Making an Honest Woman out of my Daughter (closed for Firmhande_Daddy)

[Cherrybomb400]

1942, Spring. (I need to do some fact checking so this date will probably change lol)
Rose. 20 years old. Red hair and blue eyes. Fair skin with freckles, 5'5.

I thought the hardest thing in my life was finding a husband so that my poor daddy didn't have to worry about me. Momma died when I was still just a babe, I was their only child. Thankfully Daddy was the owner of his own company so he could decide when he worked and always made time for me. As I got older I started looking more and more like Momma every day and though he tried to hide it I could tell sometimes it hurt to look at me.

After I finished school I started seeing this handsome young soldier boy. I was really sweet on him. Daddy liked him too. He never did ask me to marry him but I was sure if he was still alive that he would have. So when we learned that he was going to go fight in the war... I laid with him as if we were husband and wife. I don't regret it, I think I would have regretted it more if I hadn't. I just think we should have been more careful.

About a month after was when I got the news that he died. It was so surreal. It felt like he had been gone forever but also just left. I keep imagining that as soon as his feet hit the battlefield he was shot down. I was a mess. We thought my grieving was what caused my sickness until I finally went to the doctors and learned that I was actually carrying his baby.

The hardest thing in my life to date was telling my father that I was pregnant with a dead man's baby. Even if he was alive, he couldn't turn back home just to marry me, everyone would know I spread my legs before I made my vows. I prepared myself to tell daddy his little Rose had her own bud growing. I was prepared for him to yell, kick me out and tell me to never come back... but he didn't. I had been crying so hard when I told him he just held me and told me everything would be alright, he was going to make sure of it. I didn't know how he planned on doing that until the day he told me we were moving.

It wasn't a small move. We went from the East coast to the West. I've never been to this side of the country so it was exciting. As we flew across the USA I kept looking at my hand with the thin gold band, the physical symbol of the charade we planned. I strangely had butterflies as I kept thinking about how different we needed to interact with each other now to convince everyone we were husband and wife and not father and daughter.

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

John Cutler. 40 Brown hair and green eyes

The fires from Pearl Harbor had barely been extinguished when my little Rose started to see a young man who had enlisted and shortly afterward deployed. Their time together was brief, but I could tell that she was happy with him, and he seemed like a good young man. The fact that he had enlisted of his own free will might be in his favor on that front. Hell, I still have dreams from my tour in The Great War.

After he deployed Rose handled it well until we got the news that he fell in the line of duty. She was devastated by the news; so devastated that it made her ill. I decided to take her to the doctor to see what we could do to get her ailment taken care of, and that was when we found out that her illness was not grief, it was budding motherhood.

I had no idea she had been with the young man before he left, if I had known, I would have insisted they marry for this very reason. As the widow of a soldier she would be entitled to his benefits as would their child, as the girlfriend and the illegitimate child; they would get nothing. More than the risk of economic destitution however; was the social stigma. An unwed mother was a social pariah, and I will not let that life be for Rose.

When she told me what happened she was a mess of fiery hair and tears. The sight nearly broke my heart alone. I could tell she was just as full of shame as she was dread. Perhaps she was expecting to be tossed out with a new babe on the way. Instead of tossing her out into the cold I took her into my arms and pulled her to my strong chest as I had done so many times in her eighteen years of life. “Everything is going to be okay baby girl. I’ll make sure of it.” I held her all that night until she drifted off to sleep and began working on a plan to help my little girl become secure in her new life.

The next day I spoke with the foreman of my carpentry business which had been doing very well since the war began to heat up in earnest. The last few years business had boomed, I had managed to land a government contract and my company was constructing infrastructure for the army. I signed over the deed for the company and the house to Timothy and told Rose we were moving.

I put things in motion, purchased a modest ring and put us on a plane. Now though life was completely different. We have to be ‘husband and wife’ instead of Father and Daughter. I don’t know how to make this transition smoothly. Luckily the world is full of strife and discord, we will have time to iron out this problem, one step at a time. Looking over at Rose I smile. My green eyes catch the light from the sun glinting off the wing of the plane. It is the first time Rose has been this far away from our home. “So what do you think honey? From the look of the landscape this is Illinois, maybe Iowa.” I reach out and take her hand in mine. Squeezing it with my big, sun darkened fingers.

 

[Cherrybomb400]

"I never thought I would see any part of the world from a few this high," I mused and squeezed your hand that was holding mine. Lately I found myself being more affectionate with you ever since I had told you everything. Maybe it was because I was so scared. I had lost my mother, John, and I had been ready to lose the rest of my family too. Instead I got something very unexpected. My mind kept racing whenever I thought about it.

What we were doing was insane. We moved to the other side of the country and decided to live out the rest of our days as man and wife. I wasn't really in a position to say no. I wasn't sure how far this went, Daddy took care of the details (meaning papers and such). I was just happy to follow him.

I moved in closer, resting my head on his shoulder and closing my eyes. I could smell his cologne. It was faint but still carried a strong scent of wood with hints of citrus. Most scents would set off my morning sickness but not Daddy. If anything it made me feel more at ease and safe. I held onto Dad's arm, mentally noting how I would have to start calling him, 'Honey', 'Dear', or by hiss first name. The thought of it was making butterflies in my stomach appear. The last time I felt that...

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep like that. In addition to the morning sickness, I was tired all the time and could nap just about anywhere. My body was going through a lot of changing just trying to get this new baby ready for the world. By the time I woke up we were landing and I was holding onto my father's arm even tighter than before.

"How long was I asleep for?"

 

[Firmhanded_Daddy]

“Quite a view, isn’t it love?” He smiled at her and let her lean in close and get comfortable. At least that wasn’t awkward. She had always been a Daddy’s girl, so she would often cuddle up against him, or lounge against him while he read the paper. He could tell she had been concerned about him as of late until she met her soldier. His own anxiety over the war, while making for great business made him fear for his little girl’s safety. He wasn’t sure if he would get called up to active service again. Oh sure the government promised they wouldn’t, but the needle always tended to move on the gauge when a war got bad enough just what they would do.

If Rose’s mother was alive, he may have even gone back into the service himself. He felt that familiar tug, the right thing to do that drew him into the first war was trying to pull him back into the second world war, only this time he had a daughter, and a granddaughter to care for. He had to think on a smaller scale for what was right and wrong.

“Last time I was over this part of the country was – “ He stopped dead before he finished that sentence. The last thing he wanted to do was to bring up things that would remind her of what she had lost, and instead remind her of what she was ‘stuck with’. What little girl wanted to be married to her father? His heart ached for her, he had the chance to have the love of his life, she never would. She would be a widow by thirty, but he would make sure before that happened she would have everything she needed, he had little doubt she would be able to remarry.

His dark thoughts kept him occupied and he barely even registered that Rose had fallen asleep. Good, let her rest, she had a long road ahead of her. Child birth was not going to be an easy task. It had taken her mother after all. A chill ran up his spine and he looked down at his daughter, the thought of raising a Granddaughter alone when he would be too old to be much use before she was of marrying age scared the hell out of him, they had no other family to really speak of. Her mother’s side of the family tended to be infirm and died young, he was an only child. No, she had to survive; she had too. He squeezed her hand again, and that was when she woke.

He forced a smile “Oh, about an hour or so baby. I’m glad you were able to get some rest. Can I get you anything?”

 

[Cherrybomb400]

"I'm a little thirsty, Da- I mean, Dear." I could feel my cheeks flushing from the change of endearment. It felt strange to call him that, but I had to get use to saying that.

Could I, though? This wasn't a temporary thing we cooked up, this was a life change. A crazy one, but it was necessary. I couldn't take care of a baby by myself and work enough to support us. At least this way my child would have a father... they just would never know that he was really their grandfather. I can do this. I had to do this. Besides, it wasn't like we were going to be husband and wife behind closed doors. I'm pretty sure we would still have separate rooms. We didn't really talk about that, but I assumed that was a given. Maybe Dad would even let me decorate.

When father came back with a drink, I smiled and thanked him before taking a few sips.

"When we get there and get settled, are you going to start to build another company there?" I asked as I held the cool drink in my hands. I was excited to see what the weather would be like on the west coast. Would we have a pool like they say everyone in California has? Maybe I could sport a swim suit before I started showing.