Other Fishies in the Sea (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"I've never..." Joan trailed off. Or had she? "I've never tried to tell her she couldn't succeed, or she shouldn't," she insisted, as if she was trying to convince herself. "But sometimes she does things I don't want her to do, and I try and talk her out of them..." She ran her fingers through her almost-mannishly short black hair and said, "I hated the world when I was Lois's age. Especially school. I was tall, I wasn't a white girl, and the only thing that kept me from shutting down entirely was my mom getting out there and making sure I made something of myself. I just wanted to do the same thing for Lois."

[Electra]

"It's normal to see ghosts of ourselves in other people," Miss A remarked, not unsympathetically. "Especially people who remind us of times in our lives that were particularly painful. But it looks like Lois is very happy at school, and she's obviously making something of herself. Winning a science competition in a city this size is no small thing. You should be very proud of her for that, and I suspect that if you did a little bit of that journalistic investigation, you could even learn something about what it is that she's studying, and show her that you care about it. Lois is still at an age where she wants your approval more than anything. Don't let her get to the point where she despairs of ever getting it."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I do approve of Lois," said Joan, sounding like she meant it. "Whatever she does, whatever choices she makes, she's my little girl, and I want her to be happy with what she does. I'll always be there for her." She opted not to mention the time that no good ref had asked her to leave Lois' soccer game, or the time she'd tried to encourage Lois to beat people up at school if they made fun of her. Charlie had given her enough crap about that at the time, she didn't need to hear about it again. And luckily, Lois took that chance to come back, holding in her hand what was probably the flash drive.

"Hi Mom, hi Miss Americana," said Lois, giving them both a smile. "I found this," she added to the beautiful science lady, "It's the right model, right?" And it was, and as she handed it to Miss A, she squeezed her mom's hand too. Which meant she had heard something, most likely, which meant...Joan's pride squirmed for a moment before she squeezed her daughter's hand in reply. Which meant she needed to start watching what she said around her little girl! That's my good little snooper...

[Electra]

Miss A smiled at the little girl, acting as though nothing of interest had transpired in her absence. "That's perfect," she told Lois. "Now I'm just going to download a few programs onto this for you, some proprietary software I've cooked up for vector modeling. They don't have docs with them yet, they're still beta versions, but I think if you start playing with it, you'll get the idea pretty quickly. They're more sophisticated than what you've probably got at home, and should let you do a bit more tinkering." She plugged the drive into her computer, copied a series of folders with a few clicks, then handed the drive and a business card to Lois. "You can shoot me an email if you run into any trouble. I'd like to see what you develop."

[Avenger Assembled]

The rest of the visit went much better, maybe because Joan didn't say much else except to cheer on her daughter as she talked about computers with Miss Americana. She had a lot to think about, after all, and none of it was about the scientific wonders before her. Lois seemed conscious of a change in her mom too, and clung almost as close to her as she did to Miss A through the remainder of the tour. When they were done, after Lois had gotten Miss A's card and promised to email her with her newest project as soon as she thought it up, Joan shook her hand with a surprisingly strong grip. "Thanks for the tour, Miss Americana," she commented. "I know I certainly learned a lot."

[Electra]

"I'm glad," Miss A said, bestowing a friendly smile on Joan. "I'm sure with your support, we're going to see great things from Lois in the future, in whatever field she decides to go into." Miss A didn't linger long after the tour, after saying goodbye to Lois and to the other families, she disappeared into the elevator and headed back to the peace and security of her private office. There, several miles away, Gina returned to her own body, rubbing her eyes against the stress headache she'd formed. It hadn't been a smart move, she knew. Risking the antagonism of a decent investigative reporter was playing with fire, and even Gina's own skills at covering her tracks weren't perfect. But she hadn't been able to stand by and see that sad and all-too-familiar little girl getting worn down anymore. She just hoped she'd done a little bit of good.