A Love Worth Fighting For

Ch. 6 *Clay's POV*

When Claire got home early from her grandparents, I knew something was up. Typically, they would be there all day. Today they were only gone for about two hours.

I had heard Mikey walk in before the girls did. I could feel Claire's presence as soon as she was at the kitchen but Brent had just finished telling me about his horrible date last night, causing me to laugh.

Claire was still ignoring Brent and honestly I didn't blame her much. Brent shouldn't have told me about Henry. Claire could handle herself and I felt like she would have eventually told me. I also knew she would never cheat on me.

I had given her plenty of reasons to leave me but she hasn't yet. I knew things needed to change and they would. I didn't need to see a shrink because I knew I could handle this by myself.

Brent walked into the living room while I tried to get Claire to talk to me. I kept asking her to just tell me and she finally all but begged me to give it a rest. I would let it slide for now and I turned on my heel and started towards the living room but had stopped to turn around and get another bottle of water.

Claire was standing by the stove. I watched as she placed her hand on her locket. It was the same market she wore when I realized our connection. As she stood there, I heard her speak softly.

    "Daddy, you promised me. You promised that Clay and I would have a future together. I know it was just a dream but it was so real to me. Clay came home a different man. That wasn't part of the plan. I know he suffered and I'm trying to be considerate of what he's been through but it's," she took a trembling breath in, "it's so hard. I need him back. I live him so much."

I backed out of the kitchen as quietly as I could. I knew what dream she was talking about. We've talked about it a lot. When I was taken hostage, when I thought the end of my life for sure to happen, I woke up in the field of wildflowers. It also happened to clear. If it was a dream, how did we had the same one?

In the dream the weather was absolutely perfect. I saw Claire laying down in the flowers. She was the most beautiful girl in the world. When I got to her, I touched her cheek. She had started crying soon after because she thought I was dead. I later told her that I also talk to her dad. We could never come up with an answer as to why we had the same dream.

After Claire had finished cooking, she popped in the living room to tell everyone to help themselves and disappeared. I felt torn between going to check on her and giving her space. I decided that I would check on her after I ate.

When I was finished eating, I left the kids in charge of cleaning the kitchen and loading the dishwasher. I went upstairs and noticed that Claire wasn't in our bed. I found her curled up in the guest bed, my old room. The room she's been sleeping in since our fight. She was fast asleep and she had her dads dog tags clutched in her hand against her chest. I walked over to her a put the blanket over her and then lightly brushed my lips against her temple.

The next day, Claire was still bothered by whatever happened at her grandparents. She went about her day like any other day but she's hardly spoke a single word. I told Brent that I needed to focus all of my attention on Claire and the kids today.

About an hour and a half after dinner, Claire came into the living room with a bowl of popcorn and handed it to me. After that, she went back into the kitchen. This time when she came back, she had two glasses of sweet tea in her hand. After handing me mine, she sat down beside me and tucked her feet under her.

    "What are we watching?" she asked.

    "Nothing in particular right now," I answered, placing my arm around her and pulled her closer.