Sorry I wasn't online for a day or so, been sick with a stupid cold and struggling not to cough out my lungs... so apologies in advance if this chapter isn't at its best.

Olivia is a bit like me – my parents got divorced when I was very young, and my mum is remarried so I have two 'father figures' (although only one of them is my dad, I call my mum's husband by his first name). But I didn't have a dog (just a pet rabbit).

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Chapter 12 (Nya)

Eight weeks ago, Ninjago City, Ristorante 'Toscana' near Ninjago City Hospital

"...and after our snack, we were outside on the playground, and that was it." Abby concludes the recount of her exciting morning. "School is sooo much fun."

I am quite sure that this opinion will change sooner or later, but I am happy to hear that my daughter has enjoyed her first day of school.

She is going to spend a lot of time there. Starting next week, she will also attend the aftercare program.

In the last couple of years, my teammates have given me as much time to spend with my daughter as possible, for example by letting me do more routine (and admittedly rather boring) missions that usually wouldn't require me being away over night.

But now that my sister-in-law is four months pregnant and should not be involved in any too demanding or possibly dangerous missions, meaning I will need to be back to being a full-time Ninja again.

But today, me, Kai and Sky have been given the afternoon off.

To celebrate the special occasion, my brother and sister-in-law as well as my parents have collected Abby from school with me, and we are all having lunch together at our favourite Italian restaurant.

And since we've arrived here about half an hour ago, my little girl has been talking non-stop, so we've already heard the story the teacher has read them, the song they've learned and had a very detailed description of the classroom, the playground and the picture she has drawn.

"And how do you like your teacher?" My mum enquires.

"Oooh, Miss Katherine is sooo nice." Abby replies, slurping her spaghetti. Her brand new sky blue T-shirt, which she has picked herself for this day, is already covered in splatters of tomato sauce. I was trying to get her to use a napkin, but she refused. "And she knows a looot of songs and stowies. But-" She glances up from her plate, looking at me. "-she's said the same as mummy, that I can' talk to my fwied all the time."

"Yes, sweetie." I smile at her. "Just like what we've talked about. When you're learning things at school, you'll have to be quiet and listen. But you will also have plenty of playtime when you can chat with your friends."

"O-kay." She nods, her mouth full of pasta. "I'll twy."

"So, you've already made some friends?" My mum enquires.

"Yes." Abby nods excitedly. "Olivia, she sits next to me an' she has a dog. She's my bestest fwiend."

It's so easy to make friends at this age. Someone you've only met a few hours ago will become your best friend, just because you just need to sit next to each other or like the same cartoon or the same animal or the same colour or...

No, I am not going to think about that now.

Let's focus on the strawberry blonde girl who has immediately become my daughter's new friend. When we noticed our children would be neighbours, I talked to her parents – the mother, her second husband and the girl's father – at the drop off this morning. They all seemed to be very nice.

"When we did a picture, I drawed granny an' grandpa's blacksmith shop. Olivia did her family. Her mum an' her dad and her step-dad and her bunny and her grandp-..."

Abby stops mid-sentence. She thinks for a moment before she states. "It's kinda unfair. Olivia has two dads, and I have none. Why did my dad not come today?"

I think that from now on I will be getting a lot more questions about my daughter's father.

Present Day, Ninjago 'Elementary Masters' Primary School

"Muuuhuuum." Abigail cheers when she spots me waiting in front of her classroom. As much as she loves school, even a few weeks in now, getting collected at lunchtime instead of spending the afternoon at the aftercare program is a special treat – for both of us.

"Hey, sweetie." I place a kiss in her hair as she hugs my waist. "Did you have a good morning?"

"We've learned the 'b' today, like in bat 'n ball. " She puts an emphasis on the new letter. "I already knew that one f'om my name. But I still listened." She quickly assures me.

"You're a clever girl." I praise her. "If only you wouldn't always leave half your stuff behind because you're too busy talking..."

While Abby takes her coat from the hanger on the corridor, I enter the classroom to fetch her backpack that she has forgotten.

Miss Dashner gives me a questioning look when she notices me. She probably hasn't had the chance to catch up with Jay on what him and I have discussed earlier. I smile as I give her a quick nod, just to let her know that everything has gone alright so far.

"Don't worry, we're good." I mouth. But the more critical part of our conversation is yet to come.

"Are we gonna have spaghettiii?" Abby asks as we are finally walking along the corridor. "I'm staaa'ving."

"Why am I not surprised to hear that?" I laugh. "You are always starving."

"Because I'm gwowing." She states. I bet she's got that from Cole.

"You can have anything you want from the kids' menu." I say. "But can you wait just a little bit longer? Before we'll go to the restaurant, we have to see someone first, okay?"

"Mr Gordon's room?" She wonders when we stop in front of his door. "Why are we here?"

Just as I raise my head to knock on the closed door, Jay speeds around the corner. "Sorry I'm late." He gasps. "I had to make sure the kids have properly tidied up their workspaces. Hope you didn't have to wait too long."

"Nooo." Abby replies as he unlocks his room. "We've just awwived. But I have some baaad news." She bats her long eye lashes. "I can't help you fix stuff today, my mummy an' I are having a girls' day out-" Where did she pick up that expression? "an' we're gonna have spaghetti."

"Oh, I'm sure you two are going to have great fun." Jay smiles fondly at her. "But why don't you come in for a bit? I – we – have something to tell you as well."

I hope she will not consider our news to be bad news as well... I think as we follow Jay inside, closing the door behind us.

"P-please sit down." He offers, and this time I take the chair right next to his, with Abby climbing onto in my lap.

"I got you some juice from the canteen." Jay offers her a little purple drink carton. "You've told me these are your favourites, right?"

"They are." She nods before she turns to me. "May I, mummy?"

"Of course." I help her put the little straw inside, to avoid any major spills onto her while polo shirt – not that it would matter considering what she is planning to eat for lunch – and hand it to my daughter.

"Thanks. Whatcha wanna tell me?" She enquires between sips.

"Do you remember when Mr Gordon came to the party, and he told you he is an old friend of your uncle's?" I start. Although he is usually the chattier one, Jay and I have agreed that I will do most of the talking for now.

"Yes. All of 'em." She informs me. "Why?"

"Well, you see... Mr Gordon-" it is a bit weird referring to Jay by this name, but I am going to stick with it just until we've told her everything "-he is also an Elemental Master. And a few years ago, before you were born, was actually working with us."

"You're a Ninja?" Her eyes widened.

"I was a Ninja." Jay corrects her.

"He was the blue one." I add. On our picture wall at home, there are a lot of photos of the team in all its different compositions from the beginning until now, but Abby has never paid attention to them – simply because she never knew that some of them show both her parents.

"I like blue." She beams.

"Me too." Jay and I say simultaneously.

I blush, remembering the first question he's ever asked me – well, more like attempted to ask.

"Anyway, he..." I want to keep going but Abby interrupts me.

"So, you two were friends as well?" My smart little girl concludes.

Here we go.

"Yeah, sort of..." C'mon, just say it and get it over with.

I tighten my hold on my daughter before I continue.

"You see, honey, Mr Gordon – Jay – is your father."

"Y-you're my dad?" Abby drops the empty juice carton as she looks at Jay in surprise. "B-but wh-why didn't you want me?" Her eyes are starting to fill with tears and she turns away from him, burying her face into my chest.

Although my attention is clearly focused on the crying girl in my arms, the pained expression on Jay's face does not escape my notice. He carefully reaches out for her, but just before he can touch her, he changes his mind and pulls his hand away again.

"Abby, darling." I coo, rubbing her back. "It wasn't like that. He didn't even know you are his daughter until three days ago either."

Abby glances up. "Why that?" She sobs.

"I've made a horrible mistake." Jay states but I correct him.

"We've both made bad mistakes." Even if I'm not ready yet to talk about and apologise for what happened between us, I am not going to let him take all the blame in front of our daughter.

"As I've told you before, something very, very stupid happened between me and your dad. We both hurt each other, and as a result your father left the team. We haven't seen each other in over six years, and I never got to tell him about you. But you have to believe us, whatever happened between your dad and I had nothing to do with you, okay?

"Mh-mh." She mumbles.

"I-I really wish I had known about you sooner..." Jay says quietly.

"Me too..." Abby sniffles.

"But as soon as he realised who you are, he called Uncle Kai to get in contact with us." I again come to my ex-boyfriend's defence. "And do you something really cool?" I try to sound cheerful.

"No, what?" Abby looks at me expectantly.

"You've told me that you and Mr Gordon were friends, even before either of you knew that he's your dad. So, now you're gonna be even better friends."

"Mmh, that's twue." She smiles weakly. "An' you, are you fwiends again now too?"

"We are." I assure her. Well, I hope we are. Over Abby's head, I carefully glance at Jay to see him smile back at me, so I guess we're okay.

"An' my dad's coming back to us then?"

"No, sweetie." I shake my head. "Your dad has his job, and I'm sure the kids here would be very sad if he left. It will be just like for Olivia's mum and dad, Lena and Kevin don't live together but they both take care of her. And..."

"But Olivia an' her mum live with her other dad Martin, an' you don' have someone else." She claims. "Or do you?" She almost looks scared at the prospect of me dating anyone.

"No, sweetie, I don't." I assure her. "But we'll just keep things the way they are, okay? This doesn't change anything about the fact that we both love you."

"Yes, mummy." She sounds a bit disappointed.

"But I really would like to spend some time with you. Not as your teacher but as your dad." Jay tells her. "Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to." He quickly adds. Funny, these are the same exact words that he said to me when he asked me out on our first date at Mega Monster Amusement Park.

"I-I do." Abby flashes him a little smile.

"For once, you can visit me here in the afternoons, just like before. Well, not exactly like before. I mean, you can still call me Mr Gordon, or Jay, or Uncle or..."

"Can I call you dad?" Abby pipes up.

For a moment, Jay is speechless. He just stares at her, slack jawed, and I'm actually getting a bit worried that he might burst out in tears any seconds. But luckily, he doesn't.

"I-I'd really like that." He finally says, swallowing hard. "A lot. B-but whatever you like."

"I like that, too. I have enough uncles, you know, but I've always wannet a dad." She beams. "But now I have a dad, I'm gonna tell Olivia tomowwow."

"And you have two more grandparents as well." I say.

My girl's eyes light up. "More gwan'pawents?"

"Yes, my mum and dad." Jay confirms. "And they would love to meet you."

"I want to meet them, too." She nods.

"Yes, we can all visit them together." I tell her. "They live in a junkyard, not too far from our place."

"Coooool." Abby excitedly jumps down from my lap. "I have a dad an' two gwan'parents an' a junkyard. Do you also have a dog?"

"I am very sorry, but I don't." Jay answers.

"Ah, don' wowwy, it's okay." She gives him a reassuring pat on the back. My daughter has been spending way too much time just with adults.

"But in the park near my place, there are a lot of people who walk their dogs." Jay tells her. "We could go there once for a walk or a picnic if you like."

"Ooh, I like that." Abby says. "Can we, mummy?"

"Sure." I nod. "You dad and I have already talked about you doing things with him outside of the school, like on the weekends, but the decision is yours."

"And we've also said that your mum could join us for these activities, until we know each other a bit better." Jay adds. "Just to make sure that we will get along with each other."

"You're my dad an' my fwiend, so I know we will." Abby smiles. "But I still want mummy to come with us."

"Perfect." Jay smiles. "So, shall we maybe start with a visit to your grandparents next weekend?"

"Okay." Our daughter agrees. "Or do you wanna have spaghetti with us now?"

"Unfortunately, I have to work this afternoon." Jay replies. "And I don't want to disturb your girls' day out. I'll see you tomorrow, Abby."

"Yes." Abby grins widely. She climbs down from my lab to give him a hug. "I'll see you tomowwow, dad."