"Nathan!" Ava raced into Nathan and Haley's apartment.

No one was in the living room, but she heard the shower going.

"Nathan?" She called. "Nathan?"

Upon receiving no response, Ava searched for her brother in his room, but he wasn't there, however, the water was running.

She was sure it was Taylor.

Nathan didn't typically sing while he showered.

With a shrug, she went back into the living room, looking for a pen and paper to write Nathan a note. She was too young to have a phone, so she had to find some other way to get her brother to contact her, considering she had no clue where he was.

It was hard being nine.

As she looked through the drawers on the counter in search of a pen and paper, the laptop nearby made a noise.

She knew it was none of her business, but when the computer made that noise a second time, she just couldn't ignore it. So, forgetting about the note, she looked at the monitor and saw that Haley had been sending messages to someone.

Chris Keller.

Her eyes widened when she read through the messages, her jaw dropping when she read the ones about how Chris was missing Haley or how he wanted to be with her.

"Whoa!" She gasped.

Now, she was a little too young to understand all the ins and outs of relationships and marriage, but she knew that this was wrong.

And she didn't know what to do with that information.

It wasn't like she could just confront Chris Keller about it. He left town and she didn't know what she was going to say to him anyway.

She liked being his friend and she liked talking to him, which was why this was such a shock to her.

How could he do that to Haley and Nathan?

How could Haley do it to Nathan?

Maybe…..Maybe Ava was reading too much into this.

"Weasel?"

The sound of Taylor's voice made her jump and whirl around.

She had been so engrossed in reading the messages, she didn't even hear when Taylor got out of the shower. It must've been a while ago, because the older girl was dressed and the only thing that was still wet was her hair.

"Weasel, what are you doing?"

"Nothing!"

Taylor narrowed her eyes at the child and stepped towards her, prompting her to take a step back.

"I was just…um…" Ava was trying to think of something on the fly, but she was so shocked by what she had seen, that she couldn't come up with anything to say.

And unfortunately for her, Nathan took that exact moment to come through the door.

"Nathan!" She was glad for the distraction because it gave her time to shut the laptop so he wouldn't see anything that was on it, but that didn't mean she was in the clear.

"Hi." Nathan raised a brow of suspicion. "What do you want?"

"To see you!" Ava put on the most innocent act she possibly could, skipping over to her brother and wrapping her arms around his waist. "Where were you? I was looking for you!"

"Chill out, I went for a run." Nathan tried to untangle himself from her, but she wouldn't let him do it. "Ava, let go."

Ava never wanted to get too close to him when he was like this because of the smell of his sweat, so he thought she was acting really unusual.

She was rarely this clingy, so something was definitely wrong.

"But I missed you." Her nose twitched when she caught a whiff of her brother's perspiration, but she quickly schooled her features.

"You see me everyday." He pulled her arms away. "Stop it."

"Yeah, Weasel." Taylor gave her a look. "You're acting strange."

"What were you just looking at?" Nathan asked the nine year old.

"Nothin'." Ava could tell that this visit was taking a dangerous turn for her. Unlike in other families, it was entirely possible for her to get in trouble with her brothers.

She envied Maddie a little bit in that respect. Amelia and Harper pushed her around a lot, but it wasn't like they had much authority over her. It was probably because Amelia was only four years older and there was only an eighteen month difference between Maddie and Harper.

Carter had an older brother that was eleven years older than him, but Liam didn't live at home anymore so the two didn't really but heads.

"Ava, I saw when you shut my laptop closed. Stay out of my stuff." Nathan raised a brow.

"Sorry, but I came here to ask you something."

"What?" Nathan had too much on his mind to grill his sister about why she insisted on lying to him, but that didn't mean they wouldn't talk about it later.

"Can we get breakfast?" She asked hopefully. "I'm hungry."

"I'm gonna take a shower and I'll be right out."

"Okay."

"Havana-Rose Scott?"

"Yes?" Ava's eyes widened at the use of her full name.

"If you ever lie to me again, I'm gonna wash your mouth out with soap, you understand?" Nathan knew that was such a harsh response for something that was probably no big deal, but he had been lied to more than enough this past week, he didn't need it from his own sister.

"Yes." Ava responded softly, obviously startled by his words.

One thing was for sure, she was never going to look at anything on that laptop again.

No matter how much noise it made.

"Thank you for my pancakes." Ava tried to get back in her brother's good graces by being sweet, though she really was grateful.

Even though Nathan was married now, he always found time to spend with her because he knew how much she liked to be alone with him.

"You're welcome." Nathan nodded, eating his own food.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"I wasn't mad, Ava. I just don't like being lied to. How would you feel if you asked me something I didn't tell you the truth?"

"I wouldn't like that." Ava admitted. She fiddled with the sleeves of her sweater as a slight chill blew through the air. "Sorry."

"It's okay." He sent her a smile to let her know that they were cool.

Ava relaxed significantly and continued eating, stuffing a piece of her pancakes in her mouth with a grin. She loved the sugary cinnamon sugar and she felt like she was on cloud nine because her brother let her order something that her mother considered as dessert.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Did you mean what you said? Would you really wash my mouth out with soap?"

That was definitely not what she really wanted to ask him, but ever since her brother threatened her with the possibility, Ava needed to know exactly where he stood.

"How about you don't lie to me again so you never have to find out?" He winked.

"Okay." Ava wrinkled her nose, taking his answer for what it was. "I was talking to Daddy the other day."

"Oh yeah? What about?"

"He wants me to live with him." Ava told him. "He said I could spend some time with him and then some time with my mama."

"Joint custody." Nathan supplied. "How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know." Ava chewed on her lip. "I like being with Daddy and I wanna spend more time with him, but I don't wanna hurt Mama. I thought maybe you could help me."

"Get to know him, Ava." Nathan told her. "He's your father."

"Hi, Ava." One of Dan's employees, Larson, greeted her when she entered the dealership. "Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Ava liked Larson. He was always very kind to her and he snuck her some of the tootsie rolls that her father liked to keep out for the customers.

"Hi, Mr. Larson." She smiled. "I just came to talk to Daddy."

"Alright, well, he's in his office."

"Thank you." Ava nodded and made the short trek to her father's office, knocking on the doorframe to let him know she was there. "Daddy?"

"Havana-Rose Scott, what are you doing here?" Dan put down the papers he had been reading. "You're supposed to be at school."

That much was true.

Ava was supposed to be in school right now and she slipped away without anyone noticing. But something was weighing heavily on her mind and she needed to speak to her father about it before she exploded.

"Can we go somewhere?" She asked.

"Yeah, we can go somewhere." Dan stood up and walked over to her, taking ahold of her arm. "We can go right back to your school, where you're gonna stay. Then, I'm gonna pick you up from school and we're gonna have a long talk about this."

He couldn't believe that Ava would just walk out of school and boldly walk into his dealership like this.

But he had to give it to her, the kid had guts.

"No!" Ava struggled greatly, sinking her teeth into his hand before she shoved herself away from him and looked directly into his eyes. "I won't go and you can't make me! If you try to take me back, I'm gonna run away!"

This was the very first time she had ever challenged him. When she saw the fire in his eyes, she looked around and saw that a few people heard her outburst, making her cheeks flush a dark red.

Dan's nostrils flared and Ava gulped nervously, taking a step back only to bump into the doorframe.

"Daddy, I—" Ava got cut off when Dan took ahold of her again let his hand fall on the seat of her dungarees.

Her jaw dropped in shock as soon as he let her go.

But she couldn't honestly say that she didn't deserve it. Ava really didn't know how she got it in her head to bite her own father, but she guessed that in the moment, her emotions were so mixed up that she felt desperate enough to do it.

Still, that was no excuse.

Biting was a big no-no.

"Let's go." Dan spoke firmly. "Larson, would you take over? My daughter is a little out of sorts right now."

Ava didn't say a word as he led her out of the dealership, walking her straight to the car and opening the door. She wanted to say something, anything, to express that she was sorry for the way she acted, but nothing came out.

It was just as well, she would probably end up saying something stupid and get herself into more trouble.

But the silence was so agonizing and it wasn't long before Ava couldn't stand it anymore.

"Daddy?"

"Havana-Rose, if I were you, I'd choose my next words very wisely."

"I'm sorry that I yelled at you and for biting you." Ava spoke softly. "I'll be good now."

Dan's features softened and he glanced up at Ava through the rearview mirror and got a good look at her sad little face. He didn't have it in him to remain upset with her. But, boy, did she have a bite. "You wanna tell me why you threw such a public tantrum when I told you I was taking you back to school?"

Ava sighed through her nose and tried to think of a way to explain how she felt, but came up with nothing.

"Are those girls bothering you again?"

"Sometimes." Ava shrugged. Sarah and Eliza had taken a break from tormenting her after she attacked them, but they were gearing up to start again now that enough time has passed. "But, Daddy? I have a big problem."

"Why don't you tell me about it? Maybe I can fix it."

"Well, yesterday I went to see Nathan, but he wasn't home…his laptop was on and it made a noise, so I looked to see what it was." Ava rambled. "I wasn't snooping, I promise!"

"What did you see?"

"I can't tell you."

"Baby, if what you saw if bothering you so badly that you're cutting class and having outbursts like this, then you need to tell me what it is. This isn't healthy for you."

"Nathan's gonna be so mad." A single tear fell from Ava's eye, slipping down her cheek.

What was she going to do?

"Baby, your brother loves you." Dan assured her, pulling over outside the school building. "Whatever this is, if you talk to him about it, I'm sure he'll understand."

He had no idea what was going on, but he did know that there was nothing that Ava could do, that would make Nathan stop loving her.

"I hope so." Ava sniffled and swiped the tear away.

"Alright. What do you have now? Recess?"

"Yes."

Great, now she'd really get in trouble. Her teacher definitely wasn't going to like this.

"Well, if you don't want anyone to find out about this, I think you'd better hurry up and go back inside." Dan smiled.

"Really?" Ava's eyes widened.

"As long as you stay where you're supposed to be, there's no reason anyone needs to know about this."

"Thank you, Daddy!" The ashen blonde kissed his cheek before racing into the building.

"Slow down, Munchkin. The park's not going anywhere."

After having that talk with her father, Ava still wasn't sure about what she should do with the information she found on Nathan's laptop, but she didn't feel so off-kilter about it.

She was thinking that she should probably keep it to herself because she had no right reading the messages in the first place.

Hopefully, it was the right decision.

"If we don't hurry, somebody might take my favorite swing!" Ava tugged on her uncle's hand to get him to walk faster.

Plus, she didn't want to think about any of that now. Her uncle agreed to take her to the park today and she wasn't going to allow that mess of a situation to put a damper on the outing.

"I'm coming. I'm coming." Keith playfully rolled his eyes and allowed her to pull him all the way to the swings before she hopped on the one on the end. "Listen, we've gotta talk about something."

"You're not moving away again, are you?" Ava turned around to look at him. "Cause I was brave about it last time, but I don't think I can do it again."

Keith and Lucas were only gone for less than a week, but it felt like a lifetime. She couldn't go through that again.

"You were really brave." Keith complimented her. "And no, I'm not moving away. My news is a lot better than that."

"What is it?"

"Jules and I are getting married."

"You are?" Ava wrinkled her nose. "Why?"

"Because I love her and she loves me." Keith chuckled at her reaction. "And we want to spend the rest of our lives together."

"And kiss?"

"And kiss." He chuckled. "Is that your only hang up about this?"

"Kissing is gross."

"You know what?" If that's what Ava believed, then Keith was going to do nothing to change her mind. "You're right. We won't kiss in front of you."

"Goodie. Am I invited to the wedding?"

"Of course you are. You have a really important role, too."

"I do?"

"Well, Jules and I talked about it and we'd like for you to be the flower girl. Of course, that means you'll have to put on a dress and your shoes'll have to match….."

"I can do it!"

"That's my girl."

A/N: There goes Ava biting off more than she can chew...