Proud Daddy

Eric Delko smiled at the little girl curled up next to him. His daughter Chloe, sleeping peacefully with her pacifier in her mouth. The girl had turned one a week ago. The moment he had held her in his arms he was in love. Sure, she was the result of a brief fling but Eric couldn't love her more. It was too bad the same couldn't be said for her biological mother.

*Flashback*

Melissa Jakobs had come to his place of work when she was eight months pregnant. She informed him that he might be the father of the baby she was due to give birth to by scheduled c-section in exactly a month. The hospital would call when the baby was born. She didn't know the sex, didn't care. As soon as she could, which under Florida law was three days, Melissa was going to relinquish her parental rights.She had thirty days following that to change her mind. After that period of time were up, it was final. Eric could summit to a paternity test. If the results came back he were the father, he could "raise the brat" or "place it for adoption."

His Choice. Melissa wanted nothing to do with the child after "it" was born.

Telling his parents about the "fling" and his probable fatherhood was hard and Eric's mother was a bit disappointed but both said they would support him no matter what what his choice.

It had taken Eric all of two days to decide that if the baby was his, he wanted to raise her or him, he refused to call the unborn baby "it," his or not. Having made this decision he also aware that there would probably be a delay in the hospital releasing the baby to him if his home wasn't prepared. He didn't want that. It was a big emotional gamble and it was going to hurt if it turned out the baby was not his, but he had his mother and sisters help him prepare a gender-neutral nursery in the second bedroom and buy baby clothes and other essentials. He picked out two names, Jesse for a boy, Chloe for a girl.

Part of him wanted to this child's father more than anything, another part of him said he wasn't ready. If the test came back he was a father, ready or not, he was going for it. He knew he had the support of family and friends. Especially his two best friends, Horatio Caine and then the woman he was secretly in love with and who was secretly in love with him, the crime lab's ballistics expert Calleigh Duquesne.

When the hospital called telling Eric that Melissa had given birth to a seven pound, five ounce baby girl Horatio told him he could go to the hospital immediately for the paternity test. The hospital was putting a rush on the results because of the mother's wishes to relinquish parental rights and release the child to the custody of the child's father. Only a week ago a social worker had visited Eric's apartment and approved the home safe for the child to be released, pending DNA results.

Now Eric was holding his breath sitting the waiting room. The baby's DNA had already been taken. The results were only going to take just 45 minutes. He was nauseated. Sitting here now, it hit him just how bad he wanted this child to be his. He jumped when a nurse touched his shoulder and handed him a piece of paper. The 45 minutes had gone by.

He looked at the paper.

A match.

Eric was a father.

"Congratulations," the nurse smiled.

"Can I see her?" Eric asked eagerly, standing up quickly.

"You can," the nurse said. "I'll take you to her."

Eric had had been given the option of seeing the baby girl before the results came back. He declined because he couldn't bare the thought of falling in love with her and then be told she wasn't his.

The first time the baby was laid in his arms and he laid eyes on her face tears came to his eyes. "Hello, sweetheart," he whispered. Eric smiled and a happy tear ran down his cheek as his daughter wrapped her tiny hand around his finger.

A small finger pressing his nose and a tiny giggle pulled him from his thoughts. Chloe was awake.

"Good morning, princesa," he said, scooping up and sitting her on his stomach. "How are you?"

Everyone said and Eric couldn't disagree that his daughter was the spiting image of himself. The only difference was her lighter complexion. Father and daughter's baby photos were almost identical. Everyone he spoke to told Eric that he should not let the little girl sleep in his bed with him. It could start a habit that was very hard to break. The young father ignored all this. It wasn't like he did it all the time. He only did it when his child were asleep when he got home from work if he was gone later than usual. Call him a big softy but he missed his baby after all day.

R & R!