Childish

Epilogue

Mom hugged me so hard I thought my eyes were going to bulge out of my face like those squishy toys I played with as a kid. She was really going to miss me once I left. It had been such a long time since I'd seen her and Dad so no wonder she was being so aggressive.

"Mom, I can't breathe." I was barely able to gasp out some words as I struggled to breathe.

Mom pulled back but still stayed close to me. "Please, be careful. And be good. And call us. No matter what's going on or how late it is."

I nodded. "I will, Mom."

"I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you, too."

Dad hugged me and kissed the top of my head. "I love you, Lyla. Take care of yourself."

"I will."

Mom gave me another hug before she let me walk away from her and get into the rental car. Daddy thought it would be fun to try out a new car as we traveled across the country. He said if we were going on an adventure, we needed a car that would be able to handle all types of roads we went on. I figured it was just so he could try out a car that wasn't his. That was definitely a guy thing.

I climbed into the passenger seat and put my bunny and my bear on the floor so I could get buckled.

"Did you enjoy your visit?" Daddy asked, pulling away from the curb where my parents stood. They were waving and continued doing so until we were out of sight.

I glanced in the mirror before I answered him. "Yeah, I did."

He was quiet as we continued driving. He pulled up to a red light and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. "You know you didn't have to come back."

Daddy never would have let me visit my parents years prior when I was still fighting everything about Alpine. I was impulsive and quick to react which left me flighty. There was no saying what I would have done. But he knew me for years and I wasn't like that anymore.

Mommy never talked about me going back to live with my parents. I figured it was hard for her to even think about let alone discuss. I was her child just as much as Cooper was. She didn't like the thought of losing me so we didn't talk much about it.

But Daddy said if I wanted to live with them, I could. I could just stay with them in New Hope and try to start my life back over all these years later. No questions, no fighting.

It all seemed too good to be true. But I knew he wouldn't have suggested it if he didn't mean it. It had never once been discussed when I was a baby so I knew it wasn't something they wanted to do.

But I wasn't ready to go back to my parents. I loved them. I loved them more than anything in the world. But I was still struggling with being a teenager again and having my old body back. I couldn't go back to them when they weren't able to help me with that.

"I know." I glanced out the window to my right and watched a girl around my age talk to a baby in a rear-facing car seat in the back seat. "I wasn't ready to leave you and Mommy yet."

He watched my expression for another minute before the light changed and he focused on the road again. "She'll be happy to see you. Cooper will too."

—

Spending time with just Daddy was a lot more fun than I was expecting. Even after everything we'd been through, we had a good relationship. I was closer with him than I was with Mommy. It wasn't intentional or something I did on purpose. It just happened.

The trauma I'd been through brought me closer to him. As weird as that was.

We talked about where we wanted to visit after leaving New Hope. There was so much to see on the East Coast. New York City, Washington D.C., the ocean. It was all exciting to think about.

There were a lot of places I wanted to travel to. Ever since I was a teenager, the first time, I always wanted to travel and see different places. I wanted to see how other people lived. Going to Alpine certainly didn't help with that considering the way they lived was so... odd. But I knew not every place was bad and Alpine was just an exception.

I was ready to move past that and focus on my future. Now that I had one to look forward to, I wasn't going to squander the chance to live a good life and make a good life for myself.

Daddy put his phone on the nightstand before grabbing a change of clothes from his suitcase. "I'm going to go get a shower. You can figure out the TV?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm a kid. We know how TVs work."

He gave me a pointed look before he turned and headed for the bathroom.

I scooted back on the bed and grabbed the remote. I turned the TV on and found something decent I could watch. I was still stuck on the same kid shows I watched at home with Cooper. I couldn't get myself to watch anything better.

I grabbed my bunny and bear and curled under the covers as I watched TV. I wasn't tired but the bed was comfortable enough to make me yawn a couple of times. It wasn't long before I felt myself dozing off. It had been a busy few days with all the traveling Daddy and I had done as well as visiting with my parents so it was no surprise that I fell asleep so quickly.

By the time Daddy came out of the shower, I was asleep in my bed.

He shook his head and got himself ready for bed. He turned off the TV and the lights, leaving on the bathroom light with the door cracked so the room wasn't completely dark. He got into the other bed and scrolled through his phone before he, too, fell asleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night to a dark and quiet room. The bathroom light made things bright enough without keeping either of us awake but it wasn't enough to keep me in my bed by myself. I didn't want to be alone.

I grabbed my stuffed animals and my blanket and went to the other bed. I crawled under the white sheets and comforter with Daddy and nestled close to his body so I could get warm.

As I began to fall asleep, I felt Daddy's arms slide around me. I wasn't sure if he was awake or not but I enjoyed the comfort that the feeling gave me. I was safe with my Daddy and that was all that mattered.

The End.

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Thank you so much for reading this story and this series as a whole. This story has meant so much to me and has been so much fun to write. Thank you for your support over the years as I've uploaded. You guys are the reason I do this. Please check out some of my other stories such as Game Over: Life's Over and Small if you want more ddlg-type content.