I am amazed at the response this fic has gotten and I am extremely grateful for ever word in the reviews. You all know who you are and I thank you. Thanks especially to britgirl2003, Dopplegriff, Kerche and kandy4eva itsallOC for all their support. Love you gals!

Disclaimer: Don't own any OC character.


Kirsten has fallen asleep exhausted due to a combination of painkillers and the persistent echo of pain that racked through her tiny body. Sandy had been by her side throughout the night holding her small hand as he watched her chest rise and fall and watched her dream. Hopefully not recalling the day before.

He rubbed his thumb gingerly over her hand and absentmindedly grazed her wedding rings. When he saw those rings for the first time in the jewellers all those years ago, he thought they were worthy of her finger. He was prepared to save up money, work double shifts until he passed out just to pay for them and see her eyes light up when he presented it to her. When he actually first put them on her finger he thought it was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen . . . that is after her of course. She always came first.

Now, as he looks at her finger realises that those have rings have been on her finger for nearly twenty years, actually twenty if he had bought them earlier but all the extra hours he put in, although tough, were completely worth it.

She loved her rings and she had kept them all these years and he loved that she still had them on her finger albeit she would have preferred them to be welded to her skin.

After examining the rings fit for a princess he gently stoked her arm.

'How many times have I actually stroked this arms?' he though.

Too many times to count was the answer.

He stroked her arm when she was in his arms as they slept, as he caressed her hand and held her arm during a romantic evening, as he reached to hold her hand and when she cuddled up to him while on the couch.

He was so happy his dream didn't come true and that he could still do this type of thing.

"Sanford?" Caleb said entering the darkened room.

"Ssh," Sandy replied quietly indicating Kirsten, "she's sleeping."

"Sorry," he said closing the door carefully afraid to wake his sleeping daughter, "How long has she been asleep?"

"A couple of hours I guess."

"You? You gotten any sleep?"

"About an hours worth, I couldn't sleep unless I knew she was fine."

"Why don't you go home and get a shower and some rest?"

"I don't wanna leave her," he said tucking a strand of hair behind his wife's ear.

"Well . . . you won't be any good to her exhausted," Caleb stated, "go home . . . I'll take care of her."

Sandy looked up at the aging man that he has fought with for over twenty years because he married Kirsten. They had next to nothing in common but the one thing they agreed on was Kirsten, the welfare of the raven beauty that was lying beside them. Kirsten actually was the only reason Caleb had a heart after the loss of his wife.

"Go," he repeated.

Looking back at how content and peaceful Kirsten appeared in her sleep he sighed and smiled slightly at her.

"Alright, I'll go but I'll be back soon.

"I know."

"Take care of her."

"I will."

As he stood up to leave he gently placed a butterfly kiss on her forehead and Caleb saw a slight tug and her mouth as she smiled at Sandy's touch.

Then as he approached the door to leave he took one last look at the love of his life and absorbed her very glow for he knew he would not be able to make it down the corridor without making doubly sure that she was fine with him that far away.

Caleb took the seat beside his beloved daughter replacing Sandy.

He knew no man could ever replace Sandy in her life.

No man.

He held Kirsten's hand and was brought back to the summer when she was four and was terribly sick. She was rendered bed-ridden against her wishes but she was too sick to do anything besides sleep, drink water and swallow the antibiotics prescribed to her. He gave up work and stayed with his baby girl and was there when she deliriously cried out "Daddy," and he was there to soothe his distressed child.

He held her hand and felt the wedding rings she has welded to her finger.

'How often have I seen her fiddling with those?' he thought.

Too many to count.

She always fiddled with them when she has a problem and she twisted them around her slender finger as if the mere action gave her energy and that the pure essence of Sandy was captured in the diamond of her engagement ring. The one he spent so much time and effort getting for his beautiful daughter. He actually approved of the rings she wore because they were worthy of his little princess.

She loved Sandy. She is in love with Sandy and Caleb knew it.

Once his daughter had her mind set, it was practically impossible to change.

He knew she loved him she he first met Sandy.

He knew when he caught them making out in the swimming pool.

He knew when they got married.

He knew when she gave birth to Seth.

She loved Sandy.

His daughter had grown up.

But as Caleb looked at his blonde daughter he didn't see a thirty-eight year old entrepreneur but he saw his four year old daughter who always ran into his arms when he came home from work and always kissed him once on the cheek when he lifted her up into the safety of his arms.

No matter what age she would be, she will always be his child.

Just as he finished that sentence in his mind Kirsten started to shift and moan.

"Ssh, Kiki, I'm here," he whispered soothingly.

She turned her head away towards the other side of the room and asked, "Sandy?" before opening her eyes.

Seeing that her husband wasn't present at that side she naturally moved her head towards her left and saw Caleb.

"Dad? Hey . . . where's Sandy?" she asked groggily.

"I sent him home to get some rest."

"And he actually listen to you?" she smiled.

"Yeh I guess he did."

"I wonder why that is?"

"Perhaps you getting yourself shot," he muttered under his breath as he stood but Kirsten heard every word. She may be hospitalized but she wasn't deaf.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kirsten asked.

"Why Kirsten?" he asked looking back at her, "Why did you do that?"

"What?" she asked taken aback by his blunt question.

"Why did you have to protect him?"

"Because I love him."

"That's not a reason Kirsten!"

"It is to me."

"How? How is that a reason?"

Kirsten took a quick breath to hide that the echoing pain in her lung was coming, but before Caleb noticed it had subsided.

"Dad, look at me."

He refused.

"Look at me," she asked again and was answered by the raising of his eyes, "do you like seeing me here? Do you?"

"No."

"If Sandy were here in this bed after having a bullet taken out of his chest, I would do everything in my power to trade places with him but I knew that it would hurt far more to look at him in pain than to actually be in myself. I could not live with myself if he ever got hurt for me."

"That's what I get for letting you marrying him," he said under his breath again.

"Excuse me?"

"What about me Kiki?"

"Oh here we go," she groaned as she lay back against the pillows and closed her eyes.

"I promised that I would protect you."

"I never asked you to!" Kirsten replied opening her eyes.

"But your mother did!" he said raising his voice.

Kirsten was taken aback by his sudden outburst and his choice of words.

"What does mom have to do with this?" Kirsten asked as she sat up against the pillows wondering what he meant.

"Nothing."

That wasn't the answer she wanted.

Caleb turned away from his daughter for the millionth time in her life.

She hated it when he did that.

"Dad," she paused, "You can't say something like that and leave it out in the open . . . what has mom got to do with me protecting Sandy?"

Caleb paused as he rehearsed what he was going to tell Kirsten. How was he going to tell her how he has tried to protect her over the last ten odd years?

"B . . . before your mother died she asked me to do something for her . . . naturally I could never refuse your mother, so she made me promise . . . vow even, to protect you from the evil and badness of the world . . . up until now I've succeeded . . . but someone bad hurt you. I've failed your mother."

"Dad . . . if you say you protect me, then why do you hurt me so much?" she asked in a small uncharacteristic voice.

"I don't know honey."

"Look dad, I'm thirty-eight, although I can't believe I'm actually admitting it . . . but I'm thirty eight not eight, I don't need you to protect me every time I turn around or someone steps on my shadow. I've grown up . . . look dad I appreciate you trying to protect me but it's my life-"

"Which you shouldn't be gambling with! You are too precious to this world!" he yelled passionately as he interrupted her and approached her.

"Don't you understand Kirsten? Everyone here revolves around you and believe it or not we rely on you to keep us sane," he said placing his hands on her shoulders and looking into the eyes she inherited from her mother, "When you are happy we are happy, when you are sad, we are sad. . . . if we had have lost you this family would fall apart and we wouldn't know our places . . . you are my baby daughter, my first born child and when I first held you I swore to myself that I would protect you."

"Dad."

"Listen to me Kiki, you are my world and I would do anything for you."

"Anything huh?"

"Anything, you name it."

"Could you let go of me?"

Noticing that his gip had tightened on her shoulders he relinquished his grasp and stood up straight.

"Thank you," she replied massaging her shoulder absentmindedly.

"Kirsten, no matter what age you are you will always be my four year old daughter who ran to me when I came home from work and who I spent two weeks trying to keep her in her bed because she was sick and wanted to dance in the backyard.

Her face softened as he recalled that summer, "Oh dad," she choked as she extended her arms out in a hug in which Caleb went into and held onto his precious daughter.

Coming out of it Kirsten commented, "I've never seen this side of you so I better savour it," she laughed, "but know this . . . if I could do it all over again, I would step in front of that bullet for all eternity because I told mom that I would protect Sandy."

"I know," he said sitting down, "what do you see in him anyway?"

Kirsten laughed at his question and Caleb revelled in hearing his daughter laugh in his presence because recently the only thing he ever saw Kirsten do was be crushed and cry.

"Have you seen him?" she asks raising an eyebrow.

"Kirsten, it's me you're talking to here."

"So?" she laughed again, "I'm only kidding you dad. He's just so wonderful and I love him more than I've loved anyone before in my life. She treats me the way I always of being treated, gently, lovingly and like a princess. Jimmy saw me as a princess – Newport Royalty but Sandy," she said his affectionately, "he treats me like a princess and holds me like at any minute I'm going to break and he is so tender and he just knows exactly what to say and do to make me feel better. I believe in soul mates dad and I believe with all my heart that Sandy is mine."

"That is such sentimental crap," he answered nonchalantly.

Kirsten tilted her head expectantly at him, "Dad."

"I'm sorry Kiki . . . that was lovely what you said, how long have you been rehearsing that?"

"Dad!"

"Kiki?"

"I wrote it in my diary on our first anniversary," she answered looking at her wedding rings.

"Well, I can't believe I am actually going to say this . . . but Sandy is lucky to have you and worthy of my daughter."

"Wow, only twenty one years for you to say that, what took you so long?" she said sarcastically.

"His dedication had shown me this . . . and judging by that sarcastic remark I can tell he has worn off of her."

"Yep that he has," she smiled.

Kirsten looked at her wedding rings and brought them up to her chest and held them firmly in between her thumb and fore finger as she closed her eyes and remembered every second of Sandy placing the rings on her finger.

"Any word when I can get out of here?" she asked.

"They want to keep you one more night and they'll release you tomorrow . . . and don't even try to get out of here before then."

"Don't worry dad, I'm not gonna try and go outside and dance in the backyard with the dog," she laughed.

"That's my girl."

"Thanks dad . . . for being here and for telling me . . . about what mom said."

"She loves you."

"I know," she sighed, "I miss her."

"Me too."

Kirsten placed her hand over her father's and they stayed like that in a comfortable silence and the light of dawn continued to filter into the room.

She couldn't wait for Sandy to be sitting beside her but she was content with her father, no not her father . . . for the first time in a long time she was sitting with her daddy.


That is the new chapter so please please tell me what you think. I know there was practically zero Kandy in this but in upcoming chapters there will be more I promise you that. Again, thank you to all who have reviewed the previous chapters, hugs to all of you. I'm really glad you the story and you are the reason that I keep writing instead of revising for exams, lol. But I'm actually gonna study now, so expect longer gaps between updates.