"A good parent never puts themselves before their children. They've led a life, while their children have yet to lead one. Don't ask me what that means, you wouldn't understand.": James Possible: 20xx
James was a happy, content man who believed himself the happiest man on earth. His smile rarely left his face, and if at all it did. Even while he chased his two misbehaving sons around the house so that he could order them to can the mischief that had gone too far this time, it was still difficult to call his expression an upset one. His voice was almost always upbeat and cheerful while his eyes always seemed alert and healthy even if he had been forced to put in a late night, which often happened in his difficult line of work which required a great deal of attention on his part.
He was an intelligent man, though few were willing to acknowledge him as one on account of a faulty memory which he could not control no matter what he tried.
A few even wondered if the space center only gave him his position on the team out of pity, rather than any raw talent he happened to possess. His forgetfulness had after all often been the point of another's annoyance at him, and had very nearly almost sabotaged many subjects for the group of scientists to whom he worked for. The fact that out of carelessness, poor James had once leaned on a button and launched an unfinished shuttle an entire week before it's intended launch date, was only a nitpick next to the other mishaps he had caused. A few did state that he must have been a brilliant man, and that his usefulness must have far outstripped his occasional failures for him to have not been evicted from the job he had dedicated practically his entire life towards.
Time with his precious family, the one thing that man did value more than his job came at a premium. Short breaks when the Space center happened to be tapped for ideas, or felt like giving its small team of professionals a tiny break to reward their pains which as many expected did not happen very often when science in the ever changing modern world never slept.
He took these moments, each and every one trying his very best to show just how much his daughter Kim and her two mischievous brothers meant to him despite everything, and how very greatly he treasured his beautiful wife who he had vowed with all his heart to love in both sickness and health.
When he went to the supermarket shopping, his children went with him to tag along for the ride and to have more time with their beloved father before he regrettably had to return to his next big project uninterrupted. It was the little moments like that which really revealed the busy and somewhat absent minded man for the saint he really was.
He was never yelling or scathing at his children despite all the stresses his sometimes awkward life set on him, but as mild and gentle as any father could seek to be.
Gentle reminders and suggestions took the place of abrasive shouts and undue harshness when he sensed that someone in the household was seeking to ruin the peace and element of trust between one another. For a man of science who spent the majority of his days buried in a laptop mashing at the keys, he was surprisingly good at telling the hidden emotions within people and not at all nervous or shy around the family he saw very little of.
"Treasure every moment of the time you do have with your children. They are precious." he would sometimes wistfully remark to ease his guilt at leaving his kids behind so often when he sat beside his fellow scientists in the high tech laboratory they would gather in.
He only knew all too well what his eldest daughter spent her long days away from home up to, and it wasn't fun for him in the slightest to see her dash out of the house time and time again, so that he seldom saw his three children together as he would have liked on his brief days with no work.
He heard that Kim had been making quite the name for herself out there as the heroine next door and it really seemed that when the twelve year old high schooler would certainly have the good bright future every good and caring parent wanted for their offspring, surrounded by crowds of devotees and advocates who she had managed to befriend and a lovely young and funny man for her future partner who would never leave Kim's side long after she left her family and home behind her. It had taken a while for James to get used to the idea that a boy that seemed so bumbling and somewhat of a pariah was the one boy his daughter had set her eyes on, but partly with the help of his much more understanding and optimistic wife he had grown to like Ron from the Stoppable family much better when he looked back and saw that he too shared in many of the very flaws he had criticized the misunderstood little boy for. That struck him as both dishonorable and irrational, and neither were good qualities in a good father.
That respect became a deep and unwavering admiration when Kim pleaded with her somewhat angry father who was still struggling over his feelings for that boy she liked, that had it not been for Ron those bullies of her youth might never have left the poor girl in peace and thus her entire life as the much loved captain of the cheerleader squad might never have come into being since she'd still have been the timid shrinking violet she was back then.
But more importantly had it not been for the brief moments where Ron showed off the hidden brilliance concealed within a socially rejected outcast, Kim explained that she would have been dead many times over by now. The very least she owed Ron by now, was her life many times over. And that was something she could never repay back even if she spent the rest of her life beside her one and only partner that she would ever accept. "I love him daddy." begged Kim. "Please understand me."
"Of course my little girl. Of course" he calmly replied in a voice that had been brought well under control "I know you two will have a lovely future together, and I think he really is a good influence on you Kim."
But even that pure and happy prospect did not blind him to how whilst his daughter most likely could embrace a celebrated life of glory, that it would be a short life of glory. An emphasis on the short since he wasn't joking when he spoke of how he treasured each meeting with the eldest child of the Possible residence as if it could well be the last time.
James knew well what awaited hundreds of completely innocent lives, if not the world were it to be left robbed of his selfless daughter's interventions. His daughter had explained that to him enough times for him to never be able to erase those conversations from his mind even if he tried to forget.
Yet the brown haired rocket scientist had to make a mammoth effort each time his daughter set out once again, not to grasp the red haired girl by the sleeve and bark at her to give up her hobby once and for all and find something at least slightly safer to do instead.
He was also for all his love for excitement and adventure in his rather somber life, not blind to the risks his daughter came face to face with on a day to day basis. It was if only ironically, slightly relieving to see that the feisty heroine he was lucky enough to have for a daughter seem so calm in the face of such dangers.
But deep down he knew that would make him cry all the harder, should that time happen to come around.
Which was why he spent the first good ten minutes of each morning, hands clasped and trembling with eyes tightly squeezed shut murmuring plea after plea for his dear little "Kimmie cub" to return home safely and soundly with no bones broken in one piece. It was truly a struggle for the worried man not to break down in tears of bliss each night as he heard the familiar voice he had been longing the day for.
A voice from the heavens, from an angel who had come to earth and to his side in disguise as the little girl who called him "daddy." as she ran to him arms outstretched to reassure the clearly worried scientist that nothing bad was happening.
It was the voice he heard now, as he woke with a start from an uneasy dream he couldn't quite describe even to himself if he tried. Still very drowsy and cautious of everything he lifted his head from the dining room table he had slouched it onto, and took stock of his surroundings through blurred vision. He must have dozed off once more and now he would have to stay up even later than usual to finish the load of work he still had left on the laptop he had somehow managed not to lean his weary form onto when sleep overtook him.
But that could wait, he told himself as he staggered to his feet and almost tripped as he made a break for the front door desperate to give the girl he knew was waiting outside the warm and genuine welcome a selfless and devoted daughter like her could only deserve.
And even as his hand made a grab for the doorknob, he looked to the sky and whispered yet another silent thanks to kind fate for bringing her back alive and well once again.
A terrible way to make the next chapter I know. But it sets the scene... I guess. I understand I'm a very terrible and inexperienced writer with none of the skill and/or attractive qualities that all of those 100 review (or more) story writers seem to have in them.
But please do review. I do put my all into writing these and I would really appreciate to know what you think of my hard work and how you feel the tale is panning out. I do read every one of your reviews and they do bring purpose to my otherwise bleak existence.
But as usual thanks for reading and I will see you in the next chapter when I find time.