Life, Death, and Time - A Books Of Beginning Collection

AU: The Wibberly-Tessouat Family

- Three years after Kate, Michael, and Emma were sent to their first orphanage, it tragically burns down. They expect to be sent to another orphanage. Instead, the three of them get adopted.

- Gabriel wasn't too happy when he found out about the Wibberly siblings history. He was even less happy when he learned that Pym was just gonna let their sucky lives happen. So he intervenes. And that, my friends, is how one (1) warrior dad ends up legally becoming the father of three children. 

- Emma tries to convince him to legally make their last name Penguin, but Gabriel, a man of common sense, turns this down. He does reintroduce the siblings to their original names, because he believes they deserve to know it. Enter: Kate, Michael, and Emma Wibberly-Tessouat.

- Gabriel brings home 4 year old Emma, 5 year old Michael, and 7 year old Kate to his cabin. He's done some preparation for adopting them but this wasn't his most well planned out choice so there's still a lot to be done.

- Emma thinks that the cabin is the coolest place in the entire world because it has a ton of Gabriel's hunting trinkets, fighting clothes, and animal furs lying around. Also, Gabriel's bed is huge and she keeps bouncing on it. Even when he tells her to stop. Sometimes especially when he tells her to stop.

- When not with the siblings and getting them used to his presence and earning their trust, Gabriel is probably out shopping. He gets clothes and entertainment for the kids. He gets wood to make new furniture. He gets food and goes hunting for meat. He puts all his weapons and potentially dangerous objects out of reach of the children, especially Emma. And yes, he definitely reads at least one if not more parenting books because there's a lot he needs to learn.

- Gabriel offers Michael goat milk. Michael does not like goat milk. Gabriel thinks that Michael will get used to it. Michael does not. Gabriel mostly lets him drink water but sometimes has to bribe him to drink the goat milk because he knows Michael needs the calcium.

- Child!Emma absolutely adores Gabriel almost immediately  because he gives great piggy back rides, owns warm blankets, and she honestly just thinks he's very cool except for when he's trying to tell her what to do.

- Michael and Kate take a bit longer to warm up to him. Michael finds him intimidating at first because he's so big but eventually he learns that Gabriel is in fact a big teddy bear around children. Kate isn't as broken as she is in canon at this point, but she does have a strong sense of responsibility already and it takes her some time to accept that Gabriel isn't trying to replace Richard and Clare, and that he also wants to be a permanent fixture in their lives, unlike their parents or the kind but carless orphanage director who burned down the orphanage.

- There is absolutely a hierarchy of babysitters for when Gabriel needs help with the kids. First off is Granny Peet: top tier, literally the Wibberlys grandmother now, Michael adores her because she has lots of books, Emma adores her because she's tough and funny, Kate adores her because she's a good listener and knows how to keep the chaos children calm. It is impossible to hate Granny Peet. 

- When Granny Peet isn't available... well, that's a different story. A young warrior named Frieda (who later is the only person crazy enough to marry Dena) likes to babysit for pocket money and is quite good at it. She and Kate become fast friends and she's the one who teaches the Wibberlys about first aid after Emma skins her knee. There's also Lee, who has experienced Emma's craziness at the battle of the Dead City, and somehow still agrees to babysit her. He's kind of meh as a babysitter, he's doing his best but he doesn't always know what to do. Michael likes him because he knows a few dwarfish recipes. Emma, on the other hand, keeps stealing his stuff.

- Gabriel adores Dena, she's like a daughter to him, but she is an absolutely terrible babysitter. She's become Emma's best friend very fast and can easily be convinced to go along with the youngest Wibberly's bad ideas. Michael thinks she's insane. When she comes over, Kate usually is the one really in charge, despite being younger than Dena. So yeah, Dena's a wonderful friend but she is not allowed to babysit on her own. (Yes, Gabriel did learn this the hard way.)