Disclaimer: I don't own Wildfire.
Heart
by neka lopez aka klutzy-kay
Ken Davis will never say it, but he worries about his son more than he'd like to admit.
For he doesn't worry because of that teenager recklessness Junior displays time and again, but because he has that compassion, the very compassion that Ken once fell in love with.
It's not an ordinary compassion, one that just anyone can don. It's something that can't be learned or swindled. It's kind, without the selfishness and secret intent of the world, and it's everything Ken Davis isn't.
He usually likes to ignore it, to pretend it doesn't exist, and normally he tells himself that Junior is really just as insensitive as the persona he shows to the world day in and day out, but sometimes... sometimes he just can't.
It doesn't really happen often, but when it does Ken just doesn't know what to do. He wonders if he should tuck Junior away and hide him from the world and other times he asks himself if maybe it would best if he squashed it out of him.
And sometimes he worries about that innate kindness, worries that Junior will keep chasing after those foolish dreams of his... and that he'll leave Ken behind in the process.
...But mostly, mostly Ken worries that he'll get hurt, just like she did.
Because for all her good intentions and unflinching bravery, she was the one who ended up with a broken heart.
He shouldn't be worried, that's for sure. He is Isabelle's son, after all.
He's his mother's son, he tells himself, simply because Junior has to be.
If he weren't, Ken doesn't think he could bear it.
He's made his mistakes, he's done plenty of wrong. But being reminded of her at every turn, at every glance he gives his son? That, that would be the ultimate cruelty.
And besides, he thinks, maybe it's just a phase.
He hopes it is. He hopes it's one of those things the boy will grow out of, just like his determination to become a "fireman" or that ridiculous green cereal he's been hell-bent on eating every morning ever since he was four.
And yet... that feeling... that worry... it's still there, a mere shadow shrouded over him near the back of his mind.
He tries to shake it off, tries to dismiss it as paranoia on his part. He tells himself it'll pass in time, that Junior is nothing like her and everything like Isabelle.
It never works.
Dani has her mother's looks, that's for sure... And yet, ironically, Junior is the one with her heart.
That's what worries him.
End.