Disclaimer: I do not own Jonny Quest or related characters.
A/N: Just a short little fic explaining a headcanon I have.
One thing Race was quickly learning was his little five-year-old daughter was insanely curious about the world. She also had a tendency to ask questions that he really didn't want to answer.
"Daddy, why do you take your ring off when you leave for work?" Questions like that. Jessie was looking up from her coloring book, her head tilted to the side a little.
Race sighed. How had she even noticed that? Usually he left either early in the mornings or late at night, when she was asleep. He supposed she could have noticed he wasn't wearing his ring when he came home... but did she really pay that much attention? Of course she did. She was her mother's daughter. Now he had to come up with an answer that wouldn't scare her. "I take it off before going to work because I don't want to lose it." He answered.
Yeah. That sounded logical didn't it?
"But you still wear your ring when we go to the park, or the store, aren't you worried you'll lose your ring then?" Jessie asked.
He should have known there would be more questions.
"You know what my job is, right?" Race asked.
"You're a spy." Jessie answered promptly. That wasn't entirely true, but it was easy to let her keep believing that. Especially since, as far as Jessie knew, being a spy simply meant hiding and listening or watching, or sneaking into places to get documents or whatever. Nothing dangerous at all.
"Which means I can't leave behind any evidence that I was there. If I lost my ring while on a mission and someone found it, they would know someone else had been there." Race explained. "I also wouldn't be able to go back and look for it like I would be able to if I lost it at the park."
The girl feel silent, considering this. Then she nodded, it made sense to her.
Race breathed a mental sigh of relief when the girl went back to coloring. Though he knew it wouldn't last forever. Someday Jessie would understand that he was so much more than a spy and that his job was also dangerous. Someday she would understand the real reason he took off his ring is so the 'bad guys' wouldn't know he had people he cared about, a wife he loved dearly and a daughter that was his whole world.
Someday Jessie would understand he took off his ring, not because he was afraid he'd lose it, but because he was afraid it could lead to him losing her and her mother.