crowswork
"I don't want to." Lily Ellison glared at her uncle Blair, her ice blue eyes peering through a curtain of thick, wavy black hair. She'd inherited the dark hair from her mother, Lila. The rest of her features were pure Ellison. She was delicate and exquisitely beautiful until she got her back up. Then she became the 'Spawn of Ellison' as she was known in the bullpen.
"Lil darling... Lily Belle..." Blair used his favorite pet names -- Lily's middle name was really Blair -- in his attempt to urge the stubborn child to at least get dressed in her new clothes. "Everything is all set up. You have to go to school.
"No I don't." her jaw thrust out as she smiled victoriously. "Saw it on nickelodeon news. s'called home school. You're a teacher so it's even better than a regular mom."
Because of her budding sensory abilities, Blair and Jim had decided to keep her out of pre-school and kindergarten. She was very bright and probably ahead of her age group in every subject but Jim wanted her to experience a normal childhood, with friends of her own age. She was much too comfortable with adults.
"I have to work at the University and with Major Crime."
"I can come with you." She looked up at him wistfully. "Unless you don't want me."
"Jim!" Blair surrendered before she could pull out her big guns -- the big tear filled eyes and trembling lower lip.
Jim wandered in as he finished buttoning his shirt. "What's up, Chief?"
"Talk to your child. She doesn't want to go to school." Blair headed for the door as Jim scooped up the tiny dark haired girl.
"Now, honey." Jim started in his best Robert Young voice. "We decided that you would give it a fair chance. Uncle Blair's worked so hard to get you ready. You have to go."
"School is too noisy and stinky and..."
Blair left before he heard all her arguments again.
In the livingroom, he glanced at the painting of Lily's mother with her arms playfully around the Sentinel and Guide. She had painted several -- all of them of her friends and family -- while she was pregnant. Lily -- as she was known -- had been a wonderful friend to him and a loving wife to Jim. She was also a very brilliant and successful artist.
It was only after her death at the hands of a jealous female Sentinel named Alex Barnes that they'd discovered her secret. Lila Hobson was an international assassin. She had escaped the vicious Hong Kong mob that employed her by faking her own death and following Jim home from Bali. Lila had given Jim a sanitized account of her life in Hong Kong and when they married, changed her name to Lily.
It had almost destroyed Jim when he had found out the truth. Finally, he had to accept that whatever she was in the past, she had died protecting Blair and her unborn child. Little Lily was delivered after her mother had died of a gunshot wound.
Blair went up into his apartment on the third floor of the rambling old Victorian house. He'd stayed on, of course, after he'd recovered from his own injuries. Lily was a Sentinel and he was going to make sure she didn't suffer as her father had. No one was ever going to call her a freak.
The two men had an extraordinary amount of help. William Ellison had become the ideal grandpa -- probably to make up for his past sins. Naomi swooped in occasionally to play Auntie Mame/grannie and Sally spent half her time at Jim's cooking and cleaning. Megan Connor was there more than she was home and Simon's wife Caroline was close, too.
Blair was sometimes surprised that Jim's daughter wasn't spoiled by all the attention. Jim said you couldn't spoil a rotten egg but that was just a joke. Lily Ellison was stubborn and had a fierce temper but she was kind hearted and loving to a fault.
Fifteen minutes later Blair heard the clumping of tiny cowboy boots -- Lily's latest passion -- coming up the stairs. "I'm gonna go to school at Aunt Caro's." Lily's expression was a little sour.
"Caro is home schooling Simon James, so we thought why not let Lily spend the days with them." Jim followed her and sat on the top step. This had been their back-up plan all along.
Blair pretended he didn't know what she was talking about. "I thought you loved Aunt Caroline?"
"I do." Lily huffed, then smiled reluctantly. "She isn't as fun as you are. You know diff'ernt stuff."
"But you love being with Simon James." Jim reminded her.
"And I'll bet Aunt Caroline will let me or your dad take the two of you once or twice a week." Blair smiled as he remembered Caroline's eager acquiescence to that suggestion. Jim and Blair could handle teaching the precocious twosome whenever they wished. "We know a lot of different stuff."
Lily gave them an incandescent smile that echoed her father's. "Me and Sam get to stay together and have school." The name Sam was the best two-year old Lily could pronounce when confronted with the infant Simon James. And Sam -- to her at least -- he remained.
If Lily was bright, Simon James Banks was incandesant. Nine months younger than Lily, Caroline and Simon's 'honeymoon surprise' was a budding genius. Caroline took to motherhood like a fish to water. She cut back on her work at the station, consulting occasionally and writing two highly regarded books while getting a teaching degree.
"You can still go to school, any time you like." Jim added seriously.
"I want to be with my Sam. He's my best friend."
Blair shot Jim a meaningful glance and grinned. Lily had adored 'her Sam' from the time they were infants. Jim and Blair had filled Caroline in on Blair's Sentinel studies and Lily's special gifts. The scientist in her was fascinated by the idea, but Caroline the 'uber-mom' was terrified for the little girl she thought of as family.
"One thing though?" Lily looked from Blair to Jim. "I'm still wearing my new clothes."
~ The End ~