Disclaimer: I do not own anyone or anything from Shameless!

True to her word, Mandy dropped our daughter off a little before seven in the morning. I had been up for hours trying to make sure that the apartment was completely kid friendly. You would think that with all of my siblings I would have done this sooner, but honestly us Gallagher kids were made of some pretty tough stuff and so I never really worried about any of my brothers or sisters. Kattie was my daughter and I think I was allowed to be worried. Besides, I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. I would not let anything fuck this up because Mandy was given me a second chance and I knew if something happened I wouldn't be getting a third chance. So after making the entire house safe I sat down Carl to have a talk about his behavior for the day.

"No explosives, knives, bats, or drugs of any kind are to be on your persons while Katerina is here." I told him watching as he made a face similar to the expression he would probably be wearing if I were slowly stabbing him death. Sadly, he would probably prefer a slow stabbing to having to be on his best behavior for one whole day. "No R-rated movies, no booze, and if I catch you cussing I'll have Frank cut your tongue out. Do you understand or am I going to have to lock you in a closet?"

My brother rolled his eyes. "I won't be here anyways. Hank Jr. and I are going to camp out in front the E. R. all bloody after we beat each other up. We are hoping that some suckers will feel bad for us and give us their pain killers."

I nodded before slapping him on the shoulder. "Alright well have fun and if you get anything good let me know and I will see if I can find some buyers."

After I had said that there was a knock on the door before Mandy entered holding an energetic Katerina. "I know I came a little earlier than planned, but she has been up since five and she wouldn't stop babbling about all the stuff you were going to do with her today. I have to get to work, but I'll be back to pick her up around 5:30. I'll pick up dinner at the diner and if you want you can come back t my place and eat with us."

I was getting invited over for dinner? This was a great first step in the right direction. "That sounds good Mandy."

"You have a good time with Lip sweetheart." She kissed our daughter on the forehead before handing her over to me. "Don't let her have too much sugar Lip, no matt how much she begs and she will beg. There will probably even be tears involved, but you have to remain firm with her because once you give in there is no going back. Stay tough and if she needs a nap please don't let her sleep more than two hours or she will be up all night long and if that happens I will drag your ass to our house so you can watch her while I get some sleep."

I smiled as she headed out the door. It was messed up, but this had to be the first conversation we'd shared since I came home that didn't involve screaming. Mandy and I had actually managed to somehow get along for the sake of our daughter. Hopefully that meant there was hope for us to be friends again. Of course I wanted to be more, but friends seemed like the best possible option for the time being.

"So baby girl, what did you want to do today?" I questioned as I set her down on the kitchen table. "Have you had breakfast yet? If you are hungry we have cereal or I could make you pancakes. Do you like your pancakes in shapes?"

"I already ate." She told me hopping off the table with a smile before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the living room. "In my backpack I brought all of my photo albums so that you could see pictures of when I was a little. Do you want to see them?"

"Sure." I replied sitting down on the couch next to her. "Have you seen our photo albums? I am sure that your aunt Fiona has shown you already since she shows everyone, but if for some reason she hasn't, I would love to show you. I think I have some pictures of your mother and me when we were dating."

I made sure not to mention the NC17 pictures I had of myself and Mandy in my wallet. I had kept them even when we had broken up. Sometimes I still even looked at them, not that I would ever tell Mandy that I wanted to keep all of my appendages. I wondered if Mandy still had her copy of the pictures. If she did, did she ever look at them? It wasn't something I needed to worry about right now I suppose. I had to focus on spending time with my daughter because I have a lot to make up for. There was so much time I had missed and I needed to start catching up on that missed time.

"I want to look at them again." Katerina told me with that bright smile that reminded me so much of Mandy's back when we were dating. "Can we watch the Wiggles first? I love the Wiggles so much! Mommy said that the theme for my birthday can even be the Wiggles. Do you want come to my party? It's in two weeks and all my friends are going to be there. I want them to meet my daddy."

Pride took over my heart when she called me her daddy. I wasn't sure if I would ever get used to hearing her call me that, but I know I would never tire of hearing it. "Of course I will be there baby girl and sure we can watch the Wiggles. Liam used to love the Wiggles when was your age."

TBC…

AN: A short chapter because I wanted Lip and his daughter to bond somewhat. It would have been longer, but I feel like crap and so it was another short one. I will update when I can. I am trying to catch up on season three.

Please R&R like always!