Chapter Fifteen

The next two weeks flew by quickly as John and Natalie both worked on adjusting to the changes in their lives. Though John easily jumped back into his old job as Chief of Detectives, fixing things with his family hadn't gone as smoothly. While aside from the one slap at the police station Eve seemed to accept John's apology and welcomed her son back with open arms, Michael hadn't been as forgiving. Knowing things needed to be addressed sooner or later John had found out when Michael was off and unexpectedly showed up at the house one afternoon. Michael had tried to brush him off, but John forced the issue and the two brothers ended up spending a few hours talking things over. Things were by no means back to the way they were before, but it seemed with time they would be fine. The nicest thing, however, about the night was that John got to meet his two nephews Josh and Ryan.

As for finding Cristian, despite the dozens of tips there had be no solid leads. John and his team were doing the best they could, but it was as if he had dropped off the face of the earth. Luckily, despite everything Eve and Sydney were adjusting nicely. There were still nights when one of them would wake up screaming from a nightmare, but they were all attending regular sessions with Dr. Crosby and the doctor assured both John and Natalie that with time they would get past the trauma. Both of them were also adjusting well to the news that John was their daddy. There had been a few instances where one of them would come up and ask Natalie a question about his absence, but for the most part they were doing well.

It was Natalie who was having a hard time. It was hard for her to have the girls out of her sight and most nights were spent tossing and turning because the dreams and memories haunted her. At first, they were the memories of the night they went missing and dreams of Cristian coming back and trying again, but as the days passed they turned into memories of the old Cristian and how happy they had been at one time. For Natalie, it was these memories that were the scariest.

It was only John's presence that soothed her. She had meant what she said about not going down the relationship road again, but knowing that he was in the house put her at ease and help reassure her that nothing was going to happen to her girls. In fact, Natalie had decided to start off slow and go to one of her classes for the morning just so she could get used to it and so that John would have an opportunity to spend time alone with the girls. After leaving a long list of numbers, countless instructions and tips, she was finally out the door leaving John in charge for the first time.

So far things had been going well – he had made the girls breakfast, got them dressed and ready and now the three of them were sitting in the living room.

"John will you do something for me?" came Sydney's soft voice.

"Sure, Sydney, what do you want?" John asked turning his attention away from some Disney movie about a company of monsters that he had been watching with Eve.

"Will you come to my tea party?"

John nervously glanced over at Eve who just shrugged. To him, tea parties and dolls were an uncharted territory.

"I don't know, your sister and I are in the middle of this movie…"

"Oh, I don't mind," Eve broke in with a small smile on her face, "go play with Syd."

Sydney looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Please, Daddy?" she asked. Since it was the first time that she had referred to him that way, John felt himself melt. "Sure Sydney."

John stood up from the couch and let Sydney lead him over to the small pink children's table where there was a plastic teapot, cups and plates.

"You can sit here, Daddy," Sydney said brining him to one of the small chairs. She then pointed to the two teddy bears that occupied the other two chairs. "The pink one is Ella Bear and the brown one is Johnny Bear. They are shy and don't really say much."

John nodded and sat awkwardly on the stool. "So, um, do you want me to pour the tea?" he asked, just wanting to just get this over with.

Sydney shook her head. "Oh no, Daddy, you aren't ready for the tea party yet."

"Ready?" he questioned.

Sydney nodded with a huge smile before running over to the toy box on the other side of the room. She dug around for a few minutes but quickly retuned holding two pink straw hats and some beaded necklaces. "See how pretty Ella and Johnny look in their hats and necklaces? We have to look pretty too."

John's eyes widened. "Sydney I am not really sure if pink is my color…" he began helplessly.

"That's silly Daddy, everyone looks good in pink." Sydney fixed him with her trademark puppy dog look. "Please Daddy?"

In that instant she looked so much like Natalie that John couldn't help but grin. Taking that as a yes, Sydney clapped her hands excitedly together and put a whole bunch of colorful necklaces around his neck and then around her own.

"Now the hat!" she said as she reached up and placed the big pink hat upon his head. "Eve, doesn't the purple bow look good on Daddy?"

Eve looked up from the couch and nodded. "You look pretty, Daddy."

John felt his face flush bright red. Never in a million years had he imagined he'd be called 'pretty.' Grateful that no one else was around to witness his humiliation, he just nodded.

"Can I pour the tea now?" he asked again.

Sydney shook her head. "One more thing!" Reaching into the small pink purse she was carrying, she pulled out a tube of lipstick. "We just need to put this on!" Before John could even protest, Sydney darted over and smeared a bunch of the red glop on his lips. Knowing he probably resembled the Joker from old Batman films; John sighed and forced himself to smile.

"Now, you can pour the tea!" Sydney said with a large smile as she took her seat across from John.

As he lifted up the plastic tea pot and began to pour imaginary tea it dawned on John that these two little girls had him wrapped tightly around their little fingers.

And despite the pink hat and lipstick, he loved it.

After her last class, Natalie practically sped home. She had never had a problem with leaving the girls in the past, but with it being John's first time alone with them and Cristian still being on the loose Natalie found herself slightly paranoid.

"I'm home!" she called out as she opened the door to the house. "I made good time…" Natalie trailed off as her brain processed the scene in front of her --- John sitting at the pink kids table, wearing beaded necklaces, lipstick and a hat holding a plastic teacup to his mouth.

Trying unsuccessfully to bite back the laugh that was bubbling up in her throat, Natalie quickly reached over to the side table near the door and grabbed her camera.

"Smile you two!"

Oblivious to John's embarrassment, Sydney moved her chair beside his and fixed her mother with a wide smile. "Smile, Daddy!"

"Yeah, smile, Daddy!" Natalie echoed, enjoying how red John's face was turning.

John weakly smiled and Natalie took the picture. She couldn't wait to get that one developed. Putting the camera back down, Natalie finally shut the front door and went into the living room.

Looking back over at John, she finally couldn't help it and just burst out in hysterical peels of laughter.

Sydney looked up at her in confusion. "Why are you laughing Mommy? I think Daddy looks pretty."

Natalie took a few deep breaths to control herself and nodded. "Daddy sure does look pretty, but I'm just not used to seeing him look like this."

"Yeah, daddy's not used to it either," John muttered dryly as he started to take off the ridiculous hat.

Sensing his embarrassment, Natalie took a hold of Sydney's small hand. "Girls why don't we go make some cookies and let daddy go back to normal. Does that sound like a good idea?"

"Yeah!" Both girls quickly jumped up and with large smiles ran into the kitchen. Now alone with John, Natalie bit back another smile.

"I warned you that parenthood wasn't going to be easy," she said lightly with a small laugh as she followed their daughters into the kitchen.