How many of you out there have been forced to endure this very same torture? The idea for this story arose from a recent trip to Disney's Frozen on Ice...tix I was forced to purchase almost a year in advance...the things we do for our kids, right? So all it was was a fleeting thought at first, but I did not think it would amount to anything until werks so nicely requested that I go through with it, with all of the sights and sounds of the show fresh in my mind. And who better to take little Amelia Reagan to that kind of event than her loving godfather Danny Reagan! So here it is, 8k+ words of little Amelia cuteness, Danny Reagan snark and a little good-natured ribbing at the end.

Chapter 1

Danny let himself fall back against the length of the couch and let out a heavy sigh. It was the first of two days off from work, his first in almost two weeks after he and Baez led a task force to chase down and finally apprehend the nutjob who had been assaulting young women in Central Park. But his first morning off didn't come without a few requests from Linda before she left for work to get the lawn mowed and fix the weather stripping around the front door. And being the dutiful husband that he was (i.e., not wanting to hear it from Linda later), Danny got his work done during the morning hours. With those two chores completed, he was looking forward to an early afternoon nap before Linda got back from work and the boys from whatever trouble they were getting into.

Danny had just begun to doze while some college football game aired in the background when his phone began to vibrate on the coffee table. A curse erupted from his lips as he turned to eye the invasive device already assuming the worst - that he was getting called into work. With one more f-bomb, Danny palmed the phone and his brows shot up in surprise as Amelia's smiling face popped up on the screen identifying the caller as his kid brother. "Yeah?"

"Danny? Hey, it's me," Jamie greeted.

The stress in his brother's voice was clear and had Danny sitting up on the couch instantly, assuming that whatever was going to come out of his mouth next might be serious. "Yeah, kid, I gathered as much from the caller ID. What's up?" he asked while lowering the volume on the television.

"I need a major favor, man. I got no one else to turn to," Jamie fretted.

"Sure, kid," Danny replied, listening carefully as he began to worry that Jamie might be in some sort of trouble. It had to be bad if he was the only one left to go to.

"It's actually for Amelia," Jamie added.

That brought a frown to Danny's face and his stomach clenched at the thought that his sweet, little love bug might be in some sort of trouble...but how much trouble could a four-year-old get into? "Okay. Is something wrong? Is she okay?" Danny's mind ran wild as he tried to anticipate the problem.

"Right now she is," Jamie said vaguely.

Danny was getting frustrated with the non-answers already as he continued to worry. "Spit it out already, kid!" he barked and regretted his tone instantly. If his kid brother was calling him about his daughter, something big must be going on and his worry now turned to panic.

"Mikey's sick and one of the other Sergeants at the 3-5 banged in sick so I just got called into work," Jamie began to explain.

"You need a sitter or something?" Danny speculated. If Eddie had her hands full with their sick one-year-old, he could understand them needing some help with his little Amelia, although the little girl wasn't much of a handful.

"Uh, well...kinda..." Jamie stammered nervously.

"Jamie," Danny groaned. He now got the sense that they weren't in any trouble, but if his kid brother didn't come clean, he'd still have him on the phone saying a whole lotta nothing by the time Linda and the boys got home in a few hours.

"Alright," Jamie sighed, thinking here goes nothing. "Eddie was supposed to take Amelia to a show this afternoon; she got the tickets months ago. Amelia's been looking forward to it all week and with the baby sick and me having to go in, she won't be able to take her," he rambled.

Danny's brow furrowed in confusion. "What show? Like a play or something? Isn't she a little young for the theater, kid? I mean, I know the kid's gonna be a freaking genius but can't you let her have a childhood like every other normal kid before you start forcing the cultural crap down her throat?...She's four for God's sake! And really? You want me to take her?!"

"It's not the theater, Danny," Jamie clarified somewhat. It was far from theater, Jamie thought to himself as he tried figuring out how to ask for such a big favor from his macho big brother.

Danny's brow smoothed out as he was told that assumption was wrong, but he still didn't have a clear answer. "Oh, okay. Then what is it?" he asked, but all he got in return was a quick mumble, Jaime's voice low and unintelligible. "Say again?" Danny frowned.

"Disney on Ice...the Princesses more specifically," Jamie revealed with a whole lot of apprehension, as if his brother would have known that there were a hundred other different variations of the traveling ice show.

"Oh." Danny's eyes widened, his mind going blank at those words. He raised two boys and lucked out on the whole girly princess obsession and except for a few movies about cars and zoo animals, he'd been spared from the money-sucking monster that was Disney, Inc. Of course, there were other crazes directed at little boys that sucked the money out of people's wallets instead, but he had a sneaking suspicion where this was heading now.

Jamie got nothing but silence for several long seconds and he looked down at his phone to make sure the call was still connected. "Hello? Danny? You still there?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm still here," Danny said as he rubbed his brow. "What about Erin?" he inquired, searching for a way out of possible torture.

"She's at a conference in Charlotte and she won't be back until tomorrow right before dinner and I know Linda's working today 'cause she and Eddie spoke yesterday," Jamie advised.

"What about dad?" Danny threw out.

"Come on, D. With his detail? I'd probably have to get them tickets too. They're not exactly cheap."

"At least she'd be safe."

"I can't imagine her safer than in the company of her godfather and one of the NYPD's best detectives," Jamie professed.

"Kiss ass," Danny accused.

"And before you say it, there's no way I'm sending Gramps to the Garden with a four-year-old."

"How about I stay with Mikey and Eddie can go? They really should enjoy that together, some mommy-daughter time," Danny proposed.

"Not sure you realize what you're volunteering for there."

"Oh. That bad?" Danny grimaced as several distant memories of his own feverish kids spewing out one bodily fluid or another came to mind. "What's wrong with him?" he asked wearily.

"Stomach bug. I don't think Amelia ever had projectile vomiting like this," Jamie shared, realizing he was probably the lucky one to get called into work, but he'd gladly bare his son re-enacting a scene out of a classic horror flick to spare his daughter any heartbreak.

"Ugh...gross. So my options are getting puked on or being stuck in 'It's a Small World' for...what?...How long is this thing?"

"Two hours, tops. It's at the Garden at 3 o'clock. I'll even spring for the popcorn," Jamie offered hopefully.

"That's real generous of you," Danny deadpanned.

Jamie could tell he had his brother on the hook and went in for the kill. "I wouldn't ask if we had another option and I'd hate to disappoint her. She's already been running around with one of her princess costumes for the last three days, I think it's the one you and Linda gave her for her birthday too. You remember the one, right? It's like a sparkly blue and she put it on as soon as she unwrapped the box and wore it morning, noon and night for a week straight."

Danny sighed heavily. How could he say no? He knew Jamie didn't want to disappoint his daughter, especially because he had gotten called into work unexpectedly. And no one knew better than him about missing moments and events in their kids' lives because of the job, not the major ones but little things like this still mattered too. Danny knew he might not be able to fill Eddie or Jamie's shoes as far as Amelia was concerned, but at least he could make sure she wasn't left completely disappointed. "Alright, alright. I'll take her. It'll take me an hour to get to your place but we should be able to make it on time," Danny conceded as he glanced at his watch and thought about the traffic into the city on a Saturday afternoon.

"Thank you so much, Danny! You don't know what this will mean to her."

"Yeah, yeah, I know kid. Nothing worse than disappointing your own kid," Danny replied. "You owe me a pitcher, at the very least."

"You got it! Thanks, man! I'll tell Eddie to have her ready for you."

Danny looked down at the screen of his phone and smiled at the photo of his goddaughter before the home screen reappeared. At least he'd get a few hours with his niece and he'd be her hero for taking her to see her favorite characters. "So, how bad could it be?" Danny asked the empty room.