Since Talia got the stomach bug from Avery, Dylan had to cancel all his plans with Leah, but over the phone, he asked her and Trigger to spend Christmas with him and Talia, beginning on Christmas eve, when the four of them would spend the night together so they could wake up and enjoy the morning together. He'd also asked her to come to Christmas dinner at his dad's, as his dad and Ellie had kindly extended an invitation to her.

On Christmas Eve, the four of them planned to put up a Christmas tree in his apartment. Leah had insisted they do Christmas at his apartment and not hers since it was roomier.

He'd gotten a small tree from the grocery store to add some holiday cheer to his living room. Unfortunately, Leah couldn't use her employee discount on the tree, so it still ended up costing him close to forty dollars. Plus, he'd had to buy some ornaments. Since he didn't want to spend too much on them, he'd ended up getting a multipack of ornaments that didn't seem at all personal or special—they were just metallic blue orbs. He'd also gotten some candy canes.

After she and Trigger arrived at his apartment, Trigger ate three of the candy canes while he and Leah put up the tree. Dylan made sure to put the remaining ones up high where the boy couldn't reach them. He wanted the tree to look fully decorated for Christmas morning.

When the tree was as decorated as it was going to get, Dylan placed some presents under the tree. He'd wrapped a pair of new pajamas for Talia. The other box he'd wrapped held a surprise gift for Leah. The final gift they placed under the tree was Trigger's gift from the Giving Tree.

"I wanna open it now!" Trigger said, red dye and peppermint flakes encrusting the corners of his mouth.

"I guess he can open it?" Leah asked, looking at Dylan.

"Why not?" Dylan said, feeling thankful Leah had looked to him for his fatherly opinion.

Trigger ripped open the wrapping paper, a look of disappointment forming on his face. "It just books!" Tossing the books aside like they were the worst gift ever, he got up and screamed, "I wanna open another present!"

"You don't have another present," Leah said. "You'll have to wait 'til Santa comes."

Trigger crossed his arms and pouted, and Leah sighed in exasperation, looking to Dylan for more advice. "I'm sure these books are really cool if you just give them a chance, Trigger," Dylan finally said, and his comment had no effect on Trigger, who continued his theatrical pouting.

Leah got down on the floor and examined the books. Dylan could see they consisted of The Giving Tree, Guess How Much I Love You, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

"This can't be the correct gift," Leah said quietly to Dylan. "I said he wanted the Nerf gun. The motorized one with fifty darts that's too expensive for me. He wants it so bad. I really thought he would get it."

Dylan bent down and picked up The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; inside, there was a note that said, "You can read this aloud to Trigger. He will love it! ☺"

"I don't think it's a mistake," Dylan said. "Look at this." He showed her Trigger's name on the note. She studied it for a good minute, her forehead creased with confusion and upset.

"I wuv that book!" Talia screeched, grabbing it from Dylan's hands.

"See if you can get Trigger to like it," Dylan said.

Talia walked over to Trigger, who hadn't stopped pouting, and she tried to talk to him to no avail.

*

Later that night, Dylan snuck out and went to Walmart and went to the toy section. There, he found the aisle housing the nerf guns, and he found a motorized one with fifty darts. Looking at the price tag (just under fifty dollars), he almost hesitated, but then he grabbed it and went through the checkout before he could change his mind.

The next morning, the kids woke up far too early for Dylan's liking, prompted by knowledge of Santa's nightly escapades.

The two of them emptied their stockings, pleased to find chocolates inside.

With a chocolate-covered mouth, Trigger went straight for his biggest present.

"Woah!" he screamed when once he'd ripped open the wrappings and found the Nerf gun inside. It was the first time Leah saw it, too. Her expression looked surprised, then she quietly mouthed, thank you. He nodded in acknowledgement.

Trigger ripped the cardboard attempting to open it. "Let me help you," Dylan told him. "We don't want to accidentally rip the darts, do we?" Trigger reluctantly handed him the nerf gun, and Dylan opened it carefully as Trigger sat by his side, squirming impatiently.

When Dylan had finally loaded the gun, he handed it to Trigger. Trigger shot the wall with some dramatic sound effects, and, after observing how quickly the dart zoomed and how hard it struck the wall, he screamed, "Wow!"

Then, with little warning, he went over to Talia and shot the gun, "Pshew!" right into her eye. Screams began to escape from her throat, as she held her left eye with both hands.

Dylan ran over to her. "Can you open your eye so I can see?"

She took her hands off her eye, but the eyelid wouldn't open, so he gently pried open her eye with his fingers. Blood had spread throughout her iris.

He looked over at Trigger, who had a look of indifference, and for a moment, Dylan swore he could've punched the kid, because that little fucker had hurt his little girl and he didn't even look sorry about it.

Then he looked over at Leah, who was standing over the three of them and covering her mouth at the sight of Talia's eye. She turned toward Trigger. "What the hell'd you do that for?"

"I was just shootin it!"

She grabbed him forcefully. "Pull your pants down, right now!"

Dylan couldn't believe it: she was about to give him a spanking. Although he'd had a momentary thought of punching him, the thought had gone away, and he'd known it was a ridiculous thought, one of those unreasonable, fleeting, protective parental instincts resulting from his reaction to seeing his own daughter's pain. He hugged Talia tightly into his chest as she continued to cry, and he told Leah, firmly, "Don't do that. He's right, it's a gun. What else did we expect? We just need to teach him the right way to use it."

Though Leah had been subtly seeking Dylan's fatherly help the day before, his words right then were not what she wanted to hear. She scowled at him as Trigger ran away to Talia's bedroom to flee his punishment. After Trigger slammed the door, Leah gave Dylan an even harsher look and said, "He is my son. I am his parent—not you."

She was right, but Dylan still didn't agree with her. Trigger was the way he was because of the way he'd been treated as a toddler. Being spanked would not improve his behavior, and this situation made Dylan wonder how often Leah used corporal punishment.

But he couldn't argue with her right then, not with his daughter screaming, her eye injured. He needed to take her to the ER. Great. He hoped his new insurance plan would cover this.

"You and Trigger can stay here," he told Leah, trying not to sound as upset as he felt. "I'm taking Talia to the hospital."

Holding Talia in his arms, he didn't spare another look at Leah as he grabbed his car keys and Talia's shoes, before running out of the door.

Talia continued to whimper the whole way to the hospital, and Dylan reflected on his decision to buy Trigger the Nerf gun, what a stupid decision, he'd practically paid for his daughter's eye injury with money he probably should've saved for something else. Each whimper produced made him feel shittier and shittier, and by the time they finally arrived at the hospital, he felt like the shittiest parent ever.

As soon as they entered the ER, they approached the front desk, where he told one of the nurses on duty, "My daughter was hit at close range with a nerf gun. A foam dart." He'd never imagined a foam dart could make an eye look the way Talia's looked right then. Though she was a tough little girl, her whimpers hadn't ceased, and Dylan knew she wasn't faking; she clearly felt a lot of pain. Holding onto him as tightly as possible, she pushed her head into his stomach, and he felt something horrible, something like guilt. For some reason, he heard Ellie telling him not to invite chaos into his life, to think about Talia first. He didn't want to be like his dad. He didn't want to choose a lover over Talia's wellbeing.

He filled out some paperwork in the waiting room, Talia crying softly in his lap as he maneuvered his arms around her and tried to comfort her while still making his handwriting somewhat legible. A little while later, a nurse came and retrieved the two of them.

In the room where the nurse took them, another nurse came in and asked Talia all sorts of questions, apparently probing to see whether or not Dylan was abusive. "Who hit you? Is that your dad? Does he love you? Does he play with you? Where's your mom?"

After the interrogation, the nurse seemed to believe Dylan was a good father and that Talia's eye injury was nothing worse than an accident.

A doctor came in and said, "This stuff happens. We don't have to worry about your daughter losing her eye or anything, but we do have to worry about her vision. She could have some permanent damage."

Great. His girlfriend's son might have partially blinded his daughter. "How soon will we know?" he asked.

"We'll bandage her eye for now, and assess the damage in a few days."

Dylan nodded, feeling defeated.

After scheduling a follow-up appointment at the clinic connected to the hospital, he and Talia went home, where they found the apartment empty. It was after noon, and apparently, Leah and Trigger had not wanted to stay to wait for Dylan and Talia's arrival home from the hospital. Though Dylan had planned to bring the two of them to dinner at his dad's, he felt relieved when Leah never called, and he headed over to his dad's house with only Talia.

*

"Where's Leah?" Ellie asked when she answered the door.

"She's not coming," Dylan told her, and Ellie looked at him, expecting an explanation, before looking over and seeing Talia's bandaged eye.

"Oh my god! What happened to you?" Ellie ran over and picked Talia up, kissing her on the side of the head to comfort her. His dad came in then, immediately noticing Talia's injury, and waiting for an explanation.

"Trigger shot her in the eye with his new Nerf gun," Dylan said, because he didn't want to lie, and he couldn't think of any way to sugarcoat it.

Ellie's eyes widened. "What?"

His explanation wouldn't suffice, so he explained how Trigger had come up to her and shot her in the eye, probably not realizing the damage he could do. Ellie covered her mouth and shook her head.

Once his Dad had gotten Talia and Avery situated with Avery's new Lego set on the great room floor, Dylan whispered to Ellie, "Look, Elle, please don't tell anyone about this."

"Why?"

"Because I don't need all those moms using Talia as a gossiping point. Okay? And Leah sure as hell doesn't need any more judgment from them."

Ellie sighed dramatically, and he looked over to find her frowning. "This is why I took the dart gun off the list."

"It was you."

She knew exactly what he was talking about. "How did you guess?"

"Come on. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? The note in your nice handwriting? You've got to give me more credit."

"Well, can you blame me? Wouldn't it be better if he'd never gotten one? Why did you even get him one?"

Dylan felt her judgment like a cigarette burn. "Are you blaming me for this?"

"I just don't think violent little boys should be given weapons."

"It was an accident!"

"It was not an accident. From what you've told me, it sounds like he very much meant to shoot her."

"He didn't mean to hurt her."

"Are you sure about that? Maybe he likes seeing things get hurt."

Dylan didn't respond, because maybe she was right. Finally, Ellie said, more quietly, "I'm sorry. I know you were just trying to be nice. I know you're trying to make things work with Leah, and I don't want to get in the way of your happiness." It was the first real apology he'd heard from Ellie, and it should have made him feel better. Instead, he continued to feel like maybe he should have heeded her warnings. Then he felt like he was being ridiculous; Trigger had faced so many obstacles, and he just needed someone to help him to be a good kid. However, Leah had made it clear she didn't want Dylan stepping in and helping, not when it came to punitive measures. And her solution to punish his violence made no sense. He didn't like her right then, and he felt something else towards her, some strong feeling, something like disgust.

Ellie grabbed Dylan's hand with her own right then, possibly because she realized his thoughts troubled him and wanted to give him comfort. Welcoming her comfort, he held her hand with his and squeezed back. He noticed his dad looking over at the two of them.

"Everything alright?" he asked.

Dylan nodded.

"I take it Leah's not coming to dinner?"

"Doesn't seem likely," was all Dylan said.

*

The five of them ate dinner, roasted cauliflower and broccoli and prime rib.

"This prime rib is fantastic, Clay," Ellie said, touching his hand.

"Thank you," he told her, smiling.

Even though she'd said that, Dylan noticed Ellie didn't eat much of her dinner. It always took a few weeks for her to regain her appetite after a legitimate puking scare.

After plates had been cleared, Ellie said, "Talia, would you like to open your gifts?"

"Shit," Dylan said under his breath. "I did not get Avery a gift."

"Oh, shush," Ellie said. "He got so many gifts from us; he doesn't need any more." She'd meant to make him feel better, but her words just made him compare himself to her, and he wished he had gotten Avery something, because Avery was his sweet younger brother and would be thankful and would never use any gift to intentionally hurt a living thing.

Talia unwrapped her presents, finding two sequels to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a Star Wars Legos set, and a puzzle. Her happiness bubbled out of her, and Dylan looked over at Ellie and mouthed a thank you. He'd wanted to give Talia a wonderful Christmas this year, the first year in his adult life that he was getting more money than he was spending. Instead, their Christmas morning had culminated in her eye injury. Now that they were at "Gwampa and Eh-wee's," Talia finally looked happy, and she'd finally got the Christmas she deserved. Ellie would always be a better mother to her than any woman he could find.

"Can I get a picture of the two of you in front of the tree?" Ellie said to her and Avery. "Talia, you look so cool with that eyepatch. Doesn't she look cool with that eye patch, Avery?"

Avery nodded fiercely, and Talia smiled like she believed the two of them, like she felt cooler than cool. Then, she and Avery hugged each other in front of the Christmas tree. The love between them seemed more than evident, and Ellie captured it on her smartphone's camera screen.

"Who are the two best kids in Mountain Springs?" asked Clay, going in to hug them. The two of them screamed playfully in his grasp.

Ellie continued to take pictures of the three of them. "Will you send those to me?" Dylan asked Ellie.

"Sure. I'm gonna post some on Facebook. Is that okay?"

"You don't have to ask, Elle."

Turning her phone off, she said, "Actually, I do. It's the new thing that parents do. Always obtaining permission before posting pictures of other people's children."

"Well, I don't need to worry about that. I don't do social media, remember?"

"That's right."

She sent him the picture, and he studied it on his own phone's screen, attempting to imagine Talia and Trigger hugging like that, like family, like a brother and sister. Unfortunately, his imagination wasn't working that well.