She is born Melinda Jemma Zale. She is born in a secret underground base at 2:15 in the morning. She has a mother, a grandmother, a grandfather, two aunts and three uncles. Her mother calls her Mellie. When she is a week old, she leaves the hospital room she was born in and is moved to a different room. This new room will be her room for the next five years.
She learns to walk while her mother hacks into the firewalls of other agencies, while her aunts and uncles create chemicals and bring down terrorists.
Her first big words are deadly chemicals her aunt and uncle discuss over dinner.
She is oblivious to these facts.
…
When she is two years old, her cousin is born. Her cousin's name is Clara Joy Fitzsimmons. Clara's parents are her aunt and her uncle. She sits outside with her mother and grandmother as they talk about the day she was born.
When her cousin is born, they all crowd around and pass her around. Her grandfather says what a proud dad her uncle must be. She absentmindedly wonders why her daddy wasn't there the day she was born, but her grandmother was. She wonders if she has a daddy.
She doesn't ask.
…
She does ask when she is four years old. Her mother is brushing her hair, and she asks if she has a daddy. Her mother stops brushing.
"Of course you do," she says from behind her. But her voice is choked, and Mellie doesn't know why. She asks where he is. Her mother tells her far away.
"How far away," she asks, twisting around to look at her mother.
Her mother moves her hands quickly, swishing them across her face.
Her mom was crying.
"Far," her mother says.
She doesn't ask any more questions.
Her mother resumes brushing her hair.
…
Mellie is five years old when her whole family moves to another base across the country. She likes this base because it has big windows and more hallways she can run down. She can look out the windows and see the whole world. She and Clara play hide and seek and tag together.
Life is good.
But sometimes, she feels sad. When her mom goes away on mission, or when her grandmother is too quiet, or at Sunday family dinners when Clara sits between her parents and she only has her mom next to her.
She never tells this to anyone.
…
Sometimes, her mother cries when she thinks Mellie can't hear her. Sometimes she walks in their little apartment and hears soft sobs coming from inside her mother's room. Usually she goes up to the door and knocks. Her mother will open it with a smile. But Mellie knows better.
Sometimes she sees her mother staring at a little photo. She can never make out the picture, but her mother always looks sad staring at it. Her mother always puts it in her pocket when anyone passes near her.
She never tells anyone about these things, either.
…
She is eight years old when she asks about her dad again. Her mom is working at her computer.
"Why don't I have a daddy?" she asks and this time her mother doesn't contradict her.
Her mom turns, and reaches out to ruffle her hair.
Then she turns, leaning down so their eyes are at the same level.
"Your daddy was not a good person," she says, voice low.
Her mother's voice is steady, but Mellie sees her eyes beginning to tear up.
She nods solemnly and skips away.
…
She is eight years old the first time she sees him.
After her short conversation with her mother, she had decided he must be in jail. That's where the bad guys went, after all.
But one day, sitting at a café eating lunch with her mother, she sees him. Well, she doesn't know, but she sees a man.
He's tall, with dark hair like hers, and he's standing just in view of the café in the entrance to an alley. He's staring right at her. Her mother is facing her, so she can't see him. Mellie thinks maybe her mother's not supposed to see.
When she leans down to sip her drink and then looks back up to find him, he's gone.
…
She sees him often after that.
Sometimes, when she and her mother are walking down the street, she'll look back and he'll be there, just for a second.
Sometimes she sees him in the next aisle over in a store, but when she looks again, he'll be gone.
Sometimes when she looks out her window at night, she feels that he can see her.
She should be afraid, she thinks, of this mysterious man who could be her father. But even after everything her mother has said about him, she can't help but feel he is there to protect her.
…
When she is fourteen, she goes to the junior academy. She sees him less after that.
He's still there, though.
The day her first love, whose name was Dylan, breaks her heart, she walks back to her apartment in tears. Her mother is on a mission, and a note from her grandmother says she will be home late after work. She watches The Notebook and eats ice cream and cries by herself.
The next day her now ex-boyfriend walks into class and walks straight up to her and apologizes.
Later that day, Clara tells her that apparently Dylan was saying that some random guy cornered him in an alley, then bought him a coffee and gave him a thorough lesson on being nice to girls.
Walking home that afternoon, she looks across the street and sees the man. He meets her eyes, and winks.
She blinks, and he's gone again.
…
She is fifteen years old when her mother tells her the story of her father.
They are curled up on the couch, facing each other, and her mother tells her everything.
Her mother cries, so does she.
She thinks about mentioning seeing him all these years.
She doesn't.
…
She goes into Operations. Her mother is proud, her grandmother is proud, her grandfather seems slightly wary, but congratulates her all the same.
That night, among the mail in her mail box, she finds a scrap of paper with Be Careful written on it. The voice in her head is unfamiliar, and she knows it must be him.
She tucks the paper in her pocket, smiling.
…
She is twenty three that first time one of her missions goes wrong. She gets shot. She thinks she's going to die. The building she's in is wired with an explosive and she's too weak to get out. She silently asks her mother for forgiveness before fading into the darkness.
Then she wakes up.
She lifts her head, which is still ringing. She looks down to see the bullet wound in her side bandaged, and she sees the far off smoking remains of the building she thought would cause her death. She can see the helicopter coming in for the extraction. There is a note tucked in the ace bandage wrapped around her abdomen.
I thought I told you to be careful, it says.
She looks around. There's no one there.
…
She is twenty six years old when she gets married. Jordan Ware is from Sci-Tech, and he's the most perfect person she's ever met. She goes wedding dress shopping with her mom and her grandmother, who both tear up when they see her in her dress.
She's the first girl in her family to get married. Now there's a different kind of first.
On the day of her wedding, she's standing alone in her room, in her dress, waiting for her mother to come get her to walk her down the aisle. She's looking out the window at the back of the orchard she's about to get married in.
Far off in the distance, between the trees, stands a lone figure in a suit. He sees her, smiles, and she smiles back before turning away. She's done this enough times to know he won't be there when she looks back.
…
Her daughter is born when she is twenty seven. She names her daughter Grace. Grace Skye Ware. Her mother traces her daughter's initials on the baby blanket and her eyes fill up with tears that Mellie thinks might be more sad than happy.
…
Her mother is killed in combat when Mellie is twenty nine years old. She opens the door one day to her grandfather who has tears in his eyes. He hands her an official letter, and she throws herself into his arms and cries.
It is sunny the ay of her mother's funeral. Nearly five hundred people show up, all in black suits and dresses. Mellie stands at the front with Jordan and holds Grace in her arms.
There is only one name on her mother's headstone. She had taken the last name Zale when she became an agent and a mother, to give Mellie a last name, but it had never really been hers.
She had always been Skye.
When the funeral is over, Mellie stands in front of her mother's grave and waits. Hundreds of people give their condolences to her and her family.
Hours pass, her family leaves, Jordan takes Grace and kisses her on the cheek, telling her he'll see her at home.
She waits.
She doesn't hear it, at first. Then she does.
She hears soft sobbing, not far away. There is a tree a fifty feet behind her mother's headstone. She turns and walks towards it.
Then she sees him. He's curled under the tree, long arms wrapped around his legs, crying like a child, his hands buried in his chest.
She says nothing, just sits next to him under the tree.
He looks up and she finds herself staring into eyes that look exactly like her own.
"I loved her," is all he says.
"I know," is all she replies.
…
They go to a non-descript bar. He tells her his story of him and her mother. They both cry.
They exchange numbers.
Two weeks later, he goes to sleep and doesn't wake up.
She buries him in a plot next to her mothers.
She is the only one at his funeral.
But after, standing in front of his grave, she feels a hand on her shoulder. She turns to find her grandfather, her grandmother, her aunts, her uncles, her husband, her daughter.
"He loved her," is all she can choke out through the tears.
"We know," says her grandmother, pulling her in for a hug, "We know."