Daddy's Girls'
by
Meanbow
This is the fourth of my Gunsmith Cats Fanfics(it's been a long time coming...i know). I would like to point out (once again) that I do NOT own any of the characters, or any other material contained, but gratefully acknowledge Kenichi Sonoda for creating them, apart from my own original characters, storyline or locations that do not relate to real companies within those locations. This story is set after the Goldie/Mister V storyline, where Rally was reunited with her Father...also, Remember Arlene Davenport? Rally is about to discover something about her she will never forget. Please read, rate and enjoy!
Chapter 1
Daddy's Girl
Opening up the Gunsmith Cats store for the day, Rally pushed the heavy door shutter aside and opened the front door. The moment the door opened, the shops alarm started to give its customary warning...so Rally forced her way in quickly, got to the panel and punched in her code.
The alarm made a safe noise...indicating that it was now unset.
"Right, first things first. Lights, Doors, Coffee..." she went as she walked back towards the front of the shop, flipping the light switches on, and then heading back to the front door to open it properly. She then pressed the button for the main shutters on the outside to automatically start rising up.
She stood there watching the shaky shutters for a few moments, making sure they didn't jam, as they sometimes done. Satisfied that they were up, she went into the back room and grabbed the kettle off its stand, went to the taps and filled it up. She then returned the kettle to its stand, switched it on, and then prepared her cup for the brew.
Rally thought she heard the door chime.
"AHHH, just in time..." a man's voice goes as he enters the room.
"Hi Dad...let me guess...milk...two sugars" Rally replied to the gentleman who walked in. it was her Father, Robert Vincent.
"yes please, sweetheart...how are you this morning?" he asked, as he walked over to her and kissed her on the cheek, then went and sat down on one of the chairs around the table in the back room used as a gun cleaning station, whilst Rally grabbed another cup and prepared it for her dad
"Tired..." she replied "that Arlene Davenport is noisy..." she added
Robert looked up at the mention of that name.
"Did you say Davenport?" he asked
"Yeah...why?" she replied
"Oh...no reason. It's just not a name you hear too often, that's all" he answered back.
"I guess not..." she said, but was still puzzled by why he had said it.
The kettle boiled, Rally poured two cups out, then brought them over to the table.
"Here we are..." she goes, putting it down. Robert picks it up and takes a swig
"Ahhhh, lovely" he goes, and then a small smile comes on his face.
"Is everything O.K dad?" Rally asks "you don't usually come here this early"
"yeah...everything's fine...I was up at this time chasing a fugitive myself...on my way back, I saw you were opening the store...so I popped in to see my favourite Girl" he answered
"It's just...well, that's bugging me now..." Rally replied "why did you say "did you say Davenport?" it's like you know that name from somewhere" she finished off
Robert looked around the workshop, trying to figure out a reply to that question, when his eyes spotted something, then focused his stare at a picture on the wall.
The picture had Four Girls in it...Rally, May, Misty and Arlene
"Who is that other girl in the picture over there?" he asked.
Rally walked over and grabbed the picture and passed it over to her Dad
"That was taken a few weeks ago, at the local Fair by Ken...May's Boyfriend" she went "that's Me, May, Misty...and the other girl is Arlene Davenport."
Robert took hold of the picture and stared at it for a while...then started shaking his head slowly back and forth "No...It can't be..." he went
"It is..."Rally replied "let me guess...you are about to say she looks like me, right?"
"She does resemble you, pumpkin..." he replied
"So what?" Rally answered back "so she looks a bit like me...doesn't mean anything..." she went
Her dad pulled the picture in close to his chest, then looked up at his Daughter
"Irene...can you remember your Sister?" he asked
"I never had a Sister" she went
"Yes...you did" Robert replied
The Air in the shop was filled with tension, from Rally looking at her Father strangely...and her Father looking rather fazed, and a little confused.
"What do you mean...I Had a Sister?" Rally went "I can't remember her"
"That's because you were too young at the time to understand..." her dad went "me and your mother had a tough time bringing two girls up on my earnings, so your mother went out and took a part time job in a laundrette to make ends meet...but we still struggled to bring two of you up...we made a life changing decision for your sister...to have her adopted from a young age by a Family from New York, their name...was Davenport"
"So..." Rally started "are you trying to tell me that she COULD be my sister?"
"It's a possibility, sweetheart" Robert replied "I'm not saying it IS, but it could be"
"It's a possibility..." She repeated "that I had a sister who I can't remember, and who you are now saying COULD be that girl in the picture. Come off it Dad...she's totally different from me in every single way...surely we would share some common ground if we were..."
"I guess you're right Hun...there is no way she could be, its just the crazy ramblings of an old man who's lost his mind to Kerasine..."her dad replied, putting the picture on the table in front of him, then getting up and starts to walk towards the door.
"WAIT...I didn't mean it like that..."Rally goes, hurrying towards the door and her father, grabbing onto his shoulder to try and stop him from leaving.
Robert Vincent stood in the doorway
"Meet me at my place later this evening, Irene. I'll see if I can find your stuff..." he replied, then left the back room, and then the shop...the front doorbell giving its usual ching! As it was sprung.
Rally stood there for a few moments after, thinking about what was just said, then returns to the table, picks up the picture, looks at it for a short while, before finally saying "Yeah...sure dad"
Chapter 2
a blast from the past
Later that evening, Rally pulled up outside her Dad's house in her Cobra. Ever since the conversation that morning with her Dad, she had been thinking about Arlene...and wondering if what he said had any basis. She got out of the car and walked up to his front door, knocking gently on it before opening it and calling out "Dad...you here?"
A muffled bang came from upstairs, as something heavy sounded like it had been dropped. Rally immediately ran up the stairs and pulled her gun out...in case. She saw her Dad climbing down from the attic, and a large, old brown suitcase lying on the floor at the foot of the attic ladder.
"Hey pumpkin..." Robert goes as he steps off the ladder and turns to face her "I'm glad you came over...I knew I had it somewhere..." he added
"Had what?" Rally asked as she holstered her gun
"This..." he replied, as he picked up the suitcase and carried it downstairs, followed by Rally. They headed to the kitchen and Robert placed the suitcase on the table, then popped open the catches
"This case means the world to me, Irene...it holds memories...of you...your Mother...and your Sister" he went "Goldie may have been able to control my mind...but she could not take away that what is most precious to me..."
Robert opened the suitcase up, and Rally saw things she thought she had forgotten about, or no longer remembered. Pictures of herself as a baby and as a young girl. A young woman...her Mother, always smiling in every picture taken. A pair of baby booties, an old rattle, a ragdoll...and at the bottom of the case, a small cardboard box with three letters on it...A M V
Robert pulled the small box out of the case, and placed it on the tabletop, pushing the large suitcase back a bit to give it room. he then lifted the lid and showed Rally the contents...another small pair of baby booties, a soother, a teething ring, some pictures and a certificate. Rally grabbed the certificate and read it...it was in a file with an Adoption Certificate, signed by both sets of families involved...the Vincent's, and the Davenport's. Rally scanned through it and saw for herself...she did have a slightly younger, albeit by a few minutes, twin Sister called Arlene Vincent...who was adopted at 12 months old by the Davenport family from New York
Rally turned to face her Father. Her face was somewhere between anger and sadness
"I have something to tell you…something I never thought you would need to find out. A secret that me and your mother kept hidden from you." Robert closes the file and places it on the table, resting his right hand on top of it.
"A secret?" she goes, looking puzzled.
"We never wanted to you to know about your sister. Your mother and I thought it best not to tell you."
"Tell me what, dad? That I have more family?" tears of anger start to run down her face
"She looks the same as me through all the pictures…" she says, flicking back through the album.
"She is your twin, Irene"
"Arlene Davenport is my sister? That's just not right. Why now...Dad?" she asked "and are you sure it's the same Davenport?"
Robert shook his head "I'm not sure, pumpkin...they are the ones who sent us these pictures of her growing up, but one day the pictures just stopped coming. But right now, my soul is praying it to be true...so my family can be complete"
Rally studied the pictures, and the certificate...but one particular picture took hold of her interest. It was taken in New York's Central Park. Two Families sat opposite each other, the Mothers...each holding on to a baby Girl, whilst Rally's Dad was sat behind her Mother with a sad smile on his face...whilst on the other side, a young Boy was being held by his Dad. Just behind the second family, a smiling, unidentified woman was also pictured.
Her Dad also looked at the picture and spoke "That's them...that's the Davenport's...Doug and Judy, and their young son, Justin. The lady behind them was the Social Worker in charge of the Adoption"
Rally stared blankly at the picture, her eyes started to well up again with tears.
"Then Arlene...IS my Sister?" she asked. Her Dad nodded slowly.
"Oh...My...God, Dad..." Rally went, and then looked at him with the welled eyes "Does she know any of this?"
"Not unless they have told her..." Robert replied
Rally put the picture down and grabbed a handkerchief off her dad, who pulled one out of his pocket, and wiped her eyes dry
"Well then..." she starts "I guess there's only one way to find out then..." Rally adds, then goes into her pocket and pulls out a Cell phone and hits speed-dial 7...
Part 3
The night everything changed...
3o minutes after getting a call off Rally, Arlene Davenport and Misty stopped their Honda outside of the address given to them by Rally. Her Cobra was already parked up outside the house. The two girls got out and proceeded towards the front door. Misty raps gently on the door, and the door is opened by Rally, who had a small, almost enigmatic smile on her face
"Hi..." she goes quietly as she looks at the two girls, and then beckons them to come in
"Hey..." goes Arlene, as she walks past Rally, but notices her eyes were a bit red "you ok?"
"Yeah...I'm ok..." Rally replies, and then leads them into the kitchen of the house, where a tall, well built man was standing behind the kitchen table, with a small box in front of him on the table.
"I'll stick the kettle on..." Rally goes, and turns her back to the arrivals as she fills it up, then switches it on to boil. Misty takes a seat next to the man and goes "hello, Mr Vincent"
The man replies "Good evening, Misty...and...Hello Arlene"
Arlene takes a seat opposite him, as Rally sits down to his left
"Dad..." Rally starts "this...is Arlene Davenport, from New York"
"Pleased to meet you..." he went, and took her hand and held it gently, before letting go and sitting down
"So...this is your Dad, huh?" Arlene goes as she looks at him "I see the resemblance"
"Anything else you notice, Arlene?" Rally asks her
"Is this going to be an interrogation?" Arlene snaps at her "I don't have to stay here and put up with this..." she goes, and then pushes the chair back and stands up.
Mr Vincent suddenly goes "Arlene Margret Vincent...sit down..." Arlene looks at him with a mix of shock and confusion on her face
"What did you call me...and how do you know my middle name?" she replied, as she sat down slowly
Rally looked at her "He knows your middle name...because it was also our Mothers first name"
"My Mother's name was Judy...she died giving birth to my sister" Arlene replied
"She wasn't your natural Mother..." Mr Vincent added "my wife, Margret, was"
"WHAT?" Arlene went with shock in the tone of her voice
Mr Vincent opened the small box on the table and proceeded to empty the contents gently onto the table in front of the three girls. Arlene and Misty both looked at the contents with curiosity and doubt on their faces. Misty went and picked up the picture taken in Central Park and looked at it
"Isn't that Central Park in New York? I can see the Empire State Building in the Background" she asks
Arlene snatches the picture off Misty
"Hey..."
Arlene looks at the picture herself and goes "Mom...and Doug and Justin"
She then looks up and asks "Where did you get this?" with slight anger in her tone of voice
Mr Vincent looks at her and answers "it was given to us by the Social Services. I asked them to take a photo of the two families together, before we went our separate ways. That day was the hardest day of both mine and Margret's life...leaving our other Daughter to be raised by another Family in another part of the country...But we both knew it was in your best interest, they had everything going for them. Doug was a Construction Site Foreman, and Judy was a Nursery Nurse...both earning good money and could give you the life you deserved"
"HA!" Arlene went snidely "you don't know the half of it...Doug lost his job years ago, because he has a Gambling addiction and an Alcohol problem that he developed AFTER mom died. Me, Justin and my Sister, Christine, grew up in a broken home. Doug's debt kept getting bigger and left us with no money for food, so me and Justin took to hustling and petty theft to survive...then one day we had a huge fight, and i mean fight...we had to be broken apart from each other by the Police, who happened to find some stolen property in the house from Justin's light-fingeredness as well. Doug went and blamed it all on me, and told my Brother to press charges for assaulting him. I was sent to Juvenile Detention, and spent the next few years in and out of the system as i worked my way away from New York...and them..."
Mr Vincent had a look of shock on his face. "No wonder Rally said you had a hard life before she met you..."
"Hard...?" she started "i practically grew up in detention. There's nothing like learning about life from behind bars...you can learn so much from other inmates"
"Is that where you learnt about stealing cars?" Rally asked
"That...and more" Arlene answered the question "boosting, card tricks, scamming, hustling, 'tricks'...anything that would make me money...until i got caught the next time"
"So..." Mr Vincent went "were you ever told anything by Doug?" he asked
"All the time..." Arlene replied "he took pleasure in reminding me I was adopted, because I was never good enough to be his Daughter...but he never mentioned who my real parents were"
"Then if he didn't think you were good enough to be his daughter...why didn't he mention who your real parents were?" Rally interjected
"Because he said that my real parents were DEAD..." Arlene snapped back. The whole room was stunned into silence.
Mr Vincent was the first to break the silence
"I'm...sorry he told you that" he went, then stood up and offered his arms open for a hug. Arlene stood up slowly, her eyes had welled up with tears...yet she went over to Robert and hugged him, burying her face into his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and went "It's OK...everything's OK"
Arlene started crying softly into his shirt, and went quietly "Dad..."
Rally stood up also, and walked over towards her father...and newly-found sister, and hugged the both of them
"I have a sister..." Rally went quietly
Part 4
"The name's Vincent"
A few nights later, 2 girls were sitting in a 1967 Shelby Cobra...and watching a house in the eastside of Chicago. The girl in the passenger seat lowered the binoculars and passed them over to the girl in the drivers' seat
"He's in...Shall we go get him?" the second girl asked
"Yes...lets" the first girl replied as she lowered the binoculars she had been passed and chucked them into the rear seats. The 2 girls got out of the car and split up, the second girl going round the back of the house, whilst the first girl moved into a position to take the front door. Inside the house, the suspect was slouching on an old, beat up sofa and drinking a beer, when the front door comes flying open from a heavy kick. The man scrambles off the sofa and grabs a sawn-off shotgun, and tries to blast the young woman...but only succeeds in creating a hole in the wall. The second girl comes running in the back door, pulling out her recently acquired Sig Sauer P228 out from a holster under her jacket. The man with the shotgun backs towards the kitchen and the back door when he feels a gun barrel poking into the back of his neck
"Drop it...deadbeat" the second girl goes with a low growl in the tone of her voice
The man raises his hands and drops the shotgun
"Who...who are you?" he asks, as he turns around slowly
"The names Vincent..." the second girl replies
"Rally Vincent?" the man asks as his hands are grabbed and secured with cuffs
The first girl approaches him and replies "I'm Rally Vincent...that's my sister"
"Arlene Vincent...pleased to bust you..." the second girl replies, then adds "man...I got to get used to that..."
With that...the two girls march their suspect out of the house and towards the parked up car...