'The East Los Angeles Christmas Parade is this weekend,' were the first words to greet me as I walked through the door on Tuesday afternoon.
"Hello to you too," I said to Mac, dropping my keys in the bowl.
"Hello, did you have a good day?" He asked as he gave me a quick kiss.
"Yes, I did. Now, what were you saying about the Christmas parade?"
"Well, the parade is this weekend and the weather is supposed to be okay. And I've wanted to introduce you to Annabelle for a while. So I was thinking we could take her to the parade," Mac explained.
"Annabelle Pena?" I double checked he was talking about who I thought. Annabelle is the daughter of Mac's C.O., who was killed by one of the Ghost's bombs shortly before his daughter was born.
"Yes, I've been telling her about you sometimes when I go visit," he smiled.
"Sure, check with her mum and if it's okay then we'll pick her up around 10am."
I was secretly a bit flattered that he'd told Annabelle about me and that she wanted to meet me.

It was 9am and I was just putting a bag of things in the boot of Mac's car. We had decided to pick Annabelle up at 9.30am rather than 10am, just to give ourselves extra time to get to the parade.
"Ready to go," Mac called, walking up to the car.
"Yep, we've got everything."
"Even the booster seat in the back?" Mac had borrowed a booster seat from someone at Phoenix, worried about Annabelle's small frame and the seatbelt if we got into an accident.
"The booster seat is fitted correctly, you worry wart," I laughed.
He shook his head. "I know, I trust you. It's just…" He shrugged.
"You feel like you owe it to Pena to keep Annabelle safe." I summed up.
"Yea."
"Well, let's give her an awesome parade day then."

I saw a curtain twitch as we pulled up outside the Pena household. I was fairly certain Annabelle had been waiting for us to arrive. I was proved right when the front door swung open as we both got out of the car and a young brunette girl came barrelling down the front steps.
"Mac!" she called out as she ran to him.
He bent down to give her a hug as she reached him.
Behind them, standing in the doorway was a lady, obviously Annabelle's mother. I waved at her with a smile and she nodded back, walking down to meet us on the front lawn.
"Hello, Mac," she said. "Thank you for taking Annabelle to the parade."
"Hey," he replied. "You're welcome. It's really no problem."
Mac knelt back down to Annabelle's level.
"Annabelle, I'd like you to meet someone. Do you remember me telling you about my girlfriend?"
The young girl nodded, looking over to me. She smiled shyly.
"This is her," Mac said.
"Hello. Are you a princess?" Annabelle said softly to me.
I smiled but blinked in confusion.
"Hello Annabelle. Why do you say that?"
She shrugged. "You look like Belle."
I looked down at what I was wearing; blue flats and a blue dress with a white cardigan over the top. I had the front pieces of my hair pinned back. Now that I thought about it, I did look like Belle.
"No, I'm not a princess. Sorry." I smiled at her.
"Can I call you Belle anyway?" she asked.
That startled a laugh out of Mac.
"Annabelle, that's not her name," Annabelle's mum reprimanded her.
I crouched down to the young girl's level.
"You can call me Belle if you want." I said kindly.
"I think it fits," Annabelle told me. "You look like her. And Mac says you're smart and like reading, like Belle. And Belle's dad is a crazy inventor, and Mac's not your dad but he IS a crazy inventor."
Annabelle's mother started laughing, while Mac blushed but nodded in agreement.
"You know, I think those two will get along just fine," she said to Mac.
"Yea, I think they will," he agreed.
I stood up.
"It's nice to meet you too," I said to the older lady as Mac started talking to Annabelle about the parade.
"You seem like a good girl," she said approvingly. "And you make Mac happy."

As we got Annabelle into the car, her mum gave her the last minute instructions that parents tend to do. 'Don't wander off, behave, stay safe.'
"I'll be good mum, I promise. And I'll stay with Mac or Belle the whole time," the little girl said seriously.
"Alright, I love you." She kissed Annabelle before shutting the car door.
"We'll have her back by four, at the latest," Mac promised.

We found a park easily enough and still had a good half an hour before the parade was supposed to leave from its start location. We were somewhere near the middle of the route.
I twisted in my seat to face Annabelle.
"Do you like face paint?"
Her eyes lit up and she nodded enthusiastically.
"Would you like some for the parade?"
"Yes!" she shouted in excitement. "Please," she added after.
"Okay, let me get my paints and you can tell me what you'd like," I told her.
Mac looked at me in confusion.
"Aren't your paints at home?"
"We're going to the parade," I said plainly. "I put them in the boot."
"Are you going to do yours too?" she asked.
I grinned at her. "Sure. Have you decided what you'd like?"
"A butterfly." She said decisively. "A Ulysses butterfly."
I looked across at Mac. "Now she sounds like you."
I recognised the name but couldn't quite remember which butterfly it was.
As I pulled the paints out of the boot, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out to see a text from Mac with a picture. It read 'The blue one' with a photo of a Ulysses butterfly attached.
I let out a sigh of relief, Mac had obviously seen my confusion and helped me the best way he could.
A couple of minutes later, Annabelle had a butterfly on her face and with Mac's help I was just finishing off the fairy pattern on my face.

As we waited for the parade to start, I noticed someone walking down the street with a fairy floss machine on wheels.
"Hey Annabelle," I pointed over. "Do you want some?"
She looked across and then back at us.
"Can I?"
"Of course," Mac replied. "If Belle holds our spot, we can go and get some." He'd taken to using the young girl's nickname for me in her presence.
When I nodded, the two of them went over and got fairy floss on sticks. Three, one for each of us.
We had finished the fairy floss by the time the parade started, and despite the amount of sugar she had just consumed, Annabelle was standing still as we waited for the first float to come trundling down the road.

The first 'float' of the parade was a group of three mounted police officers, calmly directing their horses down the road amidst cheers and children's shouts of 'horsies'. Annabelle stared in awe at them and I had a feeling she might be asking her mum for a horse later.
The rest of the parade passed in a continuous sequence of brightly coloured floats with carrying takes on the Christmas theme and multiple bands playing different Christmas tunes. There had also been a float for the local animal shelters and Annabelle had fallen in love with all the animals on there. It had taken a bit of convincing on Mac's behalf to talk her out of asking to adopt all of them. Though I think some of that conversation had been aimed at me as well.
Like all the children there, Annabelle had been most excited to see Santa. She started jumping up and down, trying to get a good look at the float as it approached.
Mac knelt down, telling her to sit on his shoulders and hold on when he stood up. With his hands gripping around her ankles, and her hands on his shoulders, Mac stood up.
Annabelle now had a clear view over the top of everyone's heads, watching Santa in his sleigh making his way down the road towards us.
"Belle! Mac! It's Santa!" she shouted. "And all his reindeer. Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donna and Blitzen." She pointed as she recited them.
"What about Rudolph?" I asked.
"Well, actually Rudolph…" Mac began before I elbowed him in the ribs.
"Ow! What was that for?" he hissed.
"Don't Mac, just don't."
"What? Oh." He realised what I meant.
Luckily Annabelle was too focussed on the float to pay attention to our exchange.
"There's Rudolph, at the front," the girl called.
As the float got closer I could see that the mechanical reindeer at the front did indeed have a glowing red nose. We watched Santa pass by, Annabelle on Mac's shoulders, until Santa and his reindeer could no longer be seen in the distance.

It was about lunchtime when the parade was over. There was an event on the oval at the end of the parade route, music and face painting and most likely food.
We decided to head down there, figuring that if Annabelle didn't want anything there, we could always go somewhere else after.
The oval was a jumble of live music, children's laughter and adults chattering. There were people everywhere, and I tightened my hold on Annabelle's hand. On the other side of her I could see Mac doing the same, subconsciously scanning the crowd as he did so.
"Annabelle, do you know what you want for lunch? Or do you want to have a look around first?"
She thought for a moment, and then looked up at me.
"Can we have a look? And go on the jumping castle?"
"Alright, but jumping castle before food, okay?"
"Okay," she smiled, charging off in the direction of the inflated structure, dragging Mac and myself behind her.

It was another twenty minutes before Annabelle got off the jumping castle, declaring she was 'definitely hungry now.'
As we started our circuit of the oval in search of food, I found a community club handing out small bags of popcorn and more fairy floss. Quickly standing in the fairy floss line, I pulled Annabelle with me. I left Mac to collect two bags of popcorn.
"Would you like some fairy floss, sweetie?" the gentleman asked Annabelle.
She looked at me warily, before turning back when I nodded.
"Yes please."
He handed her a stick and her face lit up.
"Thank you," she smiled.
"Would you like some too?" he asked me.
"No, thanks," I laughed. "I'll stick to popcorn." I pointed to where Mac was picking up two bags, one for each of us.
"Have a good day then," the man said cheerfully as we left.
We continued wandering around, munching on our snacks as we went.
As we walked we found hot dogs, pizza, sausages and steak sandwiches, chips and baked potatoes. The van selling the chips also had hot cinnamon doughnuts, which I was definitely going back to once we had eaten 'proper food.'
"So, what does everyone want?" Mac asked.
"Pizza," Annabelle announced.
"Probably a cup of chips," I answered. "You?"
"I was thinking a hot dog," he told me.
The hot dog van and the pizza van were side by side, with the van selling chips about fifty meters from it.
"I'll take Annabelle, you get your chips." He told me before bending down to whisper something in the young girl's ear. She giggled as she nodded and I eyed them suspiciously.
"We'll meet you back here," she smiled at me before the two of them went off to get their food.

The line for the chips wasn't overly long, but when I got to the front of the line I was informed that they were just cooking up a fresh batch and it would take about five minutes. I was happy to wait, and I could see that Mac and Annabelle were still in the line for Mac's hot dog. Annabelle was clutching a small pizza box. As they got to the front of the line, my name was called for my food. I turned back with my chips in hand but I'd lost sight of them.
Instead, I made my way through the people to where we were going to meet, a table nearby miraculously empty. I spread my bag out beside me, hoping to save room for them when they got there.
I didn't have to wait long, Mac and Annabelle bounding up to the table a minute or two later. Annabelle was carrying her pizza box and a large cup with a straw. Mac was holding an identical cup in the hand that didn't have his hot dog. I looked at Annabelle's grinning face as she slid onto the seat, then back at Mac who smirked at me.
"What's in the cup?"
"Chocolate milkshake," Annabelle cheered. "Mac said we can't have pizza and hot dogs without a milkshake."
I looked across at him. "Did he now?"
"Yup! But we didn't get you one because Mac said you didn't like them." Annabelle looked sad.
"They make me feel sick," I explained to her.
She nodded, then opened her box and started eating her pizza.
I batted Mac's hand away as he leant across to steal one of my chips. He then offered me the hot dog in exchange so I then let him take a chip.
It wasn't too long before we had all finished our food, Annabelle doing well to eat two pieces of pizza and the milkshake after the fairy floss.
However, it did mean that she was full of sugar and energy, and we weren't going to let her back on the jumping castle.

I had spotted a playground as we walked in, just before the entrance to the oval. There were benches for parents to sit at and equipment for children of all ages to play on. We still had about two and a half hours before we had told Mrs. Pena that we would have Annabelle back, which gave her plenty of time to run around the playground and go back to the jumping castle if she wished.
"Annabelle, do you want to go to the playground for a bit?" I asked.
When she nodded enthusiastically, we collected our rubbish and made our way to the play equipment.

Annabelle quickly made friends with some of the other children there and they ran around together, leaving Mac and myself to sit in afternoon sun and keep an eye on her.
"I think you might have to carry her back to the car," I commented.
Mac groaned, but laughed. "Maybe a doughnut will give her enough energy to get back to the car?"
"Maybe," I agreed. "It's quarter past three. If I get them now, we can eat and Annabelle can run around for a few more minutes before we take her home."
Mac nodded in agreement and I rose to leave, giving Mac a quick kiss.
I heard an 'ewwww' as I walked away and I saw Annabelle making a face at Mac. I shook my head and continued on my quest for doughnuts.
I returned about five minuted later, a bag of hot cinnamon doughnuts cooling in my hand. There were six in there, enough for two each. If Annabelle managed to eat both doughnuts then I doubted the young girl would want dinner tonight.
As I walked over Mac called out to Annabelle, who stopped what she was doing and rushed over when she heard the word 'doughnuts.'
"Annabelle, we'll have to take you home soon," Mac told her.
She pouted. "A few more minutes?"
"Ten more minutes," he said.
She stuffed the last of her doughnut in her mouth, wiping away the sugar with the napkin I passed her.
Then she rushed off to spend the last few minutes she could playing with her new friends.

Mac didn't have to carry Annabelle back to the car, but we did have to slow our pace for the tired girl.
She started nodding off in the car as we drove her home, waking up each time her head started to fall.
We pulled up out the front of Annabelle's house, and let her out of the car. Annabelle insisted on ringing the doorbell herself, stretching up as far as she could so her fingertip could hit the button.
When her mum opened the door, she rushed forward and started talking, telling her mum everything that she'd done during the day.
"Annabelle, sweetie," her mum interrupted. "Have you said thank you yet?"
She stopped and turned, looking at us sheepishly.
"Thank you Mac, thank you Belle. The parade was awesome and so was the playground."
"You're welcome," we said in unison. Annabelle's mum looked at us and Mac shrugged. This wasn't the first time that had happened.
"Thank you for the face paint Belle," Annabelle added.
"You're more than welcome, Annabelle."

It was quiet in the car on our way home. After the noise and excitement that Annabelle had brought with her, the peace was welcome but also slightly strange.
"I'm so glad you and Annabelle got along," Mac told me, talking a hand off the steering wheel to grip mine.
"So am I. I know she's come to mean a lot to you."
"For someone who says they aren't good with kids, you got on very well with her." He smiled.
"Hey, what can I say? She's a strange mix of the both of us. And she thought I was a princess." I grinned.
"You're not going to let that go, are you?"
I smirked. "No. At least not while Annabelle still wants to call me Belle."
"Christmas is different through a kid's eyes," Mac commented a bit later.
"It is. It's more fun."
He shook his head. "No, I think it's more magical."
I had to agree with that.