Javier was nervous, because today, he would see his daughter for the first time.

They had in the last few weeks only the phone, as he had agreed with Lanie that Maya shouldn't see him until he was able to sit for long periods.

The phone calls with Maya had mostly been brief, which was understandable, after all, Maya didn't even knew the man with whom she telephoned. The phone calls and conversations with Lanie had significantly longer, even when it was mostly just about Maya. Questions of Lanie how he was, he always answered evasively, he didn't want to tell her how much he missed her, because he was afraid to make everything more complicated.

He lay in his bed, waiting for his visit. It was one of the first warm days of the year and the sun shone through his window, as it knocked at his door.

Lanie came in and held Maya's hand.

"Hey you two," Esposito smiled at them both.

"Hello Javi," Lanie greeted him while Maya holding her stuffed dog and timidly pressed to her mother's leg.

"Hey, don't you want to welcome Javi," Lanie wanted to know from her daughter while she crouched down beside her, to be at eye level.

Maya eyed him, then whispered a quiet "hello" before turning back to her mother cuddling her face in the neck of her mum.

"I'm sorry, she's always a bit shy with strangers," said Lanie, picked up her daughter and went to Javi.

"It's okay," said Javier, ignoring the pain of the fact that he was a stranger to his daughter.

Lanie had set on the chair beside Javier's bed, with Maya on her lap and the two didn't talk for long, as Maya whispered something in her ear.

Lanie smiled at her daughter. "You'll have to ask him yourself," she said.

Maya looked wide-eyed first at Lanie and then at her father.

"May I pet your hair?" Maya asked Javier quietly.

Javier looked surprised. "Of course," he answered, smiling.

"I think she likes your hair because you're the first black-haired man she meets, our fathers had both been gray hairs," explanied Lanie and sat Maya on the bed of her father.

Maya put her stuffed dog on Javier's belly, crawled to the head end and gently caressed the short hairs and chuckled. "It feels funny," she said, giggling.

Javier bit her lips and Lanie realized that he was fighting back tears, but finally lost this fight. He wiped the tear away hastily, but Maya had seen it.

"Why are you crying," she asked seriously, and took her hand out of his hair.

"Because I am so happy that I can meet you," Javier said honestly.

Maya looked at him and didn't know how she should classify this information. Then she smiled at him, took her stuffed dog and gave it to Javier.

"This is Buddy and he always helps when I cry, you can hold him till mom and I go, maybe he will help you, too," said Maya.

Javier smiled and took the dog from his daughter.

Lanie watched it smiling, Maya usually took much longer to thaw with new people and that she gave her beloved stuffed animal to Javier was really extraordinary. Maybe Maya felt the same comforting feeling of safety that even she still had when Javier was nearby.

The three spent a happy afternoon together, they went out to the playground, where Javier was still confined to a wheelchair, until he will be able to walk longer distances, he still had a long way to go.

The only painful for Javier was the goodbye.

Knowing that Lanie and his daughter went to another man home, broke his heart, but he knew he had to cope with that and he'd somehow manage to do, because ho would do everything to be a part in the life of his daughter.


Sorry that it took me so long for the next update, but the last weeks have been busy.

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