Ruby was playing with Zwei in the living room when the knock came on the door. She stood, straightening her skirt before answering it, Zwei at her heels.

"Can I help you?"

"Oh, so you're the kid." Mercury scratched the back of his head. "Is Qrow home?"

She nodded, letting him in. "Uncle Qrow! Some guy is here!"

Mercury raised his brows at her phrasing.

Qrow nearly tripped over Zwei. "Ruby how many times have I told you to at least ask—" He stopped. "Oh, that makes sense."

"I got cash scrounged up if you're still going to let me buy that bike."

"Sure." Qrow was standing between Mercury and Ruby. "Just come with me to the garage."

Ruby trailed after them.

"Ruby, weren't you doing homework?"

"No." She shrugged. "Just playing with Zwei."

Qrow sighed pushing the garage door open. "There she is, Merc. Still want her?"

"Hell yeah. She's a beauty." Mercury offered a low whistle. "Does two thousand still work?"

Qrow nodded. "It'd be more if we weren't friends."

"What?" Mercury laughed. "I didn't know we were friends."

"Slip of the tongue."

Ruby giggled, leaning down to scratch Zwei's ears. Mercury looked over at her.

"She must look like her mom." He shrugged, "Because she doesn't look anything like you."

Ruby stopped. Qrow tensed feeling her eyes on him as he took the money from Mercury.

"Take care of her, okay?" Qrow asked as Mercury nodded and walked the bike from the garage and rode it away.

Qrow lowered the garage door and Ruby was still staring at him.

"What did he mean by that?" She asked. "That I don't look like you."

Qrow reached to guide her inside but she shied away, her eyes burning him. He knew that look. He'd seen it in his own eyes every day for years when he looked in the mirror.

Summer laughed. "She'll look like her father before too long."

"Why would I look like you?" Her hands were shaking. "Why would he ask you that?"

"Ruby, please—"

She backed away from him again, tears in her eyes.

"Are you my father?"

He looked at her for a moment before looking at the floor. "I—"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes." He looked straight at her. "Yes, Ruby, I am."

He doesn't have time to say anything else before she's bolted up the stairs, ducking into her room before slamming the door behind her.

Zwei whined, looking up at Qrow and tipping his head to the side.

"Have you told her anything about me?" Qrow turned the photo of the six-year-old over—he kept having to remind himself that Ruby wasn't a baby anymore—and slid it back towards Summer.

"Sort of." Summer tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, smiling. "She's noticed at school that other kids have dads, so she asks where hers is sometimes."

"What do you say to her?"

"I tell her he'd off adventuring." She looks up at him before producing something else from her bag, a drawing this time. "She draws what she imagines."

The drawing is done in crayon. There's a stick figure that looks like it's battling some kind of monster—maybe a dragon. The words 'Daddy' scrawled in blocky, crooked letters above the stick figure.

"So, I fight monsters?"

"That's what she believes." Summer laughs half-heartedly. "That her daddy is a hero."

"Do you show her pictures of me?" He looks at her. "Tell her anything that's actually true?"

Summer sighs. "I can't tell her that her daddy is in jail, Qrow."

"I didn't do anything wrong, and we both know it. It isn't my fault that I'm in here."

"She's only six. She wouldn't understand." Summer looks up at him, her fingers itching to reach for his hand, but knowing she can't touch him here without him getting in some kind of trouble. "If she found out you were somewhere she could actually see you, she'd run away and try to find you. She's already tried once."

That makes Qrow smile, just a little.

"Ironwood reopened your case." She offered a smile. "It only took four years of pleading."

"He'll saw his own arm off before he lets me out. He thinks I'm a murderer."

"But you aren't." Summer's eyes shine. "You were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Good luck convincing that heartless officer of that." He folds his hands and his handcuffs jingle against the table. "Don't show Ruby pictures of me."

"Why not?"

"I don't want her to figure out my face and then find bad news about me somewhere." He shakes his head. "You said she thinks her daddy is a hero, right? Let her keep thinking that."

"Qrow—"

"Times up, Miss Rose." The security guard approaches and Qrow stands obediently.

Summer scoops the pictures and drawings back into her purse and watches them take Qrow away. He watches her over his shoulder before they tell him to face forward. But he can feel her eyes following him until he disappears around the corner to go back to his cell.

But Qrow didn't have anything else to say.