Hey, Red.

“Rory my girl!” A deep voice shouted excitedly.

Letting a true grin come onto her face, Rory jumped up from the chair that she had been lounging in in the waiting room at the airport. She had been waiting for her father for the past hour to get off his plane. Hoping to god that he hadn’t been held up by any mechanical difficulties.

Hugging her father as tight as she could, she inhaled his familiar scent of cigars and old spice. The smell always reminded her of when she was younger and would wake up early in the morning and find him in his massive library. Still sleepy eyed she would crawl into his lap and snuggle into him and watched as he read the morning newspaper. Out of all her sisters she had the best relationship with him; she was the only one who wasn’t angry with him for divorcing their mother and shacking up with his secretary. A woman in her late twenties where as he had just turned forty not even a few months ago.

“Dad,” She sighed “It’s so nice to see you.”

Breaking the hug the older man pushed his daughter away and held her at arm’s length. He hadn’t seen her for over a year, and it was almost torture for him. Looking her up and down he smiled once again.

“You look wonderful, although you’ve lost weight. Have you been eating young lady?”

Rolling her eyes at her father’s parenting she grabbed his hand and led him over to the baggage claim so that he could get his things. She felt nervous about bringing him back to the house. She knew the moment that her mother saw him there would be an instant fight. Her throwing in his face that he tore the family apart for some office whore and him throwing at her that her life had went to shit since she started to do hard drugs. Rory was pretty sure that Gwen got her quick temper from her father’s side of the family, because when these fights typically happened her mom would throw something and her father would instantly restrain the over emotionally violent woman.

Waiting only a few moments for her father’s bags to circle around the baggage claim. They headed toward the battle zone.

*~*

“EXPLAIN YOURSELF RORY!”

Gwen bolted up from her bed and landed on the floor from the sudden scream. Breathing hard on the floor she placed her hand on her heart to try to calm it down.

“The fuck...” She breathed to herself as she pushed herself up from the carpeted floor. Opening her bedroom door she looked around wildly until her eyes finally settled on her sister and her new boyfriend. “What’s going on?” Gwen grumbled, rubbing her eyes. Her heart had finally stopped pounding from the shock. Jez turned around and faced her older sister. Her eyes wide with nervousness. Gwen’s eyes grew in size at the look of her sister’s face, she hadn’t seen her sister look like that since the last time that their parents had fought.

“Dad is here.” Jez said vacantly.

“Neji.” Gwen said, speaking after a few moments of digesting what her younger sister had just said. “Take Jez back to her room. Lock the door. It’s going to get bad.”

Neji only nodded as the red headed girl pushed past them and walked down the stairs. This time wearing a t-shirt and shorts instead of her usual attire.

*~*

“Why the fuck are you here Dennis?” Cathy Andrews asked, glaring at her ex-husband who had just walked into her home. She hadn’t seen him for years and now all of a sudden he was standing in front of her with luggage in both of his hands, and their oldest daughter next to him with more bags hanging from her hands.

“Hello Cathy.” Dennis said grimly, as he set his bags down and ran his hand down his face. He wasn’t looking forward to this; he knew flying here would cause a lot of turmoil. Personally all he wanted to do was see his daughters that he ex-wife had kept from him for the past year. He also wanted to make sure that his ex-wife was taking care of them the way she was supposed to be.

“Rory!” The older woman screamed as she walked over to her oldest daughter. Grabbing her arm she shoved the strawberry blonde into the empty den so that they could talk in private without her ex-husband interrupting them. “Let’s talk.”

Closing the double doors she turned and faced her oldest daughter her face twisting into something menacing. Breathing heavily Rory sat down on the window seat facing her mother.

“Why is he here?” She asked her eyes narrowing into slits.

“Because I wanted to see my dad.” Rory retorted.

“You could have at least given me a heads up! So I could have disappeared or something. Why did he have to come tonight, your sister is having a get together and him being here pretty much ruins your sisters plans!”

Shaking her head Rory stood up from where she had been sitting. She wasn’t about to deal with her mom acting like this. This was why she had called her father. Her mother was supplying her youngest daughter, who had been known to always run with the wrong crowd. Yeah sure it was only a keg that the older woman was buying but still. Her sister had already had a stint in a hospital due to alcohol poisoning at the tender age of fourteen.

“Dad already knows of your plans. I called him the moment I overheard you agreeing to buy the keg.”

Eyes widening, Cathy launched at her daughter and grabbed a hold of her arm, keeping her from opening the den doors and leaving.

“You know he will take you girls away from me. I can’t lose you girls.”

Looking at her mother’s desperate eyes she forced a half smile.

“You already lost me. And you know you lost Gwen ages ago. All you have is Jez, and you know that dad won’t let her stay.”

Not bothering to watch her mother fall to the floor and cry, Rory left the room.

*~*

“Gwen?”

She thought she would never hear that voice again until she was well into her college life. Eyeing her aging father she hesitantly walked toward the sofa that he was sitting at.

“Hey.” She said softly, taking a seat opposite of him.

“How have you been?” He asked, his eyes scrunching in curiosity.

“I’ve been good. “ She replied quietly, then added “No fights yet. I’ve been at school for two weeks.”

A contagious smile lit up her father’s face as he nodded his head.

“That is wonderful.”