It's a Fairytale
Black-Angel-001:this fic teased the corners of my mind after i heard this song...follows with the story line of 'acts of desperate men' and 'saving me' but you don't really have to read those to understand this.
Disclaimer: (in an imitation from Hogan's Heros) I own NOTHING!
It's a Fairytale
Roy leaned his head back against his chair with a groan. He was just tired enough to fall asleep where he sat and it was still early in the evening. Chris was doing homework in the kitchen, while Joanne fixed supper. In the living room with him, Jenny had the radio on and was dancing around, hair and skirt twirling as she did. She made curtsies to imaginary lords and princes, giggling every so often and making comments in a high pitched voice. She spun around to Roy, smile wide and eyes alight and held out her arms.
"Dance with me Daddy, please," she asked.
"Jenny," he started.
"Please Daddy? Please?" Jenny held her arms out wider. "I gotta practice for my prince charming!"
Roy smiled and stood, the exhaustion he'd felt a few moments ago in the back of his mind. He took both her hands into his, she put her feet on his, and he began to move them around the room carefully to the music on the radio.
So I will dance with Cinderella while she is here in my arms
Cause I know something the prince never knew...
Roy tried to ignore the excited chatter of his 17 year old daughter and wife, keeping the paper in his line of vision so he couldn't see the dress Jenny was proudly displaying. He didn't like the fact that his little girl was growing up and going on dates. The paper crinkled as he gripped it just thinking about the boy taking her out, but then he had to chuckle. The first time he'd met him had been with his old shiftmates from 51: Johnny, Hank, Chet, Mike, and Marco. It had been intimidating for the kid to face all those firefighters, and Roy was sure he understood what would happen to him if anything happened to Jenny.
"Daddy, will you dance with me," he heard Jenny ask.
Roy lowered the paper a bit and blinked a few tears back. The dress was beautiful on her, even without her hair done, make up, or jewelery; Karen had done a great job of helping her pick out something that would be flattering but appropriate for her age.
"May I ask why?" Roy put the paper down, folding it neatly.
"Because I want to make sure I can dance in these heels and without tripping over the dress."
He frowned and looked at Karen. "Heels? Who said anything about heels?"
Karen laughed a little and smoothed out Jenny's skirt. "It's a right of passage Roy," she said gently.
"Okay, sure. But..heels?"
"Please Daddy? Please?"
Roy smiled and stood, joints creaking and muscles protesting from work and age. He moved the coffee table, took her hand, and moved them around the room while humming a tune.
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't wanna miss even one song...
Jenny smiled at the man leading her around the dance floor, veil floating behind her in a ghostly manner and white dress brushing the floor just barely. At a table nearby, her new husband was watching with a smile she was sure, as Karen sat with him and cried softly. Chris was waiting outside the dance floor for his turn to dance with his sister and the twins were with him, all three smiling, all three happy for her on this incredibly special day.
They all felt the pain of someone missing, though.
Johnny twirled her around by her hand and she laughed even as she felt like crying. Her father, Roy DeSoto, was the one who was supposed to have walked her down the isle, looked on with pride as she and her husband danced for the first time as man and wife, spun her around in the father daughter dance. But he'd been taken from them all too soon by a summer forest fire that had trapped him and three others. It was just the way she'd imagined her dad going, but it still didn't seem real two years later.
Some time later, at a point when no one would really notice her absense for long, Jenny snuck outside the church auditorium and into the cool night air. She walked around the grounds a little, looking around her with very little interest as she thought about the day, her mom, her dad.
Maybe it was the sudden transition from a hot building to the cool air, maybe it was the champagne from before, or even a bad reaction to the food. Maybe it was just simply the memories and the play of the moonlight. Whatever it was, Jenny saw her father in his after work clothes, smiling at her and eyes twinkling with love. She saw her four year old self dance on his toes, her 17 year old self dance with him in her new prom dress, her 23 year old self dance with him at his and Karen's vow renewals. Then he was in his dress uniform, the way she'd always liked to see him, just like she remembered from many times before and still smiling with love.
The tears she'd shed for weeks before the wedding and been holding back all day came flooding down her cheeks as she held out her arms and smiled a bit.
"Dance with me? Please, Daddy? Please?"
The ghostly apparations smile grew bigger and he took her hands in his, then moved them around the grass, humming a tune softly.
Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...
Black-Angel-001: not much in the way of plot, but i couldn't resist. the inspiration is from steven curtis chapman's 'cinderella'. hope you enjoyed.