Work Text:
"Good night, Jinx," Silco having finally been able to tuck the cute energetic little thing into bed.
Jinx was all curled up in her bed, holding her favourite stuffed animal to her chest. There were nights when she preferred to sleep in his room but sometimes she'd stay in her room when she was feeling safe. She'd had a fun day so she looked happy as her sleepy eyes fluttered close.
"Good night, Dad."
Silco barely caught the word.
By the time he realised what she'd said Jinx was already buried underneath her covers.
A part of his heart, that he didn't know still existed, melted. He didn't know what to do. Had she made a mistake? Did she miss her real parents?
He shut the door gently.
Would she keep calling him dad? Would he prefer if she kept calling him dad? He hadn't signed up to be a father. Would he mind being a father....?
His mind couldn't stop working, even as he sat at his desk listening to Sevika. Pretending to listen to Sevika. There was a lot of work to be done and he finally had time to do it.
'Good night, Dad. Good night, Dad. Good night, Dad. Good night, Dad. Good night, Dad. Good night, Dad. Good night, Dad.'
Silco couldn't care less about work right now. He couldn't get his mind off what she'd said.
"Silco? Can you hear me?" Sevika asked. Why wasn't he responding? Why was he staring at her like she wasn't even there? Was it the ghost of Vander....again?
"Silco?" Sevika asked a little concerned now. When he was having his Vander moments it was best not to get too close or it would set him off. "Are you okay? Do you want to do this another day?"
"Have you ever.....missed your father?"
"What?" Sevika was stunned. This was new. This had never happened with the Vander episodes before. Were they becoming worse now?
"Have you ever....no nevermind," Silco said and shook his head to clear it. "It's nothing. What did you say? Let me see those documents."
He tried to act like everything was fine but it wasn't fine. He kept staring into space. Sevika thought he was just tired but the next day he was still staring into space.
His little hellion of a daughter was colouring in her room so at least she was out of the way, but something was haunting Silco. Whatever it was, Sevika had to deal with it right away. They needed their leader to at least pretend to have his shit together.
"Silco, if there is something on your mind you know I will take care of it. An uprising, a rebellion, anything bothering you. Just let me handle it," she offered.
"Has Jinx ever called you Mum, before?"
"I would hope she never does," Sevika said blankly without missing a beat. The girl didn't have a good track record with parents. At least she knew the issue was about Jinx now. She should have known.
"Did she say something?"
"She....," Silco's eyes glanced at her with hesitaion, red and green meeting hers before looking away as if unsure or shy. He scowled and slammed his hand on the table hating to appear weak. "Back to work."
"She called you, Dad?" Sevika couldn't let this slide. They needed to do this now.
Silco groaned his face falling into his hands. "I don't know if I should discourage it. What if it brings up more traumatising memories for her? Things are already so hard."
I'm glad he's at least not going insane, he's just worried about the mental patient living in our house, Sevika thought. Sorry, the _other_ mental patient.
"Let her call you whatever she wants," Sevika said going for the tough way to deal with things. Giving Silco hard facts instead of false words of comfort. "Some people use that to cope with trauma. As long as she's not calling you anything insulting it should be fine."
"Right....," Silco said relaxing at that. It in fact should be fine. Jinx could call him.... anything she liked.
Sevika smiled to see her boss become once again at peace with himself. Silco was an exceptional ingenious man. A little bit crazy but still functional.
She'd barely gotten him to calm before the little hellion walked right through the door.
"Silco."
"Yes, Jinx?" Silco replied automatically. He noticed the name shift and seemed to calm even more. "What is it?"
"I made this for you," Jinx grinned. The little bluette set down a card she'd spent all morning colouring. It looked just as creative as all of Jinx's other haphazard projects but it brought a smile to Silco's face.
"This looks lovely dear. How's target practice?" Silco asked as he examined the card. There seemed to be a figure of him holding hands with Jinx at the front. Cute.
"It's going well," Jinx grinned and ran off. "I'm going to practice more."
"On dummies not people this time!" Sevika yelled after her.
The card was folded so Silco opened it to see Jinx had scrawled something inside with crayon. It said:
'World's best Dad'
Silco nearly had a heart attack from all of the feels that assaulted him at once. He nearly fell right of his chair.
Sevika whipped around in shock then groaned when she saw the card.
"Damn, Jinx!"
Undoing all her hard work.