When Haley had seemed to stop growing as a toddler, Tyson had grown concerned.

It wasn't blatantly obvious, but it was still apparent that she was smaller than most children her age. Whenever Haley stood next to Lin, Mariah's daughter who was just a few weeks older, she stood shorter than the pink haired little girl.

Hilary didn't think it was a big deal. She thought it all just stemmed from Haley being born prematurely, and that there was no problem with the girl.

Tyson disagreed. Tyler and Christine had been born early too, but they had always been of normal height. In fact, they were both taller than Tyson had been as a child. And he had been born late.

That's why Tyson had taken Haley to the doctor. Without telling Hilary. She was fully convinced that nothing needed to be checked out with Haley, but Tyson's anxiety was eating away at him. He knew he would never be able to live with himself if there ended up being something wrong with Haley, and he never found out. So, he took her to the doctor.

Tyson had told Haley the trip was a secret. She couldn't tell her Mommy. Haley was only two years old, so Tyson wasn't sure how well she had understood his request. But she had nodded in response, her pigtails bouncing up and down, so Tyson assumed that was good enough. Haley didn't mind the doctor when she wasn't on the sick side of the waiting room, unlike her older siblings, so there was no fussing involved either. Instead, the little girl just sat there, playing with the toys in the waiting room while Tyson watched her intently.

Aside from her slightly smaller stature, there definitely didn't seem to be anything wrong with Haley. In fact, the little girl was pretty bright. She would pick up a toy and bring it over to Tyson, just to tell him what it was. Haley liked to explain things; in her own little kid way, of course.

At the moment, she was busy showing him a toy fire truck. She held it in both of her small hands, up to Tyson, as she rambled on in her squeaky baby voice, "twuck. Twuck, Daddy. Is…wed. Vewy wed. And it have…whees." She pointed at the small black circles on the bottom of the toy truck.

"Yeah, wheels," Tyson smiled. "Do you know who liked toys like that, Hal?"

"Tyler," Haley murmured, pulling the white ladder of the toy up.

"Yeah, Tyler used to play with those things all the time!" Tyson nodded. "But he's older now. He doesn't play with them as much."

Haley scurried back over to the toys and gently put the fire truck down before picking up tambourine. She ran back over to Tyson, shaking it in the air and giggling at the noise it made.

"What's that?" Tyson asked, wanting to further test his young daughter's brain.

"Shake," Haley responded, smacking the solid white front of the musical instrument against her hand.

Okay, so she didn't know what a tambourine was. But that didn't bother Tyson. Most two year olds probably didn't know how to say tambourine, or even what it was. Besides, she seemed to know how to play it. Tyson found that to be more interesting than Haley actually knowing how to say the word.

Once it was time to actually go into the examination room and be checked out by the doctor, Haley was more than fine with putting the tambourine down and going in. She didn't, however, want to walk. She wanted to be carried by Tyson.

Picking the girl up returned Tyson's worries to the forefront. Sure, all two year olds were light, but Haley was especially so. Tyson remembered Tyler and Christine being noticeably heavier as toddlers. He was going to get to the bottom of this, right then and there. Surely, the doctor could tell him what was wrong with Haley's height!

XXX

There was nothing wrong with Haley's height.

Yes, she was shorter than the average two year old. But it was nothing to be concerned about, according to the doctor. In time, she'd grow and catch up to other children her age. Despite her shorter stature, Haley was in perfect health and developing just fine.

She was a smart, healthy girl, who just happened to be, according to Dr. Ian, "petite."

Tyson liked that word. He liked it a lot more than "short." He actually hated the word "short" because Kai had used it so much against him when they were children. Tyson, although ne never often voiced it, had been rather embarrassed of his height as a child. He'd always wanted to be taller.

Maybe that's why he'd been so worried about Haley. He didn't want her to feel the same way he had.

Haley, however, didn't seem to have a care in the world about her height. She didn't even seem to realize she was smaller than most two year olds, and more often than not, she actually used her size to her advantage.

After visiting the doctor, Tyson took notice to many of the things Haley did well with her stature. Instead of simply focusing on the fact she had to crawl up the stairs and jump for things, Tyson would watch her go in and out of the little door that was made for Barkley, like it was no big deal. Tyson knew that simply his head could get stuck in there, as it had happened before. But Haley managed to wriggle her whole body through it, no problem.

She would crawl behind furniture and even retrieve toys or other small objects when Tyler or Christine accidentally dropped them in the tight spots. There was no way, after all, that the eight year olds would fit in such crevices.

But Haley could.

It was almost like the girl was a little fairy. Tyson had smiled when he thought of that. Haley was a little girly girl. She loved pink and frills and glitter; things that kind of scared Tyson. But he had learned to embrace those things a little more, for the sake of his daughter.

So, that's how he thought of the girl. A sweet little fairy girl, tiny and happy, who managed to run around just fine and bring a smile to everyone's faces. She was a delicate little thing, small and light and very doll like.

And, for what it was worth, Haley liked being called a little fairy just as much as Tyson liked using it. She would run up to him and grab his pants, staring up at him with wide auburn eyes and beg in her little squeaky voice to be picked up so she could "fly." Tyson would oblige every time, wanting nothing more than to make his young daughter happy.

And on one specific day, when Kai came over for something, he found Haley to be running around the house in a short white costume dress adorned with pink and purple flowers, with pink, glitter covered wings strapped to her back and a circlet of pink and purple flowers wrapped around her head, un-brushed and fiery locks spilling out from beneath the headband.

She ran right past Kai, giggling wildly before making a sharp U turn in order to return to the captain of Bladebreakers and tap him on the knee with a sparkly purple wand before once again flitting off, as if she was dancing on air.

"Tyson, why is she running around like that?" Kai raised an eyebrow.

Tyson just smirked. Kai only had a son, so he didn't understand. He couldn't understand what Tyson had with Haley. So, he gave the easiest answer possible to his longtime rival.

"Because she's my little fairy."