All familiar characters and events belong to Janet. Mistakes are mine alone.

I had to grin when I heard three consecutive smacks to my office door that only my daughter has mastered ... or is brave enough to execute. Instead of just telling Steph that it's alright to come in ... I got up, crossed the room, and opened the door just to get another one of those smiles she gives me whenever I appear in front of her after a brief separation.

Today's dimpled-delight is no-less devastating. "Dabby Dere!" Olivia happily shrieked.

The last two days I've been Dada, Daba, Dabby, and Dabwe. Stephanie has remained 'Mama' so it's possible that our daughter has caught onto my use of aliases, and has provided me with her set of them.

I picked her up and kissed her. "How's Daddy's girl?" I asked my daughter.

"Active," Steph answered instead. "But once I said let's go see Daddy, she at least harnessed her energy and pointed it all in your direction."

I grinned at my wife before kissing her. "You've been busy."

"No more than usual. But I do thank you and Tank for only giving me one dirtbag to track down per day."

"I can give you less."

That got me a glare as I knew it would. "No ... you can't. If you can run an entire corporation while watching our daughter and dogs, I can work for it and do the same."

"It's not a competition, Babe."

"No. It's a partnership."

"I'm glad you acknowledge that now. We're on this adventure together."

"I clung to that knowledge as soon as I found out I was pregnant with this little life-changer."

She tickled Olive until I felt two panda-sneaker kicks to my body as our baby laughed and didn't do much to protect herself from round two of tickles.

"Anyway," Steph said around a satisfied smile, "we came to tell you that we'll be on seven for a little bit. Val's coming over."

I didn't let it show, but all my organs went on alert. "That's convenient. I was just thinking I could use a break."

"It's okay. You don't need to stop what you're doing to oversee Val's visit."

Before responding, I tried to tuck a strand of Olivia's hair back into the small braid her Mama had made in her hair this morning. The wayward curl stuck out further as if I angered it by attempting to tame it.

"I have complete faith in you being able to handle anything and anyone, Steph. My wanting to be with you while you do is just to remind you that you no longer have to do anything alone. I'm always an option."

"I know that. And I appreciate the permanent backup more than you know. I wasn't objecting to you joining us, I was just reminding you that you don't have to put Rangeman on hold every time I have a problem. I have too many to make that a sound business decision."

My daughter and I stepped into the hall and I locked my door behind us. "As you know, Tank just walked Mr. Jimenez out. I happen to be free for the moment if you want me."

She put her arms around both Olivia and I and just held on for a minute. Depending on the day 'soaking up our sweetness or strength' she claims.

"I'll always want both of you with me. Valerie already predicted you wouldn't be far."

I let Olivia whack the button for the elevator and Gunny and Mo suddenly realized we're on the move and hurried to get inside the elevator car before we could.

"Valerie's a smart woman," was my response. "Too smart to have settled for Kloughn, but no one's perfect."

"Except you," my wife said.

Her blue eyes said she isn't joking. I pulled her tighter to us and only let go when our Rangemutts tried to get to our apartment through us.

"I definitely smelled bacon on the dog breaths," Steph said when we made it inside in one piece. "I'm worried half of Ramon's pay goes to bacon for those two."

"Cutting his salary would end that."

"Uh-uh. I was going to suggest you give him a raise just so he can add BLTs or Bacon Cheeseburgers for me."

I shook my head at her as I released Olivia into our apartment. I tried to keep a grip on the light mood when Valerie arrived, but her first question shot the shit out of that plan.

"What's going on?" My sister-in-law asked. "I don't believe what Mom's saying. Dad says he doesn't want to talk about it. Big surprise there. And Grandma claims you and Ranger gave Mom and Dad the 'what for'. I don't know what went on or what you said, but Dad did something really weird the other night."

That all was said before she gave Olivia a hug and sat down at the kitchen table where we were sitting with our daughter. Olive was in her high chair more playing with, and feeding Gunny and Mo, what I believe is a symbolic cut-up plum rather than eating her snack.

"What did Dad do that freaked you out?" Steph asked her.

"When I went over there after talking to Grandma Mazur ... he was in his chair, but he turned the TV off and actually looked in Mary Alice's direction when she was telling Grandma about how she accidentally beamed a kid with a softball she threw in practice."

My wife glanced over at me as she pushed a piece of plum closer to our baby's fingers. Olivia humored her Mama and picked it up, but she quickly dropped it into Mo's mouth instead of trying to get it into her own.

"He probably did that just to prove that he doesn't ignore the girls," Steph explained to Valerie.

"Now I'm getting somewhere. I know Mom opened a can of worms at the party, but I didn't realize Dad got involved until Grandma told me that there's a definite chill in the Plum home between the two."

"I didn't cause them to fight ... or whatever the heck you call what they're currently doing. Mom started this long ago by deciding she's a single parent and cutting Dad out of anything involving us."

I was proud of my wife for saying that. No longer blaming herself for everything that happens in the world has been difficult for Steph, but when she realized that Morelli, Helen, and Frank, should shoulder some of the burden she's been torturing herself with ... she hasn't reverted back to where she was mentally when I'd first met her.

"It's hard to admit this, but I'm not so sure Dad minded Mom handling everything at home ... even us," Valerie shared.

My wife kissed Olivia's fingers after accepting the diced fruit offered to her and then Steph nodded at her older sister.

"Exactly. And that's what I pointed out to Dad. Mom hid a lot from him, but he also didn't do anything about what he was aware of. I can say with a hundred percent certainty, that if Julie or Olive were married and the guy took off with the babysitter, both Ranger and I would hunt the jerk down and make him painfully-regret hurting one of our children. Mom and Dad didn't do anything except worry that you were moving back in or complaining about how this will look to the neighbors."

Now Valerie nodded. "You don't have to convince me you'd kick someone's butt. I know you guys would put the screws to anyone who messes with your family. My skin is still singed from the sparks shooting off you when you told Grandma and I that someone had attacked Raphael. I also recall Steve telling me that my sister's crazy after the last 'meet the cheat' I had to discuss child support for Angie and Mary Alice."

"I maaaaay have been a little angry on your behalf. He didn't just screw the babysitter, he totally screwed you and his own kids over. I didn't appreciate his attitude or that he thought he could just ditch his family and his responsibilities when he didn't feel like being a husband or father anymore."

"Steph asked me to hunt him down just so she could 'talk' to him herself," I added.

"I never thanked you for that," Valerie said. "You and I only talked once or twice a year before I moved back. I was surprised you'd stick up for me."

"I was too. Residual Dickie-anger may have prompted that one. But I'm glad I did tell Steve what a piece of crap he is. I may think you're nuts for loving Kloughn, but I know that you're happier than I've ever seen you and he loves you like a husband should."

"Olive and Julie are lucky to have you two for role models," she surprised us by saying.

"We try," Steph told her. "Though Ranger doesn't have to try, he just is good at everything."

"As long as you think so, Babe."

Valerie glanced at me and then at Steph again in a way that let me know she's not sure I should hear what she wants to say.

"Just spit out whatever it is," I told her. "Steph's going to tell me anyway."

"Grandma told me it was that 'choo-choo' thing that set Dad off," my sister-in-law said, after another few beats of indecision.

"That was the opener for a broader conversation," my wife replied.

"I didn't know that sort of thing was going on in our own neighborhood."

"You wouldn't, Val. You were the perfect daughter who never would've disobeyed Mom or gone anywhere without an adult's permission."

"I was annoying, wasn't I?"

"A little. And a hard act to follow when I was the exact opposite of you."

"Well, I've been asking around ... and turns out Margie at Tasty Pastry, Gloria down at Giovichinni's, and Marcy at the deli, plus a cousin, sister, or friend of theirs, all saw the inside of the Morelli's garage. If it wasn't Joe, it was Anthony. They had quite the gross-game scam going. How come you didn't talk to me about it?"

"We barely tolerated each other up until you came back here from California. We didn't have the kind of relationship where we could talk about anything ... let alone that. And if I'm being honest, I assumed you'd act like Mom did and think I got what I deserved for not listening about what could happen if I ever wandered off and for not heeding the universal Morelli-warning. Same when it came to the personal graffiti when I was older. You and your friends already decided I was just a doomed statistic. Only Mary Lou was treated to what led up to me going vigilante on Joe with Dad's Buick."

"I'm sorry I wasn't the best sister. I was too busy trying to build the perfect future. It's funny, when I took a page from your book and stopped listening to everyone is when I got the life I wanted. As for the choo-choo game, you were five, Steph. Lisa's close to that ... and I still have to stop her from putting Cheerios up her nose. No one could blame you for being a kid and not knowing what was happening."

"Mom did. She blamed me for that … and everything else that followed."

"And she was seriously wrong on all counts. I hope you know that."

Once again, Steph's eyes found mine. "It took awhile, but I've figured out who I am and everything that went into making me this way. My life wasn't always fun, but I finally feel like the woman who deserves what I have, not one who 'got what she deserved'."