Work Text:
James stared ahead into the fog from his kitchen window, only to get snapped out of his thoughts by the unpleasant smell of burnt pancakes.
Great. He'll eat them either way.
It was the quiet hours in the morning.
Unfortunately, he couldn't sleep much nowadays, so he decided to occupy himself by making some breakfast.
He wasn't the world's best cook, by any means, he barely kicked into the ball compared to Mary, but damn, he was trying.
He quickly flipped the dark colored serving with his spatula, and stared into the piping hot pan.
He was trying. For Laura. The kid was still sleeping peacefully in her room, surrounded by all her favorite plushies.
James sighed. He was so bad at this. Not just at cooking- well, he was so bad at all of this. He was a failure as a son, a coworker, a parent, and as a husband...
He wasn't sure how long he would be able to keep this up.
Mary had been in the hospital for months now. Her illness had been.. hard. On all of them.
But they tried to keep their smiles up. For Laura.
Mary wasn't getting better.
They both knew it.
Nobody knew how long did she have left.
But James still allowed himself to hope. Maybe it was the fairy tales he read to their daughter rubbing off on him, but he refused to let go of the naive, childish hope that she will somehow, miraculously heal overnight.
He didn't want to think about where he would be right now if it wasn't for their daughter.
Probably drinking. More than he should've.
But things were different now. He had this small life depending on him.
Laura was a sweet girl.
James still remembers the first time he held the baby on the day they had adopted her. She was so tiny. So fragile and so loud.
He remembers his heart beating rapidly, the voice in his head screaming he wouldn't be able to do this.. but Mary reassured him.
She was a natural with children. James was not. But seeing how happy the girl made her, he wouldn't have had it any other way.
And thus, he became a father. He still doubted himself a lot, but they were happy.
But unfortunately, as James had to learn it the hard way throughout his life, good things never last long.
It stared with a cough, that refused to go away. When the pain got worse, they rushed from doctor to doctor but to no avail.
Nobody knew what the disease was... Or how to cure it.
James was desperate. He almost fell back to his past alcoholism. But he wasn't a teenager now. Not anymore.
He couldn't afford to just recklessly throw away his life like.. all his failed attempts before he met Mary.
He was an adult now. A father. Laura deserved better than a useless drunkard for a father.
So James was trying.
He flipped the last pancake off the pan, and turned down the stove. He will keep trying.