On the Morning Tide

Leland's POV

"So this is what misery feels like?" I asked myself as I lay sideways on my bed, bottle in hand, drunk out of my mind. "This is what heartbreak feels like, asshole. Just forget the bitch exists." My inner voice tells me. I knew I was fully wasted when my subconscious was talking to me; and I was listening. "But I love her." I argue back, trying to sit up, but only succeeding in falling off the bed, and knocking everything on my nightstand off. I rubbed my head and took the last swig of vodka, the only liquor I could find in my house.

In the distance I heard the phone ringing, I just couldn't move my body to get to it. "What?" I slurred, never moving from my spot on the floor. I looked at the bottle I held in my hand and felt sorry for myself, probably for the first time in my life. "What have you done?" I asked myself. A few tears rolled off my cheeks and onto the bottle. I angrily wiped them away. "That bitch doesn't deserve my love." I scream and throw the bottle across the room. It hits the closet door and shatters.

I knew I was walking down a dangerous road, one that I hadn't been down since I was a teenager. Which had been the last time I was drunk. Sure, I could party with the best of them, I drank a little but I certainly never got drunk. I learned my lesson along time ago. I was wild, I partied, I drank, I did every drug I could get my hands on. Until I moved to Hawaii and Mya's father and my father reigned me in.

I remember going to her dads gym every afternoon after school and she would be there. She was beautiful, even then. Of course I never let her know that. No, I was a typical teenager with a bad attitude. "Probably why she hated you so much." I say out loud to myself, rolling over onto my stomach.

I picked up the picture that had fallen on the floor next to me. It was of me, Mya and Kai at the zoo last year. Kai was sitting on my shoulders, and Mya was standing next to me with her arm around my waist. I put the picture back in its place on my nightstand. I sat up staring at the ceiling as I traced my thumb along Mya and Kai's initials that I had tattooed on the inside of my left wrist just days ago. It was still red and swollen. Mya didn't even know it was there. I wondered if she might ever know the extent of my love for her and her daughter.

My phone was ringing again. I stood up, stumbling out of my bedroom and made it to the phone just as the answering machine picked up. "Leland, are you coming to work today?" asked Mya. "No." I yelled back at the machine. Why would I want to go to work, I hadn't been in three days. And besides that, she was there. I couldn't face her. Not after what she said.

"Fine, I'm calling your father." She says before hanging up on the answering machine. "Son of a bitch." I cussed, picking up the phone and dialing the office. "I'll be there later." I say as Mya answers. I hang up the phone, not giving her a chance to say a word.

Leland's POV

Three hours later I had sobered up enough to make it to work. Mya didn't say a word as I sat down at my desk. I flipped open a file and pretended to look busy as she moved about the office. I couldn't concentrate as she walked to my desk, picking up a few applications and handing them to a woman that had just walked in. I listened to every word she spoke. Her voice floated through the office like a beautiful song.. even if she was talking about bail bonds.

"Get a grip." I mentally told myself as I gripped the sides of the file folder I had my head hidden behind. I sighed as the door bell jingled when the other woman left. It was just me and Mya. "Wheres Kai today?" I ask from behind the folder.

"She's at daycare." Mya says, as if it was a normal thing. "Daycare?" I say, slamming the file down. "I thought we talked about this." I said crossing my arms over my chest.

She raises her eyebrows at me. "We-" she says gesturing between us, "We - don't have to talk about it. I told you already; My daughter, my decision. End. Of. Discussion." she says punctuating every word.

"Why do you do me this way?" I ask her from across the office.

"What are you talking about?" she says turning around and coming toward me.

"This... " I say gesturing around the office to nothing in particular.

"That makes no sense." She says.

"Well, you make no sense." I fire back.

"Leland, you're being ridiculous."

"Why do you take away the things I love. Like Kai, you put her in daycare so I cant see her. You run away to mommy for six weeks, so I couldn't see you. You hurt me Mya. Why?"

"You're drunk, go home." she says sadly.

"I am not drunk. I just want to know why you're acting this way. What have I ever done to deserve it?" I ask her. She rolls her eyes. "I took care of Mya's father so that you wouldn't have to deal with him ever again. I paid your stepsister's way back home for you. I gave you a job. I babysat for you when you were dating my brother. Ive held you when you cried. Ive listened to every problem you've ever had and tried to help you get through them. Now I need to know why all of the sudden your acting this way toward me when Ive been everything I could be for you? Why Mya?"

"I refuse to talk to you when your like this." She says waving me off with her hand.

"Fine. You're fired." I say coldly.

I could hear every single beat of my heart as she stood there staring at me. My blood was boiling as I clinched my fists tightly. She swallowed and blinked a few times; it was the only movement in the room. Time was standing still as my world was falling apart.

"You cant fire me." she finally says.

"I believe I just did." I reply back. I was pissed and I wasn't backing down.

"But... but you cant."

"Oh, but I did."

"No, Leland, please..." she says looking a little panicked.

"You should get your things and leave." I say very calmly, turning away from her and sitting at my desk.

As I watched her shaky hands pack an empty box, I never thought our relationship would come to this. I remained calm toward her, but on the inside I was furious with myself for letting this happen. I wanted to tell her I was being stupid and that she wasn't really fired. But, I had taken it too far. It was too late to come back from this. I knew it would be the end of it all.

Leland's POV

Filming had begun again for the show two days after I fired Mya. I was gone for three weeks. Hoping that was enough to cool both she and I down, I called her house. No answer. I looked outside and her car was gone. I waited another hour and tried her cell phone; it was turned off. I picked up the phone once more and called Sonny, hoping he knew where she was.

"Sonny, do you know where Mya is? I've been trying to get in touch with her and she's not answering." I say into the phone. "No... no I haven't seen her in a few days. Did you try her cell?" he asks me. "I did, but its turned off. I'm starting to get a little worried that something might be wrong." I tell her father. "Lets give her a little longer and then we'll call the police, okay?" Sonny says. I agreed and hung up the phone.

I waited as long as I could possibly wait. Which happened to be about ten minutes. I took the spare key and walked over to Mya's, I didn't know what I was doing, I just needed to go. I turned the lock and pushed open the door.

The house was empty.

I turned around in circles, not really believing what I was seeing. I ran up the stairs and into her room. A few clothes hangers still hung in the closet, but that was it. The house was empty and she was gone. "Shit." I scream, running down the stairs and out of the house. I dialed her father's number.

"She's gone, Sonny. She's gone. The house is empty." I yelled into the phone. "What do you mean, gone?" he asks. "She moved out, is what I mean!" I ran back into my house, grabbed my keys and left.

I didn't really know where I was going, I was just going. I drove to every possible place she might be. But no luck. No one had seen her. I tried the airport, but they wouldn't give out any information about passengers. It worried me more because even her father was clueless about her latest escapade. "What have you done Mya?" I say out loud, getting back into my truck.

I called her cell again, at least this time her voice mail picked up. "Mya, I don't know whats going on, but I'm worried about you. I hope your not in any trouble...please, please, please call me back soon. I'm worried and so is your father. Please call me Mya. Bye." I say, closing my phone.

I drove slowly through town, looking at every long-haired woman I saw, hoping that it might be Mya. It wasn't like her to run off without telling anyone. At least the last time she left, she warned me beforehand. My cell rang and I jerked it open "Mya?" I say hastily. "No, its just me Leland." Sonny says sadly. "Ive been trying to call her, I called her mother and she hasn't heard or seen her either. I'm worried about my little girl." He tells me.

I sigh and put my truck into park outside my house. "I know, me too. We'll find her, I promise." I say reassuring him and close my phone. This was my job; finding people...Now, if I could just convince myself.

Fourteen Years Later:

Leland's POV

I picked up the cordless phone from my nightstand and sighed. "Hey son." I say rubbing my eyes. I couldn't understand why Cobie never remembered the time difference from California to Hawaii. "Sorry dad, I know its early there...probably really early, but whatever..." He says rambling on. "Whats up?" I ask sitting up in the bed, blinking a few times.

"So... you know next week is spring break and I always come home... Well, I met this girl. She's a couple of years younger than me, but she's so hot...I wanted to bring her home so you could meet her? Is that alright?" he asks eagerly. I wanted to sigh and say, "young love." to my youngest son, but he would just laugh at me and call me old. "That's fine with me. I'll see you and your girl next week."

I tried to go back to sleep, but tossed and turned most of the night. I was happy that my son had found someone to be so excited over. I, on the other hand had two failed marriages and string of bad relationships under my belt. The first marriage, I wouldn't consider my fault, but the second most definitely was my fault.

It was only a year after Mya left. I was eager and willing to try to get over her. I got engaged to the first woman who took an interest in me. Sadly, the marriage lasted only a few short years. I tried desperately to fill the void that Mya left, I only succeeded in ruining my relationship with Nicole, my second wife. She often complained that I obsessed over finding Mya. At the time I denied it, but I was obsessed, I can admit that now.

Sonny and I exhausted every effort to find her. We flew out to her mother's house in Georgia. I visited all of her friends and neighbors. But no one had been in contact, so they say.But in my heart I knew someone, somewhere knew where she was. But I never found that person.

I just kept telling myself that she would find me in time. There were still days when I blamed my brother's move back to Colorado for her disappearance; but most often I just blamed myself.

My relationship with my brother was strained and a year after Mya left, we stopped talking altogether. He quit the show. My dad retired and I took over the business. To say that I was under a lot of pressure would be an understatement.

I suffered even more heartache two years after she disappeared; Sonny, had a heart attack and passed away. When he was gone I felt like I had no connection to my past or to Mya.

These days I just tried be strong for my boys; to give them everything they wanted and needed. I bought them cars and paid their way through college. Dakota graduated with honors and became a lawyer and Cobie's been in school just over three years.

Cobie's POV

One Week Later:

"I cant wait for you to meet my dad. I think you'll like him." I say to my girlfriend as we walked toward the front door of my childhood home. "I'm excited. You said he was a Bounty Hunter?" she asks. I nod my head. "Yeah. He's all bad ass, kicking down doors and shit. I use to go out on hunts with him before I went off to college." I say, trying to impress her. "Sounds exciting." She giggles and leans into me as I unlocked the front door.

"You can have a seat while I find my dad." I tell her, kissing her softly on the lips before walking off. I walked into my dads room, his bed was neatly made up. I checked the bathroom, it was empty. I frowned, wondering where he might be. I walked over to the window and saw him walking out of the water and toward the house.

"I think my dad was surfing or something. He's headed in now." I tell her looking out the large windows in the living room. A few minutes later he opens the back door and walks into the house."Hey son, when did you get here?" he asks hugging me.

"We just got here." I say as my girlfriend stands up. "Dad, I want to introduce you to my girlfriend, Kai."

Leland's POV

"Kai?" I spit out suddenly. "Sorry. Its nice to meet you Kai." I say quickly recovering, extending a shaking hand. My son makes an odd face and his girlfriend raises her eyebrows. "Are you alright dad?" Cobie asks. "Um...yeah, just feeling a little sick, must have swallowed too much water. I think I might need to go lie down. Make yourself at home." I say, quickly leaving the room.

My hands were shaking as I put on dry clothes. It couldn't be. No...its not. I wont even let myself think might be her. A sharp pain made me clutch my chest, I sat down on the edge of my bed, running a hand through my hair. I knew this was going to be a very long week. I reached for the bottle sitting on my nightstand. I had been taking anti-anxiety medication for so long, feeling like this was second nature. I swallowed the pill dry, forcing it down my throat.

I couldn't believe I was a forty four year old man still pining over a lost love. I would have thought that after fourteen years I would have let it go and just when I was thinking I might have, my son shows up with a girlfriend named Kai. I knew a couple of women here named Kai...so maybe it was possible that she wasn't Mya's daughter.

I instinctively rubbed the tattoo on my left wrist. I made the mistake of telling my ex-wife whose initials they were and she had begged me to get it covered. But I just couldn't do it. It held too much meaning. I laid down on the bed, trying to push the thoughts out of my head.

Later that night I had recovered enough to face the world. The medicine had kicked in and I prayed that I could make it through the rest of the evening. Cobie and Kai were coming in from a day of sightseeing and Kai offered to make dinner for us.

"I'm never one to turn down a womans cooking." I say with a smile. "Yeah, me either babe." Cobie says kissing her on the cheek as she smiled. I could tell by the way my son looked at her; he was in love. "You two go do something while I cook. Go catch up, I know its been a while since Cobie's been home." She says swatting him out of the kitchen with a spatula.

"Yeah, she wouldn't let me leave my apartment." he says with a wink while walking outside with me. "I know I'm a cool dad and all, but I don't need to know everything son." I say patting him on the back.

"So how did you meet this girl?" I ask, sitting down in the patio chair. "Actually it was kinda weird how we met. I was taking this class and the professor paired us up together. I found out she was the only freshman in the class, which I thought was pretty impressive. And then we found out we had the same last name." he says with a laugh.

"She's a Chapman?" I say very surprised, turning to him. "I know. Weird isn't it? So, yeah we just kinda bonded over that and a few months later we started dating. She's really laid back and smart at the same time. You don't find that too often." he says, making me laugh. My son, at twenty two, thinking he knew the ways of women. "No, Cobie, you don't find it too often. But when you do...try your best to hold on to it" I say, reaching over and patting him on the back.

"How long have you been dating?" I ask him. "About eight months...I think... yeah eight months." he says after thinking a minute. "So have you met her parents?" I ask casually. My instincts were heightened and I had to get to the bottom of this before it killed me. I wanted to blurt it out and just ask, but I didn't want to scare either of them.

"Not yet, we wanted to make sure it worked out first. And besides she doesn't have a good relationship with her mom...or so I gather. She doesn't really talk about her very much..." He says shrugging his shoulders.

We continued to talk for a while until Kai came out and told us dinner was ready. "This looks good babe." Cobie tells her. He'd picked up my affinity for calling women babe or baby, at a young age. I laughed to myself as I thought about how much he looked and acted like me.

"So Kai, Cobie tells me your last name is Chapman?" I ask casually, noting wanting to scare the poor girl. She looks up from her dinner and smiles. "Yeah, um.. its my step dads last name. Well, more like my father.. he did raise me after all." she says wistfully.

"Well..." I say not really knowing how to respond to that. But it did put my mind to work. "I was just asking Cobie earlier if he'd met your parents yet... I guess I'm lucky, getting to meet you first." I say, taking a drink of my beer.

"Thank you." she says sweetly. "No. he hasn't met my parents. I don't really ever see my mom.. but thats a long story." she says with a wave of her hand. "She's...crazy." she says shaking her head and biting into a piece of chicken.

"Dad, stop asking a million questions, you're gonna scare her off." Cobie says, eying me. "Its okay Cobie. I'm not going anywhere." she says patting him on the leg.

Kai's POV

"You're dad seems really nice." I say as we get into bed later that night. "Yeah...sorry about all the questions." Cobie says with a sigh. I lay my head down on his shoulder. "Its okay. He just wants to know who his son is dating. I can understand that." I say kissing his shoulder. He leans in and kisses me on the forehead. "I know who you are. Thats all that matters...But there's definitely something going on with him." he says with a sigh.

"We'll don't worry too much about it." I say running a hand across his toned stomach. "You know it just seems so wrong to be sleeping together in the same bed you slept in when you were a little boy."

Cobie lets out a deep laugh. "I know, and Ive been waiting all day to do very bad things to you in this very bed." he says pulling me on top of him to straddle his waist. "Shh.." I say covering his lips with my finger, as we both laugh. "I wont tell if you wont tell." I say lowering my head down to kiss him.

The next morning:

Leland's POV

"Good morning." I say looking up from the file I was reading. "Did you two have a good night?" I ask smiling. Kai blushes and Cobie rolls his eyes. "It was just fine, thank you." Kai says politely as she squeezes my sons hand. I smiled, wishing I could have that kind of relationship with a woman again.

A little later in the morning a few of Cobie's friends stopped by the house, they did every time he was in town from college. "I'm going surfing if thats all right." He tells Kai. "Thats fine. I'll be out there later to watch." she says looking up from her spot on the couch. He flashes that Chapman smile at her and walks out the door.

"You know he got that smile from me." I say looking over at her. "I can tell. He's very charming." she tells me, leaning back against the cushion. "He's a good kid, always has been." I say, thinking back to his childhood. His mother had always tried to turn my boys against me, for her own personal gain but it didn't work, they begged to move in with me not long after Sonny passed away. I was happy to have them, it kept me from losing my mind...what little I had left.

"So, you're from California?" I ask, trying to sort things out. "Me? No. Actually I'm from Colorado." she says smiling. I rubbed my thumb across the tattoo, digging my fingernails into the skin on my wrist as she spoke. "Yeah me and my mom moved there when I was little. I don't even remember it really. My little sister Aiyana was born there, she's fourteen now. I also have two other sisters who are twelve, Leilani and Alani; twins." she says rolling her eyes and laughing.

"Wow. Sounds like your mom had her hands full with four girls to raise." I say, biting my lip, trying so hard to keep from asking the wrong questions. "It was more my dad's job than my mom. My mom was a little...mental. Thats how my dad always described her when she wasn't around." She says sadly.

"Mental doesn't sound good." I say to her. "Well...personally I think something happened to her and she went a little crazy. But thats just my opinion, she never would see a doctor or take any medicine." she tells me. "I'm sorry to hear that." I say, with a sad smile.

"I feel so bad for my dad at times. He works so hard to please her. But it was never enough for her. I used to hear them fighting sometimes and she would be screaming "You're not him, stop trying to be him." I still don't know what that was all about but, it meant something to them." she says with a shrug. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to get into my whole life story. I don't want you to think your sons girlfriend is crazy."

"No. Not at all. I just think she's human." I say smiling at her. "So your dads a good guy?" I ask. She smiles and looks off into the distance. "Yeah. He's great. I love him." she tells me.

"Whats does he do?" I ask, trying to push the conversation along. "He owns a construction company...I forget what he use to do before he met my mom. There's some pictures somewhere that I remember seeing when I was younger. I was being nosy, looking through stuff in our attic. It was something with his family." she says with a wave of her hand.

"A construction company. Sounds interesting. What's his name?" I ask.