Chapter 1.25 How I Met Your Mother

Thomas waited until after school to tell Rosie about her mother

Obviously he wasn't all too comfortable with this, but he kinda owed it to Rosie. After all, he hasn't even mentioned anything of her mother around her. Probably because when she was younger, he was more focused on making sure he spent time with her and stayed on top of his work.

He sighed slightly, looking at her. His little princess who used to have a braid and wear a little dress with a duck on it was almost all grown up.

He then asked "Are you sure you want to know?" He looked at her, and there was a slight hope that she would say no.

Rosie nodded though, half smiling. "I'm sure, but what about Erin and Connor? What if they listen in?" She asked, knowing this can't be easy for her Daddy.

"Erin's out with her guitar and Connor's doing some work experience at the business building. So its just you, me and Alyssa." He glanced over to check Alyssa was still okay playing with the doll house.

"You're sure you want to know though, right?" He asked, one last time. He really wanted some way out of telling this story.
She laughed a little "I'm sure, I want to know."
With a deep breathe, he began to tell the story of how he met Rosie's mother.

"Me and your mother were practically inseparable, we grew up together. Neither of us had too much of a family, so we just stuck together through everything. She was my best friend, and I was hers. We were our own family, and we didn't need or want anyone else. Neither of us payed attention in school, and neither of us were role model students either..." He started, hating how quickly the memories of Roxie came back to him as he then continued to tell the story.

"There was this abandoned barn we always used to hang out at. It just me and her, never anyone else. We doubted if anyone else even knew about it. It was freezing in winter, we would usually just sit in the hay that there was upstairs, and in summer it was way too hot." He grinned, thinking about it in summer. "Most of the time, we just sat there in our underwear, once even-"
Rosie quickly interrupted "Don't. Need. To. Know." She covered her ears. She was pretty sure she didn't need to know that much. "If you and Mom were happy, why did she leave?"

He stayed quiet for a moment, before saying in a quiet voice "That's what I wondered too." He sighed softly, looking at the space next to his feet. The silence made Rosie feel as if she made a mistake in what she asked. 
"Can you tell me what happened right before she left?" She asked. She knew her Daddy probably didn't want to talk about it, but she wanted to know. She wanted to know more about her mother.
"I'll tell you." He murmured.

"Your mom wasn't at school that day, and I was a little worried, but mainly pissed off she abandoned me that day at school."

"Wait, you had school?" Rosie asked, looking at him. 

He sighed, loudly, "I'm not that old Rosie, thanks by the way." He mumbled sarcastically. "Anyway, I was annoyed at her. But, I knew where she would be so I went to the barn."

"I waited outside the barn for a little bit, mostly to check no one was actually in there. I knew it was only your mother in there though. I heard her do something she almost never did, I heard her crying. I stayed outside for a moment, making sure it was actually her, and I went into the barn."

Rosie frowned a little, "Why was she upset?" 

"You can rush a story teller, Rosie. When I went inside, she stopped crying right away. That, I expected but if she was ever upset, she would usually go back to crying when she knew she was around me. This time was different though. I knew where she would be, sat near one of the bales of hay, usually either sat on the lowest one or her back to it."

"I asked her what was wrong, and she just shook her head. She didn't want to talk about it, but I wanted to know what was wrong with her. I stayed with her for a long time, hours went by and we were sat in silence. She eventually told me that her dad, your granddad, had kicked her out."

"Why?" Rosie interrupted again.

"I didn't know, she didn't say."

"Shocked by this, I then asked her why, and like I said, she refused to answer. She kept mumbling things under her breath, which is something she always used to do when she was worried. All I heard her mumble was something about mistakes and something else I couldn't understand. Whenever your mom got stressed, angry or worried, she would start doing that, and start making no sense at all. It was one of the reasons she wasn't good at school."

"I told her that me and her could find a place when we both graduated the next day. She shook her head though, and told me that she was moving away from Dragon Valley, and wanted to travel the world and do new things."

"I asked her why and she told me that she needed to get away from here, and there were bad things keeping her chained to here." Thomas sighed as he spoke, hating this memory. It was probably the one that hurt him most of all. The memory of his first heartbreak, and he didn't even know why.

"I wanted her to tell me what was wrong, and what she was hiding from me. She kept on changing the subject though. She refused to tell me what was wrong. I kept trying and she just kept shaking her head or saying something random. One of the subject changes was her asking things about my mom." He frowned a little, looking down.

"What happened to Grandma?" Rosie asked, never actually hearing anything being said about her grandmother.

"My own mom died when I was young, and my dad wasn't around so I got put into care." He shrugged, looking at Rosie again. "That's actually where you got your name from, or at least I'm guessing that's why your mom called you that. My mom was called Rosie too." He smiled a little.

"Anyway, when I finally did manage to get an answer off your mom, she said that she 'didn't want me having to be tied down to her'. I asked her what that meant and she kept shaking her head and saying that her and I weren't meant to be. She kept repeating different excuses, and I gave up on an answer. I gave up on whatever your mother might have wanted to say."

"I was angry and heartbroken. So I just walked out of the barn and left her alone. Thinking back on it now, I probably should have stayed to make sure she was actually alright. The next day, I graduated and I honestly had no clue what I would do. That's when I saw some military guys walk past, and I thought that because I didn't have a family to worry about me, I should go into a career like that."

"After I signed up was when I met Erin. She was new and only ever planned on staying with me for a few days." He couldn't help but laugh a little.

"She's kinda stayed for a little bit longer than a few days." Rosie pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "Why did she decide to stay here though?" She couldn't help but ask. 

"She stayed because that was when she found out about Connor, and she had next to no money, well, neither of us had a lot. So we stayed poor together because it would be a lot easier to afford things that way. There would be two people paying for the house, and we'd both be able to look after the baby while still being able to do what we want."

"Erin usually played her guitar for tips around town as a way to earn money, and that was when she met your mother. When I found out, I went to where your mother used to live when we were younger, and that's when I met you." He smiled at her, remembering exactly about the braid she had and the brown dress with the duck.

At some point during the story, Alyssa had wandered over and wanted to know what was going on. Neither of them noticed her until she started whining at Thomas's feet, wanting cuddles. He picked her up, and sat her down on his knee. "And the rest of that you should know." He sighed slightly, glad that was over with. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about your mother earlier, it was just a difficult thing to talk about."

Rosie shook her head a little bit "It's okay, I get it." She smiled slightly back. "Do you ever wish you were still with mom though?" She couldn't help but ask.

He thought about it, then shook his head. "I'm honestly happy the way everything has turned out so far. Sure we're not a perfectly normal family, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I have my two girls, Erin and Connor. Some people might look down on us because we're not the classic family, but what we have is more than good enough for me." He smiled, honestly meaning what he said. He loved his family.

His mini-speech about how happy he was made Rosie feel a little guilty. She's been keeping a really big secret from him for so long... 

She sighed softly "There's something I need to tell you." She mumbled, frowning.

He furrowed his eyebrows, honestly expecting the worst. "What do you need to tell me? It's nothing bad, is it?"

She pursed her lips a little, unsure if it was actually bad or not. She sighed, and quietly said. "I'm a witch."

Thomas blinked a few times, looking at his eldest daughter. He certainly was not expecting that.

Chapter 1.24 Well, Hello                                                                            

Chapter 1.26 Witch!

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AN: You guys know how I love a good cliffhanger...
I got 1000 pageviews! Whoop! But yeah, no other really important news really. Oh, and if you're a little confused, the black and white pictures are in the past