Willow was walking in a cold night without direction. She was a tear jerked, afraid and tired but her journey was without ending. She walked and walked for miles and hours but until then she had not seen any hope or salvation. She wanted to open her mouth and call for her Imma and Dada but her mouth seemed to have been sealed and she couldn't open them freely. So she succumbed to the dark, hopeless and as much as she wanted it to end, her feet wouldn't stop. Right then there was not much of an option for her but just to pray. Pray that this lonely journey would just stop and her body can finally get to rest.

"I got you! I got you child," Suddenly she heard some familiar voice out of nowhere. She turned her head and saw some light somewhere and her heart finally warmed up. The light was calling her and although it seemed impossible, it was the light that was trying to keep her hold on. "You are okay my love, you are okay"

​​

"President Dee?" For once her mouth opened up. She somehow recognized the voice and she was very certain it was Darryl. Knowing that he was probably nearby, she called on him again. "President Dee! Where are you?"

There was silence for a moment and the light that was calling her became bigger and bigger until she was not in that cold dark night anymore but in a place with light and warmth.

"My love, Appa is here. I will keep you safe," She heard Darryl again and Willow understood that he was the light himself. He was the one who saved her from that terrible journey and that finally, she was safe.

"Appa?" Curiosity struck her then. Why in the world President Darryl refer himself as her Appa? She had never met her Appa ever before and although Ziggy promised her she'd meet him someday, that someday had never come. Although she had longed for him, they were always on the run and always occupied with Wolfe's condition that the two children had no time to even look for him. Both Wolfe and Willow promised to each other that when the time comes, when they are big enough to make decisions for themselves, they will find their Appa and ask him why he had never come. And then suddenly out of nowhere, President Darryl saved her and referred to himself as their Appa. Was he really her Appa?

She thought of it for a moment and an ultimate truth struck on her. President Darryl was indeed her Appa. In the first place, he looked like Wolfe especially with his glasses off, secondly she looked like Dannah the third miss. There were a lot of things between them that already confirmed her outrageous hypothesis and yet she and Wolfe were too busy to see all the signs. But didn't their Imma and Dada promise to let them meet their Appa? Why was it that he was never introduced to them then and obviously, President Darryl seemed to have no idea about it. Not until today.

As she spent time contemplating it, the scene of Darryl shielding her from the bullets flashed before her. Then suddenly her mind started popping up every ordeal she and Wolfe encountered in the bridge to the point Willow ended up crying again.

"Appa?" She called on Darryl. Fear came on her as obviously she was then reminded of the fact that Darrryl sacrificed himself to save her. Her Appa saved her!

"No Appa! No!!!"

****

"No Appa! Noooooooo!" Willow had kept repeating such words as she laid on her hospital bed that Ziggy had to pin her down. It had been a week since she was in coma and they were all waiting for her to wake up. She had passed the crucial stage but all the doctors and even Ziggy himself couldn't understand why she hadn't woken up yet. However that day, Willow's statistics give good diagnostics and after a while, everyone heard her screaming and crying.

"Willow!" Xhemin was there when she went berserk. She had not slept for days worrying and thinking about the fatalities in that fateful Puente De Amor incident but her heart finally had some hope when Willow started screaming. She thought she would lose her and if not for Wolfe, she could have survived this painful tragedy.

"Willow my love," Ziggy tried to wake her up fully as it was obvious she had a nightmare, fresh from her coma. When Willow finally opened her eyes, she had seen her Dada and the latter gave her a tight hug, trying to comfort her. "My love, I'm here. Dada's here. I'll not leave you again, I am so sorry,"

"Willow," Xhemin finally saw the girl's bright emerald eyes and although her emotions weren't stable, she seemed to have finally recovered well. She hastily walked toward her bed, sat beside her and Ziggy then caressed her daughter's cheeks where tears were flowing endlessly.

"Imma," Willow called for her but there was remorse and resentment in her eyes. Regret too as she had spent so many days with President Darryl but had never realized he was her Appa. If only she had known, she could have done all the things she had planned on doing for a long time when her Appa will come back for them. Turned out, it wasn't him who was away, it was them. Wolfe and her had been away for long in some foreign land and he was just here, waiting for them all along.

"What is it my love?" Xhemin saw the expression on her face and didn't like it. It was like Willow had learned something she never should have.

"My Appa, I want Appa," Willow pleaded with her. She knew her mother and Dada had reasons for hiding the truth from them and would never wish for her to know. However, being reminded of Darryl's sacrifice at the bridge, she wanted to know if like her, he had survived it. "My Appa saved me, I want to see him,"