YOU CAN LET GO NOW
by Criminally Charmed
Disclaimer - I do not own Numb3rs, Thunderbirds (my OC, Don's daughter, Kate, marries a Tracy in my series, or the song "You Can Let Go".
Oh - and Sammygirl1963 - my amazing sometimes beta and always friend says a tissue warning is required.
This is for my Dad. Like Kate, I hope he knows he is my hero. The best of me comes from him. Except my sarcasm. That comes from both parents.
Don Eppes stood on the sidewalk at the bottom of his driveway. He glanced back at the house with a smile. Even with both of them working, Don and Robin Eppes were still government employees. They should have never been able to afford the three bedroom house two doors down from Don's childhood home.
But when the market tanked years ago, Charlie Eppes – Don's kid brother – had purchased the house for pennies on the dollar. Charlie had wanted to simply give Don the house but the FBI Agent's pride wouldn't let that happen. So Charlie had let Don buy the house – for considerably below market value.
As a result, the Eppes brothers and their respective families were very close. Charlie had three children – Maggie, Ben and Edward (don't call me Eddie) as did Don – his twin sons, Andy and Danny, plus the little angel Don was currently watching over protectively.
His Katie-Bear - a five year old angel with her hair in jet black braids and sparkling humor in her soft brown eyes – Katherine Louise Eppes was named, oddly enough, for an old friend of Charlie's who had died saving the lives of both brothers. As the woman had laid dying, she had looked up at Don and had teasingly told him he would have to name his daughter for her. Don had agreed, desperate to have the woman hold on but not wanting to tell her that he and Robin had been lucky to conceive the twins. He doubted there would be more children. One year to the date of Kate's death a slightly premature - but still the most beautiful thing Don had ever seen - Katie had been born.
Alan Eppes had smiled at his elder son. "Is our princess ready?" he asked, camera in hand.
"All set," Charlie said confidently as he brought the bike that his daughter had outgrown - the training wheels back on for the first time in years.
"Daddy!" Katie had called out as she ran down the driveway. Eyeing the bike, she beamed. "Daddy, it's awesome!"
"Awesome, huh baby?" Don smiled as he picked her up and put the little girl on the bike, checking her helmet, kneepads and elbow pads.
"Yep!'
Don kissed his daughter's head and began to guide her down the sidewalk, his wife using the video camera while his father laughingly took pictures.
Wind blowin' on my face
Sidewalk flyin' beneath my bike
A five year-old's first taste
Of what freedom's really like
He was runnin' right beside me
His hand holdin' on the seat
I took a deep breath and hollered
As I headed for the street
"I'm good, Daddy!" Katie called out, "You can let go!"
Reluctantly, Don let go of the back of the bike. Tossing her father a quick grin over her shoulder, Katie turned back her focus to the road ahead of. Pausing, Katie kept going as Don slowly watched his daughter pull away, knowing in his heart it wouldn't be the first time.
You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I'm ready
To do this on my own
It's still a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I'll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go
Don smiled at his only daughter, marveling again at what an amazing person she had turned into. At age nine, she had survived a point-blank shot to the neck, after being taken hostage by a drug lord Don had put in jail before the girl had even been born. Instead of dying, the little girl had survived, grown, and graduated from UCLA with dual degrees in criminal justice and computer science.
Instead of heading on for a master's degree or into the private sector, Don had been dismayed when the FBI – for only the second time in its history – had waived the age requirement to let the twenty-one-year old into the Academy. Don had been planning on retiring and Katie had joked that they were trying to make sure they kept an Eppes in reserve. But she was no longer laughing when the director died suddenly and her father suddenly became her boss.
A lesser person could have cited that her father being the director was not an ideal situation and no one would have thought less of her for leaving the Bureau. But Katie had hung on for four years, ignoring whispers of nepotism as was forced to prove herself again and again to others. Even though Agent Katherine Eppes proved her worth repeatedly in the specialty of cyber crimes, Don had to admit a sense of relief that the young woman had accepted a job in the private sector. Specifically, she had taken a job with Tracy Enterprises. Kate had joked the job had a "can't be beat" signing bonus.
Which was why Don was standing in the temple, still holding onto Katie's arm, as she smiled up at him through a lace veil before she turned and smiled, holding out her other hand to Scott Tracy, her new boss' eldest son.
The man she was about to marry.
I was standin' at the altar
Between the two loves of my life
To one I've been a daughter
To one I soon would be a wife
When the preacher asked,
'Who gives this woman?'
Daddy's eyes filled up with tears
He kept holdin' tightly to my arm
'Till I whispered in his ear
Don didn't want to let go. This was his baby, his little girl. No one else could realize how special she was to him. No one else could love his Katie-Bear like Don did. Then he saw the glow in Scott Tracy's eyes and heard the younger man whisper "Oh, Katie."
Stifling a sigh, Don saw the way his baby's eyes sparkled and the smile on her face. When Katie had left the hospital after being shot, she had insisted on being called "Kate". With the exception of her father, uncle and grandfather, no one else was allowed to call her "Katie" any longer. To do so was to face the girl's rather formidable wrath.
But here was Scott, not only calling the young woman Katie but for her to be smiling at him while he did it – that was it, it was true love. Don smiled sadly when Kate lifted her veil long enough to kiss his cheek and whisper in his ear.
You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I'm ready
To do this on my own
It still feels a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I'll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go
Katherine Eppes Tracy ran past a nurses' station, her heart in her throat. She had dropped her father off to visit her brothers and their families only two days earlier. They had moved the elderly man to Tracy Island to live with Kate and her husband's extended family on the South Pacific isle when Don's wife and brother had died within months of each other, emotionally devastating the man. He had lived another five years and had seemed perfectly fine when Kate had brought him to her brother's house. So it had been a shock when her oldest nephew had called her.
"Aunt Kate," Aaron had sobbed. "Aunt Kate, its Grandpa. Dad said you need to get here as quickly as possible."
Luckily for Kate, her niece Samantha Tracy, the oldest daughter of her youngest brother-in-law, Alan Tracy, had been in New York with her. A gifted aviator, the young woman had shown why she had been considered one of the best Air Force fighter pilots, getting Kate from New York to Los Angeles in record-breaking time.
Kate froze outside of the ICU lounge, looking from each tearful family member. Her brothers, their wives and their children were all in the room. Suddenly, her cousin, Dr. Edward Eppes, came up and kissed Kate's forehead. "Nurse," he gestured to a young woman nearby. "Can you take Mrs. Tracy to see her father?"
The nurse, a young, fresh-faced woman gave a gentle smile as she led Kate towards a room. Opening the door, the nurse softly said, "He's not in any pain. But – well, I have to agree with Dr. Eppes. I think he was waiting for you. Just let him know it's alright."
Kate nodded and moved into the room. She started to sit at her father's side, appalled at all the machines surrounding Don Eppes. Looking up, she saw the DNR – Do Not Resuscitate – order labeled clearly. Kate had known her father's wishes that he had never wanted to be kept alive by artificial means. It still hurt.
Moving, she curled in beside him on the bed.
"I'm here, Daddy. Your baby girl is here. You were always there to catch me when I fell – it was why I was willing to take chances. But I have Scott and my boys. Jason is married now. I'll be a grandmother myself soon. So it's ok. I'll be ok. Just say hi to Mom, Uncle Charlie and Grandpa."
It was killin' me to see
The strongest man I ever knew
Wastin' away to nothin'
In that hospital room
'You know he's only hangin' on for you'
That's what the night nurse said
My voice and heart were breakin'
As I crawled up in his bed, and said
"You can let go now, Daddy."
You can let go
Your little girl is ready
To do this on my own
It's gonna be a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I'll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go
You can let go
Somewhere in the background, Kate heard the heart monitor go monotone before it was stopped. There were voices in the background but she tuned them out. It was several minutes before she heard a voice that made her react.
"Mom?"
Kate looked up through tear-filled eyes, to see her younger son, FBI Special Agent Donald Jefferson "DJ" Tracy, as leaned down before he pulled her into his arms.
"Dad and Jason are on their way," DJ assured his mother. "We're here for you, Mom. You can let go. We'll be here for you."
Breaking down in her son's firm embrace, Kate allowed herself to be led from the room. Don Eppes was no longer there, but she was. Her brothers were. And with their children then grandchildren, he would never really be gone, would he?
It's gonna be a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I'll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go
You can let go
A/N - I am keeping this as a Numb3rs story but borrowed a bit of Thunderbirds. Well, my Thunderbirds. I hope I gave enough details. My origional Thunderbirds series took nineteen stories to finish. So I hope it made sense.
Happy Father's Day, Dad - CC