To Guest- Bubba Mava is definitely a girl! :D And thank you so much, that's so sweet of you! :3

To max- Sorry! Girl got the most votes! Maybe they could have a son anyway… depends if I'm feeling nice :P

Real sorry for not updating on this one in a while- I did have ideas, but didn't really do much about writing them up. And sorry for not updating last night- I saw HTTYD 2 and was still trying to overcome feels. Who's seen that? I REALLY need to talk to someone about it! D:

Sophia tentatively poked her sleeping husband with her foot. He awoke with a startled snort and Samantha giggled. He stared at the pair of them blearily, frowning as if trying to recall where he was.

"You've got work in an hour."

"Ugh, screw that."

"You promised you'd take Sam though."

"I did?" Sophia furrowed her brow at him, concerned. He never forgot promises, especially to his children.

"Get up, Daddy, we gonna be late!"

"Alright, alright, I'm up." By 'up', Tobias meant groggily sitting up on his elbows. Samantha scrambled from her mother's lap and pounced on her father, landing heavily on his stomach. "Ha!" She threw her hands up in triumph, grinning broadly. "I win!"

"Yes," Tobias huffed, winded, "this time at least." Samantha wrinkled her nose at him and jumped up, trying to strangle him with her small hands. "Hey, stop taking after your mother." He grabbed her by the ankle and hoisted her up. Like Max had when he was little, she fell still and silent. Percy had always lifted Max by his ankle when Max was being a little shit. Tobias could never quite figure out why Max went mute when he was held upside down, but it was funny.

He passed Samantha back to Sophia and got up, sleepily stumbling away to get ready for work.

"Why Daddy upset, Mammy?"

"It's just stuff, Samantha, don't worry."

"But Daddy's not so Daddy." Samantha sulked. "He needs to smile more. Be Daddy again." Sophia just nodded, listening to Tobias grumble Ancient Greek curses as he knocked shampoo bottles to the floor.

He had not talked to any of his family in three months. He kept trying, sending texts and leaving messages on the answerphone, emails, IMs- even letters with poor spelling. She had done the same, but not as often as him. Why they would suddenly turn their backs on him, she had no idea. She had always loved his family, but now, this abandonment, had caused a few shreds of hatred to seep in.

"We go swimming?" Samantha asked, bouncing alongside Tobias and looking around eagerly. She hadn't had a proper tour of the swimming pool before and was excited to see her father's office.

"Maybe at the weekend. We'll take Finn and Darcy too, yeah?" She nodded again, skipping from pattern to pattern on the lush, clean carpet.

"Fancy here, Daddy."

"Mm-hm."

"You OK?" She frowned up at him. He stopped and looked down into her soft blue eyes. "Mammy says idiots are upsetting you. I beat them up for you, Daddy."

"You don't need to do that." He assured, giving a small smile. Her shoulders slouched in disappointment. "I've got a secret ice-cream stash in the mini freezer. Want some?" Her smile returned and she started tugging him along.

Five minutes later, she was sat on the cluttered desk with a tub of mint choc chip ice-cream. Most of the paper and trinkets on her father's desk were doodles and silly things to make people smile or distract them. Not necessarily the best desk for an ADHD legacy, but it was good all the same.

"So… what you do then?"

"Oh, the boring stuff."

"You don't like boring stuff." He nodded in agreement, dumping a huge blue folder next to her. She lifted the cover curiously to be confronted by an army of numbers. "What's this?"

"Finance. You any good at adding up?"

"Best." She sat up straighter, giving a proud smile. Tobias returned it.

"As I thought."

"What else you do?"

"Sometimes cleaning, manage stock, wages, that sort of thing. It's nothing really major, but it works."

"Go swimming?"

"Whenever I feel like it." He replied, flicking to a page only half-covered in numbers and picking up a pen. Samantha twisted around to face him properly.

"You feel like swimming now?"

"No."

"Why?" He just shrugged, running his finger down the list of numbers. "What matter, Daddy? Why you so sad?"

"I'm fine, Sam, don't worry about it." She frowned disapprovingly at him. "Don't do that."

"You lying, Daddy."

"No I'm not."

"Are." She challenged. "You always feel like swimming." He didn't answer that, rummaging through the endless sheets of paper to find something else that probably had numbers on it too.

Samantha returned to her ice-cream when she realised he was trying to focus on adding up- she got to use his calculator to help when she had finished- but he didn't talk much other than to issue numbers.

Sophia arrived just before four, bringing glorious food with her.

"How's it going?" She smiled, smoothing down Samantha's unruly hair. "I plaited that this morning, what are you doing?"

"I'm helping Daddy." She held up her calculator proudly.

"She's very good." Tobias added, not looking up. "Soph, this doesn't look right." He turned the folder towards her and she checked his numbers again.

"Tobias, you've put one-fifteen add three-twelve as five-fifty-nine." She added it up quickly in her head. "It's four-twenty-seven." He just grumbled, throwing down his pen and giving up. "Sam, Finn and Darcy are outside. Go and pick on them for a minute." Samantha grinned and jumped down from the desk deftly, scampering out the door. Sophia closed it quietly behind her and turned to face Tobias. "You've got to do something."

"Tried that." He muttered, gathering papers from his desk and throwing it all in the bin, no matter what it was.

"Go over there." She ordered, briskly removing the bin and going through the new contents. He didn't even have the heart to tease her about that.

"And have the door slammed in my face? No thanks."

"You don't know that."

"They're sending out a pretty good message."

"Send one back then."

"As if they'd reply."

"Make it a damn good message then." He just shook his head, swivelling in his seat and rising to his feet. "You can't just give up on them!"

"But it's alright for them to do that to me?!"

"Of course it isn't!"

"Then why are they doing that?!"

"I don't know, but there's no point having a go at me about it!" He let free an angry, shaky breath.

"I'm sorry." He murmured a short while later, once he'd calmed down a bit. Sophia moved around the desk and hugged him. He returned it instantly, resting his forehead against hers.

"Don't be. You've got every reason to be upset."

"I just… I don't understand…" The anger was gone, just defeat left in its place, "Have I done something wrong?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"I don't know." She gave him a light kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. "But whatever happens, you'll always have me and the kids, OK?" He tried for a grateful smile, as small and as wavering as it was.

"OK."