A/N: Hello there! Before you start to read I'd like to say a few things. The primary reason I started writing this was because I noticed that in almost all Adult AU JohnDave fics, John has a daughter named Casey who absolutely adores Dave. I've never read one where she hates him, and I sort of wanted to make something a little bit different. I hope you enjoy, and reviews would be much appreciated :) Also much thanks to meepster08 and intromniac (you can find these chickidees on this website and tumblr by those names!) for editing help and just support in general :)
It's early on a Saturday morning and you're standing in your kitchen preparing breakfast for you and your daughter Casey. A slight ache in your head reminds you of all the drinking you'd done last night with Dave, and you are starting to wish you'd had more control. But as usual, whenever you go out on a date to a bar with him, he coaxes you into drinking more than you would usually. Casey had been left with a baby sitter, who was not pleased when you returned home almost two hours late, bleary eyed and with Dave in tow. Casey had almost been more upset than the baby sitter. As much as you hate to admit it, she had not taken a shining to your boyfriend, and it didn't seem she'd be coming around anytime soon.
"Daddy," she says as you set a plate of eggs down in front of her, "how come Dave always has to spend the weekends with us?"
"Because I like spending time with Dave. Don't you?" you knew it was a stupid question to ask, but really, what else did you have to say?
"But I thought you liked spending time with me!" she whines, her lower lip jutting out ever so slightly as she stares at her plate.
"Oh, honey, I love spending time with you!" you say quickly, kneeling down next to her and lifting up her chin so she's looking in your eyes. "Never think that I don't love you, Casey, but I've been lonely for a long time, and it's nice having Dave here too."
"B…but you have me! I'll stay with you forever, Daddy! Then you'll never be lonely! I promise!" her big blue eyes stare at you pleadingly, and your heart breaks in two. You wrap her up in a big hug, and her tiny six year old body shakes against you as she starts to cry "We don't need Dave… he's never going to be like Mommy anyway." she says through choked sobs.
Casey's comment leaves you in complete and utter shock. Deep down you figured she would feel that way about Dave, but hearing it for the first time stung more than you imagined it would. Without anything to say, you just keep rubbing her back until she stops crying.
"Casey, how about you finish your breakfast and then we can go to the park. Just you and me." you say, standing up. Her puffy eyes widen, and a smile spreads across her face.
"Just you and me? Really ? No Dave?" she asks hopefully.
"Uh, yeah… No Dave." you answer after a moment. After Dave had dropped you off at your house last night you'd told him you and Casey would meet him for lunch the next day. You suppose you'll call him and tell him that today probably won't be the best day to go out to eat. As Casey dashes out of the kitchen you walk over to the landline and wearily dial Dave's cell.
"Dave, I'm afraid we're going to have to cancel our lunch plans for today." you say quickly once Dave answered the phone.
"Good morning to you too." Dave says. You hadn't even realized you'd forgotten to say hello.
"Heh, I'm sorry, Dave, I'm in a bit of a hurry right now," you apologize "Seriously, though, about the lunch plans. Casey and I will be, uh… a little bit busy. "
"Why? You gotta take her somewhere or something? Or does she just not wanna see me?" Dave knows all too well of Casey's dislike of him, and how you bend over backwards for her.
"Heh, yeah, sort of. I kinda promised Casey I was going to take her to the park today… She got really upset during breakfast about how you are always here on the weekends." you decide to not tell him that she knows how lonely you've been since The Incident.
"Uh fine then I guess." Dave says with a yawn, and you wonder if you woke him up with your phone call. Part of you wishes that he would have put up more of a fight, and asked to try and come around this weekend. It's probably for the better though, you suppose.
"Maybe we could reschedule for tomorrow! It's not like we need to do anything today." you say brightly. Out of the corner of your eye you spot Casey entering the kitchen. Realizing you have to wrap this up quickly, you end the call with the standard promise to talk later, and then hang up.
"Was that Dave?" she asks, eyeing the phone suspiciously "He's not coming to the park with us, is he? You promised it would be just us." she says, placing her hands on her hips.
"He's not coming with us!" you say quickly, and you can feel your heart beating faster. Handling a hot headed child with a temper tantrum is really not something you want to deal with right now. "Casey, why don't you go out in the garage and find a Frisbee while I go get ready?" you steer her in the direction of the garage and hope that it will be enough of a distraction to calm her down.
She complies and you dash up to your room, throwing on a t-shirt and some shorts, and running your tooth brush through your mouth before you head back to the kitchen. Casey is holding a Frisbee and also a bucket of colorful chalk.
"Ready to go?" you ask. Nodding vigorously, Casey takes your hand and rushes out of the front door. Since the park is only a block or two away, you walk there. It's a bright and sunny and a warm breeze is blowing, and it gives you hope that today will be a good day. Once you arrive to the small play ground, Casey immediately runs up to the rusty swing set. She heaves herself onto one of the swings and a loud creeeak is emitted, yet Casey remains unfazed.
"Daddy, come here! I need someone to push me!" Casey shouts across the playground, waving at you. Setting the chalk and Frisbee down on the ground, you get behind Casey and pull the chains of the swing back and gently let them go. "C'mon, Dad! Don't be a wimp! I wanna go higher!" she tries to crane her neck around to make sure you heard her, but she can't quite do it.
"Casey, why don't you try pumping your legs?" you suggest once you've got her going a bit higher.
"No, Daddy, it's more fun when you push me!" she shouts joyfully, sticking her legs way out in front of her and leaning back. Both of you start to laugh and for quite some time it continues on in this way, with Casey relishing in your undivided attention. Jumping off the swing into the woodchips, she runs over to the chalk and drags you onto the concrete to draw with her.
She plays her favorite game with you, where she draws something and makes you guess what it is. She drew birds and sneakers, and one of the more difficult ones was a fishhook. You're about to scold her for a rather unflattering picture of Dave when your cell phone starts buzzing in your pocket.
"Hello?" Casey gives you a curious look, and she scoots closer to see if she can hear who it is.
"Hey Egbert I have an idea." Dave's voice rings in your ear, and you can feel your stomach drop as Casey's expression turns ice cold.
"Uh, this… isn't the best time." you fumble for words, looking everywhere but at the now pouting Casey.
"Dude, I was just thinking maybe we could make this lunch thing work." Dave says, and when you say nothing in return he keeps talking, "I mean, how long are ya gonna be at the park with her?"
"Probably not much longer. I was going to take her home in about half an hour before she gets worn out." you say, and you can hear Casey gasp angrily.
"Cool. Then why don't you swing by that sandwich shop near your place. I'm practically there anyway."
"Uhm… okay. Sure, why not." you say finally, and Casey is now tugging on your shirt sleeve, looking up at you, and she is clearly upset. "Bye, Dave." And with that you hang up the phone.
"Daaaaaaaaad!" Casey wails the minute the phone is back in your pocket. "You PROMISED!" she starts to cry, and the other parents in the park are now shooting dirty looks your way, and you can feel your face growing red.
"Casey, stop crying this instant!" you try to say in your most stern voice, but it gets drowned out by her wails, so you decide to just pick her up and carry her home. With her slung over your shoulder, kicking your back and yelling about how much she hates your boyfriend, you get out of the park as fast as you can. On the walk home you are sorely starting to regret ever agreeing to go to lunch with Dave.
Answering your phone earlier that day at the park was one of the worst decisions you'd made in a long while. You decided this after having to all but pull Casey into the diner after you, and deal with her sour mood the entire time. From the moment you'd arrived at the sandwich shop, Casey had made it her life goal to totally make a fool out of you in front of the public eye. Food was thrown, mean names were called, and tears were shed by the end of it all. Even as you sat in your home after the fact you could still smell the onions Casey had thrown at you and Dave.
Throughout this entire fiasco Dave had just sat with a poker face. He'd been around long enough to know that responding to Casey would just make it worse. You both tried to let her just tire herself out-to realize that yelling and throwing a fit wouldn't change a thing. But when it became clear that she was not going to be giving up anytime soon you had scooped her up and headed for the door. Dave threw a few dollar bills on the table and then you were gone, with only a shred of your dignity still intact.
Now it's three in the afternoon and you've finally got back to your house. Casey is still bristling from the lunchtime catastrophe, and you and Dave are both silent.
"What do you guys say we play a board game or something?" you ask, trying fruitlessly to break the mounting tension. Casey ignores you and storms into the living room, leaving you and Dave standing in the entryway.
"Well that certainly was a worse idea than I thought." you whisper, grabbing Dave's hands, and pulling him closer to you.
"No kidding. No one plays board games anymore." Dave chuckles.
"No, not that one!" you say defensively.
"Then which idea, exactly?"
"Letting you convince me to go to lunch with you." you say mock-accusingly.
"Hey, I'm not entirely to blame here, Egbert. You're an impressionable boy. Need I remind you of this yet again?" Dave smirks at you knowingly. He wraps his arms around you and for a moment you're both standing there serenely when Casey's footsteps come pounding into earshot.
"Daddy just stop already!" she shouts at you, grabbing a hold of your arm and prying you away from Dave. Her face is beet red and tears are welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"Casey, what are you doing?" you shout back, your eyes wide with shock at her actions.
"I can see you guys from the other room! You treat Dave like you treated Mommy! HE'S NOT HER AND I HATE HIM!" she runs over to Dave and starts pounding her little fists into his stomach, her feet throwing in a few kicks for good measure. Dave backs up, unsure of whether he should push her away or let her keep punching. You jump in and pull Casey off of him and haul her up to her bedroom. She's screaming and crying and she resists as you set her on her bed.
"Casey, you are not allowed to hurt people like that." you bring your face down close to hers, your eyes dead serious. She won't look at you and she refuses to talk, so you get up and head to the door.
"Don't come out of here until I tell you to." you say, and Casey tries to protest but you slam the door before she can get out a single word.
You head back downstairs and find Dave sitting at your kitchen table. After wearily plopping down in a seat next to him, you begin to rub your temples.
"God, Dave… I'm so sorry. I've been trying to get through to Casey, but she won't listen. She-"
"She hates me. Yeah, I know. Don't really need to go over it again." Dave says curtly.
"I just… I just don't understand why!" you say exasperatedly, "I mean... I think you're pretty great, heheh." you start to giggle, covering your mouth with your hand.
"Well of course I'm great, Egbert. I may or not be the embodiment of The Shit in itself. I am The Shit; it is me. However, your input is appreciated a great fucking deal. But let's not get carried away here."
"Wow, Dave, you have that response planned out for awhile?" you ask with a smirk.
"Don't give me that much credit. I'm just light on my toes. Wouldn't hurt ya to take a leaf outta my book."
"Hehe, sure, Dave. If you stick around maybe you'll start to rub off more. Then Casey and I can finally be as ironic as you or whatever it is exactly you have going for you… Well, I'm not sure about Casey, though. She's a pretty tough nut to crack," you sigh. "It's been over a year and she still hates you."
"Pretty weird, huh? I mean c'mon, all the other little brats I meet don't mind me."
"Dave, don't call Casey a brat." You say, "She can be a bit of a…challenge at times, yes, but I-"
"Seriously dude, don't let it bother you that much." Dave says, interrupting you midsentence, "I mean, I don't give a flying fuck about what she thinks of me. Why should you?" Dave folds his hands and places them on the table in front on him, staring you down.
"Wh-what do you mean you don't care what she thinks!" you exclaim, "Dave, I really want you to be a part of… of all this someday, and how can that happen if you don't care about her feelings!"
"Whoa slow down there." Dave says, taking off his shades and pinching the bridge of his nose. A moment later his shades are back on, looking at you, "if it really means that much to you, then I can try to get on her good side. Would that make you feel less hysterical about all of this?" at first you can't tell if he's being serious or not. Once you can tell his intentions are true, you answer him.
"Yes, Dave that would make me feel much, much better." you sigh, placing your head in your hands. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
"Uh, haven't thought that far ahead yet. Maybe I could give her one of my old swords and we could strife it out." Dave says, chuckling slightly.
"Uh, no! That is an absolutely terrible idea! I'm not letting Casey near one of those things with a ten foot pole!"
"Okay fine then Egbert. What the fuck exactly do you have in mind?" he shoots back.
"How about you take her on a hike?" you suggest. Your brain is devoid of any and all ideas that you can envision both of them wanting to participate in.
"What the hell. "
"Dave shut up," you interrupt him, not even allowing the chance for him to get started, "I'm being serious here. You and Casey. Tomorrow morning. There's a trail a few miles west of here. I'll go find directions on Google or something." You head out of the kitchen to find your computer and print out directions. The next step will be the hardest, you're certain, considering you have absolutely no idea how you're going to get Casey to agree with this. It'll be hard, that's for sure, but you can't help but feel like tomorrow might be the game changer. That after tomorrow, you can start to finally make your life more whole.
A/N:Thanks for sticking through and reading the whole chapter! :) I don't know when chapter two will be up, but hopefully it'll be at some point in the near future! If you want to follow me on tumblr you can find me at: .com