He's going with her, whether he likes it or not

It seemed like Jack didn't have much of a choice after all, as Kate was already dragging him off towards one of the closest shops in sight, and despite his mumbled objections he couldn't quite come up with a good excuse to leave her side. Much to his surprise it seemed like she aimed for a bookstore however, where she spent a few minutes searching for some certain kind of pencil, and a notebook with blank pages.

"I've practiced drawing for a while now!" She smiled when he asked her on their way out, which shouldn't actually come as a big surprise to him when he thought about it. The girl's notebooks from school had always been full of random scribbles, with at least some of it not being utter garbage, even if he'd merely seen it as a waste of her time in school back then.

Not that he had any hopes for her to suddenly turn into a famous artist over night though, but at least it was a pleasant diversion from the kind of shops he'd thought they were going to visit at the moment. Those illusions were quickly crushed, of course, when he realized they were already heading for one of the clothing stores next.

About five minutes later, Jack was already bored out of his mind while watching his daughter choosing between two slim red tops, that looked nearly identical to a pair of untrained eyes like his own. One apparently had a certain cut to the shoulders, which according to Catherine would either look great on her, or be a complete failure. And as if to prove her point, she of course decided to try them both on, just in case, which marked the start of what would almost certainly be the most tedious day in Jack's entire life.

"You like this one then?" She asked when she returned a second time from the fitting room, and showed him the top which was apparently the one without that specific cut of the first one. To Jack they still looked mostly the same, but to speed things up he quickly agreed that it sat much better, which seemed to be the correct answer if judging by the pleased smile on his daughter's face.

The price tag was the next thing he'd need to worry about, and he soon became a lot more involved with the shopping, especially when he realized that Catherine was the only one in the family with a steady income at the moment. He'd still not told the girls about his job though, and so he was **** to tiptoe around the subject whenever he started an argument regarding his daughter's costly shopping habits.

"Alright then!" Catherine laughed for some reason, just as he'd managed to convince her into checking one skirt instead of it's much expensive twin, and it wasn't until she tried it on that he realized his failing judgement. It really was a nice looking skirt though, and with just the right kind of price as well, but even Kate herself seemed willing to agree that it wasn't the best pick of the day. "Don't you think it's a little bit short...?"

"Yeah." Jack nodded slowly, while glancing around to see if somebody else were looking their way. The only one in sight was a cute female clerk, who seemed quite amused when she gave him a glance in return, though she quickly stepped out of sight rather than trying to give them advice on the clothes. Most likely she'd heard the whole conversation up to this moment, and just like Kate herself she must have been laughing at his decision behind his back.

"Just... take it anyways." He found himself saying, for no other reason than to try and save some part of his dignity, and could just barely keep from laughing at the face his daughter made in return. From that point on their shopping spree took a rather unexpected turn, as father and daughter kept each other locked in a constant battle of wills.

The exact rules and purpose of this little contest remained unclear, but apparently the loser of each round was the first one to start laughing at the other's most ridiculous arguments, which led to several poor salesclerks staring at the couple as if they were insane, while at the same time filling one of Catherine's shopping bags with things she'd hopefully never wear outside of her own room.

In the end it was a fairly refreshing way to spend their afternoon together, and even Jack felt a little **** to leave once they'd met up with the rest of his girls. The final tally on Catherine's savings wasn't quite as high as he'd come to fear, but then he'd ended up buying just a few of her pieces for his own money, with the reasoning that those things she could at least wear outside of their house without everyone staring at her...