leaves a baby alone."
Grant stumbled down the hall, still reeling from the G-forces of flight. The Doctor strode out ahead of him, Jennifer cooing contentedly in his arms. Strange, the Doctor didn't seem the type to have a soft spot for kids. He'd talked to eight-year-old Grant like an adult, and guessed his age wrong. Very wrong, if Grant remembered correctly.
"Your powers don't belong in this world," the Doctor declared. "They're an anomaly."
Grant sighed to himself. Tell me something I don't know.
"You promised me you'd never use them."
A promise Grant had done his best to keep for the first fifteen years he'd been stuck with superpowers! Through grade school, high school, college, the early steps of a dull and respectable career. Until he was laid off in the Great Recession, the same week that Lucy married his ex-best friend…
After numbly leaving his ex-employer's, Grant had gone for an easy little jog- and found himself halfway down Long Island in less than an hour. Following a week of frantically Googling "New York super speed jogger" and finding nothing relevant, he realized:
He was an adult now. A certified, clueless, 23-year-old adult. An anonymous figure in the sea of humanity that was New York. He could become who he felt destined to be and, at least at the beginning, face little pushback or risk.
Like his 401k, or cooking for himself, he started small. He babysat his cousins and took a childcare class by day. He bought a mask and thwarted gas station robberies by night. He took his old comic books out of storage.
And now, nine years later…
"I'm her nanny," he said proudly, as the Doctor handed Jennifer back to him. "You got a problem with that?"
"No! No, I just… You're a superhero and a nanny?"
"Well you gotta make a buck somehow," Grant muttered. Part of him meant to say, I've gotta make a life somehow, but holding Jennifer took the edge off his anger.
The Doctor's short, sanguine friend (Nardole, wasn't it?) appeared with a surprisingly perfect milk bottle for Jennifer. Grant fed and rocked her while the Doctor continued to lecture him on work-life balance.
"I'm me, The Doctor, and even I think this is insane. When do you sleep? When are you not on-call?"
"What do you care?" Grant retorted. "You left me here, alone. You only ever checked in to make sure I was lying low. Do you know how many Christmas Eves I waited up, hoping you'd swing by my window again? Do you realize how much that made my childhood Christmases suck?"
"Grant, I am sorry. Truly I am. But I can't just pop back in to New York whenever-"
"Why not? Dude, it's been twenty-four years and you haven't aged a day! That thing on the roof- it had to do with time travel, didn't it?"
"Well, yes, but New York is-"
"Shh!" Grant held up his hand.
Even without super hearing, he still would have heard Lucy's key in the front door. He was forever attuned to that sound, in desperate foolish hope. Hope that today he would have the courage to tell her… well, at least one of the two big things.
"You ruined my life once," he told the Doctor quietly. "Please, just- try not to do it again."
"Did it really ruin your life? The gemstone?"
Grant looked up with a start, knocking Jennifer's Cheerios off her highchair. The Doctor and Nardole stood in Lucy's (somehow open) front door. Perfect. Scottish Miyagi's nowhere to be found for eighteen years, and now he's turning up at 8 AM, unannounced.
"We brought breakfast!" chirped Nardole, holding up a bag as he trailed the Doctor into the dining room. Just then Lucy appeared, in her usual workday morning frenzy, scrambling for her work badge while pulling back her hair. Grant's super sense of smell was flooded with the scent of her shower gel. Her eyes widened when she spotted the bakery name on the bag.
"Common Grounds! Nice! Got any scones?"
Nardole dug into the bag and produced a chocolate chip scone. Grant knew chocolate chip happened to be Lucy's favorite. "Here you go, ma'am."
"Mahm," she mimicked, giggling. "I like you!" She pointed at the Doctor, surprisingly fierce for a woman wielding a blunt-edge pastry. "You are not off the hook. Remember Mr. Huffle."
Nardole set the bag on the table, and he and the Doctor began laying out a breakfast spread worthy of a family of eight. Lucy started the Keurig, while Jennifer babbled amiably in her highchair. Grant grabbed Jennifer's empty bowl and headed for the kitchen.
"Don't bother with that cereal," said the Doctor. "She wants what we're having. I've got it covered."
Grant turned back and sure enough, the wild-haired eccentric was dissembling a blueberry muffin into baby-friendly crumbles. Grant was impressed despite himself.
"Since when are you good with kids?"
"I'm taking a class. Also, I speak baby." It was a testament to the Doctor's sheer weirdness that the two statements seemed equally plausible.
Lucy brushed past Grant at the kitchen doorway. "Are you sure you're okay to watch Jennifer tonight?"
Grant could practically feel the Doctor's glare boring into the back of his head. He ignored it. "I'm positive, Mrs. Lombard. My d- dinner was just a social thing. Yours is for work; that comes first."
Jennifer squealed as the Doctor presented her with the plate of muffin crumbs. Her joy was contagious, even to the Doctor himself. He smiled gently and told her, "You're very welcome, young lady."
"Do you have kids, Doctor? Grandkids?" Lucy asked.
A meaningful look passed between the Doctor and Nardole. The latter almost smirked.
"Don't I look too young for grandkids?" the Doctor replied.
No one answered that.
They made it through breakfast without further incident. No mention of Harmony Shoal, Grant's cancelled "date," or wish-granting, DNA-altering space gems. Although Lucy looked personally offended on behalf of Common Grounds Café when the Doctor spit out his first bite of their Everything Bagel.
"What's wrong?" she demanded.
"Thought I wanted savory. I thought wrong. Hard to keep track these days."
Lucy squinted thoughtfully, but let it slide. She filled her travel mug with coffee, kissed Jennifer on the head, then headed off to work. Grant listened with his super-hearing until she'd caught the hall elevator and descended several floors. The Doctor waited, staring him down like a grumpy owl.
"The gemstone…" Grant sighed. "It didn't ruin my life, it just changed it. A lot. Sure, it'd be easier if I wasn't the only person on Earth who's been through this, but… I've learned to make the best of it."
"Grant, I'm-"
"No. You don't have to apologize again, Doctor. I mean, what good would it do? It's not like we can unravel it from my DNA."
"Well that's just the thing."
The Doctor reached into the silk lining of his jacket and produced a small vial. The liquid inside glowed an eerie shade of green.
"I think, perhaps, that we can."