Epilogue

Fletch looked down at the little girl standing proudly by his side. Annie was between him and Emily, holding both of their hands. She'd listened solemnly as the judge went through the questions for him, not saying a word as he'd answered what he did for a living, if he felt he could provide for Annie, and other required inquiries from the court.

The little girl hadn't flinched when the attorney was asked if he thought it was the best thing for Annie. Even when Emily told the judge she gave her support "one thousand percent" for Fletch to become her legal father, Annie hadn't moved a muscle.

She'd insisted on wearing a dress for her official adoption, which had surprised Fletch to no end. But he needn't have worried, she'd come out of her room that morning with the pink frilly dress on…with combat boots on her feet. Truck had apparently special-ordered them for her. Ghost had warned him that Annie had a surprise in store for him, and Fletch couldn't have been more proud.

It was obvious the little girl wanted to make the day special, and retaining her own personality in the face of her nervousness and excitement was something special.

Finally, it was Annie's turn.

"Annie, Cormac Fletcher has requested the right to become your father. To be responsible for your actions, good and bad, for the rest of your life. This is a big step and shouldn't be taken lightly. I've asked everyone else what they think, but I haven't asked you yet. Do you want the man standing next to you to be your daddy?"

"Permission to approach the bench?" Annie asked solemnly.

Taken aback by her words, the judge could only smile and nod.

"What are you doing, Annie?" Emily asked as her daughter passed in front of her.

Fletch beamed with pride. Annie had asked him a million times about how today would go. They'd watched some videos online of other adoption finalization hearings and he'd thought she was finally confident as to what would happen. It was obvious by her question of the judge, Annie had somehow gotten ahold of other videos of courtroom dramas.

"Don't worry, Mommy, I got this," Annie reassured Emily.

Emily moved closer to Fletch and grabbed his hand. He could feel how nervous she was.

"I have no idea what she's gonna say," she whispered to him.

"It's gonna be epic," Fletch declared, looking back at Coach to make sure he was getting whatever Annie was going to say on film. The whole team was there, as was the colonel and Rayne and Mary. Fletch's chest swelled with more feelings than he could put words to. He was about to officially become a daddy, and he couldn't wait.

They all watched as Annie walked around the side of the bench and up into the witness box. She held up her hand as if she was swearing on a Bible, another clue that she'd somehow watched some sort of courtroom drama show.

"Your honor, my name is Annie Elizabeth Grant. I'm six and a half years old and in the first grade. For all my life, as long as I can member, it's been me and Mommy. She bought me food and made sure I was safe. We moveded into Fletch's apartment and it was great. Then a bad man made Mommy sad and she gave me all her food. I was worried, but didn't know what to do. I can't work…you know?" Annie turned to the judge and gave her a "what can you do" look and a shoulder shrug, before turning back to the courtroom and continuing her speech.

"Fletch gave me my first Army man toys. New. Brand new still in the box. They're amazing, but you know what? It didn't mean that I didn't like the toys Mommy gave me. They might not have been new, but my mommy did her best. She never made me eat the weird green vegetables that look like balls. I could play in the dirt and she never made me wear icky girly clothes."

"You're wearing a pretty dress today," the judge interjected, smiling.

Annie looked irritated that her speech had been interrupted, but answered anyway. "Because today is a special day. I only get one day to get a daddy, and I wanted to look pretty for him. I'm wearing my soldier boots though." She held up a leg and propped it on the chair next to her, showing off her shiny new combat boots to the judge, who looked like she was gonna burst out laughing. Seeing the judge nod in appreciation, Annie asked, "Now, can I continue?"

Fletch thought the judge was gonna bust a gut, but somehow she kept a serious look on her face when she gestured at Annie to continue and told her, "By all means,"

"So, as I was saying, Fletch gave me presents, but that's not why I liked him. I likeded him because he made Mommy smile. She worked so hard to take care of me, but no one was taking care of her . I'm only six. There's only so much I can do. So while I'm happy to have Fletch as my daddy, I'm happier because if I belong to him, that means so does Mommy. And then they can get married and Mommy can be happy too." Annie finished her speech with a broad grin and went to step down, but stopped and quickly took her place again and held up her hand once more.

"I forgot…I can't wait to be Annie Elizabeth Grant Fletcher…and be called Fletch, just like my daddy. So help me God." She nodded, as if her words were law, and stepped down out of the witness stand and back to Emily and Fletch.

"Well, I think that settles that. I grant you, Cormac Fletcher, full joint custody of Ann Elizabeth Grant, from—"

"Fletcher!" Annie called out.

The judge simply shook her head and continued, "Custody of Ann Elizabeth Grant Fletcher , from this day forward. Congratulations."

Fletch leaned over and kissed Emily, happier than he could ever remember being in his entire life. Then he kneeled down and took Annie in his arms. He heard the clapping from the spectators in the courtroom, but he only had eyes for his daughter. "I love you, Annie Fletcher."

"I love you too…Daddy."

"That was intense," Blade remarked to Coach later that night. Annie's speech had been priceless and both men knew they'd be laughing about it with Fletch for years to come.

"He's a lucky son of a bitch," Coach agreed, lifting his beer in salute.

Blade clinked his bottle against Coach's and they both drank. They'd spent the afternoon at Fletch's house celebrating with his family. Annie had changed out of her dress two-point-three seconds after she'd entered the house and reemerged in a battle dress uniform, complete with the camouflaged hat and everything. She loudly declared, "Let's play soldier!" and the rest of the afternoon was spent with men trained to be lethal killers, playing hide-and-go-seek with the six-year-old.

"We've got two weeks off, what are your plans?" Blade asked Coach as they watched the Dallas Cowboys game on the television above the bar.

Coach shrugged. "I agreed to help a buddy out at his skydiving club."

"Really? You hate that shit."

Coach laughed. "I know, ironic, huh? But he's down an instructor, the guy went and broke his leg or something, and he needed someone to take the guy's place. He's got someone ready to step in, but not for two weeks. I told him I was getting two weeks off…and voila…I'm in."

"Sucker," Blade teased.

"Whatever. It could be worse."

"Yeah, how?"

"I could be roped into teaching a six-year-old how to rappel."

"You suck," Blade griped.

Coach laughed at his friend. "You walked right into that one, and you know it."

"It's not as though Fletch is going to do it. He panics when she jumps from the second stair to the floor. He's such a pansy around her."

"That he is." Coach tilted the bottle back and finished up his beer. "I'm gonna get out of here. I'll see you later?"

"Yup. Give me a yell and let me know how the parachuting thing is going. I'd hate to turn on the news and see that you'd splatted on the ground or something."

"Ass. I'll text ya." Coach slapped his friend on the back and headed out of the bar.

He wasn't thrilled about skydiving. It wasn't as though he wasn't proficient at it, he was, as were all the Deltas, but there was just something not right about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane if it wasn't necessary.

Coach mentally shrugged. Oh well, it was only two weeks. What could possibly go wrong?

The next book in the series, Rescuing Harley is available now! Find out what could possibly go wrong in Coach's sky dive!

Want to read about Emily and Fletch's wedding? See if Annie gets to wear those combat boots in her mom's wedding…Check it out in Marrying Emily .