I'm glad you all are liking this fic. W00t for Sana Baby!She makes me happy to write.

Discimer: I still own nothin'.

Tell me a Story (part 2).

"'Course you want a good one. Stupid me."

Luana giggled at his words, taking up the mantra of 'Stupid Daddy' and chanting it until he fixed her with a silencing frown and shifted her on his lap again, demanding gruffly to know if she wanted the story or not.

"Alright then…Okay, there was this guy, who-"

Luana sighed and shook her head, glaring up at him as if she were disappointed with him somehow, causing him to pause mid sentence and glance around warily.

"What's wrong, Short-Stack?" he queried, almost hesitant to hear her answer, but she continued to shake her head, folding her arms again and half pulling out of his embrace.

"That's all wrong!" she stated, narrowing dark eyes. "You don't tell it right like Momma does."

And Sawyer snorted indignantly at her criticism.

"Momma says this! Momma does that! What about your dear old Pops, Princess? Don't I count?" he replied, only partially feigning hurt, but Luana remained unmoved by his plight, turning her face away from him to glare out to sea, nose in the air.

"It's not supposed to start like that." She responded, unwavering in her judgement and eventually Sawyer gave in and asked her 'exactly how was it supposed to start then, Smarty Pants?'

"Once upon a time, Daddy, duh!" she rolled her eyes at him as if he was indeed stupid and Sawyer found himself shaking his head and blaming her difficult nature upon the genes she had inherited from Ana's side of the family. She was a carbon copy of her completely. He only ever saw flashes of himself in her when she smiled that charming and disarming smile or when she wanted something. "Everybody knows that! Even Uncle Charlie tells stories that way and he speaks funny!"

"Right." He growled slowly. "Once upon a time then, there was a handsome prince…that alright for you? Got any more problems you wanna address or can I tell the damn story?" he glared down at her but she squirmed on his knee and swivelled so that she could look up into his face again. "What now!" he almost groaned, grinding his teeth together until his entire jaw ached.

"What's the prince's name?" she inquired suspiciously, resting her elbows upon his chest as she peered up through narrowed, sceptical eyes. And Sawyer almost cracked his head back into the palm tree with his frustration, making a mental note to leave the story telling up to the 'All Wonderful Ana-Lucia Wonder Mom' from hence forth.

"I was gettin' to that, Bossy Britches." He knuckled one eye before scowling at her. "His name was…it was…"

"Harold!" Luana cried in joy, ignoring entirely her father's dour mood and Sawyer raise an eyebrow dubiously.

"…Harold?"

She nodded devoutly, resting her head back against his chest as if she had suddenly forgiven him for not starting the story as according to the rules.

"Harold is a pretty name." She reasoned happily. "It's what I called my pet spider…until Momma squished him…" she paused almost as if she were holding a minutes silence of remembrance for her poor, murdered pet spider, Harold, before she continued. Apparently she had also inherited her mother's ability to push all of his buttons to get the reaction that she wanted the most. "Momma lets me make up all the names in her stories…" she allowed that comment to lie in the hot air between them, heavy and stinging for him. Oh, she was devious! Conniving and cunning. She had most definitely inherited something from him after all.

"Fine. Then." Sawyer grit out reluctantly from between his teeth. "Prince Harold was ordered by his father…" he halted and nudged her to produce a name.

"King Gordon." She supplied contentedly.

"Gordon, right." He rolled his eyes again. "To go and do some fancy-pants business in a neighbouring country across the wide sea and so he built a giant ship with his two brothers…"

"Bob and Barry."

"Bob and Barry and his young nephew…"

"Ted." She was rather pleased with herself for coming up with that last name.

"Okay, so Prince Harold and Bob, Barry and Ted were sailin' across the ocean, headin' for the land that his Daddy, King Gordon, wanted to trade and do business with. The sea was calm and the night was dark and out of no where there came an evil pirate ship, full of…evil…pirates…" he cringed at his own lack of imagination, daring a fleeting glance down at his daughter's face but she seemed content, studying him intently as he made to continue, reassured by her interest. "The Captain-"

"Captain Frank."

"Captain Frank the Fearsome," he elaborate and she allowed it with a brief nod of approval. "And his pilferin' crew of cut-throats attacked poor Prince Harold and his brothers. They weren't too hot on the idea of Harold tradin' with the other country, see? 'Cause it'd be bad for them, they'd have no one to sell all their stolen treasure to. So, as a warnin' they stole Bob's son, Harold's nephew, Ted, to become one of them pirates and blew up their great ship.
"Now Prince Harold got himself injured by tryin' to rescue poor little Ted and Barry got washed away by the sea so there was only Harold and Bob clingin' to the wreckage of their once beautiful ship." He paused to take a drink of water and help Luana take a mouthful herself, holding it to her lips. She still somehow managed to spill it all down the front of her shirt, however, eliciting a chuckled exclamation of 'Mucky Pup' from beneath her father's breath as he used the edge of his own shirt to wipe her chin clear of the water until she scrunched up her face, pushed his hands away and stood up from his lap. "What?" he demanded with a frown. "You bored already, Scrappy Doo? We ain't even got to the good part yet."

Luana shook her head, sending the sleek, almost black locks swinging around her face, and she took his one of his large, callused hands in both of hers, wrapping one about his little finger and one about his thumb and pulling with all her might.

"Easy, Tiger. Gonna pull my arm clean off you carry on like that." He chuckled again, doing as she wanted and standing. "What now, Genius?"

Again she fixed him with a withering glare that Ana-Lucia would have been proud of, and pointed down to the waterline where frothy white waves lapped the shore.

"Wanna paddle." She announced, pulling his fingers again. "But keep telling the story, Papi."

-oOo-