Alexs's POV:
Right before we took our bows, I could tell Lily was nervous, she really knows how to put on an act for the stage and really took the character to heart, but now she was going to be front and center as herself. When we stepped on the platform to be lifted up she said something that shocked me and made me so proud,
"I'm nervous Dad, I don't do well with big crowds." she tells me. I couldn't help but grin and squeeze her hand,
"It's hon, you're fine, you have the whole cast out there on stage."
When we are lifted up onto the stage, I felt the happiest I had been in a while, I had a great job, great friends, and now I'm going to have a daughter. After the bows and we continued to dance, we start to walk off when I pick Lily up and throw her over my shoulder to carry her off stage, which everyone was laughing at us. When we finally made it back stage, Lily is still on my shoulders and walked her to our S.N.O.B area which has the cake I picked up for her and a banner. She didn't know that Presley had texted me this morning that she was sick, so she was going to be out, and since she was going to be out, so I knew I had to make tonight special for Lily. Everyone was gathered around and I had moved Lily from hanging my shoulder to back on the ground and kept an arm around her.
Looking down at her, I can tell that she's not used to this kind of stuff and it makes me a bit upset, because she has such a big stage presence but off of the stage she's hide behind her shell. I just wish that she would truly see how much of an amazing kid she is, but she gets so caught up in her thoughts and it's truly sad to see. Though now she's getting used to the idea, but I know she's doubting rather anything is going to be forever, but it soon will be. Once the celebration calms down and everyone goes change, Lily and I go to stage door to see everyone there, and sign some playbills, which Lily was met with a lot of cheering. Of course some people asked where Presley was, but they mainly asked Lily because I'm pretty sure the whole world knows that they are best friends. Whenever we got done signing the playbills, we start to walk home,
'You know you did amazing tonight right?" I say to her
"Really? I hope it's true, Prez texted me that she's out tomorrow, so I could be playing Lydia again." She tells me looking down at the ground
"That's awesome! Not the Presley being sick part, but you playing Lydia, both of you guys keep me on my toes, she likes to poke my nose and you like to almost jump off the stage. That reminds me, hon you should really stop that, I will catch you, but I don't want you to get hurt, we can still do that, just don't jump so far." I tell her softly
"Sorry, I don't mean to worry you." With her looking down at the ground, I pull her to my side to let her know it's fine. Once we get home I tell her to change and then come back out, so I can talk to her about something and we part ways only to come back to together.
"So you called me dad today, why's that?" I ask her, generally wanting to know why, but it only makes me actual adopting her more true.
"Um.... I don't know? I mean you basically are my dad now, if I made you uncomfortable I'm really sorry, I can go to Dana's or Kerry's. I messed things up didn't I, we can forget that it happened then." She starts to speak quickly
"Hey, no, I was just curious, there was something that I've wanting to tell you and everything went through, but how would you feel about me adopting you?" I look her, trying to gage her reaction. She looks up at me with big doe eyes, full of hope and happiness.
"Please don't say that and not mean it, I couldn't handle it, please" Her voice sounds so broken and hopeful, that my hearts breaks
"No I'm not just saying it, I actually have done everything already, that why I left early today, and was going to say something after the bows, but decided to wait until we got back home. You are officially Lillian Eliza Brightman!" She just stares at me like she doesn't believe me and doesn't know what to do, so I show her the adoption papers. Right then and there she throws her arms around and crying into my chest, I know its been a long day for her and her emotions are all over the place, so I just hold her.
"It's official that you are my daughter, how do you feel about me announcing it tomorrow after our last show, like right after I bow, I can introduce you taking your bows as my daughter."
"Really? You want people to know I'm your daughter?"
"Of course, I want everyone to know that you're my daughter now, and we can tell the cast tomorrow that it's official. I want the world to know you are my daughter."
"Thank you so much, I owe you so much, you're the best thing that's happen to me, can I call you dad then?" She looks up at me with hopeful eyes
"I would be honored if you call me dad, you gotta get used to being a Brightman now. Which reminds me, you have a full family now, my mom and dad know all about and have been wanting to meet you, but I didn't know how you felt, so we'll have to do that sometime." I say rambling, until she lets out a laugh, and then I realized exactly how late it was,
"We should get to bed, we've got a two show day tomorrow." I tell her leading her to her room and tucking her into her bed
"Goodnight my beautiful daughter."
"Goodnight dad" I don't think I'll ever get used to that and with that we fall asleep.
Lily's POV:
Yesterday was just wow, I can't believe that I played Lydia and Alex, well dad now, told me that he had adopted me and everything was official, it's just unreal, I can't believe it. As we sat down for breakfast, I kept pinching myself, not believing that this was real, and it's all just a dream,
"You can stop pinching yourself you know, this is all real, which by the way, I told everyone to get to the theatre at noon, so we can tell them the news."
"Alright dad, so that means we need to leave soon, right?"
"Yes it does, now I'm asking for a friend, but what's your favorite musical?"
"We've been over this, it's like a three way tie between Hamilton, The Phantom of the Opera, or Anastasia." I say shaking my head
"Oh right silly me for forgetting, now go get ready little bit." He starts to ruffle my hair, which causes me to glare playfully at him and run off to get ready.
After getting my outfit together, we start to head over to the theatre and once we got there after we had gotten our coffee, most of the cast and crew was there already, they were just waiting for us. As we make our way down to the stage and get on it, we have gotten a lot of confused glances and it was honestly really funny to watch. That's when Alex started talking,
"Now as everyone knows about Lily and her living situation, and her life hasn't been the easiest, I had started to think about something that involved Lily. With no hesitation I took her in from the start, I knew I had to get passed her many walls that she had put up and I just knew that she was going to be a big part in this cast, but more importantly my life. So when it came to the discussion of where she would go for the nights after the show, I knew she had to come with me, she's made the apartment much more lively and has taught me many things, from cooking to just being a better leader. The most important thing she taught me, was how to be a dad, I knew from the moment she opened up to me that no matter what I would become the father figure she had always wanted. Now some of you know, but I had been seeking adoption of Lily and I'm proud to announce that everything fell through and Lily is official, Lillian Eliza Brightman!" Dad tells everyone and a lot of people are crying and I see Dana holding the phone, so I can assume she's on FaceTime with Prez. Everyone gets up to come hug us and talk about having a party to celebrate, and it ends in a group hug with everyone in tears.
This cast isn't just a cast, they are my family now and it's crazy to think that I'm apart of this amazing production, and I wouldn't have it any way.
"Alex I hope you're ok with her being my daughter now for the show" Adam says jokingly while pulling me closer to him, until Alex pulls me back to him
"Nope, I've decided to stop being Beetlejuice to play Charles now" Alex says holding onto me, until I feel Rob grab me and run away with me
"She's mine now!" He says with an evil laugh and goes into his dressing room and shutting the door.
"Hey come back with my daughter!" I hear Alex yelling after us
After we all laugh and joke around, they make the announcements about who was playing who today and I already knew I was playing Lydia for the two show day-o, so we all left to our dressing rooms to get ready. When I get to mine, I plug my phone into the speaker Prez and I have, so I decide to shuffle through the Hamilton sound track, and when Guns and Ships come on, I get ready for the rap, and once it comes, I rap it perfectly, not realizing that my dad was right there filming me, it wasn't until after the song I heard clapping that I see him standing there, with the phone. I look bashfully and say
"Seriously?" Giving my best RBF, which causes him to laugh,
"Oh little bit, it's ok, and damn you rapped that perfectly, why haven't I heard do this song or rap in general?"
"I don't know, you never asked me, plus you shouldn't be that surprise, I'm always singing Hamilton" looking at him like he was crazy
"Well this is going on Twitter and I'm going to tag Lin in it, he's gonna be impressed" I just stare at him, and this confirms that he's actually crazy.
"You don't need to post that or tag Mr.Miranda in it, he's not going to see it, wait does he follow you?" I just see him smirk confirming my answer, and I just put my head into my hands. I will never live this down now, and the creator of Hamilton could possibly see it, I'm doomed, Lord help me.
Time Skip to the second show:
As I'm getting ready for the second show, my phone keeps buzzing and I already know it's people from Twitter, because dad posted the video of me rapping Guns and Ships, not only did he tag me, he tagged Mr.Miranda and Mr.Diggs. I've refused to look at Twitter, and I don't plan to look at it until later or never again, I've been texting Prez about it and she's been telling me to just check my Twitter, but I'm strong and I won't give in. As we get ready for places, dad walks up to me,
"The world is going to know about you today and there's a special guest in the audience tonight, also check Twitter at intermission!" he says winking at me, which makes me more nervous, I can't mess up or anything, it makes me wonder who it is, and why does everyone want me to check Twitter.
Once we got to intermission and everything is running smoothly, I decide to think about checking Twitter, what could be so important that people want me to check it, but I decided not to check it. I wanted to focus on the show, I don't if it's that I know someone special is out there or if it's the fact I'm Alex's daughter now, but I feel like this is one of my best performances. Dad tells me that the special guest will be back here after the show and I will get to meet them, making me even more curious about who it is, so I just glare at him, because he clearly knows who it is and won't tell me.
It was now time for Act 2, which is honestly my favorite of the play and I have a lot of fun doing, but I do love singing Say My Name and giving Alex a heart attack, by almost jumping off the stage. After we get done with the show, it's time for our bows and Alex telling everyone that I'm his daughter, I'm nervous about how everyone is going to take it, but I can't do anything about it. When we go up, he grabs my hand and we walk out hand in hand, after he takes his bows, he gets the audience to be quiet.
"Alright guys before she takes her bows, I wanted to say a few things, a lot of may know that Lily here hasn't had the best life and lost her parents. During this time I've known her, I've started to take care of her and she's been living with me and Kevin. Now I've come to care a lot for her and this decision was one of the easiest things I've done, but tonight I get to introduce you to my daughter, give it up for Lily Brightman!!"
Everyone starts to clap and cheer for me, I feel tears come down my face and I can feel myself blush, before we take our cast bow, I give Alex a big hug, which causes the crowd to go 'awww' and we took our bows, then walked off the stage. Everyone backstage is cheering for me and giving me hugs, high fives, and pats on the backs all the way back to my room. After closing the door I start to change out of the outfit into my clothes, while taking off my makeup and put on my broadway playlist I have on Spotify, and of Guns and Ships comes on by sheer fate. So as I take off the wig and pulling off the net, and I start to pull my pins out while rapping to the song, completely oblivious to my dad and the special guest in the room. I go completely red once I hear clapping, not realizing there were two people in my room and not just my dad,
"Dad you better not be recording me again, and I refuse to check Twitter, so posting it again won't make me check it" I say with my back turned, until someone else spoke and it wasn't my dad
"Well that's why you weren't responding to me, though Alex did tell me you were checking it, but I must I'm very impressed that you can rap that fast, almost faster than Daveed"
I quickly turn around and see that Lin-Manuel Miranda is standing there right next to my dad, I freeze and look down, because meeting new people still puts me on edge.
"I'm sorry sir, I just didn't want to get distracted before or during the show. I'll be sure to check my Twitter later tonight Mr.Miranda." I can feel someone put an arm around me and it makes me flinch a little, but I quickly relax as I see it's my dad. Shooting him a sorry look, he brushes it off
"Lin, I would like you to meet my daughter, Lily, and Lily this is Lin-Manuel Miranda, you know the writer of one of your favorite Broadway shows" shaking me a little, and pushes me towards him, I put my hand out for him to shake, only to be pulled into a hug, which has me become tense and stiff. I don't know what to do, a complete stranger is hugging me, I don't know what to do.
"It's nice to meet you Lily! Now you can call me Lin, no Mr.Miranda or sir! I must say you did a wonderful performance, and you did an amazing cover of Guns and Ships, might have to see who can rap it faster sometime!" With Lin letting go of me, I kinda rushed back to my dad to feel some sense of safety, but I don't see is the look of sadness in Lin's eyes.
"Yes, she did an amazing job tonight, and I was so happy to introduce her as my daughter, and apparently they are going to order new playbills that have her name changed and it's just amazing." Dad say proudly of me, it's weird hearing that they want to change the playbill, but I'm very happy that they are doing it.
"I was going to say, if you hadn't adopted her, I would've, especially with a voice like hers, plus V always wanted a daughter, we might have to steal her from you sometimes" Lin says laughing, and I'm only praying that it doesn't happen soon, but apparently soon would be tomorrow
"Well actually, we don't have shows on Monday's, but I'm booked up with interviews and doing some promotional stuff with Presley, if you aren't busy tomorrow you could watch her" I just silently glare at him, and I'm 16 thats way more than old enough to take care of myself, or be left alone.
"I get to kidnap your daughter for the day, of course I'm down for it, I can pick her up from you're apartment tomorrow morning"
"Alright! I'll leave a key under the rug so you can get in, I have to leave around 7am, but Lily will probably be asleep still. " Dad says hugging my side
"Got it! Let's take a picture before I leave!" Suddenly I'm between my dad and Lin, I put on a smile and look at the camera, once the picture is taken, Lin leaves and then my dad and I follow.
"I already know what you're going to say and no you can't get out of having Lin watch you, you need to interact with more people besides the cast, not only your age, but maybe you could start to babysit for Lin and his wife. It would be a good opportunity, plus Lin has really cute kids and a cute dog, both of which I know you love, so what I say is final, Lin will watch you tomorrow." Dad tells me in a stern voice, telling me theres no room for arguing and I just sigh in defeat, I know he's right, plus I do love little kids, maybe it won't be so bad. Once we got back to the apartment we both end up falling asleep on the couch watching Netflix, with Kevin snuggled right into my side, and me on top of my dad's chest. Everything is starting to feel like home, and I have a pretty big family now, so maybe I should open up a bit and be more carefree.
A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to update it, I've had training all this past week for my job and it was tiring, we were out in the sun for 10 hours a day, and the heat was brutal, but I finally got around to posting again!! I hope you guys like this chapter! :)