Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:Miami, I'm just borrowing the characters for a bit and will return them safe and sound. I also don't own the song Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman, I'm just borrowing that as well. I do lay claim to Alisha Richardson-Wolfe, Bethie Wolfe, Addi Thompson and Jonathon Thompson. Please ask if you would like to use them.
I was listening to Steven Curtis Chapman's song, Cinderella when this idea struck me and it demanded to be written. So here it is. And I have to say it's one of my favorites. Ranks up there with Finally Getting It Right. So now on to the story and please remember to review.
Cinderella
Ryan Wolfe peeked into the bed room where his ten year daughter lay sleeping.
Bethie's small form was curled around her favorite stuffed animal, Mr Bear, a ragged brown bear that Bethie had gotten from her uncle Addi.
Ryan gave a wry smile when he saw the bear. His wife, Alisha, was good friends with Addi Thompson and had been so for years. They affectionately called each other Minx and Bear.
-flashback-
Alisha Richardson-Wolfe burst out laughing as Addi handed the stuffed animal to Bethie as a birthday present.
Addi gave her a wink and said loftily, "That's in return for the minx you gaveJonathon for his last birthday, Minx."
Two year old Bethie hugged the bear to her chest and said, "Fwank you, Didi."
-end flashback-
The cd player on Bethies bedside stand was playing softy.
Ryan recognized the music from Steven Curtis Chapman's new cd, Miracle of the Moment. Bethie loved Steven Curtis Chapman.
He listened to the words as Steven started to sing.
She spins and she sways to whatever song plays
Without a care in the world
And I'm sitting here wearing the weight of the world on my shoulders
It's been a long day and there's still work to do
She's pulling at me saying "Dad I need you!
There's a ball at the castle and I've been invited and I need to practice my dancin'
Oh please, Daddy, please!"
A ghost of a smile appeared on Ryan's face as he remembered a time when Bethie had done exactly that.
-flashback-
"Daddy! You home!" Bethie cried happily, throwing her arms around Ryan's legs. All of five years old and she was a ball of energy. Her wavy brown hair framed her face as she smiled up at her father.
Alisha called from the kitchen where she was making dinner, "Hey Ry, do you think before dinner you could fix that chair leg that broke this morning please?"
Ryan sighed. He'd forgotten about that chair leg. "Sure, honey," he called back.
"Daddy, dance with me," Bethie let go of Ryan's legs and swirled down the hall with her arms out in imitation of a ballerina.
Ryan smiled. "Bethie girl, can I dance with you after dinner?" he asked, finally setting his silver field kit where it belonged.
"No, Daddy, the ball is after dinner. I have to practice my dancing now," Bethie explained in a no nonsense voice.
Ryan inwardly debated whether he should disappoint his wife or daughter.
Alisha saved him from having to decide by appearing in the kitchen doorway, spaghetti sauce smeared on her right cheek and all down the front of her apron. Her shoulder length brown hair was held back in a ponytail with strands falling into her face. Her brown eyes took pity on me. "Dance with our daughter, Ry. The chair can wait. The ball won't."
-end flashback-
Ryan was glad he'd danced with Bethie that day.
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone
Bethie murmured in her sleep quietly and shifted just enough so that Ryan could now see her bald head.
-flashback-
"I'm so sorry to have to tell you this. But the biopsy results came back. Bethie's tumor is cancerous. We need to start her on chemotherapy right away," the doctor said as gently as possible as he could when telling the parents of a nine year girl that their daughter had cancer.
For a moment there was nothing. No recognition that was bad, that this was life threatening, just nothing inside Ryan. It was like all his emotions had been turned off.
Alisha had gone dead white, the hand grasping Ryan's was shaking; he could feel the tremors.
-end flashback-
Ryan remembered telling Bethie that she wouldn't be going home any time soon, that she needed to stay in the hospital.
-flashback-
The light in the dingy hospital room was dim. There were no windows on this side of the hospital and one of the light bulbs in the overhead light had burnt out.
Bethie was watching cartoons when Ryan walked in. Alisha had stayed in the waiting room to make calls and see if someone could cover one of their up coming shifts at work. Ryan was almost positive that the first person she'd call was Addi. Their friendship went all the way back to when Alisha lived in California, before Ryan met her, and it was deep.
"Daddy, you look sad," Bethie observed, startling Ryan out of his reverie.
"That's because I am sad, Bethie girl," Ryan answered honestly.
"Why are you sad?"
"I've got some bad news, honey. It's hard to say out loud," Ryan took what had become his customary seat beside Bethie's bed.
He picked up Bethie's tiny hand in his. He remembered seeing her for the first time. Her perfectly formed hands and the nose she got from her mother that, as she grew up, she would come to wrinkle it in the same manner as Alisha.
"Your mom and I had a talk with the doctor a while ago," Ryan started slowly, as if not saying the words out loud would make reality go away. "The tumor that you have is cancerous. You're going to have to stay here so the doctors can make you better."
Ryan had to stop speaking as his throat had closed up. He could feel tears brimming in his eyes.
Bethie regarded him seriously, too seriously for a nine year old. "Am I going to die?"
-end flashback-
She says he's a nice guy and I'd be impressed
She wants to know if I approve of the dress
She says, "Dad the prom is just one week away
And I need to practice my dancin'
Oh please, Daddy, please!"
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone
She will be gone
But she came home today with a ring on her hand
Just glowin' and tellin' us all they had planned
She says, "Dad the wedding's still six months away but I need to practice my dancin'
Oh please, Daddy, please!"
Ryan felt his heart constrict painfully. There would be no prom for Bethie, no wedding, no boyfriend, no fiancé. It didn't seem fair that his little girlwould die at such a young age with all her life ahead of her, so many milestones not reached.
-flashback-
"I'm sorry this last round of chemo didn't do shrink the tumor as much as we'd hoped. The surgery to remove the tumor won't happen. There's nothing else we can do for her."
-end flashback-
-flashback-
"But I'm going home, daddy. Be happy," Bethie pleaded.
Ryan couldn't find it in himself to even be happy for his daughter, who was delighted to be out of the hospital for the first time in five months. All he could think about was that she wouldn't see her 11th birthday; that her last birthday had been celebrated in a hospital room.
-end flashback-
So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oh I will dance with Cinderella
I don't want to miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone
Ryan felt a pair of arms in circle his waist.
Alisha.
She rested her cheek on Ryan's back.
"The little one sleeping OK?" she whispered.
"Yeah. She's sleeping fine," Ryan answered.
"What about you? How are you?"
Ryan turned around and wrapped his arms around his wife. "I'm glad I danced with Cinderella."
The End
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