A/N: I really wanted to post this yesterday so it could coincide with Father's Day, but I didn't make it. So, consider it a late Father's Day tribute ...

Thanks to Kaynara for the beta and Leighkohl for giving me some plot bunnies after I wrote the opening and didn't know where to take it.

Completely unrelated to anything - independent of my current series, Second Chances.

Standing in the doorway to the infirmary, Airen Tam watched her father with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. Being only four, she didn't understand much of what her father was doing. From what mommy said it had something to do with being 'anal-tented,' but Airen was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to know that word and so she'd never asked for a definition. Besides, when mommy had said it, she'd been smiling and then she'd kissed daddy, so Airen assumed it was really okay.

Her father stood with his back to her now but she knew he was deep in thought. His right hand was scribbling hurriedly in his journal, his head moving from left to right as he glanced at the scope and its readouts before he wrote down the important information in one of the crew's charts. Airen really hoped it wasn't overly serious. She didn't want anybody to be hurt.

Speaking of which ... Stepping over the threshold, Airen moved to her father's side, standing just under his right elbow. She was growing fast, but was still pretty small and so the top of her dark-haired head fell just under her father's bent arm. As his eyes swung back to verify the data he'd just written, he caught sight of her and started slightly.

"Airen, honey, you startled me."

Smiling her big smile, the one everyone said looked like her mommy's, Airen shrugged. "Sorry."

Returning her smile as it was impossible not to, Simon dropped his stylus on the counter, before going down on his haunches before her. Meeting her intense hazel eyes with his blue, her father