"Okay, so if you say that one is a man with a gun, then that one has to be an orphan baby deer, Daddy," Hope determinedly said, turning her head and staring at her father with those bright blue earnest eyes that he so admired.

It was the warm, sunny days like these that Jason wished would last forever. He and his daughters were laying on a blanket of grass in their yard, and the wind was blowing just enough that Hope's dirty blonde hair would occasionally blow in Jason's face and he'd have to swat it out of the way. Destiny, after a morning's hard work of playing, was passed out, napping just a few feet from where Hope and Jason lay. Somewhere in the house, his wife was probably cursing the warm day; her pregnancies were always harder on her with the summer heat.

Jason laughed. Sometimes, seven year olds said the darndest things. "You don't have to be so morbid, jeez," he told her. "Hey, don't you think that cloud looks a little like that cat you insist must stay in the house?"

Hope narrowed her eyes, but she paid no attention to Jason's insult of her favorite cat. "What does morbid mean?" she asked instead.

"Uhhh. . ." Jason tried to formulate a logical answer in his head. Once upon a time, he was fairly good at defining vocabulary, but at thirty-eight Jason could slowly but surely detect his memory fading. "It means, like, dark. . .like deathly. But not."

"I don't get it. But you're not being fun anymore, so Dessie and I are gonna go play. Dessie! Wake up!" the young girl stated so quickly and smoothly that Jason barely had any time to process it until it was too late.

Jason scrambled to stop Hope before she awakened the beast. Destiny, though she looked sweet and innocent of all crime, was the most temperamental, emotional drama queen that Jason had ever met in his life. Dessie knew what she wanted and when she wanted it and if she didn't get her way. . .well, she usually just did if Jason was the one watching her. And, best of all, Piper never believed a word Jason said about Dessie. Dessie was an angel while in her mother's presence, and Jason would swear she did it on purpose.

"Oh, you're probably just overreacting," Piper would say. "You always said Hope misbehaved, too, and look how well she turned out! No, Dessie's a good kid."

Jason loved Destiny, but Lord help him if she continued to act like this throughout the teenage years. Sometimes Jason wondered if Dessie was the world's payback to him for being such a wild child.

"HOPE! Don't wake your sister up!" He frantically whispered to his eldest child, pulling her off her no longer sleeping sister.

Jason braced himself and pulled Hope back almost protectively. Hey, sometimes Dessie got a little violent.

The tan skinned girl confusedly opened her blue eyes. She turned a bit, felt the grass imprint on her arms and legs, and then, like she had known it all along, her gaze flew to Jason and Hope. And Jason would swear his life on it, but he knew, he knew that she first gave a small smile to Hope, then immediately after looked and Jason and starting crying her heart out so loud that she knew her mother would come out of the house to see what was the matter.

"Hey, hey, hey, Dessie! It's alright! Dessie," Jason said as he let go of Hope and sprung over to console Destiny. "Let's stop crying before you mother comes out and yells at me," he muttered to her in a sing-songy voice.

Dessie did not relent whatsoever. Like Jason said, the girl was a living nightmare to him sometimes. "Please," Jason begged, "I'll give you chocolate, cookies, whatever you want! Name it, it's yours!"

"That's not fair, what do I get?" Hope unhelpfully questioned, tapping on Jason's shoulder. "Why does Dessie always get more than me?"

Jason exasperatedly sighed as he lightly bounced the crying four year old in his lap. "Sure! Fine! Whatever! You can get some too! Just help me get her to shutup!"

"Jase, what's going on out here?"

Oh, shit. Now I'm dead, Jason thought to himself as he heard his wife make her way down the porch stairs and over to the devilish Dessie. "Oh, nothing much. Don't worry about it, Dessie's just being dramatic!" he quickly told her.

"Dessie woke up and she hates Daddy!" Hope once more unhelpfully added, running to her mother's side. "I don't hate Daddy, and I'll tell the new baby not to hate him either," she casually stated, placing her palm on Piper's stomach.

"Nonsense. Dessie doesn't hate your father, she's just cranky right now, right my baby Dessie?" she lovingly said as she struggled to lean down and pick up her daughter. She was nearly nine months pregnant, the newest addition to their family due just next week on June 29th.

Jason stood up and handed Dessie over to her so that Piper wouldn't accidentally fall and hurt the baby. They'd already lost one- they didn't need another. Besides, Piper wasn't as youthful as she used to be either. The downsides of getting old, Jason supposed.

Piper, though, in Jason's eyes, was still as beautiful and charming as she had been when they had first met. Her chocolate brown hair had accumulated just a few gray streaks, and she had cut it shoulder length-it was no longer the choppy, childish do anymore. Piper's tan, Cherokee skin showed signs of wear and tear. But one thing that hadn't and wouldn't change with age was her eyes.

Oh, how Jason would always feel like he was falling in love with her all over again everytime he looked into her kaleidoscopic, ever changing eyes. Neither Hope nor Destiny had inherited Piper's unique eyes, instead getting Jason's sky blue ones. In fact, Piper had only passed very few physical traits onto her daughters; Destiny had Piper's skin tone and Hope had Piper's high cheekbones.

So, with their third child on the way, Jason hoped that Ellie- a name which Piper had insisted on (she really loved the Disney movie Up)- did not take after Jason as his other two daughters had.

As soon as Dessie was laid in the arms of her mother, her cries almost instantly silenced. Piper smirked and pushed Dessie's tear-soaked blonde hair out of her face. "Awh, Dessie. What did Daddy do to you?"

"Hey, now you're picking sides with her? It's like you're encouraging it!" Jason protested just as Dessie managed to push out another tear-very dramatically, Jason noticed- and choked out a response.

"Dwaddy. . .h-he. . ." Dessie tried to manage, but apparently realized she didn't have a good enough story to tell.

Oh, but leave it to Hope, the little brat. "Daddy tried to wake her up! And when he couldn't, he made me!" Hope easily lied. She put on a convincing "sad face" to help her made-up case and played with the hem of her green dress.

Piper raised an eyebrow at Jason, and he tried to read her face and see if she really was swayed by the girl's story or not. Unfortunately, Piper was not always an open book. "Hmmm. . .well, since I can't decide what the real story is, Dessie and I are going to go inside and eat a wonderful bowl of ice cream and the both of you can't have any!"

Hope pouted, so Jason, unwillingly, covered for her as Piper walked away with her precious Destiny. "Well that's okay because Hope and I are going to watch a movie tonight and we're gonna eat all the popcorn and all the cookies. And before we do that we're going to play a little football, how 'bout that, Hope?"

"Howpe is gonna beat you!" Dessie taunted from the door, and Hope and Piper laughed in agreement.

The screen door of the farmhouse closed. As soon as Jason was absolutely sure that Piper was busy in the house, he pounced after his remaining daughter. Hope giggled with laughter as Jason pushed her to the ground and started a tickle fight.

"You-little-traitor!" Jason exclaimed, playfully tickling her as he forced every word. Hope tirelessly fought back until both she and Jason fell to the ground in exhaustion.

Hope giggled once more and pointed to the sky. "That cloud looks like a butt," she stated.

Jason tilted his head. "Yeah, it kinda does. You're right."

And in that moment, everything felt like it should be. If Jason would have died right then, he would have been able to say that he died happy, because he ended his life perfect.

If only he had known just how far it could go from perfect so quickly.

Hahahaha I know it's been forever, but since I've been getting an alarming amount of attention lately I decided to put forth some effort and give you this first chapter! I really love you guys.

Anyway, I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations-tons of foreshadowing. I mean, I've had like more than a year to plan it all out. Thank you for any reviews, follows, favorites, or even if you just read it (: You are great!