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Mike sips his coffee as he waits for Morgan to finish getting dressed. Ever since she’s turned four, she’s been insisting on dressing herself and the results are mixed. Mike’s learned the hard way that trying to get her to change has disastrous results at best, so he just hopes that whatever she’s chosen at least looks halfway presentable. He’s taken the day off to spend time with his daughter before she starts pre-school and even though the election is over a year away, he feels fairly certain their outing to the zoo will make the papers – if for no other reason than to criticize his being out of the office in the middle of the week. For not the first time since becoming DA, Mike curses both Jack’s decision to retire to spend more time with his family and his own insanity in taking the position.
He’s torn out of his thoughts by a small hand tugging on his and he smiles down at his daughter, relieved to see that although she’s mixing thrift store and designer clothes again, the denim jacket, dress, and converse ensemble is at least cute. “Ready to go, kiddo?” he asks her, setting his coffee mug in the sink.
“Of course, Papa,” she replies, giving Mike her best duh look and trying to drag him to the door. Mike is nervous about how Morgan will handle an hour on the subway, but she handles it just fine, especially once they get far enough into the Bronx that the stations are elevated and she can actually see something when she looks out the window.
Morgan tugs excitedly on his hand as soon as they’re inside the too. “Papa, tigers,” she says insistently.
“Just let me find a map, and we’ll head straight there,” he answers, thankful the information booth is near the entrance and not tucked off in some obscure corner.
Morgan takes the map from him as soon as he grabs it and then points off to the side. “Tigers are that way.”
Mike lets his daughter lead him to the tigers and then throughout the rest of the zoo. If the press did somehow manage to track them there, they kept their distance, something for which Mike is grateful. As he carries Morgan home from the subway – as she’d fallen asleep on the hour ride back to Battery Park - he wishes he could have more days like this.