Flashback
"River! Are you ready to go?" James called from the living room. The trio were going to spend their one truly free weekend of the month, as a 'family' to celebrate River's birthday. That Sunday, the young child would be turning 4.
"Yes, mama." she called, stepping out from her bedroom. She was holding Travis's hand and dragging him out to the living room. Although she was small, at least small for her age, River had a strong grip. It was as if she had been training for this moment her whole life.
Their first stop of the morning was to take River to her favorite restaurant for breakfast. "Come on, come on, come on!" River grunted while dragging the man almost 5 times her weight. "Mommy! Uncle Travis isn't going fast!" She stopped, let go of his hand and turned around. "You need to hurry up uncle, momma's gonna be mad" she said with her hands on her hips.
"Okay, okay, kid. I'm moving, I'm moving."
"Come on my love, we've got to leave soon if you want to see your cousins later." River's eyes got bigger and brighter. James smiled.
End of Flashback
"What do you want from me Ryder?" she said folding her arms around herself. An anxious habit, one might call it.
"You haven't been answering my calls."
"No shit. I told you that I didn't ever want to speak to you again. So what do you need so badly?" Ryder stood up and walked towards the woman in front of him, a piece of paper in his hands. "What's this?"
"Just read it," he said plainly. James looked down at the paper and began to read. Only mere seconds later a small gasp could be heard.
"No. No... You, you can't possibly be doing this. You didn't even-" she looked up and met his eyes, tears in her own.
"No, do not pull that bullshit on me. You took my daughter away from me, you didn't even give me a chance to have custody!" By this point the few people who were standing at the entrance to the hospital were watching them intently.
"Can we not have this conversation here, in front of all of these people."
"No. It's either here or no conversation at all. Either we continue talking or I take River and you don't see her until our court date."
"You can't do this! You didn't even want to see her after the divorce! You told me that I could keep custody of her!"
"Well, I'm resending my offer!"
Flashback
The trio were at River's favorite diner watching the little no, big, girl finish her birthday breakfast. Of course she chose the most unhealthy sprinkle covered and filled pancakes ever. But, it was her birthday so it didn't matter. "How're your pancakes kid?" Travis asked.
"Good!" she smiled through pancake coated teeth.
"Baby, we don't speak with our mouths full, you know that."
"Sorry, mommy." James chuckled at her daughter's adorableness. "Finished!"
"Okay then, where do you want to go first? Do you want to pick out your present or do you want to go see auntie Vic?"
"Toy?"
"What kinda toy do you want?" Travis asked, picking her up to give her a piggyback ride.
"Fire-fider lego!"
"Firefighter legos? Anything else?"
"Uh..." she thought, adorably tapping her chin, "how 'bout... princess mermaid lego?"
"We can definitely get you those."
End of Flashback
"Why now? Why didn't you want to see her in the two years we've been separated?"
"I don't need to tell you anything! This isn't about us, it's about River!"
When Carina showed up at the hospital she noticed a big, unusual, crowd but no James. She walked closer to take a look, on the off chance that someone had been hurt. That was when she noticed a dangerously angry man glaring down her girlfriend. Carina walked towards James and placed a hand on her waist. James flinched. "James, is this man bothering you?"
"No. No, I'm not bothering her."
"I asked her."
"No, we're good." she said with a glare towards her ex.
"I will be seeing you and River soon." Ryder said as he got up and left the hospital entrance. James shuddered finally letting the tears in her eyes form.
Flashback
The family had just left the store with River's two new lego sets and were on their way over to Vic's apartment. "Are you excited to build your legos?"
"Yeah! I get be a fire-fider like mommy and unca Trav!"
"We're here!" Travis told River who began bouncing in her carseat.
"Vic! Vic! Vic! Vic!" River quickly unbuckled herself from her chair and ran up to the small townhome, and began knocking on the front door.
Vic opened the door quickly, as if she had been waiting for this moment the whole day, and scooped River up into her arms. "How's the birthday girl?"
"Awesome!" she giggled, "Do you 'na build my legos wif me? I gotta fire-fider one just like you!"
"I would be honored to build with you."
James and Travis quickly made their way up to the house. James, however, was much slower to getting up to the door. She stayed back admiring her beautiful daughter, her now 4 year old daughter, that she didn't think could be as happy as she was with everything that had already happened in her short life. Her parent's divorce, her father leaving, her grandmother's death, and not having her mother around as much as she would have liked to be.
She didn't know how River did it.
End of Flashback
"Who was that?"
James sat down on a bench, quickly becoming lightheaded. "He, uh, he was my ex. My ex-husband, Riv's dad." she leaned her head down onto Carina's shoulder.
"What happened?"
"About two and a half years ago we got divorced." she chuckled slightly, "It probably should've happened earlier but I gave him the benefit of the doubt for Riv's sake. But, uh, he just decided, after two years of having no custody of her, that he wants full custody."
"He cannot do that can he?"
"He can and he is." she put her head into her hands.
"It's going to be okay, you're going to be okay. I am sure of it."
(So, I know it's short but how'd you like it? Also when I was looking at Lego sets to see which ones River would want I noticed that they are expensive as heck $69 for like a train?? That's too much)
