Is this his way of telling me that he is going to let me go after all? That I mean nothing to him, and he doesn’t want me anymore?
“Little one, take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. Help calm yourself down,” he reminds me again.
I shake my head and grab hold of his wrists. “Daddy, I don’t want to leave you. I will do anything you want me to if it means that I get to stay here.”
I’m that desperate to stay here, and Daddy is just putting it aside.
“I don’t want you to let me call you Little pet so that you can stay here. I want you to be yourself and let me take care of you that way,” he gently says. “I’m not going to give you back to the space station. I don’t know where you got that idea, but it was never my intention to let you go back. You are too precious to me to do that.” His voice is so soft as he speaks to me.
“But—"
“But nothing. You aren’t going back to the space station. I don’t want you promising to be something that you aren’t so you can stay here, either. I want you for who you are. I want you to be happy, and I know that if I keep calling you Little pet and you blindly follow whatever I say without any argument, you won’t be happy. You are going to be so miserable, and that is going to make me miserable,” he explains.
I open and close my mouth several times as I look at Daddy.
“You really aren’t going to give me away?” I ask, my voice so fragile.
He shakes his head. “I’m not going to give you away. You are stuck with me for the rest of our lives.”
A smile blossoms on my face, and I jump forward, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him close.
“Were you that worried?” Daddy asks.
“Yes,” I mumble.
It’s been on my mind for a while now. I never knew how to tell him that I didn’t want to leave.
“Where did you get the idea that you were going to get sent back to the space station?” Daddy asks. “Did anyone say anything to you?”
I stay silent, just holding onto Daddy.
“Little one, answer Daddy. Where did you get the idea from?” he asks once again.
I take a deep breath and slowly let it out.
“Leah.” His voice holds a warning tone.
“I just think it was my imagination. After you gave me the shot, my mind was running around wild. I just kept thinking about everything and anything, and then I realized just how much I missed you and how?—"
“Take a deep breath for me,” Daddy gently says. “You aren’t in a rush to explain things to me. I’m not going to jump to conclusions.”
I take a deep breath and slowly let it out, seeing how out of breath I am.
“What was the rest?” Daddy asks.
“And how I didn’t want to be away from you. I never want to be away from you. I knew that if I went back to the space station, I would slowly just wither away and be nothing.” I whisper toward the end. “I used to not care whether I died on the spacestation or not, but now I do. Now I’ve tasted what it’s like to live and be with you, I don’t want to die. I want to live with you and experience what it is going to be like for the rest of my life.”
Daddy smiles as he gazes at me.
“I just want to be with you. We don’t even have to do anything special every day or even every week or month or even every year. Being with you and having you take care of me every single day is more than enough,” I rush out. “I used to think that I shouldn’t want it, that I couldn’t want it since I was going back to the space station, but I want it. I don’t know why I fought you so much on everything in the beginning.”
“Because you were afraid and didn’t know what was going to happen to you. I understand, and I don’t hold it against you,” he gently replies. “I know what you went through must have been hard, and I’m sorry that you had to go through it, but I’m also glad that you are here.”
“I have always wanted something like this. The girls and I would talk about it all the time on the space station, but we all knew that we were never going to get it. That it was just a dream. Then it happened, and I didn’t know what to do,” I explain. “I didn’t know how to accept it or let you know that I liked it so much. I was worried that once I told you, you wouldn’t do it anymore or send me back to the space station, so I fought with you. And when I realized that, when I argued with you, and you tried to get me to stay even more, I wanted to keep fighting it so you would keep me here. Or that’s what I think is what I was thinking.”
All my emotions were jumbled up back then. Even now, it’s hard to distinguish what is right. But I don’t have to worry so much about it now. Daddy isn’t going to get rid of me.
“I’m glad you have come to this realization. Even if you fought me every single day, I wasn’t going to give up on you. I was never going to send you back to the space station. You aremine forever. I’m never getting rid of you. You can’t get away from me.” He smiles down at me.
I lay my head on his chest and take a deep breath, letting my whole body relax onto his.
“I love you,” I mumble.
“I love you too.” He kisses my forehead.
