A/N: As requested I wrote another story, doesn't go off the last one, but is in the same a/u. Thanks for the R&R's they made me smile.
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You'll always be my little Girl
She was his little girl. He held her so tight at 1st that Taylor had to tell him to let go or she'd slip right out of his hands. Ryan then clumsily handed her over to Taylor, he was afraid of hurting her in any way. Taylor had let Ryan chose her name, she figured if she got to carry there little girl inside her, he should be able to name her and he'd picked what she had expected him to. And just like that, Marissa Anne Atwood was born. She was a healthy 8 lb. baby, all smiles and sunshine. Yet it only took Taylor a week to notice something wrong between her and her daddy.
Ryan never called her by her name. He had invented a million and one nicknames, from 'baby M' to 'little bubble'. He was always tender around her, keeping his voice soft and soothing and only making the most deliberate and slow movements, as not to disturb her, yet Taylor knew she was going to have to talk to him about it.
One night, after Marissa had gone to bed, Taylor and Ryan where snuggling on the couch having a glass of wine, Taylor decided it was time.
"You're going to have to some time you know," she stated matter-of-factly.
"Have to what?" He asked, genuinely confused about the moment, sure he knew he didn't call his baby Marissa, but he didn't think Taylor had noticed. Apparently he had thought wrong.
"Call her by her name."
"Yeah I guess your right." Ryan didn't feel like denying it, there was no use in that anyway. It wasn't that he didn't love his little girl, and it wasn't that he hadn't gotten over Marissa; after all he did love Taylor. Yet for some reason he didn't know, every time he thought of saying her name he got a little chocked up inside.
"Ryan, what's wrong?" Taylor wanted to know why he couldn't say his baby's name. "You did choose her name after all."
"I know," Ryan said, trying his best to remain patient. He had named her and he had wanted Marissa's memory to live on. So what he should have done was get used to the idea.
"Ryan, I'm not going to pretend to know what you're feeling. I'm not going to tell you to call her by her name. But I am going to tell you that I didn't let you name our little girl so that you could stand around and think of a million ways to avoid calling her by said name. Just remember, your daughter and I love you."
As Taylor ascenede towards their room Ryan heard his daughter cry. He headed towards her room down the hall. The walk seemed to take forever, but by the time he got there Ryan Attwood knew what he had to do. He held his daughter tighter than he ever had before, rocking her to sleep. And as he layed her back in her crib he whispered softly in her ear:
"Good night, I love you Marissa Ann."