"Honey, I'm going shopping for the afternoon with Pony's mom and we're taking Josie and Ginger, Pony and Johnny are down on earth for the Day with little Alison, something about her throwing a temper tantrum because she wanted to see her uncle's. You need to watch Molly for the day" said Abilene grabbing her Jacket and purse.
"what are we supposed to do?" asked Dally
"oh come on Dally, she's a three year old girl who just got a bunch of toys for Christmas, I'm sure you'll come up with something" chuckled Abilene before closing the door. Molly was coloring in her room, her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated on making the entire page pink.
"Molly Dolly" said Dally to catch her attention, it was a cute little nickname between them,
"hi daddy" grinned the little girl running over and hugging Dally who lifted her into his arms.
"you and I have the whole afternoon together, what do you want to do?" Dally asked her, lightly tapping her nose with his finger.
"DRESS UP!" exclaimed Molly wiggling out of Dally's grip and racing over to her closet of puffy glittery tutus and dresses and pink feather boas. Then she ran over to her jewelry box of mardi gras beads, clip on earrings and little rubber bracelets. Then grabbed her play makeup. Dally laughed and let his daughter paint his nails pink and put lipstick on him and a pink tutu and a pair of plastic clip on earrings and about six multi color bead necklaces. Then she got into a frilly snow white dress and jewelry and makeup before arranging all her stuffed animals around a plastic table.
"Daddy, will you please fetch us some brownies for our tea party?" asked Molly in her fanciest voice, albeit masked by giggles and her natural squeaky voice, she was only three after all
"of course my darling I shall be back in a moment" replied Dally in his most regal voice before getting up an heading to the kitchen, he found a tray of brownies with a note
For tea parties only
He also opened the fridge and found an almost full jug of apple juice, instantly he knew pony had arranged all of this, considering pony was the one who bought Molly's little plastic tea set for her and Johnny had given her all her dress up stuff. He brought the brownies and juice back to his daughter's bedroom. In his opinion this was so much better than getting arrested every week, he didn't care that he had gone soft, he was happy, he had everything he never knew he wanted, a beautiful wife, a perfect little girl, a job he was good at, his mother coming over once a month to spend time with him. As he was sipping apple juice from a purple plastic tea cup and eating a brownie listening to Molly offer tea to her bear Mr. Paws, he smiled. He was sitting on a pink fuzzy throw pillow and looking around at the pink room, noting the color choice differences between all four girls in the house, Molly loved everything pink, Josie loved light blue, Ginger was partial to lavender and little Alison loved dark greens.
"more tea Daddy?" came Molly's voice pulling Dally out of his thoughts
"yes please" said Dally holding out his cup. He now knew exactly why Pony and Johnny never wanted to give this up, this was fun. Suddenly the door opened and there stood pony and Johnny with knowing smiles on their faces.
"unkie,Pony, unkie Johnny you want some tea?" asked Molly, her voice squeaky and as adorable as ever
"maybe next time Molly, I think your daddy wants to spend time with you" said Johnny before him and Pony left the room. Molly yawned and Dally looked at the time, it was almost bedtime for little Molly.
"alright baby girl, time to put all this away and take a bath" said Dally picking up the stuff and taking the tea set to the kitchen to be washed later, he grabbed some leftover spaghetti and heated it up for Molly to have a quick supper before her bath.
"I got the dishes Dal, I know how important Daddy Daughter Time is" said Johnny
"ya know I always forget that your only 27 and pony is only 25, both of you act so much older" said Dally. Johnny just shrugged as Dally grabbed the small plate of spaghetti and brought it into Molly's room where the little girl was cleaning up all her stuffed toys.
"Hey Princess, lets eat some real food before you take a bath, we don't want mommy getting upset because you didn't eat dinner" said Dally
"Otay daddy" said Molly, being her usual easy going adorable self, Dally smiled and set the plate down on the little plastic table with a cup of apple took the boa and tutu off and put it back in the dress up closet. After Molly finished her food Dally scooped her into his arm and got her pjs and towel before plopping her into a waiting bubble bath after he got her out of her own glittery getup.
"Daddy Look!" exclaimed Molly as she made herself a bubble beard. Dally laughed as he washed her hair.
"Alright sweetie time to get out so I can braid your hair" said Dally, before realizing that he had no idea how to braid his little girl's long blonde curls, her mother normally did that.
"Hey Pony? Could you show me how to braid?" asked Dally sticking his head into the hallway.
"Sure Dal, give me a minute to get Ali in bed then I'll come help" said Pony. Dally got Molly dried off and brushed her hair out and got her into her white Pjs with pink polka dots and her bunny slippers. Pony came into Molly's room where the little girl was sitting at her vanity and Dally had the hair brush and ribbons all ready.
"Alright Dal, so what you do is you separate the hair into three equal parts and coss each piece over the other alternating each time" said Pony doing one braid as Dally watched. Then Dally did the other.
"That wasn't so hard" said Dally once he was done.
"Well I'll let you finish up, Johnny is preparing meals for the week so the three of you have food" said Pony
"Wait? Where are you five going?" asked Dally
" Oh, I thought Johnny told you? Darry and Soda are taking the girls to Disneyland for the week so Johnny and I are going to vacation in Boston. You three have the house to yourselves this week"said Pony
"But what about Molly, Abby and I work mornings and she's not old enough to be left on her own" said Dally
"Don't worry, I already talked to my parents, they can watch her in the mornings" said Pony. Dally gave a relieved sigh, the Curtis parents were practically Molly's grandparents as well so he had no problem with that. After reading Molly a bedtime story he tucked her in and kissed her goodnight.
"Night my little Molly Dolly" said Dally turning off the light
"Night Daddy" said Molly curling up with her little pink teddy bear. The night light was on so Dally closed the door. Pony and Johnny were sitting on the couch watching TV when Dally came into the living room
"Well that was easy" said Dally. Pony and Johnny started laughing
"What's so funny?" asked Dally, slightly annoyed
"Sorry Dal, it's just hilarious how much parenting changed you, well death changed you really but parenting even more so, you used to care about no one but yourself and sometimes Johnny, you were always getting arrested and never had a good relationship or a good job, now look at you, married, having tea parties with your daughter and a job you enjoy doing. Death Domesticated The Delinquent" said Pony
" that actually sounds like a poster they'd hang in the office" Laughed Dally
"wait, you have an office?" asked Johnny
"yeah, death headquarters. Some days when there aren't many deaths scheduled we do paperwork" said Dally
"so who was the grim reaper who grabbed you two?" asked Pony
"Bob, he had already taken the night shift so he grabbed both of us, I kinda slugged him" said Dally sheepishly.
"only you Dally" said Pony
"it was funny, Dally got even more annoyed when he found out they'd be co workers" said Johnny
"well sorry but I still can't stand the guy" said Dally
"Fine, just no getting into arguments, please" said Pony
"Fine I won't punch him again" grumbled Dally
"He is a bit of a prick sometimes" said Abilene
"SEE my wife agrees with me!" exclaimed Dally. They all laughed, suddenly Josie walked into the room, she looked like she had been crying. Pony stood up and walked over to his daughter, pulling her into a hug
"What's wrong baby girl?" asked Johnny, gently leading her towards the couch and pulling the 11 year old onto his lap.
"Ginger hates me" cried Josie
"Oh sweetie, she doesn't hate, you tell me what happened to make you think such an outrageous thing" said Pony softly, rubbing his little girl's back
"Grammy bought her this toy at the mall and I was looking at it and accidentally dropped it and it broke, I said I was sorry but she yelled at me and said she didn't want me as a sister" cried Josie. Pony and Johnny exchanged looks and nodded. Pony pulled Josie onto his lap to comfort her while Johnny went to go talk to Ginger….