Second half of the chapter is extremely kid heavy. I feel like those actually reading this know how I am about kids and writing kids into these things. Alas, we've reached the end of this journey. Thank you to all those who stuck with it. I know this fandom isn't a long story fandom and I apologize that I keep doing this to y'all. But, finally, the end is here.

Happy, Healthy Endings for All

Henry pulled up to the gate of "the estate" and when he was going to push the button on the little box, heard a beep and a voice say, "Henry Hart, Access Granted," before he had the chance to do so.

"They've most likely programmed it to scan your car… or your DNA," Piper commented with a shrug of her shoulders.

"How rich are our friends these days?" Henry wondered.

"Well, Charlotte is a genius who works with tech and DNA stuff, so she might have done it herself, but if not, Jasper is literally the highest paid executive coach in the country as of last year," Piper said.

"I honestly thought for a while that Jasper made that career up and I still don't even know what that means!" Henry chimed.

"He tells big bosses how to be better bosses and writes books to help little bosses become big bosses, if they have enough money to do so."

"Yeah, I don't understand HOW, either. Like… Who looked at Jasper and decided that he knew this stuff? Is he good at it, or just one of those people who got lucky and gets paid a lot?"

"The companies that he helps have better stats after he's done helping them reevaluate their model. He's gonna get one of those Netflix deals, I think. To get his own show where he basically goes in there and you see a few of his projects. He writes books, does speaking engagements, invests his money, and is kind of even helping Charlotte to try to branch out on her own. He just… is good at what he does. But, I mean… Jasper's kind of been this way. Remember whenever he was doing his vlog and podcast and he'd get all these places and fans sending him stuff? He has a knack for smoothing people over. I think if somebody is confident enough, people are willing to at least hear them out and when he got his foot in the door that way, he owned it."

"Are you… giving Jasper compliments?"

"No. I'm telling you nice things about Jasper. Did you ever see his "How to be a Good Man to a Difficult Woman" series on his channel? He's got some very good life skills, when he takes the time to think about it and not just blurts stuff out."

"Wait. He had a…" He stopped speaking whenever he got closer to the house and the yard, which had a very enormous playground, off to the side like… almost like a park and a huge garden on the other side, with like… what his mind could only seem to think of as a "tiny neighborhood" beside them. "Did this come with the house?" Henry wondered.

"Nope. Jasper had it commissioned. Sat down with the kids and got their ideas, worked on some designs, spoke with his architect, and voila."

"Why are there so many little houses here when the big house is huge?"

"That you'll have to ask them."

.

Jasper was giving directions to the crew that he had working on this event, which Henry could tell were frat boys who probably knew him as an alumnus and wanted to make good with him. He could hardly believe that his Craig used to be one of those guys. He'd be meeting them later on, because he had some work emergency and insisted that Henry go on without him.

Whenever the Hart siblings walked up, Jasper dismissed the crew and came to hug them. "Hey! Glad you two could actually make it! I think this is your first time coming to the estate at all, so what do you think, finally seeing it in person?" (That was more to Henry, because Piper saw it before, even if it was only in the beginning.)

"What is this property, Dude?" Henry asked, marvelling around.

Jasper smiled proudly, "Well, the site where Charlotte will be opening her center after her hospital fellowship is in this area, so I wanted to make sure that we had a house near here. I can work from anywhere. Still unsure if we want to fully transition out of the old house, since so much of the kids' memories are there, and Char's still got a few years before she'll even be opening the practice, but they're all still young enough where you set up enough fun stuff and they don't even know what their previous memories were. I don't really want to rent it out and have anybody mess up any of the sentimental stuff, but we'll probably have it for AirBNB for a while or something. Haven't decided."

"What are all these little houses, Dude?" Henry asked, pointing at a few.

"Oh, that's Jazz's treehouse, up in the tree, and Amber's dollhouse, Ruby's funhouse and the baby playhouse for the new baby. It's like a little kiddo community for them, and all of them have their dream playground in the community "backyard." On the other side is Charlotte's she shed, which is one of my birthday gifts to her…"

"It's like… the size of a regular house," Henry pointed out.

"We're on our fourth kid. Locking herself in the bathroom isn't all it's cracked up to be, even in a house as big as our last one, or even as big as the new house," he said, so casually, that it almost made sense to Henry for them to have a whole other goddamn house a few feet away from their ridiculously huge house! "And her garden is like her front yard, then there's the three dog houses. The kids want a puppy, so we'll be getting another one, and already are making room for them. The Kiddo community and the Doggo community right across the way from each other. Charlotte's she shed and her home lab on either side of the big house." He was pointing at everything. "Took YEARS to get it just perfect and I figured since the timeline was so close, that instead of doing the whole housewarming thing that we've done in the past that we'd just throw Charlotte's 30th Birthday party here and get showing off the property and showering her in love all over with in one event. Plus, Diamond is coming ANY day now, so by the time we've got them coming home, there won't be time for socializing between getting them nursed, Char's fellowship, getting doctors and scientists and stuff for the clinic, lab, and the spaces in the center, and…" he shrugged. Henry noted that Jasper looked the happiest that he had ever seen him. Like, everything in his life was perfect. He hoped Charlotte was feeling the same. He had been super busy at work. Springtime was very hectic for weddings and his busiest summer was right around the corner. Plus, he had a man now, and was still a Swellview hero.

"So, you decided on Diamond, huh?" Piper asked. "Just keeping the whole crystals/stones thing going?"

"After Jasper, who was of course just named for me, we went with birthstones. Wanted to have their names be closer connected to Jasper's than ours or something else. Amber was better than Citrine or Topaz…"

"Those are mine," Henry said proudly to Piper. "November."

Piper rolled her eyes. Jasper hadn't stopped, "Ruby is my fellow Leo, and even though that's typically considered a girl's name, Ruby is thought of as King of gems, so we rationalized that it was gender neutral and that if it wasn't, we'd just have someone with a name that was as rare as the gem itself… you know, if they turned out to be a boy."

"Ruby is actually a turning out to be a nuisance. They're my favorite of all of your bad ass kids," Piper said.

Instead of arguing that they weren't bad kids (They weren't, just very free kids). "I call them "Rascal," Jasper said. "I don't understand how they get into everything that they get into at 1. Jazz and Amber Reign at least waited until they were in the terrible 2s to begin their shenanigans. I think that they're gonna be a genius, like Char. She was doing a lot at 1 too, I'm told..."

Almost as if on cue, they heard Charlotte yelling, "Andro! Ruby Andromeda Dunlop!" the three looked up to see a barely walking 1 year old running quite haphazardly, holding something that appeared to be a food item tightly in their grip, laughing all the way, with a very pregnant mother chasing after them, running as haphazardly with all of that belly to lug around.

Piper and Henry both cackled at the sight, but Jasper darted over and snatched up the baby and took the food from them. Charlotte caught up, caught her breath and explained, "I swear, I put it down for a split second to adjust my nursing pad and they grabbed it and ran!" Breathing still a little winded, she said, "Hey, Henry. Piper," and retrieved her Danish. "I know that the party hasn't started, but somebody made me miss breakfast," she said pointing at Ruby. Piper reached for the baby and they went to her willingly. "And they go to Piper before they come to me… The person with the titty milk!"

"Because, I influence them to be the most them that they can be."

"You can have them, at this rate," Charlotte said.

Jasper laughed, "She didn't mean that. She can't legally give them away. They're half mine."

"Where's their bling?" Charlotte wondered, finishing off her pastry. "They're family. They'll need it for the family photo shoot, not that it'll be very elegant, considering that Dunlop children are magnets for calamity."

"It's covered, Babe. Go sit down. You look like you've been through hell." She frowned. "Beautiful, though!"

"Shut up," she muttered, waddling back to where her seat was.

The Dunlops were dressed in all white and diamonds (or you know, knock off crystals for the kids) for Charlotte's 30th Birthday Diamond Ball.

Jazz had selected to wear "whatever Daddy is wearing," so they had a smaller version of his white, suit with opaque floral embroidery and crystal embellishments. They also already had their pants rolled up to the knees and had taken their mass of curls out of the neat braided bun that Charlotte had painstakingly put it into this morning. Fortunately, she'd had the foresight to make sure that they did the immediate family photo shoot before everything else. Charlotte noticed on the way back to her seat that Jazz had also taken their shoes and socks off. They were literally untamed before the party even began. She smiled and waved at them and they waved back, "Hey, Mommy! You look like a queen!"

"If you're not gonna wear your fancy shoes, at least throw on your sneakers so you don't hurt your feet on something!" Charlotte called back.

"I've got some in the treehouse!" They rushed to the tree, electing to climb the rope, instead of the ladder to retrieve sneakers.

"You raised them to be independent," Charlotte said. "Carefree Black child. Literally carefree. They don't care 'bout nothing."

At least Amber was still put together. They had wanted to wear a princess gown. "It's a ball! I gotta wear a princess gown!" They insisted. They only had Disney ones in their collection and they needed white, so Charlotte asked them what gown they wanted a white version of. "All of them."

"You can only wear one to Mommy's birthday party, though."

"What about Daddy's birthday?"

"Daddy's gonna have a grown man friends party for his birthday. We're not gonna go to that. Maybe just have some cake at home earlier that day, and sure, you can have a gown for that, if you want."

"What about my birthday?"

"Sure. For your birthday, you can definitely wear a white gown, but which one do you want for Mommy's party?"

Amber laughed and placed a hand on Charlotte's hand, like a little adult. "No, Mommy. For my birthday, I need all the gowns. White. Also… all of them, in yellow."

Charlotte smiled and said through her teeth, "Okay. Of course, it's your birthday and Daddy has literally never told any of you 'no,' so I'm sure that we'll be fulfilling that order. Now, you wanna tell Mommy what white gown you'll wear to her ball?"

"Hmmm. Well, I think Tiana's, but white. And I need to add a bustle, so I can dance with a prince, or Daddy if there's only commoners."

"Where did you learn the word bustle?" Charlotte whispered, making notes.

"Where did they learn the word "commoners?" Jasper wondered.

They instead made Amber a white Tiana gown that was short in the front, kind of like Char's wedding dress, and a sparkly pair of white leggings, so that Amber wouldn't protest too much to the lack of a bustle. Charlotte still didn't know where they got that word from. But, passing by them on the swingset near their dollhouse, they were still dressed like she dressed them this morning, in their shoes and all.

Ruby being one, was the easiest to dress. Charlotte threw a white romper on them and a sunhat and they were the cutest kid in the world. Keeping it white and them out of trouble though? That was a task for somebody else today.

Charlotte's twinkling maternity gown and updo made her look elegant enough for the party, but between her tiredness, hot flashes, being hungry A LOT, and rushing to the bathroom so much, she was lowkey miserable. She didn't want to do a big thing for this birthday, being so close to her due date and this having been the most taxing pregnancy she had gone through, but Jasper seemed so excited about it and once the kids were in the mix with picking outfits and such, she felt obligated.

He planned it for the weekend before her actual birthday, because the next weekend (a few days after her birthday) was around the due date. It was SO CLOSE. Their birthdays would be even closer together than hers and Jazz's, which was at the beginning of the month and had been celebrated by unveiling the playground in the yard. Which was so extravagant, in Charlotte's opinion. But, they had made sure to get a lot of land specifically TO BE extravagant, if they wanted to.

Besides, Jasper paid for all of that, and what was she gonna do? Tell that man what he could and couldn't do with his hard earned money? Jasper had always been extra, and now he could afford to be.

Jazz wanted a jungle gym. Amber wanted a carousel, and Jasper filled in a lot of the rest of it with stuff that he thought would be fun for them. She wondered if he wasn't having some sort of early midlife crisis for a while, because he was extremely diligent on making this property perfect. But, that was because it would be their "Forever home" and he could pass it down from Dunlop to Dunlop for as long as they held it dear. "They've gotta hold it dear. It's gotta be perfect. It's my legacy."

Watching him handle it was one of the ways she wound up pregnant again before he could have the chance to have a procedure. That man was simply too virile! And there was something about seeing him so passionately make plans and prep for their children's futures that there was nothing sexier in the world than him in those moments. They scheduled his procedure after she realized that another Dunlop was on the way. Not that she had anything against her other 3 children, but four was twice what she initially saw for herself.

Charlotte LOVED being a mom. It was some of the best highlights of her life. She never would have expected to love it so much, but she absolutely did, aside from the pain of labor, her suffering was generally minimal. (Mainly, because she knew all of the rules medically, and she was able to figure out any necessary changes that she needed to make in her routine whenever her body called for it.

She also loved the idea of helping other people safely become moms, especially with the somehow increasing number of fatalities in Black women attempting to do so. So, whenever she finished medical school, her residency and fellowship, she finally was confident and prepared enough to open her own center.

She would be working as a medical biochemist, specializing in genetics for infants and childrens' care. The site had an OBGYN, a pediatrician, a gynecologist, and a fertility specialist, when they started out. She wanted to make another option for women who might not get the proper care in other facilities, as well as options for the babies and children that they had. Also, to help those who wanted to have children and had issues preventing them from doing so.

Instead of having several doctors who are not associated in the building and renting from some leaseholder, she owned the building, would work from the lab with a team she selected, to avoid the disrespect and distrust at her previous lab, and found specialists that she was interested in, bringing what she valued most to the place.

Having other Black female doctors around was also quite refreshing, for all of them and she made sure to include an onsite daycare with personally vetted childcare providers. Because she knew that she wasn't the only working mommy and that was important to her, as well. (This was a separate place from the pediatric playroom), because that was for the potentially sick kids. She even involved the doctors and scientists that she would have there in the development process, as a bit of an interview situation. (They didn't work for her, but she wanted the vision to work for everyone, and to find people who were on the same accord).

They called it A New Page Childcare Center, and Charlotte had never been happier in her life, as far as her work life went, as she was after getting it off of the ground. She was saving lives again, but doing it with a collective of like-minded professionals who respected and liked each other and worked well together. She could be here until she was ready to retire! Finally! She had not only found her calling, but she was able to build up something to follow it through, and she was able to see her children more throughout all of it.

Plus, even when helping a client through a strenuous process of tests and seeking out solutions or researching new ideas in genetics, she controlled her schedule and therefore was able to do things at this point in her life with Jasper and the kids that she felt guilty about not being able to do before, like family vacations and events. Henry and Craig FINALLY tied the knot shortly after Hen turned 33, and it was her center that they came to when seeking out a surrogate.

At the center, they were able to speak with a surrogacy agent, because by that time, the center had grown to include an agency for surrogacy and one for adoption. By finding all these childcare specialists and providers and making room for them in her property, it was easy for people to explore all of these options in one place, and there were frequently workshops on site available for training in doula and midwife work, becoming foster parents, and NUMEROUS paid internships in every single one of the areas in the place.

Now, most of these ideas she came up with, in tandem with Jasper during pillow talk. She knew if he knew how to do one thing, it would be to tell her truthfully how to have a fulfilling workspace. She just had never thought that she would be able to put all of these professions and occupations in one space. Whenever he would say, "Why don't you just find one and get them in your building?" she would immediately think, I can't do that! But now, she wasn't even sure WHY she ever thought that she couldn't do it!

She guessed it sounded like too much. She guessed that it would be too hard to maintain rules, regulations, etc… But, Jasper pointed out, "But, they don't work for you. As long as they can pay you to be in that space, it's an advantage to you all to have sources nearby to suggest. If fertility isn't working out, your fertility specialist can suggest going to, you know… the fourth floor for a surrogate or the fifth floor for the adoption agency, etc. That way, they don't have to look around, which would be additional stress and sometimes, you may be able to have a representative from the office of their next step come to speak with them and build rapport in that moment where they've lost a little bit a hope, to meet and reassure them that the last step was only another stepping stone and assure them that they will give their all to this particular leg of the journey." There was always a brilliant idea coming out of him! She loved that man so much, more and more all of the time.

.

The various talks that had to be had with them were generally successful. Having two socially conscious parents, they were going to get lessons about everything whenever they either were about to go out into the world on their own (school and such) or for more heavy topics, whenever they seemed to want to know. Of course, first and foremost was the way that people outside might perceive and treat them.

Jazz looked almost just like Charlotte, but with a different curl pattern. Her hair mostly grew down, but it was poofy enough that it fluffed out at the sides. It gave her just enough "other" for people to ask her "Black, and what else?" but, if she had it up or something, nobody even bothered.

Amber was the only one that was really "light skinned," but she always got a little browner in the summer. Her hair was curly like Jasper's when he was a kid and it didn't grow down, but out, so she had a huge curly fro.

Jazz said that Ruby was her mini… like she wasn't cut from the very same cloth as Charlotte. Ruby had hair like Charlotte's and similar features. Slightly less brown, but definitely darker than Amber. She looked even more like Charlotte, because they had similar mannerisms and the same face and hair.

Diamond was only a couple of shades darker than Amber, but she had more of Jasper's features than the others, who were basically molds of Charlotte with the slight differences mentioned, and her eyes were light colored. Well, they were somewhere between a hazel and a chestnut. Jasper insisted that she had his mom's eyes. Charlotte just denied it on principle. She lowkey did have Pansy's eyes and was really the only one that could "pass for a Dunlop," according to some of the comments Charlotte had overheard and seen on posts before Jasper blocked somebody. People sometimes joked with Jasper to ask him if he was sure those were all his kids, but they quickly retracted these jokes, whenever they noted his face or body language. When Jazz was little, he'd be more likely to kick someone's ass over it. By the time Amber came, it was asked less, but when it was brought up, Jazz was singled out! She "didn't look mixed enough" someone said, in that way that he could tell they felt like they were just being honest. She looked just like her mother, if she had wavy hair! And… what did people think that he was going to presume that they were suggesting about his wife when they asked him shit like that or made a funny little comment.

His mother made that mistake years ago. "I just don't see any part of you in that one," she said, opting to try to pick up Amber as she nudged her forehead towards Jazz. Amber hid behind her older sister. Something about Pansy made her nervous. The woman sighed and tacked on, "I don't think it would hurt to get them DNA tested, just in case…"

And he told her, "If you hadn't given me life, I would sock you in the mouth for that." (Jasper never made threats like that at her and she was shook).

"I was kidding! She's just way darker than I thought she should be," she had said about Jazz (which was PRIOR to Jazz identifying as a girl and ALSO made him upset that she called them a she), but Pansy had come out of that. They kept some distance between themselves and her until she had to seek them out and agree to the proper language and appropriate treatment. Then, Jasper monitored every time she was around for a long time before her and Charlotte were comfortable enough (and the kids were comfortable enough) for her to be allowed to spend time with them by herself.

She was a much better grandmother than she had been a mom, and he came to realize that a lot of people were weird about the fact that 3 out of 4 of his biracial kids didn't quote unquote "really look biracial," so they wanted to tell the girls about it whenever it was time for Jazz to go to her private school. Jasper wanted them in public school. There was one not too far from the house and it was considered when he bought it. But, they compromised that the kids could go to a private head start, maybe public elementary, and then Charlotte insisted on the private school when they got into junior high. But, after head start, all of Jazz's friends were going to private school and she wanted to go, as well. Jasper wondered if Charlotte knew this would happen when she made that deal with him. She simply smirked in response.

"What the fuck is biracial?" Jazz had asked whenever the race talk came up. Charlotte threw her head back and Jazz winced, "Sorry, Mom." She honestly never let go of the word, since she was 2 years old. But, she also had just presumed that since half of her family was different shades of brown and the other half were lesser shades of brown that other people had families that were just all kinds of browns and lesser browns, even those lesser brown people she knew from pre-k.

Realizing that Uncle Henry and Uncle Craig were not going to be able to come together and simply make brown cousins or lesser brown cousins was like a shock to her system. They had to grow a baby somewhere else and try to pick somebody that would have some similar traits. Then, learning that people might be meaner to her because she was a darker brown than Daddy was alarming, to say the least, and that even more people might treat her differently because of her private areas that they couldn't even see? She was scandalized and horrified. But… she said that sounded like it meant that girls were tougher than boys and she was "tough enough to be a girl."

"It's not really a matter of toughness. It's more like what you feel like you are, inside. And it doesn't have to be a girl, or even a boy. You might feel like something else that you don't quite have the words for, and we'll help you find the right words, if that's the case or maybe even you'll have new words for us that are more catered to who you feel like you are inside." Charlotte said.

"Well, I don't not feel like a girl. I feel like a girl who is strong and brave. Whatever that is is my gender. I don't care. It's never mattered before. I just am scared of the people out there that might try to treat me like I'm a Black girl. (I am, but… that's scary stuff, Mom."

"We'll protect you as much as we can," Jasper said.

"I have literally seen your father punch more than a few people for treating mommy some kind of way," Charlotte admitted. Jasper's face showed he had zero regrets about those choices.

"Don't worry Dad. I have a mean right hook," Jazz said.

"Damn right you do. That's that Dunlop Dumb Drop!" And with just that, the kid gestured for a double high five and they growled in each others faces and started barking.

Charlotte, feeling left out said, "I have some drops too."

Both of them looked at her and burst into crying laughter. "Mom, please, do not do this to me!" Jazz said as Jasper wiped his eyes from actually crying laughing about it. "Oh, you oughtta end all these talks like that. Who can feel worried when you've got this shining sense of humor."

Charlotte folded her arms, but couldn't help but to laugh, in spite of herself of the fact that her young child thought it hilarious that she could drop somebody. "I never said with my fists, Kid. I'm a scientist and a doctor. I know at least one hundred ways to drop somebody without ever touching them. A lot of them, untraceable." She threw a look at Jasper, who immediately stopped laughing.

"Well, that's just terrifying," Jazz admitted.

Charlotte winked, "Only for my enemies."

Now, Jazz offered her double high fives and said, "Friends for life!"

Amber was concerned about things, but mostly about partnership. Why, at her age? They didn't know, but they just answered her questions when they arose. "So. IF I AM a girl, feel like a girl, like things that the world says is for girls, but I also LIKE girls. Like, REALLY like girls, like - like them, you understand… can I still be a girl?"

"If you think you are, yes."

"But, the world says that girls like boys, right? I hate boys. They're smelly and unkind. They never like to wear pretty dresses that would be gorgeous on them. They hit you and say it's because they like you, so if you want to hit them back, you don't want to, because you don't want them to think you like them, a stupid boy!"

Jasper balled his fists, "Who the hell hit you?"

"Daddy, don't get mad. Since hitting means boys like you, I didn't hit him back, so he wouldn't think I like him. Instead, I put mud in his sandwich when everybody was at recess." She smiled proudly.

"Well, I'm glad that you got him back. But, next time, just hit him. Nobody gets to put their hands on you and if they really liked you, they wouldn't. Also, who was it?"

"Are you gonna go punch the kid, Jasper?" Charlotte asked.

"I MIGHT!"

Charlotte changed the subject. "Not all boys are like that, but if you just don't like boys, that's still fine. You can like whoever you like."

"I like girls."

"Cool. Uncle Henry is a boy who likes a boy, Uncle Craig. And Uncle Jake and Uncle Ray…"

She looked frustrated, "Do only boys get to like boys in the world?" They'd already warned her that people are mean to girls, was not being able to like like other girls part of that meanness?

"No! Everybody gets to like whoever they like and sometimes the world is mean about it, but sometimes the world is nice."

"The world better be nice to me, because there's plenty of dirt out there for me to put on their sandwiches."

Jasper whispered, "She's terrifying, like you."

"If by that you mean that she's brilliant, thank you," Charlotte whispered back and kissed him briefly.

"Hi. Could you not? I don't really want to have to see boys and girls kiss in my own home," Amber said, inciting cackles from both of them.

Ruby didn't care either way. Whenever they told her all these things, they said they didn't have questions, were undecided on if they knew what their gender was and didn't care about racist people because, "I have a big, strong dad, a mom that can kill people quietly, an older sister who fights people and one that pees in people's colas. I think that I'm well protected."

Jasper and Charlotte were nodding, presuming that they probably had talked to their sisters about this before, but both stopped at "pees in people's colas" and said, "Wait, what?" Ruby tilted their head, acting like they had no idea what they were asking about.

"I have nothing further," Ruby said. They kept the "their/them" pronouns throughout life. It just seemed like a lot to them, to sit there and think and decide who they felt like when their upbringing didn't place any value on gender roles. But, they were also fine with whatever pronouns someone else used for them. It didn't really matter.

Henry retired from hero life at 50.

The Dunlop kids and the Hart kids got together to plan a Semi-Centennial celebration for their parents, instead of calling in a joint birthday celebration. A lot of things were happening within a few years' time. Jasper and Charlotte being married for 25 years, Jazz becoming a professional athlete, Amber getting engaged to her college sweetheart, Ruby graduating from high school at the top of their class, JUST like their mom and going into an entire new wave of technology that fascinated Charlotte, and Diamond going into high school, and the fact that Uncle Henry was getting ready to "settle peacefully from everything else" and focus on H3art Eyes until his official retirement… so retiring from Captain Danger so that he could have at least some good years in the wedding shop with his kids and husband, just living his life.

His Dad and Ray had bought a boat a while back, which they mostly lived on, did some traveling in and also continued to enjoy perks such as the old Man Copter, which Ray basically just redecorated and put a cheesy postcard like caricature of the two of them on the side of it. The same for the RV that Jake brought, for whenever they wanted to travel on land. They were both retired and had no small kids. Ray never told Jake about Captain Man. The Hart kids agreed that he just COULDN'T have that information. It didn't matter, anyway. They had been working well for about 20 years at that point. Neither chose to get married, but what they had was pretty undeniable.

The child advocate in Charlotte Ambrosia Dunlop got with Schwoz years prior to come up with a way to keep Swellview safe from the villain threats without training children to work as heroes until they couldn't. It was a solution that they sort of came to simultaneously, and Schwoz was very upset that he hadn't really considered it before… Clone generation. Recreating a Captain Man and Captain Danger clone and having the Man Cave computer know just how and when they would need to be replenished! Charlotte didn't want Schwoz to have to stay there, being the brain behind the thing, so she convinced him to make a Safe Halley, to control it all and to simply keep access to it, if something went wrong, one of them could go sort it out if they had to. But, they didn't. They never had to again, and Swellview was still quite safe.

.

Charlotte, Jasper, Henry, Piper, Ray, and Schwoz sit on the patio, looking at the view of the sunsetting on the mountains during their annual Man Fam Getaway… "Our life was stupid crazy. I wouldn't change a thing," Charlotte said and everybody heard her and they all agreed.

*** The End***