Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while since this story has been updated. Got caught up in writing Tempest in a Teapot. Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter and feedback is always appreciated!

Chapter 16: The Golden Child part 1

"Now this is more like it," the sharp dressed scientist exclaimed as he held his arm upright and outstretched. A tiny paper cup, like the ones used for condiments at restaurants, filled with nectar was tucked between his curved fingers. Around him were the sounds of chirping and the quick fluttering of wings and he closed his eyes happily as he felt the soft bodies landing on his hand and arms to partake of the sweet treat.

A familiar series of giggles below him caused him to open his eyes and look down to find his goddaughter's little face lit up in a big grin as the small birds perched on her and greedily ate from her paper cup. "This is so cool!" Ashley loudly whispered and slowly reached out her other hand to gently stroke the brightly colored creatures dancing on and along her other arm.

"Birds are cool," Nikola agreed with a grin. "Why humans bother with dogs, cats and other sundry of creatures for pets is beyond me. Just shows their lack of imagination. Birds are free spirits, graceful acrobats of the sky, and skilled hunters. What's not to like?"

"Bird poop?" Henry suggested. "The squawking? The dive bombing during the annual spring mating season? The beady little eyes that following you around as you're walking by? The way they wiggle their heads like snakes as they're making weird guttural cries?"

Both Nikola and Ashley turned to look at him with the same surprised, comical expressions. "Have some serious avian issues, do we, young Heinrich?" Nikola asked with a smirk. "Perhaps you were a bird dog in a former life and the birds are out to even the score. Do you have dreams of chasing birds on four legs? Or maybe carrying a duck out of the water in your mouth?"

Henry made a face at the smart aleck vampire. "I don't think so. And there's no such thing as reincarnation… at least none that we've experienced." As soon as the words left his mouth he froze and both he and Tesla looked down at the child standing between them. No one was exactly sure how Ashley came back into being again but she was definitely the same person. Both genetically and personality wise. Henry had experienced several moments of déjà vu with the child as she would say or do something that eerily mirrored what Ashley had said or done the first time she was a child.

"What?" the girl asked as they continued to stare at her creepily.

"Uh," Henry stuttered, "you've got a bird on your head," he deflected, using the bird as an excuse for their blatant staring.

"So do you!" Ashley pointed out. "Two in fact. And one just pooped on your shoulder," she giggled.

"Ew!" Henry groaned and turned to look at the small spot on his shoulder. "That is so gross."

"See, karma for being a former bird dog," Tesla teased, but it was only half hearted. Henry had inadvertently brought up a touchy subject. The origins of Ashley the sequel. How had she come back from the dead? Granted, there had been no body or remains found when Ashley had teleported herself and that other superabnormal into the EM shield but, as a scientist, there was no logical way Tesla could explain for her being able to survive the collision. Druitt himself would have died had he tried the same thing. They all knew it and accepted that fact. So how did Ashley manage to survive?

He and Henry exchanged glances again, both clearly thinking along the same lines of thought. How powerful, truly, was the golden child? As one, they both stared at the girl in wonder. She hadn't shown any abnormal powers yet and her DNA work repeatedly came up clear of any alterations the Cabal had engineered in her previous incarnation. The same tests also showed that she was slightly different from her former self and her mother suspected that Ashley's teleporting ability would not be latent this go round.

"You're staring again," Ashley said and then squealed when the birds around them flew up in an alarmed cloud as a pair of loud, obnoxious boys ran by. "Hey!" she exclaimed angrily and shook her little fist at them. "You scared my birds away and made me drop my cup!"

"Can't help it if you're a klutz, klutz!" the taller boy yelled back over his shoulder as he and his cohort ran toward the curve of the large, oval shaped wire enclosure that served as the greeting room for the small, exotic birds that were friendly enough to land on people for nectar feeding. The larger center enclosure was set up like a tropical forest and served as the birds' main habitat. Other participants also expressed their displeasure at the disruption and the boys slowed down when one of the attendants yelled at them to stop their horseplay.

"Those two again," Nikola growled lowly and clenched and unclenched his hand in annoyance. "Someone needs to teach them a lesson in proper behavior in public."

"Don't even think about it," Henry advised with a shake of his shaggy head. "Magnus will have a fit if you fry those brats."

"My nectar," Ashley wailed as she picked up what was left of her flattened paper cup and squeezed out what little liquid remained. "It's all gone. Now how am I supposed to feed the birds?" she asked as she looked up at the two men with sad, puppy dog eyes.

"We'll get some more," Henry said, taking her hand and leading her away. "In fact, we'll get two cups this time."

"The grumpy attendant said we could only have one," Ashley reminded him.

"Just leave it to me," Henry said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "I'll get us a spare cup when Helga the Horrible isn't looking."

Tesla watched the pair walking away. He had not known them as children but had heard stories of their closeness growing up. He had observed Henry's grief at losing the girl he considered his younger sibling and then had seen firsthand the HAP's protectiveness of her when she was reborn. Reborn. His mind flew back to his earlier train of thought before those uncouth urchins had interrupted them. The colorful whirlwind of feathers appeared around him again and he automatically raised his curled hand to offer up what was left of the nectar in his paper cup. How long had it been now since Helen told him what had happened those many years ago?

In what seemed like a blink of an eye, he heard the child's familiar voice sing out, "We're back! And we got two this time!" and he managed to get out, "Got past Helga the Horrible I see," when the same brats rounded the corner and came flying towards them again. Ashley and Henry were in the center of the walkway, just three feet away from Tesla, when the accident occurred. The boys, racing around them, bumped into the pair and caused them to trip unexpectedly. Ashley's high pitched shriek preceded Henry's "Hey, watch it!" as they pitched forward to the ground.

The boys skidded to a halt nearby as the same attendant yelled at them from the other end of the curved walkway. Turning back, they beheld the tall, skinny man with spiked hair lifting the crying girl into an upright sitting position.

As Henry lifted Ashley up to make sure she was okay Nikola saw the bright splotches of blood on the child's palms, which had gotten scratched up as they hit the rough floor surface of the feeding area they were standing in, and the last of his temper finally snapped. Spinning on his heels he turned to face their attackers with obvious rage on his face.

The boys, seeing his pale face darken, pressed themselves against the wire fencing that encased the circular feeding room. The older one stuttered an unapologetic excuse of "It was an accident, mister. We can't help it if she's a klutz!" which was thoroughly the wrong thing to say to the livid vampire.

Their eyes widened as the man's green eyes turned into onyx and he hissed "Nobody bullies my godchild!" through a tight, clenched jaw. Tesla himself had been on the receiving end of much teasing and bullying growing up, including during his early years at Oxford, before he joined The Five. Him being unwealthy and a foreigner with an accent inevitably invited others to harass him when they could. He dodged and outsmarted the bullies the best he could and much of bullying dissipated when it was made clear to the others that Nikola was no longer alone. Druitt's size was encouragement enough to leave members of The Five be and, for the few that did try to put one of them down, James and Helen's sharp tongues and wit, like Tesla's own, put those offenders in their proper place. Which was exactly where the angry vampire was going to put this pair of bullies. Reaching out a hand he touched one of the horizontal metal bars and sent an electric current through it toward the rude brats. The boys gave a loud yelp of pain and shot forward whereupon they tripped over their own feet and went flying through the wire mesh of the opposite wall into the center housing for birds.

Ignoring the startled cries of the dozen or so other people in the area and the shout of the attendant who charged after the boys, Tesla turned back to his companions as his appearance returned to normal. Henry had gotten Ashley back on her feet and was holding her wrists to examine her palms.

"These scratches aren't deep," Henry determined as he tried to sooth the child. "A good wash with an alcohol wipe, a few bandages and you'll be fine." He glanced up at the vampire and shook his head. "And Magnus is going to have a fit when she finds out what you did."

"You would have done the same thing if you could and had enough nerve to do it," Nikola retorted. "You found them as distasteful as I."

"True," Henry agreed. "But she'll still get her knickers in a twist."

"I don't wear knickers," Helen suddenly interjected, causing both men to jump. "And I assume you are responsible for that racket," she surmised with a nod of her head in the direction of where the male attendant, who was dragging the two protesting boys out of the bird enclosure, was loudly proclaiming that their parents would be paying for all the damage due to their rough housing.

"But it wasn't our fault, mister, honest!" the ten year old was saying. He pointed in Tesla's direction as they passed. "He caused us to fall into the cage. He turned into a monster and zapped us!" The attendant shook his head at the crazy excuse and pulled them forward to exit the exterior door. Rich kids, the attendant thought to himself. Brats and liars every last one of them.

John, who had arrived behind Helen, noticed the splotches of blood on his child and exclaimed loudly, "What happened to Ashley's hands?"

"Those boys knocked me down!" she cried and gave her parents a loud, pitiful sniff. "I cut my hands on the floor when I fell. And they knocked the nectar cups out of my hands twice, daddy! They were mean and kept calling me a klutz."

"Oh they did, did they?" John growled. He turned in the direction of where the boys departed with a narrowing of his blue eyes. Nobody picked on his child and got away with it he growled to himself.

"They are just children," Helen said as she grabbed the back of his jacket to stop him. "We'll clean up Ashley's hands, put a band aid on them and she'll be fine."

Still incensed, John huffed, "I don't care if they are children. They are not getting away with bullying our young daughter."

"And they didn't," Henry quickly piped up. "Tesla put them in their place and they've been carted off by the attendant to pay for the damages. The brats didn't get off scot free."

"Nikola," Helen reprimanded as she wrapped an arm around Ashley to escort her out, "what did you do to them?"

"Nothing that I wouldn't have done if I could," Henry stuck up for the vamp. "Those kids are just lucky they got him instead of me. This was the second time they've pushed her and my bite is definitely worse than my bark."

Helen tightened her hold on John's jacket as he moved to go after the boys again. "That does not justify harming them. They are still children, albeit badly behaved ones."

"I don't care if they're cupids with wings playing the harp," Nikola drawled testily. "Nobody messes with my godchild and gets away with it," he proclaimed seriously as he crossed his arms. "Bullying is unacceptable in any form."

John eyed his old classmate appreciatively. Who'd have thought Nikola Tesla would take godfathering duties so seriously? "Quite right," he murmured.

Sighing at all the macho testosterone swirling around her, Helen led the group out of the enclosure and back into the zoo. Deflecting the child's whines that she wanted to go back to feed the birds, Helen got a nearby attendant to retrieve a first aid kit and set about cleaning up her pouting child's hands. A large band aid was placed diagonally across each palm and Helen ignored the large scowl on John's face as he beheld the proof of his daughter's injuries. It was fortunate for those boys that they were children; otherwise the upset father would have grabbed them and shoved them down the nearest cliff.

Since the bird enclosure was shut down to temporarily repair the damage for the night, Helen suggested that they move on to the next activity. Ashley's pout turned upside down at learning that the horse carriage ride was up next. The group walked down the stairs to the station where the carriages picked up and dropped off visitors.

Ashley skipped ahead to the pair of large white horses and their hitched, open topped, black cab waiting by the sidewalk. Her father grabbed her before she could try to climb up on one of the equines and lifted her up into his arms so that she could pet them at eye level. "I want to ride one of the horses," she declared and gave a big pout as the adults immediately answered with "no" and "absolutely not."

"You promised I could ride a horse," she insisted stubbornly.

"No," her mother corrected firmly, "I promised you could go for a horse ride with your father."

Looking over to her godfather, who had remained back on the sidewalk and was looking around in a bored fashion, she called, "You think I should get to ride the horse, right uncle Nikola?"

He disappointed her with his reply of "I do not think anyone should have to ride one of those unpredictable creatures. There's a reason man invented automobiles."

Ashley turned back to the horse and continued to pout as she pet the large, soft head. "I still want to ride a horse."

"I'm afraid Gene and Audrey are not the riding type of horses," a kindly large man said as he came around the side of the carriage. "They prefer to trot quickly like they're dancing as they pull the carriage along and have their pretty manes sway in the wind. They're a bit vain, my pretties." He gave the pair a loving rub on their muzzles and they in turn whinnied and pushed against his chest and shoulder. "Come for a ride and they'll show you how pretty they can prance," he tempted the child.

"Can I ride up on the front seat?" she asked excitedly as she pointed to the black polished bench behind the horses.

"I'm afraid not, little one," the big man who introduced himself as George informed her. "It's against regulations for anyone but the driver to ride up front. However, I might be able to swing you being allowed to feed them a few carrots and an apple afterwards."

Her parents laughed as Ashley's eyes lit up. "Deal!" she squealed and squirmed in her father's arms. "Let's go for a ride!"

John lifted his excited daughter into the carriage after Henry and then turned to offer a hand to his lover. "Actually, I think I'll pass," she said. At his quizzical look, she gave him a small smile. "I've had a lot to eat tonight. The bouncing of the carriage might not agree with me right now."

"You, with a weak stomach?" he said. "That's not like you my love."

Her smile got wider and she responded by leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. "Perhaps I'm not quite myself at the moment," she teased and, turning away, murmured in parting, "Have a good ride. Do try to keep our daughter from further harm please." She could feel his eyes fixated on her curvy figure as she walked back to the sidewalk to join Tesla and deliberately strutted to emphasize those curves in her tight red dress.

Together, Helen and Nikola waved at Ashley as the carriage headed out on its promenade around the center of the zoo. "So," Nikola drawled slyly once they were alone, "you don't wear knickers. That creates quite a vision in my active little imagination."

"Oh, shut up," Helen laughed and bumped his shoulder with hers affectionately. Tucking her arm into the crook of his, she demanded, "And you buy me a drink. At this rate I'm going to need to be plastered before the night is over."

"That's what happens when you mix ankle biters with wild animals," he teased back as they slowly strolled back up the stairs. "Gets to the point where you can't tell one from the other. And don't rub it in that you can get plastered. I'm having to do this whole evening sober."

"Aw, poor baby," she laughed and briefly laid her head on his shoulder. "The things you have to do in the name of love."

"Tell me about it," he groaned good naturedly and then joined her in laughter. The best part of his evening was yet to come.