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Alyssa had always thought that she were like her parents. With Brianna always telling her how pretty she is (Alyssa agreed, but only because her mommy was pretty) and Albert praising her every time she finished a new book (she was smart, even if most of her books consisted of Harry Potter ), it was no wonder the girl found herself to be a spitting image of the two combined. So that’s why she was certain that noticing when Albert was not feeling well was something that ran in their blood-- at least between her and her mother.

Most of the time Alyssa only noticed in passing; Brianna would be right there soon enough, almost as if she had some sort of tracking device on Albert's moods. After a bit of staring and blinking Alyssa would go back to what she was doing, knowing that it would all be okay as long as her mommy was around. She always made things better somehow.

So what was she to do when Brianna wasn't around? She still worked every now and then with her modeling agency, after all. Alyssa was lucky enough to go with her a few times and even take part in one of them (that was really fun & she had wondered for a few hours what it would be like to do that when she was all grown up, then promptly went back to hoping that she could cuddle Catbert when she had naptime), but she couldn't do it all the time.

The first real time she had to figure it out all by herself was on the last week of them staying at the mansion for the summer. Brianna had a weekend trip to take for a photoshoot, the parting ending in much tear shedding (between Brianna and Alyssa, of course) but ended in a promise to go out somewhere fun when they all went back to the house they usually resided in. She was told to be good, to stay with Albert, and to not kick Nathan too much while she was gone.

It was on the second day that it really happened-- for some reason Alyssa felt like her daddy wasn’t all there, that he seemed distracted by something. His smiles were different (though no less full of heart, but she could tell that it was more hollow than full) and he didn’t talk as much, opting to place a hand on her head (she liked it when he did that; his hand was big and warm and it made her feel loved and safe) or propping her up onto a seat next to him as he falsely concentrated on a book.

“Something’s wrong with daddy,” Alyssa passingly said to the black cat on her lap, a distracted pair of eyes looking at nothing in particular as she tried to work through her limited knowledge of seven years. “What should I do…”

Catbert lifted its head and swished his tail around, head tilted to the side as he watched her concentrate.

Alyssa kept on thinking, working her mind at a furious pace. Another handful of minutes went by before she shouted: “I GOT IT!”

The cat shot up in surprise and scurried off to the edge of her bed, but Alyssa didn’t take any notice, too busy clenching a hand into a fist as her eyes sparkled over her epiphany.

And that’s when her brilliant plan started.






Two tiny hands gripped a chair as tightly as she could, dragging it through the distance between the dining room and the kitchen. Her great idea of making cookies (cookies-- why in the world did she not think of that before?!) was sure to put Albert in better spirits, she just knew it. It had to work. Cookies always made things better, and since it didn’t look like he had any injuries or boo-boos (Alyssa checked), she cleverly deducted that this was a sign of him needing some love… and possibly a lack of food intake.

She was brilliant. Really.

After a lot of grunts and shouting at the chair to cooperate and a few stops to rest, Alyssa had successfully made it to the kitchen, hands planted on her thighs as she tried to catch her breath. She then puffed out her chest a little bit proudly, nodding once before scrambling to find the ingredients.

"Ah-hah!" was her sudden exclamation when she found the bag of cookie mix, shoving that under an arm as she moved to the next cabinet to retrieve more items. A little more than necessary, really.

Her arms apparently did not want to carry three bowls, two mixing spoons, the bag of cookie mix, the gummy bears she found hiding in a drawer, and the eggs that she had thought were carefully placed into all the crevices of her upper body. Instead they clanked on the floor one-by-one as she walked, the little girl turning her head after she noticed that all she had left were the eggs and one spoon.

“Why are you lying there?” Alyssa directed her question to the items skewed upon the floor, tiny hands planted firmly on her hips as she stared down the abandoned ingredients. “I need your help to cheer up daddy!”

When they didn’t listen or move she sighed in extreme exasperation, setting down the two items already in her hands so that she could properly nab the rest of them.

After that, the kitchen became a sort of war-zone. Alyssa soon figured out that making cookies wasn’t as easy when Brianna wasn’t around, not when her arms were too short to reach for everything scattered on the counter. So instead of standing on the chair she heaved herself up onto the flat, cool surface, briefly proud over coming up with yet another clever idea.

She plopped the bowl into her lap, a fist furiously working with the spoon to mix the ingredients together, her tongue sticking out on the side of her mouth in concentration.

A few minutes later one of the maids happened to wander in when she heard a noise in the kitchen. The woman’s expression faltered slightly as she took in the scene, unsure if she should be amused (it was cute), worried (she was alone and nobody else seemed to be in sight), or horrified (for whoever had to clean up the awful mess). “Miss?”

Alyssa quickly looked up, her determined expression still lingering on her face. “Ah?”

“Do you need some help?”

The hand that was gripping the spoon released itself from its partner, holding it up as if she were physically stopping the maid from coming any closer.

“Your assistance is not needed!” the young girl said firmly, though no less respectfully, almost speaking as if she were delving into something that was dangerous and not to be trifled with, “I must do this on my own!”

A chuckle rose from the woman’s throat, only able to hold most of it back by the hand that lifted to shush the noise. “Alright. If you need my assistance--”

Alyssa nodded firmly, her tone still tight and proud. “I will call on you for help if need be. Thank you very much for the offer!”

And that was her only interruption for the next hour and a half.






Staring the dough down as if she were examining it was the first thing she did when it looked finished, but there was something missing that did not come to her for the next few minutes. A light bulb finally went off in her head, looking thrilled as she hopped off the chair to scurry across the kitchen again.

She was sure (very positive) that more ingredients meant that it would only make it that much better, so of course she went to find other things to put in the mix. It was for Albert, after all. Had to be perfect.

“Gummy bears,” she spoke distractedly, drizzling a few in there. “Sprinkles. Taffy. Cinnamon…”

It was a good thing her mom and Damon ate lots. While Damon did not live at home anymore (it saddened Alyssa, but he visited lots… plus he had Diane and the twins to take care of him, and that was good enough for her) they still stocked up rather nicely, especially since her mommy ate twice as much as her daddy did. Alyssa wondered if she could be that mighty when she was all grown up.

Alyssa tilted her head (just like her dad, yet another mannerism she picked up from him) and stared long and hard at the cookies. When they met her approval she hopped off the counter and onto the chair, pulling the cookie sheet close to her body as she carefully stepped down onto the floor.

“Oven~ oven~” she sang to herself cheerfully, half-distracted by her goal of getting to said destination without messing anything up.

It took her a while to figure out how to open the oven without setting down the cookies, wobbling once as the cookie sheet rested upon a lifted leg that was propped against the lower cabinets for support. The cookies were inserted and the oven’s door was slammed shut.

“Done!” Alyssa announced to herself, nodding some more in yet another round of approval.

After stepping back a few paces Alyssa lowered herself into a squat of sorts and waited, peering inside of the oven with another tilt of her head. Five minutes passed by and nothing happened, the girl still in the position she settled into a handful of minutes before.

A perplexed look spread across her features as she said the one thing that could only properly express her confusion to its fullest extent:

“Ah?”






For Albert the day had been full of many silences, taking it upon himself to sit in his study and do no more but think after failing on concentrating on one of his favorite books. It was not until he turned back to his desk that he noticed the top of a raven-colored head barely in view from his position, the sudden appearance making him blink back his surprise. How long had she been standing there?

The downcast look on her face bubbled up that worry he had always set aside for her (because she was his daughter, a part of him that was not artificially created but done with something stronger than science), opening his mouth to speak but abruptly stopped when his gaze picked up on something else that was amiss: A plate of what seemed to be a batch of gooey, unbaked substance, the oval shapes firm but melting a little bit into one another due to the excess amount of… wait, was that an M&M?

"It wouldn't bake," Alyssa finally said with a disappointed look, her lower lip jutting out into a pout. "I don't know why. I told the oven that it was very important that it cooperated, but... it just wouldn’t work for me…"

Albert slowly blinked down at his daughter as she tried to properly explain her predicament, a calm expression on his face. It was not until he picked up one of the doughy lumps that he broke out into a smile, the vibration of laughter lowly rumbling in his chest as his shoulder shook in reply. But he did not say anything else as he closed his eyes peacefully and took a bite.

Alyssa looked up at him and held her breath while she watched with wide eyes, the anticipation radiating off of her. When Albert finally looked at her again and smiled in approval, his daughter’s face broke out into excitement.

“I did it, I did it!” She said happily, bouncing a few times with her hands raised in the air. Alyssa abruptly stopped after another idea struck her, turning to walk out again. “I’ll go make more for daddy!”

A suddenly hand took one of hers and gently pulled her back, both of Albert’s hands circling to nab her at the waist and lift her to take a seat in his lap.

“Stay,” he finally said, giving another smile to her when she tilted her head to look at him in confusion.

Alyssa grinned and nodded, feeling more happy over being invited (and his smile, because he had a certain smile for her and she could tell by the way it made her feel so happy) than anything else. She guessed she could wait for her mommy to come back before making anything else for him.

“Okey-dokey.” And then: “Let’s play a game!”

“What would you like to play?”

“The drawing game!”

The young girl reached down to her drawer (hers because she seemed so content to just be around Albert and she never disturbed him when he read or looked like he was concentrating on something; a drawer of her own was the least he could do) and pulled out her large sketchpad, placing it neatly down in front of them on the desk. Alyssa pushed the box of crayons to the side and flipped to a new blank page in the book, a hand grabbing a black crayon before she scribbled her first drawing:

“Cat!”

Albert tilted his head at the drawing, the nostalgia not lost on him. He didn’t have to think twice when he picked up a crayon of his own, leaning slightly over Alyssa to doodle next to her own drawing.

“Fish.”