For You [p.d]

31

Poe's POV

I sat outside with Elise for probably around 30 minutes, just talking about how happy we are here and trying to make her feel better. What her mother said was messed up, I didn't expect her to be ecstatic but she was hypocritical given that she was acting like people who she claimed not to be.

I went inside, leaving Elise to have time for herself and I see my dad and Kayleigh sitting awkwardly where we left them. I sit back in my spot and give her a disappointed look.

"Listen, I can understand why you would think this was a mistake, but it's too late. Elise and I are going to have a child no matter what you say and nothing you say will change the excitement we have for this. At the end of the day it is your decision if you want to help your daughter who admires you beyond words or if you want to become who you told Elise you would never be." I say calmly to her, staring at her. She is fidgeting with her fingers in her hand but then brings her hand out for me to grab. 

"I guess she will always be my little girl, crude jokes I say aside." She says and I laugh, grabbing onto her open hand. "Poe you are the gentlemen I always dreamed Elise would end up with, I'm glad you found each other." She smiles at me and gets up.

"Now if you'll excuse me I need to go talk to my daughter." She says walking out the door, leaving my father and I alone, for the first time since I was 17.

"You've grown up a lot in the past 10 years." My dad says, taking a sip of his drink.

"The real worlds are tough." I say, cheering my glass with his and following his lead. 

"You know we have to talk about when you left." He says and I stare back at the table, I knew this was coming it was bound to. 

"You will learn this when yours is born, but when you're a parent you will do anything for your kids, you love them with everything in you. And I did a bad job at showing that when your mom died, a time where we were both grieving heavily I should've been there for us both, instead I let myself slip away and I pushed you away." He pauses, obviously emotional, but neither of us having enough strength to look at each other. 

"When I walked into our house that day, all of your things gone, that honestly broke me more than having your mother die holding my hand. I watched the person I loved most in the galaxy purposely leave me and it was scary not knowing you would be alright." I feel a warm tear go down my cheek listening to the way my dad felt. 

"I already was planning on leaving, I wanted to go to the academy for piloting, I wanted to make  mom proud. But that day, when you told me mother would be so disappointed in me I couldn't help but feel as if it was all true. I was scared to go to the academy because I was scared I wouldn't be good enough. I had already screwed up my personality. So I left, not really knowing where I would go, and me being an amateur flyer I damn well didn't know where I was going." I say with a sad laugh and pause. 

"I ended up on Kijimi." I say and my dad blows out a huff of air, "Damn kid, I had good reason to be scared." He laughs out, lightening the mood. 

"I planned to only be there for a little while I got enough money to fill up the tank. However this woman told me about this company that paid their workers a good sum for little work. So I did it, and I got caught up in the business, I couldn't leave or else I was in danger by the owner. But then a girl showed up to where I was working, she was thrown out of a bar for causing a fight." I say smiling, thinking back to the first time I saw Elise. 

"She was obviously annoyed by me and she was only like 17, but she was stuck on the planet for the rest of the night, I never got her name or where she was from. I had been on Kijimi for around 3 years at that point and yet she was the first person to ever ask about my past. She was the first person I ever told about mom and you, and that's the night I forgave you for everything, I realized we were both emotional and I was a stupid teenager. Talking really helped me air out the problems that I had been keeping in for way too long." I smile at him and he smiles back at me.