**Sidekick Showcase ~ #21 ~ Keeping it in the Family**

Sidekick Showcase (previously known as Sidekick Saturday) is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jaclyn at JC's Book Haven. There are many secondary characters that are as great as the primaries. In some cases, the sidekicks actually steal the show and you like them better than the heroine or hero. Maybe they didn't have enough page time for how great they were. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Choose a sidekick *or someone other than the hero or heroine* that you would like to put in the spotlight that fits in this week's type
• Share a picture (if possible) and information about the character
• Give the title and author of a book the character can be found in
• Please don't include too many spoilers when describing why the character is such a great sidekick
• Put your link in the Linky thing and comment

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This week's theme is 
Keeping it in the Family - relative of the hero-ine).  

My pick is
Betty, Zara's Grandma
from Carrie Jones' Need Series

I'm thinking it's because I have such an amazing grandma, that when I read this week's theme, Grandma Betty immediately came to mind. Betty is one cool grandma. She's an EMT, doesn't take any guff from anyone, particularly her granddaughter, and, oh, she's occasionally a tiger. Yep, a kick-ass, shapeshifting tiger! Cool, huh? This ability comes in handy when fighting off all those mean pixies!

Zara comes to stay with Betty (Gram) after her stepdad dies. She has been seeing a man, who seems to be stalking her. Zara doesn't know if it's her imagination or not, but her mother sends her to Betty. Zara soon learns Betty was the best place for her, as her stalker is not imaginary.

***

"She's shoving me off to the land zero population growth to keep me sane?"
"Little bitter there, sweetheart?"
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry."
Betty smiles. "Bitter is better than nothing. From what your mom says you've been awful depressed, nothing like your normal stubborn, save-the-world self."
-Zara & Betty, Need

"You really saw him?" I ask.
"Of course, I did. Why did you ask?"
"You'll think I'm stupid."
"Who says I don't already?" She laughs so I know she's joking.
"You are one mean grandmother."
"I know..."
-Zara & Betty, Need

"Grandma Betty slams out of the ambulance and power strides across the snow, speaking into her radio and hauling her EMT bad. Only a flicker in her eye betrays any emotion. She is all business. There are no hugs from her right  now. She leans toward me, hovers over my face, and checks my eyes."
-Captivate

"Zara, sympathy is just a good excuse to buy greeting cards and make sorry eyes and secretly gloat over how glad you are that you aren't the person whose crap is hanging out there for the world to see," Betty says.
-Captivate

...Betty doesn't ask anyone's permission;; she just pushed a button on the remote and the TV clicks off...
"Why did you shut it off?" I ask, gesturing to the TV.
"It's not telling us anything we don't already know," Betty says. She puts her hands right above her knees and pushed herself up to a standing position. My mother starts to stand too, but Betty barks at her. "You stay put. I'm just getting some tea."
Betty strides off to the kitchen muttering about being stuck in a house with a gunshot victim, a fainter, and a pixie.
-Entice