Simply cause I could and did.

Enjoy, Noodle!

***********************************

Donovan turned the Mercedes into the empty gravel drive and curved around the front of the school, sending rocks skittering away. Kennedy jumped up from her spot on the steps and raced over, hopping into the car. She rubbed her arms and shivered.

"Sorry, I'm late," Donovan said.

Kennedy shook her head as she buckled herself in.

"It's fine. You can make it up to me by taking me dress shopping."

Donovan cast her a sideways glance. At fifteen she looked more and more like Carter, her body lengthening.

"Why are we going dress shopping?" he asked.

Kennedy bounced in her seat, hands knotted together in barely contained excitement. The look made Donovan smile.

"Aaron Kent asked me to go with him to Winter formal," she said.

When Donovan chuckled, Kennedy bit her lip, face flushing with giddiness.

"Then we will go get you a dress."

Mind spinning off to the future, Kennedy curled one long leg under her and gazed out the window. Eddies of leftover flurries from the weekend whipped outside. The sky was a piercing blue that contradicted the mounds of unmelted snow.

"I'm surprised Aaron asked," Donovan said.

Kennedy snapped her head towards him, frowning.

"Why?"

"I thought for your first Winter Formal you would go with Harrison."

At Harrison's name, Kennedy's glow dimmed. She tugged at a strand of her black hair, facing the window again. The small gestures told Donovan that the feelings that had arisen regarding her best friend were still there.

"He asked Julia Blake," Kennedy said, twisting the hair around her finger.

"I see."

"I'm happy for him. I mean Julia is really pretty and super nice. They will look good together."

Donovan said nothing, knowing that admitting he knew where his daughter's affection lay and offering reassurance would only humiliate her. Kennedy relaxed into the silence, grateful that the issue wasn't pushed further.

The parking garage was icy as they climbed out and the pair jogged towards the stairway. At Donovan's insistence that he would win in the race upward, Kennedy bolted forward, darting around the stair's curves with an agility that was given to by her mother. At the top, Kennedy raised her hands into the air, grinning.

"I win! Ha!"

Smiling at his daughter's renewed mood, Donovan wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"So you did. Seems I'm getting old," he said.

"At least you could run up the stairs, Julia's dad couldn't have done that."

"That is comforting."

The pair stepped into the warm confines of the mall. Music and the beat of footsteps echoed in the air around them. As they walked, the scent of cinnamon and sugar tickled their noses. Kennedy led them to an expansive shop that was bursting with racks of color and sparkles. Rainbow hues lined the walls, the textures shifting from shimmering to muted. The place was relatively empty and Kennedy hovered at the entrance unsure.

"Do you want me to pick one out for you?" Donovan asked.

Kennedy blushed. "No, I got this."

"Okay. There are chairs in the back. I'll be waiting."

Kennedy let out a relieved breath and nodded. Donovan cut around adorned mannequins to the back where he dropped into a plush armchair. Next to him was a trifold mirror and a doorway to the dressing rooms. His wait wasn't too long as Kennedy hurried by, heading into the dressing room.

As he sat, a woman in her mid-thirties exited in a tight, black dress. She stepped in front of the mirror. In the reflection, she caught sight of Donovan and straightened, donning a secret smile. Sweeping her hair over one shoulder, she crossed over to him and spun around, revealing bare skin.

"Do you mind? I think the latch isn't secure," she said.

Donovan raised his head. "Sorry, I don't work here."

She blinked, caught in embarrassment.

"Dad, what do you think?" Kennedy asked, appearing from the doorway.

Donovan brightened at her voice making the woman blush and scurry away. As Kennedy paused in front of him, he blinked, caught up in memories of a laughing baby, a rumbustious toddler, and a wily little kid. All the images overlaid and contradicting the young teenager standing before him.

"You look beautiful, Cadet," he said, all too aware of the passage of time.

Kennedy peered down at herself, holding out the edges of the dress. She spun once, the hem fluttering with the motion.

"It's the perfect choice," Donovan said.

Kennedy laughed. "Yeah, you would think that cause it fits your guidelines. The skirt loose enough to conceal a weapon, the top secure enough that I wouldn't expose myself if I got into a fight." She shook her head. "I don't even know why you made those guidelines since it's Winter Formal and I won't be carrying a gun or getting into a fight."

Donovan simply smiled. Kennedy faced the mirror and twisted one way then the next, checking every angle. She stopped and met her father's eyes in the reflection, knotting her fingers.

"Do you think mom would like it?" she asked.

Donovan laughed. "She would think you're beautiful, but I'm not sure her feelings about the dress would go beyond that. Your mother hates dresses."

At this revelation, Kennedy stared at him, her mouth open.

"Really? But I've seen her in some amazing dresses and she looked perfect!"

Donovan couldn't help but smile again, a parade of Carter in a myriad of dresses trotting through his mind. Each one was connected with an assignment and each dress had been tossed aside as soon as the job was completed.

"That is true. How about this, go change and we'll get ice cream and I'll tell you all about it."

Kennedy crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. "I'm not a little kid, ice cream isn't that big of a deal to me."

Donovan shrugged. "Okay, then you can be the grown-up and I'll eat ice cream."

His comment teased a grin from Kennedy.

"Okay, I guess I can get some too."

"That's what I thought." He shooed her away. "Go change. It will give me time to come to grips with that fact that you're growing up and I can't stop it."

Laughing, Kennedy flitted away. Donovan watched her go, lost in the memory of when he had first seen her face. Seen her first smile. Heard her first laugh. When Kennedy returned dressed back in her uniform, holding the dress, Donovan stored away his memories, adding this day to the rest.

At the ice cream shop, they each ordered a scoop and found a table in the corner by the windows. Despite the cold weather, the place still gathered a constant flow of traffic, the contradictions of the situation too fun to pass up. Past the glass front, shoppers wandered by, bags in hand, focus flitting from one display to the next.

As he ate, Donovan leaned back in his chair, one ankle draped across his knee. Kennedy spooned out tiny bits of her coffee Oreo ice cream, savoring it.

"So why doesn't mom like dresses?" she asked.

Donovan swallowed his bite. "When she was fourteen, her mother left her father and her."

Kennedy froze, her hand halfway to her mouth. "Oh."

"You know your grandfather," Donovan continued. "He isn't the type of man to put thought into dresses and things most girls enjoy. Instead, he focused his attention on training your mother to assemble a gun, learn how to throw a punch, handle a knife. That meant that the years in which your mother would have been growing up learning about makeup, accessories, and clothes, she spent like a soldier in the Navy SEALS."

Kennedy gaped at her father. "Really?"

Donovan nodded. "So when she wears dresses they never feel natural to her, though she's become accustomed to them for work."

Still surprised by the information, Kennedy shook her head.

"That's crazy, she looks so amazing in them!"

"She does and she's worn a lot of them."

Kennedy perked up. "What is the best dress she's worn?"

After a moment of the thought, Donovan leaned forward like they were co-conspirators. "There was this one red dress she wore for someone rich guy's party. She was a knockout. It was strapless with a slit up to her thigh."

Kennedy bounced, giddy with the chance of hearing a good story about her mother.

"Without a doubt, she was the most stunning woman in the room. Every man and woman knew it," Donovan said. "She parted crowds as she walked, barely glancing at anyone, not even knowing the power she held."

Her ice cream was forgotten as Kennedy leaned on the table, wrapped up in her imagination, picturing it all so clearly.

"She could have asked for the world and any man would have jumped at the chance to give it to her. She could have asked me and I would have."

"What were you there for?"

"We had to retrieve a hard drive and needed the owner's cooperation to get it. Your mother took care of it. He was putty in her hands."

Grinning, Kennedy rested her chin against her fist.

"Was that the dress you liked the most?"

Donovan chuckled softly and leaned back. "No, I hated that dress."

Kennedy's eyes went wide. "What? Why? You just said she looked like a million bucks."

"That is true, but there was too much of her that could be seen by every man." He shrugged. "She's my wife and I didn't like the way they looked at her like she was something to be owned."

"Where there other dresses you liked her in?"

"Of course." He smiled, a distance glint entering his eyes. "But you want to know when I find your mother to be her most beautiful?"

Kennedy made a face. "Always cause she's perfect?"

Donovan laughed. "No, I think she is most beautiful when she is in a t-shirt and jeans." This made Kennedy stare at him, shocked. "I've seen your mother in dozens of dresses. But it's the simple outfit that I love her in. It's cause it's when she looks the most like who she is."

Kennedy smiled at this. Thinking, she stared at her ice cream, digging in her spoon but not eating it. Donovan watched her, trying to decipher what she was pondering. After a minute, Kennedy lifted her head.

"I've decided something," she said.

Donovan raised his eyebrows, curious.

"I want to be mom when I grow up."

**********************************************************************

Bam! In yo face!

(Wait...I've done that one before haven't I? Gosh dang it! I'm breaking down! My system is fracturing. My human part is failing and my machine part is dysfunctional! Dang I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. Ignore me.)

Wow, that wasn't weird at all. Let's try to move past (or passed, I get them wrong all the time) this. Alright, tell me what you thought and I'll tell you what I thought of what you thought and then you can tell me what you thought about what I thought about what you thought and we'll be stuck in an endless loop forever and forever. 💭🗯💬

*rolls eyes* Yeah, I've completely gone bonkers. Any way, if you want to tell me what you thought of the chapter, cool. I'm going to try and find some semblance of the normal person I once was, or steal someone else's normal.

Okay, for reals this has to be weirdest I've ever been, or maybe not I don't even know since I've been really weird at times.

*takes a breath*

Any who...

I don't know how I feel about this chapter. It had been slightly different but after a massive debacle with another chapter I went and changed this one so it didn't make so many people pissed at me but in the end I think it took something away from this chapter and I don't think I ever found it again.

I hope you still managed to enjoy despite that massive flaw. Not my best but probably not my worst either so it's somewhere in the mush in the middle.

Okay, I'm going to leave before I do something to make you think I'm completely insane!

Vote, comment, follow but only if you feel like this will cure whatever is going on with me.

Blah need twitter followers blah blah to get an agent blah blah blah username: _Joymoment_

Hot guy! Oh thank goodness at least one thing that is semi-normal for me.