Nature of the Beast

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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
Trouble was, she couldn't quite decide if she was glad to see him or not. When he had first shown up she had been so distracted by the news of her father that she hasn't had much time to think about anything else. But seeing him now, she wasn't entirely sure what to make of the roiling pit of emotions in her gut.

In truth, she wanted to be angry. He had lied, and in lying had ultimately given her some pretty messed up expectations. But hearing that rich baritone fill the tunnel, her heart gave a heedless throb and considering what Levi said about there hearing, she was pretty sure it would go unheard.

"Damn it." She muttered, before heading towards him, "Listen, Charlie. I'm here, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten. And I sure as hell haven't forgiven you. You lied to me. Big time. And that's gonna linger. But I need to do this. So... no... mooning eyes or charming faces or whatever. Got it?"
 
"You weren't even supposed to know I existed in the first place, to be fair... but yeah. Got it." Charlie sighed, dropping his hands to his sides as she moved closer to him. He rubbed the length of his jaw in a moment of thought before turning around to walk towards the exit Selina and Levi were waiting for them at. Charlie pulled out a lighter and lit the tunnel momentarily as he lit up a smoke.

"I'm entitled to my secrets, as you are to yours." He added, in a tone that made it seem like an afterthought despite continuing just a little later. His eyes drifted down to the flicker of his cigarette before he turned away to puff. "I offered to tell you everything, you know--that night in Levi's suite. But I'll be honest and say that I'm glad that you walked away."

"The offer was made in the moment and I was pretty heated." His pale blue eyes then shifted slowly back to her, undeniably moony even though it wasn't his intention. "But I realized in these past two weeks it's just... not the right time. There are things about me I'm just not prepared to tell, especially when it comes to you."

He shrugged and kicked off some ash that had fallen on his shoe. "Maybe that's the price for knowing you without really knowing you."

"But I'll just say right now though that I wouldn't have approached you if this letter had been from anyone else." Charlie shifted the topic, looking forward as he handed her a crumpled piece of paper containing specific directions. "Like I said we don't know where this leads or what's waiting for us... all that's for certain is it came from your father. If you're willing to believe anything that comes out of my mouth now, believe that."
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
She eyed him in the beam of the flashlight, and she could feel heat rising in her cheeks. Maybe he was right. Maybe he was being fair, but the anger she felt built deeper than it had in days. He had haunted her for a decade, and maybe that didn't mean much to him, but it did to her. He hadn't lied about his favorite color or breakfast cereal. He was married... And he hadn't so much as mentioned it.

Hearing him justify that... Justify lying. It hurt worse than she expected it to. Maybe Levi had been wrong to keep it from her, too... But he'd only done it because she said she wanted the truth from Charlie...

But if he wasn't willing to give her answers, she'd get them another way.

Knowing her heart was pounding, hearing it echo in her head, she shook her head, yanking the paper out of his grasp to look at it in the light, "Fine." She muttered, and she thrust it back at him with force that to him probably felt like a mewling kitten, "I can't read it. Let's just go."

Emotion welled and blinking, she fished out a stick of gum and planting it between her teeth, brushed past him.
 
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It didn't take hearing the beat of her heart to know that he struck a nerve and rightly so--he didn't fully regret his decision to be ironically honest in the tunnel but Charlie felt bad all the same. He let the paper land lightly against his chest, only using one hand to catch it when it fell. He made no attempt at stopping her as she walked ahead. After all Charlie was content to be in the shadows behind her.

From that point he only spoke when it was time to tell her to make a turn. It took them a few minutes but soon enough the end could be seen--with Levi and Selina waiting at it. Levi stood quiet as ever with his arms crossed while Selina had opted to sprawl out on the hood of her shamelessly yellow vintage convertible. The latter stood straight at the sight of them, amusement playing on her lips at seeing and hearing Odessa clearly not happy.

The look on Levi's eyes betrayed that he knew it too but he was far from amused. The tattooed doctor wasn't sure where he and Odessa stood, as flirtatious as their interactions have been, that night was far from becoming of him. Seeing as it was obvious Charlie managed to screw things up even further though...

"Alright so this it--this is what we are working with." Charlie announced a little less than happy himself when he stepped out of the tunnel.

A detective, a thief, a doctor and a liar, he thought to himself sarcastically before making his way to the driver seat. Selina was quick to cut him off with a hard glare and the wag of her finger. Charlie, assuming Odessa wouldn't want to sit next to him settled for front passenger. A moment for every to settle in followed and as the car suddenly swerved out onto the highway--everyone aside from Selina were left wondering why they thought using her car would be a good idea.
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
Her anger only built the further through the tunnels they traveled, until they appeared on the otherside and, true to her coloring, she appeared positively embroiled. She knew where her emotions came from... What they were built on, but thinking out rationally wasn't working anymore. Anger was easier than admitting the hurt came from a place of attachment.

Sliding into the back of the car. She buckled in, fully expecting Selina to drive like a nutcase, again. The woman seemed to delight, afterall, in making Odessa distraught. Glancing up first at the back of Charlie's head, she turned instead to Levi, her expression a composed, coquetish mask.

"Sorry I never brought back your shirt. If you want it, you're welcome to swing by my place, when this is over." It was said matter of factly, with little intention to hide her inflection. She wanted it known not only to Levi, but her dear guardian as well that if he wasn't going to provide... She'd find what she needed elsewhere.

If Charlie wasn't willing to let her in... to open up, then Levi had proven he would without hesitation. She wasn't often vindictive, but the hurt ran deep... Too deep to ignore entirely.
 
Levi was perhaps, the most observant of the three super soldiers packed into the car. Odessa being the first to speak up had surprised him, but by the time she had finished her line well... Levi didn't particularly mind the notion of being used. At first his eyes drifted towards Charlie... especially if it was to make the man in the front squirm.

He looked over to her--his brown eyes showing that nearly iconic mischievous glint of theirs. "You could keep it if you'd like after all my shirt looked very good on you."

It was enough for Charlie to shoot a bit of a side eye. The man in the front was far from stupid... it was quite obvious what Odessa--and now Levi--were doing. Without warning he opened the front window, the sound of wind rushing in to block everything out as he tipped away some ash from his cigarette.

He rolled it back up but wasted no time afterwards. Charlie pulled out the paper that had been thrown at him just a few minutes prior, turning to Selina he read the first instruction. The man had no plans to try and evoke jealousy or to seek out vindication... but he wasn't exactly planning on hearing Levi put his charms on the entire trip.
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
"Well... Taking care of me, and a parting gift. You're a regular charmer, Doc." She wanted to believe her own words... To feel anything genuine in them. Levi was insanely attractive, after all. And he had made it abundantly apparent that he found her desirable enough. She wasn't loose... But she wasn't a saint, and maybe most of her paramours in the past had been serious relationships... Maybe they were also unfortunate manifestations of her apparent daddy issues. But they had happened. So why couldn't she commit to the idea of giving in to Levi?

The trouble, of course, with not being a vindictive person was that where certain people might fins victory in getting beneath someone's skin, all Odessa felt was the sinking weight of guilt. Damn him. Damn him and his ability to grate on her... If she didn't care so much. If she could just shut it off...

She smiled at Levi's words, and that twinge of anger she still felt dared her to push back, but Charlie turned to open the window, turned to Selina and all she felt was discouraged. Her eyes stung, and blinking, she turned her eyes to the window to watch the world streak by.

When she looked to Levi again, the glimmer of coyness was replaced by a vulnerability she abhorred, "I... I'm not sure I can do this." Frowning, she picked at her fingernail, anxiously fraying the edge of her cuticle, "I don't think I'm ready to see him."
 
"I try, I try." Levi sighed happily before he was abruptly interrupted with the gusts of wind rushing in through Charlie's window. The good doctor was little less than impressed but ultimately not surprised. For a man who prided himself on being...well, a man, Charlie had a streak of pettiness in him. Levi ran a hand through his hair, an attempt to fixed what damage had been done and turned to the window as Odessa did.

Everybody heard the detective's confession of uncertainty and everyone had reacted in their own way. Selina shifted in her seat at the thought, slowing down ever so slightly as she stomached the fact that for once, she agreed. Charlie frowned as he looked at them through the rear view, sure that if he turned his head Odessa would stop the admission there out of spite.

Levi turned to meet her gaze, replying to her vulnerability with a comforting softness to his tone and expression. He reached out a hand and placed it over hers, pushing down until it laid flat against the car seat so she could no longer pick at herself out of worry. "Try to take comfort that you aren't alone in this."

He glanced at the two in the front seat momentarily, but turned back to the red head in the back all the same. Levi chuckled. "I don't think any of us are ready to see him. The old man has a lot of explaining to do."

"He asked about you a lot in the beginning, you know." Charlie suddenly added, taking both the thunder and spotlight off the good doctor out of pure habit. The rugged man in the front looked forward, but his words remain pointed at the woman behind him. "Those first few years when he could manage to send a message... he always wanted to know how you were doing the most. Yeah he asked about your two siblings every now and then, but in the end it always boiled down to how you were holding up."

"He was glad to know you went into law enforcement--to know that you valued protecting others."
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
There were too many emotions, jumbled up inside. She could admit, at least internally, that her frustration... her hurt had little to actually do with Charlie. What he had done... The lying. Her anger stemmed more from the reminder over what her father had done. To her and her mother... To her brother and sister. He had lied and in a way, it had cost them all their lives.

To hear he has asked about them... The notion hurt for so many reasons. She wanted to cry, to yell, anything to release the overwhelming tension in her chest. But she could only sit, biting the inside of her cheek until the feeling welling in her stomach abated. Levi's hand covered her own and she frowned, looking down at it.

"Too little, too late." She muttered, with very little conviction. She wanted to believe her words, but she knew that she didn't mean a word of them. In truth, the entire reason she went on this adventure at all was because she was desperate for something... Some connection to her dad.

And it was possible that was also the reason her relationship with Charlie felt so strained. She knew that he was the closest she might ever come to her father, which was both intriguing and terrifying.

Her attraction to him felt real... But it scared her to think he might know more about her... about her father... than she ever would about him.

Looking up to Levi, she shook her head, before turning her gaze to Charlie's in the mirror, "I became a cop because I refused to be a victim, ever again, the way I was the night of the fire. Because I knew I had to learn to protect myself."
 
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Charlie's eyes drifted from the road and up towards the mirror. Odessa was looking right back at him and for a moment, he allowed himself to just stare. His eyes held hers, a detectable sadness in the light blue. Everything that the woman looking back at him had done... he felt partly responsible. Her father may have been the start of it all yes... but to Charlie there was no denying that he could've done more to shield her.

Her mother had passed, her father abandoned her and her siblings just wanted to forget it all. All the while he just watched, trying to convince himself that he was doing something that actually mattered. But really, Odessa must have just felt so alone. All that time she suffered and he had done essentially nothing.

Charlie looked back towards the road suddenly, an attempt to hide the wave of shame that washed all over him.

The sun was nearly gone--the sky left in wispy mixes of pinks, blues and oranges. For awhile it seemed no one else in the car had anything to add. Levi pulled his hand away from Odessa and asked for the crumpled papers of directions so he could examine it. Charlie explained momentarily that the message had been delivered to the last address of his that Odessa's father knew of. Afterwards, he just stared forward in silence.

Surprising perhaps, everyone in the convertible, Selina was the next to break the silence. It wasn't so much the fact that she spoke up that was out of the ordinary, but how calm her tone came through. There was little to no malice, or sass. No hidden agenda. Just a few words pointed towards the only other woman in the car.

"During the project I interacted quite a lot with your father... in all that time I hadn't managed to measure him. He was too smart and too guarded to let some fucked up seal gauge him, to let her try and find something about him to exploit." Selina admitted with a blank expression.

"Was he a good father?" She asked suddenly but softly, pulling off the highway and down a quieter road once Levi interjected with an instruction.

"I don't mean to pry, not this time. It's just..." The blonde woman shrugged. "I hate loose ends. Knowing how he treated his family will help me cut one off the list."

Charlie glanced at her with a hint of surprise in his eyes. These were questions that were hardly easy to answer... but maybe once it was out in the air it'd make Odessa feel better. Realizing this, Charlie looked back forward. The last thing Selina would want to d after trying to do something nice would be explaining why. So instead, he just kept his mouth and thanked her in silence.
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
The silence was tense, and everything inside Odessa struggled not to break it, struggled not to crack some stupid, inappropriate joke or flirtatious comment. Humor was her crutch, she knew. The only way she survived so long was relying on that levity. But it was just another wall, and as hard as it was to be honest about her feelings, she didn't want to give her father any chances to assume that what he had done was okay... She wouldn't sugar coat the last ten years, just to spare his feelings.

Selina spoke and it was her tone, more than her words that startled Odessa. The gentleness of the question... From the minute they had officially met, Odessa had been so sure she hated her... And probably rightfully so, considering from the sounds of it, Odessa was the reason Charlie and Selina hadn't worked out. So to hear such ... Sympathy? It was jarring.

"He... he was my best friend. He worked a lot, but when he was home, we were his entire world. He was funny, and sweet. He never seemed guarded, or afraid to talk to us. Work was just sort of off limits... But none of us cared enough to pry, so it was sort of a non-issue. Things got a little strained a few months before the fire..." Her eyes flickered again, towards Charlie's, "He started working later hours, wasn't sleeping great. Lost a lot of weight. Mom thought it was just stress... I guess she was right to an extent. Anyway. Before that, though... Yeah. He was a great dad."
 
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The expression on Selina's face was of pure terror as the car seemed to wait in silence for a response from her. She was far from a great conversationalist or listener long before the mutations took hold. She was the type to shoot shit for hours with the rest of the unit, not talk about such things. Served her right for being nice, she thought.

"That's...good to hear." The ex-seal managed to get out long after the awkwardness had settled in. Selina shot a brief but pleading look towards Charlie's way. The other blonde look down into his lap and did his best to stifle a chuckle at the sight. Charlie cleared his throat afterwards, but it seemed Levi wasn't planning on letting the other two do all the talking.

Before the man in the front could explain, Levi turned back to Odessa and spoke himself.

"I know it's far from proper consolation, but I'm pretty sure he was the only man involved in the Project who actually cared about whether or not we lived through the effects." The good doctor explained calmly. "He did a lot for us in the days following the mutation... made sure we weren't in too much pain, tried to help us cope as best we could, updated on our families."

"Ultimately, it wasn't enough for a few of us... we still lost some good people but I'm sure all of us would have died had he not let us out. " Levi wished to continue but stopped himself. He wondered if Odessa was still adamant on hearing the truth from Charlie alone. It would be hard to believe considering recent events, but the doctor refused to push it.

He straightened up, glancing down at the paper in his hands. "Anyways, we've still got a long list to burn through. We're probably gonna end up driving for the rest of the night."

"You should try and get some rest while you can. Doctor's orders." Levi quipped as he turned back to Odessa with a sweet smile. "I'll wake you up when we get to where we're going."
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
Considering context... That Charlie had agreed to protect her. That he had done so for such a long while now had already given Odessa the impression her dad wasn't necessarily one of the big bad villains in all this. But somehow hearing it spoken outloud was both encouraging and far more devastating than she expected. It was easier to hate him when she thought he was responsible for causing others pain.

Frowning, she looked over to Levi and nodded, before her eyes shifted forward again. As angry as she was with him, she would have given nearly anything to have his input... Just one reassuring word from him. A hand to hold. Anything but the numb silence that followed Levi's suggestion for sleep.

Grimacing, she shifted and unbuckling her belt, she moved to the center seat, curling up in the crook of Levi's side. There were no romantic or flirtatious motives... In reality, it was very nearly childlike. She needed someone and Levi was there to meet the need. Her eyes drifted closed, but as much as she willed it to, sleep would not come, and so she simply fell into silent contemplation.
 
CHARLIE CAINE

Just as Charlie had disregarded Levi butting in to cover the awkward silence, Charlie disregarded the moment Odessa curled up against him. When Levi wrapped his arm protectively around her in response? It became increasingly harder to remain silent. But the ex-seal managed all the same, effectively only speaking when it was his turn to read directions. His pride would not allow him to see Levi of all people, holding her.

As the good doctor predicted however the unlikely group of four traveled for hours more. Long hours that--had Selina not turned on the radio to some soft rock station--would have certainly been filled with silence. They left the state lines and found themselves heading west as instructed by Odessa's father, but the closer they the got the more Charlie began to wonder.

What exactly was he leading them to?

Eleven hours later Selina's vintage convertible pulled into the parking lot of some diner on the edge of Indiana. Despite the morning sunlight pouring through the windows a discernible weariness settled into the vehicle, they had been travelling since night and it seemed they still had more distance to cover yet.

Levi and Odessa hadn't moved much throughout the hours and Charlie was fed up... but he had no right to tell them to stop. Selina let out a long drawn sigh, resting her head against the wheel. The ex-seal reached out to her and gave a brief shoulder rub, before turning back to open his door.

"Don't worry, Selina. After breakfast I'll take second shift." Charlie said, shooting her a grin as he opened his door. Selina rolled her eyes but did the same, turning off the engine as she left Levi and Odessa in the backseat.

The good doctor looked down at the redhead--hiding from her the fact he was little less than amused. He wasn't surprised to see Charlie had misunderstood Odessa's actions... the oaf had a tendency to misunderstand a lot of things.

"C'mon, wake up." Levi nudged softly, the bottoms of his moony brown eyes bagging up slightly at the lack of his own sleep. "You need some food in you, we still got a ways to go."
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
It hadn't occurred to her that the journey would be so intensely long. It was some benefit that she had the day off from work, but all the same not exactly what she had expected. She managed, somehow, to drift off... but only briefly, and to her credit neither snored or drooled. It wasn't dreams that woke her, either, but the dulcet tones of the good doctor.

Stirring, stretching, she sat up and glanced over her shoulder to Levi with a weary smirk, "I mean... You're not a tempurpedic, but you're pretty comfy. Thanks."

Slipping out of the car, she looked to the diner with a smalll frown. It wasn't their destination like she had hoped and the notion of food was oddly unappealing. Her eyes traveled to Charlie for a moment, and the frown deepened.

They were going into this blind. All of them. But for all his dishonesty... For all his secrets, he had still told her about the trip... Asked her to come. She couldn't stay angry with him forever.

Moving forward, she reached out to catch his arm before he entered, "Charlie... Look. I... I'm sorry. I don't wanna do this for the next several hours. Whatever happened two weeks ago, just forget it. You can have all the secrets you want. It's not like I'm your girlfriend or anything, and you don't owe me anything. I overreacted... So... Let's just move on, yeah?"
 
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CHARLIE CAINE

The moment the two of them stepped out of the car, Selina had already shot him a knowing smirk. The blonde woman was tired and had shown a moment of compassion earlier in the trip, but Charlie shouldn't have been surprised to see she was as relentless as ever. Much to his regret, he rounded the front of the convertible and walked with Selina towards the doors.

"Ooof. That'll get ya." Selina began, a devilish look in her hazel eyes. Charlie looked down at her uninterested to hear the next bit but she continued all the same. He knew her all to well... pushing buttons seemed to be her favorite past time. "Must suck to see Levi with his arm around your woman for the second time now."

"Third time, actually." Charlie shot back, not missing a beat. "That is... you were the second, remember?"

The blonde woman seemed taken aback from the statement, no doubt surprised to hear what he once considered her as. Charlie looked back forward, feeling a certain satisfaction in knowing that he caught Selina off guard.

"Now that's not fair and you know that, Charlie. When we were 'together' you spent half of your time--"

Selina stopped abruptly and Charlie looked back to see why. He was greeted with Odessa grabbing his arm.

For a moment he looked down at her... surprised at the suddenness of her request. For all he knew she just sent the past night asleep in Levi's arms. A part of him wanted to take that offer and throw it back into her face... but with her so close and that damned mint smell clogging his sense, it seemed impossible for Charlie to hurt her that way.

"Alright then. Consider us moved on." Charlie responded steadily despite the frown on his lips. His eyes trailed up afterwards and met with Levi's who followed after them sluggishly. Charlie cleared his throat and turned, unlatching his arm gently without a word. He stepped through the doors and into the diner, knowing full and well that today's breakfast was going to be awkward.
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
Awkward didn't begin to cover it. It was more drama than a poorly written teen drama, and on top of being exhausted and terrified about the prospect of seeing her father for the first time in a decade, wading through a swamp of confusing emotions wasn't high on Odessa's bucket list.

Charlie had agreed to move on, but the look he shot Levi before stalking inside was hardly reassuring, but how she could even combat that, she couldn't begin to consider. Maybe she had told him there should be no fawning over her... But she had her reasons. He was the one who insisted on all the secrets. He was the one who had suggested. He preferred being in the shadows behind her than by her side. And maybe she hadn't exactly handled it well, flirting with Levi... But didn't he get why? He couldn't possibly be that unobservant.

Her eyes burned and shaking her head, she looked back to Levi, barely managing to keep thd tears at bay as she blurted out, "Ladies room," before she made her way inside and straight to the restrooms.

The tears came as the door closed behind her, hot and relentless, but after a few facefuls of cold water from the sink she managed to compose herself, making her way back out and to the table where the others waited, "How much longer do we have to go?" She asked, sinking into a chair, trying to mask how miserable she felt with an edge of irritation.
 
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"They're out of pancake batter... what the hell kind of diner runs out of pancake batter?" Charlie grumbled as Odessa joined the three of them at the table. There were of course, better things to worry about, like the question of where they were going or why Levi had refused to comment about what happened in the back of Selina's car, but damned if Charlie didn't want some pancakes on a morning like this.

"We went ahead and ordered the same thing for everyone." Charlie scowled, taking a sip from his mug of pure back coffee while Selina answered the red head's question.

"From here we got about half an hour on the highway. Then your father wants us to take some backroad to hell knows where. He didn't say how long." She responded, her tone with Odessa seemingly back to its less than happy state. From across the table Levi offered Dessy a concerned look. He had seen the makings of tears in her eyes before she rushed inside but considering his close proximity to Charlie... it didn't seem the best idea to ask about it now.

With that said you don't spend a decade watching someone without learning how they look after a couple of tears. Charlie shifted uncomfortably in his seat and did his best to ignore it. Odessa had asked him to give her space, even after he told her about this trip, and that's what he had been doing.

But lying up against Levi and crying in the bathroom afterwards? It seemed the woman just loved making it harder for him to stay a step back life they both wanted. It was fortuitous that the waitress returned just moments later, plates of greasy hot bacon, eggs and toast on her arms, it'd be easier to not talk about it if they were all too busy stuffing their face.

The three mutated seals ate generously, including Levi and it didn't take long for them to clear the table. The good doctor paid and offered to go ahead and find somewhere to buy some water bottles for the group. After he left it didn't take Selina long to ditch too. She preferred to check up on her car than deal with any more seconds of the awkward silence.

Once again it was just the two of them. Charlie cleared his throat and looked away but didn't step out like the others.
 
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ODESSA CARRIGAN​
Odessa was glad, really, that the others seemed so preoccupied by their own meals not to notice that she had barely picked at her own. While she could put on a pretty good mask, she wasn't capable of pretending she had an appetite, and the idea of shoving food in her face, purely to avoid hunger later just wasn't as appealing when her stomach seemed to have been twisted into perpetual knots. The conversation was minimal, and while she caught Levi looking her way, the concern evident, he said nothing and she was glad for it. She didn't want to talk. Not when she couldn't even figure out in her own head what was wrong.

But as they finished and Levi paid, then he and Selina disappeared, she was left with one of the main sources of her frustration and without the other distractions, it was clarifying. Looking up at him, jaw tight against the welling ball of emotion in her throat, she shook her head, "I'm scared, Charlie. I... I haven't seen him in ten years. What if..." Lowering her gaze, she picked at her nail again, the cuticle beyond repair by this point, "What if it's not what I expect? What if he..."

Taking a breath, she steadied herself, blinking back another rush of tears, "What if I'm not what he expects? What if he's disappointed in me?" Only a few weeks ago, she had been so sure he was dead, and now? Now there were so many unanswered questions. Charlie had told her he was proud that she had gone on to become a cop - that he was glad she wanted to protect others - but what if the person he had built her up to be in his mind wasn't who she actually was?

...The same way, it seemed, she had disappointed Charlie, "...What if he doesn't want to see me?"
 
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CHARLIE CAINE

"If he was disappointed in you then I'd tell him he was wrong. Simple as that." Charlie replied from across the table, his tone wasn't deadpan but incredibly steady... as if he had virtually no doubt in that statement at all. He looked down at her raw cuticle and frowned. If only his mutation had made him just as numb to his emotions as he was pain.

"And you'd know between the both of us who's really right." He continued, turning in his seat so he could face her fully. His blue eyes remained just as steady as his voice. "He's your father, yeah... but I've been the one who's watched you all these years."

"He doesn't know about all how hard you fought to keep your family together, or how hard you fought to solve his case. He doesn't know about any of the sleepless nights at the department or the way you like your damn pancakes, not like I do." Charlie stood up, his leather boots clicking against the black and white tile as he rounded over to her and offered his hand. "A long time ago you became more than just your father's daughter, Dessy. Now c'mon and get up."
 
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