This is my first time writing for this fandom, but I have wanted to for awhile. This was such a cute little show, and I'm so sad that it only made it one season (or two differently-named mini seasons).

I found a fun prompt, so I used "The Fake Redhead" Writing Prompt #500. The prompt is worked into the story, and as it sort of gives away some of the story, I will not post the lines here, but they are the two lines that are italicized.

I hope you enjoy!

…..

Victor Garcia was returning home from a Saturday morning jog. He had been listening to a sports podcast, which is why he did not notice the smoke alarms until he had stepped through the front door of his house. Then he noticed, but secondary to the scent of acrid smoke in the air.

"ASHLEY!" he yelped frantically, his first thought for his niece's safety. Where was the fire? Was Ashley safe? Did he need to rescue her?

"Tio?" came a strangled voice from the kitchen.

He sprinted through the swinging door and came to an abrupt pause, trying to process what was happening. Ashley seemed to be attempting an assassination on the smoke detector by alternating between banging it against the corner of the counter and prying it open with a butter knife. The oven, still on, was open and the blackened remains of ... something ... was oozing, still raw, out of a pan while charred bits covered the interior. The rest of the kitchen looked like a war zone staged in baking ingredients, from what he could see through the veil of smoke.

"Ash?" he said, wondering if he had entered some other dimension.

"Tio, stop it!" she begged desperately, tossing him the smoke detector. He caught it, twisted it, and silenced it expertly. In the sudden silence, Ashley slumped onto the counter in relief, earning herself elbows and a chin covered in flour remainders.

"Yeah, we can't stop just yet," Victor said, shutting off the oven. He seized on a teaching moment, as this seemed like something a guardian should tell their kid. "If you are burning something, the first step isn't to murder the smoke detector. Shut off the oven or stove if you can, and if safe and possible, put on oven mitts and remove the burning item and take it outside." He was acting as he was talking, and jerked his head to the patio door. "Open it."

Ashley scurried to open it, and he dumped the item - whatever it was supposed to be - onto a patio tile. Ashley stood next to his elbow and the two of them watched the concoction bubble itself into slow stillness. Only when the last bubble popped did Victor turn to his niece, who was still watching the pan with a shocked expression and open mouth.

"Hey, Ashley?"

"Yeah?" she asked, reaching up to rub what looked like a mixture of soot and icing powder off of her glasses.

"What were you doing?!"

"Baking?"

"You sound uncertain about that."

"Well ... your baking never ends like this!"

Victor couldn't help but laugh at that. Ashley pouted and he tugged her to his side in a hug. "It's okay, we'll get it cleaned up."

"I don't know what happened!"

"Well ... did you follow the recipe right?"

"I ... I thought I did," Ashley faltered.

Victor squinted at her suspiciously. "For someone who knows just about every scientific fact, you didn't sound sure about following that recipe. Did you even have one?"

"Yeees."

"...But?"

"The reviews said that it was a dense cake."

Victor nodded, making a motion for her to continue.

"But I wanted a fluffy one."

"So, you changed the recipe? You, with no baking experience at all?" Victor asked suspiciously.

"The cake needed a little something extra."

"So you wanted to make it explode?"

"I didn't mean to explode it! Baking is chemistry. Chemistry is science. It shouldn't be this hard! Ugh!" she huffed, glaring at the results of her experimentation and kicking the edge of the pan a little with her slipper.

"True ... but baking is complicated. And maybe modifying a cake recipe all on your own shouldn't have been your first real solo attempt," Victor consoled her, giving her a hug before leading her back inside. He started opening windows on one side of the house while Ashley copied him on the other side.

As the smoke cleared, Ashley quietly asked, "So, why did I fail baking?"

"Fail? That's a strong word for it. You just burnt it. It's not a failure, Ash."

From her slumped posture as she doodled a sad face in the scattered flour on the counter, he could tell his genius niece did not believe him.

"Ashley, you might be a genius, but you're a kid still."

"I'm sixteen!"

"Yes. In my head, that's still a kid. That means you haven't done everything on earth yet, and there's some things that, no matter how much you know going in, you're still going to mess up or make mistakes. I've been baking since I was younger than you, and I still burn things or have cakes bubble over because I mess up measurements or the ingredients are different."

"Wait - different ingredients?"

"Yes. Old baking soda, using the wrong type of flour ..."

"There's different kinds of flour?"

"Yes."

"So maybe I just need to experiment some more!"

Victor could not help but smile at the return of Ashley's enthusiasm ... although surveying the destruction of the kitchen made him add, "How about I teach you the basics, including how to keep the kitchen fairly clean while you cook, and then you can experiment to your heart's content. Deal?"

"Deal! Now let me go get my notebook so I can take notes. I won't fail next time."

"Not a failure, Ash, just a hiccup. Mistakes are natural," Victor called after her as he began to run a sink full of soapy water. He groaned a little to himself as he began to gather up all the dirty dishes - how did Ashley make such a large mess seemingly every time she entered the kitchen? - but he was still grateful. He was grateful that he got this chance to help his niece experience not only an early launch into adulthood as she lived with him while working with JPL, but also experience very normal teenage events, such as learning how to deal healthfully with perfectionism ... or nearly burning down the house while baking her first cake.

"I'm ready!" Ashley said cheerfully, rushing back with a notebook and pen with a wobbly rubber Saturn on the end.

"So, let's start with a recipe that already makes fluffy cake. Using a recipe that doesn't require modifications is usually the best plan for a beginner."

Ready or not, he was going to teach a science genius the nuances of baking a fluffy chocolate cake. And maybe a second lesson on his own specialty spicy chocolate icing.