WALT DISNEY WORLD - BAY LAKE, FLORIDA
Her mommy missed her birthday... again. But it was ok: here magic happened... she just knew it.
The adorable, little, auburn haired, blue-eyed, five year-old girl walked with her tall, muscular, almost too handsome father down a side path just behind the castle. She was holding his hand, smiling happily; her cherub cheeked grin evident even from behind.
Following about twenty yards behind, a stuffed penguin in her steel-like grip, the twenty-eight year-old Countess of Abbingdon was just one frown from that little girl's face away from ruin.
How could she go on another damned expedition so close to her birthday? What the hell was wrong with her? What was her excuse? (Oh yes: keep the child safe by pretending she never existed... BRILLIANT! 'There was no way SHE had a child. What mother would abandon their little one for their own selfish ambitions?' What a cold, heartless bitch THAT would make her.) or so 'they' would say.
But 'they' would never question her. Not one person outside herself, the man now walking with the girl, and his parents knew the child's true identity'. One day she would change that - or so she promised herself. She white-knuckled her toy. STILL, she could have rescheduled.
She felt her heart rise up into her throat as her little girl danced in place as the parks p.a. system streamed happy music. The father began doing a jig, and the fearless adventuress had to stifle a laugh as she watch him. He was such a clown. He made the girl laugh even louder, and harder - just as he had with her - back then. She smiled - then her little girl twirled in place. No, not twirled... pirouetted - perfectly.
The mother's heart skipped a beat as the girl's face came into view; an almost flawless replica of her own at her tender age... the year she lost her parents to the ether.
She stopped in her tracks, and looked out at a man-made pond as the little girl suddenly stopped spinning, and tugged on her father's arm.
He knelt as she whispered in his ear, and nodded.
He turned and walked with the little one to look at the pond as well.
Lara took a deep breath and held it.
Moments passed as he stood, unmoving.
Lara turned to face him, "Well?"
Two small arms wrapped around her thighs from the right side, and one, two syllable word brought the fearless tomb raider to her knees... her child had snuck up on her without notice - how?
"Mommy!"
Lara clutched the tiny body to her tightly, and smothered the soft, smiling face with kisses, "I am so sorry I missed your birthday darling."
"No need to apologize mommy," her daughter said with a smile and squeezed her mother's cheeks before kissing her lips quickly.
Lara once again wondered at her little heiress. How was she so readily willing to forgive her for her absence from her life for most of the year? She glanced at the girl's father who stood smiling at the two of them. She mouthed the words, 'thank you.'
He bowed.
His child's mother shook her head, "You nutta," she muttered.
The little one spun,"Yeah!," she laughed at her father, "You natla."
He rolled his eyes, "TWO Crofts. Heaven help me."
...
The little girl finally fell asleep at quarter of two in the morning, mostly due to her mother rough-housing with her on the hotel suite's king sized bed. The two lay sprawled out on the covers, the little Croft seemingly sound asleep, the mother staring at her child - failing to suppress her tears.
Her lover pulled her into his arms and led her out of the room silently. He held her gently as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"I'm a monster," she gasped out finally, "What must she think of me? "
"Stop that shite right now. You hear me? Stop it." he commanded, "The sun rises and sets on your whim as far as that girl is concerned. She lives for your smile; for those five or ten, or twenty minute updates you send to Alistair from your adventures. She worships the ground you walk on."
"That's worse," she gasped, "What kind of role model am I?"
"The fact you say that is all the reason I need to encourage our child to emulate you. You give a damn about others L."
"No I don't," she protested, refusing to let him assuage her self-loathing, "If someone gets in the way of my desires to reach my goals, or stalls my progress, I don't think twice about..."
"Hold on," he cut her off mid-sentence by opening the door to the bedroom, glancing at the sleeping girl, then back to her mother, "Well... still asleep. Now, you were saying?"
She covered her mouth with her right hand as she gazed at the little 'her' laying there so peacefully, "I hate you sometimes, you bastard. Just let me... oh hell." she whispered to him.
He pulled the door just shy of closed, and grinned "Join the club. I hated myself - or did you think the alcohol was for fun? Well I did... till you; and then I mostly liked myself, especialy when you gave me her to protect. Let's be honest, 'I' am a killer Lara; but you are a preserver of life. You protect the innocent; even if you take pleasure in killing the wicked. I'm sorry, but any man who willfully 'hunts' a woman because his employer wants a trinket that has been sitting around for centuries and SHE happened to find it first? is an ass who needs planting; and I enjoyed helping you do that, as much as making her. And now, thanks to your love of her, here I am... Mr. Mom."
She hugged him, "Thank you," she sighed, "For her, for the three years before her."
"Oh yes, such a hardship for me... every mind blowing, pleasure filled moment - silly monkey. Now, please get in that room with our daughter and let your face be the first thing she sees when she wakes. Remind her you are her mother; THE Lara Croft... her hero." He kissed her forehead, and wandered over to the mini-bar.
"OR," she said as she took his hand and pulled him toward the bathroom, "You could help me 'wash my hair' Then I'll go in"
"Yes mum," he sighed as he quickly kissed her and followed her into the bathroom, "By the way... she's broken Marty's wrist, Adriens right ankle; free-climbed a fifty-foot wall in three minutes; and is going to ask you if you know Dora... or Indy... or..."
"You are so full of shite." she giggled as she pulled off her shirt.
"There's the west-end barmaid I fell in love with." he said as he picked her up into his arms and carried her through the doorway.
Little Rhiannon Amelia Carter peeked out of the bedroom door at her parents as they began disrobing in the bathroom, then turned on the shower, giggling.
She turned back to the bed, shaking her head, 'They always take showers first thing, after they meet,' she thought to herself, 'Are they dirty? No... weird.' She picked up the penguin, "So," she asked the stuffed bird, "What tomb did mommy find you in? I have a name for you... 'Okh-eshivar', penguin godess of the great city of Mylanta. A place overrun with natlas."