Reina Garcia stares at the waves that crash against the beach, she is sitting in the sand, the water brushing up against toes that she can't feel anymore. A cough rises up her throat and she sighs at the taste of copper, she is so very tired nowadays. The shrill squeal and giggle to her right made her turn her head, her brown curls bobbing in the gentle breeze. Not ten feet away her love plays with her daughter, the sight immediately brings a smile to her pale cheeks. He catches her and scoops her into his arms, she laughs wildly as he tickles her sides.
"Daddy!! S-stop!!" Reina can hear her precious little Mellie squeal.
"Not until you tell Daddy where you got all these bandages from?" The man laughs, his voice deep.
Said little girl squirms and Reina calls out, "Baby girl, why don't you give Daddy your gift?"
The little girl grins and jumps out of her adoptive father's arms, landing in the sand only to run for her mother. Reina smiles, her bright blue eyes twinkling as she holds her arms out to hug her little girl.
The little five year old does not stay long, only long enough to grab the precious cargo and run back to her dad.
Rayleigh smiles and picks his little girl right back up, with ease, "What do you have, huh?"
"Daddy, I picked the prettiest rose for you today," Amelia smiles and holds out a full, beautiful rose with a white tag on it.
The tag reads; For Daddy
In pink crayon.
Rayleigh smiles and the woman could swear he was a little glassy eyed, but seizing the opportunity she grabs her photography snail. The picture snap with a little noise of the snail just as her daughter plants a sweet kiss on her father's nose.
Reina would be leaving soon. Sooner than she wanted, sooner than she had ever planned. She could feel it in the slow beat of her heart, the trembling in her hand, the lack of memory on the finest day, the difficulty in pulling herself from the deepest of dreams, and the cough that always led to red.
However, her daughter would be alright... Amelia had her daddy, and Rayleigh had her.
