Tim could lose entire hours just watching her sleep. Watching her, full stop. She was the culmination of a choice, a longing, a carefully considered desire, and months upon months of patient waiting. Without a doubt, she was—and would always be—the best decision of his life.
He had once believed he understood love, believed he knew what it meant to care, to protect, to give himself to someone. But that was before her—before she came in and unraveled everything, before she turned his life inside out in the gentlest, most irreversible way.
He had spent years—perhaps his entire life—imagining the kind of man he'd be when this moment arrived. But the reality was galaxies away from anything he had pictured.
Everyone knew the sergeant—stoic, steadfast, disciplined to the core. The kind of man who rarely let emotion slip through his armor. But no one, not really, had seen the man he became when he was with her. When he was theirs.
Tim was pulled from the depths of his thoughts when Lucy's hand came to rest on his shoulder. She moved to sit on his lap, her presence grounding, familiar. He wrapped his arms around her, instinctively, gently.
" You just can't help yourself, can you? "
He smiled, hidden against the curve of her shoulder. She was right. He couldn't help it. And he likely never would—not now, not ever.
" If she didn't look so much like her mother," he murmured, "maybe it'd be easier. "
Tim would never forget that night. The way Lucy had spoken, the words she chose. There was fire in them—desire, hope, devotion.
He would never forget the moment she told him, voice soft but trembling with meaning:
"You're going to be a dad."
He would never forget how his heart stuttered, how the world tilted in the most beautiful way.
He remembered the first time their daughter's heartbeat echoed in the room, filling it with a rhythm that didn't belong to either of them, but somehow belonged to both. He remembered when they found out it was a girl, a tiny secret cradled within Lucy's body. And the first time he placed his hand on Lucy's skin and felt, through her, the presence of a daughter he already loved.
But nothing—nothing—could prepare him for the moment her first cry pierced the quiet of the night. For the sight of her, impossibly small, lying against Lucy's chest. For that fragile first kiss he placed on her head—the same place where he'd so often kissed Lucy in moments of quiet love.
When the nurse handed her to him, when he felt the delicate weight of her in his arms, it hit him like a wave: the staggering fragility of life. This life. His love, already immense, expanded in that instant—beyond comprehension, beyond measure.
In silence, he apologized to her—for all the times he would falter, for the moments when he wouldn't know the right words, the right actions. But he silently promised too: that she would never, not once, doubt that she was loved. Fiercely. Unconditionally. In this life and the next.
He had thought he knew love. But he'd been wrong.
He loved Lucy more than his own breath—but this? His love for their daughter was something else entirely. Deeper. Wilder. Infinite.
So yes—after long days spent navigating the shadows of Los Angeles, Tim allowed himself this ritual: to sit in silence, watching his daughter sleep. A sacred pause in time, born the night she was.
And he could stay there forever, just looking at her, listening to her breathe, imagining who she might become—and wondering if, as she grew, she would continue to look more and more like the woman he adored. In the four months since her birth, each passing day had revealed a little more of Lucy in her. And Tim knew, without question, he would give his life for them both.
" Come to bed," Lucy murmured as she rose from his lap, taking his hand in hers.
He stood, casting one final glance toward the crib. He checked—just once more—that all was well. Then, slowly, gently, he pulled the door closed, careful not to wake her, and followed Lucy back to their room.
He watched her slip beneath the covers, a soft smile forming as he imagined what was to come—
In just a few days, he'd be down on one knee, asking her to be his wife.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
7.04.25.
Hello, Hi :)
A Little, little something. I don't have so much time lately but i'm trying.
Hope you will like it.
Take care.
Don't forget to comment and vote, it helps, a lot.
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