Work Text:
She never really had a childhood.
Kelly could remember scant times with her father - fond memories, but not nearly enough of them. When he died in Operation Desert Storm, she had barely understood what death was. No eight-year-old is ready to lose a father.
When their mother took her and James to live with Aunt Vi in Calvintown, Kelly had learned to face a new reality… one her parents had always fought to keep from her, but it could only last so long. Both black and new to town, she quickly learned that she wouldn’t be given the latitude that others might have. Teachers talked to her as though she were dumber, principals disciplined her for clothes that showed her shoulders when they would otherwise turn a blind eye.
It was worse for James, to be seen as a full threat of a man when he was only a teenage boy. It didn’t help that he was a prankster by nature, and it didn’t matter when he was trying to do good - if he was pulling the white quarter back off a small kid he was beating up, it was James that took the fall.
Maybe that’s where it started, her wanting a family - wanting to give a child the childhood that she could never have.
But she wrote off that dream in high school. She just couldn’t see a world where a lesbian could adopt - and the military career she sought to honor her father wouldn’t allow for it anyway.
Dating Alex was a breath of fresh air - to be kissed in the street, like any other couple, holding hands without fear of being found out. It was heady and exhilarating, something she didn’t realize she desperately wanted.
She was nervous one evening, as she pulled a small box out of her closet - containing her dead fiancee’s old letters, photos, and a long-unworn engagement ring. If her new relationship was to go anywhere, Alex needed to know. “I never thought I’d fall in love again after Riley,” Kelly said, fighting her nerves as she passed Alex a photo. “I love you, Alex. I love you so much. I just don’t want to forget her.”
Alex pressed a kiss to Kelly’s temple. “She’s part of you,” Alex murmured softly, snuggling Kelly closer on the couch. “I don’t want you to hide any part of yourself.”
Kelly sighed as she relaxed into Alex’s arms.
Alex tried not to fidget.
She waited anxiously at her mother’s front door, feeling Kelly’s hand give hers a comforting squeeze. I’m more nervous than she is, Alex thought with an internal laugh, or I’m just worse at hiding it.
But she didn’t mull much longer, as the door opened. “Mom,” Alex said, stepping forward to hug her tight. “Welcome home,” Eliza squeezed back, “It’s been too long.”
The two separated as Alex stepped to the side, and Eliza’s eyes reached Kelly’s. “Dr. Danvers,” Kelly said, reaching out her hand, “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Please, call me Eliza,” Eliza said warmly, holding her arms open. “Hugs ok?” Kelly nodded, returning the welcoming hug. “Alex has told me so much about you,” Eliza said. “Please come in, make yourself at home.”
“Alex said you enrolled in the military out of high school?” Eliza asked.
Kelly nodded. “I went to West Point.”
The trio were finishing up a quiet dinner - chatting about the drive over, about the chaotic circumstances that had led to Alex and Kelly meeting, about Eliza’s work in xenobiology. Kelly sipped at her wine, finding herself already relaxing in Eliza’s presence.
“If I might ask,” Eliza said carefully, “That was before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed?”
Kelly hummed. “I was never planning on coming out,” she confessed. “I thought I was going to have a military career. I wasn’t planning on having relationships, until I met my fiancee.”
“That must’ve been difficult,” Eliza said sympathetically, “Even after the policy ended.”
Kelly nodded. “It was. It’s part of why I left. After my fiance died… I realized I needed to be me.”
“That wasn’t in the military,” Eliza said.
Kelly shook her head. “I think I wanted to honor my father,” she replied. “But I needed to honor myself, my own path. So when my contract ended, I decided to pursue my PhD.”
Eliza smiled soothingly. “I’m sure your father would be very proud of you.”
Eliza laughed. “And then there was Alex’s rebellious phase-”
“Hey!” Alex said, cutting her mother off. “That’s a normal part of- adolescent development. Kelly can tell you.”
“I don’t know, that punk rock phase did sound a bit over the top-” Kelly said with a grin, catching a pillow that Alex threw back at her.
“It didn’t help to have a stranger in the house,” Eliza mulled. “We had just adopted Kara, she wasn’t part of the family yet.”
“What prompted you to adopt?” Kelly asked curiously.
Kelly didn’t miss the subtle glance that Alex threw to Eliza, but Eliza’s answer was smooth and nonchalant. “We couldn’t have kids after Alex,” Eliza said, “But Jeremiah and I had always wanted to have a second. It just fell on the backburner. At some point, we realized Alex was getting older, and it was now-or-never.”
“That sounds lovely,” Kelly replied. But it’s a lie.
It’d be rude to point out, of course. Kelly was new to the family - she wasn’t expecting to learn all the family secrets. But there was definitely something odd going on with Kara’s adoption…
She left it alone.
Things got busy in the months that followed. Kelly had been hired to start her new job at Obsidian North in a few weeks, Alex was planning a celebration for Kara’s upcoming Pulitzer Prize win, everything had just felt chaotic.
But Kelly and Alex still kept their weekly home movie night date, if nothing else. It formed a bit of quiet in their hectic routines, making time for them to just spend together, cozy with each other amidst all the chaos.
Kelly set some popcorn to microwave in the kitchen, watching Alex dig through their pile of DVDs for their evening rewatch of Die Hard.
Alex had left the news on after dinner. As Kelly waited for the microwave to finish with the popcorn, she watched the puff piece that was playing - a story of a gorilla escaping National City Zoo.
Supergirl had caught the ape, of course, and was able to return him safely. Onlooker photos of her carrying the ape had flooded social media in the aftermath, leading to a friendly interview with the local news.
“So how did you catch the ape?” the interviewer asked.
“Well,” Supergirl said, “I told him, no more monkeying around!”
Kelly smiled at the pun, though she spotted Alex rolling her eyes. “This is why the DEO shouldn’t let her near cameras,” Alex mumbled, finally finding the right DVD.
Amused and puzzled, Kelly turned to take the popcorn out of the microwave, ripping open the bag to empty it into a large bowl. Puns don’t normally irritate her, Kelly thought, unless they come from Kara-
Kelly hesitated, turning from the bowl of popcorn back to the TV, where the caped hero continued her conversation with the reporter. Kelly squinted, trying to ignore the blue suit, focusing instead on the blonde’s goofy grin.
… oh.
… that explains a lot.
God, a pair of glasses and a ponytail is all it took?
“You ready?” Alex asked, popping the DVD into place and flipping the channel.
“Yeah,” Kelly said, picking up the bowl and making her way over to the couch. I guess Kara Danvers is Supergirl.
Something had happened.
Game nights stopped - aside from one time when Alex and Kara’s old friend, Winn, was visiting from Metropolis - and Lena seemed to have stepped back from the group. Kelly’s mind swam with thoughts, and she knew this probably had something to do with Kara’s secret. Did Lena not know?, she wondered to herself, sending a text with an offer to talk if Lena ever wanted an ear.
But Lena never answered.
Time went on, and she and Alex started having another conversation. “I still want to be a mom,” Alex said one day, “Sometimes I wonder if I’m holding off until it’s too late.”
Kelly squeezed at Alex’s arm. “I’m game if you are.”
Alex’s smile was still reluctant with worry. “This- Kelly, I feel like this is forever. But I don’t want to change our dynamic and ruin things.”
Kelly grabbed her hand, her response emphatic. “This isn’t going to ruin things. I want to be a mom too. Plus, this was one of the first things I knew about you,” she grinned.
Alex smiled back. “I’ll contact the adoption agency again.”
Alex didn’t contact the adoption agency. But that’s to be expected, when all hell breaks loose.
When Kelly called Alex to note that William was missing, she didn’t realize how much the day would build into something bigger. And it had been fun, at first - a covert mission to investigate Eve Tessmacher, Alex looking incredibly hot all the while.
Then she had deactivated the kill switch Gamemnae had planned on using on Supergirl - Kara - and suddenly the risks felt incredibly real. After that, there was nothing she could do but go home and wait.
Alex’s face said everything as she walked through the door. “I don’t know how to tell you this,” she said, her face breaking.
“I already know,” Kelly murmured back, “I know who Kara is. What happened?”
Alex bit back a sob. “She’s trapped, Kelly,” Alex whimpered, biting back a sob. “She’s trapped in another dimension, and I don’t know how we’ll get her back.”
Sleepless nights and screaming nightmares. Kelly held Alex tight until daybreak, another rough night where Alex somehow couldn’t fall asleep until dawn began to creep through the windows. Kelly sighed, planting a gentle kiss on Alex’s cheek, before rising and heading to the kitchen.
She was surprised to note that Eliza - who had come from Midvale the previous evening - was already awake, sipping on some tea she had found in the cupboards. Eliza smiled back tiredly, and Kelly knew the bags under her eyes matched her own.
“Eliza,” Kelly said, opening her arms for a hug that Eliza warmly returned. “It’s nice to see you again. I wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Me too,” Eliza said, giving Kelly one more squeeze before breaking the hug. With Kara trapped in the phantom zone, Eliza had rushed to National City, brainstorming with the rest of the team on how to get Kara back. While her knowledge of xenobiology and background in now-lost DEO protocols were enlightening, the group was coming to the depressing conclusion: There was no quick way to get Kara back.
“Alex tells me you figured it out a while ago,” Eliza said.
“Yeah,” Kelly said. “It’s incredible to me.”
“Can’t believe I raised Supergirl?” Eliza said, with a small smile.
“It’s hard enough to raise a traumatized thirteen-year-old who has lost everything,” Kelly said, “But from another planet? In total secrecy? I can’t imagine what that’s like.”
Eliza nodded. “It was hard,” she said, “Jeremiah and I didn’t know what we were doing. There’s no parenting manual for aliens. The ones that deal with adoption and trauma… they helped, somewhat.”
“But it wasn’t enough.”
Eliza shook her head. “It was so hard on her. She was feeling so many new things that she couldn’t control. But it was a huge risk if she were to ever let that on - she never wanted to keep herself secret in the first place.”
“Oh?” Kelly asked.
Eliza shrugged. “From her perspective, her cousin got to embrace who he was.”
“You did what you had to do to keep her safe,” Kelly said.
Eliza smiled softly. “At the end of the day, I don’t know if I made the right choice.”
The journey to get Kara back was harrowing, but it had never felt so good to hug the blonde.
Alex had practically melted into bed that night. It was the first time in a long time that Kelly’s massages seemed to help, every knot in Alex’s back finally disappearing. She slept for 12 hours straight that night.
And Kelly finally slept better too.
“They all have power-dampening cuffs,” Kelly said, “And cameras monitoring them. Inside the house.”
Alex grimaced as Kelly walked through her new job as a social worker. It had been a rough first week for Kelly, though it sounded like the kids had it much worse. “So the kid - Joey - is acting out?”
“Who wouldn’t in that situation?” Kelly asked. “His brother’s in jail, he’s constantly being watched. That’s not a home. It’s more like a halfway house. Their powers make them presumed guilty.”
“How many kids are there?”
“Six. There was this sweet little girl - Esme - I was surprised by how well she seemed to be coping.”
Alex frowned. “Do you think you can do anything about it?”
“I don’t know,” Kelly answered.
Kara was shaky. It wasn’t a mystery why - the phantom zone was a terrible place. Even one phantom for a few hours had been harrowing for Kelly and the rest of the team. Kara’s experience being trapped for months - or years - amongst all of the phantoms was unimaginable to Kelly.
But they sipped the tea she prepared in the Tower, and Kara was slowly starting to settle in again. “The nightmares are fading,” Kara had said, “Lena’s been helping a lot.”
Conversation shifted to Kelly’s work, and that prompted the question. “Would power-dampening cuffs have helped you as a child?” Kelly asked curiously.
Kara’s brow crinkled in thought. “Maybe,” she replied. “Part of me wanted to get rid of my powers growing up.”
“Why was that?” Kelly said.
Kara shrugged. “I wasn’t allowed to use them. It was so frustrating. It got in the way of everything - every relationship, every friendship…”
“Every friendship that you wanted to be a relationship?” Kelly murmured.
Kara glanced up in surprise, watching Kelly for a moment, before pursing her lips and glancing down at her hands again. “The secret kept me safe at the time.”
Kara sighed, and Kelly placed a comforting arm on her shoulder. “But?”
“It came at a cost.”
She knew what it was like to hide.
She also knew not everything could be hidden.
It bubbled out of her, the frustration, the rage. But even then, she fought to keep it out of her voice. While she consciously didn’t think that her friends would hold her anger against her, there was a lifetime of training to fight.
Don’t be loud, because then you’re just the Angry Black Woman.
Don’t let them know your sexuality, you’ll just create problems.
Don’t let them know you’re hurt, because then you’ll become a target.
Even-keeled. Calm. Soothing. It was innate to her nature to some extent, a personality that anyone could have. But it was also cultivated, practiced.
She remembered every time she rushed James to the emergency room - fifteen times over the course of their childhood - how their aunt would always make it a point to talk about his personality as soon as the doctor entered. “He’s a good boy, he gets good grades-” That’s how it started with doctors, and Kelly took up the habit.
Kelly was 17 years old, having moved to Metropolis, when her friend Sarah broke an arm in her family’s backyard. Kelly accompanied Sarah and her mother to the hospital, and that’s when she learned that white people don’t act like people of color. The first words out of Sarah’s mother’s mouth were something like “she fell out of a tree, she’s allergic to penicillin”. No justification for why Sarah’s life mattered - and the doctor went to work.
It was that hospital visit that haunted her mind, as she kept begging the superfriends for help, as she fought her battle - alone - at the Heights, and as she finally stood up to the superfriends in the Tower. “You don’t see them,” Kelly said, “You don’t see me.”
We are people.
We need help.
Kara turned to her. “We’re going to stop the person who did this-”
“I know,” Kelly growled, fighting a sinking sense of hopelessness. “But do you hear me? Do you see what is happening?”
She could take the enemies. She could wage battle against those who sought to harm her. She could break into a secure building to steal data. She could fight the manipulations of otherworldly demons. She could concentrate on getting people onto ships while the destruction of the universe beckoned around her. It wasn’t the disasters or enemies that caused her anguish.
The real hopelessness was in looking into the eyes of friends, and not knowing what they saw.
Things changed in the weeks after.
Kelly could see a stack of anti-racism books that Alex got from the library, and watched from afar as the bookmark moved almost daily farther through them.
She talked a little easier. Spoke about the time Riley had nearly beaten up a fellow soldier that called her a slur, about a professor in college whose passive-aggressive targeting had been impossible to report, about the high school classmates who gave her no thought when they’d touch her hair - hair that was often deemed too “distracting” for class. Alex listened.
The wheels turned in her mind as she watched the kids she worked with - she had begun specializing in cases around alien children, and it resonated in familiar ways. While some aliens had astonishing powers like Kara did, most were simply different. Foster parents would be wary to take in children who simply had small blunt horns or a particularly accurate sense of smell.
“I think I want to write a book,” Kelly said one day, “On the different challenges alien children face.”
Alex smiled back. “I think that’s a fantastic idea.”
Some days were easy.
She had finally been able to get the children removed from the abusive foster home. The dyralian - Esme - had been incredibly excited to see her new home. No powercuffs, her own bathroom, pancakes for dinner. The infectious enthusiasm from the 6-year-old made Kelly smile.
Kelly fiddled at the bracelet Esme had given her, as she finished telling Alex about her day. “I’m glad it ended well,” Alex said with a soft smile. “How do these kids adjust? Hiding their powers at school? Are there any alien schools these days?”
Kelly shook her head. “Not yet. But a lot of these kids aren’t hiding their background.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked.
“They’re… open. About who they are, their powers.”
“That’s not dangerous?” Alex asked.
Kelly shrugged. “It’s not risk-free. But a lot of them seem very happy. I’m starting to wonder if it has more to do with what’s going on at home than whether they’re out.”
National City was under attack again, just like any other Tuesday.
But Kelly and Alex didn’t expect to find a 6-year-old thrown out into the street to carry that fight. Esme was shaken and terrified when they found her. And in the aftermath, the Fords summarily abandoned her. “Not a right fit for their family.”
“It’s okay if the next family doesn’t work out either,” Esme said patiently, her voice soft with pain, “I’m never going to have a real home.”
Alex watched as the red SUV pulled up to take Esme away, as Kelly’s eyes dropped to the rainbow braided bracelet on her wrist.
As Kelly glanced up from the bracelet, their eyes met.
After spending so much time together, reading someone’s mannerisms becomes second nature. Their hopes, their thinking process, what they want. Even as different as Alex and Kelly could sometimes be, love is an ever growing understanding.
It was easy for Kelly to read the question that formed in Alex’s eyes in that moment. What if we…?
Kelly glanced back to the SUV. She needs a family who can understand how to deal with powers. Was that really what waited on the other side of the drive?
On the other hand, could she and Alex do any better?
But Eliza’s words rang in her head. “At the end of the day, I don’t know if I made the right choice.” Confession… and permission. Kelly didn’t know what mistakes they would make as parents, if having an alien child would complicate things.
But what parent was perfect? What parent perfectly understood their child? What if they simply tried, with love and open hearts, to try to do the best they could for someone who needed a home? Perhaps it was always in a parent’s mind to wonder.
But by any god - human or alien - she could promise to never abandon this child to violence at her doorstep.
Kelly met Alex’s eyes again, and tilted her head. I’m game if you are.
Alex glanced back to Esme. With one last glance at the forlorn child, Alex winked. “Come here, kiddo.”
Kelly smiled. She was in for a lot of paperwork.
“I can’t believe she gets here tomorrow,” Alex said excitedly.
“I can’t believe you put this together in two days,” Kelly replied.
Esme’s room was ready - decorations, toys, a comfy bed to boot. Alex was practically vibrating with nerves as they went about their evening routine, cooking dinner and chatting excitedly about all the plans in their future.
And then night came, and they cozied up on the couch, the frenetic energy slowly dissipating as they sipped their tea.
“I didn’t get to have a childhood,” Kelly said. “Not like white children do.”
Alex glanced over, concern crossing her face as she reached for Kelly’s free hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. Alex had long gone into the pattern of listening, of trying to understand, and that warmed Kelly’s heart.
But that wasn't the point today. “I’m fine,” Kelly said, “I’m just thinking about Esme. And my childhood. How much I had to hide and bury. I’m not sure I want that for her.”
Alex’s brow furrowed, and she leaned back into her couch, mulling over Kelly’s words. “It could be dangerous. And, I mean, Kara turned out okay.”
“She did,” Kelly agreed. “But maybe Esme doesn’t have to go through what Kara did.”
Alex frowned in thought.
“Just think about it, okay?” Kelly asked.
“Okay,” Alex agreed.
“We hope that you like it,” Alex said, watching the young girl as she entered the room. “But, you know, if you don’t, we can change anything - or we can change everything! You know, if there’s a game you don’t like, we’ll just ditch it. You don’t like the bedspread? Totally fine-”
She was babbling. She knew she was babbling. She also knew Kelly and Kara were getting a kick out of it. “Alex,” Kara said, holding back laughter, “I think she’s got it.”
She could tell that Esme was feeling reluctant, but it calmed her to realize that Kelly didn’t seem worried. It’s probably normal for a child to be nervous, Alex thought, Kelly sees this all the time.
Kara offered Esme her pile of stuffed animals, noting her own experience as an adopted child. Esme introduced them to Lovey, and Kelly introduced her to J’onn. Something warm bloomed in her chest as Esme seemed to open up.
But it was what happened next that shattered Alex’s heart - as Esme accidentally phased through the wall, a briefly terrifying moment that quickly led to a gutwrench. “I’m sorry,” Esme murmured, seeming to fight back tears, “I won’t do it again. I promise.”
“Oh sweetie, you’re not in trouble,” Kelly said, gathering the toddler in her arms.
Alex glanced to Kara, feeling as though ice water had been dunked over her. She’s ashamed of her powers, Alex thought, remembering her sister’s own panicked looks after breaking off a doorknob or bending a fork, muttering apologies with broken English and scared eyes.
Kara turned out alright, all things considered. Sure, there were things she was still burying - but she was happy, healthy, surrounded by family and friends. But the journey there, hiding her powers into adulthood…
Does Esme have to go through that?
Anxiety took over quickly.
Maybe it wasn’t wise to push Esme to mimic Brainy’s powers - apparently coluan quantum physics was overwhelming for a 6-year-old - and maybe it wasn’t wise to push Esme to mimic Kara’s powers soon after. But Alex felt like she was scratching at the walls, desperate to prove to Esme that she and Kelly were fine with her powers, that they wanted to help, that they wanted to be open to whoever Esme would become.
But when Esme screamed, Alex realized she had to stop.
“No one can understand themselves in a day,” Kelly said soothingly. “Our job is to support her at her pace.”
“Yeah,” Alex said, with a concerned smile. “She was scared again, using her powers. She thought she’d be punished for figuring out who Kara is.”
Kelly sighed, leaning back into the couch. “We need to show her that we’re not going to abandon her.”
Alex bit at her lip, before looking up at Kelly. “I think I agree with you,” she said, “I want Esme to decide on her powers. When she wants to use them, who she wants to tell. I want to support what she wants.”
Kelly smiled. “I have an idea.”
Alex took a centering breath, before kneeling down to Esme. “I am really sorry that I pushed you to practice so hard today,” Alex said.
“We got you another present,” Kelly said, “But you have to come with us to see it. Do you want to?”
Esme nodded, and the two women took her hands, walking her over to a glass container with a creature inside. “He’s called a truthseeker,” Alex said.
The small truthseeker danced in its container, and Esme stared ahead, amazed by the alien. Alex explained the powers, and Kelly said they had something important to tell Esme. Esme nodded, and took both women’s hands again.
“We are never, ever gonna send you away, okay?” Alex said. She watched as Esme nodded, uncertain and mulling.
“No matter what you do, no matter what you say,” Kelly continued, “Even if your powers get big and confusing, even if you never want to use your powers again. We're your family now, Esme.”
“And we're gonna grow together,” Alex said. “And you're going to make some mistakes, and we're going to make mistakes. I made mistakes earlier today. But we're going to learn from one another.”
“And the most important thing... through it all, we'll do it together.”
Alex fought with Kara about it. Once. But Kara apologized soon after. “I’m really sorry I overstepped. I know you want what’s best for Esme.”
“I'm sorry that I reacted so harshly,” Alex said back, with a grimacing smile. “And that it was so hard for you as a kid. I wish there was more that I could have done to make it easier.”
“You did so much to help me,” Kara said emphatically, turning to a smile, “You still do. Esme is really lucky to have you.”
Alex couldn’t help but mull the difference over time - in Esme’s open demeanor, compared with Kara’s closed off one.
Between Kara and Alex and Kelly, there were so many ways to hide. Between Kelly and Alex and her mother, there were so many ways to parent. But the world was different now - as Kara said, Esme deserved to be proud of every part of her identity.
There were firsts.
First day of school. First school friend. First sleepover, first fight, first makeup.
It was after a rainstorm, spotting a rainbow out her window, when Esme asked to use Kara’s powers for the first time. The pair tried to fly over the rainbow. Esme came back to report that she did not find the Land of Oz there, but Kara swore they would keep looking.
It didn’t take Esme long to pick up who was who on the superfriends. She already knew Kara, but soon J’onn and Nia followed. She figured out Alex - not from her powers, but simply with her eyes. “Maybe you need a mask,” Esme said innocently one day.
Kelly took the longest. By then, Esme was using Kara’s powers to memorize heartbeats.
Kelly smiled as she passed the cookie dough to Esme, turning to check the oven as it preheated. “Don’t let Aunt Kara touch it,” she warned, “She’ll eat it all.”
“I would not!” Kara said defensively, though she was quickly distracted by Lena, who - with a quick kiss to her cheek - reminded her to take her engagement ring off before touching the dough.
Kelly glanced around to the family she had found. To her wife, having the type of relationship in her life that she was afraid to ever wish for again, and certainly never expected to have in public. To the daughter she was raising, trying to navigate the complexities of her experiences in a complicated world, finding new joys.
She thought of her sister-in-law and the godmother of her child, both roving the kitchen as they baked. She thought about how J’onn and Nia and Brainy would be over soon, hopefully greeted by a pile of fresh cookies at the start of game night.
The family she had sought, everyone able to embrace who they truly were. I didn’t know this was possible, she thought, feeling something warm bloom in her chest. It had crept up on her over the past few years - realizing that the home she had dreamed of had slowly formed around her.
“So, Esme,” Alex said, turning to the child as she reached into the mixing bowl for another chunk, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I want to be Guardian!” Esme said, throwing her arms in the air excitedly.
“Not Supergirl?” Kara asked teasingly.
“Guardian has the best costume,” Esme asserted, as though it was obvious.
Alex planted a quick kiss on Kelly’s cheek. “That she does.”
“A superhero,” Kara said, “I wanted to be one when I was a kid, too. You know that’s a big responsibility, right?”
“Someday I’ll be big enough for it,” Esme said confidently.
Kelly gave Esme a hug. “I’m sure you’re right.”