Sweet

Chapter 1

"Daddy, wake up!" I feel my daughter's hands shake me.

I roll to my side and see her standing in her pajamas, her hair a little messy from sleeping. I pick her up and cuddle her.

"Good morning, Princess," I kiss her temple.

She giggles and kisses my cheek. She rubs her hand on the stubble growing in. "Daddy, your face is itchy!"

I lightly chuckle and make a mental note to shave later. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"I want your chocolate chip pancakes!" She smiles at me.

Technically, they're not my recipe. My mom used to make pancakes for my siblings and I every morning before school. I, being the difficult child I was, made my poor mother add chocolate chips in them and smother it in peanut butter instead of syrup.

I smile back down at Abby. "Of course Princess. But you know the drill, we need to get ready for the day before we can eat."

"Yes sir!" She jumps up and runs out of my room.

My smile stays even after she leaves the room. I had Abby when I was just 20. I was working on getting my bachelor's degree for chemical engineering when I found out my girlfriend was pregnant. Side note, pulling out is not an effective way to prevent pregnancy. While Abby was not planned, she is definitely not a mistake. She is my whole world and I live for her.

"DADDY! COME ON!" She yells from her room. I laugh and get out of bed.

I go to her room and find her struggling with her outfit. I've learned how to dress my daughter in the past 5 years of being a single dad. The bright orange shirt with the bright purple leggings made her look like Halloween if it was a person. I pull out a pale yellow shirt with a panda on it and change her purple leggings for black ones.

After getting dressed, we go back to my room to brush our teeth. I play some music and we sing and dance to some Queen, Beyoncé, and Billie Eilish.

We go downstairs to the kitchen and continue our concert as we cook breakfast. Abby helps stir the batter and I keep a close eye on her while she watches the pancakes cook.

I trust Abby with cooking, but not by herself. She loves to bake and I wish that I could afford to put her in some type of classes or at least buy her all the fancy baking supplies, but I couldn't. I'm thankful that she is so grateful for everything we do have and that she's happy. I'm the luckiest dad.

We eat breakfast at the kitchen bar, Abby happily eating the pancakes with a glass of orange juice and me with a cup of black coffee. I glance at the time on the microwave and almost choke on my coffee. If I don't start getting ready now, I'll be late for work.

"Princess, I have to get ready for work. Can you go play with some of your toys or watch tv?"

"Yeah, Daddy!" Abby takes her dishes to the sink and skips up the steps.

I quickly wash the dishes and run up to my room. I toss on my uniform and go to the bathroom. I put some gel in my hair and brush my teeth one more time to get rid of coffee breath.

The doorbell rings and I run down the steps to answer. Abby's babysitter is at the door.

"Hey Lilly," I greet the girl.

Lilly has taken care of Abby for the past 5 years. Abby loves her and Lilly hasn't given me any reason to not trust her.

"Hey Mr. Rivers," Lilly greets me as she walks in.

"She's in her room," I tell her. "I'm finishing up. We just ate breakfast, so she'll probably have a lot of energy."

Lilly nods her head and goes upstairs to Abby. I follow after her up the stairs but I go to my room. I make sure I have everything. Once I'm certain I have everything, I go to Abby's room to say goodbye.

"I'm leaving for work now Princess." I tell her.

Abby gets up from the floor and runs to me. She hugs my legs before I pick her up so she can give me a proper one. I hold her there for a few seconds before kissing her cheek.

"I love you."

"I love you too," Abby whispers in my shoulder.

I give her one final squeeze before she kisses my cheek. I place her on the floor and exit her room to head to the station.

"Kick all the bad guys butts!" She shouts at me.

I smile before turning around. "You know I will Abby."

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After a long day at work, I am ready to head home. I arrested 3 dumbasses who thought it would be fun to attempt to rape someone. This was on 3 separate occasions, yet somehow they all knew each other. It wasn't even planned. I just have to do one last patrol before I can head home.

"We have a 10-31 in progress at 8763 Grand Hallows Way," a dispatcher announces.

I takes me a minute to realize why that address sound so familiar. It's because it's my address. I tell the dispatcher that I'm on the way before I speed towards my house, sirens and all.

I pull up and find the front door open. I control my breathing and get ready for the scene in front of me.

The house is a wreck. The table that sits by the door is now on it's side, two legs broken, the picture frames holding pictures of Abby on the floor, and the vase that sat there broken. The couch is moved and the bar stools are now laying on the ground.

With each step, I hear the glass crunch under my boot. The downstairs is empty so it is safe to assume that everyone is upstairs.

I hear back up come in and I inform them of the situation. It's eerily silent in the house and my mind thinks of all the worst case scenarios.

"Assume that the perpetrator is armed and is dangerous." One of the other cops says, but I get distracted by the sound of feet running.

I look up to find the Lilly running down the steps of the stairs. I quickly approach her to look for Abby but she wasn't around.

"Where's Abby?" I ask frantically.

"Sh-she's in her room! I tried to get her but he's in there and he said he would kill her!" She cries.

I run up the stairs to Abby's room and find the door wide open. The window is left open and Abby is crying in the corner.

I go towards her and she looks up. She gets up and runs towards me.

"DADDY! He jumped out the window!" She jumps in my arms and I hold her close.

"It's ok baby, I got you." I pat her hair down and kiss her temple.

She's ok. Everything will be ok. I repeat the words in my head.

HI! This is my first update in awhile. I think that this chapter is MUCH better than the original, so I am very happy about that. I would like to remind everyone that I am a student and despite the lock down due to COVID-19, I am taking online classes. As much as I would love to write all day everyday, it's not possible for me to do that. My classes are 100% my priority so please be patient with me. I don't know when I will update next, so I'll see you then!