"Come on sweetheart, we have to hurry." Courtney urged as she helped Addison put on her backpack.

"Why?" Addie struggled to get the big straps over her narrow shoulders.

"Mommy has to go back to work and the babysitter is meeting us at home."

"But I want you to stay with me!" The smaller female protested.

"I know honey, I'm sorry, but I have to." Then Addison began to do the thing that Courtney hated most. Her hazel eyes welled up with tears and her lips began to tremble and then came the onslaught of crying. Now she had the attention of other parents and children there for pick up. Great. The last thing Courtney needed was their judgement.

"What's wrong Addie? Why are you crying?" Vanessa came over with a look of concern in her eyes. If Vanessa was nearby then that must have meant Duncan wasn't far behind. Sure, they had absolved some of the awkwardness, but that didn't mean it wasn't weird. Courtney had managed to avoid bumping into him since their last encounter, over a week ago, and wasn't sure she was comfortable with seeing Duncan regularly yet.

"I want my mommy!" Her caramel cheeks were tainted with pink from sobbing.

"But you're mommy is right here?" Dark eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"She has to go back to work!" Courtney felt a someone kneel next to her and didn't need to look to be able to tell who it was.

"What's wrong Little Princess? Who do I have to beat up?"

"I have to back to work, she'll be okay." Courtney reassured Duncan so that he wouldn't involved.

"No I won't!" By now they had the eyes of several people in the room.

"Addison, I'm sorry, but we have to leave right now." Courtney picked up her protesting child, she loathed this part of being a single parent but she had little choice when it came to her job. Duncan hated to see the small girl cry. Any time Vanessa cried he would give her anything to make her stop, he just couldn't stand it. He was a push over when it came to Vanessa. So he hadn't quite thought it through when he suggested a solution to the problem at hand.

"Why don't you let her come home with us and then you can pick her up when you're done? We have an extra car seat." The second it came out of his mouth he was kicking himself.

"Can she? Please? Please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeeeeease!" Vanessa was jumping up and down with her hands clasped together, begging the two adults.

"Mommy can I?" Courtney was torn. Giving her only daughter to be watched under Duncan's supervision? It wasn't something that she ever thought she would have to consider. She hated asking for help; and to ask for help from the last person she wanted it from? Courtney wasn't sure her pride could take the hit.

"I don't know..."

"What's the worst that could happen? Vanessa's made it this far with me as a parent. She'll be fine."

"We'll be extra careful! We didn't even bring the motorcycle today! Did we?" She turned to question her father. Duncan could already see Courtney's eyes bulging out of her head at the thought.

"It only happened one time! And we live around the corner."

"And I wore my unicorn helmet!" Vanessa added.

"And she wore her unicorn helmet." Courtney still wasn't convinced. Duncan took a step forward so that he was looking directly into her eyes.

"She'll be safe with me, I promise." He kept his voice low so that the children wouldn't hear. Courtney considered him for a moment, maybe she should just take a chance.

"Okay..." She reluctantly handed off Addison to him and went into her purse to pull out her business card.

"Just text me your address." Duncan nodded as he took it and put the card in his back pocket.

"Thank you Courtney!" Vanessa said as she reached for her dad to pick her up with his other arm. Courtney kissed Addison on the cheek as went to leave.

"Duncan?" She called over her shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"Don't make me regret this."

It was past eight by the time Courtney found herself in front of Duncan's house. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she almost didn't expect it to look as normal as it did. Maybe she thought there would be skulls in the front yard or that the house would be painted black, but it looked like every other house on the street.

She raised a tired hand and mustered the rest of her energy to knock on the door. A few moments later the door swung open and suddenly she was very much awake; because there was Duncan in all his shirtless glory. Courtney couldn't help it. She was too exhausted to look away. Duncan had always had a nice body, he had always been fit, but some changes drew her attention. Such as the full sleeve on his left arm and the tattoos on his ribs; or the smattering of chest hair. Her chocolate eyes traveled further down to the muscles of his abs and she couldn't help it when her eyes drifted even lower.

"Like what you see Princess?" He smirked. It was a major ego boost for him that she still found him attractive. Not that he needed an ego boost. She immediately diverted her eyes. She had been blatantly looking and he had caught her. Instead of scrambling to defend herself she chose to ignore the question all together.

"Where's my daughter?" Duncan rolled his eyes, well at least she wasn't denying it. He led her down a hallway as she took in her surroundings. Besides the darker color palette that included deep reds and grays nothing about the interior of the house screamed punk rock.

They stopped in front of a door and Duncan pressed a finger to his lips to signal her to keep quiet. When he slowly opened the door, Courtney first noticed the room's lilac walls with Christmas lights hung up on them, giving off a warm glow. It was sweet and girly compared to the rest of the house. In a corner of the room was a bed that had so many stuffed animals on it that there barely seemed space left for a person. Upon further inspection Courtney saw two little girls fast asleep.

"They've been out for over an hour." Courtney's right hand went to her chest, it was one of the most adorable things she had ever seen.

"They look so precious." She said softly.

"They're pretty cute, I guess." Courtney looked on disbelievingly at his attempt to brush it off.

"You don't have to act tough, you know."

"Just because I grew out of my delinquent phase doesn't mean I'm all sunshine and rainbows."

"You know, I never asked, how was prison?" It gave her some sort of smug satisfaction to bring that up.

"Real jail is no joke. After my Ma bailed me out, I swore that I was never going back there."

"At least you finally learned your lesson."

As carefully as she could Courtney leaned forward to lift Addison from the bed, managing not to wake the other slumbering child. The four year old stirred slightly when jostled and opened her eyes briefly.

"Hi Mommy." She mumbled sleepily.

"Hey Babygirl, go back to sleep.

"Kay." Courtney had to admit it. Despite anything she had thought in the past. Duncan had grown up. He had managed to take care of two young children and got them to bed in a timely fashion. Even she had to say that she was impressed. She had been very speculative of leaving her daughter with him, but he had cleaned up his act as far as she could tell. He was a good dad. She had always known that he wasn't as bad as he wanted others to think, but he had a record of terrible decision making that couldn't easily be forgotten.

"She looks a lot like you." Duncan said suddenly. Courtney cast her gaze towards who he was talking about. They did indeed look a lot alike. They had the same skin tone, freckles, and overall facial features. Although, Addison did have lighter hair and eyes than her mother.

"She has her father's eyes..." She meant to think that in her head and not say it out loud. She assumed Duncan would eventually ask her about Addison's father, but it wasn't something she was ready to talk about yet. Not with him.

"It's late." Courtney announced before he could give a response.

"Right, I'll let you out." Maybe it was the exhaustion or wishful thinking, but she swore he sounded slightly disappointed.

Once they were back at the entrance of the house Duncan opened the door for her. She started to leave and wanted to go without saying anything, but she couldn't help herself. Halfway through the door she turned around and stopped short. Their noses were almost touching and she could smell his leftover cologne. His teal eyes were staring into hers. She should have left like she had planned, because now they were staring for too long and the longer they stared, the more an invisible tension started to build.

Courtney willed herself to take a step backwards and to say what she initially was going to.

"I really appreciate what you did today. You've really grown up." He straightened at change of events, and smirked, ready to play it all off if she was going to.

"I had to sometime right?"

"Responsibility looks good on you."

"Everything looks good on me." Her eyes narrowed.

"I'm trying to give you a compliment Duncan, don't be a smartass."

"Calm down Courtney. It's not a big deal."

"Then just say thank you like a normal human being! Why do you have to make everything so difficult?"

"Because it's fun." She grunted and turned around to march back to her car.

"Hey Princess?"

"What?" She said aggravated beyond belief.

"You wanna carpool?"

"Excuse me?"

"You can bring the girls to preschool in the morning and I can pick them up. It's a win-win." Never in a million years did she think she would be discussing carpool schedules with Duncan. Then again, she did have to stay late at work often.

"Fine."

"See you in the morning Princess!" He mocked as she finally reached her car. What had she just gotten herself into?

I don't think I will be updating again until after Christmas, so Happy Holidays everyone! Please feel free to leave a review :)