Roles Reversed

Chapter 9

Without realizing how much time had passed 3 years to flew by. Madi was growing like a weed and never seem to stop. Her speaking skills improved greatly, and although she mostly spoke in English she still remembered a few words in her native language. Mostly it was Nomi and Noni, mom and dad, something in which she began to say more and more as she grew older. Bellamy shouldn't be surprised when she says it to him after one year having her, and yet she take him by surprise.

One day as Bellamy sat at the table trying to radio the Ring, Madi wiggled in his lap as she reached for the radio piece. Her little 4 year old hands stretching and stretching, but never able to grab it. Her face scrunching up in a pout as her blue eyes meet his brown, her lower lip wobbling.

"Daddy. Daddy! I want..." She wines, her baby blues reaching into the depths of Bellamy's heart as she points to the radio. "Daddy."

He says nothing in return as he slowly lowers the microphone piece into her hands. She squeals happily as begins to press the button on the side, trying to speak to the others. Bellamy doesn't pay much attention to what she babbles about. He was too stunned to hear that one word fall from her mouth to do so. She called him dad. Madi actually called him dad!

That night he puts her to sleep she does so again, a soft smile on her face as she drifts into sleep.  He suspected she would but again it took him by surprise, but then again as he thought more of it he understood why. He was all she had known for a year and most children don't retain eventful memories until they're around the age of 6-7 years old, and while most 2 years olds begin forming memories, those are not as hard wired as when they get older. Which is why she remembers certain words in Trig, and yet she doesn't seem to remember her parents. At least she's not asking about them yet. But Bellamy knows one day she will.

And that day did come years later. When Madi turns six years old. Bellamy doesn't hide the truth, and when he's sure she is old enough he lets her know he isn't her biological father. She doesn't seem surprised, having foggy memories of her parents s. She can't visualize them completely, but she knows. And yet she still calls Bellamy dad because that is who he is to her. The one person she has left on this burnt planet, to help her, raise her, and make her laugh. He may not be her real father, but he was her dad all the same.

When she told him this Bellamy was at loss of words. For being so young Madi was very mature and certain. And even though she knows the whole truth she accepts her reality and Bellamy as her own. No matter how many times he lets her know that it is okay to not call him her father or think of him as such, the child still insist on a dressing him as she pleases. Bellamy may not be her biological father, but he was her dad all the same.

He was there when she had no one left, a malnourished toddler alone in an empty world with no way to survive. Bellamy was there for her every time she was sick, or fell down in the grass. If she got the sniffles or had a little accident Bellamy was always there to make it better. He taught her to speak, to read, to hunt and defend herself, and most of all to never give up. Without Bellamy Madi knows she would never have been able to survive. To her he is her whole world, her father, blood or no blood.

The man's heart doubles in size at the child's incredible words. The two stay up later than I normally do, to not only celebrate the young girls 6th birthday, but to celebrate the life that they have built on Earth by themselves, and remember those they will meet again. And even though Maddie has never met any of space crew or those in the bunker, because of Bellamy's stories she feels as if she's not only met them but knows them by heart. Balinese family is her family, and each and every day she waited idly by until the day they return home.

As they stay up and watch the stars flicker in the night sky, they stuff their bellies with the sweetened fruit of the land. Madi sits in front of Bellamy as he braids her long growing dark curls. The child smiles up the sky as she feels her father finishing up the last braid.