Daddys' Girls

Genre: Friendship, family

Pairings: Greg and Molly, Phillip and Jackie, background

Main characters: Greg, Ciana, Phillip, Greer mentioned

Greg looked up from his laptop and closed his eyes briefly, wondering how he had managed to score childminding duties in his own office. While at work.

Greg wasn't in the business of trying to fool anyone at this stage in the game – least of all himself. The fact was, he readily acknowledged, he really didn't mind at all. The circumstances that had led to him minding Phillip and Jackie Anderson's daughter in his office at the Yard were so freakishly coincidental that he knew the chances of it ever happening again were phenomenally low.

Normally, Phillip Anderson wouldn't have brought his infant daughter with him to work, but his wife was at work herself and their childminder had called in sick. In the midst of a big case with time sensitive lab work waiting for him, Phillip had been left with little choice but to bring Ciana in with him.

And, as it happened, Greg had taken another of his office days – dedicated to catching up on reports and paper work. At this moment, however, Ciana Jane Anderson was still one very unhappy girl.

"I'm going to have to have a chat with your daddy, I think. Imagine it, bringing a BABY with him to work," he said to her as he tsked casually, rising from his chair to retrieve her from the makeshift cot he and Phillip had managed to fashion on the fly. The fact that Greg had, on rare occasion, had to mind his own babies in that office, when Molly was unable to do it, and their back up contingencies had all fallen through, seemed conveniently forgotten.

"Now, your nappy is clean and dry, YES, you're very welcome for that Little Missy," he said, picking her up. "You've been fed, you've been burped." He raised his eyebrows and looked at her with mock sternness. "I'll tell you what I think Ciana Jane Anderson. I think you're just being a little drama queen. What do you say to that, hmm?"

Ciana, finding herself in her favourite person's arms – aside from her own parents' of course – stopped crying long enough to gaze at him with wide eyed wonder.

"Oh, you think you can charm me with your big beautiful blue eyes, do you?"

Ciana smiled at the sound of his voice, even going so far as to coo at him.

"Well, you're a clever little one, aren't you, and you're probably right, but mark my words, you've still been nicked." Ciana blinked at him with impossibly long lashes and started to babble.

"Do you know the best part about you, Little Miss? I get to spoil you because I'm the boss," he said, as he tickled her under her chin, causing her to giggle. "And I can be a grumpy old boss bear when I take a mind to be, can't I? So nobody is going to argue with me, I can promise you THAT. Oh no, they wouldn't dare, would they?"

Ciana reached up, her small fist grasping his collar. Greg took it, saving his shirt from a difficult wrinkle, and blew a raspberry into her tiny palm. Ciana giggled with delight as she followed his eyes with her own.

Reaching down to grab her blanket, then turning to return to his desk, Greg settled back down into his chair. He shifted Ciana against his chest so that he may at least carry on with some of his work, if not quite all of it.

"I've missed having a baby to cuddle," he admitted to her as she sighed. He felt her relax against him and smiled at that. "My own little girl isn't very little anymore. She's four years old already! Can you imagine that, Ciana? Four! She's growing up on me! Funny, I don't remember telling her she was allowed to do that either. Ah, well she's still my Little Love though, she still loves to cuddle, but I don't know how much longer she'll want to be my daddy's girl," he said regretfully, almost fearfully. "But with you, Little Missy, I get the fun of spoiling you, then I get to hand you back to your parents and THEY can worry about being awake at all hours and changing your nappies."

Greg had learned over the months since she had been born that Ciana Anderson wasn't much for a song – not even her own father's, whose voice, everyone was quite willing to acknowledge, really wasn't half bad. Of course, she WOULD settle to sleep to a lullaby, but she seemed to love best when she was simply spoken to in soft steady tones to soothe her to sleep, and Greg's gravelly baritone, for some reason, she especially loved. Greg didn't understand it himself. All three of his children, indeed all of the children at 221, had preferred to be sung to, but he was grateful that he didn't have to resort to singing to Ciana – especially not here, in his office, where anybody might walk past and hear him. Grumpy old boss bears simply did not sing on the job.

Phillip, having managed to escape his lab for a short time while he waited for results to burst forth from his instruments, stood quietly in the doorway, grinning.

"I don't think Lady Greer will ever stop being a daddy's girl, Greg," he said softly, hoping to avoid waking his daughter up.

Greg grinned at this. "There's something very special about a daughter, isn't there? How they wrap a dad around their little fingers," he said, as he looked up at Phillip, watching as he softly made his way into the office and towards Greg's desk. Phillip smiled at his sleeping baby.

Phillip nodded at this in acknowledgement. "Firmly wrapped. I certainly hope Ciana never stops being MY daddy's girl." He reached over to brush his fingers lightly against her silken head, knowing just how to touch her without waking her up.

Greg's face became wistful as he thought about Greer, then he smiled again at Ciana as he reflected on the sort of hopelessly doting dad Anderson was turning out to be.

"I don't think you've anything to worry about, Phillip," he said.