Max woke up to find Alec carefully watching her at his perch at the edge of the couch. "You've been watching me while I napped?" she asked him, causing him to smile, as when he realized the moment he had been caught in the act. "What did you think about while I napped?"
"About a few things," he answered with a small smile, as the bedroom door opened a crack and he leaned back towards it. "Hey Pip, come on out. We're awake." A blur of a figure came towards them and they soon found a body between them. "And then there's a girl between us." She shot them a smile, as she looked up at them. "Did you have a nice nap?"
"Yeah," she said, as she let out a small yawn. "So have you figured out a heist for Max yet?"
"Ah, you eavesdropped, Pip, I'm surprised. For one so young, that's an amazing task."
"Alec, why are you surprised by her actions?" Max asked, as she moved into a more comfortable position, by sitting up and her foot landed on his knee. "We used to do it all the time to the guards around her age. To test our abilities. To see if they could catch us."
"Yeah, I remember doing it, but I didn't think that our daughter would be doing it to us," he replied to her, as he looked over at her. "Guess I got a lot to learn."
"Yes you do." Dakota let out a shiver as she made a mad dash towards the kitchen. "Dakota?" Alec caught her getting glasses out of the cupboards out of the corner of her eyes. "Alec, raising a child is not like taking troops into battle. This is nothing like we've ever done before."
Alec moved so that he was in front of Max and she looked up into his eyes. "Don't you think that I know that Max. I've known that for a very long time." The sound of glass breaking caused them to jump to their feet and go towards the kitchen where they found Dakota standing in the middle of the floor where she was surrounded by thousand of glass shards. Alec's eyes sought out the glasses he had seen her take from the cupboards but found none, and knew automatically that they were what was on the floor.
"Easy, Pip, don't step away where," Max said, as her eyes went directly to Dakota's feet and saw that she was barefoot and she took a step forward only to have Alec's arm shoot out to stop her.
"You're barefooted as well," he reminded her, and she shot a glance down at her feet and then shot him a smile. "I'll get her." He walked across the glass, it crunching under his shoes, and he hunched down beside her. "It's okay Pip. They were just glasses. They can be replaced, we're just glad that you weren't." She buried her head in her hands and began to cry. "Pip, what's wrong?" He shot a glance at Max over his shoulder. "Max?"
"Hang on," she said, as she disappeared for a second, only to come back, a second later with her shoes on. Alec winced when he heard her shoes crunched on the glass behind him. She placed a hand on his shoulder, as she steadied herself, when she went stumbled. "Sorry." She shot a glance at the glass all around them. "I take it that you don't have any glasses left, do you?" Alec shook his head no. "We'll help you get some more."
"Thanks, Max," he mouthed, as he looked down at the little girl, who was standing in the middle of the glass. "But I'm not really worried about the glass at the moment."
"I know," Max whispered to him, as she moved past him, and hunched down in front of Dakota. "Dakota?" She slowly reached out and touched her arm, causing her to look up at her.
"I'm sorry," stuttered, as she looked up at them with tears in her eyes, and then she blurred out of the room. Her actions caused Max to loose her balance and fall backwards and slammed into Alec's knees. He grabbed her arms and quickly pulled her up before any part of her body touched the floor.
"Alec!" Max muttered, as she struggled against him, as he helped her to her feet and then over to the counter. "What was that for?"
"If you haven't forgotten, Miss 452, there is an entire layer of sharp glass all over this floor," he answered, as he shot a glance back into the living room to see Dakota watching them before she took off again and he heard the bedroom door slam shut. He then let out a sigh. "Okay, she's upset."
"You think?" Max asked, as she looked over at him. Alec let out a sigh, as he headed out of the kitchen and went to stand on the other side of the kitchen from her. "It doesn't take an idiot to figure that out."
"Great I'm an idiot now."
"Never said you weren't one," Max said, as she moved over to stand in front of him. "You just sometimes do stuff before thinking." She placed a hand on his chest and looked up into his eyes. "Some really stupid things. Things I usually have to get you out of."
"Some stuff of better done before thinking." He slid a hand to her waist and pulled her close to him. "But I think you like getting me out of trouble."
"Oh, grow up, Alec. If your ego got any bigger you couldn't get in the door anymore."
"Now, Max, that hurt."
A small smile crossed Max's face, as she placed a hand on his chest and pushed backed away from him. "It was meant to."
"Are you guys done fighting yet or do I need?" a voice called out, and they turned to face Dakota. Automatically, Max's hand dropped to her side and Alec reached behind her to pick up her other one. "Because I have a feeling that I'm the cause of all the unwanted anger here."
"No, Pip, you're not. Before you came, Max and I were always like this," Alec said, as he looked over at her. "Isn't that, right, Max?"
"Yeah," Max answered, as she moved over to Dakota's side. "Don't think that it is ever your fault, Dakota." She slid an arm around her shoulder. She then whispered to Dakota. "It may be Alec's fault, but never your fault."
"Hey!" Alec said, as he caught on to what she had whispered to Dakota. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll go sweep up all that glass. Then we'll have to hit some pawn shops to find some glasses."
"Sounds like a fun trip," Dakota said, as she went after her father to help him clean up the mess she made.
TBC
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