I dig my keys out of my pocket and open the door. "I'm ho-ome!" I call out.

"Daddy!" says a muffled voice from the living room. Elizabeth's tiny footsteps get louder as she rounds the corner. I crouch down to catch her in my arms and swing her around.

"How was your day?" I ask her.

"Awesome!"

"Awesome? Awesome?" I tickle her ribs and she giggles.

"My day was great, too. Thanks for asking," Sully says rolling his eyes. I didn't even see him enter the room.

"Oh, come on, Sully. When have you not had a good day?"

He shrugs. "Good point."

"But seriously, thank you so much for doing this. It means a lot to me."

"Don't mention it, kid. Now, I'm gonna go finish the puzzle Lizzy and I started."

"Pushle! Daddy, see!" She wiggles out of my grasp and starts pulling me down the hallway. I grab my bag, then follow her. On the floor is a ten piece puzzle with about five connected pieces. "Cashle!" Elizabeth draws my attention to another already completed puzzle of a rainbow castle.

"Wow, two puzzles in one day?" I say in surprise. Usually, something else will have drawn her attention before she even finishes one. "Sully, did you help her?"

"No, she did it all on her own. She's a smart cookie," he says, looking at Elizabeth.

At the word "cookie", her eyes light up. She looks up at me with big doe eyes and a wide, hopeful smile. "Can I have a cookie, Daddy?"

"Lizzy, you—"

"Pwease, Daddy? Pwease, pwease, pwease?"

"No, Lizzy."

The look in her eyes changes to one of annoyance. Her hands ball into fists. Nothing good can come of this. "But I want it!"

"Just because you want something doesn't mean you're going to get it." She begins to breathe heavier. She's gearing up for a temper tantrum. I get on my knees so that our eyes are on the same level. "Elizabeth, think about what you're about to do. Would you rather have no cookie and a time-out or a cookie later and no time-out?"

"I want cookie now!"

"That wasn't an option."

"Errrrrrrrr!" She stomps her feet and angry tears spring to her eyes. "I WANT IT!"

"Lizzy…" I make the warning tone in my voice clear, but I don't overdo it so that I sound mean and angry. "You have three seconds to calm yourself down or I will put you in time-out."

"No!"

"One."

"Daddy," she whines, already coming down a notch.

"Two."

There's a war going on in her head; I can see it in her eyes. She wants to argue, but she doesn't want a time-out, so she compromises by giving me a sour look.

"Three. Now, are you going to follow directions and be a good girl or am I going to have to sit you in the corner?"

She sighs. "Good girwl."

"Alright, go do your puzzle. I have to grade some papers, then I'll come play with you. Sound good?"

"Sound good," she agrees, then wanders over to the half completed kitten. After she plops down beside it, Sully stands up and walks over to me.

"Has she been like this all day?" I ask him in low tones.

"Kinda. I think she's just crabby because she's tired."

"Did she have her nap?"

"Yeah, but she's like a firecracker. She spends all her energy in the first few hours, then she's fizzled out. Besides, it's probably been weird for her with her mom gone this whole week. The bond between a mother and her daughter is strong, but it needs to be reinforced."

I give him a look. "You know, you're having more and more of these sudden bursts of brilliance. Maybe it's an age thing."

"Oh, shut up. Go grade those essays or whatever the hell they were."

"Oy, no swearing."

"Nate, she has to be exposed to these things eventually. It's better she hears it from her family, not school or something."

"You are so infuriating sometimes. Just go play with Elizabeth." I go into the dining room and unload my bag onto the table. I begin reading the essay on top. Make my way through about ten, when Elizabeth skips into the room. "What's up, girly? Where's Uncle Sully?"

"Sleeping."

I sigh. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me. Come sit next to me."

She climbs onto the chair. "Daddy, who's Sir Francy Dwake?"

"Sir Francis Drake? How'd you hear about him?"

"Uncle Suwy said my name came from him."

"That's right, he's your ancestor."

"What's a ancwestor?"

"It means he's part of our family."

"Like you and Mommy and Uncle Suwy and Grandma and—"

"Yes, like them. He sailed all around the world for Queen Elizabeth. That's the other person you're named for."

"Queen? Like Elsa?"

"Yeah, but she didn't have ice powers."

"Maybe she conceal, don't feel."

I look down at her and the look on her face is completely serious. I wish I could go back to having such innocent ideas. "Don't let them know," I sing softly, hoping she'll take the bait. I love hearing her sing.

"Well, now they know!" we sing together.

I fade out and let her take center stage. She's a little performer. Maybe Elena and I could sign her up for singing or dancing lessons or something. "Let it go, let it go! Can't hold it back anymore!" Elizabeth leaps off the chair and twirls around in the snowy wonderland of her imagination. Once she finishes this song, she starts singing another Frozen song. I think I know which movie she and Sully watched today. I go back to grading my essays, one eye on her and one eye on the paper. Every once and a while, I'll make a request or give her a round of applause, but if there's no interruptions, she'll move on to another song as if she has a playlist lined up in her head. She'll even stop mid-song to start singing something else. After her rendition of Beauty and the Beast's "Belle" (she sang everyone's part), Elizabeth yawns and rubs her eyes. I look up from a horrible run-on sentence just in time to watch her little legs give out with a thump.

"Looks like someone's ready for bed," I say, putting my pen down. I walk over to her and she holds out her arms, the universal signal for "carry me". I pick her up and she wraps her arms around my neck. Elizabeth tucks her head under my chin, giving me a good look at the dirt in her hair. "What did you do? Roll around in the mud?"

"No, that's gwoss," she mumbles.

"Well, you need to wash your hair before your mother gets back tomorrow. She'll kill me if she sees you like this."

We make it to her room and I lay her on the bed. "Daddy, did you and Mommy really fight piwates and monstwers?" she asks as I cover her with the blanket.

"What?"

"Uncle Suwy said that—"

"Well, Uncle Sully says a lot of things, but, between you and me, I think he's a little crazy." I whisper the last part and then touch the tip of her nose. She giggles and reaches up to touch her finger to my nose. My heart swells. I didn't think it was possible to love her more than I already do, but the feeling grows every day. "I love you, Elizabeth."

"I love you, Daddy."

I kiss her forehead, then leave the room. Sully's snoring will make it impossible to grade papers, so I go to wake him up. Instead of tapping him on the shoulder, I jump on him, grabbing him around the neck and covering his mouth, pretending like I'm an enemy. He wakes with a start and tries to flip me on my back. He pins me (or rather, I let him pin me) and sighs when he sees it's me. I have trouble sitting up because I'm doubled over with laughter. "Goddamn it, Nate. You scared the shit outta me."

"That was the point, genius. You should have seen the look on your face. Priceless."

"Ya know, one of these days I'm going to kill you. Guess who'll be laughing then." Sully points to his fake, sarcastic smile.

"Ah, come on, Sully. You can't kill me. We're best friends." I lay my head on his shoulder.

"Is that what you call it?"

"Well, what do you call it?"

"Uh… It's parasitic. Like a dog and a tick."

"Ouch," I laugh. "You must have some seriously low self-esteem to call yourself a tick."

He rolls his eyes, but he can't keep the smile from spreading across his face. "Are you ever going to grow up?"

"Are you ever going to stop calling me 'kid'?"

"Alright, good point. How's Lizzy?"

"She's asleep. Poor thing wore herself out." Sully grunts his agreement. I frown and turn to face him as I remember what she said to me before bed. "Did you tell her about El Dorado?"

"Uh-huh. Did she ask you about Sir Francis?"

"Yeah, that and about pirates and monsters. No more stories about me, you, or Elena."

"Why not? She loved it."

"I don't want her to know what I used to do."

"She won't care about that. You're her hero, Nate."

"But I'm not a hero! I'm a no-good, dirty, rotten thief. I've broken hearts. Betrayed friends. I've even killed people!"

"Nate—"

"And don't give me any of that 'it's not your fault' bullshit. Of course it's my fault. We make our own paths. Our own destinies. You said so yourself, remember?"

"Don't you want her to know the truth?"

"I don't want her to think of me like some… some monster."

"She won't think that."

"How do you know?"

"Because she's your daughter. She will always love you, because she's family, kid."

"Yeah? Well, in my experience, 'family' just means you share the same blood. My family never cared about me. Hell, they abandoned me!"

"Yours is a rare case, Nate. Your mother was depressed, so she killed herself. It's not because she didn't love you."

"Well, killing yourself is a pretty shitty thing to do to someone you love."

"Your father was a drunk. He didn't want to give you to the state, but he knew it was for the best. The strongest part of a father's paternal instinct is to protect their child." I stay silent and stare at a dot on the wall across from me. I know my father hated me. He never wanted to protect me. He beat me for godssake. It's something I haven't told anyone, even Sully. I think it's a little too late to tell him now.

"You may disagree," Sully continues, "but I don't think they wanted to abandon you. Maybe it was meant to be. I mean, if none of that happened, you wouldn't have met me. And, look at that! I'm still around." I look up at him with a small smile. "And like it or not, kid, I'm not going anywhere." Years of building the reputation of the tough guy prevents me from wrapping my arms around Sully. Instead we exchange a look that says everything we can't say.