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Jenny yawned, face almost hitting the table before she woke herself up. She held her pencil tightly, trying to focus on the numbers and letters on the page. She just had a few more questions, and then she’d be done with her homework. She didn’t notice her pops sitting next to her, until he waved his hand in front of her face. She snapped out of her tired daze, and looked over.
Ted had sat down next to her and was smiling. “Are you tired, Jenny-bug?” He asked, in his thick Chicago accent.
She hummed, resting her chin in her hand. “No. I have to finish this, or I won’t get it done.”
“Hey, you’re not like me. You can always stop working and pick it up later. You don’t have to get it all done in one go.” He took the pencil away, and Jenny was too tired to protest. She nodded slightly.
“You’re right… but it’s due tomorrow, so I need to get it done now.” She tried to argue one last time.
“Jenny-bug, you could do algebra with one eye closed. But you can’t do it with both closed. You get what I’m saying?”
“That I need to sleep.” She rubbed her eyes with her palm and yawned again.
“Exactly. You should head upstairs and get some rest. You can work on this over breakfast with me and dad, okay?”
“Okay…”
———
Jenny woke up the next morning to her alarm. She pressed the button to turn it off, and ungracefully rolled out of bed. She yawned and stretched, going to her mirror to comb her hair. She rubbed her eyes, still tired from staying up late the night before. She should really be used to it by now, no matter how much her dads said she needed her rest. But if she wanted to be a genius like her pops one day (or a superhero like both if they’d ever let her), she had to learn to stay up late to work.
She put her hair up and got dressed, then headed downstairs. She smelled blueberry muffins and turkey bacon as she headed down, and grinned. This would be a good day.
She made it down the last step before running, then sliding, into the kitchen. She forgot she was wearing slippery socks, so she almost fell, but managed to catch herself.
“Careful, Miss Jenny.” Skeets said, flying by her.
“I will be.” She more calmly walked past the robot, and into the kitchen.
When Jenny walked in, Ted was leaning against Michael’s back and hugging his waist. They talked quietly to each other, and Jenny covered her eyes before loudly announcing her presence.
“Good morning!” She practically yelled, and her dad gave her pops a loud, gross kiss on the cheek.
“Morning, Jen! How’d you sleep?” Her dad came over and leaned down to hug her.
Jenny wriggled out of his arms and over to the stove. “Good enough! Is breakfast ready?”
Michael laughed and followed her. He appeared to deem the muffins cool enough to eat, so he took two out. He placed them on a plate with two slices of turkey bacon (expertly microwaved by Ted), and handed them to Jenny. “Eat up! Pops told me you have some homework to work on, so you’ve gotta get a head start.”
“Yeah, I do.” She took her breakfast to the dining room table, and took her homework out of her backpack. Her pops must’ve put it away after she’d gone to bed, since she didn’t remember doing that. She got it out and started working out the equations while she crunched on the bacon.
Ted sat next to her, and Michael sat next to him. They had a big table, but they all liked to sit close together. They each had their own breakfast, and Skeets was resting on the windowsill to charge. He was kind of like a cat, that was also a person, that was really a sentient robot from 430ish years in the future. He was a weird part of their family, but still fit in, in his own annoying robot way.
Jenny had finished her bacon without realizing, and switched to the muffins while she zoned back into her homework. If 4x+31=97+3x, then the answer would be x=66. She solved that in maybe 10 seconds? She was in 8th grade math despite being in 7th grade. She felt bad about not being further ahead like her pops had been. She dreamed of graduating high school at sixteen like him, but she’d be lucky if she did at seventeen. She was a year ahead in math as previously stated, but was only in AP classes for the rest. She guessed that it did give her more time for electives like ASL and engineering, but it still felt like she was behind. She didn’t even really know if she wanted to study engineering, since that was really just following in her pop’s footsteps.
She did think it would be useful in helping at Kord Industries once she was old enough, but business would also help. But that was still just being like him, instead of her own person like her dads always encouraged her to be.
She was still deep in thought, when she felt something on her head. She looked up with just her eyes, and it was her English folder. She glared over at her dads, who were snickering.
“Very funny.” She took it off her head, and placed it on the table. “Sometimes I actually feel like I’m the real adult here.”
“C’mon, Jenny-bug. You had this look you get when you’re thinking too hard, so we helped snap you out of it!” Ted grinned.
“Don’t think too hard, it’s still early. And finish the muffins before they get cold.” Michael took her paper away, and Jenny tried to get it back.
“I was working on that!” She huffed, taking a bite out of her muffin. It was a little closer to room temperature, but it still tasted amazing.
“No, you were staring into space. You’re not allowed in space, so it’s confiscated until you’re done eating.” He turned to his husband. “See what I did there, Teddy?”
Ted snickered, but took the paper and gave it back to Jenny. “Yeah, and it was pretty funny. But also unfair. She’s got a big brain, and wants to keep it going!”
“Not that big.” She muttered, as she got another equation done in about seven seconds.
They both turned to her with a shared look. She hated that look.
“What’s that mean, Jenny-bug?” Her pops asked, concerned.
“Well…” She squirmed a little with both of them staring at her. “It’s just… you’re so smart. And successful. Pops, you have a ton of inventions, and you’re the head of Kord industries. And dad, you’re a super powerful superhero, not that pops isn’t, and you know everything about the future! You’re both doing so much and making such a big difference. And I’m just… doing homework for middle school.” She put her chin in her hand, elbow resting on the table. “I just want to make a difference, like Robin does, or Speedy used to do. I don’t have powers, but they don’t either! And neither of you have natural powers! Just make me something, or give me something to do! Let me make a difference like you.” She realized she went on a bit of a tangent, but she always did when this topic came up. She sighed. She already knew the answer she would get.
“But you’re not Robin or Speedy.” Ted frowned. “And we’re not like Batman or Green Arrow.”
“We’re not letting you risk your life for something adults can barely do.” Michael added.
“But I could do it! Just train me and I can be a sidekick like them!” She pleaded.
“No. We’ve been over this. You’ll focus on school, then you’ll graduate, and be an amazing, happy, and safe adult. But you’ll never get into the hero business. It’s too dangerous.” Ted put his foot down on the matter. He always did. This was the one thing he’d be serious about, or at least it felt like that.
“What if I made my own inventions, and became a hero anyway? You always say how smart I am.” Even though it didn’t feel true by comparison. “How would you stop me then?”
“We might not be big heroes, but we’re still part of the Justice League. We could, and would, vote you out of recruitment.” Michael backed Ted up. Why did her dads always have to agree?
Jenny grabbed her homework and put it in her folder. She stood up and put it in her bag, carrying it to the door.
“Hey, where are you going?” Ted called after her.
“I’m brushing my teeth and going to school! The bus’ll be here soon!” She tried to keep the frustration out of her voice, and failed.
“I can drive you! It’d be faster!” Michael yelled as she walked up the stairs.
And finish this conversation, crushing her dreams further? No way. She’d figure something out, some way around their rules. She ran up the stairs without saying anything else. She’d find a way to make a difference, even if they didn’t like how she did it. She’d find a way to be a hero like them.
———
Ted and Michael stared at each other at the dining room table.
“Well…” Ted frowned.
“That went about as well as it usually does.” Michael tapped his fingers on the table.
“Why does she wanna be a hero so badly? It’s not all glitz and glamour.”
“Well, tell that to me at twenty-three. I thought the same thing.”
“Yeah, and it turned you into a criminal. You’re lucky I put those savings away for you in the future.”
“And I’m very grateful you did, or else Rip Hunter would still be on my ass about the tech! But Jenny’s not gonna do what I did. She’s a good kid. We’ve just gotta remind her that the job’s hard.”
“Hard when you don’t have powers, at least.” Ted sighed, rubbing his forehead under his glasses. “Let’s be honest. It was the best thing to happen to us, except for her. But I want something else to be the best thing for her. I don’t want her to feel like she has to live like us, y’know?”
“Yeah… I get what you’re saying. The best thing about me being a hero, is it led me to you and Jenny.” Michael smiled. “She just needs to realize she can find happiness like that somewhere else.”
“But she’s been dead set on this for two years. The older she gets, the more sure she is that she wants to be a hero. But it’s so dangerous.”
“Yeah… but I’m sure we can keep her a civilian as long as we’re around.” He smiled. “And I plan to grow nice and old with you. I’ll stay handsome and beautiful, and you’ll have glasses as thick as your thumb.”
Ted laughed loudly and pushed his shoulder. “I’ll still be handsome with my thick-as-my-thumb glasses! Just watch!”
“I plan to! You’ll always be handsome to me, anyway.” Michael grinned, filled with love.
Ted’s heart melted a little, when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. “Mikey, we’ve gotta get serious again. What do we say?”
“That we want her to stay safe, and that means no hero-ing.”
They both nodded, and Jenny grabbed her backpack.
“Jen! You’re leaving without a hug?” Michael got up from the table and walked over.
“Yeah.” Jenny looked away.
“What about lunch?”
That made her glance at him out of the corner of her eyes. “What is it?”
“I could make you a bauru if you talk to your pops, and I’ll drive you to school in the sports car.”
Her eyes widened a little. “Yeah. I can agree to that.”
Her dad gave her a quick hug. “Great, now get talking while I put it together.” He went back to the kitchen.
Jenny made her way back to the dining room table, and set her bag under her chair. She sat down and stared at her lap.
“You’re not in trouble.” Her pops started.
“Then why are we talking?”
“Cause you need to know I’m not mad, and neither is your dad. We’re just worried, and we want you to be safe.”
“I would be. If I just trained, I could be prepared.”
“Jenny…” Ted sighed, taking off his glasses to rub his forehead. She looked over. He only called her Jenny (instead of Jenny-bug) when he was being completely serious. “This job… it’s serious. Heroes lose a lot. They get hurt. They die… like my mentor.” Jenny looked away again. He pulled her by the shoulder so she’d look back at him, so she did. “Not everything can be predicted. Tragedies… they happen. And they can’t always be avoided, even with advanced technology and time travel. You can’t always be prepared for what happens. And that’s why you have to stay safe as a civilian. As long as me and your dad are around, no hero work. Okay?”
Jenny thought about it. She hadn’t thought about it like that before. She didn’t want to die… she didn’t want them to die. “...Okay. No hero work, as long as you and dad can stop me.”
Ted smiled a bit. “And that’ll be a really long time, okay? I promise.” He smiled and held out his pinky.
She smiled a little. “I promise, too. Are we really still doing the pinky-promises?”
“You started them.”
“I was six.”
“Just pinky-promise already.” He grinned.
“Okay, okay. I promise.” She linked pinkies with him.
Ted ruffled her hair, and Michael came back from the kitchen with a bug themed lunchbag. “All done talking?”
“Yep!” Jenny grinned, and grabbed her backpack. “Sports car time?”
“You know it!” He grinned.
Jenny looked back to her pops, and ran back to give him a tight hug. “I won’t be a hero, as long as you stay safe.”
Ted laughed a little and hugged her back, before putting his glasses back on. “Okay, Jenny-bug. Now go to school! Learn!”
“Okay, okay!” She laughed too, and ran out the garage door.
Ted and Michael smiled at each other. They’d keep her safe, as long as they lived. That was a promise.