Happy birthday, Angel.

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

It's a sweet sixteen birthday -- and everyone makes sure it gets done in style.



Angel sighed as she slipped out of the car. She didn't mind coming into the station on her birthday but it really wasn't what she wanted to do. She was scheduled to come in on Monday so she was curious as to why it couldn't wait two days. Oh well, at least the guys kept a good amount of food in the kitchen (they'd always had a lot but they'd started to buy extra when she was around) so she could steal some food in retaliation.

She blinked when she got to the door as her dad nearly bulldozed her over. "Dad," she whined, shoving at his back as he opened it, "you're blocking the way in!"

Bart rolled his eyes at her and then winked, before hobbling a step back. "In you come, princess," he responded.

Angel returned his eye roll with sticking her tongue out before clearing through the doorway. "Hey, why's it all dark?"

"Because it works better when we do this," came Paul's familiar voice, and then the lights came on abruptly, dazzling her. There was a chorus of voices - lots of voices - bellowed out one word: "SURPRISE!"

Surprisingly, Angel didn't scream but that may have been because she ended up near the ceiling, the blue flames flashing about her body in sheer shock. Laughing, Paul and the captain urged her to come down and she did after a minute, clutching her heart. "Oh…oh my god, you guys!" she shrieked, throwing herself first around her father and then quickly switching over to Paul, hanging off his neck. "You…and my friends from school…and oh my God, is that cake? Presents! Eeee!"

Paul hugged her back, still laughing. "It's not every day you turn sixteen, kid. We thought we'd make it memorable. Your dad did all the sneaky stuff - he's got the nose for it, being a reporter. And there's a cake as big as you are - Bart was telling us about this mutant metabolism thing you kids have, and we thought we'd better make sure there was plenty."

"...is that a Miss Dane cake?" She grabbed his hand and yanked him towards the cake as people started to filter around them. "Eating time!"

~~

Grinning madly, Angel perched on the step of one of the fire trucks and dug into her cake. "Is the entire station here?" she asked, looking up at Paul, thoroughly still shocked. "It's like all the off duty folks are here and their families and my friends." Here eyes were unusually bright and she blinked to try to clear them.

Paul shrugged, putting a forkful of cake in his mouth. He hadn't met "Miss Dane" yet, but by all accounts, she was a damn fine cook. "Pretty much," he acknowledged after swallowing. "When word got out it was your birthday coming up, everyone wanted to do something. You're pretty popular around here, kiddo." He grinned teasingly. "Of course, that's because you saved everyone's favourite guy."

She blew a raspberry at him. "I'm totally like the mascot around here, you don't even need a spotted dog!" she teased back. "Though I probably should expect paperwork soon, right? I mean, I'm guessing that's why the Captain broke out into that weird dance, right? Ooh, hey, I'm 16! Does that put me into range of being able to date Tommy now?

"Oh, you can bet your ass there's paperwork. Get ready to sign your life away." Paul glowered, eyeing the aforementioned Tommy where he sat, eating cake with intent to corrupt young mascot-girls, at least in Paul's opinion. "Has he asked? I already told him if he so much as looks at you funny, he'll be decorating the station flag pole before you can say 'sixteen'll get you twenty.'."

"Only in my wildly over imagined dreams," Angel sighed, waving to the poor guy. He waved back and then shot Paul a look before decided that being elsewhere was probably the best bet. She poked at Paul with her fork. "It's like you're practicing for your own kids! You're good at this whole protective dad thing."

"Like my girl'll ever be dating," he replied, not entirely jokingly. "And once you're interning, you won't have time for dating. You'll be working that flame-on tail of yours right off."

Behind his back, Angel pantomimed his talking before digging into her cake. "No getting rid of me now," she informed him happily, swinging her legs back and forth. "I'll somehow find time for interning, dating and school, just you watch." She grew quiet as she concentrated on the little candle still stuck in her cake, reaching out a hand to set it back on fire. "Paul, do you think I'll really be any good at this?"

He glanced over at her. "I really do," he said, and there was none of the earlier teasing in his voice. "You've got a lot to learn, and some growing up to do, but you've got heart, kid, and that's what it takes to do something like this well. From the minute you dove into that burning building to get those people and me out... you pretty much had your path picked, even if you didn't know it." He smiled, reaching over to tug at one of her braids. "You'll screw up sometimes, but that's what happens when we're learning. In the end, though? You'll do us proud."

The knowledge that they wouldn't kick her out if she screwed up relaxed her a lot and she leaned her head against Paul's arm for a moment. There'd been a time when she'd sulked because a year wait had seemed like a life time but now that it was here…Angel shook herself. If she had someone like Paul, and the rest of the guys, pulling for her, then they must be onto something and she would just have to trust their judgment. Satisfied, she tried to sneak her fork around Paul's arm to hopefully subtly steal some of his cake.

Only to have his fork landing on top of hers, trapping it. "Sorry, kiddo," he said with a grin. "Never come between a firefighter and his cake."