Chapter 4
Now was the morning Dad came home! Morgan ran down the big stairs and then the small stairs. The glass doors opened in front of her. Dad was there, in the garage, with Mom and Rhodey.
"Daaaad!"
She ran to Dad and started climbing on his lap but he lifted her faster than ever. When she was in his lap everything was fine again.
Mom really smiled for the first time here. Rhodey just stood there his mouth open.
"Can we go home now?" Morgan looked at Dad with that face he always said yes to.
"We are home. This is our home now." Dad smiled at her. She didn't smile back. She looked like she had eaten a very sour candy. Dad poked her nose.
Then she saw... something.
"What is this?" She poked the shiny thing on Dad's chest.
"It's my... battery." Dad grimaced and took her hand so she couldn't poke the thing again.
"Can I have one, too?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because it's a Dad thing."
Morgan wiggled herself down from Dad's lap. "I don't like this place. I want to go home", she said and took Mom's hand. "Mom, now that we've found Dad, can you take us home?"
Mom lifted her in the lap, too.
"Like Dad said, this is our home."
"But I want my old home!"
Rhodey looked at them with wide eyes and a face Morgan didn't know how to read. "Excuse me, Little Miss, but maybe I can help you", he said. "Where is your old home?"
He looked different, too. He looked at Mom and Dad with a weird expression again.
She said, "I live in a wooden house in the middle of the forest by the lake," as she knew it.
"Do you know where this forest and this lake are?" The way Rhodey looked at Mom and Dad made her feel uneasy. Maybe it wasn't safe to tell. Was this like the time travel thing, which she shouldn't talk about?
Besides, she didn't know better.
"You should know. You have been there." She felt very proud of the answer. She wasn't lying.
"Have I? When?"
"When you had that thing on your leg." She looked down. Rhodey's leg was fine now.
He crossed his arms. "Tony, who is this kid?"
"Well, like she said, she's my daughter. Our daughter." Dad looked at Mom. He looked different, a little bit more like a wolf, but right now a very amused wolf.
"Yeah, right. Since when?"
"Well, she's four years, three months and five days old now."
Rhodey leaned his face on his hands and removed them slowly to the sides of his head.
"Tony, I don't ask how, because I don't want to hear your answer, but...why? Tony, why?"
"I thought it was time to settle down and start a family", Dad said trying to keep a straight face but the laughter widened from his eyes to the twitching of his lip. Mom was laughing silently, too, Morgan felt the trembling of her chest. And because everyone else was having fun, the laughter bursted out of her.
Dad joined the laughter and then grimaced and leaned on the table. "Such a funny thing, isn't it, to have a family?"
"I've seen you doing many weird things, but this... this is just too difficult to believe."
"Well, you better get used to it. My daughter will be living with us from now on."
"I... I don't know what to say... but congratulations, to you two." Morgan wasn't sure what that look towards Mom meant.
"Thank you, Rhodey", Mom said. "Thank you for bringing him home", she added with a quieter voice.
"You're welcome", Rhodey looked at Mom with a very serious face. "Listen, if... if you, or you", he looked at Morgan, "are in any trouble, I'll help you."
"Don't worry, Rhodey. This was a bilateral decision and he's actually a very good dad."
Rhodey rolled his eyes but smiled, too. He took his jacket and poked Dad on the shoulder. "See you around." Then he walked to his car and drove away.
Mom lifted Morgan to Dad's arms again. "You are never going to tell him, are you?"
"Tell him what?" Dad said kissing Mom on the nose and then shortly on the lips.