A/N: I have to admit, I'm glad that I managed to stump all of you with a plot twist - it seems more and more difficult to do with our group of exceptionally sharp Browncoats!

Thanks to Leiasky and Kaynara. Please keep commenting.

“I weren’t never that little.”

Ellie Frye smiled down at the top of her little girl’s head as Kaylee perched herself on her tiptoes, peering down into the crib at the tiny bundle of baby sleeping there.

Scooping the five-year-old into her arms, Ellie swung her youngest child around, laughing as Kaylee giggled happily. “Oh, yes you were,” she teased, tickling the little girl until she was breathless. Exiting the bedroom and moving down the hall towards the kitchen, Ellie set her daughter in a seat as she moved to fix her a snack.

“You were so tiny, your pa was ‘fraid he’d break ya,” Ellie told her, smiling big as Kaylee’s huge eyes grew larger.

“No he weren’t,” she challenged, her voice squeaking slightly. “Daddy’s always swingin’ me about.”

“Well, sure, now.” Placing a plate of fresh strawberries before the girl, Ellie sat beside her, watching with a feeling of contentment as her baby giddily clapped her hands before reaching for one of the ripe berries and biting into it. Brushing some of her hair behind her ear, Ellie added, “Your pa, he din’t know what to do with himself. He fell in love with you second he saw ya. So diff’rent from your brothers.”

Wrinkling her nose, Kaylee swallowed her most recent bite of fruit and nodded. “Well ‘course. They’re smelly.”

“So were you.” Tickling the girl’s chin, Ellie sat back and watched her as she devoured the half dozen strawberries she’d given her.

As Kaylee continued to eat, she thought about her nephew, asleep still in the next room and looked back to her mother with wide-eyed innocence. “Marcus ain’t gonna smell like that forever is he?” As Ellie stifled a laugh, Kaylee added, “’Cause Billy