"Alright gorls, it is beddy-by time, noaw." Gru said adoringly, before stooping to pluck Agnes from the ground and resting the small girl in the crook of his arm. His spindly finger gently poked at her baby fat and she responded with a tiny, tired giggle.

Margo, obediently trudging at his side, carried a snoring Edith on her back. The elder girl tried to stifle a yawn with the back of her free hand, and then reached up to tenderly grip her adopted father's outstretched appendage, the one not currently occupied by a sleeping five year old. He glanced at her and smiled slightly, giving her small hand a tender squeeze.

Coming to the alcove in which the children slept, the reformed villain nudged the door open with a foot and stepped through. Margo was still a little sluggish and Edith slid off her back half way, but in a swift move, Gru had the middle child in his free arm and Margo left of her burden. Setting the two younger girls in their semi-explosive beds, he turned to the eldest to find the girl missing.

"Margo?"

Suddenly the lights in the room dimmed to black, and only the sound of three pitiful mewling kittens was heard in the distance, while a loud, familiarly nasally laugh rang throughout the darkness. Gru's eyes went wide and his stomach coiled, sweat beading on his now paled brow.

"No, no, NOO-" Sitting up frantically, reality spun back into view, and Gru finished off a confused "-ooo…"

He panted and coughed, twisting his plain, grey sheets between sweaty palms. Blinking rapidly, the gloom of his domicile became more focused to his bleary, blue eyes. Wringing his shaking hands, Gru repeated under his breath 'It vas only a dream…only a nightmare.'

But even as his genius mind worked furiously to assure him, his parental heart questioned this. Maybe Vector really had gotten off the moon, and maybe his kittens had been stolen in the night…

Getting wearily to his feet, Gru shuffled out of his bedroom into the hall. More and more thoughts of crying children and dastardly captors spun in his mind, and pretty soon he was running, sprinting down the hall way. Turing the corner, his foot slipped from under him, sending his head cracking into a wall, then the rest of him to the ground. Rolling onto his back, Gru felt a massive headache take hold and something warm trickle across his temple.

"Owe, son ouv a-vat is this?" Carefully, he dabbed a finger at it, bringing the digit back to see red. Gru wiped away the evidence, salty sweat from his palms stinging the cut. Blinking hard a few times helped to refocus his vision, and remind him of his purpose.

Continuing on a brisk pace (not nearly as fast as before) and being cautious of potential harms, the reformed villain reached his daughters' room. Cracking the door open just enough to see three small, sleeping forms, gently breathing almost in unison, Gru let out a breath he forgot that he was holding.

Quietly sweeping into the room, he surveyed his eldest child, who had neglected to remove her glasses before dozing off over her geometry book. It had been three years since Gru had adopted the girls, and in just three years, he had managed to become 'Dad' instead of 'Mr. Gru'. He had become so accustomed to these three little interruptions, that calling each 'daughter' was easy, as well. Reaching down, he quickly swept the spectacles off of his eldest girls face, and set them carefully on the dresser next to her bed. Reflecting on his now fifteen year old's growth, he placed a tender goodnight kiss on her forehead.

Coming to the next girl, Edith, he snickered. She still had that fuzzy pink hat, though it was torn and worn greatly, and it was (signature of her) pulled down over her eyes. Gru gently tugged the cap off of her head, and instead of putting it on her dresser, laid it across her stomach. She turned eleven a week earlier, he reminisced. Then, he leaned down for a second goodnight kiss.

Looking then to the youngest girl, now eight, and still a fan of unicorns, he scooted the blanket up just a bit farther and tucked his littlest girl in, and then placed a final goodnight kiss on her brow.

Nothing seemed askew about them at the moment. Relieved to no end, Gru sighed, and left to room to return to his interrupted sleep.