Chapter Text
Calla's POV
"No, no, you're putting too much in." Oliver grabbed the milk carton out of my hands, preventing me from pouring any more in. I frowned, confused.
"But the recipe says..." I trailed off when he began to shake his head. "I know how to read, Oliver. It definitely says two cups of milk."
He put the carton down with a sigh. "If you put more than a cup and a half, it'll taste weird." He explained. He smiled a little. "When it comes to cooking, you can't always follow the recipe."
I stared at him. "Then why would they have one if you weren't supposed to follow it?" This was why I didn't like cooking. They gave you clear instructions, and you were supposed to completely ignore them. It was asinine! "You know what, this is why I never cook."
"Yeah, that's why." He grumbled. He waved me off. "I can finish; you don't have to help."
"Fine." I rolled my eyes and moved to take a seat at the counter. I sat down and looked at him while he cooked. Oliver's eyes glanced up at me before turning their attention back to the meal.
"What?" He asked, glancing at the recipe he had literally just told me to not follow.
"Skylar told me the news." I told him, smiling. His lips spread, smiling a little. "Congrats."
"Thanks." He replied, grabbing the pasta box. I bit the inside of my lip.
"I've got a question for you." I continued. He chuckled a little and looked up at me.
"Let me guess; it's either 'are you going to ask her to marry you' or 'will the baby look weird because it's an alien-human hybrid'?" He guessed. I raised an eyebrow and he chuckled. "Dani and Kaz - they haven't stopped bugging me since I told them."
I laughed, a part of me wondering who asked which question. "I was asking about marriage, but you know, come to think of it, has there ever been a baby born to a Calderan and a human? I don't remember Skylar mentioning."
"No, there hasn't. Calderan babies are usually...well, I guess you can call them test tube babies. This is definitely a first." He glanced at the stairs to make sure Skylar wasn't coming down them as he spoke. "Which is why I'm going to wait until she's a little less stressed about the idea to propose." He continued. "Besides, do you know how many Calderan marriage rituals I have to memorize just to ask her? For God's sake, it's a four word question."
"Calderans are biologically closer to human than almost any other alien species that we know of. Surely there can't be that much risk?" I mentioned. He shook his head.
"We're not worried about him so much health-wise - Horace thinks that he'll have an unusually strong immune system, actually. I'm more concerned about what he'll be able to do." Oliver explained. He shrugged. "He could end up having crazy powers, and I'm not sure if we know how to handle that. I mean, what if he starts creating space portals when he's two?"
"Please, let's not talk about babies with powers." I said with a grimace. He gave me a sympathetic look.
"Emily showing signs of super powers?" He guessed. I shook my head.
"Not yet, thank God, but the possibility is always going to be there." I place my hands over my face, then looked between the fingers. "I don't think I'm going to stop worrying about this until she's a teenager."
"Well, at least it's only a possibility for you." Oliver pointed out. "It's not an 'if' he gets powers, it's a 'what' powers will he have."
I smiled at him, understanding his worry. "So, 'he'. You guys already know the gender?"
"No, but someone's hoping for a boy." Skylar teased, taking a seat next to me. She gave Oliver a look. "I don't understand why you're so dead set on a boy. Won't you will love them either way?"
"Of course I will. But boys are easier. Girls are more difficult." He pointed out. Skylar frowned.
"Where did you hear that?" She questioned. Oliver paused.
"My mom, Kaz's mom, Mr. Davenport..." He listed. I glanced at Skylar.
"I lied to my mom for 4 years about my boyfriend having bionic abilities, then left to live on a private island with him a few months later before I'd even graduated high school. The worst thing Jaden ever did was get a speeding ticket." I pointed out. She cocked her head a little, acknowledging my point.
"Still, let's try not to hope for one more than the other, okay?" Skylar mentioned. Oliver sighed dramatically.
"Fine." He agreed, craning his neck to kiss her over the counter.
"Your food is burning." I pointed out, breaking up the kiss. Making a frustrated noise, Oliver ran back to the stove to continue stirring our dinner. I laughed, amused.
"What's so funny?" Chase questioned, walking down the stairs, Emily tucked away in his arms.
"Oliver made me stop cooking because I'm apparently bad at it, but then he burned the food." I pointed out, reaching out for my baby. Chase handed her over to me.
"Well, that's not nice of him." He commented, kissing me on the forehead. I smiled, choosing to ignore the fist bump he tried to secretly give Oliver.
"Hey, so who were you on the phone with?" Skylar asked curiously. Chase looked at her. "I overheard you talking to someone while you were changing Emily's diaper, and I don't think you were telling a three-month-old about taking a trip to New York."
"Oh, did Jess set up a meeting?" I asked, excited. Chase nodded.
"The first ever meeting of the Extraordinary Peoples Coalition is going to take place at the UN Headquarters in a month's time." He said proudly, leaning on the counter. He shook his head in amazement. "Over 250 representatives will be there, including aliens from 32 different planets. Nice job on getting the word out, by the way." He added, nodding to Skylar. She shrugged.
"It wasn't hard - there are a lot of species that have heroes working around the galaxy, including on Earth. It just makes sense for them to be working with the government rather than risk getting probed."
"Has that ever actually happened?" I asked, wondering. Skylar opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted when the door to the Penthouse opened.
"Guess who we ran into on the street?" Bree announced as she, Noah, and Jaden walked in. Before anyone could ask who she meant, Kaz and Dani followed them into the room.
"I thought you weren't getting in for another hour." Oliver smiled, walking over to give his best friend and his sister a hug.
"Yeah, well, it looked like Liv was about to hand out assignments, so we decided to leave early." Kaz explained.
"Someone still isn't used to Alivia telling him what to do." Dani explained, placing her bag on the ground by the couch before coming over to give us hugs as well.
"She's bossy." Kaz complained.
"She's your boss." Chase pointed out incredulously. Kaz rolled his eyes.
"She could still be less bossy." He pointed out. Chase opened his mouth to argue, but I raised a hand, stopping him.
"It's not worth it." I told him with an amused sigh.
Dani's POV
"I can't believe you proposed on the top of the Eiffel Tower." Bree shook her head in amazement as she stared at the ring on my finger. Our dinner plates were scattered around the living room, all of us relaxing with coffee and cake that Jaden had made. She looked up at Kaz, wide-eyed. "That is literally the most romantic place on Earth."
"I know. My sisters made me watch a lot of rom-coms with them growing up." Kaz nodded seriously. I smiled at him.
"You, Kaz, are a secret romantic. I'm surprised." Calla complimented, shaking her head at him. "Is there a more romantic way to ask someone to marry you?"
Chase looked at her, brow furrowed in confusion. "I made you dinner…in the place where we first kissed…surrounded by flower petals…from the flower you were named after."
"Yes, but this is Paris, Chase." Calla said in exasperation. He stared at her and she smiled before kissing him on the cheek to reassure him that she was joking.
"Yeah Chase, it's Paris." Kaz teased. I hit him lightly, though I had to say, the annoyance on Chase's face was quite amusing.
"So, no AJ?" I asked, changing the subject. I'd noticed that the kid hadn't come to greet us when we came in.
"I don't know how they managed it, but Spin, Daniel, and Bob managed to convince Douglas and Davenport to take a bunch of bionic kids to the new EPC building in New York." Chase explained. I nodded, understanding why Davenport would agree. The creation of the Extraordinary Peoples Coalition was the biggest event in superhero and bionic hero history to happen since the Mighty Med Massacre, so it made sense that the kids would want to see the new building with their own eyes. "AJ wanted to go, and we figured it would probably be a good idea for him to spend time with kids his own age."
"And you want those people to be Spin, Daniel, and Bob?" Bree questioned.
"Why not?" Calla questioned, confused. "I mean, sure, Spin's got his anger issues, and Daniel does occasionally get arrested, and Bob..." She trailed off, then stood up. "You know, saying this out loud is starting to make it seem like not such a good idea, so I'm just going to go call and check in."
She gently lowered Emily into Chase's arms, grabbed her phone, and left the room before he could stop her. Emily let out a happy noise, to which Chase smile. He glanced at us before adjusting the blanket she was swaddled in. "I've already got Rio keeping an eye on them." He explained to reassure us.
"Got it." Bree nodded, smirking a little.
"So, how's Jess doing with setting up the coalition?" I asked, curious. I knew that some people had been asked to be representatives in it - Rani and Alivia among them - but other than that, we still didn't know much about how it was progressing.
"We're set to have our first meeting in a month." Chase explained.
"Jessica and Miles must be crazy busy, between that and rebuilding S.H.I.R.T." Ollie commented. Chase nodded.
"Oh yeah. They let most of S.H.I.R.T.'s agents go - most of whom are now being investigated by the government for various crimes - and they're hiring a lot of new people. Some of Miles' old friends at UPSEI are helping him out with the process, but it's still going to take time before S.H.I.R.T. is what Jessica and Miles originally thought it was going to be." Chase explained.
"At least it won't be run by super-powered psychopaths this time." Kaz commented.
"I can drink to that." Jaden agreed. Bree laughed a little.
"Hey, Jess and Miles...they're dating, right? I'm not imagining that?" She questioned.
"Oh, there's definitely something going on, that's for sure." Calla agreed, coming back into the room. She sat down between Chase and Noah, who was currently playing with his feet with so much focus, it was like he'd never seen them before in his life. "Jess won't tell me what's going on, but something's going on. If they're not together yet, they will be by the end of month, guaranteed." She glanced at Chase. "Rio says the boys are fine."
"I'm pretty sure they don't need a babysitter." Kaz pointed out.
"You've never seen all four of them together." Jaden replied, taking a drink. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by a text alert from his phone. He glanced at it, then sent a quick reply.
"Uncle Tyler." He said to Bree when she gave him a quizzical look.
"Faith's dad?" Ollie guessed. Thankfully, Calla shook her head.
"No, that would be Uncle David, who isn't exactly thrilled with us for throwing his little girl in jail. Which is stupid, because she's crazy." Calla shrugged. "Uncle Tyler comes from Mom's side." She glanced at her brother. "So? Did you get it?"
"Get what?" Kaz asked, confused. Jaden sent Calla a look - apparently, whatever this was about, he wasn't planning on saying anything about it - then sighed.
"He offered me a job at his restaurant." He explained. Bree beamed.
"Not just any restaurant. It's a 5-star Italian restaurant." She bragged. "His uncle opened it up in LA last year, and it's already been rated one of the best in the city." She kissed Jaden on the cheek. "I told you he was going to give it to you."
"Congrats." Skylar told the older boy. I smiled, a little confused.
"Yeah, congratulations, but did you say LA? As in Los Angelos...in California?"
"Yeah. It's just such an amazing opportunity - he'd be an idiot to turn it down." Bree replied. Jaden smiled at her and took her hand.
"Besides, it'll be nice to closer to home. Mission Creek would only be a few hours away." He added.
"And there's a few amazing museums in the area that I can apply to. My boss, Cheryl, has already written me an amazing reference letter, so I'm sure to get a good job." Bree continued.
"Best of luck then." I held my cup out towards them, then couldn't help but laugh when it was Noah who tried to clink glasses with me, his sippy cup hitting the coffee mug so hard that I almost dropped it.
"Careful, bug." Bree ran her hand over his head, smiling.
"You excited to go to LA, kid?" Kaz smiled at the kid. Noah laughed.
"Lay! Lay!" He laughed. Kaz stopped, then looked at Jaden and Bree with a sheepish grin.
"Please tell me his first word wasn't 'lay', because that'll be hilarious to make fun of him for it when he's older." He told them. Bree sighed.
"No, no. You want to hear his first word?" She asked. She turned to her son. "Hey, honey, what's my name?"
Noah just stared at her. Jaden smiled at him. "Who's this, buddy?" He tried, pointing at Bree. Noah flashed them a toothy grin.
"Moo-may!" He clapped. Kaz nearly choked on his drink, he laughed so hard.
"Yeah." Bree nodded. She tried to look annoyed at the nickname, but I could tell that she was pleased that her name, although butchered, had been Noah's first word.
"Wait a minute." Something occurred to me just then. Or maybe, I already knew it, and it was just hitting me for the first time. Either way, I felt my heartstrings tug painfully. "If Kaz and I are going to New York with the NLH, and Ollie and Skylar are going to Caldera, and you guys are going to California, that means..."
"The team is done." Chase said solemnly, staring at his drink. The room went quiet as we all considered it. I mean, we all knew it was coming. It had been coming for a long time, I thought. We'd been a good team, but things like this weren't meant to last forever, no matter how much we wished they would. We'd all known that one day, we'd all leave. I just guess that none of us expected it to be so soon.
"This was always supposed to be temporary, guys." Skylar said slowly, swallowing thickly. I watched as Ollie took her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. "Hell, I mean, I never even intended to stay on Earth once I got my powers back, and that was years ago."
"Almost five years." Ollie added, smiling sadly. He shook his head. "I can't believe it's been five years since Davenport brought us all together."
"I can't believe I've been living with you weirdos for five years." Calla joked. Chase elbowed her gently, and she rolled her eyes. "Hey, I said you guys were weird, not that I didn't love every single second of it."
"I think what CeeCee is trying to say is that she's going to miss all of us." Jaden chuckled. Calla nodded her agreement. "I know I am."
"We'll keep in touch." Kaz reasoned. He raised his head. "We have to promise that. No matter what state, country...planet," he sent my brother a sideways smirk, "we end up on, we stay in touch."
"Definitely." Bree nodded in agreement. She was biting her lip a little, her eyes slightly watery. "It's not like we won't have phones or email or anything. We should let the distance break us up."
"Guys." I cleared my throat, looking at them imploringly. "The team isn't done. We're just...getting some space. I mean, if we need each other, are you really telling me that there's any one of us that wouldn't drop everything to come help?"
"Dani's right." Chase agreed, standing up. "We're still friends, and we're still heroes, no matter where we go. And if the world needs us, we'll be there, every time. So this isn't goodbye, it's just..."
"See you at the next world threatening disaster." Calla suggested. Chase smiled at her.
"See you at the next world threatening disaster." He repeated, smirking. He looked back at us. "We're still a team, even if we aren't together. Alright?"
"Agreed." Skylar nodded. I could see the others smiling, liking what he said. He held up his coffee mug.
"To the Elite Force." He toasted.
"To the Elite Force." We all said in unison.