Warning: brief mention of homophobia and bullying

Note: Takes place in 2015. Jenny is 9 and Haytham is 8 months

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters

Edward is attempting to feed Haytham when the shrill ringing of his cell phone breaks the near silence of the kitchen.

Haytham begins making gurgling noises as he promptly sticks his entire right into his baby food before smearing it across Edward's face and giggling at his work.

Edward frowns. He sets down the plastic spoon he was using to feed Haytham and wipes off his cheek with the back of his hand before accepting the call. "Kenway."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Kenway. My name is Thomas Mori and I am the Principal of Eagle's Nest Academy. I am calling in regards about your daughter, Jennifer Scott. We are requesting that you come to the Academy at once for Jennifer was involved in an altercation with another student."

Edward furrows his brow in confusion. "What sort of altercation?"

"She was seen, by both teachers and fellow students, punching another student in the mouth. The other child was left blooded, screaming, and missing a tooth."

"Shit," Edward mouths out. Aloud, he says, "Right, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"We will be awaiting your arrival. Until then."

"Goodbye." Edward hangs up the phone and blows out a breath. He looks to Haytham, who is staring at him whilst having both of his hands in his food. "Right, let's get you cleaned up so we can go see Jenny. Huh? Would you like that? You want to go see Jenny?" he asks, unable to stop the smile from spreading on his face when Haytham begins laughing.

Edward arrives at Jenny's school nearly forty-five minutes later than he was anticipating because Haytham decided it would be an opportune moment to spit up all over himself after his bath. He sighs heavily. Edward was never the best at multitasking especially under pressure—that's always been Adé's forte. He did consider giving Adé a call and having him pick up Jenny during his lunch, but he can't call Adéwalé every time he's in over his head. While his partner of over seven years would be amused, his boss would not and the last thing they need is for someone to be fired right now.

He shakes his head, clearing his mind of those thoughts. There's no sense in even beginning to go down that path when he needs to keep himself in the present. Balancing Haytham on his hip, he opens one of the double doors that lead into Jenny's school. As soon as he enters the building, there's a door to his immediate right with a sign above it that says "FRONT OFFICE." He takes a few short steps and opens the door, revealing a small, decorated lobby, with a few seating areas arranged around the receptionist's desks. Shutting the door behind him, he approaches the first desk and smiles at the receptionist.

"Hi, my name is Edward Kenway. I'm here to see Principal Mori about my daughter, Jennifer Scott."

The receptionist, who is wearing a pink pantsuit with her brown hair pulled up into a bun on top of her head, smiles and nods. "Of course, Mr. Kenway; we've been expecting you. One moment," she says before picking up the phone next to her, dialing a number, and settling the device in the place between her shoulder and ear. "Sir, Mr. Kenway is here to see you." She pauses. "Yes, sir." The receptionist hangs up the phone before addressing Edward. "He'll be with you in a few minutes."

"Thank you," Edward says before shuffling out of the way and taking a seat in one of the nearby chairs. He settles down with Haytham in his lap, watching in amusement as his son looks around the room with wide, fascinated eyes.

Haytham stares at a blank spot in the wall for a solid ten seconds before smiling and laughing at it. All this does is bring back the argument he and Adéwalé had about the existence of ghosts and that Adéwalé is nothing but a non-believer, who is going to be struck down first when the spirts of the undead begin the zombie apocalypse and end humanity.

"Aw, your baby is so adorable," the same receptionist from earlier says which causes Edward to be drawn from his thoughts.

"Thank you," Edward says as he looks up and smiles at her.

"What's his name?"

"Haytham—he just turned eight months a few days ago."

"Hm, he must be a handful for you and your wife."

"Oh, I'm not married—not anymore. My partner and I have been raising Jenny ever since her mother got sick a few years ago. Unfortunately, she passed away a few months back."

"I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Yeah—she was a great woman," Edward says. Despite their estrangement and later separation and divorce, part of Edward has always continued to love Caroline. She was his first wife, the mother of his first child, she was beautiful and intriguing and everything that Edward had loved in a woman. Nevertheless, they were not meant to be and as his mother would always say, "one cannot simply go against fate." Edward bites back a heavy sigh as a wave of sorrow washes over him as it does every time he thinks of Caroline. He misses her deeply and would stop at nothing to have her back—obviously, they wouldn't be together, but at least Jenny would have her mother.

He hears Haytham making gurgling noises over the static of his brain and it's not until Haytham tries to fling himself from his lap, does Edward snap out his head, tightening his grip on his child and pulling him close. Haytham rests the back of his head against Edward's chest and looks at him upside down before grinning, which is enough to bring a smile to Edward's face.

Looking up, he notices that the receptionist has a thoughtful expression on her face, but before she can say anything, the door behind her opens and a man, whom Edward assumes to be the Principal, is standing in the doorway. Principal Mori is a short, stocky fellow with a gray mustache and receding hairline. A pair of thin wire frames is perched on his nose and his tan brown suit is ironed to perfection. He has a kind smile on his face as his eyes settle on Edward.

"Good morning, Mr. Kenway. I apologize for the wait," Principal Mori says, sounding genuinely apologetic.

"It's quite alright," Edward says. He gathers Haytham in his arms as he rises from his seat and walks over to Principal Mori, balancing Haytham on his left hip before extending his right arm and exchanging a handshake. "I do wish that we could have met on better terms."

"As do I," Principal Mori says before glancing down at Haytham and smiling. "And I see that you've brought a visitor?"

Edward laughs. "Yeah, the sitter canceled last minute and my partner had already left for work so I called out and stayed home," he responds as Principal Mori moves out of the way and allows Edward to enter the office, which is a medium sized room with dark walls and a rustic nature about it. Coupled with antique furniture and trinkets scattered about gives the entire area a lived in and cozy feeling—something that Edward can appreciate.

Jenny is already sitting in one of the tall leather chairs that is resting in front of the Principal's large oak desk (he can tell because the green hair bow she insisted on wearing with her ponytail this morning is sticking out from the edge of the chair). As he moves closer, he notices that her tiny fists are clenched and her entire body is rigid. Edward has never seen her like this before and his mind immediately whirls with a thousand and one scenarios that could have made her this upset, though he knows all that will do is drive himself insane and that he will never get to the bottom of this until he asks her.

"Jenny," Edward says, gently.

She flinches as though she's been caught off guard. Jenny turns and opens her mouth to speak when a look on confusion falls across her face. "Haytham?" she asks. Her little arms reach upward seconds later and Edward carefully passes her brother to her, making sure that she has a firm grip on him before letting him go and settling in the chair next to them. Jenny cradles Haytham close, gently making no nonsense cooing noises while Haytham stares at her as though he's in a trance.

"Again, I am terribly sorry for dragging you out on such short notice," Principal Mori says as he shuts the door to his office. He rounds the length of his desk before sitting down in the chair resting behind it. "As I said earlier on the phone, we have requested your presence because Jennifer had gotten into an altercation with another student."

"For a good reason," Jenny mumbles.

"Which is?" Edward challenges, his worry deepening when she doesn't give her usual sarcastic response.

Principal Mori clears his throat. "I just want to make you aware that Jennifer is an excellent student and that this is the first time we've had trouble with her since she started attending Eagle's Nest. Now, normally, that would entail a lighter punishment as a first time offender; however, the other student had to be sent to the emergency room and has ten stitches in his upper lip. Plus, he is missing a tooth."

"It's all Peter's fault anyway," Jenny declares in a matter of fact tone. "If he hadn't opened his big mouth, then he wouldn't have a fat lip."

"Jennifer!" Edward exclaims.

"It's true, Father," Jenny blurts out, turning her attention to her Edward. "Peter started it! He's been harassing me and my friends for months!"

"Months?! Why in the hell didn't you say something? You know that Pops and I would have taken care of it."

"You and Pops would have fought Peter's parents and ended up in jail, leaving Haytham and I to be passed around between our grandparents."

"Jenny," Edward exhales on a heavy sigh. While he doesn't want to reprimand his daughter for defending herself, she did put a kid in the hospital and that cannot become a regular occurrence.

Jenny shakes her head as she pulls Haytham closer to her. "None of this would have happened if he—," she suddenly cuts herself off and her entire demeanor changes, her expression becoming more closed off and her body straightening as stiff as a board. Haytham looks up at her in confusion and wiggles a bit, trying to get her attention, which succeeds.

"If he what?" Edward tries.

"Nothing, Father," Jenny answers in a calm tone, her eyes locked onto Haytham. "Today was the last straw and that's all you need to know."

"Jennifer Marie . . ." he says in a warning tone.

Jenny huffs, her expression torn as she chews on her lower lip—a habit she picked up from Adéwalé. She looks down at Haytham as though he would have the answer on what she should do next, but all he does is grab his foot and blink up at her. She takes a deep breath. "He said . . ." she begins quietly, trailing off as her face twists in anger.

Obviously, whatever was said is causing Jenny a great deal of stress and pain and Edward feels guilty at trying to force her into talking. "Jenny, we don't have to talk about this right now," he tries gently. "We can discuss what happened later after Pops—"

"Peter said that you and Pops were nothing more than a couple of poofs so I smacked him right in his gob," Jenny shouts, enraged. "After all of the torment he put me and my friends through, he got what was coming to him, though he deserved a lot more."

Haytham makes happy baby noises as though he's cheering for his sister and Edward is torn is torn between smiling and crying. Both he and Adé had a feeling that Jenny was going to get shit because the two of them are together and raising her, but he didn't think it would be happening in primary school. He gulps and turns to face Principal Mori, who is staring at Jenny with a shocked expression on his face. Looking at the Principal now fills Edward with an unknown anger and his finds his mouth moving before he can stop it.

"So, as you can clearly hear my daughter is in the right and should not be punished for this."

"You're not mad?" Jenny asks, surprised.

"We'll talk about how I'm feeling later," Edward says before addressing the Principal. "What we should discuss is how you lot allowed for this harassment to continue for so long that my daughter felt the need to defend herself and her family with violence."

"Mr. Kenway, we were unaware of how serious the treatment was until today," Principal Mori says, looking as if he's trying to save face.

"Oh? So if I go round and ask every single one of Jenny's teachers if she was being harassed, then they'll say the same as you?"

Principal Mori is falls into a contemplative silence and in that moment, Edward knows he has won.

That evening, Edward is in his office attempting to get some work done while listening to Jenny play with Haytham in the adjacent room when he hears the front door open.

"Pops!" Jenny yells happily.

Adéwalé laughs as he shuts the door behind him. "Ahoy matey."

"A-hem, that's Captain Matey to you!"

"My apologies, Captain."

Jenny giggles. "I missed you, Pops."

"I missed you as well—you and your brother."

"And Father too?"

"Yes—and your Father too."

Edward snorts and shakes his head, unable to keep the smile off his face. Jenny and Adéwalé are always watching those damned pirate films from the sixties and seventies ever since she came to live with them—so much so that they've adopted the lingo and use it in their everyday life. Jenny always says that when she grows up she wants to be a pirate and Adéwalé encourages her to follow her dreams, even signing her up for weekly fencing and combat lessons, which she loves, without talking with Edward first. Watching Adéwalé interacting with their children—seeing how much he loves them and vice versa—makes Edward swoon and fall in love with him all over again every time.

"Speaking of: where is your father?" He hears Adé ask.

"He's in his office," Jenny responds.

"Thank you, my dear. Are you going to stay here and look after your brother?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going to take good care of him?"

"Yeah."

"Good. You're such a wonderful big sister—Haytham is lucky to have you."

"I know," Jenny says and Edward can imagine the hair flip that accompanied her words.

Edward smiles, which widens when he sees his gorgeous partner appear in the doorway. He rises from his chair and rounds the desk, walking towards him with his arms outstretched.

"Edward, you are a sight for sore eyes," Adéwalé says as his hands come to rest on Edward's hips.

"I bet you say that to all the blokes," Edward teases, wrapping his arms around Adéwalé's neck and tugging him closer.

"Only to the ones I find particularly stunning," he responds, pressing his forehead to Edward's.

"You jest."

"I don't."

Edward hums and leans forward, connecting their lips together in a tender kiss. When they part, he asks, "How was your day, love?"

"Ah, more or less the same. The ignorance of people never takes a holiday, I'm afraid," Adéwalé responds with a shake of his head. "Did yours fare any better?"

"It did . . . until I received a phone call from Jenny's school—she got into a fight."

Adéwalé raises an eyebrow. "Jenny?"

"Yeah."

"Our Jenny."

"Mmhm."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah."

"Is she alright?"

"She's fine. However, the other kid . . ." Edward trails off before rehashing the details of everything that happened today, watching as Adéwalé's expression change from confusion to pride to anger and back again.

"How bad is the punishment?"

"Bad. Three-week suspension that will be placed onto her permanent record. One of her friend's parents offered to drop off her work after school. Oh—and did you know that the school changed their policy? They started this new thing this year where if there's a fight and a kid is injured bad enough like, let's say put into the hospital, then the perpetrator's parents will have to foot the bill."

"No . . ."

"Oh yeah. Principal told me that the hospital and Peter's parents would be in touch within the week." Edward rolls his eyes before shaking his head.

Adéwalé pulls Edward closer. "It'll be alright. I shall pick up some more hours to help cover the cost."

"Oh Adé, you don't have to. We hardly see you as is."

"I know, but it'll only be temporary," Adéwalé says before dropping a quick kiss to Edward's forehead. "It'll all work out in the end."

"You always say that."

"Because it always holds true."

Edward sighs knowing that Adéwalé is right (like always).

"You know," Adéwalé begins after a moment of silence. "We used to get into our fair share of scraps when we were younger."

"Tell me about it," Edward says. When he was younger, he used to get into a fight every other day with some asshole who kept trying to tell him how to act. Edward never took anyone's shit, which is why he always ended up in detention. In fact, he and Adé first met in detention on their first day of high school and were attached at the hip ever since. While Edward isn't completely proud of his past, he doesn't regret any of it because he may have never Adéwalé otherwise.

Adéwalé snorts. "She's just like her fathers, no?"

"My gods, what have we done," Edward says on a groan. He presses his forehead against Adéwalé's chest, listening while Jenny babbles no-nonsense to Haytham, who makes delighted cooing noises in response. Resisting the urge to sigh again, he says, "You know that we're still going to have to punish her, right?"

"I know," Adéwalé says heavily. "I guess she's not watching anymore pirate films with me for a while."

"Or anything for that matter—at least for the duration of her suspension."

"Do you want to be the one to tell her? Or should I?"

"You do it—I did it last time she was in trouble and she didn't talk to me for a week."

"Ah, The Great Silent Treatment of 2014," Adéwalé says. He presses one last kiss to Edward's forehead before releasing him and walking back into the adjacent room.

Edward remains standing in his office, listening torn while Adéwalé gently informs their daughter of her punishment, hearing her voice tremble every time she responds.