Best Birthday Ever

1953

"Daddy!"

Farryn shouted in her fathers' ear, shaking his arm in an attempt to wake him up. Unbeknownst to her, he had been awake for the past several minutes, since he heard her not-so-quietly cross the hall into his room. If she ever wanted to sneak up on him, she was going to have to be much quieter than that.

"Wake up!"

He had a feeling he knew exactly why she was trying to wake him up so early. It was her sixth birthday and she was going to have a big party for it. It would be the first one too. Well, not quite. She'd had parties in the past, with a small group of people, like their neighbor and his coworkers' kids' and their families, but this was going to be a much bigger party.

She wanted to invite all her new friends she met at school and wanted to do more than just open presents and have cake. He wasn't exactly up to it at first; he didn't really like other people, human or toon, in his house. But, he couldn't say no to her. And so he had to go out and get a bunch of party supplies and decorations with her. Which was a chore in itself, as she wanted almost everything in sight.

Feeling her poke his side, he rolled over to his other side, still pretending to be asleep, letting out a snore or two to really sell it. He heard her 'quietly' walk to the other side of the bed, stopping directly in front of him again. Just as she was starting to poke him again, he woke up and grabbed her, pulling her onto the bed as she squealed with delight.

"Did you think you could sneak up on me, huh?" he asked her, kissing her cheek while she continued to giggle.

"Daddy, it's my birthday!"

"Is that today?" He asked jokingly, bringing a hand up to his chin, as if he was deep in thought.

"Yes!" She said, bouncing on his stomach.

"Really? How old are you then?"

"I'm 6 now!"

He smiled at this. Six years. He couldn't believe that six years ago she showed up on his porch. Six years ago, he received the best gift he could've ever asked for. A newborn, a little girl, who would wind up wrapping him around her finger. The only thing he cared about in this world, other than himself. It was hard for him to believe that he didn't want her at first, that he almost got rid of her.

That morning, he had thought long and hard about taking her to an orphanage. Sneaking over in the dead of night, newborn quietly sleeping in the basket, and a note he could write up with some kind of sob story about why she was all alone. He could leave her there on the front steps and be gone before anyone even noticed that he was there. And when he succeeded, no one would have been the wiser. No one would have known that he had fathered a child. No one could trace him back to her. She obviously wouldn't have known anything. And he could've moved on with his life as it were, not having a care in the world, being free as he could be, and living the 'good-life', as he had once called it. Not having to care for anyone but himself.

But for some unknown reason, at least at the time, he didn't do that. He kept her, learned how to care for an infant, and got himself cleaned up. The 'sign' he needed, as he liked to call her, to better himself. The last opportunity to change himself before his life would've turned to hell, even worse than it was at the time.

"Birthday party daddy!"

Her voice brought him from his memories and he watched her as his smile spread further across his face.

"Your party isn't until later, sweetheart. But, if you let me get up, how 'bout I make you your favorite breakfast? How's that sound?"

"Chocolate chip pancakes and whipped cream?" She asked, eyes growing wide with excitement. She asked to eat chocolate chip pancakes almost every day and she was lucky to get to eat them once a month. They were messy to make and messy to clean up and just a mess over all. Not only that, but the idea of anything mixed in pancakes, whether it's sweets or fruit, was disgusting to him. Why would you ruin perfectly delicious, golden pancakes with super sweet chips or tangy fruit?

"Whatever you want! This is your special day after all." She started bouncing on his stomach again, becoming more excited about getting to eat one of her so-called 'favorite foods'. He wasn't for sure what her actual favorite was; there were a lot of things she said were her favorite thing to eat. So many, in fact, it seemed to change every week what she wanted.

"Pancakes! Can I help?"

"Well of course you can! I'll even let you crack the eggs."

Beyond excited now, she started to get off the bed, accidently hitting him in the groin with her leg as she did so. Biting back a swear, he grabbed her arm, gently but firmly. She turned to look at him, halfway off the bed, and concerned as to why he was holding her tightly.

"From now on, daddy will get you off the bed."

"Huh?"

"You kicked me while you were getting off the bed."

"I did? I didn't mean too."

"I know you didn't," he sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. If luck had favor on him, she wouldn't ask him why he was in pain from it. He was neither in the mood nor was it the right time to explain.

She continued to look at him, head cocked slightly to the side, still confused somewhat as to what was going on. He realized that she was going to be too old here soon enough to be getting on his bed, let alone picking her up much longer. Considering she didn't understand, he decided just to let it slide. Besides, the pain was starting to subside a little anyways.

"You know what, never mind. It's not important. What is important is getting some food into the birthday girl. Whattya say?"

"Yes!" She said, eyes growing wide again, completely forgetting about being in trouble momentarily. Letting out a slight chuckle, he stood up from the bed and picked her up, giving out a load groan as if she was too heavy to pick up. Which, at six, she practically was.

"Can I open a present?"

"No you may not, silly. You have to wait until the party."

"Please? Just one?" she asked, starting to stick her bottom lip out in a pout.

Damn it. She knows I'm a sucker for that.

"Please daddy? Pretty please with whipped cream and a cherry on top?"

"Nope. Sorry pumpkin. That's not gonna work on me this time." She was giving him the biggest, saddest eyes she could muster, trying to break him. If the 'pretty please' and pout didn't work, then it was an almost guarantee, the eyes would. She always managed to look just sad enough to make him feel bad. Well, almost always.

She should really look into acting when she got older.

Ignoring her look, he dragged a chair over to the counter and set her down on it as he gathered up the ingredients he needed to make the perfect, fluffiest, golden chocolate chip pancakes. Her pout turned into a smile and she began hopping when he got the egg carton out of the fridge. For some reason, she always asked to crack the eggs whenever he got them out. He let her once, about a year ago; his omelet ended up being crunchy and having quite a bit of eggshells in it, that he decided she wouldn't help anymore. But, this was her birthday. It was all about her. And if she wanted to crack eggs for her pancakes, then by god, he was going to let her. Even if it meant he would have to dig through the entire batter to fish all of the small bits of shell out.

He helped her with cracking the eggs against the bowl, much to her protests, but let her open them over the bowl. He was impressed, to say the least. There were still eggshells in the batter, sure, but at least there was a lot less than last time. Digging through the batter, and resisting the urge to make a face at the mess, he began to look for the shells when she spoke up.

"Daddy?"

"Huh?"

"What kinda pancakes did mommy like?"

He paused for a moment, eyes going wide, and dropped some of the shells back into the bowl.

"Wha-what did you say?" he asked, turning to face her.

"What were mommy's favorite pancakes? Did she like chocolate chip too?"

He stared at her a moment, unsure what to say. The question wasn't really a surprise; he just wasn't really prepared for it. She had asked a few years ago why she didn't have a momma like everyone else and he was caught off guard by it. He managed to avoid the question at first by distracting her with some ice cream. But, inevitably, she asked again later when they got home.

It was a dilemma he had been dreading. He hated lying to her, especially about something like that. But he couldn't tell her the truth. She was a child; not only would she not understand the situation, but she'd be confused on having to lie to everyone else. Eventually she'd slip up and tell someone and word would quickly spread. He could care less about what the press would say about him. He did care, however, about what they would say about her and how it would affect her.

He still had no idea if the woman who gave birth to her was even telling the truth about being married. There was a possibility she just said that so she wouldn't be associated with him. Didn't want to be bogged down amidst the constant press, questions, and reputation that came with the cost of having a child with an actor of his caliber. Of course, there was also the chance that she was telling the truth. That her husband wouldn't hesitate to 'do something' should he find out. And if that was the case, he'd rather not know what 'something' was.

Thus, when she had asked him back then, he simply explained to her, in terms a four-year old would understand, that she had died. After asking him some simple questions, she seemed satisfied and he hoped that she wouldn't ask anymore.

But of course, life liked to mess with him.

He tried to run his mind back to his high school years, see if he could remember any specifics about her. The years of heavy drinking and drug abuse had screwed up his memory a little but he couldn't remember them ever talking about the specifics of food. Sure, he remembered what her favorite food was, at least then; raspberries. But he was fairly certain they never talked about what they liked with their pancakes, how they ate spaghetti, or anything like that.

Well, he was already lying to her about one thing. Might as well keep it up.

"Momma? She liked…uhh…bananas and peanut butter with hers."

"Was she good at cooking?"

"Yes." He chuckled. "Yes she was. I thought she was one of the best." Now that part was true. She'd made dinner for them a few times way back then. And even though she was still learning how to cook at the time, he thought her food always tasted good. Better than his, at least.

"I bet she never burnt pancakes."

"Hey, I only did that one time! "

"But they were yucky! And the whole house was stinky!" Chuckling again, he began to pick up the shells again, making sure there weren't any small pieces hiding in the batter.

"Would she have liked me?" She asked, her voice sounding sad.

He paused for a moment, not out of surprise, but trying to think. He would assume she would have loved her if it were under different circumstances. But some of her choices made him question it. She gave the baby to him of all people. Not that he cared now; she was the best thing to happen to him. But he would have never given his past self another life to look after. Leaving her outside, where anyone could've taken her or worse, had the weather been nasty that day. The fact she didn't want to associate with her. Maybe she couldn't for whatever reason, but he would've thought that maybe she would send a letter or two, simply asking him how she was or send a picture or something of the sort. She was, after all, her child too. But there was nothing ever like that in the mail.

She was still looking at him, patiently waiting for an answer. Figuring that, once again, not explaining to her was the better option, and also not wanting to ruin her birthday, he decided to simply tell her what she wanted to hear.

"Of course she would've. I know that she would've loved you very much."

Happier now, she hugged him. He returned it, placing his arm around her and squeezing her into his side. He stood there for a few moments, her hugging him tightly and him running his mind, still unsure if he did the right thing or not. His concentration broke when he heard her stomach growl slightly and he glanced down.

"Either someone's hungry or we have a lion running around here." She giggled and looked up at him and he gave her kiss on her head before going back to finishing up the pancakes.

Hopefully without any more surprises.

~XXXX~

"Happy Birthday to You!" All the childish voices sang out loudly, very off key and some of the words being forgotten. Farryn pushed her party hat out of her face and blew out the six candles on her cake; a small, round pink cake with white frosting decorating it and 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' written across it with blue lettering, her favorite color.

Cutting the cake and giving the pieces to the sugar-hungry little monsters, some of which almost made him drop the plate at how quickly they were trying to grab a piece, Fletcher finally managed to sneak away for a moment when everyone had their piece. Walking quickly up the stairs to the hall table, he grabbed his camera, ensured there was film in it, and headed back downstairs. She still wasn't really a fan of pictures, but he was hoping with all of her little friends around and having fun, she wouldn't make a big deal out of it this time.

Walking back down to the living room, trying not to get mad at the mess being made on his furniture, he started turning the crank at the bottom of the machine when he heard her call him.

"Daddy, are you gonna take a picture?"

"Uh, yes, actually I-"

"Can you take one of me with my friends?" He simply blinked at her. He wasn't really wanting a picture of the other kids; just her. It's wasn't their special day. They weren't his kids. They didn't necessarily matter.

"Actually, Rynnie, I-"she grinned widely at him, expecting him to say yes. He really didn't want to, but the longer he looked at her smile, the longer he noticed how genuinely happy she was. Not that she wasn't usually; she was a pretty happy kid. But he'd noticed recently she seemed to be happier being around other kids. Having a chance to be a normal kid, having fun with others her age instead of hanging around her father who typically shielded her from the press and various fans that asked her things.

At the same time, he DID want a picture of her for her birthday. Not to mention, she had ASKED him to take one of her; a rarity. Deciding to take her willingness for a photo, he sighed, knowing that, as usual, she had managed to get her way. If she didn't end up being a spoiled brat later, he would start going to church for once in his life.

"I guess that's alright. Uh, everyone gather 'round Farryn and give a big smile."

The children giggled and congregated behind the table, all smiles with cake on their faces, and party hats hanging off at all angles. They shouted 'Cheese!' in disunion and faced towards his camera, as the flash went off, causing them to laugh momentarily before they hurried off outside to play some game and, hopefully, wear off some of that sugar they'd eaten.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he exhaled sharply through his nose and shook his head, quickly heading outside before any of the little mischief-makers could break his -or his neighbors'-windows.

~XXXX~

"I won Daddy!" Farryn said happily laughing and clapping her hands.

"Yes you did munchkin. By a long shot too!"

The party had ended a few hours ago and after begrudgingly picking up the garbage left behind by the children and making dinner, she had asked if they could play with one of her new presents she had gotten; The chutes and ladders board game. It was a fairly easy game of luck, which wasn't with him this time through. He kept landing on the chutes and practically having to start over, while she kept climbing. He was ok with it though. It was still her birthday and she ought to win at whatever game they played.

She let a big yawn, obviously tired from her fun filled, busy day.

"Looks like someone is getting tired."

"I'm not tired," she said, rubbing her eye with her palm.

"I think you are, honey. But hopefully not tired enough to want to open two more presents." At the mention of presents, her drowsiness seemed to have melted away and was replaced with a bright, wide smile.

"Presents?"

"Yep. I gotcha two more." He said as he pulled the first one, a box that was about half her height and wrapped in bright pink wrapping paper with a silver bow, from behind the couch. She stared at it with awe at first, before gently taking the bow off, and putting it on her head. She stripped away the paper slowly and took the box in her hands to look at it. Called Toonettes and marketed to little toon girls, they were dolls that were made to order to resemble the child. They came with one set of clothes, but many lines of clothes were on the market, as well as furniture sets, a dollhouse, toy cars, and anything else of the sort. While the doll by itself was relatively inexpensive, the combined sets and accessories made it one of the most expensive and widely popular toys on the market.

He happened to overhear her one day talking to her best friend about it. Saying how she had seen the doll at the store or some of her friends had them and how she wanted one too. Glad he could get her something that she wanted, without having to tell him much less, he was well prepared to shell out more money for any of the other sets and accessories she would no doubt want.

"Is this me?" She asked, pointing to the doll, not looking up at him.

"Sure is." He hoped she liked it. She didn't seem happy about it and he was worried he wasted money on something he thought she would like. But much to his relief, her smile began to spread across her face. Hugging the box to her, she looked up at him, eyes bright and a large smile.

"Thank you! I've always wanted one of these! I think it's perfect! I love it!"

"I'm glad you love it sweetheart!" He said with a smile, glad to see she was so excited about her present. "Do you wanna know what you're second present is?"

"Yes!"

"You know how you've been asking me about gymnastics?" She nodded her head, her eyes wide with curiosity and excitement. "Well, starting in January, you're going to be taking classes!"

"Really? Oh thank you thank you thank you Daddy!" She said as she dropped the box and hugged him as tightly as she could. She looked up at him as he returned her hug, her smile so wide it looked like it hurt her cheeks.

"I love both of my presents very much! They are the best presents ever!"

"You're welcome kiddo. I'm glad you like them."

Another yawn escaped her mouth, as she tried her best to stop it and failing.

"I think it's time we get you to bed. It's past your bedtime and you've been running around all day," He said, standing up and offering her his hand. She let out a small groan in protest, but ultimately took his hand. Quietly, they started walking towards the stairs when she spoke up.

"Wait, Daddy. Don't we gotta put the picture up?"

"Picture?"

"The one you took earlier of me and my friends!"

"Oh. I was gonna put it up later, before I went to bed."

"Can I put it up? Please?" She asked gripping his hand with hers. It was just a picture; it wasn't that big of a deal who placed it on the fridge. But it was her birthday and she was allowed to do almost whatever she wanted, not matter how small. Besides, it was the one she had asked him to take. It was kind of her picture, in a way.

"Well, ok. I guess you can put it on the fridge." She smiled widely and started to pull him towards the kitchen. Standing on her toes, she reached onto the table, grabbing the picture where she had last seen it. She looked up at the fridge, trying to find an empty space to put it. There was nary a spot available as the whole thing was now covered in pictures and her drawings of all sorts.

"Can I put it on the side?" she asked, noticing how bare the side of the fridge actually looked. He would've rather put it on the front, where everyone could see it. But seeing no space available, he decided the sides would have to do.

"You can put it wherever you want to sweetheart. You can even pick out the magnets!"

"I wanna put it up there", she said pointing to near the top of the fridge. "And I wanna use the purple magnets."

Putting his hands under her arms, he lifter her up as she placed the picture on the fridge. Stepping back, it looked a little out of place compared to the others; alone on a bare background and slightly tilted. But it didn't matter he supposed. It would fill up with others' rather quickly, just as the front did.

"There. Happy now?" he asked, holding her against his hip. "Good," he replied when she nodded. "No more dilly dallying now. It's bed time."

She nodded again before wrapping her arms around his neck tightly.

"Thank you Daddy for the best birthday ever."

"You're very welcome sweetheart," he said as he kissed her head. At least she was happy with how her party turned out. It seemed liked she had a lot of fun, running around playing games with her friends, opening presents, and just plain having a good time. He might not have had a good time with it having to clean up after everyone, all the yelling that rang in his ears, and feeling more like a wrangler than a parent. But it was worth it if she was happy.

Even if it meant he'd have to repeat it all again for the next years.