One week later…

"Huh," Nate said, pulling a sheet of paper from Eliot's backpack. He was undergoing his nightly ritual of examining the kids' backpacks for unfinished homework, permission slips, and anything else they forgot to mention upon getting home from school.

"What is it?" Sophie said, looking up from her laptop.

Nate stared at the paper for another moment before passing it across the table to her.

She scanned it quickly with a soft gasp. "An A? How did … I always knew he could do it if he just set his mind to it but … His teacher wants to read it to the entire grade?! Eliot!" she called down the hall.

"Hold on," Nate warned. "Don't make a big deal out of it. You'll embarrass him."

She gave him a look. "I'm his mother. Eliot! Come in here!"

As he came out of his room she could see him trying on a couple different expressions of innocence.

"You're not in trouble," she assured him, grinning broadly and holding up the essay. "Why didn't you tell us about this? This is wonderful, sweetheart!"

Eliot ducked his head and Nate stifled an "I told you so."

"'S not a big deal," the boy said with a little shrug.

"It is! You hate writing papers. What made you want to do so well on this one?"

He glanced at Nate and then back at her. "We allowed to talk about Grandpa Jimmy yet?"

Now it was Nate's turn to give Sophie a look. "You told the kids not to talk about him?"

Sophie shrugged. "You went a little crazy. We didn't know what to think."

Nate sighed. "You can say whatever you want, Eliot."

"He just told me that he knew I was tough but sometimes you gotta be smart, too. He said you're smart, Dad, and he's tough. But he wishes he was smarter," Eliot explained hesitantly.

Sophie and Nate exchanged a glance. "That's what made you want to work hard on your essay?"

Eliot shrugged again.

"Are you going to let your teacher read it to your grade?" Sophie asked after a moment of trying to hide her surprise.

Eliot looked up, horrified. "No! I got a reputation, Mom!" He grabbed the essay out of her hand and all but ran back to his room.

Sophie sat back and looked again at Nate. "How is it possible that your father convinced Eliot to work harder in school when we've been telling him the exact same things for years?"

Nate frowned, just as surprised. "Maybe that's not all he said? Maybe he threatened him …"

"We all know how Eliot responds to threats," Sophie said dryly.

Nate shrugged helplessly and turned back to the kids' backpacks. Sophie opened her mouth like she was about to say something else, perhaps "I told you Jimmy coming was a good thing" but thought better of it and turned back to her laptop.

"Huh," she said after a moment.

"I don't know if I need another surprise right now," Nate said.

"I'm just reading an email from Alec's teacher. She says he was involved in some sort of altercation today," she said, frowning.

Nate stood up and came around to read it, feeling like everything was backwards. "Alec? Why is Eliot getting A's and Alec getting into fights?" he exclaimed, reading the email over her shoulder.

"Alec! Come in here!" Sophie called down the hall once more.

The six-year-old came bouncing into the room, smiling his currently gap-toothed smile. "Parker an' me were playing cards," he announced. "Can we have ice cream?"

"Maybe later -"

"What kind of cards?"

"The kind Grandpa Jimmy showed us," he said. Then he realized who he'd mentioned and clapped a hand over his mouth looking with wide eyes at Nate.

Nate pinched the bridge of his nose. "He taught you card games?"

"Let's stay focused," Sophie said, reminding Nate of the email. "What happened at school today, Alec?"

"I got four star points and I got to feed Willy Wonka," he said proudly, all consternation gone.

"That's not what we mean," Nate said. "What happened on the playground with Colin?"

Alec's face fell a bit. "Oh. That."

"Does this, by chance," Nate said carefully. "Have something to do with 'Grandpa Jimmy' as well?"

"Just tell us what happened," Sophie encouraged.

"Colin was bein' mean again," Alec started. Sophie knew that this Colin boy had been a problem for the kids in Alec's class since the first day. "An' I wanted him to stop so I told him to stop but he wouldn't leave Annie alone so I told 'im I was gonna fight him."

"But you didn't actually fight him, right? Nobody hit each other?" Sophie asked, drawing on the information from Alec's teacher.

"Naw. Grandpa said sometimes all you gotta do is put up your firsts and show 'em you're ready to fight and then they get scared off. Colin didn't bug us anymore after that," he said, his grin returning.

Nate let out a measured breath. "Show me the card game you're playing," he said.

They followed Alec into Parker's room with some trepidation, and just as Nate suspected, Parker was shuffling around three cards in front of her on the bed.

"Watch, Dad," Alec said, dragging Nate over by the hand. "Parker's really good at it."

Parker looked up in surprise and snatched the cards to her chest, giving her father a suspiscious look.

"You can show me, Parker," he said, resigned.

She looked to Alec for confirmation and he nodded, scrambling up on the bed across from her. "Show 'em," he encouraged.

She shrugged and showed Alec where the queen was before putting them all face down and nimbly moving them around, Alec leaning over and watching.

"'kay. Where is it?" Parker chirped.

Alec glanced up and shared a grin with his sister. "Not here," he said, flipping one of the cards over. "Or here, or here. You know where it is, Dad?"

Nate shook his head. "Never even on the table," he muttered.

Parker could resist revealing the secret no longer. "It's here!" she exclaimed, pulling the card out of her sleeve. "Cool, huh? Grandpa Jimmy showed us."

Nate's shoulders slumped. "He showed you where the card was? He didn't make you guess?"

Parker nodded. "Wanna see it again?"

Nate didn't respond. He was still digesting everything he'd learned.

"Not right now, sweetheart," Sophie said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth as she looked at Nate. "Daddy is going to help me clean up the kitchen."

She took Nate's hand and led him back to the dining room table, sitting next to him and keeping his hand in her's.

"You were wrong, you know."

He gave a humorless laugh, staring at the table. "I noticed."

"You were wrong about Jimmy, but you were also wrong about yourself."

He looked up, frowning. "I didn't say anything about myself."

She smiled broadly. "You said he ruined everything he touches. But, Nathan Ford, he did not ruin you." She stood and kissed his temple before returning to her laptop.

Nate was quiet for a moment before grumbling, "I'm still not going to be inviting him over."

"That's all right," she replied, not looking up. "I already have."

There we have it. Hopefully not too out-of-character for Jimmy, but I've always been more sympathetic to him than I probably should be. :)

Hey Nophiefan, totally had you in mind when writing the Nate/Sophie scenes. I hope it was fluffy enough! 3