![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
intheheartTitle: Promise
Rating: PG
Summary: Rose Marie, Daniel, and a legacy of fathers.
Warnings: Mention of gun violence.
Notes: Nathan is about six weeks old.
Rose Marie is alone when she wakes up.
She looks at the clock- three in the morning- and sits up, searching for what woke her. The baby isn't crying. Daniel's side of the bed is cold, so it isn't his sudden absence. There's no light in the bedroom, no sound in the old house but the creaks and sighs of a building settling, and yet she is awake. She rises, wincing as her feet hit the cold floor, and pulls on her bathrobe. She may as well go check on the baby.
Nathan is sleeping, his little mouth askew, one fist clenched up by his head. And Daniel stands over the crib, his face anguished. Rose Marie freezes on the threshhold, suddenly uncertain.
The floor must have creaked under her feet, because Daniel looks up, and his face blooms. "Rose Marie," he says, and holds out a hand. "Did I wake you, love?"
"No," she says, crossing to him and taking his hand. "Are you... what's wrong?"
He looks back down at their infant son, reaches out to touch his fuzzy head, and pulls his hand back. "I guess you won't believe nothing."
Rose Marie expresses her opinion of that by snorting. A quick grin crosses his face.
"Right, well. It's just..." He laughs suddenly. "I was thinking about my father."
Ah.
Rose Marie hasn't met Daniel's father, but she doesn't need to. She knows divorce was a dirty word in the forties, but Daniel's mother still left him without looking back, and for once the community understood, which tells her everything she needed to know. How Daniel grew up to be such a gentle, kind man...
It doesn't matter. She squeezes her husband's hand. "You were thinking?"
The grin crosses his mouth again, but it's sideways, unhappy. "If I ever act like him, I want you to take my shotgun and kill me in my sleep."
It sounds like a joke. It isn't.
"I will," Rose Marie says, and squeezes his hand again.
Daniel relaxes- he knows she wouldn't promise that if she thought she might have to mean it- and pulls her close against his side. They look down at their son until, finally, he lets her take him back to bed.
Rating: PG
Summary: Rose Marie, Daniel, and a legacy of fathers.
Warnings: Mention of gun violence.
Notes: Nathan is about six weeks old.
Rose Marie is alone when she wakes up.
She looks at the clock- three in the morning- and sits up, searching for what woke her. The baby isn't crying. Daniel's side of the bed is cold, so it isn't his sudden absence. There's no light in the bedroom, no sound in the old house but the creaks and sighs of a building settling, and yet she is awake. She rises, wincing as her feet hit the cold floor, and pulls on her bathrobe. She may as well go check on the baby.
Nathan is sleeping, his little mouth askew, one fist clenched up by his head. And Daniel stands over the crib, his face anguished. Rose Marie freezes on the threshhold, suddenly uncertain.
The floor must have creaked under her feet, because Daniel looks up, and his face blooms. "Rose Marie," he says, and holds out a hand. "Did I wake you, love?"
"No," she says, crossing to him and taking his hand. "Are you... what's wrong?"
He looks back down at their infant son, reaches out to touch his fuzzy head, and pulls his hand back. "I guess you won't believe nothing."
Rose Marie expresses her opinion of that by snorting. A quick grin crosses his face.
"Right, well. It's just..." He laughs suddenly. "I was thinking about my father."
Ah.
Rose Marie hasn't met Daniel's father, but she doesn't need to. She knows divorce was a dirty word in the forties, but Daniel's mother still left him without looking back, and for once the community understood, which tells her everything she needed to know. How Daniel grew up to be such a gentle, kind man...
It doesn't matter. She squeezes her husband's hand. "You were thinking?"
The grin crosses his mouth again, but it's sideways, unhappy. "If I ever act like him, I want you to take my shotgun and kill me in my sleep."
It sounds like a joke. It isn't.
"I will," Rose Marie says, and squeezes his hand again.
Daniel relaxes- he knows she wouldn't promise that if she thought she might have to mean it- and pulls her close against his side. They look down at their son until, finally, he lets her take him back to bed.
