Three Father's Day Blacklist drabbles for our favourite Blacklist dads :)

Reddington

The decision had been last minute from what he understood. Constantin was out of town on business and Katarina had decided to travel down to United States to visit with her own father for the weekend. The fact that it was Father's Day may or may not have weighed on her decision, but it meant something to Reddington. Elizabeth was coming with her and it was the first Father's Day he would have a chance to spend with his daughter.

Dom had been the one to reach out to him, not Katarina, though she didn't look too surprised as he stepped out of the car, reaching back in for the large box in the back seat.

Lizzie nearly toppled head over heels as she spotted him and ran down her grandfather's porch steps for him, calling out the whole way. She was laughing, the sound bright, and he set the box down on the trunk so that his hands were free to scoop her up, spinning her as he did and hearing the giggle that followed. She flung her arms around his neck once he brought her in close. "Grandpa promised," she whispered in his ear.

"And here I am," Reddington answered, kissing her cheek and she giggled again.

"For me?" the little girl asked, pointing to the box with the big, pink bow on it.

"It is. Why don't we go up to the porch and you can open it?"

She squirmed and he put her down so that she could race ahead. Red grabbed the box and followed, offering his most charming smile to the toddler's mother who still stood at the top of the steps. "I don't remember inviting you," she told him cheekily.

"Is your husband here this weekend?"

"He's in France."

"Mm. Then I don't see the problem in spending Father's Day with Lizzie."

"Masha," she corrected quickly.

"That's what he named her." Reddington looked down as he felt a sharp tug at his pants leg and Lizzie had her fingers wrapped around the material with one hand and pointing at the box with another.

"Don't make promises that you don't intend to keep, Raymond," Dom chuckled from a few feet away. "And isn't she supposed to be getting you something today?"

Katarina shot her father an indignant glare and Reddington chuckled, setting the box down on the old wooden porch and watched Lizzie tear excitedly at the wrapping. It went flying, a gust of wind taking a stray piece off onto the gravel path below, and she pulled the box lid off to reveal the shiny wooden box beneath.

"What is it, little one?" Katarina asked as she bent to kneel with her, helping small hands pull the gift up so she could see it better.

"Open it, Lizzie," Reddington told her once it was set on the porch and she did as he told her, music playing as the gears turned and her entire face lit up. He smiled. "I spent the better part of the week restoring it. Do you like the song?"

"It's pretty," she answered, mesmerized by the gift.

Katarina stood, stepping closer to him and keeping her voice low. "You shouldn't be giving her things."

"Keep it here. Constantin will never know."

"Just like the rabbit? She won't go to sleep without it."

"It's good that your husband is away so often and oblivious when he's home then," Reddington answered with a small smirk and she rolled her eyes, turning back to watch the little girl who was opening and closing the lid over and over again, enthralled by the way the music turned on and off with it each time. Katarina's expression softened as she watched her and Reddington felt a warmth at the sight. He and Kat were complicated on their very best days, but out of all of that, they had somehow made this beautiful, perfect child together. She never would admit Lizzie was his, but he didn't need her to. He knew. He knew his little girl and he would always love her, even if he couldn't always be there with her. It made moments like these all the more special.

Howard

"You know he's been waiting an hour, don't you?"

Howard Hargrave looked up from the files he was going over, his wife leaning against the doorframe of the office. "I'll only be a few minutes more."

"Do you know how long an hour is to a four-year-old?"

He set his pen down and loosed a breath. "He still has a few weeks until he's four."

His wife gave him slow smile and nodded behind her. "Whatever you're working on can wait. You promised your son a sand castle."

A quick glance at the clock proved Scottie hadn't exaggerated the time and he stood without another word and moved to the front room where he found Christopher sitting on the floor playing with a little red sailboat. He stood there a moment, watching him.

Howard had heard friends talk about how quickly the years passed by, but in that moment he felt it. Hadn't it been months since has held him in the hospital? Weeks since he'd taken his first steps or said his first words? Not years. It didn't feel like years. Howard had thought he had been back in the office just a few minutes. His work was important, but if he wasn't careful, he'd lose track of what was even more important than that.

"You ready to go, kiddo?"

Chris looked up, those big blue eyes focused on him and they brightened suddenly. "You done?" he asked, leaping to his feet.

"Yep. What do you say we go build the biggest sandcastle we can muster?"

Those were the magic words. One small hand grabbed onto Howard's fingers, tugging him towards the door so fast that he barely had time to slip his feet into the flip flops by the door or to grab the bag that Scottie had already packed for them. Christopher was, apparently, more than ready to go with his swimsuit already on and dragging his father out the front door and down towards the beach.

Howard offered a wave to one of the neighbors as she laughed at the sight of an almost-four-year-old child dragging the CEO of a major company towards the waves like their lives depended on it. "Do you have a place already picked out?"

"Uh-huh," Christopher answered, still pulling closer and close to the water itself.

"Chris, if we get too close the waves are going to wash it away before we get it built."

He shook his head, dark bangs falling in his face. "The sand's stickier," he explained matter of factly and Howard found himself chuckling as Chris plopped down onto the sand and started in on their project. There was no doubt that focus was ever going to be an issue. For the next two hours Chris pushed and patted sand where it needed to go, chattering the whole way.

The sun was burning hot in the sky by the time they finished and Howard could see signs of red already showing across the bridge of Christopher's nose. The little boy didn't seem to mind, though, as he stood back and admired their work. "You did a good job, Chris," he praised, drawing a bright grin from him.

"We did," his son told him and turned, wrapping his arms around his legs in a tight hug. "Love you, Dad."

Howard stood there for a long moment, letting the moment stand still with him. He couldn't stop Christopher from growing up. He couldn't pin the moments down very long. He'd grow up faster than either of his parents liked. Soon he'd be in school, studying, off to college. Dating, getting married and maybe, someday, even having children of his own that he could build sandcastles with, but right then, in that moment, Howard had his three-almost-four-year-old little boy with him, and he was so very proud of the sandcastle that he'd built with his daddy. He scooped him up, holding onto him tight. "I love you too, Chris."

"Always?"

"Always."

Tom

Leave it to Raymond Reddington to keep an actual island paradise as his contingency plan. After Katarina's return, after the Cabal had been completely dismantled, and after he had finally felt like he had done everything within his power to keep his daughter and her daughter safe, he'd left what was left of his empire to Liz to do with it what she pleased. As far as the world knew, Reddington was gone. Most presumed dead, and that seemed perfectly fine to the former Concierge of Crime. With Tom stepping into a leadership position at Halcyon they had the jet at their disposal to come see him whenever they wanted and while it was always an adventure putting the in laws together, everyone had wanted to take a breath from the craziness that was their lives and the trip had been planned for a long Father's Day weekend.

Tom had thought that maybe he'd get to see more of his own daughter than he actually had.

He had been gone for just over two weeks with Halcyon and had gotten home just long enough to pack a new bag and jump on the jet again with his family. He'd barely had a moment to kiss his wife and daughter, so it wasn't until they had gotten onto the plane that he realized just how put out Agnes really was with him. Every time he tried to reach out to her she had been intent on focusing her attention on anyone but him. The four-year-old little girl never slept a great deal on planes, even on long flights like this one, but she spent the whole time bouncing between Liz and either of her two grandparents. She would hop from one lap to the next, playing games, and had even managed to get Scottie to sing a song with her at one point, but the moment that her father reached out for her she huffed loudly and moved to find someone else. If she was angry at him for being gone, she'd found the best way to make him suffer for it.

They had landed and she'd dozed on the car drive out to the house, but had perked up immediately when they had stopped, all but piling out over her grandfather and racing to greet the other one, happily chattering with him as he had taken his fedora off and plopped it on her fair hair, pulling a giggle from her as he had carried her inside to where Katarina was waiting. She didn't stay awake long, barely making it through dinner before she'd fallen asleep and Tom had taken a moment when she was too sleepy to squirm away to carry her back into the room that Reddington had set aside just for his only granddaughter. He had kissed her goodnight and received a sleepy mumble, but he couldn't shake the feeling of disappointment that settled over him. He'd missed her. It had been some time since he'd been gone that long and apparently she was reacting badly over it.

Sometime in the night Tom woke to the bed shifting strangely. It took half a moment for him to place his surroundings and he glanced over to see Liz was still sound to sleep, curled up on her side with her dark hair pulled back and out of her face. She didn't look like she'd moved all night.

When he turned back he found was suddenly face-to-face with a large set of blue eyes. "Daddy, I wanna go to the beach," Agnes told him in a loud whisper as she crawled to sit on top of him.

Liz shifted in the bed next to them, but didn't quite wake up and Tom blinked up at his little girl, now perched on his ribs and looking at him expectedly. "Baby girl it's -" he managed to glance over at the clock next to the bed - "barely five in the morning. Don't you want to wait until after breakfast?"

"Everyone else'll be up. I wanna go with you."

"Can't argue with that logic," he teased. "Go get your towel and put your bathing suit on. I'll meet you at the door, okay?"

Her expression lit up and she nodded. "Okay."

She was gone just as quickly as she'd come and Tom was halfway to sitting up when his wife reached over, swatting at him sleepily. "Pushover," she mumbled.

"Yeah, well," he chuckled and saw a hint of her smile and she turned over and buried her face in the pillow, probably already asleep. He shook his head and slipped out from under the sheets, padding over to change into a pair of swim trunks and a different t-shirt.

Agnes was waiting on him by the time he got out there, hopping and tugging his boat shoes on one foot at a time, and he put his finger to his lips to signal that they needed to be quiet so that they didn't wake everyone else up. She mimicked the motioned before reaching up for him expectedly and he knew exactly what she wanted. He scooped her up, spinning her around so that she could sit on his shoulders before bending down to grab her discarded towel and bucket.

No one else was stirring yet, so the sound of the generator was the loudest sound either of them could hear outside the house. It faded behind them as they moved towards the beach, Agnes perched up on her daddy's shoulders so that she could see everything around them, and his shoes crunching softly against the sand.

"Daddy, I can see the moon," Agnes told him, her hand drumming on the top of his head so that he'd look where she was pointing.

"Yeah. A few stars are still up too. See?" he asked he heard her make a small sound of excitement before she folded her arms against his head and he laughed. "Don't you dare go to sleep up there."

"Nuhuh. I wanna see the birds. The big white ones. There!" She started to squirm as she spotted the large white birds that were convening on the sand and he knelt down so she wouldn't fall. Agnes slipped down his back and took off after them.

"Not too close to the water," he warned, but he couldn't keep the smile from his face as his daughter's laugh filled the early morning air as the birds scattered in all directions as she ran towards them. She did her best to copy the sounds they made, but it came out more as a giggle and she fell backwards into the sand.

Tom kept his pace just a little slower as he approached. This was the one place where they could relax just a little. No one was going to snatch her up here if she got beyond his reach. "They ran away huh?"

"It's their game," she told him very certainly and sat up, dusting the sand off her arms.

"So does this mean you forgive me, kiddo?"

She looked up at him, her little face screwing up thoughtfully before breaking out into a full grin. "Yeah," she said after a moment, the word drawn out. "I missed you, Daddy."

"I always miss you," he told her as he took a seat next to her.

"And Mama?"

"And your mama," he agree and offered her a small wink.

"Can I go with you next time you have to go away?"

"Maybe. It depends on why I'm going."

"You catch lots of bad guys like Mama does?"

"I try. She's really good at it though. I don't think anyone's as good as your mom is."

Agnes nodded, her blue gaze shifting to watch the waves and she loosed a breath in a long huff as she leaned over. Tom shifted and wrapped an arm around her and she snuggled in. "Promise to always come home?" she asked, her voice sounding sleepy.

"I will always come home to you, Agnes. I promise."

"'Kay."

She was asleep against him just a minute later, her breathing evening out and Tom didn't dare move. Instead he looked out over the ocean where the sun was just starting to peek up over the horizon and held her close as the sound of the waves and his daughter sleeping against him left him with a deep sense of peace that he never wanted to let go of.

Notes: Happy Father's Day everyone! I hope you enjoyed the overload of Blacklist family feels :D