It was easy to watch Agnes get lost in her own imagination; Liz and Red felt like they could spend hours on end doing just that. Once the little girl was stuffed full of dinner and dessert, she got caught up in building an elaborate labyrinth with blocks on the floor for her dolls to hold court in, and Liz and Red sat side by side just watching her play—but as the clock ticked closer to Agnes' bedtime, they decided it was best to give her the news of their discovery.
"Agnes, please come sit down with us. There's something Red and I want to tell you before we get you ready for bed."
"About the test?"
"Actually, yeah. It's about the test. Don't worry, it's nothing bad."
Liz patted the seat next to hers and took Agnes' hand once she climbed up. "We had you take the test earlier because we needed to check something. You see, there's tiny little instructions in your cells and in your blood called DNA. Everybody gets some instructions from their mother and some from their father. If you look real close at those tiny instructions, you might even be able to match them up and find out who someone's mom and dad are. Sometimes, because people can have more than one mommy or more than one daddy, it's important to find that out for sure."
"Patrick at the park has two daddies," she volunteered excitedly.
"Yes, I'm sure he does, but that's not really what I'm talking about right now. I'm talking about how people can sometimes have two daddies at different times. Or two mommies! Or sometimes even more than two! Sometimes parents get divorced and remarried. Sometimes children are adopted. Sometimes there are other reasons—like one of the daddies got hurt, or because it wasn't safe for him to take care of his children."
Liz was thankful for Agnes' natural curiosity in moments like this. It kept her little girl engaged during what must seem like a very long and complicated explanation. A quick glance at Red proved he looked just as enthralled as Agnes. He looked… just like Agnes. The same expression, the same childlike wonder… It was amazing Liz hadn't figured their connection out all on her own.
Liz shook herself; she took a deep breath and continued.
"Now, only one of those daddies will have the same little instructions in his blood as his child. But that doesn't mean the daddy without those instructions loves his child less. Your Grandpa Sam wasn't my blood father, but he loved me so much, he adopted me."
"You mean you had more than one daddy?"
"Yes, I did." Liz bit her lip; it was now or never. "You do, too."
"I do?"
"Honey… when you were born, your blood father wanted more than anything to be in your life and take care of you, but he couldn't—it wasn't safe for him or for you or for me. His… His job put him in danger and if he was in danger, so were we. He did everything he could to make sure you had all that you needed to grow up big and strong, but it would've been too risky to help take care of you himself. It was safer for your daddy to do it, so he did."
"But daddy's gone."
"Yeah, he is."
"Is my other daddy gone, too?"
"No. No, he's not."
Agnes was quick to catch on to the reason they would be talking about this now. "Is it safe for my blood daddy to take care of me now?"
"It is. But your blood daddy needs you to help take care of him, too," Liz explained. "Would that be OK?"
Agnes thought about it for a moment. "Is he sick?"
Liz swallowed around a lump in her throat. "Yes, sweetie."
"And I can help make him better?"
"Yes. Would you like to try to do that?"
Agnes nodded, excited. "Who is he?"
"You know, I bet you can guess who he is."
Agnes' tiny brow furrowed in thought for a few moments before she let out a little gasp and turned to look at Red.
"Are you my daddy?"
Red cleared his throat. "Yes, Agnes, I am."
In a flash, Agnes clambered across Liz's lap to reach Red, launching herself into his arms. He caught her in a fierce embrace and held her for what seemed like forever, his eyes closed, his face relaxed, relieved.
"I love you," Agnes said, after a while, muffled against the skin of his neck where she'd buried her head.
"Oh, Agnes, I love you, too." Red's voice was choked with emotion when he spoke, and Agnes pulled back in alarm.
"Are you sad?" she asked, one small hand flat on each of his cheeks as she searched his teary eyes in concern.
"No, honey. I'm just glad I can finally be here for you again."
"Me, too."
