The door swings open and the tall man that opened it sighs, he is happy to finally be home.
"Daddy, I'm hungry." The small child he is holding with one arm says.
"What would you like to eat Cindy?" The father asks as he walks into the unkempt home. He is normally a man who likes to keep the apartment he lives in very clean, but the past few months have been too stressful on him and he has fallen very far behind.
"Can I have scedy-O's?" Cindy asks as her father steps over discarded toys.
Her father normally would prefer to make her a more healthy option for dinner, but the day he just had had drained him. "Sure Cindy."
He walks into the small kitchen of the apartment and sets Cindy down in her booster seat and then goes to the pantry door and opens it. There shelves full of dry and canned food, he always wanted to be prepared for whatever the menu for the night called for, he grabs a can with a white label and orange O's on it.
"Daddy." Cindy says with a yawn.
"Yes Sweetie?" He asks turning to his daughter.
With a sleepy smile the little redhead says; "I wove you."
Her father smiles, this little five year old girl has been the one thing that has kept him going. "I love you too Cindy."

He cooked the canned spaghetti in the microwave and as Cindy ate he tried to get some of the paperwork that has piled up on the table done. It is mostly utilities and credit card bills, but the one he intentionally moved to the side was the one that he couldn't get off of his mind. They had planned to move out of the two bedroom apartment a month ago, but with the events that unfolded that was pushed back and now he has to decide if he should sign the lease renewal paperwork. 'I'll get to it later' He thinks to himself as Cindy burps out loud.
"Scuse me." The little girl says smiling wide, her mother showing as she giggles at herself.
Her father let's out a chuckle at his daughter, if is teenage self could see how lax he has become about manners, he would have a small freak out.

He was too tired to give Cindy a bath this night so he made sure to set his alarm earlier than normal to fit it in their morning routine.
"Daddy I miss Mommy." Cindy says as her father pulls her pajama shirt on over her head.
"I miss her too." He says hiding his longing for his wife from his daughter.
"When is Mommy going to come home?"
He didn't know how to explain the situation their family is in to his daughter. "Why don't we go and see her after school tomorrow? I bet she would like that." He says hoping to distract her from the question.
"Okay Daddy, I'll make her a pretty picture at school."
Her kisses her on the forehead. "I'm sure she will love it, you are a great drawer just like her."

The next morning, bath done and breakfast eaten, he is dropping Cindy off at her school, a small building that only has Head Start and Kindergarten classes for little kids.
"I love you Cindy, have a good day at school." He says kissing his daughter on the cheek as the bell rings for kids to head into their classrooms.
Cindy kisses her father in his cheek back. "I love you too Daddy." She says as he holds the door open for her to walk through.
He watches her walk into the mass of other Head Start children of her class through the window in the door. 'Our little girl is growing up so fast.' He thinks as he pulls himself away from the window.

Later that day he is sitting at the desk at his job. They had offered him some time off from work to manage the events that have unfolded but he needed to go back to work to pay the bills. And his wife told him to as well to try and distract his mind from the worry. But he would keep getting lost in daydreams as he looked at the pictures of his younger self and the blue haired girl. They didn't start out as happy as they were in the picture he is lost in at the moment, but he is thankful for the blackmailed date that started the journey to them falling in love.
*Ring ring*
His phone rings snapping him back to the present. He picks up the phone. "P.C. Accounting, this is Eddward Vincent." Eddward, also known as Edd for short, says getting his mind back into work mode.
"Mr. Vincent, this is Ms. Van Bartonschmeer, I am calling about your daughter."
"You know you don't have to do the formalities Nazz, we've known each other for thirty years." Edd says reminding his childhood friend if how long they have know each other.
"I know, but this is a serious call Edd, Cindy beat someone up, again."
Edd sighs. "I'll be right there." He hangs up his desk phone and grabs his jacket off the back of his chair.
He walks down the short hallway to his bosses office. "Mr. Thompson, I need to leave. My daughter got into a fight at school and I need to go pick her up."
Thankfully Edd has a very understanding boss, he knows full well of the situation Edd is in and has been very flexible with him. "Ok Eddward, I hope she is OK." Mr. Thompson says looking up from his own work.
"Knowing my daughter, it is the other child that is hurt. I will be back as soon as I can to finish my work " Edd pulls his head out of the door and makes for the only other door in the small office.

Once at the school Edd walks the well known path to the small administration office of the school. Inside he finds Cindy sitting on a bench with her coloring book open on her lap coloring as if she had done nothing wrong.
"Hey Edd." Edd turns and sees his long time friend sitting at a desk.
"Hello Nazz." Edd greats his friend back.
At the sound of his voice Cindy's head shoots up and she spots her father. "Daddy!" Cindy tosses her coloring book to the side and jumps off the bench.
She runs over and Edd kneels down to pick her up. "Hi Sweetie." Edd gets a kiss on his cheek as he greets his daughter, her attempt to butter him up.
"Cindy, is there something you need to tell your dad?" Nazz asks getting up from her chair.
"Um... I love you Daddy." Cindy had the same guilty face as her mother.
Nazz shakes her head. "No, it's about a boy from the Kindergarten class and what you did at recess."
"But he was being bad." Cindy says in defiance.
Edd looks over at Nazz, she was the best option to get to the truth. "What happened?"
"She pushed a boy from one of the Kindergarten classes down and started punching him."
Edd knows his daughter, she is not a bully just to be one. "Cindy, why did you do that?" He asks his daughter, setting her on the ground so he could get at eye level with her.
"He was squishing little ants with a rock." Edd saw the look of disgust on her face from retelling what happened. She never liked seeing any animal or insect hurt and would get overly defensive of them.
"You should have found a teacher Cindy, not pushed the boy down." Edd understood his daughter's thinking, but he still needs to teach her that what she did was wrong.
"But he would have hurt more of them Daddy! And Mommy said you have to stop bad peoples." Cindy was pouting now.
"I know Cindy, but that doesn't mean that you hurt someone, you tell someone like your teacher and they will take care of it."
Nazz was also in the loop about what has been going on in the Vincent family, so she had already had everything ready for Edd. "I got the sign out stuff done Edd, you can take Cindy home and we can talk with the boy tomorrow and I'm sure Cindy will want to say she is sorry."
Everyone that has been helping Edd theses past few months had been a godsend to him. "Thank you Nazz, tell Kevin I say hello for me." Edd picks up Cindy and walks over to the bench where Cindy's few school things is.
"I will, he wants you to make it over for Saturday poker night when things get better." Nazz says as Edd gathers his daughter's things.
When Edd and his friends were in their late twenties they started getting together for a night of poker and catching up, and this had become a tradition over the years. But when things started getting bad Edd couldn't take the time away from his duties as a husband and a father to go over to Nazz and Kevin's home for poker night.
"I'll try Nazz." Edd says as he walks out of the office.

"Am I in trouble Daddy?" Cindy asks as Edd buckles her into her car seat in the backseat of his old green car.
Ed's looks at his daughter, she has a look of genuine concern that she is going to be punished for what she did. "Do you know that it was wrong to punch that boy?"
Cindy nods her head. "Yes Daddy."
"Are you going to tell him you're sorry tomorrow?"
"Yes Daddy."
"Are you going to do it again?"
Cindy shakes her head. "No Daddy."
Edd is sure that this is not the last time he will have to come down to his daughter's school because she got into a fight, she wouldn't be her mother's daughter if she didn't fight, but he wouldn't be himself if he didn't give her the benefit of the doubt. "Then you're not in trouble."
Cindy smiles. "Thank you Daddy."

Even though Edd has been inside this building so many times, he still feels uncomfortable walking down the long white halls. He just feel as if the walls emanate death and sadness. He holds Cindy closer as she plays with the visitor badge sticker on her shirt.
With each step Edd feels his heart rate increase, he wants nothing more than for his family to never have to come to this place ever again.
Once they reach the door with M. Vincent on it Edd stops and knocks. He didn't knock to see if he could come in, he knocked to let her know he was there. Opening the door he sees the blue haired, that is covered partly by an old black ski hat, woman that he fell in love with years ago smiling at him and his daughter.
"Mommy!" Cindy jumps out of her father's arms and runs over to the hospital bed. "I made you a drawing." She says climbing up onto the bed.
Her mother quickly smiles at Cindy as she digs through her backpack but then looks up at her husband. "Hey there good lookin."
"Hello Marie, how are you doing today?" Edd asks as he moves to sit down next to his wife.
They share a quick kiss. "I'm feeling great, the docs came by and ran some tests. They said I'm on schedule to get out of here." Marie is always happy to see her husband and daughter, her family is her everything and sole goal and drive to get better.
"And what about our little guy? I see he's not in here with you." Edd looks to the spot on the other side of the bed where a crib normally is.
"The nurse just took him for a bath and diaper change, I wish they would just let me do it." Marie is a very stubborn woman, she argued with the doctors when they told her she needed to take her wedding ring off, eventually she agreed to wear it on a necklace that Edd brought for her, she even doesn't let the nurses change her socks when they would come by. "But they said the pneumonia hadn't affected him as much as other cases they have dealt with."
Around Marie's seventh month of being pregnant with their second child she came down with flu like symptoms, and unfortunately it grew into pneumonia. Which is already bad, but is far more dangerous for a pregnant woman.
Luckily they caught it early enough to get Marie to the hospital before anything serious happened. The doctors decided that it would be best for both Marie and the baby to perform an early C-section birth and keep the baby in ICU for a while. But despite all the stress Edd has gone through and the worrying he has done, everything has been turning out fine.
"That is good to hear Love." Edd says as Cindy pulls her coloring book out of her backpack.
"Here you go Mommy." Cindy pulls a page out of the book and hands it to her mother.
Marie looks at the page, Cindy had colored in the outline of the dog completely inside the lines, but she added some wings and a unicorn horn to the dog, giving it a little bit of Kanker flare. "Very nice Cindy, but why are you and your dad here this early in the day? Shouldn't you be in school and you at work?" Marie looks from her daughter to her husband.
"Well this one beat up a boy for killing ants in school, and I needed to go pick her up. Luckily Nazz was able to square everything away for me." Edd says as Cindy cuddles up next to her mother and puts on her best innocent face.
Marie was wise to Cindy's ways, what she is doing won't work on her. "Cindy, do you know what you did wrong?"
Cindy looks away. "I punched a boy when I should have told the teacher."
"No." Marie smiles. "You got caught. Kankers never get caught."
Edd couldn't help but laugh, Marie may be a Vincent by name, but she will always be a Kanker by blood, and that is one of the many things he loves about her. As they laugh Edd sees now that the hard part of this moment in his life is over, that they made it through. Soon Marie and their son will come home and they can start getting back to a level of normality that will come with a five year old little girl that is as smart as her father, and as mischievous as her mother, and a new baby that will probably be just like his older sister.

AN: I was bored at work and didn't have my notes for the other story I'm working on, so I wrote this one up about a few ideas I had floating around my head.