It's their typical Monday morning routine: Grace is running late, Danny is working his way through his second cup of coffee, Charlie is still in his pajamas and Steve is trying to manage the chaos and keep everyone on schedule.

"Hey buddy, you awake?" Steve puts a hand on Charlie's shoulder and crouches down next to him, on eye level, trying to get his attention. "You want milk or juice for breakfast?"

"Not buddy," Charlie complains crossly, "I'm a princess, Uncle Steve!" He yawns and rubs at his eyes, making it very clear he's just as much not a morning person as Danny.

"Oh, right, awfully sorry," Steve says and has a hard time not to laugh. Danny watches the both of them amusedly and hides his own smile behind his coffee mug.

Dress-up and play pretend is Charlie's favorite game, has been for a while, and he has very clear ideas of his imaginary personas. He's either a dragon-pirate, or a firefighter dog (there's some cartoon series that he loves) and since Mary and Joanie visited two weeks ago, his favorite is being a princess.

Danny vaguely remembers Grace playing games like that, but for the life of him he can't recall if she had been as insistent about being treated and addressed accordingly as Charlie is.

"Would you like milk or orange juice for breakfast, princess Charlie?" Steve tries again and this time, he's rewarded with an approving nod and a smile.

"I want milk," Charlie says, but shoves the empty glass away that was set at his place. "But I want milk in my pirate cup."

"As you wish," Steve says with a sigh, but he's smiling as he stands and goes to get the pirate cup from the kitchen.

—

When breakfast is over, Danny sees Grace off to school and then tackles the dishes while Steve oversees Charlie brushing his teeth before sending him to his room to get dressed.

He catches Steve in the living room, where he's sorting through some files he'd brought, and they have barely time for a belated good-morning kiss, before Charlie comes bouncing back. With a sigh Danny breaks their kiss and draws back, and Steve moves his hand from Danny's neck to his shoulder, but he doesn't let go yet.

"Can I wear my princess dress today? Can I wear it to kindergarten?" Charlie asks excitedly, even though he has already put it on. It's an old dress of Grace's, that Rachel had dug up for him, and it's got a pink top and a white skirt and there are large glittery stars printed all over it.

Danny doesn't trust Rachel with a lot of things anymore, but he's never once doubted that she's a great mom. She hadn't even blinked, when Danny had brought Charlie and Grace over after the weekend with Mary and Joanie, when Charlie had blurted "Mom, Joanie and I are princesses" before even saying hello. She had jumped right into his game and had said "Well, then, welcome back home, your royal highness," and Danny's heart had swelled with happiness.

Right now, their royalty is spinning around himself in an attempt to make his skirts fly and Danny looks at Steve, posing a silent question "Should he?" and Steve answers with the slightest shrug "Why not?"

—

"Good morning, Charlie," the day care teacher says, as she is walking over to meet them at the door, nodding at Danny in greeting. "You are wearing a nice dress today."

Charlie beams at her and says proudly "I'm a princess!"

"Of course you are," she smiles at him fondly. "Come on! Say bye to dad and come on in. Elijah is already waiting for you."

Danny gets a hug and a wave goodbye before Charlie steps into the classroom, and Danny watches him as he's approached by a couple of other kids immediately. He can hear someone saying "Charlie, you look so pretty," and another kid simply says "Hey, Charlie's here!"

Danny takes one last look and closes the door, way more relieved than he likes to admit that no one made a big deal out of princess Charlie.

—

It becomes a big deal in the afternoon.

Danny is back at the day care to pick up Charlie, and he finds him together with his friend Elijah in their usual spot on the building platform, playing with Lego. There is a woman sitting next to Elijah, who Danny thinks is his mom, and she is talking to Charlie.

"…a boy. Boys don't wear dresses," Danny hears her say as he approaches them and he stops dead in his tracks.

Charlie hasn't seen him yet, he looks at Elijah's mom, thinking hard, his little face scrunched up in confusion and it breaks Danny's heart.

"But I'm a princess," Charlie says pouting, but then his face lights up and he concludes happily "and princesses wear dresses! So I can wear one!"

"No, you're a boy," the woman says, not exactly unfriendly but impatient. "Boys are not princesses, boys are princes and boys do not wear dresses."

"But I'm a princess," Charlie insists. He still hasn't seen Danny and right now Danny is too shocked to move.

"No, you're a boy, you can't be a princess," the woman argues. "It's not normal for boys to wear dresses."

Danny feels anger coiling in his stomach, hot and urgent, he can't believe what he's hearing. How dare that woman talk to his barely five year old son like this? How dare she declare what is normal? He balls his hands into tight fists, and he has to take several deep breaths to keep himself from hitting her—or anything else.

Charlie looks at her with big eyes, obviously unable to compute and comprehend what he just heard. Before the situation can get any more out of hand, Danny plasters a smile on his face, as fake as it might look and steps forward.

"Hey, princess Charlie," he calls and is rewarded by a radiant smile. Charlie leaps up from where he's been sitting and launches himself at Danny with a loud yell of "Danno!"

Danny catches him and holds him in his arms for a long moment. Before lowering him back down, he presses a kiss on the top of Charlie's head. Out of the corner of his eyes, he can see Elijah's mom watching them, but he doesn't trust himself not to lash out if he so much at looks at her right now.

Instead he turns his back to her, rudely, and without acknowledging her at all, he takes Charlie's hand and says "C'mon, buddy, let's get out of here!"

—

Danny has barely calmed down when Charlie's bedtime rolls around. He'd been fuming all the way back home, not being able to say what he wanted to say because Charlie would have heard it. He'd punched the kitchen island several times while cooking, and now his knuckles are sore and hurting—just like his heart.

He is standing on the small lanai of his house, catching some fresh air in the hope it soothes him enough so that he can talk to Charlie without his anger taking over. He's not surprised when Steve finds him here, coming to stand behind him and wrapping an arm around Danny's waist.

What surprises him is Steve asking "You want me to talk to him?" And it's not so much the question itself that is surprising, but the way it shows how well Steve knows him.

Danny leans back into Steve and shakes his head "No, I'll do it."

But he's still too upset to stand still for long, and after a moment he steps out of Steve's embrace and starts pacing.

"What the hell is the matter with people? What's the matter with that woman? How, I'm asking you, how can she tell my son he's not normal because he's wearing a princess costume?"

"Danny, there's nothing I can say," Steve shrugs and holds up his hands in mock surrender. "Some people are just dumb, ignorant assholes."

"Yeah, I know," Danny says. "And I can take their discriminating bullshit if it's directed at me. You and I have both dealt with it enough. But she was telling Charlie he wasn't normal! What the fuck? He's barely five!"

"Hey! Danny," Steve says and grasps Danny's wrist to stop his pacing. "Stop it, Danny. You can't change people like her. But you can go and tuck Charlie into bed and tell him it's okay to wear that dress if he wants to and there's nothing to be ashamed of."

—

"Danno, I can't really be a princess, can I?" Charlie asks.

"You can't be a real prince or princess, because then I would have to be king, right?" Danny says by way of distraction and Charlie laughs.

He is lying in his race car bed, had insisted on wearing his pirate pajamas and he's tucked into sheets with firetrucks on them. Danny looks around his room and most of the toys he sees once belonged to Grace, from the Lego bricks, to the toy cars to the Barbie dolls. No one ever batted an eyelid when Grace had played with cars, but everyone would have an opinion on Charlie playing with Barbie dolls. It's crazy.

"Listen, Charlie," Danny says. "You can't be a real princess, but you can wear all the princess dresses you like as long as you have fun doing it."

He pauses, waits for Charlie's nod before he continues. "Some people, like Elijah's mom, they don't like things they're not used to. But that doesn't mean you can't do them anyway if you like them."

Charlie nods again, looking all serious, processing what he just heard and it's adorable how Danny can literally watch him think.

"So, can I wear my princess dress again tomorrow?" Charlie asks after a while, cautiously.

"Of course you can," Danny says and a relieved smile appears on Charlie's face.

"And can I wear my pirate hat with it?"

"Yes, of course," Danny says again, smiling, too, because he likes where this is going. "Let me guess, you want to be a pirate princess?"

"Yes!" Charlie almost yells, and he's scrambling to sit up in bed. "I'm a pirate princess now. And Ava said I couldn't be, because I can either be a pirate or a princess. But now I know she said that only because she's not used to pirate princesses, right, Danno?"

"That's the spirit," Danny says, relieved and happy. He gets up from where he had sat on the edge of the bed and presses a kiss onto Charlie's head before he pushes him back down. "But it's time to sleep now, buddy."

Charlie doesn't protest, and simply says "Good night, Danno," showing exactly how tired he is.

"Good night, pirate princess. Sweet dreams!"