A/N: Welcome back loves! Happy holidays! My present to you all is this chapter which I am very very proud of and is one I worked incredibly hard on. This chapter finally brings the Tobias incident to light and shows a somewhat softer side to Leelee. I really hope you guys like this chapter as much as I enjoyed working on it. This isn't exactly a light-hearted chapter, but it's one that I really liked working one because I got the chance to flush Leelee's character out more and got to explore the Davenports more as well.

Guest: I'm so glad you like the new chapter! I hope this one lives up to your expectations.

B00kk33p3r: I'm so glad you love this story and hope you love this new chapter too! I love writing the relationships between both sets of siblings and I'm so glad you like the way I'm going about it!

Guest: Here's the new chapter! I really hope you like it and sorry for the wait and suspense.

Megan Hart-Oliver: I'm so glad you're back! Happy late birthday! I can't wait to hear about what you think of this new chapter and I hope it lives up to your expectations!

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I hope everyone likes this new chapter! Please, please, please leave a comment letting me know what you think! It can be my Christmas present! Comments are amazing and I read every single one you guys leave. Have a great rest of your day all, talk to you soon!

Chapter 20: That's What Makes Me, Me

When Marcus and Daniel had both left the room, Douglas and Donald shared a look before turning towards the kids. Adam was looking down at the ground, ashamed. Bree stood up straight with her arms crossed, everything about her posture screaming that she was going to be defensive about this situation. And Chase, Chase was somewhere in the middle. He had his arms crossed like Bree, but the were more rapped around himself then anything else. He was also staring at the floor like Adam and was shifting his weight from one foot to another. It was clear Chase felt bad about his outburst, but it was also clear the three kids were at the end of the end of their rope and if they didn't get some answers soon, they were all gonna crack.

Douglas sighed, rubbing his eyes. In all honesty, he didn't blame Chase for his outburst. Being in the dark about everything all the time combined with knowing next to nothing about what happened in this future was taking its toll on all of them. But at the end of the day, Douglas was the only one that knew why they were kept on such a short leash.

Lea

Or Leelee, or whatever other name she went by by the time he finally got to talk with her.

When Douglas was still the bad guy and still looking for a way to get Adam, Bree, and Chase, he'd done a background check on both Lea and Tasha. At the time, Douglas hadn't really cared much. But now, it made since why he and his niece had a close bond.

They were basically the same person.

Sure, their histories were much different from each other. Douglas had grown up in a wealthy, albeit somewhat strict household. But his parents were good people, and as much as Douglas liked to complain about his mother, the woman would move heaven and earth for her sons. Douglas might like to joke about how he was the black sheep of the family, but never, not once growing up, did he ever feel like his parents or Donald didn't love him. Sure, he had his fair share of issues that he was currently working on in therapy. But at the end of the day, he had his family back. They finally accepted him, baggage and all. And a lot of that was thanks to Lea.

Lea's birth father had left when she was six. The asshole just took off. Sure, Lea got a letter every few months and a card every year for her birthday. But those stopped all together when she was 11, about a year before Tasha started dating Donald. Lea hadn't seen her birth father in over a decade, and while she didn't like to talk about it much, Douglas could tell it was something she still struggled with.

Abandonment issues. Those really sucked. That Douglas could say via personal experience. And at the end of the day, Douglas knew that was more or less the core reason for Lea not telling them the truth.

She'd lost them once already, was forced to watch it happen. She didn't want to have to go through that again. And Douglas didn't blame her for that, not one bit. Lea was afraid-scratch that, she was downright terrified-of being the only one left. She'd explained it to Douglas once. Some mumbojumbo about a Lea from the future and the kids not making it the first time around. The second time around there was Douglas and Marcus. Douglas had been close, very, very close, in all of his attempts at trying to activate the kids Triton App, but he was always thwarted at some point or another.

In this case, it seemed like the third time was the charm. The kids were gone, him and Donnie were gone, Tasha was gone. Lea hadn't just lost them, she lost her mother. She lost the one person who had been through everything with her. Douglas couldn't even begin to imagine how much that must hurt. How much pain Lea was still in. He wanted to help her, he wanted to erase any and all influences he had in creating this doomsdsay waste dump of a future. But that wasn't possible. What was possible was getting the kids to see past Leelee and find Lea underneath.

With his mind made up, Douglas turned on his heel and started for the door.

"Where on earth are you going?" Donnie asked him, but Douglas kept on moving as he spoke.

"You heard Danny. He thinks we should talk with Leelee. Henceforth, I'm going to talk to her."

"Douglas you don't need to make up words to tell us where you're going." This last sentence had been uttered by Adam, and the corners of his mouth pointed upward as Douglas tried to hide his amusement over his oldest son's lack of common sense.

"You're really going to talk to her? After everything she did?" That made Douglas pause at the doorway and look back at Bree.

"I don't know her Bree." That much was true. None of them knew Leelee, but Douglas wanted to. He wanted to understand the new person his niece had become. He wanted her to see that she didn't need to be alone.

"The point is none of us know her. Sure, some of the stuff she's had a hand in sucks, I'm not saying it doesn't. But at the end of the day. We've never had to live the way they do, the way she does. I think we owe it to her to try and understand a little bit better before we continue to just blindly point fingers."

Bree huffed, obviously not to thrilled about what Douglas had to say, but eventually she nodded her head and started walking over to the door. Donnie followed, then Adam. Chase was the last to walk over, his eyes still trained on the ground.

The group started walking to the DA in silence, with Douglas having fallen back to walk with his youngest son. Chase didn't bring his head up, but he did let out a sigh.

"I didn't mean it." He said. "I know I shouldn't have said it, I was just so…frustrated. I just don't see things the way she does. I don't see how it could ever be beneficial to do that. To treat someone that way."

"I get it kid." Douglas sympathized. "But…don't you think with the way we all have been acting since we showed up, we might have been treating her the same way." That got Chase to lift his head and look at his father. Chase opened his mouth to speak, to defend his actions somehow, only to find he couldn't. There was no defending what he did. Chase shut his mouth and looked back down at the floor.

"You're a good person Chase." Douglas said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "All three of you are. But, maybe, just maybe….Leelee might be one to." Chase let out another sigh and nodded, remaining vocally silent for the rest of the walk.

….

The sound of flesh hitting leather filled the DA as Leelee took out her anger, hurt, and grief on one of the many sandbags hanging up. She'd tried archery first, just like she always did when she was having trouble reigning in her emotions or needed a break. But this time, she need something more physical. She need a way to get rid of the feelings that were bubbling up inside her and threatening to explode.

When she was 11, after all phone calls, all letters, all contact with her dad had just…stopped. Her mom signed her up to see a therapist once a week.

"It's not good to keep everything bottled up inside you baby." Tasha had told her on the drive there "Feelings are like soda. If you keep shaking and keep shaking and keep adding pressure, eventually they're going to explode. Talking to somebody who's completely unbiased and is only there to listen to you might help you sort everything your feeling out." That conversation had stuck with her.

Feelings were like soda. Right now, that felt like a load of bullshit. Because right now, Leelee felt like her feeling were a volcano, and she was going to erupt any minute.

Leelee kept punching, she kept pounding into the bag. Hoping, praying that it would do something to relieve the pressure, something to lift the elephant that was sitting on her chest.

She finally gave up, giving the bag a final hard shove before sinking to the floor.

She hated this, she hated them. But she knew that wasn't true. She could never hate them. Not ever. But why did they have to come back? Why did they have to put her through this again? Losing them the first time almost killed her. Losing them a second…..Leelee honestly wasn't sure she could survive it a second time.

Leelee knew what was happening. She could feel her chest getting tighter and tighter until the ability to breath was nearly impossible, but she just couldn't bring herself to care. That is, until she heard the doors open and a group of people walk in.

Leelee had dealt with panic attacks for the majority of her life. Another memento left over by her father's disappearing act. She was used to them by now and she knew the signs. The weight on her chest that felt like an elephant was sitting on her, how it was nearly impossible to breathe, how her vision narrowed, making it impossible for her to focus on anything. These were all very familiar old demons that she was used to. And after what felt like hours, but was likely only about a few minutes, her breathing started to even out and her vision returned to normal and she was able to see the group of people who had walked in on her losing it.

The Davenports.

Shoot her now.

Leelee stood up, shaking off Douglas who was by her side in case she needed help.

"What are you doing down here?" She asked, picking up her bow and arrows and heading back to the target. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Adam, Bree and Chase looking at her like she had three heads.

"Are you serious right now?" Bree asked, the question coming out like a scoff but Leelee could recognize the worry hidden within. Leelee sighed, trying to keep the mask from slipping.

off even more and make Adam and Chase take a step backward due to the rage that was radiating off their sister.

"Are you freaking kidding me? You just had a panic attack for Christ's sake and you're just going too, what? Pretend like it didn't even happen?" Leelee let out a sigh at Bree's out burst and just shrugged, letting loose another arrow.

"I'm used to them. It's not a big deal. Out of all my laundry list of issues I have to deal with panic attacks rank very low on the list." Whoosh went another arrow. "There somewhere in the low fifty range. Right between 'Kaz's general stupidity' and 'Logan constantly making heart-eyes at Taylor instead of listening during meetings'." The chuckles that came from everyone in the group and filled the room surprised Leelee, and she found herself relaxing just a smidge.

"And where exactly do we rank on that list?" Chase asked, albeit slightly sheepishly, and Leelee looked up at him to see the apology written on his face. She sighed against.

"Trust me Chase." She said, loading another arrow. "Out of all of the pains in the asses I have to deal with, you lot don't even rank in the 75. Maybe not even in the top 100." Leelee let another arrow fly, and it split right down the middle of the previous one. The family looked on in amazement.

"You're one seriously complicated dude." Adam said, and Leelee chuckled.

"Thank you. I try." Bree let out a huff.

"But why?" She asked. "What good comes from shutting everyone out?"

"Bree…" Donald said, intent on reminding his daughter to go easy before another fight between the Lab Rats and Leelee broke out, but was cut off by a humorless chuckle from Leelee.

"Because what happens when you try to help everyone is a whole lot worse." Leelee said, releasing another arrow and choosing not to look at everyone.

"Because when you're young and dumb and think that world is still full of good, innocent people, hundreds of actual good innocent people get hurt." Leelee sucked in a shallow breath. "Because when everything first went to hell in a handbasket, and you find a 15-year-old android who tells you that he's scared, and he's hurt, and his family is gone and….damnit you just want to help him and you trust him because..well fuck it…he's just a kid, he's a kid who got caught up in this whole mess with Krane and Giselle and yeah, he's an android but he's still just a kid, and he didn't do anything wrong, and he didn't ask to be made an android. So you take him in. And you teach him everything you know. And you let him become part of the Resistance. And you watch him grow up. And then five years later you realize that you got played. He was playing you the whole time. He was never loyal to you, and he was reporting back to the Empire the whole. Entire. Goddamned. Time. And you didn't know. And fuck it, you still want to help him. You still see good in him. Even after you know he was the mole you were looking for the whole time and you know he was responsible for hundreds of people's deaths but you just know you can help him. You know he's not too far gone. Until he's holding a knife to Danny's throat and you need to make a choice and then you realize…." Leelee stopped for a minute, hands shaking as she focused on the target, trying to avoid the rest of the people in the room.

"It was never about him." She says, releasing the arrow and the breath she'd been holding at the same time.

"It was about you. And proving that everything you went through didn't make you a monster. That you were still a good person. That you could still help people." Leelee's hand clenches into a fist, and she can feel her nails digging into the meat of her palms so hard they leave marks. But she doesn't care.

"But at the end of the day, you realize that it doesn't matter. Krane and Giselle aren't going to pull any punches, and obviously their recruits aren't either. So you have to become a monster. You have to do things you swore you never do because that's the only way you're going to be able to save the people you're fighting for." Leelee finishes, biting down hard on the inside of her cheek as she releases arrow after arrow.

For a while, no one talks. Besides the quiet whoosh of Leelee's arrows, theirs no noise and is silent enough to here a pin drop. Until finally, Chase asks a question.

"Then why do you do it?" Chase asked, his voice full of honest curiosity. Leelee didn't miss a beat.

"Because there's no one else to do it." Leelee said, finally turning to face the family that stood behind her. "Believe me, if there was someone else who I trusted and wanted to be the leader I would let them, gladly. But there isn't. People still have some trust issues when it comes to Marcus, Taylor and Logan are great together but separate Taylor is too abrasive and Logan is too wishy-washy, Kaz and Oliver…you've met them, and Daniel is just too young right now, there's no way I would feel right putting that amount of pressure on him. So that leaves me, and that's the way it's always been. I just need to deal with it." Leelee finished, letting out a heavy sigh and turning back to her target again.

"So..that's what makes you the leader?" Adam asked, and Leelee let another arrow fly.

"That's what makes me, me." The quiet returned, until Chase spoke up again.

"I'm sorry." He said. "For the smartest person in the world, I was an idiot. And I'm sorry." Leelee cracked a smile, lowering her bow again.

"Apology excepted." She said, turning back to Chase and shook his hand. "I'm sorry too." The rest of the Davenports cracked a smile too and started to filter out of the room. Leelee hung up her bow on the rack, and smiled slightly, watching her family filter out. Maybe Douglas was right, maybe she wasn't alone in this anymore.