"Warlock? Buddy, where did you go?"

Honestly, you take your eyes off them for one second and they completely disappear on you. Anthony kept his voice a little lower than he usually would, not wanting to alert the captain to his son's disappearance just yet. "Warlock? Come on out, this isn't funny."

Hopefully, he wasn't trying to bother the captain and the Baroness. This time of evening they were usually out on the balcony. A trail of smoke twisted, floating into the sky from the tip of Lucille Fern's cigarette, and occasional polite laughter could be heard.

"Private conversations," Anthony shrugged when the children asked. "Not something they talk to me about." Certainly not. While he and the captain were on cordial terms now, they were hardly the best of friends. After their rather rocky second-first-start, the memory of the words back to the abbey haunted Anthony. He could be sent back on a whim. And next time, the captain may not change his mind. And he couldn't leave these kids yet.

If the captain and the Baroness were to be married, she would be the children's new mother. They obviously weren't entirely sold on the idea of a new mother. Anthony had to be there to ease that transition and make sure that the changes he had seen in Captain Fell weren't temporary ones.

He was also there to keep track of all the kids, and he'd lost one. He wasn't sure how that boded for the other two tasks.

"Warlock? Hey, come out, it's almost time for bed!"

He'd checked all the usual hiding places. Maybe it was time to check somewhere unusual. He just hoped he hadn't wandered-

The back door hadn't been shut all the way.

-outside. Oh no.

"Warlock?!" Anthony headed to the backyard, trying not to sound angry or panicked even though he was feeling a little bit of both.

"Crowley! I'm swimming!"

Heart in his throat, Anthony pulled off his shoes and ran to the dock. He stopped short when he saw Captain Fell holding onto his youngest son, chest-deep in the water.

"Swimming lessons," he explained.

Anthony sighed, dropping to sit on the dock. "Great. Yeah, swimming lessons. Only gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry."

"'S fine. How goes it? Swimming like a fish yet?"

"Not yet," Captain Fell laughed. "But soon. Let's try dunking our heads again, shall we? Remember to let air slowly out your nose, see how long you can stay under like that." Warlock nodded. "Three, two-" Father and son took in a breath and disappeared under the water. Anthony watched the bubbles on the surface, and couldn't help but smile.

Warlock surfaced first with a gasp, and his father followed him up.

"That was sufficient," said Captain Fell. Anthony gave him a look. "What?" he mouthed.

"Well done, Warlock, that was great!" Anthony exclaimed. Sufficient? What the hell was that? he mouthed.

The Captain shrugged. Anthony rolled his eyes. From there on out, though, the captain tried some better compliments. Mostly 'good', and 'well done', which was a vast improvement on 'sufficient'.

By the time a half hour had passed, Warlock was floating on his back. It had taken plenty of reassurance and cajoling to get him comfortable with laying there, trusting that his father's hand on his back wouldn't let him sink even if he wasn't doing it right.

"Belly out, don't curl in on yourself. You want your weight distributed across the water so it holds you up," Captain Fell said. "Good. Arms out a little more, if you're comfortable. You won't sink. I won't let you."

He sounded absolutely sure, absolutely certain.

"You've done very well for today. I think it's time we get dry and get to bed."

"What?" Warlock sat up, almost splashing Anthony. "But I'm not swimming like a fish yet."

"That takes time, and it's already past your bedtime. You've done very well, but your muscles will be getting tired. And your fingers are pruning."

"You don't want to turn into one big prune, do you?" Anthony asked, holding out his arms to steady Warlock as his father lifted him out of the water and onto the dock.

"That's not a real thing. Is it?"

Captain Fell didn't say a thing to contradict Anthony. He only grinned.

"I'd miss you if you turned into one big prune. We couldn't sing together, and prunes can't fly kites..." Anthony continued, adding a dramatic sigh for good measure.

"Okay, I'll dry off!" He got started by flinging his arms around Anthony's knees and rubbing his face in his nightgown.

"Hey!" Anthony tried to pry Warlock away from him to no avail. He was already soaked.

Captain Fell pulled himself out of the water, snickering at the two of them.

"'S not funny, I'll be sleeping in trousers," Anthony would insist he did not pout. Bee had asked to borrow his other nightgown again and still hadn't returned it. He needed to get her some of her own oversized clothes so she would stop wanting to borrow his. Maybe she was outgrowing some of hers?

"Oh, I'm sure we have more of those old drapes around the house somewhere," said Captain Fell. Anthony stared at him. "That- that was a joke, dear boy."

"You're awful." Anthony would insist that he wasn't smiling. Not at all. That would be a lie, of course.

"Az?" The Baroness was silhouetted by the light from the back porch. "Are you still out there?"

They were on a first-name basis. Not that Anthony was curious. Or cared. None of his business at all. Just wondered if how the two of them got on was how all married couples got on, and if it was a lot less boring from the inside. Must be, or people wouldn't marry. Anthony- though he wouldn't admit it quite so openly- loved love almost as much as Sister Maggie loved love, but he got no satisfaction or warm fuzzy feelings watching any of the captain's interactions with Lucille.

"I'm coming back," Captain Fell responded. He squeezed some of the water out of his shirt and pushed back his hair. "Goodnight, Warlock. Goodnight, Mr. Crowley."

Warlock was eager to get back to swimming lessons the next day, and his siblings were eager to join their father and brother in the water. It seemed that this was the hottest day of the summer yet. Anthony had the top two buttons of his shirt undone, his pants rolled up to his knees, and his feet in the water. His hair was pulled up away from his neck, and his straw hat did a good job of keeping the sun out of his eyes. He sat at the end of the dock, making sure none of the children accidentally drowned another. The older ones could play rather rough.

The Baroness and her friend, whose name Anthony couldn't remember for the life of him, were sat on a blanket on the lawn. An umbrella had been set up for shade, and every so often, Anthony would glance over, and every time he saw Lucille absentmindedly stirring her lemonade with a straw. Her emerald green dress stood out, even against the grass, since the heat was fading the poor stuff to a yellowish, sickly green. The Baroness, Anthony thought, looked like one of those women from a painting. Perfectly poised.

A wave of water hit him in the face and he sputtered. "Bee! Knock it off!"

It turned out that Wensley only knew how to doggy-paddle, so after Warlock had practiced flipping over onto his back to float, Captain Fell told him to sit with Anthony and take a break while Wensley learned some 'proper swimming'.

"You're good at this," Anthony said.

"Hm?"

"Teaching. Reverend Mother said you were in the navy, is that where you learned how to swim?"

"No. My father- well, taught would loosely describe it." Captain Fell got Warlock situated on the dock and called Wensley over from the shallows. "He pushed me into the lake when I was seven. It was either learn or drown," he explained.

Anthony was taken aback. "Why?"

"I suppose it worked. I learned fast."

And that was the end of that conversation. Anthony watched the captain from afar as he patiently explained to Wensley that he needed to put his face under the water and really stretch his arms out to go faster. He coached him through rolling from his back to his front, and his front to his back, staying afloat the whole time. They paused when the boy seemed to get overwhelmed. Praise still seemed not to come easily to the captain and he sounded a little stilted at times.

Anthony thought of the seven-year-old boy who learned to swim so he wouldn't drown. His stomach twisted uncomfortably. There he was, hand supporting his son so the boy felt secure. The older kids swimming like tadpoles. No one had a hand at the small of his back, making sure he didn't go under when he was at any of their ages.

No wonder so much seemed rather foreign to him.

"Which one is your favorite?" Bee asked one day. She had been messing around on the piano, not so much practicing as riffing on random measures, when she stopped and got her father's attention.

"My favorite?" He looked up from his book. Baroness Lucille peered over her magazine. The two of them were on the loveseat, Brian leaning his head on his father's knee. Ana and Pepper were curled up in the armchairs, Adam and Wensley sat by the window, and Warlock sat on the floor with Anthony as they flipped through big picture books together.

"Yeah. Do you have a favorite song?"

"I like all the songs from that book well enough." Captain Fell adjusted his reading glasses.

"But which one was your favorite? I remember you used to play sometimes."

"You can play piano? I don't remember that," Brian sounded excited.

"You're a man of hidden talents, Az, I never knew that either," Lucille smiled and set down the magazine.

"Play us something?" Bee asked, getting up from the bench.

"It's been too long, I couldn't," the captain tried to insist, but once his children got their hearts set on something it was hard to dissuade them.

"Please, Father? I remember too, you were good at it."

"I can't believe I don't remember that! You've got to."

"Please please please?"

"We'll just ask you every day until you say yes, Father. We've got memories like rhinos."

"It's elephants, dummy. A memory like an elephant."

"What happened to quiet reading time?" Captain Fell frowned. That now-familiar embarrassed flush was creeping up his neck again.

"Oh, what would one song hurt, Captain?" Anthony grinned.

"You're siding with them?"

"Of course. You can always lie and pick the shortest one, you know."

"No, don't lie," Bee insisted. "Play us your favorite. I want to know yours and Mother's favorites."

Captain Fell looked to Anthony again. Anthony raised his eyebrows and tilted his head toward the piano. Captain Fell sighed and marked his page in his book. "Fine. But I'll only play the bass clef, I can't remember how to read the treble."

"Then I'll play treble. But you have to sing," Bee said.

"Deal."

Father and daughter shared the piano bench and began with a somewhat rocky start. Captain Fell flipped to the page with his favorite song, and the two started at slightly different tempos, Bee giving it the same upbeat feel she tended to give to everything. He signaled for her to slow down, exaggerating his tempo. It was slower, but that didn't make it sad at all.

Then the captain started to sing, and Anthony had to consciously make sure his jaw didn't drop. He knew from what the children told him that he'd sung with them the day he returned (the day he almost fired Anthony), but he hadn't heard it. He hadn't expected the other man's voice to be so... nice. Deep, resonant... kind? No, not the word he was looking for. Not that it was entirely inaccurate, it just wasn't enough.

Edelweiss, edelweiss

Every morning you greet me

Small and white, clean and bright

You look happy to meet me

Anthony realized he'd been staring when the captain looked away from the sheet music and caught his gaze. Heat rose in his face and he knew Captain Fell must be able to see it, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. The captain played on without looking at the music.

Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow

Bloom and grow forever.

Passionate. That was the word Anthony was looking for. His stomach felt like it flipped. It was uncomfortable but not necessarily... bad?

Edelweiss, edelweiss

Bless my homeland forever

Now that Bee knew the tune, she joined in for the last half of the song. Captain Fell looked away from Anthony and back at the page, switching to the harmony. Bee's higher voice floated atop of his.

When the final chord was done ringing, the other children clapped.

"Encore!" Brian said.

"Father, can I learn piano too?" Wensley asked.

"Me too, I want to learn," Pepper agreed.

"I... yes, I'm sure we can find time for that." Captain Fell stood, adjusting his tie.

Dear Sisters and Reverend Mother,

First, I would like to apologize for not writing as often as I should. I assure you, it's for a good reason. Seven children keep one busy. The good news is that they're all still well. How are all of you? I enjoy receiving your letters, have kept them safe, and reread them from time to time.

Recently, Captain Fell returned home from Vienna. The most interesting-

"Mr. Crowley?"

Anthony hissed as the ink on the 'g' blotted. He tried to sound not startled, not startled at all when he responded. "Yes, come in? Also, just Crowley is fine." He muttered that last part, and trailed off to almost silent when Captain Fell eased the door open.

"Are you busy? I can come back later."

"Just writing, sir." Anthony set the pen aside and turned in the desk chair to face the captain.

"Your family?"

"Yes. The abbey. I've neglected to write for... a shamefully long time. I plan to remedy that as soon as I can. Helps that you can take the kids off my hands sometimes. Not- not that I don't enjoy them. I do-"

"I understand." Captain Fell leaned against the doorframe, regarding Anthony with blue eyes that seemed to see into him, rather than just at him. It seemed he was considering Anthony even more than he had been when they'd first met. "I don't believe I ever asked- exactly how long had you been with the abbey?"

"It was all I ever knew. Said I was raised there, didn't I?"

"Ah. Perhaps you did," the captain cleared his throat, looking slightly guilty.

"You can ask. About my parents, I mean. 'S alright."

"It wouldn't be... invasive?"

Anthony shrugged. "I don't know. I think I've never told anyone purely because I had nobody to tell. Nobody who didn't already know because they'd been there. I was found on the doorstep. Growing up there wasn't so bad, it's like having lots of aunts. I think. Based on what I know about aunts, anyway. They tried to get me adopted at least once that I know of, but it didn't work out."

Captain Fell's brow furrowed. Now that Anthony had said it out loud, he realized that it made him feel a little sick. Maybe that part wasn't a 'telling people' part. "Sorry, you needed something?" he changed the subject.

"Right, um- I've been talked into hosting a party. As a way to introduce Baroness Fern to my circle of friends and acquaintances in the city. The children are excited, of course. I was wondering if you would be amenable to attending and keeping an eye on the children while you're there. I can help, of course, but I'll also be formally introducing Ms. Fern to many people for a good portion of the evening..."

"I can do that. What day?"

"Friday."

"Alright."

"Alright," the captain echoed, nodding his head. He had this one curl that would spill over his forehead, Anthony noticed.

"Alright," Anthony echoed again. He'd already said that. Was it stupid to say it again? He felt his ears heating up.

Captain Fell smiled. (What did heart palpitations feel like? Anthony was rather concerned he might be starting to have them right now.) When he next spoke, it was more softly than Anthony had heard him. "I'll leave you to your writing now. Will you send them my regards?"

"Alright," Anthony nodded. Did he know any other words? Hopefully. He was supposed to be writing a letter.

The door clicked shut behind Captain Fell. Anthony turned back to the letter, feeling as if the room had gotten very warm indeed. He couldn't remember where he was. He scribbled out the last half sentence.

The children are very glad to see him back. He's teaching Wensley and Warlock to swim, and Bee has learned exactly the right way to convince him into playing piano with her. It's actually rather lovely to see them all together, he's not nearly as severe as I thought he might have been...

"... and so with all of this news jotted down, I must end the letter here or they'll make me weigh the envelope as a package instead of letting me just put a stamp on it and send it away. I hope you are all still happy and healthy, and I miss you all. (You and Maggie most, Mother, but don't read that part aloud.)

Well, it's too late, I already read it. Oh well.

But however much I miss you, I'm very glad you sent me here. And I know I'll be sad to leave come September. It still seems so far off, and yet not enough time. Excited to see the kittens Maggie wrote to me about though, the ones living in the shed. I promise I will write again soon.

Love, Anthony

(P.S., The Captain sends his regards also. He asked me to include that, I almost forgot it.)"

"Well," Sister Michael had her eyebrows raised through almost the entire letter, sometimes at the grammar, and other times at the content itself.

"How lovely," Maggie sighed. "I'm glad he's getting on well."

"Almost too well, I'd say," Sister Michael turned up her nose.

"What do you mean by that?"

"He mentioned the captain an awful lot..."

"Just what are you- don't insinuate!"

"Relax, both of you. Even if he does have a little crush, it's just that. It'll blow over. Or he'll have to leave and he'll suffer a little heartbreak. It's part of life." Sister Nina shrugged.

"Isn't Captain Fell rumored to be engaged?" Sister Hattie asked.

"Not yet, but nearly. So he's unattainable. Let him have his little crush."

"Now, let's not speculate," Mother Superior said, folding the letter back up and returning it to the envelope. "Or jump to conclusions."

"I hardly need to jump," Sister Michael muttered under her breath. "A small shuffle will do, and I'm there."