That afternoon
Tuesday
West Ridge

I felt different.

Why?

I couldn't figure it out, but something definitely felt different. I wasn't worried, it was a good feeling, a good different!

Was it the ring that now sat on my left hand? It had to be, as that was the only thing that had changed! Why should something like a ring change me? I am Hit Girl and that is always who I intend to be. But, I am now older and you'd hope, wiser! I may only be seventeen, but I have had a whole lifetime's worth of experiences tucked under my belt. Yes, most of those experiences were R-rated, or worse, at the very least. But since I had met Dave, I had been experiencing other things; friendship, sex and now bonding. Is that the right word? I thought so, but what worried me then, was the next step - marriage and then... Getting pregnant! Did I want a family? Yes! Did I want a normal family? Yes! Would I let my kids do what I did? No! But why not?

The past year or so had seen a lot of changes within me. I had gained a true partner, last summer and now he was my partner in more ways than one! Although in reality Dave had been my partner since I was eleven. I have always known that Dave cared about me and I knew that Dave loved me; he proved that to me on my sixteenth birthday and he has stuck by me through a lot of shit; a lot of which I had dished out to him! That ring he gave me; that ring showed me that he was not bluffing and he intended to stay with me, by my side, no matter what!

Damn! Every time I think about Dave's sacrifices for me, the sacrifices he had made to give me that ring, I start to fucking cry! Dammit, I'm Hit Girl; Hit Girl does not cry! But as well as being Hit Girl, I am also a woman, a young woman, but still a woman and despite many of my seemingly inhuman acts, I am also a human being and as such I have feelings. Normally those feelings are buried deep down and suppressed, but Dave was able to constantly bring the good feelings to the surface, as did Chloe and Josh, in their constant battle to bring out my more human side, as their friend. What would I be without them? I dread to think about what I might be like now, if Dave hadn't found me, or even if my Daddy was still alive. He would not have allowed me friends, or a boy-friend and marriage? Never!

Daddy I wish you could be here, but you taught me to be obedient, so I would have always done as you wished, even if it went against what I really wanted.

Yesterday and especially last night was amazing; the best day and night of my short life, so far, but now it was time to come back to earth and back to reality and my real life. Only, I knew that I belonged, I know that somebody really loved me for who I was.

We were intending to have a small party on Saturday evening to celebrate. Marcus was staying in town; he said he was attending some weird cop seminar thing. What did worry me, though, is that Marcus said that he'd be able to tell everybody some embarrassing stories about me! I had threatened him with bodily harm, but that never works, dammit!

Four days later
Saturday morning
West Ridge

"You did what!" Josh and Chloe both exclaimed.

Dr Bennett had just arrived with the two kids and I had told them about what had occurred on Monday night, but I left out some of the more personal activities! Even Dr Bennett was shocked.

"Show me the ring, dammit!"Chloe demanded. She was so excited I thought she might piss herself!

I held out my left hand. Chloe and Dr Bennett gasped and were both speechless.

"That is awesome!" Josh admitted and gave me a brief hug. "Congratulations Mindy and you too Dave; you've made one hell of a catch, a dangerous catch, but still one hell of a catch!"

"Yeah, congratulations, both of you!" Dr Bennett said and hugged us both.

"You all coming to the party tonight?" Dave asked.

"Try and stop us!" Dr Bennett replied enthusiastically.

That evening
West Ridge

The house was packed!

Just about everybody who knew about Fusion was here, including Jack and Natalie.

"Damon would have been proud! He may not have gone along with it willingly, not at first, but I'm convinced that he would have given in, eventually!" Jack said. "Congratulations, both of you!"

"Thanks Jack," I said.

Most people had dressed up for the occasion and everybody wanted to see the ring again and again! Chloe had actually decided to wear a dress, which Josh liked a lot and his eyes were always on either her legs, or her chest! Kim was permanently wrapped around Marty and they spent most of the evening on the couch together!

..._...

As I had both expected and dreaded, Marcus started to tell stories, which initially were cop ones, which was fine.

"Give us a good story about Mindy, Marcus!" Dave suggested.

"Don't you dare!" I warned, but Marcus completely ignored me, as usual.

"Let me see... Oh, yes! This would be a few years back and well... I heard shouting coming from her room... So I went upstairs, I was a little concerned! Now, remember this was a pre-teen Hit Girl and well, back then it didn't take much to make her blow a fuse! I knocked on her door and all went silent. I asked her if anything was wrong, but she replied that everything was fine, in her usual polite manner! Then as I started to walk away, she started turning the air blue again, then finally the shouting stopped and Mindy opened the bedroom door. She was wearing her Bratz pyjama bottoms and her new bra. She was red in the face with all her shouting and exertions. I asked her what was wrong and... I'm really sorry Mindy, but it was just hilarious... She growled at me, in that way she does and her face was getting redder and redder, then she finally blurted it out: 'I can't undo this damn bra'... I just lost it and burst out laughing and I swear the look on Mindy's face was pure malevolence, but I unclipped it for her and suggested that she get some practice!" Marcus explained.

"Evil fucking cunt!" Mindy breathed, as she blushed a nice shade of red and we all had a good laugh.

"I remember that time! Mindy wouldn't stop itching and fiddling with her new bra at school! She wasn't wearing it the next day and she said she was never wearing the damn thing again, ever! I suggested that it might, in fact, be a good idea if she continued wearing it!" I added. "She was starting to, er, show!"

Mindy glared at me, but stayed silent.

"Chloe was the exact same!" Dr Bennett said. "She refused to wear her bra after the first day, took me three weeks to get her to wear it again."

Josh burst out laughing.

"Mom!" Chloe yelled, indignantly and blushed bright red.

"Damn thing itched like fuck and there really wasn't much there to be supported anyway! But I gave in after a couple of days and started wearing it again," Mindy admitted grumpily.

"Now, about a month later, I was awoken from a very sound sleep by my cell ringing! I looked at the phone and saw that it was Mindy... Actually back then instead of it displaying 'Mindy', it just displayed the word 'Trouble'! I checked the time; three in the fucking morning! So I answered and Mindy was screaming down the phone; I couldn't make head nor tail of it, so I just yelled back until she shut up! Then I asked her what was wrong. 'Dave, I'm soaked in blood', she replied and actually sounded scared! I'd never heard a scared Mindy before, so I asked if she was hurt or injured and she replied 'no, I'm in bed'; then it clicked! I asked her if she had started her periods yet and she started to say no, but then just said 'thanks Dave' and put the phone down." I explained. "She refused to look at me for about a week after that!"

"When I saw the bed in the morning; there was so much blood that I thought Mindy had brought some of her work home with her! She threatened me with everything she could think of, if I ever dared to tell anybody!" Marcus laughed.

We all had a really good laugh over that, except of course for Mindy.

"That week was totally mortifying for a twelve year-old, who was on her first period! I'm generally fine with blood coming from other people, but from myself? Especially when it was completely unexpected...! Also, at the time, Dave was the absolutely last person that I wanted to know about it, too!" Mindy moaned. "Okay, I had a few problems growing up. Nobody's perfect!"

"A few problems?" Marcus quipped. "Oh there were many, many more!"

I was forced to endure several more anecdotes about my life, before Marcus decided to take pity on me! Thankfully the attention was then put on Dave, as Marty proceeded to tell everybody, in detail, about Dave's 'gay period'! It was so good to have everybody here and enjoying themselves. Even better, they were all here for me and Dave!

When it was time for Dr Bennett to go home, she had to prise Josh and her daughter apart.

"Time to take a breath! You two staying here?"

"I have a choice?" Chloe asked, a little surprised.

"You get pregnant and I'll kill you both!" Dr Bennett replied and it was difficult to tell if she was joking or not!

"Love you Mom!"