Better Together (Patrick Kane)

39| Closure

Danielle

Christmas morning Patrick and I collect our gifts and head over to my uncles house. My grandpa and a few other relatives are going to be there so it'll be a full house this beautiful winter morning.

As excited as I was to see family I haven't seen in a while I have to admit that I wasn't ready for all the "I'm sorry"'s or sad looks or the "how are you"'s. It's so incredibly hard to move on when all everyone does is bring it up. I was hoping to just retreat to Patrick's room for a little and wait for it all to die down.

When we get in we let Max free and Will and Cam run up to their room with him. I put the presents under the tree then go to get a drink.

"You have a huge family" Patrick notices.

"This isn't even half of them" I laugh and his eyes go big.

"And I thought my family was big. Are you guys all into hockey" he asks.

"Pretty much" I shrug.

I introduce him to everyone even though they pretty much knew who he was already. I find my cousin Rachel and decide to hang out with her. She was the closest to my age and I was closest to her, I mean besides Will and Cam.

"I didn't know you moved out, I was in your room looking for you a little while ago" she admits.

"We moved in October so it was kind of recent" I explain.

"Right, and you moved in with Patrick" she asks and I nod.

"Yup. We live there with our dog" I smile.

"That's so cute" she laughs.

I was the oldest grand kid out of all of us, 18 kids to be exact. Of my grandma and grandpas five kids my dad was the second oldest. The first oldest was Aunt Alicia and she was still single. She was a free spirit and moved around a lot so she never had kids. Then I was my dads only child making me the oldest. Then there's about seventeen other grandchildren after that spread throughout three kids and thinking about all those names hurts my head. About half of them were here so I'm sure I'll see them soon enough.

The doorbell rings and I let out a groan. I don't even think anyone else can fit in here. It rings again and still no one gets it. I maneuver my way through the house and finally get to the door. I swing it open but wasn't expecting to see what I saw.

There stood my dad just staring back at me. He was covered in facial hair and wearing a backwards hat confining his curls. He was on crutches and wearing jeans and a Christmas sweater, my favorite one actually. I'm not even sure how he still has that... not even sure how he was here. His green eyes filled with tears as he looks me up and down. I look down and see that his right leg was missing hence why he was on crutches. I step closer and touch his face as he tries his best to smile. It was really him, he was still alive.

"Daddy" I whisper and he smiles bigger.

"You never do wait for me to stop growing up, do you" he asks. I fly into his chest and wrap my arms around him. My fingers lock behind his back and this time I wasn't letting go. The tears were instant as he drops his crutches and hugs me back.

I couldn't believe it. He was alive and he was here. He was hurt but he was here.

"How" I cry. I was so confused.

"I was still alive after our car blew up, barley, but I was, and I made it my last mission that if I made it out alive I would come find you.

I had become friends with the native people there so they knew who I was. I was about to die along side my guys until the natives pulled me from the burning car and treated my injuries. I was out for a few weeks, they said they tried to tell the people looking for my body that they had me in their care but they didn't understand their language so I was left behind. After I woke up they explained how I was bombed by the bad guys there, and how everyone else I was with died in that car crash. I saw that my leg was shredded and getting infected so I had to head back to base. They didn't have to right stuff there to help me but they got my heart beating again so that was good enough for me. But they were worried those guys would come back to look for me and kill me themselves so we had to find a plan to get me there safely.