InsaneJournal

Who: scott and Rachel
What: Picking her up
When: Before the New Year, woops XD
Where: Airport and around
Status: complete
Rating: PG


Of course it wasn’t likely that Scott was actually going to see Rachel’s post, and she’d already been working on plan B while exiting the plane. She’d made a joke about how long it took to get off of the thing, but it hadn’t been that long at all.

The end result was that she’d already retrieved her extra few pieces of luggage by the time Scott’s messages had gone through, and had set up a camp with them outside on the sidewalk while she waited for him to show up. Lucky for them both, he’d actually seen it - her next option would have been to hail a cab and head straight for the house!

She grinned and waved to him as he pulled up, “Hey Dad! Look at that, your pants aren’t even on fire.”

He gave her a dry look, his eyes inscrutable behind the glasses. But he really was happy to see her even if he was unhappy she was in the county. There were too many things that she was going to remember that he didn’t want her to remember.

He had vague memories of what had happened in the future, but a lot of it just didn’t make sense. They couldn’t possibly be the same Rachel. Was there another Rachel? It didn’t matter. She was here now and he needed to figure out how to tell her ‘hey you’re going to dream horrible horrible things but there are people here to help you.’ “I put them out while on the freeway.”

"That's what you get for lying, old man," Rachel joked. She hopped up off of the floor and tucked her phone in her pocket so that she could start loading her luggage into his car, then double-taked when she realised what he was driving. The Viper was hot, but also pretty damn tiny when it came to carting luggage around.

"How is this thing going to fit that big duffel bag?" Rachel pointed her thumb back over her shoulder, indicating the huge duffel she'd had to check. It carried most of her life in it, and she wasn't leaving the airport without it.

Scott popped the trunk. “Whatever we can’t fit in there we can shove into the back seat. The truck has a flat and I could have sent Shepard but I wanted you to make it to the house alive.” He got out of the car and took the duffel. He ended up taking the spare out of the trunk and dumping the duffel into it instead.

Shepard's driving. Rachel had had one experience with it, but she could do with a couple more, "Shepard picking me up would have been awesome, actually. And what's this about her dating your ex-girlfriend? You never even told me you had one."

The tire he'd removed from the trunk was sitting there on the curb now, and she stared at it a bit before shrugging a shoulder and shoving the rest of her luggage in the back seat.

“Dani isn’t my ex-girlfriend. Ex-friend-with-benefits, mostly.” He grinned sheepishly, and found a spot in the back seat for the tire. It was a tight fit but it still worked out. “There wasn’t a need to tell you anything.”

"Maybe not a need to tell me, but I would have liked to know that you were happy and had a life, you know?" Rachel shrugged a shoulder at him and hopped into the passenger seat.

Had she even hugged him yet? Holy crap, how had they forgotten to do that? It was just a little suspicious, actually. Rachel remembered her dad being at least affectionate enough to hug her after being away for a while. He seemed particularly distant, in fact. Or tense. And seriously, what was with the sunglasses?

"... I mean we both could have kept in touch more."

“Yeah. We should have, but that’s mostly my fault,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. He belatedly reached across the car and gave her a one-armed hug. “But I didn’t think you needed to know all about my love life. Wouldn’t that be kind of pathetic?”

"Not if you were happy about it? I think mom would want you to be happy. With someone, you know, on a permanent basis."

Nevermind that it'd be nice to have a woman around that she could maybe call 'mom' at some point, too, because at 21 that was a really silly thing to wish for. And no one Scott was seeing should be expected to fill a role like that, either. That wasn't very fair.

She gave him a one-armed hug back, then turned her attention to the area around them as he began to drive out of the airport. Orange County seemed just like any other heavily populated area in the USA, but she wanted to take in the sights and get a feel for the place anyway.

The weirdest thing was the snow on the ground, but Scott didn’t seem phased by it. “It’s a bit of a drive, do you want some starbucks?” He glanced at her and smiled, then looked back at the road again. At least no people were flying or other weird things going on right now, he thought. How was he going to explain that to his daughter?

"Oh my god. Can we?" Rachel bounced in her seat a bit, grinning widely. She'd avoided the coffee stand in the airport since she wasn't sure when her father would show up. But it had been a long flight from Indonesia and she needed some serious fuel. The can of red bull she'd bought druing her layover in Hawaii had long since worn off.

"Man, a real Starbucks. Okay, they have those in Indonesia but only in the big cities. I didn't have time to really grab one in Jakarta before I left."

“Yeah, I figured you haven’t had a gourmet cup in a long time.” He took the first offramp that would lead to a Starbucks. “When did you decide to come home? It wasn’t really just because I told you to stay out longer was it?”

It was pretty ridiculous to get this excited about an overpriced cup of coffee, but fuck it. Rachel was extremely excited about this, so much that it was hard not to fidget a bit and look out the window for the telltale green and white signs.

"It was entirely because you told me to stay out longer. You're hiding something from me and I want to know what it is."

After a pause she looked over at him, "From the looks of it, it's either that you've become a vampire or you're on drugs, but I'm open to alternatives. And... okay seriously, when does it ever snow here?"

He pulled up to the drive-thru. "Order whatever you want. I know you love those almond chocolate things too." He was looking at the menu rather than her, still unsure how to tell her about his eyes or the other strange happenings. "Vampire is closer than drugs. And it snowed last Christmas too. I sent you pictures."

"Yeah, but that was like a year ago. And still kind of suspicious if you ask me." Rachel replied, with a bit of a snort. She looked the menu over, then nodded her head, "I want an iced venti soy caramel macchiato, upside down, with two extra pumps of vanilla and two of cinnamon."

That was a mouthful, but Rachel knew all about Starbucks' secret menu and it was going to taste just exactly like sipping on a Snickerdoodle cookie. Only without the crumbs.

"And one of those almond chocolate thingies."

Scott put in the order then pulled out his wallet. It was actually a really nice and expensive looking wallet, and had been a gift from Shepard. A joke for ‘stealing’ Dani from him. But he didn’t mind. “What do you look forward to? Once you’ve had coffee?”

"Besides an explanation that I'm feeling like I'm not going to get? I don't know. A nice, warm shower. Doing my laundry... unpacking into real drawers. Checking my campus out. Some girl named Kate is going to take me out for margaritas tomorrow."

She wanted to catch up with Shepard at some point, too, but she had plenty of time to do all of that. It's not like she was going anywhere for a while.

That prospect was actually still pretty terrifying for her, "...This is weird."

“Lucky for you there’s a really nice bedroom waiting for you. Downstairs and looking out over an acre of land, mostly trees.” He took her drink and then handed it over. “What’s weird?” He had some ideas but he wanted to hear it in her words. He was happy to hear her do nothing but talk. He really had missed her. He wanted to make her belong, before she dreamed. Before she felt like she didn’t.

The drink was huge and milky colored and looked like it was topped in an inch of caramel. Rachel took it with an almost audible squee and took a nice long sip off of it before she started talking again.

"Uhm. Being in one spot. The same spot. Around people who like... most of them speak english. And there's like... Malls and Netflix and look!"

She pointed out the window eagerly, "Comics and Collectibles!"

“Do you want to stop?” He was willing to humor her. “And I didn’t know you knew about Netflix.” He grinned at her. “Being a technology heathen.”

"It's not being a heathen to like technology. It's just important to know when to unplug and where it comes from and stuff like that, that's all." Rachel replied, after giving her father a look. Of course she knew about Netflix, "Besides, there's an app for that. And no, you don't have to stop. It's just... civilization. and staying put. And... more than thirty minutes talking to you. Living with you. When was the last time that happened?"

“A couple of years ago,” he replied. Had it really been that long ago? He couldn’t place time very well anymore, not when it came to that kind of thing. “Actually, can you order takeout. There’s a menu in the glove box. It should be almost ready by the time we get home. We can eat over a table together.”

"Leave it to my father to have take-out menus in his glove box."

Rachel's tone was more fond than insulting, and she laughed a bit as she reached forward and opened the box. There was quite a collection to choose from; Everything from Indian food to Pizza, and she rifled through them with one hand while the other hand remained firmly attached to her coffee.

Finally, she settled on a Chinese place, "Chinese work for you? What do you want?"

"Wait until you see the front of the fridge," he replied. He'd wink at her but she wouldn't be able to see that. "Egg rolls and chow mein, and something with beef. Surprise me."

With a nod, Rachel dialed up the place. After a quick check to make sure the place was actually run by chinese people - the chinese characters on the menu were a good sign though - she quickly ordered a list of items for them to eat. It wasn't just to show off. She liked to practice what Chinese she'd learned when she could, to keep up on it.

That, and it was easier to surprise Scott if he didn't speak it. She hung up and grabbed her coffee back, "Thirty Bucks, forty-five minutes."

It was music to Scott’s ears and proof his daughter had been paying attention. He nodded. “We’ll be there before they get there.” They were already in Rich Town, driving past large houses and even a McMansion or two.

Rachel was a little stunned when she looked out the window. The houses were huge and the areas around them all seemed to be well taken care of, with little gardens and all of that. It was like the picture of rich suburbia. Some of the houses really jumped out at her. One of them in particular looked very gothic and old-timey. She admired it as they drove past it.

"Wow. We live in ... well this is even nicer than Nana's house, and that's saying something."

“Long story behind it, but it’s a good house.” He did keep an eye out on the market in case Dani ever decided she wanted her home back. He would offer to buy it from her, if she ended up moving in with Shepard.

"It seems like everything's a long story around here. At least I won't get bored."

She slurped down the last of her coffee, and bounced in her seat a bit. So far, Orange County wasn't so bad. And she'd get to spend some time with her Dad! She was looking forward to that, even if she was going to forget what he looked like behind those shades he was wearing.

Scott smiled as they pulled up towards the house. He glanced at his daughter’s reaction. “Welcome home Rachel.” And for some reason he felt incredibly emotional over those words. They’d been a long time coming.