All familiar characters belong to Janet. Olive, her dogs, and any mistakes, are mine.

I ended my call when a flurry of dog bodies and one of a little girl wearing a superhero cape, that's really a pillowcase Stephanie had fashioned into a hero-accessory using a Wonder Woman clip. With an unnecessary amount of barking, Gunner and Ammo parted at my desk to let Olivia run straight to me.

She grabbed my hand and pulled. "Mama dere," she informed me, as she continued to tug me out of my chair.

My gut tightened. I wanted to believe that our daughter has gotten so used to her mother and I being together with her all day, now everyday, she wanted me to wrap up my business and get back to amusing her. My instincts are screaming something else. Although I know Stephanie hasn't left our apartment in weeks now, plenty can happen to her at home.

"Where's Mama?" I asked Olivia, letting her continue to pull me until we were out of the makeshift office I'd set up in our bedroom.

"Mama bakin," she answered.

Now I'm really concerned. Stephanie doesn't bake, and the few words I immediately thought of that sound similar to bake doesn't reassure me. Since my baby is trying to move me faster, which isn't working well because I don't want to step on her or our dogs, I just leaned down and lifter her up.

"Okay, Olive, point to Mama," I ordered her.

There aren't many rooms in the apartment, and we've already been in two of them, but I don't want to waste time searching the rest of them. My baby pointed towards the front door, so that's where I aimed us.

"Babe?" I asked, when I caught sight of her leaning back against the linen closet door. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

She had been staring into space when we'd found her, and it took her a moment to come back, but my voice roused her.

"Hey," she said, with a small smile. "I thought you were talking to Tank?"

"I was, but Olivia said you needed me. Business can wait, you can't. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I was just caught off guard for a minute. Sorry about that. I figured our daughter and her puppies were just testing out her 'Awesome Olive' cape by running up the hall, not interrupting your business call. You didn't have to get Daddy, baby. I'm good," she said, hugging our daughter when I'd put her down and she ran to inspect her Mama for damage.

I did the same. "You're shaking, Steph. Something's going on."

Olivia was right, she was just off by two letters. Her Mama was 'shaking' not 'baking'.

"Come on," I said to them. "Let's go sit and discuss whatever happened."

"Now I feel really stupid. I'm overreacting and just disturbed both of yours and Olive's day."

I dropped an arm across her shoulders so I could steer her towards the living room where there's a couch large enough to hold the three of us plus the two mutts who aren't willing to be left out of whatever's happening. She sat cross-legged on the middle cushion with Olivia in her lap. Mo scrambled to get the cushion next to them and I just barely beat Gunny to their right side by a millisecond. I took pity on him and let him lounge across my lap so he could rest his head near my wife's hand.

Normally I wouldn't share, but cuddling Olivia and stroking a hound-head centers Steph when I'm not able to just kiss her calm again. And I need her to stop shaking. Just as I was going to press her for an answer to my earlier question, she spoke.

"My Dad called when I was putting away the superhero cape rejects in the linen closet ..."

Frank calling still isn't a regular occurence, he typically just accompanies Edna up to our apartment so calls aren't necessary, but him testing it out isn't exactly unexpected.

"And?" I asked.

"He asked if I'd join him for one of his streamed-in therapy session. Apparently his Doc wants him to have one with me and him, a separate one just between him and Valerie, and then another one afterwards with the three of us together."

Again, that isn't unexpected. But clearly it was a total surprise to Stephanie. Frank has had a difficult time processing Gioele's suicide and with replaying the moment he discovered the body over and over again, but he also has to deal with the knowledge that he's been an absentee father for over three decades. That will likely be a harder thing to forgive himself for. His buddy being severely depressed and repeatedly traumatized wasn't his fault, but making children he had no interest in raising or actively loving, is his doing and no one else's.

"Alright," I said. "And what did you say to that?"

"Of course I said I'll do it. Once, twice, or however many times he needs, to just tell me when I'm needed ..."

"But?"

Our conversation was temporarily put on hold when Olivia picked up the hand Steph was petting Gunny with and draped it over her little feet. Having cute toes is fine while we're home all the time, but I have a feeling Steph just earned herself a whole new year of trying to get socks and shoes on her like she struggled to do during the first months of Olivia's life.

"Okay. I can take a hint, Olive. You want your toe song again, don't ya?" My wife asked.

As a response, our baby leaned further back into her and raised both bare feet for incentive.

Steph cradled the left one first and started counting the baby toes as she spoke/sang, before lifting the right foot and continuing for the last five. "One little, two little, three little unicorns. Four little, five little, six little lipsticks. Seven little, eight little, nine little Valentines, and a tiiiiny wren makes ten!"

"It's convenient how the nail decals match your song," I said, totally charmed by the duo.

"Not to give away one of my many secrets, but I may have matched the song to the toe decorations we had left. Can Mama have a big kiss before you wriggle free, Olive?"

Olivia tipped her head to the side and puckered up. She sat up and then launched her little body at me to catch to give me a quick kiss too before she and her dogs got back to superhero matters. I can't help but feel that Olivia's thinking that she got the situation in hand by bringing me in and then distracting her Mama a little, so now she can focus on playing again … knowing she handled her responsibilities.

"Back to your but, Babe," I said to my wife.

"You really are too preoccupied with my butt."

"If it weren't so distracting, I wouldn't be fixated on it ... and many other parts of your anatomy, which are equally distracting."

"You're the one who wants me to work out, Batman. You have only yourself to blame."

"No blame here. We both reap the rewards. Now stop stalling and tell me why you were shaking earlier from your father's question."

She took a breath and smiled at the Army crawl Olivia, Gunny, and then Mo, were doing through the tunnel we'd created this morning with all the chairs from the kitchen plus a few blankets.

"I've been so busy trying to protect my Dad from my Mom, and then helping him see that he needs help to deal with his past beyond what he went through with Gioele's death, and trying to ease the path for him to have a relationship with his granddaughters ..."

"You haven't had time, or weren't allowing yourself time, to think about how you feel about being essentially abandoned by him even when you were still living in the same home?" I asked.

She took a moment to answer, but she had to admit I was right. "Yeah. It would be soooo easy to just blame my Mom for putting up a wall between Val and I and our Dad, but he never tried ... even when we were feet away from him or showed an interest in something he already enjoyed. I would've jumped at the chance to go fishing or camping with him. It's a different time now, I get that, but I can't imagine being happy being kept away from Olive or Julie, or ever being pleased that you wanted to leave all of Olive's care to me. I want you with us for every minute of her life. And it kinda hurts that he never felt like that. Even when you said you love me but weren't able to do the whole marriage/family thing ... by the way, how ironic is that, since I was the matrimony holdout in the end?"

"I'm almost glad you were. Having to work for something makes you appreciate it a hell of a lot more. I know I'm lucky to have gotten you and Olivia."

"And Rex, Gunny, and Mo. Don't forget, they're also part of our family."

"Sure, the furred-things too."

"Awww, that was almost sweet. My point was, you were shut down a little yourself from everything you've been through and every death you had to witness, but you were always there for Julie even when you were worried about her being a target. You've never once let me down despite me all but begging you to. And you've been an absolutely incredible Dad to Olive and Julie. I mean, I knew if a line was crossed with a boy or a guy and my Dad learned about it, his Italian temper and follow-up fists would fly. Or if I needed something like a ride any hour of the day or night, he'd be there if he could ..."

"So would the police or AAA guy, Steph. That's not the same as having a father you know loves you."

"I think he does, though. He even sorta said so recently."

"That's the real issue here ... you think he does. You deserve to know that your father loves you unconditionally."

"I guess, but how can I hit him with the full-force of my daddy issues while he's still figuring out his own problems? What if I say something that upsets him and it makes him give up and go back to the way everything was before? My Mom will be twice as hard on him, Olive will lose the Grandpa she's just getting to know, and he'll never attempt to get help again if the first time out 'didn't work'. That's a lot of pressure."

"First off, group sessions wouldn't have been recommended if his doctors believe he can't handle what you or Valerie may say."

"That is a great cape, Olive," my wife said, when our baby decided to do a mini fashion show by holding out both sides of the pillowcase and walking back and forth in front of where we're sitting on the couch. "Once Daddy and I are done talking, maybe you and I can see if Gunny and Mo want their own capes. Then you can be a crime-fighting team."

"O wanna boo one," she told Steph.

"Gotcha, a blue cape for Mo. What color for Gunny. White or brown?"

"Bow."

"Blue and brown, got it. Play for a few more minutes and then I'll go dig out again the appropriate colors for your puppies, and also find two more clips so they'll be able to keep up with you during all of your adventures."

That got her a big smile and then our baby went back to securing her living room tunnel.

"Back to what we were talking about ..." Steph said, wrapping both arms around me and burrowing into my body for the minute she has the time to.

"Frank hasn't earned it yet, Babe, but you need to trust that he can cope with whatever you need to tell him. I'm going to help your father any way I can, but not at your expense. You're not keeping things bottled up just to spare him. Once you start hiding what you feel or want to say, it just gets easier to do the same the next time. And you'll find yourself in a cycle that will be harder to break, since you finally got yourself out of a similar one. You need to know that nothing you do can make Frank think anything different than he already is. His healing isn't going to be helped by you sugar-coating or softening any blow. I can almost guarantee that whatever you want to address, he's already beaten himself up over. You'll actually be giving him a reason to confront it out loud so it can be acknowledged and then worked through."

"You're saying me bringing up my childhood will help Dad's 'team' help him even more?"

"He'll only be whole if he fixes everything in his life that needs 'medical attention'. And I believe he's as upset about not being a father to you and Valerie, not to mention the hit-or-miss grandpa he's been to your girls, as he is struggling with not being the friend he thought he should've been to Gioele."

"So I'm not being selfish in wanting something closer to a father that what I've had?"

"Steph, nothing you've done when it comes to either of your parents has been selfish. Not only should they have stepped up decades ago, you've only been protecting your own child by calling the shots and making a few reasonable demands. It's up to them to be mature enough to act like half the parent you are."

"You would say that," she told me before giving me a lingering kiss.

"I would because it's the truth. Frank's been learning that he's responsible for what he does. Helen may have tried to break him, but he had to give her his permission to in order for her to have accomplished that. Just like his daughter, he was strong enough to get out from under the weight of the Burg while you still could."

She kissed my jaw this time. "Thank you. I do know all of that. I just needed a reminder. Dad told me the virtual therapy-chat wouldn't be until after the holiday, so I have some time."

"Do you need time?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Although I have a slight reprieve regardless, no … I guess I don't need to waste any more time when it comes to my Dad."