Lily (flowerchile) wrote in saveatlantisic, @ 2018-03-10 20:27:00 |
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March 2
Lily Ward-Johnson ✦ Grant Ward
Lunch G Complete |
Lily was sitting at a table near the window in Stone, watching the sidewalk for her father. She hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him since she’d been here so she had arranged this lunch date. He was different from the man she’d known at home, not in a bad way at all but there was a lot more to him, he’d been in other places besides here and had different memories. Lily was curious about those other places and wanted to hear about them. She also wanted to learn more about her half sister who had also stayed. They had exchanged a few words on the network but it had felt awkward and she hoped that they could get past that. She had no siblings and had always wanted one. She saw her father walk in and she waved to him. “I hope this is okay,” she said when he walked over to her. “It seemed like the easiest place to meet and the food is good. Unless you’d rather go somewhere else?” He desperately wanted to know his daughters. To be the kind of father he’d wished he’d had. The fear was ever present. The voice that whispered that he’d never amount to anything, the one that sometimes sounded like his father but most often like Garrett. It was a voice that Daisy had actually had a part in helping him ignore. Lily and Emilia were his. And he would make every effort to be in their lives. Lily, it had taken a bit longer. She’d bonded with her mother so quickly and he worried his issues on his kids arrival had caused problems. But she had to know he loved her, that it was simply his own issues getting in the way. “It’s good, I like it here.” He glanced at the menu finding a few options he might like to order. But his focus was all on his daughter. “I want to say I’m sorry, I know I have before over the network. But I shouldn’t have reacted like I did. It’s just...there’s a lot in my past that made me terrified to have a child. I was so worried they’d be messed up. But you’re not. You seem happy and I hope I had a part in that. I want to get to know you Lily. I want to be part of your life here, if you’ll let me.” Her heart went out to him and she reached across the table and laid her hand on his. “You did. Even though you and Mom weren’t together, you both raised me. Both of you took care of me and I promise you were a good dad. Between the two of you, I didn’t get away with much,” she laughed. Lily’s personality was a good deal like her mother’s and she knew she could be handful sometimes. “Don’t worry about any of that, Dad. I know suddenly finding out you had kids was a shock. Even though it was in the future and me, well I know I was an even bigger shock since you and Mom have had your differences. If I were you, I’d be surprised too.” Lily couldn’t imagine how she’d feel if someone suddenly appeared, claiming to be her child. He was so happy to hear it. To know that she grew up happy. If, by her own admission she didn’t get away with much. She laid her hand over his and he actually felt paternal. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with the feeling but it wasn’t a bad one by any means. “I’m now weirdly curious what you tried to get away with? Was I mean to people you brought home? Did I threaten to shoot your prom date? I wasn’t that guy, was I?” he laughed, finally more at ease knowing he hadn’t made a mess of things. Now it was just a case of getting to know her. And vice versa he supposed. “So is there anything you want to know? Did we ever tell you about your Mom learning to shoot a gun.” “My prom date couldn’t decide if he was more scared of you or Mom,” she laughed. “It was really pretty funny. Turns out he was a jerk anyway so it didn’t matter, I didn’t go out with him anymore.” Lily could barely remember his name, only that at the time she had thought he was amazing and couldn’t believe he liked her. “But no, you didn’t threaten to shoot him, both of you were very nice but apparently he thought you were glaring at him. And I might have told him that if he didn’t treat me right, one or both of you would come after him.” She looked up at the ceiling with the most innocent look she could muster. “That sounds about right.” he said with a grin. “I get the feeling we insisted the other one be nice and it worked?” And the other bit, not just telling the jerk to treat her right, but figuring him out, moving on, yeah he was a little proud of the girl he’d raised with Daisy. She was bright, witty and he could tell she was theirs. “I mean, we would have. Both of us absolutely would have but y’know, it’s good that he knew that. He didn’t ruin your prom or anything did he? Because I will find a way into your future to punch him if I have to.” He was kidding. Mostly kidding. She smiled. “No, he didn’t ruin anything. I had a good life, you and Mom were always honest with me. You told me that I was an Inhuman as soon as I was old enough to understand. Honestly that was our biggest disagreement. I wanted to go through Terragensis right away but Mom wouldn’t let me. She wanted me to have a normal growing up experience and I was pissed at the time but now I can see that she was right. Learning how to control that power wasn’t always easy and if I’d tried it when i was younger, I don’t think I could have done it. Turns out that parents are a lot smarter than you think they are.” “Not all the time, but I’m glad we did okay. And your Mom was right. Neither of us had what you’d call normal childhoods, or good ones. I can’t speak for her but I’d want you to have that normalcy before everything changed for you. A normal childhood, or as much as you could get in Atlantis. This way you had that, you had her to teach you, and you learned control.” He returned the smile, just a hint of mischief. “Can I see? Your gift?” he asked curiously. “After we eat,” she said. “I don’t want to do it here since it involves fire. I can control it but it freaks people out if they don’t know what it is. I learned that the hard way and got thrown out of a bar.” She might have been a little tipsy at the time, or more like a lot tipsy. Definitely not a person who should be manipulating fire. “Probably wise. Let's not tell your mom I suggested it.” he said with a laugh. If he was honest, the fact that his daughter's Inhuman power was fire made a weird kind of sense to him. He had wondered idly once of twice, if he’d been one of them, would it have gone that way. He’d always had an affinity for it. And it seemed he must have passed that to her somehow. But hopefully he’d taught her to respect it too. She seemed to have grown into an amazing young woman and he was proud of her. “We should order.” he said, with a nod to one of the waiting staff. “But you absolutely need to tell me the bar story while we wait.” Lily laughed. “I promise. It’s pretty funny although at the time I didn’t think so.” She smiled at him, thinking that she was happy they’d had this time today. He might not be exactly like the father that she knew but she liked him and she was getting forward to getting to know him. |