the stars in your eyes | t.s. one shots

but daddy i love him

"Tay," Scott Swift says, reaching out and grabbing his daughter's arm as she's heading for the foyer of his home to collect her jacket at the end of their lunch. "Wait up. Before you leave... I just..." He pauses, searching for the perfect words to say. It's not lost on him, any of it.

The way that her blue eyes used to be vibrant, full of life. Lately, they have been muted, with a certain darkness hiding behind her pupils. She doesn't stand as tall anymore. She seems to shrink into herself, hiding behind hunched posture.

He can't pretend that he didn't notice what topics she conveniently left out of their conversation that afternoon. He heard all about Selena, about Abigail. He heard about Blake and her children, even learned some things about Austin's life that he hadn't already heard about from his son. Yet, Scott didn't hear a single mention of the man who Taylor is going home to. Joe's name was kept out of her mouth today.

After all, her parents always raised her with the belief that if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Lately, she has stopped smiling when his name falls off of her lips. At least, in the way that she used to. She used to absolutely light up, in a way where her whole body seemed to radiate light and joy when she talked about him. The past few months have been different.

"What's up, Dad?" Taylor finally asks, turning around to him. "Is everything alright?"

"Tay, are you happy?"

The question is enough to make the woman freeze in her tracks. She feels her feet pressing into the soles of her Doc Martens. If her father could hear the thumping of her heart, he'd know the answer. He wouldn't have to look at her face, now drained of any colors, wouldn't have to see the way she began to fidget with her fingers in the way that she always does when she's nervous.

The silence hangs thick like a weighted blanket of air, nearly smothering Taylor. She doesn't know how to answer that question.

She wishes that it was that simple, she really does. The singer yearns for the days gone by, when everything felt so black and white. When she was a child, right was right, and wrong was wrong. You lived by the rules or you broke them. If you did the latter, you got reprimanded and expected to make the better choice next time around. That was back when there was such thing as the better choice.

"Dad..." she says quietly, her voice cracking on only the one simple syllable. Scott can see tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

"Taylor, I need to make sure that you're alright," he tells her. "Can we... do you want to talk about it?"

She lets out a sigh and wordlessly, walks back into the living room. Scott trails behind as his daughter sits down on the sofa and pulls her knees up to her chest. "Dad, it's so weird right now." Her voice is small, but he hears her loud and clear.

"What can I do for you?" he asks. "What is it, that's extinguishing the spark from my little girl?"

"It's Joe, Dad," she says. "He's just been so... he's been different lately. I don't know what it is, but he's not the same man as he used to be." She runs her hand through her hair and lets out a groan.

Scott sighs. "Tay, sweetheart... what's been going on lately? I need you to tell me. I need to make sure that you're okay."

"I'm fine, Dad. We're just... in a weird spot, that's all. It's gonna be okay, we've been through weird stuff before."

"Weird, in what way?"

"We just... aren't seeing eye-to-eye on a few things, that's all. We'll be able to work it out. We're adults."