5 - Daddy, Can I Be A Gangster?

It has been ten years since my run in with Areena and thanks to Uncle Lenny and the rest of my family, I made a full recovery. Scooter introduced me to his sister Meredith who was a shy thing but stole my heart nevertheless with her sweet smile and selfless personality.

I was reluctant at first with that whole cousin thing but after closer research into my family tree, I learned that Uncle Lenny had been wrong all along. Not every superhuman coven was related which triggered a whole lot of intercontinental unions over the years. Meredith and mine was one of the first and I split my time between the FBI offices in New York and Scotland Yard, so we could both be close to our families.

All was good until the day my five year old looked me straight in the eye, declaring she wanted to be a gangster when she grew up. Now talk about déjà-vu. I wasn't sure how to handle it and stared at my wife who was just as uncertain as I was.

"Now, Emma," she said. "Being a gangster means that your daddy would have to chase you. Wouldn't it be so much more fun if you worked together and caught the bad guys?"

My daughter wrinkled her nose. "I suppose. Can I at least then arrest Ben for stealing my candy bar?" She glared at her brother with narrow eyes.

"How about I'll get you a new one." Meredith tousled Emma's hair before throwing a stern look at her son.

Emma climbed on my lap, her thumb finding its way into her mouth. "Daddy, what does it mean to be a superhuman?" she muttered.

I remembered back to the time I had asked my father the exact same question. "It means we're the line between the world and the much weirder world. We protect people from news they aren't ready to hear. And when we can't do that, we keep them safe."

"And that's why you're a cop?" Her eyes were filled with curiosity.

I nodded. "And I'm proud to be. It feels great to fight for what is right."

After that, she never mentioned again that she wanted to be a gangster but the fear that she was just pretending has always been there at the back of my mind. Maybe it was the payback for what I had done - or maybe it was just an innocent statement of a five year old. Hopefully, I will never have to find out, because being a gangster is one legacy I could easily live without.