Work Text:
Ava didn’t know why her bosses thought it was important that she spend literally 38 hours at work when she spent those hours filling out the same forum over and over again only changing one line. But she took a town car home (one of the many perks from her job) and now all she wanted to tuck her kids in bed, grab her wife and sleep for a week.
When she opened the front door she heard Lori yelling.
“I don’t get what the big deal is! Why can’t my boyfriend stay here?”
“Because he is 42!” Sara yelled back. “Why can’t he stay in his own home?”
“Because he doesn’t have one he just got out of prison and if he doesn’t give them a permanent address they’ll revoke his parole!”
Ava didn’t want to deal with this.
“Lori, your parolee boyfriend can’t live here.” Ava then spotted the man covered head to toe in tattoos wearing a blood-stained wife beater and a pair of boxers. “Actually if you don’t get out of my house in ten seconds I am calling the cops.” She turned back to Lori. “Why can’t you just date a boy from school?”
“Because they’re nerds and if my boyfriend can’t live here, I’m moving out.” Lori threatened.
“Not really a threat you have nowhere to go and no money.” Rip mocked from the couch.
“Does anyone else feel like he will totally rape us in the middle of the night?” Aoife asked raising her hand slightly as if she needed to ask permission to speak.
“Just because he’s on the sex offender list-” Lori started.
“Look at that and he already violated his parole.” Sara grinned pulling out her phone.
“People can change. Look at Mama.”
“Oh for him, I’ll gladly go back to my assassin mindset.” Sara scoffed. She looked at the man far too comfortable on her recliner as she pulled out one of her hidden knives (a habit she never stopped) and started to twirl it in her hand. “I can make a death last for days .”
“Okay, I have put up with too much at work to put up with this here.” Ava grabbed the grown man out of the chair and dragged him to the front door where she literally kicked him out of the house with a powerful kick to his chest. She slammed the door behind him and immediately let out a loud scream of pain.
“You okay babe?” Sara asked cautiously approaching Ava.
“I pulled something kicking him…”
“Good.” Lori huffed before storming off upstairs.
“Everyone go to bed! I will be up to tuck you in soon and I don’t give a flying F right now if you are too old for tuck-ins because I need this so just let me have it!” Ava yelled.
The kids looked at each other before running upstairs to their rooms.
Sara just helped Ava to the couch.
“I’ll go get the cream. Can you take off your pants or do you want me to?”
“I can’t move so you do it.”
“Okay, baby. When you feel up to it, we’ll go tuck the kids in.” Sara was already getting the icy hot cream from the bathroom. “What are we going to do with the fact that our twenty-year-old daughter is dating a sex offender?” Sara asked as she carefully pulled Ava’s pants down.
“I was thinking since our basement already has a bomb shelter…”
“You want to lock her up in it? I’m fine with the plan.”
“She’s acting like a girl in a lifetime movie with daddy issues. But how can she have daddy issues? She grew up with two loving supporting moms.”
“Honestly? I blame Mia.” Sara flat-out admitted. “She hangs around her all the time, always did and Mia is the poster child for daddy issues.”
“So our daughter has second-hand daddy issues. We should call Felicity and ask her what she thinks we should do.”
“I think it might also be my dad. He cursed us. He always said he hoped Lori would be just like me when she got older and we know magic is real so what if he literally cursed us?”
“I think we can’t do anything until I can move again. I miss when we could kick ass nonstop and never pull a muscle.”
“Well not to brag but I still can.” Sara smirked.
“Yeah yeah just rub my inner thigh.”
“Yes, M’am.”
…
When Ava felt fine enough to walk she started to drag Sara upstairs with her.
They went into Lori’s room first.
Ava sat down on the bed next to where Lori was sat in bed leaning against her headboard book in hand as she read.
“I know you’re not happy with us, I get it, but we have reasons for everything and if we tell you not to date 40-year-old sex offenders, its because we love you and want to protect you.” Ava started to explain.
Lori didn’t look up from her book.
“If you weren’t retired and you know barred from time travel, would you have ever let me be a Legend?” Lori’s voice was soft and quiet and Ava couldn’t remember a time it sounded like that.
“Honestly? No. No way in hell.” Sara answered before Ava could. “None of you are qualified to be Legends.”
“Why not? We all know how to fight, even Áine is smarter than you when you were leading them. So why couldn’t I be a Legend?”
“Because you are smart, and capable and frankly you’re not an outcast. The Legends were started because all of us could be removed from the timeline and die and nothing would change. We didn’t matter. You do. You always have mattered. The Legends were and always will be a group of fuck ups who somehow manage to fuck up things just right that the world doesn’t end. We used totems to defeat a powerful demon and because of one fucking comment we ended up being a giant Beebo. You don’t want to be a Legend because you can be so much more.”
“The Legends are a chainsaw and you Lori are a scalpel.” Ava used the old metaphor. “If you were a Legend, nothing would ever go wrong and as weird as it is to say, they wouldn’t be The Legends without things going wrong a lot.”
“Do you know how many Legends missions I was literally stoned out of my mind during? Ask Uncle Jax, he’ll tell you.”
“Were you stoned when you fucked that french queen?”
“Okay, first of all, we did not fuck and she seduced me no matter what Jax and Rip kept saying, she seduced me . But no I was not high. I wasn’t sober, but I wasn’t high.”
“The file for that mission said you seduced her.” Ava pointed out.
“Because Rip refused to believe me.”
“Wait, all the acting out, was that just because you didn’t think you were good enough to be a Legend? Or is it because you don’t have a dad?” Ava asked.
“Because I don’t have a dad? What are you talking about? Why would I need a dad? I have you both. What would having a dad have done that you both didn’t do?”
“So its not from some fucked up daddy issues? Not even second hand ones from Mia?” Sara asked.
“No. I just I dunno, I can’t explain it. I mean you dated guys way older than you, what was your reason Mama?”
“I was trying to piss off your grandfather and prove I was different than Aunt Laurel. She was the perfect one so I had to be the fuck up. I just embraced it. But you’re the oldest, we never had another kid to compare you to with your milestones.”
“No I just had to grow up in your shadows. Show I was worthy of my family legacy.” Lori snarked then looked at her moms for the first time since they entered her room. “Oh fuck I think I just figured it out.”
“Yeah. So tomorrow how about we schedule some good ol’ family therapy sessions?” Ava asked.
“Okay.”
“Okay, don’t stay up too late. I love you.” Sara pressed a kiss to Lori’s forehead.
“I love you too. Goodnight sweetie.” Ava did the same and pulled the blanket up to fully cover Lori’s legs.
“I love you too.” Lori rolled her eyes. “Goodnight. Keep the sex down please, we don’t need more things to talk about in therapy.”
…
They went to Rip’s room next, he was sitting on his bed, controller in hand as he played some game.
“Hey, buddy.” Ava sat down next to him while Sara went to sit on his other side.
“Hey, Mom. How was work? Never really had a chance to ask you downstairs. Was that an important emergency just nothing again?”
“Yeah it was nothing again.” Ava sighed. “What are you playing?”
“Mario Kart 40. Wanna play?”
“Always.” Sara answered for them, pulling over a controller for herself and passing one to Ava.
“Why don’t you just retire?” Rip looked over at Ava as he went back to the main menu to select a 3 player mode.
“I can’t just retire.”
“Why not? It’s not like you can’t do anything, but you could do something else that doesn’t make you work for days without a break. You could join the PTA again or run for city council.”
“Oh, I don’t think we’d be a good political family, too many skeletons.” Sara pointed out.
“You have too many skeletons. I’m squeaky clean.”
“There is no record of your existence and your parents are actors.”
“Okay, so I have two skeletons.”
“I’m just saying you have other options Mom.”
“Speaking of options, Ray mentioned the deal and contract he offered you.” Sara mentioned not so subtly.
“You want me to take it.”
“I want to know your thoughts on it.”
“On one hand I’ll have my schooling and living expenses covered up to 3 PhDs, I can pick the place to live and once I am done with my education I have a job as a senior developer with Palmer Tech. Most people would kill for that offer.”
“But?”
“I know Uncle Ray does a lot of good with his money but he’s still a billionaire and all his stuff is made for dirt cheap in other countries where they have poor labor laws. I don’t want to do work that hurts people.”
“That is a very good reason to turn it down. Have you mentioned these concerns to Ray?”
“No.”
“If you explain it like you did, I’m sure Ray’ll agree with you. Who knows maybe you could implement a large change in how companies operate.”
“Yeah. I’ll think on it.”
They played their one race with Rip winning with Sara and Ava performing decently.
“Goodnight love.” Ava kissed his cheek before getting up. “I love you.”
“Love you too Mom.” Rip gave her a quick hug before doing the same with Sara. “Love you Mama.”
“Love you too bud. Don’t stay up too late.”
After his moms left the room Rip grabbed his phone sending a quick text to Uncle Ray asking if they can talk about the contract and possibly change some things.
…
Aoife was hanging upside down from a rod in her closet doorway doing crunches.
“Finally on what troubled teen camp to ship Lori off to?” Aoife asked not pausing her workout.
“For the last time we are not shipping off Lori or anyone to a troubled teen camp. They are just child abuse factories. We are however all going to family therapy.” Ava sighed. She wasn’t sure when Aoife became obsessed with sending a sibling off to a troubled teen camp but it seemed like every month they had this conversation.
“Anything you want to talk to us about?”
“Yeah, now that Lori is bringing sexual predators into our home, are you going to get her to move out because she’s like fucking 40. She should be in her own home.”
“We are not kicking Lori out, you all will be able to call this home no matter what. Even if you become a serial killer, if they let you out on parole or house arrest, you will have a home here.” Sara reassured her. This was something Sara wanted to stress because she knew what it felt like to not feel like you can go home and she didn’t want that for her kids ever. “No one is bringing home sex offenders anymore. If there is ever anyone in this house that makes you feel like it's not a safe house, you tell us and we’ll get rid of them.”
“In any way that phrase means.” Ava backed up.
“Okay.”
“You wanna get down from there?”
“Right because you’re going through something and need to tuck us in so you can feel like you have a semblance of control over our lives.” Aoife dropped down from the bar.
“Your mom had a hard time at work. Can you just let us do this one little thing so she can sleep peacefully for the first time in days?” Sara rolled her eyes. Aoife was by far the family’s biggest smartass and if it wasn’t for her dyed red hair she would look just like a mini Sara.
“But I’m all gross and sweaty now, I don’t want to lie in bed and get my sheets and pillows gross and sweaty.”
“We literally told you that this was the plan.” Ava sighed. “Fine, don’t lie down. I love you. Goodnight, do not stay up too late you have school in the morning.” Ava pressed a kiss to the top of Aoife’s head.
“Goodnight smartass. I love you.” Sara repeated the action by Ava.
“‘Night. Love you too.” Aoife rolled her eyes at her moms as they left.
…
Keir was already in bed and seemed half asleep when they went into his room. A discarded book laid at the floor of the bed as if dropped in his sleep.
Ava just ruffled his hair and whispered a goodnight and I love you.
Sara shook him a bit hard.
“Wake up. Come on, get up. You only need to be awake for five minutes at the most.”
“Sara.” Ava started.
“What? I’m usually in bed at this hour.” He let out a groan opening his eyes.
“Yeah, you are but its fine, five minutes won’t kill you.” Sara pulled the sheets down around his waist.
“What if I was sleeping naked?” Keir objected.
“Then you would be just like your Uncle Mick and we would question our parenting skills for all of time. Plus you wouldn’t be ordering pj pants all the time.”
“I’m sorry you had a hard time at work.” He sat up.
“The good thing with work is, once we finish, we don’t need to think about it until we are back in the office again.”
“Can we have a family movie night soon? Like with all the family?” Keir asked looking over at his moms.
“We will call everyone and see what we can do.”
“Okay.”
Ava picked the book up off the floor and laid it on the nightstand. She pulled the blankets up and tucked him in tightly. “I love you. Goodnight.”
“I love you kiddo, night night.” Sara kissed his forehead as Ava kissed his cheek.
“Love you both too. Night.” He yawned before pulling the sheets up to his neck.
…
Áine had every light possible on in her room including the neon one above her bed with her spelt down.
She was curled up in her bed, clutching her stuffed panther.
Ava held up a finger to her lips to shush Sara before she even tried to do anything to wake the girl.
Ava made sure the sheets were tucked in around Áine and she kissed her hair whispering her love.
Sara kissed Áine’s cheek and whispered her love as well.
…
Ava was curled up in bed, her arm tightly wrapped around Sara. She woke up with a start. She grabbed Sara turning her over to check her over for injuries, the process of course woke her wife up.
“Whasyoudoing?” Sara asked barely cracking her eyes open. She spotted the panic in Ava’s eyes and that woke her up. “What happened?”
“It was just a dream. A really vivid fucked up dream.” Sara couldn’t tell from Ava’s voice if Ava was confident in that fact or trying to make herself believe it was true.
“What about?”
“Someone killed you and the kids. Your powers weren’t working or they were and our theory on decapitation was right…god, I can still smell the blood.”
Sara kissed Ava gently before tossing the sheets off herself and getting up.
“What are doing?”
“Fixing all of this. Just focus on your breathing babe, I’ll be back in a minute.”
Ava watched Sara leave and true to her word in less than a minute she came back, carrying the sleeping Áine in her arms. She laid the 13-year-old in the middle of the bed.
“One down.” Sara grinned before heading back out of the room.
She came back this time with a groggy Keir who after getting pushed onto the bed gently by Sara, just fell on the bed seemingly already back to sleep.
The next time she returned it was with the remaining three kids.
“See, all fixed. Everyone is fine and if you have any doubts throughout the night you can easily check on them.”
“Thanks.” Ava pulled Sara in for another kiss.
“Did you wake us up just so you can make us watch?” Aoife asked yawning.
“Oh shut up and lie down.” Sara huffed.
“Rip stop touching me!” Lori complained.
“I can’t move, I have Áine’s head in my spleen.”
“Someone has a foot practically up my ass.” Aoife bitched.
Ava looked over at Sara.
“You’re right, this is the perfect fix.”
“If you get a boner I swear I’ll snap it off.” Lori threatened.
“Oh fuck you.”