It has been two weeks since the first installment of this story- I didn't mean to take this long! I'll try to have chapter three up sooner! Enjoy! : )

Three Years Later

Devin hurried into the convenience store, grabbed a handful of napkins off of a nearby counter, and dashed out again. He jogged to his car, which Callie was standing beside with her head poked into the backseat.

"Here," he panted, holding out the napkins.

She stood up straight, pushed her sunglasses up on her head, and took them. "Dev, can you get her a change of clothes?" she asked as she dabbed at the baby's chin with the napkins.

"Sure," Devin said, sliding past her and popping open the trunk. He found the baby's bag and dug through it for a change of clothes. "Here."

"Thank you," Callie said, taking the clothes from him and unbuckling the baby from her car seat. As she lifted her out, the baby coughed and spat up all over her mother's shirt.

"Honey!" she groaned loudly as Devin took the baby. He could see her quickly losing her patience with her daughter.

"Get back in the car, Cal," he said. "I'll change her. Be there in a minute."

With a huge sigh, Callie got into the passenger's seat. Devin carefully lay Honey on the car's closed trunk. "No spitting up on Mommy," he mock-scolded, wagging a finger in Honey's face as he undressed her. "You hear me? She'll get very mad at you!"

"Devin, I can hear you," Callie called through the open window.

"Hear that?" he whispered to Honey as he put a fresh shirt on her. "Mommy's gonna be mad at me if I don't follow her every order exactly as-"

"Devin!"

"Told ya."

Honey giggled and held her arms out for him.

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On the first round of this road trip, they had left at the beginning of August and returned by Halloween, when the money they had saved for the trip ran out. Once home, they began the process of saving again; Devin worked two jobs and Callie worked one, and they both took some college classes, much to their parents' relief. For almost three years, they saved, and now they were back on the road.

Their new companion in their travels was eight months old and had come to them four months ago. Callie worked as a part-time assistant to a social worker, and the social worker was involved in adoptions from China. One night, she came home and called Devin, and together they looked over her finances. They agreed that if she was careful, she could afford to adopt one of the Chinese orphans, like she had her heart set on doing. Six months later, they flew to California to pick up Honey Le, her baby girl.

That night, they found a motel and checked in to a room for twenty bucks. They walked through the door with duffel bags over their shoulders, plus the baby's bag, and Callie immediately collapsed on one of the beds.

"I'm so tired," she moaned, sitting Honey down beside her. "You tired, baby?"

Honey bounced slightly on the bed. "No!"

"Apparently not," Callie mumbled, closing her eyes.

"You can go to sleep, Cal," Devin said, removing pajama bottoms and a t-shirt from his duffel bag. "I'm gonna be up for an hour or so; I'll watch her."

"Are you sure? You drove all day."

"Yeah, I'm fine. If I get tired and she's not going down, I'll wake you up." He poked her shoulder lightly. "Trust me on that one. I will be waking you up at some terrible hour. Sleep while you can."

She laughed and lay down, pulling the covers out from underneath her and wrapping them around herself. She closed her eyes, and Devin leaned down to remove the ribbon from her hair and give her a kiss on the forehead.

"Watch my kid," she mumbled, reaching up to swat his face as he straightened.

"Fine, fine." As her breathing evened out and she fell into a slumber, Devin looked at Honey, who was holding her arms out to him. "Hold on, sweetheart. Let me change."

Once his pajamas were on, he picked up Honey and lounged on the other bed with her sprawled across his stomach, looking up at him. "Hey, baby."

"Hi, Daddy," she said, making him stop in the process of tickling her neck. She carried on, giggling and ducking away from his hand, but he sat frozen. Sure, Honey didn't have a father, Callie had no boyfriend, and Devin spent a lot of time helping with the baby, but nobody had taught her to call him Daddy. Where the hell had she picked that up?

Devin played with the baby for about another hour, and then she started to drift off. He placed her in bed beside him, stacked some extra pillows on the other side of the bed so she couldn't roll off of it.

When Honey started crying, it felt like he had just fallen asleep, but a glance at the clock told him that it was past three in the morning, so he'd gotten a few hours.

In the other bed, Callie was stirring. "I'll get her," she moaned, sitting up and swinging her legs onto the floor. "Ugh."

"Here." Devin picked up the baby and held her out for Callie to take. In her mother's arms, Honey quieted enough that he could speak. "Hey, Cal."

"Yeah?"

"Earlier…" He sat up and squinted at her. The room was dark, but the window was open, so he could clearly make out her face. "Earlier, Honey called me daddy."

There was a pause, and then a nonchalant, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It just… it was weird. She's never called me that before, and I don't know why she would."

Callie didn't say anything.

"Callie?"

"What," she said, more in a monotone than as a question.

"Do you know why?"

Devin asked the question gently, watching her carefully, but she responded as if he had accused her of something. "Sorry I taught my daughter to offend you. I'll tell her that she doesn't get a daddy and not to call you that anymore."

He sat there and stared at her, shocked. They had bickered many, many times, but it was always playful. They had never snapped at each other like this. What was she even talking about? Offend him? "I was just wondering-"

"No, it's okay. I get it." She turned away from him, still bouncing the baby, whose cries were reduced to whimpers. "Go to sleep, Devin."

But by now, he was wide awake. It was obvious that he had hurt Callie, and he wanted to know why, because he felt horrible. Devin stood up and placed a tentative hand on her arm. "Cal. Tell me what's the matter."

"What's the matter?" Callie whipped around and glared at him, and he appeared to have broken down a wall, because words came spilling out of her. "What's the matter is that I am raising this kid alone, and she doesn't have a father. It's not even like I'm divorced and she'll see her dad on weekends. She doesn't even have one. And since you spend so much time with her, yes, I did refer to you as Daddy a few times when you weren't there. So yes, I do know why she called you that. Any other questions?"

Devin stood in place, his hand still on her shoulder, quiet as he digested this information. It wasn't that he minded; it was just weird. The idea that anybody would call him their father didn't make sense to him; he still thought of himself as a kid. But, really, he was the closest thing Honey had to a real dad.

As they stood there in the motel room, Devin could see Callie's face slowly growing calmer until she took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't attack you like that. It… it really doesn't have anything to do with you. I just lost it. I'm sorry."

"That's okay," he said hastily.

"I feel so bad, Devin, that she doesn't have a father. She has a single mother. A young one, not out of college, barely old enough to drink… sometimes I feel guilty for adopting her, like I should have left her to be taken in by a real family, with a mom and dad and maybe a couple other kids. Like I'm being selfish by keeping her with me when she could be with-"

"Callie, no." He turned her quickly around and folded her into his arms, the baby between them. "You're an amazing mother. You're the best person they could have given her to."

"That isn't true," she sniffed, pressing her nose into his t-shirt.

"Yes, it is." Devin kissed the top of her head, stroked her hair. Seeing her like this was slightly scary, since she usually had such a grip on everything, including herself and him. But when it did happen, he tried to help the best way he knew how. "You love her just as much as any other family would."

"But-"

"Baby, stop talking," he said, the words slipping out without his permission. He bit his lip and lay his head on top of Callie's, silently thanking God that she was too upset to notice what he had called her. He led her over to the bed, sat down, and gently pulled her down beside him.

"I want her to have a-"

"I know." Devin took Honey from her and bounced her on one knee while Callie buried her face in his other one. "I want her to have a dad too."

Callie froze, then rolled onto her back, head still in his lap, staring up at him. Only then did he realize what he had said and implied, and he stuttered, wanting to take it back. But then, he decided to just move forward, take a step he'd wanted to take for a long time. "You don't have to be a single mother, Callie."

Devin held his breath as he took in her stoic expression. Say something. Say something.

She didn't say anything, but she did lift herself up on one elbow, tilt her face up, and press her lips to his, which was a perfectly acceptable answer in his book. He slipped his hand behind her neck to keep her in that position, and their mouths remained melded together for several moments before Honey's sharp cry made them jerk apart.

"Come here, Honey," Callie sighed, reaching for the baby, but Devin picked her up first.

"Go to sleep, Cal," he said, laying back on his bed with the baby sprawled across his chest.

"Devin, you were up with her earl-"

"Hey," he said, grinning at her. "I thought you wanted her to have a daddy."

For a second, she just stared at him, and then could not resist throwing her head back and laughing. "Okay, okay. You're right. I wouldn't want to be a hypocrite."

"Good." Devin reached toward her with the hand that wasn't holding Honey to his chest. Callie let him cup her face and drag it down toward him, then brush her lips with his twice. "G'night."

"'Night."

She crawled into bed and closed her eyes, but the pounding of her heart and racing of her mind were keeping her from falling asleep. After a few minutes of failing to relax, she heard Devin's voice. "Cal?"

"Yeah?"

He yawned. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll always want to help you run the United Nations of Callie."

I have stayed up late to finish this and am very tired, so forgive me if there are any typos, especially toward the end. Please review. One more chapter! : )