Same as before on challenge, song is 'Streets of Heaven' by Sherrie Austin.
This is the potential Tear Jerker. You've been warned.
The room was quiet this time of day.
He slipped in silently, setting his gift on the bedside table where it would be seen as soon as she awakened.
A single sunflower in a plain clear vase . . . it was so inadequate . . . so much less than he wanted to give her . . . so much less than she deserved . . . but it was what she wanted and so he'd done it, without hesitation, without even really thinking about it.
He'd buy a thousand if it would help.
But it couldn't.
Nothing he could do could help her now.
He stood for a few moments more, then settled into the chair next to her bed, listening to the soft beep of the heart monitor.
He both hated and loved that sound.
It was wrong. She shouldn't need it, shouldn't know what it sounded like.
But as long as it beeped, his little girl was still here with him and he hadn't lost her yet.
Lacing his fingers into a white knuckled ball he rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward to rest his head on top.
He wasn't a religious man, but right now he almost wished he was. It would be nice to know there was Someone who could do what he couldn't.
He watched with a certain amount of detached fascination as small dark spots bloomed on his jeans. He frowned, confused by their appearance, until he realized he was crying.
He sat up quickly and wiped at the tears, sniffling back the accompanying snot and hoping in a vain way that no one had seen that momentary lapse of control.
"Daddy?"
The soft voice from the bed had him leaping to his feet and almost falling onto the bed in his haste to close the distance.
"Hey there, Baby," he said, tucking some hair behind her ear. "How do you feel?"
She took a moment to think, then answered, blinking sleepily, "'M not so hot anymore."
He smiled, trying to keep the tears in check, but not doing very well.
"Good. That's good." And it was.
But it was only a step in the right direction and they had many more before they left this stretch of dark woods.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah?"
"It rained today."
"It did," he agreed.
"Did that ruin the tracks?"
He laughed wetly, both heartened and saddened by her focus on the case they'd been working on.
She was just seven, but had proved an aptitude for following in her father's 'psychic' footsteps that surpassed even his own abilities. There were times that Shawn himself would have sworn she wasn't playacting.
Not that any of them wanted a seven-year-old involved in police work, but she wanted it and she was also more stubborn than her father and her mother combined.
Despite their best efforts she kept getting involved—though thankfully not on anything really scarring for a young child. Mostly white collar crimes and the occasional missing dog or kitten.
She'd been in the newspaper twice, though always listed as an unnamed police consultant since no one was willing to make her a target like her father was on occasion—especially after that one nosy reporter had found themselves on the receiving end of what could be interpreted as a lethal glare from Officer Buzz McNabb.
No one dared even inquire after that.
Shawn had even joked about putting a tag on the agency window to include her somehow—anonymously of course.
If she got past this he swore he would.
"They did. They filled up and made puddles. But Detective Lassie had the CSU guys out there yesterday to get casts so it's okay."
She nodded. "Good." Her eyes drifted closed and he waited a few minutes for her breathing to even out.
Once it had he bent and dropped a kiss on her forehead.
She shifted slightly. "Love you, Daddy," she breathed, then settled down again.
He smiled. "Love you, Baby," he whispered.
He retook his seat next to her bed, making himself as comfortable as he could for the night. Obligations called to him, things he needed to do, cases he needed to solve, and he'd get to them in the morning.
But right here and now there was nowhere more important for him to be.
Sorry. I tried to keep it from getting too dark. Did I succeed?
Let me know. Review please and thank you.