Johnny smirked a little at the commentary about Liv. "That's only because she cares about you and wants to make sure you've thought things through," he explained. He remembered how Liv had even questioned him about things when they'd first met. Had they really come so far in such a short time" It seemed like only yesterday he was arriving in Rhy'Din and feeling like a fish out of water. "And yeah, I think she would, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. The worst she can tell you is no, right?" he asked, bumping shoulders with her before taking another sip of his coffee.

"I guess so." Reassured, Fliss smiled, bumping him back as she raised her own cup to her lips. "No matter what I decide to do, I'm gonna spend a year with the fire department, if they'll have me. I think I need to, if that makes any sense. I really can't go through life being scared of something that's so much a part of me, can I?"

"What is it that scares you so much about fire, Fliss?" Johnny asked. He thought he knew the answer to that question already, but she needed her to sort that out for herself.

"It's a good thing that fire exists, I get that," she said, knowing the answer to this herself. Lucas had helped her to work her way through it when he had first identified that she was actually afraid of the flames she still produced. "It's necessary. But one little mistake, one change in the way things are, and it's out of control. It destroys, rather than helps. And that feels a lot like me. I'm in control all the time, because if I'm not, then someone's going to get hurt. And that scares me."

"No one can be in control all the time, Fliss. You'll exhaust yourself trying. When is it hardest for you to keep control of your flames" When you're angry?" he asked, trying to get to the heart of the matter. Even if she'd already thought all this through, he might be able to offer some insight, having been through it all before.

"When I'm upset or when I'm angry, yeah," she admitted, blushing as she added, "Um ....I, uh, I flicker a bit at other times, too." She'd not yet singed Lucas, but they'd had a couple of close calls. She really didn't want to admit aloud to her own father what they'd been doing when it had happened.

"Um, okay ..." Johnny murmured, making a few assumptions from the way Fliss was blushing, but he didn't want to embarrass her further by pushing his luck. If Fliss wanted to talk about those kinds of feelings, she could talk to her mother. "So, what do you usually do when you're feeling like you might lose control?"

She bit her lip. "I ....Well, I have to stop what I'm doing," she pointed out a little superfluously. "I, I usually have to be quiet for a while, like you showed me when we started out. It doesn't last long, but ....it feels so dangerous when I'm right on the edge like that, Dad. I don't want to hurt anyone."

Johnny knew how she felt - he'd hurt someone once without meaning to because he hadn't yet learned control, and he never wanted to make that mistake again, but control was something that was learned and got easier with time. "You know, when we first found your brother and sister and cousins, I was so angry I felt like I was gonna explode." He was talking about the day he and the other Avengers had rescued Alex, Maria, Martin, and Lianne from the Hydra Research Facility, where they'd been experimented on using some sort of serum similar to that of what had turned Steve Rogers from a scrawny kid into a super soldier. "But you know why I didn't?"

She hugged one arm around her raised knees, other hand clutching her coffee cup as she looked at him. "Because if you had, you would have hurt them," she guessed in a sad tone. What had been done to her siblings and cousin infuriated her, but she was more deeply affected by the aftermath - the nightmares they all suffered, and more.

"Yeah, but I didn't have to think about it, Fliss. I don't have to think about it anymore. It just comes natural. It's like ....like when you get angry at Alexei for bugging the crap out of you when you're trying to do your homework. You get angry, but you never flame before something inside you knows you'd hurt him. It's like a reflex or something, a damper on your flame. I know you're worried about hurting people, maybe about hurting Luc, but if you go around worried about it all the time, you're never gonna let yourself feel anything. You just have to learn how to manage your anger and manage your feelings while still letting yourself feel them," he tried to explain, wondering if he was only confusing her.

She absorbed this thoughtfully. "So ....you're saying that I'm actually making it worse by panicking about it when I flicker?" she asked in a pensive tone. "That I should trust myself not to hurt people, the way I do with Alex and Mar?"

"Something like that, yeah," he replied. "I mean, there are times when flames are appropriate. If someone was trying to hurt you or anyone else I care about, I might go to flame over it, but only if I thought it would help help the situation. It's like ....I don't know ....something you do without thinking sometimes. You notice a flicker, you put it out. Don't think too hard about it. After a while, control comes as natural as breathing."

"It is easier than it was," she assured him quietly. "I don't really do more than make sparks these days. I guess I'm more frightened of myself than I am of the fire, huh?" She yawned, rubbing a hand through her hair. "I still want to spend a year with you and the fire department. I think it'll help."

"I'm not gonna turn you away," Johnny assured her, smiling as he slung an arm across her shoulders to hug her against him a moment. "You know how proud I am of you, right?" he asked, hoping she knew that already.

"Really?" Her face lit up, pleased to hear him say it out loud even as she leaned into the arm he wrapped about her shoulders. "Sometimes it feels like I just bumble from one thing into another, and I always wonder if you'll approve of me. Your opinion is really important to me, Dad, yours and Mom's."

"I'm glad you value what your mom and I think, but what you do with your life is really no one's decision but your own, Fliss. I would love to have you with me at the fire station, but I'd be just as proud of you no matter what you chose to do with your life ....so long as you don't decide to become a stripper," he added with a teasing grin. "I might have a problem with that."

"Nah, I can't dance," she giggled, touching her head to his shoulder. "How'd you feel about having a head-doctor in the family' I do solemnly swear not to analyze you or Mom when you're having a fight."

"Honestly' I think if you can help other kids like Alex and Maria, then I think you'd be doing a good thing," he replied. "And I'm proud of you for wanting to make a difference, Fliss," he added, smiling as she rested her head against his shoulder. "You're always gonna have a special place in my heart," he whispered, not wanting any of the other kids to overhear him, though the same could be said for each one really.

"I love you, Dad," she whispered back to him. "I wouldn't be the person I am without you. I wouldn't have a family without you." She raised her head, twisting to hug him tight for a long moment.

He couldn't take all the credit; after all, Liv had had a lot to do with adopting Fliss, too, but he wasn't about to spoil the father-daughter moment by pointing that out right now. "I love you, too, sweetheart," he replied, setting his coffee mug aside so he could return her hug without spilling coffee all over her. It might seem a little strange to some that Fliss's parents weren't more than a decade or so older than her, but she couldn't have asked for two more loving parents than Johnny and Liv. "What do you say we make breakfast for the rest of the brood?" he asked, with a grin.

"Oh, I see. You get the credit, and I get the blame. Thanks!" Johnny said, shaking his head with a sigh. Some things never changed. "Here, hold your niece while I go see what?s taking Liv and Fliss so long." And he promptly handed Tony baby Bess, drool and all.

"Wait ..." Tony's objection didn't save him from being landed with Bess in his arms, however. He was still holding her awkwardly out from himself, with an alarmed expression behind his sunglasses, as Maria and Alex came back out of the house together, giggling over something they'd seen or heard. Whether he really wanted it or not, Uncle Tony was in business.

That "wait" came too late to save Tony, as Johnny retreated into the house to grab a camera and let Liv know her brother was there. He said nothing about the car, though. Tony could explain that one himself. Tony could have followed him inside, if he hadn't been so terrified of the toddler in his arms.

"You didn't really just abandon Tony with the baby, did you?" Liv asked as Johnny came into the house, laughing at the thought of that as she made certain there was plenty of food and water out for the animals in their absence. She raised her voice. "Fliss! It's time to go!"

"Yep," Johnny replied with a grin. "You don't think it's funny that Ironman is afraid of a baby?" he asked, as he grabbed the camera off the kitchen counter and checked to make sure it was charged.

"I think it's hilarious," she agreed, straightening to kiss his cheek fondly. "Looks like it's two cars on the trip, though. We can't cram Tony into our car with everyone else, it'll be a crush." From upstairs came the sound of Fliss falling over something, and swearing like a trooper.

"Takes after her father," Johnny said, waggling his brows at Liv when he heard Fliss' litany of curse words. "Quit fooling around, Fliss! It's time to go!" he called up the stairs. "Wait 'til you see what your brother brought her," he told Liv, lowering his voice.

"Should I be scared?" Liv asked innocently. She had a feeling she knew what Tony had decided to bring with him for Fliss.

And speak of the devil ....one teenager finally made her appearance, thumping down the stairs with her graduation gown over her arm and her cap in her hand. "Someone left the laundry basket in the middle of the bathroom again," she complained, bending to rub her shin. "Where're the kids?"

"Outside entertaining your Uncle Tony," Johnny replied, with a grin at the very idea of that. "You ready?" he asked, saying nothing of the conversation they'd had earlier that morning or the surprise Tony had waiting outside.

"Yeah, I just have to walk without falling over in front of every one I know," Fliss shrugged. "I can do that, right?"

Liv chuckled, hugging her with one arm. "Yes, you can definitely do that," she promised their daughter fondly. "Well, now, everything's as ready as it's going to get. Time to go, I'd say."

"What do you do when you fall, Fliss" You pick yourself up and keep going, that's what," Johnny told her, hugging his daughter from the other side and planting a noisy kiss on her cheek.

"Usually I sprawl face first and giggle, but okay." Fliss grinned back at him, grimacing as both her parents kissed her cheeks. "Eww ....you're gonna cry, aren't you? You are so embarrassing."

"We love you, too," Liv laughed, letting Fliss lead the way out into the sunshine.

"I'm not making any promises!" Johnny grinned back at his wife and daughter, reaching for Liv's hand as Fliss led the way outside. Their family had grown dramatically in the last few years, but Johnny and Liv were still at the heart of it, and it was their love for each other that held it all together.

"And there she is, the princess herself," Tony announced as the three of them came back into view. He handed Bess down to Alex and Maria as their big sister laughed at him.

"She's a baby, not a bomb, Uncle Tony."

"Hopefully, she hasn't dropped a bomb in her diaper already," Johnny interjected quietly, as he bent to scoop baby Bess up into his arms, rescuing her from Alex and Maria.

As Liv snickered, Tony was waving to get Fliss' attention. "Here," he said, tossing the car keys to the teenager. "Figured you're gonna want to ride in style today. Well, every day."

Fliss' mouth fell open. "Wait ....you're letting me drive your car?"

"Not exactly," Johnny murmured with a glance not at Fliss, but Liv to see his wife's reaction.

"It's your car, Fliss!" Alex blurted, spilling the beans, though that much was about to become clear sooner rather than later. "Can I ride with Fliss, Papa, pleeeeease?" Alex begged.

"Oh, good grief ..." Thankfully, only Johnny was close enough to hear Liv's muttered reaction to Tony's extravagant gift.

Fliss was staring at Tony in disbelief. "Seriously?" she asked in shock. "This ....this is huge."

"Dear, my tower in New York is huge," Tony corrected her. "This is an abject lesson in road safety, wrapped up in a beautiful design."

"Someone's ego is huge," Johnny muttered further, with only Liv close enough to hear him. "In English, Tony!" he called over to his brother-in-law.

Alex was now tugging at Johnny's sleeve. "Pleeeease, Papa!" he begged further.

"There go my sartorial stylings," Tony chuckled, nodding to Fliss. "Of course it's yours, princess. I made a few modifications to fit your winged suitor more comfortably inside, too."

"Oh my god ....thank you!" A moment later, Tony had an armful of Fliss, and a very startled look on his face, mouthing help me to Liv and Johnny.

"Winged suitor," Johnny echoed, chucking.

"He means Luc, Papa," Alex explained, though, of course, Johnny knew this already.

"You made your own bed, Tony," Johnny told him. "Why don't you ride with Fliss?" he suggested, figuring that way he could show her what all those bells and whistles were supposed to be for. "And take Alex with you."

"I think a barbecue is a great idea!" Johnny agreed, relieved she wasn't going to press him for more details about Fliss' plans for her future. He was sure Fliss would tell her mother soon enough anyway. "What do you think, munchkin?" he asked Maria. "How's a barbecue sound to you?" Before Maria had a chance to respond, another thought popped into his head. "Oh, I almost forgot! Lucas is coming for dinner, if that's okay," he told her further, though she'd probably expected as much. Fliss and Lucas had become practically inseparable these days.

"I wouldn't expect any different," Liv chuckled, twisting to catch Maria's answer to her father's question.

Little fingers moved dexterously through the movements that were her only real means of communication. "With hot dogs and burgers and salad?"

Liv passed this on to the driver with a grin.

"With all the hotdogs and burgers and salad you can eat!" Johnny replied with a grin for his daughter. "You know, they'll probably want to get married in a few years," he remarked quietly, regarding Fliss and Lucas.

With Maria giving a round of applause from the back seat in approval of the plan, Liv settled in her seat once again, her smile softening at Johnny's quiet remark. "I think you may be right," she agreed just as quietly. "She's growing up so fast."

He didn't even stop to consider the possibility that Fliss and Lucas might break up. Even as young as they were, he could hardly imagine one without the other anymore. "Too fast," Johnny agreed with a small frown. "Do you ever wonder what she was like when she was little?" he asked, wishing they'd known her then, wishing they could have saved her from all the pain and loneliness she'd suffered before they'd found her. "Not just pictures. I mean what she was really like."

"Of course I do," Liv said softly, her expression sad as she considered how long their grown up girl had been shunted from one institution to the next, no one willing to take her on as their own. "I wish we could have known her when she was small, saved her from all of that, but ....we were there when she needed us most. We'll always be there."

"We were kids ourselves then," Johnny pointed out. No matter how much he might have wished to have known Fliss was she was little, he wouldn't have been much more than a child himself then. "And yeah, we will. We're a family now - all of us - and we'll always be there for each other, no matter what." Surprisingly, that family included Tony Stark, too.

"We might be grandparents before we're thirty, you know," she couldn't help adding, knowing that Johnny was still struggling a little with the thought of his little girl being quite that grown up. At least Lucas was a good, steady lad, not a player.

Johnny's jaw dropped open a moment before he realized something and he laughed. "Unless Fliss has a baby before next week, I don't think so," he told her with a grin. "Maybe before you turn thirty," he teased in return, though he hoped they wouldn't rush things too much.

Liv laughed again, always thrilled when she got that look on his face, even if it only lasted for a moment. "You never know," she teased him back, but she, too, was hoping that Fliss and Lucas weren't in that much of a hurry. "I don't think so, though. She and I made Lucy give her The Talk."

This wasn't really a discussion he wanted to have in front of Maria, who seemed innocent enough, but he knew was as smart as a whip. "You don't think they're ..." He darted a glance at Maria again to find her playing with Bess. "....you know."

"Not yet," Liv grinned. She was far more at ease with the prospect of their eldest exploring her sexuality with her boyfriend, mainly because the culture she herself had grown up in would now consider Fliss to be legally responsible for her own genitalia. "Relax, Johnny. Even if they are, they're sensible kids. Besides, I'd know if they were. Fliss just isn't the sort to keep that to herself."

"Do I need to talk to Luc?" he asked, with a cringe and a scowl. He knew the boy's parents were going through a divorce, and that his father hadn't been much of a father to begin with. He'd tried to make the boy - no, young man - feel welcome in their home, but he wasn't his father. Then again, there had been a time when he hadn't been Fliss or Alex or Maria's father either.

"Maybe you should," she suggested thoughtfully. "You're the only father figure in his life right now. As much as Jessica is growing closer to Gordon, they haven't reached a point where they're prepared to be open about it. Sounds like you're up, Sparky."

"Well, I'm sure he knows, uh, the basics," Johnny stammered, being careful about what he said with Maria in the car. "What am I supposed to tell him?"

Liv chuckled, shaking her head. "Don't be daft, Johnny," she told him gently. "Contraception and feelings - it's not difficult. Just excruciatingly embarrassing. Why do you think I made Lucy do all the talking with Fliss?"

"Think I could talk her into talking to Lucas?" Johnny asked, though he already knew the answer to that. "I'm pretty sure he already knows about that stuff, but I guess I can try," he agreed with a sigh. Someone had to do it, he supposed, and he was the closest thing the kid had to a father figure right now.

"Just trying would be appreciated, I'm sure," Liv assured him, glancing back to check on the girls in the back seat. Bess had fallen asleep, as she tended to do in the car, and Maria was amusing herself with her own fingers, making up complex signs for feelings she didn't have words for yet. At the rate she was going, that girl was going to have all of them speaking their own unique dialect of sign language within a few years.

Thankfully, they had finally arrived at Bristle Crios, just in time to avoid boredom for Maria and any further uncomfortable conversation between Johnny and Liv. Outside, the grounds were teeming with people of all different races and cultures - humanoid and otherwise - all of them there to witness and celebrate Graduation Day.

The Storms joined the milling throng, children and Tony firmly under control as Fliss pulled on her cap and gown. "So ....how stupid do I look, on a scale of one to absolutely?" she asked them, hands on her hips with a grin on her face.

"Do you really want an answer to that?" Johnny teased his eldest with a grin before drawing her into a hug. "Break a leg up there, Fliss. We're all proud of you," he told her, wishing her good luck in his own way, though all she really had to do was collect her degree without falling on her face.

"Remember what I said about falling over?" she laughed back at him, blowing a kiss to Alex and Maria. "It's gonna be boring, fair warning." Hearing a friend calling her name, she slipped away from them.

"You know ....I was sixteen when I graduated the second time," Tony commented, both his hands busy being held by the smaller Storms. "You sure she's just graduating high school, not university?"

Alex's eyes widened as he was hefted onto Uncle Tony's hip, but he only looked around to search for Fliss before pointing a finger in the direction of a very familiar-looking blond and proclaiming, "There!"

Johnny chuckled again and Alex went to fetch Fliss, leaving him behind with the girls. "All things considered, that went pretty well," he mused aloud, mostly to Liv.

"I'd say it did, yes," she agreed, kissing his cheek as she bent to lift Maria up into her arms. "And we didn't even cry. Missed opportunity."

Maria waved her hands to get their attention. "Why did they throw their hats up in the air?"

"Uh, good question," Johnny said, once Maria had caught his attention. "For good luck?" he guessed. "Or maybe just because they're happy to be finished," he mused further. It was a tradition for graduates to toss their caps in the air, but he wasn't really sure why.

Liv chuckled. "They do it because everybody does it, sweetheart," she explained. "It's something that very posh boys used to do in England when they graduated school, because those boys had to wear hats as part of their uniform and they hated them. So as soon as they graduated, they would throw their hats in the air because they never had to wear them again, and even though people don't wear hats as uniform any more, throwing your hat has become a tradition at graduation."

"See" There you go," Johnny said. "You just had to ask Mom because Moms know everything," he told Maria, reaching to tickle her side. "What do you say we go find Fliss before Tony embarrasses her further and blow this popsicle stand?"

She nodded excitedly, wanting to be at home already and helping to make their party food. Liv grinned, hugging her close as they headed through the crowd to where Tony and Alex had found Fliss.

The teenager had put her gown on her little brother, and both of them were watching Tony flirt outrageously with girls more than half his age with more than a little incredulity.

"Okay, sorry to drag the old man away, girls - and he is an old man - but the bus is leaving!" Johnny declared as they arrived to rescue the graduates from the one and only Tony Stark. There might have been a time when Johnny would have been flirting just as outrageously, but that time had passed. He was a happily married man now and intended to stay that way.

"Less of the old, flame farts," Tony countered, but there was a mildness in his response that suggested he had definitely mellowed toward Johnny. "I'm like a fine wine, best tasted when matured."

"Liable to make you vomit if you have too much at once," Liv said cheerfully.

"And liable to get arrested if we stick around much longer," Johnny remarked, with a chuckle and a roll of his eyes. "Fliss! Are you ready?" he called over to his daughter, who was busily chattering with her friends. They weren't in any hurry really, except for baby Bess.

"Coming!" Fliss called back to her father, finalizing plans for the evening out with her friends and Lucas. With a last group hug, she turned to join them, her cap somewhere on the ground among the seats, just like everyone else's. "Hey, peanut, why don't you wiggle your fingers and get the cap to go with the gown?" she suggested to her little brother warmly. Fliss was Alexei's number one fan when it came to his telekinesis.

Alex frowned up at his big sister, taking her request a little too seriously. If only it was as easy as she seemed to make it sound. "I am not sure which one is yours," he said, wrinkling his brows at the sea of caps littering the ground.

She crouched next to him, peering between the legs of people and chairs. "You see that chair with the red mark on it?" She pointed it out to him. "My cap is the one on the seat." She wrapped her arm about his waist, absolutely confident that he could do this.

Behind her, Liv glanced at Johnny, almost bursting with pride for both teenager and little boy.

Johnny wasn't quite sure what was going on, but if he knew, he might not be too happy about Alex demonstrating his abilities in public, and yet, this was Rhy'Din and Bristle Crios, no less, where such abilities were more the norm than the unusual.

"It's far," Alex murmured to Fliss, as he focused on the cap, his forehead wrinkling in concentration.

"You can do it, peanut," she promised him in a fond whisper. "And if it doesn't happen this time, it'll happen next time. Use it or lose it." She kissed his temple, hugging him close. "Remember what we were talking about' Find the middle of your see-saw - not angry and not happy. Calm and powerful. Imagine it coming to your hand, see it in your mind, and then ....do it."

"I remember," he murmured again, focusing his concentration on the cap. At first, nothing happened, and then it moved a little, just enough to be sure it wasn't the wind or anything else that could be easily explained away, but it still hadn't flown through the air toward them.

"There," Fliss whispered to him, proud of her little brother for managing even that small movement among so many distractions. "Do you want to try again?" They had worked on this so many times before, he knew he didn't have to give it another go just because she asked.

"I'm not sure I can do it, Fliss," Alex replied, frowning worriedly that he might disappoint the big sister he so worshiped and adored.

Nearby, Johnny exchanged glances with Liv, but said nothing.

"You already did do it," Fliss reminded him with a warm smile, kissing his nose. Lowering her voice, she whispered to him, "I bet Uncle Tony would go in the back seat if we asked him this time." All right, so maybe she wasn't quite as safety conscious as Liv might have wanted, but Fliss was a reasonably good driver, despite her age.

"Really?" Alex asked, eyes widening hopefully. As much as he adored his Uncle Tony, there was nothing he'd like better than to sit in the front seat with his big sister in the driver's seat. "I wish I was older. I'm too small to do anything fun." He was mostly talking about spending time with the teenagers. While he adored his younger sisters - especially Maria - he wasn't allowed to do even half as much as his big sister and her friends.

"Really," she grinned, glad he wasn't assuming that he had failed in his attempt. He'd moved the cap; that was impressive in itself. "Just don't tell Mom and Dad. And trust me, you'll be plenty big in no time." Rising to her feet once again, she turned to fetch her cap, laughing as a friend tossed it to her on his way past. "He could have done that sooner, huh?"