'What book do we 'ave tonight?' The gruff voice asks, as the child comes and sits on the sofa, clad in her pyjamas with her rabbit, clutching a purple book. 'Ahh, Dr Seuss.'

'Dr what?' The child asks, moving into the man's side, as he places an arm around her, it's like one of those idyllic pictures, the cliché family picture. Dad and daughter, whilst mum is finishing up at work, a late meeting. One she hadn't wanted to go to, but she had been persuaded by her partner that he was more than capable of giving the child dinner and putting her to bed. She just wished she'd be there for bedtime, not that she didn't think he wasn't qualified, she wanted to be there. She didn't want to be the absent parent. Peter had told her that one meeting wasn't going to equate to absenteeism.

'Seuss. He wrote the cat in the hat.'

'I like that one.'

'I know you do, princess. Have you brushed your teeth?' She nods, baring her teeth to show her dad. 'Good girl.'

'Juice?' His laugh echoes throughout the house.

'You know mummy would kill me.'

'Mummy ain't 'ere.'

'Isn't here.' He corrects her, 'ain't is from the south.' He puts on a cockney accent, making the girl laugh, moving even closer to her dad. 'We're from t'North. Anyway, this book.'

'It's purple.'

'Did you choose the book from the load mummy ordered?' She nods, looking at it.

'Purple, my favourite.'

'Let's get started them.' He asks, 'ohh' he gasps, making a face, 'the places you'll go.'

'Oh, the places you'll go.' She repeats, touching the front cover.

'Congratulations today is your day. You're off to great places! You're off and away!' He turns the pages, as she examines the page. 'You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.'

'Feet in my shoes? That's silly.'

'You have shoes on your feet.'

'It sounds silly daddy.'

'You can steer yourself any direction you choose. And you're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.' He continues. 'You'll go great places, princess.'

'Will i?'

'Hmm. You have your mummy's brains, and tenacity.'

'Tenaaacicity?'

'Tenacity, it means stubbornness.' Sometimes he forgets she's six, she seems so little, but sometimes so grown-up. He uses words like this, and she gets confused.

'I'm only in year one, daddy.'

'You'll look up and down streets . Look over 'em with care. And some you will say "I don't chose to go there." With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not so good street.'

'Like where mummy grew up? That's a bad street, she said so.'

'Yeah, just like that.'

'How won't i?'

'The book tells you, doesn't it? You have brains in your head, you aren't stupid my love.'

'No?'

'You may not find any you'll want to go down.' He continues, 'in that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town. It's opener there, in the wider air.' He keeps reading as she looks at the pictures, he can almost feel her eyes closing.

'I'm sorry to say, but sadly it's true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you. You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a lurch. You'll come down from the lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, you'll be in a slump. And when your in the slump , you'e not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not much fun.'

'What does that mean?' He pauses, contemplating what to say to his daughter.

'It means that, sometimes, things are hard. Things will be really hard, and you'll get down.'

'But they'll get better?'

'They will.' He doesn't elaborate on how hard it can be to get up from these "slumps" because she's six and doesn't know what it means. But she will, in time, she will get into one of these. It's inevitable. He just hopes he'll be there to protect her, to love her and help her though it. He can't tell what is going to happen in the future, he just knows he wants to be in it, be there to protect her from everything that is bad in the world.

He knows that he won't be, not forever. He's getting on, that's not a secret, he hopes he's around long enough, though, to see her through the storm that is being a teenager and a young adult. Guiding her so she doesn't make the mistakes he did.

'Have you been in one?'

'Been in a slump?' She nods, stroking her toys ears. 'Yes, my love, yes I have. But I got through it, mummy was a big help.'

'I love mummy.'

'She loves you too. You'll come to a place where streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But most of them are darkened. A place you can sprain your elbow and your chin.'

'Can you sprain chin? I sprained my wrist. Painful.'

'I know it was baby, but I'm not sure. Maybe.'

'I like the pictures.' She tells him, trying to turn the page.

'Do you dare stay out? Do you dare go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?' These words ring true in Peters heart, almost like their speaking to him more than Delilah. To her, this is just a funny book with pictures. To him, as an adult, he can see the deeper meaning, the one about choices and weighing up choices to decide.

Both him and Carla had made choices, both small and big. Some that were amazing and some that was catastrophic. The biggest choice they made was to carry on with her pregnancy, what harm could it have done? It was the best decision they'd ever made; their daughter was beyond perfect. But in these moments, when they were talking about the choices, his mind flashes back to Simon and all the choices he made, the affair coming out, custody of him and everything he put him through. The bad choices and the good choices. At six, she hadn't made any serious choices, ones that were life and death. And he prayed to God, one he didn't really believe in, that she would never have to make those sorts of decisions. That she'd have a great life, one where she didn't have to make tough decisions.

He knew it wasn't going to be like that, but he could hope.

'Daddy, finish the story.'

'And IF you go in, should you turn left or right, or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quire? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind. You'll get so confused that you'll start to race down long wiggled roads at a neck-breaking pace and grind on for miles across weirdest wildish space, headed, I fear toward a most useless place. The waiting place.'

'The what?'

'The waiting place.'

'What's that.' He takes a moment to gather his thoughts, unsure as to what to say. What even is the waiting space? Is it the space where he waited for Carla to come back to him, deep down he knew she would? After everything with Toyah, he didn't have to stay around. He'd left Simon once before; he could do it again. He was, essentially, an adult. But he thought he had a chance; he'd been her saviour then it started to go wrong. But then all the waiting was worth it, it took nearly a year. But it was so, so, worth it.

'It's where you wait for something, you wait for something good.'

'Like my pocket money?'

'Yes.' He tells her, although it's nothing like that. 'It's like when you've done your chores and you're waiting for your pocket money.' He continues reading, until she stops him.

'Elephants.' She grins, 'I like ele'ant's.'

'I know you do.'

'Can we see one?'

'Maybe one day we'll go to see one, we'll have to ask mummy, though.'

'I will.' She promises him, like it's him that wants to see the animals.

'With banner flip-flapping once more you'll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you're that kind of guy!'

'But I'm a girl.'

'It's just a word that they use. Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be had. There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.'

'Like when I scored the winning goal in football? That was fun, we won because of it.'

'You did brilliantly, you won player of the match, didn't you? I was so proud, just like I am every day.'

'Why?'

'Because you're amazing.'

'Am I?'

'You are. In the future, people may try to tell you that you aren't, tell you that you don't look a certain way, or you don't like certain things. But you need to know that you are.'

'Why?'

'Because people are mean, and they get jealous. They'll try to make you feel bad because they are unhappy, but you need to remember that you are good enough. You don't need to be anyone apart from you, because you're amazing. I want you to always remember that.'

'I will.' She promises him solemnly. 'I will.'

'Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you on TV. Except when they don't. Because, sometimes, they won't. I'm afraid that sometimes you'll play lonely games. Games you can win 'cause you'll play against you.'

'What does that mean?'

'It means that sometimes you will be on your own, but that's okay because it will pass.'

'Have you been on your own?'

'Yes, but it's okay.'

'Is it?' He nods,

'I believe that everything happens for a reason.'

'Really?' He hums in response, squeezing her a little tighter and kissing her head as he continues reason. 'Is that the Loch Ness monster?' She asks, as he turns the page. The Loch Ness monster was something Ken had told her about and now she was mesmerised by the idea of the magical beast and he hadn't the heart to tell her it didn't exist, she wanted to meet it. It was these little things that made his heart hurt, desperate to protect her from everything bad in the world, to keep this innocence.

'But on you will go, through weather be foul. On you will go through enemies' prowl. On you will fo the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sort and your sneakers may leak.'

'Sneakers?'

'Trainers, Americans call them sneakers. On and on you will hike. And I know you'll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.'

'Like when we went away with uncle Daniel and Bertie, for the boring walking holiday.'

'I thought you enjoyed it.' He asks, as she nods.

'I did, but why did we have to look at all those boring things.' She tells him, looking up at her dad. 'It was so booooring.' He laughs, rolling his eyes.

'Don't let uncle Daniel, or grandad Ken, hear you say that.' He quietens her down, reading the next page.

'And will you succeed? Yes! Yes, you will indeed. 98 and ¾ per cent guaranteed.'

'3/4?'

'It's a silly phrase.'

'Kid.' He roars, in an American accent 'YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!' She giggles, 'So… be your name Buxbaum or Bixy or Bray or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea.'

'That's a long name. Longer than mine and mine is loooong.'

'You're off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So, get on your way.' He pauses, looking at her. 'Did you enjoy that?'

'Yes.' She grins, 'can we have another one?'

'No, it's a school night and it's bedtime.'

'Mummy's not here.'

'Why?'

'She's coming back from work. She'll say goodnight when she gets him.'

'What if I'm asleep.'

'Then she'll still say goodnight.' He promises, lifting her up and carrying her up the stairs. 'You're lucky you're so small. Otherwise, you'd have to walk. C'mon, lets get you into bed.' He jumps as he sees a figure in the room.

'Mummy!'

'When'd you get back?'

'You were reading. I thought I'd get changed.'

'You were dead quiet.' She smiles, going to sit on her daughters' bed.

'It sounded like a good book.'

'It was.' Her daughter quips, 'it was about me being good.'

'Was it?'

'Kind of. It was about going on a journey, the journey that is life. Now give me a kiss.' She nods as the pair say goodnight to the child.

'Love you mummy and daddy.' They watch as the child settles down, before making their way downstairs.

A/N thought's? I thought this book was quite cute (Oh, the places you'll go by Dr Seuss). Obviously, I haven't written the whole book out, but I've included sections and if you haven't read it you should! It's a kids book but I've had to read it for some work and as I've reread as I've got older, it's become more poignant and I've tried to echo that with Peter. This wasn't the chapter I was originally going to post (coming up you have a Carter holiday coming up) but I couldn't resist writing this- it seemed the perfect opportunity.