A/N: I heard 'Dance with My Father' by Luther Vandross on the radio as I was on my way home and this suddenly came to me. It's a beautiful song you should take a listen if you've never heard it. The love a daughter has for her father never goes away. And I'm in a bit of a mood because of today's date. Thought I would share this with you guys. Set before and during NM.
This is dedicated to anyone who has lost their father, or anyone special to them.
Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight. The song 'Dance With My Father' belongs to Luther Vandross of course.
Sunday Father Dance
Back when I was a child
Before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
And dance with my mother and me and then
Spin me around till I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure
I was loved
Once every Sunday, Leah's dad would randomly turn on the radio and bow down to her. "May I have this dance, Buttercup?"
And it didn't matter where she was, she would run into his arms and he would swing her around to the beat of the song. Sometimes he'd whip her around to a fast beat until she shouted and hollered; sometimes he'd lay her head on his shoulder and rock with her as if she were made of porcelain.
Leah Clearwater squealed and laughed as Harry swung her around in the air for what had to have been the millionth time. She was four years old. Seth wasn't born yet, and she was reveling in the attention that came from being an only child.
He whirled her around the living room, his brown worn shoes muffled by the plush auburn carpet: with Leah's favorite jazz song playing in the background.
Leah's mother, Sue, gazed in from the kitchen door, pretending to frown, "Hey! You guys have fun while I'm doing the dishes? You both promised to—"only to be silenced with a passionate kiss from Harry as he pulled her along into the dance.
With Leah in one arm, the other holding his wife's hand, he twirled her with the ease of long practice and they danced, dishes forgotten, holding the little girl between them as they had always done.
When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way I would run from her to him
He'd make me laugh just to comfort me
Then finally make me do just what my mama said
Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
"But I'm not sleepy!" An immediate yawn gave the lie to Leah's statement as she glared up at her mother, hands on hips, mirroring Sue's patented most stubborn look. Sarah and Billy, friends of Leah's parents, didn't bother to hide their smiles and chuckles behind their wine and beer glasses.
"Daddy, tell Mama I can stay up!" Leah turned her huge hazel eyes on her father, a ploy which succeeded more often than not, since her eyes were an inheritance from Sue.
Harry stroked his chin, pretending to consider. "Hmm ... I suppose you might be able to join us ... you'll be five soon, after all. Practically an adult."
Catching Sue's pointed look, he added, "But I'm not sure the conversation is really in your interest. We were talking about the misery and woes of bills, work and life, weren't we, Billy?" He gave an innocent look towards his good friend, giving nothing away. Billy nodded in agreement lifting his half-full beer bottle as Harry continued. "I think housing has sky rocketed up, what do you think little buttercup?" Harry turned his attention to Leah who rolled her eyes.
"Mmmph!" Leah scrunched up her nose and crossed her eyes for a second as she thought it over.
Harry tapped her nose while he chuckled after she had uncrossed her eyes, "You know if you keep doing that your eyes will get stuck like that one day. But I need an answer now buttercup."
"That's bo-ring." was Leah's final ruling as she shook her long ponytail so hard that it began to loosen. She thought she might as well go to bed. At least her dreams were more interesting than grown-up talk. She held up her arms and Harry tried to hide his laughs at her antics.
He pretended to groan under the weight as he scooped her up and carried her off to bed. "One day you'll understand little one, no need to rush growing up. Remember—"
"Your mother is always right." Leah yawned giggling as they both repeated the same saying.
He grinned as he tucked her into her twin sized bed that had the Rugrats plastered all over the front of it. "I love you Buttercup." He kissed her forehead and smoothed some of her hair back into her ponytail.
"I love you too Daddy," Leah's eyes fluttered to a close when he turned off the light to her bedroom and left the door half open as he always did.
Never dreamed that he
Would be gone from me
It happened on a Sunday. Her dad had gone hunting with Charlie, same as every early Sunday. Leah's mom had gone to work at the hospital for some extra money since Leah was back at home again. After calling off the engagement for Sam and Leah's wedding, and Sam admitting his random, confusing, undying love for her cousin Emily, Leah had to rearrange all the plans she had in her life without the jerk. Starting with going back home at nineteen to live with her parents again until she could apply for college coming up in the spring.
Leah was just getting ready for a shift at the restaurant where she worked ignoring that she felt hot all over, when the phone rang. Leah picked it up, figuring it was a sales call and that she would blow off the annoying guy or girl as soon as possible. The boss was going to ream her out for being late again, and she couldn't afford to lose this job. Not if she wanted to save up for college and leave this god forsaken town.
The only thing Leah could dimly recall about the phone call was a vocal male voice asking to talk to her mother. Leah honestly wasn't sure how she managed to force her shaking fingers to dial Sue's number, much less tell her to come home. But the next thing Leah knew, she was there, and taking the phone from away from her.
The expression on her mother's face was like nothing Leah had ever seen before. It scared and angered Leah so much; all she could do was hold onto Seth, who by that time was hotter than she was, shaking and completely red in the face from his unshed tears—or so Leah thought at the time— for once ignoring his fourteen-year-old boy pride.
It was a heart attack, they told them. Nothing more, nothing less. Leah could see the disbelieving look on her mother's face as she repeated what the man on the phone had told her. Leah didn't know if the shaking came from Seth or Leah. But Seth eventually moved out of her arms with tears streaking his face.
Leah's mother exhaled a heavy shuddered sigh when Seth quite literally tore through the closed back door before disappearing in the forest surrounding their home. Leah ran after her brother, her mother too frozen to stop either of them.
It was only after Leah began to feel the crushing, burning, pain as she phased for the first time that she realized what had happened. The myths and legends made a bitter reality.
Way later after both Leah and Seth calmed down enough to actually listen, were they told the truth about her father's death. A heart attack because of a vampire. A vampire!
And it was a Sunday.
A Sunday.
Without fail it always happened, straight through her childhood, through Seth's birth and baby years and into her teenage years. However uncool her parents would seem to Leah, there they were, every Sunday night, Leah swaying in her father's arms with her mother and brother watching in the doorway, a soft smile on her face as she held on to Seth.
The day they always danced. Leah actually went over to the radio and turned it on out of instinct when she was finally able to phase back to human form late that night. Before she could stop herself, she found herself calling for her dad to come dance, because how could he forget?
It was their day, he always remembered.
The wave of pain that hit Leah in that one single moment stopped her dead in her tracks.
There would be no more Sunday night dances.
It hit her harder than anything. Harder than him never being here to see her graduate, get married, to have her first child. Because none of those things would happen now with what she turned into.
No, he'd never be here to dance with her. Not ever again. It was a Sunday, and instead of lying safe in her Daddy's arms, she couldn't even calm down enough to identify his body.
If I could steal one final glance
One final step, one final dance with him
I'd play a song that would never, ever end
'Cause I'd love, love, love
to dance with my father again
Leah wished she could say their family came back together. She really did, because that's what her dad would have wanted. But if she was completely honest with herself, they never really got back to that place. Leah started going out every night not just for patrols. She found ways to numb the pain, ways she wished she hadn't.
Seth stopped playing sports, barely going to school, what used to be so important to him, had been changed. His ambition now was to protect the tribe any way he could and graduate high school after improving his grades that he completely screwed up.
"I think Dad would like that," Leah whispered to him softly but her Mom still heard, and it caused her to fly out of the room.
If any of them took it hard, their mother took it the hardest. The first week Leah's mother wouldn't come out of her room, not even to make them something to eat. Sue saw Harry everywhere. Nowhere was safe from him, not even her work study, her personal sanctuary. Sue will deny it to this day, but Leah knew her mother could barely look at her own kids, not when she saw so much of him in them.
After they officially buried Harry, Sue started working again, taking care of Leah and Seth. Scolded them when they would stay out to late knowing they didn't have patrol. She was proud, she loved them and both Seth and Leah knew it.
Sometimes I'd listen outside her door,
And I'd hear how my Mama cried for him.
I'd pray for her even more than me.
I'd pray for her even more than me.
Sometimes at night, when Seth had patrol, Leah would lie awake at night hearing her mother's heaving sobs. Once Leah looked in the door a crack, and she saw her mother curled on the bed, holding their wedding picture and sobbing as if her heart was actually breaking. Leah didn't dare go in, but she stood there until she heard her mother's sobs subside and her breathing even out. Leah waited until she knew her mother was resting in relative peace. And as Leah fell asleep, she swore she could almost feel his hand brush over her hair.
Maybe it was just a breeze.
But for now, it was enough for Leah. As Leah finally let the tears fall down her face, she knew one day she would be able to dance with her father again, even if it was years to come.
Reviews equal love.