Kids' day at the precinct
The days went by, one by one, and slowly, they established some kind of routine. Leon dropped by as often as he could manage, most of the time in the evening. He stayed until it was bedtime for Dana, then brought her to bed. Sometimes he managed to come around for breakfast or even lunch. He and D didn't talk much, and if, it was about Dana. About getting American children clothes for her. About whether Leon should bring chocolate for her or not. Leon won the first argument. D won the second. And the days ticked by, each allowing them to settle in more, making them feel more comfortable with the situation in itself, but also making the need to clarify certain aspects of it more urgent.
Leon was busy trying to figure out how the guy could've killed Laura while several other people (none of them really trustworthy, but he couldn't prove he'd bribed them, either) swore he'd been at the Casino at the same time, loosing all his money again. He knew somehow that they were speaking the truth, though. But he also knew that Gavin McGallen had killed his Laura.
The blonde sighed in frustration and rested his head in his hands. He wished nothing better than to bust the guy, but he couldn't do so as long as he had no evidence.
Sudden noise from outside his and Jill's cubicle made him look up just in time to see the Count turn round the corner, forcing his way directly to Leon's desk with Jill trailing behind him, obviously not knowing whether she should stop him or not. By the look on D's face, Leon could tell he was pissed. And who wouldn't be when the little two-year-old on his arms just wouldn't stop screaming?
The blonde was still busy gaping at the new arrivals, but D didn't give him time to recover. He pushed Dana into his arms and said with a voice that could've frozen the desert: "There you go, Dana. There is your father. I do hope you are satisfied now that you've caused me to leave the shop and a customer behind and blessed the whole precinct with your fit."
Then he turned on the spot and rushed out, leaving Leon, Jill and Dana behind, completely speechless. The girl fastened a small hand in Leon's shirt and kept crying, but now silent. Her father was still struggling to get around the events, and Jill – well, Jill couldn't decide whether to stare at Leon and his kid or at the back of the retreating kami. Her grey eyes were as big as saucers.
At last Leon managed to recover a little bit. He stroked Dana's hair, soothing the girl. "Dana, sweetie, stop crying. Bàbà's not really angry with you. He's just – a little overstrained."
It at least seemed to calm his daughter down. She sniffled, stopped crying and leaned her head on Leon's shoulder, looking completely exhausted.
Jill, on the other hand, snapped out and looked at him incredulously. "If you ask me, the Count was really, really pi – angry," she quickly corrected herself and sat down heavily. Leon was staring at the kid in his lap more than a little helpless.
"Dana, what did you do to get him so angry?" he asked, nonplussed. His daughter looked up at him with bright blue eyes that were still swimming in tears.
"Dana pet Tetsu and Tetsu get angry, but Dana do not anything!" she claimed.
Jill's mother instincts kicked in and she sighed. "Oh god, she's so cute!"
"Yeaaaah," Leon stretched, eying the kid uncertainly. He could just picture what had happened. Dana had been playing with T-chan, and like always lately, she'd probably been a little rough. The totetsu loved the kid, but he also loved his body in one piece. He'd scolded her and Dana had started to cry. D had been forced to leave his customer to look after his daughter, but since their arrival in America, Leon had been Dana's favourite parent and consequently he was the only one who could soothe her. Stubborn as his daughter was, she'd defied long enough that D lost his nerves and carried her to the plaza to hand her over to Leon.
And now he was stuck with his kid in the middle of a murder investigation. Just. Great.
Of course the chief chose that exact moment to leave his office and investigate the cause of the uproar in his plaza. Seeing Leon sit there with a kid on his lap, he almost recoiled. Almost.
"Orcot! Whose child is this and what's she doing here?!" he bellowed instead. Dana whimpered and started to cry again. Leon shot him a fierce glance.
"Great, chief, that's just the right thing to do!" he barked back. "I just got her to calm down!"
"Who's this kid?!" the chief demanded, oblivious to Leon's repartee.
"She's mine, okay?! And it wasn't my fault she ended up here, just to get that straight!"
"Oh." The chief stared. "Your kid? Are you serious?" he dug further.
Leon snorted and turned Dana so he could see her eyes. "Yeah, my kid. Any problems with that?"
The chief cleared his throat. "No. No, of course not. Who's her mother? What's she doing here?"
That was one of the rather annoying things about police officers. They always had to get to the bottom of everything.
Leon and Jill exchanged a glance. "Uh, chief, actually, Dana has no real mother. But it's complicated. Anyway, she's here," he said carefully.
"Yes, I see that." The chief's brows drew together. "Leon, you're busy with that Miller-case. Bring her back to her mother or whatever you mean by 'no real mother' and then get to work. We've got to get that guy."
The blonde detective rolled his eyes. "I know that, chief. But-" he hesitated, knowing he couldn't go to the pet shop and drop Dana there, because D would only get madder. He didn't want the kid to endure D's bad mood, even though he could understand the kami.
"No buts, Leon!" the chief barked and stomped back into his office. "You get that child back and get to work again. You're not the kindergarten cop!"
Dana, who'd stopped crying due to being much more interested in the discussion, looked up at Leon with big blue eyes. He sighed deeply. "Jill?" he asked, but his colleague shrugged.
"I don't know, Leon. What do you have to do today?"
"Actually I was just getting that report done so that I could leave and question Laura's neighbour again. I think she's been in love with that Gavin guy, too, and tries to protect him."
"Well, you've got two options: take her with you or drop her at the pet shop," Jill said and turned to her computer screen. Leon stared at his daughter glumly.
"Great," he murmured. Dana reached for his ponytail. "No, Dana, not now. I've got work to do. Why don't you just – uh, sit down in that corner and play a little? Here, there you've got a pen and here's paper, now you can draw a little bit, whaddya think about that?"
Dana's lips curled into a pout. „Leon, play!" she demanded, but for once the blonde was firm.
"Dana, not now. We'll play once we're back at the shop, but now I've got to work." To his own astonishment, she kept pouting, but didn't start to cry when Leon sat her down besides his chair and handed pen and paper to her.
Then he returned to his report, brow wrinkled. What did D think, dropping Dana here like that? This was the plaza, not a kindergarten! And he knew perfectly well Leon had no job that enabled him to look after a kid while he was working, in contrast to the kami. He often had to leave the plaza in a matter of minutes, with no time to find someone who could look after Dana in his absence. (Why else had he made the Count look after Chris all the time?! He'd have preferred to have his little brother at his side, too.)
Well, actually…
The blonde cast a careful glance at Jill, sitting opposite to him, doing her own reports. He knew for sure that she was not going to question any witnesses, and had announced she'd spend the whole day at the plaza today. As innocuously as possible he took his jacket and revolver and slipped down from his chair.
"Dana," he whispered. The girl looked up expectantly. "Listen, sweetie, I'm very sorry, but I've gotta go for some time. Will you stay here with Auntie Jill, please? I won't be long, I promise. But I can't take you with me. Will you behave until I'm back?" The girl's lower lip quivered and Leon hurried to soothe her, horrified that she might start to cry. "If you're a good girl and behave, I'll buy you ice-cream, okay? Just be nice."
Good thing Dana had inherited the sugar addiction from D. She was easily bribed and beamed instantly at the word ice-cream. Leon grinned. "That's my girl. Be good, I'll be back soon. Just stay here and draw some nice pictures for me, will you?"
Dana nodded ferociously and returned to her drawings. The blonde sighed relieved. Now there was only Jill to take care of…
"Jill, would you watch Dana for a bit, please? I'll be right back, just have to go and question that neighbour. Won't be gone long, promise, and Dana's a good kid. She'll behave," he said quickly and sidled to the door. Jill didn't even look up, just hm-ed and kept hacking something into her computer. Leon's grin widened. Multitasking, my ass.
"Great, thanks, Jill. See ya later, then!" he called and fled the office.
Jill's head jerked up and she looked around questioningly. "Leon? What did you say?" she asked confused.
Dana's head appeared behind her colleague's desk. "Leon go," she informed the woman brightly. Jill's hands froze into claws over her keyboard.
"Ooooh, Orcot, I'll get you for that!" she hissed. "How dare you leave me with your kid?! I'm not your fucking nanny!"
Dana pecked her head to the side. "Fucking nanny!" she echoed, beaming.
Jill's head met the table.
Leon returned two hours later and hurried inside. Questioning the neighbour had taken more time than he'd expected, and he could just imagine the mood Jill would be in. To be honest, he had a bad conscience for dropping Dana on her, but what was he supposed to do? He couldn't question a witness with a small kid perched on his lap. Besides, D would kill him for dragging Dana to his crime scenes, even if he had positively forced Leon to do so.
"Jill, I'm sorry!" he called before entering his cubicle. "I swear, I'll make it up to you!" He walked inside and…
…froze at the sight of Dana sitting on his desk, laughing gleefully as she was wrecking havoc with the papers there. The blonde stared, horrified, and then rushed to his desk, snatching Dana up quickly. "Dana! Those aren't toys, dammit! You can't just play with them!"
Her bottom lip quivered and next thing Leon knew, she had started screeching loudly, big tears rolling down her cheeks. "Fuck!" he swore and rocked her a little, but that just increased her volume. He heard his colleagues in the other cubicles rise and start to search for the source of the noise. "Ssssh, Dana! Stop crying, please! I'm sorry, I didn't want to snap. You'll get your ice-cream, okay? Two?"
Dana wailed.
"Oooooh, look who's back! Leon the neglectful daddy!" Jill cooed and the blonde spun round to face his smirking colleague leaning in the doorframe with folded arms.
"Jill! Dammit, I asked you to look after her!" he fumed and her grin became mean.
"Oh, you did? I'd rather say you dropped her on me while I was busy trying to figure that report out and distracted enough not to notice you slipping out," she corrected icily.
Leon's gaze wavered between her and the still screaming kid in his arms. "Ssssh, Dana! Okay, okay, that wasn't fair of me, but Jill, please! Dana, be quiet! What was I supposed to do? Take her with me to that neighbour?!" he pleaded, exasperated.
"Orcot! Shut that kid up!" the chief screamed from his bureau.
"I'm trying!" the blonde bellowed back and rocked Dana firmer.
"B-bàaaabàaaaa!" she wailed. Leon swore fluently.
Funnily enough, that managed what all soothing wouldn't. Dana's mouth closed with an almost audible snap and she looked up at him with wide eyes. "Fucking nanny!" she announced, teary-eyed, obviously wanting to take part in the swearing session.
Leon glared at Jill trying to hide her grin and failing triumphantly. "Great!" he groaned. "D's gonna kill me, and I'm not even responsible this time!"
"Oooooh, I'm so sorry for that!" Jill faked sympathy and slid into her seat again. Leon searched for a handkerchief, didn't find any, and instead used the hem of his t-shirt to wipe Dana's face. "Really, Leon, you've got a lot to learn to be a good dad," his colleague observed dryly.
He shot her a mean glance. "You're not the best nanny either. F- Da- Jesus, even I know that you don't just leave small children all alone, especially not in a police plaza! Just look at my desk!"
Jill surveyed the chaos Dana had created and grinned. "I really don't see any difference to usual state. She must've got that from you. No wonder the Count was in such a bad mood," she commented and Leon groaned again.
"I'm gonna kill you for that, Jill. I really am."
The woman's tether was at its end. "Hey, what was I supposed to do?!" she snapped. "You just dropped her on me. I've got work to do, too, in case you've never noticed! Those drug-dealers won't bust themselves, even if I wish they would! It was just five minutes, how was I supposed to know she would climb on your desk during that time and start trashing it?"
Leon gave up. "Okay, okay. Peace. I'll pay lunch the whole next week, and you promise if I'll ever leave Dana with you again, you'll make sure someone's there to look after her. Deal?"
Whatever could be said about Jill, she was not resentful. She eyed the hand Leon offered her, but then she shook on it. "Deal. By the way, I think it would be better if you left now. Chief's already pissed enough and I think he for once wouldn't mind if you packed up earlier today."
"Ice-cream!" Dana claimed, sensing that the situation had eased up again. Leon sighed and threaded a hand through his hair.
"Yeah, I promised, I know," he said wearily. "I think I'll take you up on that, Jill. I've gotta find a way to soothe D again anyway."
"Good luck with that." Jill's expression now was really pitiful. Leon grimaced and gathered up Dana's drawings to place them on his desk on the whole other mess.
"Yeah, thanks, I'm really gonna need that. See you tomorrow, then!"
"Bye." Jill turned back to her computer and laughed silently. Leon becoming a dad. Oh, this was so much fun!
"D, you're home?"
Carefully Leon opened the door to the pet shop and went inside, Dana sitting comfortably on his hip. There was no answer, but he was pretty sure that his kami was here. Placing a finger on his lips, he put Dana to the floor and handed her the box with chocolates he'd bought before coming to the shop again. Then he fixed the straps of the little dress she was wearing and adjusted the flowers on her hair (they'd gotten ice-cream at the park and the girl had insisted on Leon making her a little floral wreath. The blonde had never felt more embarrassed in his life than there, sitting in the grass and clumsily binding the flowers).
Whispering, he explained the strategy to his daughter again. "I'm gonna get D to the front room, Dana, and you wait here, okay? Just stay where you are until I call for you. And then you come out and say 'I'm sorry, Bàbà.' You got that?" She nodded vigorously and Leon stood up. "Perfect. Now let's see, where's your daddy…?"
"I really do hope you left her at your apartment," an icy voice answered his question and D emerged from behind one curtain to stare at Leon. The blonde gulped. There were days when D decided he had to remind him that he could be as cold as an iceberg, like he'd been at the beginning of their acquaintance. Today seemed to be one of them. He carefully stepped in front of Dana, hiding his daughter from the kami's view.
"D, c'mon. She's just a kid. Kids sulk and kids don't behave. It's the way of the world. You love her and you know it."
"I should have left her on your doorstep on the day of her birth," the kami snapped and moved forward. His mismatched eyes were both hot fury and ice-cold anger. Leon shuddered at the contrast in them. He folded his arms defensively.
"Yeah, perhaps, but you didn't. Now please, whatever she did, it can't've been that bad."
"She chased away my customer and she upset Tetsu. She has no manners and no respect for others." D was really angry, the blonde could tell. His shoulders sagged, but the kami continued regardless of his pleading eyes. "I really do not understand why I have to watch her all the time. You are her father, too. It was different when you were not there, but now you are. And still you rather leave her with me to care for her all day, come here in the evenings, play with her a little, bring her to bed and then vanish again. That was not why I have moved to America again. If I'd stayed in Japan and let you visit from time to time, you would probably have spent more time with your daughter."
So it's really this what this is about.
Leon sighed deeply and offered his open hands. "D, you know I've got a full-time job. I'm trying, I really am. But right now, I'm up to my head in work. There's this murder case, then I've gotta help Jill with those drug-dealers, the chief's at me all the time because I've still not enough evidence to bust that guy that tried to kill his mother… What do you want me to do? Drag Dana along to all the witnesses? Take her to the crime scenes with me?"
The look in D's eyes softened somehow, but he still snarled. "All I ask of you is to help me raise her if you insisted in being a part of her life. I really don't think that should present such an obstacle."
The girl behind Leon grabbed one of his legs. He remembered that they probably shouldn't be discussing this in front of her. Dana understood a lot more than one might think, and she was perfectly able to get that this was about her. Leon didn't want his daughter to feel like a burden. He briskly took a few steps towards D, put his hands on his shoulders to keep him from turning away and said, "Whatever, D, but there's someone here who's gotta tell you something. Dana?"
The girl's blue eyes were teary again, but she smiled uncertainly at her kami father all the same, offering him the by now half-melted chocolates. "I'm sorry Bábá!" she piped.
Was he good or was he just good?
Triumphantly Leon watched D's face change from anger to pure adoration. He escaped his grip by sliding down onto his knees and reaching for Dana. "Oh Dana, why can't you just be this way all the time?" he half sighed, half cooed. Her bottom lip trembled and the next moment, D had an armful of crying girl, sobbing unidentifiable words in Chinese. Leon rolled his eyes and helped himself to one of the cakes sitting on the teacart. D was going to be busy for a while.
The evening passed far more pleasantly than Leon would've imagined earlier. D, once soothed, was pretty amiable, and he actually was able to forget about the Miller-case for a while. They played together, all three of them. The blonde caught himself smiling at D warmly whenever Dana did something funny. Their gazes quickly broke away again, but even those few seconds caused a strange warmth in his chest. He wondered if D felt the same, and pushed the thought away. They were no family, and there was no use in wondering how the kami felt when they did something so family-like.
Eventually Dana started to yawn and cling to Leon tiredly. He stood with a groan and looked at D still on the floor, looking like he was posing for a picture. "You wanna bathe her or anything?" he asked and D shook his head.
"No, she had her bath yesterday before you arrived. Just bring her to bed, please," he answered, stood too and smoothed out his cheongsam.
"Okay, then we'll be off. Dana, say goodnight to your friends."
The girl waved tiredly. Her eyes kept closing. Leon carried her off to D's bedroom while the kami sat down and poured himself a cup of tea. The blonde left the door open, and he could hear him talking to the child, laughing softly when Dana answered in her English-Chinese-mixture. He smiled. Well, perhaps the day really hadn't started good, but right now, he felt – content.
The door closed, and he knew Leon was now reading to Dana from one of her books, probably 'The little bear and his friends'. It was a book Leon had given her as a present in Japan, god knows where he had managed to find it. But Dana loved it, so much that D could tell the story by now without even having to look at the book. She wanted to hear it all the time. Perhaps he should get her some other children's books so that she would have more choice.
The kami was busy thinking about what kind of books he would buy for Dana when the human returned, drawing him back to reality and causing a somehow tight feeling in his chest. Every thought of Dana and children's books disappeared at the sight of the blonde's face.
Leon sat down and accepted a cup of tea. He sipped it, deep in thought, while D's mismatched eyes searched for clues about what was suddenly bothering his lion. He hadn't forgotten how depressed Leon had seemed only one week ago when he came to the shop, but there hadn't been time yet to find out what had been the matter. He only could suspect it had something to do with the phone call Leon had received the day they came back.
Finally the blonde looked up, his eyes unfocused and staring into the distance. They met D's quite by accident, stayed distant. Then they focused on his mismatched ones and unwillingly the kami held his breath.
"Are – are you still angry I left Dana with you today?" he managed to croak.
Leon, still thoughtful, came to himself again and just looked plainly surprised. "No. No, of course not. Why should I?" he asked and shook his head. "I mean, I wasn't too happy about it… The precinct isn't quite a place where I want her to be. You could at least have called, then I would've dropped by. But so I had to leave her with Jill because I had to do an inquiry."
D looked not pleased hearing this, but he wisely chose not to object now. Instead he looked at Leon's wrinkled brow. "May I ask if it had something to do with that phone call you got a few weeks ago?" he inquired almost timidly, not knowing if he was overstepping any lines. Back when he and Leon had been fighting all the time, when there had been no Dana, it had been quite commonplace for the detective to tell him about his cases. But circumstances had changed.
Leon sighed deeply and leaned back in his chair. "You remember that? Yeah, it was Jill. They'd found a girl shot in her – listen to that – walk-in closet." He cracked open an eye and saw D's hand fly to his mouth to cover a chuckle. For a second he was distracted from his worries and grinned. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too."
Then he grew solemn again. "Anyway, nothing funny about the fact that she's dead. She was pretty young, too, only 23." He sighed and threaded a hand through his blonde hair. D noticed it was pretty long by now again. Some people might have said he needed a haircut. But the kami only felt his fingers twitch to feel the softness of the blonde strays.
Leon continued, oblivious to his thoughts. "It's a friggin' shame. Three days ago I went to her mother. She's one of the Miller daughters, like in 'Miller construction'. Laura. The third daughter. The family's pretty strict, catholic and all, but Laura left them because of her boyfriend. His name's Gavin McGallen, and he's one of the sons of the 'McGallen seminary' family. Pretty catholic, too, though Gavin and Laura seem to have been the black sheep of their respective families, you know, what with living alone and having sex."
Leon's eyes, which at first had been fixed on D's face, now gazed into nowhere as he told the kami about his thoughts. "Laura's mother told me her daughter left her family for Gavin. She said she had a dream in which Laura appeared and told her Gavin killed her because he wanted to silence her. Only thing is, her death looks pretty much as if she surprised a burglar and got shot by accident. Chief wants quick results, because both families are pretty important. And I –" he sighed.
"Her mother said she dreamed about Laura?" D inquired.
The blonde nodded. "Yeah, I know."
Then he rewarded D with a weak glance. "Okay, forget it. I don't know. I mean, I know you believe in dreams and such, but I need hard proof if I want to bust this guy. I'd love to, I really would. His family might think he's the lost son and that one day he'll find his way back to god or whatever, but I'm telling you, that guy's just a bastard. The kind of guy no one wants his daughter to end up with."
"That means you are convinced that he did it, too, but can't prove it?" D asked, passing what Leon had just said. The blonde nodded.
"But there's the next problem. I mean, I did look into his alibi, of course. We always do, and I had a feeling this wasn't just a burglary from the beginning. Unfortunately Gavin's got a perfect alibi, and if he didn't bribe 20 different guys, which I personally doubt he had the money for, there's no way he could've killed Laura himself. And if he hired a professional killer, well, chances are I'll never find out."
"Gavin McGallen, you said?" D asked and sipped his tea thoughtfully.
"Yeah. You know him? You sold him one of your pets which might've been able to kill Laura for him?"
Leon's interest and enthusiasm was noticeably low, considering the usual enthusiasm with which he pinned any crime to D. Well, that probably was another change necessary to make this work, but the kami still felt strange at this lack of usual behaviour. He watched Leon lean his head back on the sofa and Pon-chan stroke his hair, envying the raccoon the liberties she could take with the blonde.
"No, I did not sell him a pet. But I sold one to his mother. About six years ago, shortly after I arrived in Los Angeles, she came to my shop and purchased a dog. Her son accompanied her." His nose wrinkled delicately. "As far as I can recall, he is a very aggressive, rude young man with a mouth even fouler than yours."
"Yeah, sounds like him," Leon said, closing his eyes and enjoying Pon-chan's massage. "By the way, it's a good thing there's someone else you think is worse than me, I mean, given the fact I'm your daughter's dad. I'd feel bad being the only bad example you can show her."
D chuckled, then his brow wrinkled again. "It's strange, though, that he should have a girlfriend. I got the impression that Mr McGallen was – homosexual."
Leon deigned to crack open an eye and glanced at the kami. "He set your gaydar off, huh?"
D had managed until now not to blush, firmly telling himself there was no reason to blush while talking homosexuality to Leon. But now his pale cheeks grew red as a bunch of roses and he snarled. "Really, Detective! I do not have such a thing as a 'gaydar'. What king of word is that even?! I am merely observant, and if someone mistakes me for a woman and starts to court me, then learns I am a male and doesn't stop, I think it's not too far-fetched to assume he is at least bisexual," he said icily.
Leon grinned. "You're not male, D," he pointed out and sat up again. "And I doubt Gavin started 'courting you'. He probably started hitting on you so hard not even you could pretend it wasn't happening."
The kami glared. "I am male, Detective. The fact that I am also coincidentally female doesn't change that. And I prefer being perceived as a male."
"Why?"
The simple question stopped D's rising temper at once and he stared at the human confused. "Excuse me?" he inquired faintly.
Leon's eyes locked on his and he got lost in blue depths, unable to look away. The blonde propped his elbows on his knees and put his chin in his hands. "Why do you want to be a guy?" he repeated patiently.
"I – I never really considered myself as being female," D answered faintly, hesitantly, being caught off-guard and thus being more open than he wished to. But the words simply forced their way out of his mouth. "I – never really noticed my femininity until…"
He bit his lip and blushed furiously. "Anyway, I do not think that's your concern," he finished firmly and sat his cup down. Leon rolled his eyes, but got to his feet and quickly gulped the remaining tea in his cup.
"Yeah, whatever, D. I fucked you, I got you pregnant, but that's alright, you don't have to tell me anything and can just keep on being prude."
A cup hit his head and smashed on it. The kami's eyes blazed. "You are surely the most crudest person I've ever met!" he snapped. "I am so glad you were drunk and can't remember anything, else the whole city would know all about me by now!"
Leon whirled round, but instead of replying, he hauled off and slapped D's backside that the kami squeaked and gaped at him, speechless.
"Yeah, thought I remembered doing that. By the way, have you gained weight since last time? That ass seems bigger to me," Leon said nonchalantly and strode out. "See ya, D!"
T-chan perked around the corner and looked between the giggling Pon-chan and the Count, frozen there like a pillar of salt. "Hey Count, did he just touch your ass?!" he asked and grinned broadly. "Wow. Didn't think he'd have the guts."
With that, he vanished again, leaving his master standing open-mouthed in the middle of the front room.
A/N: Yeah, talk about issues... How in all heavens shall they ever get together if they keep going like this?! o.O And, people: give them some time to work it out! It's not as if this situation is easy for either of them, and we all know it already was pretty complicated when no one was yet thinking of Dana.
Oh, and by the way: Happy Saint Nicholas Day! :-)