All familiar characters are Janet's. The mistakes are solely mine.
"Who's a Daddy's Girl?" I heard my wife ask, in-between Olive's consistent stream of 'A Baaahs', 'A Daaahs', and any trilling sound that made her lips vibrate as a result.
"I am!" Julie answered Steph loud enough we likely could've heard her without the benefit of a cell with speakers. "Which takes a minute to explain since I have two Dads married to different women in two different states."
Olivia laughed so hard at her sister's 'I am' shout, the mushed-up blend of gummed-together banana toast and a small bite of oatmeal became a projectile shooting from her mouth. I covered my mouth, as well as my grin, as Steph only managed to dodge part of it.
My wife's face, currently being wiped off, appeared over my shoulder so she could talk 'face-to-FaceTime' with Julie. "We love it when you get to have breakfast with us."
"Did you mean that sarcastically because you just got beamed with Olive's breakfast?"
"Nope, I meant it just as it sounds. You add a certain flavor to our meals." Her tongue peeked out and made a slight swipe towards the corner of her mouth. "Banana is today's flavor."
Now Julie laughed. "Bet Gunny and Mo love mealtimes as much as you do."
"They've each gained a pound in baby weight," I told her. "They stick close to your sister just to snap up any piece of food she drops ... as they're doing now, though they seem tired of bananas."
"Having dogs is great because we don't ever have to vacuum," my wife said, walking back over to Olive's high chair. "We don't anyway since Ella would hurt us, but you know what I mean."
She stood behind our daughter and leaned over the back of her chair so she appeared upside down in front of Olivia's delighted face. Our daughter being Steph's daughter turned food-pusher and shoved a square of her banana toast against her Mama's mouth.
"This is going to be way more fun when you can eat doughnuts ... or olives, Olive," Steph said around her food.
"Isn't that 'vegetablism'?" Julie asked. "For Olive to eat her namesake, an olive?"
"Good question," Steph said. "I'll contemplate that while I'm on the road."
"What are you guys up to today?" My daughter asked me.
"I have a few meetings and an installation walk-through for a client," I answered.
"So since your dad is spoken for today," Steph added, "your sister and I are on our own for entertainment. We've talked it over while I got breakfast together, and we're leaning towards a surprise visit to your grandparents after bugging Mary Lou. If you're not busy later, Olive and I can call you from Newark so you get grandparent-time too."
"Don't forget Tank, Babe," I reminded her. "If you leave the building, he goes along with you."
"I've always wanted a chauffeur."
"No, you haven't," I told her.
"Maybe not ... but I'm looking on the bright side to having or needing a bodyguard."
"Tank is the bright side," Julie told Stephanie. "You get to hang out with him. He's the best babysitter. He taught me to play poker and how to keep my face from giving my thoughts or hand away."
As she wiped Olivia's mouth with another bib, Steph made a face. One I can easily read.
"Hey! Why didn't 'Uncle Tank' teach me how to do that?" My wife asked.
"Because you don't need any help in that department," I told her.
"Meaning ... you don't want me to have a poker face."
I shrugged. "I like your face as is. And Olivia does too. I believe she's looking to feed it oatmeal this time."
My wife's expression was so expressive, Julie could describe it even without looking at her step-mother.
"Dad, maybe you should take the oatmeal hit and spare Steph," my daughter suggested.
"You're a life-saver, Jules," Steph said, pulling me out of my chair and nudging me closer to Olivia's.
I placed a kiss next to the pink with silver crown barrette holding Olive's side swept bangs to the right. The hair-crown matches the one on my baby's shirt that confidently stated 'Daddy's Girl', which is what began this morning's conversation with Julie.
I waited patiently as Olivia tried to grasp her baby spoon in similar fashion as one would hold a baseball bat. Steph and Julie were already done making arrangements for a re-call, and I heard my wife promise that I'll call Julie tonight, by the time Olive managed to hold her spoon, get it into her oatmeal bowl, and get one swipe of it in the vicinity of my mouth. The look of pride that rearranged her beautiful face into one that glowed with accomplishment, had an equally proud one forming on mine as I wiped my mouth with the side of my thumb and then licked the tip of it under an extremely watchful brown-eyed gaze.
"Have a good day, Dad!" Julie called as if she's just in another room, snapping me out of Olive's world as I rejoined Julie's.
I held another toast square up to Olive and then leaned over to reciprocate the wish of a great day to my oldest daughter. My day did start off great and continued into okay until my phone buzzed ten minutes after the meeting with my real estate lawyer concluded. When I realized it wasn't my wife calling me, but the man who is supposed to be there protecting her and my daughter, my heart and lungs stopped functioning.
"Olivia and Stephanie are both fine," Tank knew to start the conversation with. "I wanted you to know that before Vince calls you with our location."
As if on cue, my other line buzzed. When I didn't put Tank on hold to answer it, my office's landline rang. I appreciated Vince's persistence even as the distracting sound irritated the shit out of me.
"I want my wife to tell me that she and our daughter are alright," I told him, ignoring everything else.
There was a pause on his end that sharpened my nerves into points that launched themselves repeatedly into my brain, heart, and stomach.
"Steph's currently unavailable. Just as a precaution, I wanted her to get checked out by a doctor."
That wasn't what I wanted to hear. "Where?"
"We're at St. Francis."
I was already out of my chair and halfway out of my office. "Fill me in fast. I'm leaving now."
"Steph wanted to get something for your parents, so she talked me into taking her to Italian Peoples to get those Danish cookie-things your mom likes ..."
I beeped my Turbo unlocked and started it before I was even in my seat. "Get to the important part. You didn't say much about Olivia." My blood froze. "Why? Where is my daughter?"
If something happened to my baby ...
I could feel the 'other' Ranger threatening to step in and take over this interrogation and situation. I wouldn't let him, but if my daughter isn't alright ...
"That's what I'm trying to explain," Tank spit out. "Olive is with your parents, completely safe. Only Steph and I were in the car."
"Explain. Now."
St. Francis is only minutes away. If he doesn't give me all the intel before I appear in front of him, he'll have to talk around my fist.
"Steph was calling your mom and discovered they, like you, had their minds on Stephanie and Olive and had already been on their way to the Rangeman building when Steph called them."
"No one showed up here," I pointed out, seeing my building in my rearview mirror.
"Steph told them that you were 'stuck being the boss' today and suggested they meet her at Mary Lou's, since she had planned to head to their place from the Stankovics and Mary Lou has been trying to sweet talk a cake recipe out of your mother."
"So Olivia and my parents are at Mary Lou's?"
"Yes. Since Steph sprung a party on Mary Lou, she wanted to make a bakery run to get your mom her favorite cookies and also get something for everyone to eat so Mary Lou wouldn't feel like she had to spend time preparing food. I tried, but your wife didn't trust me to go out alone and grab something."
Since Olivia is with my parents, I could let that fear go which put my need to rip a person apart on a very-temporary hold.
"Stephanie's a smart woman," I reminded him. "You would've stopped at a gas station and picked up a box of power bars."
"I would've sprung for some water too."
I wanted to grin, but seeing the ER entrance concerned me all over again. "Why was the car hit? I pay you to prevent accidents. Do I have to order you to brush up on your driving skills. I just pulled in."
"Do you want me to piss you off now? Or wait until you're inside and there are witnesses to keep you in check?"
"I'm at the door. This better not involve Morelli."
"It does in a way. Seems the douche Morelli's been doing also got pissed about his preoccupation with - and comparison to - Stephanie. She rammed our car when she recognized Steph riding shotgun. Ran a red light to do it, which was caught on the traffic cam. I called the TPD before she was able to take off."
I can picture the techniques he used to keep the bitch detained. He was likely angry enough to have kept the car immoble with just one hand on its hood.
"She's in custody and I got Steph here ASAP," Tank finished, putting his phone away as I did now that I'm in the waiting area with him. "It wasn't a serious hit. I think Louis could fix the dent with a plunger, but I didn't want to chance it. If Steph had hit her head or was hurt in any way, I was afraid she'd try to hide it from me just to get back to Olivia faster."
"I'm going to kill that fucker," I stated. "Even if he's not actively causing problems, he still leaves a stain behind."
"Good thing you excel at stain-removal."
"Maybe I smacked my head after all if I'm actually listening to you two discuss laundry," my wife said, coming back to us with a doctor trailing behind her. "Tank told the Doc that he had to come swear to his face that I'm okay." She turned her eyes on me, and we were suddenly the only two people in the hospital. "I am alright. I didn't even hit my head and I was given a CT scan. Good news, they did find a brain in here." She tapped her head with her index finger for emphasis. "I bet I can't say the same about Morelli's psycho-tart."
I reached out and pulled her to me, only then looking at the doctor. "There are no injuries?"
"You wife has a bruise on her knee from where it hit the dash, and a slight abrasion from her seat belt doing its job, but no internal injuries or even evidence of whiplash. She's free to leave."
When it was just the three of us again, Steph addressed what I can clearly feel. "I'm totally fine, but I can't stop shaking. All I keep thinking and saying to myself is ... thank God Olive wasn't in the car."
Tank and I exchanged a look over my wife's head. "The fact that you were in that car, Babe, and could've been severely hurt, should have the entire city of Trenton holding its breath."
