Assassin's Creed (c) Ubisoft

Concept (c) Sannam

Lucy Stillman didn't like having her time wasted. She was a woman that liked to stick to her schedule and if you were a timewaster, she'd drop you in a heartbeat. No, Lucy Stillman didn't like her time wasted, yet here she was, sitting at her desk waiting for her next client to show up. He was already fifteen minutes late. She tapped her pencil on her desk, checked her cellphone (only messages from her boss and boyfriend). "Where is he?" Lucy growled, as she ran a hand along her hair, all tight, neat and in place. She was about to call in her next client when the door creaked open.

In walked a man in his early thirties, blond hair cropped at the middle of his neck, a day old beard, scars on his cheek, eye and nose. He wore a Hooters T-shirt and jeans with various stains on them, and in his hands was a leather jacket with patches on them she only ever seen from the military. The only thing going for him was his startling blue-green eyes. "Uhm… are you Ms. Stillman?" he asked, sounding hesitantly nervous.

"It's Miss Stillman," Lucy said tartly, "and you're late Mr. Kenway. Sit." She pointed to the chair across from her desk. The man sat, gawked about her office real quick before turning his attention back to her. Lucy pulled out his file and skimmed through it. She already read it but she wanted to make sure she got everything in order. "Your name is Edward James Kenway?" she glanced up at him with an arched brow.

"Yes. Yes it is," Edward replied, flashing her a smile. Lucy snorted.

"You joined the Navy when you were 18… got married to a Caroline Scott at nineteen," Lucy thumbed through the file. "You have a daughter."

"Yes, Jennifer, we call her Jenny. She lives with her mother in New York. We got a divorce when she was two. That was twelve years ago."

"I can read, Mr. Kenway," Lucy replied tightly. "You left the Navy at twenty-two… and then had a string of unfortunate run-ins with the law."

"I've cleaned up my act!" Edward protested. "I've only spent a few days in jail."

"Several stints of 'a few days' apparently. Most of this stuff is petty theft, nothing to land you in federal prison," Lucy mumbled. "You got married last year again."

"Aye. Tessa," Edward said wistfully, and Lucy watched as his face suddenly fell. "She's dead. Buried her last week."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lucy glanced back down at the file. "You have another child, a son, Haytham."

"Oh yeah, he's going to be two years old this December. A handful, but he's a good boy and—"

"You still live at your current address?" Lucy asked.

"Yep."

"And you're currently unemployed?" Lucy asked. Edward sighed, running a hand through his hair, before meeting Lucy's gaze.

"Look, ma'am—"

"Miss Stillman," Lucy hissed.

"I've been going through some tough times. My wife just died, I have to take care of my son, I got fired three days ago, I'm looking for another job and… I'm doing the best I can."

"Where is your son now?" Lucy asked.

"At my place, where else would he be?"

"By himself?" Lucy asked, arching a brow. Edward laughed, slapping his knee.

"Good heavens, no! I got Blackie watching him."

"And who is this 'Blackie', your dog?"

Edward snickered at that. "Wait till I tell him you thought he's a dog. Nah, he's my old Navy buddy, Ed Thatch."

"I see." Lucy set the file on her desk and interlaced her fingers before leaning on her desk. "Let me cut to the chase Mr. Kenway, I work for social services, my job is to make sure children have good homes and are provided for by their parents. The reason you're here is because a concerned neighbour called informing me of your son's situation."

"What? Are you trying to take my kid away from me?" Edward asked, tightening his grip on his jacket. "You can't do that! He's my kid!"

"I can and I will—"

"You can't!" Edward stood up. "He's mine! My own flesh and blood! The last bit I have of my wife! I won't let you take him away from me!"

"Sit down Mr. Kenway," Lucy snapped. Edward frowned at her but sat back down in a huff. "I'm not going to take your son from you. I only will if I see no alternative. We like to keep the children with their biological parents as often as possible. So, I will give you a chance. Get a job, clean up your act, take care of your son and you will never hear from me again. Fail on any of these and I will take Haytham away and put him into foster care, do you understand?"

"Yes," Edward mumbled. "Is that all?"

"It is," Lucy said and handed Edward her business card, "If you ever feel the need to contact me."

"I don't think it'll come to that," Edward said, grabbing the business card as he stood. He shoved it into his back pocket. He didn't say anything as he walked out the door. Lucy Stillman sighed, rubbing her forehead and wondered if Edward Kenway would end up back in her office.

Edward breathed a sigh of relief when he pulled up into his driveway, he'd been praying for the last five miles or so that the beat-up old Honda Accord would make it. It did, thankfully, but gave a horrible crunching bang sound as he put it in park and turned off the engine. Edward scowled at the dashboard. Just another thing he didn't need on top of his already growing list of things he didn't need. Hopefully, he could fix it himself and wouldn't need to take it to a mechanic. Sighing, Edward got out of his car and headed to his house.

He entered, kicking off his shoes before heading to the living room. The TV was on, an empty glass on the coffee table, which was nothing more than a circular plane of glass glued to the top of an old sailing ship's helm. The infamous whale couch that he bought before meeting Tessa had one occupant. Well, two but Edward didn't count his infant son, who was snoozing on his friend's wide chest. Haytham had a tiny fist clutched around a lock of Thatch's thick black beard. "Your home," Thatch commented as Edward flopped down on the couch.

"She thought you were a dog." Edward rubbed his forehead. "And I think she hated me."

"Really?" Thatch raised an eyebrow. "What gave her the impression that I was a damn dog?"

"Haven't a clue," Edward stared at the ceiling. "I need a job."

"You aren't thinking about—"

"No, no," Edward sighed, "an honest job."

"Right, hmm… you're pretty good at mixin' drinks?" Thatch asked.

"Decent, I guess. Why?"

"I know a place where I can get you a bartending gig. Nothin' fancy, but it's good money and it'll pay the bills. Won't put this bugger through college, but it'll keep him fed." Thatch said, and rested a larger hand on Haytham's small back. "Nights okay?"

"Fine. I'll get someone to watch him, maybe Mary or Anne," Edward sighed. Thatch shifted, lifting Haytham up and setting the baby into Edward's lap. "I just… I feel so lost without her Blackie."

"I know, I know," Thatch said, patting Edward on the shoulder before standing up, "I'll give you a call about that bartending gig in the next day or two. In the meantime, keep your head down." He scooped up his car keys from the table.

"Thanks Blackie, I'll manage," Edward shouted. "Later!" he heard the door close. With a sigh, he looked down at his sleeping son and smoothed his dark brown hair. Haytham stirred, gave a soft coo, before snuggling against his father. "Well, Haytham," Edward said, "it looks like it'll just be you and me for the long haul now." Edward looked up at the TV and shook his head to get some of the hair out of his eyes. "Yep, just you and me," he smiled, "just remember you'll always be my little sea urchin and I whale always love you." He kissed his son's forehead.

And so it begins. The long and trying road of single parenthood. Is Edward up for the challenge or will he lose his mind? Stay tune to find out!

Inspired and loosely based off of the lovely Edward is a single dad AU comics by sannam from Tumblr. Thank you for letting me run wild in the AU and for inspiring such a desire with your art! I hope you enjoy this.

I plan to do most of these in chronological order of Haytham growing up.

Save an author; leave a review!

-Nemo

PS: For Jackdaw readers, I've made progress on chapter five! It should be up sometime this week.