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I had to just lay there and watch Addy sleep for a few moments. Her chest rising up and down, as she breathed heavily, and she pulled the blanket all the way up to her chin. I smiled at her. She looked too cute to wake her up, but I wanted her to see the snow that had covered the ground outside.

I shook her a little bit, "Addy..."

She rolled around to the other side of the bed, and began stretching. Her eyes flickered open.

"Hey baby," I leaned over and picked her up, "I wanna show you something."

I brought her over to the window and opened the blinds. She squinted from the sun for a moment, and then she saw the snow.

"It's snow!" she screamed.

"Yep. You haven't seen snow in a looonngg time, sweetie, have you?"

"Can we go outside?!" she asked excitidely.

"We sure can."

She ran out of the room, and down the stairs to go see if Baylee was awake. I followed, in a way slower pace than her, down the stairs.

Brian was sitting at the kitchen table, just sipping his coffee and browsing through some magazine. Sometimes it was weird to see him in this big 'family man' light, I was so used to us being on the go and living that lifestyle together. I don't think I had ever really stayed at his house for this long.

"Morning... you want some coffee?" he offered.

"Sure, I'll have a cup," I shrugged.

"No! Daddy, you gots to come outside," Addy whined.

"Baby, I'm gonna go outside. Let me wake up first."

Brian cut in, "Addy, Baylee's getting ready right now and he'll take you outside."

"Yay!" she clapped.

She ran off to go find Baylee, and I almost felt bad for him. I laughed to myself. Baylee was a few years older than her, and to have a younger one running around could get annoying.

"Hey Aje, try not to let Steph get to you too much. I know it's gonna be hard. Don't... do anything dumb."

I looked at Brian, wondering what he meant by that. Don't do anything dumb? Does he think I would hurt myself? Or is he talking about the drinking?

"Bri, I'd never do anything to myself like that. That'd be fucking selfish, I have to take care of Addy."

He just shook his head, "I didn't mean that. I dunno what I meant. Nevermind."

I just shrugged his comment off and Baylee and Addy came downstairs, ready to go out in the snow.

"Here," I went over to help her zip up her coat. I put her hood up, to cover her ears, and wrapped a scarf around her neck.

"Have fun," I told her and patted her back, "I'll be out soon."

She didn't seem to care that I wasn't coming outside with her, and took off after Baylee.

"So, is he off school today?" I asked, trying to change the subject. Anything but talking about Stephanie. That was the point of coming to Atlanta.

"Yeah. When's she starting kindergarten?"

"Next school year. How crazy is that? Frickin' kindergarten. Seems like yesturday she was born still."

Brian laughed, "Yeah, it does. For Baylee, too. Remember when we took them to the beach and she got smacked in the head with a football."

"Yeah, of course I remember that," I chuckled a little bit.

My smiled quickly faded, though, "I still have nightmares about her getting kidnapped again."

"That was a freak accident. Claire's name hasn't even been mentioned since she was a little baby."

"Actually it has," I sighed, "Addy started asking alot of questions. She's been doing that lately. Out of the blue, she'll just be like 'where's my mommy?' It brings me back to me growing up, asking my mom about my dad. There's really nothing I can tell her, you know? Nothing ever helped me growing up. I just... don't want Addy to, well, be like me."

"What's wrong with being like you?"

"Ah, I'm a fuck up, yanno?"

"Whaat? You've done so much with your life, though. How could you think that?"

I shrugged, "I did so much shit back then, I don't want Addy to have to go through what I did. I've been through so many shitty relationships. I'm a fuck up."

"Daaaddddyyy!" I heard coming from the foyer of the house.

"Yeah?" I got up from my seat in the kitchen, to go see what she needed.

"You gotta go sledding! It's so fun!" she smiled.

"I'll only do it if Uncle Rok does it, too."

"Unccllle Rookk!" she called out, and Brian just gave me a look of 'thanks alot.'

"Alright, alright," he sighed.




I finally had gotten to the top of the hill with the sled and Addy. My throat was killing me from the cold air I had been breathing in. I hadn't gone sledding in... years. Alot of years. I was probably 19 or 20 years old.

I got my ass down towards the back of the sled, and I made a place for Addy right in front of me on the sled. I stuck my feet up, trying to fit us both onto this tiny sled. I grabbed hold of the string to help us steer and before I even knew it, Brian had pushed us and we took off.

"Holy shit! Ohh shit," I screamed the entire way down the hill. We went flying! "Holy shit!"

I stuck my feet out of the sled to try and slow us down before we reached the bottom of the hill. Adelynn was cracking up the entire time.

Finally we came to a stop. Addy's cheeks were so rosy red, and her smile could probably light up an entire room. She had been laughing so hard.

"You think thats funny?" I asked her, and I had to laugh myself.

Baylee & Brian came down and landed right beside us. Brian was cracking up, "That was hilarious to see you going down that hill."

"Ha. Ha. Very frickin' hilarious."

Addy smiled at Brian, "Daddy was really scared... the whole way down he was screaming 'holy..." I put my hand up to her mouth before she could say anything else.

"Your right, hon, I was saying 'holy crap.'"

"Nu-uh, you said something else..."

Brian just laughed.

And at a moment like this, it felt like everything was going to be okay. It felt like all the pain and heartbreak was gone, and it was only us in the world. But I couldn't stay here forever. I had to go back into the real world, and back into being a single father in no relationship. The holidays were coming up, and I needed to plaster a big, fake smile on my face. For Adelynn. Because everything I did was for her.