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It... it was an accident. Really, it was really just an accident. She hadn't- she didn't mean to...
Unfortunately, that was not what Chase initially thought when he came home to find his 6-year-old daughter's veins glowing with strings pinker than the hair of her favourite plush unicorn.
"Stacy? What did you- what happened? What did you do?"
Stacy couldn't respond. She sat still on the edge of a dining room chair, staring at her daughter with a horrified expression on her face.
"Stacy? Stacy, answer me." He knelt in front of her, trying to catch her gaze, his hands gently squeezing her knees.
A single tear formed in the corner of her eye. "I... I'm so sorry." She blinked, once, twice, and looked Chase in his eyes. Her's were still glowing a faint shade of pink. "I... I don't know what happened, Chase. I don't know what I did, I don't- I didn't-" With a loud sob, she buried her face in her hands.
Neither of them heard the soft footsteps of their daughter, treading as lightly as she could, anything, anything not to disturb her mother.
"Mom? Are you okay?" She looked at Chase warily before touching Stacy's arm to get her attention.
Stacy sniffled and stopped crying for long enough to look her daughter in the eyes, a faint smile on her lips. "Everything is okay, darling. Why don't you go play with your toys, hm?"
But she didn't leave. "Who is that man, Mommy? Is he making you cry?"
And the house stopped breathing. Terror found its way back into Stacy's eyes, her lungs drowning in despair as she looked back at Chase. "Can I- can we... undo it?" Another sob escaped her throat. "I just want my daughter back, Chase."
"I don't... I don't know if we can, Stacy."
"Mom?" Fear and unrest grew in their daughter, forcing her to take a step back from the strange man who supposedly had made her mother cry.
"It-it's okay, sweetie." She took a deep breath, swallowing down another sob, and the pink in her eyes grew more intense once again. She looked at her daughter and reached out, her daughter instantly responding by placing her tiny hands in her mother's. "This man is your father, dear." She stroked a lock of hair out of her daughter's face, tucking it behind her ear, before trailing her hand down her daughter's jaw, gently cupping her cheek. "You can call him 'Dad' or 'Daddy'. You can trust him, sweetheart." She glanced sideways at Chase, who had placed a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support, and watched the two interact with fascination. He gave her a soft smile and a nod. "You can love him. I do too."
With a slight tremor, Chase reached out to his daughter, and she hesitantly placed her other hand in his. His blue eyes sank into a glimmering silver, eyes so pretty, so sparkly, his daughter simply could not look away. She didn't even wince when the pink in her veins was accompanied by silver, barely noticed the way the strings slithered up her arms and tied themselves around her joints.
He cried, and they both let their daughter go. She instantly gave her dad a big hug. "Why are you crying, Daddy? Did something bad happen?"
He sniffled and hugged her back. "No, nothing bad happened, princess. I just love you a whole lot, you know that, right?"
"Of course!" She squeezed her tiny arms even tighter. "And I love you too, Daddy! And you too, Mommy!"