Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Rob Thomas. I got the name Emma from another fic I read a while ago, and liked it. Mild Spoilers for everything including TDTL.
Chapter 1 – Bedtime stories
"Tell me a story, Daddy."
Logan paused in tugging the covers of the duvet up to his little son's chin and sighed. He had hoped that a full day's worth of traipsing across the most magical place on Earth would have tired the kid out enough to fall straight asleep but the big honey brown eyes staring up at him -his own eyes -were still gleaming with enthusiasm. The lips were smiling, the head was tilted and Logan was powerless. Damn genetics. He sat down on the bed and let his four year old cuddle up into the crook of his arm.
"What kind of story do you want, buddy? We didn't bring any books with us."
"Just tell any story then, a good one, a brave one," the little voice chirped with all the confidence in the world that if a story was requested, his father would provide the best. Then the small brown head suddenly popped up and turned to the quiet form in the bed next to his. "What kind of story do you want, Emma?"
7 year old Emma Echolls was sitting imperiously amid several fluffy pillows and one recently acquired stuffed unicorn, calmly listening to the Frozen soundtrack on her iPod. The unicorn, in his place of honor by her side, was an impulse buy. Emma had been dead set on getting an Elsa doll the entire trip but as she marched up to the register with her mother to make the purchase, she spotted the unicorn in the "on sale" plush toys bin and stopped in her tracks. There was something about the pure whiteness of his soft fur, his gentle eyes and that golden horn that caused Emma to duck out of line, pluck him out of the bin and ask her mother with pleading eyes to buy him instead of Elsa. She had to admit she was slightly surprised that her mother, with only a smirk and a nod, placed the Elsa doll back on the center display shelf and bought the unicorn instead. She then turned to her daughter and said, "It was a good choice, sweetie. Did you know? Unicorns save lives." Emma looked at her confusedly and shrugged. She then ran to show her new purchase to her father and brother and didn't notice as her mother rang up Elsa and Anna at the register, sneaking them into her bag to wrap up at Christmastime.
"Emma! Did you hear? What kind of story do you want?" demanded her brother. Now that he had thought to ask his sister's opinion, he needed to know it. Emma had the best ideas. She knew everything. Just like Mommy.
Emma pulled the earbuds out and turned to her little brother with a look of long suffering patience.
"You can have whatever story you want, Sammy." Said Emma graciously. "I'm too old for bedtime stories now."
Sam's eyes were wide with disbelief at the unexpected amount of free will his big sister had offered him. It was not customary for Emma to allow her baby brother to make any decisions when she was around.
Logan suppressed a chuckle and raised an eyebrow.
"You sure, sweetie? I think your old Dad has a few good tales left to tell."
Emma simply hunkered back down into her pillows, threw her arm around her unicorn and put her earbuds back in.
Logan turned and smiled at his little son.
"Hey Sam, since we're at the Magic Kingdom and we've met lots of princes and princesses and brave heroes…how about I tell you a special story about a brave knight and how he won the heart of the beautiful lady?"
"Does he fight a dragon?" inquired a hopeful Sam. After a whole day spent following Emma around while she posed cheerfully with each and every Disney princess she encountered, Sam wasn't sure he could listen to more princess tales without at least one dragon to spice things up.
"Absolutely, dude! Would I disappoint you?"
"Okay then!" Sam snuggled down further into his covers and looked up expectantly with a smile.
"Alright…so, once upon a time in a far away land called…called….Pluto – "
"That's a planet, not a kingdom, Daddy" chimed a slightly suspicious voice from the adjacent bed.
Logan smirked. There we go. He knew his daughter never missed out on a good story but she was getting too smart for her own good. Remind me to limit her Discovery Channel exposure, he thought as he rolled his eyes internally. She is her mother's daughter after all.
"I thought you were too old for stories, Em?"
"I can't help it if I hear you, my song ended" said Emma as she turned away again feigning disinterest.
"Well then, I think I remembered wrong, it was a far away land called … Alpha Centauri – " Logan paused, gauging his little girl's startlingly vast knowledge of astronomy. Emma appeared either satisfied with the probable existence of this pretend kingdom or disinterested in the tale.
"…and Alpha Centauri was the home to a beautiful princess named Princess Rosebud and her brother Prince Donu..uhh…ald. Prince Donald. Princess Rosebud and Prince Donald lived in a crystal castle with their parents King Jacob and Queen Celestina. Now, Rosebud's best friend in the whole world was Lady Virgo whose father was the Sheriff of Alpha Centauri and Prince Donald's best friend was Sir Leo the Valiant, son of the rich and famous Lord Silverscreen. The four of them were always together and were the best of friends. What's more, Prince Donald was in love with Lady Virgo and Sir Leo loved Princess Rosebud."
Sam frowned, still too young to understand why boys needed to love girls. Other than his mother and sister, he wasn't sure he especially liked any other girls of his acquaintance. They all tended to be very loud and moved around very fast. It made him a little nervous.
"Then, one day, the unthinkable happened!"
Logan paused here, dramatic tension was paramount if he was going to captivate his audience.
"What?! What happened, Daddy?" Sam frantically pulled on his father's sleeve, reengaged with the story at hand.
"Princess Rosebud vanished without a trace!"
Sam let out a horrified, "oh no!" and Logan thought he heard a tiny gasp nearby as well. He glanced out the door toward his wife working on her laptop in the living room of the suite and wondered if she could hear them. If so, she didn't lift her head from her computer, but her fingers were no longer moving across the keyboard. Logan smirked. Audience, consider yourself captured.
"Is Prince Leo going to save Princess Rosebud? Did she get took by the dragon? Is he going to kill the dragon?"
"Taken, Sam, 'did she get taken' and it's SIR Leo, bud. Leo's a knight, a knave, a rogue; he can't be held down to princely duties. Princes are lame anyways. Knights are cool." Sam responded in affirmation, nodding along to grammatical and life instruction both.
"Now," whispered Logan, "the whole kingdom was overcome with grief over the loss of Princess Rosebud. Prince Donald shut himself up in his room and didn't talk to anybody anymore; it was like the old Donald had disappeared along with his sister. Sir Leo on the other hand, was angry. He was furious that he couldn't protect Princess Rosebud and didn't know who or what took the princess. He wanted somebody to pay for what happened and he started being very mean to all the people around him."
"He was mean because he was angry and he was angry because he was sad?" observed Sam sympathetically.
From the mouths of babes, thought Logan as he hugged his son just a little bit tighter. That particular understanding took him various counseling meetings with Ms. James and several sessions with the Navy psychologist to figure out. Now here was his 4 year old, laying out all of Logan's post Lilly neuroses in a voice that still held a trace of his baby lisp. Kid, we're gonna save so much on therapy with you.
"Exactly, bud, you nailed it. Well, unfortunately, Sir Leo found the perfect person to be mean to…because he was sad of course…Lady Virgo. He called her names and spread lots of nasty rumors about her. Now, because Princess Rosebud's disappearance was so strange and mysterious the Sheriff of Alpha Centauri, Lady Virgo's father, had to investigate what happened."
"Like Grandpa and Mommy?"
"Yup, just like them." Logan agreed. "Well, the Sheriff found some clues, like Mommy and Grandpa do, and all the clues said that the King and Queen themselves were lying about Princess Rosebud's disappearance! So the good Sheriff, stood out in the town square and told all the people that he thought the King and Queen were bad people."
"Did the King and Queen get mad at the Sheriff?" inquired Sam, a little worried for the good Sheriff. He already imagined this Sheriff in his head. He was short, stocky, with kind eyes and a wide smile. He even like the Padres for some reason.
Logan continued with his story, "Oh yes! The whole town was furious that the Sheriff dared say their beloved King and Queen were bad. They took the Sheriff back to the castle and had the King lock him up in the dungeon."
"Oh no!" cried Sam, already attached to his kind eyed Sheriff. "Why did they do that? They should let him out. It's not fair."
"Nope, it wasn't fair. But don't worry, Sammy boy, the Sheriff had a young champion on his side. Lady Virgo, who was the best daughter in the whole world, was determined to prove that her father was right and get him out of the dungeon. You see, Lady Virgo had a plan to set her father free. She was going to find her missing best friend, Princess Rosebud, all by herself."
"She's very brave."
"Well, you asked for a brave story."
"I wasn't expecting the girl to be brave, I thought Prince…I mean, Sir Leo the Valiant was gonna save the Princess and kill the dragon."
"Neither was I, buddy, neither was I. But let us not fall prey to gender stereotyping, son and never underestimate the women in our lives."
"What's 'gender steerotopping'?"
"Do you want to hear about how Lady Virgo freed her father or do you want to learn new words?"
"story," was the emphatic reply.
"Well, Lady Virgo decided to become a knight and go on a quest to find Princess Rosebud. She cut off her long golden hair, put on armor and started wearing really butch boots."
Logan thought he heard a small snort come from the sofa, but didn't look up.
"So, on Lady Virgo's quest to find Princess Rosebud, she had to solve lots of mysteries and help lots of people. But the first thing she did was get revenge on Sir Leo for all the mean things he did to her. And you know what she did? She planted a bong in his locker and got him in huge trouble!"
Wide brown eyes blinked up at Logan in confusion.
"Err-she put something bad that he wasn't supposed to have in his room and when he got found out, he was in big trouble. So much trouble that Lord Silverscreen, his father, took his favorite yellow horse away. Sir Leo was so mad at Lady Virgo that he took a big stick and smashed up her favorite carriage."
"They really hated each other. Didn't they?"
"Yup, but you know what, that's not how the story ends… this is the story of how Sir Leo and Lady Virgo fall in love and save the kingdom."
"What?! No way."
"Yup, it sure is. Hold on tight, Bud, cause this story's a doozy."
OoOoO
Logan had finally settled Sam into bed and his tired little eyes had finally given in to exhaustion somewhere between Lady Virgo rescuing 101 stolen puppies from the evil dognapper and Sir Leo the Valiant slugging an evil royal agent trying to capture Lady Virgo at the Castle Camelot.
He bent over Sam's head and dropped a soft kiss on his forehead. As he turned to leave turn off the lights a small voice whispered, "psst. Psst! Daddy!"
Logan turned around to face his daughter, poking her head above the covers. He walked over to her bedside and sat down. He smiled.
"That story you were telling Sam…it's you isn't it? You and Mom?"
"What makes you think that?" smirked Logan, silently proud of his precocious progeny. He probably couldn't take credit for any of Emma's bright mind, he'd always attributed his children's intelligence to their mother; but sometimes his heart could almost burst with pride in how damn smart they were.
Emma couldn't hide a bashful grin, "I asked Mom once about her first kiss." She narrowed her eyes concentrating on remembering her mother's exact words, "She told me she first kissed… her true love…at the Camelot. And it was…um…epic?"
"I asked her if it was you, Daddy, but she wouldn't say. It was you, though! You just said so!" Emma's eyes were sparkling with romantic fervor. She was at the happiest place on earth and had just stumbled on her parents' own fairytale. No seven year old could ask for more.
"I plead the fifth. That means I can't say anything. You'll just have to live in suspense and figure it out. I've got lots more stories of Lady V and Sir Leo the Valiant."
Emma rose out of the covers, all pretense of being too mature to bedtime stories forgotten by the wayside. "What kind of stories?"
"Real happily ever after doesn't end with a kiss at the Camelot, Ems. The path of true love never did run smooth. Oh there's the story of how Sir Leo was accused of murder and Lady Virgo had to clear his name…uh, twice. There's the story of how Sir Leo teamed up with an exiled gang leader to down the new bad gang leader. There's the story of how Lady Virgo took down an evil attacker with her trusty unicorn…."
"EEEEKKKK!" screeched Emma, clutching her new unicorn tightly in glee. "Just like mine!"
"Shhhhh….your brother's sleeping," Logan shushed in a frantic attempt to calm his daughter. If she woke Sam and they both got too excited to sleep, he'd never hear the end of it from their mother. "Settle down, and have sweet dreams of Lady Virgo and Sir Leo, okay, baby girl? Tomorrow night, we'll sit down and I'll tell you another story. We'll start with the unicorn."
Emma nodded, settling back down and obediently shutting her eyes. Logan dropped a kiss on her forehead to match her brothers.
*click*
Logan whirred around to see the small figure of his wife at the doorway, snapping a photo of him tucking their daughter into bed.
"Now that's money," said Veronica.
He grinned, and made his way over to her, shutting the door behind them and pulling her into his arms.
OoOoO
"Someone alert the Pulitzer Committee, we may have an award winning biographer on our hands."
Logan shrugged, "I sent the nomination weeks ago."
"And no reply? Surely there must be some oversight."
"Oh you know, the oppressive regime doesn't respect true talent."
Veronica giggled and wrapped arms around his neck, planting a kiss on his lips. She then pulled away and looked at Logan intently.
"I didn't know Deputy Leo was such a hero in your eyes," Veronica remarked with feigned surprise.
"Deputy Who?" remarked a puzzled Logan.
"I forgot, you were too wasted to remember him from the Total Eclipse of the Heart Dance. Nevermind, he and I dated for a little bit before you and me junior year. He even helped with Carrie's case. But either way, I am impressed you have him as your male lead. How self-sacrificing of you."
"Hey, hey, hey, I'll have you note that pseudonyms were used to protect the sensitive nature of the characters' true identities. Therefore it would be impossible for Mr. Deputy to have made such an obvious appearance. Anywho, Sir Leo's alias was selected to reflect his lion-like qualities...you know, bravery, power and overall irresistible masculinity."
"uh huh…irresistible, eh? And Lady Virgo?
"Clearly her virginal piety."
They sat down on the couch and Veronica put her laptop away, placing her legs up on Logan's lap. He promptly took her boots off and rubbed her aching feet.
Veronica closed her eyes and tilted her head back on a pillow. "Thanks babe, that feels awesome."
"I told you to wear sneakers. Disney hath no mercy for those who walk its convoluted pathways in boots."
"My boots are not butch by the way," Veronica's brow furrowed. "I resent that misrepresentation of my person." Logan chuckled in response, "I have to report events as I see them."
Logan leaned back into the cushions as well, "I'm exhausted. Why the hell did we agree to this trip anyways?"
"I plea temporary insanity due to the love of one's children," groaned Veronica.
The truth was, Emma was feeling rather put out since Hunter graduated high school early and went off to the music conservatory. Ever her mother's daughter, she coped by distracting herself and did so by hitting the internet. Hard. Emma's newfound obsession with all things Frozen led her straight into the discovery that there was a SECOND Disney location in Orlando that reportedly had a parking lot that could fit all of Disneyland California. She begged her mother, shamelessly used her brother's doe eyes and used all of her Daddy's little princess wiles to cajole her parents into taking the Echolls family on a vacation to Disney World Orlando.
"Californians are not meant to come to Florida. This humidity is ridonkulous. I look like Wallace circa 2008," bemoaned Veronica.
Logan nodded in sympathy. "Seriously, why the hell is this placed called the Sunshine State? It rains every day. Randomly. Rains when it's sunny for fu—god's sake. And there's no surfing."
The two sat in companionable silence for another moment, before Logan remembered something, turned to Veronica and asked, "Hey, so why did Emma pick a stuffed unicorn? I thought this whole trip was to procure some Elsa doll she was set on."
"What can I say? My offspring selects well. I guess she couldn't resist the unicorn. Don't worry, in case she changes her mind on the ride home, I bought Elsa and Anna. Tantrum avoided."
"I'm sorry, and I spoil her?" Logan shook his head. Veronica loved to whine about how Emma had Logan wrapped around her delicate little pinky finger, but in truth, she was pretty hard not to love and all the adults around her had fallen victim to her charms at one point or the other. Keith was the only one who made no effort to hide his lack of self-will when it came to Emma.
"So I guess the dream of Elsa is dead for now," sighed Veronica.
"I liked Anna better anyways," replied Logan.
"Really? I thought you would've gone for the voluptuous blonde in the curve hugging slinky dress."
"Nope. I prefer Anna. Petite. Determined. Feisty. Reminds me of someone I know." Veronica couldn't help but blush.
Suddenly, Logan groaned. "We probably should have pushed for the Elsa doll. At least that one had a readymade name. No call signs necessary."
There was a tradition in their household of giving all stuffed animals call signs. Ever since it had to be explained to Emma that while Daddy was Daddy, his friends used a "call sign" when he was at work on his airplanes; she was adamant that all new family members should have a call sign. While Emma was satisfied to name Sam "lil Bro" the stuffed members of the family often received additional nomenclature, not always flattering.
Veronica frowned. "What? What's wrong?" She got up, went to the fridge, got a can of diet coke before sitting down again. She opened the can and started to take a sip.
Logan's eyes remained closed as he muttered, "…don't know how I'm going to explain this to your dad."
He then picked himself up from the sofa and pulled Veronica along with him. Her socked feet softly padded to the kids' room and Logan cracked the door open. "What?" cried Veronica. Logan put a finger up to his lips. "what?" whispered Veronica. She took another sip of her coke.
He tilted his head toward a sleeping Emma, still clutching her unicorn.
"I'd like to introduce Mr. Unicorn Echolls, callsign – 'Horny'."
Diet coke burned as it sprayed through Veronica's nose and covered the front of Logan's shirt.
A/N: Reviews and constructive criticism appreciated! :D I have a whole list of "pictures" that I intend to write chapters about. Next up, " Chapter 2 - Pears."