Single Father with girls from two different moms

[Ishigreensa]

He patted her back and nodded.

"Yes, you did tell me you were wet this morning," he agreed.  "I just meant that I want you to tell me all the time is all.  I know at your age, it can be really embarrassing especially if you wet your pants during the day, so I wanted to make sure that you knew I wanted to know even if you do it in the day time, and that I won't be mad at you for accidents, sweetie."

He let her wash her hands and then he picked her up again and then reached his other hand for Imelda.  He wasn't sure why,  but Lexi felt a lot more vulnerable than Imelda did at the moment, and because of that, he felt like babying her was the right thing to do.

He took the girls to the car and let them get in, and then he started to drive them, not five minutes later, finding a Denny's.

"Oh, there's a good place for lunch," he told the girls as he pulled over.

Imelda kept looking up at her older sister wanting to talk to her, wanting to play with her, wanting to touch her, but she felt like Lexi didn't want any of those things, so she just kept quiet watching her.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi felt embarrassed that Robert seemed to think she wet her pants in the day. She’d never had a daytime accident. She only ever wet the bed. She sighed and nodded, not wanting to get in trouble for arguing. 

She was even more embarrassed when Robert started to carry her. She felt somewhat comforted, but she was self conscious. She felt like a little kid compared to Imelda. 

She stayed silent in the car, occasionally looking over and seeing Imelda staring at her. Why was she staring at Lexi? She felt self conscious and she couldn’t handle it. 

“Stop staring at me!” Lexi snapped at Imelda. She turned her head and curled up into as much of a ball as she could since she was buckled in with the seatbelt. She felt tears rush to her eyes and down her face. She started to sob. She felt different and couldn’t stand it. She didn’t want to be an outsider in the family more than she already was. 

This had happened shortly after Robert mentioned stopping. She kept her head turned away at this point, crying into her knees. 

[Ishigreensa]

Imelda frowned and looked down.  She didn't want to make Lexi mad at her, but there it was, she was mad.  She was only trying to figure out how to get in and to be her sister, but everything she did was wrong.

She started to cry, too.

So, when Robert stopped the car and looked back, he saw both his babies crying.

With a heavy sigh, he parked the car and then went around the car to Lexi's side of the car to pick her up.

Imelda looked over and saw that he was picking Lexi up first, and that made her a little bit jealous.  Did he care more about Lexi than herself?  She looked down at her lap thinking that she must have done something wrong to make Robert check on Lexi first when Imelda wasn't crying all the time, but he should be used to Lexi being moody.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi was sobbing when Robert picked her up, but she wasn’t making any sounds. She felt guilty that she had hurt Imelda, but she couldn’t help it. Lexi was uncomfortable and on a hair trigger. She didn’t understand why Imelda had been staring at her. She just wanted to be left alone from the staring eyes. She’d felt like a spectacle since she got taken from her mother. Everyone was always staring at her. 

She felt like she didn’t belong. She was really starting to feel like she wouldn’t fit in with her family. She was too different and too broken. She’d been through a lot and everything was hard and changing. After having everything the  exact same for years, all these sudden changes were wrecking havoc on her self esteem and emotional well being. 

When she could eventually collect herself enough to talk, she sighed and looked down. “I’m sorry Daddy.” She said quietly. “I don’t fit in with you and Imelda. I don’t belong. You should send me back to the social services family.” She said sadly. She didn’t really understand the foster care system, but she’d hesrd the term social services constantly, that she associated everything that happened between the people at her door to getting with Robert with them. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert shook his head and rubbed her back.

"Honey, you don't belong in a place like that, where they might be lucky and place you at a home to grow up in, or they might be unlucky and change your home every few months.  I know that sometimes, foster families can be real good to their children, but sometimes, they are just in it to get the money and don't care at all.  With us, I know that Imelda and I do care, honey.  And I'm your real father.  No one is going to love you more than I will."

He rocked her and kept patting her back.

"You've just had a really hard life, and that means it's going to take some time to get used to things."

He motioned for Imelda to get out of the car and to come over to him.

She did.

He hugged her to his body, and then he bent down so the sisters were nearly level.

"You two are my girls and my whole world.  I will never ever let anything happen to either of you as long as I am able to stop it, if it's bad."

He pulled Imelda into them, and he hugged both of the girls together.

"You are my babies.  I know it's going to be hard, but I want you to both get along, too.  You need each other as much as you need me, babies.  Imelda has had a hard time making friends at school since her mother's death, and I suspect it's been just as hard for you to make friends, too, Lexi given the place you grew up in the last few years...."

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi frowned. She felt like she was being a burden on her father. She loved him so much and had missed him all those years, but she was scared of not being good enough. She was never good enough for her mother and hated it. 

She frowned and looked at Imelda. “I’m sorry.” She said quietly. She felt guilty for making her cry. “I didn’t want to upset you.”

She frowned when hearing about friends. “I wasn’t allowed to have any. I didn’t go to school much. Mommy kept me home and didn’t like me talking to people.” She said quietly. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert frowned upon hearing about her not being allowed to have any friends.

"Well, it's healthy to have friends, and if you make friends, I want you to play with them as often as is practical," he told her.  "It's very important that we have friends because humans rarely do well when they are alone."

Imelda looked up at her.

"Not allowed any friends?  That's horrible!  So, even if someone wants to like you, you aren't allowed?"

She put her head in her hands.

"I'm so stupid!  I am allowed to have friends, but no one likes me.  But here you are, you are probably very much liked by people, but your mommy won't let you.  I can tell you're cool.  I... I already think so."

She looked down.

"I'm sorry you thought I was staring at you.  I didn't mean it to make you mad.  I just... I didn't know how to make you my friend."

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi frowned. She could tell Robert felt bad for her. She wasn’t too used to the feeling Aside form the people from social services. 

She shrugged a little. “Nobody liked me anyway.” She said quietly. “I got made fun of a lot. Nobody talked to me. It wasn’t hard to not have friends.” She said quietly. She sighed and looked away. 

When Imelda started to get upset she felt guilty again. “I’m not cool.” She said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry I made you cry. I wanna be your friend too I guess. But everything is so different and hard. I don’t know anything anymore. I feel stupid all the time....” She trailed off, tears running down her face again. 

[Ishigreensa]

Imelda hugged Lexi tight and rubbed her cheek against her big sister.

"It's okay.  We can figure it out together, maybe.  You don't have to be smart to be cool.  And I think you're smarter than me."

She looked up at Robert.

 

"Honey, other kids just made fun of you, Lexi, because you have little confidence after the way your mommy treated you.  When I was at home before the split up, you had a lot of friends at school, honey.  And you teacher at that time really liked you."

He looked down at Imelda.

"And you are just really quiet and shy, honey.  I can see you are trying really hard to hide how shy you are from your sister and trying to be friendly with her, and I'm really proud of you for doing that, but if you did that at school, I'm sure you'd make a few friends, honey."

Imelda looked up at Robert.

 

"Girls, let's go eat lunch, okay?"

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi sighed. She rubbed her eyes. She was still having a hard time and struggling with a lot. She didn’t know how to respond to anything anymore. He dark circles under her eyes were more noticeable after crying for the upteenth time that day. 

When they got into Denny’s, Lexi scooted in as close to Robert as possible. She was still extremely afraid of losing him. She rested her head on his shoulder with a sigh. She looked absolutely exhausted. 

She didn’t seem too interested in looking at the menu. She was hungry, but she was distracted and tired. She gave up on not seeming like a baby to her sister and got her stuffed owl out of her backpack, holding it close to her chest. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert could see how upset and quiet Lexi was, and decided he would just order for both of the girls this time.

He didn't think that making Lexi think about what she wanted to eat at the moment was a good thing, and while he didn't know all of her likes and dislikes anymore, he did remember that she liked cheeseburgers and fries when she was younger, so thought he would be safe getting both girls that along with some milk.

 

Imelda saw the stuffed owl, and she smiled as she pulled out her purple and white stuffed rabbit that was a bit plump in the belly.  The stuffing was sort of hard, so the rabbit didn't give much when she hugged it.  She had been sort of hiding the rabbit at her side, just hanging on to its ear until she saw the owl come out.

"This is Thumper," she told Lexi.  "If you ever saw Bambi, that's where I got her name from.  Thumper was a rabbit in Bambi, but it was a different color."

She looked down.

"I was sort of afraid you might make fun of me, so I didn't show you the rabbit at first, but I couldn't leave Thumper in the car by herself, either.  She gets lonely."

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi stayed silent while Robert ordered. It had been a long time since she’d had a cheeseburger or fries. She missed food like that. Usually she didn’t even eat dinner, but if she did, it never tasted very good. She couldn’t even remember what she usually had. 

Lexi nodded. She didn’t really have anything to say to Imelda about the stuffed rabbit. She was just glad she wouldn’t make fun of Lexi for needing her owl. Her owl was one of the few sources of comfort she had. She sighed and looked up at Robert. She didn’t know what to say, but she just wanted a little extra comfort, if that was even possible with how much he’d been giving her. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert didn't know that she was looking for more comfort than he was already trying to give her, but he saw the way she looked up at him, and decided to pat her lap to let her know that he was still there.

"It's okay," he told her.  "You already had a chance to pee and so did Imelda, so there is no reason for you to have to leave my side.  You can stay right here with me.  I won't need to get up until we pay for our food and go back to the car, okay?"

He looked over at Imelda.

"You brought your Thumper in?" he asked her.

Imelda looked down.  "Sorry, daddy.  She just gets lonely."

"It's okay," Robert told her.  "I think I might have been a little too strict in the past about the rule of having no toys in the restaurant.  If you want to take Thumper in, just make sure you ask first.  If we are shopping at a regular store, she needs to stay in the car or she might get mixed up with other toys and they will think you are stealing her.  So, make sure you ask from now on, and if we are not in a store where she can get mixed up, then I'll let you take her in, okay?"

Imelda nodded.

"And that goes for your little Owl, too," he told Lexi.  "I just don't want you to lose your toys because the shop keeper thinks they are being stolen."

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi was a little embarrassed to be in Robert’s lap but it was comforting. He seemed to understand a lot of the fears she had but didn’t want to say. 

She felt bad when it seemed like Imelda might get in trouble for bringing her toy in. She felt guilty that she’d been having her owl with her everywhere, even if just in her backpack. 

“I’m sorry Daddy.” Lexi said sadly. She wanted to be good and obey Robert, but she felt insecure without having her bag with her. Her owl was really one of the few things she had still that had any sort of importance in her life. She felt stupid for being eleven years old and still needing her stuffed animal so much, but she couldn’t help it. She felt tears come to her eyes and felt so conflicted. 

[Ishigreensa]

"You don't have to be sorry, Lexi," he told her.  "I could see that your bag was really important, and since we had been apart for a while, I thought you needed your bag until now to stay grounded, honey.  Honestly, Imelda had been told her to leave her stuffed rabbit in the car when we went in anywhere, but I did notice that she had it when we went in here.  I didn't say anything because I couldn't very well tell her that she couldn't have hers and then let you bring your bag in.  That wouldn't be fair to her."

He looked over apologetically to Imelda.

"I hope you understand, yes, I was being very lenient with Lexi because I thought she needed something to help her relax.  I guess I understand that you don't like leaving Thumper alone either....  I just, well, it was sort of different, but it's also kind of the same to you, isn't it?"

Imelda nodded.

When the food came, Robert put Lexi on the seat next to him, and he patted her leg to let her know he was still right there.

"Go ahead and eat your lunch, then I'll carry you again.  I think I'll carry you the whole trip when we go in somewhere until you feel comfortable again, honey."

He looked at Imelda.

"Is that okay with you, honey?"

Imelda nodded.  "I want my sister to be comfortable and to think we love her."

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi didn’t know what was going on anymore. She didn’t know if she was allowed to carry her owl around or not. It was confusing because of all the different things Robert was saying. 

When the food came, she was a little sad to be off Robert’s lap, but she knew why. She ate the burger pretty quickly before eating her fries. She was happy that Robert allowed her to eat as much as she wanted without getting in trouble. That was something that she wasn’t allowed to do at home. 

She liked that Robert would carry her. She smiled a little when he mentioned it. It made her feel safe and secure. Moreso than she usually did at least. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert let her eat and then he made sure she had her owl in her bag, and her bag settled on her shoulders before he picked her up.

Imelda stood up, too.

"Okay, girls, from now on, make sure you ask to make sure it's okay to bring your toys in, and wherever we stop, if it's not a toy store, or a place that is known for selling toys, I'll let you bring them in.  I'd rather my girls be happy."

He then took them to the front of the restaurant to pay.

Imelda held her rabbit up at Lexi.

"Do you like Thumper?" she asked her.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi hoped that they wouldn’t be going anywhere soon that she couldn’t bring her owl with her. It made her anxious to not have it with her. It was very important to her and it helped keep her from crying and freaking out. 

Lexi rested her head on Robert’s shoulder when he picked her up, hugging him tightly. She was starting to relax a little. 

She sighed when Imelda asked about her rabbit. She didn’t really know. It was nice she guessed. But it didn’t really mean anything to Lexi. She could see Imelda cared about it, but Lexi just didn’t really know. She shrugged a little in response, unsure what else to say. She winced a little, hoping that Imelda wouldn’t be upset with her for not saying something nice about it. 

[Ishigreensa]

Imelda smiled up at her.

"It's okay.  You don't know Thumper that well," she said.  "I was just wondering if you wanted to hold her, but I guess for now, you don't."

She walked next to them.

Robert reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out his wallet and gave it to Imelda.

"Would you pay so I don't have to put Lexi down?"

"Okay," Imelda said with a smile.  She loved paying for things for her daddy when he would let her.  She didn't need any excuse to do so, but she could especially see how difficult it would be while holding her big sister.  

She walked to the front of the line and waited for them to tell them how much they owed, and then she looked in the wallet and handing the nice lady a twenty.

"Aren't you a big girl, paying for your daddy?" she asked her.

Imelda smiled and blushed a little.  She loved that kind of attention!

She then took the change and after putting it back into the wallet, held on to it closing it until they got to the car where once again, Robert gave her the keys to open the car.

Once Robert had Lexi in the front seat so she would be right next to him, he held out his hand, but Imelda frowned.

"No fair!"

"You wanted to ride in front, too?"

She shook her head.  "I don't want to sti by myself," she pouted.

"How about if you both sit in the front?  I think the seat is big enough for both of you."

Imelda smiled at that and nodded.

Robert then looked at Lexi.  "Is that okay with you, honey?  Imelda will have to  be right next to you, touching you, but at least you'll be next to me that way."

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi was glad that Imelda wasn’t upset that she didn’t really care about the stuffed rabbit. 

She sighed when Imelda got upset. She shook her head. She felt kind of chlaustrophobic and didn’t want to be touching or touched by anyone besides Robert. Sitting in the backseat would be good enough for now.

“I’ll sit in the back.” She said quietly. She was tired and didn’t want to cause more issues than she already was. 

[Ishigreensa]

Robert looked at each girl.

"Are you sure, Lexi?"

Then he put both girls in the back since Imelda didn't mind sitting in the back as long as she wasn't the only one, and anyway, didn't want Lexi to be left all alone in case she got in the mood to play.

She took out some of her toys from her bags and put them between the girls, mostly stuffed animals.

"You can play, if you want," Imelda told Lexi.  "But if you just want to sleep, then I'll try to be quiet for you, too."

Then she started to play with her stuffed animals, not really talking in case the other girl wanted to sleep, but just moving them around and making conversation in her own head for the stuffed animals.

[Shy-Diapers]

Lexi sighed and nodded. She wanted to sit up front with Robert, but she’d rather be in the back than be squished with Imelda. 

She nodded to Imelda, not being in the mood to talk. She was tired and overwhelmed. She wanted to sleep, but she was kind of scared to. She had been wetting the bed everyday for a few weeks now, and she was scared that she would wet Robert’s car seats. She didn’t want that to happen. 

She sighed and looked out the window, trying to keep herself awake. She didn’t want to have an accident if she fell asleep. She worried Imelda’s toys would get wet, and just that she’d be embarrassed in general. It was bad enough Imelda found out she wet the bed last night, but now she’d actually see Lexi wet. 

[Ishigreensa]

Imelda saw that Lexi looked really tired, but seemed to be fighing going to sleep.

"If you're tired, sis, you can sleep.  I'll be really quiet, I promise.  And I'll even move some of my toys so you can get more comfortable if you want.  I have the floor in front of me and next to the door that I can use."

She smiled at her.

She wondered if Lexi was just uncomfortable with her because they still didn't know each other yet, and maybe sleeping in front of her was embarrassing or something.  She wasn't sure what to do about that though.  She was already making as many compromises as she could in the small space they had between them.

[Shy-Diapers]

“You’re fine.” Lexi said quietly. She rubbed her eyes and sat up a little. She was doing everything she could to stay awake. She didn’t want to embarrass herself by wetting herself and the seats. She would just have to find a way to stay up. She couldn’t hide the yawn though. She was exhausted. 

She kept gazing out the window for the most part, occasionally looking up at Rober in the rear view mirror, her eyes droopy and obviously tired. 

[Ishigreensa]

"Lexi, honey, you can nap," Robert told her.  "We'll be on the road for a while now, so if you are not playing, there is really no reason for you to have to stay awake, sweetie.  I'll get you up if we stop somewhere to make sure you are comfortable and not hungry."

He smiled at her through the mirror.

 

Imelda frowned when she saw how hard Lexi was trying to stay awake.

"It's okay if you sleep," she said.  "If I'm making too much noise or moving too much, maybe I can color instead."