April 8th, 1998:
He didn't have to wake up
He'd been up all night
Lying there in bed listening
To his new born baby cry
He makes a pot of coffee
He splashes water on his face
His wife gives him a kiss and says
It's gonna be okay...
Michael is awoken from his sleep by the sounds of a baby crying and he recognizes it as his newborn daughter, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson. He looks over at the alarm clock only to see that it is 2:23 am and yawns before getting up to walk into his daughter's nursery.
Michael hasn't slept ever since he'd brung Paris home, she still has yet to sleep through the night only being 5 days old. As he reaches his baby girl's room he picks her up out of her crib and rocks her saying "Shhh, baby girl. Daddy's here." after a while of trying to sooth her her cries wouldn't stop.
He sighs in frustration not knowing what to do, so he makes his way to a rocking chair on the other side of the room and starts rocking baby Paris in his arms and gently singing to her thinking of what else he could possibly do to calm his daughter down.
It won't be like this for long
One day soon we'll look back laughin'
At the week we brought her home
This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
It won't be like this for long...
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August 23rd, 2002
Four years later 'bout four thirty
She's crawling in their bed
And when he drops her off at preschool
She's clinging to his leg
The teacher peels her off of him
He says "What can I do?"
She says "Now don't you worry
This'll only last a week or two..."
"Paris? Come on, baby, you have to go back to your room." a tired Michael tells his now four year old baby girl. She looks up at him with sad eyes and says "But I wanted to sleep with you, daddy." He looks up to his clock and realizes it's 4:30 am and sighs before looking back down to his daughter and giving in. "Okay, baby." he tells her as she smiles and cuddles up to her father's chest before falling asleep.
The next morning...
"Daddy! Please don't go!" his scared daughter tells him, he looks down regretting what he's doing and says "Babygirl, it's okay. It's just school, I'll be back before you know it." He tries to pull her from his leg but she wouldn't budge which makes him feel bad for making his baby go.
He gives the teacher a worried look, which she notices and she helps Michael get Paris to ease her grip on him and Michael looks back up to the teacher and says "What can I do?" She looks back at him, smiles to reassure him saying "Now don't you worry, this'll only last a week or two." Michael looks backup hoping the woman is right and smiles before leaving the school to go on with his business.
It won't be like this for long
One day soon you'll drop her off
And she won't even know you're gone
This phase is gonna fly by
If you can just hold on
It won't be like this for long.
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May 21st, 2014
Someday soon she'll be a teenager
And at times he'll think she hates him
Then he'll walk her down the isle
And leave her vale
"Paris, I said no." Michael told his daughter sternly. "I hate you!" She screams stomping back into her room, "I'm 16 and you treat me like I'm a child!" she screamed as she slammed her door shut. Michael looks down feeling badly and feels the sting of tears in his eyes before getting the courage to walk upstairs to his daughter.
As he reaches her bedroom door he can hear the silent cries coming from her room and he walks in the room, which causes Paris to look up at him from her pillow and as soon as she sees how red her fathers eyes are she knew. "Daddy, I'm" she goes to apologize but Michael cuts her off.
"You hate me? Paris, I've done everything I can for you and your brothers, I've sacrificed a lot for you three and for you to say something to me like that really hurts me. I'm only trying to protect you, and if that's how you feel then I'm sorry, I just hope one day you'll understand." Michael tells his daughter trying his hardest not to break down.
Paris notices the look upon her father's face and immediatly pulls him into a tight hug, burying her face in her father's chest like she used to do so many years ago. "Daddy, I'm sorry." she says through muffled cries. "I love you, so much and I know that you're just trying to protect me, but I'm growing up, Dad. I'll always be your baby girl, but you've gotta let go at some point." she says to him causing him to let a few of his tears fall.
"I know, Applehead. I'm just not ready to let go of you yet, time's just flown by so fast and sooner or later I just feel like you're not gonna need your daddy anymore." He tells his teenage daughter which causes her to look up at her father, kiss his cheek and smile "Daddy, I'll always need you, I promise." which causes her father to smile, kiss her forehead and pull her back into his chest, "I love you, baby girl." he tells her while holding her in his arms.
December 18th, 2020
As Michael is getting ready to walk his now 22 year old daughter, Paris down the isle and give her away at her wedding he looks over to her and says "You ready, baby?" She nods, smiles and says "As ready as I'll ever be, daddy." which causes him to smile but feel a bit sad.
He looks over at his beautiful daughter in her wedding dress and says "Paris, I wanna talk to you for a second." she nods for him to continue, "I'm so proud of you. I can't believe you're finally all grown up and getting married... I feel like just yesterday I was holding you in my arms and singing you to sleep." he says tearing up, "I just want you to know that I love you very much, and I'm honored to be here today to walk you down the isle and watch my baby get married." as he finishes he pulls her into a hug, holding her in his arms.
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Back to Present Time, April 8th, 1998...
But right now she's up and cryin'
And the truth is that he don't mind
As he kisses her good night
And she says her prayers
Michael finally gives up again after rocking her for a few minutes and walks with her in his arms back to his bedroom and lays her down on the bed. He smiles at the thoughts that just ran through his head about how time goes by way too fast and he needs to take every day in as much as he can before his baby is up and gone. He places a gentle kiss on Paris' little cheek and whispers "Don't grow up on daddy too fast, baby girl. Goodnight, I love you." and lays down beside her on the bed.
He lays down there beside her
Till her eyes are finally closed
And just watchin' her it breaks his heart
'Cause he already knows
It won't be like this for long
One day soon that little girl is gonna be
All grown up and gone
Yeah, this phase is gonna fly by
He's tryin' to hold on
It won't be like this for long...
It won't be like this.. for long..
Gotta hold on easy as I let you go.
Gonna tell you how much I love you, though you think you already know.
I remember I thought you looked like an angel wrapped in pink so soft & warm.
You've had me wrapped around your finger since the day you were born.
Michael looked at his sixteen year old daughter, "Are you sure you have to go?" He asked her, she giggled and looked to her now 56 year old father, "Daddy, I'm only going with my friends." He looked at her uneasy, "Yeah, but you won't be back for a week." Paris walked over to her father and gave him a hug, "Why are you so scared?"
He giggled, "I'm not scared, I'm just going to miss you, Applehead." She smiled as she left her arms wrapped around her father's neck, "You still have Blanket here, Dad." He really felt a great deal of sadness that his little girl was growing up and was now leaving with friends and had her license, which meant she was rarely home. Michael felt the same amount of sadness he had when his oldest son Prince had gotten his license also.
Michael wanted to keep his children little babies forever, so they would always need him and always be there when he needed someone. He kissed his daughter's forehead and sighed before telling her, "Please be careful and hurry back as soon as possible." She giggled at her dad's protectiveness and said, "I promise I'll be careful and I promise to be back soon. Please be happy, you're gonna make me cry."
He put on a smile and said, "I'm sorry, baby girl, I'm happy for you. Go on out and have fun." The younger teenage girl smiled and gave her father a kiss and another hug before walking out to her car, cranking it up and driving down the road. He stared out the window until her car was no longer in sight and let out a deep breath before walking to the dance studio that was built in his house and dancing. Dancing was always his way to forget, dancing made everything better.
You're beautiful baby from the outside in.
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again.
Go on, take on this whole world.
But to me you know you'll always be, my little girl.
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When you were in trouble that crooked little smile could melt my heart of stone.
Now look at you, I've turned around and you've almost grown.
Sometimes you're asleep I whisper "I Love You" in the moonlight at your door.
As I walk away, I hear you say, "Daddy, Love You More".
*12 years earlier*
Michael scolded his four year old daughter for fighting with her older brother, Prince-Michael. "Paris, what have I told you about fighting with Prince?" The little toddler wanted to get her way, she wasn't used to not getting her way and wasn't going to deal with it either. "But Daddy, he was being mean to me!" Little Prince looked over at his father and said, "No, I wasn't! She's lying!" Michael looked at his son and scolded him, "Prince-Michael! What have I told you about calling people a liar?" The young boy looked down and mumbled, "I'm sorry."
Michael looked at his son and said, "You're forgiven." before looking to his daughter and saying, "Stop being so mean and rude or I'll take your toys away." She looked at him, started crying and said, "No, daddy! Please don't take my toys away!" He looked at his crying daughter always hating to see her cry and said, "I won't as long as you two stop fighting."
He left the two children alone for a few minutes and began thinking of a punishment until his little daughter came into his room and wrapped her arms around his neck while crawling into his lap. "I'm sorry, Daddy." She said with a little smile on her face, which made Michael smile and give into her cute little charm.
Michael smiled and said, "It's okay, Paris.", the little girl looked at him and said, "I'm not Paris." He gave her a look and decided to play along, "You're not? Then who are you? An Applehead?" The little girl giggled at her father's humor and spoke again, "I'm Daddy's baby." He smiled and kissed her and said, "You are. You'll always be Daddy's baby, even when you're really old." She laughed and gave her father one more hug before running off to play with her brother.
Later that night after Michael had put Prince, Paris and Blanket, he went into each child's individual bedroom and made sure to tuck them in, give them a hug and kiss and tell them each goodnight every night, that was something he had always done with his children. After he had told Prince and Blanket he loved them, tucked them in and gave them their hug and kiss he made his way into Paris' room.
The little girl had already fall asleep and the forty-four year old couldn't help but stare at his little girl in amazement of how beautiful she was. She had an olive skin tone, with her mother's eyes, her father's cheekbones and smile, she was perfection. He walked up to her and gently placed a kiss on her forehead and whispered, "Daddy loves you, Paris." before walking back to the doorway and as he reached the doorway he heard a small voice say, "Daddy, I love you more." He smiled to himself and walked out of the room leaving the little girl to her slumbers.
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*Back to present time, 2014*
Someday, some boy will come and ask me for your hand.
But I won't say "yes" to him unless I know, he's the half
that makes you whole, he has a poet's soul, and the heart of a man's man.
I know he'll say that he's in love.
But between you and me, he won't be good enough.
Michael still was dancing in his studio as he remembered that one moment with his baby girl when she was only a toddler, he smiled but got a little upset at remembering that, as mentioned before he still wasn't enthused about his daughter growing up just like he wasn't too happy when his oldest son did the same thing just a year ago.
He always dreaded thinking of the day that he would have to walk his daughter down the isle when she decided to get married when she was older. He didn't think that any man would ever be good enough for his baby girl, he even joked about wrapping her in barbed wire when she was younger to keep all of the boys off of her. He was a very protective father that didn't want his baby to get hurt even though he knew that he wouldn't be able to hide her from it all and he'd have to let go at some point and let her fall and learn things for herself.
No matter how old he or Paris would ever get he knew that one thing would always remain sacred between the two, he would always keep that promise to her that he made eight years before to his then four year old daughter: No matter what, even when she became old and gray and he may not still be there, she would always be Daddy's Baby.
You're beautiful baby from the outside in.
Chase your dreams but always know the road that'll lead you home again.
Go on, take on this whole world.
But to me you know you'll always be, my little girl.
