𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬↠The Rookie

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓻

Dolly left work and made her way over to her dad's house. She wanted to get this over with and get the conversation done. If it meant talking for a few hours into the night, then so be it. She just wanted to get whatever was going on over with so she could get back to her normal life. She pulled up outside and parked in the driveway, her dad was already waiting out on the porch for her.

"Dad-" She began before he cut her off, taking in her difference in appearance, she just looked exhausted and painfully so.

"Come on in, and we're going straight to the kitchen," he motioned for her to follow him as he walked into the house. It seemed clear he was trying to avoid a prolonged discussion outside, he seemed to want to get right down to it.

"Here, sit down," he gestured to a chair as they entered the kitchen. The lack of eye contact as he spoke, suggested something was up and he seemed far from okay. She sat down and he took a seat across from her, waiting a moment before speaking again.

"You look exhausted," he started, his voice coming out much softer and quieter, unlike what she was used to from him. And there was no humour or sarcasm as he said this, there was nothing but worry on his face and in his expression. "Have you been sleeping?"

"He shouldn't be calling you, especially not about the divorce, I wanted to tell you when I felt like I needed to, it wasn't his place," Dolly spoke, being as blunt as possible.

"You've been keeping this from me for three months." There was no hint of humour or sarcasm in his voice, a clear contrast to the normal jokes that he'd constantly fill the air with. There was pure anger and disappointment in his voice, a mixture of emotions that was clearly not usual for him. "Do you have any idea how much that hurts?"

"You think I didn't want to tell you when you were still taking him on fishing trips and taking him to play golf? You think this has been easy for me?" Dolly shook her head as she licked at her bottom lip, trying not to become too emotional.

The anger and disappointment in his voice slowly died down, being replaced by a mixture of sadness and worry as he saw the genuine pain and guilt on her face. "Honey, you know I would've listened, I would've heard you out no matter what."

"There's nothing to listen about Dad, me and Tim are probably going to divorce and that's that," She shrugged before resting her head in her hands, "It's over, okay?"

"It's not over, darling, you can't just throw this away. You two love each other, he just needs some time to calm down and get his head straight. Things can get better." it was clear he still had hope, and he wasn't going to let the news of the divorce go without a fight.

"Well guess what, he had nine months to calm down, and now he wants to make a difference." Her body shook as she spoke, it running off of practically fumes right now.

"He was trying to fix it," he shot back quickly, "He's a proud man, it's not easy for him to admit he's made a mistake and when faced with that kind of news, he shut down, he didn't know what else to do." It was obvious that he was trying to defend his son-in-law, and he wasn't going to accept that she was giving up this easily.

"I hate that everyone is only asking about how Tim feels, what about how I feel? How I felt when I found out I can't have kids because I got shot," She took a deep breath, poking her tongue at her inner cheek.

"This isn't about Tim right now darling, you're right, this is only about how you're feeling." the anger was gone from his voice, replaced by nothing more than grief and sorrow from his daughter's pain. He couldn't even fathom how terrible it must feel for her, to have been shot and robbed of her chance to be a mother.