AN: Just a couple more chapters, okay? Fair warning...

🌸💫🌺💫🌼💫🦁💫🐹💫🌹

"Uh, guys?"

Lottie, who was cooking at the little pretend stove, and Brina, who was reading a story to the doggy, looked over at Leo.

"I, uh, gotta go," Leo said, rolling his eyes a little bit.

"You're leaving already?" Lottie asked. "I thought you wanted to live here for a little while."

Leo just shook his head, unable to make eye-contact.

"No, Lottie, he means he has to go," Brina elucidated, putting emphasis on the last word.

"Oh! Potty? You gotta go potty?" Lottie's countenance cleared as comprehension dawned.

Leo nodded gratefully.

"Okay, hold on, let me go check if anyone's out in the hall," Brina continued, rising and setting the book aside.

She stuck her head out the door of her bedroom, looking both ways. She could hear her parents talking in their bedroom.

"The coast is clear," she declared in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Great," Leo said, walking quickly to the door.

Lottie took his hand and walked with him down the hall to their bathroom. Brina and Della the dog followed, with Brina looking over her shoulder .

Leo went in and headed for the potty, feeling incredible relief. He'd had to go since he woke up, but he was too embarrassed to say anything. Things became dire, though, after he ate the breakfast the girls had brought him, and drank the juice.

While he was in there, he heard a woman calling the girls, and he heard their footfalls heading away from the bathroom.

He knew that no one was guarding the door, and that he'd better hurry. He pulled his pajama bottoms up quickly and flushed. Then he went to the sink to wash his hands, using the convenient stepping stool that was pushed up against the vanity.

They had a fun soap dispenser, with the spout shaped like an elephant's trunk. Leo laughed when he pushed on it, because it made a little whooshing sound, kind of like an elephant, and the soap came out all frothy and bubbly.

He was rinsing his hands with gusto when the door to the bathroom opened, and a man stuck his head inside. He looked at Leo, standing on the stool in front of the sink, and his eyes widened. He opened the door the rest of the way and came in as Leo stood motionless in front of the sink.

Leo didn't know what to do.

The man was wearing sweat pants like his daddy liked to wear, but this man wasn't wearing a shirt. Leo's daddy always wore a shirt. And this man had a pretty picture on his chest, of a bunch of flowers. Leo had never seen anything like it. He didn't seem scary, but Leo was scared anyway. He couldn't move.

"Let me guess. Are you Leo?" the man asked with a smile.

Leo nodded, watching the man carefully.

He stepped over to the sink and turned off the tap, then handed Leo a towel.

"Are you Brina and Lottie's daddy?" he asked politely.

The man nodded. "Yes, I am. Are they the ones who let you in here?"

Leo nodded again. "I'm sorry." He blinked and swallowed. "Are they going to get in trouble?" When the man didn't say anything, Leo rushed on. "Because it isn't their fault. I found their talkie-talkie and asked them if they'd help me but keep it a secret because my mommy and daddy needed a break and they said they would. And they've been really nice," he finished, nodding for emphasis. "They brought me food, and juice boxes, and they let me play in their closet, too."

The man, Brina and Lottie's daddy, was grinning as he regarded Leo, who hadn't moved from the stool.

"Well, Leo, that's good to know," he said. "I'm so happy to hear that they've been good hostesses to you."

He stepped closer, and before Leo knew what he was going to do, the man picked him up. It wasn't a big deal, since Leo's daddy carried him around all the time. It just felt a little weird because he didn't know this man.

"Mister, um, Santangelo? Where are you taking me?" Leo asked.

"Don't worry, piccolo ragazzo, everything's going to be okay," Pete soothed as they walked down the hallway.

"Daisy? Cara, come here, please. Girls, you too! Right now, please!"

There was a thudding of feet as everyone came running toward them. Brina and Lottie arrived first, and all they could do was stare, little hands over their mouths. Behind them was a pretty lady with lots of curly red hair, carrying a baby. And from the opposite direction came two more girls, one with curly blonde hair and a tall girl with long, wavy hair.

"Daddy, who's that?" the blonde girl asked, pointing at Leo. "What's he doing in our house?"

"Is that the missing boy I heard you guys talking about?" asked the tall girl.

"Oh my god, Pete, is that him?" the lady asked. The baby in her arms just goggled at everyone.

Pete nodded at the lady, smiling.

"How did he--I mean, what's he doing here?" the lady asked. She motioned to the tall girl, who came and took the baby from her. She then stepped over and took Leo, hugging him.

She smelled nice, almost as nice as his mommy, and Leo hugged her back enthusiastically. "Boy, are your parents going to be glad to see you," she murmured, holding him close. "Francie, grab my phone, love, please." She held out her hand for it, and punched some numbers as they all trooped to the living room.

"Yes, hello, Detective Chen, please?"

There was a brief pause, then she spoke again. "Hello? Yes, this is Daisy White, from the penthouse? Mm hmm, well, you're not going to believe this, but Leo's here." Another pause. "Yes, I'm holding him as we speak." She paused again, looking around, then said, "I don't know yet, but I'm guessing, from the looks on their faces, that my two younger daughters had something to do with it.

"At any rate, yes, he's safe, could you please tell his parents?"

She talked a little longer, holding Leo the whole time, then ended the call.

She sat down with Leo in her lap, and looked over at her twin daughters, who looked back at her, eyes like saucers.

"First, Leo, are you hungry?" the lady asked. "Did the girls bring you breakfast?"

Leo nodded. "I had a really great cinnamon roll, and juice," he told her.

"Okay, good," she responded, laughing. "You can thank the girls' daddy for the cinnamon roll, he's the baker around here.

"Oh." Leo looked over at Pete. "Thank you," he said politely.

For some reason, this made Brina and Lottie's parents laugh.

"Are my mommy and daddy coming to get me?" he asked.

"Yes. It might take a few minutes, because they're down at the police station, but someone's bringing them right now, okay?"

Leo took a deep breath. "But they need a break from me, they need a break, that's why I came in the first place," he said, and he couldn't stop his chin from quivering.

"Oh no," the pretty lady said, pulling him close and hugging him again. Leo hugged her back, hard. "I know that's not true, you know how?"

Leo shook his head without releasing her.

"They called the police already, and it's barely morning," she answered, stroking his hair. "They wouldn't do that if they didn't care, a lot, I think, don't you?"

Leo lifted his head so he could look directly into her eyes. "The police?" he repeated, awed. "They called the police on me?"

"Not 'on you'," the lady replied, shaking her head. "They called the police because they were so worried about you, you little peanut."

She looked around at her family, letting her gaze linger on her two youngest daughters. "Now why don't you take a couple minutes and tell me how this happened?"

"Are we in trouble?" Brina asked, her face unusually solemn.

"Why don't you tell us what happened, and we can talk about all that after, hm?" their daddy suggested.

So the girls, falling all over each other, nodding and using their hands for emphasis, told the story of the talkie-talkie, and how Leo was so sad, and needed a place to live. They finished the story by telling about the fire stairs, and how they snuck him into their closet last night.

Their sisters stood and stared at them.

"I can't believe you guys did this and didn't even tell us," Clio said accusingly.

"Yeah," Francie chimed in. "We could've helped you. How could you guys keep something like this a secret from us?" She saw her parents staring at her and amended, "We would've told you it was a bad idea, too, though."

"Wow, what a story," Mr. Santangelo laughed. "But girls, you know you should never invite people into our apartment without letting us know, right? It's very, very dangerous.

"Not that Leo is dangerous," he added, looking over at Leo, who stared at the carpet, stricken with remorse and guilt. "I can tell that he's a good boy, but still, girls, this wasn't okay."

Brina and Lottie nodded, looking at their father with contrition.

"We'll talk about your punishment later, okay?" the lady said, looking at the girls' daddy. "Now, though, I want to know why you thought your parents, um, needed a break from you?" She looked closely at Leo, who still sat in her lap. "Your mommy's going to have a baby, right?"

Leo nodded.

"Well, that would mean she'd need you extra, I think, to help? The more people to love a new baby the better," she finished, smiling. "I'm sure your mommy and daddy feel the same way."

Leo shook his head. "They're not my real parents," he explained. "Mommy just married us last summer, and we did a Q-tip test in my mouth and found out that daddy isn't my real daddy, either. I don't belong to him." And, even though he was trying not to, great big tears came out of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. And because he didn't know what else to do, Leo hid his face Brina and Lottie's mother's neck.

"Oh, you poor thing," she soothed, rocking him a little.

"Listen, piccolo ragazzo," Mr. Santangelo said, placing a gentle hand on Leo's back. "The Q-tip test you're talking about? That can only tell you about science, biology. That's not what a family is. Look at me," he commanded, and Leo lifted his head to look.

"See this?" He pointed at the picture on his chest. "I have one little flower for each of my children, and all five of them are the same, in every way. And this one, this beautiful rose, is first, for my oldest daughter, Clio." He grinned and air kissed in the tall girl's direction, and she smiled and caught the kiss in her fist before blowing it back to him.

"Clio has a different history, and a test would show that, but that doesn't make her any less my daughter." He looked seriously at Leo, who was listening intently. "I couldn't love her any more if she had my genes, because in every way that matters, she's my daughter, just like you're your daddy's boy."

"Who's that flower for?" Leo asked, pointing at the big picture in the very middle.

"That's for her, my children's mother," Pete explained, reaching out to rub her arm.

Just then, the buzzer sounded, indicating that someone was in the elevator, coming up from the lobby.

Leo jumped at the noise, getting tense.

The lady stood as if she were going to put Leo down, but he hung on to her tightly. He liked having her hold him.

When the elevator doors opened, though, and his mommy and daddy stepped out with a man and a woman that Leo had never seen before, he wriggled in her arms, indicating that he wanted down.

"Leo? Leo, oh my god, you're safe, you're safe," his mommy cried, getting down on her knees and holding her arms out to him.

Next to her, his daddy was crying, too, something Leo hadn't seen very often at all.

And suddenly Leo was running to them. He couldn't get there fast enough, and the Santangelos' living room seemed like the size of a football field.

He ran into his mother's arms, and she rose while holding him so all three of them could hug.

"I'm sorry," he said, over and over, as he hugged his parents.

"I'm sorry." He kissed his mommy's wet cheek.

"It's okay, son, it's okay," he heard his daddy say. "We love you so much. I love you, so much."

Leo lifted his head to regard his father.

"You really love me? Even though I'm not yours?" he asked. "You don't--you don't mind anymore?"

His parents looked at each other over their son's head, in shock, sorrow, regret.

"I never minded, Leo," his father assured him. "I've always loved you, I'll always love you. And I'm sorry, too, okay? For everything."

Leo only nodded. "When did you change your mind?" he asked.

His daddy shook his head. "I never changed my mind, kiddo," he assured Leo. "It just took a little time to for my head to realize that my heart already knew, you know?"

And Leo didn't really understand, but he kind of did, so he smiled and kissed his daddy, then his mommy.

Then Leo felt his mommy start to wobble, like she was dancing.

His daddy grabbed him and tried to keep an arm around his mommy at the same time, but she was too heavy, and all he could do was help her fall gently, so she wouldn't hit her head. She lay on the floor in the Santangelos' living room, looking like she was sleeping.

Brina and Lottie's mommy jumped up and rushed over, as Leo looked on, concerned.

"Is she dead?" he asked, horrified. "Did I make her die because I ran away?"

"No, she just fainted," Brina and Lottie's mommy said, smiling. "She'll be okay.

"Clio, bring some water, okay?" she requested, and Clio ran to the kitchen.

Mommy was already waking up, blinking and looking around.

"Wow, that's never happened before," she said with a wry smile. "I'm so sorry."

Leo's daddy put him down so he could help her to the sofa. He sat next to her, and gestured to Leo, who stepped over to sit between them.

"Leo, you're going to have to explain how this happened, okay?" his mommy said as she accepted the water from Clio.

"Yes, I for one am dying to know," his daddy added.

"Why don't you introduce us?" Mr. Santangelo suggested.

"Okay. Mr. and Mrs. Santangelo, these are my parents," Leo said, patting their legs. "This is my mommy, and this is my daddy." He looked up at his father.

"This is my daddy," he repeated.

And suddenly his father had scooped him up into his arms, hugging him bone-crushingly tight.

"Daddy," he said into his father's chest. "You're my daddy, right?"

He felt his daddy nod. "Yes, Leo. I'm your daddy. Forever."