Challenge #01916-E092: Give Me Your Answer Do
To be a good bouncer, you don't really need to be strong and to like violence. You just need to be intimidating enough that even the drunkest person on the universe wouldn't want to make you angry. -- Anon Guest
Dave didn't need to do much to keep the rowdy ones quiet. All he had do do was flex. It meant that he took up twice his previous volume and made his previously-loose clothing creak ominously at the strain. It was easy enough work and he earned his paycheck, and could live... mostly comfortably. And he was at home with the concept that he was the human equivalent to one of those cardboard cameras. Visible deterrent, but not that incredibly useful.
And then Daisy walked into his life. Literally.
His peripheral vision initially classed her as 'pet' when she came staggering out of the alley, and he didn't actually register her as someone until she got within five yards of the nightclub door. That was when he actually saw her. Two years old, maybe. Only wearing a halter-top. Covered in speckles of blood on top of a solid layer of grime. She had a plastic flower in her hand, also grubby and bloodstained, and offered it to him. So of course he scooped her up in his jacket and called the cops. And from there? It was a clusterfuck.
Fortunately, he had the folks in the queue as witnesses to his defense, and some work with a sniffer dog revealed that she had come from a murder scene where someone had been neglecting her before they were messily murdered. And since she smiled when he sang Daisy, Daisy to her, that was what the assembled authorities named her. Daisy Doe.
And she screamed blue murder when anyone else went near her, so Dave had to be a part of her case. He helped walk Daisy through her first bath in what was probably months. Helped dress her in clean new clothes, and held her while trained professionals tried to get any kind of information out of her. They were shit out of luck. Daisy was not a talker to begin with, and spoke scribble when she did have anything to say.
When they found the scene of the crime, it was dumb luck that kept her alive. Her crib was almost buried under an avalanche of dolls. She must have slept through the crime and been camouflaged by her plastic companions.
Dave asked for, and got, parental leave so he could learn how to care for Daisy. An emergency foster training session and the one peripheral black person he knew to teach him how to take good care of Daisy's hair. And books upon books upon books on how to properly raise a child. Especially the one about toilet training.
His entire world changed. He memorised all the theme songs to every kiddies' show on TV. He learned about proper kids' nutrition, which was different from body-building nutrition. He learned about the importance of saying 'no' when Daisy learned the word, "Wannit!" And he learned how to explain the rules and play by them at the same time.
Now the most terrifying thing in his world was anything bad happening to Daisy. Now he cried when something happened to the little kids on random television shows. Now he was that anxious single parent giving an infodump of instructions to the kind people at Daycare and his neighbour who already knew about kids. Now he was scouring every single package of food for ingredients that could make Daisy have a bad day.
He didn't think much about it, even when his friends and buddies at the gym noticed that he was, "turning into such a mom." It was just a new thing in his life. A permanent roommate who had - according to the experts - picked him out as someone nobody would mess with. And it was telling that a little slip of a baby girl would go for someone like him to make her feel safe than any of the others around her.
It was when he was taking Daisy for a slow stroll in the park that he decided to adopt her. Daisy was stopping to smell the flowers and point out the glittering mica in the footpath when she spotted the ice cream man. "I'se creeeeem," she cooed, pointing.
Geez, kids really did have over-the-horizon radar for treats. It was a reasonably long walk away for Daisy, and a bit of a hike for him. "Okay, we can have an ice cream. Wanna fly there?"
She giggled and jumped up and down, hands held high.
Dave scooped her up and rested her belly lightly on his head. She stuck her arms and legs out as he jogged over there, making motor-boat noises with his lips. So he looked ridiculous. So what. Daisy was laughing, and that was the important part. She was healthy, and happy, and life was looking up for her. A big change from how they'd met.
A young woman stopped on her walk and took in the sight of both of them. Both Dave and Daisy with Clown Cones. Laughing and eating ice cream together. "Cute baby. Is she yours?"
He looked at her and thought about the nightmare that would be handing her over to any other living being. "Not yet," he said. "But she will be, soon." It was that afternoon that he contacted Child Services about becoming her forever-parent.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / viperagp]
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