He had set it up in the small sitting room.

Not the formal one. The one at the back of the estate that caught the morning light and had the comfortable chairs and low table that felt like somewhere a person could breathe.

Callum was already there when Rosie came through the door.

He stood up immediately.

She stopped in the doorway.

They looked at each other.

Then she crossed the room and he went down on one knee and she put her arms around his neck.

He closed his eyes.

His arms came around her and he held on with the specific grip of someone who had been waiting for this moment for months.

Damon stood in the doorway and watched them.

He had planned to leave them to it. Give them privacy. That was the right thing.

But he couldn’t move.

He just stood there and watched a man hold his daughter and felt something in his own chest that he didn’t have a name for.

Rosie pulled back eventually.

Looked at her father’s face.

"You look tired," she said.

"I’m okay," Callum said.

"You don’t look okay," she said. "You look like you haven’t been sleeping."

Callum laughed.

"I’m okay Rosie," he said. "I promise."

She studied him carefully for a long time.

"Okay," she said finally. "But you need to eat more. Aunt Brea says you’ve lost weight."

"Aunt Brea talks too much," Callum said.

"Aunt Brea is right," Rosie said.

Damon pressed his lips together.

He turned and left to dive them some privacy.

***

Eve was in the kitchen when he came in.

She looked up from her coffee.

"How is she," she said.

"Eight going on forty," he said.

Eve smiled.

He sat down across from her and picked up a piece of toast off her plate and ate it without asking.

"She told him he looks tired and needs to eat more," he said. "In the first two minutes."

"She sounds like Maya," Eve said.

"She really does," he said.

They sat quietly for a moment.

"You did a good thing," Eve said.

"I just arranged a visit," he said.

"Damon," she said.

He looked at her.

"You did a good thing," she said again.

He held her gaze.

"I’m going to talk to Damian today," he said. "About a path forward for Callum. Properly. With conditions and accountability built in but...." He paused. "He has a daughter. He can’t be restricted indefinitely."

"I know," she said. "Damian knows too."

"He’s ready to move on it," Damon said.

"Yes," she said.

He nodded.

Looked at the table.

"I keep thinking about what she said," he said. "Rosie. When she first saw me." He paused. "She said her dad told her we were fair. After everything he still thought we were fair."

Eve looked at him.

"That means something," he said. "That a man who was sitting in a restricted room after betraying the pack still told his daughter the people he betrayed were fair." He held Eve’s gaze. "That’s not nothing."

"No," Eve said. "It isn’t."

"I want to be worth that," he said. "Worth what he told her about us."

Eve put her hand over his on the table.

"You already are," she said.

He found Maya in the corridor after.

She was carrying a plate of food toward the small sitting room and she stopped when she saw him.

"For Rosie," she said. "I made the good biscuits."

He looked at her.

"What," she said.

"Nothing," he said. "You’re...."

"Don’t say it," she said.

"I wasn’t going to say anything," he said.

"You were going to say something nice and it was going to be embarrassing," she said. "So don’t."

He pressed his lips together.

"Thank you Maya," he said.

"I said don’t," she said.

She walked past him toward the sitting room.

He watched her try to escape him and he smiled.

***

Rosie stayed for four hours.

She explored the estate with the curiosity of a child who had been told very little and was making up for it by looking at everything. She found the dogs and spent forty minutes with them. She asked Silas approximately thirty questions about the library and he answered all of them with the same patient attention he gave everything.

At one point Damon looked out the window and saw her in the garden with Eve.

Eve was crouched down showing her something in the flowerbeds. Rosie was listening with her head tilted the way she listened when she was actually paying attention. Eve said something and Rosie laughed, a real child’s laugh, sudden and bright.

When Brea came to collect her, Rosie went through a small negotiation about whether she could take one of the dogs.

At the door she stopped and looked at Damon.

"Will I come back," she said.

He looked at her.

"Yes," he said. "If you want to."

She thought about it seriously.

"I want to," she said. "The library is very good."

"I’ll tell Silas," he said. "He’ll be pleased."

She nodded once, Then she looked at Callum.

"Next time you come home," she said. "Not here. Home."

Callum looked at her.

Something in his face did something complicated.

"Working on it," he said.

She studied him.

"Okay," she said.

She walked out and Brea followed her. The gate closed behind them.

Damon and Callum stood in the courtyard.

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

"Thank you," Callum said finally.

"Don’t thank me yet," Damon said. "Damian and I are talking this afternoon. About conditions. About what comes next." He looked at Callum directly. "It won’t be simple."

"I know," Callum said.

"There will be accountability built into whatever we decide," Damon said. "Real accountability. Not just words."

"I know," Callum said again. "I’m not asking for easy. I’m asking for a chance."

Damon looked at him.

At the man who had been part of the pack for twenty years and had made a terrible choice and had been paying for it and had still told his daughter they were fair.

"That’s what we’re discussing," Damon said.

He walked back inside the house.