Author's Note: A belated thank you to the readers and all of the really nice reviews I have received throughout this story. It means a lot to know I have faithful readers and reviewers. I'm also glad so many liked the previous chapter. When I came up with this story idea, that was one of the first scenes I wrote as it set the stage for how I envisioned Flint and Lady Jaye's family life.

From the moment that Alison told him that she was bringing Marissa to Arizona, Flint began to plan the perfect week. Rearranging the mission on-call schedule was the easy part. With the list of potential Cobra offshoots exhausted, the Joe team had settled back into the slower pace they had become accustomed to.

Acquiring the baby items that Alison didn't want to bring across country was also an easy chore. Flint used his free time leading up to their visit cleaning and setting up the apartment since he had spent minimal amount of time there the past few months.

On the morning of their arrival, Flint went to the airport well ahead of time. He parked, bought a coffee and a newspaper but he was too excited to read. Instead he scanned the arriving passengers until he saw them. As he went to greet them he was hit with a nauseating smell and he grimaced.

"I know," Alison said with an exasperated sigh. "She was so good throughout the flight, barely even cried. But then as we were landing, I noticed that smell. It's a full-fledged blowout, so I'm going to need a second pair of hands. I'll take her, you take her car seat."

Stifling a series of gags, Flint did the best he could do in the cramped and crowded men's room to wash and dry the seat. By the time they were done, Alison's bags were waiting for them in the baggage claim. He loaded them all in the car and drove home.

When planning the perfect week, the two things that Flint didn't take into consideration was the unbearable early August Arizona heat, and Marissa's negative reaction to the time change. So dreams of leisurely trips to the park and the zoo were instead spent in the air conditioned apartment trying to console the extremely cranky infant whose schedule had been altered.

Alison had originally said she was going to leave very early Monday morning to drive to Fort Huachuca to start her training, but Flint couldn't blame her when she came up with a few excuses as to why she actually needed to travel Sunday night to get situated.

The one thing that went somewhat to plan was getting Amber to act as Marissa's babysitter for the week. Since she was teaching evening courses at the local dojo, Amber was free to watch Marissa during the day. Flint could tell she wasn't thrilled with their early arrival Monday morning, but she didn't complain.

The first two days went fine but then shortly after Flint returned to the apartment Tuesday night, he received a phone call from an apologetic Amber who explained that one of her fellow sempais had a family emergency and couldn't teach Wednesday at the summer camp the dojo was holding, so Amber had to be his replacement. Flint thought about asking if she could bring Marissa to the dojo, but he didn't want to put either one of them through that.

As he was debating his plan 'B', Alison called. He didn't want to give her any indication of any problems so he told her everything was fine when she asked. "That's good to hear," she said. "Is she sleeping any better?"

"Not really," Flint admitted. "She still falls asleep before seven, wakes up twice in the night, and is up for the day a little after four. She's also not happy with the bedtime and first thing in the morning bottle. She'll eventually take it, but I think she misses you."

"I miss her too. Her sleeping habits were pretty erratic, but not that bad. My only advice to you is try to go to sleep as soon as you can after she does."

"Believe me, that hasn't been a problem."

Alison laughed. "I know the feeling."

"So how's training going?"

"Really well. I didn't think things had changed that much since I last came through here, but I am constantly being surprised at what advances had been made. Plus, I've become friendly with a group of guys here, and we're all going out to dinner tonight."

Flint bristled at the comment. But he was surprised to realize that he was more bothered by the fact that she had a chance to go out to dinner as opposed to the company she was keeping. He then scolded himself for such an unfair reaction, that he knew was due to sleep deprivation and the stress of seeing Marissa so unhappy without her mother. Flint was experiencing what Alison's life was like now as a mother, and she had definitely earned the week-long break. "That's good, I hope you have a nice night."

"Thanks, I am looking forward to it. I hate to cut you off, but I have to meet them in a couple of minutes."

Flint put Marissa to bed, and as he too crashed into his own he realized he never found a replacement baby sitter for the following day. He knew he had no choice but to bring her to HQ with him. As he carried her in her portable car seat into OC the following morning, he received a glare from General Bradshaw. "I'm sorry sir, her babysitter canceled at the last minute."

Luckily Marissa stayed quiet throughout the meeting. Once it was done, Flint brought her into his office. Thinking back to Alison's warning when she asked him about watching her, he made sure to set Marissa up close to his desk and not put her in the corner of the room.

About an hour later, Flint decided it was time for a late breakfast for the two of them. He brought Marissa into the commissary, made himself a plate, and ate while he fed her a bottle. After a few minutes, Dial-Tone joined him at the table. "Flint, the shipment arrived at the warehouse."

"Okay, fine. Tell them to deliver it as soon as possible."

Dial-Tone frowned as he looked from Flint to the baby is his arms. "But you said that you didn't want it delivered here until you personally inspected the parts since the last order was all messed up."

Flint let out a curse. Then realizing that Marissa could hear him, he apologized and continued an internal rant. Dial-Tone was correct, he did need to go check out the shipment. "Okay, I guess I'll take her with me."

"In this heat?" Dial-Tone said. "That's crazy. If you want, I have the rest of the morning off so I can watch her."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. How hard can it be?"

Flint was ready to correct Dial-Tone on his assumption, but he didn't want to lose the opportunity that was given him. As Marissa finished her bottle, he gave Dial-Tone a crash course in basic infant care. "She should be good for at least three hours, and I'll be back well before then. If you have any other questions call me."

Unfortunately, his little errand took much longer than he expected. Traffic was extremely heavy so it took him almost twice as long to get to the warehouse as it should have. Once he got there, there was a fair amount of confusion and it took nearly an hour to locate the parts. Then he noticed one of the boxes was missing, and it took some time to find it. The only saving grace was that the order was correct so once he was satisfied he raced back to his car to return to HQ. He was desperate to see Marissa again. It didn't help that his phone had died, so he couldn't contact Dial-Tone to see if she was okay. Flint cursed as he drove his car into the Joe's underground parking lot.

He parked and ran into the building. Once inside, he didn't know where to head to first. He figured they were long gone from the commissary, but he checked anyway. Since it was after lunch, the place was nearly deserted. But still he asked the couple of Greenshirts milling about, but no one had seen either Dial-Tone or his daughter.

His next stop was his office. He figured he could probably save time and his breath by calling people instead of running from room to room. Dial-Tone didn't answer his personal phone, but Flint was able to track him down in the Computer room. "Dial-Tone, it's Flint. I'm sorry I got back so late. How's Marissa doing?"

When the communications specialist paused, Flint knew it wasn't going to be good news. "I don't know, Flint. An emergency came up in the computer lab, so I asked Cross Country to keep an eye on her. I tried to call you to tell you what happened."

Flint felt his blood pressure start to rise. But he knew nothing was going to get accomplished if he lost his cool. "It's fine. So Cross Country has her?"

"Yes. He said he had nothing planned for the afternoon, so she should still be with him."

"Okay," Flint said as he started to look up Cross Country phone number. "Thank you," he added as an afterthought.

Flint dialed the number and was greeted with a "Y'all hold on." With the amount of noise and commotion going on in the background of the phone, Flint prayed that Marissa wasn't still with him. "I'm sorry, but you have to make it quick," Cross Country said once he got back on the line.

"It's Flint. Do you have Marissa?"

"I don't. Excuse me. Where the heck are the other extinguishers?" Cross Country muffled the phone but returned after a few moments. "A small fire broke out in the motor pool. But don't worry, we have it under control. And Shipwreck has Marissa, so she's fine." There was another loud crash and Cross Country hurried off the phone.

Flint had to refrain from smacking himself in the head. He wasn't sure what the bigger crisis was at the moment. The fact that the motor pool was on what didn't sound like a 'small' fire, or that his not yet four-month-old was hanging out with probably the most notorious Joe on the base.

He dialed Shipwreck's number, but to no avail. He had to refrain from leaving a profanity laced voice mail. So he then resorted to the communications method he only used in times of emergency. He figured this moment qualified as one. He dialed the code for the base-wide announcement and asked Shipwreck to call his office.

As the seconds and then the minutes passed, Flint started to really panic. He tried to calm down by telling himself that surely someone on this base full of responsible adults had her. But he had too many other bad scenarios playing out in his head.

There was a knock on the door, and Flint hoped it was his prayers answered. But instead Duke walked in. "I'm glad you're back. There's apparently a situation in the motor pool."

"I heard. But I have a bigger problem. I lost Marissa."

Duke stared at him a moment. "How did you lose her? Did she suddenly start walking?"

Flint started to explain what happened, but his phone rang. He answered it and for the first time in his life, he was thrilled to hear Shipwreck's voice. "Do you have Marissa?"

"I do," Shipwreck answered in a whisper.

"Thank God. Where are you? Can you bring her to me?"

"No can do," Shipwreck again said in a whisper.

Flint clued into the fact that Shipwreck's end of the conversation was very odd. He again started to panic. "Shipwreck, what the hell's going on?"

"Sorry," the sailor replied. "She's currently asleep on my chest and I don't want to wake her."

Flint breathed a long sigh of relief. "Where are you? I'll come get her."

"Rec room. But take your time. She's fine."

Flint hung up the phone and then turned to Duke. "Shipwreck has Marissa in the rec room. Let me just get her, and then we'll figure out what to do with the motor pool."

"Don't worry about it. Get your little girl, and go home. I'll deal with the motor pool."

Flint smiled. "Thanks, Duke. I owe you one."

He then raced for the rec room, and when he entered he saw a sight that he never would have believed if someone else had told it to him. Shipwreck was sitting perfectly still on one of the couches, with Marissa asleep in his arms. His hand was rubbing the baby's back.

"I think she's starting to wake up," Shipwreck explained. "I gave her the rest of the bottle I had, but there wasn't much to it. Luckily, she fell asleep, but I think she's going to wake up pretty hungry."

Flint berated himself for not bringing her diaper bag with him. "I've got her things in my office. Thank you for doing this."

"No problem. I had a good excuse for getting out of this afternoon's work detail," Shipwreck said with a grin.

Flint laughed. "But still, I really appreciate it. Hey, and listen, I'd also appreciate it if you didn't mention any of this to Alison. I'd even be willing to give you a free pass for your next screw-up."

"Tell Alison what, exactly? That you temporarily misplaced your firstborn? A lesser person would take your "bribe", but you know that I'm better than that. I'd be more than happy to keep your little secret. But I think I deserve at least five free passes."

Flint glared at Shipwreck. "Don't press your luck. I'll give you three."

"It's a deal. Now, dad, get your little girl her bottle."

That Saturday night, Flint lay in bed with Alison in his arms. He reflected over the last few days with a sense of sadness since Alison and Marissa were going to return to DC the following morning.

The misadventure on Wednesday had seemed to be the turning point of the week. After Flint had brought Marissa home, a series of storms had come through cooling the temperature enough to take Marissa for a walk outside. The fresh air had seemed to improve her mood, and that evening Flint had loved watching her let out squeals of delight and excited babble as they played with her toys.

The next day had gone just as well, and Flint had dropped Marissa off Friday morning with conflicted emotions. Since he felt like he had finally gotten the hang of single parenthood he knew he was going to miss it. But he was excited that Alison would be returning that evening, and they had the added bonus that Amber offered to watch Marissa Saturday night as a make-up for her earlier cancellation. That meant that he and Alison would finally get their much-needed date night and he quickly agreed.

Friday morning had passed excruciatingly slow for Flint. Luckily he had only been needed at HQ until noon. Shortly after picking up Marissa and going to the apartment he had gotten a phone call from Alison who told him she too was on her way back.

"Already? I thought your day ended later?"

"The classes are done. There is a non-mandatory social event this afternoon, but I passed on it."

"Really? What about your new friends?" Flint said, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Please. It only took that one night out to realize I had nothing in common with any of them. So I'd much rather spend these few hours with you and Marissa."

Flint smiled. "Drive carefully, and I'll see you soon."

Based on the separation anxiety Marissa had exhibited at the beginning of the week, Flint had assumed that she would be happy to see her mother. But instead, when Alison arrived and gave her a welcome home hug she let out a cry.

Flint didn't think it was possible for someone as young as Marissa to hold a grudge but that was what she had seemed to do the rest of Friday. She even refused to nurse at first, upsetting Alison who was afraid that by leaving for the week, she had accidentally weaned her. But by her bedtime, Marissa relented.

Marissa seemed back to normal on Saturday, but Alison was still hesitant to leave her again for their date night. Flint eventually talked her into it by saying they could do just an early dinner and be home in time for Marissa's bedtime.

He was glad he did. They had a very nice dinner together. Even though they had spent the previous twenty-four hours together, it was the first opportunity they had to sit and really talk.

"So how was single fatherhood the last few days?" Alison asked.

"It went really well," Flint said with a grin. "I admit, I had a couple of moments when I might have panicked, but I figured it out."

"You called your mother for help?"

Flint laughed. "No! Give me more credit than that. I called my sister."

Flint continued the recap, omitting the part where he lost Marissa. Alison too summed up her week. Once dinner was over, Flint tried to talk Alison into extending the evening, but she was adamant about going back home to check on Marissa. "Perfect timing," Amber said as they returned home. "I was just getting ready to make her bottle."

While Alison took Marissa into her room to feed her, Flint turned to Amber. "Thanks again for doing this."

"It was no problem. Since Mac has the duty watch, I didn't have big plans for tonight." Amber looked at her watch. "If you want to go back out after Alison is done, I don't might staying a little while longer."

"Thank you, but I think we're done. It's nearly our bedtime as well."

Amber nodded. "I guess having a baby really does change your whole life. Marissa is so sweet, and I enjoyed being with her these last few days. But I don't know if I'm ready to take this on full time. I might stick with the babysitting jobs a little while longer."

Amber's comment hounded Flint a few hours later as he lay sleepless in bed. Alison would have agreed with her assessment about the life-changing process of parenthood. And yes, Flint too was a different man than the one from the year prior, before he knew about Alison's pregnancy. But because of their long-distance separation he was still basically in a baby-sitting position as opposed to a full-time father.

He was also reminded of his father's speech shortly after Marissa was born, and how he had once promised Alison that their separation would only last until Marissa's six-month birthday. That date was rapidly approaching, and he hadn't made any progress towards keeping that promise.

He vowed to himself that was going to change. The criteria that had forced him to remain with the Joes was no longer an issue. Duke seemed mostly back to his old self. And even if he wasn't a hundred percent, Falcon had improved enough over the last eight months to take on the role of XO. Plus they had once again proved to the Jugglers and themselves that the Cobra of the past was no longer a threat.

Flint knew that a transfer was going to take some time. And that it meant convincing Anvil, which wasn't going to be easy. But as he looked over at Alison he knew it was time to try.