Who Brought Them Together

~Chapter 17~

Zane's POV:

I wake up. Not to the alarm clock, but to a little girl's screams. I look to the at clock. 3:27 am. That's when I realize. Rose.

I get up quickly, and run out the bedroom door. The house looks different when it's dark, but I can't pay attention to that right now. I run down to Rose's room, and the crying gets louder.

A panic fills my chest as I run into her room. Rose. Rose is curled up in a ball, crying into her knees in the corner of her room. She slowly looks up at me, and starts crying harder.

I walk over to her, and pick her up. She completely melts into me, and cries into my sweatshirt. I sit down on her bed, her sitting on my lap.

"Rosie....what h-happened...."

She only cries harder in reply. Her breathing rate suddenly goes quicker.

"Rosie...did you have a bad dream..?"

She nods slowly, then looks into my eyes. I feel my eyes start to water. I pull her into a hug.

I love her. But a different kind of love....a love that I've never felt before. Not the kind of love like I feel for Nana.
 
I run my hands through Rose's somewhat tangled hair, trying to calm her down.

"Shh... It's alright Rose....nobody can hurt you now..."

"B-but Daddy...."

I cut her off. "Rose....why are you calling me that..."

She pulls away from the hug a bit, then looks at me. "What do you mean..."

"W-why do you keep calling me....D-daddy..."

She looks straight at me, into my eyes.

"I...I don't really know what....having a Dad feels like...my dad wasn't very nice....but you are nice...and Daddies are supposed to be nice...s-so I-"

I pull her Into another hug, for two reasons. The first, because I feel a sinking pain in my chest, and it feels like the right thing to be doing. And second, because I'm crying now myself and I don't want her to see.