Don't Let Me Drown

Five

Tony's POV

I groan as I hear her crying. She never cries. My eyes shoot open but immediately close as the sunlight hits my eyes. Too bright, too hungover. Please Avi, please stop crying. I get up and hear her screaming more than when she woke me up. I ran to her room and picked her up immediately.

"Hey, it's okay baby girl. You're okay now" I said but she kept crying. Her small face red as she screamed at the top of her lungs. I sighed and quickly made a bottle for her. She drank it quickly but kept crying. I sighed and checked her diaper, of course it was full. I changed her but she kept crying until her small face started turning blue. That's not good at all.

"Fuck" I ran downstairs and called an ambulance to pick her up. My mom had the car and I waited patiently for the ambulance. When it came we rode to the hospital and she was escorted away with a small oxygen machine following. I paced and paced until my stomach churned.

"Mr. Perry?" I looked at the doctor.

"Give me ten minutes, I have to puke" I ran to the bathroom and made it just in time to puke whatever was in my system.

"A hangover kills doesn't it?" He said while I caught my breath. "Mr. Perry, your daughter is fine. She has asthma and seeing as she was most likely crying from being starved an entire day, it caused her to trigger an asthma attack" he said. We didn't feed her for an entire day. We didn't care for her. We're terrible parents.

"Look, you're young and I'm sure you don't want to see her get taken away. Make sure she takes this medicine and here's the specific machine she needs to breath better. Fix yourself and I'll bring her out" he patted my shoulder and led the information on the ground next to me. I'm a shitty dad, she doesn't deserve me. She's the most perfect and beautiful daughter anyone could ask for and I couldn't handle her.

I mustered up enough strength to get to a sink and rinse my mouth before walking out of the washroom. A nurse was holding her with a smile before handing her to me. I looked down at her to see her sound asleep. I kissed her forehead and she gave me her toothless smile that captured my heart. We left together and went home seeing her mother now passed out on the couch with a needle set on the table.

"You're getting out of here baby" I went upstairs gently putting her in her small bassinet. I grabbed a bag and set all her favorite things in it along with her necessities. I wrote the note that broke my heart, and had tear stains on.

Keep yourself together Tony, she needs this. I closed my eyes and cried before wrapping her up tightly in a blanket before picking her up and grabbing her now fully packed light purple bag. Ray was up now and looked at me in her haze of drugs.

"Where are you taking my baby?" She slurred.

"Away from here, she needs a better home" I said keeping my ground.

"Y-you can't do that, she's mine" she said trying to stand up.

"No, she's ours and I'm doing this for her! Look at us Ray! Can we really take care of her?!?" I was livid but I didn't scream because I didn't want to wake up Avi. Ray was silent, tears falling down her face.

"You're a selfish prick" she smacked me, grabbing her backpack she's threatened me with so many times and left. She actually left this time. I sighed and looked at Avi. Her small brows were furrowed together in discomfort but I smoothed it so she'd seem calm.

"You're gonna be okay" I whispered before leaving again. I wasn't sure how long I was walking but I found a house and set her in front of the door with a letter on top. I looked at her one more time before she started crying again. "I'm so sorry" I rang the doorbell quickly and started walking away. Her screams grew more and more as I walked away. But I keep walking. Her begging me to come back and I didn't.