pinky promises - t.s.h.

[two]

Mornings were not Tom's strong suit. They'd never been, but they certainly did not get easier after Margaret was born. And then... then Amber left, leaving him and Margaret behind. Leaving him on his own to figure out how to be a good dad - a single dad - to his tiny baby girl. He had tons of support from his family and his friends, but that didn't exactly make the whole thing easy, especially at first. Everything was a learning curve, especially having to wake up in the middle of the night to calm Margaret, or having to wake up as soon as she did early (way too early) in the mornings. Now that she was a little older, it was easier because she didn't wake up as often in the middle of the night. But she'd inherited his love for sleep, so Margaret was a hard kid to get up in the morning.

The moment Tom's alarm sounded, he desperately wanted it to stop. As much he wanted to just roll over so he could go back to sleep, he grabbed his phone and turned off the obnoxious beeping noise. Sitting up in bed, he rubbed his hands over his eyes before pushing his hair out of his face. He let out a tired sigh but got out of bed and made his way down the hall to his daughter's room.

Pushing open the door to her room, he peeked in to find her fast asleep in her brand new bed. He smiled to himself before turning off the fan in the corner of the room before moving to sit on the edge of the bed. The bed dipped with his weight, causing Margaret's small body to roll a little closer to him, but she remained asleep. Her hair was splayed out across the pillow, one side of her face pressed into it, her tiny lips parted as she breathed out. Leaning down, he gently brushed some of her wispy hair out of her face and pressed a soft kiss to her temple, "It's time to wake up, princess."

Margaret let out a loud groan as she was disrupted from her sleep, shifting in the bed to try to turn away from Tom and clutching onto her stuffed bunny. Her eyes squeezed together tightly and buried her face in the pillow, willing herself to go back to sleep. This was a routine Tom knew all too well; it was one he'd done as a kid when his mum had to wake him up for school, and now it was something that Maggie did every single morning. She loved school, but she loved sleep even more. Just as Tom was about to say something else, she mumbled out into her bunny, "Nuh-uh, Daddy."

Tom laughed softly, shaking his head, "C'mon, Mags. You gotta get up and go to school, and Daddy's gotta go to work."

"Don't wanna," she huffed, eyes opening slightly just so she could pout at her dad. Her cheeks were a dark pink from the heat of sleeping underneath her blankets and her hair was still falling into her face. She gave him the best puppy-dog eyes she had, knowing the effect they had on him, and he almost gave in. Almost.

But he shook his head, palm running over her back gently, "You gotta, princess. We gotta get up and start the day. You can go to school and play with your friends, okay?"

It was quiet for a moment as she thought about what he said. Letting out a soft sigh, she rolled over onto her back, still clutching onto her bunny as she looked up at her daddy, "Will you pick me up today? And be here when I have to go nanite?"

The question made Tom's heart clench in his chest; as much as he wanted to spend every single second of every single day with his daughter, he just couldn't. Tom wasn't poor, but there were definitely times it was harder to make ends meet, especially as a one-parent household, and he needed all the money that he could get. To support his girl. And sometimes that meant working late, and not always being there when she went to sleep. It hurt him every time he couldn't be there, but it was what he needed to do. He'd do anything to support his little girl, to give her the best life possible, and he knew that from the very first time he'd held her.

"Here, you can take her," Amber said to him curtly, after only holding the little girl for a moment after giving birth.

"I, uh, okay, I-" he stuttered nervously as he took the baby into his arms. Tom almost fumbled for a moment as he cradled the bundle of pink blankets against his chest just right. He knew he had to be careful, not wanting to hurt his baby in any way, but that was pretty much all he knew. He barely knew how to change a diaper or make a bottle, much less anything else about being a parent. Needless to say, the whole thing had been unplanned, and Tom didn't know what to expect, but he was ready to figure it out as they went.