Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On the TV screen, a Pidgey was facing off against a Magneton on a grassy battlefield. In the upper right-hand corner, in between Magneton’s name and its low-yellow health bar, was the word POISON in purple letters, while Pidgey’s battle info—its name, dangerously low-red health bar, and the yellow PARALYZE—was in the opposite corner. An unseen announcer commentated as Magneton used Screech, only for the Defense-lowering move to miss Pidgey.

Before Pidgey could attempt to launch an attack, Magneton’s health decreased to zero. The defeated Magnet Pokémon shook as though having a seizure before its metal components broke apart and it returned to its Poké Ball.

“And there goes the battle!” the announcer exclaimed as the victory music started playing, accompanied by the bright orange End Battle! text below the image of Pidgey.

“Yes! I won!” Grace cheered from where she sat on the couch, pumping a fist into the air.

“Aw, man,” Neil groaned, setting his controller aside. “This stinks. I was so sure I could win!”

“Congratulations, Grace,” Eva said, stepping from the living room’s threshold and to her husband’s side of the couch. “And congratulations for getting beaten by a six-year-old,” she told Neil, who had his lower lip stuck out in an exaggerated pout.

“Must you rub it in when I’m already feeling lousy?”

“Sorry, Daddy,” Grace said, patting Neil on the arm with the hand that wasn’t holding her controller, her green eyes earnest. “But you did really good! You’ll win next time, I promise!”

Neil looked down and gave Grace a smile. “Thanks, princess.” He pretended to sniffle. “At least someone here believes in me.”

Eva had to disguise her chuckle as a cough. She knew perfectly well Neil’s little sore-loser attitude was just for show, even if Grace thought he was being serious.

“But hey,” Neil continued, “remember that prize we agreed on?”

“That’s right!” Grace’s olive face lit up as she turned her attention to Eva. “I get to battle you next, Mama!”

“Really?” Eva smiled teasingly. “You sure you want to do that? I’m not as much of a soft touch as Daddy.”

Grace nodded vigorously as Neil gasped in feigned offense. “Eva, I am not a soft touch!”

“Whatever you say, Neil.” She saw with her own two eyes how he had his second to last Pokémon, Snorlax, keep using Rest while Grace maxed out Pidgey’s evasiveness with Double Team. If that wasn’t her husband being a soft touch when it came to their little girl, then nothing was.

Neil handed his controller to Eva and pulled Grace into his lap to give Eva room to settle on the couch. Grace pressed a button to return to the Free Battle screen and reselected her registered team: Butterfree, Pidgey, a female Nidoran, Clefairy, Eevee, and Flareon. On Eva’s turn to pick a team, she selected Vileplume, Parasect, Poliwag, Tentacruel, Gastly, and Porygon from the list of rental Pokémon. After both mother and daughter had chosen the order their Pokémon would be listed in, the screen returned to the grassy battlefield.

“The Free Battle is on!” the announcer began as Grace’s Butterfree and Eva’s Poliwag emerged from their Poké Balls. “The champions of tomorrow have begun their super-hot battle!”

The first attack made by Poliwag was Surf, which took out less than fifty points of Butterfree’s health. Butterfree countered by paralyzing Poliwag with Stun Spore, then draining about half its health with Mega Drain. Poliwag managed to resist its paralysis in order to use Amnesia to increase its Special, but one Psychic and then a second Mega Drain from Butterfree were enough for Poliwag to go down.

“What was that you were saying about a soft touch?” Neil asked with a grin as Poliwag was withdrawn into its Poké Ball.

Eva’s only response was to select her next Pokémon. The minutes passed as the battle went on, and the room was filled with the sound effects of the Pokémon’s moves, the commentary of the announcer, and—best of all—Grace’s happy giggles whenever Neil tickled her ribs.

Whether Eva won or lost, if Grace was having the time of her life, then that was all that mattered.

Chapter Text

In the nearly twenty years and counting that she’d spent as a memory traversal agent, Eva heard her share of criticism about the work she did. Whether from anti-Sigmund protesters or family members of clients, accusations of invading the privacy and disrespecting the original memories of dying people had been flung around more times than she cared to admit. The more radical of such people even deemed those who worked in memory alternation as fraudulent murderers, claiming that the latter didn’t truly grant their patients’ last wishes, but instead used the machine to kill them.

After almost half a lifetime of being a Sigmund Corp. employee, Eva liked to think that she had developed a pretty thick skin. Long gone were the days when a single protest outside headquarters could unnerve her enough to wonder if the critics were right. Still, it didn’t mean that certain criticisms didn’t bother her sometimes, particularly if they were less about her job itself and more about how her job affected other aspects of her life.

Driving home from a birthday party for one of Grace’s kindergarten classmates, Eva found her mind wandering to the conversation she’d had with Mariko Reynolds, a fellow mother whose daughter was also in Grace’s class. Well, it was less a conversation and more like an impeccably polite diatribe. As tempted as she’d been to take a leaf out of Neil’s book and come up with some rude answer to Mariko’s condescending remarks, she had forced herself to stay civil, not wanting to start drama at a six-year-old girl’s party.

Eva glanced into the rear view mirror and smiled to see Grace napping peacefully in her car seat, her long black hair covering half of her face. In the passenger’s seat, Neil looked over his shoulder and gave their daughter a quick, fond grin.

“Gracie’s got the right idea,” he told Eva. “Do you realise that I had about thirty minutes of my life stolen by a dad who thought I’d be interested in listening to him blather on about bathroom renovations? I was about to drop off to sleep standing up. That, or start throwing cupcakes at him.”

“Hmm,” was Eva’s only response, her smile having faded.

“What, no clever quip?” Neil asked rhetorically. “Don’t tell me you’re bored just hearing about my boredom.”

“No, it’s not that, I was just...” Eva’s voice trailed off as they stopped at a red light.

“You were just...?” he prompted after a few seconds.

“I was thinking about what Mariko said to me.”

“Who’s Mariko?”

“Cassie’s mother.”

“Was Cassie the birthday girl?”

“No, that was Jessica. Cassie’s the one with long red hair.”

“Oh.” The light turned green and Eva resumed driving before Neil asked, “So, what exactly did Mariko say?”

“Well, for starters,” Eva said, “she told me how difficult it must be for us, having to leave Grace with a nanny because of our full-time jobs.”

Neil snorted; they were both quite familiar with subtle and not so subtle jabs about their decision to hire someone to look after their daughter while they worked. “Was that a dig at us for supposedly caring more about our jobs than our kid? Or did she think Grace loves Ruth more than us?”

“I didn’t ask. She also said that children of parents who work in memory alternation are statistically more likely to have emotional problems and difficulties in school.”

Neil was silent a moment. “I suddenly have the very strong urge to ask you to turn this car around and go back so I can yell at this B-I-T-C-H.”

Eva shook her head. “It wouldn’t be worth it, Neil.”

“Sure it would,” he insisted. “It’d get Mariko off her high horse.”

“Kitties...” Grace murmured before Eva could reply. She looked into the mirror again and watched Grace happily smile in her sleep, her heart melting at the sight. Eva would have given up her right eye if it meant her daughter could always be so happy as to find joy in a dream about kittens.

“We are doing right by her, aren’t we?” she asked after a moment.

“Hey, c’mon, Eva.” Neil slid his fingers through her hair. “Everyone not totally braindead knows statistics are bunk. That woman doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“No one said Grace would always be okay with us working so much.”

“Grace knows we love her. That’s gotta count for something.”

When Eva didn’t say anything, Neil sighed. “Y’know,” he said, “I stopped caring what people think of how we live our lives a long time ago. I wish you would, too.”

“I don’t care if Mariko wants to insinuate things about us, but when it’s about our daughter...”

Neil paused, his hand leaving Eva’s hair. “You sure you don’t want to turn the car around so I can yell at her?”

“And give her an excuse to sue us for emotional distress? Not a chance.”

“Emotional distress, my foot,” Neil scoffed. “If that was legit grounds for a lawsuit, I could’ve sued the maintenance department a million times over.”

Eva rolled her eyes, but she still felt the corners of her mouth twitching upward at the image of Neil repeatedly suing the maintenance department for emotional distress caused by what he thought of as their incompetence. If that was his way of making her feel better, she couldn’t say it wasn’t working. And he wasn’t wrong—Grace did love them dearly even if their jobs didn’t allow them to spend as much time with her as they would’ve liked. As for Grace’s school performance, her teacher hadn’t given them any cause for concern so far—Grace hadn’t had any nervous breakdowns or temper tantrums, and she was doing well in her lessons about the alphabet, shapes, and simple addition and subtraction. And even if—or when—problems eventually came up, not only could those problems be solved, it wouldn’t make Eva or Neil love Grace any less.

“You know what?” Neil said at length, laying his hand on Eva’s knee. “Grace had fun at the party, I survived banal suburbia, and you endured Mariko’s judgemental ignorance. Why don’t we order hamburgers for dinner tonight?”

“Neil, we have hamburger meat at home,” Eva protested.

“Yeah, but that would involve one of us doing the cooking.”

“You love cooking.”

“Even the most awesome chefs need a night off, doll.”

Eva raised an eyebrow. “And I can’t just make hamburgers at home because...?”

Neil gave a half-shrug. “Consider it your reward for not biting Mariko’s head off even though she would’ve deserved it. You didn’t, right?”

“You’d be the first to hear it if I did.”

“So whaddya say?” Neil squeezed Eva’s knee, causing her to gasp a little. “You can choose the burger joint if you want.”

“...I guess I can think about it.”

“In Eva-ese, that means yes,” Neil said, grinning.

Eva grunted softly, once again fighting back a smile. At this point, what Mariko Reynolds thought about anything was the last thing on her mind.

Chapter Text

One week had passed since Grace’s birth, and Neil didn’t know which was worse—being away from his daughter all day and part of the night because of his job, or having to work with some recently hired nobody while his wife was on maternity leave. When he wasn’t mentally counting up all the reasons why his temporary partner paled in comparison to Eva (the kid wasn’t as smart as Eva, as witty as Eva, as fun to banter with as Eva...), he was worrying about how Grace was doing. Did she look healthy? Was her temperature normal? Was she in any pain? So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary as far as Grace’s health was concerned, but even so, Neil always felt better when he could see for himself that she was okay.

It was shortly after eleven P.M. when Neil made it home. He strode into the house without even bothering to take off his lab coat and found his family in his and Eva’s room, Grace sleeping in her bassinet and Eva lying in bed, half-asleep herself. Neil took a moment to gaze down at his daughter and gently stroke her jet black hair before going to his side of the bed, taking off his shoes and lying down.

“Hey there,” he whispered to Eva, pulling her close to him and giving her a quick kiss.

“Why’re you still dressed?” she asked softly after they broke apart.

“Lovely to see you, too, dear.” Neil let out a quiet snort. “I’ll get into my PJs as soon as my limbs decide to work again.”

Eva hummed. “Figured you’d say something like that.”

“I could’ve said something else, but I’ve come to appreciate kid-friendliness these days. And speaking of kids, how was Grace?”

“Normal. She cried when she was hungry or needed changing, and slept every hour or so. How was work?”

“Brain-numbingly boring without you there.”

It was Eva’s turn to snort. “Aiden can’t be that bad of a partner.”

“Aiden isn’t you, Eva,” Neil said. “Of course he’s that bad. He doesn’t even look old enough to order beer.”

“So you’ve said.”

“All I’m saying is that the higher-ups ought to check if new recruits have real IDs.”

Eva hummed again, then spoke after a moment of silence. “I miss you, too, you know. The house gets really quiet without you.”

“Grace makes plenty of noise herself,” Neil pointed out.

“Sure, when she’s awake,” Eva reminded him, “but even when—”

She never got to finish; from both the bassinet and the baby monitor on the night table (three months ago, Neil didn’t understand why Eva would want a baby monitor if the baby was going to be sleeping in their room for a long while—now he did), Grace started wailing.

“I’ll get her,” Neil said quickly as Eva sat up. He got up from bed and hurried to the bassinet, gathering the baby in his arms.

“Is she wet?” Eva asked while Grace continued crying.

Neil checked. “No. You think she’s hungry?”

“I breastfed her fifteen minutes before you came home, but...” Eva’s voice trailed off as she watched Grace being rocked and patted by Neil; by now, the baby’s wails were diminishing to whimpers. “No, she’s not. She’s not rooting or sucking her fingers.”

“Maybe she just wants attention. That it, princess?” Neil lifted Grace to his shoulder and rubbed her back, his voice becoming soft. “You just want a cuddle? Don’t worry, Daddy can do that. Daddy’s got ya.”

Soon enough, Grace stopped whimpering and relaxed in Neil’s embrace. He held her for a little while longer before reluctantly returning the now sleeping baby to her bassinet.

When he returned his attention to Eva, he found that she was lying back down, her face in her pillow and her shoulders shaking. He went back to bed, calling her name, and she rolled around to face him, her cheeks wet with tears.

“I think I need a cuddle now,” she choked out, pulling him into a hug and burying her face into his neck. Her breath came out in gasps. “Cucumbers, just seeing you with her, holding her...”

“Does something to your hormones, huh?” Neil said, wrapping his arms around her.

Eva sniffled. “Don’t take it too personally. This afternoon, I cried over a flowers commercial.”

“That must’ve been one heck of a commercial.”

She sniffled again, and they stayed in each other’s arms, the only sounds in the room being Eva’s stifled, hormone-induced sobs and Grace’s breathing. It was a few moments before Eva calmed down and the two could get ready to sneak in some sleep.

Chapter Text

Eva had put a lasagna in the oven and finished making a salad before she heard the phone ring. She picked up on the second ring and pressed the phone to her ear.

“Neil, where are you?” she asked. “Dinner’s almost ready.”

He ignored her question. “Eva, pink or blue?”

“Neither—green.”

“Huh?”

“Are you asking me my favorite color?”

“No, I’m asking you if I should get a pink or blue Princess Aurora costume for Grace.”

“I thought we agreed she’d be a pumpkin this year.”

“Eva, everyone and their dog is going to be a pumpkin this year. Literally—I just overheard some lady saying she wants a pumpkin costume for her dog.”

“So? The pumpkin costume’s a classic.”

“And therefore too mainstream. Which brings us back to my original question: pink or blue?”

“Well, if you’re going to be changing Grace’s costume at the last minute, I’d say blue.”

“Grace is pretty girly, though. She’d love the pink dress.”

“Blue would go better with her skin and bring out her eyes.”

“Dear Lord, Eva, this ain’t a beauty contest. Though, if it were, she’d totally win. Our girl’s the prettiest thing this side of Jupiter. She gets it from her mother.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, Dr. Watts,” Eva said, hoping he could hear her eye-roll over the phone.

“Really, Dr. Rosalene?” Neil asked, amused. “’Cause that’s not what I heard you say last—”

“Anyway,” Eva cut him off before he could finish, feeling heat creep into her cheeks, “why are you asking in the first place if you’ve already decided on pink?”

“I wanted my wife’s opinion. Nothing wrong with that.”

“As long as you actually do want your wife’s opinion.”

“What’s Grace doing, anyway?”

“Playing in the living room. Why?”

“Ask her. It’ll break the tie.”

“Seriously, Neil?”

“Just ask her, the line’s moving fast.”

Eva sighed and headed to the living room, where her three-year-old daughter was brushing the hair of one of her dolls. “Grace, pink or blue?”

“Pink!” Grace exclaimed at once, beaming up at her mother.

“Did you hear that?” Eva asked into the phone.

“One pink Aurora costume coming right up. I’ll be home soon.”

“Don’t run over any squirrels.”

“Oh, ha-ha.”

And with that, Eva ended the call and went back to the kitchen to return the phone to its base. She returned to the living room and got down on the carpet next to Grace, rubbing the toddler’s back.

“I should have known you’d choose pink,” she said, smiling slightly. “Does Daddy know you well, Grace?”

“Yes.”

Eva kissed Grace’s head, her smile widening.

Chapter Text

“Ohhh, they’re so cute!” Grace gushed as she stared into a pen of six mewling kittens.

An animal shelter employee, a middle-aged woman with graying brown hair, smiled down at the seven-year-old girl. “You like those little guys, don’t you?”

“Uh-huh!” Grace got up from where she’d been kneeling on the floor and gave Eva and Neil a pleading look. “Can I have them all, please? Please?”

“Now, Grace, we talked about this,” Eva reminded her. “We agreed that one kitten is enough, remember? And those kittens look too young for us to adopt anyway.”

If Eva had to guess, the kittens—one Siamese, one black, one ginger, and three gray with black stripes—were about eight weeks old. Although eight weeks was the minimum age where kittens were deemed old enough to be given to a new home, with Eva and Neil’s unpredictable work hours and Grace having to go back to school in little under a month, Eva would rather they got an older kitten.

“But Mama—”

“Is right, hun,” Neil interrupted. “I know tiny kittens are adorable, but they’re not old enough to be home alone all day.”

Grace’s face fell.

“If you’re looking for an older kitten,” the woman told Eva and Neil, “we’ve got some right over here.”

As they followed the woman to the back of the room, passing more pens containing kittens of various breeds and colors, Eva heard Neil loudly whisper to Grace, “If you like the older kittens, I’ll try to convince Mama to get you two of them.”

“I heard that,” Eva said, raising an unamused eyebrow at Neil. Going from agreeing with her to being soft on their daughter in less than a minute had to be some kind of record.

“Here we are,” the woman announced before Neil could reply. She gestured towards a pen with two white Persian kittens who were play fighting with each other. “These two are twelve weeks old.”

Grace perked up and once again knelt by the pen. “Aw, they’re cute, too!” she exclaimed happily. “And really fluffy!” She got to her feet and turned her attention to Eva, clasping her hands in front of her. “Mama, can we—”

“No, Grace,” Eva cut in firmly, “we’re not getting two kittens.”

“Oh, come on, Eva,” Neil protested. “Two kittens could keep each other company when we’re not at home.”

“And two kittens mean more fun!” Grace chimed in.

“Two kittens mean two food bowls, two water dishes, and four litter boxes to look after,” Eva pointed out. “Not to mention doubling the chances of our furniture getting torn to shreds.”

Neil tsked. “How very pessimistic of you, dumpling.”

“You won’t be saying that after two kittens destroy our couch, climb our curtains, and knock over our TV.”

Grace opened her mouth to say something, but was distracted by meowing coming from another pen. Against the left-hand wall, an American Shorthair kitten that looked a few weeks older than the two Persians was batting at the pen’s glass door. The kitten’s short, smooth fur was white with black and red patches on its head, back, and tail, and it was staring at Grace with almond hazel eyes.

Grace stepped closer to get a better look at the kitten. “Hello there, kitty,” she said. “Were you talking to me?”

The kitten meowed again, and Grace giggled.

“Looks like you won’t have to worry about two fluffy little terrors after all,” Neil quietly deadpanned to Eva.

“You say that like I was about to cave in,” was her whispered retort.

“Would you like to pet her?” the woman was asking, and Grace nodded eagerly. The woman opened the pen and gently picked the kitten up in her arms. Grace petted the kitten’s head and stroked her chin, and the kitten purred at the affection.

“Her fur’s so soft,” Grace murmured. With one last pet on the head, Grace turned to Eva and Neil with a bright smile. “I’m naming her Maizie!”

“Wow, you named her already?” Neil asked rhetorically, grinning. “She must be a keeper, eh, Eva?”

“Must be,” Eva agreed.

Later, as they walked out of the shelter with Maizie in Grace’s arms, their daughter chattering excitedly to her new pet, Eva silently thanked her lucky stars that Grace hadn’t been enamored enough over the younger kittens to give them names.

Chapter Text

“...and then Bianca ditched us to go to the mall with some boys!” Grace finished in exasperation as she rinsed a glass and stuck it in the upper rack of the dishwasher.

“Sounds like she hasn’t been a good friend lately,” Neil commented, washing a plate and handing it to Grace. It was his night to do dishes with her help, and he’d just spent the last several minutes listening to her vent about her day, which had apparently been ruined in no small part by Bianca, one of Grace’s closest friends since kindergarten.

Grace huffed. “You can say that again,” she went on, rinsing the suds off the plate. “Did I tell you that Molly and I had to listen to her blather on about if James or Jason was cuter? They’re twins—they look exactly the same! And they’re dumber than rocks! What’s so cute about that?” She pushed the upper rack in with a little more force than necessary and stooped to put the plate in the lower rack.

The corners of Neil’s mouth involuntarily twitched upward—of course he and Eva would’ve made a kid who had no patience for idiocy. Out loud, while scrubbing the next plate, he said, “I’m sorry you had to listen to it, princess.”

“I just wish things could go back to normal,” Grace said. “Y’know, hang out at each other’s houses, talk about something that isn’t boys...”

“I can see if I can get a hold of her medical history if you want. Maybe Bianca’s got an advanced case of the flu. Or an alien might’ve taken her over.”

Grace laughed.

“Neil, don’t joke like that,” Eva’s voice broke in.

Neil looked over his shoulder to see his wife giving him a disapproving frown from the living room. Eva was sitting in an armchair with her laptop on her lap, and a snoozing Maizie was curled up on the carpet near her feet.

Grace’s laughter subsided as she also looked over at her mother. “Well, Daddy’s not really wrong. Bianca’s totally become a different person!”

“Raging hormones have nothing to do with alien takeovers,” Eva pointed out.

“Maybe not,” Neil said, “but if she’s choosing boys over friends, I say Grace drop her like a hot tamale.”

“Yeah!” Grace agreed. “Then she’d know what it feels like to be ditched!”

“Grace, that’s not very nice,” Eva chided.

“But Bianca isn’t being nice either!”

“She’s got a point there,” Neil said, now not bothering to hide his amused grin.

Eva rolled her eyes. “Just finish up and we’ll talk more about this later.”

Afterward, once all the dishes had been washed, rinsed, and put in the dishwasher to dry, Neil and Grace went into the living room, where Eva was now sitting on the couch, her laptop left on the chair. Grace made to scurry down the hallway, but Eva spoke up before she could get very far.

“It’s now later, Grace.”

Grace pouted. “I thought ‘later’ meant ‘bedtime.’”

“It didn’t. Come here.”

With a sigh and slumped shoulders, Grace walked to the couch and sat down next to Eva, while Neil stepped over to their daughter’s side of the couch.

“You remember those talks about puberty we’ve had?” Eva asked. “About getting breasts and times of the month and all that?”

“Please, there are men and cats present!” Neil interjected.

Grace only nodded.

“Well,” Eva continued, “that’s what Bianca’s going through right now. She can’t help that her body’s hormones are changing. Is that worth losing a friend over?”

“I’m not the one who decided I didn’t like my friends anymore!” Grace argued. “Or that the universe revolves around boys!”

Eva put a hand on Grace’s shoulder. “Look, I’m not saying it’s wrong to feel frustrated about Bianca’s boy obsession—”

“Especially if these boys are making rocks look like they’re related to us,” Neil quipped.

“But I think you can try to be more patient with her,” Eva went on as if he hadn’t said anything. “Some girls go boy-crazy for a while and then calm down about it. It doesn’t mean Bianca likes you and Molly any less.”

Grace raised an eyebrow, looking highly skeptical and even more like her mother than usual.

“You’ll be going through this sort of thing, too, you know,” Eva said, dropping her hand from Grace’s shoulder.

“No, I won’t!” Grace protested.

“Eva, don’t say that!” Neil exclaimed at the same time, abruptly feeling dinner churn in his stomach.

“Every kid experiences puberty,” Eva told Grace, unfazed by the reactions she’d gotten. “Like it or not, it’s a part of growing up.”

Grace crossed her arms, scowling. “If growing up means getting a head full of nothing but boys, then I don’t want to grow up.”

“Hear, hear,” Neil said.

Eva shook her head. “You say that now, Grace, but one day, you may decide boys who aren’t Daddy aren’t so bad after all. Right now, though, give Bianca some time. I promise her boy-craziness won’t last forever.”

“Okay,” Grace said, not sounding convinced. She stood up from the couch. “Can I go now?”

“You can.”

Grace left the living room and disappeared down the hall. Once he knew she was out of earshot, Neil sighed and sat down in Grace’s previous spot on the couch.

“Can’t we skip the part of puberty where our daughter starts liking boys?” he asked Eva.

“The answer is highly likely to be no,” she replied. She smiled a bit. “Sorry, Neil.”

His only response was to groan and hope—not for the first time—that certain effects of puberty would take its sweet time to arrive.

Chapter Text

“There ya go, princess.” Neil looked up from where he’d put a unicorn Band-Aid on the back of Grace’s hand and helped her get down from the bathroom counter.

Grace sniffled. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“Can you tell me what happened now?” Neil asked. Earlier, he’d heard Grace wail in pain and immediately ran from the living room to his and Eva’s bedroom. There, he’d found a torn piece of blue clothing, his weeping daughter on her knees and clutching at her hand, and Maizie, who darted out of the room like she was being chased by dogs. The last time Neil had seen his daughter and her cat had only been about five minutes ago, when they’d been playing in Grace’s room, and he’d had no idea what could’ve happened to make Grace so upset so quickly. In any case, she’d been crying too hard to tell Neil what was going on, but a hug, some soothing noises, and tending to her scratch had more or less calmed her down.

“Maizie was staring out at the snow,” Grace said. “I thought she wanted to go play outside, so I tried to put a sweater on her.”

“Why would she need a sweater? She’s got a fur coat.”

“Yeah, but it’s short. Short fur means she gets cold easier than cats with long fur.”

“So how’d that work out for you?”

An unhappy frown crossed Grace’s face. “Maizie didn’t like it. I tried telling her the sweater would keep her warm, but she kept making noise and moving around.”

“And getting her claws into anything that touched her?”

Grace nodded, not realizing that Neil was being rhetorical.

“Well,” he continued, “now we know, right? No putting clothes on the kitty.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

“Whose sweater did you use, anyway?”

“One of Mama’s.”

Oh, crap. Neil resisted the urge to groan. Eva was going to kill him when she got back.

“Am I gonna get grounded?” Grace asked, looking at her father anxiously.

Neil tried to smile. “No, no, hun; you’re not going to get grounded.” Eva would be angry enough to lecture Grace, certainly, but she didn’t love that blue sweater that much. “I think Mama will want to talk about not messing with her stuff, though.”

Eva would also bite Neil’s head off about not keeping an eye on what their daughter was doing, but Grace didn’t need to hear that.

Chapter Text

Neil swore softly as the tape he was working with somehow wrapped around his finger and stuck to itself. He abandoned Grace’s partially wrapped present long enough to peel the tape off and get a new one. The last flap of the Christmas-tree-and-snowman-decorated wrapping paper was quickly sealed, and Neil grabbed a red bow from the bag sitting on his and Eva’s bed to stick on the newly wrapped box.

He was about to get a label for the present when he heard the door open. Neil turned to see Eva walking in, dressed in pajamas and a bathrobe and holding a mug of something steaming.

“I’d ask if that’s hot chocolate,” he said with a hint of a smirk, “but you’d probably be breaking out in hives if it was.”

“Hilarious, Neil,” Eva deadpanned. “Our diet already takes a nosedive in winter—no need to make it worse by drinking liquid sugar.”

“Eva, if there’s any time of the year when you can drink whatever you want and to hell with the consequences, it’s Christmas.”

“Is that why I haven’t seen you with a single shot of alcohol five Christmases in a row?”

“I just so happen to be setting an example for our little girl.” Neil grinned, then sobered after a few seconds. “So, anyway, I guess Grace is sleeping now?”

Eva nodded. “She’s out like a light.”

“And here I was thinking she’d be too keyed up to fall asleep before midnight.”

“Not even Christmas cheer can overpower genetics.” Eva took a sip of her drink, which Neil belatedly realized from the smell was tea. “Are you done with the gifts?”

“Almost—just gotta finish with Grace’s.”

Neil returned his attention to his daughter’s present and quickly affixed a label on the front, writing To: Grace From: Santa.

“A couple more things left to do,” Eva said, “and then we can go to bed.”

Neil grabbed both Grace’s present and his gift to Eva—a small box wrapped in gold paper—from the bed and followed his wife to the living room. He slipped Eva’s present into her stocking, and she took Grace’s gift from him to put under the tree, next to her present to him, a large, rectangular box wrapped in red paper and topped with a green bow.

With that done, Eva went over to the coffee table and picked up one of the Christmas M&M’s cookies on a plate.

Neil raised his eyebrows. “I thought you said no sugar allowed.”

“I’m willing to put up with a lot for the sake of our daughter,” Eva said, taking a bite out of the cookie. “It’s either this or trying to explain to Grace why Santa didn’t want our cookies.”

“We could tell her that Santa isn’t real.”

“You want to tell a five-year-old that jolly old Saint Nick doesn’t exist?”

Neil paused, imagining Grace’s bright green eyes filling with tears after hearing that Santa was make-believe. “Good point,” he said, snatching up a cookie off the plate and cramming it into his mouth.

Soon enough, all the cookies were eaten, Neil drained the glass of milk next to the plate, and Eva finished with her tea. They returned to their room, where Eva settled herself beneath the sheets and Neil put away the gift-wrapping supplies and got ready for bed. He put his glasses on his night table and flopped down beside Eva, laying an arm around her and pulling her close. She reached up to turn the lamp off before snuggling into him.

Neil fell asleep sometime after Eva. Several hours later (though it felt like only five minutes), he was jolted awake by the sound of the door bursting open.

“Mama! Daddy!” came the loud, excited voice of his daughter. “Wake up! It’s Christmas!”

Neil’s only response was to grunt and close his eyes. He heard Grace jump onto the bed and felt her shake his shoulder.

“Daddy, c’mon,” she urged. “Santa came! We gotta open presents now! Wake up!”

“Five more minutes,” Neil mumbled, his eyes blinking open against his will. Through his blurred vision, he could see that the room was gray.

Apparently deeming him a lost cause, Grace scrambled over Neil to crawl onto Eva.

“Mama, it’s Christmas! Time to wake up! Time to open presents! Come on!”

Neil vaguely heard Eva groan in her sleep as he yawned. After groping for his glasses and putting them on, he sat up and snaked an arm around Grace, pulling her off of Eva and into a hug.

“Let’s let Mama sleep a little longer, yeah?”

“Daddy!” Grace whined, squirming impatiently in Neil’s arms. “We can’t open presents without Mama!”

“We won’t, I promise. But the presents—”

Won’t be going anywhere, was what he was going to say, but Grace cut him off with a stubborn, “Gotta be opened!”

It didn’t take much longer before Neil let her go (he blamed it on still being tired). Grace once again crawled onto Eva and shook her shoulder.

“C’mon, Mama,” she said, her voice only a little quieter than before. “Santa got me a present. Don’t you wanna see what I got?”

Eva groaned again, and Grace stopped shaking her shoulder to lie down and curl herself up on her mother. Neil watched as Eva stirred from sleep, mumbling incoherently, which Grace took as her cue to lift her head and kiss her mother’s cheek.

“Yay, you’re up!” Grace kissed Eva’s cheek again. “Now we can get to the presents!”

Eva let out a sleepy hum, and Neil quickly pulled Grace off of her again as his wife rolled onto her back and stretched her arms upward.

“It’s Christmas now?” Eva slurred, yawning and sluggishly sitting up. She looked around before settling her gaze on Neil and Grace. “It’s still dark.”

“Grace really wanted to wake us up,” Neil told her. “I tried to stop her, but...”

Grace wiggled out of Neil’s grasp and hopped down from the bed. “Daddy, Mama, come on!” she exclaimed, jumping from foot to foot. “I wanna know what Santa brought me!”

“Mama needs coffee,” Eva mumbled as she wiped at her eyes.

“Sorry, hun,” Neil said, smiling apologetically at Grace. “You’re gonna have to wait some more.”

He got out of bed, took his pouting daughter by the hand, and led her out of the room. Eva staggered behind them, pulling on her robe. Neil didn’t let go of Grace’s hand until they were in the kitchen, where he made coffee for Eva and himself. With this done, Grace raced out of the kitchen, into the living room, and over to the tree. Neil and Eva followed after her and sat on the couch, their mugs in hand.

“Daddy, look!” Grace cried. “It’s for me! It says To Grace, From Santa! See?”

“I see it, Gracie,” Neil said, taking a gulp of his coffee.

“Can I open it now?”

“Sure,” Eva said through a yawn, blowing on her coffee before sipping at it.

Within seconds, Grace had torn into her present.

“The Easy-Bake Oven!” she squealed. “This was at the top of my wish list to Santa!”

“He knew you were a good girl all year,” Eva told her, “so he made sure you’d start with the present you wanted most.”

“Mm-hmm!” Grace agreed, clutching the Easy-Bake box to her chest and hurrying to her parents to climb up onto the couch between them. “But Christmas isn’t over yet, right, Mama?”

“That’s right, Grace,” Eva said, stroking the little girl’s hair. “I wrote to Santa saying we’d be going to Aunt Traci and Uncle Aaron’s house on Christmas, and he promised to send the rest of your presents there.”

Neil had to force himself to choke down the last of his coffee at Eva’s words. Aw, damn it, he thought as he put his empty mug on one of the coasters on the coffee table. I was hoping she’d forget. Spending Christmas Day anywhere that wasn’t at home with his wife and daughter was not something he liked doing, but Eva always insisted that they saw her family from time to time. “From time to time” included Christmas, which meant he’d have to spend the day keeping his complaints and snarky comments to a minimum. That was always the hardest thing to do.

Grace, quite oblivious to what was going through her father’s head, hummed happily, hugging her Easy-Bake box tighter. A few moments later, she was asleep, and Eva smiled, pressed a kiss to Grace’s temple, and placed her half-empty mug on another coaster before slowly extracting the box from Grace’s arms and setting it on the coffee table. Eva resettled on the couch, then frowned upon noticing Neil’s sulky expression.

“What?” she asked.

“Can’t we just skip the family visit this year?” he wanted to know.

“Neil.”

“You can call Traci and say I’ve come down with the plague.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “You know you’re not getting out of this.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Still worth a shot.”

Eva just hummed in reply. She eyed the still unopened present under the tree and asked, “So, are you going to open that?”

“I already know what it is,” Neil reminded her.

“What difference does that make? It still needs to be unwrapped.”

“It’s also not a surprise. But since you’re the one who stinks at gifting, that’s a good thing.”

Eva scoffed. “You’re just full of jokes this holiday season, aren’t you?”

“Aren’t I always?” Nonetheless, Neil eased himself off the couch, careful to not disturb Grace, and went over to the tree. He grabbed his present and returned to the couch, where he peeled off the bow and the wrapping paper.

Neil pretended to gasp. “Holy moly, the latest Nvidia graphics card!” He grinned cheekily at Eva. “Never would’ve guessed.”

She reached across Grace to pick the bow up from the couch and stick it on his cheek. Neil scowled, scraping the bow off and flicking it across the living room.

“Y’know, Eva,” he said dryly, “I have half a mind to say that Santa left coal in your stocking.”

Eva snorted at that. “Santa only gives coal to bad kids, and I haven’t been a kid in ages.”

“He could’ve change his policies since then.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Neil gave a casual shrug. “Guess there’s only one way to find out.” He set the Nvidia box on top of Grace’s Easy-Bake box and got up from the couch again. He took Eva’s stocking off the fireplace mantel and brought it over to her.

Eva pressed her fingers to the toe end of the stocking. “It doesn’t feel like coal to me.”

“Unless Santa just wants you to think it’s a normal present,” Neil quipped as he sat back down.

Without another word, Eva tipped the stocking over, the gift landing in her open hand. A couple of seconds passed as she tore through the paper to reveal a white box.

Eva gasped slightly once she opened the box’s lid, lifting a necklace from the bedding. Dangling from a thin silver chain was a single amethyst set in silver.

“This is Grace’s birthstone,” she said.

“Exactly,” Neil said, all banter forgotten for the moment. “Look at the back.”

Eva turned the pendant over. There, engraved into the silver surface, was 2/21—Grace’s birthday.

“Whaddya think?” he asked.

She lowered the hand that was clutching the necklace and looked at him. Smiling softly, she leaned over Grace to kiss Neil on the lips.

“I think it’s beautiful,” she said after pulling away. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” he answered as he watched her open the clasp and bend her neck so she could put the necklace on. “At least now I don’t have to go back to the jeweller and explain why I’m returning it.”

Eva sighed, her smile fading. “A simple ‘you’re welcome’ would’ve sufficed.”

“Sorry, dumpling—couldn’t resist.”

He put an arm around her shoulders, and she didn’t try to shrug him off, so he considered that a win. For a while, they sat together in comfortable silence.

“So what now?” Neil asked at length. “You want to get started on breakfast or take a Christmas nap?”

“Honestly,” Eva replied, “getting two or three more hours of sleep sounds pretty good.”

She stood up from the couch, grabbed their coffee mugs, and headed to the kitchen. He stood as well, leaning down to pick Grace up. She didn’t so much as grunt as he shifted her so that her head rested on his shoulder. Eva soon returned without the mugs, and they went down the hall.

Rather than take Grace to her room, Neil brought her back into his and Eva’s and laid her down in the middle of their bed. There came a moment in every kid’s life when they decided they had outgrown cuddling with their parents, and Neil knew he’d have to savor these moments while he still could.

Eva made no objection to Grace being in bed with them as she slipped out of her robe. She got into bed and kissed their daughter on her cheek. As Neil climbed in on the other side, Eva rose up on her elbow and reached over towards him. He took her hand and kissed the pads of her fingers.

“Fifty bucks says we’ll wake up to find there’s been a blizzard and we’ll have to stay home,” Neil said.

“No betting on Christmas, Neil,” Eva told him.

“Can’t I at least hope for a Christmas miracle?”

She checked to see if Grace was still fast asleep before leaning in and slowly brushing her lips against his. When she next spoke, it was in a whisper.

“How about this? If you can spend the day at my sister’s house without any whining, I just might have something else you can unwrap tonight.”

“Are you bribing me?”

“So what if I am?”

It only took a split second for Neil to respond. “Okay, it’s a deal.”

Eva gave him a slight, amused smile. “Just remember to hold up your end of that deal.”

Chapter Text

“Daddy, can you help me get married?”

Upon hearing the first word, Neil looked up from the paperwork he and Eva were filling out in the dining room, happy that Grace had given him the perfect excuse to ignore job-related crap. When he heard the rest of what she said, however, his heart just about stopped.

“What?!” Neil jumped out of his chair as though someone had lit a fire under it, his pen falling out of his hand and onto the table with a clatter. He heard Eva exasperatedly say his name, but all he could do was stare, completely flabbergasted, at Grace, who was standing in the room’s threshold and flinching in surprise at his outburst.

“What do you mean, get married?” he demanded, blood pounding in his ears. “You’re sixteen—that’s way too young to get married!”

“Daddy, I’m—” Grace began.

“You are not getting married under my roof, young lady!”

“Neil—” Eva started to say.

He interrupted her as a horrible thought suddenly occurred to him. “Wait a minute, do you have a boyfriend?! Are you pregnant!?”

“Good grief, no!” a now red-faced, wide-eyed Grace exclaimed, holding her hands up in protest. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Daddy, I’m not pregnant! And I don’t have a boyfriend!”

Neil was on the verge of saying something derogatory about whoever the punk that had dared to impregnate his little girl was before Grace had even finished, but a second later, his brain fully registered what she’d said.

“Wait, what?” Neil gaped at his daughter. “You’re not? You don’t?”

“Remember to breathe, Neil,” Eva said (when did she get up?), patting him on the shoulder.

Immense relief seeped into his veins as he dragged some air into his lungs. He let out a shaky laugh. “Sorry, Grace. Gut reaction.”

Grace lowered her hands, her face returning to its natural color. “That was some gut reaction,” she commented.

“Well, now that Daddy’s recovered from his near heart attack, do you mind elaborating on what you meant by getting married?” Eva asked, turning her attention to Grace.

“I meant getting married in a game,” Grace said. “I’ve been romancing Sir Alexander in Griffin Age, and I thought I did everything to get us married, but the wedding scene won’t trigger. I figured Daddy would know if I missed something.”

“Uh...” Neil paused, adjusting his glasses just to give himself something to do. “Do you mind waiting a bit, princess? Mama and I’ve still got paperwork that needs filling.”

Eva rolled her eyes, the look on her face blatantly saying, Yeah, as if you weren’t whining about the paperwork five minutes ago.

Grace shrugged. “Okay, that’s fine. Just come into my room when you’re done.”

Eva’s annoyed expression didn’t soften after Grace left the room. “You do realize there are far worse things she could be doing than romancing a character in a videogame, right?”

“Fictional boyfriends are still boyfriends, Eva,” Neil countered.

“Boyfriends who you never have to worry about impregnating Grace.”

“Why must you have a good point?” He sighed and sat back down, staring without really seeing the papers spread out on the table. After a moment of silence, he said, “Wish we could go back to the days when boys had cooties.”

“I’m afraid our daughter was never going to stay little forever.” Eva took Neil’s hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze. “No matter how much we might’ve wanted her to.”

He looked up at her. “So you miss those days, too, huh?”

“Yeah, sometimes,” she admitted, smiling wistfully. “It doesn’t seem that long ago that Grace was asking us for a bedtime story.”

“Do you ever wish we’d had more?”

“More kids, you mean?”

Neil nodded.

Eva frowned. “Well, I can’t say I miss changing diapers, colic, or the terrible twos, but...yeah, sometimes,” she repeated with a soft exhale. “It’s all right, though. I wouldn’t change a day.”

She squeezed his hand again, then continued before Neil could say anything else. “Well, on that sentimental note, why don’t we get back to that paperwork?”

He grimaced as she let go. “You’re joking.”

“You’re stalling,” Eva responded, a teasing smile tugging at her lips. “The sooner we finish, the sooner you can help Grace marry her first boyfriend.”

“Do you think I could use the ‘I forgot because I’m old’ excuse to get out of it?”

Her answer, still accompanied by that small smile, was only one word and not very helpful. “Nope.”

Chapter Text

Eva had to force back a groan upon entering the kitchen of one Brandon Bagshaw and finding Neil pacing the room with his phone at his ear.

“How’s Grace?” he was saying. “Has she gotten any more sleep? Is she still feeling nauseous?”

“Neil, you said you were going to call headquarters,” Eva scolded. What should have been an easy enough case had become complicated by the fact that the machine was failing to properly construct the young adult stage of Brandon’s memories. They’d learned from their patient’s doctor that Brandon had a history of drug abuse, but they wouldn’t be able to figure out how to proceed until they got access to his medical records.

Which Neil was supposed to be taking care of, but instead, he had called Ruth, something he’d been doing every hour since he and Eva left home this morning.

At present, Neil stopped pacing and shot her a glare. “I’m making sure our girl’s still breathing.”

“Brandon’s the one whose breathing you should be worried about.” Eva knew she was sounding harsh, but for the love of God, they had a dying client on their hands. As awful as Grace having the stomach flu was—the sound of her daughter throwing up what little she had eaten for breakfast and sobbing afterward was not something Eva wanted to hear again any time soon—at least it wouldn’t be long before she felt better. Brandon did not have that luxury.

If Neil had some biting comeback for her, Eva never found out. “What was that, Ruth?” he asked, returning his attention to the phone conversation. “Okay, good. Is Grace still awake?”

“No, Neil,” Eva protested, “let her sleep.”

“Too late.” Neil held the phone at arm’s length and pressed a button. “Hey, Gracie.”

“Hi, Daddy,” came Grace’s voice.

“Mama’s here, too—wanna say hi to her?”

“Hi, Mama.”

“Hi, Grace.” Eva stepped over to Neil, mouthing the words, One minute, at him. Out loud, she asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Sick.”

“I’m sorry, honey. Have you at least been able to eat anything today?”

“Ruth made me chicken noodle soup, and I didn’t throw it up.”

“Well, that’s good,” Neil chimed in. “It’s like your tummy gave you a birthday present.”

Grace giggled a little at that, then she asked, “Will I still have a party tomorrow?”

“Let’s see how you’re feeling then,” Eva told her.

“But what if I’m not feeling better?”

“Then we’ll just reschedule. Don’t worry—you’ll still get to celebrate your birthday.”

“Good. I’m a whole hand today, so we gotta have a party.”

Neil let out a feigned gasp. “You’re a whole hand?” he asked, grinning. “What happened to your eyes and hair and everything else?”

Grace giggled again. “You’re silly, Daddy. A whole hand means I’m five.”

“Ah, of course, my mistake.”

“Well, we need to get back to work,” Eva cut in. “Try to get some more rest, okay?”

“Wait,” Neil said, “before we hang up—Grace, whaddya say to having a bunch more balloons for the party?”

“Will they be pink?”

“Sure will.”

“Okay.”

Shortly afterward, goodbyes and “I love you”s were exchanged, and Neil ended the call.

“Neil—” Eva began.

“Yes, Brandon, I know,” he interrupted impatiently. “I’ll call headquarters next thing, all right?”

“I was actually about to say we’re not filling our house with balloons.”

Neil raised his eyebrows at Eva in confusion. “Who said anything about filling our house with balloons? I just want Grace to enjoy her party.”

“Knowing you, you’d buy out a whole store and then some.”

“So? Grace’ll only be five once and she’s had a rough birthday—if anyone deserves an extra fun party, it’s her.”

Eva shook her head. “I’ll tell you all the reasons why going all out for a birthday party won’t be feasible after we’ve finished with Brandon.”

Chapter Text

When Neil didn’t return to the kitchen thirty minutes after leaving with Grace to put her to bed, Eva wasn’t surprised. Despite the baby having settled into some patterns regarding sleep by fifteen weeks—such as the number of naps she took, or the amount of time she spent sleeping—at sixteen weeks, those patterns had been apparently forgotten. Lately, Grace was waking up more often at night, her naps were shorter, and it had gotten more difficult to get her to actually fall asleep. If Neil had managed to get their daughter sleeping in the time it took Eva to clean up after dinner, she would’ve considered it a small miracle.

At present, Eva left the kitchen and headed down the hall next to the living room, figuring that Neil could use some help. She wasn’t even halfway to their bedroom when she heard music playing. Soon enough, she made it to her destination and opened the door to find Neil cradling Grace in his arms, rocking her to the sound of a Marc Cohn song playing from his phone, which was placed on their bed.

“Walking in Memphis,” Neil sang. “But do I really feel the way I feel?”

“Interesting choice of lullaby, Neil,” Eva commented. He gave a start upon realizing she was there, and she continued, trying to keep the amusement out of her voice. “Did ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ go out of style?”

“What can I say?” Neil asked rhetorically. “Grace’s developed a penchant for nineties soft rock.”

Eva couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her throat. “Has she now?”

Neil slowed his rocking. “That, and bath time didn’t help get her to sleep.”

“Hence you trying to lull her with a song about a Jewish gospel music lover.”

“Hey, if it works.”

And it did seem to be working—Grace was now yawning and rubbing at her eyes. As Neil resumed singing, Eva stepped over to the bed to lower the music’s volume. After another moment, Grace’s eyes closed, and Neil walked to her crib and settled her down in it.

“So how long do you think she’ll be asleep?” Neil asked as Eva joined him in front of the crib, a new song beginning to play.

“With the way her schedule’s been? I doubt it’ll be an hour,” she admitted.

“Might as well make the best of it.” So saying, Neil wrapped his arms around Eva and pulled her into a hug, swaying her to the music.

“Tell me that we belong together,” he sang. “Dress it up with the trappings of love.”

Eva had to laugh a bit at that. Smiling, she let Neil continue their impromptu little dance until the song ended.

Chapter Text

The terrible twos may have been a perfectly normal part of child development, but that didn’t mean it was a fun time for the parents who dealt with it. In Grace’s case, it was an everyday cycle of stubbornness, mood swings, and tantrums.

When Eva made it home, she found Neil in the dining room, covered in white macaroni and looking about as miserable as if he’d been given the death penalty. Grace was at the table, sitting in her dining booster seat and also covered in macaroni.

“Trouble with lunch?” Eva asked. The words were barely out of her mouth before Grace threw a fistful of macaroni at Neil’s face.

Neil’s glasses slipped down his nose as he gave Eva a pleading stare. “Please tell me we don’t have this to look forward to when she’s a teenager.”

Eva picked the macaroni out of her husband’s hair and gave him a quick, sympathetic kiss. She then stepped over to Grace, grasping the toddler’s hand and frowning sternly.

“We do not throw our food at Daddy,” she chided.

Grace scowled and wriggled in her seat. She waved her free hand at Eva, hitting her with the rest of the macaroni in her fist. Eva took a deep breath and wiped the pieces of pasta off her face.

“All right, that’s it—time for a time out.” She moved the chair Grace and her booster seat were sitting in so that it faced a corner of the dining room, then went into the kitchen to set the microwave’s timer for two minutes.

Grace screamed and cried as Eva and Neil picked the macaroni up from the floor. Once this was done, Neil leaned against the counter, looking dejected, and Eva patted him on the shoulder.

“I don’t know if Grace got up on the wrong side of her crib or what,” Neil said, “but she pitched a fit over everything. Her toys, naptime...and you saw how she was about eating.”

“It’s just a phase,” Eva told him. “As much as we don’t like it, tantrums are one of the only ways she has to express herself.”

“Yeah, expressing that she doesn’t love us anymore.”

“That’s your depression talking, not you,” Eva said, taking Neil’s hand in hers and squeezing softly.

After the timer went off, Eva returned to the dining room and turned Grace’s chair around. By now, Grace had gone from full-blown crying to quiet whimpering. Eva unbuckled her daughter out of the booster seat and picked her up in her arms.

“Are you done throwing food at people?” Eva wanted to know.

Grace nodded.

“Good.” Eva kissed the top of Grace’s head and brought her to Neil in the kitchen. “Now, tell Daddy you’re sorry and give him a kiss.”

Grace leaned in to kiss Neil’s cheek and pat his face with her sticky hand. “Sowwy, Daddy.”

Neil made a face, but it was quickly replaced with a smile. “Aw, apology accepted, princess.”

Chapter Text

“Mama!”

Eva started from where she was sitting on the couch, dropping the book she’d been reading as Grace jumped into her lap for a hug.

“Hi, Grace,” she said, wrapping her arms around the four-year-old girl. A few hours ago, Neil and Grace left to go to the mall for a father-daughter date, something the two of them had been looking forward to for days. “Did you have fun with Daddy today?”

“Uh-huh!” Grace answered, nodding happily. “Daddy got me lots of pretty stuff!”

“I’ll bet he did.” Eva looked up to see Neil walk into the living room with his hands full of shopping bags.

“Grace’s now got enough pink ribbons, sparkly hairclips, pretty bracelets, and cute dresses to last her a month,” Neil said, dropping the bags on the carpet.

“Well, I sure hope you didn’t spend all our life savings on that month’s supply,” Eva quipped. “Have you had lunch?”

“Brownies!” Grace exclaimed, breaking her and Eva’s hug to leave her mother’s lap, stand up on the couch, and jump up and down.

“No jumping on the couch, Grace.” Eva stood up and took her daughter’s hands to stop her.

“And ice cream!” Grace added as she sat back down.

“Neil!” Eva scolded, whipping around to face her husband. “Brownies and ice cream is not lunch!”

“That was dessert,” Neil corrected, apparently unfazed by her reaction. “Chicken nuggets were lunch.”

“Daddy, can we go out again tomorrow?” Grace asked.

“Sorry, princess,” Neil said, “Mama and I gotta work.”

Grace groaned.

“No worries; you can go out with Daddy again another day,” Eva reassured her. “In the meantime, go run along to your room. Daddy and I need to find space for your new stuff.”

After Grace had done what she was told (“Be careful not to fall!” Eva called as her daughter actually ran out of the living room), Eva turned her attention back to Neil, a stern frown in place.

“If she doesn’t want to eat dinner because she’s had so much sugar, I’m blaming you entirely,” she informed him.

“Oh, c’mon, Eva,” Neil protested. “Dinner’s still hours away—Grace’ll be hungry again by then. And even if she’s not, skipping a meal once in her life isn’t gonna kill her.”

“You still shouldn’t spoil her as much as you do.”

“I don’t spoil her that much.”

“Really?” Eva asked rhetorically, gesturing at the numerous bags still lying on the carpet. “Then why did you buy all this?”

Neil momentarily paused. “Would you believe me if I said Grace couldn’t choose what the prettiest stuff was and decided she wanted everything?”

“Actually, I would,” Eva admitted, her mouth involuntarily twitching upward as she imagined Neil holding out two dresses and Grace pointing at both of them. Even so, she was quick to sober. “But I doubt you tried very hard to limit what she could have.”

“So I have a hard time saying no to our daughter. Are you really surprised?”

“I’d say yes, but I’d be lying.” Eva glanced down at the bags. “Now, if we find enough drawer and closet space for Grace’s new jewelry, hair accessories, and dresses, then I’ll be surprised.”

Chapter Text

To say that Neil had always dreamed of taking his child stargazing would be a bit of an overstatement. For much of his life, having kids wasn’t something he gave a great deal of thought to, and even impregnating Eva had, at the time, felt like it was more about making his wife happy than anything else. That line of thinking changed after Grace was born—from the moment he first saw his newborn daughter and held her in his arms, it seemed insane that there was ever a time when he would’ve been okay with never taking his kid stargazing, let alone never having a kid at all.

He bought the best, most expensive telescope he could find when Grace was only six months old. Eva was livid when she found out the exact price he’d paid for something their daughter might not even want to use, especially since they had a baby to take care of, but Neil was certain that Grace would love watching the night sky as much as he did. With this belief in mind, he stored the telescope in the garage’s closet, kept it dry and free of dust and scratches, and let it wait for the day when his little girl was old enough to appreciate looking at stars.

Grace was four years old when that day came, and just as Neil thought, she was absolutely enraptured by the countless tiny, sparkling lights that dotted the evening sky. At present, Neil and Eva were sitting on a picnic blanket with Grace between them and looking through the telescope. Beneath the family was the green grass of the hill they were on, and above them was the never-ending, dark blue expanse of the starry sky.

“I can see the moon!” Grace exclaimed.

Neil grinned as he glanced up at the silvery half-moon. “Can you see a rabbit’s head and feet, too?”

“No, why?” Grace took her eyes away from the telescope’s eyepiece to give Neil a curious look.

“Daddy’s just joking, Grace,” Eva told her, fixing Neil with a pointed gaze. “And not being very funny, I might add.”

“Funny’s in the eye of the beholder, doll,” Neil quipped. He scooted forward to adjust the telescope’s position until he found a reddish, dusty-looking celestial body. “Hey, Grace, come look at this.”

Grace resumed looking through the telescope. “What is it? Another moon?”

“Nope,” Neil said. “It’s Mars, one of the planets in our solar system. It’s called the Red Planet, you know.”

“But Daddy, it looks orange,” Grace pointed out, frowning at him in confusion. “Shouldn’t Mars be called the Orange Planet?”

“People living thousands of years ago looked at Mars and thought it was red because they didn’t have a word for orange.”

Grace’s frown only got bigger. “But we have the word ‘orange’ now. Why’s Mars still called the Red Planet?”

“It’s been called that for so long that no one wants to change it.”

“Oh.”

“Want to check out some other planets?” Neil asked Grace after a momentary pause. “We won’t be able to see all of ’em, but I can show you Jupiter or Saturn if you want.”

“How many planets are there?” Grace wanted to know.

“Nine,” Neil answered.

“Eight,” Eva said at the same time.

“Hey!” Neil protested, furrowing his brow at his wife. “If Mars can be called the Red Planet when it’s actually orange, then Pluto totally gets to still be a planet.”

“Pluto’s not a planet because it hasn’t cleared its orbit of debris,” Eva reminded him.

“Neither has good ol’ planet Earth, but no one’s demoted that.”

“Earth is big enough to dominate its own orbital space. Pluto isn’t.”

“Oh, so now you wanna pick on Pluto just because it’s little?”

“Look! A shooting star!” Grace cried.

Neil and Eva both started at their daughter’s sudden outburst, then looked up just in time to see a long streak of light finish its course across the sky.

“So pretty!” Grace gushed, turning to her parents excitedly. “Will there be another one?”

“We’ll have to watch and see, hun,” Neil said. He gave Eva a cheeky smirk. “I’ve got my wish all set for the next shooting star.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “If it has to do with Pluto being redefined as a planet, that’s one wish that won’t be getting granted.”

Chapter Text

“Shit.”

It was a good thing Neil wasn’t drinking or eating anything in that moment, or he would’ve choked upon hearing that come out of his three-year-old daughter’s mouth. As it was, he dropped his fork onto his plate and stared, dumbfounded and with his jaw hanging open, at Grace as she scowled at the spilled ground beef from one of the lettuce wraps on her own plate.

And then he threw his head back and laughed, which made Grace start giggling.

“Neil!” he heard Eva exclaim from her seat at the dining room table. “Don’t encourage her!”

“I’m not encouraging her,” Neil managed in between guffaws. “It’s just—man, now I’ve heard everything!”

It was a good few seconds before he could stop laughing. Wiping at his eyes, Neil couldn’t help the grin still on his face as he returned his attention to Grace, who was beaming at him as if she hadn’t been annoyed about two minutes ago.

His grin, however, was quick to disappear once he saw Eva glowering at him.

“Uh...I mean...” Neil cleared his throat, trying to sound as serious as he could. “Please don’t say that word, princess.”

“Why not?” Grace asked, now looking confused.

“It’s a bad word,” Eva explained.

“But I heard Daddy say ‘shit.’”

“What?” It was now Neil’s turn to be confused. Yes, no one could accuse him of having a perfectly swear-free mouth on him, but he’d been careful about how he spoke around Grace for the past three years. When could she have ever heard him cursing?

“Grace, stop saying that,” Eva told her firmly. “And since when are you teaching her those words?” she demanded, fixing Neil with an accusatory glare.

“Since never,” he insisted, raising his hands up in a defensive gesture. “Seriously, Eva, I don’t know how Grace learned that one.”

“I went to show Daddy my kitty,” Grace said. “Then he said ‘shit.’”

“Grace!” Eva scolded.

“Oh, wait, now I remember,” Neil said, lowering his hands. “I got a message about a catastrophic error on my computer earlier. Must’ve said the S word right before Grace came into the den.”

In fact, Neil had been in the middle of running an antivirus program when Grace came bounding to him. She’d been eager to show off her stuffed cat and tell him all she knew about cats in general—that they meowed, that they were soft and fluffy, that they came in different colors—and he’d been all too happy to listen to her while his computer sorted out its issues. The possibility that his daughter could have heard him let loose with a swear word never even occurred to him until now.

“So you did teach her that,” Eva said flatly.

“Not on purpose,” Neil argued.

“Maybe not, but she still heard you say it.”

“Shit!” Grace exclaimed; Neil looked at her again to see that she’d accidentally spilled another lettuce wrap onto her plate.

Eva groaned. “And we’ll have one horseradish of a time getting her to stop saying it.”

Chapter Text

It was pitch black when Neil snapped awake to the sound of pouring rain, roiling thunder, and his and Eva’s door being knocked on. Yawning, he grabbed his glasses from his night table, put them on, and got up from bed to open the door.

Out in the hall, Grace stood shivering with Maizie at her side.

“Something wrong, hun?” Neil asked.

Grace nodded and opened her mouth to speak, but whatever she was going to say was interrupted by a loud thunderclap. She let out a small shriek and leapt towards Neil, wrapping her arms around him.

“Aw,” Neil said, bending down to hug her back, “did the storm wake you up?”

“Uh-huh,” Grace answered. “Can I sleep with you?”

“’Course you can.”

And with that said, Neil led Grace into the room and let her crawl into bed before him. Eva stirred as Maizie jumped up on the bed and curled up at her feet.

“What’s wrong?” she asked as she sat up a little to face Neil and Grace, her voice thick with sleep.

“The storm’s scaring Grace,” Neil explained, returning his glasses to his night stand and sliding back underneath the covers.

As if to prove it, another particularly loud clap of thunder sounded, and Grace yelped and burrowed close to Eva. Eva stroked Grace’s hair and Neil rubbed their daughter’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Grace,” Eva told her gently. “I know the thunder sounds scary, but it can’t hurt you.”

“But it’s so loud, Mama,” Grace said, fear coating her every word. “What if the thunder destroys the house?”

“If it does,” Neil replied, smiling good-naturedly, “Mama will unleash Zombievas on the thunder.”

“Knock it off, Neil,” Eva chided. “Grace, I promise you, the house is strong enough to survive the storm.”

“You sure?” Grace asked.

“I’m very sure.” Eva kissed the top of Grace’s head. “Try to go back to sleep. The storm will be over before you know it.”

Neil waited until Grace was asleep before settling back down to return to slumber himself. Hardly a second later, he felt a pinch on his arm and startled back to wakefulness. He looked around, barely making out Eva (probably) glaring at him in the darkness.

“What was that for?” he wanted to know.

“Don’t tell our daughter I go around unleashing Zombievas.” Yep, she was definitely glaring at him.

“You totally would, though.”

“If you’re going to comfort her, do you mind not telling her something ridiculous?”

“Telling her how awesome you’d be against thunder is never ridiculous.”

Eva sighed. “Just go back to sleep.”

“And whaddya think I was doing a second ago,” Neil deadpanned as he got himself comfortable again, “meteorology?”

Chapter Text

“Da!”

“Very good, Gracie!” Neil beamed at his seven-month-old daughter as he helped her stand on his thighs. “Now try saying ‘da’ two times fast.”

“She’s not going to say ‘Dada’ just because you tell her to,” Eva said from her side of the couch.

Her husband huffed, shooting her a sharp look. “I’m not telling her, I’m making suggestions. Totally different things. Besides, Grace’s been saying ‘da’ nonstop.”

“She’s also said ‘ma’ a lot, too.” Eva smiled slightly. “There’s no reason why her first word can’t be ‘Mama.’”

“Ma?” Grace squeaked, tilting her head and blinking.

“See?” Eva asked rhetorically, her smile widening.

“Don’t listen to Mama, princess,” Neil told Grace, bouncing her a little and making her giggle in delight. “We both know your first word’s gonna be ‘Dada.’”

“Da!” Grace cheered.

“That’s two to one, Eva,” Neil said, grinning. “You’re falling behind.”

Grace let out a startled, “Ma!” barely after Neil had finished, her little legs shaking, and he quickly but gently sat her in his lap.

“Ma!” Grace repeated with a bright smile.

“Right, because that sounded like ‘da’ just now,” Eva said dryly, rolling her eyes.

“Hey, two to three ain’t nothing to brag about,” Neil retorted. “Just wait, she’ll be saying ‘da’ again in the next two seconds.”

“Ba!” Grace squealed. “Babaya! Babaya!”

“None of that sounded like ‘da,’ either,” Eva said, another smile crossing her face.

But Neil was now frowning. “Uh, she’s not trying to say ‘Baba Yaga,’ is she?”

Eva groaned, all amusement gone. “No, you moron. She’s just babbling. You know, stringing a bunch of syllables together?”

“Oh, good—I’d hate to lose to a mythical hag in the first word department.”

“Da!” Grace chimed in before Eva could say anything.

“And speak of the devil.” Neil grinned again as he patted Grace’s head. “Wanna try saying ‘Dada,’ Gracie?”

“Baya!”

“Aw, c’mon. Say ‘Dada.’”

“Ma!”

“I’ll give you my computer if you say ‘Dada.’”

“Neil!” Eva scolded, though her efforts to be stern were ruined by the laugh that escaped her throat. “You can’t bribe her into saying it.”

“Dama!” Grace chirped.

“Okay, now you’re just teasing me.” Neil pouted.

“Da!”

“But an A for effort is still good,” he added, the corners of his mouth curving upward.

“Nice to see you find a silver lining,” Eva quipped.

“Gotta find ’em somewhere, yeah?”

The only answer to that was Grace’s happy, “Dama!”

Chapter Text

Eva had always known that a day would come when she’d have to sit Grace down and tell her about the birds and the bees. Neil was convinced any word slightly related to sex said in their little girl’s presence would scar her for life, but really, it was a conversation she would need to hear at some point, and Eva would much prefer Grace heard it from her rather than the TV or kids at school.

Today, however, was not that day.

The morning began much like any other. Eva woke up at seven, just barely resisted giving in to Neil’s kisses and touches, and got up to get dressed and wake Grace up. By the time she and her yawning daughter were seated at the dining room table, Neil was in the kitchen making breakfast.

The normalcy of the morning was shattered by one single question from Grace.

“Mama, what were the noises in your room last night all about?”

Eva involuntarily sucked in a breath, her eyes widening. She heard Neil yelping and one of the sink’s faucets turning on—he must have burned himself. Grace stared at her mother in confusion, and before Eva could think of anything to say, Neil hurried into the dining room, his entire face red and the very picture of panic.

“Wh-what are you talking about, Grace?” he practically squeaked, his voice an octave or two higher than usual. “What noises?”

Grace turned her confused gaze to Neil. “Why’s your face all red, Daddy?”

“Um...it’s not?”

“Yes, it is,” Grace insisted. “You look like a tomato!”

“Uh...”

“Grace, what exactly did you hear?” Eva quickly cut in.

The five-year-old girl twisted her mouth in thought. “I dunno. Just...noises that sounded like you and Daddy.”

Heat flooded Eva’s face at Grace’s words. So much for hoping all she heard was the headboard banging the wall, she thought. Eva spared a glance at Neil, who looked like he was very much wishing the floor would swallow him, his face now as red as a beet.

“There’s a good explanation for that!” Neil blurted out suddenly. “You see, Grace...uh, the reason you heard...y’know, what you heard...um, was because—”

“Daddy and I were having some alone time,” Eva interrupted, shooting Neil a warning glare when he opened his mouth to protest.

“Alone time?” Grace parroted.

“That’s right,” Eva said, nodding. “Sometimes Daddy and I need to be by ourselves, just the two of us. And sometimes when it’s just the two of us, we make a little noise.”

“Oh, okay.” Grace then gave Neil a bright smile. “Daddy, when’s breakfast?”

And that was that. Breakfast finished cooking and was eaten without any further questions from Grace, much to Eva’s relief. It was only later, after Ruth arrived to take Grace to school and Eva and Neil left for work, that the subject was brought up again.

“I can’t believe you told our five-year-old what we were doing in our bedroom!” Neil ranted in the passenger’s seat.

Eva grunted, her eyes on the road as she drove. “For carrot’s sake, would you calm down? You’re acting like I told Grace your private parts went inside my private parts.”

“You told her we were having alone time!” Neil yelled. “Couldn’t you have come up with literally anything else?”

They stopped at a red light, and Eva chose that moment to look at her irate husband with a raised eyebrow. “What else could I have said, exactly?”

“That we were trying to find the light switch and kept running into stuff in the dark!”

“And then Grace’s next question would’ve been why we didn’t just turn on the lamps.”

Neil paused as the light turned green and Eva resumed driving. “Well, she could’ve asked why we were making noises in the first place!”

“But she didn’t.”

“But she could’ve!”

Eva sighed. “Just be glad she didn’t get curious enough to come to our room last night.”

“Gee, thanks, Eva,” Neil said sarcastically, “I really needed that image in my head.”

“At least I came up with something to say,” she snapped, her grip on the steering wheel tightening, “while you were busy having an absolute meltdown.”

“Can you blame me? Grace freakin’ heard us!”

“Yes, I’m well aware of that. Remember that next time you think some bedroom fun while she’s asleep is a good idea.”

Neil scoffed. “You say that like you were complaining. It takes two to tango, you know!”

Eva just rolled her eyes. “Be that as it may, you’re the only one being an idiot about all this. You realize Grace forgot the whole thing after I gave her a perfectly child-friendly explanation, right?”

There was another pause, then Neil exhaled. “I hate it when you’re reasonable.”

“One of us has to be,” Eva quipped. “Especially when Grace gets older and she actually does need to know about s—”

Neil cut her off with a vehement, “I don’t even want to think about that, now or ever.”

Chapter Text

Neil adored his little girl, he really did, but there were moments—such as the one going on right now—when the less rosy side of having a child decided to rear its ugly head. It was three days before Christmas, and he was in the middle of a toy store with Grace screaming at the top of her lungs because he didn’t say yes to buying her a toy. And Eva wasn’t around because she was busy squeezing in some last-minute Christmas shopping while they were in between clients.

Most people walking by gave Neil a dirty look, as if to say, Do something about your brat, and if he hadn’t spent the last several years doing his best to not swear around Grace, he would’ve told them they didn’t know shit about his daughter. It wasn’t like she threw tantrums every day—in fact, up until very recently, Grace had been her normal, sweet, happy self. But now, for the last few weeks, she’d been back-talking him and Eva and pitching hissy fits whenever she didn’t get her way, things she hadn’t done since she was a toddler, and only God and the Devil knew why.

With his heart hammering in his chest, Neil picked his screaming, kicking daughter up and carried her out of the store. He made a beeline for the nearest bench, sat her down on it, and knelt before her.

“Grace,” Neil said, forcing his voice to stay calm even as his fingers tingled and his stomach churned, “calm down.”

“You promised!” Grace screamed, tears pouring down her face. “You promised, you promised!”

“I promised we could go to the toy store while Mama shopped. I didn’t promise you a toy.”

“Liar!” Grace shouted. She angrily scrubbed at her eyes as she glared at her father.

“What the cabbage is going on here?”

Neil turned to look up at Eva, as relieved to see her standing beside him as he once was to see her after fruitlessly trying to find her in the memory machine during the Colin Reeds case. Maybe even more so.

“Grace’s throwing a tantrum over a toy,” he told her.

“Grace Noelle Watts,” Eva scolded, frowning sternly at their daughter, “you’re not a two-year-old. Stop acting like it.”

That only made Grace wail louder, and Neil felt a lump form in his throat as he stood and took the shopping bag from his wife while she grabbed Grace’s hand. Eva marched their crying daughter through the mall, Neil holding on to her shoulder as much to keep some sanity as to show support. Unfortunately, they had to pass the toy store on their way out, which caused Grace to dig her heels in, trying to break free from Eva’s grip.

“Lemme go!” Grace yelled, her free arm stretching towards the display of toys in the window. Wordlessly, Neil picked her up again, giving Eva back the shopping bag as she let go of their daughter.

Neil had been shoved off of memory-constructed objects, he’d half-dangled from the saddle of an out-of-control virtual horse, and he’d witnessed a nightmarish version of Faye, but having to lift a squirming, whining, and howling six-year-old girl was easily one of the scariest things that’d ever happened to him. With how much Grace was wiggling in his grasp, he could only think it was his Christmas miracle for this year when she didn’t end up knocking off his glasses or kicking him in the groin.

By the time they made it to their car, Grace’s struggling had stopped and her crying was more subdued. Eva buckled their daughter into her car seat and closed the door, staring at Neil wearily.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Neil asked.

“That we get home as soon as possible and you discipline Grace for misbehaving?”

Neil grimaced. “I was thinking we go into a forest and find a fancy mansion with a magical time-travelling bathroom so we can prevent Grace from misbehaving in the first place.”

Eva shook her head. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up if I were you.”

“That’s just a nice way of saying I’m doomed.”

“Neil, come on.” Eva wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. “One of these days, Grace’ll thank you for putting your foot down.”

Or she’ll hate me forever, Neil thought gloomily as he pressed his hands into Eva’s sides.

Traffic was hell, because of course it was. It took Eva almost thirty minutes just to drive out of the mall’s parking lot. The sound of Grace’s crying alone was enough for a ringing to fill Neil’s ears. By the time they were halfway home, Grace had stopped crying, but she also started kicking the back of Neil’s seat.

“Stop that, Grace,” he said, his stomach roiling again. The continued thumps from behind him confirmed his daughter wasn’t listening.

“Grace,” Eva snapped.

“You’re mean!” Grace shouted, kicking the seat as hard as she could.

Neil clenched his teeth—the nasty urge to throw up was getting worse. “Pull over.”

If Eva had any questions, she didn’t ask them as she pulled the car over and jerked to a stop. As soon as she shifted into park, Neil unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car and into the light rain that had just started falling. He made it several paces away before he doubled over, his hands on his knees. He took deep, shaky breaths of the cold winter air and waited for the nausea to subside.

At that moment, there were two things Neil wanted more than anything: one, for Grace to magically start behaving so he maybe wouldn’t have to punish her when they got home, and two, to know why she was acting out so much in the first place. He and Eva had tried asking Grace if there was something wrong—was a bully bothering her? Was she bored in school?—but she always insisted she was fine. They talked to Ruth and Grace’s teacher, and both said the same thing—that Grace was a delight and they didn’t see any problems with her. So was she mad at Neil and Eva specifically? But if that was it, why wouldn’t Grace just say that? She sure wasn’t shy about voicing everything else that hacked her off lately.

After a moment or two, Neil walked back to the car. Eva rolled her window down, peering out at him in concern.

“Are you okay?” she wanted to know.

“I don’t think I’m gonna hurl now,” he answered. “Does that count?”

Eva didn’t reply as Neil returned to the passenger’s seat. Before she put the car into gear, she reached out to take his hand, which was fisting anxiously on his thigh, and give it a quick, reassuring squeeze.

Grace went on kicking Neil’s seat soon after Eva resumed driving, and only a sharp scolding from her mother made her stop—and caused her to burst into tears again. Chills ran through Neil’s body despite the heat blasting from the air conditioner, but at least no new wave of queasiness rose from his stomach. Soon enough, Grace wore herself out from crying and stayed quiet for the rest of the drive home. She didn’t even protest when Neil unhooked her belt and lifted her from her car seat shortly after Eva pulled into the driveway.

They were barely through the front door when Grace tried to run off, but Eva caught her by the arm and held her in place.

“Into the living room, young lady,” Eva said. “It’s time for a talk.”

She steered Grace out of the entryway and into the living room, and after a brief pause, Neil reluctantly followed. More like it’s time to be the tough dad, he thought, whether I like it or not.

Grace took a seat on the couch, staring unhappily at her lap. Eva stood in front of her, her arms crossed and a frown on her face. Neil sat down next to Grace, turned towards her.

“Grace?” Eva asked after a moment of silence. “Is there anything you’d like to say to your father? An apology, maybe?”

Grace didn’t reply, nor did she look up from her lap.

“C’mon, Grace, you know I don’t bite,” Neil said, bending his head to try to get a look at his daughter’s face. “I’m not gonna yell at you, or put you in timeout, or send you to your room, or—”

“Neil,” Eva interrupted, her voice reproachful.

“I’m getting there, Eva.” Neil lifted his head, his eyes still on Grace as he placed a hand on her shoulder. She started a bit, but didn’t pull away. “Hun, is there something going on? Is that why you’ve been so upset?”

“I’m fine,” Grace said, a little too quickly.

“Are you sure, princess? Are you really, really sure there’s nothing we need to know that you’re not telling us?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Daddy,” she insisted, shrugging Neil’s hand off her shoulder and finally looking up at him. Her mouth was trembling and her eyes were blinking rapidly. “Nothing’s wrong—nothing!”

Then why do you look so sad? Neil didn’t ask the question out loud, but he took Grace’s hand in his and gently squeezed it, raising his eyebrows in worry.

That was enough for Grace’s face to crumple. “You and Mama work all the time now!” she burst out. “It’s almost Christmas and you’re never home! Everybody else in my class does fun stuff with their daddies and mamas, but not me! I always halfta stay home and you’re always gone and it’s not fair!”

Grace ended on a wail. By that point, she was pressing herself into Neil’s side, Eva was stepping over to rub her shoulder, and Neil’s heart was plummeting as he wrapped her into a side hug. So it really was his and Eva’s fault, wasn’t it?

“I’m sorry, Gracie,” he said. “You really haven’t had much of a winter break, huh?”

Grace’s only reply was to sniffle hard.

“I know Daddy and I have been very busy lately,” Eva said gently, “but that’s because winter’s our busiest season. There’s just a lot more wishes to grant right now. I’m sorry you’ve been feeling ignored.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Grace mumbled.

“But guess what?” Neil asked rhetorically, smiling down at his daughter. “Mama and I won’t have any work to do on Christmas, so we’ll have lots of time for you then. We can have pancakes for breakfast, watch Christmas movies, bake Christmas cookies—”

“However,” Eva cut in, giving Neil a firmly expectant glance, “that’s no excuse for your behavior today.”

“But I said I was sorry!” Grace protested, moving away from Neil to stare at her mother in alarm.

“And your apology is very appreciated,” Neil said at once. “It’s good that you’re sorry for what you did now. But, uh,” he chanced another look at Eva, whose eyes were still telling him to do what had to be done, “throwing a tantrum is not the best way to tell people you’re upset. If something’s bothering you, you need to use your words without having a breakdown. In the meantime...”

Neil paused, considering what he’d say next. Well, since I already said I’m not putting her in timeout or sending her to her room... “No screentime for you until Christmas,” he finished.

“What?!” Grace cried, looking at Neil like he just said he was going to tell Santa to put her on the naughty list. Her eyes brimmed with fresh tears, and all he wanted to do was pull her into his lap, give her a hug, and take back the punishment.

But with Eva standing there, silently urging him to stay strong, he knew he couldn’t do it. He tried imagining he was talking to someone from the maintenance department instead of his little girl as he continued. “That means no TV, no videogames, and no cat videos.”

Grace’s mouth trembled at those last three words, the stricken expression on her face deepening. “Not even one cat video?”

“Not even one,” Neil confirmed, having to now imagine he was talking to a really stupid someone from the maintenance department instead of his daughter. “From now until Christmas. Understand?”

Grace nodded as she sniffled again.

“And with that settled,” Eva said, stroking Grace’s hair, “I think it’s time for you to brush your teeth and put your pajamas on. Daddy and I’ll be there to tuck you in soon, okay?”

Grace wiped at her eyes before slipping off the couch and running out of the living room. Neil put his head in his hands, exhaling heavily.

“Do me a favour,” he told Eva, “and never make me do that again.”

He heard her sit down next to him and felt her place a hand on his shoulder. “Neil,” she said softly, “you did the right thing.”

He lifted his head to look miserably at her. “I made our daughter cry, Eva.”

“I know.” She leaned in to give him a chaste kiss. “But you did what you had to, even if it hurt. You’re a good father.”

“Then why do I feel like crap?”

Eva smiled a little. “I said you’re a good father, not a tough one.”

Shortly afterward, they headed to Grace’s room, where their daughter was in her pajamas and lying in bed, her face still tearstained. Neil brought Grace one of her stuffed cats and kissed her on the forehead, and Eva gave her a hug and pulled the blankets over her.

“Goodnight, Gracie,” Neil said. “We love you.”

“Sorry I was mean, Daddy,” Grace murmured, her eyes fluttering closed as she clutched the cat to her chest.

Neil’s heart twisted. “I know you are, hun.” I’m sorry I punished you, he mentally added.

“Sleep tight, Grace,” Eva said. “We’ll see you in the morning.”

“G’night, Mama.”

Before he and Eva left, Neil turned off Grace’s pink butterfly lamp and gave her another forehead kiss. Later, as they got ready for a shower together, he made a mental note to find a cute kitten video on his phone to show Grace first thing on Christmas morning. After being the one to take cat videos away from her, it was the least he could do.

Chapter Text

After well over twenty minutes into dinner without a word from Grace, Neil knew something had to be wrong. While his daughter wasn’t quite as chatty as she’d been when she was little, she nonetheless usually had something to say during a meal, whether it was about school, the games she was playing, or Maizie. Right now, though, all she was doing was picking at the chicken and rice on her plate and staring out into space, which was odd, to say the least.

During a lull in his and Eva’s conversation, Neil was about to ask Grace what she was thinking about when she dropped her fork and asked, “Mama, Daddy, can I have Tony over for dinner on Friday?”

Who’s Tony? was the first thought that came into Neil’s head, followed by, Oh, that’s right. Grace’s friend. Well, more like acquaintance, as far as he knew. He’d heard Grace mention this Tony kid once or twice, but only in passing, so they apparently weren’t that close. But that just begged the question...

“Why do you want to have him over?” Neil asked out loud. “Are you two working on a school project?”

“Um, no.” Grace momentarily paused, then she gave her father a smile. “We’re dating, actually.”

Neil could have sworn his stomach dropped at those three words. “What?!” he exclaimed, gaping at Grace like she’d just said she was running away to join a flea circus. “Did you just—what the—how did—what do you mean,” he burst out, pushing his plate away, “you’re dating?!”

“Exactly what I said,” Grace told him, her smile fading. “Tony and I are dating.”

Neil darted his gaze to Eva, expecting her to be at least half as stunned as he was by this information. But instead, she was calmly continuing eating dinner as though their seventeen-year-old daughter hadn’t just dropped a bombshell about thirty seconds ago. She hadn’t even looked up from her plate.

“How the heck are you so calm about this?” Neil demanded.

Eva took a sip of her tea before answering. “Probably because I’ve known about it for three weeks.”

“Eva!” Neil cried, now feeling like someone had taken a knife and stabbed him in the heart. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

She rolled her eyes. “Because I knew you’d go insane if I did.”

“I am not going—wait a minute,” Neil cut himself off mid-protest, whirling his attention back to Grace, “you told your mother, but not me?” The knife twisted further.

“Daddy,” Grace said, her voice earnest, “I did want to tell you, but Mama convinced me not to.”

Well, that was better than his daughter purposefully keeping something like this a secret from him, he supposed. But still—the betrayal of it all!

“I still should’ve been the first to know,” Neil insisted.

“Why?” Eva asked rhetorically, taking a bite of rice. “So you could’ve thrown a fit sooner?”

“You’ll be the first to know next time something new in my life happens,” Grace promised Neil. “Anyway, can Tony come over for dinner on Friday?”

He opened his mouth to say that no, Tony could not come over, but Eva interrupted him before he could get a single word out.

“Of course he can, honey.”

Neil groaned. “You’re really not on my side, are you?”

“Great!” Grace exclaimed, beaming at her father, clearly oblivious to his sulky mood. “Trust me, Daddy, you’ll like him. Tony’s funny and really, really smart—he’s a lot like you!”

Neil shook his head gloomily. “That’s not as reassuring as you think it is, hun.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, we’ve got the patient picked out and the memory machine set up. What’s the patient’s wish, Dr. Grace?”

“To live in a house full of kitties!”

“Huh, really? Do you know why?”

“Because kitties are soft and fluffy and cute, of course!”

“Can’t argue with that logic.”

“Oh,” Eva, standing in the doorway of Grace’s room, broke in, “so this is where Daddy’s lab coat went.”

“Hi, Mama!” Sitting on the carpet and being practically swallowed by the aforementioned coat she was wearing, Grace beamed up at Eva. “We’re playing SigCorp!”

And so Grace and Neil were. In front of Grace was a stack of colorful blocks that served as the machine; and before Neil, who was sitting with their five-year-old daughter, was a doll, obviously the patient, covered to the chin with a blanket. Some of Grace’s stuffed cats were lined up in a row, and whether they were there because of the imaginary patient’s wish or simply because Grace wanted them there, Eva could only guess.

“Daddy’s the traversal agent,” Grace continued, “and I’m the technician!”

“Careful there, Neil,” Eva said, giving her husband a slight, teasing smile. “Grace’ll be stealing your job before you know it.”

Neil just shrugged, unconcerned. “Believe it or not, Eva, I’d be totally okay with that.”

Eva’s smile broadened. “That’s because you’d be willing to give her the moon if she asked.”

“Daddy, I just remembered!” Grace piped up, returning her attention to Neil. “We gotta put glitter on the machine to make it pretty.”

The smile vanished from Eva’s face at the word “glitter.” “Grace, you’re not throwing glitter around your room.”

“No worries, Eva.” Neil waved his hand over the blocks. “I’ve got pretend glitter right here.” He grinned at Grace. “How’s it look, Gracie?”

“Very sparkly!” she said, nodding in happy approval. “Now we gotta talk to the patient!”

And as Neil held Grace’s doll up and put on an old-lady voice, making her laugh, Eva found herself smiling again. It really was an adorable sight.

Chapter Text

One early Saturday morning found Neil at the kitchen counter, stirring a bowl filled with dry and wet ingredients, when he heard a happy shriek of, “Daddy!”

He turned in time to see Grace, still in her pajamas, bound into the kitchen and hug his legs.

“Good morning, Gracie,” Neil greeted, smiling down at his three-year-old daughter. “What are you doing up so early?”

“You’re making pancakes today!” she exclaimed, beaming up at him, her green eyes alight with excitement. “Remember, Daddy? You promised me last night!”

“Yes, I remember. You wanna help?”

Grace’s only answer was to nod vigorously. Neil picked her up in his arms and guided her hand to the whisk resting in the bowl. “Can you stir the batter for me?”

“Yes!” And with that, Grace rapidly stirred the batter round and round, her grip on the whisk’s handle as tight as her tiny fist would allow. “Uh-oh!” she cried out as some of the batter spilled from the bowl and dripped down to the countertop.

“It’s okay, hun,” Neil said, turning Grace around in his arms and kissing her temple. “It’s just a little spill—we can clean it up later. Now,” he added, smiling again, “how about putting in some chocolate chips?”

That got Grace to perk right back up. “I can have chocolate chips!?” she squealed.

“You sure can,” Neil told her, his smile becoming a grin. He set Grace back down on the floor and got the bag of chocolate chips out of the refrigerator. While she hopped from foot to foot in her enthusiasm, he set the bag down on the counter and untied it. With that done, he picked her up again. “Pour as many chocolate chips as you want.”

Grace didn’t need to be told twice. She grabbed the bag in both hands, tipped it over the bowl, and laughed in delight as a flood of chocolate chips spilled into the batter. When Neil checked inside after she put the bag down, he saw that there was only a small handful of chocolate chips remaining. He shifted Grace so that he now had his right arm wrapped around her and snatched up the leftover chocolate chips with his free hand.

“Want a pre-breakfast snack?” he asked, putting her down once more.

Grace nodded eagerly, her smile nearly splitting her olive face in half.

“Don’t tell Mama I let you have chocolate so early in the morning,” Neil said as he bent down to her level and handed her the chocolate chips. He put a finger to his lips and added, “It’ll be our little secret, okay?”

“’Kay,” Grace agreed, stuffing the chocolate chips into her mouth.

After telling her to sit down and wait for breakfast to be ready, the next thing to do was to cook the pancakes. Neil grabbed the bowl and a clean spoon from the silverware drawer and stepped to the oven, where the frying pan, alongside a warming plate of a short stack of blueberry pancakes for Eva, was waiting. The batter he poured into the pan looked more like pure chocolate than pancake mix, but it cooked all the same. A little over fifteen minutes later, Neil had his and Grace’s own short stacks of pancakes cooked, buttered, and on plates, plus cups of chocolate milk made for them.

“So how are they?” Neil asked after breakfast was served, watching Grace munch on a piece of her syrup-drenched chocolate chip pancakes.

She beamed at him, her face already messy with pancake crumbs, syrup, and chocolate. “Yummy!”

“Having dessert for breakfast there, Neil?”

Neil turned to see Eva standing in the dining room’s threshold, her plate of pancakes in her left hand, the glass of orange juice he’d made earlier in her right, and a very unamused look on her face.

“Hi, Mama!” Grace switched her gaze to Eva, as happy as ever. “Daddy gave me chocolate!”

“That was supposed to be a secret, Grace,” Neil reminded her.

“Uh-oh!” Grace’s face fell. “Sorry, Daddy. I forgot.”

“That’s all right, princess,” he answered, taking an overly-chocolatey bite of his pancakes.

Sighing, Eva sat down at the table, poured syrup on her pancakes, and started eating. “Did you seriously have to put so many chocolate chips in those pancakes?”

“Actually, Grace did that,” Neil said.

“And you didn’t think to stop her?”

“I’m teaching her autonomy.”

Eva gave a pointed look at Grace cheerily devouring her pancakes, blissfully unaware of what her parents were talking about. “How in the name of cucumbers is letting our daughter dump an entire bag of chocolate chips into pancake batter supposed to teach her autonomy?”

“I’m letting her make her own decisions,” Neil replied, taking a swig of his chocolate milk.

Eva dropped her fork with a clatter, looking at him in exasperation. “Neil, she’s three!”

“So? Never too early to start, right?”

Rolling her eyes, Eva took a sip of her orange juice. “Just so you know, you’ll be the one dealing with the inevitable sugar rush.”

Chapter Text

“Is Daddy dying?”

Grace’s question was asked in a whisper as she stared at Eva with wide, worried eyes. By their side, Neil—who was still in pajamas and without his glasses—was lying on his and Eva’s bed, his eyes screwed shut and his body rigid with pain.

This wasn’t new to Eva. Every now and then, Neil’s condition would flare up and he’d spend the day at home, and although she’d never stop worrying completely—something like this could always get more serious—at least she knew what to expect. Grace, however, was only five, and it was her first time truly experiencing Neil not being completely healthy. No wonder she thought her father might be dying.

“No, honey,” Eva said gently, bending down to her daughter’s level and placing a hand on her shoulder, “Daddy’s not dying. He’s just sick, so he’ll be at home today. He’ll be better by tomorrow, I promise.”

“Can I stay home with him?” Grace asked.

Eva’s heart warmed at that, but all she said was, “That’s very sweet of you, but I don’t think school’s going to count that as an excused absence.”

“I do.”

Eva heard what sounded like a stifled laugh coming from Neil. Straightening up, she told Grace, “Why don’t you get ready for school, okay? You can kiss Daddy goodbye before Ruth gets here.”

Grace turned her gaze to Neil, her expression still a little uneasy.

“He’s not going anywhere,” Eva assured her. “Go on, now.”

After Grace left the room, Eva switched her attention to Neil, who had now half-opened his eyes and looked slightly more relaxed than before. “How are you feeling?”

“A little better, actually,” he said, his voice thick with exhaustion. A small smile flitted across his face. “Our girl’s so cute.”

“She is,” Eva agreed, “but that’s still no excuse for her to miss school.”

“If ya say so.”

Neil said nothing further, and if Eva needed any confirmation that her husband really wasn’t feeling well, the fact that he wasn’t arguing with her would be it. After a moment of silence, during which she reminded herself that Neil would be back to his loud, stubborn self by tomorrow morning, she told him she’d be back soon and left to fetch Grace from her own room.

Later, after Grace was dressed and Eva had helped her brush her teeth and hair, they returned to Eva and Neil’s bedroom. As Grace climbed onto the bed, Neil heaved himself up into a sitting position, the effort to not wince or groan visible on his face.

“I’ll make you a get well card, Daddy,” Grace promised, kissing his right cheek. “And I’ll pick flowers.” She kissed his left cheek. “That’ll make you better faster, right?”

Neil smiled again, broader and softer than before. “Yeah. That’ll help, Gracie.”

Chapter Text

“I think we should tell Grace Santa isn’t real this year,” was the first thing out of Neil’s mouth when Eva walked into his office.

A slight, amused smile tugged at Eva’s lips as she stepped over to her husband, who was sitting at his desk. “She’ll be eight soon, so that’s fine, but are you sure you just don’t want the credit for her Christmas present to go to someone that isn’t you?” She gestured to his computer screen, which was displaying a 2-D picture of a young, white-clad girl with long black hair, green eyes, and olive skin standing in a grassy field and staring up at a starry night sky. PRINCESS LIFE was written in large, bright purple letters taking up the upper left portion of the screen, and below it, New Game and Load Game were listed in smaller letters of the same color.

“Hey, who else would make our girl a princess game starring her?” Neil asked rhetorically. “Not a bunch of elves at the North Pole, I’ll tell you that for free.”

“Unless they’re more technologically advanced than we think,” Eva quipped, then sobered. “Anyway, what did you want to show me this time?” So far, she’d seen contests the princess could compete in, dresses she could wear, places she could adventure in, and other features such as the jobs she could have and the classes she could take. Neil had even shown Eva some of the glitches he’d run into, whether it was some asset or another not rendering properly or the princess’ stats not raising or lowering like they should’ve. All that considered, what he wanted to show her now could be just about anything.

Neil didn’t keep her in suspense for very long. “Just a few of the endings,” he said, already typing in a string of letters and numbers. “Let’s be sure there’s no bugs, yeah?”

Barely a second after he completed the cheat code, the title screen was replaced by a rosy pink background decorated with white tree branches. In the middle of the screen, a textbox accompanied by a face portrait of a dark-skinned, black-haired woman who looked a lot like a 2-D version of Traci appeared. “So, Princess Evagrace,” the textbox read, “you haven’t decided on a career yet, have you?”

Neil clicked on the mouse, and the next textbox appeared, this time with a face portrait of the fictional princess version of a teenaged, puzzled-looking Grace. “Um...no?”

“What about dance?” “Traci’s” second textbox read. “With your talent, you could become a first-class dancer in no time!”

The princess’ next portrait showed her with a blushing, embarrassed face. “Oh, my! Do you really think so, Taryn?”

“I know so! And you can start by working at my dance school.”

“Okay!” The princess’ portrait now showed her smiling happily. “I’ll work at it until I’m the best dancer around!”

The textboxes and portraits disappeared and were replaced by an image of the princess wearing a flowing, dark pink dress and matching ballet slippers, her hair pulled up into a bun, which was held in place by an equally dark pink ribbon. She was lifting her skirt slightly as her feet moved in a cheery dance.

“And so,” a new textbox read, “while working as a dance teacher, Princess Evagrace set out to become a professional dancer.

“Eventually, after countless hours spent perfecting her skills, the day of her first recital arrived.

“As a crowd of people watched, Evagrace performed a new dance Taryn had composed. It was met with thunderous applause.

“After that, Evagrace went on to compose her own dances, bringing the kingdom into a new era of dancing.”

“I still can’t believe you made some of the characters look like people we know,” Eva told Neil. “I mean, Traci as the dance instructor? Seriously?”

He just shrugged. “Hey, I already had the royal family look like you, me, and Grace. Might as well keep with the theme, right?”

“And the princess’ default name being my name combined with Grace’s?”

“You’re totally my queen and Grace is totally our princess,” Neil answered, grinning. “Why wouldn’t I use your names for her? Besides, Grace’s gonna light up like our Christmas tree when she sees that the princess’ name is similar to hers.”

“To be fair,” Eva said, unable to help the hint of another smile on her face, “Grace would light up like our Christmas tree even if this game was as bad as that one you made about Johnny and River.”

“Aw, c’mon, it was my first time in game development. Give me some credit.”

“Well, at least you had your basics covered.”

Neil tsked as he inputted another cheat code. “Damning with faint praise, much?”

Eva didn’t answer him as the next ending appeared onscreen. Similar to the dancer ending, it began with a character—this time a green-eyed, hat-wearing man who looked like Eddie—asking the princess about what job she had, then asking if she’d like to work at his bakery when she said she didn’t have one yet. After only a bit of encouragement, the princess accepted the baker’s job offer. The scene was followed by an image of the princess wearing a white double-breasted jacket, a long red skirt, and a white mushroom-shaped hat and kneading a large ball of floured dough on a counter, with another counter covered with cakes and pies in the background. A textbox appeared, but it was empty of any text.

“Again?” Neil groaned, slumping in his chair. “I thought I fixed that!”

“Not entirely, it seems,” Eva said.

“And you didn’t even get to see the best part!” he continued as if she hadn’t said anything. “The princess works at the bakery until she’s good enough to take it over, and she goes down in culinary history as the best baker of her time. It’s supposed to be cute, not, ya know, glitched.”

“You can show it to me when you get it un-glitched,” Eva told him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Or better yet, wait until Grace gets that ending. She’ll love it.”

“Oh, no doubt, as long as there’re no bugs to ruin it,” Neil said with a chuckle. Straightening up in his seat, he added, “And speaking of endings Grace’ll love...”

He inputted a third cheat code, and the empty textbox and image of the princess as a baker vanished. A new textbox paired with a face portrait of a woman with green eyes and short, wavy blonde hair—clearly Ruth’s game counterpart—appeared, complete with text this time.

“Princess,” “Ruth’s” textbox read, “Their Majesties wish to see you in the throne room.”

“Oh?” The princess’ portrait showed her with her confused face. “Did Mother and Father say why?”

“They didn’t,” “Ruth’s” next textbox read, “but I suspect it’s important, so it’s best not to keep them waiting.”

The fourth textbox had no portrait accompanying it and said, “Evagrace exits her bedchamber and goes to the throne room.”

The fifth textbox was shown with a face portrait of the Neil-lookalike king—glasses and all. “Ah, Evagrace! You’re here!” it read. “I can’t believe it’s been nine whole years since you came to live with us. You were so small then...”

“Yes,” the Eva-lookalike queen’s first textbox read, “but just look at you now! You’ve grown into a fine young woman, and we couldn’t be prouder.”

The princess’ portrait showed her smiling politely. “Thank you, Mother, but I can’t take all the credit. It’s because of you and Father that I’ve become the woman I am today.”

“And the woman you are today is exactly what this kingdom needs,” the queen’s second textbox read.

“You see, Evagrace,” the king’s next textbox read, “your mother and I aren’t as young as we used to be, and it’s time for us to retire. Therefore, we’re going to hand the throne over to you.”

“What?!” The princess’ portrait was now openmouthed in shock. “But...are you sure I’m fit to take your place?”

“Of course, dear,” the queen’s third textbox read. “You might not be our daughter by blood, but you’re our daughter in every way that matters. It’s only fitting that you rule the kingdom in our stead.”

“Besides,” the king’s next textbox read, “so long as WE think you’re good enough to rule, that’s all that matters! Ha ha ha!”

“I guess so.” The princess’ portrait showed her with her happy face. “Well then, I won’t let you or the kingdom down!”

With the scene over, an image of the princess in royal finery appeared. She wore a golden, silver-accented gown beneath a matching golden cape lined with ermine fur, with a necklace of pearls and rubies around her neck and a golden, ruby-and-pearl-encrusted crown atop her head. She held a dark blue orb surmounted by a cross in her left hand, and in her right she held a golden scepter.

“And so,” the new textbox read, “the throne was given to Princess Evagrace, who became the new queen.

“Her coronation was a grand event, and the people joyously accepted her as their monarch.

“In the decades that followed, Evagrace proved herself to be a magnificent queen, ruling wisely and kindly and ushering in a golden age. Under her leadership, the kingdom became wealthy, happy, and peaceful.

“History remembered her as one of the greatest queens who ever lived.”

“Awesome—no glitches in this ending!” Neil cheered, beaming at Eva. “Good thing, too; that one’s my favourite.”

“It is sweet,” she said, “all ripping off of Elizabeth Tudor’s coronation portrait aside. But that does remind me...” she added, dropping her hand from his shoulder. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you haven’t implemented any potential husbands for the princess.”

The smile slid off of Neil’s face at the word “husbands.” “Why the heck would I do that?”

Eva raised an eyebrow at him. “Because that’s what these kinds of games do? The princess doesn’t just get a job when she grows up—she gets married, too.”

“Well, this princess realises she doesn’t need a prince.”

“That might be more meaningful if I didn’t already know there isn’t even a hint of romance in the game.”

“So what? It’s not like Grace is gonna care.”

“She won’t,” Eva agreed, “but that’s probably because she hasn’t hit puberty yet.”

“Ugh, puberty,” Neil repeated, making a face as though that particular stage of development was something slimy and disgusting. “You know I hate that word, Eva.”

“Hating it doesn’t make it any less inevitable,” she reminded him.

“Maybe not, but the princess can still do just fine without a husband.”

“Are you talking about the princess in the game or our daughter?”

Neil grinned. “Why not both?”

Eva snorted, shaking her head. Of course it’d be both. “Well, Evagrace might not ever get married, but Grace staying single forever? The jury’s still out on that.”

Chapter Text

It took some doing, but Neil managed to convince Eva that they should take time off from work and go on a summer vacation with Grace. Vacationing itself wasn’t an issue—after all, summer tended to be their least busy season, and in any case, Eva and Neil had plenty of vacation days saved up—but she’d had some concerns about their daughter’s age. Grace was about six months old, and while that meant she wasn’t a newborn anymore, six months was still very young. It was entirely possible that she would get overstimulated from all the new sights and sounds or cranky about having her usual routine disrupted, leading to the opposite of a relaxing time. It was only after Eva did extensive online research that she became more onboard with the idea.

And that was how she, Neil, and Grace ended up at a beach house not too far from home. Once they were settled in, Neil wasted no time in picking the baby up and showing her around the place.

“So,” he was now saying, “this is where we’ll be sleeping in the lap of luxury.” He glanced around the pale blue walls and white furniture—a crib on the lefthand side set opposite of a queen-sized bed, which was flanked on either side by night tables—and beamed down at Grace. “Whaddya think, sweetie?”

Grace’s only answer was to grimace and shake her head, waving an arm around all the while.

“Not very impressed, huh?” Neil asked rhetorically, his smile fading slightly. “Must be the blue walls. How about we go see the bathroom?” he added, brightening up again. “I bet its walls are prettier.”

“Hold that thought, Neil,” Eva said as she partially unbuttoned her nursing dress. “Grace’s due for a feeding. Would you mind getting her baby food ready?”

“Why?” he wanted to know, his brow furrowing in confusion as he handed Grace to her. “Can’t you do that after she’s breastfed?”

“It’d be quicker if you do it,” Eva told him, now pulling one of the cups of her strapless bra down and putting the cradled baby to her exposed breast. “The sooner Grace eats, the sooner we can eat, too.”

A teasing grin tugged at Neil’s lips. “You just want me to leave the room, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Eva scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Now, get to it.”

“All right, all right.” Chuckling, Neil picked up her carry-on bag from its spot at the foot of the bed and headed out of the room.

As the sound of his footsteps grew fainter, Eva’s gaze shifted to Grace, who was still happily suckling. “Goodness, you are a hungry baby, aren’t you? But that’s okay,” she added, smiling. “Breakfast was forever ago, wasn’t it?”

Grace let go of her mother’s nipple and smiled up at her in return, and Eva could’ve sworn she’d never seen anything sweeter. Still smiling, she made quick work of putting her daughter to her other breast. Once Grace was finished, Eva moved her to her right arm, pulled her bra back up, and rebuttoned her dress. “Let’s see if Daddy’s done with the rest of your food.”

Eva took Grace out of the bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen, where she found Neil standing at the counter. He turned to face her with a grin. “One Apples Supreme for the little princess,” he announced, presenting a bowl filled with apple puree.

“That doesn’t look like a pie, but it’ll do.” Without another word, Eva sat Grace down in the nearby high chair, fished a bib out of her bag, and tied it around the baby’s neck. Neil then stepped forward, placing the bowl on the tray in front of Grace and dipping a plastic spoon in the puree.

“Down ya go,” he said, offering Grace the spoon, then beaming when she accepted and swallowed the little spoonful. “Isn’t that good, Gracie? Want some more?” Again, he dipped the spoon into the puree and brought it to her mouth, but Grace now turned her head.

Neil’s face fell. “Aw, come on, hun.” He tried bringing the spoon to Grace’s mouth again, but she turned her head in the other direction. “You liked it just two seconds ago!”

“At least she took one bite of it this time,” Eva pointed out. “That’s some progress.”

“Yeah, but shouldn’t she be eating more?” Neil asked, switching his gaze to her.

“She’s still getting most of what she needs from breastmilk,” Eva told him. “Baby food’s more of an experimental snack right now than anything else. In the meantime, we might as well put the rest of the puree in the fridge and try again later.”

And so they did. Soon enough, they were all out of the kitchen and ready to go out for brunch. The nearest restaurant was thankfully quite close to the beach house, so Eva and Neil decided to walk there, pushing Grace in her stroller as they went.

Before long, they reached a long, low building made of light yellow tile and topped with a white roof. Inside, they were greeted with rows of small square tables, a bar lined with comfortable-looking green chairs, and several yellow lanterns hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant was, luckily, not very crowded—there was only a small handful of people seated amongst the tables—so Eva and Neil were able to find a booth quickly and park Grace’s stroller next to it.

“Want to take Grace to the beach after this?” Neil later asked as he poured maple syrup on his fried chicken and waffles.

“Maybe later,” Eva said, taking a bite of her onion and cheese omelet, “some time this afternoon when it’s not as hot. There’s an indoor pool at the beach house, though—you could show her that.”

Neil grinned over at Grace, who was turning her head and looking all around the restaurant. “I’ll bet you anything she’ll love the water.”

“I wouldn’t get your hopes up,” Eva told him. “She might not think it’s any different from bathwater.”

“Doesn’t mean she wouldn’t want to play it in,” Neil pointed out, returning his attention to Eva and stabbing a piece of waffle with his fork. “Water’s water.”

Eva frowned as Neil put said waffle piece in his mouth. “Until it gets in her eyes.”

“Unless it gets in her eyes, you mean.”

“You expect a six-month-old baby to not splash water around at least a little?”

“No, but why should that mean her eyes will totally get stung?”

“All I’m saying is it’s better to be safe than sorry.” Eva chose that moment to take a sip of her tea. “Which reminds me—if we’ll be going to the beach, do not forget Grace’s baby pool. It’s safer for her to be in that than in the ocean.”

“Relax, I’m not a complete ditz,” Neil said, swallowing a bite of chicken before taking a gulp of his coffee. “Besides, do you really think I’m crazy enough to dunk our kid in seawater?”

Eva rolled her eyes. “You’ll be tossing her in the air as soon as she’s a year old. If the shoe fits...”

His only response to that was an indignant, “Eva!”

The rest of brunch came and went, and Eva, Neil, and Grace returned to the beach house, where Neil got into his trunks and Eva dressed Grace in her little swimsuit, complete with a swim diaper. They found the pool in the back of the house on the first floor, and once Eva had checked the pool’s temperature to make sure it was warm enough, Neil stepped into the water with Grace. Like she did at the restaurant, the baby was turning her head everywhere she could look, staring at the bright blue water all around.

“See, hun? This is water that isn’t for bathing,” Neil explained as he waded through the pool. In his arms, Grace splashed at the water, and he laughed. Grinning over to where Eva sat on one of several sunloungers, he said, “You owe me money, dumpling.”

“I wasn’t aware we were actually betting,” Eva quipped, turning a page in the paperback she’d brought from home. With that said, as Neil continued wading with Grace, Eva alternated between reading her book and checking on her husband and daughter. After about ten minutes had passed, she got up from the sunlounger, putting her book aside and grabbing the beach towel that she’d set nearby.

“Time for some warming up,” Eva said. Once Neil had given her Grace, she wrapped the shivering baby up in the towel. “And a nap, too,” she added as Grace yawned.

“Guess that’s enough excitement for now,” Neil commented as he got out of the pool.

After putting Grace down for her nap, it wasn’t long before Neil coaxed Eva into indulging in some cuddles—and light dozing—in bed. A couple of hours later, everyone was fully awake, and Eva and Neil readied themselves and Grace for the beach (including applying sunscreen, much to Eva’s insistence and Neil’s annoyance). The beach itself was just a stone’s throw away from the house, so it was sooner rather than later that they and Grace made it there. While Neil set up Grace’s plastic pool and filled it by the bucketful with water from the ocean, Eva breastfed the baby again.

“Hey, Grace, look what I brought you,” Neil said after the pool was all set and the feeding was done. Grace turned her head to watch as he knelt in the sand to get two cupcake-shaped squirt toys and two rubber ducks out of Eva’s bag and put them in the water. At the sight of her bath toys, Grace started babbling excitedly.

Eva chuckled. “Yes, those are your toys.” She knelt down beside the pool and placed Grace in it. Naturally, Grace didn’t waste any time in plucking one of the ducks up and squeezing it in her tiny hands, shrieking with laughter as it squeaked. After a few more squeak-inducing squeezes, though, Grace dropped the duck with a splash onto the water and grabbed one of the cupcakes, passing it from one hand to the other.

“Watch this, princess,” Neil told her. He sank the remaining cupcake into the water, then drew it out again. Pulling the cupcake towards him and aiming it skyward, he squeezed it, causing water to squirt out from the top of the rubber frosting in a thin tendril, much to the baby’s squealing glee.

Beaming, Grace also sank the cupcake she was holding into the water and pulled it out. The instant she pointed the squirting end of the cupcake at Neil, though, was enough for Eva to exclaim, “Grace, no, don’t—”

Too late—Grace squeezed the cupcake, causing the water to squirt straight into Neil’s face. Neil yelped and flinched back, wiping the water off his face and glasses, while Grace giggled as if congratulating herself on a job well done.

Although squirting water at her father wasn’t exactly something to be encouraged, Eva couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, she’s a fast learner, I’ll give her that.”

“Hey, whose side are you on?” But Neil was laughing, too. Adjusting his glasses, he grinned and reached out to pat Grace on her head. “Not bad for her first time, though. Not bad at all.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, Maizie!” Grace beamed down from her place at the dining room table at her kitten, who was scurrying across the kitchen floor and towards the seven-year-old girl. Once Maizie reached Grace, she meowed with an expectant look on her furry face.

Neil swallowed his bite of mashed potatoes and frowned. “The cat can’t be hungry again already. She had a bowl of food, like, five minutes ago.”

“I think she just likes the smell of dinner,” Grace said, picking up a piece of baked chicken from her plate and showing it to Maizie. “Want some? It’s good!”

“Let’s not feed Maizie people food, Grace,” Eva told her before eating a green bean.

“Oh, don’t worry, Mama,” Grace assured her, turning her smiling face to her mother. “Chicken won’t make her sick.”

“Maybe not,” Eva admitted, “but we don’t want her getting into the habit of eating off our plates. That’ll make her not want the food she’s supposed to be eating.”

Her smile fading, Grace put the chicken piece back down and returned her gaze to Maizie, who was now meowing plaintively, the tip of her tail twitching. “But if Maizie’s really still hungry...”

Neil grinned, standing up from the table. “Never fear, kitten treats are here.”

He headed to the kitchen, grabbed the plastic canister of chicken-flavored kitten treats that was set on the counter, and went back to his dining room chair and sat down again. Opening up the canister, he got out one small, star-shaped treat and waved it in Maizie’s direction.

“Almost as good as the real thing,” he said, as if narrating for a cat commercial. “Get it while it’s fresh!”

But although Neil’s antics got a giggle out of Grace, Maizie didn’t even walk to him to sniff at the treat, let alone eat it. Instead, she ignored him completely, bounding over to Eva and standing up on her hind legs to place her front paws on Eva’s thigh, meowing for the third time.

Eva chuckled. “Sorry, Maizie, but being cute won’t make me share my food with you.” Sobering, she added, “Neil, give me the treat.”

“If I must,” Neil said with a dramatic sigh, handing the treat over to his wife.

She lowered her open palm to Maizie, who scarfed down the treat in only a few bites, loudly purring as she did so. Petting the kitten on her head, Eva turned her attention to Neil, the corner of her mouth curving upward in amusement. “Guess that proves Maizie likes me best.”

“Oh, gloat it up, Eva, but I see how it is,” Neil quipped, smirking while the still-purring Maizie got back down on all fours and rubbed her head against Eva’s leg. “Grace likes me more, so you decided the cat would be your favourite.”

“Who said anything about me playing favorites between Maizie and Grace?” Eva asked rhetorically, the slight smile remaining on her face as she ate a piece of chicken. “If anything, I’m playing favorites between Maizie and you.”

Neil gasped in mock dismay. “You wouldn’t!”

Eva’s smile grew. “Wouldn’t I?”

“Why can’t they be both?” Grace piped up, quite earnestly. “Maizie can be the favorite kitty, and Daddy can be the favorite daddy.”

At that, Neil couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his throat. A genuine smile crossed his face as he glanced at Eva, who had also laughed and was now taking a sip of her tea, smiling genuinely as well.

Grace looked at them in confusion. “Um, does that mean you’re not fighting anymore?”

Not for the first time, Neil wondered how he and Eva managed to get such an adorable little girl.

“Yeah, princess,” Neil said, turning his smile to Grace. “It does.”

Chapter Text

“Mama, can we go outside now?”

“Not yet, Grace,” Eva answered, looking up from buttoning her winter coat to address her four-year-old daughter, who sulked at her mother’s reply. Eva then frowned, noticing that Grace was still only wearing a long-sleeved shirt and jeans. “Why haven’t you gotten dressed?”

“I’m dressed!” Grace insisted.

“For a normal day, you are,” Eva said, “but it’s snowing today. We all need to be bundled up before we can go outside.”

Grace sulked again.

“Eva, where’re my gloves?” Neil, who was also wearing a coat, asked from where he stood in front of the dresser, opening and closing drawers.

“First drawer on the left,” she replied as their daughter rushed over to him.

“Daddy!” Grace whined over the sound of Neil opening the aforementioned drawer. “I wanna play in the snow!”

“I know you do, Gracie,” Neil said, putting on the gloves he’d finally found, “but Mama’s right. We gotta make sure you’re dressed warmly enough so the snow won’t turn you into a popsicle.”

“But I won’t turn into a popsicle!” Grace exclaimed, scowling. “I’m not cold!”

“Well, of course you’re not,” Eva said patiently as she fastened her last coat button. “The heater’s on.”

Grace turned around to face Eva. “The what?” she asked, her annoyance melting away into confusion.

“The heater,” Eva repeated. “It’s something that makes the house stay warm.”

“Oh.” And with that monosyllabic response, Grace returned her attention to Neil. “Daddy, can we go outside now?”

Eva watched as Neil’s face twitched, knowing he was trying not to laugh at their daughter’s one-track mind. “Why don’t we get you dressed more first, yeah?” he suggested. “Then we can go outside, I promise.”

Grace’s shoulders slumped. “Okay,” she agreed reluctantly, accepting Eva taking her hand and leading her to her room without any fuss.

Unfortunately, the lack of fuss didn’t last.

“Grace, stop squirming,” Eva chided as she tried to put little pink snowshoes on the toddler’s feet.

Grace—who was now wearing a wooly pink sweater and matching coat over her shirt, purple mittens, and pink earmuffs—was indeed squirming as she sat on her bed. She stopped after hearing her mother’s scolding, but another scowl was forming on her face.

“You’re taking forever!” Grace complained, not for the first time. “The snow’s gonna melt!”

“The snow’ll still be there when we’re done,” Neil told her as he rifled through the clothes hanging in her closet. “Just be patient, princess.”

Grace huffed, but nonetheless stayed still long enough for Eva to put the snowshoes on her feet. By the time she was standing again, Neil was stepping over to Eva with a second, white coat in hand.

“An extra coat ought to do it,” he said.

“Agreed,” Eva replied, taking the coat from her husband and opening it for Grace to slip into.

“Mama!” Grace cried, waving her arms in protest. “I don’t need another coat!”

“But it will help keep you warm,” Eva said.

“It’ll make me hot!” Grace shrieked. “I’ll melt!”

“Grace, no one’s ever melted from wearing an extra coat.”

“But what if I do melt?”

Eva sighed; clearly Grace wasn’t going to budge on this, at least for now. “All right, all right,” she said, folding the coat up. “Go with Daddy to the front door. I’ll join you after I get my gloves.”

Grace cheered, her previous mood immediately forgotten. As Neil picked their daughter up in his arms, he raised his eyebrows at Eva in confusion. At that, Eva gave a slight half-shrug, then nodded to the coat still in her arms. She would bring it with her for when—not if—Grace realized just how cold it was outside.

Soon enough, Eva had put on her gloves, and she, Neil, and Grace were outside on the front porch. Grace’s feet had barely touched the ground before she was running into the snowy front yard with an excited, high-pitched squeal. Eva and Neil watched as she twirled in circles, giggling all the while, then stood with her arms spread out as she beamed happily at the snowflakes falling from the sky.

Slowly, though, Grace lowered her arms, her smile fading. Visibly shivering, she scampered back to where Eva and Neil still stood on the porch.

“Mama, can I have my other coat now?” she asked.

Eva smiled. “Of course you can, Grace.”

Chapter Text

All in all, dinner with Grace’s boyfriend could’ve been a whole lot worse. Not that Tony was a problem—really, the boy was nothing but polite and respectful; the real issue was, of course, Neil. Eva had spent about half her time during the meal kicking him under the table to keep him from saying something rude about Tony, and afterward, she’d had to glare at him when Grace suggested she and Tony go to her room. Neil scowled back at her, but didn’t verbally object, which Eva counted as a victory. Grace had been too happy about having Tony at their house to notice her father’s distinct lack of happiness, and Eva didn’t want to have her daughter’s bubble burst if it could be avoided.

In any case, all Grace and Tony did in her room was play videogames, so really, Neil was just being an overprotective idiot.

Said overprotective idiocy continued on into the next day, not long after Grace left to have lunch with Tony.

“We shouldn’t have let her go,” Neil was saying as he stood in front of the kitchen counter, spreading mayonnaise on one of the two slices of bread before him.

From where she stood behind her husband, Eva rolled her eyes. “Neil, stop acting like a perfectly nice boy is plotting to kidnap our daughter,” she chided, taking a sip of her tea.

“Well, he could be!” he insisted without turning to look at her. “For all we know, he could be trying to lull us into a false sense of security before he snatches Grace up and takes her to his dragon lair.”

“His dragon lair,” Eva repeated, deadpan. “If that’s a joke, it’s officially your worst one ever.”

“Who said I was joking?” Neil asked rhetorically, moving his mayonnaise-covered knife to the second bread slice.

Eva grunted, taking another sip of tea in an effort to calm herself. “You’re ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.”

“I’m concerned, Eva, not ridiculous.”

“Grace wouldn’t even have a boyfriend if it were up to you.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with her staying single forever.” With both bread slices now slathered with mayo, Neil placed his knife on top of the open mayonnaise jar nearby and stepped over to the refrigerator. “Think about it,” he went on as he opened the refrigerator door. “The three of us could live together as a family for the rest of our lives.”

“Yeah,” Eva said, shaking her head. “A weird, cultish family.”

Neil almost dropped the packs of cheese and bologna he’d just dug out of the fridge. “Excuse me?!” He quickly placed them on the counter and closed the refrigerator before whirling around to face Eva, his brow furrowed in indignation. “I do not want our family to be a cult! Cults do seriously evil crap like brainwash members and murder kittens! I just want our girl home with us forever! That’s not cultish!”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” Eva set her tea down on the small counter next to the oven and turned to Neil with a flat stare. “What part of Grace being stuck at home for the rest of her life doesn’t sound cultish?”

“Oh, come off it. Lots of families in Europe and Asia live together in multigenerational homes, and no one bats an eye about that.”

“We don’t live in Europe or Asia,” Eva pointed out. “And ‘multigenerational homes’ tends to mean parents, children, grandchildren, and children’s spouses all living together.”

Neil scowled at her very much deliberate emphasis on “children’s spouses.” “Must you remind me of the thought of Grace getting married?”

“Well, Neil, children having spouses is usually how we get grandchildren.”

“Grace could always take her kids and move back in with us after getting divorced.”

“And now you’re living in a fantasy world,” Eva said, rolling her eyes again. “Even if that ever happened, Grace would probably still want a house completely separate from ours.”

“And she’d want that, why?”

“To have her own life, perhaps?” Eva pinned Neil with a pointed look. “Like any other young adult wanting to leave home?”

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it after a moment. Wordlessly, he returned his attention to his half-made sandwich and pulled a bologna slice out to place on one of the bread pieces.

As he placed a cheese slice on the bologna, Eva walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “You know,” she said, “Grace having a life of her own wouldn’t mean she’d be deserting us.”

“She’d be leaving home,” Neil reminded her, sounding rather miserable as he placed the second bread slice on the cheese.

“She’d still visit.”

“It wouldn’t be the same and you know it.” He drew away from Eva’s touch and turned around to face her a second time, grabbing his finished sandwich and biting into it. He chewed and swallowed, grimacing as though he was tasting something bitter. “She wouldn’t be talking to us every day, or eating with us all the time. Is it really so awful of me to want Grace living with us forever?”

You’re romanticizing, Neil. Their jobs alone could make it difficult to spend quality time with Grace, especially during winter, and even if that wasn’t the case, there were quite a few occasions when Grace spent more time with friends than with her parents. Even so, she was their daughter, someone they’d loved and cared for from the moment she was born. It really wasn’t that surprising that Neil had such a hard time with the prospect of Grace leaving the nest.

With all that said, however...

“When it makes you sound like a cult leader, it is,” Eva said out loud.

Neil pouted. “That’s just mean, Eva.”

“But true,” she countered. “If Grace ever decided she did want to live with us for the rest of our lives, I’d rather it be because she chose it instead of you choosing for her.”

“I wouldn’t be choosing for her,” he muttered, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Only because you have me to curb your overzealous paternal instincts,” was all Eva said before she returned to her cooling tea.

Chapter Text

When Eva came home from a lunch with Traci, she expected Grace to be taking her afternoon nap in her room. Instead, upon walking through the front door, she was greeted by the smell of buttered popcorn and the sound of the TV. Stifling a groan, she headed to the living room to find Neil sitting on the couch, a popcorn bowl beside him and their snoozing four-year-old on his lap, her head resting on his chest. Before Neil and Grace were two dinner trays, each having a plate covered with pizza crumbs and an empty cup set on them, with the coffee table moved aside to make room for said trays. On the TV, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey was playing.

“Neil,” Eva said, her voice flat with disapproval as she stepped over to the couch.

“Hey,” Neil replied, unfazed by her tone as he looked in her direction, then nodded down towards Grace.

Eva’s gaze switched to their daughter, who looked perfectly relaxed as she slept on Neil’s lap, a faint smile on her little face. Her heart softening at the sight, Eva bent down and gave her husband a kiss on the lips. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help but say, “Grace needs to be in bed.”

“She’s napping, isn’t she?” Neil pointed out. “Besides, Homeward Bound was on and I thought it was high time our girl got to watch a classic live-action film where the animals talk without using shoddy CGI to make—”

Eva cut him off with another kiss, muffling the last three words of his argument. She knew all too well that Neil just wanted to show Grace something he thought she’d love. He didn’t need excuses for it. She pulled away after a moment to smile wryly at him. “It’s a good thing I’ve just had a great lunch, because I’d be madder at you otherwise.”

“Well, lucky me, then,” Neil quipped as Eva straightened up and eased down into the free space beside him on the couch.

Once she’d gotten comfortable, she peered at Grace again and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her daughter’s ear. “If she gets bad dreams from this,” she told Neil, “you’re the one getting up in the middle of the night.”

“She was asleep before Shadow, Sassy, and Chance even left Kate’s ranch.”

“I guess I should just be grateful it’s not Pet Sematary.”

“Like I’d ever inflict that on our baby,” Neil groaned, shaking his head in disgust.

“True,” Eva agreed, laying her head on his shoulder. The minutes ticked by, the movie played on, and Grace let out a snore. Eva and Neil both chuckled at that before the former lifted her head up.

“Like father, like daughter,” Eva said.

“Hey,” Neil protested, “I happen to be a very quiet sleeper.”

“Only in your dreams, Neil. And speaking of which, are you ever going to put Grace to bed?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.”

Eva stood up from the couch as Neil gently pulled Grace into his arms and followed suit. As he left the room with their daughter, Eva searched the couch for the remote. Soon enough, she found it in between the cushions and turned the TV off before tidying up the living room. She brought the plates, cups, and bowl to the kitchen and set them on the counter to be washed later; folded up the dinner trays and stashed them in the entryway closet; and moved the coffee table back to its original place in front of the couch. By the time she was finished, Neil had returned.

“I saw the restaurant pizza boxes on the stove,” she informed him.

He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, and?”

“You couldn’t just cook one of the frozen pizzas we already have?”

“And feed Grace something that tastes like cardboard in comparison? Heck no.”

Eva sighed. Typical Neil, she supposed. “At least I wasn’t the one paying the bill,” was all she said.

Chapter Text

“Blue Horse, Blue Horse, what do you see?” Neil was reading aloud from his spot at the head of his three-year-old daughter’s bed. “I see a green frog looking at me,” he continued, adopting an exaggerated, horsey voice for the line, complete with a neigh at the end.

From where she sat in her father’s lap, Grace giggled, smiling happily at the picture of the brightly colored blue horse from the copy of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Neil was holding at arm’s length for her. He turned the page, revealing the aforementioned green frog, and went on.

“Green Frog, Green Frog, what do you see? I see a purple cat looking at me.”

Grace gasped. “A cat!?” she exclaimed.

Neil laughed, not even disappointed that she’d completely ignored the croaky voice he’d used for the frog in her excitement. “That’s right, princess.” He turned another page, showing her the picture of the short-haired purple cat. “Purple Cat, Purple Cat, what do you see? I see—”

“Gracie looking at me!” Grace interrupted, bouncing a little in Neil’s lap. “See, Daddy?” She pressed a little hand to the purple cat’s face. “Purple Cat’s looking at me!”

“She sure is,” Neil agreed. The purple cat was supposed to be seeing a white dog looking at it, but really, who was he to argue with his little girl? He gently lowered Grace’s hand from the page, then closed the book and placed it on the night stand. “So, Gracie, Gracie, what do you see?” he asked, gathering Grace into his arms and turning her so that she was now facing him.

“I see Daddy looking at me!” she chirped as she beamed up at him, though her eyes were now blinking rapidly.

“And Daddy sees a bed looking at him.” Getting to his feet, Neil pressed a kiss to Grace’s forehead and shifted her so that he was holding her in his right arm. As his daughter yawned, he pulled the bed covers aside.

“M’not sleepy...” she mumbled as he laid her down and covered her up to her chin with the pale pink sheet and dark pink comforter.

“Really?” Neil asked, kneeling by her bedside. “’Cause you look pretty sleepy to me.”

Grace’s only response was to yawn again, her eyes fluttering closed, and Neil had to hold back a chuckle.

“Goodnight, Grace,” he said, giving her another kiss on the forehead before turning off the lamp and leaving the room, closing the door behind him.

Upon going down the hall toward his and Eva’s own room, Neil found his wife standing in their bedroom’s threshold, wearing her robe over a nightgown.

“That didn’t take very long,” Eva commented.

“We only made it halfway through Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” Neil explained. “The purple cat page got Grace so excited she forgot about the rest of the book.”

Eva let out a noncommittal hum. “No surprises there.”

“I should’ve read Goodnight Moon,” Neil said as they went into their room. “I mean, it’s literally Falling Asleep: The Book—we could’ve gotten through it, no problem.”

“There’s two little kittens who first show up a fifth of the way into that book,” Eva pointed out, closing the door behind them and walking over to sit on the left side of their bed. “Grace would never let you turn the page,” she added, smiling at Neil in amusement.

“No, she probably wouldn’t,” he agreed, letting out a short laugh at the mental image of Grace squealing in joy over those two kittens and insisting on staying at that page. “Just the hazards of having a cat-person daughter.”

Eva hummed again. “At any rate,” she said, untying her robe, “now that Grace’s been bathed and put to bed,” she slowly pulled her robe off from her shoulders, revealing the thin straps of her nightgown, “how about putting me to bed?” She raised her eyebrows at Neil suggestively, the corners of her mouth curving upward.

He stepped closer to her, returning her smile with a grin of his own as he lifted a hand to one of the straps and slid it off her shoulder. “Like you even had to ask,” was all he said before cupping her face and leaning in to kiss her.

Chapter Text

After the extra coat was put on Grace, it wasn’t long before fun in the snow began. Neil and Eva made the three snowballs needed for a snowman and stacked them up, while Grace gathered rocks for the snowman’s eyes and mouth. Once it was decided that enough rocks had been collected, Neil lifted Grace in his arms and let her put them in the snowman’s head. The end result was the snowman having differently-sized eyes and a lopsided smile, but Neil still proudly grinned at Grace for a job well done.

“Bestest snowman in the world right here,” he bragged, turning Grace in his arms to kiss her on the temple, which caused her to giggle.

“Not quite,” Eva chimed in, holding three sticks in her hands. “Isn’t he missing something? Or somethings?”

“Oh!” Grace exclaimed, her smile sliding off her face. “The snowman doesn’t have a nose or arms!”

“That’s right, Grace.” Eva held out the smallest of the sticks to the toddler. “Would you like to give him his nose?”

“Uh-huh!” And with that, Grace grabbed the stick and stuck it in the space between the snowman’s eyes. It wasn’t where a snowman’s nose was “supposed” to be, obviously, but as far as Neil was concerned, his little girl deserved an A for effort.

He set her back on her feet in the snow, then he and Eva made short work of sticking the remaining sticks into either side of the snowman’s body.

“Oh, did I say bestest snowman in the world?” Neil asked rhetorically as he, Eva, and Grace looked at their finished winter sculpture. “I meant bestest snowman in the universe.”

Eva chuckled. “You’re only saying that because we’re the ones who built it.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”

“Mama, Daddy, look!” Grace exclaimed before Eva could reply. The four-year-old girl hurried several paces away from the snowman and fell backward into the snow, spreading her arms and legs and moving them back and forth. Underneath her, the shape of an angel formed, and she sat up after a brief moment, rosy-cheeked and beaming.

“Adorable snow angel, princess,” Neil said with another grin as Eva stepped over to Grace.

“Now the snowman won’t be lonely after we go back inside,” Eva told their daughter as she helped her to her feet and brushed snow out of her hair. “And we should be going back inside,” she added, becoming serious.

Grace’s face fell. “Mama!”

“It’s too cold to stay out for very long,” Eva explained calmly. “We don’t want you getting sick, right?”

“But we just got here!” Grace argued, pouting.

“We can come back outside later,” Neil said, smiling. “Besides, doesn’t drinking hot chocolate sound good? Mama could use it before she turns into a popsicle.”

Eva snorted, turning to give Neil an unamused look. “Like you’re not just as cold. And tea would be just fine, thank you.”

“No, Mama!” Grace cried, her pout now replaced with a worried frown. “You can’t turn into a popsicle, you can’t! You gotta have hot chocolate!”

“You heard her, Eva,” Neil quipped. “And I promise not to go crazy on the sugar.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” was all Eva said before returning her attention to Grace and taking her by the hand. “Come on, let’s go back in.”

Once all their coats and gloves, plus Grace’s mittens and earmuffs, were taken off and put in the laundry room, Grace insisted on helping Neil with the hot chocolate instead of sitting with Eva on the couch. “Helping” ended up consisting of Grace answering Neil’s question about what toppings she wanted, then touching Eva’s mug of plain hot chocolate as Neil held said mug in one hand while holding Grace in his other arm.

“I got your hot chocolate, Mama!” Grace happily announced once she and Neil had reached the couch.

“Thank you, Grace,” Eva said, smiling at their daughter as she accepted her mug. “That’s very nice of you.”

Neil set Grace down so she could scurry up on the couch and snuggle up to Eva, who took a sip of her hot chocolate before giving her husband a disapproving frown. “Neil, you’re—”

“Not holding two more hot chocolates?” he quickly interrupted, flashing his best grin at Eva. “No worries, dumpling—they’re comin’ right up!”

Before Eva could say anything else, Neil hurried out of the living room and back to the kitchen, where he poured hot chocolate in Grace’s plastic mug and topped it with marshmallows, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup, then poured the remaining hot chocolate in his own mug. When he returned to the living room with the two hot chocolates, Grace’s face lit up.

“One Sweet Hot Chocolate, as requested,” Neil declared, smiling as he offered Grace’s mug to her.

“Thank you, Daddy!” she trilled, eagerly accepting her hot chocolate and taking a drink.

“You’re welcome, Gracie,” he answered, before settling down on Grace’s other side on the couch and helping himself to his hot chocolate. As the rich warmth of the beverage spread through him, he wondered if it’d be worth it to get up and grab a blanket for the three of them to wrap in. The thought had barely completed before Eva spoke up.

“Did you have to give our four-year-old so much sugar?”

“You say that like I give Grace sugar every day,” Neil said. “It’s one cup of hot chocolate.”

“It might as well be ten with how hyper she’ll get.” Eva took another sip of her hot chocolate before fixing Neil with a stern look. “No thanks to you.”

“Why do you think I said we could go outside later? She can burn off all that extra energy then.”

“In twenty minutes or less?”

Before Neil could come up with something clever to say, Grace chose that moment to pipe up.

“Daddy, can we watch The Aristocats?”

She was beaming up at him, with her already half-empty mug in her hands and smears of cream and syrup above her mouth, and despite the fact that he and Eva had watched The Aristocats with Grace about a hundred times, Neil couldn’t bring himself to say no.

“Sure thing, hun.” Neil took a quick swig of his hot chocolate and set it down on one of the coasters on the coffee table before standing up. “But how ’bout I get a blanket to cover us up first? Sound good?”

“Yep!” Grace agreed.

“Eva?” Neil prompted, glancing at his wife.

“A blanket does sound nice,” Eva admitted, her face softening with a smile. A second later, her smile broadened slightly in amusement. “Might as well use that time to steel ourselves.”

“What do you mean, Mama?” Grace asked, looking at her in curiosity.

Neil smiled. “Nothing you need to worry about, Grace—just get cosy.”

Chapter Text

“And then I got Evagrace to win the art contest!” Grace was telling Eva and Neil over dinner, a beaming smile on her face. “It took a bunch of art classes and lots of gold, but I did it! And in the first year, too!”

From his seat at the dining room table, Neil quickly swallowed his bite of baked chicken before smiling at the seven-year-old girl. “That’s great, hun,” he said. “You’re one step closer to queendom.”

“Yep!” Grace agreed, nodding happily. “I think I’m gonna go for the dance contest next—it’ll raise Evagrace’s Elegance, and she needs lots of Elegance to be the queen. Or maybe I should do the baking contest?” she wondered out loud, her smile giving way to a thoughtful frown. “That’ll give her a Health-raising egg if she wins.”

Neil hummed, tapping his chin with his fork. “I don’t think one year’s enough to win those. You can always repeat the art contest in the second year, then spend that year and the next one preparing for the others.”

Grace nodded. “Yeah, I could. But which one should I pick?”

“Grace,” Eva cut in before Neil could answer, “I’m glad you’re enjoying the game Daddy made for you, but you still need to eat your dinner.” She pointedly eyed her daughter’s plate, which was still filled with cut-up pieces of chicken and mashed potatoes.

“Yes, Mama.” Grace picked up her fork, scooped up some potatoes, and put the morsel into her mouth. Almost immediately after swallowing, however, she put her fork back down and beamed again. “Did I tell you I found all the gold and treasure chests in the desert?”

“Honey, I mean it—eat.” But the sternness Eva intended was ruined by the smile she felt spreading across her face; honestly, her little girl’s joy was infectious. As Grace picked up her fork a second time, Eva added, “If you eat at least half of dinner, you can show me and Daddy the game after we’ve cleaned up.”

“We’ll have snacks, too,” Neil chimed in, taking a long sip of his tea.

“Really?” Grace asked.

“Really,” he confirmed. “We’ll make a whole game night of it.”

“Just as long as the snacks aren’t only junk food,” Eva said, giving Neil a warning glance as she sipped at her own tea.

Her husband let out a short laugh. “With you around, that’s a one-million-percent guarantee.”

“If I wasn’t around, you’d let Grace eat nothing but junk.”

“And you wouldn’t let her eat junk at all if it were up to you.” Neil grinned. “See, dear? We complete each other.”

“For a certain definition of completion, I guess,” Eva quipped before eating a piece of her chicken.

The rest of dinner (with Grace managing to eat three-quarters of her food) passed, followed by the kitchen cleanup. By the time all the dishes were washed, rinsed, and put away in the dishwasher, Grace had hurried away to her father’s den, eager to get the game night started, while Eva and Neil gathered the promised snacks. Eva filled a large plastic bowl with strawberries, cherries, blueberries, grapes, and sliced oranges, and retrieved three bottled waters from the refrigerator. Neil, meanwhile, filled a second bowl with Hershey’s milk chocolate bars, 3 Musketeers bars, M&M’s, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, then grabbed a pack of canned Dr. Peppers, also from the fridge.

“Only you would bring fruit to a game night,” Neil commented, raising an eyebrow at Eva’s fruit bowl as he held the candy bowl in one arm and the Dr. Peppers in the other. “Seriously, Eva, do you just not know how to have fun?”

Eva rolled her eyes. “I know how to have fun, Neil,” she said as they headed out of the kitchen and towards the den, the fruit bowl clutched in her left arm and the waters tucked under her right. “But I’m not about to let our daughter spend the evening eating just chocolate.”

“And that’s why it’s up to me to make sure the fun’s properly had,” Neil replied, grinning again.

They made it to the den before Eva could reply, and whatever she was going to say was forgotten as Grace spun around in the computer chair to face them with an excited grin on her face.

“Princess Life is ready!” she announced. And indeed it was—the game’s title screen, with the Grace-lookalike princess standing in a grassy field under a starry sky, took up the entirety of Neil’s computer monitor.

“And so are the snacks,” Neil said, walking over to the night table on the lefthand side of the computer desk and placing the candy bowl and Dr. Peppers on it. Once he tore into the sodas’ packaging and brought a can out, he opened it with a hiss and offered it to Grace.

Her grin widened as she accepted the Dr. Pepper. “Thanks, Daddy.”

“We have water and fruit, too,” Eva told Grace as Neil grabbed another can. “Don’t worry,” she went on, smiling, “I made sure to bring all your favorites. Grapes, cherries, strawberries—”

“Strawberries!?” Grace repeated, her face somehow lighting up even more.

“Yes, strawberries,” Eva said. While Neil picked up the candy bowl and moved to the couch on the right-hand side of the desk, Eva placed her own load on the night table, selected her own water bottle, and twisted the lid off. “Do you want one now?”

“Uh-huh!” Grace answered, nodding eagerly and holding out a hand.

Upon hearing that positive response, Eva fished out a strawberry from the fruit bowl and put it in Grace’s waiting palm. “Here you go,” Eva said, before picking up the fruit bowl once again and joining Neil on the couch.

“A Dr. Pepper and a strawberry,” he remarked, his mouth twitching in amusement. “Can you name a more unlikely pair?”

“Dr. Pepper Strawberries and Cream is an actual soda,” Eva pointed out matter-of-factly. “I’d say it’s not that unlikely.”

“Uh,” Neil said, sobering as he grabbed a 3 Musketeers and tore into the wrapper, “that’s a soda you’re talking about, not a snack duo.”

“Here we go!” Grace exclaimed, oblivious to her parents’ banter. On the computer screen, the image now showed the princess wearing a simple pink dress as she stood inside a fancy bedroom with a slight smile on her face. On the white brick wall behind her, some feet above her ornate bed, hung a painting of dancing white-garbed angels, and directly to the right of the painting was a window displaying the princess’ name, her current age (eleven), the amount of gold coins she had (3,126), and eight colorful menu icons. In the upper lefthand corner of the screen was a second, smaller window showing the current in-game date: February 28, 1411.

After taking a gulp of her Dr. Pepper and setting the can aside on the desk, Grace used the mouse to click on the third icon in the first row, which showed a page of a calendar. The upper lefthand window and icons were immediately replaced with a March 1411 calendar and a list of options (School, Work, Adventure, and Time Off) respectively. Below the calendar, a textbox with the Ruth-lookalike character’s face portrait read, “What shall Princess Evagrace do for the first part of the month?”

Eva bit into a grape as she watched Grace click on School, then select Fighting from the brightly colored list of classes. “Ruth’s” next textbox explained how the Fighting class focused on studying hand-to-hand combat without relying on armor or weapons, accompanied by a new window with two new choices: Add to Schedule and Cancel. Grace confirmed her selection, and the first ten numbered squares of the calendar were filled in with the image of a red-and-white-clad fighter punching outward at an imaginary opponent. She repeated the process for the second and third parts of the month; once she was finished, the entirely of March 1411 was covered with the Fighting class icon.

With another click of the mouse to finalize the schedule, the calendar vanished. The date changed to March 1, 1411, and in the lower right-hand corner of the screen was a textbox that read, “Starting today, Evagrace will study Fighting.”

The next three textboxes were paired with a face portrait of an old, balding man that looked like Willis. “Swords aren’t always needed to win a battle,” the first one read. “The secret to self-defense is knowing how to deflect a blow at the last possible second. This is a basic technique which can be applied to any type of unarmed combat.”

“I hafta get Evagrace’s fighting stats up—they’ll boost her fighter reputation,” Grace explained, biting into her strawberry. “Daddy’s queen ending guide says all her reputations need to have more than four hundred and twenty points, and it’s good to start raising them now, right?”

“It is,” Neil agreed, finishing up with his 3 Musketeers bar and grabbing an M&M’s packet. “Put in the work now, get the rewards later.”

“Mm-hmm!” Grace quickly ate the rest of her strawberry and spun around to face Neil. “Daddy, can I have a Hershey’s?”

“Sure thing, Gracie.”

As Neil snatched up a Hershey’s bar and tossed it to Grace, who quickly caught it, Eva swallowed the second half of her grape and took a short drag of her water. “Leave it to you to go and include a step-by-step guide to get a specific ending in your game manual,” she told Neil, shaking her head.

“Hey, our princess deserves to get the queen ending on her first try,” Neil said. “It’s her God-given right, ya know,” he added with a grin, popping a few M&M’s into his mouth.

“Well, be that as it may,” Eva answered, helping herself to an orange slice, “there’s nothing wrong with Grace just playing the game on her own.”

“There’s nothing wrong with her getting help sometimes, either.”

“And by ‘help,’ do you mean ‘give her the solution to every problem that pops up’?”

“Why not?” Neil asked rhetorically, taking a drink of his Dr. Pepper. “Whoever said handholding in games is bad obviously didn’t know what they were talking about.”

Onscreen, “Willis’” textbox was replaced with a large window showing a scene of the princess practicing kicks in a forest alongside two generic-looking boys while “Willis” looked on. To the right of the window was a textbox that read, “Evagrace is showing steady improvement,” below were three bars labeled with the relevant stats—Combat Skill, Combat Defense, and Stress—and above was a small window displaying the number of gold coins spent. Excluding the one Sunday from the session (Sundays were automatic rest days), as the day passed from the 1st to the 2nd, then from the 2nd to the 3rd, and so on, the princess’ Combat Skill and Stress, plus the gold spent, steadily increased. By March 10th, the princess had nine Stress points, she had paid 270 gold coins, and the textbox cheerfully read, “Combat Skill is up 9 points!”

At the end of March, the princess’ current total in her Combat Skill was at forty-one points, her Combat Defense had not risen from the eight points it started with, she had twenty-seven Stress points, and her gold savings had lowered to 2,316.

With the schedule for that month finished, complete with “Willis” declaring the training to be over and reminding the princess to keep up with it, the scene returned to the original game screen. Grace now clicked on the second menu icon, which displayed a tiny version of the princess with a speech bubble above her head. The list of icons was replaced with a small window listing three choices: Talk to Evagrace, Pocket Money, and Scold (the latter of which being Eva’s idea—if Neil wanted to have options to interact positively with the princess, then it was only fair to have the option to scold her when necessary). Grace selected Pocket Money, and the list was replaced with a textbox that read, “The King and Queen give Evagrace 30G.”

The next textbox was accompanied by the princess’ smiling face portrait. “Thanks, Mother and Father. I’ll spend it wisely.”

“Evagrace’s Stress is down 20 points,” the next textbox read. Just above it was the Stress bar, showing that the number of points was now seven.

“Hooray for stress relief,” Neil said, eating the last of his M&M’s before picking up a Reese’s.

“Hooray for remembering stress relief,” Eva corrected him after swallowing her last bite of her orange slice. She recalled all too well that, during his test runs of the game, Neil would sometimes forget to reduce the princess’ Stress, which could, if left too high, lead to her becoming too sick to do anything but sleep for a month.

Neil’s only response was a dismissive, “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

For April 1411, Grace repeated the schedule from March—three sessions of Fighting classes. As she ate her Hershey’s bar and took drinks of her Dr. Pepper, the princess’ Combat Skill and Stress increased and the gold she had decreased. At the end of the day on April 30th, the princess had a total of sixty-seven Combat Skill points, thirty-three Stress points, and 1,506 gold coins, and was informed by “Willis” that she would switch from the Novice level of training to the Adept level next time.

“Mama, Daddy, guess what?” Grace abruptly asked once she’d given the princess more pocket money, spinning in her seat again to face them with a grin. Without waiting for a reply, she continued. “I’m gonna have Evagrace do the baking contest in the third year!”

“Oh, goody—literally,” Neil said, smiling. “Just make sure you get her Cooking and Sensitivity to at least a hundred each.”

“I will!” Grace chirped before returning her attention to the game. For the first two-thirds of the May 1411 schedule, she selected Work, then chose Veterinarian—marked by, predictably enough, an image of a shorthaired calico kitten—from the list of options, a job that “Ruth” described as taking care of sick or injured animals. The last third was dedicated to Time Off, of which there were only two choices: Free Time (labeled with a picture of the princess walking through a sunny townscape) and Vacation (which had a picture of a beach overlooked by mountains). The former, which “Ruth” explained as giving the princess some pocket money and sending her off to do whatever she liked, was chosen, and with the schedule decided on, the calendar disappeared and the date changed to May 1, 1411.

“Starting today,” a new textbox read, “Evagrace will work at the local animal clinic.”

“Veterinary work is a big responsibility,” the next textbox, accompanied by a face portrait of a shoulder-length gray-haired woman who looked like Lisa, read. “You’ve been entrusted with other people’s pets, so don’t let your dedication to their health falter for an instant!”

“Lisa’s” textbox was immediately replaced with the window previously shown during the princess’ Fighting classes, but with a different scene—a scene that caused Grace to let out a gleeful squeal, followed by an excited exclamation of, “Kitties!”

In the scene, the princess stood next to an examination table in a consultation room as “Lisa” sat at a small desk and used a quill to write on a roll of parchment. On the table was, indeed, a litter of four kittens—two gray, one black, and one orange—all snuggled up against a white, fluffy mother cat. The princess picked up one of the gray kittens, cradled it in her right arm, and pressed her left hand into its abdomen. To the right of the scene, the textbox read, “Today went smoothly,” and all the while, the two stat bars displayed below—one labeled with Sensitivity, the other with Stress—and the number of gold earned shown above increased by two points and four coins each working day.

Not that Grace was paying any attention to stats or money. “Cute, cute, cute!” she gushed, positively glowing as she stared at the little cat family onscreen.

Neil lowered the hand holding his half-eaten Reese’s and turned to Eva. “So, how excited d’ya think she’ll get once she meets some of the feline fairies?” he whispered, another smile crossing his face.

Eva took a sip of her water. “Judging from her reaction just now,” she whispered back, smiling as well, “she’ll probably be dancing on air.”

And with that, Eva turned her smile to Grace, who remained happily transfixed as the princess continued taking care of the mother cat and kittens.

Chapter Text

“It hurts, Mama!” Grace wailed. “It hurts!”

As she gave voice to her misery, Grace was lying in her bed, still in her pajamas and curled into the fetal position, her eyes screwed shut and her face twisted in clear agony. Eva stood to the side of the bed, a bottle of Advil in one hand and a paper cup of water in the other.

“I know it does, honey,” she said, her own voice gentle with empathy. “But I’ve got some painkillers right here; they’ll make your stomach feel better.”

Grace blinked her eyes open. “Really?” she asked, looking at her mother as if she didn’t quite believe her.

“Really,” Eva promised. “Do you want to take one now?”

Grace paused, considering, then gasped and shut her eyes again, her arms tightening around her drawn-up legs. “Uh-huh,” was all she said before uncurling herself and gingerly sitting up in bed.

Eva set the cup on Grace’s night stand and quickly twisted the bottle open and spilled out one Advil pill into her palm. With that done, Eva set the bottle on the night stand, picked up the cup again, and handed both it and the pill to Grace.

The sad thing is, Eva couldn’t help thinking as Grace put the pill into her mouth and chased it down with the water, this isn’t the worst a first period can be. She remembered her own first period, how, at age twelve, she woke up one morning with horrible stomach cramps and her underwear, pajamas bottoms, and bedsheets a bloody mess and was terrified she was about to die. At least she’d made sure that Grace knew exactly what to expect beforehand, including pre-period spotting, so when her first period arrived, it wouldn’t be a complete, awful surprise.

Even if it was still pretty awful.

“How’re things in here?”

Neil’s voice broke Eva from her musings. She turned her head in time to see her husband walk into the room and join her at their daughter’s bedside.

“About as well as can be expected,” Eva said.

“She means it hurts,” Grace cut in, gloomily staring at her empty cup, which she now held in both hands.

“Aw, I’m really sorry, princess.” Neil sat down beside Grace and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Would breakfast help? I can make you pancakes and chocolate milk if you want.”

Ordinarily, Eva knew, just the mention of Grace’s favorite breakfast would be enough to get her beaming, but right now, only a grimace was forming on her daughter’s face.

“Thanks, Daddy,” Grace said, “but I think I’ll just die instead.”

Neil’s jaw dropped at those words. “You’re dying?!” he exclaimed, removing his arm from Grace’s shoulders as he stared at her in horror.

“No, she isn’t,” Eva told him patiently, “but—”

Grace yelped at that moment, clutching at her stomach. “I gotta go,” she blurted out, and Eva stepped back a bit as Grace sprang up and hurried out of the room.

Neil shook his head. “I can’t believe Grace got her period,” he said as they heard the sound of the bathroom door being thrown open and slammed closed. “I mean, isn’t she too young for that?”

“She’s twelve,” Eva reminded him. “It’s the average age for when girls start having periods. So, no, she’s not too young.”

“She would be if this was the nineteenth century.”

“We’re not in the nineteenth century, moron.”

“Yeah, but if we were, Grace wouldn’t feel like she’s dying right now.”

Eva sighed. “Unfortunately,” she said, getting back to what she’d been about to say earlier, “it’ll take a few years before it’s less painful.”

Neil gaped at her. “Years?!” he squawked.

“Yes, Neil, years,” she confirmed grimly. “And even then, periods are never entirely pain-free.”

“Please tell me that’s a horrible excuse for a joke.”

“I wish I could.”

“Shoot.” Neil paused, looking around Grace’s room as though he was searching for something, then returned his gaze to Eva. “Ya know what?” he asked rhetorically. “Once Grace’s out of the bathroom, I’m bringing Maizie to her. Petting cats helps with stress, right?”

It took only a few seconds of thought before Eva found herself smiling slightly. “Actually,” she said, “that doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

Chapter Text

From where he stood nursing a mug of coffee in front of the kitchen sink, Neil smiled as he looked out the window. Outside, Eva was crouching in the grass of their front lawn, planting seeds in her garden, while Grace stood beside her, happily sprinkling water from a little plastic watering can onto the newly buried seeds. It was times like these, when it was Eva’s turn to keep their daughter entertained, when Neil could have some time to relax by himself. As much as he loved playing with Grace, even he needed his batteries recharged every now and then.

Besides, Grace being her mother’s little gardening helper was just about the cutest thing Neil had seen all day.

As he took a short drag of his coffee, he watched Grace abruptly drop to her knees, pointing at something in the grass that he couldn’t see. It was probably something harmless, he guessed, since Grace was looking excited and Eva was smiling. In any case, no doubt he was going to hear all about it once they were back in the house, so he could live with this little mystery for now.

Soon enough, Neil finished with the rest of his coffee and set his mug aside on the counter to be washed later. He was idly wondering which videogame he should play when he heard the front door open, followed by Grace’s happy squeal of, “Daddy! Daddy, come look!”

“I’m coming, Gracie,” Neil called, striding out of the kitchen and meeting Grace halfway in the living room. He grinned at his beaming five-year-old daughter, who was holding out her hands, palms up, to him. “Now, whaddya want to show—”

But then Neil actually saw what Grace had in her hands and yelped, freezing in sudden terror.

He had expected some kind of flower, or a dandelion, or a clover, something pretty or cute that his little girl would obviously adore the instant she laid eyes on it. Not that...that thing crawling on the skin of her palms! That hellish red, black-spotted, beady-eyed thing!

Yes, ladybugs were cute in cartoons and children’s books, but in real life? They were utterly horrendous.

“P-please take that away, princess,” Neil stammered out, his voice far higher than usual as he took a couple of steps back.

“Huh? Why?” Grace wanted to know, her smile fading.

“Because...uh...because...”

Because the ladybug’s creepy and ugly and gross, was all Neil could think of, but somehow he doubted Grace would take that very well.

“Oh!” Grace exclaimed, apparently having thought of something. “It’s okay, Daddy, she won’t bite! Mama says ladybugs are nice to people!”

With another beaming smile on her face, she took a step closer, still holding the ladybug out to Neil, and he took yet another step back.

Swallowing as he stared at the infernal insect still crawling around Grace’s hands, he managed to say, “Let’s just put that back outside, yeah?”

Grace’s face fell again, a mixture of confusion and disappointment touching her expression. “But Daddy, you—”

“Thanks for showing me what you found,” Neil interrupted quickly, finally stepping forward and placing a hand on Grace’s shoulder, “but we gotta go back outside now. Come on, hun, let’s go.”

He gently steered his daughter out of the living room and through the entryway, then reopened the front door.

“Be sure to put the ladybug back in the grass, okay?” Neil told Grace.

“Okay...?” she agreed uncertainly, blinking.

“Good.” The word was barely out of Neil’s mouth before he was hurrying over to where Eva was now standing, still by her garden.

“You let our daughter bring a ladybug into the house?!” he burst out as soon as she turned around to face him.

“Hello to you, too, Neil,” Eva answered flatly, rolling her eyes. “And yes, I let our daughter bring a ladybug into the house. She wanted to show you something she found.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Neil said, waving a hand impatiently, “but why a stinkin’ ladybug?”

“Why not?” Eva asked rhetorically, shrugging, clearly—and annoyingly—unconcerned. “Ladybugs don’t harm people and they’re smaller than Grace’s fingernails. You’re acting like she showed you a giant silkworm moth caterpillar.”

“I don’t care if she showed me a non-poisonous butterfly—bugs are ugly and I don’t wanna share a house with them.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I never said Grace was keeping the ladybug.”

Neil huffed out a breath. “Halle-freaking-lujah. Best news I’ve heard in the last five minutes.”

Eva sighed, shaking her head. “If you’re like this over one little beetle,” she said, “I’d hate to see how you’d react to something actually dangerous.”