Title: And never a child awake
Summary: Lili loves her daughter.
Author's Notes: Set perhaps six months before Wade sends everything in Slade's life all to hell.

There have been, throughout her life, choices Lili has made that she has later regretted. Such is the lot of women, and of men, to decide and mourn for it later.

She has never regretted her Rose.

There have been moments that she has wondered if it was right to leave Slade in ignorance, mostly when she sees Rose training. She looks so much like her father.

There are limits to what she can learn here. Rose has Slade's grace, his power, though nothing comparable to his strength. She could be among the best if her father had a hand in it.

But Lili knows Slade will never settle down, will never truly have a family, no matter what truths of his past she had torn from him in the night. Here, with her friends and her mother, Rose is at least safe.

Lili knows that adventure is not always better than safety, and she has done enough research into Slade's mistakes to know that Rose is far better off here. She cares for him -- she does not know anyone who could *not* -- but she is neither blind, or even half-so, nor a fool.

Rose has her father's eyes, and Lili recognizes her smile from the mirror, and she hasn't missed a target on the bulls-eye since she was seven, and Lili has a client she should not be late for. She turns to go and waves at Rose when she glances over from the pin Sensei is teaching her.

She does not regret meeting -- or working with, or caring for -- Slade any more than she regrets the birth of her daughter, and she will never let Slade hurt Rose. Even, perhaps especially, since she knows he would not intend to.

Slade will not know about his daughter. Rose will not know about her father.

Lili has made choices she regrets. This is not one of them.

She goes.
-- Finis