Attention! I had to retcon the ending of the last chapter for reasons i'll explain afterwards. To summarize: Qrow does not know that the kid is Salem

It wasn't the first time Qrow had woken up to a throbbing headache, nor would it be the last, but he could have done without the ice pack on his face or the aching feeling in his groin of someone trying to make him cough up his family jewels the hard way. At least he was on the couch, small comfort that was. He brought a hand up to hold the ice pack as he tried to sit up.

"Summer?" he called out. He saw a bob of dark red hair poke out from the hallway.

"Oh good, you're up already. I wasn't sure if you'd wake up before the girls' bedtime," she said.

"Are they in their rooms?" Qrow asked. When Summer nodded, he hissed out, "Summer, what in the fuck knocked me out like that?"

"I can explain! Just hold that thought while I get her." Summer ducked back down the hallway and up the stairs from the sound of her footsteps.

Qrow sighed and laid back down, preparing himself for the worst. One could be forgiven for thinking that of team STRQ, Raven was the biggest troublemaker. In a way it was true. Raven was the most aggressive, most petty bandit princess to ever stalk Beacon's halls. But whenever it was an incident that landed the team in detention for a month, the instigator was almost always Summer, intentionally or not. It was one of the few reasons Raven respected her as team leader.

It felt too soon when Summer returned, leading someone in who didn't clear the top of the couch from Qrow's view. "Qrow, meet Sally," she said as she brought a pint-sized terror into view. A pale, slip of a child that couldn't have been much older than Yang. Qrow would have commented on how the kid was dressed like she had just finished a Halloween night, but his attention was captivated by how she glowered at him with piercing red eyes.

Summer took Qrow's silence to introduce the brat. "I picked her up from a Salem cultist cell I ran into on my last mission. They were raising her as a priestess, or 'Ambassador to the Dark Queen' as they were saying. Poor thing was abandoned by her family to them, and I couldn't just leave her for dead. One thing led to another and I kinda adopted her." Summer flashed a wide grin that was reminiscent of the time she tried to keep a puppy in their dorm room.

Qrow broke off his staring contest with the brat to look up at Summer. "What."

"I said-"

"Hold on." Qrow waved his hand and took a deep breath. And feeling a little too sober, he took a swig from the hip flask Summer gave him last year. The alcohol burned his throat, but Qrow wished he had something a little stronger right now. "Okay, run that by me again. Slowly."

Summer sat down in the armchair nearby, holding the little hellion in her lap. "Well, it started a couple months ago when this guy showed up in town asking if I could help him with a Grimm problem. It was just a quick trip out of town to a backwater village to clear out a nest of Grimm."

Qrow raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell him to put in a request?"

"He said something about not trusting scrolls and how they were 'spies of the government,'" Summer gave mocking air quotes as she said that. "That and I was the first huntress he could find."

"How convenient," Qrow said dryly. "Please tell me you thought that was suspicious."

Summer's eyes shifted away. "Maybe a little."

"Summer."

"But he seemed sincere and was offering a lot of money too! Besides, I couldn't just not try to help if they really needed it."

Qrow barely refrained from rolling his eyes, but not from taking another sip of his whiskey. "So what happened next?"

"I got to the village and there were definitely some signs of Grimm attacks. Looked like some Ursa and Nevermores ganging up on them, which was kinda odd since the guide was talking about Beowolves. Don't give me that look, I could tell something was off by the time I got there. I'm not that dumb."

"Your story says otherwise," Qrow said so dryly that he felt the need to take another drink.

Summer glared at him. "Do you want to hear what happened or not?" When Qrow said nothing, she continued. "As I was saying, I did notice a couple red flags on my way in, but they were small enough to ask about later. The guide brought me before the chief of the village and then things went south from there. They ambushed and caught me before I could get my gun up, and then they revealed that they were cultists who worshiped Salem. They thought that by capturing me, they could offer me to Salem to 'spare them from the Grimm Apocalypse'."

Qrow snorted. "Delusional nutjobs."

"Oh it gets better," Summer said mockingly. "They believed Salem was an actual deity, bound to the Grimmlands like the Brother of Darkness. Which is why they had little Sally here," Summer shook the scowling child in her lap, "to be some kind of priestess to spread the word of Salem and communicate with 'Her Unholy Majesty'. They even tried to dress her up as if she was Salem! Can you believe that?"

Qrow looked back down at the brat, taking in her pale skin and hair contrasted against the dark clothing she wore. It wasn't difficult to imagine the girl being dressed up like Salem, or however cultists thought Salem looked like. Hell, he still hadn't a clue what the eldritch whore-or looked like, but neither was he keen on finding out. His latest theory was something that involved enough tentacles to be considered for certain Mistralian magazines.

"I don't think they had to try too hard," he said, earning a stuck-out tongue for his cheek.

"Anyways, long story short, these cultists tried to perform some ritual to offer me up to their 'Goddess', except all it did was bring a bunch of very hungry Grimm by. I was already through the ropes by then, but I wanted to see what they would do. While they were distracted by the attack, I tried to sneak away, but before I could leave, I heard a scream and saw an Ursa about to eat the little priestess whole."

"And so you rescued her," Qrow finished.

Summer nodded. "I know it sounds crazy, but I couldn't stand the thought of leaving a little girl in the middle of a cult like that, especially if they're trying to summon Grimm. Besides, I got you and Raven out of your bandit styles, so how hard would it be with a child cultist?"

"How's that working out for you?" Qrow asked.

Before Summer could answer, Sally spoke up, "The day I regain my full powers is the day you'll know suffering, Branwen! You'll be an experiment for what I'll bring upon Ozpin!" Summer's hand soon clapped over her mouth.

"It's a work in progress," Summer said with a shaky smile. "They really fed her the cultist juice to get her into the role."

Qrow winced in sympathy, recalling all the speeches and lectures his progenitor would beat into his head to prepare for the harsh world. "Sounds to me like Sally here thinks she's the next coming of Salem, huh?"

Summer chuckled a bit loudly. "Oh something like that. Kids have wild imaginations. Hahahaha. But really, I think it's because she doesn't like her old name. She said no one wanted to play with her because of it."

"Can't be that bad." Qrow shrugged. "Heck, I'm named after a bird and it's spelled with a Q because no one could read in the tribe."

"Sally is short for Salmon."

"So she's named after a fish. Little weird, but not a big deal."

"Last name Ella. Salmon Ella."

Qrow winced. "...Oh." He could feel Sally's gaze bore into him, daring him to poke fun at her unfortunate name. He'd already felt her wrath once and wasn't ready to receive it again so soon. Speaking of which… "Hey, why the hell did she attack me like that earlier?"

Summer looked away sheepishly. "I might have slipped a couple of your theories about Salem to her. She took offense to them."

Qrow cursed his luck under his breath. A thought then occurred to him. "Have you told Oz about any of this?"

Summer waved her hand, but her eyes kept shifting away. "C'mon, Qrow we're not students anymore. It's not like this assignment was recorded or anything."

"Summer." Qrow leaned forward. "Did you tell Ozpin about the cult cell that targeted you?"

"I haven't gotten around to it?" Summer replied with a guilty grin. At the look of disbelief Qrow gave her, she said, "Qrow, you know how Ozpin gets about Salem, and that cell is probably already mauled to bits by the Grimm! Besides, I'm taking care of a rather volatile child. I don't have the time to report this. Even if I did, he'd probably get all weird about it and try to take her to some Atlas lab for experimentation and studying. Sally doesn't need that."

"Ozpin wouldn't do that," Qrow said defensively, but the words rang a bit hollow as Summer shot him a questioning look. Recalling how he had left Ozpin in his office, Qrow amended his words. "Okay, maybe a few tests, but you just said you were targeted! Don't you think you should maybe tell him? He can put up some more secur-"

"Ozpin would relocate us to Atlas if given the chance. I am not raising my children inside of a metal fortress on a frozen tundra." Gone was the shakiness, and in its place was a voice lined with steel and eyes hardened with conviction. "I made sure that the cell was completely wiped out before I came back home and took whatever resources I could carry now that I have a third child to take care of. If you're still worried, then know that I've already had this conversation with Tai and he's had more than a few sleepless nights keeping an eye out for stragglers."

Qrow sighed. He knew that look in Summer's eye. She was going to be stubborn about this. "I don't like this, Summer. Oz should know."

"If anything changes or goes wrong, I will," she said. "But otherwise, Ozpin has bigger things to worry about than a little surprise adoption. I'm sure he'd understand."

Qrow grimaced. 'Understatement of the year,' he thought. He then stood up. "Alright, now that I've met the brat, can I get some dinner and the guest bed? I've had a hell of a few months and would like to get a nice nine hours if I can help it."

Summer winced. "About that… we didn't have another room so Sally took the guest room. I can go find the old inflatable mattress, unless you want the couch."

Sally looked far too smug for Qrow's liking. Damn kids.

"I'll take the mattress."

Summer collapsed into her bed with a loud sigh that ended half muffled into her pillow. She could feel movement shift on the bed before an arm wrapped around her and pulled her into a warm embrace.

"How'd it go?" Tai asked, rubbing Summer's back.

"All things considered? Pretty well," Summer mumbled out. "Don't think we have to worry about Qrow blabbing for now."

"Still think you should have told him the truth."

Summer had considered it, but that meant Qrow would get Ozpin involved, either directly or discreetly. No, that wouldn't do, so she told him a half-truth. She had been called out to handle Grimm, but it had been one of Salem's agents. They led her to the castle, not a remote village. They tried to ambush her, but it failed and Salem became a child again. Grimm did try to eat Salem and Summer did rescue her. Overall, it was a surprisingly easy lie to tell.

The only thing she didn't lie about was her reasons for not telling Ozpin about the mission. Ozpin had always been weird about her safety, and when it came out about the secrets of the silver eyes, she sometimes wondered if he cared more about her or her eyes. Ozpin would increase security around her home if he found out she had been targeted, as if she was still a student in Beacon. Besides, what cultists would even be around to attack her now? Checkmate, Ozpin.

"Maybe when things settle down a bit," Summer replied. "Right now, all we need to worry about is Salem trying to shave Qrow bald in the middle of the night."

Tai chuckled. "I don't know. He might look better like that."

"If she does, I'm telling him you said that."

A/N:

For those of you who aren't aware from following my MCU fic, life kinda sucked for a while and made it difficult to write, to put it bluntly.

Now as for why I retconned it, well it started with a review about how I had lost an opportunity with revealing Salem to Qrow, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized they were right. Qrow puts a wrench into things intentionally or not and a good author should use it to mix things up or make things worse. In this case, I went with my favorite, "being Qrow sucks". Also, I'm gonna try to pull back away from the descriptions of Salem having 'disturbing insight for a child' and the like. At least with Summer and Tai and the family.

Just as a heads up, my work is getting hectic and spare time is brief (heck, I had to use some PTO just to finish this chapter) but that should calm down in a couple months so it may be a while until the next update. Plus, I need to give some love back to FTBR after neglecting it for so long. See ya next time!