The old Queen's warehouse felt different this time.
Jay stood at the entrance with Domino beside him and Luv's hand in his while the familiar space looked exactly as he remembered: concrete floors, exposed rafters, the battered couch and makeshift kitchen. But now his inner circle waited inside, the people who'd become his first family in this reality.
Maria stood near the workbench, her arms crossed, her expression carrying both curiosity and calculation as she'd been watching them since they arrived, probability senses no doubt analyzing every interaction.
Bobby leaned against the kitchen counter, weathered face carefully neutral in that way that meant he was feeling more than he'd admit.
Max hovered by the stove where something was already cooking, filling the warehouse with scents that made Luv's nose twitch.
Linda sat on the couch, her hands twisted together, her eyes already suspiciously bright.
Old Tom occupied his corner chair, regarding the proceedings with that thousand-yard stare that spoke of too many years and too much seen.
Jay's throat felt tight since these people had taken him in when he'd been nobody, had trusted him despite every reason not to, and had become the foundation he'd built everything else on.
And now he was introducing them to his son.
The weight of that moment threatened to crush him.
Domino's hand squeezed his, grounding, while her eye met his. We've got this.
"Guys," Jay said, his voice carrying more nervousness than when he'd faced cosmic abstracts, "there's someone I want you to meet."
He gently nudged Luv forward while the kid looked up at the assembled group with wide blue eyes, then glanced back at Jay for reassurance.
"It's okay, buddy. These are my friends. They're good people."
Luv took a breath that puffed out his little chest before stepping forward and offering his hand with the careful formality Domino had been teaching him. "Hello, my name is Luv! It means the love of both my mom and my dad."
The warehouse went dead silent, the kind of silence that rang in the ears.
Bobby pushed off from the counter, moved slowly, then knelt to bring himself to eye level with the child while his calloused hand engulfed Luv's tiny one. "Well now, Luv, that's just about the finest name I ever heard." His voice carried the rough edges of too many cigarettes and not enough sleep, but gentled for the kid. "Name's Bobby. Been knowin' your dad since he first showed up in here lookin' like a drowned cat."
Luv's eyes went wide. "Dad was a cat?"
Bobby's bark of laughter shattered the tension like a hammer through glass. "Nah, kid. Just looked scared and emo. Point is, I'm an old friend. Real old."
Luv studied Bobby's weathered face with the blunt assessment of childhood. "You look really old. Are you older than Grandma Yao?"
More laughter, this time from multiple throats.
"Not quite that old, kid," Bobby said, his grin showing teeth. "But gettin' there. Few more years and I'll need a walker."
Max crossed from the kitchen, crouching with practiced ease while his whole face transformed when he smiled, years dropping away, eyes crinkling. "Hey there, little man. I'm Max. I'm the guy who made sure your dad doesn't starve, which is harder than it sounds 'cause the man eats for a whole football team."
Luv's eyes got even wider. "You make food? Can you make pancakes? Mom makes really good pancakes, but Dad's are kind of bad. He says 'variety is learning to accept failure gracefully.'"
Jay groaned. "I did not say that."
Domino's shoulders shook with suppressed laughter.
Max grinned. "Kid, I can make pancakes that'll change your whole life. Chocolate chips, blueberries, whatever you want. Your dad's been holdin' out on you."
Luv spun to face Jay, his expression one of complete betrayal. "Dad! You didn't tell me pancakes could have chocolate! That's mean!"
Jay threw up his hands in surrender. "Guilty. I'm a terrible parent. Max is clearly superior in all ways. This is my life now."
The laughter that followed felt like acceptance.
Maria approached next, moving with the fluid grace that came from years of combat and probability manipulation as she studied Luv with an intensity that made the kid shift slightly closer to Jay's leg.
Then her expression softened, warmed in a way Jay had rarely seen.
"You've got your mom's eyes," she said to Domino, her voice carrying genuine warmth
Domino's smile turned genuine. "He's smarter than he gives off. Give him a few years and he'll be running around and impossible things, and that's just...."
"Terrifying." But Maria said it with approval.
Linda rose from the couch, moving carefully like she was approaching something precious and fragile while her eyes were already wet, tears tracking down her cheeks unchecked. When she knelt, her hands twisted together to keep from reaching out uninvited. "Can I give you a hug, sweetheart? I promise I'm not scary even though I look ready to cry. I just... I'm just really happy to meet you."
Luv looked to Domino, who nodded encouragement, then the child stepped forward and was immediately enveloped in Linda's arms, her embrace fierce but gentle, like she was holding something infinitely valuable.
"Thank you," Linda whispered, so quiet only those nearby could hear, her voice breaking. "Thank you for giving our Jay something to fight for beyond just survival. For giving him a reason to build a nest."
When she released him, Luv looked confused but not uncomfortable. "Why are you thanking me? I didn't do anything special. I'm just me."
"Exactly," Linda said simply. "That's everything."
Old Tom had remained silent throughout, but now he cleared his throat with a sound like grinding gravel while everyone tensed slightly. Bobby's hand moved subtly toward where he kept a knife while Maria's probability senses flared, calculating threat percentages.
Tom's previous "incidents for science" had left everyone cautious.
The old man fixed Luv with a stare that had made grown men nervous, his eyes carrying the weight of too many years and too much violence.
"Boy," Tom said in his gravelly voice, each word measured. "You planning to take care of your folks? Make sure they don't do anything stupid?"
Luv's small chest puffed out while his chin lifted with five-year-old determination. "I'm going to protect them! Dad taught me that family protects each other! So I'll protect Dad and Mom and make sure they're safe!"
Tom stared at him for a long moment while the warehouse held its breath.
Then the old man's weathered face cracked into something that might have been a smile, though it might have been, and was hard to tell with all the scars.
"Good answer, kid." Tom's nod carried approval. "You remember that. Keep your folks safe. They need it more than they'll admit."
He stood, grabbed his jacket, and headed for the door without another word.
The tension bled out of the room.
Bobby whistled low. "Well. That went better than expected. Tom actually smiled. Pretty sure that's a sign of the apocalypse."
The hours went by while Max cooked, creating dishes that made Luv's eyes roll back in pleasure.
Chicken that fell off the bone, vegetables that somehow tasted good despite being vegetables, bread so fresh it steamed when broken open, and dessert that involved chocolate in ways Luv hadn't known were possible.
"This is amazing!" Luv mumbled around a mouthful of chocolate cake. "This is the best food ever! Can you teach Dad to cook like this?"
"Kid, I've been trying for months," Max said with mock seriousness. "Your dad's a lost cause. Man can bend reality but can't follow a recipe."
"I resent that," Jay protested. "I can follow recipes fine."
"You set water on fire the first time I thought you."
"That was... look, that was an outlier."
Domino leaned against Jay's shoulder, her hand finding his under the table. "Admit it. You're terrible at cooking."
"You make disasters that happen to be pancake-shaped."
"You're all ganging up on me. This is mutiny."
Luv giggled, chocolate smeared across his face. "Dad's bad at cooking! Dad's bad at cooking!"
"Betrayed by my own son," Jay declared dramatically. "This is my life now."
Bobby told stories as the meal wound down, carefully editing out the more violent parts but keeping the humor intact while his gravelly voice painted pictures of Jay's early days in this world.
As the sun set and Luv began showing signs of exhaustion, curling up in Domino's lap, the group's mood shifted.
Maria settled beside Jay while Domino carried Luv to the couch for an impromptu nap.
"You're really doing this," Maria said quietly. "The whole parent thing."
"No going back," Jay confirmed while his eyes tracked Domino as she settled on the couch with Luv's small body already limp with sleep against her. "He's ours. For better or worse."
"Good." Maria's voice carried weight. "Kid needs you. Both of you. And from what I'm seeing..." She paused, choosing words carefully. "You need him too."
Jay wanted to argue, to insist he'd been fine before, that he hadn't needed anything or anyone, that he'd been perfectly capable of functioning solo.
But the words stuck in his throat.
Because Maria was right.
Something fundamental had shifted when Luv entered their lives where the constant edge of paranoia had dulled, the driving need to always be ten steps ahead had eased, and the voice in his head constantly calculating threats and plotting contingencies had quieted.
He had something worth protecting that was immediate and tangible and utterly dependent on him being better than he'd ever been before.
And more than that: he wanted to be better, not out of necessity or strategy, but because this kid deserved parents who gave a damn.
"Yeah," Jay said finally, his voice rough. "We do."
Maria's hand squeezed his shoulder once, brief and understanding, then she moved away.
Bobby approached last, his weathered face serious.
"You're gonna screw up," he said bluntly. "Gonna make mistakes. Gonna have days where you wonder what the hell you were thinking. That's parenthood."
"Encouraging."
"Ain't supposed to be encouraging. Supposed to be honest." Bobby's expression softened. "But you'll figure it out. Same way you figure out everything else. By refusing to quit even when it gets hard."
"And if I can't? If I'm not enough?"
"Then you got Neena. You got us the inner circle. You got a whole network of people who'll help." Bobby's hand gripped Jay's shoulder, solid and grounding. "Kid's got more family than most. He'll be fine. Question is whether you'll let yourself be happy about it."
Jay looked at Luv sleeping on the couch, small and peaceful and utterly trusting, then looked at Domino watching their son with an expression of fierce protection and endless tenderness.
"I'm getting there," he said quietly.
"Good enough." Bobby stepped back. "Now get your family home before the kid wakes up cranky. Nobody needs that."
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