Letting Go

Prologue

      

            "Love, death, guilt, pain... I have felt it all. My wife died during child birth, and I also became the reason my firstborn child began to hate me more than she hated the idea of possibly getting coal for Christmas. I have had to let go of a lot since I lost Riley and got Eliza and all I have to wonder is... where did it all go wrong?"

            -------------------------

        "Dada, dada!" The four year old daughter of James Maslow, Jane Maslow, shouted happily as she took tiny but quick little steps to her father, her arms outstretched for a hug the second she would get to him. James smiled widely at his daughter, bending down and sweeping the little girl off of her feet the second she was in reach of him.

        "How is my little Princess?" He asked the small girl, kissing the top of her head quickly. Jane giggled at her father and wrapped her tiny little arms around his neck, hugging him happily as she kissed his cheek before laying her head down on his shoulder.

      

        James stood there, holding his little girl in his arms for a while longer. He had been awfully busy at work the past week and has hardly seen Jane since she would be asleep when he came home and would just be waking up when he had to leave. So now all that mattered to him was holding his daughter in his arms.

        "James? Is that you down there?" He eventually heard a voice call from up the stairs. His wife. Oh, how badly he missed his wife over the week!

        "Well, who else would it be?" He questioned back to her as he saw the small, thin, blonde girl walk down the stairs. She smiled a soft and kind of wide smile, a different look in her eyes. James recognized the look, but he couldn't put a finger on when he last saw her like this, or why. Riley walked over to her husband, kissing his cheek gently.

        "Welcome home." She looked at their daughter for a split second, and then back at James again. "We have to talk tonight." She quietly said to him in a bit of a whisper near his ear.

                -------Later that night-------

        James rolled over next to Riley while she worked on catching her breath, pulling the blanket higher up to cover herself better. She rolled over to her side, smiling widely at her husband.

        "I know you weren't on a tour or anything and you still came home at night, but I really missed you this week." James gave a smile to her and reached over, pushing some of her hair behind her ear.

        "Well, I am here now. What was it you wanted to tell me earlier?" Yes, Riley telling him they needed to talk made him curious all day long. What was it that made her seem so happy while saying she needed to talk to him? Why couldn't he remember the reason she had looked like that before? Slowly, a wide smile made its way across Riley's lips again, making her dimples show.

        "We're pregnant." Riley said to him, having a wide smile after saying. And, well... those words left James in a shock, but a happy shock! The words his wife just spoke.... She was pregnant with their second child!

        "Riley, that's wonderful!" James said to her, leaning over her again. He pecked her lips quickly, then slightly rubbed his nose to hers before pulling his head back up to look at her. But, well, he couldn't really think of anymore words to say, and so he just kissed her again.