Riley's POV
I woke up and was staring at the ceiling of the living room. I was laying on daddy's side with both my legs wrapped around one of his legs.
"Hey" daddy said as I snuggled closer to him.
"What time is it?" I said rubbing my eyes.
"It's 10:30. You're gonna go back to bed soon, but I need to talk to you first." Daddy said sitting up and holding me in his lap.
"Is it about what happened at the zoo?" I said trying to hide my face in his neck.
I didn't want to talk about it. It was scary. And mean.
"Yes. Ri, I need you to look at me right now. This is serious." Daddy said lifting my head from his shoulder.
"Okay" I said whining.
"What happened today. Was scary for both me and you. But I don't want you to be scared tomorrow." Daddy said.
"Why would I be scared tomorrow. Daddy we already talked about the speaking part." I said giggling.
"Ri, there is going to be a lot of people trying to talk to us. And record us and take pictures. Just like today. Some of them aren't going to say nice things. Some of them are going to say things that aren't true. It's going to be loud, and I know you don't like loud." Daddy said.
"What if they hurt me." I said as my eyes started to water.
"No no no baby. They won't hurt you. They won't touch you. Daddy won't let them do anything to you. I promise." Daddy said kissing my forehead.
"Can you carry me away from them." I asked hoping I would just be able to hide my face in daddy's chest and plug my ears.
"Did you really think I would let you walk alone. I'll hold your hand. But Ri, you need to face them. No more hiding. Show them who's boss!" I said trying to get her to laugh.
If it was any other situation I would carrying her. But I need her to stay out of little space. And carrying her like a baby won't help.
"Okay fine but can I sit in your lap when the trail is happening? I don't want to see my aunt and uncle." Riley said.
"We'll see. Now go back to sleep. You need some rest." Daddy said
Daniel's POV
I picked Riley off of the couch and carried her to my bedroom. As soon as I laid down she curled up against my chest. I could feel she shaking. Was she crying?
"Ri, baby are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm sacred daddy. I don't wanna go." Riley said in tears.
I quickly grabbed the pacifier next to the bed and put it in her mouth. I rocked her to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
The next day
Daniel's POV
I woke up early, around 7am. I quickly showered and eat. I wanted to be ready before I woke Riley up because I knew she was going to need my full attention today. I grabbed my suit and changed. By the time I was all done it was 8. The car was coming to pick us up at 9:30.
I walked back into my bedroom and Riley was still sleeping with a pacifier in her mouth. I pulled the pacifier out and shook her a little to wake her up.
"Come on ri, it's time to get up."
She slowly got up.
"You need to shower and then I'll have something for you to eat in the kitchen." I said.
"I'm not hungry." Riley said pouting.
"I don't care Riley. You are eating. We already had this conversation and you know how that ended." I said leaving the room.
I heard the shower going as I made her breakfast. My wife had already laid out what Riley was going to wear on her bed so I just moved it to ours. Riley came into the kitchen around 8:50 and was ready to go. All she needed to do was eat.
I made her some eggs and bacon. I was cleaning up the kitchen when I realized she hadn't eaten anything and was just moving her food around on the plate.
"Okay fine. You want to play this game." I said leaning over the table.
"I told you I wasn't hungry." Riley said with an attitude.
"Riley. Don't give me attitude. Do I need to sit you in my lap and spoon feed you." I said raising my eyebrow at her.
Riley just looked at me. I was loosing my patients.
I quickly moved to where she was sitting, picked her up and placed her on my lap as I sat back in the chair. I grabbed the folk and held her still in my lap with my other arm.
"Open up." I said
She slowly opened her mouth and I shoved the eggs in her mouth.
By the time we were done she was crying, and trying to hide in my chest.
I felt bad, but she needed to eat and this was the only way to get her to eat. After we were done I let her hide in my chest and rubbed her back to soothe her so that she would be calm by the time the car came to get us.
The car pulled into the driveway and honked to let us know they were there.
"Okay come on ri." I said holding out my hand for her to take.
I checked out side and it was just the car and no press were there.
Riley hesitated at first but she held on to my hand.
We walked outside to the car and Riley hid behind my arm that she was holding, I opened the car door and helped Riley get in the car. I walked back up to the house and made sure everything was locked. And then got in the car.
"It's about a 2 hour drive so get comfortable back there." The driver said smiling back at us.
"2 hours!" Riley said complaining.
The driver chuckled as he rolled the window up to separate him from us.
"Daddy do you have to talk at the trail too? How long is it going to take? Do we get breaks? When will it be done?" Riley asked questions for a solid hour before I finally got her to stop.
We pulled into the parking lot of the court room and it was full of cameras and reporters waiting for us to get out of the car. Luckily the windows were tinted so that they couldn't see through them.
"Okay ri remember what we talked about last night. Hold onto my hand and DO NOT let go. Ignore the questions and listen to what I say." I said getting ready to get out of the car.
"Okay." Riley said fidgeting with her hands.
"Hey, I love you. No one will hurt you." I said kissing her forehead before opening the car door and taking a firm grip on Riley's hand as we got out of the car.
