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It was a big party at the school that night, and Holland was pacing as he waited for Holly to finish. God he wanted a drink, he’d been wanting one for ages, but he settled instead on a cigarette that he quickly burned down to the filter. “Holly, c’mon! Party’ll be over by the time you get ready.” Holland shouted, muttering softly when he got no response on the other end of the door. Usually by now Holly was yelling right back for him to chill out, or wrenching the door open to call him some kind of name- but instead it was just silent. Holland felt a flicker of concern as he frowned and carefully knocked on the door. “...Holly? Are you almost ready, or do I gotta open up a case file for you?” Holland asked, and his own smile at his joke fading away when he still heard nothing. Holland stubbed his cigarette out in an ashtray before he carefully leant on the door. “...Holly, I’m gonna come in if you don’t gimme an answer.” Holland warned, exhaling softly and gently pushing the door open when he heard nothing.
It made a sorry sight; Holly was curled up on her bed, still wearing her usual overalls and t-shirt, and hugging a pillow to her chest. Holland had every alarm bell possible go off in his head, carefully sitting on the corner of the bed. “...Thought you were lookin forward to this dance all week, sprout.” Holland asked quietly, leaning down to look Holly in the eyes. Holly turned her head away, frowning slightly as she picked at a loose thread. “Changed my mind…” Holly mumbled quietly as she turned away from her father. Holland sighed softly as he gently put a hand on Holly’s shoulder. “Did some little smartass say somethin? Was it a boy?” Holland asked, wincing a bit when he realized how overprotective that sounded. He heard Holly groan in annoyance and smiled a bit because hey, at least she was responding.
Holly shrugged before she pulled back from her pillow. “I dunno… all the girls had dresses and stuff they were gonna wear, and boys to go on dates with- and it sounded boring.” Holly explained, Holland fighting the urge to scold his daughter as usual for saying “and stuff” in the middle of a sentence. “Well… who cares if you don’t wear a dress? Bell bottoms are a big thing with girls your age, right?” Holland asked, hoping to cheer up his daughter a bit- only to see Holly shrug. “I dunno. Just didn’t seem like a lot of fun.” Holly mumbled, and Holland would have done anything in that moment to wipe the frown off her face.
That’s when he got an idea, a slow grin crawling up his face.
Holland carefully got up from the bed, walking over across the room to the boombox he’d gotten as a reward for a case (and consequently gifted to Holly as a surprise birthday gift). Holland carefully plucked up a tape before he popped it in, jumping in place when the volume was too high before adjusting it down. Holland felt a warm smile grow on his face as Holly looked up at him with a confused look. “Well c’mon, kiddo. Thought you wanted to dance tonight.” Holland asked, grinning as he started to sway along to the beat.
Holly couldn’t help her laugh as she saw her dad dancing- if you could even call it that. “Dad, that’s not how you do it,” Holly scolded playfully before she wiped her eyes and got up to show her dad how it actually went. One dance became two, then three… and soon, Holly was spending the whole night dancing and goofing off with her dad. Holland had no sense of rhythm, but more than made up for it by doing anything in his power to make his daughter laugh. Soon the tape played a slower song, and Holland couldn’t help but smile fondly as Holly stood on his feet to spin around the room. “See? You got your dance after all.” Holland mused softly, his expression fond as Holly smiled up at him and nodded. Holland let out a slow breath, pressing a gentle kiss to the crown Holly’s head before his eyes focused up on the ceiling.
Tonight was one of the good nights. One where he wasn’t so drunk he couldn’t remember anything, one where he wasn’t busy with a case, one where Holland wasn’t trapped thinking of the million and one ways he had to make it up to his daughter. Instead they just danced, joked, laughed, and got to spend one good night together. Holland knew his daughter was growing up fast, knew there was a lot he did wrong…
But all of that melted away when he got to see his little girl smile up at him, like he’d hung the stars in the sky. Because for one, wonderful night… Holland March got to be the perfect dad.