"An Unexpected Daughter"
When marriage and a family were not part of your plans, a daughter is the last thing you would expect to come into your life.
A daughter, I cannot believe that I have a daughter. The last thing I expected to come into my life was a daughter, especially at my age. Most men are more than half my age when daughters or sons come into their lives. I am not even married. I never got married. A wife was never in the picture. I decided that my job did not allow for a wife or a family. My job definitely never had set hours. I don't work at the bank or run the general store. Those kinds of jobs have opening and closing hours. I have to come and go whenever I am needed. I won't even talk about the danger I have been put in. The decision not to have a wife and family was a sacrifice that I thought was best for me. I know there are others who never agreed with that decision. Sometimes I myself don't agree with the decision that I made.
Yet, nonetheless, out of the blue, a daughter unexpectedly came into my life. That unexpected daughter did not come into my life as a newborn baby, like most daughters do. No, she came into my life as a young adult. She grew up without even knowing I existed and I of course had no idea she existed. Unfortunately for her, she did not have a father growing up. Even though she did not have a father in her life, she grew up believing that the man that married her mother was her father. Why wouldn't she believe that?
The daughter that unexpectedly came into my life is now in danger, and it is up to me to save her. Without me, she could die. I cannot let that happen. I cannot lose her. Her death would bring me nothing but sadness and guilt. It wouldn't just be me that would feel the pain of her loss. I have plans to have her in my life. I have no intentions of changing those plans.
Focus, I tell myself. If I want to save my daughter, then I have to focus. She needs me. Right now I cannot let myself think of anything but saving her. I have to push out of my mind the strong feeling that I want to kill the man that put her in danger. As far as I'm concerned, any man that puts my daughter in danger deserves to die, especially if she dies. Once again I tell myself to focus.
With my job, the task ahead of me is not something I have never done before. I have saved people from similar situations before. Most often I have been successful during those situations. Yes, I said most often. There have been times when I did not succeed. I hated each of those times. I felt like a failure to that person and to that person's family. They were counting on me and I let them down. I refuse to fail this task. I will not let my daughter down. I will not let those who love her down.
It's over. Everything is over. My daughter is safe. Is she completely out of danger? No she is not. She is still at risk. I will make sure that risk does not take her. I almost lost her once. I don't plan on going through that again.
I stand next to the bed and look at the beautiful young woman who is fast asleep. My daughter I say to myself with a shake of my head. She was definitely the last thing I ever planned on. I don't want to wake her. She's been through a lot. We both have. I leave the room and close the door.
Out in my office, I walk to the table that has my surgical instruments. On that table is a small tin bowl. In that bowl is a bullet. I won't forget the wonderful sound that was made when I dropped the bullet into the bowl. I had successfully removed the bullet from Kitty Russell.
I had planned on sleeping in the chair out in my office. However, I have changed my mind. I think it would be best if I slept in a chair next to Kitty's bed. I quietly open the door and sit next to the bed. I look at Kitty, my surrogate daughter, and I take her hand. I hope she knows how much she means to me. Like Kitty, Doc was soon fast asleep.
The End