"Nuclear Family"

"I don't like Molly spending so much time with that Sanders boy."

Matt Parkman looked up from his crossword puzzle, a confused look on his face, "What in the world is wrong with Micah Sanders?"

"Well, for one thing, his mother threw you out of a window."

"Sylar has at one point or another attempted to kill every person in this house, and that doesn't stop you from playing Texas Hold 'Em with him every Wednesday."

Ted Sprague threw down the towel he had been washing dishes with and put on his best defensive tone of voice, "That is entirely different."

Realizing that this was a discussion that was not going to be resolved quickly, Matt put down his newspaper and settled in for the long haul. "How?"

"Sylar is terrible at poker. I make money off of him."

"So you'd prefer it if Micah were paying Molly to hang out with him?"

Ted shook his head and sat down across from Matt at their kitchen table, "Not what I meant. I was just pointing out why I can get past Sylar trying to kill me. Because I make a lot of money off of him. And I could get more if you'd play with me and use your little talent."

"Ted," Matt sighed, "I am not going to use telepathy to make you an extra twenty bucks a week."

"Oh, come on. Mohinder's a geneticist, they can afford to lose the money."

"We were discussing why you didn't want our daughter to spend time with her best friend. Would you care to elaborate?" A thought suddenly crossed Matt's mind. "It's not because he… mixed?"

"I don't think that's the appropriate term for it."

"That's not an answer, Ted."

"No. It has nothing to do with that." Ted paused as he struggled to come up with the best way to express his concerns. "Molly's getting to that certain age where she starts developing… feelings of a more mature nature, if you catch my drift. I just don't think it's appropriate for her to spend so much time with a boy at that age. I was a boy at that age; I know what they think like."

"Oh my god, is that what you're worried about?" Matt laughed, relieved that Ted was simply overreacting as usual. "Molly! Can you come in here for a minute, sweetheart?"

Molly Walker-Parkman-Sprague entered the kitchen where her fathers were quarreling, "What is it, Dad?"

Matt smiled, "You know your friend Micah? Do you like him? Like like him?"

"Ew! No! Gross." Molly gave a little shudder or disgust. "Is that all?"

"That's all, Molly. You can go back and play now." Matt turned to Ted with a grin on his face as his daughter left the room. "There. You see, perfectly harmless. They're twelve years old, Ted. If they're still having sleepovers at sixteen, we'll talk."

Ted shrugged, accepting his defeat, "I still think maybe we should keep an eye on the two of them. Plus, Micah cheats at Tetris."

The grin on Matt's face only managed to grow large. "Oh, I see. You wanted your daughter to give up her best friend in the world because a twelve year old beats you at Tetris."

"Cheats at Tetris," Ted corrected.

"How?"

"He does something to the machine. I don't know. But he's getting pieces he shouldn't get."

"I seriously doubt he's cheating, Ted."

"It's his power! If I were in a Giving Things Cancer Contest, you think I wouldn't cheat?"

Matt covered his face in his hand and shook his head. "That is, without exaggeration, the worst example anyone has given for anything ever."

"You're cute when you're mocking me," Ted said with a playful grin.

"Well I learned from the best."

Ted stood up from the table and went back to the sink to finish washing dishes from that night's dinner. "Is Matthew coming over this weekend?"

Matt smiled as he resumed his crossword, "Yeah, Janice and Audrey are bringing him over tomorrow night. We're going out with them to dinner."

"I was gonna play poker tomorrow night."

"You played poker last night."

Ted shrugged, "I know, but the Haitian's in town, and we wanted to get a game going. He's got the best poker face."

"You can't just leave me to have dinner with those two by myself."

"Oh, come on, she's your ex-wife. Surely you two have something to talk about."

Before Matt could respond, Molly stuck her head into the kitchen, "Hey, Dads, can I go over to Micah's house for a few hours?"

Giving Ted a meaningful look, Matt answered, "Sure thing, sweetheart. Have a good time."

"Don't play any Tetris!" Ted called out as his daughter skipped out the front door. "Did she say she'd be gone for a few hours?"

Matt smiled, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Do you exist solely to make bad puns?" Ted groaned.

"Well, that and the thing we're both thinking about."

Ted grinned and left the kitchen, ascending the stairs to his and Matt's bedroom, "Weren't we having some kind of squabble just few minutes ago?"

Matt raised a suggestive eyebrow as he began to remove his shirt, "We'll finish it later."