Quirks Of Being A Queen Bee ✔ COMPLETED ✔

Chapter Twenty-Four

I woke up in the place I hated the most in the world.

The hospital.

The goddamn, stupid hospital.

How many times had I been in here? Stuck in a stupid, huge white room waiting on someone I loved - my dad, my mom crying over my dad, and now my mom.

I was aching all over and my vision was blurry. I felt light - far too light, like my organs had been surgically removed from my body and I was just flesh and bone - and for a moment, I was completely dazed. Then I remembered, and shot up screaming.

"Mom!" I shrieked, my throat catching fire in the process as a nurse came barging through the door and tried to pull me back.

I wrenched myself from her grasp, looking around wildly, my neck snapping from one side to another. "Mom!" I tried again, desperately, tears running down my face. "Mom! Mommy! Mom, please!" The nurse started speaking to me firmly, waving her hands about and trying to tell me something, but I had blocked her out entirely. All I could hear were my screams. "Mom!" I hunched over, sobbing, tears falling from my eyes like I was Niagara Falls. "Daddy!" I screamed. He had to be here, he had to be here by now. If he wasn't here, I was going to snap, I was going to-

The door slammed open and there stood my Dad, blue eyes wide and frantic, and unnaturally red. He ran towards me and I sobbed, throwing myself at him and weeping. He held the back of my head and started rocking me back and forth, his breaths quick and started.

"Daddy, please, please tell me this isn't true, Daddy," I cried into his shoulder.

He said nothing. I looked up at him through my tears, and upon seeing his expression started to hopelessly weep. I pushed him away. "She can't be! She can't be! Daddy, please!" I put my hands over my face and began to bawl my eyes out. I started breathing heavily. "This isn't funny, Daddy! Stop it! Stop all of it!" I cried.

"Sweetie, I'm so sorry." He said, and he burst into tears himself.

I don't know how long we just sat there for, holding each other and crying.

I'd never seen my Dad cry. Ever. Not even once. But in that moment, he was utterly broken. Smashed into a million pieces like a mirror. He was heartbroken.

"I wasted so much time," He told me, his voice quiet, his face pale and his eyes red. "I fought - I - I blamed her for so much. I made a big deal of nothing but-" He took a shaky breath. "Ashley, please understand, I love her. Present tense. I love her, and I am going to love her until the end of time. I can't let her go. I'm never going to-" He cut himself off.

"Daddy, what are we going to do?" I whispered, my voice shaking.

"I don't know, baby, I don't know. But I am sure as hell that I am going to try my absolute hardest to give you the life you deserve." He looked straight into my eyes - our eyes were the exact same shade of blue. I pressed my lips together to surpress another cry.

"I'm wasting no more time. I can't make that mistake again. Honey, I want you to know this know; if I yell at you, I do it because I honestly want the best for you. If I'm making you unhappy, God, tell me. I need to know. If anything like this happens to you, and we're left with problems, and you hate me, I couldn't-"

"Daddy, I love you." I say. "I could never, ever hate you. Never, not even if I wanted to."

"I'm going to try. For her, for you. I'm going to try my best to be the Dad you want."

"You are the Dad I want." I told him.

"No. I want to be the father you deserve. You deserve to be happy. I'll make sure that happens. I never want you to feel pain or anything like this ever again." He told me. "I can't - I can't promise you that things will always go our way, I have no power over that sometimes, but I'll do my best." He kissed my forehead. "I love you, sweetheart."