A/N: Dedicated to my father – my one true love.

Please review! Thanks so much for reading.

My One True Love

How could you leave me like this? All alone?

I'm trying to understand. I am trying.

You are the bravest man I've ever known. I remember when I was little; you'd tell me stories about all the evil you stopped. You'd tell me about your fights and your dreams, thinking I was too little to understand.

But I wasn't. I knew that you were proud. But I also knew that deep down you'd do anything for me - for us. I remember one day when I was playing outside, and I fell. You were miles away, but you felt my pain and instantly appeared to kiss away my tears. As I sat there crying, you just held me and whispered that everything was going to be okay.

Everything will be okay.

I still hear you in my dreams.

The last time we spoke, you seemed different. Like you wanted nothing to do with me. You were protecting me, weren't you? Protecting me from all the pain you knew you were about to cause. But that's not how I wanted to say goodbye… I wanted you to turn around, just once, and smile at me before you left. I'd kill to see your smile again.

So why did you leave us? Why couldn't you just live? Why did you have to go? Why?

A promise is a lie wrapped in a fancy ribbon. You promised me you'd always be there: when I fall in love, when I have my heart broken, when I graduate, when I marry, when I… But you won't. You can't. You broke your promise. A promise I still depend on – one I can't let go of…

Everything will be okay.

Stop saying that! How can it be okay? Tell me, how! Who will catch me when I fall?

Right now, I'm lost. There is only darkness. Deep, black, hollow darkness. I cannot see; I cannot feel; I cannot breathe. The darkness is pressing on my body, trying to put me into the smallest of places and leave me there to die. I'm trying to fight it; to be as brave as you once were.

I'm so scared – scared I'm losing the one battle I cannot afford to lose.

But there is light. And you are standing there, glowing like the moon. You reach out to me, and I grab your hand. You engulf me in your light and I reach for the surface – the first breath after a coma. As my eyes start to get used to the light again, you bend over and plant a soft kiss on my forehead. As you slowly fade away, you whisper your last words to me:

Everything will be okay.

I don't know if I love or hate them – those four, simple words.

You were the only one I ever trusted. The only man I ever loved. How can I love someone else, when nobody can even compare to you? You are my one true love. Nobody can fill the hole you left in my heart. The heart you gave to me. The heart that's still beating.

If only it could beat for you… Then you would still be here.

"Everything will be okay."

This time, I'm saying it out loud.

Today, she told me you are a hero. And I know that she is right. You are a hero. My hero.

My dad.