Look at the two of you dancin' that way

Lost in the moment and each other's face

So much in love, you're alone in this place

Like there's nobody else in the world

Usually, William "Billy" Hargrove wasn't the type of guy to stand in a corner and watch a party unfold in front of him, but tonight was an exception, champagne glass in hand as he watched his daughter Susanna have her first dance with her now-husband, the other wedding guests and Steve crowded around the dance floor.

All the lights had a soft warm glow in various colours and they reflected off the sequins on his baby girl's dress, him smiling at her antics while he was far away, laughing as she spun like she was a child again, totally carefree and independent. He couldn't believe sometimes that she was 20, married to her high school sweetheart and in college.

Honestly, if he and Steve had never had her, the world would be a different place.

I was enough for her not long ago

I was her number one, she told me so

And she still means the world to me, just so you know

So be careful when you hold my girl

Susanna has thankfully inherited most of Max's traits as well as her kindness, as even when she was a really small child, she practically treated everyone like they were the best thing to ever be on the Earth and he as well as Steve couldn't be more blessed with such a perfect child the second go around with Max being their surrogate after the first failed.

Time changes everything, life must go on

And I'm not gonna stand in your way

She was also their pride and joy, a stage 5 clinger of a little girl that wanted to be with them, wherever they were, any second of the day, even up to her tweens, which kind of rocked Billy's world as well as Steve's secretly after having no one really love them before like that.

But I loved her first, I held her first

And a place in my heart will always be hers

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

Now, 20 years on from the first time she'd been placed in his arms, wide-eyed and unafraid of the people that she'd come to know as her parents, she was a grown woman and living her life away from them, despite her young age and he honestly didn't know how to feel about it still, even if it had been 2 years and slightly more since she'd officially left home.

I knew the love of a father runs deep

And I prayed that she'd find you someday

But it's still hard to give her away

I loved her first

He'd wanted her to have everything. Fall in love, get married, have a family, of course he did.

He just didn't expect the effect of it happening to cause such a reaction from him, having been openly crying moments before while having a cigarette, heart hurting, which wasn't new for him exactly, just not in the same way as now seemed.

Billy, even when being king hit by his father, /never/ cried. He didn't cry when he finally got Steven and Max's forgiveness for being a terrible human being, he didn't cry when Steve told him he loved him, not when they got married or even when Susanna was born, him being the first person to hold her when she was freshly cleaned and wrapped up.

How could that beautiful woman with you

Be the same freckle face kid that I knew

The one that I read all those fairytales to

And tucked into bed all those nights

That was the most jarring thing of all and possibly, the most likely reason for him to start bawling like a baby in the parking lot.

That was /his/ baby, his daughter who he still saw as a little girl that he felt the need to cobble and scoop up, running down the hallway with her as she squealed towards her bedroom so they could pick a story or two for the end of the night.

And I knew the first time I saw you with her

It was only a matter of time

He should have known that she'd grow up eventually and when she'd met this guy when she was 12, he could see the inevitable coming. Much like now, when he saw Susanna calling him over and pulling him from his thoughts for the Father/Daughter dance.

Seemed that while he was up in space, Steve had embarrassingly interrupted and danced with the groom during the Mother/Son dance as a joke. He was sorry he missed it. Hopefully someone filmed it on a camcorder or something.

I loved her first, I held her first

And a place in my heart will always be hers

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

He couldn't help but get emotional again as the familiar strains of music they'd been practising the dance to playing in the background, his daughter's curly brown hair a sight framing her rosy glittered cheeks as she grinned, him twirling her around the floor as he tried to focus on the now and not go back into the past. He could be the loudest fucking thinker.

I knew the love of a father runs deep

And I prayed that she'd find you someday

But it's still hard to give her away

I loved her first

He wished he could keep them in his moment forever. Just put a pin in this and just leave it hanging like something important on a corkboard and never take it down, never have it change. Sadly, he knew it couldn't. He knew he'd have to give her back to her newly minted husband soon enough, but that didn't mean as her father he'd have to like it.

From the first breath she breathed

When she first smiled at me

I knew the love of a father runs deep

Soon enough, the music ended and unlike himself, he embraced Susanna and just held her for a few more minutes before Steve managed to gently pry him away and let her go back to the guy that she belonged to now, him shaking as he tried to suck it up.

Steve understood though, Steve always understood him. "Finally hitting you that our baby's all grown up now, softie?"

"Shut up." Billy hissed, shaking his head, scratching hastily at his face and eyes in case anyone saw him having some sorta weird breakdown. "She's still a baby to me."

"I know, I'm just teasing." Steve's hand rubbed along the tense muscles of one of his arms that was practically rooted in place. "She's still a baby to me as well. It'll be alright."

"Say that when she leaves on her honeymoon tonight and you are the one crying. I loved her first, he can say he did, but I loved her first." Billy whispered as he watched her form walk around the room, unable to take his eyes back off her.

(Steve said nothing at the time, but totally open sobbed when the car drove off, not like it wasn't coming. Billy held him through it, however, given he'd done the same for him. They didn't get much sleep when they got home.)

Someday you might know what I'm goin' through

When a miracle smiles up at you, I loved her first

It's a few years later when Billy actually cries again, this time in public, as he's handed a tiny little bundle of blankets from his daughter's arms as she lies tiredly in her hospital bed, the tiny scrunched up face of a new little girl like Susanna, also named Billie, just a sweet as it can possibly be and her namesake can't help but let out a few tears at the whole thing.

He can't wait to see what this little one grows up to be, but one thing for certain that he knows is that Susanna was in for a wild ride in the next 18 years. Luckily, he and Steve as well as her aunt, her uncles and others would be there, loving on her, her husband and this little girl as well as whatever more came after together. Forever.