Page 54 of Delta (Alpha #12)

H e's been in and out of surgery for two weeks, repairing his lungs, getting them to reinflate, getting him off supplemental oxygen. He's out of it, most of the time. Barely aware of his surroundings, exhausted, in perpetual pain.

Yet, when Richard and Evelyn arrive with Eliza, he somehow manages to gather himself together for his daughter.

If I wasn't in love with the man already, seeing him with his daughter would have done it. He uses the wired remote to lift his bed upright as the door opens—Eliza's voice can be heard from halfway down the hallway, singing an adorable little ditty about going to see her daddy.

I'm sitting on the far side of the bed with my hand resting on his thigh when the door swings open.

A fireball of a child bursts in, a half-pint firecracker in a gauzy pink taffeta explosion of a princess dress, the train trailing behind her muddy and torn.

She's got a pink wand in one hand with a massive blue plastic jewel in the center, which flashes with light every time she waves it.

In her other hand is a stuffed rabbit with long floppy ears, one eye missing, and the other an old brass coat button.

Her hair is as black as Rush's, but it's an inch of patchy new growth coming in after radiation treatment.

"… Daaaaaa ddy, Daddy, going to see my Daaaaaddy!" she sing-songs, bursting into the room with a dramatic flourish of her wand. "Tah… DAH ! I'm here, Daddy!" Dahhh-DEE!

"C'mere, Lizzy-Lovey,” Rush says, his voice breathless and soft and ragged. "I need at least eighty-seven squeezes and a hundred kisses."

Her wand lowers slowly to her side as she sees him in the big hospital bed, wires and tubes in a tangled snarl, looking haggard and weak and tired. "D-Daddy?"

He scoots over in the bed, each movement eliciting a wince and a groan he does his level best to hide. "C'mere, Lizzy-Bean. C'mere. Daddy's okay. I'm alright. Just come here."

She shuffles closer, her eyes—changeable hazel like his—wide and scared. "Grandmama and Grandpa said you got hurted."

He pats the space beside him. "I did get hurt, sweetheart, but I'm alright. I'm on the mend."

She approaches the edge of the bed, her eyes gone greenish the way his do—she glances at me, and I can see her deciding to figure out who I am later. She refocuses on Rush, hesitant and fearful—I imagine it has to be a hell of a shock to see her big, strong, invincible warrior daddy in this state.

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" she asks.

He draws a breath, eyes closing, steadying himself.

"Climb on up here with me, my little monkey.

" She climbs up in a swish and scrabble of taffeta and limbs, grabbing at Rush with accidentally careless hands.

Fortunately, his injured arm is on my side, so he's able to pull her up, stifling a groan when she settles in with a child's restless thrashing, an elbow landing in his ribs.

"Oh, yeah," he groans. "There we are."

Eliza taps her wand here and there, gaze flicking to me with naked curiosity. "Who're you?"

I smile at her. "My name is Bryn."

She looks at Rush, then me again. "Are you one of Daddy's nurses?"

I look at Rush, too, for guidance. "Um, no. I'm…Your daddy and me are…"

Rush saves me. "Bryn and I have had an adventure together, Lizzy-Bean. We’ve fallen in love with each other just like in your stories, and we're going to be together happily ever after.” He lets that sink in. "Whatcha think of that, then?"

I think a lot of it, myself, but I watch Eliza for her reaction.

She looks at me. It's a long, hard, thoughtful, searching look. "Are you going to be my new mum?"

I choke on my saliva, coughing as I try to collect myself. "I…um. Maybe first we could just sort of…start out as friends?"

"I think that's probably a good idea, don't you think so, Daddy?" She looks at him. "I've had an adventure, too, you know. D'you want to hear all about it?"

"I absolutely want to hear every last detail, sweetheart. Tell me every thing."

"Well, it was lunch time, first off. Grandmama had made my favorite, cheese toasties with tomato soup.

And then, from the middle of nowhere, the door broke open.

Just… SMASH !" She whacks Rush in the face with her wand, continuing her riveting narration heedless of Rush’s amused laughter as he rubs his offended nose.

"Big ugly men just came into the house! One had a wart on his nose exactly like a witch. Do you think he was a witch, Daddy?"

"Seems likely," Rush answers, shoulders shaking. "And then what?"

"They pointed guns at Grandmama and Grandpa, big machine guns." She stage whispers, then. "I think they were real guns , Daddy. Don't you think so, too?”

He nods solemnly. "I do think that's likely, darling."

"Don't worry, no one got shooted. Not even grandpa.

I thought maybe grandpa would fight them off with his spoon like a real hero, but then I thought that would be bad, because I love Grandpa and I'm not sure he could fight very well with just a spoon.

" She pauses, head cocked in thought. "Could you fight someone with a spoon, Daddy? "

Rush is trying so hard not to lose it. "Well, maybe." He nods. "Yeah, I reckon I could. Was it a big spoon like for soup, or one of those fiddly little guys for sugar?"

"It was just a little one."

"Hmmm. That's tricky. Spoons aren't my weapon of choice." He kisses the top of her head. "I do think Grandpa made the right choice, though. One spoon against two big machine guns ain't the best odds, in my professional opinion. Discretion is the better part of valor, and all.”

"And Grandpa isn't a spring chicken anymore, he says. I'm glad they didn't shoot anyone."

"Me too, darling."

Over by the door, Richard and Evelyn are stifling laughter as well—Richard is medium height, with thin off-blond hair and round glasses with thick lenses.

He's got no fewer than three pens in the breast pocket of his short-sleeved button-down, which is tucked into pressed chinos.

Evelyn is short and curvy, with curly brown hair and sharp, lively blue eyes.

"Well, what happened next?" Rush asks.

"The men put a sack over my head. It smelled very bad.

Almost as bad as your gym bag but not as bad as your nasty farts.

" She waves her wand this way and that as she speaks, flicking it and tapping the railing, the wires, the beeping, pumping machines.

"Then I was in a car for a very long time.

It was very boring. There were lots of turnings and I was quite afraid, but not as afraid as when I had to get radiation the first time. "

Rush blinks hard, fury clouding his features before he masters it. "You're a very brave girl."

"I know." She says it with the simplicity of a child's assurance. "They brought me to a hotel. It was quite manky, Daddy. I didn't like it at all. They put on the telly for me, but all the programs were in French. And then they got food, but that was shit as well."

"Eliza!" Rush admonishes. "What've I said about talking like me?"

"No swears until I'm thirteen or I've had my first period,” she drones, annoyed.

"Rush!" Evelyn says. "You didn't tell her that, did you?"

"I did." He arches an eyebrow at Evelyn, daring her to argue.

"She's only six, Rush. She's not old enough to know about her period. And thirteen is much too young to be swearing."

Rush just laughs. "Ev, darling, kids understand much more than we think." He tickles her. “Don't you, bug?"

"A period is when girls become women and bleed everywhere,” Eliza announces. “Colin, from my class before I got sick again, said his mum told him all about it." She looks at Rush. "Is that true?"

He nods, and then tips his head to the side. "Sort of. Not everywhere. But it…" he looks at me for help, bless the man.

I smile at the little girl. “You know, sweetheart, I think both your daddy and grandma are right.

I think you don't need to worry about periods for a while yet.

I didn't get mine till I was almost twelve, and my best friend Rin got hers at ten. So you’ve got a while before you need to worry about it.

But you're also a very smart girl, I can tell already.

So if you have questions, I'm sure your dad or your grandma would be happy to answer them. "

"What about swears?" she asks.

I shrug. "Well, I think you should listen to your dad and do what he says." I lean over him, whispering conspiratorially. "But sometimes, you just gotta say a bad word."

"So if I really, really need to say a swear, I can? As long as I don't say them as much as Daddy does?"

"I mean, that sounds pretty fair to me." I look at Rush. "What do you think?"

He snorts. "I think we shouldn't negotiate with terrorists." He kisses her head again. "But yeah, I think that's fair. Once in a while, as long as it's not a habit." He glances at Evelyn. "What do you think, Grandma?"

She sighs, clearly unhappy with this turn of events. "I'm obviously outvoted on this one. But I suppose as long as you don't curse at school or at nurses or doctors, once in a great while wouldn't be the end of the world."

Eliza looks at me. "Do you kill bad guys like Daddy?"

My eyebrows go up. "Um. I…well, see…" Shit.

How do you answer that? "Eliza, your daddy is a very special person.

He chose to serve your country by fighting in the military.

That means he's very, very brave. But your daddy wasn't just any old soldier—he was a very, very special kind of soldier.

He fought against the baddest of the bad guys.

And sometimes, yeah, he had to kill them.

But he only did that to keep you and me and all the little boys and girls everywhere safe.

Because a smart girl like you must know by now that there are bad men out there, huh?

Like the guys who stole you from your grandma and grandpa. "