You Again

chapter 6

~Theo~
almost four years ago

Five months. My daughter has been alive for five months and today is the day Margot is finally letting me meet her. I've never felt worse than I have these last few months. Everyone could see it, they could see how broken I was.... am.

My own daughter.

I was standing outside of her parents house. My hands were shaking as they rapped quietly on the front door. She's still mad at me, I know she is. The only reason she was even letting me here was because Sarah and my brother were tired of seeing me moping around their apartment and had convinced her to let me visit.

"No need to be nervous son." Her father, a nice French-American man I'd met about a year ago when Margot graduated from university, said after taking one glance at me. His brown hair was streaked with silver, but his old age was doing him well. It makes me wonder what my own father would have looked like with grey hair.

I gave the man a weak smile and followed him inside. Their house was quaint, and, oddly enough, walking distance from my grandparents' Texas beach house.

"Theo! It's nice to see you!" Margot's mother exclaimed from where she and Sarah's mom were baking in the kitchen, "Right this way."

Why were they not furious with me too? Surely Margot told them what happened?

"Thank you for letting me in your home Mr. and Mrs. McKinnon." I spoke as confidently as I could, but my voice still wavered with nerves. "Good to see you both. Mrs. Goodwin."

Mrs. McKinnon led me down the hall and stopped in front of a room with star stickers on the door. She gave me a reassuring smile when she noticed my hesitation. My heart was racing as I pushed open the door.

My breath caught.

Margot lay stretched on her back on her childhood bed, her eyes shut in a peaceful sleep. And nestled in the center of her chest was my baby girl.

My face broke out into a teary eyed smile as I slowly kneeled down next to them, my arms resting on the side of the small bed. Before I knew it my head was tucked into my arms and I was sobbing quietly.

"Please don't keep her from me." I whispered over and over again, "Please."

I don't know how long it was before I felt the gentle warmth of her hand running slowly through my dark hair. I let myself look up at her, eyes red and stinging from my tears.

~Margot~

"Her name is Claire," I whispered, taking in his teary-eyed expression, "for my sister. She always wanted to name her daughter Claire."

"Claire." He echoed with a smile. I'd never seen a man so heartbroken before.

Aveline Marie McKinnon, my little sister, Sarah's best friend, died from leukemia when she was 11 years old. My whole world had crashed. It was far too much for a 15 year old to handle, but Theo understood. He lost his father in a car crash at 16, when his father was teaching him how to drive. If we had a son, I would have named him after Theo's father, regardless of if I was mad at him or not.

"I'm sorry." He breathed, his voice cracking, "I'm so sorry, Margot. I just.. I.."

"You don't have to explain yourself, Theo, I understand."

"Please don't keep her from me." He whispered again, not knowing I had heard him the hundred times he chanted it before.

"I won't." Just as I whispered the promise, her beautiful big green eyes opened, staring directly at the man before her. She stared and stared and stared before, finally, giving him one of her precious baby smiles and beginning to babble at him, probably telling him about a dream she had.

Theo's smile brightened infectiously, and it was like that first day in the office all over again, when he was holding baby Lilly, except now his eyes were filled with love for our daughter.