My Heart Is Yours

I hung out with Wendy and Lily for the rest of the day. It was nice. Almost like old times other than the fact that every single little detail had changed. Wendy still pretty much avoided my touch and I…almost couldn’t blame her. But Lily was amazing and a half. I couldn’t believe that she was this energetic, but it made sense. She was my child, after all. And every minute that passed by, I realized it more and more.

My phone buzzed in my pocket as I held yet another toy of Lily’s in my hands. She’d been doing this over the last hour, running into her room before running back out with one toy in her hands before making me hold it and then taking it back and running back into her room and grabbing another. It was cute. Like…way cute.

I sighed as I fished out my phone and was forced into dragging my attention away from my adorable daughter. “Hold on, babe,” I told her with a smile as I stared at the screen of my phone. Craig was calling me. I slid the phone open and held it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Okay, you aren’t dead. That’s good.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Craig?”

“Hi Craigafer!” the little girl cut in before he could say anything. I smirked.

“Lily says hi, Craigafer.”

“Hey Lils! Anyway, how are things going so far?” he asked after I had repeated his message to my daughter. My eyes darted over to where Wednesday sat on the opposite couch, watching me quietly. Lily ran off quickly to her room and I smirked at her.

“Fine…no… Great, actually… Why did you think I was dead?” Wendy shot me a strange look from across the way and I smirked at her.

“Because we hadn’t heard from you since you left. You found her place okay, yeah?”

“Yep. I’m kinda here, aren’t I?”

“So what do you think of Lily? She’s pretty fucking awesome for a five year old, isn’t she?”

I laughed at that. Especially since, as soon as Craig started talking about her, she appeared in the room and began crawling in her mother’s lap.

“She’s beyond awesome. Anything else you need? You’re killing my time with her, you ass…king little jerk face,” I quickly turned around on swearing as Wednesday’s eyes narrowed protectively. She smirked at my cover-up and then began braiding a few strands of our daughter’s hair together.

“Nice save, Maxwell. Don’t fucking call me short, next time though. Anyway, when are you coming back? It’s like…six.”

“What time are we leaving?” I asked, my face falling as dread took over. After spending six years without the love of my life and the child that I had caused and helped to create, I was not looking forward to leaving that again. Ever. I wanted to stay here forever and never have to face the day where I had to leave Lily and Wendy. Especially not Wendy, now that I had finally found her again…

I’ll admit, I was kind of hoping that we could get back together…

“Like…I don’t know. Bryan! What time are we leaving tomorrow!?” I waited for a few moments while my two best friends chatted briefly. “Like…seven in the morning. We have to be there by one for our sound check. BlessTheFall and Alesana left a few hours ago.”

“Ugh. Fu…dge chocolate chip, that sounds good,” I winced at my horrid attempt to cover up my swearing. I was going to have to get much more used to that if I was going to be a dad now.

“What the hell was that, Max?”

“Sorry. I don’t know when I’ll be back, Craig. I’ll be back before seven tomorrow, though.”

“Was that a cover up? Fuck you fail, broski. Anyway, okay. Glad everything’s going good. Has she…never mind. I’ll talk to you later, dude.”

“Yeah, later.” With that, I slid my phone closed and smiled over at Wendy, who was smiling sadly over at me.

“Mama, I’m hungry…” Lily whined, looking up from watching me to her mother, who sighed and nodded before standing.

“I can go get something, if you want me to, Wendy,” I offered, smiling at her as she turned around, mid-step, to smirk at me.

“We are not eating Subway, Max. I can make something, it’s no problem. Do the guys want you back or do they care?”

“What guys?”

“Craigafer, Bryan, and Robert. I…”

“Your daddy plays music with Craig and Bryan, sweetie,” Wednesday stepped in to explain for me. I smiled in thanks at her and she nodded back at me before standing straight and walking into the kitchen and leaving Lily and I alone in the living room. Which was only slightly awkward because I had pretty much covered all conversation that I could think of with her over the last eight hours that I’d been here.

God, was it really only eight hours? It felt like so much longer than that… It felt like it had been an eternity since I’d shown up at Wednesday’s doorstep without the knowledge of my being a father…

It was so strange…

“What kind of music, Daddy?” Lily asked me and my heart skipped a few beats. It had been doing that all day, ever since she launched herself at me and hardly let go… She hopped off the opposite couch and walked the short distance over to climb up beside me. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into my side, grinning down at her happily.

“Rock music.”

“…You make music…for rocks?” she asked, confusion written all over her face and in her tone and I had to fight hard to keep back the laughter. I, however, failed and let a few chuckles escape my control.

“No, sweetie. Not for rocks. Um…”

“Max plays music that’s like Alex’s but…louder,” Wendy piped in from the kitchen, smiling over at us. I tilted my head at her. Now…who was Alex? She still hadn’t said anything about him and I’d managed to forget all about him until she’d mentioned him…

Lily made a little ‘oh’ sound and Wendy watched me for a few minutes, looking like she was about to cry before she sighed and returned to making whatever it was that she was. Whatever the hell it was, it sure did smell fucking delicious…

From there, we fell into a comfortable variation of conversation that dealt mostly with Lily asking me a variety of questions, all of which relatively easy to answer. Kind of.

“Okay, children! Dinner is ready!” Wendy called as I tickled the little girl squirming in my lap. I stopped, grinning from ear to ear as I looked up at her. She’d pulled her long hair back and tied it in a messy bun in the back. She looked gorgeous, like always…

“What makes me a child, Wendy?” I asked her as I released my daughter and watched as she giggled and ran off to hide behind her mother’s legs. I stretched my arms over head before standing and smirking at her.

“You’re the biggest kid out there, Maxwell, don’t lie to yourself. Now. It’s food time,” she instructed, nodding to the little dining room table that was set up against one of the walls of the main room. I grinned at her and nodded. Alright, so I was a big little kid at heart. Especially when I was around Wendy… Or Lily now, apparently… Or any child, because I did the same thing with Craig’s daughter Leila, now that I think about it…