AFTER THAT PRESENTATION, A NEW NORMAL HAD BEEN FORMED. While the puzzle was nowhere near finished, a section of it had been completed, leaving a small piece of the larger picture, but a picture that could stand on its own.

Tony was still trying to convince Birdie to let him buy them a nicer place to live, but she argued that she liked where she was and paying for herself; just because he was there didn't mean she wasn't going to be fully dependent on him. He had relented, for the meantime, and had generally chosen to commute back and forth between the home and the facility, having his own drawer and other necessities at the Walsh residence for when he stayed overnight, which was more often than not.

Birdie was working at home that day, as they were making slight renovations to certain areas of the building, so she was allowed to stay home until they were finished, so the two were lying in bed, just idly chatting.

"—I don't think I'll return to the medical field, but I'm trying to stop using my career as a way to have control, that's not really what it's about, it's about getting justice, which I can always work with," she finished, her computer set aside as she was turned towards Tony.

He smiled, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "Good for you. Honestly, I'm happy for you."

She smiled, tilting her head. "Are you okay?"

He nodded. Before she spoke, Tony had told her more about his family, about what had happened, how he felt. It hadn't been planned, but he felt the need to explain it more. It just made her feel more guilty about leaving him on New Year's all those days ago, but he had told her to stop being dramatic.

The two had stayed in well past noon, and Tony had received messages from both Rhodey and Pepper to stop shirking his responsibilities just because he was in a relationship. But both were coupled with various emojis and pictures and their smiling faces and reminders of how proud they were of him, how happy they were, so there was no real reason to take their chiding seriously.

"Mark is picking up Remy from therapy today, so we can just head over to dinner," Birdie reminded him, nudging him towards the shower, and he groaned.

"He didn't agree to go see Nicky, huh?" Tony asked, rolling out of bed and falling onto the ground, groaning; he was getting  old, that hurt more than expected.

"He greatly dislikes that man, but I think he likes his new therapist," she commented, watching him strip off his shirt with vague interest, "And thank you for letting him spend time with Mark."

The man shrugged, just before stepping into the bathroom. "He's my kid, but it's not as if I'm going to stop him from trying to heal. Has he met Marc? You know, the kid? Also, what do you think of his mom?"

Birdie nodded, thinking back to the woman she had met after Remy's presentation. Marc had been embarrassed to have her at the school at all, constantly asking if she had remembered to take her medication, eyeing his father who wasn't paying much attention to her, but the woman had been fine the entire day, more than pleasant, even, but Birdie knew that it wasn't always rainbows and sunshine for Marc.

"Remy's introduced Marc to Mark during the presentation," she replied, unable to keep from smiling when Remy introduced his best friend as 'Marc with a C, better than you'll ever be,' which had elicited cheers from many of the students and Tony, "And I like his mother. I just hope she gets the help she needs. Remy told me that, when he had slept over, Marc had to lock the door to make sure his mother didn't have an episode and barge in."

Tony worried on his bottom lip. "That's sad."

Birdie nodded in agreement, but made a shooing motion with her hand. "Go shower, I need to use it after you."

Tony smirked, waggling his eyebrows. "You could join me."

She rolled her eyes. "You could hurry up before I kick you out of my house."

He sighed, closing the door, mumbling a, "You're no fun," before adding, "What if I use up all the hot water?"

"I'll kick you out of my house," she scoffed, but she climbed out of bed regardless, grabbing a change of clothes and wondering how she had found herself in this current situation, wondering if she was even all that upset about it.

"Huh," Tony said, as he closed the door, "Eleven years? You sure?"

She rolled her eyes, tossing her shirt onto his head, blocking his view. "Don't think so much."

º º º

Remy sighed as he grabbed his bag, and walking out of his new therapists office. She was nice enough, and when he mentioned her to Flash, the boy seemed to know who she was; the boy had begun alternating tutoring Remy with Peter, both teenagers more able to work with the flexible scheduling.

He was texting Marc, who had gotten a phone when his parents realized that it would be much more prudent than him having to be driven home by a stranger, the older boy telling him that he was invited to the dinner, though his dad would just be dropping him off, as his mother wasn't in one of her better moods.

'BUT SHE'S GETTING BETTER.'

Remy smiled at the text, glad that Marc was finally willing to talk about his mother; the older boy had been incredibly embarrassed about his mother's condition, not wanting her to meet anyone, but he was making progress, and that was good enough.

"Hey, Remy."

The boy looked up from where he was standing on the steps of the building to see Mark looking at him from the sidewalk, his hands in his pockets. Ever since his presentation, he and Mark had been trying to reconcile, though it was a slow process, but they were willing to make it work.

"We're heading to Aunt Jayne's for dinner?" Remy asked, looking at the sun which had begun to creep closer to the horizon, not quite setting just yet.

The man nodded silently, and the boy followed him to his car, climbing into the passenger seat. After much complaining, Birdie had gone to check and found that Remy was just barely the right height and weight to sit in the front seat.

"How was your first session?" the man asked, choosing to fill the silence, catching sight of Remy fidgeting.

The boy shrugged, but replied, choosing to make some effort. "It was good. I think I'll stick with her. Until she does something."

Mark licked his lips, speaking carefully, "You know, not everyone is out to get you. And adults make mistakes."

Remy shrugged. "Yeah, I know."

º º º

Jayne's dinner wasn't at her house, but at a nicer venue, with many people invited. She tried to play it off, not wanting to make it too much of a deal, but it was hers and Brad's ten year anniversary, so there was need for some fanfare, even if she pretended like it was nothing.

Tony had swung by the facility to pick up Rhodey and Pepper, as Jayne had demanded to meet the two and wouldn't take no for an answer—"you owe me, Tony, I introduced you to my best friend"—so he had to deal with their teasing the entire way.

"Please don't do this, I have rights," Tony begged, staring helplessly at his two dearest friends—friends seemed like an understatement, really—the two cleaning up incredibly well in their formal get up.

"We dress to impress and respect," Pepper said, patting his cheek and climbing into the nicer of the cars, the other two men climbing in as well, Happy in the driver's seat.

As they made their way to the venue, Tony had to wonder where they were even going, so he leaned forward and asked, "Hey, Happy, where are we going?"

"I think a penthouse," the man replied, "I checked it out, and when I called the woman to confirm, she chatted a lot, explained that it was one of her favorite places, because she's always had connections to the owner? She's had a lot of parties there, even ones she hasn't thrown. She also had trouble choosing the color theme, so I suggested an off-white and light pink, since it's a wedding anniversary."

Tony raised an eyebrow at the man's excessive explanation, but just nodded, leaning back in his seat and falling back into conversation with Pepper and Rhodey, trying to kill their formulating plans of turning the Walsh's against him.

"Don't steal them, I worked so hard," Tony whines, and the two smiled at him, but simply nodded; he had worked extremely hard.

When they arrived, the dinner was already in full swing. It was more of a party than a dinner, but it was easier to call it dinner than a party.

Tony looked around to see Remy and BUDDY playing cards with Ethan and Marc, all of them frowning down at their cards as Mark taught them how to play poker.

"Hey, kid," Tony greeted, looking around, "Where's your mom and Jayne?"

"They're with Aunt Wilma and Aunt Treshelle in a room," Remy replied, looking over at Pepper, "They want you to join 'em. Hi, Uncle Rhodey."

Rhodey nearly cried. Tony watched as his best friend immediately joined in on the game, helping Mark explain since BUDDY had gone off to show Pepper where the other women were.

"Thanks for coming, Tony," Brad said, approaching him once people were starting to eat and dance, most already more than tipsy.

"No problem," Tony said, patting the man's back, "Congrats on the anniversary."

Brad smiled. "Thanks. Yeah, I don't know where my wife is, though. They've all been kind of wandering around, talking."

Tony raised his eyebrows. In the time he had been there—which had been a while at this point—he hadn't seen Birdie once. He turned towards Remy, who was wearing a suit.

"Hey, kid. Is your mom mad at me?" Tony asked, crouching down next to Remy who had stopped playing cards to listen to Rhodey tell embarrassing stories about Tony.

Before Remy could respond, Tony felt a hand tap his arm and he turned to see Birdie a ways away, chatting with someone he didn't recognize. He stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out what about her was so familiar, despite just being herself. 

Then it hit him: she was wearing the same dress she had been when they first met.

Tony was hit with a wave of tunnel vision, able to focus on nothing but Birdie, the woman pausing to look at him and smile, giving him a small wave. She hadn't meant to avoid him all that night, but it had just sort of happened. 

Pepper and Jayne both began to slide away, and she turned towards them with a quizzical look, both woman smirking at her. "What?" 

She turned back towards Tony, wondering what she was missing, only to see him barely three feet away, her stomach doing flips when he pulled her close, in front of everyone, but not even caring.

He pressed their foreheads together, his voice barely above a whisper. "So this isn't the most appropriate time, but...Can I get a kiss from Elizabeth?"

Birdie's breath hitched and she struggled to find her voice, unable to even nod, her heart hammering in her chest.

Jayne groaned. "Just kiss her!"

Birdie laughed and leaned forward, kissing him and pulling him close, the sound of people cheering in the background, and for once, they were truly cheering for her, proud of her finally making a decision for herself, not anyone else.

She could make out the sound of Jayne exclaiming about how she had waited nearly twelve years for this moment, and this had been her entire plan and she had waited too long for them to just freeze up at the last second, her complaints being silenced by her husband who finally got to kiss her for the first time that entire night.

It took long enough.

º º º

It was late at night when everyone finally started to head home, Jayne calling cabs for most of them, since they were in no position to be driving, if they even had been, but Birdie didn't drink—she still wasn't all too inclined to—so that posed no problem for her.

She smiled as they made their way back home, Remy still awake, saying bye to Marc who had driven with them, the boy being carried by BUDDY to his house, too tired to even walk straight. The three waited until the last member of their family returned before heading inside.

"Can we watch Lilo and Stitch?" Remy asked, tired, but too wired up to actually go to sleep, jumping onto the couch.

Birdie looked over to Tony and gave him a tired shrug. "We haven't had a movie night in a while."

"BUDDY, can you make some popcorn?" Tony asked, all of them moving to get comfy on the couch, the robot nodding and going off to make the snacks.

They all sat on the couch, the popcorn bowl on Remy's lap, the boy seated between the two, BUDDY having gone into sleep mode once he settled down on the floor, having been pushed to his extremes during the party. It was clear that Remy wasn't going to last very long either, beginning to doze off.

"Get some rest, Remy," Tony said, running a hand through Remy's hair, smoothing it down the way Birdie did instead of ruffling it like usual.

Remy yawned, so tired that it took him a moment to reply, moving to spread across Tony and Birdie's laps.

"Night, mom...night, dad."

Tony froze up, for a brief moment, before relaxing, a smile playing on his lips. He glanced over at Birdie who was looking at both of them with the utmost love, so strong that he had to look away.

"Thank you," she whispered, "Thank you for staying."

He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it. "Thank you for letting me stay."

The two just whispered softly as the movie continued to play, slowly falling asleep as well, the whole family wrapped in each other's arms, asleep on the couch, but wanting no where else to be than just where they were.

Theirs was not a perfect family. It was smaller than most, and more broken than wanted. But it was still good. Because it was a family, and it was theirs. There were dissonant sounds and off-key tunes, a song not quite perfected. But they liked it that way. Theirs was a broken lullaby. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't pretty, but it was theirs, and it had love, and that was all they needed. Because they would be okay.

Everything would be okay.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So I wanted to have them kiss like in an actual sense, because we get that implied shower scene, but I never actually wrote them kissing in a romantic sense besides the first chapter, so like...I wanted that.

There isn't much left to say, since I'm going to say it all in the afterword.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!