hmmph. For some reason I kept trying to make excuses for LMB w.r.t. Tej, but finally I had to concede that you're right, it was all just to make her Awesome For Ivan. Grrr.

Yeah, I'd love to see *anyone* write the parenting-while-saving-the-world story (the only one I can think of offhand is a lovely little understated story by Connie Willis), sigh.