Who: Jacob and Lily Where: near Fox Grove What: father daughter reunion When: Sep 10th
After getting cleared on things, and squaring things away at LBJ, Jacob finally was able to arrange a meeting with his daughter. Which he really hated, because he wasn’t okay with it just being a meeting, or her living in a place where apparently they hung people and yeah. There was just a lot of issues he was having with the current situation.
He was also nervous. He didn’t know what to expect. Would she be angry with him for not being there for her for two years? It was a long time to be abandoned, even if it hadn’t been by choice. But he was there, having walked up to across the street from Fox Grove High, where he’d been told he could meet her.
He waited on the curb, eyes on the place, wondering what the hell was going on inside.
When he saw the doors open, he stood up straighter, and took a few strides into the street, stopping when he laid eyes on her. She’d grown. She was a tiny bit taller, but not much, her hair was longer. But that was his daughter. A smile broke out on his face, and he opened his arms to the teenager.
--
Getting cleared to see her dad was easy enough. She didn’t bother asking Sepphy if he could stay; she knew the answer would be a resounding “no.” There was a reason Fox Grove remained as strong and as well-oiled of a machine as it was, and that was because of the rules everyone had to follow. Which begged the question if she’d even be staying at Fox Grove now that her dad was here. Alive. Seemingly well.
It was more than she ever could have asked for. Everything else would get figured out along the way, because that’s always what they had done. They figured it out, right?
She was shaking by the time the doors finally groaned opened. Lily was nervous, but the nerves were far overwhelmed by the insurmountable sense of joy at the thought of not being an orphan, of being able to see her dad after all this time and throw her arms around him like she so often did before. She’d always been a daddy’s girl. She was close to her mother as well, but there was just something between Jacob and Lily Graves that made their bond that much closer.
Lily hardly even took the time to look at her dad before she was running at break-neck speed at him and, when the distance between them was swallowed by her short but quick strides, she practically slammed into him, her arms clasping around his back and her face burying into his chest. She’d never been an overly emotional girl, but that didn’t keep her from sobbing as she held him.
“Daddy,” she cried, voice muffled by his shirt. “You’re here. I knew you’d come."
--
Jacob braced for impact, and his arms went around her. She was bigger than when he'd seen her last, but she still felt tiny in his arms. He held her and tried to keep his own emotions in check, though his eyes were red rimmed, and his voice came out rough.
“I'm here, baby girl, I'm here,” he told her, leaning down to press a kiss to the top of her head. “I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner,” he added. “I'm here now, and I'm not goin anywhere, okay? Whatever we need to do to work things out, we'll get it done, but I'm not leaving.”
--
“It doesn’t matter,” she assured him in regards to his apology, because it didn’t matter. Lily would have waited for him her entire life if that’s what it took, even if two years felt more like an eternity. There were so many days when her imagination had gotten the better of her, when she’d picture all the terrible, horrific things that could’ve happened to her parents.
That could still have happened to her mother.
Shoving the thought to the recesses of her mind, she pulled back just enough so she could upturn her face to look at him. He looked older than she remembered, a little more weathered and stubbly, but then again, the apocalypse had a way of changing people, didn’t it? Even Lily, though she was still healthy unlike so many unfortunate souls out there, had to look different than when he’d last seen her.
“You look like shit,” Lily said, laughing through her tears as she reached a hand up to wipe some away.
--
He laughed. “Well, that’s not far off the mark,” he said. He was still working on feeling better. Like the wound on his back that was aching because of her embrace, though he didn’t alert her to that fact. He pulled back and looked down at her. “You, however, look beautiful,” he told her. “More like your mom every day.” It was probably a good thing she hadn’t inherited his looks.
He nodded for her to follow him and he put his arm around her back to keep her close. “There’s a safe place not far from here, where we can catch up and not be stared at by people looking out the windows of the school,” he said. Because he’d certainly noticed the faces in the windows above the ground floor.
--
Lily had never thought she looked like her mother. She always thought she looked more like Jacob, with her dark hair and matching eyes, but she supposed she could see a little bit of her mom. Or maybe she really did look like her mother and was just such a daddy’s girl that she chose to instead believe that she favored her dad. Either way, she simply laughed as she wiped away the remaining tears of joy and relief.
As he slipped his arm around her back, she tucked herself into his side as they walked, her arm easily winding its way around his waist. “I know they can be a little imposing,” she said, looking back at the windows in question. “But they’re just protective, promise.” Still, she looked forward to being able to just sit and talk with him without having eyes on the two of them, so she followed suit.
Already, she was beginning to wonder how to break the news about him being a grandfather.
--
“Yeah, I've heard already about things there. And two guys immediately were up my ass about it. I'm glad that you're being protected, but some of the shit I've heard, Lil...” he trailed off. “I'd rather we found someplace to be together, and since I'm not even allowed through the front doors there, that'll need to be someplace else,” he said.
He didn't want her out of his sight, let alone living someplace else while Lord of the Flies happened in the background.
--
Oh, Lily knew the kind of things people said about Fox Grove. She didn’t agree with the hangings, but some things deserved harsh punishment. Maybe not executioner-style public noosing, but it wasn’t her place to decide. Either way, she nodded solemnly. Lily wanted to go somewhere with him. She really, really did.
But now there were other things to consider.
She still hadn’t told Danny about the baby, despite knowing that she had to. She hadn’t even told Sepphy. No one but Lily knew, and as soon as knowledge got out, it would make things understandably more complicated. Besides, she’d been at Fox Grove for two years now. The people there weren’t just her friends; they were her family, too.
“We’ll figure it out,” she told him, leaning in a little closer if it was possible. “We always do, don’t we?”
--
“We do,” he said. “But that sounds suspiciously like a dodge,” he told her. There was affection in his voice, though. Sometimes she was more like him than anything else, and while he wouldn't have chosen for her to pick up his habits, sometimes it just made him love her more. She was stubborn, and smart, and wasn't afraid of her own mind or anything else.
But because he recognized his own tactics, he could call bullshit. And she knew it when he did it to her, too. It made being evasive a real interesting.
--
“That would be because it is a dodge,” she admitted not at all sheepishly. Her father knew her better than anyone; he’d taught her almost everything she knew, and they were alike in more ways than one could count. Like father, like daughter. Her mom loved to say that, usually when Lily was being too stubborn for her own good.
“There’s just … a lot. But we can talk about that when we get inside.” Lily didn’t get out of the school much, and she didn’t feel safe being out in the open like they were, even if it was the two of them. It wasn’t just the Geeks they had to worry about. People were just as dangerous.
--
Jacob smiled, but nodded and got them to the place he'd scouted out as safe earlier. It was a little shop of some description that had been cleared out pretty good, but the door still locked. So, he got them inside there, and shut the door behind them.
When he'd checked it out, he'd set up some chairs inside, in view of the window just in case anything was coming. He'd be able to spot it. It was automatic for him. Back far enough into the place that the shadows inside would help conceal, but outside was still bright and visible.
He looked at her and smiled. It was a painful one, he'd missed her so damn bad and she'd grown in the time since he'd seen her. She was beautiful and here and he could barely believe it.
--
As soon as they were in the safety of the shop, the door locked securely behind them, Lily threw her arms around him once again, cheek pressed hard against his chest as she clutched at his back. “Missed you so much,” she murmured, already fighting a brand new wave of tears. He’d always been her favorite person in the entire world, and to think that she’d lost him for two whole years …
But he was here now. He was here, he was safe (or as safe as anyone could be), and he wasn’t leaving again.
Finally, she managed to pull herself from him and moved to take a seat in one of the chairs, her hands already fidgeting with the hem of her tee-shirt. “How did you get here? Detroit’s a long way away.”
--
He had to give himself a second to swallow down the lump in his throat that had risen up again. Jacob wanted to look her over and make sure she wasn't hurt in any way – but he knew that was ridiculous. He'd been the one out there in the world in danger, she'd been holed up in a safe haven. She was fine.
“Walked,” he told her, taking the other seat, and he reached over to take her hand, because he just needed to, to help keep him reassured that she was really there and he wasn't just in the middle of a fever dream. “Just, things went down, and I packed up and left. Tried to ride as much as I could, but it wound up being safer to walk, not draw attention on a motorcycle. I had to skirt around any major cities, they were infested. But I got here. I'm sorry it took me so damn long,” he said, emotion creeping in at the end there.
He hadn't wanted it to take two years. He'd wanted it to take as little time as possible, but that just hadn't happened. Not with having to deal with the wasteland. It had been a shit show from the start.
“Enough about me, though, how are you? How's living there? Do you have everything you need? Are you healthy?”
--
Lily wasn’t typically the type to get overly emotional at the drop of the hat, but this was her father, and she missed him more than any amount of words could convey. Though she spent the majority of the time trying to convince herself he wasn’t dead, there were plenty of days it didn’t work. Those were the worst days, the days when she could hardly do anything but sob into her pillow.
She squeezed his hand, holding it with both of hers, and she listened intently as he explained about the trip to Austin. “Smart, the whole walking thing. Less noise.” When he apologized for taking so long, Lily shook her head, eyes still wet and wide with tears. “Don’t apologize, dad. What matters is that you’re here. I mean, if it was a perfect world, none of this would’ve happened in the first place.”
And then he started asking about her in his typical dad question, and she felt her stomach roll with anxiety. It didn’t matter that he’d been gone two years; he was still her father, and telling your father that you’re pregnant wasn’t an easy thing to do. “I’m healthy,” she assured him, because that much was true. “And we’ve got everything we need at Fox Grove.”
Lily took a deep breath, squeezed his hand once again, and looked down. “So, I’m gonna tell you something that no one else knows, but you can’t lose your shit and you can’t get mad at me.”
--
He knew all about it not being a perfect world. That illusion had been shattered when he'd been a little younger than she was, with what had happened to his sister. And it truly sucked that she knew it as well as he did.
But he'd never raised her to be naive either. And while he'd never discussed with her the nature of his incarceration, he'd never hid from her that he had done time, either. The world was indeed not perfect.
He paused when she got to the last part, and he eyed her, then sighed. “Go on,” he told her. You're timing's perfect, I think right now you could get away with anything and I won't be mad at you,” he said, trying to inject a little reassurance into his voice.
--
She studied him a moment or two, then nodded. “Fine, but just remember that before you choke me out and start burying a shallow grave, alright?” That was just like Lily, always quick to soften a situation with sarcasm and jokes. It was second nature for her, really, and this was no different.
“Dad, I’m —“ Lily stopped, breath hitching, and she shook her head and dropped her eyes once again. “Fuck, I’m just gonna say it. I’m pregnant, dad.” There it was, out in the open without any grandiose language or pretty wrapping. They were in the middle of a fucking apocalypse, and she was going to have a baby.
And he was the first to know. Even before Danny. Before Sepphy.
She wouldn’t be the first teenager to have a baby at Fox Grove, but that didn’t make her feel any better.
--
He laughed a little at the joke. “You know I'd dig deep enough. Can't hide bodies in shallow graves unless you want them found,” he teased right back.
He didn't press more though because she had something to tell him and when it was out there, he found he was unsurprised. The second she'd said that she had something to tell him and not to get mad, the thought had distantly occurred. She was living in a school with all of her peers, and he'd been a teenage boy once. She was cute, fiesty, and yeah. She shouldn't have any problem at all attracting a boy, or many.
His protective instincts wanted to immediately track whoever the guy was down and pick him up by his ears and let him know that if he hurt his daughter that they'd be finding pieces of him for weeks, but he swallowed that down. For now.
For now, he gave her hand a squeeze before he put his arm around her. He gave her a hug, and kissed her forehead. “How far along are you?” he asked, voice calm and even – the voice of someone who knew what they were doing and would have this covered, what he figured she needed the most right now. He couldn't imagine how scary it must be for her. Especially if she hadn't told anyone.
“And don't worry, Lil, okay? I've got you. We're gonna get through this.”
--
Jacob Graves had never been one to explode, at least never in front of Lily, so she didn’t expect any grand dramatics, but she definitely didn’t expect the smooth, even calm he exuded when she told him. She was expecting a talk about being disappointed, about how he and her mother taught her about safe sex and using her brain, but there was none of that.
Instead, he wrapped his arm around her, hugged her, and gingerly kissed her forehead. Lily closed her eyes, more tears trailing down her cheeks. It was the first time she said it aloud, and it somehow made it more real. She was going to have a baby, and she didn’t have the slightest clue what the fuck to do or where to even start.
Lily was scared.
“Three months,” she whispered, voice raw. “That’s how long it’s been since —“ Since she and Danny stumbled into the utility closet, their breath still smelling of tequila. “I’m really scared, dad,” Lily admitted. “Like, really fucking scared.”
--
He smiled at that. Yeah, he bet she was. “I know, hon,” he said. “But it'll be okay. People have been having babies forever now. It'll be alright. I met one medical professional already, I can talk to her, see if she can see you, get you checked out, okay? And maybe there's other things around, I don't know but I'll find out. That'll be first order of business once we get going, alright?”
A baby. In this world. It was terrifying. But at the same time, he was in protective mode, and protective mode didn't think long term, it thought right now. And right now, he just wanted his baby to feel safe, and loved and like she didn't have to take care of this shit all by herself. That he had it covered, and she could rely on him.
“Why haven't you told...?” he trailed it off so she could fill in the blank on who the baby daddy was.
--
Lily nodded and lifted her free hand to wipe at her tear-streaked face. As terrifying as it was to admit out loud that she was going to be having a baby, it also felt like there was a huge weight lifted off her chest. Not only was her dad here, but he was going to help keep everything together. Lily was a tough girl, a brave girl, but she was still very much a teenaged girl, and she wasn’t ready to have a baby.
“Danny,” she said, filling in the blank, and she picked absently at her frayed jeans. “His name’s Danny Kwon. I haven’t told him because … because we aren’t really a thing, you know?” She had liked him forever, or at least what felt like forever, but he’d always just been the unattainable crush. Now he was going to be the father of her baby.
What if he didn’t want any part of it? Of her?
“We just got drunk one night, and it happened, and every time I try to work up the nerve to tell him, I freak out.”
--
“Okay,” he said, nodding, and not at all expressing what went through his mind. That what was wrong with this guy, not being with his daughter? A 'thing' as she put it. The one night stand thing he understood, especially in light of the world they were living in. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't found a little comfort here and there along the road. One woman in particular stood out in his mind, and he didn't let himself think about her. She'd died about six months ago. Bitten, turned, killed as quickly as possible by him.
“Well you need to tell him. You know that. I don't know how things work around here with that kind of thing, or how it would go anymore but you need to let him know,” he said. “We need to figure out where we're staying, too, okay?” he said. “I want you staying with me. Especially now. You can still talk to everyone there, I'll walk you here every day if you want to come back and see people. But I...I just found you, I don't want to leave you here, and be away from you.” And with a baby on the way? Yeah. He'd want to be close. Her mother had had a normal pregnancy, and he didn't expect there would be complications but who knew. They happened all the time.
--
Lily knew she would have to tell him. He needed to be the first to know, probably, but like she said, every single time she tried to find the courage to tell him, she froze up and couldn’t find the words to say. “I know I do,” she agreed, leaning further against her father’s side.
When he told her he wanted her staying with him, she didn’t respond right away. She wanted to. She really, really did, but she’d built up a life at the high school. All of her friends, people that had become her family, were there. Danny was there. If he didn’t want anything to do with the baby, then that would be one thing, but what if he did? What if he wanted to help, to be part of the baby’s life?
“Dad, I … I don’t know. I want to. You know I do. I missed you so damn much, but … but everything I’ve known for two years is there. I help people. I have a job to do there. There’s Danny and …” She trailed off. “I don’t know.”
--
He hated hearing that. He understood, but he hated it. He squeezed her tighter. “You can still help people, Lil, just --” he wasn't quite sure what to say. But at least they'd be able to stay together? That was true, but did her new life trump him now? Her friends, whatever that community was like, was that better? He wouldn't even care if he was able to join her – but he couldn't, not with the way things had been laid out for him and as much as he wanted to tell them where they could shove it, he knew deep down that wasn't the way to do things.
No, she was an adult, and needed to make her own decisions. That just didn't stop the lump in his throat and the sting in his eyes. He couldn't tell her what to do. They'd never had that kind of relationship to start with, he didn't bark orders. He wasn't that kind of father. But he'd just got her back, and he was having a really, really rough time with even the idea of walking her back to that building and her leaving him standing on the road, to go home someplace else.
She was eighteen but she was still his baby girl and the idea of all of this was one hell of a hard thing for him to swallow.
--
He wasn’t the only one that hated the thought of separating, even for a little while. She held him tighter, cheek still pressed against him, and she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath. Lily just got him back, and she didn’t think it would be possible to pull herself from him for any significant amount of time.
She knew, right then and there, with her father holding her tight after two years of being gone, that she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t do this without him. “Let me talk to Sepphy and Danny,” she whispered, voice soft but rough. “Give me a couple of days to get everything squared away at the high school, and I’ll come with you.” Even saying it aloud gave her a sense of relief.
And also fear. Fox Grove had been her home for two years now.
“When the baby’s born, we’ll … we’ll figure it out then. I guess that depends on what Danny will want to do, too. I don’t know if he’ll even want to talk to me once he finds out.”
--
He was relieved to hear that, at least. He'd arrange things at Lbj then, get himself situated there. He was pretty sure that the door was open there, and he'd already been talking potential jobs with Savannah, so they would have a place. They'd have someplace to go. “...you'll be able to reunite with Maizie there, she said she knew you,” he said. Which was true. But he thought maybe she'd feel a little better, knowing that she wasn't going to be totally alone, peer-wise. She'd have someone to hang out with.
He hugged her tight, and drew in a breath to steady himself. “You do what you've gotta do there. Anything you need, you let me know,” he told her. “And if he doesn't want anything to do with my grandchild, then you don't need him, okay?” he reassured her. He wasn't going to encourage her to try and beg some asshole who couldn't be bothered to do more than drunkenly hook up with her once to be a part of this. Little bitch could fuck off for all he cared on that score.
If he wanted a part of things, then that was another story, but he'd wait to find out first before he made any snap decisions. “...if you don't want to tell him alone, just know that you can always call him out here and I'll back you up.” And try not to make him swallow every single one of his teeth individually.
--
Maizie and Lily were never close, but she always liked the girl well enough, and it did make her feel a little better to know that she’d have at least one person around her age to talk to. But it wouldn’t be like her home now. It wouldn’t be the people she’d known for two years or the family she’d built through literal blood and tears.
But she would have her dad and, as much as she loved Fox Grove and her family there, he far outweighed that, as terrible it was to admit. This was her father, they were talking about, the man who taught her to throw a punch and fix a flat all while maintaining a certain softness to him reserved for Lily.
She knew he wasn’t a perfect man, but in her eyes, he was a perfect father.
“I’ll tell him today. Or tomorrow. I’ll talk to Sepphy first, tell her what’s going on.”
--
“Okay,” he said. He swallowed, hopefully getting that lump to die back, and he knew he was overwhelmed. She was there. His daughter was here, and she was okay. Everything else was background, right now. He could manage whatever needed to be managed.
He felt better than he had since it had all started. He'd never stopped his journey here, to get to his daughter, and now he knew she was alive and well. Pregnant, but well. And her being pregnant was scary, but he felt like it was dealable. Like that would be fine too. They'd work it out.