Page 89 of Pain
"Then yes, I want to stay here. I feel safe here, and I don't want to live anywhere else."
Matt smiled. "Well, Xander and I decided that is what we would do. If you're happy here, we'll stay living here with him."
Faith sat up, grinning. "Will you marry him?"
"Maybe someday, but we've only been dating a few months. It's too soon to know yet. I love him very much, but we're going to take some time before we think about marriage."
"I don't know why. If you love him, don't you know you want to marry him?"
Matt laughed. If only life was that simple. "We need to focus on some other things first, then decide on that later. I promise that you'll be the first to know if we decide to."
"Do you miss Mom? Is that why you want to wait?"
Matt pulled Faith against his side. "Baby, I miss your mom every single day. I think about her all the time, but I think she'd be happy that I've found someone to love again. What do you think?"
"I think she'd like Xander, but then Mom used to tell me that tattoos weren't good, so maybe she wouldn't."
"What do you think, are tattoos good or bad?" This was a conversation he'd never thought he'd have with his daughter until she was much older.
"I think they are good. They are like Zee's stripes, and Xander says that counting the stripes helps when we have bad dreams."
Matt looked at her confused. "Counting your stripes?"
"Yeah, Xander says when he has a bad dream he traces his tattoos to calm down. He told me to count Zee's stripes, but when that wasn't enough, he told me we could paint stripes in my bedroom, so I had more to count when I got scared."
Matt's love for Xander increased tenfold hearing what he'd done for Faith. "That's why you put zebra stripes on your wall?"
"Yep." She smiled. "Xander was right, it helps."
"I wish you would have told me all this." He hugged her closer.
"It's hard to talk to you about some things. You get a sad look on your face. I don't want to make you sad."
"I'm just sad that you got hurt and scared. I'm not mad or sad at anything you've done." He kissed the top of her head. "If I try not to look so sad, will you try to talk to me more about things you're comfortable telling me?"
She nodded. "I'll try."
"That's all I ask." He leaned back and closed his eyes, enjoying having her cuddled on his lap.
It was the sudden ringing of his phone that sent chills through him. Xander never called this late. He always sent a text. Careful not to drop Faith's head off his lap, he reached for his phone off the coffee table. "Hello?"
"Matt, it's Xander, he's been shot," Carter told him.
"What hospital?" He nudged Faith off his lap and stood, trying to make out the conversation in the background on the phone.
"He won't go to a hospital. Dyson is bringing him here. Beau is on the way."
"I'm on my way." Matt hung up the phone, turning to Faith. "Xander's been hurt. We need to go get him." He didn't want to make it sound as serious as it was. There would be time for that later.
"I'm not dressed." She looked down at her footie pajamas.
"That's okay, you can go like that, if you're comfortable." He was grabbing his wallet and keys, trying to think if he needed anything else.
"I'm okay like this. Can I take Zee?" She held the zebra up.
"You can. I don't know how bad this is. When we get there, you might have to go downstairs and either play games or sleep on the couch, okay? I'm not sure how long we'll be." If his sister lived closer he'd drop Faith off to her, but he didn't want to waste the time.
"Okay." Faith frowned. "How bad is he hurt?"
