She hadn't wanted to hit him with it the moment he came through the door, but she believed it was that important. He had to know the things Maggie had shared with her and it couldn't wait. He went from an anger that came close to rage to sadness and a hint of regret in a span of about five minutes and finally put his hands over his face and let his head fall back onto the back of the couch.
"I wonder why Stacy never told me how she really felt about what happened between us. Do you think she believes I forced her to have and keep the baby?" Jack mumbled.
"I think Stacy is sick Jack and that she hasn't always felt that way." Kate said.
"Those kinds of feelings don't just manifest as part of an illness. They had to be there all along." Jack argued.
"Jack why do you care how Stacy does or doesn't feel about you?" Kate asked.
"I guess I don't, but if she really felt that way why not just say so? I would've taken Maggie." Jack said.
"Probably because she wanted that baby as much as you did, but when things got difficult it was easier to justify blaming and being angry with you then projecting that onto an innocent child." Kate said.
"So then I haven't been wrong all these years?" Jack asked, unable to mask the guilt he was feeling.
"Wrong about what?" Kate asked.
"About Stacy and what kind of mother she was." Jack said.
"I've never met the woman Jack, but I have met Mike and I saw how much he loves Maggie so I'm guessing he would've let you know if there were any reason to be concerned." Kate offered.
"I don't know what to think anymore Kate. I have all these horrible ideas about what Bill may or may not have done to my daughter floating around in my head and the fact that Maggie is behaving like a child that has been traumatized in some manner doesn't help ease my concerns. I think I'm going to ask around, find someone that is really good with kids and schedule her an appointment sometime after Christmas." Jack said.
Maggie could feel the gentle hand on her shoulder, recognizing it and opening her eyes for a moment before rolling onto her side and closing her eyes again.
"Hey sleepy-head, its dinner time." Jack said and shook her again.
She lay still for a moment before opening her eyes and rolling onto her back again. She smiled at him and sat up. He felt her forehead and her face and returned the smile.
"Kate said you weren't feeling well. No fever. Are you feeling better?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm just really hungry. Did you see the cookies we made?" She asked.
"See them? I ate them. They were good." He told her.
"You ate all of them?" She gasped.
"No, I saved one for you." He teased.
"Daddy, that's a lot of cookies." She giggled.
"I only ate two of them. Come on, Kate says dinner is ready and it won't be good cold." Jack said and walked her out of the bedroom.
He watched her struggle with her knife and fork and finally spoke up.
"What's going on Maggs?" Jack asked.
"I don't know, my hand feels funny." Maggie said.
"What do you mean funny?" Jack asked.
"Kind of tingly and like it's too tired to do anything." Maggie said.
"Did it feel funny before you fell on your arm yesterday?" Jack asked.
"I don't know." Maggie said.
"Come here." Jack said.
"Dad, I'm hungry." Maggie protested.
"Go ahead honey and I'll cut that up for you." Kate offered.
Maggie sighed heavily, rolled her eyes and walked over to where her father was seated. He took hold of her arm and began squeezing gently, stopping when she indicated he hit a tender spot and pulled her arm away from him.
"Sorry. Did you fall directly on your elbow baby?" He asked, noticing that she was becoming agitated and doing his best to use his daddy tone instead of his doctor tone.
"I guess. Dad it's fine." She grumbled.
"It's not fine, it's bruised and swollen and affecting a very important nerve in that area and that's why your hand feels funny. If it doesn't feel better in a couple of days we're getting it x-rayed." Jack told her and decided to leave her alone, not wanting to spend his first evening home in 4 days battling with her.
After dinner Jack led Maggie into his bedroom and she stopped suddenly and pulled away from him.
"Am I in trouble?" Maggie asked.
"No, why would you think you're in trouble?" Jack asked.
"Because parents take their kids into other rooms when they want to punish them." Maggie said.
"Yeah, well I'm not picky about where I dole out punishment. Is there some reason you think you'd be getting punished?" He asked.
"Maybe, but she said she wasn't going to tell you." Maggie said.
"Tell me what?" Jack asked remaining calm and feeling somewhat amused that she was ratting herself out.
"Do I have to tell you?" She asked.
"Yeah, I think you do now that you've more or less admitted you did something you think I wouldn't be too happy about." Jack said.
"I got mad at Kate and called her a really bad name. She told me I had to go to my room and stay for 30 minutes, but I ran out the front door instead. I apologized to her today dad and she said you didn't need to know about all of our disagreements just the really big ones and I agree with her." Maggie stated her case, the last part forcing him to bite back the grin that wanted to spread across his face.
"So you fell down and hurt your arm because you were acting up and running away from Kate?" Jack asked still attempting to hide his amusement.
"Yeah." Maggie sighed heavily expecting to be sent to bed or have something else taken away from her.
"Okay." He said.
"Really, that's all? You're not going to punish me?" She asked.
"No, if Kate didn't think I needed to know about it then I'm okay with letting her handle it however she handled it. Besides, I think the whole falling down and hurting yourself might've been some kind of cosmic punishment." He said and finally chuckled unable to hold it back any longer.
"So what are we doing?" She asked, not as amused as he was.
"I want to show you something." He said and disappeared into his closet.
He exited the closet with a stack of DVDs and they walked back out into the living room and set them on the coffee table.
"What are these?" Maggie asked.
"These are you. I never get to celebrate your birthday with you Maggie, well except for the day you were born, so every year on your birthday I gather all the pictures I've taken over the past year and the ones you and your mom have sent me and I arrange them the way I want them and put them on a DVD. The first few years I'd take them somewhere and have them set to music on a DVD, but I do it all myself now." Jack told her.
"These are all of me?" Maggie asked.
"Yes, one for each year of your life. I miss you when I'm not with you and having pictures of you sitting around to remind me every day that I couldn't hug you or talk to you or just watch you sleep isn't really how I deal with things like that so I made these instead." Jack told her, his eyes soft and watery.
"Do you watch them?" She asked.
"I watch them on your birthday and on Christmas day, but I guess I'm going to have the real thing with me for Christmas this year." Jack said growing concerned when the child's eyes filled with tears.
"You spent Christmas by yourself watching DVDs of me? Daddy that's so sad." Maggie said and hugged him.
"No, it wasn't sad and I was never sad. Watching these always made me smile and laugh and then you'd call me and tell me everything you got for Christmas and I always knew you were happy so I was happy too. Don't cry baby. I just need you to believe that I have always loved you and wanted you and I'm so sorry that someone tried to make you believe that I didn't. I know I haven't been the greatest dad and that we never saw each other enough, but there was never one single day that I wasn't thinking about you." Jack told her.
"I think you're the best dad in the world. I'm really sorry I've been such a pain daddy." She told him and kissed him on the cheek.
"I know you are and I'm really sorry that the grown-ups in your life have been upsetting you so much that maybe you can't control all the anger that builds up. You'd tell daddy if somebody hurt you wouldn't you Maggie?" He asked gently and carefully.
"Uh huh, can we watch these dad?" She asked, leaving him unable to read her or determine if she was suppressing something.
"Sure, which year would you like to watch. Age six is pretty cute because you're were missing quite a few teeth at different intervals that year." He teased.
"That's not funny dad. I looked like a jack-o-lantern. Let's watch the one when I'm a little baby. I like it when you tell me story about the night I was born." She said.
Kate stood in the doorway between the kitchen and living room and watched the two of them, smiling and believing that Jack must've made the most of whatever time he did get to spend with his daughter because they had that very special daddy/daughter bond that all fathers and daughters should have and you don't form a bond like that with your child without some genuine heartfelt effort. She could feel her heart swell as they watched the pictures flash across the screen and he could tell Maggie exactly how many weeks or months old she was in each picture, the allegedly absentee father obviously only absent in body, his heart and soul connected to his little girl in all the ways they should be as far as she was concerned. She heard him begin to describe the events of the night she was born, smiled and turned away, deciding to tackle the dirty kitchen and allow such an intimate moment to be kept just between the two of them because she believed it was important for Maggie to have that type of quality one on one time with Jack.
She exited the bathroom, her skin still warm and pink from the hot bath, the loose fitting flannel pajama pants with the alien looking little green frogs all over them, complimented by a loose fitting t-shirt oddly attractive to him. He stopped trying to understand why seeing her dressed that way made him feel warm and protective and want to snuggle up with her and eventually make sweet, slow passionate love to her, content to be glad that just seeing Kate could trigger deep, stirring emotions that had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with loving someone with all your heart. He held up the wine bottle and two wine glasses and smiled at her.
"Did you come in here to get me drunk so you could take advantage of me?" She asked.
"No." He answered.
"That's too bad, because I would've let you." She said and winked at him.
"It's a beautiful night and Maggie is asleep. I thought we could grab a blanket, sit on the deck, drink wine and watch the stars or talk or make out or all of the above." He offered, with a shy, sexy grin.
"All of the above sounds nice." She said, kissing him quickly, grabbing the wine bottle from his hand and grabbing a handful of his jeans covered ass with the other.
They sat under the blanket on the double chaise lounge, sipping wine and enjoying the clear, crisp night air. He took the last sip of the wine in his glass and leaned over her, kissing her softly, being sweet, tender and romantic. She held to the back of his neck, not quite ready for him to pull back yet and they deepened the kiss, keeping it slow and sensual and finally breaking for air, their foreheads touching and him gently tracing her jaw line with his thumb.
"You're so beautiful Kate. I don't tell you that enough." He said.
"Somebody is certainly in a sweet, gushy mood tonight and I like it a lot." She told him and kissed him again.
"I have a present for you. It was supposed to be for Christmas, but I thought you might want to wear them to the party tomorrow night." He said, reaching under the chaise lounge, retrieving a square box and handing it to her.
She opened the lid and gasped, the diamond pendant necklace and matching diamond earrings easily the most beautiful pieces of jewelry anyone had ever given her.
"Jack, they're beautiful, but it's too much. I don't deserve this and I didn't get you anything this great." She said and tried to hand it back to him.
"You do deserve it so put them on for me before you hurt my feelings and force me to polish off this bottle of wine and try to drown myself in the ocean." He teased and kissed the tip of her nose.
"If that means I get to see you naked and give you a bath, I might have to let you do that." She said, both of them laughing lightly as they recalled their disastrous first date.
She put the earrings in and let him help her with the necklace. He gazed at her for a moment and kissed her again.
"So what do you think? Will they look good with my dress?" She asked.
"Not quite. There's still one thing missing." He said and pulled a small box out of his pocket, popping the lid to reveal the diamond ring inside, smiling and feeling confident when he saw her eyes fill with tears of what he hoped were happiness.
"Will you marry me?" He asked.