Well, you're high on top of your mountain of woe, gotta come on up to the house

Nick was surprised to find out what Sylvia wanted to do at the beach.

“So why the interest in making sandcastles?” He asked as the two of them worked on sculpting the sand into a wide wall. “You get the itch from that beach party Vivian threw a while back?”

Sylvia laughed and shook her head. “No, that was a lot of fun… but I’ve always liked playing in the sand. Even back before I took over as host, back when it was still just me and Dakota here and all the faeries, I really enjoyed just… rooting around in the sand, having a good time, making stuff, you know?”

Nick nodded slowly, understanding what she was talking about a little bit. He just didn’t imagine Sylvia having that much interest in the beach. But then, looking back at how things had gone before, she really did seem to have had a lot of fun during the sandcastle building competition.

Sylvia’s hands slowed down as she smoothed out the wall, and a smile tinged in sadness touched her lips.

“You know,” she murmured, looking off into the distance, “that was something I had always wished for, that day…”

“Hmm?” Nick had only been half paying attention, but when he saw the look on Sylvia’s face his expression immediately turned serious. “What do you mean?” He asked gently.

She turned her gaze towards him and bit her lip. “It’s nothing, really,” she murmured, shaking her head. “Just… building a sandcastle with Dakota…”

Her hands had stopped at this point. They were shaking. For a moment, it looked like she was about to cry, much to Nick’s concern. But before he could say anything the smile returned to her face and she batted her eyelashes at him innocently, while batting away the tears at the same time.

“I always wanted to play on the beach with Dakota,” she said softly. “I mean… we’re on an island. Can you blame me for wanting to do something island-like? Building a sandcastle, or… or just going for a swim, but… when I told Dakota I wanted to go swimming, she just made it so I knew how to swim with her powers as host. And when I told her that I wanted to make a sandcastle with her, you know what she did?”

“Wave her cane and make a sandcastle for you?” Nick said dryly. He could easily imagine Dakota doing something like that.

“I mean… it’s almost a sweet gesture, right?” Sylvia said with a small smile. The urge to cry returned but she beat it back. “I wanted to do something fun with the both of us, and she just skipped to the end. But she didn’t have to make it for me.”

There was a familiar expression on Sylvia’s face, the expression of a girl who was clinging to the smallest of kind gestures, using them as proof of her mother’s love. It was a look that Nick had seen more times than he could count.

On Dakota.

It’s the same thing, he realized, remembering how Dakota would convince herself that her mother loved her because of small little things that likely meant nothing to the woman, just brief flights of fancy or compassion. Things that the woman likely never thought twice about, but to her daughter were unshakable pieces of evidence that deep down inside, her mother really did love her.

And now Dakota was repeating that same cycle again.

“Sylvia…” Nick’s voice cracked as he reached across the castle and placed his sandy hands over hers. She looked up at him with wonder in her eyes and a quiver in her lip.

“Daddy?” She murmured.

“I don’t know how Dakota really feels about you,” Nick said gently, “so I’m not going to give you some story about how she really loves you deep down. That’s not fair.”

“Oh, n-no, you… you don’t have to do that,” Sylvia said, retracting her hands and shaking her head, trying to **** a smile onto her lips. “I already know that… that she doesn’t feel anything for me. So don’t worry, alright?”

Nick bit his lip. Issue was, that wasn’t necessarily the truth. While he doubted that Dakota loved Sylvia the way Sylvia so clearly and desperately wanted to be loved, the other woman obviously did have complicated feelings towards her daughter, even if she didn’t see her as a daughter.

The question was whether or not those feelings were strong enough to make up for the horrible way Sylvia had been treated, and in Nick’s eyes, the answer to that question was definitely “no”.

Poor Sylvia… she really didn’t deserve what she’d gone through. Even if, like Dakota, she’d hurt people in her role as host.

“I wish I could help you,” he said somberly. “I wish there was something I could do.”

“Oh, Daddy,” Sylvia said, wiping her eyes and smearing sand over her cheeks in the process. “You’ve done more than enough. Just you being here… that… that’s good enough for me.”

She gazed lovingly into his eyes and scooted around the sandcastle so they were sitting beside one another, and he could see for himself how much she adored him. “I’m serious, Daddy,” she murmured up to him. “I love you. Alright?”

Nick’s jaw dropped. “Wh-what?” He stammered, his face heating up with embarrassment. “Y-you… excuse me?!”

Sylvia couldn’t help but let out a weird, awkward laugh. “I’m sorry, Daddy, it just slipped out,” she apologized, shaking her head. “I didn’t mean to say it, but… it’s the truth.”

She placed her hands over her chest, and a smile crept onto her face like none Nick had ever seen from her. It was a bright smile devoid of worry or guilt, like someone who was letting go of a massive burden that had been dragging her down for quite some time.

“I don’t know yet what kind of ‘love’ I mean,” she admitted. “I still don’t, I’m sorry. But… it’s how I really feel, Daddy. I love you.”

It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d confessed these feelings to him. No, Nick would never forget that moment. When Sylvia, frantic and **** and almost wiped from existence, tearfully pleaded with her mother that her feelings for Nick were genuine.

And Dakota had erased her without hesitation.

In that moment, Nick didn’t know the woman he had grown up beside. That was when he first came to terms with the reality that Dakota was a stranger to him; that this woman he had loved and cared so deeply for was not the woman he thought he knew, that she was capable of greater evil than he’d ever imagined.

She had brought Sylvia back. But that wouldn’t undo the damage she had caused.

Sylvia gazed into Nick’s eyes, and saw the conflict playing out across his face. Her heart ached, and she wished there was something she could do, to return his smile.

“Daddy,” she said gently, reaching up and tilting his head so he was looking her in the eyes again. “Are you still thinking about that day?”

Her strained whisper of a voice signaled just how saddened she was. And it made Nick’s heart stir with concern.

“S-Sylvia…” his voice cracked and he tried to **** out a smile, but found that he couldn’t. Not when he saw how hard she was trying to smile. Even with tears in her own eyes.

“When I was the host, I was trying to be like Dakota,” Sylvia said quietly. “I thought, that if I could be more like her, wicked and cruel and mischievous, that she would be proud of me. She would nod and think ‘I made the right choice after all, letting Sylvia take over for me’ and… if I’m being honest, it wasn’t all an act. I really did enjoy it, you know? Transforming all of you, being a bad girl… I didn’t know any better. But… since I became human, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve… changed.”

Nick couldn’t deny that. He could hardly see anything in common between the woman kneeling in the sand in front of him now, and the wicked woman who had brought him to this island, gleefully proclaiming how his fate and future were in her hands.

“I wanted her to be proud of me,” Sylvia continued. “But more than that… I wanted her to know that… that I would be okay.”

Nick wasn’t sure what to say to that. “What? Sylvia…”

“If things went as planned, Dakota would still be part of your harem, Daddy,” Sylvia explained. “And she would have gone back to earth with you, alive. And she would know ‘Yeah, I’m leaving the show in good hands. Sylvia will be a fine replacement for me.’ …And that… would have been wonderful.”

There was no stopping the tears now. Sylvia wiped them away, but they just kept coming.

“But I took things too far,” she whispered. “When I saw that, even after Holly and… and Mimi… Marley… when I saw that you loved them, even after they were eliminated… I thought that I could go even further. That it didn’t matter then, if Dakota was still in your harem or not. You’d love her anyway, right? So it was okay if I got her kicked out, and that way, I could prove to Dakota just how devious and ruthless I could really be, and I thought that if I did… she might actually be proud of me for once. She might acknowledge that I really was her daughter.”

It was so stupid. So reckless and stupid in hindsight. If Sylvia had just done nothing, just let things be… she’d known how unstable Dakota was. She should have seen it coming, how Dakota would react to that.

Nick winced. “So that’s why you conspired to eliminate her from the show,” he said, biting his lip. “You rigged things to kick her out of the harem… just to prove to her that you were ready to be ruthless?”

“And it backfired completely,” Sylvia muttered. “I never thought that she’d… …Never mind. I’m sorry, Daddy.”

She shook her head. There was no justification for what she’d done. Dakota’s terrible treatment of her didn’t make it okay for her to turn around and screw Dakota over right back. Sylvia understood that now.

“…I’m happy I got to know you, Daddy,” Sylvia said, her smile slowly returning. “And that I got to become a member of your harem. Maybe… maybe what happened… it was for the best, don’t you think?”

Nick could understand how Sylvia could come to that conclusion. But… he disagreed with it.

“How Dakota treated you wasn’t right, Sylvia,” he said, shaking his head. “And what you did, conspiring to kick her out of my harem, that wasn’t right, either.”

Of course, the scope of their actions were incomparable. All the horrible things Dakota had done to Sylvia, culminating in trying to erase her from existence, wasn’t on the same level as kicking her out of the harem. But both women had hurt each other.

And when Dakota was hurt, she lashed out.

“I can’t undo what I did, but… at least now, I can be with you, like this,” Sylvia said, squeezing Nick’s hand. “And that’s a wonderful thing, Daddy.”

Nick nodded. “If there’s one good thing to come out of this mess, Sylvia, it’s that you’re finally able to start living your own life now. Dakota can’t control you anymore. You can do what you want, with or without her. You’re not… stuck in her shadow anymore.”

Sylvia nodded, wiping away her tears again. “I just wish I knew what that was,” she murmured softly. “What I want, I mean.”

It wasn’t an easy question to answer. Even for people who didn’t suffer from the situation Sylvia found herself in presently. Nick wished that there was something he could do to help her, but he knew that it wouldn’t be that easy.

He could be there for her, and maybe guide her. But the growth and change Sylvia went through… that had to come from her.

“It was wonderful, you know…” Sylvia murmured.

“Hmm?” Nick looked at her curiously. Their eyes met, and a soft smile touched Sylvia’s lips.

“Making that sandcastle with Dakota, at Vivian’s party,” Sylvia clarified, casting her eyes upon the half-finished sandcastle that they’d abandoned. “It was something I’d always wanted to do, and I finally got the chance.”

Nick remembered how happy Sylvia had been just getting to make a sandcastle with her mother. Even with Dakota barking out orders left and right and bossing the other girl around like a ****.

No wonder she’d been ecstatic. Because they were finally doing something together.

It was almost tragic. Right now, Nick could see so much of the young Dakota he remembered in Sylvia’s smile.

And for a moment, he saw a flicker of Dakota flash through his mind. His dream from last night… that’s right, he’d almost forgotten.

“It would have been nice…” he whispered mostly to himself. But his voice caught Sylvia’s ear and she looked up at him with a curious expression on her face.

“Huh? What do you mean, Daddy?” She asked, leaning forward intently.

Nick’s smile turned strained. “I just thought… no, never mind, it’s nothing.”

“No, tell me!” Sylvia insisted, her eyes burning at him.

He wanted to, but how could he? Saying it out loud would just be like giving Sylvia false hope, and how could he do that?

But… how could he not grant her deepest wish?

“…I just thought that… it would be wonderful if there was some way… that the two of you could have been a real parent and child,” he said quietly.

He could imagine it, if he tried. He’d caught a glimpse of just that, the two of them building a sandcastle together. It was brief, but it had meant so much to Sylvia.

If only that had been the relationship the two of them had always shared.

“I see…” The smile on Sylvia’s face turned sad, as Nick knew it would. His heart ached, seeing her like that. But what could he do?

“Sylvia…”

“It’s fine, Daddy,” Sylvia interrupted him, shaking her head. “Really. It’s fine.”

The look in her eye said different. But Nick couldn’t contradict her. Not when she seemed so resolute.

“Dakota and I… we weren’t like Mimi and I used to me. Or like Marley and me now.” Sylvia shook her head again. Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks, but she didn’t wipe them away. Instead, she embraced them with a smile.

“I know that I’m just deluding myself, when I think about her,” Sylvia whispered, closing her eyes and letting the memories of life with Dakota wash over her. “But… there were good times. That I know for sure. It wasn’t all ignoring me, treating me like I didn’t exist, like… like I wasn’t human. There were those times, but… there were other times, too.”

She reached down and picked up the bucket that they’d been using to carry water over to the sandcastle. The same little plastic pail that Dakota had gifted to her, a lifetime ago.

“Dakota gave me this, you know? When I said I wanted to play on the beach,” Sylvia explained. “This, that shovel, those molds… they were gifts from her. And maybe they were just to get me to leave her alone, and it’s not like they cost her anything, but… they still mean a lot to me.”

Every gesture of kindness from her mother was a treasure worth preserving. It was why she still had those seashells, in a box tucked away somewhere with her other things. Even if she wasn’t the host anymore, that didn’t mean Dakota would have gotten rid of her belongings.

Maybe she should have been worried. Maybe someone else would have assumed Dakota chucked all those mementos in the trash when she took over.

But Sylvia believed otherwise. And she refused to let anything shatter that belief.

Not even her Daddy.

Nick stared at the thoughtful girl, and his heart ached. What could he say to her? What would anyone be able to say, in this moment, with such a pure heart sitting right in front of them? As Sylvia looked off into the distance reminiscing about all the good times she’d shared with her mother, Nick found himself incapable of speaking up against her.

“…You said you wanted to go swimming with Dakota, right?” He said, drawing her attention back to the present.

Sylvia swiveled her head around and looked at him curiously. “Yeah, well… I was naïve back then,” she said, biting the inside of her cheek. “I mean… it was Dakota, you know? She wasn’t exactly a fan of the water.”

Back then, Sylvia had ignorantly assumed that Dakota had removed any sources of water from the island as some bizarre testament to the ocean.

Dumb. That was so dumb.

Of course Dakota wouldn’t teach her how to swim.

“I think that ship has sailed,” Sylvia said with a strained laugh. “I mean… come on, Daddy. It’s Dakota we’re talking about, here! She can’t get in the water without getting turned on!”

Nick shook his head.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he said, standing up and helping a very confused yet intrigued Sylvia to her feet.

“Oh?” She looked at him curiously, seeing the adoration in his eyes. It made her heart quiver with affection.

“Sylvia… we can still go swimming,” he said, looking out at the ocean. “It wouldn’t be the same, but… what do you think?”

Sylvia’s mouth fell open and her eyes widened sharply.

“You… you mean it, Daddy?” She asked hopefully, not even realizing that was a possibility until just now. Going for a swim with her Daddy…

Nick looked at her, surprised she was so surprised. “Of course,” he said. “I mean, if you want to do that, anyway. If you don’t-”

“No, I do! I definitely do!” Sylvia blurted out, shaking her head up and down as fast as she could. “Swimming with Daddy! Yes! That’s gonna be so much fun!”

Sylvia hadn’t planned out anything that concrete for her date with her Daddy. Her emotional state last night had been too unsettled.

But… now she was happy not to have a plan.

Getting to enjoy herself on the beach with her Daddy… yeah, that was way better than anything she could have planned out herself. And when they were done swimming, they could even have a cookout on the beach… yeah, this was perfect! What she’d always wanted!

Nothing could stop the smile that was breaking out across her face.