Part 1

Today is her seventh birthday.

After Maisie, Lincoln, and Margo left the house by the beach they moved into a rundown apartment in Queens, the only one they could afford that had two bedrooms and wouldn't need to be remodeled before they could live in it. It's on the third floor, with a tiny balcony off the master bedroom that they can all stand on if they squeeze together. If Lincoln stretches his arm out as far as he can he can touch the wall of the opposite building.

Margo's working part time as a nanny for a family with a baby boy, and Lincoln got a new job as a chef's assistant in a popular Italian restaurant. He takes the subway early on the mornings he has two classes before his shift starts, and there are also classes to take at night. He finished his junior year before he dropped out of college, so he's hoping to finish his degree within a year or two. He and Margo both have Sundays and Mondays off, so they try to schedule most of the court dates on Mondays so they won't have to take much time off. Beale has no problem handing his daughter off to them, and they rush through divorces and a court wedding so it'll look better to the judge. Maisie grins the whole five steps down the court aisle as she daintily scatters rose petals.

Now that Susanna has seen that Maisie is happy with Lincoln and Margo she's willing to let them have primary custody, though they both count it a miracle when she actually agrees to it in court. The next day she calls Lincoln's phone screaming and crying at them for taking away her baby, and he knows he's not through with her yet.

But Maisie and Margo are happy, and he is too. After all the screaming and fighting of previous marriages, it's nice to have more laughter, more kissing, more happiness.

Today she's seven.

It's a Sunday, so he promises that they'll spend the whole day together. She comes running into their bedroom just as he's decided to kiss Margo awake, shrieking for them to get up, it's her birthday! He gives Margo a peck on the nose instead and goes to take a shower.

They make pancakes with M&Ms and put a candle in Maisie's so they can sing happy birthday. When Margo tells her to make a wish Maisie gets a sad look on her face and Lincoln kneels down next to her. "What's wrong, sweetie?"

She shakes her head quickly and he brushes her bangs out of her eyes. "It's nothing," she whispers, and blows out her candle.

He forgets all about it as they spend the day together, playing at the park and going to Chinatown to buy a playmate for Jonah, the turtle. They eat lunch at a hole in the wall Chinese restaurant and Margo makes squinty, anxious eyes at him as she worries about food poisoning. He laughs as he presses a kiss to her cheek, keeping a hand on her thigh as Maisie tells them about how she's really good at using chopsticks.

In the afternoon they go to the zoo, where Maisie introduces the new turtle, Josephine, to all her distant cousins that live in the pond. Lincoln takes the opportunity to press Margo up against a tree and kiss her long and hard until she blushes and smiles reluctantly at him as he pulls away.

They're still in the honeymoon stage, having finally realized they love each other and gotten married—the stage where they spend pretty much all of Monday in bed after Maisie goes to school, and have to run to pick her up; when the world is a little brighter around the edges with love and happiness and a family.

They rush home so Margo can run out to the store and get a cake mix that she didn't have a chance to pick up yesterday. Lincoln and Maisie sit by the coffee table in the living room. They're making a new moat, a much more elaborate one that has to be planned out first with a long list of dangerous animals, when Lincoln remembers that moment from this morning at breakfast. "Hey, Maze?" he asks as he draws the chains that will hold the drawbridge up.

"Mmm?" she answers, adding wolf to the list of scary creatures.

"Were you sad this morning at breakfast?" he asks, sitting back and making sure he holds her eyes as she looks at him.

She quirks her lips and shrugs, bending over to focus on the very careful coloring of a large green alligator.

"Come on, Maisie," Lincoln prods gently, "why were you sad?"

She sighs and looks at him hesitantly before shrugging again and saying very softly, so he has to lean in to hear, "I don't like calling you Lincoln anymore."

He frowns. "What else would you call me?"

She huffs at him, obviously frustrated she has to explain herself. "Daddy maybe, but I think my other daddy would be sad if I did… And I don't think there are any other words like that."

He swallows hard as his heart skips a beat and squeezes painfully as he realizes anew just how much he loves this little girl, just as much as if he'd held her when she was a newborn baby and helped pick out her name. "Umm…is Dad too close to Daddy?"

Maisie frowns and nods very seriously.

"Well," he wracks his brain, trying to think of something, anything that she can call him because he wants her to see him as her father who will never, ever leave her and will always, always love her. "What about Papa?"

She cocks her head and considers this for a moment. "And could I call Margo Mama? It's not too close to Mommy, I don't think."

Tears are stinging his eyes and he has to blink hard to get rid of them. "I think that would make her really happy."

She grins at him, apparently satisfied, and turns suddenly as they hear the door unlocking and Margo rushes into the kitchen all loaded down with bags. Maisie stands very slowly, taking several hesitant steps toward the kitchen, and Lincoln can't help but let one tear escape as she says very softly, "Mama?"

Margo stills and doesn't turn around for a moment, instead setting the grocery bags very carefully on the counter. Lincoln can see her eyes shining as she turns toward their daughter. "What is it, Maze?" she asks very shakily, with a hesitant smile.

Lincoln moves a hand to cover his mouth as Maisie gives her mother a shy smile. "Mama," she says again, "did you get the strawberry cake mix?"

Margo nods and kneels in front of Maisie, gently pulling her into her arms. "Yes, sweetheart," she whispers. "I missed you."

After a long moment Maisie pulls away and turns toward Lincoln. "Papa and me are drawing a new moat," she informs Margo enthusiastically.

Lincoln doesn't miss the tears wetting Margo's cheeks as Maisie calls him by a new name, and as he looks at his girls, his family, he thinks things couldn't be better.