Young Father

Aftermath

Shy awoke a few hours later and saw her room crowded with family and friends, on the table in front of her she saw Dave's lyric book and weakly opened the book writing in the front cover, that Trevor had been the one who stabbed her, the movement had weakened her, her eyes closed slightly as she tried to catch her breath, the alarms started to go off waking everyone in the room as her head lolled to the side, Taylor jumped awake hearing the Alarm as Dave pulled him from the bed he tried to rush back screaming for Shy to stay with them as the doctors rushed in and nurses escorted the family out of the room, Taylor was crazy with worry. It took Dave and Pat to hold him back from rushing in. He could see Alison and the kids in tears, the kids afraid of his reaction as Dave held him tight. "Taylor stop! You're scaring the kids!" Taylor shook his head "She can't Die Dave! She can't go!" Pat finally pulled Taylor away from Dave "Come on Taylor, let's go have a smoke. you need to calm down"

The blond shook his head "You don't get it! I promised Shellie I would protect her! That I would be her dad" The guitar player nodded and placed his hands on Taylor's cheeks "You have done that and then some Taylor. That girl loves you so much, and look at all you've done for her. That girl had a normal life because of you Taylor. She grew up loved and wanted. You did that Taylor" The drummer leaned against his friend sobbing "She's my little girl Pat" the guitar player nodded as he held Taylor close "I know and she's always going to be your little girl. She doesn't want to leave you we have to do what Dave always says" The blond sobbed against his friend "hope for the best?" It seemed like hours had gone by before anyone came out to update him, by this time Taylor was being held by Liz and Alison "Mr.Hawkins" the doctor spoke softly as Taylor sat up looking exhausted "I'm very sorry Mr.Hawkins but she didn't make it. We've done everything that we could" The blond shook his head feeling the ground drop out from under his feet as he fell to his knees onto the floor "No no no no no" Dave looked to the Doctor "What happened? We thought she was going to survive" The doctor frowned "That's what we thought as well. It just seems that her body couldn't handle the damage done from the attack and the surgery afterward. I'm so sorry for your loss"

When the doctor took his leave Taylor looked to Dave "I need to see my little girl" Dave nodded and the two of them walked inside the room, Dave held onto Taylor's shoulder as they walked around the side of the bed, Taylor gently moved her hair from her face, tears sliding down his cheeks "My sweet girl I'm so sorry I didn't protect you" Dave shook his head and spoke softly "T, you have protected her since she was six years old, you made her your daughter when she was twelve unofficially and you officially became her dad when she was fifteen, You protected her. This was a tragedy that nobody saw coming and nobody could stop it, not even you" Taylor nodded and kissed Shy's forehead "I will never forget you my little girl. You go be with your mom until we can be together again" Dave looked down catching his open book on the table "T! She helped us one last time. She told us who did this to her" Taylor looked up teary eyed "What? what do you mean?" Dave showed him the book "her last act was to make sure that we could get justice for her." The blond looked at the note, the last act of a dying girl "I'll fucking kill that motherfucker" Dave shook his head "No T, we make him pay for taking your girl from you."

The rest of the tour was canceled in the wake of Shy's death, Alison was trying her hardest to get Taylor through this, but the man's grief was overwhelming as well as the grief of the children and her own grief as well, she'd grown close to Shy over the years and she loved the girl very much, but Taylor had loved Shy since she was 6 years old his grief was crippling, at any given moment she would find Taylor hovering over his grandson, or lingering in the doorway of Shy's bedroom just crying. There were nights she would have to call Dave because Taylor would just disappear from the house and she couldn't go find him because of the kids. Dave would leave his house go find Taylor and park him in their guest room, Dave and Liz had handled the funeral arrangements, as well as made sure that Seattle PD had the note written and signed by Shy telling them that it was in fact Trevor that had stabbed her, so far they hadn't caught up with him but it would only be a matter of time.

The day of the funeral had been another where Alison had called Dave to find Taylor, and as usual he found him on the beach. He had brought Taylor back to his house and texted Alison to come by early with Taylor's suit. She had already given Liz the outfit to dress Shy in for the viewing and that had been taken to the funeral home a few days before, When she and the kids arrived at Dave's everyone dressed in their funeral finery, Dave took the suit from Alison and went to help Taylor, knowing the man would need to basically be manhandled into it, He just couldn't accept that Shy was gone, he couldn't help but to feel it was his failure when it wasn't. Finally once Dave had gotten him dressed and brought him downstairs he hugged his kids and took baby pat from Alison holding him close "I promise you, I won't fail you like I did your mama" Alison frowned "Babe, you didn't fail her, You loved her through everything that life threw at her. You were her hero" He looked down at the baby "Then why does it feel like I failed her?" Alison kissed his cheek and brushed her fingers through his hair "Because you're her dad. But you never ever failed her or let her down. You saved that little girl's life"

at the funeral Taylor was shocked to see the amount of people that turned out, though he knew that people had loved Shy's music he hadn't expected the turnout of fans and friends, but he was absolutely touched by the turnout. As he walked past fans they reached out giving him hugs and condolences. He had come across a girl about the age that Shy had been when they met, she tugged on his sleeve and he pasted on a smile and knelt down to her level "Hello little one. What can I do for you?" the little blonde girl gave him a hug and whispered "I'm sorry that Shy hadda go to heaven. She was my hero" He smiled "She was?" The girl nodded "My name's Lucy, Shy is friends with my mommy and she started to teach me drumming" Taylor smiled "Well If you want to keep learning my son Shane or myself could help you. Shy would like that" The little girl looked down "I dunno if I wanna play anymore" Taylor hugged the child again and then stood to speak to her mother giving his number if she changed her mind about the drums, he knelt to the little girl again "Hey Lucy, I need you to remember one thing for me ok?" the little girl nodded "What?" He smiled "Shy might not be with us anymore, and that's really sad. But she would want you to keep playing and not give up on your dreams. If you want to keep playing your mom has my number she can call and me or Shane will come teach you ok?" The little girl wiped a tear away and nodded "Thank you Mr.Hawkins" He gently hugged the child again before making his way down to meet other people.