"Derek, who's this?" Rachel Corrigan asked, picking up a picture that she'd never noticed before. It was a picture of a young girl, roughly ten-years-old, with dark reddish hair, grey-green eyes, and dimples.

"Hmm? Oh, that's my daughter, Natalya." Derek answered, looking up briefly from the dusty book he was reading.

"You have a child?!?"

"Two, actually, Natalya and Dominick. Lyla's in Paris and Dominick's in Rio de Janerio."

"I had no idea! How old are they?" Rachel was shocked.

"Well, Natalya's seventeen and Dom's nineteen." he looked up again, "It's not a secret. Lyla used to live here, before you came."

"Oh! I didn't mean it that way! I was just wondering why I never heard about them." Derek just shrugged.

Everyone was gathered in the library.

"Good morning everyone. I . . ." Derek began to say when Nick cut in,

"Hey Derek, Lala called." Rachel's ears perked up, "She says she's flying in from Dallas on Saturday and you have to pick her up. She sounded funny. I think she has an accent."

"Saturday?!? Dallas?!?"

"Oh, yeah, Operations called, too. He said she can have a month or so off to spend here and that you have to keep an eye on his favorite operative." Nick said nonchalantly, catching the ball he was throwing around. Rachel remembered Section One from when the Legacy had helped them solve a supernatural terrorist case. Derek's daughter worked at Section One?!?

"Nick!" Derek yelled.

"What?"

Rachel had volunteered to go with Derek to pick up his daughter out of pure curiosity. She had always wondered what a younger, female version of Derek would look like.

When the plane finally arrived, Derek and Rachel waited by the gate. Derek yelled to the first person off the plane and Rachel's mouth fell open. There stood a girl, with the same dark hair and slate green eyes as in the picture, but she was the exact opposite of what Rachel had imagined. She was wearing a short burgundy dress that drew up into a halter at the neck, with huge black boots that came up to her knees. Her hair was in several loose braids and on her head was a enormous cowboy hat. She had a messenger bag on her hip.

"Hey!" she called in an accent that definitely wasn't all French, but it was something.

"Lyla!" Derek ran over to the girl and picked her up in an embrace. When he put her down she looked up at him and grinned.

"Look what a cute boy in Dallas gave me!" she said, pointing to the hat. Derek's eye's clouded over.

"That's nice. Let's go get your bags."

She had four large, very heavy bags.

"What is in this thing?" Rachel asked, struggling with a enormous, heavy suitcase. Lyla looked back for a minute,

"Shoes." she answered. ‘Hell of a lot of shoes' Rachel thought silently. They put her things in the trunk, then Derek pushed Lyla gently into the car and closed the door after her. Rachel felt that now was a good time to ask what had been on her mind during Derek's introduction at the baggage claim,

"So. Your accent. It sounds French, but sort of British, too."Lyla smiled,

"It is. Acquired while living in Paris for 6 years with my French cousin and in London for 4 years with my Irish cousin."

"Your French cousin. That wouldn't by any chance be Michael Samuelle would it?" Rachel asked, catching the girl's eye in the rear-view mirror.

"It would."

"Her mother's sister's son." Derek explained. "Here we are."

When they got back to the house. Nick was waiting. He picked her up just as Derek had done.

"Bijou!" 'Bijou?' Rachel thought.

"Hey honey-honey."

"Cute accent." Lyla stuck out her tongue. He then gestured to her bags, "You got enough luggage?"

"Yeah, you know me, always prepared."

"Hey Lala!" Alex said, coming down the stairway.

"Lex!!" the two embraced and then Lyla headed up the stairs.

"Alex, wait." Rachel said when Natalya was out of view. "So. Not to be nosy, but, what's the relationship there?"

"You mean Nick and Lala? Well, they've been best friends since birth. Plus Lala's got this whole protective maternal instinct thing going. She's a year younger than him but she's almost like his mother. Just between us, though, Nick has a thing for her."

"Really. That's very interesting. I'll have to get to know her better, she sounds very complex. By the way, what's up with Bijou?" Alex choked with laughter,

"It’s French. It means little jewel or something small. Her cousin Michael called her that when she was little and it kinda stuck with Nick."

Later that day Rachel went to knock on her door. The music was playing loudly. Rachel could clearly make it out:

"Bailamos . . . let the rhythm take you over bailamos . . . gonna live this night forever bailamos . . ." Rachel could hear Lyla singing. She knocked and a shout of "Come in!!"came from behind the door. Rachel opened the door and gasped. She had no idea that such a room could exist in such an old house.

The walls were covered in magazine ads, pictures, and posters. The bed was against one wall, and the bedspread was furry and blue. There were stuffed gorillas everywhere and all the other seating furniture was inflatable. The only lighting was about twenty strings of lights that ranged from Christmas lights to flamingos to Winnie-the-pooh. Lyla was standing on the bed doing a little latina dance and Nick was sitting on the air sofa playing with a black laptop.

Lyla jumped off the bed and turned off the stereo.

"Hey!"

"Uh, hi." Lyla had changed her clothes. She now wore baggy cargo pants and a black shirt with the word "Devils" printed across the front in red. Nick looked up and blinked.

"Rachel." he said, not sounding enthused.

"Um, I'm interrupting. I'll come back later."

"No, wait." Natalya tried to stop her.

"It's okay, I'll come back some other time." and with that Rachel was gone.

The next morning Lyla came down the stairs in Elmo PJs, dragging a stuffed orangoutang. Rachel looked at her watch. 11:50.

"Geez, you people get up early. Why would anyone want to be awake at this ungodly hour?"

"Right Bij. Hon, it's almost noon." Nick said from the couch.

"Humn. Schmerz poofs (woeful cheesy poofs). I didn’t fall asleep until 5. My eyes are blurry and I can't read my watch. Well, zdraustvui (Good Morning) anyway." she said, fingering the stopwatch that hung around her neck. "Jet lag." she yawned.

She then went to the kitchen and began to rifle through cabinets and the refrigerator. She pulled out pixy stix, hot chocolate mix, Froot Loops, milk, peppermint tea bags, and Oreos. She put the mix in the milk and crumbled up the Oreos in it, too. Using the hot water on the stove, she put in the tea bags and made tea. She then put some more milk into a Star Wars bowl, added Froot Loops and pixy crystals. Rachel cringed.

"God, she eats like she's pregnant!" Alex exclaimed.

"You aren't, are you?" Derek asked.

"Dad! Of course not." she answered indignantly. Ten minutes later,

"Natalya Eve Rayne, what in the hell is that thing on your arm!?!" Derek bellowed, pointing at the band that encircled her forearm. Lyla cringed,

"It's a tattoo. Don't you like it?" there was a pause, "I guess now's not the best time to tell you about my bellybutton ring, verdad (Right?, True?)"

Lyla pulled up her Elmo top slightly, revealing a small, shiny silver ring. Derek cursed in Dutch at the top of his lungs as Lyla made her hasty escape.

Rachel found herself going down the stairs that afternoon, following the sounds of 98° "Because of You". In the den sat Natalya with piles and piles of pictures. She looked up and smiled at Rachel.

"I should probably take some of these with me when I travel, but I know I'd just lose them." Rachel sat down next to the girl, and picked up an old picture of a little Nick in a tux and a little Natalya in a tight dress. "He paid me to be his Bond girl for Halloween when we were 8."

Rachel smiled.

"I find it amazing that with Section you can lead such a normal life." Rachel said, picking up a picture from Natalya's Junior Prom, where she was wearing a blue dress.

"My contract with Section is somewhat looser than other peoples." she handed Rachel a picture of her, a blonde, a dark brunette, and a light brunette. They all had on camouflage pants, matching tanks, and bandana's on their heads. "That's my team, Anja, Dachia, and Zoey."

"What are you planning to do after graduation?" Rachel asked, moving a picture of the four girls in a fancy restaurant to pick up a picture of Natalya singing.

"Don't know. I was thinking college in Italy, or maybe Semester at Sea. I'd like to do lots of things, study music, dance, cooking, poetry, language. I just haven't decided yet." she turned the question time in the other direction. "So, are you and my dad a couple."

Rachel was taken aback. "Would that make you happy." she asked, turning psychologist. Natalya shrugged.

"It'd be good for him." they were silent, each hit with an understanding of the other.