Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

[dharmalady]

Juliet Scott was married for five years. Three of them were good. She was young, Damien was too. They were in love and carefree; had fun and had a lot of sex, traveled to a lot of places. She'd been on track to start med school but when she met Damien, she wanted him instead, and she thought she'd always choose him over everything.

Until she got pregnant.

He stuck around for a few months but then, conveniently his job took him away and the stretches of time between being home and being gone were longer. He was never a bad dad to Mia, not once, but it was like a chore to be home, to be a husband and civilian again. Juliet missed him but she tried to talk to him about it and it was a fight, every time. He had a job, he had missions, he couldn't just give that up. So she decided a year and a half ago to not make him choose anymore. She sent him divorce papers, certified mail, with a letter explaining to him that she was tired of feeling like she and Mia weren't a priority. Like he didn't want to be there when he was back in the states. She wasn't surprised when she got the signed paperwork back with no note in response.

She and Mia have been solo ever since, the two of them moving to Miami to be closer to Juliet's sister. Med school finally happens, and now Juliet's an intern and Mia is five. It's been hard, harder than Juliet ever thought she'd have to do on her own, but she's doing it. She's never told Damien he can't be a part of Mia's life, she's never tried to keep him away from her. When she moves, she makes sure someone in his branch of the military, wherever he is, gets her address. She's not even angry at him anymore, just sad that it ended this way between them.

Comments

[dharmalady]

Juliet gets dressed too, then she wakes up a sleepy Mia. It's a little later than she'd usually get up for school but Mia doesn't know that. She sleepy goes into her mommy's room when Juliet tells her to because there's a surprise.

When Mia walks in she's rubbing her eyes and then just stares at him, her little hair in the braided pigtails she slept in, blue eyes wide. Then she just bursts into tears. "It's my daddy, daddy's my surprise!" she manages through absolute sobs, just standing there crying because she's so happy to see him she doesn't even know what to do.

[inthewar]

Damien moves forward immediately, scooping her right up into his arms and holding her close. He kisses her face all over, not wanting to ever let her go. "I'm here, baby. I'm here with you."

[dharmalady]

Mia's arms wrap around his neck tightly, burying her face against his neck after a few dozen kisses. She tries to talk through her crying, wiping at her eyes with the back of her hand and wiping her nose on his shirt. "Mommy said you were saving people. Did you?"

[inthewar]

"Yeah, baby," he nuzzles against her cheek, not caring about the snot on his shirt. "I saved people. They were my friends, and they're okay now. But I missed my girls. I missed you so much."

[dharmalady]

"I missed you, daddy," she whispers. "Now can we go to the pancake place?" She's held onto that for four months, because that morning he left, all she'd wanted was to go get pancakes with her daddy.

[inthewar]

He laughs softly, nuzzling her cheek. "Yeah, baby. We can go and pancakes. And chocolate milk, right?" He remembered, too, even after all this time. "And then maybe we'll go to Chuck E. Cheese again, huh? No school today. Just me and you, baby."

[dharmalady]

"Yes," she smiles, pulling back to look at him, just smiling so brightly before giving him a big kiss and then hugging him against tightly.

[inthewar]

Damien grins so brightly, hugging his baby and kissing her tenderly, carrying her in his arms, not willing to let her go all day.

He kisses Juliet with a smile. "We'll see you for dinner, baby. We have a pancake date."

[dharmalady]

"You two go have fun. Bring me back a prize from Chuck E. Cheese," she says with a soft laugh, kissing both of them.

[inthewar]

They go get those pancakes first, just a big stack of them, both of them enjoying some tall glasses of ice cold chocolate milk together, just having so much fun.

[dharmalady]

This is everything Mia wanted, and when the waitress comes to ask them how they're doing, Mia doesn't even connect she means about the food, and instead launches into a little speech. "I'm really good, because this is my daddy, and he saves people, and he was gone a really long time, but now he's home forever and he 'membered I wanted pancakes," she tells the waitress before taking a big bite of food.

[inthewar]

There's a big grin on Damien's face, but it's a little tearful too as he just looks at his baby with so much pride and love. He'll never forget this moment, knowing his little girl is this happy because of him.

"That's my girl," he smiles at her, and then the waitress.

[dharmalady]

The waitress is so completely charmed that when she brings the bill everything is at no charge, and there's just a smiley face. And, she didn't see a wife or a wedding ring, so she's written her number at the bottom as well. When she drops it off she smiles at Damien, tells him his daughter is adorable, then goes back to the kitchen.

"Now we can go to Chuck E. Cheese, daddy?"

[inthewar]

He smirks a little to himself when he realizes what's going on, but he's touched by the gesture. Wanting her to have a nice tip, though, he lays a $20 bill down on the table and nods at Mia, picking her right up into his arms. "Let's go play, baby."

[dharmalady]

Once they have tokens and are all set, Mia has the absolute time of her life, running around everywhere with her daddy, playing the games and letting him teach her new things. They spend a good solid four hours there before Mia's done every single thing more than once and they have so many tickets. She gets the huge stuffed dinosaur and grins so happily, hugging it to her chest. It's as big as she is, and watching her walk with it is hilarious. When they get to the car, she talks to him for about ten solid minutes and then starts to drop off until she actually falls asleep, completely work out.

[inthewar]

He drives around for an extra half hour so she can just nap, but he calls Juliet while he drives, wanting to tell her all about it. "She's sleeping now," he grins, and it's obvious he's just so in love.

[dharmalady]

Juliet laughs softly into the phone. "This is all she wanted to do with you, the entire time you were gone. Damien, this is perfect."

[inthewar]

"We had so much damn fun," he grins. "She won this huge dinosaur that's bigger than her, you should see her carrying it."

[dharmalady]

That makes Juliet laugh harder. "Why don't you just swing through a drive-thru for tonight and come on home? She hasn't had a happy meal in months, and she deserves it, I think. Chicken nuggets and apple slices for her. And uh. A big mac for the one with pregnancy cravings."

[inthewar]

"Anything you want, baby," he smirks. "The waitress gave me her number on the receipt, by the way."

[dharmalady]

"Oh yeah? You gonna run away with her?" Juliet asks in amusement.

[inthewar]

"Nah, I got a sexy lady waiting back home for me," he grins.

[dharmalady]

Juliet smiles brightly. "So, tonight you're going to show me exactly how sexy you think I am?"

[inthewar]

"You fucking know it, baby" he smirks, pulling up to a McDonald's. "Alright, I'll be home soon. Love you, honey."

[dharmalady]

"Love you, see you soon," she smiles into the phone, and it's so damn good to be able to say that.

Once they're home, Mia wakes up enough and by the time they're inside she's more awake and holding onto her giant dinosaur. It does absolutely make Juliet laugh, and she wraps her arms around Mia, glad that Damien can now surprise her with the happy meal because it has a toy inside.