Re: The woods
It seemed that Luke had severely underestimated the attention span of a child, as he looked down at the little girl in surprise when she asked why he hadn't brought his invisible friend along. The opening was there, right there, to ask who her daddy was, but he forced himself to keep quiet. He already knew, after all, didn't he? There was no need to drive the knife in deeper by having it confirmed aloud. "Your daddy is right," he told her, even though he thought it was a bit of an extreme warning to give to a kid. "He wants you to be safe. You shouldn't be out here on your own, but that's because you're still young. It's different when you're an adult. My friend will be fine, don't worry." He figured he should stop there, before he ended up confusing the poor little girl. When she told him 'how many' she and her brother were, he smiled, despite the fact that it felt like he was being torn apart inside. Two children, a boy and a girl, and he'd bet she hadn't hidden either pregnancy from their father.
For a long, long moment, he just stared at the house. It was what Wren had always dreamed of, wasn't it? Beautiful, spacious, in a good neighborhood with a white picket fence as the cherry on top. The life she'd always wanted, but the one she could, apparently, only have if he wasn't a part of her life.
He couldn't help laughing when Stella insisted she could be a knight and a princess, and even though she wasn't his child, even though she wasn't real, there was a certain amount of fondness in the sound. She was a little firecracker, this little girl. So much like her mother. "A knight and a princess, huh? You must be very, very brave," he said, and his expression only faltered for a second, a brief flicker, because he'd already had a suspicion as to who her father was. Surveillance and working as a driver, well, that only solidified the truth. "You must miss him while he's gone, but I bet he's proud of you, guarding the house until he comes back." That slipped out unbidden, without thinking, but he couldn't imagine anyone not being proud to have her as a daughter.
And oh, yes, he was jealous. Along with the ache, the stabbing of knives, came jealousy, because he wanted a life like this, and it was never to be his. Without her, his life was miserable, but without him, she could have everything she'd ever wanted. It wasn't fair, but maybe he deserved as much. That tiny, foolish hope that she'd been telling the truth, that he really had made her life better, was quickly becoming extinguished; he should have known better than to ever allow himself to believe it in the first place.
Going inside the house seemed like a very, very bad idea, but as Luke searched for the words to say as much, Stella ran ahead without waiting for a response. He looked down at the puppy in his arms, then up at the open front door, and he sighed. Fine. He'd go inside, put the dog in its cage, and then leave. If her mother was sleeping, he wouldn't ever have to see her, or speak to her, and that was probably for the best. This hurt enough without seeing the other Wren; actually coming face-to-face with her might be too much to bear. "I'll put her back for you," he agreed, following her up the walkway and onto the porch, "but then I have to go, alright? I can't stay." No, no, he couldn't. Wren was still waiting for him, and he didn't want this to get as far as it had gotten before, with his other self, because he knew he wasn't going to like whatever he saw.