Lexie might not have wanted a party for her birthday, but that was exactly what she got when they got back later that night.

The sun had sunk long ago and she'd fallen asleep on Aiden's lap on the skybird, only to wake up being gently jostled and feeling the outside breeze on her face.

She stretched and took a second to realize that they were back in Hovelton and Aiden was carrying her home. She tried to protest at that point to be let down but he simply chuckled and told her that it was a good exercise to carry her. Max apparently had him lifting weights through much of their workout, and those turned out to be much heavier than Lexie.

Which Lexie didn't like hearing but oh well.

When they finally arrived home, they noticed that all the lights were on.

Aiden frowned and put Lexie down as he peeked through the windows.

Tthen he heaved a heavy sigh.

"What's wrong?" Lexie inquired.

"I'm so sorry." He shook his head and before he could say more the door swung open startling Lexie back.

Emma filled the doorframe and was holding a cake in her hand.

"Surprise!" she yelled.

A chorus of voices saying the same thing sounded behind her and Lexie glanced at her father in confusion.

"You threw a surprise party for me?" Lexie inquired. Not that she was complaining but she was indeed surprised. She'd thought they understood that she wasn't a fan of parties.

"No, I didn't." Aiden pinched the bridge of his nose. "Emma, what is this?"

"Sorry." Emma's look turned apologetic. "I know you said pretty explicitly that she didn't want a party, and technically this isn't one. At least it didn't start out as one. I came over to deliver Lexie's present, the cake and also some casserole I made, but as I was leaving work Lacey said she wanted to come too. And so did Godfrey because he bought Lexie a mini-surgery kit for her birthday. And Carissa got her some mascara, something about it being an important intro to womanhood? And Glinda was there for her yearly check up and she overheard us talking about it…"

"Yeah." The door opened wider and Glinda stood with her arms crossed, in hiking gear with rollers in her hair. "How come you never told us that it was Lexie's birthday, Professor? We fought an evil eye together. We covered for you from the feds. You couldn't tell us that it was your little girl's birthday?"

"We brought presents," her sister said, appearing at Emma's other side. "And brownies."

"They're not good, don't have the brownies."

Aiden was shaking his head at Emma and she continued, "Well, we decided to just stay long enough to say happy birthday. But we promise it's not a party. It's just a bunch of us…here to say happy birthday to Lexie."

"I didn't come for the party!" Someone that sounded like Frank shouted from the background. "I came because a few buddies of mine wanted to join our dungeon class next week and I wanted to know if it was okay, Sparrowfoot."

"Yes, that's fine, Frank." Aiden said tiredly, then looked at his daughter as though asking if she was okay with all this. Lexie shrugged. It wasn't like they could do anything about it now. And it was nice of everyone to come over, made her feel a little warm inside. A smile spread across her lips and she nodded at her father.

"Alright," Aiden finally said. "But I will tell you that you can't stay too long. Lexie needs her rest."

And despite clarifying several times that it wasn't a party, the minute Lexie walked in, everyone started singing a birthday song. The nurses from the Healing House were there. So was the Dungeon Disaster Elders Club (that's what they started calling themselves) consisting of Frank, Merryweather, and Mr. Frederick. Apparently, the rest couldn't make it since it was bingo night, but they sent their regards. And of course, there was also Emma and Xena, Rose and Evan, and Uncle Max and Luke. There was a weird tension between the two men that Lexie could sense but they both managed to smile when Lexie went to them.

"Hey, Tiger." Max tugged at her ponytail affectionately. "How was your day?"

"Good," she told him. "Dad told me that you and Mom were frenemies."

"Oh, yeah." He grinned. "Good times. Did he tell you that she gave me this?" He pointed at a tiny scar on the top of his ear.

"How?"

"Well it's a funny story actually, I–"

Luke cleared his throat loudly, which seemed to dissuade Max from continuing with his story. For now at least.

"I'll tell you when you're older," he whispered conspiratorially.

Lexie sighed. She was really getting tired of that line.

"Happy birthday, Lexie," Luke said, smiling at her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flat metallic card about the shape and size of a debit card.

"What's this?" Lexie asked.

"Credits," he said. "To be uploaded to the system and spent however you want. I wasn't confident that I knew enough about your likes and dislikes to get you a present, so I figured I might as well just give you the means to get something that you want."

Lexie stared down at it and then looked back at Luke with new stars shining in her eyes. "I always knew you were my favorite uncle."

"Hey," Max protested and Luke shot him a smug look.

"You won't be saying that after you see my present," Max said. "But I have to show you that one later. When your dad isn't around."

"Aiden is going to kill you," Luke countered.

"No, he won't. He understands the need for the girl to protect herself now. Besides, it's licensed."

"Not for her."

"Well, unless she kills someone, we won't have to worry about it."

Lexie had a sneaking feeling that the present was a gun. It was Uncle Max after all. What else could it be? She wondered if it would really be pink with propeller bullets. It would be kind of interesting to see something like that in person.

She left her uncles to their argument and then went over to say hi to the nurses. Godfrey really did get her a surgery kit and told her that the next time she came over to the Healing House, he would show her how to use it. When she asked if he meant on a practice dummy, he remained suspiciously silent and then Carissa dragged her away to show her the mascara. She of course immediately wanted Lexie to try it on her and tittered about how good it looked, taking a picture for her social media story.

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After that, Lexie turned back and noticed that Evan was still with Xena but Rose wasn't there anymore.

Lexie went to them.

"Hey, Lexie!"

"Hey, Evan!" Lexie replied with just as much enthusiasm

"Happy birthday Lexie."

"Thanks, Evan." She materialized and activated the frog for Evan to play with. He seemed delighted by it, and she was happy to watch his efforts in trying to catch the backflipping creature.

She was also just excited to be activating cards again.

She'd paused her training out of respect for Aiden and also as a self-inflicted punishment for breaking his trust. But she was free to resume now that he'd given her the go-ahead. They would start card crafting lessons tomorrow. And he also knew and approved of her deal with Elvira. Things we are looking up.

The next thing Lexie wanted to work on was her creature cards. She wanted to try out more combinations and see if she could raise the strength and usefulness of that darn frog card.

So much work to do but she was looking forward to it. She was enjoying herself with the cards actually. It was nice to study something not because she had to, but because she wanted to push herself to her limit, on her own terms.

And yes she also wanted to go back home still, kinda, but she was no longer in any hurry. Her next step was to figure out how to contact her brother. Maybe if she could just find out if he was okay, tell him where she was…he would believe her. She knew he would because he watched stuff like this all the time and she would tell him that he just needed to sit tight and wait for her.

Yes, she still felt guilty that she was living life while people were mourning her. She thought about how Logan must feel right now, and Mickie and even her parents. Dr. and Dr. Evan may not have been warm people but she was sure they loved her or at least they didn't want her to die.

She would have to go back for her family and friends. But for now, this was her life, and these people were her family and friends.

"Oh by the way," Xena spoke up. "I don't know if you checked the group chat but Dewie is freaking out."

"What? Why?" She hadn't checked the group chat all of today, because she wanted to dedicate all her time to her father but she opened it now while Xena spoke.

"I dunno. I guess because I had to tell him it was your birthday, which I only know because Emma told me." There was a single note of accusation in her voice, not hard but enough that it was noticeable.

Lexie shrugged. "Sorry. It's just that I don't really enjoy celebrating." In her old world, it was usually just any other day to her. Except for that one disastrous party Mickie had tried to throw, it usually passed quietly with simple presents and she found that kind of preferred it that way.

"Yeah, but it's not cool that your friends don't know your birthday."

"Is this you admitting that we're friends?"

"I admitted it like a week ago," she said and smiled. "You just weren't paying attention."

"Does this mean that you're going to tell me why you didn't like me in the first palace?" Lexie hadn't mentioned it before because their friendship had still been in a tentative place where she didn't want to rock the boat too much to unearth any ugly feelings Xena might have had.

But Xena didn't react badly. She just smiled wider. "I'll tell you after the Top Dog versus Conrad exhibition rematch. After Conrad kicks his ass."

"Yeah right," Lexie said, then scanned the text messages. "Woah, you weren't kidding. He really was freaking out."

Dewie had sent no less than thirty messages after Xena had offhandedly mentioned that she would be over at Lexie's house later for the birthday party.

Of course, Dewie had then responded with "There's a birthday party? Can I come?" followed by "I don't have to come if you don't want me to," and then "I can't come because I don't have time to get a present today" and, "I'm sorry I don't have a present and that I didn't know it was your birthday. I'm a bad friend."

The next one was heartbreaking. "Are we still friends?"

Eventually, it devolved into him telling her that some species of gnomes sometimes offered their firstborn child as recompense for a slight and he wanted Lexe to know that she could have his.

"Aww poor kid," Lexie said. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't think he was for real at first," Xena said. "And then I kinda wanted to see how far he would take it before you put him out of his misery.'

"Mean," Lexie texted Dewie back instantly assuring him that she wasn't mad and that she just hadn't responded because she was spending the day with her dad.

And it's okay if you don't have a present, she said.

He responded almost instantly. I'm getting you a present.

You don't have to! Lexie responded. Xena didn't get me a present either.

Who said? Xena responded, clearly reading the texts from her end.

Lexie raised an eyebrow. You did?

Xena suddenly appeared embarrassed. She pulled something out of her pocket and thrust it at Lexie. "Here."

Lexie stared down at it. It looked like an engagement ring. "Are you proposing to me?"

"No, you creep. Gosh, why do you have to make everything so weird? It's a mana stabilizer." she said. "It's supposed to help you channel your mana better. It was really cheap so I don't know if it's just a hoax, but it had a four-point five star so at least four point five people approved of it."

Lexie really nearly teared up. She was moved by the thoughtfulness of the gift, especially from someone like Xena. The girl was so worried that she would hurt herself that she'd gone searching for something that would help. And she'd found this?

"That's seriously so nice of you," she said sincerely "No, truly. Thank you for the gift, Xena. And thank you for caring."

"Yeah, whatever." She tucked her hands in her pocket "Just don't cry when Top Dog loses the match."

At which point Lexie realized she'd ignored Dewie for too long again too and he was once more frantically trying to offer her his firstborn.

"Oh by the way," Emma announced. "I know this party is about Lexie but I thought I might mention that we have another reason to celebrate."

"What is it?"

"Well, Hovelton's emergency response hero and healer priority ranking just raised from 9 to 3. We're on par with Arcadia now."

"What?" Aiden said and several sounds of shock and murmurs of excitement chorused around the room, including Uncle Max who had a sudden coughing fit.

"Yup," Emma said, seeming happy. "I checked it today. And then even called just to make sure it was correct."

"That's amazing. I bet it's all the publicity from the dungeon discovery that got it."

"Does that mean I no longer have to wait in line to get my stool-relief potions?" Frank said

"No, you do," she said. "But if it leads to an anal fissure, we can call a [Hero] to get you right out of there."

"Fantastic," Frank said and everyone laughed, except Luke who was giving Max a sidelong look for whatever reason.

The party continued for much longer than a few minutes and eventually, Aiden brought out some of the desserts he'd kept in the fridge for the next Dungeon Disaster Drill, at which point people rushed it. Lexie halfway thought that was the major reason a few people showed up. There were calls for him to open a bakery but then Emma announced he would be too busy because he was starting a teaching role, which triggered another round of cheers.

"How did she know his decision quickly?" Lexie murmured. She'd only just managed to convince her dad to take it.

"Your dad texted her about it on the way home," Xena murmured.

"Right." Lexie should have known.

At some point, she noticed that Rose had taken Aiden aside to the kitchen. Lexie walked closer and peeked in, watching Rose who seemed to be apologizing to him frantically. Aiden kept waving off the apology but Rose kept insisting on how sorry she was, until eventually she cried and Aiden had to comfort her. It was clear she'd carried the guilt of the Evan thing for so long.

And seeing her genuinely apologetic, Lexie finally let the grudge she'd been holding against the woman go.

Lexie could see the truth clearly now. This party wasn't just about her. It was about Aiden and how much the people in this town had grown to admire him. And she couldn't blame them. He was someone who continued to do what was right even if there was no reward, even when people had scorned him. He continued to be gracious, heroic, and brave in the face of danger.

A true [Hero]

Lexie didn't think she had that in her. And only someone who did should be a [Hero].

By the end of the night, Lexie still wasn't a fan of parties. But as far as parties went this was the best one she'd ever had.

"Don't have my mom's casserole by the way," Xena said when she went back to her. "It's terrible."

At which point Emma called out, "Lexie, come try my casserole."

Lexie glared at Xena. "You jinxed it on purpose didn't you."

Xena grinned. "No. Happy accident."

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