Bonds of a Child
By Dueler312
Disclaimer: I do not own anything of OLTL, just the plot.
Chapter 1
The sun was starting to peek into an apartment where a young woman and man were sleeping, with the man holding his woman in his arms. The woman snuggled to her man comfort when they got a surprise wake-up call.
"Wake up, Mommy, Daddy. Its time to wake up,' said a three year-old girl launching herself on the bed. Both of the parents laughed.
"Hope, did you have to do that?" asked the girl's mom.
"Hey, you two promised me you would make some blueberry pancakes," said Hope.
"She's right, Starr," said her boyfriend.
"I hate it when you team up with her, Cole," teased Starr, but gave her man a kiss on the lips, then got up and started to get ready for the day.
It has been nearly three years since Starr and Cole were reunited with their daughter Hope. They were now in college, and living in an apartment with their daughter, who was now three, turning four in November. They were happy with the way things have been, ever since.
"Come on, Daddy," said Hope. "You got to get up too."
"Yeah, Daddy," said Starr, starting to tease. "Come on, you got to geahhh!" Cole had grabbed Starr and pulled her down to him. Everyone was laughing, even Hope, who joined them.
"You are some work, you know that," said Starr.
"Yeah, but only for my two favorite girls," said Cole. Starr just smiled and shared a kiss between them that lasted a while until Hope started chanting "Pancakes! Pancakes!" That's when they knew it was time to get up.
Later on, after they were all dressed and fed, Starr was getting ready to leave, as she had class this morning at nine, while Cole didn't have his first class until eleven.
"I'll see you two later," said Starr. She kissed Cole, and then kissed Hope's cheek. "Make sure that you behave for your dad, okay," she warned her daughter.
"I will, Mom," said Hope.
"She will, or otherwise she's going to be getting tormented by her dad," joked Cole. Starr and Hope laughed. Then Starr and Cole gave one last kiss to each other, and then Starr headed out for class.
As soon as Starr was out of their apartment, Cole called Hope to him.
"What is it, Daddy?" asked Hope.
"I want to show you something, but, you have to keep it quiet, because I don't want your mom to know," said Cole.
"Is it something bad?" asked Hope.
"Actually, it something beautiful," Cole answered. "Follow me."
Hope shadowed her dad over to her parents' room, and Cole started to look for something in the closet. After a few seconds, Cole emerged out of the closet with a safe, which he set on the bed.
"What's in there, Dad?" asked Hope, getting excited.
"Hang on," said Cole, as he unlocked the safe. He then took something out of there and put the safe on the ground. Cole then picked hope up and put her there, and sat down next to her and said, "Look what I got for your mom."
Hope watched as her father opened up a black box he revealed, containing a ring with a sparkling diamond in the center.
"Are you going to ask Mom to marry you Dad?" asked Hope.
"You got that right," said Cole, closing the box and locking it back in the safe. "I'm just waiting for the right moment to do it," he added while putting the safe back in the closet.
"Why not do something for Mommy to lead to it?" Hope suggested.
"Oh don't worry, I got it planned on how I want it to go," said Cole. "I just need to figure when to do it."
"You're scared, aren't you?" Hope asked, laughing a little.
"Well, it's a really big step to go through," said Cole, sitting down next to his daughter again. "But I really love your mother a lot, so I want to make it official.
"Mom would look pretty," said Hope.
"She would, but we can't worry about that right now, because you got to go see if you got everything you want to take to your Grandma Blair today, so up to it."
Hope smiled, and jumped off the bed. She stopped at the door, and said, "I love you, Dad."
"I love you too, sweetie," said Cole. Hope then ran off to her room. Cole then reached for a drawer that had a photo album of him, Starr and Hope, along with their friends, Langston and Markko, and their family. Cole just smiled, looking at the past, seeing what they went through to get here, thinking about how his and Starr's love for each other had grown, along with Hope. Cole decided to visit it later, as he put the album back and went to see if his daughter was ready.
Starr arrived ten minutes early for her class, so she had a little time to get ready, when both she and Cole's best friends, Langston and Markko showed up.
"Hey, what's up?" asked Langston, who sat down on the right side of her friend, with Markko sitting right next to his girlfriend. Langston and Markko were living together at an apartment as well, and were doing all right with each other.
"Nothing much, except Hope became the new alarm clock," said Starr.
'I took it she got you and Cole by jumping on the bed?" Markko guessed.
Starr looked at him. "What do you got? ESP?" she asked, laughing. Langston joined in the laughing as well.
A few minutes later, everyone that was in the class had seated, and the professor started the class. The professor was in the middle of a lecture when the door opened again.
"Well, looks like your late for your first class, Ms. Jennings," said the professor.
Starr, Langston, and Markko turned around, and saw someone they thought they would never see again. Britney Jennings.
(A/N: Hope you guys like the first chapter of this story. Let me know what you guys think, and stay tuned for more.)