Profession

Reentry

With Uncle Tony, as it turned out. They were sipping craft bourbon and comparing notes when the pups and I arrived. "Buttercup," Grandpa said, pleased, welcoming me into his house with a hug. Uncle Tony was at the bar, uncapping a bottle of hard cider for me.

"Honey," he said, looking me over. "I presume that the security service thugs didn't work you over."

"Nope, I got a scolding for bringing your tech into the presence of royalty without disclosing, but the princess was also there and she brought me to tea at the palace immediately after, so..." His quick grin flashed.

"And so much for the scolding."

"I also got an invitation to the royal wedding out of it. And an apology for somebody stealing my photographs." I scowled at that as we sat down.

"The policeman has been identified and is being dismissed from the force as we speak," Grandpa told me. "He'll also be prosecuted for theft. He got a half million pounds for five photographs. The newspaper is also in a heap of trouble for publishing photographs they should have known better than to buy." I nodded, feeling somewhat better. They asked where I went to escape, and they were a bit surprised when I said I'd gone to the island. It had been the best choice, after all, but it was the first time I'd really gone willingly.

Then the conversation shifted;  Grandpa had brought his edited genetic analysis for MI13. It had been handed off and nothing more had been said. The protective services had tried to get information about the Iron Man armor from Uncle Tony, who'd blithely blown them off. It was clear from both what they said and didn't say that they'd warned protective services not to screw with me or face the wrath of the Wayne and Stark empires. And while I didn't expect Dad to fully go along with this, let alone Deri, Damian Wayne was a magical name the world over and if he spoke out it would carry a lot of weight. Dad had never been all that thrilled about me having Iron Man technology, for some reason; I knew he was grateful that it had kept me safe or helped on more than one occasion, but whether he just resented that it came from Uncle Tony or what, I didn't know. After this message had been delivered, conversation got more general and they took me out for dinner. The pups crashed at home. Over dinner, Grandpa said that Grandma Alex was at Persepolis. Cyrus III was integrating the current palace complex with the ruins from the original Persian empire and it would probably be the highlight of Grandma's pretty extraordinary career to oversee it. Returned Persian dignitaries whose tombs had escaped looting had this resource to draw on, and Mom had gone with her to bid on a few objects for the museum. Grandpa and Uncle Tony's latest venture was a special bacteria to consume microplastics in the far depths of the ocean. Next to this, my main accomplishments of introducing the Amazons to distillation and scoring a royal wedding invitation seemed pretty shallow. Oh, well, we all do our best, it's just that some of us make more lasting contributions to society than others.

The pups and I flew back to the States with them the next day on the Stark jet, which was always a good time because it has bells and whistles that nobody else does. I had a lot to catch up on; requests for interviews from the palace thingie which I deleted because they were outside the news cycle and I didn't want to do them anyway, requests for appointments--my scheduler had sent in her resignation, effective immediately, for a better job--and a request from Dad to come by for dinner. The invitation was for tonight, so instead of vegging out at home, I took the pups to the groomer and we slogged out to the estate. The butlers were still switched, and John showed the pups some water bowls before handing me my Shirley Temple; we'd beaten Dad home.

"Pretty dramatic images from the palace, Lys," he said, offering a bowl of warm rosemary almonds. "You ok?"

This was the most in-depth interaction I'd had with him for a long time, I realized with a start. "Yeah, I'm fine. The princess ripped her skirt, but she's fine."