Chapter Three


“And I like the color green 'cause that's the color of the grass...and I like yellow because that's the color of the sun and flowers...and I like pink. Do you like pink, Mister Lance?”

Kayleigh had not stopped chattering for hours that Lance had been in the store. Every aisle they went down, she found something new to screech out joy over and brought something new to her mind to tell Lance.

“Yeah, pink is okay, Kayleigh,” he said as he loaded the various bags full of new clothes, toys and other necessities into the back of his Escalade. “Are there any other colors you like?”

“I like blue because it's the color of the sky...but I like pink the best. It's my favoritest.”

Lance couldn't help but chuckle as he loaded the last bag into the back – bags full of everything in every shade of pink that she had picked out herself.

“Your favoritest, huh?” he asked. “Work on grammar – check.”

“What's grammar?”

“It's, like...” He stopped to think. She had a penchant for asking what words meant, and it was becoming harder and harder to think of explanations. “...you know, Kayleigh, never mind. Are you ready to go home?”

“You mean, to your home?” she asked.

“Well of course,” he said, lifting her up out of the shopping cart before pushing it into the carriage. “Where do you think you're going to sleep tonight, silly?”

After hours inside the Kids 'R' Us store, he had managed to spend a whole lot of money and grab all the necessities that he thought he might need for the next few days that he had Kayleigh. He knew it was a risky investment, spending so much and buying so many things when he didn't know if she would even be with him past Wednesday, but he couldn't turn his back on this kid now.

He had become invested – possibly too invested.

It was a small comfort that by tomorrow night, she would have a bed to sleep in with clean sheets, a dresser to put her clothes in, and a toy box for all her toys once it was all delivered the next day and put together. It made him feel better that she now had pajamas to sleep in, and she could take a bath, brush her teeth and hair as well.

“So we're going to your house, Mister Lance?” she asked as he lifted her into her seat and buckled her in, exactly as Mrs. Stanley had showed him how to.

“Well Kayleigh, first we have to go somewhere else,” he said. “Then we're going to my house.”

They had spent so long shopping for necessities for her that their appointment for the paternity test was now less than an hour away, and he still had to search for the place.

“Where are we going first?” she asked once he had climbed into the driver's seat and turned over the ignition.

“We have to go take a test,” he said, throwing the car into reverse and backing out of the parking space. “They're going to test us and be able to tell us if I'm your...well, your Daddy or not.”

“Like the tests my mama used to take?”

“Your mama used to take tests?” he asked, glancing at her in the rear view mirror.

“Yeah, on the commuter,” she said.

“You mean computer, Kayleigh?”

“Yeah, on the innernet.”

Lance sighed. She was a college student; probably taking classes online in between work to make a better life for her and Kayleigh, he thought.

“I thought you were my Daddy?” she finally asked, throwing him a quizzical look as they entered onto the highway.

“Well, maybe I am, sweetie,” he said.

“But Miss Leann said I was going to stay with my Daddy. Why do we need to take a test if Miss Leann says you're my Daddy?”

Good question, kid, Lance thought to himself. Why did he need a test to tell him if she was his daughter? He'd fibbed to Joey over the phone in the store. She didn't look a lot like him. The more he looked at her, the more he saw that she was the spitting image of him. The hair alone was a dead giveaway that she was his flesh and blood; his DNA. The nose, the bone structure, the shape of her eyes...it was all him.

In reality, it could end up all being a fluke, and that's what the test was for, to make sure. But deep down...he knew what the results would be.

“We're taking the test to make sure, sweetie,” he said. “So it can be all legal and everything.”

“Hmm...okay,” she said with a shrug, then went quiet as she played with Scooter's floppy ears, the rhythm of the back of her feet kicking the seat under her filling the silence.

He smiled. He had a feeling he was in for a ride with this one.

He managed to find the lab and pull into the parking lot with only minutes to spare until four o'clock. He pulled Kayleigh out and this time held her against his hip, knowing it might be easier to control her that way. He wasn't fond of the looks of this neighborhood, considering it was in one of the more rundown parts of the city.

He pulled her puffy coat tightly around her chest before closing the door, and felt a shock go through his body when she immediately leaned her head down to rest on his shoulder.

“Are you tired?” he asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” she said. “I wanna go home.”

“Yeah, I know,” he said, pulling her close to him. “We'll be done soon, then we can go home.”

He stepped up to the counter the minute he entered through the door, to a young woman with long, straight black hair.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“I have an appointment for a paternity test at four,” he said.

“Ahh, yeah,” she said, smacking her gum and reaching to grab something from her counter. “Fill out these forms and the tech will call you back when he's ready for you.”

Lance took the pen and clipboard and sat down in one of the seats, scooting Kayleigh into his lap. When she was settled, he turned his attention to the form in his lap.

Date, he read. Well that was easy. He wrote down December 10, 2004 in the spot provided. Alleged father. Well, that was him, so he wrote down his name. It was when he came to the next spot that he was thrown.

Child's name. Of course, it was Kayleigh – but what was her full, legal name? Did she have a middle name? Did she take her mother's last name, or had she taken his? He thought surely he would have needed to be there to sign the birth certificate if Lacey had chosen to give Kayleigh his last name, but he had left all the paperwork from this morning in the car.

It was then that he broke. He sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned his head against an oblivious Kayleigh's. He was so overwhelmed and unprepared. He possibly had a kid, and he didn't even know her last name.

“What's wrong?” Kayleigh finally asked him, her voice soft and sweet.

He looked over at her, feeling downtrodden – but when he looked in her eyes, he couldn't help but smile. There was something about those eyes.

“Nothing,” he said, simply shaking his head.

The lab tech called them back a few minutes after Lance had finished filling out the paper work.

“This will only take a few minutes,” she said, prodding around his counter top pulling out the paper covered medical supplies. “It's a couple quick swabs and then we can get you out of here.”

Lance sat on the table with Kayleigh on his lap, curled around and clutched tightly onto his chest. It seemed that the minute she went into the room and saw the surroundings that looked like a doctor's office, fear set in.

Fantastic, he thought. She's afraid of doctors. Not just afraid – terrified.

“It'll be okay,” he whispered in her ear, seeing the fear on her face as she looked at the tech. “He's going to do one thing and it will be over.”

She shook her head, digging it into his chest and only whimpering.

He sighed; the more he tried to comfort her, the more she resisted and clutched onto him.

“Can you do me first?” he asked the tech. “To show her it doesn't hurt?”

“Sure thing,” she answered.

“Watch, Kayleigh,” he said, seeing the tech finally take out the swab as she prepared everything. “She's going to do me first, so you can see that it doesn't hurt.”

Lance wasn't sure why he was nervous when he saw her coming toward him with it. He knew it wasn't going to hurt; it was a swab across the inside of his cheek with something that amounted to no more than a huge Q-tip, so that wasn't it. It was more the fact that this was it; whatever came out of this test, this simple swab of his cheek, would change his life in one way or another.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he opened his mouth and the tech put the swab in his mouth, rubbing it against the inside of his cheek. As much as he tried to keep his face from having a reaction so Kayleigh would be comforted, his nose twisted up as he felt the stick rub against his mouth.

“Tickles,” he said, but it came out muffled without being able to press his tongue against the roof of his mouth to enunciate letters, causing Kayleigh to slightly giggle against his chest.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Lance sat across from Kayleigh, watching her use her fork to push bright green peas across the plate.

“You don't like it?” he asked.

“I don't like peas,” she said, not looking up.

“Peas are good for you, though,” Lance said. He picked up a single pea between his fingers and popped it into his mouth. “See?”

“I don't like 'em,” she said, letting the fork fall down to the plate with a clang.

Lance cocked his head to the side and sighed. She had been quiet ever since they had gotten home after the paternity tests were finished. After having heard her chatter all day about anything and everything she could, he knew something was on her mind.

“What's wrong, kid?” he finally asked.

“Nothing,” she said, resting her head on her arm, propped up by her elbow.

“Listen,” he said, maneuvering around the island counter to take a seat next to her. “This kinda sucks, I know. You don't know me that well and I don't know what I'm doing. I've never been in charge of a four-year-old before. We have to stick together if we're going to get through this, right? We gotta talk to each other.”

She only stared at the uneaten food on her plate.

Lance sighed. He was exhausted and he still had to get her into a bath and bed before he could sleep himself. He went to the refrigerator and opened it, leaning in to pull out a beer.

“I miss mama.”

He pulled his beer out slowly and closed the door quietly before setting the unopened bottle on the counter.

“You know I'm going to take care of you, right Kayleigh?” he asked. “We'll be okay.”

“I know,” she said, sighing heavily.

He frowned, dropping his head to look at his feet. He couldn't compete with Lacey; he was new at this, whereas she had done this for four years. She had motherly instinct; all he had was his common sense, at best. He was trying his best, but that was all he could do. His common sense was enough to tell him how to heal a skinned knee or a bump on the head; but he had no idea how to fix this girl's broken heart.

“If you're done eating, it's bath time, Kayleigh,” he finally said. “Why don't you go upstairs and find some of those pajamas we got today and wait for me to come up.”

She silently pushed her plate away and stepped down carefully off the stool, running off to the staircase. When he heard her run up, he grabbed his phone out of his pocket and dialed the familiar phone number.

“Hello?” the voice said after a few rings.

“Hey, Ben, how's it going?”

“Well, it's going good Lance, it's a surprise to hear from you,” Ben replied. “Did something go wrong? Is everything okay?”

“Oh, no, yeah, everything is good with Kayleigh,” he said. “I managed to get her some stuff and I survived dinner, so you know, day one accomplished I guess.”

“Well that's good, I was worried about you when you left the office. It's good to hear your first day went well.” Ben paused. “So if everything is going okay, was there a reason you called?”

“Actually, um...yeah,” Lance responded. “Ben, there's not really an easy way to say this. I've been thinking and...what's going to happen with Lacey?”

“What do you mean?” Ben asked.

“Her, um...it's so weird to say this...her body,” Lance said. “I mean, what's going to be done? You said there was no family, right?”

“No, she was estranged from her foster family and hadn't talked to them for the past five years,” Ben said. “After Lacey aged out of their care, they dropped themselves from the fostering program. Since then, they've moved and the agency no longer has contact information for them. Believe it or not, they're harder to find than you may think. As the legal father, you always had first dibs on Kayleigh anyway.”

“So if she was estranged from her foster parents and had no other family, who's going to plan her funeral?”

“Well, currently she's classified as an unclaimed body,” Ben said. “The state of Virginia has made several attempts to contact any family of hers that may be able to claim her, but so far no one has come forward. Time is running out; if somebody doesn't come forward soon, her body will become the responsibility of the state.”

“I wanna do it,” Lance said.

“Have you officially gone crazy?” Ben said with a laugh.

“I know, it's stupid,” Lance responded. “I hardly even knew the woman. But...Ben, if she ends up being my daughter, regardless of the fact that I only spent one night with this woman – we shared something together. That's Kayleigh. She's something special, you know? And I can't let the mother of my child be an...unclaimed body. I can't do it.”

“I get it,” Ben said after a pause. “We can do that, Lance.”

“I want to take responsibility of her, plan her funeral and pay for it, and have her buried here in Orlando, so Kayleigh can visit her.”

“Okay, we can definitely do that,” Ben said. “I'll contact the state and get it started. I don't know how much I'll be able to do over the weekend, but I'll give it a shot. Monday at the latest. You should be able to get things rolling by Thursday or Friday.”

“I appreciate this, Ben. I really do.”

“I'm glad to see that you're taking some initiative, Lance,” Ben said. “I'm proud of you.”

Lance smiled. “Thanks.”


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


He laid there in the dark silence of his bed. It was ten already and he was exhausted, but he couldn't begin to slip off to sleep. He had way too much on his mind.

Last night he had been drunk and oblivious at his work Christmas party, like some stupid teenager. Maybe in a lot of ways, he still acted like one. He'd never gone through a rebellious stage in his childhood; he'd been brought up too well to act that way in his early teen years, and too busy with the band in his later teen years to have time to act like that. This was his rebellious stage – the way he had started acting like the guys after the concerts and the way he had lived his life the same way afterward.

It was the reason he was here now. If it was true, he was twenty when it happened, and it was catching up with him now. But in some ways, he welcomed it. It scared him, but deep down inside, he realized that maybe he wanted this.

He only wished that he'd had a chance for it to go the right way, instead of having to raise a daughter and plan a funeral at the same time.

He heard his door creak open and leaned up to turn on the bedside light, surprised when Kayleigh stood there.

“What are you doing up, Kayleigh?” he asked. “You're supposed to be in bed.”

“I can't sleep,” she said.

He knew it was untrue; he could hear in her voice that she was half-asleep as it was.

“You need your sleep, sweetie,” he said. “We've had a long day.”

“That room is scary.”

He'd put her to bed in a guest bedroom that hadn't been used in at least a year, possibly more. The bed was way too big for her, but until her own bed was delivered and her room temporarily set up, he figured it would be the most comfortable for her.

“Can I sleep with you?” she asked.

He sighed, but smiled.

“Sure, climb in,” he said softly.

She smiled and ran over to the opposite side of bed, lifting her legs high to climb in. He chuckled and grabbed her arm, helping her up.

“But you have to sleep, okay?” he said as she climbed in and pulled the covers back to settle in.

“Okay, I will,” she said. “Can you leave the light on?”

“Yeah, I'll do that,” he said.

He watched as she laid down and settled into bed, covering herself with the thick white comforter. Once her head hit the pillow, she looked back at him with her bright but tired blue eyes before closing them tightly.

“Good night, Mister Lance.”

“Kayleigh,” he said, smiling when she opened her eyes to look at him. “Just call me Daddy.”

Chapter End Notes:
Oh come on, you knew it would take him approximately 2 seconds to finally come around to it! lol


You must login (register) to comment.

Story Tags: daddyl lance