#momsverse

She did not emerge from under the pillow, and the phone was locked. Felicity could have made short work of the security, but instead she just tapped the button on the side to silence it. Why Laurel couldn’t have done that herself, she didn’t know.

Wait: “The Legends are in town?”

“No. But they’re in this time zone. Or period. I don’t know, they’re halfway across the world which is why they’re texting at four in the fucking morning.” Laurel reached out blindly with one arm, nearly clipping Felicity’s chin with her elbow as she located a handhold and tugged. “Please don’t validate them with attention. They’ll never learn otherwise. It’s time for sleep.”

“You’re the one who didn’t silence your phone,” Felicity said grumpily, but Laurel did have a point. She acquiesced to the tugging and cuddled in, grateful for the body heat since they’d set the thermostat too low again. She was just drifting off to sleep when the sound of a pitiful cry broke over the baby monitor.

“Goddammit,” she said, but Laurel was already shoving the covers off. “You don’t have to, it’s my turn.”

“Penance for my sins of not shutting my phone off,” Laurel said, collecting the object in question from the nightstand. She stumbled a little on the way to the door, grunting as her shoulder hit the wall. Felicity was sure she heard her mutter, “Besides if I don’t answer them, they’ll probably just show up in person and it’s a school day.”

Felicity couldn’t argue that one, so she decided just to go back to sleep instead.

At some point, Laurel must have settled Shay back down to sleep, for she was curled up next to Felicity, phone clutched in one hand, when the alarm went off. She groused wordlessly, batting at Felicity when she tried to shake her awake.

“You said it yourself, babe,” Felicity said, sing-songing the words just to tease her. “School day. Wakey-wakey.”

“Give me coffee or give me death,” was the reply from somewhere in the covers.

Steph at least proved easier to wake than her foster mother, as the teenager was already up and working on her combinations against the training dummy Oliver had given her for her seventeenth birthday. She bounced from foot to foot, chattering away at Felicity about school and an upcoming history project as Felicity made coffee. Felicity could not remember a single cheerful morning from her own teenage years, but she kindly did not inform Steph that she might be an alien.

She also felt no remorse in sending both her and Shayna in to haul Laurel out of bed after the coffee was ready. Probably mean, but Laurel would be upset at being late for work the day after a night off.

She looked somewhat more awake and put together as she joined Felicity and the girls for breakfast. She set her phone on the table, facedown.

“Are they still going at it?” Felicity asked.

Steph looked up from her last minute calculus homework. “Who?”

“The Legends,” Laurel told her foster daughter. “And yes. It’s led to a very intense debate. People have taken sides. They’re writing manifestos. Well, Ray and Nate are writing manifestos. Sara’s just mooning them, as far as I can tell.”

“Over what?” Felicity asked. “Please tell me they’re not fighting. I don’t think time can take another Strudel Incident.”

“Gideon has built in protocols to keep that from happening again,” Laurel said.

Like that would actually stop the Legends. “Seriously, what are they arguing about?”

Laurel sighed. “Shayna.”

Even the toddler turned to give her a puzzled look over that one.

“Sara,” Laurel said with that patented mix of fondness and aggravation that applied to her sister, “was apparently bragging about being Aunt Sara, which means Nyssa is Aunt Nyssa by privilege of marriage. Except that an argument started that since you and I aren’t married, can Sara actually claim ‘auntship?’ And if Sara gets to be Aunt Sara, Ray wants to be Uncle Ray. And then Nate had opinions and it escalated from there, as you can imagine.”

Felicity realized she was staring with her coffee mug halfway to her mouth. Carefully she put it down. “They’re…arguing over what my kid’s going to call them? That’s what led to them blowing up your phone at four o’fu—dging clock in the morning?”

“Yes,” Laurel said, grimly.

“Hold up. I’m your actual legal kid,” Steph said. “If Sara is Aunt Sara to anyone, it should be me.”

“Yes,” Laurel said again.

“So why does Shay get all the attention?”

“Do you want to call them Aunt or Uncle So-and-So?” Laurel asked.

Steph paused. “No,” she said slowly, as though discovering it for herself as she spoke.

“Exactly. Though every single one of them has chimed in that they would be honored by the title, so there’s that.” Laurel reached out and squeezed Steph’s shoulder. “You know they consider you their favorite mascot.”

“Ha, ha,” Steph said, but she looked a little pleased as she ducked back to focus on her math homework.

“I’d say that I can’t believe this has led to an argument this big,” Felicity said. “But that’s a lie. I fully believe it.”
 

“Yup,” Laurel said, picking up her phone and walking it on its edges across the table. Felicity could see that she had 72 new messages.

“How is that even an argument?” Felicity asked.

“I don’t know. At one point I saw a message from Sara about ‘blood is thicker than water’ and then Nate, being the twerp he is, pointed out that it’s actually ‘the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.’ Which means friendship bonds are stronger than family bonds. So I learned something, amid all of the inanity. So there’s that.” Laurel twirled her phone around, clutching her coffee in her other hand like a lifeline. “None of them, by the way, have thought to ask either you or me to weigh in on this.”

“You’re in the group chat,” Felicity said. “They probably consider that your giving approval.”

“They don’t know I’m in there. Somebody tried to add Dinah and got the wrong one. Nobody has noticed.”

“Honest mistake. There are like thirty of you now,” Felicity said, grinning when Laurel wrinkled her nose at her.

Shay, gnawing on a strawberry slice, blew bubbles at the both of them.

“This is going to become an all-out war if we don’t do something,” Felicity said.

“Probably.” Laurel handed Shay another strawberry slice.

“So are we going to do something?”

“Honestly? I’m not sure. I’m kind of impressed by the caliber of arguments they’re making for and against their case.” Laurel shrugged. “It’s a little like a busman’s holiday for me.”

“Would it bother you to have them all be Shay’s honorary aunts and uncles?” Steph asked Felicity.

“And with one simple question, she proves herself capable of more logic than an entire group of time travelers,” Laurel said dryly, as Steph and Felicity laughed.

“If they promise to stop blowing up my girlfriend’s phone at all hours of the night, they can try and convince Shay to call them any non-offensive thing they like,” Felicity said. “It’s ultimately up to her.”

“Okay, good.” Steph turned to Laurel. “Can I see your phone?”

“Don’t set it to Thai again, please, that took me over an hour to get it back to English.” But Laurel handed over her phone.

Felicity made a mental note to check in on Steph’s hacking ability, as Laurel hadn’t even unlocked the thing and Steph had the messaging app open in record time. Her thumbs flew over the keyboard for a few seconds before she hit SEND and handed the phone back.

There was a pause and then seventeen messages seemed to come through at once.

“What did you just do?” Felicity asked.

“Oh, nothing much.” Steph buffed her nails on her school blazer and blew on her fingers. “Just ensured that Shayna’s going to have the best birthday presents from now ’til, like, eternity. If they want aunt or uncle status, awesome birthday gifts are the bare minimum. You’re welcome, little sis.”

She leaned across the table, fist extended. Gleefully, Shayna bumped her own strawberry-juice-stained fist against Steph’s knuckles.

Felicity met Laurel’s eyes over her coffee cup, mostly to hide her smile. “Have I mentioned lately that I love our life?” Laurel asked, and Felicity toasted her with her mug.