Gabe Cooper (grizzled_bear) wrote in supernextdoor, @ 2012-05-14 01:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | #group scene, 10.09.11, gabe, nadia, naya |
Goldilocks and the three bears...
Who: Gabe, Naya, Nadia, and NPC Abbie
Where: Gabe's apartment, above Dead Until Dark
When: Sunday afternoon
What: Introducing munchkin to mama bear.
Warnings: TBD
Gabe had picked his daughter up after her ballet class, as normal. She'd been bouncy and excited, full of news about what she'd been up to since he'd dropped her off at school on Wednesday morning. Most of her news seemed to be about the Halloween costume she'd been working on, using yellow wool to braid herself a wig, and spending way too much time making paper flowers to pin to the bright strands. Gabe, to his credit, was able to offer input on what else she could add to her costume - Abbie had made him sit through Tangled far too many times for him to not know, in intimate detail, just what Rapunzel looked like. Even if he still hadn't quite recovered from the trauma of walking in on his daughter, scissors in hand, ready to cut off a big chunk of hair, just like the heroine of her favorite movie.
He'd taken Abbie to the ice cream parlor rather than straight home, wanting to bribe her with a sweet treat before he talked to her about Naya. Gabe had been utterly blindsided by the woman, and though he'd had a permanent smile on his face ever since Thursday night, he still wasn't quite sure how to broach the subject. He poked at his sundae as Abbie made an admirable effort at getting chocolate sauce right across her cheek, steeling himself to speak.
"Munchkin?" He said softly, reaching across with a napkin to wipe her face clean. "You remember how you asked me why I didn't have someone like how your mom has-" he totally blanked on the guy's name, unable to remember who Paula's latest victim - er, boyfriend - was.
"Adrian," Abbie supplied, looking up at her father, her head tilted a little. "And you said it's because you're busy and you already have me for hugs and for being girly and pink so you don't need anyone else." She shoved a large scoop of icecream into her mouth, the spoon clacking against her teeth softly.
Gabe cleared his throat. "Yeah, I said that." Not his best bit of avoidance, but it'd been the best he'd been able to come up with, put on the spot by his daughter. "Well, I've...there's a girl I'd like you to meet. Her name's Naya, and she's a bear, just like us." He tweaked her nose, grinning at her. "So, best behavior ok? We wanna impress her." He was nervous, much as he'd deny it. He was falling for Naya hard, but if she didn't get on with Abbie, there was no question who he'd choose.
"Is she the lady that you talked about before?" Abbie asked, having the uncanny knack of picking up on random bits of conversation that Gabe didn't even remember having. "The one you said had a pretty smile, and she comes in to your bar a lot and Dex likes her the mostest-"
"Most," Gabe corrected automatically, eyeing his daughter suspiciously. She may only have been six, but Gabe knew damn well when she was affecting her cutesy little girl voice. It worked on lesser men, but you couldn't bullshit a bullshitter.
"Most," Abbie replied, sighing. "The most out of all your customers."
"Uh...yeah." Gabe honestly didn't remember talking about Naya. He must have, though, for his daughter to be talking about her. Either that, or he was going to have to kill Nadia slowly and painfully when he got in. "Nadia's gonna be there too, but you already have her wound around your little finger, so no worries there." He grinned at his daughter, ruffling up her hair, ignoring the annoyed whine as she tried to fix it, glaring at him.
"C'mon, eat up. Naya's cooking dinner. I thought we could go past the swingpark on the way home, burn off some of this ice cream so we're hungry." Finishing the rest of his sundae in a couple of bites, he waited patiently for Abbie to catch up, in between answering more questions about Naya - what did she look like, what did she do for a living, was she moving in with them, did Abbie have to call her 'mom', like her mommy made her call her boyfriends 'daddy'. That last question had Gabe surpressing an angry growl. He'd had words with Paula about it before - at the last count, Abbie had five men she called 'daddy'. Him, the two fathers of Paula's other kids, and two long-term boyfriends she'd had in the past, that still stuck around because Paula still had some kind of hold over them.
Pushing his anger aside, Gabe grabbed Abbie once she'd finished her ice-cream, carrying her squealing happily, upside down, back to the truck. An hour or two in the swing park, and they headed for home, Gabe's stomach churning with nerves by the time they pulled in behind the bar and headed upstairs.