Usual disclaimer applies.
March, 2012
~55~
I hear an audible gasp escape Dad's lips, but I can't see his reaction as he already has me pressed against his chest, arms wrapped tight around me, rubbing my back. He begins to hush me like he would a small child and I relish in the contact, the closeness.
He smells of laundry detergent and Irish Spring soap. He smells of home, of love. I press my face harder into the blue police uniform that covers his chest. He squeezes me even tighter.
We are united, on the same page. He doesn't have to ask me how I know, why I am asking. He knows me. He knows that I'm smart, extremely curious,ingenuitive.
He also knows that at one point I was exceptionally close to the Cullen's.
And I know that Dad, with his silly excuse for a blood sample, had ulterior motives. I know he had figured it out as well.
Dad slowly draws away, pushing me only far enough so that we can look at each other, make out the emotions playing on the other's face.
His is raw. His eyes are glassy and red, and it looks like he is carrying the weight of the world on his back. He looks that tired.
And I am suddenly terrified to find out the reason.
But Dad, being Dad, wouldn't want something to suffer for any longer than it has to. Being that we live in a heavily forested region, where wildlife is aplenty, Dad has had to deal more than once with hunters who shoot animals and leave their bodies there, still alive and suffering.
When he comes across that type of case, it's a more-than-one-beer type of day.
It disgusts him.
So, looking carefully into my eyes, Dad speaks the one word that I have been dying to hear without pause, without letting me agonize any longer.
"Yes." He whispers.
A/N: Sorry this one is so short, but I had to get something out before work today, and really, you all got what you wanted lol.