Chapter 15
RAELYNN
Over a week had passed since she had gotten the cochlear implant activated, and things were going better than she thought. Daddy still had to remind her to wear her cochlear implant throughout the day.
“Reaper and Levi are coming over in a couple of minutes. Is it all right if Deccan and Echo come as well, or do you want to leave it at those two?” Daddy asked.
She shrugged. Rae still wasn’t good around a lot of noise. It overwhelmed her, and she couldn’t hear the person she was talking to very well.
“How about we just do Reaper and Levi and then another day, Deccan and his girl can come over?” Daddy suggested.
“I think that would be good,” she whispered. “Not that I don’t want to see them, but I’m worried it’ll be too loud and I’ll hide.”
Just the thought of them coming over already had her wanting to pretend to be asleep before they got here.
Daddy nodded. “And I don’t want you to run away, so we’ll keep it small in the beginning. As you grow more comfortable, then we’ll explore more… have more people come and visit, or we can go and visit them.”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
The thought of being in a room with a lot of people was making her chest all tingly and nervous.
“Little Fairy, you have nothing to be worried about. I said, only when you’re comfortable with meeting more than two people at a time. I’m not going to force you into anything.”
“Sorry,” she whispered. “My mind just started to think before I could stop it.”
Daddy cupped her face and brought his lips to her forehead.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. I just wanted you to know it’s up to you.
Maybe I’ll push you a little to consider meeting more than two people, but that’s only if I think you’re absolutely ready for it.
But you’re going to be the one who gives the. Understand?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
A smile blossomed on his face. “Now, why don’t we go get some drinks before they come here?”
“When ar—” but she was cut off as there was a noise from the front of the house.
“I brought you a present,” Reaper announced as he walked into the house.
Her eyes lit up as she bounced on her feet, waiting for him to show it to him.
Reaper pulled out a gray stuffed koala.
“Oh my goodness,” she whispered, staring at it in awe.
Raelynn didn’t take a step toward the stuffed koala. It looked precious. Perfect.
“I even had the lady do something special for you. She said she normally doesn’t do it, but I wanted to make this present something you’ve never seen before,” Reaper said. “Can you guess what that might be?”
She shook her head and took a step back. Rae definitely wasn’t worth having something special done.
“What’s wrong, Little Miss?” Reaper asked. “Do you not want it?”
Rae opened and closed her mouth several times as she tried to tell him she wasn’t worthy of it. She was never going to be worthy of getting a present from him or anybody.
“Hmm, I think I might know why you don’t want to come close to me,” Reaper said as he looked all serious.
Raelynn gripped her hands together as she looked at him, waiting for him to expose her secret.
“It’s because I’m a little smelly, isn’t it? I promise I took a shower before I got here. The sun wasn’t out to make it hot either, so I didn’t sweat. I promise I don’t stink.” Reaper cracked a smile. “Why don’t you come say hi to your new friend? And maybe then you can see what I added to it.”
Her gaze went over to Daddy, who gave her an encouraging nod. But she still wasn’t so sure if she should go over to him and see what was going on.
“I’m not going to bite, Little Miss,” Reaper coaxed.
“I thought we were close to each other and that you would accept this gift, but maybe I was wrong. Which is quite a bummer because I was so excited to give this to you. I had everything planned out and was going to show you just how unique this little stuffed animal was.”
Guilt formed in Raelynn’s stomach as he talked.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Why are you sorry when you’ve done nothing wrong?” Reaper asked.
“Because I don’t deserve it. I’ve done nothing to deserve a present from you,” she confessed before she could stop herself. “I don’t deserve you asking somebody to do something special on it when I’ve done nothing.”
Realization flashed across Reaper’s face.
“Oh, Little Miss, but you have done so much for me. You’ve given me a little sister when I didn’t think I would ever get one again.
I know we aren’t blood-related, but I still consider you a sister.
You act like my sister used to act. If it’s okay with you, I would like to treat you as a little sister, not a replacement, but as another sibling.
Someone I can dote on and can spoil rotten.
Someone to be there when you need a shoulder to cry on when your Daddy makes a mistake and you get angry. Would you like that?”
Rae nodded before she could stop herself.
She had never had something like that. Sure, when Butch had first arrived, he was like an older brother, but that dynamic quickly changed before it ever got to settle.
Butch had made sure it changed so she never had a chance to really see him as a brother, and everything became awkward.
“Good. Then why don’t you come over here and accept this gift. Let me spoil you,” Reaper said as he held out the stuffed koala.
She quickly walked over to him and looked at the koala.
“Can you spot what’s special about her?” Reaper asked.
Her eyes scanned the whole stuffed animal to try to find out what was different.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled after a while.
Maybe him saying something was different was just a ploy to get her close to him.
“Look at the left ear,” he suggested.
Her eyes narrowed in on the left ear, and a small gasp left her lips.
“No,” she mumbled. “You didn’t.”
“But I did. I wanted to give you this right away after your implant activation, but Butch wouldn’t let anybody near you, so I had to wait.
I wanted to show you that you aren’t in this alone.
This little koala also just got a cochlear implant and needs a buddy to go through with it.
It can be pretty scary, and the koala would like a friend so that she isn’t alone,” Reaper explained.
“So, do you think you can be the koala’s friend?
Do you think you’ll be okay if you have a buddy to go through this with? ”
Tears streamed down her face as she nodded, trying to calm her eyes, still focused on the koala’s ear.
“Oh, Little Miss, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he gently said. “Do you want to give the koala a hug?”
She grabbed the koala and wrapped her arms around it, holding it tightly. Tears turned into sobs as she hugged it even tighter.
“Butch, I swear I didn’t mean to make her cry. I didn’t think she was going to sob,” Reaper quickly said.
Arms wrapped around her, but they weren’t Daddy’s. That’s when she smelled sandalwood and knew Reaper was hugging her.
“Little Miss, please stop crying. I don’t think I can deal with your tears anymore. They make me want to give you anything to make you stop crying,” Reaper said. “I’ll do anything to get you to stop. You just need to tell me what it is you want.”
“I don’t think anything will stop her from crying this time,” Levi said. “You have her a stuffed animal that has the same cochlear implant as hers. Of course she’s going to cry.”
She gripped onto his shirt and continued to cry as he held her.
“Oh, Little Miss. You’re breaking my heart right now with all your crying,” he whispered. “Your Daddy is also glaring at me. and I know if I don’t stop you from crying, I’m going to get my ass beaten.”
“Language,” Daddy growled.
Raelynn giggled as she looked at Daddy. “I’ve heard you say ass before. I’ve said ass and a lot of worse things. Not when he was around, but when I felt like cursing him out whenever he left the house.”
Those were some good memories. Rae had gotten so creative in what she called Edmund behind his back that just thinking about it made her giggle.
“Ah, good, you’re not crying now. I, for sure, thought I was going to die today,” Reaper said as he let her go.
“Just because you’ve said those words or heard them doesn’t mean you need to say them now. I don’t want to hear you saying them, and I want to shelter you from hearing them as well,” Butch said. “I don’t want you to get any ideas and have a sailor’s mouth.”
“Good luck with trying to stop everyone from cursing in front of her. It’s ingrained in us. There’s no way you’re going to get that to happen,” Levi said as he walked further into the house.
Rae tilted her head as she looked at him. “Present?”
Levi rubbed the back of his neck and looked away. “Well, you see. I didn’t know what you liked, and I didn’t really want to get you anything and something be wrong with it.”
“So he came empty-handed. He asked me whether I could say the koala was also from him, but I said no,” Reaper whispered to her. “I didn’t want him to get any credit for it.”
Raelynn shook her head and walked over to Levi, looking up at him. “Present next time,” she demanded.
“Little Fairy,” Daddy warned her. “He doesn’t owe you a present. He is just visiting.”
Rae pouted. “But you should never come to the house without a gift for someone. It’s impolite in some cultures to show up empty-handed.”
Levi and Reaper chuckled while Daddy stared at her, giving her a pointed look.
“Do not encourage her, guys,” Daddy said. “She knows what she’s doing is being naughty.”
“I’m just my sweet self. I can never be naughty,” she replied. “I’m your precious Little girl. Your Little Fairy who can do no wrong.”
Reaper snorted and shook his head.
“What did we talk about the other day when you said this exact same thing? What happened just a couple of hours later?” Daddy asked.
“I don’t want to talk,” she mumbled.
“Oh, but we want to hear about it,” Levi chimed in. “So please tell us.”
Levi and Reaper were now sitting on the couch. She looked to her right and left before settling on the couch that Daddy was walking to.
“Come sit on Daddy’s lap,” he said. “Then you can tell them your story of what you did.”
She shook her head and gripped her stuffed animal even tighter.
“Be careful. You don’t want to hurt your stuffed koala,” Reaper said. “She might want to breathe a little bit right now.”
Rae looked down in horror as she loosened her grip on her koala.
“Oh no, Niko,” she mumbled as she ran her hands down his fur. “Are you all right? I really didn’t mean to hurt you. I just got so nervous and so worried that I did it without thinking, but I promise, I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“Niko said she’s all right,” Reaper spoke up.
“Niko is a he, not a she.” She gave him an unimpressed look.
“I know a Niko who is a girl.” Reaper raised his hands in the air. “Her nickname is Niko, but still, you can’t say that I was wrong for guessing that Niko was a girl.”
“Well, now you know. I think he’ll get along well with my other stuffed animal,” Rae said as she kissed Niko’s head.
“What other stuffed animal?” Daddy asked.
She looked down and shook her head. “I don’t have her anymore. I don’t know why I mentioned her.”
“Come here, Little Fairy,” Daddy said as he patted his knees.
Daisy walked over to him, and he picked her up.
“What other stuffed animal did you have? Where did she go?” Levi asked.
She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at Niko. Rae didn’t want to talk about this any longer. It brought up memories she wasn’t fond of.
“Come on, Little Fairy. It’s okay,” Daddy said. “Wait. Are you talking about Rosie?”
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she nodded.
“What happened to Rosie?” He demanded.
“I had to leave her behind!” she wailed.