Family time, they'd told Scott. It'll be fun. And then Hank had spouted some nonsense about wanting, even needing to get out of the lab (as if the guy wasn't the most terrible workaholic Scott had ever met) and Hope had murmured something about wanting to meet Cassie (which might have been true, given that Cassie was obviously the most wonderful girl currently in existence) and now, fifteen minutes later, here they were.

"All right, that's it: I'm dead, and Maggie's never going to talk to me again."

Hank chuckled and slouched a little bit more. He'd effortlessly selected the most comfortable chair in the room, which Scott hadn't begrudged him until right now.

"It's harmless, Scott. You should be happy to see them get along so well."

"Excuse me?" Well, okay, it was sort of fun, to see Hope with Cassie. On the other hand, Scott wasn't sure if he should really be looking at the two of them and wonder what Hope might look like with a daughter of her own. A daughter of their own.

"Well, if you and Hope ever do decide to tie the knot, at least Cassie will get along with her stepmother," Hank said, as if he knew exactly what Scott was thinking of and felt this was a perfectly reasonable and logical thing to imagine.

"If me and Hope ever do decide to officially date, we'll let you know, all right? Possibly I'll do it by sending you an e-mail, but still. Right now, we're just - I don't know. Friends?"

"That's a good start," Hank said. He sounded serious. Like, way over the top serious.

Scott sighed. With Maggie, it had been easy. Simple. And look how that turned out.

With Hope, he was never quite sure where they stood. They had lunch sometimes; they went places together sometimes. He'd taken her to Cassie's first school play; she'd taken him to Guys and Dolls. Not exactly an even exchange, but Scott supposed at least she'd tried.

"Don't underestimate the value of being friends before you become something more, Scott."

"I'm not underestimating anything. I'm just wondering how I'm supposed to be able to tell when it's time to move on to that something more."

Hank gave him a long look. "If memory serves, I caught you two making out like teenagers once already. Don't tell me that was the only time anything of the sort happened."

"Well," Scott said.

"I said don't tell me. If it's meant to happen, it'll happen. Stop worrying about it so much."

Scott scowled. "If it's meant to happen, it'll happen? What the hell? Are you kidding me?"

"Just checking if you were paying attention." Hank grinned.

"More like, if it's meant to happen, so what? Who cares? You want to get anything, you got to work for it. Unless what you want happens to be a Mango Fruit Blast, I guess."

"Right." Hank rose and stretched his legs a bit. "Sounds to me like maybe you've got a pretty good idea of what you want, Scott. You only have to work out how to get it."

"You say that like it's easy," Scott said.

"Of course it's not easy. Nobody ever said anything about easy." Hank shrugged. "Still, is it worth it? That's for you to decide."

"Thanks. If I ever want some more meaningless words of wisdom, I'll crack a fortune cookie."

Hank smiled at him faintly. "Just be aware that if you do anything - anything at all, to hurt her, I will end you. They won't even find a body."

"Thanks, dad. Great pep talk." A death wish? Possibly. "Anyway, we're talking about Hope here, right? Anyone's going to be hurting anyone, it's going to be her. Seriously, man, that woman punches like a - "

Hope and Cassie were no longer out on the front lawn.

"A what?" Hope asked. She looked a little flushed, a little sweaty.

"Hope taught me what to do when a bad guy tries to grab me," Cassie said. She sounded proud.

"That's great, peanut." Scott felt proud. Really, he did. It was just - well. She was six.

"Want me to show you?"

Hope smirked at him, as if he really needed her to tell him the right answer to that. "Um, maybe some other time, huh?"

"Smart choice," Hank murmured, low enough that Hope probably didn't hear him.

"So hey," Scott said brightly, "who wants to get some Chinese take-out?"