Oliver flinched at the bright light of a spring day- after the subtle gloom of the other world, the golden light of Earth felt almost blinding. Blinking tears from his eyes, he waited a moment for them to quickly adjust before looking around once more...

He was home.

Looking around the bedroom that he shared with Poli, he couldn't help but let out a small sigh as he fully relaxed for the first time in a month. As much as he enjoyed going out on a Bounty, the constant tension still wore on him- something he didn't even realize until just now.

Just as he was about to pull Poli out of the Warehouse, Oliver paused in thought and quickly moved to the window. Pulling the curtains closed to help block out some of the light and make it easier on his girlfriend- fiance, he had to remind himself, as it still felt strange to him... Good, but still strange...

"Fuck, that's bright!" Poli exclaimed almost instantly after being released.

"Yeah, I didn't think about the light difference much while we were over there." Oliver shrugged, holding her steady as she regained her bearing. "Some sort of atmospheric difference that affected the light passing through, I bet. No idea how that works, though."

"It'll probably be worse for Lily and Jal." Poli grunted, wiping at her eyes. "Give me a sec to find them some sunglasses before you pull them out."

"Take your time, hon." He replied, already moving to the hall closet and grabbing a blanket. "I'm just going to toss this up to help block some more light- it's either that or pop them out in the garage, since it doesn't have windows, but I don't want their first impression of home to be a dirty concrete block of a room..."

A gentle smile flashed across Poli's face at that; for as broken as Oliver was, he could be surprisingly sweet and thoughtful- at least when it came to the people he cared about. "That's a good idea. Ah, found them!" Her sudden exclamation was accompanied by her holding two pairs of sunglasses above her head like a trophy.

Oliver eyed the sunglasses quizzically for a moment. "Ok... but why do we have kids sunglasses?" He asked slowly, gesturing to the smaller pair.

An embarrassed chuckle slipped out of Poli as she studied the small, bubble gum pink sunglasses. "Ah, well... Eve forgot these here, back when she was still calling herself 'Lyn' and trying to get us back together..."

"Ah." Oliver muttered, trying to work through his feelings on that. He still wasn't sure how he felt about the pint sized psycho. Was she cute? Sure, he thought she was attractive. Did he understand her, and relate to her, better than before? Definitely- though whether that was a good thing or not, he wasn't sure... Did he want the crazy vampire anywhere near his adopted daughter? Absolutely not.

But... What if she could change and be better like Poli believed?

Until he knew for sure, he wasn't willing to take any chances.

"Well, they're Jal's now." He sighed, bracing himself for what he hoped wouldn't turn into an argument. "And... Just so we're clear, I don't want her within ten miles of Lily or Jal. I know you see something in her, but I still don't trust her around them- or around you, really, but I know you can at least shoot the bitch if she acts up."

"That's fair, hon." Poli nodded in instant agreement. "I mean, I don't think she would hurt them, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be careful about it... Especially since she will probably be jealous of Lily, and I have no idea what sort of reaction that will get..."

Voice dropping to a whisper- even with the FBI's card in the kitchen on the other end of the house, she wasn't taking any chances- Poli leaned close to Oliver and spoke. "I'll text her from a burner phone later to warn her not to act up."

"Sounds good." He replied, settling the blanket into place over the window. "Ok, that should help some. Ready for me to bring them out?"

"Yeah. Here," She quickly handed him the smaller pair of sunglasses. "Go ahead and pull them both out. I'll help Lily get settled, you get Jal."

Twin shouts of surprise rang out, but, with just a few quick instructions and reassurances, the pair had them seated on the edge of the bed with sunglasses on.

"Oh, these are... interesting." Lily said softly, running her fingers over the wire frame of her sunglasses as she marveled at the dark lenses. "What are they? Some sort of eye protection?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Kind of." Oliver chuckled, enjoying the sense of wonder that positively radiated from the duo. "Our world is a bit brighter than yours- and even we want ways to blunt that at times- so we thought this was a good idea for you two."

"Indeed." Lily nodded in agreement. "Looking through these... 'sunglasses'... makes it look much like our old world."

Oli and Poli exchanged a look at her calling it her 'old world'; apparently she was already considering Earth her home...

"Is this our home?" Jal asked excitedly, gaze sweeping around the bedroom like she was trying to see everything at once.

"Yes, sort of." Poli smiled softly down at the girl. "This is the bedroom Oli and I share. That door over there is our bathroom, and the other door leads out into the hall. We'll give you the full tour once you've had a little time to adjust to the light."

"You have a room in your home just for bathing?" Lily asked with open curiosity, staring towards the bathroom door.

"Er, yeah..." Oliver said slowly, sharing a confused look with Poli. "I know bathing wasn't really an option on the ship, but you were a princess, so I assumed..."

"Oh, of course we bathed regularly." Lily chuckled, her already red cheeks darkening further in a blush. "We had a cloth and basin for every day washing, then, once a month or so, we would have the servants bring a larger tub into my room for a full bath- admittedly, that was a luxury not everyone could enjoy, but I quite like the feeling of relaxing in the bath."

"I'm guessing the servants had to bring the water in using buckets and multiple trips?" Poli asked, already picturing scenes from various fantasy or historical movies.

At Lily's confirming nod, Oliver couldn't help but grin- as excited as the princess was about learning and discovering new things, he knew this was going to blow her mind. "Well, this is going to be something... Maybe we should all take a bit to clean up before we get distracted with the full tour? The three of you can use our bathroom, since it's a bit bigger, and I'll use the hall bathroom. Sound good?"

"I don't think that will work, Oli." Polina hesitated. "While they have some spare outfits, those clothes haven't been washed in a while..."

"That's a good point- Wait," Oliver paused, remembering something he had done just days before- but hadn't yet mentioned to Poli, as he hadn't even been sure if it would work like he had planned. "Let me check something; you three just wait here."

A minute later, just as the three of them were starting to wonder what he was up to, Oliver was back- with a large box in hand.

"It worked!" He exclaimed, setting the box in front of them and opening it... to reveal an assortment of women's clothing. Pants, shirts, sundresses, socks, and more.

"What worked?" Poli asked as she, Lily, and Jal eyed the box with interest.

"Before we left, Marty came up with an idea he wanted me to test." Oliver said, grinning at his fiance. "Basically, he made this throw away email account- no personal information, just a random alphanumeric name-"

"What's that word?" Jal interrupted him in confusion. "And what's does email mean?"

"Yeah, I guess I am throwing out a bunch of weird sounding things." Oliver chuckled. "Alphanumeric... is just a word to describe something that has both letters and numbers in it, and an email... Well, email is short for 'electronic mail'. Basically, it's like sending a letter, just a lot faster and using computers."

"I'll show you how it works later, if you want."

"Anyway," He paused briefly to refocus on his explanation of the box. "So, the idea was that, if I needed to communicate something to the guys while we were gone on a job, I could post a simple Bounty..."

"Basically, just something along the lines of 'On Earth, send an email to this address with this message attached'. His thought process was that the cost of a Bounty was based both on the difficulty involved and the distance- and maybe some other factors...."

"But sending an email is easy, so the primary cost of the Bounty would be the fact that I was on another planet and asking someone to do it for me. And it worked! I mean, it still cost me twenty credits, which is like two hundred dollars here, so it was an expensive email... But, still..."

"And you didn't tell me about this plan, because...?" Poli said sweetly, though her eyes sparkled with mischief.

Oliver froze at the mild rebuke hidden beneath her words. "Ah, well... He kinda came up with it last second, and... I... kind of... forgot. When I did remember it, I wasn't sure it would work, so..." He trailed off weakly with a guilty look.

"It's ok, Oli." Poli quickly let him off the hook, kissing his cheek. "Is this why you asked me to figure out their sizes the other day? I'm not sure having the guys shop for women's clothing was the best idea, but I'm sure it must have been funny. I can just imagine how awkward they would have been about it!"

"Oh, definitely not." He waved his hands in denial. "No way would I trust this to the guys! I told them to ask Mrs. Mary for help!"

"That's probably for the best." Poli chuckled. "You go ahead and get cleaned up, hon. I'll help them pick out some clothes, then show them how everything works in the bathroom..." Checking the clock on the bedside table, she grinned. "It'll be close to dinner soon; since you'll be done first, how about you order us some pizza once you're out?"

"What's pizza?"

Oliver's smile widened at Jal's excitement and Lily's curiosity- introducing them to pizza was going to be fun.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.