Author's Note: Writing is taking me longer because of a lot of school work and a lot of construction at the house right now. Don't worry. I'm still working. It will just be slower. Thanks for staying tuned! I still have several requests to work through and I will get to them. This one is a little girl getting in trouble.

A Change

"Don't you get smart with me, little girl. You're already in trouble."

Letty faced down her six-year-old daughter who was doing her best to look as intimidating as she could in return. Standing there with her tiny hands on her hips, denim shorts, faded green Hulk t-shirt, dark hair in ponytails that were mussed, strands slipped free around her face. Her big eyes were narrowed and her lips twisted into a scowl.

"I'm always smart, Mami!" she sassed, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Letty couldn't help but curse her genes. Of course she was certain that in matters of attitude Dom had more than contributed. But it was hard to deny the girl was her daughter when she got that look on her face. The same look Letty could still see in the mirror.

"Oh really?" she asked, arching one brow. "What was so smart about the mess you made of Mami's car?"

The little girl shrugged, casting her eyes guiltily to the ground. "It needed a pretty color."

Letty let out a long sigh, trying to remember that her daughter couldn't really understand why what she'd done was wrong.

"You don't get to pick the color of Mami's car. Mami does. When you have your own car you can paint it whatever color you want."

"But," the girl protested. "That's a long time. Mami drives me to school. I want your car to be pretty."

Slightly offended, Letty crossed her arms over her chest. "What about when Papi drives you?"

"Papi's car is pretty."

"It's black."

"Black is pretty."

"What's wrong with Mami's car?"

"It's boring. Grey is boring."

"But black is pretty?"

Her daughter nodded sagely. "Not as pretty as red… or blue. But still pretty."

"But you don't like grey… and that's why you tried to paint Mami's car."

The child shifted on her feet. "I thought it would be prettier… so I mixed the red and blue and it turned… purple and it was pretty too so I thought I could paint Mami's car… I thought you'd like it."

Letty sighed. "Mija… you need to use a special kind of paint for cars. Using the leftover paint from your room… that's bad for the car. Mami is going to have to take it to the garage and fix it now. Do you understand?"

"I broke it?" she asked in a very small voice.

"Sort of. You damaged it. That's why you don't mess with other people's things."

"I just wanted to make it pretty… I'm sorry, Mami."

Letty wanted to fold under the weight of those big dark eyes and the little upturned face. But she also knew that if she let the little girl take an inch, she'd grab for a mile. Maybe her intent hadn't been to do damage, but she'd still done something she knew better than to do by trying to paint her car. Putting aside that it had been the wrong kind of paint and now she was going to have to spend several hours scraping it down, using all the tricks of the trade to wipe it away and then repaint the vehicle properly, her daughter should have had more than a healthy respect of cars by now. She had a love for them. She knew her parents had a love for them. And she knew that you didn't touch other people's things without asking.

It was a good thing she was the one dealing with this anyway. Dom would have happily accepted the apology, hugged her until those big eyes didn't look so teary and sent her on her way. There had to be something more effective at teaching her a lesson.

Letty thought Mia would have known exactly what to do. When it came to the responsible parts of being a parent she was still rather stumbling along, even after six years. She knew they let the girl get away with more things than many parents would put up with. They weren't strict about what she saw on the television, or what games she could play. She spent most of her free time in the garage with them, surrounded by tools and cars and mechanics with dirty mouths. That didn't mean she wanted her daughter to grow up a spoiled brat.

"I know you're sorry right now. But you have to learn that there are consequences when you do things you know you're not supposed to."

The girl looked up at her warily. "What… cons… cons-kwence?"

"It means… something that happens because of the thing you did. For example, because you painted Mami's car, you do not get to come to the garage for the rest of the week. So after school you'll go over to Aunt Mia's house until Mami and Papi get off work."

"Nooooooooo!" the girl cried, her face horrified. "Mami that's not fair!"

"Yes it's fair. I just explained it to you. So next time you think about touching someone else's things without permission, you'll remember this, won't you?"

"Yes…" the child mumbled, scuffing her sneaker against the ground unhappily. She sulked out of the room just as Letty heard the sound of Dom's car pulling up.

She looked up as he walked through the back door, and then tilted her head to greet him with a kiss.

"What the hell happened to your car?" he asked, crossing to the fridge for a beer.

"Just a little accident called your daughter," she replied, leaning back against the counter. When he raised a brow she shook her head. "Already handled. Mia will just have to be on monster duty for the next week. I'm going to owe her, which will probably mean we get Vincent for a weekend while she and Brian go off on some romantic vacation."

"Sounds nice," he murmured. "Why don't we ever do that?"

"We should." She smiled and wrapped her arms around his shoulders when he sat down at the kitchen table. Quietly she laid her head against the top of his. He reached up to stroke his hand over the soft skin of her arm, chuckling when she shivered in response.

After a long silent moment she asked. "Do you think I should paint my car?"