Cal heard something in his sleep that woke him, but he wasn't quite sure what it was until a small hand was on his shoulder, murmuring his name. "Hm?" He responded, thinking it was Owen with a bad dream. Although, usually the eighteen month old went straight to his mother. And he was usually a lot less subtle about it. He would push the door so it banged back against the wall and he would run to their bed, throwing himself against the mattress, calling out and waking them both. It sucked that Owen knew how to climb out of his bed now.

"Dad, the tooth fairy came!" Lewis exclaimed now that it seemed his father was awake. "She came! She really came! I didn't even notice her."

Gillian gave a little noise from her side of the bed. Cal pried his eyes open. Lewis was standing beside the bed, his face bright with joy, which Cal could tell easily enough though his vision was still bleary. Lewis had his hand held out with the five dollars in it Gillian had snuck into the boys' room the night before. She got to play tooth fairy this time. It was her first attempt.

"Wow," Cal croaked. He cleared his throat and moved his arms, even though they felt a bit like dead weights. "She's pretty good at bein' sneaky. How much did you get?"

"Five dollars," Lewis added excitedly, waving a 'five' hand in his father's face.

"The tooth fairy must have really liked your tooth," Cal noted sleepily. Gillian kept it. Which was gross to Cal but apparently not that uncommon. Her mother had kept Gillian's and Matthew's teeth. Where were they now? Extra gross.

"Dad, you know how fairies are very small?"

"Yeah?" Cal asked. This conversation was going to go on? Ugh he wanted to go back to sleep.

"How does it carry the money?"

"In its bag," Cal responded. The thing with lies was that more lies had to be told to explain the first lie and then the lies got confused. Cal hoped Gillian was listening. Not that he thought Lewis might grill his mother the next chance he got to compare the answers of his parents. But what if she let slip the tooth fairy had a horse and cart or something like that? Or a magic wand? The least they could do for the six year old is keep the magic alive for a while. That was why they let him believe in Santa and the tooth fairy. For the magic. Because they believed children should learn about magic. The wonderment of a story; the joy of a good myth. If they didn't believe in magic, how were they ever going to find it? Fairytales and make believe were told on the presumption that eventually kids out grew it and learnt the truth. Where was the harm in that? The stories weren't told for control (except maybe Santa. Sometimes), they didn't make promises for punishment (except for maybe Santa. Sometimes) and they didn't make promises that were not kept (not even Santa). Not like religion did.

"The one for the tooth?"

"Yes," Cal agreed. He didn't remember telling Lewis about that. Perhaps that was a Gillian aspect. He shifted over a little so Lewis could take a seat on the edge of the mattress. Cal would have invited him in for a cuddle but it was dark in the bedroom and it would be harder to see hands than it already was, if they were under blankets.

"What do they use the tooth for?"

"To make fairy dust." And Cal was out of signs. He hadn't researched 'fairies'.

"Ohhhhhhhhh," Lewis noted slowly, as if he was processing some complex piece of information that just explained so much. "What do they do with it then?"

"It helps them fly," Cal responded. Wasn't that right? Tinkerbell had fairy dust for flying. Or was that to make other people fly? He was going to have to ask Gillian.

"So they can get more teeth?"

"Yeah," Cal agreed. And maybe pop out for lunch or go on holiday. What did fairies do exactly? Maybe they made the fairy dust out of the teeth and then sold it to other fairies to fly? Fairies were not his forte. However, it was possible to ask him anything at all about Munchkins and Munchkin land. He'd seen that movie freaking more times than he could remember. "What are you gona spend your five dollas on?" Cal asked, hopefully changing the subject, moving his finger against his thumb like he was sliding a coin out from between them.

"Um a toy," Lewis finger-spelled.

Cal fought the urge to turn over. "Did you see one you wanted?"

Lewis shook his head. "But I can find one."

"Sure," Cal agreed. Of course, five dollars wouldn't really go a long way towards anything. If Lewis got his mother to take him she would probably help him out with getting something he wanted though. Who was Cal kidding? He'd buy Lewis whatever he wanted too. Amend that to: within reason.

"Can I watch TV?" Lewis suddenly asked.

"Sure," Cal agreed. Good. There were his chances of getting back to sleep increasing again. "Is your brutha awake?"

Lewis gave a shrug. Cal hadn't thought to check the time. Perhaps it was early. Perhaps Lewis had woken up excited. Perhaps this was a bit like Christmas. "Can you check?" Cal requested. The rest was a given. If Owen was awake Lewis would take him downstairs and they would watch TV together for a bit until an adult came down. Owen tended to be sleep in, in the mornings so he would sit passively for a while. But even so, six year old Lewis was working out to be a pretty good babysitter. He'd keep Owen entertained with cars and blocks and other games for at least a few hours. Before Owen was starving.

Lewis said he'd go and check on Owen and Cal thanked him. The boy slid from the mattress to his feet and disappeared. Cal kept an ear half open and within a few minutes he heard Lewis reminding Owen to be careful on the stairs. When they were out of earshot Cal relaxed again and prepared to get back to sleep. Gillian shifted and then she was against his back, sliding a hand around his waist to his abdomen. She curled up behind him, warm and sleepy and pressed her face into the back of his neck and the crook of his shoulder.

"They use it to fly?" She muttered.

"Don't judge me," Cal responded. "I was wingin' it and it sounded quite logical."

"Hm," Gillian agreed.

"What do tooth fairies use teeth for?"

"I have no idea," Gillian sighed and settled against him. She went quiet and Cal felt himself being pulled under again. He drifted back to sleep.