Disclaimer: I don't own Glee.

Feel free to request a song or Glee characters. I will do my best.

One: In My Arms by Plumb

Her eyes had dilated to the size of golf balls now. She had been lying curled up on her side on his futon with a nervous face for three and a half minutes now, each crash thunder causing her eyes to grow more and more. He knew she was scared, but Ryder couldn't help himself, but be humored. She was only three and her experiences with thunderstorms were limited. Facing her, he lay uncomfortably on his side and reached over to keep rubbing her back. Even though she was still the very definition of young, Ryder couldn't put his finger on where the time had gone. It really did seem like she was just six pounds, five ounces and coming home from the hospital for the first time.

"Daddy, I'm scared." She whined, whispering with both her thumbs tucked between her teeth, worried the thunder might hear her if she was too loud and take her away.

"It's okay, sweets." He assured her, moving a little bit closer and lying his bicep over here for protection. It was nice to be needed especially with everything that was currently happening in his life. This was his first weekend with his daughter since being kicked out of his house and he was glad she still felt she could come to him with her fear. The pitter-patter of her little bare feet across his apartment's bare floor frightening him at first until she appeared in the doorway in her kitten pajamas and terror painted over her face. "Daddy's here. It's just rain." He assured her, cooing over her curly brown hair. She must have inherited her kinky hair from her mother's side since he had no memories of relatives with curls like she had sprouting from her hair like pig's tails.

Without realizing that she had the power to break his heart, her bottom lip quivered and she began to cry.

"I want Mommy." She buried her face into his bare chest, staining his stomach with her warm tears.

"Oh, Eva." Ryder sighed, distressed by the words that so honestly just fell out of her mouth. He hugged her close to him like she would her stuffed black cat and rocked her against him. After swallowing around the hard lump around his throat, he began to sing in a whisper with his head over hers, just the simple song of 'Hush Little Baby'. She always seemed to love when he sang to her, usually reasoning that she couldn't sleep unless he did. He had even called her the first night away from home to sing her to sleep with a lullaby since his wife wouldn't allow him to come over and tuck her in. As he sang, Eva just continued to weep, shaking every time the thunder howled. Sometimes, it felt like the building was shaking.

"I want Mommy. I want Mommy. I want Mommy." Eva kept repeating over and over, her voice warbling as she was practically praying against Ryder's bones.

It crossed his mind to put on clothes and just drive Eva home in the storm, but he worried what his wife would say if he showed up at two in the morning, returning their daughter home to her exhausted and worked up. He was already losing his marriage, the last thing Ryder wanted was to be considered an unfit father or simply a bad one.

When his wife confronted him at the kitchen table, just minutes after he had put Eva to sleep, and said that she wanted space, wanted him to leave, that she couldn't be around him anymore, all he could think about was his little girl. He didn't want her to grow up bouncing from home to home, to be raised by another man that wasn't him, to think even for a moment that she didn't have her dad at her disposal. He just wanted what was best for Eva, what would make her happiest. However, he couldn't say he was surprised by his wife's request. He hadn't been as affectionate as he used to be, he didn't want to spend as much time with her as he used to, and was always finding things to do that didn't include her. Maybe, that was just as much being a bad father as not being able to calm his daughter down was. It was a cliché case of not knowing what you have until it was gone.

While Ryder truly did want to try to work things out with his wife, he was still focused on Eva pressed up against his body under the covers. He kissed the top of her head and ran his hand soothingly down her brown locks. He wanted her to know what his wife clearly didn't, that she would always be safe with him, in his arms. So, he rocked her gently and went back to singing his lullaby, hoping she could fall back asleep soon enough or that the storm would die down.

Tomorrow, he would make her pancakes. Tomorrow, there would be sunshine and they could go feed ducks at the nearby park. Tomorrow, he would be the best Dad in the world.