Here comes Teddy

What happened to your eye? (Sixty-two)

Teddy PoV

I was standing at the school gates waiting for Ro to come out, like I did everyday, Mikey was at home already because he had a cold, so Ro then walked out of the school gates and I saw that she had a black eye, which didn't sit right with me at all, because you know, parental instincts and shit.

"Hey Ro, Bambina, can you tell me what happened to your eye?"
"Nothing happened to my eye"
"Rowan, what happened to your eye?"
"Nothing happened to my eye Daddy"
"Please don't lie to me Rowan!, you know that I don't tolerate lying, (sighs), I can't do anything about what happened if you don't tell me what actually happened Sweetheart"

It took a minute for Ro to actually answer me, but she did answer me eventually, probably because she realised that she'd get home quicker if she talked about it, ya know.

"Ok, please don't get mad at me"
"I won't get mad at you Baby, I promise"
"I got punched in the eye"
"Who punched your eye Ro?"
"Can we go home now Daddy?"
"No, I asked you a question Rowan, and it would help me out a lot if you answered it, now who punched your eye?"
"It doesn't matter Daddy"
"Rowan Sweetheart, it matters to me"
"Why?"

I knelt in front of Ro, so that I was eye level with her, because I didn't want to tower over her, then I gently cupped her face, so that she couldn't look at the ground while we were talking.

"Because I am your father Rowan, and you are my daughter, which means I don't ever want to see you get hurt, especially if it was done on purpose, and the black eye that you got given, whoever dared give that to you purposely meant to hurt you Rowan, because you can't accidentally give someone a black eye, so I want to know who hurt my little girl?, huh?"
"Tim did it, but I don't know why"

Anger had just pitted on the bottom of my stomach, both Ro and I started crying, because emotions don't make sense, they have never made sense, and they will never make sense.

"Why didn't you just say it was him when I asked you about it Sweetheart?"
"Because I didn't want to worry you Daddy"
"I'm supposed to worry about you Baby, it's part of being a parent Sweetheart, I knew all that when I signed up for the job, you know Tesoro"
"But Megan doesn't worry about me though"
"If Megan can't see what a wonderful little girl you are Baby then she doesn't deserve to have you as her daughter, ok Baby girl"
"Ok Daddy, can we go home now Daddy?"
"(Chuckles), Yeah Rowan Sweetheart, we can go home now"

So I picked Ro up, kind of settled her on my hip, and started walking to the train station, Ro already half asleep with her head on my shoulder, the sight making me chuckle a little bit, because things never seem to change that much.

I kissed the top of Ro's head just before I got out of the train station near our flat, the autumn breeze bringing a slight chill in the air, just thinking to myself about how I wished that Ro never met Megan, which makes me sound like the biggest arsehole on the planet, but I hated how it has hurt my little girl.

I walked into the flat, saw that Mikey was asleep on the couch, and then I gently tried to wake Ro up, because I wanted to put some frozen peas on her eye to see if that would help with the swelling.

"Hey Sweetheart, you have to wake up now?"
"Are we home now?"
"Yeah Buba, we're home now"
"Mm tired"
"I know Baby, I know, but we've got to put something cold on your eye, ok?"
"Ok Daddy"

So I walked to the kitchenette, sat Ro on the counter and grabbed the frozen peas from the freezer, then put the peas on Ro's eye.

"Here you go Sweetheart, does that feel any better?"
"Yes it does Daddy, it's cold though"
"That just means it's working Darling"
"Daddy"
"Yes Baby"
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you who punched my eye"
"That's ok Sweetheart, you just need to tell me if it ever happens to you again, ok?"
"Ok Daddy, I will"

We were both quiet for a little while after that, I checked Ro's eye about 15 minutes later.

"That looks a little better now, I'm going to take this off your eye for now Baby and then I'll check it later to see if it needs the peas again, ok"
"Ok Daddy, can you let me down please?"
"I can do that for you Sweetheart"