"Daddy! Daddy!" A little voice called, bounding down the stairs and jumping on the end of the bed that filled the living room-now master bedroom that Carlton and Marlowe had been living in since he came home from the hospital two years ago. Back when he was just learning how to walk. Back when Lily was just about to finish preschool. Back when nightmares still littered his sleep each night and the pain of his accident was still fresh.

"Hey Bunny!" he said, grabbing his seven-year-old's knees until she fell over on top of Marlowe in a fit of giggles.

"Daddy, are you going to take me to school today?" she asked, rolling in between her parents on the bed. "It's my first day of second grade!"

"Second grade?" he said, softly pinching her arm. "That's not possible. I'm not old enough to be a second grader's dad. You must be joking."

"Daddy, I'm the only kid in my class whose dad has gray hair and walks with a cane," she said, crossing her arms matter-of-factly. "You're definitely old enough to have a second grader."

"Hey!" Carlton said, as Marlowe started laughing from the other side of the bed.

"Alright, Bunny," Marlowe said, after giving Carlton's hand one last squeeze before getting out of bed. "Let's get everyone ready for the day. It's Daddy's first day of work today too!"

Carlton felt pride and relief wash over him. He was going back to work. He was going to be the Chief of Police for the SBPD. Somehow. He still didn't understand how this could have possibly happened, but after a full summer of training and preparing, he was finally given the all clear to begin working as the Chief. A job that he had dreamed of since he was fifteen years old. A job that he had felt so close to getting before his brain decided to try and kill him in the middle of a gas station. A job that he couldn't be more thrilled to finally be stepping into.

It had been a long, hard two years. Even after he finally made it out of the rehab center full time, he was still desperately behind where he wanted to be. Which led to months and months of Marlowe dropping Lily off at school, dropping Carlton off at rehab, and then going to work a full-time job to support them all, before picking everyone up at the end of the day, making dinner, and putting everyone to sleep again so they could do it all the next day.

It had been exhausting for her. He could see it in her eyes when she would zone out at the dinner table, or in her hands that she would reach out to him before she would crash into sleep the second her head would hit the pillow each night. And there wasn't anything that he could do to help- except get better. So he did. He worked with every ounce of will he had to get better so he could be more helpful to Marlowe. It had been hard on both of them.

But slowly he was able to contribute more to his daily cares that he never gave a second thought to before his stroke. And slowly he required less hands-on effort to complete basic tasks like sitting up. And soon he was able to graduate from six day a week therapy to three day a week therapy.

It certainly hadn't always been easy. Recovery was hard. And tedious. And the growth wasn't linear. Sometimes he would be rocking his therapy and then he would get in these sudden downswings where it felt like for absolutely no reason, he was suddenly stuck in ruts so long it felt he would never make an improvement ever again.

The ruts would range anywhere from mildly frustrating to downright terrifying. Sometimes they would bring up the past, his hospital stay commemorated in his memory only by distorted images of stories recreated for him by his girls or Juliet or Shawn and Gus. He must have blocked the whole thing out, because he could not recall any single moment from the three months that he stayed in the hospital. His brain had been so clouded, and he had been on so many drugs, the fact that he was even there at all would have been lost on him completely if not for others telling him he had in fact been there.

Though it was probably a blessing. The only memories that he did seem to have were shown to him in nightmares that wrapped him up in the terror and spit him out in the middle of a normal day at his own home, where he would awaken sweating, breathing heavy, and reaching out to make sure Marlowe was still next to him.

"Lucy!" Lily cried as the big black dog jumped up on the bed, wiggling herself between Carlton and Lily and putting a paw over Carlton's chest.

"Lil, clothes!" Marlowe yelled from upstairs.

"Good morning dog," Carlton said, running his hand over her head. Lily groaned for a second before kissing her dad on the long scar across his head and rolling out of bed.

Lucy was the emotional support animal that Shawn had gotten for him after overhearing a conversation between Marlowe and Juliet about his… sleeping habits. But for as embarrassed he had been for that information to be shared around, and as adamant he was that he did not want to take care of a dog, and as annoyed that he was to be deemed someone who would need an emotional support anything, he did end up loving the dog.

He could take her on walks up and down the street and she would patiently wait for his slow feet to step over each crack. And he could brush her with his weak hand, concentrating as she would let him bounce the brush uselessly off her back the first few attempts. And she would come and lay on top of him when he woke up from a bad dream, grounding him in his bed and, admittedly, making him feel much better.

Not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

Especially not Spencer.

But he had learned to practice radical acceptance. Taking it all as it came and honoring the milestones, big or small. Like the setback he had when he got home from the hospital after having his skull returned to its rightful place in his head after residing in his stomach for nearly a year. Or the first day he made it the whole day without having to use his wheelchair and could just use his cane. Or the first day he put on his own pants without Marlowe's help.

It all meant something. It was all showing him that he was getting better. He knew he may never be completely back to the way he was before, but he was happy with where he was now. His not-so-little brain injury had shaped his life in ways he would have never imagined.

He had been so stuck going through the motions before. He didn't appreciate the little things. He was sad and he didn't even realize it. Other than Lily and Marlowe, there was so little joy in his life. But since he'd been back home- since he started therapy, which Juliet had argued he had been in desperate need of long before he had tried to shoot himself, he had been a more grateful person. And he liked the way he was now.

"C'mon Daddy!" Lily said, bouncing down the stairs in her special first day of school outfit that Marlowe had just helped her pick out. "Let's go!"

"I'm coming, Bunny," Carlton responded, carefully pinching the last button on his shirt together and grabbing his cane so he could shuffle over to the kitchen table.

"Pancakes! Pancakes!" Lily cheered when Marlowe put down their plates and gave them both a kiss on the forehead.

"Now eat fast. We've got to get someone to school!"

Sure enough, fifteen minutes later, Marlowe had loaded up Lily in her special first-day dress, Carlton in his special first-day suit, and Lucy in her service vest and was driving the whole team to work.

"...and Ronnie's in my class, and Charlotte, and that stupid boy Jason who I hate."

"Be nice, Bunny," Carlton said, twisting to see Lily bouncing in her car seat. "Maybe Jason got nicer over the summer."

"Maybe you can bop him in the head with your cane," Lily said, crossing her arms.

"Lily!" Marlowe said, whipping her head around. "Be nice. You don't know what Jason's going through."

"Fine," Lily said, leaning her forehead on the back window. "But I won't like it."

"Deal," Carlton said, swinging from his shoulder to put Lily on the knee. Lucy wagged her tail in agreement, licking Carlton's hand from her favorite spot in the car on Lily's lap.

"We're here!" Marlowe said, pulling into the parking lot and walking around the car to help Carlton down from the minivan.

"C'mon Lucy!" Lily said, sliding into her Frozen II backpack and hooking Lucy into her leash.

"Hi, Lily!" Ronnie called from across the parking lot, running over to pet Lucy. "Hi, Lucy!"

"Hi Ronnie," Marlowe said, her hand wrapped tightly in Carlton's and her hand on his back to help him work around the car door. It was a maneuver that they had perfected over the last few years, and just like everything else, it had become a weird form of second nature. One that they would never wish on anyone, but were grateful they had come to together.

Lily and Ronnie ran up the hill, the dog chasing close behind them, while Marlowe and Carlton took their time, watching their daughter play with her friends.

"I cannot believe she's in second grade," Marlowe said.

"She's growing up too fast," Carlton responded.

"Too fast? I wish!" Charlotte's dad said, walking up behind them. "When you already have two kids in college, waiting for the eight-year-old to turn eighteen so you can finally be an empty-nester sure doesn't make time feel like it's moving too fast!"

It wasn't that Carlton didn't understand where he was coming from, but it was still one of those moments where he was graced with an intense appreciation for how much his stroke had derailed his life. Sure it had thrown him off his path, rolling over and over again and destroying everything that was supposed to be. But somehow it had landed right side up, on the track it now felt he should have been on all along.

He appreciated every movement he made with the realization that there was a time when he couldn't do any of them. He appreciated every milestone he got to watch Lily achieve- big and small, because he had nearly missed every single one. And he was thrilled to be stepping into the job he had dreamt of since he was a teenager with a new perspective that he never would have arrived at on his own.

"Okay, second graders!" a chipper young teacher sang out over the playground after blowing a whistle. "Let's all line up!"

Marlowe pulled out her phone to take pictures of Lily as she handed Lucy's leash to Carlton.

"Smile!" she said, and Carlton leaned over to smile with Lily and the dog.

"Say bye to Moms and Dads second graders!" her teacher called out again, attempting to wrangle the squealing children into lines.

"Bye Mom and Dad!" the second graders called out in a scattered unison as they were led into the building, all waving and poking each other as they went.

Carlton smiled, watching his daughter's brown curls disappear through the door.

"Shall we?" Marlowe asked, taking Lucy's leash and turning to walk with Carlton back to the car. "We've got to get you to your first day too."

Carlton took a deep breath and turned behind Marlowe, "Let's do this."