IMPORTANT Author's Note: Just a reminder that there is no shipping in this fic! It is not about Kate's and Tony's, or Kate's and Gibbs', romance; it is about Kate's and Grace's developing relationship as mother and daughter. This is the second last chapter; there has not been and WILL NOT BE any ship in this story. Thank you.

"Why don't we all tell everyone something about ourselves?" asked the – there was no other word for it – fluffy woman at the front of the room. She wore the nervous smile of a person in a new situation, compensating for anxiety with overfriendliness. Grace disliked her instantly; she smacked of kittens, dollhouses, and pink.

"Would you like to go first, Miss…" the teacher trailed, scrambling for her roll sheet while nodding at Grace.

Shoot, Grace thought. Here we go. She had expected to have to tell someone her name sometime, of course, but that didn't make the actual event any easier. A new dilemma had cropped up when she separated herself socially from Kate. When Kate introduced her to others, it was enough to simply say she was Kate's daughter. Separate, however, she was now required to provide a surname. And she didn't know what to say.

She had become used to calling Kate "Aunt Kate" and she still thought of Mary O'Neill as "Mom," although…but that was a thought for another time. The point was, like the issue with what she should call Kate, she didn't know whether to introduce herself as Grace O'Neill or Grace Todd. She was stuck between two names, two worlds, wanted by both but belonging to neither.

"…Todd?" the teacher finished, finally scrounging up her attendance card.

So. Decided for her by the forms, the legality of her relationship to Kate. Grace was mildly surprised to find she didn't really mind. After fourteen years of being an O'Neill, she had thought her transition to a Todd, if she made it at all, would be more difficult. It was strange, of course, but she supposed she had been working herself up to it – consciously or not.

"Miss Todd?" the teacher prompted, glancing again at the roll card she was clutching like a lifeline. "Grace?"

"Oh, sorry," Grace replied, cringing. Great first impression, she thought. "Um…what do you want me to say?"

"Are you trying to be smart, Miss Todd?" The teacher, discouraged by the class' lack of enthusiasm and frustrated by Grace's previous spacey-ness, was quickly becoming agitated.

"No, ma'am," Grace answered icily, adding the title with obvious sarcasm. She didn't exactly mean to be rude but her mood was not being improved by this incompetent woman. "Okay, my name is Grace…Todd. I just moved here from Maryland. I…really don't know what else to say." The class tittered, amused by the exchange.

"Thank you, Miss Todd," the teacher said quickly, apparently eager to shut Grace up. "Next, Mr.…Anderson?"

The boy stood and introduced himself as Ricky but Grace was no longer paying attention. Her thoughts returned to her name dilemma, now solved, and extended to pondering her unusual situation. She was truly unique; she knew people who were adopted and she knew people who still lived with their natural parents, but she suspected there were very few who did both.

Her discomfort with the situation was growing steadily less the longer she lived with Aunt Kate. Her calls to Uncle Jack, while still reasonably frequent, were growing fewer and farther between. Her arguments with Aunt Kate, at least the ones regarding her 'abandonment', had dramatically decreased and she was, almost unconsciously, beginning to think of Kate like her mother.

That was an interesting thought, she reflected. If anyone had asked her three months ago who her mother was, she would have replied, "Mary O'Neill" with no hesitation. Three weeks ago and she would have hemmed and hawed until the inquirer gave up. Now…now she would probably hesitate before thoughtfully replying, "Kate Todd" – thoughtful because she herself had only recently realized the fact.

Grace still distinguished between her mother and her mom. Mary O'Neill had been her mom; Kate was becoming her mother. It wasn't so much a matter of rank as it was familiarity. After all, no matter how great or nice Aunt Kate was, Grace had still only lived with her for three months to Mary O'Neill's 14 years. It would simply take a little more time. Well, maybe not simply; there was nothing simple about the situation.

Grace was still dealing with her parents' death, for all her outer appearance of peace. She often woke up crying from a recurring nightmare in which she relived the pronouncement from her school principal about the car crash. She was far from 'over it,' whatever that meant, and doubted she ever would be. Her conversations with Uncle Jack helped considerably, though. They would remember the good times and occasionally he would talk her through her grief. He was certainly no stranger to it.

"Miss Todd, are you still with us?" the teacher asked in a sing-song that seemed designed to embarrass Grace. The class chuckled again.

"Yes, ma'am," Grace sighed, just barely hanging on to the respectful title.

"Well, then, if you would please begin reading from page 4 in the book," the teacher directed as the class opened their books obediently, though with excessive rustling and shifting.

Grace sighed again and began reading. She would have to deal with this for the next eighteen weeks; she might as well get used to it. Shelving her thoughts on life, the universe, and everything – or at least her current experience – she tried to concentrate on the words she was speaking. It wasn't easy, but then nothing about the last three months had been.