Pieces of the Past - [Danona] Book One ✓

05. growing closer

"Still sore?" he asked, patting the damp cloth against her forehead. He had found out soon after the first table read that Winona would need to actually cry for every single one of her scenes. Two weeks into filming and her eyes were practically swollen shut from the amount of tears she had to forcefully shed. David had spent quite a bit of time trying to ensure that she was okay, making sure she stayed as hydrated as possible. Now, all she could do was lie with her head in his lap as he tried to help her bring the swelling down. 

"Yeah," she murmured, slightly burying her head just a little deeper into his lap. As soon as she had shown up on set with the look of sleep deprivation, dehydration, and puffy eyes, he had offered any help he could give. Not that he was complaining. They had dedicated the day on set to the kids' scenes, leaving the two of them to have their own free time. So, most of the day was spent with him trying to get her rehydrated and getting her pain under control.

He had dabbed a bit of cold cream onto the end of a wet washcloth, slowly massaging it into the bags under her eyes. It was a soothing trick his mother had taught him when Katie was a toddler who would throw tantrums and inevitably come back with swollen and painful eyes from crying so hard. "How about some more pain medicine?"

She slowly opened her eyes and a smile slowly appeared on her lips as she saw him gazing down over her. Absentmindedly, his thumb had started to gently stroke her cheek. "No, I'll be okay." she shook her head so softly, he almost didn't notice. 

Two weeks he had spent with her. Almost every single day for two weeks and every minute had added to the change of his life. In an odd, almost insane way, it felt like the family he had envisioned was coming true. Of course, Katie still hadn't met her yet. But he woke up every morning excited to see his daughter and excited to see Winona. 

She was bringing sunshine into his days. Katie would always be the absolute light of his life, but Winona added even more to it. The way she would laugh and make his heart stop. How they spent an absurd amount of time together, doing absolutely nothing. Trailers and dressing rooms became places of solitude. The walls listened in on their conversations about everything and nothing. 

There was only one downside. The more time he spent with her, the more guilty he felt. He had hurdled himself right into the epicenter of a life-changing situation for all three of them. He beat himself up for not thinking the entire situation through. How could he though? Everything about her was so damn mind-numbing that all logic went out the window. He hadn't considered how his secrets could hurt those affected. He didn't think about what would happen as soon as Winona met Katie and vice versa. He hadn't considered what pain they would feel if he told the truth. Winona and Katie could both find out the life-changing truth in the blink of an eye and if it hurt them, it was his fault. 

He was raising her daughter without her knowledge. His daughter. Their daughter. He knew he would need to tell her the truth sooner or later, but that didn't stop him from growing attached when he knew it was the wrong decision. It could end in happiness or it could end in heartbreak and the latter only seemed to be the most likely. If she met Katie, wouldn't she have the right to know that she would be staring at her own flesh and blood?