What Would You Give

Adjusting

Dante sat in his usual booth at Freddi's with Cade sitting across from him. He wasn't sure how to do all of this and honestly he hadn't thought about what Sonja or Cindy would say when they set eyes on his son. He was sure that it would be a chorus of squeals or giggles about Cade.

"Why are you so quiet?" Dante heard and turned his attention to Cade.

"I don't have much to say."

"Oh." Cade said as he put his chin on the table.

"Don't do that." Dante said with a chastizing look. It wasn't as if the kid were doing anything wrong, it was just something that he himself had been told on several occasions by his own mother not to do. "Does your mom let you do that?"

"No."

"Then you shouldn't do it." Dante said and Cade sat up straight with a terrified look on his face. He honestly didn't mean to sound so harsh, but he had no idea what the hell he was doing. He was a do what you want kind of guy, not a strict kind of guy, but he just didn't know. He sighed and slumped. "Sorry kid. I just don't know what I'm doing." At least he could admit it.

"Is this your son Dante?" Cindy said as she rolled up with the usual grin on her face. Before Dante had a chance to answer Cade blurted out.

"Yep! That's my Dad!" With the biggest grin on his face and full of pride and excitment that made Dante cringe a bit. The kid was just a bundle of joy.

"He's really cute Dante, you are really lucky." Cindy winked at the devil hunter who just blew it off as if it were nothing, but on the inside there was a ton of emotions that were coursing through him. "What can I get you two?"

"Pepperoni pizza please!" Cade half yelled out in excitment and knowing how much he put down when he was a child, Dante held up his two fingers.

"Make that two Cindy. If he is my kid he can put a whole pizza down in no time." The grin on Cade's face only brightend. "May as well add two strawberry sundae's for dessert."

"Okay and what do you want to drink?" Cindy said writing the order down on her notepad.

"Grape soda please!"

"I'll take the usual Cindy." Dante said as the waitress finished writing down the order and then rolled away with her smile still intact. "I figured you like strawberry sundaes."

"I've never had them. Mom said thats too much sugar for me so she doesn't let me get them." Of course, leave it to Roe to be all uptight about sugar intake. She used to bother him about that too, but eventually she stopped when she realized sugar didn't really bother him. He had a high metabolism to begin with.

"What your mom doesn't know can't hurt her." But she could certinly hurt him. "Besides, you're with me. What I say goes."

"Okay. So does this mean I get to stay with you while Mom is gone?" Cade asked.

"No, you get to go to Maddie's..."

"It's Maggie, Dad." Cade said with a blank face as he corrected Dante.

"Okay. Maggie's house after you do your homework." Dante almost glared at the kid across from him. It wasn't annoying, but he guessed it felt a little different from when Patty would correct him on names. "Your Mom's orders."

"Okay. I just wanted to stay with you." There was a tone of disappointment as Cade looked down at his hands and then back up at Dante. It seemed this kid thought the world of Dante already and really the devil hunter had no idea how to feel about this.

"Look, kid, I know you want to stay with me." He took a deep breath as Cade looked at him with disappointed eyes that burned Dante's soul. "But neither of us are ready for that. I'm not ready and I have no idea what to do. I don't even know how to take care of a kid, so this is just me and  you getting to know eachother." Dante said leaning forward and pointing to Cade and back to himself. The devil hunter knew that he wasn't ready to take on the kid full time and just a few hours would probably be all he could take for now. "One day we may be able to hang out all day, but right now, we take it one hour at a time. Okay?"