The Seventh

Chapter 13

"Class dismissed" the teacher said and everyone started moving and talking to each other while laughing, Emma shoved her stuff inside her backpack and put her denim jacket on and left the classroom with an expressionless face. She just wanted to get out and walk back home with Ollie and then sleep, she felt so tired but it was the kind of tiredness that no amount of sleep would take away. She stepped outside the school only to find Richard leaning on a tree across the street, smoking completely unaware of his surroundings. He was determined to tell Emma this one last secret, that morning after he left the park, he called Till and told him that he finally was ready to tell Emma about it, Till, supportive as always said it was a good idea to be honest with the kid, besides he was positive that it'd make his daughter feel a whole lot better. Richard wandered in the streets thinking how to approach the subject and now there he was picking her up after school.
"I thought Ollie was gonna come" She said while Richard was hugging her "Hello to you too, sunshine" Richard answered with a smile and a hint of sarcasm.
"Hi" she said and half smiled.
"Where is it?" Richard asked.
"where is what?" She was confused.
"My kiss, I think you left it somewhere along with that pretty bright smile of yours" He put an arm around her lean shoulders as they started walking.
Emma turned and Richard tilted his head down and recieved the kiss on his cheek. "Sorry, tough day" she smiled more genuinely.
"Why? Something happened?" he was worried.
"School happebed" She sighed.
Richard smiled and pressed his lips on the kid's temple. "you little drama queen"
---

"let's sit here for a while" Richard said after couple of minutes when they arrived at the park. They sat next to each other on a wooden bench.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked.
"Why would anything be wrong?" The guitarist was some what amused.
"you live with someone your whole life you kinda pick up on their facial expressions" She answered humorously.
"Smart ass" Richard laughed. "nothing's wrong, I just wanted to talk to you" He answered while picking another cigarette from its pack.

Emma looked at him expectantly.

"there's something else you need to know, I've been thinking how to tell you this all day but honestly I don't know how to say it, cuz it took too long for me to finally be ready, besides Till thinks it'll make you feel better about... Well, about everything. I just think you're gonna hate me once you know but I just wanna be honest with you. You deserve that" He trailed and took a very long drag of the cigarette.

"That was a great opening if you wanna make someone worried sick, " she said sarcastically, that witty little shit. her face was now a bit paler than usual. "what is it, Uncle Z?"

"Please don't interupt me until I'm done talking...,ten years ago after that genetic test Till suggested me something, something I so very much wanted but could never bring myself to ask of him," he took a deep breath and looked straight into Emma's eyes "He um...He um...said that I should adopt you if it meant that much to me, he knew it did , you were already calling me Papa and I've always been closer to you than to my own flesh and blood, I cared for and loved you more cuz well...you were...you were like home to me, eventho you were so little you were still my shelter, I'd held you in my embrace and every single bad feeling would go away,,,so I-I adopted you and-"  

He got interuppted when the small girl shoved herself into his chest and wrapped her arms around him, the man heard his rib bones crack a bit. He, then held her even more tightly and smiled, a big huge smile on his face with watery eyes, the contrast made him laugh as he felt the front of his shirt getting wet for the kid in his arms, HIS kid, was also crying. They stayed like that in silent for minutes. He heard Emma's muffled voice from his embrace "We've been so very awefully dramatic lately" They both laughed and Richard held her beautiful face in his hands and looked at every single part of her face carefully and pressed a long kiss on her forehead as she closed her eyes with that famous bright smile which they all believed she got from Paul. 

"Does this mean I can start calling you Papa Reesh again?"

"Why did you ever stop?" The man asked.

She just shrugged.

"What made you tell me now?" She asked.

Richard's mouth went dry, he didn't know whether to tell her or not.

"with everything that happened yesterday, I felt that you're old enough to know the whole truth. You handled it pretty well" that was actually partly true, but the real reason was the fact that Anna made him feel a lot more possessive and protective over Emma.  That woman didn't know about the whole adaptation thing, everything she'd said about Richard acting stupidly fatherly over Emma, has left a sting on him. It was selfish to feel like that, he was aware but he couldn't just sit there and do nothing.

"I'm proud of you, baby girl" She took her chin between his fingers making her to look in his eyes. Emma smiled but her eyes remained expressionless.

"hey... don't let it throw ya, " he added when he saw how sad she was. "and don't let it bottle up inside you, talk to me, OK? Promise you'll talk whenever you felt like it. I'm always here for you doll, we all are"

"I promise" She actually looked like she was already feeling better.

The thing about Emma was that she needed an awful lot of attention from them. She never asked for it verbally, it was always in various forms of behaviors. One more lovely than the other, making all six of them giving her the amount of spoiling and attention she needed, specially Till and Richard. They were completely unarmed towards her. She never misused it though, how can a fifteen year old whose in fact still a three year old at heart, misuse anything?