Chapter Text
Half past eleven, on a Tuesday evening. Charlotte Page knows she should be asleep, or at least trying to sleep. She’d spent all of high school and college wrecking her sleep schedule, staying up late and waking up early, trying to seize as much of the day as humanly possible. Once she hit her graduate program and after a very minor sleep deprivation incident, she worked hard to actually sleep and a reasonable hour, and sleep for at least eight hours. But, in her defense, she got caught up in her research tonight.
At twenty five, Charlotte was in her last semester of her graduate program in Applied Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics. For the third time. Her thesis topic had been accepted a year ago, research inconclusive at best. And then there was the legal trouble…
So, she pivoted. She researched. She found a new passion: superheroes and supervillains, their effect on society, and how their technology and powers evolve and change lives. Simple enough, right?
As a woman of science, her natural instinct was to base her paper off Thunder Girl, a young, environmentally conscious, total kickass superhero in Metroberg. Unfortunately, her insistent emailing and calling and a tiny incident in Metroberg earned her nothing but a cease and desist from the Hero League.
Charlotte had already sunk thousands of dollars and three months of research into this topic. And she really, really loved her subject. So, another few weeks worth of research and a one way ticket to the small town of Swellview later, here she is. Guerilla researching the town’s superheroes, Captain Man and Dangerheart (formerly the teen sidekick known as Kid Danger), and sending them three emails a day begging for just a few hours to look at their tech and weapons for her thesis.
So far, she’s heard zilch. It’s been three weeks, and nothing! So, this fine Tuesday evening after another unsuccessful attempt to get in contact with the superheroes, currently at her desk revising the wide expanse of her topic while tracking current criminal activity (because hey, maybe she could ambush them, and they’d be forced to talk to her), she’s pulled out of her research black hole by a frantic knock at her door.
The dingy, run down complex she found a last minute, month to month lease in is home to a handful of sketchy looking characters. The guy down the hall who she swears might actually be a super villain in the making, the girls upstairs from Swellview Community College who throw parties all day and night with no care for their neighbors, the list goes on.
Naturally, she doesn’t want to open the door to just anybody.
The knocking persists, though. Charlotte gets up, moving as quietly as she can toward the front door. She stretches up and squints through the peephole, breathing in relief at the sight of her neighbor from across the hall, Henry.
She likes Henry. He’s one of the few sane people in the building. He’s nice and funny. He helped her build her bed when she first moved in. Tall, with swoopy blonde hair and nice brown eyes. And he definitely works out. The only thing about Henry is the little blonde currently also against his shoulder. His daughter. Insanely adorable, very polite and quiet from the two hours Charlotte spent with Henry and his daughter, Olivia.
She had only seen them that one time, though. Granted, she tries not to leave her apartment as much as possible, not quite ready to go exploring and adventuring in the new city. But still, they’re not friends, or even acquaintances (she’s ashamed to say but on the rare occasion she does leave her house, she definitely hides behind her door when she hears them in the hallway).
Charlotte opens the door, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Henry?”
“Hey, Charlotte,” he says with an awkward smile. “I need a huge favor.”
She narrows her eyes at him. See above: not friends, not acquaintances. Talked one day three weeks ago for a few hours. Favor sounds suspicious. “What favor?” The black watch on his wrist beeps three times, a little red light flashing in unison. She looks from it to him and asks, “What’s up with your watch?”
“Uh, it means work emergency.”
“It’s almost midnight,” she points out.
Henry plays it off with a laugh. “I know, crazy. Can you watch Livie for me? My sister usually watches her but she’s out of town and I can’t bring her with me. Please? Pretty please? I’ll owe you forever.”
Watch his kid? Watch his kid! Kids she knows freak her out. Her own cousins and kids of her cousins scare her enough, to the point where no one really leaves her alone with any of them. A stranger’s kid?! In the middle of the night, nonetheless.
“I don’t know how to watch a kid!” she cries.
“She’s asleep, just make sure she doesn’t, like, die.”
“What!”
His watch beeps again and he looks from it, to her, frantic. “I’ll be gone just an hour, you can just lay her on your bed or couch and put some pillows around her so she doesn’t roll off and it’ll be fine. Please please please.”
He looks really desperate, and the task sounds…simple enough. As long as she stays asleep and doesn’t roll off the bed. And stays asleep.
“Fine!”
Henry’s handing off the sleeping child before she can get the word out, dropping a little backpack with cartoon farm animals from the Mr. Wallabee Show in her doorway before running off.
“Thanks Char! Call if you need anything!”
Charlotte leans out her door, calling, “I don’t have your number!” He doesn’t hear her, though, bursting through the stairwell door and disappearing.
She huffs, closing her door.
Now she’s got a kid to look after.
Charlotte takes little Olivia back to her room, surprised the kid slept through that entire kerfuffle. She lays the five year old in the middle of the bed, goes and grabs the backpack Henry left her. She sits in the chair in the corner of her room and checks out what Henry packed.
A notebook. She flips to the first page to a list of phone numbers — Henry, Piper, work, pediatrician emergency line. Scribbled on the bottom is ‘in case of emergency, call Captain Man hotline.’
Strange. But maybe that’s what people who live in towns with superheroes do. Instead of emergency services, they call Captain Man.
The next thing she finds is a lunchbox. A fruit cup, a couple juice boxes, prepackaged junk snacks like fat cakes and galaxy brownies. God, if she had to watch little Olivia during the daytime she’d definitely need to upgrade her food supply. She doesn’t even have food for herself, let alone something for a little kid.
Next she finds two coloring books and a box of a hundred and twenty crayons. Big spender. There’s a Captain Man action figure at the bottom to round out the ‘perfect’ go-bag.
She’s gonna have to have a serious talk with Henry about this go-bag. Not that she plans on babysitting again. Just so he knows to step up his game for when his sister comes back to town.
Olivia stays asleep for the next hour and a half. Charlotte sits at the foot of her bed, flipping through her Swellview history book and highlighting anything that might be relevant to her thesis paper. She can’t very well track the whereabouts of Captain Man and Dangerheart and craft a plan to ambush them into helping her research with a sleeping child in her room.
Henry returns a little past one in the morning. When Charlotte’s about to knock out for the night, right along with little Olivia, he knocks lightly at her door. Charlotte leaves Olivia in the room and lets Henry in. Much less frantic, definitely mellowed out. And dirty. And stinky.
“Ew,” she comments. “I thought you worked at a junk store. Why do you smell like you crawled in a sewer?”
“Uh…” He scratches the back of his head, not quite answering her. She raises an eyebrow at him. He wasn’t this strange when he was helping her put furniture together.
He claps his hands together and pivots with, “Where’s Livie? How is she? Still alive?”
“She’s sleeping.” Charlotte points to her bedroom door. “And alive. It wasn’t that long, you know.”
“Yup, cool, thanks. Can I—“
“Yup.”
Henry moves past her to her room and returns carrying the still sleeping Olivia and her backpack slung over an arm.
“Awesome, thanks again, Charlotte.”
“Yup. And you should really redo that go-bag for her. I mean, fat cakes?”
“Ha ha.” Henry opens the door. “Don’t worry, I won’t make this a habit, Charlotte.”
“Hm, okay.”
Henry does make a habit out of it. The very next day, at two in morning, when Charlotte’s in the middle of live tracking emergency calls to the Swellview police and watching KLVY news with Trent Overunder and Mary Gaperman. When he picks her up at sunrise (sunrise, Charlotte should kill him), he’s covered in glitter. From a work emergency at a junk shop.
Two days later, she’s cleaning her bathroom at the respectable hour of ten pm, when he knocks at her door again, begging.
“This is a lot of free labor, Henry.”
“I’m sorry, I know. Just one more time?”
She agrees, because Olivia is cute and also asleep. She does have to turn off her (loud) cleaning music, but it’s a small price to pay. Watching Olivia isn’t scary, mainly because Olivia sleeps the entire time and doesn’t roll despite Henry saying she might roll right off the bed. Plus, Henry’s middle of the night activities that leave him stinky or covered in dirt or glitter distract her.
Henry picks her up only three hours later, no weird smells or glitter bombs. Only a limp.
“One am, how early of you,” she teases.
“Ha ha,” he laments. “Can I get Livie please?”
“You know where to find her. Since this is a habit.”
“Not a habit!”
The next morning, Charlotte is yanked out of her sleep by a knock at her door. Not frantic, but still, she knows exactly who it is. Literally, she knows no one else in Swellview.
She wraps herself in her favorite fluffy robe and heads to the door, opening it for Henry and Olivia, actually awake instead of sleeping on Henry’s shoulder. And in a cute summer dress and pigtails, instead of princess pajamas.
“Hello Henry, hello Olivia,” she greets. “It’s early.”
“Hi Charlotte.”
“Hi Miss Charlotte!” Olivia greets enthusiastically. “We made chili balls!”
Charlotte raises an eyebrow at Henry, who grins sheepishly, holding up two large Tupperwares of what she can only assume are chili balls.
“To say thank you, for watching Livie,” he explains.
“I helped!” Olivia chimes in.
“You are a perfect assistant chef, Livie, thank you.” Henry tells her. Olivia grins proudly. It’s very endearing. Dad and daughter, doing a nice thing for their neighbor. If she hadn’t just received the worst deadline ever, she’d be gushing.
“Anyway,” Henry says. He holds out the bowls and she graciously accepts them. “We made dinner. For you. As a thank you.”
“Obviously,” she says.
“Could be lunch, too. Don’t wanna police your mealtimes.”
“Cool.”
“And this isn’t a habit,” he points out.
“Darn, I just ordered a car seat,” she teases.
“You’re so funny,” he mocks. Olivia tugs on his jeans leg and he glances down at her, then back at Charlotte. “We’ve got to go.”
“Daddy has work.”
“Daddy has work?” Charlotte asks. Olivia nods, rocking on her heels. “So you go to work with your daddy?”
“Sometimes,” she says.
“Okay, that’s enough.” Henry picks up Olivia. “We gotta go, but I’ll see you around. And not to ask you to babysit.”
“Sure,” Charlotte drags out.
Henry rolls his eyes, then nudges Olivia. “Say bye.”
“Bye Miss Charlotte,” Olivia says with a wave.
“Bye Olivia.”
“Bye Charlotte,” Henry says.
“See you tonight!” she teases. Henry’s already back at his apartment (literally across the hall). She adds, “Thanks for the food!”
Henry only asks her to babysit at night, which leaves her days to her endless research. She keeps hitting a wall on the major topics, since Captain Man and Dangerheart refuse to answer her emails. She has half a mind to fake an emergency, although she’s afraid she might get another cease and desist.
She can hardly keep her eyes open for so long during the day. She doesn’t sleep when Henry springs Olivia on her, it feels wrong to fall asleep while surprise watching someone else’s kid. She does what she can, online research, visiting major sites of Captain Man incidents, the works.
Friday morning rolls around. Friday morning after another night of watching her neighbor’s five year old, when she’s exhausted enough, she wakes to an email from her department. Specifically, her faculty advisor for her thesis.
Specifically specifically, telling her if she doesn’t produce a first draft of her abstract, background, and introduction by the end of the month, she’ll have to rethink her entire freaking thesis.
God. Fucking. Damnit!
And to make matters worse, there’s a knock at her door. And only one person ever knocks at her door.
Charlotte nearly tears her door off its hinges. “Henry, I really don’t have time—“
“Charlotte I know, I’m desperate—“
“Hi Miss Charlotte!”
Charlotte looks at the little girl and waves. “Hello Olivia.” She looks back at Henry. “Don’t you have a real babysitter? Where’s your sister!”
“My sister’s still out of town and I can’t bring Livie with me. Please? Just a few hours.”
“I can be quiet and sit and color and stay out of the way,” Olivia recites, like they practiced or something.
“See?” Henry says. “She’ll be so good you won’t even know she’s there!” Olivia nods her head in agreement.
Charlotte purses her lips, then sighs. “Did you pack her a real meal this time?”
“Yes!” Henry cheers. “And yes. Thank you, you’re the best. I owe you everything.” Henry squats and kisses the top of Olivia’s head. “Be good, I love you. I will be back a little later.” He stands and says to Charlotte, “Thank you so much, bye!”
And runs off.
Charlotte let’s Olivia in, closing the door behind her. “So,” she starts. “What do you wanna do?”
“Color.”
Right. That’s exactly what she said she’d do a minute ago.
“Cool.” Charlotte leads her back to the living room/makeshift office.
Olivia sits on the ground next to the cardboard boxes Charlotte uses as a makeshift coffee table, carefully unpacking her backpack. Quiet, careful, laying out her books and crayons in a neat order. Charlotte sits back in her desk chair, watching the little girl.
“Do you wanna watch anything?” Charlotte offers.
“No thank you.”
“So just coloring?”
Olivia nods, picking out a red crayon from her box and setting to work.
“Are you hungry?”
“Daddy made pancakes.”
Ah, well.
Should she make small talk with a five year old? What would they even talk about? The weather? School? Do kids her age even start school that early? Charlotte thinks she remembers going to preschool at, like, four. Pre-K 4, to be specific.
“Does your dad leave you with strangers often?” Charlotte inwardly cringes. Super wrong topic. Crazy wrong thing to say!
“No. You’re nice, he likes you,” Olivia comments simply, not at all bothered. Just coloring away. Charlotte misses when life was that simple.
But…she is nice. And very likable. And from a little kid? Little kids have no inclination to lie (unfortunately they are usually very, very blunt).
“You’re nice too,” Charlotte says.
“Thank you.”
“…So, no tv?”
Olivia shrugs, zeroed in on her coloring books. Very locked in. She needs to be that locked in.
The email!
Charlotte returns to her computer, and her godforsaken email from minutes ago.
Right, okay. She did not come all the way to this stupid town to not do her thesis on how superheroes and supervillains use technology and their powers relative to quantum mechanical and nuclear power and how it affects the people around them!
Calling in a fake emergency sounds more and more enticing…
Or, she could go through the crime data of Swellview, find the most likely place for Captain Man and Dangerheart to be called to, and be there. Get saved, beg them for help.
She likes the analytical part of that plan. The damsel in distress part is a little iffy, though.
“Captain Man!”
Charlotte turns in her chair, looking at Olivia, who’s watching the television (that she didn’t want to watch, but it’s neither here nor there). A live, breaking news report of Captain Man and Dangerheart fighting the Lizard Twins in Swellview Park.
God, if she had a car seat she’d go down there right now and ambush those guys.
“You like Captain Man, Olivia?” she asks.
Olivia doesn’t pull her eyes away from the television, coloring project completely abandoned. “Yeah, he’s cool.”
Charlotte agrees. And kind of hot. Objectively speaking, of course. What! He’s Captain Man. All muscles and gelled hair and heroic.
Dangerheart body slams a lizard with his force field, and Olivia whoops.
“You like Dangerheart too?” Charlotte asks.
“Yeah, that’s my dad.”
Say what now?
Say what now!
Sure, kids sometimes glorify the adults in their lives or whatever. Her little cousin Callum thought she was just like Janelle Monáe in Hidden Figures after he visited her at school. But he thought she was like Janelle.
Olivia said that that’s her dad. Very, very confidently.
Charlotte stares at the little girl. “What?”
Olivia points at the screen, clearly at Dangerheart, who definitely has the same swoopy blonde hair as her neighbor, except slicked back. And she’s seen his arms before, under his stupid flannel shirts he wears all the time, but she doesn’t remember them being that…buff? No, there’s no way that’s Henry.
“That’s your dad?” Charlotte asks.
“Mhm!”
“That’s a superhero.”
“My daddy’s a superhero,” Olivia states, as if it’s obvious.
“A-Are you sure?”
Olivia nods, entirely too sure of herself. And she’s five, why would she make up some crazy story about her dad being a superhero, unprovoked?
“So, just to clarify, your dad is Dangerheart?”
“Yes Miss Charlotte,” Olivia says. “He has a cool force field and he saves the world!”
Huh.
Henry. Superhero.
Henry returns several hours later. Which gives Charlotte a lot of time to grill Olivia on all things Dangerheart (she is a woman of science, she needs to collect as much data as possible!).
Olivia is very casual about the whole thing, more interested in her princess coloring book than Charlotte’s shock. She does get a lot more of the five year old’s attention when lunch rolls around and they chat over dinosaur nuggets and apple slices.
Unfortunately, Olivia is five. Her knowledge extends pretty much to her dad is Dangerheart, his superpower is force fields, and he works with Captain Man, who’s indestructible, and they work in the Man Cave.
Luckily, Henry comes back. After the lizard twins, there’s a robbery at Swellview Bank (with hostages!) that takes a while to sort out. And when he does return she definitely believes he’s Dangerheart, considering he smells like grass and dirt. From Swellview Park. Where he was fighting the lizard twins!
“Hey, sorry, it took a little longer than expected,” Henry says. Or lies. Excuses. Whatever!
“No problem, we had fun.”
Henry raises his eyebrows. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” she states.
Henry chuckles. “Well thank you for watching her, but we gotta head home.”
“Yeah, sure,” she says nodding. “Just, can I talk to you for a sec?” she asks as casually as she possibly can. Standing directly in front of him, she can perfectly visualize the stupid red and silver mask over his eyes. How did she never notice before!
“Uh, sure?” He steps into her apartment and she shuts the door behind him. “What’s wrong? What’s up? What happened?”
“You’re Dangerheart.”
Henry blinks.
Charlotte stares at him. He blinks again, then laughs the fakest, most nervous laugh she’s ever heard. “Wh-What? Pft, what? No. No way. What? Where would you get a crazy idea like that!”
Charlotte crosses her arms. “Olivia.”
From the living room, Olivia waves. “Hi Daddy!”
Henry purses his lips. “Uh…” And then he raises his wrist and taps his watch, hitting her with something that knocks her right out.