My Promise To You

3 years later

BEN POV:

I pull Dani onto my lap. "How was preschool?" I ask smiling. "It was good. Where's mommy?" She ask quietly. "She's upstairs." I whisper. "Why are we whispering?" She ask. "Because we just got Jason to sleep. Mommy needs to rest to. Ok?" She nods. Toni just had Jason, she's at her worse. "Is she ok?" Dani ask quietly. "Yeah! Just she's just having a bit of a hard time with everything." She nods. "She just needs time with the baby." I whisper. "What about me?" She ask concerned. "Well. You're with me." Jason is upstairs right now sleeping. My mom is up there, I have the baby monitor and Toni is a therapy trying to process everything. The birth was really traumatic. Both of them almost died. "How about you go take a nap." I suggest. She smiles and we go to her room. "Sleepy tight. Grandma is gonna be here when you wake up. Mommy and I need to go get some diapers." I lie. I hate lying to her. "Ok mom." I sit up. "Daddy." I smile. She tends to mix us up. It's nervous habit she has. I kiss the top her head. I walk out. Mom comes out of Toni and I's room. "If she ask Toni and I are getting diapers." I grab my keys. "Ok. Is she gonna be ok?" I shrug. "I really don't know. I'll see you in a bit." I smile. I get in the car to pick Toni up. I drive over and wait. I take a deep breath. She gets in. "I think we should tell her." I whisper. "I can't lie to her." I confess. "Yeah. How was her day?" She ask smiling. "She said it was fine. We need to pick up more diapers, if we don't come home with any we won't be able to plan what we're gonna say. Also Jason is almost through the second to last bag." She laughs a little. "I love how even if everything is in shambles you still find a way to make me laugh." She whispers. "Forever." I take her hand. "Forever." She kisses me. I drive off. We go to the store and get diapers and Toni's favorite candy. I don't know why she likes Skittles. "I don't get why you like these." I hand them to her. "Because they are gay." She eats them. "Try one." She hands me one. "I hate lemon." She smiles. "Same." I push her slightly. "Do you want to get some ice cream? Or a milkshake?" I suggest. "Yeah." She smiles widely. I drive to Pop's, we get Milkshakes and fries but to go. I sit in the car. "Why do you dip your fries in your shake?" She ask scoffing a little. "Try it." I hand her a few. "In yours?" I shake my head. "They'll taste better in chocolate." She opens her container slowly and dips one. "Eh. I'm trying on is yours." She dips a fry in mine and try's it. "Not the worst thing You've tasted? Alcohol is hands down the worst taste ever." She shakes her head. "Why did you decide to stay sober?" She ask out of no where. We've never talked about my sobriety. "We've been together for 10 years next week. You haven't told me." She whispers. I've been sober for 11 years. "I was depressed. My brother was dead, I was my mom's worst nightmare, my father killed my brother, I'm trans. I needed an escape. I decided to make Jughead's life a million times worse and crash his small birthday party that he already didn't want. That was more than me being mad at him. I had drank my problems away that night. I think I slept with Moose." I confess. She looks down. "I don't consider that my first time because we might have passed out naked because he left the condom on and there was nothing in it." I shrug. "You know when the whole SoDale thing was happening?" She nods. "Yeah." She whispers. "There was that party thing. I met one of Veronica's friends who wasn't really her friend, and he tried to rape me. Because I was drunk and he roofied my drink. That was the final straw after the Jingle Jangle incident." I watch the smoke leave her ears. I've honestly never seen her this pissed. "Once I start I don't stop." I go to AA once a week. I've been going for a while now. "Take a deep breath." I whisper taking her hand. "I'm over that now. But I just don't want to risk the drinking." She looks at me. "I almost died because of drugs in general." I look at her. "My mom had just died. I wasn't there to say goodbye. I've never hated myself more. I had to get my stomach pumped. I took almost everything in the medicine cabinet. Luckily Sweet Pea called my dad saying I was acting weird all day and that he should check on me. By the time he got home, I was almost gone. Him and Sweet Pea saved me. How did I repay my dad? I moved in with Sweet Pea." She confesses. I take a deep breath. "The scares weren't Sweet Pea's cat's." She laughs lightly. "I figured that out to months into our relationship. But you were doing ok and Sweet Pea told me. I was just waiting for you to tell me." She smiles. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything." She whispers. "It's fine babe. We both were waiting the right moment to say it." I  take her hand. "How was therapy?" I ask quietly. "Good! We just talked about everything." She smiles. "We should go home." She laughs. "Yeah. Dani is probably freaking out right now." Toni smiles. I drive off. "She know her full name is Danielle right?" Toni ask out of no where. "She will soon." We both laugh. I pull into the driveway. "Come on. My mom is probably flipping shit." We both go inside. "Hey baby." I smile picking Dani up. "Hi mommy." Toni smiles. "Hey baby." My mom walks down with Jason. "They both just woke up."

I lie Jason on my chest. Toni lies down next to me and sighs. "We never got that cat." Toni smiles. "We can surprise Dani by going tomorrow. She's been really good." I whisper. "Ok. She'll enjoy that she's wanted a cat for a while." Toni whispers rubbing Jason's back. "He's cute. Until he starts crying." We both laugh quietly. "If we new ahead of time that getting him here was so hard. I would have found a way." I tell her. "You would have had a worse time than me." She kisses me. "We would have figured something out." She smiles. "Babe." I move hair out of her face. "What?" She smiles. "Nothing I just wanted to see your smile." She looks down a blushes. "You're amazing." She whisper. "Not without you." We hear some little pattering and a shadow from the hallway appears behind us. I look over to see Dani standing there about to cry. "Hey! What's wrong?" I ask sitting up slowly. She starts crying. "I p-peed the the b-bed." She says between sobs. "It's ok. I'll be there in a second." I whisper. I get up and put Jason in his crib. Luckily he's still asleep. "I'll get her into the bath." Toni whispers. I go to her room and change her sheets. I take a deep breath and grab her new clothes. I go into the bathroom and hand them too Toni. "She's 3. I'm not surprised. Trust me. I threw up last week in bed." She laughs a little. "Well you shouldn't have have had that much dairy." I nod. "Well yeah. I'll talk to her you go get some rest." I whisper. She leaves the bathroom, she turns the light off for a second and Dani squeals. "Sorry! Habit!" She yells closing the door behind her. "You ok in there?" I ask quietly. "Yeah!" She says unsure. "You sure? I can help." I say. It's quite for a minute as she thinks. "Can you help?" I smile and help her. "Did you have to go when mommy asked?" She nods. "So why didn't you say anything?" I ask concerned. "Because I thought I was fine." I sigh. "You're better safe than sorry." I whisper. "Tell us if you need to go. Even if you're not sure. Mommy and I really don't like cleaning this." I smile sadly. "I'm sorry daddy." I move hair of her face. "It's ok! Just tell us if you need to go. And if you wake up in the middle of the night and you need to go just go. It's really quiet in the house so yell for one of us if you need us. Ok?" She nods. "Ok." I smile. "Why were you guys up? It's past bedtime." She ask curiously. "Because mommy and I are older so we don't have to be in bed by 7." We have a later bed time for her only because if she goes to better any earlier she's up at sunrise. "Oh. Ok. But why?" She ask quietly. "Because we're adults and don't have to listen to our parents." She laughs a little. "Than why do you always do what Grandma says?" I laugh quietly. "Because she's my mother and scares me still. But when she's not hear I don't have to listen to her. Besides she goes to the bed at the same time as mommy and I." That's a lie! She's in bed by 9. She's old. "She lets me stay up." I smile. "Well that's her job. Her job it to spoil you rotten." I look at my watch. "It's late let's get you to bed." I help her out and dry her off. "Here." She gets dressed. "Sweetheart. Your shirt." She looks at me. "Spider man is supposed to be on the front silly. Arms up." She reaches her arms up and I fix the shirt. "There." I smile. "Do you have to go?" I ask. Dani shakes her head. "No." I look a her. "Maybe." I help her into the toilet. "I'm good!" She pulls her pants up and walks out. I follow her while turning the light off. "You'll have to deal with dora until tomorrow night ok?" She nods. "Ok." I help her into bed and she drifts off. "I love you." I whisper kissing her head. I walk out and go to my room with Toni passed out next to Jason. "Babe." She jumps a little. "Come on." I whisper. She gets up slowly walking to the bed. We lie down under the covers, I pull her close and we go to sleep.