So there is a legitimate excuse as to why this took so long... Work this week kinda wore me down and all I've done this week after work is sleep and rewrite some later chapters. And listen to music.

Also, this story may start updating just a little bit slower. Like, some weeks once and week and some weeks twice a week. Nothing too drastic. I would ideally like to bring this out to the end of this hiatus, which would end like two weeks early if I keep updating at a fast pace, but if you guys really want me to, I can try to keep going every other day. This chapter is the official halfway point, to give you guys a little point of reference, so get excited!

Chapter 10

Southern California summer was coming, and it was coming fast.

Nick wiped a bead of sweat off of his forehead, wishing for the hundredth time that he had remembered sunglasses. Or a cap. Or some kind of dark magic to take away the sun. Yes, dark magic was sounding more appealing with every heat-pulsed minute. It was only early May, yet he could only imagine how miserable the city would become once the tourists started coming back in waves.

He watched Aly zoom around the playground from his spot on the bench, extremely aware of every potential splinter, rusty rail, or snotty nose that came within ten feet of her. He hoped one day he'd get used to it.

Not only that, but he'd been spraying sunscreen on her in routine, almost overbearing, intervals. Her skin wasn't quite as fair as Jess's, and maybe the heat was just part of the humidity; still, if she was anything like her mother, she would burn. Like hell he was going to return her to Jess sunburned and cranky.

Just let her be a kid, he reminded himself as he watched his daughter teeter on the edge of the sandbox.

Jess hadn't been feeling well all afternoon, so he had offered to take Aly to the park, alone, for once. They'd gone to the park plenty of times before, he reasoned, he could surely do it on his own by now.

He soon realized how blissfully unaware he had been. He honestly didn't know the kind of stress watching a toddler on a playground came with. Not to mention, there was creepy factor he used to associate with grown men hanging around a playground. He had a legitimate excuse to be there, for sure, but old feelings were hard to erase.

"Nick!" Aly called, and he walked over to the slide, watching her giggle her way down. "I wanna go swing next."

He couldn't help but smile back at her enthusiasm. He stuck out a hand, "Lead the way."

Her tiny hand grabbed his and he let her pull him all the way to the swings.

She'd known that he was her dad for a few weeks, and hadn't actually acknowledged him as such yet. He'd been concerned at first, wondering if her preference of his first name was because she didn't see him that way, but Jess promised him it would come in due time.

"So are you gonna push me?" Nick remarked, plopping down into the swing.

Aly smirked, another bubbly laugh escaping. "You know I can't push you!"

"Well why not?" He teased.

"It's 'cause you're heavy," she wrinkled her nose. "And I'm little!"

He held up his hands in defeat. "Fair enough."

She giggled again as he rose, climbing onto the seat and wiggling around until she was set. One good push, and she was off.

And so she swung, Nick being ever-so careful on each push, making sure that she didn't go too high or too fast. Aly, however, wasn't having that. She kicked her legs as the swing fell, and it took a lot out of Nick not to try to slow it down, just a little. He held back, though, and settled into a rhythm.

Just as he began to relax, though, her shoe caught something on the ground. With a cry, Aly grabbed onto the chain of the swing and her little body jolted in its seat.

Her knees barely grazed the gravel as the swing came back to Nick, but Aly's grip on the chain faltered before he could catch her. As if in slow motion, the swing pulled away once more and Aly's legs skidded the ground.

The fall had been fast. The recovery, however, played in slow motion fragments for Nick. A cry on the fall; a little hand, still grasping the swing chain; a shaky leg, fighting to find solid ground; the getting up, which was cautious, but good.

Nick reached out a hand to her, his breath caught in his chest.

Then, there was the look.

Aly glanced down at her knee, taking in the red patch and a little stream of blood…

This time, his heart picked up at full speed.

He swore he'd had some strange parenting nightmares about this.

She looked straight at Nick. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. Her mouth was pulled down, her arms tensed tightly at her sides. Her little face turned a bright shade of red.

Luckily, he was there to scoop her up the second a cry escaped her lips.

"Shhh… Shhh…" he soothed, holding her tight and trying to keep his own panic in check. "It'll be okay… It'll be okay…"

She whimpered as he carried her, his heart breaking at every whimper.

Jess was going to kill him for this.

He got to his car in record time, setting her gingerly down in the backseat and kissing her lightly on the head. He then began tearing up the trunk for anything that could help. Why had he never bothered putting a first-aid kit in there? He found an old shirt, but was weary of letting anything touch her knee that didn't have disinfectant on it.

"You doing alright?" He questioned, giving up his frantic search and closing the trunk.

She sniffed when he returned to the backseat. "It hurts, Nick."

His insides turned.

"I know, Aly," he soothed, putting an arm around her. "I'll go to the store and get some band-aids, okay?"

She nodded. Looking at her knee, Nick saw that the bleeding was (thankfully) minimal and most of it had already dried over. The dirt, however, looked to be a problem. In between the little scrapes, he could see dark brown trails following the pattern of her skin. It wasn't catastrophic by any means, but anything that made his Aly cry was enough to warrant some worry.

He gingerly traced the outline of her knee. "What do ya say we pick some ice cream up on the way home?"

Aly cracked a smile in agreement, the first sign of light in her eyes since her fall. Without any additional need for encouragement, Nick hopped in the driver's seat and headed off to the drugstore.

Aly sipped her chocolate milkshake from his shoulders as they made their way through the aisles. Nick had decided that, given the bandaging would probably hurt, there was an immediate need for the ice cream first.

Parental reasoning at its finest.

Not wanting to ask Aly to walk anymore than she had to, he'd pulled her onto his shoulders in the parking lot and she seemed quite content there, one hand holding her hand lightly at his forehead, and the other holding her milkshake. There was also a smile on her face, as her knees weren't really moving anymore.

"How ya doing up there?" He asked, the outline of her face just barely visible as he looked up.

"I'm tall!" She giggled, and Nick continued on into the store, clearly on a mission. He picked up a handbasket on his way past the registers, knowing that he needed a lot more than just one box of adhesives.

Once Nick was in front of the band-aids, though, he realized he had his work cut out for him. He'd always been a 'pick whatever variety pack' kind of guy, but that wasn't sufficient for Aly. What if this happened again?

He picked up another box.

Liquid band-aids? They made that kind of stuff? Was it better than a plain old band-aid? How was it possible for it to be liquid and waterproof?

"Look, Nick! They have yellow ones!" Aly pointed to a neon box from above. As his gaze followed the path of her arm, a drop of shake from her straw fell on his nose and she burst into laughter.

Frowning, he looked up, which only caused her to fall deeper into her giggle-fit.

Nick put a finger to the cold substance on his nose and reached up to smear a matching mark on Aly's nose. He ended up getting her cheek, but the gesture garnered its intended effect.

"Niiiick!" She whined, but still had a smile in her tone. His heart swelled as he threw in a box of the neon colored bandages, along with some of the liquid ones. Was it even possible to layer band-aids?

She continued to slurp happily while Nick added a few more bottles of Neosporin, disinfectants, and a full first aid kit to his basket. Or, rather, two first aid kits. Obviously, he needed one at home, too.

He would try his best to stop the fall next time, but he was going to be ready if he couldn't.

As he made his way to the register, Nick had a sinking feeling that getting the supplies was the easy part. Now… now he actually had to clean up her scrapes without first hurting her, and then doing something wrong. He was Nick Miller, after all – the master of messing things up.

The cashier didn't bother to make small talk, but he did get some warm smiles from the women he passed, and a 'been-there-done-that' look from a graying man waiting in the express line.

"Enjoy it while it lasts," the man commented to Nick, then waved at Aly.

Nick laughed. "You have kids?"

"Two," the man smiled proudly. "The baby turns eighteen this year. Our oldest just got her master's degree."

"Wow," Nick whistled. He didn't even want to imagine what it would be like to watch Aly turn eighteen… to sit through her graduation… He shook his head. "She's got a little while."

The man only chuckled, stepping forward as the register opened. "I could swear that they were that old just yesterday. It goes by pretty quick."

Nick tried to control the feelings that set in. He gripped her ankle just a little tighter, his hand holding the foot that would one-day trade her light-up tennis shoes and princess stickers for high heels and a smartphone.

It was finally their turn for the cashier, and Aly rested the cup on the top of Nick's head as he paid.

"Hey, Aly," he commented, grabbing the bag. "You'll never grow up, right?"

"I gotta!" She defended. "I wanna be just like Momma. And you."

Nick swallowed hard. No, no you don't.

He could think of fifty reasons why she wanted to be nothing like him. Maybe Jess, minus the moving-out-to-LA-by-herself stage. Oh, and living with three single guys chapter.

Aly was never going to live with three single guys. Well, any guys in general. Not while he had anything to do with it. He had the unique experience where he knew what every single one of them would be thinking. It was quite unnerving.

Living with Winston and Schmidt while he and Jess had been together had been frightening enough.

"Tell ya what," he bargained; "you can grow up, just promise me no boys until you're thirty."

"Ew, boys are icky."

He smirked, knowing that he had a promise for the time-being.

They reached the car, and as he pulled her off of his shoulders, Nick was worried to see that she had finished off her treat. He had been so sure that it would help while he patched up her knees… Well, it probably would've, had he not spent so much time on the disinfectants aisle.

Aly swung her legs over the backseat, then carefully bent them down, and Nick kneeled down onto the pavement in front of her.

He pulled out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. People still used that, right?

For crying out loud, he was a grown man. He should really know this stuff better than he did.

"This might sting a little bit," he cautioned, tipping the bottle over a cotton ball. He hated this as a kid. Aly's eyes hesitantly followed his gaze down to her knees, which where started the bruise slightly around the edges. Her hands gripped the seat in anticipation.

She winced as the cotton touched her leg, but didn't cry. She barely even whimpered when he started cleaning up the dirt. Most of it came off pretty cleanly, and he would've admired his handiwork a little longer if he knew that it didn't need to be taped down.

Now came the hard part.

"I don't think these bright ones will fit…" Nick commented, sad to find the box of neon band-aids only had smaller sizes. Those surely couldn't cover her knee. Aly frowned.

"Can we put it on top?" She whispered. Nick's heart swelled, and he couldn't help but agree.

"Of course!" He replied. Pulling out a patch of gauze, he chose not to waste anymore time looking for a band-aid big enough. He could rig a toilet to flush with rubber bands and Gatorade bottles; he could get a garbage disposal to work just using a stick… Taping up a knee should be no trouble at all.

Or so he thought.

The look on Jess's face when they arrived home said otherwise. She was wrapped in robe, clearly not feeling better, but seemed to have enough energy to tease Nick. At least she's not mad about it, he thought in relief.

"What was the look you were going for, knee pads?" She noted, referring to the medical tape that was bunching in the crook of her knee.

"Hey, it was sturdy before she started walking and smearing all the Neosporin!" He defended, watching Aly pull off her shoes. "And the band-aid on top was her idea."

Jess sniffed, then laughed. She took a sip from some honey-colored drink, her gulps loud enough for Nick to notice how much her throat was bothering her. She turned to him and smiled warmly. Her voice, though, was weaker.

"Thank you for today."

"You needed it," he replied softly.

Her eyes fell. "I'm fine. Go home, get some sleep. I'm sure she wore you out."

Like she's been doing to you for the last four years?

Just as Nick opened his mouth to reply, she started coughing. Jess turned her head to face away from him, and he watched her shoulders heave until she had to slide onto the couch. His eyes wide, he went to sit down next to her.

No way he was leaving Jess like that.

"Let me help tonight," he urged. Jess shook her head quickly, but Nick held up a hand. "Please, Jess. Please. At least for Aly. I'll leave as soon as I know you're okay."

"I don't want you sick," Jess replied.

He scoffed. "I actually got my flu shot this year, Jessica."

"Well, Nicholas," she rolled her eyes, "I've been through childbirth. This is nothing."

"We'll see," he quipped, deciding not to tease her about the whole 'immune system of steel' comment she'd made a few weeks prior. Aly poked her head out of her room at the commotion, cracking a wide smile at Nick.

"Momma! Is Nick really gonna stay tonight?"

Jess groaned, trying to cover up a smile and suppress another round of coughing. She looked at Nick. He found it hard to contain his smirk, because she knew that he was right.

"I guess so, sweetheart... I guess so."

Halfway there, guys! Newgirl78, as always, has been a huge help with these. It's not an easy task, having to put up with me, and she's done a fantastic job with doing that and still making sure these chapters come out the best.

Oh! And before I forget, I'm looking for a good cover image for this story. Like, not my little profile icon, because that's basically been my icon since this site started allowing them, haha. Any good ideas or any art-sy people up to the challenge? I'd (obviously) credit you for it!

I hope you all had a great weekend! Thanks for all of the helpful commentary and feedback - I can't wait to share the rest of this story with you guys.