Firewall {One Direction a.u.}

Epilogue 2

Finally, my beautiful daughter, who looks just like her mother, comes down the stairs. She's pouty, but that will have to do for now. "Darling, please go get your shoes on."

Her eyes widen and her jaw drops before she gives me a dirty look and sits down where she is.

"What are you doing?" I ask her, feeling myself getting angry now. Franklin senses that I'm upset because he gives me a hug and nuzzles into my neck, trying to calm me. "Olivia, go put your shoes on."

Instead of responding verbally, she crosses her arms and pouts further.

Before getting irrationally mad at a three year old, I close my eyes and release a deep breath even though I know time is ticking away. "Livi, what's wrong?" I ask her in a much more caring and calm voice.

She lets out an angry sigh before speaking. "I'm not 'darling.'"

"I'm sorry?" I have to ask, being very confused by her answer.

"Mommy is 'darling' or 'my love.' You call me 'baby' or 'sweetheart' but just now you called me 'darling.' That's not me, daddy."

My free hand runs over my face in frustration but I hide my eye roll.  She does that enough because of her mother.  Of course the smallest thing angers my daughter and causes us to fall behind by another two minutes, "I'm sorry for the mistake, baby," I make sure to use her favorite nickname, "but please put your shoes on so you can go to grandpa's. Daddy has something very important that he can't be late for."

Olivia stands up with her arms still crossed and walks to go put her shoes on. It's not at the front of my mind that she's still upset with me, we can talk about it later if she remembers.

Finally, we get into the car. I look at the time and realize I have about 45 minutes to get everywhere I need to go. I budgeted extra time, so I'm hoping I can log onto the call in just enough time. Last night Morgan helped me get through my presentation and clean it up.

When I pull up outside of Morgan's childhood home, the two youngest start to unbuckle their seatbelts. I quickly get out and grab everything for the toddlers and Franklin. John meets me halfway. Franklin happily goes to him, having bonded the past few weeks while I worked.

"Thank you so much, again. It means a lot." I tell him.

His hand claps me on the shoulder. "No problem, son. I'm happy to have my grandkids for the day."

I nod, not feeling the need to verbally respond because I only have thirty minutes to get the girls to school and home. It should be just enough time, but I can't help but be stressed.

"Dad, it's going to be okay. You'll make it." Sage reassures me.

My eyes meet hers in the rearview mirror and I smile. "Thanks, babes."

She nods and goes back to looking out the window.

"How come mom isn't hanging out with us as often?" Jasmine speaks up.

"What?" My eyebrows knit together. "That's not true at all." I glance in the rearview mirror again, hoping to see a joking look on her face.

Her face is completely serious. "Ever since Franklin showed up, she's been spending time with him and at work."

I let out a breath, not knowing how to respond because she was kind of right. Morgan doesn't mean to, but she's working tirelessly to get Franklin to a family member, but from her searches she hasn't found any. A lot of her time is taken up by Franklin and trying to find him a forever home. "I know sweetheart, but you have to remember that she is just trying to help find his family. She did the same for you two. Your forever home just happened to be with us. We don't know where his is yet." I try to explain to them. "Plus, you girls go get your nails done every other week. If you want to spend more time with mom, you shouldn't be afraid to ask. And you can talk to either one of us if you need to. Stephen is also a good option. He went through the same thing you girls are, but times two." I give them a smile after my advice.