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The first time Nicole gets a hint that there might be something happening between her dads, other than the usual rivalry and petty bickering, is after a sleepover she has at her friend, Jennifer’s, house. She walks into the studio, ready to launch into the story of the prank that she and Jennifer pulled on another girl in their class, knowing that at least Joey will appreciate it, and looking forward to hearing Michael’s reaction (no doubt it will involve a scolding of some sort), but is stopped short when she sees what Michael is wearing.

It’s not just the loose-fitting, paint-stained sweatshirt that Nicole knows belongs to Joey, that causes her to do a double take, but it’s also the dopey, lovelorn look that Joey is wearing as he looks at Michael that has Nicole greeting her dads with a quick, “I’m home,” and escaping to the sanctity of her room. She ignores their calls for her to join them for breakfast and picks up Mr. Beebles. Confiding in him about the strange occurrence, and then calls up Jennifer to get her opinion on the matter.

“I’m telling you,” Nina says, excitement making her voice a high pitch that has Nicole pulling the phone away from her ear, “they’re in love! It’s so dreamy.”

“Tell me that when your dad and his best friend, Bryan, are wearing each other’s clothes,” Nicole says, picking at a loose thread on her bedspread. “I mean, it could be anything right? Maybe Michael’s pajamas are in the wash, or…”

“Or maybe when the mouse was away, the cats decided to play,” Nina says in a husky voice that has Nicole rolling her eyes and gagging.

“I’m sure it’s not that,” Nicole insists. Her dads hated each other for thirteen years, and they barely tolerated each other until just recently. There’s no way they’re in love. Right?

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Nicole blames the judge for the second time she witnesses her dads’ not-so-secret, secret love for each other. If it wasn’t for the judge’s knowing looks and not-so-subtle hints that her dads were a little more than friends, Nicole would still be firmly in her closest of denial. A closet that is very secure and safe.

But, when someone other than her friends, someone who gets paid to make judgments that are life-changing, like the judgment that she made for Nicole, Michael and Joey, weighs in on the situation, well Nicole can no longer keep her head safely in the sand. She has to face facts. Her dads are more than friends. Have been for some time now.

In fact, her dads are in love with each other and have been for far longer than Nicole has been alive. Nicole suspects, though she has no proof, other than her dads’ long-time rivalry, that the reason why things never worked out between Michael, Joey and her mom, was because they were really in love with each other, but were in deep denial over it.

She knows something about denial, having been safely ensconced in it for a while now. Good old denial. Ignorance really is bliss.

Now that Nicole knows, really knows, what she’s been trying to deny for a few years now, is true, she can’t go back to feigning innocence.

She can’t pretend that the look of longing on Michael’s face when Joey’s attention is elsewhere is exasperation on Michael’s part.

She can’t pretend that the sparks of jealousy that flame up in Joey’s eyes, whenever Michael fake flirts with someone else to keep up appearances for prying eyes, is anger at Michael for getting to the girl first. Now that she's out of the closet of denial, she knows that he’s really jealous of the girl who is getting Michael’s attention when he wants it for himself.

And her dads pushing each other to their limits and beyond with their silly bets, especially when it comes to sports, is something like…foreplay? She isn’t sure if that’s the right term for it, or if she should even be thinking of her dads like that at all. It kind of gives her the creeps, but she can’t help thinking things like this now that she knows, for certain, that Nina was right when she’d told Nicole that her dads were in love with each other.

Even Shelby had said something about it to Nicole, but she hadn’t wanted to hear it at the time. Everything had been pointing toward the truth. Even her dads’ arguments. Everyone said that they argued like an old married couple. Nicole could definitely attest to that. The only thing they ever really seemed to agree on at times was their love for Nicole.

“What do you think, Mr. Beebles, am I wrong to want to go back to my dads just being competitive and fighting because they hate each other from time to time?” Nicole asks her trusty bear.
Mr. Beebles doesn’t answer, though he does give Nicole a look that tells her she’s been a fool for far too long. Denial is not the answer. No matter how comfortable it may seem.

Chapter Text

The third time that Nicole gets a glimpse of her dads being more intimate than frenemies ought to be is when she introduces them to their new neighbor. She admits, to herself, that she’s testing them.

They both go out on dates with other women, to maintain some sort of image, Nicole doesn’t need them to maintain, now that she’s no longer in denial, and she has seen how it hurts each of them to watch the other with someone else. So she thinks that a beautiful woman will be the perfect impetus to get them to be more open with her and others. If she pits them against each other in a rivalry for the attention of a beautiful woman, then they will have to admit that they like each other. Won’t they?

It doesn’t quite go as planned, yet Nicole counts it as a win when she catches the two of them looking at each other, not with open hostility, but with longing. The looks she catches them giving their neighbor when they think no one is looking are daggers of utter jealousy and anger.

It’s enough to make Nicole smile to herself and plot with Mr. Beebles. Mr. Beebles, as always, is a good listener, even if he is sometimes short on answers.

Her dads are in love, even if they won’t admit it to her, and even if they go on dates and flirt with women to protect Nicole, and maybe to protect themselves.

“I’m sorry,” Michael says to Joey, ducking his head. Nicole catches a glimpse of the sadness in his eyes, the regret. “I—”

“I’m sorry, too,” Joey says, cutting off whatever Michael had been about to say, and ruining Nicole’s eavesdropping.

“I’d say that I’m never going to do it again, but—”

“Hey, we’re both in this together,” Joey says, touching Michael’s cheek in a way that makes Nicole's stomach clench. She wonders how hard it is for her dads to keep up pretenses for her and for others, and what it's costing them.

Not wanting to intrude any further, Nicole returns to her room, letting her dads keep their secret a little longer, fearful that she’ll hear the reason behind their dating and flirting, and that the reason will be her. She wants to tell them that they can stop pretending for her sake but doesn’t dare shatter whatever moment they’re sharing now. Besides, they’re bound to tell her at some point. Right?

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The fourth time that Nicole gets an inkling that maybe her dads mean more to each other than they’ve let the general public know, is when she comes home drunk. She knows she shouldn’t have had any alcohol, and that her dads are totally right in how they handle it, but it’s not until after, when she’s lying on her bed, nursing the worst headache of her life, lamenting the existence of alcohol to Mr. Beebles, that she thinks back, not on what they’d said, but on the small, almost imperceptible, touches that they kept exchanging as they'd talked to her.

Michael’s hand on Joey’s shoulder.

Joey’s hand on Michael’s knee.

A hand to the chest.

One to a thigh.

Nicole’s getting dizzy recalling every little touch, and she feels herself getting vaguely sick at the implication of what those touches mean. Not that she's in denial about it. She hasn't been in denial about it for a while now. It's just...more proof that they are an item and they're trying to hide it from her.

Not that she minds her dads liking each other. She’s happy they’re getting along more.

She minds them hiding it from her, though. Do they think that she’d freak out about it? That she’d hate them for… for loving each other?

She barely makes it to her trash can to throw up as the dizziness and her headache get the better of her and she loses what little she ate the day before.

She takes back her previous thought as she heaves a second time, her head throbbing in pain. The lecture was totally unnecessary, her body is giving her plenty of incentive to never drink again. That, and her dad’s lack of trust in letting her know that they like each other. Maybe if she was more trustworthy, they would be more open with her.

“Mr. Beebles,” Nicole says. “Can you tell my dads that I’m old enough to know the truth? They don’t need to hide who they are to each other anymore. Not from me.”

Chapter Text

The next time that Nicole gets pulled out of her fake denial regarding her dads’ love for each other is when they’re sending her off to college. It isn’t anything they do or say that lets her know that they’re in love. It’s just this overwhelming sense of affection that passes between the two of them when they embrace her as she stands in the doorway of her new dorm room. Maybe they will be freer with each other now that she's moving out of their shared space.

“Come on, dads,” Nicole says, willing the tears that are threatening to fall to leave her alone. “This isn’t goodbye. I’ll be back for Thanksgiving.”

“And you’ll call every week,” Joey says.

“Every day,” Michael says, a misty look in his eyes that causes Nicole to look at her feet. She never thought it would be this hard to go off to college. She’s known her dads for six years, and her mother for thirteen, it shouldn’t feel like losing her mother all over again, but it does.

She’s not even aware that she’s crying until she’s cradled in her dads’ arms, all of them sitting on the edge of her bed.

“I miss my mom,” Nicole says when she’s finally able to talk.

“She would have been so proud of you getting into the college of your choice,” Michael says.

“She is proud of you,” Joey says, a conviction in his voice. “She’s always with you.”

“I know that,” Nicole says, though it’s wonderful to hear all the same. “It’s just —”

“You would have liked to have her here with you,” Joey says, voice soft with understanding.

Nicole nods. She doesn’t trust her voice just now.

“She would have wanted to be here with you,” Michael says.

“I mean,” Nicole says, sniffing, trying to hold back more tears, “I’m glad that you’re both here with me, it’s just that we always talked about this day and I really, really miss her.”

“I miss her, too,” Joey says, sharing a look with Michael.

“She was one of a kind,” Michael says. “You remind me of her more and more every day. Of course, you remind me of Joey, too.”

Nicole knows Michael is trying to lighten the mood, and she loves him for it, but she doesn’t want the mood to be lightened. She wants to feel the pain and the sorrow. She wants to acknowledge that this is one milestone that her mother never made it to and that there are so many more milestones in her life that she will miss out on.

“The way that you jump right into a cause without a care,” Michael says, and there’s a fondness in his voice that Nicole realizes is reserved for whenever he talks about Joey. It’s enough of a realization to make Nicole’s breath hitch.

“And the way that you give everything your all,” Michael says, “regardless of how ridiculous it is.”

“Hey,” Joey says, slapping Michael on the head. “And what about the traits that Nicole got from you, huh? Her attention to detail, and don’t get me started on her tendency to schedule the fun out of everything.”

Nicole smiles in spite of her sadness. Though her heart aches fiercely for her mother and what she’s missing out on, and she knows that her dads have long since stopped talking about her, and are ragging on the traits that each of them finds annoying in the other, she feels loved.

“Dads,” Nicole says, cutting into some defensive diatribe that Michael had been making regarding scheduling, and making both her dads look at her with wide eyes that make them look like little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar. It makes her laugh.

“I think it’s safe to say that I got all of my best traits from,” she pauses for dramatic effect, and smirks, “the judge.”

Her new dorm mate walks into laughter that has a touch of desperation in it and takes one look at the three of them on the bed before turning on her heel and walking out, muttering something that none of them can hear. It’s just as well, Nicole doesn’t want this moment ruined by an outsider, no matter that that outsider ends up becoming Nicole’s best friend and confidante, the woman she tells all of her troubles to and sobs on when she goes through a breakup. Someone who’s even better than Mr. Beebles, though Mr. Beebles still holds a special place in her heart and always will. He's the only one who's been with her for her whole life. The only one who knew her mom and knew all of the secrets that she's shared about herself and her dads.

Chapter Text

“What do you think?” Michael asks her. He’s nervous and won’t make eye contact with her, which is typical of her dad when he gets worked up about something.

“It’s about time,” Nicole says. “I’ve been waiting for this day for what feels like forever.”

“Do you think he’ll like it?” Michael hands her the ring.

It’s a metal band that, at first, looks ordinary. It isn’t gold. There are no diamonds. On the surface of the ring, there are four carvings — an image of Nicole, one of Joey, one of Michael, and one of Nicole’s mother. Two hearts intersect, encompassing them all.

“It’s gorgeous,” Nicole says, voice breaking a little. “The only thing it’s missing is the Judge.”

“She really did push us together,” Michael says. He’s got a panicked look in his eyes, reaching for the ring as though he’s going to return it and have an image of the judge etched into it. Nicole keeps it out of reach.

“It’s fine the way it is,” Nicole says. “Remember the time when that newspaper reporter tried to break up our family, and the judge didn’t let it phase her? She stood by her decision and us, and I think she’d stand by you now. She doesn’t need to be on your engagement ring.”

“Could you imagine the look on her face?” Michael chuckles.

Nicole laughs and hands the ring back to Michael. “She’d probably send you to the crazy house for even thinking of putting her face on your engagement ring. Now, go and get your man.”

Nicole shoves her dad who gives her a fond look as he makes his way out of the room. She gives him a ten-second start before she sneaks out of the room to spy on her dads. She doesn’t want to miss this moment. She’s been waiting for this moment for decades, wishing that it had come sooner, that her dads wouldn’t have had to wait so long to make their love official in the eyes of the law. It had always been official to her, even though her dads hadn’t come clean until after she’d graduated from law school.

“Whatcha doin’ mama?” Josephina, who’d been napping seconds ago, asks in a stage whisper that causes Nicole’s two dads’ heads to whip around.

Michael’s gaze narrows and Joey’s eyes are wide, as though he’s been caught out at something.

“You spyin’?” Josephina asks.

Shaking her head, Nicole picks up her daughter, knowing that if Josephina is up, her twin, Michaela, will soon be up as well. Nicole mouths, ‘Sorry,’ at Michael and prepares to move out of the room with her daughter.

“Nic,” Michael says, stopping her from leaving. “You should be here for this.”

“Oh, no,” Joey says, looking from Nicole to Michael with fear in his eyes. “What’s wrong? Is someone dying?”

“That’s my line,” Michael says, deadpan, shaking his head. “No one’s dying, Joseph.”

“You called me Joseph,” Joey says. “This is serious.”

“Serious as a heart attack,” Michael says, falling back on his use of humor to cut through the tension.

“Michael, you’re scaring me, here,” Joey says, and then his eyes go wide once again when Michael lowers himself to the floor, knees popping and creaking rather audibly, making everyone wince in sympathy.

“What’s happening?” Michaela asks. She’s rubbing her eyes, frowning at the sight of her papas, one on the couch and the other on bended knee.

“Come here, Mikey,” Nicole says, gesturing for her daughter to come to sit with her. It’s something that she wants her daughters to witness, an expression of love and dedication.

“Papa Mike’s gonna p’pose to Papa Joey,” Josephina says without hesitation, eyes lighting up.

Joey’s eyes search Michael’s, and whatever he sees in the other man’s eyes has his own eyes tearing up. He blinks back tears.

“Is it true?” Joey asks. “Are you p’posing to me, Papa Mike?” Though his eyes sparkle with unshed tears, there’s a twinkling of humor in them as well.

“Yes, Papa Joey,” Michael says, flabbergasted. “I’m p’posing to you.”

“Can I p’pose, too?” Michaela and Josephina ask.

“Hey, if anyone else gets to p’pose right now, it’s me,” Nicole says, fighting back tears of her own when her dads turn to look at her, love shining in their eyes.

“Dads,” Nicole says, slipping to her knees, her daughters on either side of her. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my two married dads?”

Michael doesn’t bother blinking back his tears, and Joey is on his knees, ignoring the pops that his joints make, enveloping them all in a hug.

“Yes,” Joey says, kissing Nicole’s head and then each of his granddaughters before finally kissing Michael. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“And what about us, Papa?” Michaela asks.

“What about you?” Joey asks, teasing, his hand around Michael’s neck, pulling the other man close, and eliciting a groan.

“Be our mwarried papas,” Josephina says.

“Yes,” Michael answers. “Now, can we get up off the floor? My knees are killing me, here.”

“Not until you give me a ring, Michael,” Joey says. “Nic, help an old man up here, will ya? I want your dad to pull out all the stops here. Where are my flowers?”

Michael shakes his head. “You want flowers, I’ll show you flowers,” Michael says, muttering something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like Joey’ll get flowers when the man’s pushing up daisies, and making like he’s going to get up, but wincing as his knees protest the movement.

“Dads, not in front of the girls,” Nicole says in a sing-song voice reminiscent of when she was younger.

“Fine,” Michael says, muttering something else that is too low for anyone to hear and turning to face Joey.

He pulls the ring box out of his pocket and opens it, holding it out for Joey who no longer fights his tears.

“Joseph Harris, will you make an honest man out of me by marrying me?” Michael asks.

“I don’t know about making an honest man out of you,” Joey says, “but, yes, I’ll marry you.”

Michael slides the ring onto Joey’s finger. It’s a perfect fit and looks like it belongs there.

“Thank God,” Nicole says and gives her dads a sheepish look when they both turn to look at her. “It’s about time. I mean, I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was about fourteen years old.”
“Four…fouteen?” Michael says, incredulous.

“C’mon, dads, it’s not like I was blind or anything,” Nicole says. “I’ve known that you loved each other almost since the moment I moved in, though we did get off to a rocky start.”

“And here we thought we were protecting your innocence,” Michael says, groaning as Joey helps him up off the floor and pulls him so that he’s almost in the other man’s lap.

Nicole rolls her eyes. “I haven’t been innocent for—”

Michael holds his hands up and Joey shakes his head.

“No, just, no,” Michael says. “You will always be our innocent little daughter.”

“But I’ve got two daughters of my own now,” Nicole says, teasing her dads mercilessly, just like old times.

When her dads blush and bluster, Nicole can’t help but sigh, happy that, even with the changing times, some things, like her dads’ love for her and for each other, will never change, nor will her secret amusement at riling them up.