The next morning both men were up and dressed even earlier than usual. Illya woke Leona up to get her ready while Napoleon made coffee and breakfast. As they ate Illya reminded Leona, "Today you will be coming to Papa and Daddy's school. There will be other children there, too and you will be able to play with them. How does that sound?"

"Good, Papa!" she answered. She was dressed in a navy blue jumper over a white blouse, white knee socks and navy patent leather shoes with blue and white striped ribbons tied into bows at the end of each pigtail.

"Hey, Papa, don't you think Leona's just a teensy bit overdressed? I'm kind of thinking the other kids will probably be wearing dungarees and sneakers. Maybe she should wear something else."

Leona looked at what she was wearing and her bottom lip began to quiver. "Daddy no like?"

"Oh, sweetheart, don't cry! Daddy loves what you have on; I just thought you might be more comfortable in pants."

"I want to wear this, Daddy. Papa said I look nice."

"You do look nice. I have an idea; why don't you go get a pair of jeans and a top from your clothes that are on the chair in your room and we'll take them with us. That way, if you want to get on the floor and play, you can change. Is that alright?"

"Yes, Daddy!" She jumped down to go to her room, but was intercepted and kissed on the temple by him. Giggling now, she walked to her room.

"Catastrophe averted," the Russian said as he rose from the table, "It would not do to have Alice and the class meet Leona while her eyes are red from crying."

When they arrived at the class's building, they saw a note by the elevator directing Alice's students to go to the tenth floor. Stepping off the elevator, they saw a door directly in front of them that said "Parenting Lab."

"This must be the place," Napoleon said as he removed Leona's coat, hat and mittens. "Let's check out this new adventure, shall we?" He held open the door and motioned for Leona to walk in ahead of him followed closely by Illya.

The room was quite large; along one wall was a carpeted play area. Chairs were a distance away on the opposite side of the room set up in a semi - circle. There were several women already there, four of them with toddlers in tow. Napoleon gave his best smile. "Good morning!"

"Good morning!" the group echoed back as the men approached them with the little girl in their wake.

"Ladies, good morning," Illya said with a slight smile, "May I present my daughter, Leona Nicole." He bent down and turned her to face the group. Say hello, Daughter."

"Hello!" she said and then hid her face in his shoulder in a fit of shyness.

Natalie stepped forward holding a little girl's hand. "Hello, Leona Nicole. This is my daughter, Maria. She's two years old, too. Say hi, Maria."

"Hi," the little girl said before extending her hand to Leona who, after receiving an encouraging smile from Papa, took it and walked with Maria over to the play area.

Similar introductions were made until all the children were busily amusing themselves playing; the three boys were pushing fire trucks around while Maria and Leona were baking imaginary food in a Suzy Homemaker oven. A few minutes later, Alice walked in with another young woman and waved all the adults over to the chairs. "Hi, everyone! Good morning! Have a seat. This is Carlotta Jones; she's a graduate student at Columbia going for her Master's in Early Child Development and she's going to be keeping an eye on the children while we're talking. I'll let her tell you what will be going on in the play area today."

Carlotta sat forward and smiled at the group. Napoleon noted that she appeared to be in her late twenties with brown hair, about five feet four inches tall with freckles sprinkled across the bridge of her nose. "Hi. I'm going to be performing assessments of some of the children's development. All the kids will know is that we'll be playing games and doing activities that are going to be fun and enjoyable. For example, we will be reading picture books, drawing, telling stories, doing puzzles, sorting shapes, playing with the build – a – bricks, etc.; things designed to assess thinking, memory, language, color vision, attention, and tests of early reading and number skills. Yes, you have a question?"

"I do," Natalie replied, "Will we be getting these results today. In front of everyone?"

Carlotta answered, "Oh, no! To both questions. I will take each child's raw scores back to Columbia where I will tally the results and they will be rechecked by my professors. Then I will mail the results to you with whatever recommendations I make."

"That's a relief," Carol said, "It wouldn't be very nice to bring up a child's…shortcomings in front of all the parents." One would have had to be blind not to see her looking directly at the men as she spoke.

Illya bristled, but Napoleon signaled him to stay quiet. Giving her one of his smiles that didn't quite reach his eyes he asked, "Carol, is there some reason you were looking at Eddie and me when you said that?"

Carol flushed slightly, but you could almost see her screwing up her courage to speak. "Well," she began, "You said you found Leona in Korea, but she doesn't…look…"

Illya spoke quietly, but clearly, a sure sign that he was starting to get angry. "She does not look what?"

Susan looked at Carol who now was wearing a "deer in the headlights" expression and decided to step into the conversation. "She means that little girl has some Negroid features. We saw it as soon as you came in; she's mixed. Everyone knows half - breeds are not as bright…"

"What are you doing?" Alice hissed, "How dare you say such things about Eddie's daughter?"

"I'm only saying out loud what everyone else is thinking! Carol and I've been talking this whole situation over with our husbands and they think there's something strange about you two!"

That statement caused an outburst from the women that was quickly squashed by their teacher. "Carlotta!" Alice called, "Please take the children to Room 1015. The adults and I have things to discuss. Parents, tell your children it's OK to go with Carlotta." She watched and listened while the children were told it was fine and they would be back soon. When the children were gone she said, "Susan, you owe these gentlemen an apology."

Illya, who had been sitting as still as a statue, leaned forward and snarled, "I neither want nor need your apology! You are a hateful shrew of a woman and I pity you!" He cast his gaze at Carol. "Both of you!"

Now that she had spoken up, Susan was not backing down. "Come on! What regular guy wants to raise a little girl? And with another man no less? What do you get out of it? She turned back to Alice. "My husband thinks they must either be sissies or child..."

"Do not dare to finish that sentence," Illya spat out in a voice that frightened Susan into silence. "I will not sit here and be insulted and accused of such despicable behavior by the likes of you!"

Natalie had tears in her eyes when she said, "Eddie, Navarre, I promise you that I don't agree with Carol and Susan and neither do the other women." Murmurs of agreement were heard from their otherwise speechless classmates. "Your daughter seems like a lovely little girl and I think she is lucky to have you!" She turned her gaze to the two women who had put the class in an uproar. "Why can't you accept that Eddie wants to provide a safe loving home to a child in need?"

"Because…because men can't be trusted around little girls!" Susan yelled before breaking down in tears in her seat. "They just…can't!"

Illya watched as Susan sobbed in her seat as Carol tried to comfort her. He slid his chair a little closer to her and said, "Susan, I think I understand. Just because a man you trusted when you were a child betrayed you does not mean all men act that way. Perhaps you think you are ringing the alarm to protect a child, but she needs no protection from me; her father."

Susan regained her composure and sat for a few moments while Carol rubbed her back and spoke softly to her.

Alice was thinking, Maybe now we can just continue with the class!

Illya was uncomfortable; he did not like being the center of attention, a position he had found himself in from the first day he and Napoleon had entered the parenting class. He was slightly embarrassed for having let his mask of cool control slip to reveal his emotions, but he was not sorry he had snapped at Susan. Perhaps now, we can get back to the business at hand.

"Susan," Alice asked, "are you alright? Can we put this behind us and go forward?"

Susan sat up straight in her chair. "No. What Eddie and Navarre are doing is wrong, it's disgusting and I think they are perverts!"

Napoleon looked her square in the eye and said, "Wow, all of that and you didn't even know we're roommates."

"Susan, you are no longer welcome in my class. Please go get your son and leave." Susan stood without another word and with dirty looks thrown the men's way, walked out of the room. Alice looked at Carol. "You have a choice; apologize to these men now or you are welcome to leave, too."

"Well, I, I, never thought Eddie and Navarre were homo…uh, perv…um," she stammered, "um, bad people. I was just surprised to see the little girl is part…" Her voice faded as she realized what she was saying. "I mean, the way you two go on about how bright she is…"

Napoleon glared and responded, "Oh, I see; you're not a homophobe, just a racist." A knock on the classroom door followed by Carlotta's head poking through stopped him from continuing.

"Excuse me, Alice? Leona wanted to speak with her Papa. She's not happy."

She stepped aside to allow the worried looking toddler to pass her. She went straight to Illya and climbed into his lap. "Papa, mama Fryeddi prishli v to vryemya, kak mi igrali i skhvatil yego i skazal, chto oni shli domoy. Ona posmotryela na myenya, kak ona bila zlyatsya na myenya. Ya bil plokho? Ya sdyelal chto-to nyepravilʲno? Papa, Freddie's mommy came in while we were playing and grabbed him and said they were going home. She looked at me like she was mad at me. Was I bad? Did I do something wrong?"

Illya hugged her closely. "Nyet, dochʲ, vi sdyelali nichyego plokhogo. Mama Fryeddi bil rasstroyen, potomoo chto yey prishlosʲ ostavitʲ, vot i vsye. Ona imyeyet nichyego obshtyego s vami. No, Daughter, you have done nothing wrong. Freddie's mommy was upset because she had to leave, that's all. It had nothing to do with you."

Alice leaned toward Napoleon and softly asked, "What language are they speaking? I don't recognize it."

Napoleon was watching and listening to Illya and Leona. "Russian. Apparently, Susan made her feel like she had done something bad. Eddie is assuring her she's done nothing wrong." Leona looked his way and with a gesture, he called her to him.

Climbing down from Papa's lap, she walked to Daddy and when he picked her up she said, "Non mi piace qui. Voglio andare a casa. Possiamo per favore andare casa? I don't like it here. I want to go home. Can we please go home?"

Linda perked up. "Oh, she does speak Italian! Can we hear her say something else? Any language, it doesn't matter."

The looks on the two men's faces spurred the teacher to outrage and action. "She is Eddie's daughter! She is upset and you want her to entertain you? I have had just about enough. Eddie, Navarre, I am so, so sorry that you had to go through this nonsense. I am completely embarrassed by and ashamed of some of my other students' behavior. Tomorrow's class is mostly a review of the week's lessons and a chance for people to ask questions. From what I've seen this week, you two are quite knowledgeable about parenting. I'm excusing you both; I will inform my director that you have passed the course and your certificates will be issued. You will receive them in the mail next week. Take care, gentlemen. Leona, it was very nice to meet you."

Leona smiled at her and said, "Bye!"

Natalie followed the men out the door into the hallway after they had grabbed their coats. "Eddie, Navarre, I hope you know I don't feel that way. In fact, I would like it very much if Leona and Maria could have playdates. I think they would like that."

Illya smiled shyly and said, "Thank you for saying that. Unfortunately, that will not be possible. If circumstances were different, it would be wonderful, indeed. It was very nice to meet you, Natalie."

Napoleon, who had been holding Leona during this conversation, put her down and held out his hand. When Natalie took it, he kissed the back of it and said, "It was a pleasure."

Natalie blushed at the courtly gesture. "Well, I'd better get back inside. Goodbye."

The Russian put on Leona's coat and hat and then reached over to push the elevator call button. "Let us go home."