Wrong Turn, Right Path

Chapter 10 - Nick's POV

"Nick! Are you going to help me build the fort now?" Maddie asks while running over to me. She looks adorable in her little nightgown, hair all crazy and eyes sparkling with excitement

I squat down to her level and reach out to tuck an unruly curl behind her ear then holding onto her hands "Not right now Princess how about we do that after lunch?"

"Okay" She squeals catching me off guard as she runs over to the plastic bag and starts digging through her stuffed animals taking them out one by one hugging them like long lost friends.

"What are those Princess?" I ask as I sit next to her on the floor. I am trying not to look at Jemma because she's still holding those black scraps and they are having a serious impact on my body and I really don't want to fight a hard-on while I'm listening to Maddie. That just feels so sick and wrong.

"These are my stuffies. This one's George I got him when I was born. And this is Katie, Mommy won her for me at a fair. This one's Jade, Mommy gave me her to me for my birthday. This one's Jake Mommy gave him to me on the first day of school." she is showing me each one explaining who they are and why they're important to her. These stuffed animals are like her happy memory keepers. I noticed that she got all of them from Jemma and it makes me wonder who and where her father is.

"Did your Daddy give you any?" I ask. It hurt a little bit referring to someone else as her Daddy. That's my name or at least it will be.

She crawled over into Jemma's lap and looked at me with sadness in her eyes "I don't have a Daddy but I have my Mommy and she's the best." she said as she wrapped her her arms around Jemma's neck.

I know it makes me a dick to feel happy that no one has the title of 'Daddy' in her life yet. But I promise right now, at least in my heart, that I will do everything to be the best Daddy for her.

"Hey Maddie, Honey, why don't you put your stuffies on your bed then we can get you dressed so you can go play before breakfast?"Jemma said

"Okay Mommy." Maddie replied and grabbed her stuff and started to drag them to the other side of the room.

"Well we just came up here to check on you ladies and let you know that breakfast should be ready in just a little bit." Mitch says

I stood up, I had the feeling I was making her uncomfortable. I paused and looked at her getting lost in her eyes again, "Would you like to sit by me at breakfast?" I am hoping she says yes but worried she will say no and instead sit with Clay again.

"Um, yeah sure, I can sit by you, if you um, want me too." She hesitantly replied.

The relief washed through me but I tried to be calm about it "Cool, I'll come get you right before its time to be seated." I needed to get out of here. Kol wanted to scoop her off of the ground and lay her out on the bed.

We left her room and I quickly made my way down stairs. "What's the rush?" Mitch asked as he caught up to me and matched me stride for stride.