Memories came flooding back in waves the nights walking back and forth with her in his arms while trying to get her to sleep, the training sessions at home instead of the barn with her sitting on his chest, walking beside the pony on her first ride, her standing on his feet as he danced with her at Spike and Winnie's wedding, teaching her to swim and then the scariest thing of all teaching her to drive. His proudest moment her graduation.
Reaching forward Ed picked a photo up off of Izzy's bedside table, it had been taken at one of Izzy's first school sports days, they had just won the father daughter sack race it showed Izzy in Eddie's arms holding her medal up for him to see even though she was on a few inches from his face, both had the biggest smiles on their faces, hers from excitement his from pride, closing his eyes he could still hear her shouting.
"Daddy, Daddy we won, we won...I have a medal like yours...look...look!"
Kissing her on the forehead Eddie's heart couldn't have filled with any more love and pride if he tried, he still couldn't believe how this little girl kept him grounded and made him see the world in a totally different light, she in many ways had saved him and his relationship with Clark, as this had also changed when she came along, it had made Ed regret all the times he had never been there for him, and he had spent every waking minute from then on making sure that it never happened again and that Clark knew that no matter what was going on his life he would always drop everything for him. Eddie would never forget the day when Clark had been caught in the city's bombings and how he had had to dig his son out of the rubble of the City Hall car park, in all his time as Team Leader of team one in the SRU he had never felt fear like it listening to Clark struggling to breath down the phone and then silence, the thought that his only son had died and there was nothing he could do to stop it nearly sent him over the edge, but thanks to a miracle Clark had survived and Ed was thankful everyday, he had hoped he would never experience that feeling again but with a young child accidents were bound to happen grazed knees and little bumps and his heart had stopped on a few more occasions, never more so then when Sophie had phoned him at work in a blind panic and told him that Izzy had been rushed to hospital after falling off her bike and hitting her head, once again his world stopped, his little girl was serious injured but this time he was totally unable to do anything but stand there and watch the doctors and nurses rushing backwards and forwards administering emergency medical care, but like with Clark someone had smiled down on him that day and Izzy had made a full recovery.
Lost in these memories Eddie didn't hear the door open or Clark calling him, it was only when he placed his hand on his shoulder that he realise his son had come into the room.
Hearing Clark tell him he needed to finish getting ready as it was nearly time to leave Ed just nodded and said that he would be there shortly, knowing his dad was having such a hard time dealing with today he quietly back out of the room and a few seconds later Eddie heard the door close and once again he was alone with his thoughts.
Placing the picture back on the table and letting out a deep sigh he looked around the room remembering all the times when he had to try and squeeze himself onto the small bed so that he could read her a bedtime story or when he had to stay with her the night because of the monster that lived in the closet and she needed her hero to scare it off before she would go back to sleep. He could hear all the years of laughter, the tears, the late night chats when she just needed someone to talk to and all the slamming of doors when it didn't go her way, but no matter what she always came back to him and they always made up over an ice cream chocolate milk shake shared at the kitchen table, he had laughter once when just after she was born Wordy had said to him there was nothing like a bond between a daughter and her father but sure enough he had never felt anything like it and at first it had scared the hell out of him because according to Izzy her daddy could never do anything wrong, she had always looked at him with total unconditional love in her eyes, she never asked anything of him except to love her in return which he did without reserve, Ed couldn't help but smile and wonder how he got so lucky to have two wonderful children and an amazing wife, but now everything had changed and Izzy's routine of always sitting on the bottom stair in the mornings or the evenings waiting for him before he went on shift was now broken and he would no longer sit down next to her as she would put her arms around his neck giving him a cuddle and a kiss telling him she and whichever teddy was her favourite at that time loved him to the moon and back, she would gently rub her hand over his head and wonder off to bed.
Eddie couldn't remember when the curls and bows had turned into perfume and make up or maybe he didn't want to because that way he could kid himself it wasn't real and that he wouldn't have to be letting her go today.