take me to your river

“I mean, yeah, I have to agree with you there — chubby cheeks are just cuter,” Dani agreed matter-of-factly with a nod as if it was known information. Even she had to admit that Calli was very cute, even if it was only to herself. “Okay, I’ll return the favor when this one is twenty-one and get her a spiked hot chocolate or something,” Dani joked as she stepped up to the front of the stand and ordered herself a hot chocolate. The last few months she hadn’t seen Scott, though that had been by design. A part of her still felt guilty about everything that happened between them and she didn’t want to take away some of his happiness by being a walking talking reminder of his failures. She hoped that enough time had passed that they could at least be friendly in some way. “I’m actually trying to find a Christmas present for Connor — I was thinking maybe hot wheels, but do kids even like hot wheels anymore?” She asked, thinking it over for another second before making a decision, “Maybe I’ll just go with a gift card. I know it’s deeply impersonal but it’s not like he and I are best friends, he’s just, like, an acquaintance I met through Katie or whatever.”

-

Scott recognized that Dani was being a good sport, and he appreciated it. She was still important to him, had been such an important chapter of his life. And while there were parts of that chapter he didn’t like to look back on, his selfishness had still been born of out genuine love for her. “I’ll make sure she holds you to that.” He liked the abstract idea that Dani would be around still, all those years in the future. “Whatever you get him, he’ll love. He’s just a kid.” Scott knew that Connor’s mother didn’t care for him, in fact, Katie had made her feelings about Scott quite clear once upon a time, but from what Scott knew of her son, Connor wasn’t very finicky about what he found entertaining. “An acquaintance you met through Katie.” Scott snickered at the description. “Whatever you pick, I’m sure he’ll love more than a gift card. Kids can’t handle all the possibilities that come with a gift card, and whatever they end up with they’ll just have FOMO about whatever they didn’t get instead. But the hot wheels take the choices away, and he’ll just be happy for the gift.” Scott wasn’t an expert in the psychology of children, but he at least knew that, to an extent. As they reached the front of the line, Scott procured his wallet, ordering two hot cocoas as Calli ogled Dani with her wide eyes. Once he’d cashed out and the hot cocoas were served, Scott offered one over to Dani. “I’m happy to help you look for a gift, though. If you’d like someone to blame it on if he doesn’t like it.”

“Yeah I can se that, it’s actually really horrifying,” Dani responded, but despite her words she wore a faint smile. It was hard not to react that way when all she ever wanted was for Scott to be happy and it seemed like he had finally gotten that and this was one girl she would never be able to compete with. Averting her eyes at the small child, Dani reached out and gave the baby’s hand a shake, returning the gesture as politely as she could, “Oh she can talk already?” She asked quite genuinely. Despite growing up helping her aunts and uncles take care of her cousins, she still remained fairly clueless about children and never felt the need to learn. “I don’t know, kinda pudgy, but who wasn’t at her age. Can she drink hot chocolate yet or…?”

-

“Oh, come on. It’s a little charming.” Scott replied with a roll of his eyes. “—No. She doesn’t even have bones yet.” She could babble, certainly, let out a giggle when truly amused, but nothing more than sounds at the present. Nevertheless, they thrilled him. “Skinny babies aren’t half as cute.” He replied, a finger nudging into Calli’s side, eliciting a small giggle of delight from his daughter. “She’s strictly a, uh—” He knit his brow, unsure of the most salient way to say ‘breast milk’, but just let the thought go. “She’ll get to have water for the first time starting in a couple of weeks. But for now, she’s pretty restricted. But once the flood gates open she’s getting everything. Mole, tamales, beans and rice, really make sure she’s in the culture.” Scott gestured towards the hot chocolate in question. “I’d be happy to treat you, though. If you wanted to walk around with us. I’ll feel less bad if I’m not the only one drinking it in front of her.”

Scott tried to keep himself busy, between his career and his daughter, he typically found it was easy not to be left alone with his thoughts if he tried hard enough. Life wasn’t quite as lonely lately as it had been, although he couldn’t say that there weren’t aspects of his former life he didn’t miss on occasion. Mainly, the friendships — the ones that had faded once his behavior had come to light. Of all of them, he could say he did miss Nate, someone who’d been a good friend, the sort of stand-up guy that Scott had also once considered himself. He knew he’d let the guy down in many respects, and had behaved in a manner that Nate simply couldn’t put aside. And like all the other people in Scott’s life, he couldn’t blame them for turning their nose up at him. He’d needed the wake-up call, however painful it had been.

Suffice to say that the last person Scott anticipated running into while grabbing lunch at the counter would be, of course, Nate. Somehow they’d evaded one another, never talked about not talking, never tried to mend fences. A day earlier than this moment would have been premature, Scott had always thought. So when the bell above the door chimed, and innocent curiosity had Scott turning his head to see who it was, he quickly swallowed the lump in his throat as he realized just who it was. “Hey.” He greeted casually, not wanting to seem to eager or familiar to a guy whom Scott doubted considered him a friend at this juncture.

Catalina furrows her brows at his words. “I actually haven’t thought much about that.” Her gaze falls down to the infant falling asleep in her father’s arms, knowing it should have been something she thought about but she had assumed they’d handle those big issues as easily as they’ve worked out everything else. She was looking into getting her own place with Calli, adjusting her days at the bakery to make sure someone was always with their daughter whether it was his family or hers. She didn’t really think about what would happen if all of them got together for big holidays or if they even could. “I want her first holidays to be with both of us, Scott. It’s a big milestone, you know?” She lifts her eyes up towards him. “We can maybe do something with everyone or whatever.” Most of the decisions, Scott’s been patiently going along with, the day she decided to move out of his place and she was sure if she slapped divorce papers down on the table he’d sign them without arguing with her simply because it was the one thing they hadn’t talked about.

Her eyes never leave him as he begins to talk, a little surprised he’s even bringing up everything now. She knows he’s been walking on eggshells with practically everyone in his life but there isn’t much she knows further than that. She has no idea what’s going on between him and Dani, the last thing she really heard was the fact his ex had been surprised he was even having a baby and then that vague comment about him not wanting her to run into Ethan’s arms but other than that the topic of them was never touched and Catalina didn’t realize how much she had been ignoring all of until he started to actually talk about it. There’s us. Is there? It’s on the tip of her tongue but she doesn’t utter a single word, hell, she’s not even sure if she’s breathing. She inhales at the last word that leaves his mouth, clearing her throat. “I —” she exhales as she glances down towards Calli who is peacefully sleeping in his arms without a single care in the world. “I don’t want you to just agree to anything that comes to her because you feel like you have to whether it’s me being her mother or you trying to get forgiveness.” She reluctantly raises her eyes up to him. “What do you want, Scott?” She asks. “Forget whatever guilt you’re feeling or what you feel obligated to do… What do you want?”

-

“Oh, well, sure. I just don’t want to monopolize her. If you wanted whatever time on Christmas with your parents, we can work around it. I know I’m not exactly their favorite person, so we’ll get it all sorted.” Scott offered with a soft smile. He appreciated Catalina’s willingness to involve him, knowing that things could be quite different, and he wouldn’t have a right to complain. “Or we can get everyone together, too. Maybe the zone defense would be better.” Admittedly, Scott and Catalina’s families had gotten on quite well. It was Scott that had blown the entire thing to bits.

Scott knew he could dance around the larger issues, or wait for Catalina to broach them, but aside from some choice actions in the past two years, he’d not been a coward otherwise. He was always typically forthright, considered honesty the most important thing. Integrity had once been the only thing Scott had felt he could hold onto, the thing that was the true measure of him as a man. And while he had lost his way, he was trying his best to rediscover himself, to be the man that Catalina had trusted, had considered her truest friend beyond all others. And if they could never be such friends again, Scott at least wanted her to know that when it came to their child, he’d be that man again, someone their daughter could look up to. “Cat, I —” He paused, unsure of what it really was that he wanted. It felt too risky, too dangerous to begin down a path if neither of them understood the consequences of it. Emotions were fresh and raw, so many things undiscussed, so many transgressions still marred them. “I just want my family to be together.” Scott admitted quietly. “But I know that that’s unrealistic, and wishful thinking. And I also know I don’t have a right to say it.”

Calli was the one and only thing Catalina cared about. The last thing she was concerned about was whatever Scott was doing in his life or anything in hers. Which probably sounded bad given she had a man who had been with her every step of the way through the pregnancy after the affair with Dani and Scott dropped a bomb on her life but the second she realized that there was going to be a little girl in the world who was going to look at her for all the answers, the last thing she was going to do was fling herself into anything new when she had her daughter to think about and it didn’t really seem like Ethan was completely interested in raising a baby that wasn’t his and losing Calli was absolutely not even an option. All the woman was concerned with was making sure Calli was happy and when the time came for the whole marriage subject to come up, she’d talk about it but right now the only thing that mattered was them being on the same page about their daughter which lately they had been. The rest would come as it was but she would be lying if she didn’t admit to getting legal advice for when the day came.

Her head tilts to the side a little, her expression not really changing as he says that he wasn’t exactly inviting her to score points or even get on anyone’s good side. She knew that eventually the both of them would have to attend family get togethers to show Calli that her parents could co-exist together. “Okay, that sounds good. Just send me a text with the details and I’ll be there.” She smiles as she glances down at Calli in his arms, her index finger brushing along her forehead when he starts talking about his siblings. “Right, the weather changing and stuff. I don’t know if I’d fly out there with Calli right now either.” She lifts her eyes up towards Scott, realizing the how close the holidays were coming and how it had bee a year since she found out she was having Calli. She pulls her hand away from the baby as she nods her head at his words. “We can save that for the holidays.” She teases. “Well, I’ll be there.”

-

“Oh. Great.” Scott’s face lit up as Catalina agreed to attend, a sense of relief flooding over him. He knew it had nothing to do with him, he just hoped, in some small way, that she might be able to forgive him. It would be a long road, but Scott would take Catalina’s lead, regardless of what that meant. His focus was entirely on what was best for their daughter, and by virtue of that, he cared immensely about Catalina’s needs. “I assumed you’d want Calli with your family for Christmas.” Scott noted absentmindedly. “— Or, whatever. Whatever you want.” He wasn’t exactly looking forward to the day there’d be some sort of custody issue, where they’d have to hire lawyers and sort out their daughter’s schedule and living arrangements. Not that Scott would ever advocate for more than his fair share. As far as he was concerned, Catalina could decide what was best for their daughter, and Scott would go along with it. 

“I know we haven’t really addressed the whole, uhm... Living together, thing. Like you’d mentioned. And I told you I’d think about it, and then everything got a little...” Scott squinted, truly trying to put his best foot forward. “There’s a part of me that wants to do exactly what you want to do, that will want to acquiesce to your every whim purely because you’re Calli’s mother. Then there’s the part of me that so desperately wants your forgiveness that I’ll give you whatever you want. And then, more than that... There’s us. Whatever we still are to each other. Friends or...” He shook his head, looking down at Calli as he fought a frown. “I didn’t want to say yes because I didn’t want to take advantage of your graciousness. Of your kind heart. God knows I already have a million times over. I just — I thought I’d offered you something... Some rationale, I guess. It’s not that I don’t care, Cat. And it’s not that I didn’t want to say yes right then and there.”

Ethan rolled his eyes, wholly unimpressed. The superiorty Scott deluded himself into earning, the way he statured himself some knight in comparison to Ethan when he had spent the majority of his sham marriage to Catalina in the arms of another woman, was as much amusing as it was infuriating. Ethan had never, by any stretch, considered himself a virtuous man, but he could at least acknowledge that the destruction of his life had been at his own hands, which Scott never was apparently able to do. He also knew better than to posture himself above Scott, when, in fact, he knew them to be entirely equal.

It seemed as though Scott was the only one that hadn’t been let in on this fact.

“Listen–I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time to do this stupid bullshit where we go back and forth about whose a shitter person. Because you’re no better than me, Scott. We’re just…we’re parallel lines. You’re just as selfish. You’re just too self-righteous to admit that the only difference between us is that you got to have your cake and eat it, too; I fucked up, and my wife left me. But I came back, and I owned what I did, and I worked for Cat’s forgiveness. I was here. The whole time you were off doing God knows what with a woman that’ll never choose you. I was here. So I don’t have time for you to try to work out your feelings of inadequacy. I’m not here for that.”

-

Scott had never come face-to-face with Ethan before — he’d heard enough about the guy, knew more than he’d ever wanted to know about him. And so, self-righteous or otherwise, Scott hated him. Hated what he’d done to Catalina, hated that he was back in her life. He didn’t deserve to be, not that Scott particularly thought that he did, either. But he was the father of Catalina’s daughter, and would always be there, in some way. There was room enough for that. But for Ethan? Scott wanted the door shut on that quickly, metaphorically and literally. “You don’t know anything about it.” This was the the guy that Catalina had gone to, had clearly opened up to, and offered up portions of Scott’s soul to. 

“And for the record, you haven’t earned anything. She’s just a good person, and doesn’t have the heart to tell you you’re absolutely irredeemable.” Scott was bristling, begging for Ethan to begin something that he could finish. “I made my mistakes, but at least I’m not trying to force my way into an instant-family situation. What do you think is going to happen? You’re never going to be more important to her than I am? She’s in love with me. So why don’t you cut your losses and screw off to whatever hole you crawled out of. Because you’re not the guy, you were just a mistake, and I’m the one who was there for her.”

Truthfully, things were good with Scott. Somehow the both of them shifted out of the awkward in between stage to being the best co-parents she knew that they could be. She drops her gaze to their daughter in his arms, a wide smile on her features as she reaches over to brush her finger along the small cheek. She pulls her hand back with a smile on her features as she drifts her gaze from their daughter to Scott when he begins to talk about how his parents are in town. She constantly texts his mother photos of their daughter all the time and she may have sent her a reminder text message that she’d be in town but she knows fixing his relationship with his family is important to him and there’s no way she’s stepping in on that. 

“It’s…” She chews on her lower lip as she keeps her gaze on him. “It’s still that bad with them?” She can’t believe that next month is the year anniversary of her finding out that they were having this little one. “Hey,” she reaches out, putting her hand on his arm. “If you want me there, I’m there.” She gives his arm a little squeeze. “Just give me a time and place. Is it just your parents or is Ana coming too?” She also knows things have been hard there. She turns and reaches down, plucking the diaper bag off the table. “We’re family now. Whatever you need, I’m there for you.”

-

Scott had betrayed his family’s trust, that much was more than obvious. They had been reticent when he’d announced he’d be getting married, but meeting Catalina had led the Gallego’s to fully embrace the choice, once they could see how earnest and lovely Catalina was. The entire family had not embraced Dani in the same manner — his parents hadn’t, at least. His sisters had loved Dani as their own, but cared for Catalina just as much now. And it was a horrible thing, what Scott had done — so it would take some time to walk back his behavior, and to make amends. Ana still held him at arm’s length, and part of that, Scott understood, was that she’d looked up to him, had seen him as such a role-model, only to have that thin veneer shattered. 

“It’s not all bad.” Scott promised with a meek smile. “And it’s not —” He cleared his throat. “It’s not your job to fix it. That’s not... That’s not why I’m inviting you. To score points, or anything. It would just be nice. Not even for them. Just for me, to uh, to have everyone together.” He stalled on saying family, when, despite he and Catalina being linked for the rest of their lives, the word ‘family’ might not aptly categorize where they were at that very moment. “It’s just my parents. I don’t think Ana or Gabi are particularly keen on flying with Mateo right now.” Or being stuck in Eureka, for that matter. “And Sabey just started a new job, so she’s out as well. Which I guess makes things easier, you know. I don’t have to do a zone offense.”

Ethan and Cat’s argument had left him feeling at odds with everything, his universe in Eureka seemingly upended. By coming to see her, he’d been hoping to set that right. The truth of the matter was, Ethan no longer knew who he was when not in relation to someone else–his divorced had dislodged him entirely from the moors he was so comfortable within. When he’d fled, he’d fled to Eureka for its familiarity, knowing that Catalina would likely be there, knowing that he’d be met by someone who had, at one point, wanted him. Loved him. He wasn’t sure what the truth of that was, now, or what he’d created. He wasn’t sure what anything meant. 

With the arrival of Scott Gallego before him, his disdain radiating off of him in waves, Ethan’s general unease was compounded. Scott had always been something in Ethan’s peripheral vision, a non-threat that he’d relegated to the back of his mind, understanding that the man was essentially the same as him. He didn’t particularly delight in the man’s misfortune, but neither did he root for his happiness–particularly when it came at the cost of Cataline, whom Ethan had come to, in whatever way possible, treasure. He chuckled softly, the wry smile lingering as he said, “Decided you were about ready to play house now, then?”

-

All that Scott knew of Ethan was nothing complimentary, to say the least. Where he had failed to be a man, to step up, Scott had been there as a friend, a confidant, someone who, at that time, Catalina could trust. And for the all the grief and pain that Scott watched Catalina go through, he’d never be able to forget, could not comprehend Cat’s capacity for forgiveness. It made Scott’s blood boil just to be in the man’s company, to know he was trying to weasel his way back in, after everything. It was rich of Scott, certainly, but he couldn’t change his feelings on the matter.

“She’s the mother of my child.” Scott replied with an even keel, not going to be the one goaded in this situation. “You wouldn’t know anything about that, though. You’re never quite there when you’re needed, but you seem to like to buzz around exactly when you’re not.” Scott canted his head to the side, sizing the man up. “So, anyway. She’s not around. So you can feel free to fuck off any time now.”

Catalina pulls the front door open only a few seconds after the knock occurs. “Hey. I was just finishing packing up the weekend back.” She steps back from the door, leaving it in a way that indicated he can walk right in. The both of them simply fell into the rightful pattern of becoming the best co-parents they could. Equally keeping their noses out of each other’s business and it was the least she could do to respect whatever was going on in her husband’s life. She walks over to the onesies folded on the ground next to the bag that’s only a few feet away from Calliope who is laying on her tummy and cooing. It’s hard to believe three months had come and go. Fifteen weeks to exact. 

 “Don’t forget we have our four month check up appointment on October 28th at 9am. Let me know if you need me to text that to you I got confirmation this morning.” She smiles widely as Calliope’s eyes fall on her. “Hi. You see Daddy?” Their daughter’s face lighting up the second her eyes scan the room to find him. “We’re doing a lot of drooling which means constantly wiping at her mouth.” She murmurs, seeing some drool start to leave Calliope’s mouth. She plucks the baby cloth off the floor and moves to wipe her mouth. Calliope laughs. She moves back and puts the cloth on the ground as she begins to finish packing up the weekend bag. “There should be plenty of breast milk in the bag but if you need more… Well, you know the drill.” She chuckles as she moves over to pick up their daughter up off the floor. “Car seat is right there on the couch.” She says as she stands up with their daughter in her arms, kissing the top of her head. “Uh, that’s it.” She moves to hand Calliope to Scott, lifting her eyes up towards him. 

-

Scott’s gaze focused on Catalina as the door swung open, soft smile summoned as she greeted him. “Hey.” He greeted in reply, taking the unspoken invitation to enter the home, looking around until she found Cali, at which point his gaze returned promptly to Catalina. He lost track as she began speaking, watching her, but only registering that it was his turn to speak a few moments after it’d been initially appropriate to render a response. “October 28th. Right. I’ll put it in my calendar.” Scott quickly replied, nodding along. His gaze broke from Catalina to look at Calliope, if only to assure himself he’d not been staring, even though he had been. “Yeah, yeah, we know the drill.” He nodded with a broader smile. “Right, baby?” He said in a softer, ‘baby’ voice as he reached for his daughter as she was offered, greeting her with soft noises and a kiss on the forehead. Once she was resting against his chest, Scott looked to Catalina again, another dragging pause as he mulled over the right words.

“— So, my parents will be in town, this weekend. I mean, you know that. I told you that. But I thought I’d remind you. Just in case —” He knit his brow, distracting himself by pretending to adjust Cali. “If you wanted to join us, that’s all. I’m sure they’d love to see you. They’re certainly not here to see me.” He jested, though as ever, there was a kernel of truth to the statement. Ana was still holding firmly to her cold shoulder, and things with Scott’s family had been, well, awkward, to say the least. But he was doing his best, trying as hard as he could to work past it, to earn their respect again. It wasn’t as if he had any legs to stand on in terms of complaining about his fall from grace, he’d been the one who’d orchestrated it, after all. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot, or anything. I just know they would, like to see you. That’s all.”

Calliope was growing up — at least, every day seemed to bring on a new development, every month a new milestone. And every day was the last first for something, a keen reminder to cherish the time that Scott had with his daughter, even if it was split between he and Catalina. Which was — well, it was less than ideal. But Scott was keeping a respectful distance, particularly when he had no real way of knowing where Ethan and Cat stood. All Scott knew was that he was staying out of it, even if he really, really didn’t want to. Constantly reminding himself it was none of his business, that he truly had no place to talk.

But he couldn’t help the strange stirring. Jealousy, maybe. Not that he could do anything about, not that he could say a word. Because Scott’s honor may have failed him in the past, but he was working on reclaiming it. And part of that was letting Catalina go, because he simply couldn’t have the best of both worlds. It was Scott’s weekend, which meant he was arriving to Catalina’s after finishing work, quite eager to see his daughter. Not that this weekend was really Scott’s weekend, since his parents would be arriving the following morning and would likely be monopolizing their only granddaughter’s time. 

Knocking on the door, Scott stood patiently, still dressed in his fatigues as he’d come rushing over from the base the second he’d been able that day. 

As Scott inevitably got hurt by her words, Dani let out a faint sigh as she internally kicked herself or her poor choice of words. Was it true that she didn’t want children of her own in the future? Yes. And while she wasn’t a huge fan of children in general, it wasn’t that simple fact that deterred her from wanting to meet Calli. It was something else entirely and explaining herself meant admitting to certain truths she would have preferred remain hidden. “Scott, I’m not asking you to change this — I know you can’t and I wouldn’t want you to either…” She blurted out, if only to stop Scott’s train of thought from going completely off the track. “It’s hard. Not because I don’t like or want kids, but because when we were together I thought about it a lot. About us with one of those things,” Her eyes drifted towards the crumbs on the table, focusing on anything but Scott’s stare. “It’s hard because I’m just not ready to face what I chose not to have with you, okay? I’m still recovering from things…” Mostly the heartache of breaking up with someone you really thought was going to be the one.

-

Scott looked away, frown growing as his thoughts wandered. Try as he might, there would always be a part of him that related to Dani with the residual angst from wanting more than she could give him. They’d agreed to try to be friends, and, well — Scott was trying. At some point he hoped the silver lining would appear. But at present, it was difficult. “I guess that’s at least... A little reassuring.” He offered a sad smile. “That you at least thought about it.” They’d given up something good, something that maybe they shouldn’t have walked away from, but they had. And while they had to say it was ancient history, it was, in fact, very recent history. “I can at least, uh —” Scott looked down at his hands again, lips twisting. “— I can appreciate your honesty.” A soft sigh left his lips, his gaze finally falling back onto Dani. “I feel like I was stuck in slow motion, y’know? During Cat’s pregnancy, it felt like... A million miles away. But then —” Scott shook his head. “Now she’s here, my daughter, and what do I have to show for myself? And this isn’t —” He let out another quiet chuckle. “It’s not a pity party, trust me. I just feel like... I don’t know. Maybe I can’t explain it. Maybe there aren’t words, or I just don’t have the right ones. I just —” Another useless shrug, and Scott sat up a bit straighter afterwards. “I went through hell and back with OCS, flight school, all of it. The licenses and the time spent getting those qualifications... It’s just absolutely insane to me that any idiot can be a parent. This idiot included.”

“Things aren’t that weird, not right now anyway,” Dani defended even though it was a fairly weak argument to begin with. They were exes who still talked even though Scott was having a child with another woman, it was safe to say their relationship was a little weird. Not bad. But certainly weird. “Here’s a better option for me — I can avoid all the stages,” Dani said, her same sarcastically cynical tone but her faint smile slowly faded when she realized what exactly she was saying. “I don’t know, I guess I’m just not ready for that right now,” She added with the shrug of her shoulders. She had been in a weird headspace after dealing with her family and she knew this had little to do with Scott and his baby and more to do with stress from other parts of her life at the moment. “I know having all this, like the baby and the family and everything, was everything you wanted. It’s just never what I wanted, and I think it is kind of weird right now between us, so maybe I just need more time.”

-

Scott couldn’t say he was surprised. And because he wasn’t surprised, he’d preempted what little bit of hurt he might feel by Dani rejecting his offer to meet Calli. He couldn’t exactly reconcile how not wanting children of your own meant you couldn’t be around children at all, Scott wasn’t going to waste more brain power trying to understand Dani’s rationale. “That’s — well.” He knit his brow, gaze dropping to look at his hands. “I’m not just me, anymore.” Scott’s hands fidgeted, feeling a wave of awkwardness wash over him, not sure what to say, what words were left that felt remotely worthwhile. “Once upon a time, you at least considered compromise. We talked about it many, many times. I mean, that’s the reason why Chester’s here.” He remembered that day walking the stoney beach of Woodley Island, where Dani had offered him the platitude of stepping into the responsibility of parenthood, even if that was just to be a dog mom for the time being. “I can’t — I can’t change, not about this. I have a daughter. She’s the most important part of my life now. I can’t see how I’m supposed to pretend that isn’t the case just to keep you around. I mean — ...” Scott shook his head, a soft sigh parting his lips. “I guess it’s sort of useless. To try.”

“I picked you because you were just so helpless and sad and I thought helping the less fortunate would get me into heaven,” It was Dani’s undeniable sarcasm bearing its somewhat ugly head once again, however, it wasn’t as if she could admit to the real reasons why she indeed picked him. Because that’s what had happened — she chose him. After a particularly bad relationship, Dani was perfectly content with drifting through life on her own, but then her cousin introduced her to Scott and for the first time in a very long time her cynical mind wanted to hold onto some hope. “Thankfully you don’t have accidents on the carpet, so…” She added with a teasing smile. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” Dani’s words drifted as Scott threw out the offer to meet his child. “I just don’t want to make things weird, you know?” And if her friendship with Flo had taught her anything, her dislike of children could be off-putting around the parents of said children. The only reasons she seemed to get along well with Connor was the mixture of Katie’s similar personality type and of course Bobby. 

-

Scott snorted, his head shaking at Dani’s blunt assessment of her first impressions of him. It’d been a very mutual attraction, a very easy start-up to a deeply significant relationship. “That you ever caught.” Scott quickly corrected Dani with a wink. But his smile waned, if only for a brief moment, as Dani feigned away from wanting to meet Calli. He’d figured she’d react how she did — he knew her very well, still. “Things aren’t weird?” Scott replied in a half-joking manner. “She’s sort of a... Permanent part of me, now.” He offered, hoping the explanation caught on. “But it’s fine. I can’t force you to give her a shot. However, all she does is eat and sleep, so... This might just be your one opportunity to meet her when she’s her least annoying. Delay it and you’ll have to deal with getting your hair pulled, maybe a biting phase, who’s to say.” Scott did his best to suppress a smirk, though he appeared to be failing. “I’m not —” Scott cleared his throat. “I’m not trying to put you on the spot. Just think about it. Or don’t. She’ll be around for the next eighteen years or so if you ever reevaluate.”