Heimat AU: Mikey's Rescue

Chapter Nine: Do You Like Dinos?

Collum was frozen in place.

Lauren's words were ringing in his ears. She's yours, she's yours, she's yours.

He'd had a child all this time? While he was off...he...

"Cee?"

He glanced up at her, wide eyed and sweating. Lauren seen his reaction. She stepped out of the van and in front of him. "Cee, hey, talk to me?"

Collum blinked several times and nodded. He wanted to speak... "Lauren."

"I know this is a lot to take in right now. I tried to find you and..." She grimaced. The pain of losing Collum, of being insulted by his parents, of being her mother's punching bag. She had fled. "We can't go back, all we have is right now."

Collum looked at her and chewed on his lip. All they had was now? "She doesn't know about me, does she?"

Lauren folded her arms. "She knows of you. I told her that you were a great man...and some of our old stories. She knows she has a father and that I called him Cee."

Collum nodded. That was okay...that was good. But how the hell was he going to introduce himself after eleven years? Would she even want a dad?

"What...do you want me in her life?" He asked Lauren. He was being as vulnerable as he ever had been. Lauren had raised that beautiful kid in there for eleven years without him. Would she want him to just enter this equation? This dynamic.

And if she did.

He didn't know anything about being a father.

"I've always wanted you in her life, Collum." Lauren said quietly. "Life got in the way, but if you're willing to do this...then we'll figure it out."

"I can't just ignore this...and she's...she's my kid." He shook his head, but a smile came to his face. "Oh my god...She's my daughter."

Lauren smiled back. "She is."

"Well...do...I...how..." Collum was starting to panic at the thought of telling Maia he was her father. "Is...that small boy..."

"He's my adopted son, or at least soon to be." Lauren said and she was suddenly guarded. Collum noticed immediately.

"How did that happen?"

Lauren bit her lip. "I technically kidnapped him."

Collum raised his eyebrow.

"He was abused, starving, and it literally was torture." Lauren said, every word causing her pain. "His mother threw him at my feet and told me to take him and I did. I've been trying to build a world of love and safety for him ever since."

Collum smiled, his expression soft. "Well if anyone could, it would be you." Collum blew a breath out his nose. "Jesus...how could anyone be like that? Treat a child like that..." He looked visibly upset.

Lauren closed her eyes.

"Lauren...I'm so glad you saved him..."

Lauren nodded.

"We don't have to say anything tonight..."

Collum sounded worried. Lauren's reaction, she looked like she was shaking, was she having second thoughts?