InsaneJournal

Those who'd worked at the Bureau long enough likely could tell when Alice was fixating on something. While always vastly dedicated to the Portal and the study of it, there were periods where her presence increased tremendously, where she'd be visibly exhausted. One could tell by the circles under her eyes, the levels of consumption of caffeine and sugar, and how she very rarely left the office to return to her present dwelling. It'd happened with the television incidents, it'd happened with Maleficent, and it was happening now.

She didn't want to stop working.

They were this close. She could feel it. How could anyone expect her to stop for anything but sleep? And she'd barely done that since Memorial Day.

Only, well, Penny wanted to talk. It was important. And on the heels of Julia updating? With Julia saying she'd already spoken to the person she had to about the update and with Penny wanting to talk to her? She'd lept to an assumption. Of course, Penny said it wasn't bad, and that left Alice uncertain. If it were any other point in time, if they weren't so certain that they'd made the breakthrough they'd been working so hard for all these years, she'd not have had trouble with the idea of giving Penny her undivided attention. But right now? With all those variables? It was hard for her to de-attach to do so.

But she would. He deserved her focus if he needed to talk to her.

Stepping into the Cottage, which she only came to anymore for him, she barely acknowledged the other residents and went straight for his room. She didn't knock. "We need to save Illyana a couple pieces," she said, shifting the pizza box, before looking to him. She tried to smile. Her nerves, instead, were displayed and she was too tired to realize.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Penny agreed, stepping forward to take the pizza box from her hand and set it to the side, and then glance over at her.

Truthfully - he didn't know what he was thinking or feeling. He was a Dad, but with Julia who he wasn't with at home, or here. He didn't know how that worked if HQ showed up, or how it was going to work at home either. Sure, they were friends, but… For the moment he focused on the woman in front of him who he was with here. She deserved to know, because what if his daughter showed up?

"Oh, uh," he reached for the coffee cup and handed it over. "Got this for you."

"I mean, we could run the risk of her wrath, but do you really want that pointed at you?" She asked, intending for it to be a joke, but merth was absent from her eyes. She didn't like being uncertain about where to expect a conversation to go and this felt like being blind in the dark. Perhaps she should have pressed Julia for more information once Penny had said he wanted to talk.

No.

She pushed that thought out of her head. Pointless anyway, since she was here. She did, however, smile at the coffee cup. "Thank you," she said, reaching out to take that. Pizza could wait. And the cup was a good shield. She held it in between both hands.

Penny managed a quick grin, although it wasn't one that stuck around long. "Yeah, so uh, like I said I mean, it's not bad news. Just… kinda big news. I mean, I guess technically there's some not so great news, but the other stuff is um, more important."

It did make him wonder if he should take that potion because losing his traveling abilities was not something he really was excited about, but that also didn't feel like the most important news in some ways. He considered the box of pizza as if it'd hold some answers and then he pulled his gaze back to Alice. "So yeah, um, Apparently I have a daughter."

Her head had tilted, watching him. The quick grin was appreciated. It wasn't enough to calm the nerves but it helped. "Not bad but big," she repeated, nodding in understanding. There was always other stuff. Why couldn't their world updates be simple? She wondered if others from other worlds had simple memory updates. Graduations and weddings, that kind of thing.

Or...babies.

She blinked and her hand tightened on the coffee cup. "A daughter." Immediately, her mind was rushing towards the thought of their home. He'd been in love with Julia in Timeline 23. Julia had died. A daughter couldn't have come from his past and only being recently discovered. Well, not unless she was from when Penny was in high school...

...which meant. Julia.

"With Julia." It wasn't a question so much as a statement.

It was sort of a relief, sometimes, just how smart Alice was. He nodded. "Yeah, with Julia. Um, apparently we have one in the future. We're not really together there either, or here… obviously, um… but yeah. She's the mom."

He looked over at Alice considering. "I know it's a lot, and you've got a lot on your mind, I just figured you should know - from me, and all."

"Oh." A hand moved up to brush her hair back behind her ear. In some ways, that made her sad for Penny, knowing how much he had cared about Julia back home. But if they didn't work together, it was definitely better that they didn't try to force a relationship for their daughter. Some people were better apart and if they made that realization? Good for them.

"No, no. It's...good. That you are telling me." Of course, Alice and the whole magic team were playing with fire. What if it backfired and no one else ever showed? What if she destroyed the chance for Penny to meet her? And for Julia and him to be reunited with her at that? "What is her name?" She asked, mind still spinning.

"Oh, yeah. Hope. Hope Quentin. I guess I call her HQ." Penny finally remembered he had coffee in his hands and he took a sip of it. It was strange to think about her existing. He didn't know anything about what she looked like, he realized, which, of course he didn't, but it made this all feel surreal and not entirely like it had happened. Like yet another timeline, even if it was actually his own.

"Quentin," she repeated, a hitch in her voice as she said so. Still, her smile grew. Q would have loved that. She gave a nod of her head, as if in approval, before, "I like it."

She drew in a breath, "Maybe she'll show?" Alice honestly didn't know if that would make it so a choice was easier for Julia and Penny in terms of staying. Everyone had their own reasons and choices ahead of them.

"Yeah, maybe." Penny looked over at Alice, keen glance over, even if she was and always had been kind of tight as a whip in terms of any actual thoughts. It was alright to think about HQ in the abstract for the moment. He could do that. He had a daughter, he'd meet her someday in this place or when he returned home. And even if he couldn't travel without her maybe he didn't need to be able to in the future. There'd be a life that was settled somewhere. It could happen.

"If she does, we'll have to figure out what that looks like. I mean, obviously Julia would get her for some times, and I'd get her other times." He didn't know really if Alice would want kids around, he realized. It wasn't a conversation they'd ever had, but if HQ did come through she was partly his, and he wanted to be involved.

"That's...a pretty standard custody split," she found herself saying before thinking about it. It was logical. Julia was more emotional than Alice was in many things but she assumed this wouldn't be one of them. She hesitated for a moment before, "I mean...I don't think you two would have a hard time figuring it out. Right?"

Her arms tightened over her chest. "Did Julia say how old she was in her last memories?"

Oh. Yeah. It kinda was. Penny reached a hand up to sort of halfway run through his hair, and then ended up with it on his neck. "Yeah, it would be, I guess." He really wasn't thinking clearly about this, and he could tell, but he didn't really know what youre response to 'hey, you have a kid' was supposed to be. "HQ? She didn't exactly, but I think pretty still baby stage, like the way she talked she'd just had her."

He pulled himself out of his thoughts for a moment and looked over at Alice. "You alright?"

She pulled her lips in. So, based on history, Alice assumed they could be expecting an infant if HQ ever showed. Okay. That was probably for the best. That would allow Julia and Penny to really get to know their daughter, instead of being at a loss as to what she liked or who she was and possibly causing unintentional hurt because Mommy and Daddy didn't know…

And, what?

"Huh?" Alice looked to him. Was she alright? She hesitated. "I...does…" Did it matter if she was alright? She frowned. "I should be asking you that."

“I mean I am.” Okay flatly probably untrue because he didn’t really know that he was okay but he wasn’t certain what to do about that. Time probably would help. It was all kinda new. “I just, figured. I mean with us…” was she going to want to deal with all of that? Was it even the time to ask? “I guess I just figured it matters.”

She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at him. Maybe it was true but she felt like maybe it hadn't hit him just yet. "I don't...I don't know how I fit into that." She said, carefully. Julia and Tony? That was going to be obvious. Tony and Julia had been together for so long it just made sense that he'd be able to step into a sort of Step-Parent role. She and Penny? They'd been dating months. What did it look like for them? "I mean...if she shows, it isn't going to mean...I want this to stop. I just...we should be careful until…" Until they knew for sure if she and Penny were for the long haul. "Does...that make sense?"

Penny figured there were probably things he should ask, like, if she wanted to mess with kids at all. Should he be trying to do this if she didn’t? On the other hand there were no guarantees at all and HQ might not ever show up here and well, Alice knew it was a possibility now. She could figure that out for herself and he wasn’t going to ask just as soon as he’d told her.

“Yeah, that makes sense.” He breathed out, and took a step forward. “It’s all a bit crazy but that makes sense.”

She reached out, her finger tips grazing along the underside of his palm to pull his hand into her own. She looked up and gave a weary smile. "It's crazy but we'll figure out," she assured him before she took another step closer and stood up on the tips of her toes, pressing a quick kiss to his lips.

Penny accepted the kiss, something that had been tight a minute before felt as if it relaxed a little. And he gave Alice a smile. “Right so pizza. And what am I interrupting work wise?”