Author's Note: I came up with this the second time I watched Despicable me. I know there are a lot of father/daughter moments between Gru and Margo out there on fanfiction, but I wanted to write my spin on it. I hope you all like it because I love it. =)

There is a quote/idea that I took from Lori Wick's book The Princess so ya know - giving credit where credit is due. Brownie points to anyone who recognizes it.

Disclaimer: I do not own the movie or the characters (as awesome as that would be) related to Despicable Me.

Feel free to review. =D

Enjoy!

Some days it was just too hard. Margo sat at the kitchen table pretending to be studying and doing homework, but she was really watching Gru and her two sisters baking cookies. They were laughing and having fun. Edith and Agnes were calling him 'dad'.

Margo sighed to herself. It really was too hard. She quietly slipped out of her seat and left the kitchen. When asked if she was finished with her homework, she answered that she was just going to get something she forgot in her room. A half lie. She wouldn't actually bring it out to the kitchen.

The girl made her way to the room she shared with her two younger sisters. It was a great improvement from when they first came. The three sisters had slept in hollowed out bomb shells - the room looked like it had been used for storage at one point in time. Definitely not child proof. But now the walls were painted pinks and purples and blues, the girls had beds and pillows, and there were toys all over the place. Some from actual stores or some that Gru and the minions had made. Not always child proof, but Margo let it slide.

Margo walked over to the closet and opened the door. Clothes were stacked on shelves or hung on hangers. On the shelf at the very top were boxes that the girls had colored on and written their names on. Gru called them their treasure chests. Margo hopped onto the hover platform the minions had built for the girls and pushed a button. She was lifted into the air and she began pushing treasure chests aside so she could retrieve a folder that was hidden in the very back.

She didn't descend. Instead she sat cross-legged on the hover platform and laid the notebook on her lap. Margo ran her fingers over the smooth cover that was pink and blue - a picture of a stork with a bundled up baby hanging from its beak. Taking a deep breath, she flipped the cover open and looked at the first photograph.

A man and a woman sat together in a hospital holding a baby. The couple was smiling brightly yet wearily at the camera while the baby looked cross. Margo smiled as she stared at the woman. She had blonde hair and brown eyes - like Edith. The man had brown hair, brown eyes, and wore square framed glasses - Margo knew that she and Agnes looked like him.

Margo flipped the pages and looked at those familiar baby pictures with labels handwritten beneath them. Margo's first smile. Margo's first step. Margo's first vegetable - she spat it out. She let out a teary laugh when she found another hospital picture. Margo meets her baby sister - Edith. The little Margo in the picture was holding the bundled up and bald Edith. Edith was crying and Margo didn't look too happy. From there it was pictures of Margo and Edith. Then Agnes was added to the happy family.

She came across a crayon drawing - Margo recognized it well. Her name was scrawled in the top right-hand corner in green. Stick figures with big smiles looked up at her. Daddy, Mommy, Margo, Agnes, and Edith.

Margo's smile left and a weary sadness descended on her as she knew what was next. She turned the page any way. A clipping from a newspaper detailing a car crash and then a page later an obituary. Margo sniffed and blinked rapidly. She willed the tears away and the clenching in her throat to stop.

She remembered her parents. Agnes might remember a little bit about them. Edith for sure was too young to remember anything. Margo bit her trembling lip. She remembered baking cookies with her mom. Now Agnes and Edith were baking cookies with Gru. It didn't seem right or fair.

Margo was thankful that she wasn't separated from her sisters. They had gone into the system together and no one wanted to adopt three girls at a time. Gru had for his own reasons. He kept them without expecting or demanding they love him or see him as a father figure. Even though he clearly loved them. When had that changed?

Margo loved him. But she still couldn't bring herself to call him 'dad'. Would she ever change?

"Margo?" She gasped in surprise at the sound of Gru's voice from below her. She slammed the album shut and whipped her head around to stare at him wide-eyed and open mouthed. Gru looked questioningly - and knowingly - from the album clutched to her chest and then back up at her face. "The girls were wondering if you would like to try fresh from oven cookies."

Margo nodded. "Sure. I'll be right there."

"Okay." Gru stepped out of the room again. Allowing her the privacy she wanted so she could hide the photo album again.

~Dad~

At dinnertime Margo watched Gru interacting with her sisters. She joined in the laughter and the banter, but inside her head she was thinking. He acted like any goofy parent - maybe even better. She remembered laughing at dinner with her parents but right now dinner seemed more special with Gru. Every meal was more special with Gru. It was like he could sense that the three girls had missed so much and needed to be reminded how to be happy.

Margo almost felt like she ought to blame her parents for not being there to make the girls happy. Then she wanted to blame Gru for - something!

It was as she was having these thoughts that Gru announced he had something special for Margo. She looked up and he was looking at her again with those eyes that seemed to read her mind. "You did so well on that test." he explained, "So, as promised I got you," he reached behind him and lifted a gift-wrapped box from the counter and delivered it to her in a flourish, "an iPod!"

"Cool! You're so lucky, Margo!" Edith exclaimed as her older sister tore into the paper.

"Now you can grow peas!" Agnes said. All eyes turned to look at the youngest sister in confusion. She grinned. "You grow peas in pods."

Gru laughed and patted the girl on the head. "No, this is a device to listen to music."

Margo smiled up at him. He'd kept his promise. She was beginning to trust his promises again. "Thank you - Gru."

The bald man and the two younger sisters seemed to wilt. Margo knew they wished she would just call him 'dad'. But she couldn't. She averted her gaze to the iPod and started up a conversation about how she would need to use a computer in the lab to sync her playlist onto the device. Gru assured her that the minions would be able to help her.

~Dad~

Bedtime. The girls were having a pillow fight when Gru walked in and began his usual questions. Edith have you picked out your outfit for school tomorrow? Agnes have you brushed your teeth? Let me smell. You did not! Margo did you put all of your homework back in your backpack? Are you sure? I am not driving all the way back to school again if you forgot something, young lady!

He managed to corral the girls into bed. He read a bedtime story at Agnes' insistence - he was never reluctant to anymore. Especially if it was one of the books he had written.

While Gru read, Margo thought about her parents. Mom would read to them. Dad worked at night so he was never there to tuck them in. She smiled. She liked it when Gru read. Her smile vanished. She couldn't remember what stories her mom read to them.

Margo rolled over and pretended to be asleep. She didn't want to hear the rest of the story. Gru finished the book. Margo listened as he tucked Agnes in and silenced Edith's avowals of creepy bugs beneath Agnes' bed. He stepped over to Margo's bed. She pretended to be asleep and hoped he didn't expect her to roll over and hug him like she did almost every night.

Gru pressed a kiss to her cheek. "Goodnight, Margo. I love you." she listened as he walked toward the door, flicked the light off, and closed the door.

~Dad~

Margo hated her dreams sometimes. Flashbacks of being in the orphanage and getting into trouble on her sisters' behalves. Selling cookies in the worst kind of weather and having bullies chase them down a street.

Then there were the dreams of when the girls had been kidnapped by Vector. Margo had been so afraid. She was so sure that Gru wouldn't come to rescue three orphan girls he had already given back to the orphanage. Then falling. She hated falling. Sometimes Gru didn't catch her.

What she hated the most was the dream of her parents' funeral. Everyone was wearing black - but somehow in her dreams the black wearing people had no faces. No emotions. Like they didn't even care that three girls had no parents. No relative stepped forward to claim them. No arrangements made. Just grownups talking about splitting the girls up and sending them to different orphanages or putting the younger ones in a foster program. Margo cried like she never cried before. She lost her parents and now these people wanted to take away her sisters.

It wasn't fair. None of this was fair. She felt like she was falling and this time no one was going to catch her.

Thump. Margo gasped and her eyes shot open. She was on the floor, tangled in her sheets, and awake. Her gaze swept over to Edith then over to Agnes. They were still asleep. They could sleep through anything. She was about to crawl back into bed, but the door opened. Light from the hallway seeped into the room before being blocked by Gru's tall frame.

"I heard a noise." He explained. He looked worried. "Are you okay?"

"I fell out of bed." Margo mumbled, still trying to untangle herself.

Gru closed the distance between them and helped her out of the stranglehold she'd found herself in. "Bad dream?" She stared at him, demanding how he knew with her gaze. The grown man chuckled and shrugged. "I fell out of my bed too when I had bad dreams." He glanced over at Edith as she moaned in her sleep. Lowering his voice to a whisper, he said, "Let's get some milk. That always helped me after a nightmare."

Margo didn't want to talk about her dream with Gru and he would most likely ask her about it. But she didn't want to go back to bed yet either. "Chocolate milk?" He grinned and stood up. Margo retrieved her glasses before Gru took her hand and led her out of the bedroom.

Once in the kitchen, Margo let go of Gru's hand and went to sit at the kitchen table while the former evil genius - he claims he is just a genius now looking for more wholesome employment - looks for two clean cups. Rubbing her eyes, she glances over the paperwork stacked on the table. "Late night?"

He shrugs. "Looking for ways to cut and make some better budgets. Everyone's doing it." Gru gave up on finding a clean cup and set about quickly washing some. The pair waited in silence for the cups to be rinsed clean of the soup suds - no one likes soapy milk. Gru dried the plastic cups then reached in the refrigerator for the chocolate milk carton. "I don't know why I let you girls convince me to buy this every time I go shopping." he joked.

"You secretly love it." Margo quipped with her own half smile. Gru chuckled at this and didn't deny it. He set down a purple cup in front of her and kept the white cup for himself. They sipped their milk, leaving brown milk mustaches above their lips.

Gru watched Margo avoid his gaze and he sighed. "What is wrong, Margo?"

"I had a bad dream." She answered bluntly.

"No. I mean. What is wrong with you whole day?" He pressed. "Ever since this afternoon."

"That's not exactly the whole day." Margo pointed out smartly.

Gru frowned. "Do not be getting fresh with me." He sighed, again. "I just want to help, Margo." She didn't answer. The bald man decided to help her. "Okay. Start with bad dream." She shook her head. "Book you were looking at?"

Margo fidgeted in her seat. She didn't want to talk about this - not really. Yet she found herself saying, "It's a baby photo album." Looking up at him, she saw him blanch then blush. "Mine and the girls' note yours." she assured. Gru looked relieved. Margo shrugged. "I was just - looking at us and our - parents."

Gru's breath left him in a second. It took a few minutes for him to recover. He blinked several times and said, "Oh." Clearing his throat, he searched his genius mind for something to say. "Okay. Well, I - didn't know you had photos of your - parents."

"The girls and I used to look at them the first couple of years we were in the orphanage." Margo stated. "But when we started focusing on getting adopted, I just - couldn't look at the album anymore."

Gru nodded slowly. "Why look at it today?"

Margo didn't want to tell him. "I don't know."

"You miss them." he stated. She nodded. Gru asked, "You remember them?"

"Yeah. Edith and Agnes don't - well maybe Edith does. Agnes was too little when they -" Margo choked back the words. "Why am I even telling you?" she mumbled to herself.

Gru wondered himself why he was even asking. He didn't want to think about the parents. He was the girls' parent now. That was all that mattered. Right? He watched Margo sitting before him. No. These parents still mattered to someone. "What were they like?" he asked then smiled. "I am sure they were better than my mother."

"I like your mom!" Margo smiled a little then let it disappear. "Dad had to work a lot." She ignored the twinge of hurt that crossed Gru's face. "Mom pretty much stayed home all the time. We watched movies, read books, went to the park, baked cookies -" Margo trailed off. Glancing at Gru, she could tell he caught her. He knew that his baking cookies with Edith and Agnes had triggered something. She hastened to say, "You know. Stuff that moms and daughters do."

"You have - lots of good memories then?" Gru asked.

Margo's shoulders slumped. "Mostly."

Silence stretched between them. Gru questioned whether he should ask what had happened to her parents. Miss Hattie had mentioned that when telling him about the girls - but he had tuned her out. Taking a deep breath he braved the question and answer. "By mostly you mean - not a happy memory when they - um -"

"Died." Margo finished for him. "Car crash." She was good at being blunt. Detaching emotions from the situation so she couldn't get hurt.

"Oh." Gru clasped his hands before him on the table. "So - I am going on tree branch here. You looked at photos and had bad dream because I baked cookies with Edith and Agnes."

She folded her arms across her chest. "Maybe."

"Why?" he asked.

Margo frowned and felt the emotions she'd been denying all day beginning to bubble up inside her. "I don't know."

"Yes. You do, Margo." Gru pushed and hoped she would answer. "Why?"

"Because it's not fair!" Margo erupted. She glared at Gru's taken-aback expression. "We shouldn't be this happy!"

Gru frowned in confusion. "I don't follow."

"We stopped thinking about Mom and Dad so we could get new parents. So we could get out of the orphanage. I didn't think about life with new parents. I just didn't want to be an orphan anymore." Margo ranted as she hoped off her seat and began to pace - much like Gru did when he ranted. Arms flailing with her words or clasped together behind her back. "The girls can forget so easily! But I can't! I can't be as happy as they can - but - but I am happy! I just - I don't - ARGH!" Margo felt the tears falling and her glasses fogged a little bit. She pulled the frames off and began wiping her eyes and nose across her pajama sleeve.

"Use a tissue." Gru urged gently as he handed her one. She accepted it reluctantly. The bald man took her quiet moment to scoop her up and set her on his lap. Margo didn't approve but she was too busy blowing her nose and wiping her eyes to verbally protest. "So, you are upset because you and your sisters are happy."

Margo didn't look up when she answered, "Yes."

"You feel guilty because you are happy. Happy with me." Gru pressed. She shrugged. "You feel guilty," he continued, "because you love me. You think - you love your parents less?"

Margo did look up at him as she settled her glasses back on her face. "How can you put into words exactly what I was trying to figure out?"

He smiled. "I am parent now. I have figured out how little girls' think." Gru turned serious once again. "Now let me tell you something, Margo. You have no reason to feel this guilt." He searched her face before saying, "Do not try to get over your parents death. Do not blame them for leaving. I am sure if they had a choice, they would have stayed with your girls. That said; do not try to love me more than you love your parents. Just make room for me." he tapped the spot where her heart was. "Make room for me in your heart."

Gru pressed a kiss to her forehead before continuing in a soft voice, "Would you like to talk about your bad dream?"

Margo was still mulling over his words. She did love Gru. There was no reason for her not to. Maybe she was just having belated guilty feelings. Her attention returned to his question and she sighed wearily. "Mom and Dad's funeral. Then I was falling and no one," she felt herself panicking again, "no one was there to catch me."

"Margo." His stern voice made her look up at his face. Gru's eyes bored into her. "I told you I would catch you. And I would never let you go. I promised."

Margo remembered the first time she had jumped into a pool without a floaty. Her dad had been in the water telling her he would catch her. He had. Gru had told her to jump from Vector's ship and said he would catch her. Gru had caught her. She smiled. Both men had caught her - because that's what dads do.

She focused her smiling gaze on Gru before wrapping her arms around his neck. "I know. Thanks for catching me, Dad." Margo felt tears sting her eyes - happy tears - at the sound of Gru's gasp.

He wrapped her up in his own bear-hug before releasing her. "Finish your milk." Gru ordered gruffly, trying to hide his own wet eyes. Instead of leaving his lap, Margo simply reached across the table to retrieve her cup. She downed the contents and wiped her mustache off with her sleeve. Gru let out a long-suffering sigh and muttered something about doing laundry in the morning.

Margo giggled as he set her down on the ground and began leading her back to bed. She felt much better.

Once they were back in the girls' bedroom, Gru tucked her in and Margo gave him the hug she always gave him every night before she went to bed. She whispered, "I love you, Dad." before letting go and caught the moisture in his eye once more.

Gru kissed her cheek and pulled the sheets up to her chin. "Sweet dreams, Margo. I'll be there to catch you." He walked toward the door and paused to turn around. Gru smiled once more. "And I promise. I will never let you go."

Fin