A/N: If you're still reading this, thanks for sticking with me! I have had the worst case of writers block recently, so bad that some things have been left un-updated for an embarrassingly long time. I'm working on it though!

Levi stretched her legs out in front of her, tilting her feet in all directions, checking out the reflection of the lights on the shiny leather shoes. She hummed softly, reaching up and tucking her hair behind her ear, taking just a moment to stare at the ends of it.

"Adam?"

"Yeah kiddo?"

"What's going on in there?" she whispered, pointing at the closed doors of the courtroom.

"I'm not sure exactly what's going on right this moment," he started with a grin. "But they're getting everything all worked out."

"Hmm," she sighed, tapping her chin. "Mama is going to make sure to tell them that I don't want to live away from her right?"

"Of course. You're not going anywhere, doodle."

She grinned and climbed into his lap, then reached over to grab her backpack off the bench.

"Here, I'll show you some pictures while we wait. Lemme just find them in this mess. Oh boy I really collect a lot of junk, don't I? Here it is. My favorite picture book. First we have this picture, it's called an ultrasound. You know what that is Adam?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Good. See I don't look like a real baby yet but right there is my little nose and my round head so you can tell where I'm at. This next picture is me and mama except I am still in her belly but you can't see me, you can just see how fat her tummy got because of me. Boy she sure was pretty huh? I hope when I grow up I look like her. And here is a picture of me and mama looking at each other right after I was born. See how she looked so happy? I wanted to talk to her a lot but I was just a baby so I couldn't."

Adam chuckled and held her a little closer, kissing the top of her head. She smelled like air and baby shampoo and he couldn't help but wish that he had known her since the beginning.

"And here is me and grandma and grandpa. And here is whole bunch of pictures of me and mama taking naps. Grandma says when I was very little like this and mama was still in school she was very tired and we slept a lot, a lot. I think it was hard work for her to be a mama when there was no daddy around but I tried very hard to be a good girl."

"I bet you did."

"And this is my most favorite picture of me and mama forever and ever," she said, turning to one of the last pages.

"Can you tell me about it?"

"Yes. One day all my cousins were playing outside and they are boys and they are bigger than me and so I was crying because I felt left out. And mama came outside and got me and we went in and then we were sitting reading this book together. And I remember how I felt so happy that me and mama were there together, just us. I like to look at this picture because it makes me remember how much mama loves me and how we are a team just me and her, and how we make memories together, just us. I like that a lot."

"You know what? I think this is one of my favorite pictures too."

"Really? Because it's of me and mama?"

"Yes. And because you shared your memory with me."

Levi gave him a bright smile then leaned up to kiss his cheek.

"Know what? I like that mama and me are a team together but I like that you come along lots too. I think it's more fun with three. And all the jokes you tell are new to me. Mama's jokes get old."

"You're pretty funny yourself."

"That's what I've heard."

He chuckled and hugged her closer, loving that he was allowed to be a part of their life. He'd never known something so wonderful before.

"Adam look! It's mama's best friend Audrey!" Levi said excitedly, wiggling down from his arms and running down the hallway. "Auntie Ree! I have not seen you since yesterday!"

Audrey laughed and scooped Levi up, kissing her cheeks and hugging her like she would never let go.

"It's been way too long, Turtle. Can't your mama just put you in an envelope and mail you to me?"

"We could try that so I could see you on the regular! Come over here and see Adam, he is mama's other friend. He's hanging out with me while we wait for mama. He has the best games."

"Alright," Audrey laughed as they made their way back down the hall. Levi introduced them then settled on the bench between them, sighing deeply.

"Anybody got X-ray specs? I wanna look through the wall and see what's going on in there. What if mama needs me?"

"She'll come out here if she needs you," Adam assured. "It's probably almost time for lunch and she'll be out then."

"Hmm. Okay. Do you have some money so I can go get a snack outta that machine down there?"

"A snack right before lunch?" he asked, fishing in his pockets anyway.

"I will share it. Please Adam?"

He couldn't say no to that face and found her a dollar in change. She took it happily and skipped off, standing in front of the vending machine while she decided what to get.

"How was Lindsay this morning?" Audrey asked once Levi was out of earshot.

"Nervous. She was pretty quiet," Adam answered. He'd woken up at two in the morning to find Lindsay standing in his doorway, her eyes wide as she asked if she could crash with him. They'd talked for a while and she'd finally fallen asleep, but was up again before five.

"How long have they been in there?"

"Two hours."

Audrey nodded, glancing over at Levi who was still weighing her options for treats.

"She's always worried about this. Josh suddenly wanting Levi. That's why she never put his name on the birth certificate."

"But part of her wants him in their life."

"I think she's torn between what she wants and what's best for Levi."

Adam nodded, his mind still boggled by the fact that there were people that didn't care to know their children.

"What was it like for her in the beginning? After Josh ditched her?"

Audrey shrugged, tossing her long blonde hair behind her shoulder.

"It's hard to tell. She gets so quiet, you know. She's a hard read. I know she was disappointed but she didn't want him back for herself. It didn't take her long to realize that she'd never been in love with him. I remember a few weeks after she found out, I went in her room to borrow something and she was just sitting on her bed staring into space. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she never thought her life would be like this. I think she was more upset about what she'd lost in general than specifically."

"Josh makes her nervous," Adam noted. "She told me they talked yesterday and she isn't as worried as she was, but she doesn't trust him as far as she can throw him."

"I wouldn't either, if I were her. He bailed before things even got hard. I don't know how long he's going to stick around and I have a horrible feeling that Levi is going to get attached and then he'll be gone."

"I was thinking the same thing."

Levi skipped back over to them happily, holding a bag of gummi bears.

"Look, the fruits of your labor," she said, shoving them in Adam's face and giggling. "Have the red ones, I don't like those."

"Gee thanks, kiddo."

"How much sugar do these got in them? I can't have a lot of sugar, remember?"

"I know. They don't have much. Just don't eat the whole bag."

"Okay, alright."

She sat back between them and stared up at the clock on the wall with a sigh.

"The rest of my life is taking a long time to be decided, that's for sure."

An hour later the courtroom door finally opened and Lindsay and her parents stepped out, looking harried but content regardless. Levi had long since fallen asleep on Adam's lap, her thumb in her mouth and picture album clutched in her arms. Lindsay knelt down and kissed her cheek, brushing her hair back from her face to wake her up.

"Mama? Is it over? What happened?"

"It's over sweetie. Why don't we go out to lunch and I'll tell you all about it."

"Are you happy or sad mama?"

"I'm happy."

"Okay good. Are we eating at a restaurant? I want to sit by Auntie Ree."

"I'm sure you can. Let's pick up your stuff and get out of here."

Adam wanted desperately to ask what had happened but he knew it would be better to wait, so he bit his tongue, exchanging a glance with Audrey and gathering up Levi's things. Lindsay seemed okay and while the light wasn't in her eyes, she looked a lot better than she had a few hours ago. He wondered if she would tell him everything that was said in the courtroom or if he would just have to guess based on what she did tell him.

"Aren't grandpa and grandma coming out to lunch?" Levi whined as she was placed into her carseat.

"No, grandpa needs to get back to the ranch and grandma is going to her job at the library. We'll see them at dinner time."

"I want to have grilled cheese and fries and a pickle for lunch. Can I?"

"Probably."

Levi nodded, satisfied with that while Lindsay and Audrey discussed where to go for lunch and Adam started the car, letting the air conditioner kick on.

"Hey Adam?"

"Yeah?"

Levi leaned forward in her seat, nose scrunched up as she tried to choose her words.

"I will not call him daddy. Is that okay?"

"I think that's okay sweetie. You need to do what you're comfortable with. Maybe someday you will want to call him daddy. Let's just wait until your mama tells us what happened before you worry yourself about it. Okay?"

"Okay. Maybe you should hold her hand. It makes her feel better."

Adam smirked but obeyed the instruction once Lindsay was settled in the car. She gave him a look but didn't question the contact, instead giving him directions to the restaurant. Her thumb rubbed against his gently and he looked over at her, arching his eyebrow until she returned his gaze.

"Things are okay?"

"It'll be fine."

He didn't fish for more, letting the subject drop for now. It seemed that she still needed to mull it over in her head before she was ready to talk about it.

"I am super hungry for lunch," Levi piped up after a bit. "I love this place because they give you a whole lot of crayons for coloring the menu. A girl could get used to treatment like that."

"Do you think they will give me a menu to color?"

"Oh Adam you are so goofy! You are much too old to color a menu! That's only for us kids!"

"They won't make an exception for me?"

"Maybe if you try really hard to be cute."

Lindsay snickered and looked back at Levi, shaking her head.

"Honey, you're one in a trillion, you know that?"

"Well now I do! C'mon, let's go order before I die from hungry!"

"Hunger, honey."

"Yeah, that."

She waited until the car stopped then unbuckled her seatbelt and clambered out of the car, slamming the door behind her and skipping up to the sidewalk.

"Audrey, hurry up!" she hollered. "You have to be my seat buddy!"

"Okay kiddo, I'll be your seat buddy if you remember to use an inside voice."

"I can do that," Levi promised with a nod, lowering her voice. "I will use such an inside voice that you will ask me to speak up."

They made their way inside and were seated quickly. Levi was excited about her menu and set to work coloring it while the adults ordered lunch. She seemed to have forgotten about the entire mornings events until Lindsay got her attention, pulling the paper menu away so she wouldn't be distracted.

"Are you going to tell me bad news or good news mama?"

"It all depends on how you feel that makes it good news or bad news."

Levi contemplated that for a moment then nodded decisively.

"It will be good news. Can you tell me it?"

"Okay. For right now, the judge decided that Josh can call you every week so you guys can talk and you can get to know him a little."

"So I can have a special phone call?"

"Absolutely."

"Hmm. And then what happens?"

"We're just going to see how that goes for a while."

"It took so long just to decide that?"

"There was a lot to talk about and we all decided that this is what was best in the end."

"Oh. What if I don't want to talk on the phone?"

"I know it might be kind of strange at first but you will have to at least try."

"But I don't even know him!"

"I know. The phone calls are an easy way for you to get to know him. And tonight he's going to come over to grandma and grandpa's for a little while so you can meet him."

"Well that will be weird. Can I finish coloring now?"

"Do you have any questions?"

"I just asked it. Can I finish coloring?"

"Yeah, sure honey, go ahead."

Levi went back to her paper and Lindsay sighed, feeling that this had been too anti-climactic and clearly that meant Levi would react more later. She just hoped it would be a calm reaction, rather than the kind her daughter was normally prone to.

"So that's it? Phone calls?" Audrey asked skeptically.

"Every Wednesday night for fifteen minutes. The judge didn't want to force too much for now and Josh didn't argue. That's all barring a DNA test of course. And then we'll revisit the issue in a year."

"What kind of control do you have over this?"

"If he doesn't call on time, he doesn't get another chance until the next week. It's really not a lot on either side but it's what's going to work for now."

"You seem a little unsettled," Adam noted, giving her hand a squeeze under the table.

"It just kind of built up to nothing. We could have done this all over the phone in mediation but he wanted to drag it into court. I don't know why. I guess part of me was assuming he had some kind of eleventh hour trick up his sleeve and when he didn't… I don't know. I felt like once it was over I could breathe again but now I'm sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop. Again."

"There might not be another shoe Linds," Audrey noted with a shrug.

"Yeah, Josh could secretly be one legged."

"Adam, you are so very weird," Lindsay said with a laugh.

"Yeah Adam you are so, so weird," Levi agreed, not looking up from her paper. "What are we going to do with you?"

"Am I weird enough to be let into your club of weirdness?"

"You turned that around on me," Levi sighed. "What a goober."

"You've taught me pretty well I suppose."

"Do you always have to have the last word?"

"Yes."

"Okay I will let you have it because I like you."

"Thanks doodle."

She smiled and turned her menu sideways so he could reach across the table and color with her.

"So how do you feel about Josh coming over tonight?" Audrey asked after a moment. Lindsay just shrugged. She'd known that was coming for a while so she'd had time to adjust to the idea but being in the same space as Josh was still very strange.

"It'll be fine. Levi needs to meet her father at some point anyway."

"Well it makes me nervous."

"Me too," Adam agreed, snatching the green crayon from Levi, who giggled and stole it back.

"I'm not exactly having a conga line of celebration but I'm not going to get myself all worked up over it. Besides, tomorrow it will be over for a while and all we have to deal with is a fifteen minute phone call once a week."

"Such perspective for such a young one," Adam teased, squeezing her knee under the table. She gave him a little smile, one that told him she'd be more ready to discuss things in depth with him later. For now she needed to keep a straight face and a brave smile for the sake of her daughter.

"So this piece goes here," Levi said, snapping a puzzle piece into place. "I know because the colors match up. That's how mama taught me to do puzzles. First make the outside, then match all the colors and stuff. Isn't that smart? I am really fast at puzzles. Do you like puzzles, Josh?"

"Yeah, I like puzzles."

"I just don't like them when I lose a piece," she sighed, completing the border. "It makes me upset and I cry a lot."

"That's too bad."

Levi nodded and regarded him for a moment, then went back to the task at hand. It was much easier to talk to Josh if she could talk about something else. She wasn't sure what to make of him just yet. She could tell he made her mama nervous and she herself didn't like that much. She didn't want him to hug her or anything, even if she did kind of like the attention he was giving her. There was a little part of her that was glad he was here, glad she could be a normal kid with two parents like everyone else she knew. There was an even smaller part of her that was wondering what it would be like to spend more time with him, what it would be like to have a dad for real.

"So what else do you like to do?"

"Hmm. Lots of kid stuff. I like the park and I like playing in dirt. I like the zoo. Oh, and I like to visit mama at work. They have great snacks there and her work friends are nice. I like to do lots of pretending. Sometimes I go in the kitchen and pretend to be a great cook. Last time I made a huge mess. I got in trouble so I have to be careful now. What do you like to do?"

"I like to go fishing and hunting sometimes. And bowling."

"Mama told me that about you. Do you like football? I love football."

"Football is pretty good."

"I watch hockey with Adam sometimes. They sure fight a lot."

"Yeah, they do."

"A while ago me and mama and Adam went to a baseball game with some of mama's work friends. And boy they sure spoiled me with junk food and I even got two foam fingers! It was a lot of fun so I think I really like baseball too. Of course the Yankees are my favorite. The grown ups made me promise to always like the Yankees and never the Red Sox. I went home and I threw out all my red colored socks just in case."

He chuckled and checked the puzzle box then placed a piece near the corner of the puzzle.

"Could I ask you somethin' Josh?"

"Of course."

"Did you ever love my mama with your whole entire heart?"

He thought for a moment, sitting back against the couch and thinking the question over in his head.

"I don't really know if I did or not."

"That's sad. Is that why you did not want to be a part of our family for so long? Because you didn't love us?"

"I was very selfish back then, Levi. I should have at least tried to be your dad. It wasn't fair that I didn't."

"Oh. Okay."

"Are you mad at me for that?"

"Yes. Because mama says her heart is broken for me not having a dad. And that means you broke her heart. No one breaks my mama's heart because she is the most wonderful lady in the world. And she does not deserve that."

"You're right, she doesn't."

"Did you 'pologize to her for that?"

"Yes, we talked about it a lot yesterday."

"I see."

"I want to apologize to you too."

"No, it's okay. I was just fine without a dad."

"I'm still sorry, Levi."

"Okay. Do you have a piece with purple on it?"

He nodded and searched for the piece while Lindsay stepped back from the doorway, still out of sight. This whole thing was making her nervous and while she knew it was okay to leave them alone, she couldn't help hovering where they couldn't see her.

"Hey," Adam whispered coming around the corner. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. It's just weird."

He nodded and pulled her into a hug, leaning against the doorframe.

"It's going to be alright."

"I know. I'm just worried about how it's going to go, as far as parenting decisions. When do I let him help me make decisions?"

"You don't. If he wants to give his opinion he might but you just keep doing what you've been doing. You're her mom. He hasn't proven that he can be a father yet. You trump him pretty hard, okay?"

"I know."

"It's a change but you'll learn how to live with it."

"Probably."

He tightened his grip on her and she rested against his chest, feeling better just because he was there and wondering how in the world he did that.

"What if she likes him more than she likes me?"

"Ah, the crux of the matter. Are you daft, woman?"

"It's not funny."

"I didn't say it was funny. But I am going to say you're a wee bit ridiculous for worrying. Levi thinks you are the queen of the world and I don't think she would ever take you down a notch like she just did to Josh. She wants to be just like you when she grows up. She adores you. She might like Josh sometime in the future but never enough that he's more of an idol to her than you are."

"Maybe."

"Besides, in a little while he's going to go home and live his life doing whatever loser things he does and you are still going to be with her every day. He's not competition."

"I know."

"If it's any consolation, I like you better than I like him."

"You're such a dweeb."

"I haven't heard that one in a while. Are we back in 1994?"

She smiled and he leaned down to kiss her forehead, wishing that he could just shut off that part of her mind that was so intent on worrying about everything, especially that which she could not control.

"Hey, what do you say once Josh leaves I'll take you girls out for ice-cream before dinner?"

"Okay."

"And you can give me the skinny on the best way to stay off your brothers' bad sides."

"I'll try to think of something," she smiled, pulling away from him. "Thank you for being… well, you know. Everything."

"Absolutely."

"I'm going to go help my mom with dinner. You want to keep an eye on this for me?"

"Go ahead. Let me worry for a bit."

Smiling, she leaned up and kissed his cheek before heading into the kitchen and trusting him to watch over her daughter.