Daddy's Little Girl

It has been some years now since I was a young one on the team, hasn't it? I sigh and shake my head. Maybe it hasn't been long enough…Or maybe it has been too long, I just don't know anymore. I close my journal and sit it on the shelf. It is hard to think that just ten years ago I had been the lowest rank of an expert recon team. I have to admit I hadn't ever thought that I might be transferred away from my friends one day…I had been so young….So young and naïve. As much as I'd like to say I had been prepared for it, I cannot. I wasn't ready in the least. I remember that horrific first week in my nightmares still…

But enough of that. My therapist has said that I shouldn't think of it, so I had better listen.

"Tommy?"

I blink and turn from my bookshelf and smile. There is my beautiful wife. Her long and wavy golden locks fall all about her shoulders. The light of my study makes her midnight blue eyes sparkle. She looks positively radiant.

"Tommy, haven't you heard me? I've been calling you for dinner for the past hour. Are you feeling alright?" She asks me.

"I'm delightful." I smile and walk over to her and gently kiss her cheek. I softly rub my hand on her extended belly with a smile. "And how are you both doing, Trixy?"

My wife sighs a bit and leans her head on my shoulder. "I don't suppose I can complain too much...She won't stop wiggling about. My rib aches from her treating it like an ottoman." She chuckles tiredly. "And the contractions are not fantastic, but they're bearable."

"Maybe you should rest a spot…" I try to get her to sit on the small love-seat, but she waves me off.

"No, no, Thomas, I still have things to do. I can't rest now, I'll rest over dinner." She smiles and pecks my cheek before turning and waddling downstairs.

I sigh and shake my head. Why won't she ever rest? We aren't in the ranks anymore...We haven't been in them for a few years now.

"THOMAS!"

I jump and run downstairs after her. "Honey?!" I rush into the kitchen and see her standing there, grasping the back of the closest chair with one hand, and her other presses against the wall. There is a clear puddle beneath her.

She looks up at me and astonishment paints her face. "My water broke…." She gasps before bending in pain. "Aoowwww! Buuuuuuckiiiiiinghaaaaaaam!"

I quickly help her stabilize with my eyes wide. I don't know what to do. My brain just freezes up and is blank.

"C-Car! Now!" She gasps and groans, leaning forward against her pain.

"Oh, right, right." I nod and dash over to the key dish. I unlock the car and quickly return to her and pick her up and carry her to the car.

"Don't you dare put me on that seat without a towel, Thomas!" She exclaims as I struggle to open the door as she is a tad heavier than when I did this maneuver after we got married.

"Then I'll have to put you just down and pop back into the house!"

"DO THAT!" She snaps. "I don't want amniotic fluid on these new seat covers!"

I sigh and gently sit her feet on the ground next to the car. "Alright then…" I murmur and rush back to the house. I grab a couple of towels and run back out to the car and spread them out in her seat.

"Much better." She nods and I help her get situated into the car.

"Wonderful." I say and get into the driver's seat.

Trixy holds her belly and groans with another contraction and holds onto the passenger handle with her spare hand. I glance at her worriedly as I drive. I speed up and go straight through red lights and stop signs. Just please...Everyone else watch out, I'm not slowing until we're there…I send a quick text to a friend of mine at the hospital and speed up even more.

"Ooooowwwwwww! It huuuuuuurrts!"

I glance at my mirror as I hear a siren. "Of course…" I sigh and pull over. "I'm sorry, Trix, hopefully we can't get this over with quickly." My wife only responds with a groan and whimper of pain. I roll down the window and look at the officer. "I'm sorry, but can we get this done quickly?" I ask as I get out my sheets and licence for him. "My wife's in labor."

The officer looks at the sheets and then looks into the car at Trixy and nods. "I'll give you a warning, but drive more carefully." He says as he tears off a sheet and gives it to me. "It'll do none of you any good if you crash and die on the way there."

"Right, thank you, officer." I nod and get the paper from him. I wait for him and his car to drive away and stick the warning up in the sun visor for now. I glance over at my panting and groaning wife and drive again, though just barely the limit as I figure we do not have time for another cop stop. Thankfully, we were not far from the hospital and I pull up there. A few people, nurses I gather, come and meet us at the car and get Trixy into a wheelchair and take her inside, while I go and park our car. I then go inside and find her room. The only trouble is is that they have already closed it off and so I am left waiting outside of it. Maybe this is for the best. Trixy did say that she didn't want me in the room...But I thought she had just been joking. But probably, like usually, my wife is probably right in thinking I wouldn't be able to handle watching.

After a small while, I catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and turn my head for a better look. I blink and stare as I cannot believe my eyes. I must be hallucinating...There is no way….

"Private? Is that you?"

Fiddlesticks. "Ha, Skipper? Is that you? Of course I'm me." I say as lightheartedly as my stressed out nerves can fake.

The man walks over to me. He doesn't look much different than he did ten years ago. Still the same flat military style, though with a little gray here and there. His ice blue eyes still shimmer with lies of the excitement and adventure and camaraderie of the military as they did then as well. "Your wife messaged us earlier this week…"

I blink again and felt, I must admit, a bit betrayed by my Trixy. "Oh? What for?"

Skipper sighs and takes a seat and motions for me to do the same. "Private...Or I guess I should say representative Tux, I know you're still sore on things that happened back in the team...I wasn't the best, I'll admit and I might have went around doing some things the wrong way."

I take a seat and listen to him. "And?"

"And I'm sorry, okay? The team never has been the same without you." Skipper sighs and looks at the floor. "The higher ups sent us another yahoo after you...But he just isn't the same. And we just couldn't call him a true private, Private." He looks at me. "I know you don't plan on returning to New York and like it here in Nova Scotia and Maine...But maybe a visit now and then wouldn't be too bad." He sighs.

I look at him for a long moment and then look back towards my wife's room as I hear her cries. "Where are the others anyway?"

"They're waiting outside. Kowalski thought it might have been too overwhelming for you if we all came at once."

I rolled my eyes. Of course because everything overwhelms me like Skipper and Trixy think! "I'm not that sensitive, Skipper." He sighs.

Skipper takes a sip of coffee that I didn't notice before. "I think you are. I don't like to think you're no longer the little private we took in all those years ago." He sighs and twirls his drink. "It makes me feel old."

"Well, you are, what for-"

"-Nah ah, don't go there, soldier." Skipper gives me a glance, and though it was supposed to be stern I can see a small smile in them.

I chuckle a bit and then see Kowalski and Rico start to walk over. Now, I know I said Skipper looked older, but Kowalski looks much grayer...And maybe a little tipsy? Rico looked essentially the same...To be honest, he may be wearing the same exact clothing as he did ten years ago.

Skipper nudges me and leans to my ear. "Kowalski's been going through some things, woman problems and failures are finally starting to get to him."

"Oh dear…" I frown a bit and look at my old friends. They certainly did not look as well off as they had been when I left. I then spot what must be their current private. He was young, nineteen I'd say, sandy hair and green eyes.

The boy smiles at me and offers his hand. "You must be Monsieur Tux." He says. A Frenchman then.

"Yes, and you are…?"

"Ace." He smiles at me.

I nod and shake his hand. "It is nice to meet you, Ace, however, you have to keep a better eye on these fellows." I say to him quietly. "They really need a good and comforting private's eye kept on them at all times...Otherwise they're going to get into things they really shouldn't." I wink at him.

"Oh, bien sûr!" He nods enthusiastically. "I will indeed."

"Good, I'll hold you to that, Ace." I smile and nod before looking over I hear crying. The others go silent as well and we all look at the door as it opens.

"Mr. Tux, your wife would like to see you now." A nurse says with a smile.

I nod to her and then at the others and enter into the room. Trixy looks exhausted. Her hair is damp with perspiration and her cheeks are bright red. In her arms though, there is a small bundle wrapped in a white and green hospital blanket.

"Are you going to come and see her or not?" Trixy chuckles tiredly and holds our daughter a bit better.

I come closer and sit next to the bed and look at our baby. Her hands are so tiny and she has my black hair. I can't really get a good look at her eyes though before she squinches them shut and starts wailing at the top of her little lungs.

"You can hold her, she won't bite yet." She chuckles quietly.

"Yet? You plan on her being a biter?" I say as I softly get her from Trixy.

"All babies are at some point...Our Gweny will be no exception."

I smile and rock the baby softly and she starts to calm down a tad. "Gwendolyn Tux, you and I will have to have a talk then when you're older. I can't have you going about biting people." I chuckle and notice that my old team has followed me in. I pretend to not have noticed them and continue to cuddle my little girl.

"Good potential recruit right there." Skipper chuckles near the door. "She comes from some of the best stock, I'd say."

"Yeah…" I nod and let Gweny have my finger with a distant smile. I then lean over and kiss my wife softly. I don't think I've ever felt prouder or happier in my life…

"May I see?" Ace asks and comes closer.

I nod and adjust the blanket so he can see Gweny.

"She's cute, sir." He smiles at me. "Adorable even, Monsieur Tux."

"Yes, she is." I smile and rock my Gweny softly and very softly kiss the top of her head. My perfect little Gweny...