“I know.” He reached over and took something from Lex and then knelt down in front of her. “Elizabeth Marie Summers, you know that from day one I’ve loved you. I’ve already gotten permission from your father and all of your uncle’s to ask you this, so I’m hoping I get the answer I want out of you. Will you marry me?”

“Yes.” She smiled as she held out her hand to allow him to slip the ring onto her finger. “I love you, and since they have all apparently consented, I will marry you.”

He pulled her down into his arms and firmly kissed her. “You don’t know how happy you have made me.” He whispered and held her close.

Three Weeks Later

Beth-Marie rolled over in her bed and opened her eyes to check the time. “What are you doing here?” she asked the dark haired young man standing just a few feet away from the bed.

“I live here.” Dick Grayson answered easily as he scanned his eyes across her very exposed body. “You might want to get dressed. We’re holding breakfast for you in the dining rom.”

“Yeah, I know you live here.” She rolled her eyes and got out of the bed, ignoring that she was only wearing a skimpy pair of underwear. “So why couldn’t my fiancé be sent to wake me up?”

“Because of what happened the last time we tried that.” He stared straight into her eyes without wavering. “House rules say that you and Oliver are not allowed sex.”

“My parents let us get away with it! Why can’t Uncle Bruce just accept that what is going to happen will happen?”

“You could just get over it, you know.” He stared at her and then shook his head. “Why do I bother? It’s not like their special chosen one is going to be expected to follow rules. I bet this is the first place that anyone one has bothered to put down rules for you.”

“I do have rules at home.” She walked over to the dresser and pulled out a sundress. “You know one of our house rules at the school is knocking before you go into a room.”

“And I bet there is a rule about no co-ed roommates.”

“Just shut up.” She rolled her ice blue eyes as she pulled the dress on and tied the halter style straps around her neck. “At least I have enough brains to get into Mensa.”

“You’re not all that smart.” He watched her as she quickly put on her makeup. “If you were you wouldn’t be screwing Queen.”

“Yeah?” she raised an eyebrow as she looked at him in the mirror. “Who would I be screwing then?”

“Someone who doesn’t see you as their mother. That is what you are to him, and you might as well admit it. You stepped in and took his mother’s place after the plane crash.”

“So what he screwed his mother while growing up?”

“Why do you think he was so hesitant to sleep with you? I pretty much hate you and I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“Whatever.” She turned away from the dresser and headed to the doorway. “So on to breakfast?”

“Only after you tell me one thing.” He positioned himself so she couldn’t get out of the room. “Why are you with him?”

“Because I love him and he needs me.” She looked straight into his eyes. “There are things that have happened, things that you will never know, things before our time that haven’t even been explained to any of us. I can’t control those things, but there are things that are coming that I can. I have to take care of him, he’s too important to what will happen.”

“Watch out who you talk like that to, little girl.” He leaned in close, putting his lips right by her ear. “If someone thinks you can tell the future you’ll be saying goodbye to you own life.”

Her hands slipped up and clasped around his throat. “Don’t threaten me, and never again call me little girl.” Her fingers tightened for a moment, cutting of his air flow. “Got me?”

“Got you.” He gasped as he tried to catch his breath. “You should be glad Bruce didn’t see that.”

“Like I really care what he sees.” She hissed. “Nick and Tony won’t let him lay a hand on me. You and I both know it, so unless you want your life destroyed you’d better stop trying to mess with me.”

“Don’t make threats you can’t keep. I control more than just the little you think I do.” He stepped aside and let her out of the room. “To breakfast?”

“Of course.” Beth-Marie smiled and then headed down to the dining room. “Morning Uncle Bruce, Ollie.”

“Beth-Marie.” Bruce nodded as she sat down. “Dick, you look slightly shaken up. Is there something wrong?”

“Nothing.” He quickly answered. “What are we training on today?”

“You have your work out to attend to, Oliver and Beth-Marie will be working on computer programming.” Bruce smiled as he looked at the shock on the girl’s face. “It is high time you learned to use a computer for something other than emailing your friends at school.”

“I don’t want to become a geek.” She muttered and took a sip of her orange juice. “I leave the tech stuff to Oliver.”

“I’m not exactly a techy.” Oliver laughed and leaned over to kiss her. “Just because I am supposed to inherit the ownership of a communications company in a couple of years, it doesn’t make me one.”

“Well you’re better suited for it than I am.” She gently stroked his face with one hand and kissed him firmly. “I love you.”

“Come on, not at the table.” Dick groaned. “It’s bad enough having to watch you two try to make out across the desk when we’re doing homework.”

“All three of you need to start acting like adults.” Bruce instructed. “You are all three here to learn.”

“To learn how to not have sex.” Dick muttered.

“Master Dick, why don’t we finish our breakfast without talking in a murmur?” Alfred suggested as he walked into the dining room with coffee for all four diners. “Master Oliver, and Mistress Beth-Marie, it would be well advised to keep you demonstrations of affection restrained to less public venues.”

“Of course, Alfred.” Beth-Marie smiled gently at the older man and then lowered her voice to a whisper. “Though I’d say Dick isn’t a master at anything.”

Oliver caught her side remark and smiled gently at her. “Isn’t your uncle supposed to call us today?”

“Nick is due to check in on the two of you.” Bruce nodded in confirmation before his niece had a chance to speak. “I’ll be speaking with him while you’re working.”

“I want to talk to Uncle Nick.” Beth-Marie fussed. “I haven’t gotten to talk to anyone since we were sent here, and there are a few things that I want discussed.”

“You and Oliver are children, and you will not be having sex in this house.” Bruce looked at Alfred for backup, but realized he would have to handle his niece alone. “I will allow you to talk to your Uncle Nick when he calls though.”

“Thank you.” She nodded and continued eating.

Later that afternoon.

“Beth-Marie!” Bruce called as he put his hand over the phone. “If you are going to talk to Nick you need to come now!”

“Coming!” Beth-Marie got out of her chair and ran to the den to take the phone. “Thank you.” She whispered to Bruce before turning her attention to the phone call. “Hey, Uncle Nick!”

“There’s my sweet girl.” Nick laughed over the phone. “How has your Uncle Bruce been treating you?”

“He’s been pretty ok.” She sighed. “Dick is a huge pain, he came into my room this morning and didn’t have the decency to step out even though I was practically naked.”

“I’m sure Bruce will have a word with him about that. Is there anything else you want me to talk to him about?”

“There is one thing.” She answered trying to sound reluctant to admit anything. “Mum said that she wanted him to keep the rules of our house, and he’s not quite doing that.”

“What rule is he not allowing you to keep?” Nick was not quite sure he wanted the answer that his niece would give him, but the important thing was to keep her happy.

“He won’t allow me and Ollie to spend the night together.” She pouted. “Mum says that regular sex is important to any good relationship, and Ollie is my fiancé.”

“I’ll have the situation fix for you.” He sighed and shook his head. “I supposed you want me to tell him you’re allowed to drink with meals as well?”

“It would be appreciated.” She smiled.

“Alright, pretty one, now why don’t you have a word with someone else?”

“Yes, sir, love you, sir.” She waited as the phone was passed.

“Why are you setting Nick on some petty crusade for you, Beth-Marie?” Tony asked as he took the phone.

“Hi, Uncle Tony!” she smiled brightly when she heard the voice of her other uncle. “Would you prefer to be the one to take on my mission?”

“I think Nick can handle your concerns this time. You about ready to come take over my company?”

“If I say yes do I get to come home?” she giggled. “I really do miss ya’ll. How big has Xandra gotten while I’ve been gone?”

“She started to walk the other day.” Tony bounced the baby on his lap, knowing that Beth-Marie knew she was near him. “I can tell you something though. You may have missed watching Xandra learning to walk, but I don’t think you’ll miss your next sibling learning to walk.”

“Mum is pregnant again?!” for a second the normally sensual brunette lost all of her class as she squealed. “Are you telling me the truth?”

“I’m not telling you anything because she would kill me if I ruined her surprise.” He looked at the clock. “You need to get back to your lessons. Put Bruce on the phone for Nick.”

“Alright, love you sir.” She handed Bruce the phone. “Thank you very much, I’ll be returning to my work now.”

“Right.” Bruce nodded and returned to the phone. “Don’t tell me you are going to give in to her on the sex thing.”

“She’s going to cause you trouble if I don’t. Besides, they’ll kill each other if they don’t have regular sex.” Nick sighed slightly and shook his head. “You’ve only got them for a couple more weeks, you’ll make it through. My sister has brainwashed that child to a degree that I’m not sure I’ll be able to bring her back from. For now we get to deal with a sex obsessed teen.”

“I’m not sure the sex obsession has anything to do with Jean.” Bruce laughed despite his annoyance with his niece. “I’ll have a word with Dick about giving her some privacy, and I guess as long as they manage to complete their work she and Oliver can room together. I just don’t want them getting distracted by having sex in every room of this mansion instead of learning the computers.”

“They get wine with dinner too, and you’ll get the added benefit of her being a touch calmer if you let her have it.”

“Giving in to her will go against all we’re working towards.”

“Sometimes you have to take a step or two backwards to take five forwards.” Nick glanced at his watch. “I’ve got a meeting to get to. Take care of my matched set of agents, I’m going to need them to breed another generation.”

“They’ll probably be started on the first of that generation right after dinner.” Bruce said wryly as he hung up the phone. After a moment’s hesitation he walked out of the den and into the computer room where Beth-Marie and Oliver were working. “After you finish all of your assigned work you two may move in together.”

“Glad to hear that Uncle Nick straightened you out.” Beth-Marie smiled behind her computer screen. “Is there anything else we should know?”

“Why don’t you two just get the work done for now?” Bruce looked over the two teenagers and shook his head.

“You’re going to get us in trouble.” Oliver whispered as Bruce walked out of the room. “Steamrolling him like that was not a smart move.”

“I didn’t steamroll him.” She shrugged and got up. “Wanna irritate him even more?”

“I’m not sure it would be a good idea.”

“Well I am pretty sure it is a great idea.” She untied her dress straps and let the top fall down. “These desks look pretty sturdy, and I’m sure that the chairs are fairly solid as well.”

“We should get our work done.” He forced himself to look away from her. “What would Nick and Tony say if they found that we haven’t learned a thing here?”

“I really don’t care.” She shrugged. “I think it is time they let us have a tiny break from being perfect students.”

“Beth-Marie.” He shook his head as he stepped closer to her and gently kissed her forehead. “Twenty minutes of play and then we get our work done.”

“Deal.”

Three hours later

Beth-Marie swirled her glass of wine and took a sip. “So, I’ve been thinking.” She slurred and rolled over on the desk. “What if there was a way to make computers better.”

“What are you talking about, babe?” Oliver asked, slurring even worse than she was, as he picked up the bottle and filled both glasses up.

“I’m talking about something smarter, more resistant to hacking.” She giggled and picked up a piece of paper. “Double encode the matrix. Make binary overlay with something like genetics.” She began to scribble out basic lines of genetic coding on the paper. “That’s it! Look, Ollie! Take this coding for blue eyes and overlay it with numeric value and you’ve got the start for a stronger base. I bet if you took the base code for one person and did the numerical overlay for the entire amount of genetic coding used you’d have a great computer base.”

“Write it down before you forget it.”

“Like I’m going to forget it.” She laughed but then picked up a fresh piece of paper and quickly began to scribble out the entire base code. “I’ll give this to Uncle Bruce in the morning, for now let’s just go to bed.”

“Good plan.” He drained his glass and then stood up to get her off the desk. “Come on, Miss Summers, we need to test out your bed.”

Beth-Marie slid off the desk and stumbled into his arms. “This is going to be a good night.”

The next morning.

Beth-Marie sat at the dining room table trying to figure out the note she had found on her bedside table. From the little she had managed to learn over the few weeks with her uncle she knew it was something to do with computers, but could not figure out anything more.

“Beth-Marie, Oliver.” Bruce smiled as he looked at the two teenagers, hoping that the indulgence of the night before would be enough to straighten them out for the rest of their visit. “I trust that your work yesterday was productive.”

“I don’t know.” She looked up at him and held out the paper she had been puzzling over. “Can you understand this?”

Bruce took the note and carefully studied it for a moment. “It looks almost like the base code for a computer. Where did you get this?”

“I think I wrote it last night.” She shrugged slightly and took the coffee that Alfred offered her. “Does it look any good?”

“It looks worth a try.” He put the paper in his pocket and sat down. “Now, let’s eat breakfast.”

Two weeks later.

“Mum, Daddy!” Beth-Marie called out and ran across the landing strip to her parents. “I’ve missed you so much! Where is Xan?”

“With Tony and Nick.” Jean answered as she held her daughter out at arm’s length and looked her over. “How was it with your Uncle Bruce? Nick told me that there were things he had to get fixed for you.”

“She only had to have a few silly things fixed.” Oliver shook his head as he finally caught up to his fiancé. “I think Bruce wanted to kill her.”

“I would say that it was Nick who wanted to kill her. I walked in on the conversation he had with Bruce about you two rooming together.” Scott laughed as he gently stroked his daughter’s cheek. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him blush until the second he told Bruce that you two needed regular sex to keep from killing each other.”

“Uncle Nick doesn’t blush.” Beth-Marie laughed and then turned to Oliver. “You want to take a nap?”

“Whatever you say.” He nodded as he picked up her tote bag. “You ready to go in?”

“Oh, I forgot that you two would need some sleep.” Jean turned and began walking to the golf cart that was waiting on them. “We’ll drive back to the school so you can grab some lunch before napping.”

“Thank you, Mum.” Beth-Marie took Oliver’s hand and followed her parents to the golf cart. “So, what has been going on while I was gone? I know that Xan learned how to walk.”

“Yes, and she’s already progressed to a run.”Scott took Beth-Marie’s bag and put it on the golf cart before making sure that the two teenagers were comfortably seated. “You’ll have your hands fuller than ever when you baby sit.”

“I can handle one walking baby.” She laughed and cuddled closer against her fiancé. “Now, a real challenge would be a newborn and a walking baby.”

“Tony couldn’t keep his mouth shut could he?” Jean shook her head.

“Even if he hadn’t I would have known. She’s got a strong presence to her even with as new as she is.”

“I’m carrying the child and can’t even feel it yet.” For a second it seemed as if Jean was going to get upset, but she quickly pulled herself together. “We’ll need to have your grandfather test you a little bit more.”

“You’re not going to start more testing and work already, are you?” Olive raised an eyebrow. “We only just got back from Bruce’s, and Beth-Marie is worn out. Bruce had her trying to design a new computer matrix.”

“We heard about that.” Jean answered through tight lips. “I promise that we’re going to give you two a couple of days to recuperate before you start back to training.”

“Bruce is excited about the new computer system.” Scott turned the golf cart onto the long driveway to the school. “He and Tony have been talking about it for the last few days. I think that Tony is just about ready to let you design your first weapon.”

“Daddy, I don’t even know how I wrote that matrix coding, I was drunk. You know I always come up with some crazy new ideas if I’m drunk enough.”

“She was completely out of it.” Oliver agreed. “She woke me up and shoved a piece of scribbled on paper in my face, demanding that I explain what she’d written.”

“And Bruce wanted to complain about you two drinking.” Jean sighed. “I swear, one day he will admit that I know what is best.”

“He’s just worried about the kids, Jean.” Scott laughed. “Bruce is not going to admit that you made the right choices until these two are grown up and settled into their jobs.”

“Well, the day that Beth-Marie takes over everything she’s expected to take over he’ll have to admit it.”