"Crap," Sarah growled softly. She'd stepped on the stupid, squeaky floorboard again. Dad was going to wake up and she was so screwed. Dammit, it was hard having a superspy for a father. You couldn't sneak out of the house or anything most normal kids did. Sure, okay, she wasn't normal, but this was her first attempt at teenage rebellion and that stupid floorboard had ruined it!
A voice drifted to her out of the darkness, "Never walk heel first, you'll hit a squeaker every time." Sam Fisher stepped out of the shadows to greet his guilty looking daughter. Caught in the act, she shuffled her feet and refused to meet his eyes. He choose his next words carefully.
The rasp of her father's words tangible as it drifted over the bare skin of her shoulders. There was comfort in the familiarity of them. "If you wanted to go clubbing, you should have asked me." Sam thoughtfully rubbed the stubble on his chin. He was dressed in dark gray from head to toe. Clubbing clothes, but ones that would blend in with the shadows. "You know you can never be a really normal teenager because of what I do, but I want you to have a normal life. This isn't just about a white lie to your mother and staying out past curfew."
Flushing, Sarah wished desperately she could melt into a puddle and seep through the cracks in the floor. She knew what could happen, especially if her father wasn't there to watch out for her.
"Say it," Sam ordered tightly. His famous cool was slipping under the fear for his daughter. "Tell me what could happen."
Swallowing, Sarah shook off her funk. Her back ramrod stiff she glared defiantly into Sam's eyes. Father and daughter faced off. "No ones going to try to kill me or us me against you. You always tell mom that security is too..."
Two broad, calloused hands laid themselves gently on her shoulders. "There is no such thing as perfect security," Sam reminded her gravely. Sarah pressed her lips together in displeasure but didn't say anything. Knowing he was a push-over when it came to his little girl, Sam pulled Sarah into a tight hug. "I never want anything to happen to you, ever. Especially because of me. But going out somewhere like that without telling your mother and I, that's dangerous. I don't have to tell you how easy it is to snatch someone out of a place like that."
Angry and embarrassed, Sarah shoved her father away. "I am not a child that can just be kidnapped. Kim Bauer was with me, we were looking out for each other." Sam gave her a flat, incredulous look. The pitch of her voice grew higher as Sarah became more upset, irrationally angry with her father. "You can't protect me from everything, Dad. I'm a big girl now. I mean what are you going to do, run background checks on my boyfriends, interrogate my teachers? Newsflash, this isn't some foreign country were mobsters are lurking everywhere, this is LA."
Sam held his breath and counted backwards form ten, in Mandarin Chinese. When he spoke his voice was level, "If that's what it takes, then yes. I will have background checks done on everyone you come into contact with. I will do anything and everything I can to protect you and your mother." He knew better than to try to touch her after his first affections had been spurned. Eyes icy, he stared down Sarah, "Even if it means having you hate me."
Mouth opening and closing, Sarah stood in the patch of moonlight furious. With a small scream of frustration, she stormed to her room and shut the door. The only reason she didn't slam it was so her mother wouldn't wake.
Exhausted emotionally, Sam leaned against the wall. He'd spent all night tailing Kim and Sarah as they moved from club to club. It wasn't that he didn't trust Sarah not to be careful, but Kim Bauer wasn't known for being cautious. Like her father, she had a tendency to pull everyone around her into her own chaos. He couldn't help but wonder when he changed from a father to a guard dog, but he was pretty sure it was about the time boys started to notice Sarah. More than once that evening he'd wanted to seriously injure, if not kill, several of the men who had danced, flirted with, hit on, or otherwise interacted with his daughter.
As Sam crawled into bed next to his wife, he couldn't help but wonder if a similar scene had transpired in the Bauer household.