Summary: Hailey Nichol's thoughts as she returns home for Caleb's funeral. I've never really written for Hailey before but hopefully I've caught her character. It started off as a drabble but turned out longer than I was expecting it to be.
Daddy's Girl
Hailey leaned back against the headrest watching the last minute luggage being loaded into the aeroplane. The men worked methodically, each bag and each suitcase handled without much care as they were thrown into the luggage compartment; but even though her eyes were focussed as they worked, Hailey's mind was elsewhere.
She was on her way home to Newport for her father's funeral.
The phone call had come in the middle of the afternoon. Sandy's voice had been low and sorrowful, and she knew immediately that something was wrong. Kirsten? Caleb? Seth? Ryan? All the possibilities had run through her mind. She caught her breath as he broke the news about her father's death: he'd suffered a heart attack; he couldn't be revived; they did everything they could.
It wasn't the first time that Hailey had thought about her father's death. Like a lot of children – and especially since her mother's death 12 years ago – Hailey had sometimes wondered about how she would feel if she lost her father as well. It wasn't something that she thought she would have to face soon and so suddenly. She thought about her mother by comparison; how slow her death had been, from the initial diagnosis and the rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that had followed, until the final months when her mother had accepted that this was a battle she was not going to win and instead resolved to make the most of the time she had left with her family. Hailey thought about her father, and how there had been no chance for him to do all the things he had always wanted to do and no chance to say goodbye.
It was this that upset her the most. After all that they had been through, all the worry she had caused him and the arguments they'd had, and despite making things right in the end, Hailey was full of regret that she would never get the chance to say goodbye to her father. She wondered what was going through his mind at the end and whether he knew what was happening to him. She wondered if he knew he was going to die and whether, in those last moments, he had thought of her at all.
There was a sudden jolt as the aeroplane started to move, driving slowly to the runway and preparing for take off. Hailey blinked back the tears that threatened to fall, composing herself as the aeroplane began its ascent.
Hailey started to think about her teenage years. Although Kirsten had had her moments, including marrying a Jewish boy from the Bronx rather than an eligible bachelor from the Newport elite, Hailey had been the one to really rebel. She had never conformed to the Newport way of life, except for the riches and advantages that it brought. Instead, she had experimented with drugs and stayed out all night; she had skipped school and flunked tests, not caring about achieving any academic qualifications; and she had dropped out of school at 17 and left home to travel the world. During those 8 years, she had barely thought of home or her family. She had sent the occasional postcard and made the odd phone call. She had made rare trips back to Newport, usually when her money was running out and she needed to beg her father for more. She had never thought about how her actions affected him. Her main priority had been that she wanted to have fun and to hell with the consequences.
For Hailey, it wasn't until the age of 25 that she had really grown up. She had turned her life around, making a life for herself in Japan and starting to build a successful career in the fashion industry. She had stayed in contact with her family, sending weekly emails to both her father and Kirsten and making regular phone calls to them. When Caleb had suffered his first heart attack, her first instinct had been to return home. Both Caleb and Kirsten had persuaded her that it was unnecessary and that he was ok. Caleb had promised her that there was nothing to worry about and that all he needed to do was to make a few lifestyle changes. Hailey had been suspicious that it was their way of keeping her away from her newly discovered half-sister, Lindsey, and she wondered if the first time she would meet this girl would be at their father's funeral.
She wondered if her father had forgiven her for all the stress she had put him through and whether he had been proud of the way she had changed her life in the last 6 months.
She hated that she would never know the answer.
People had always told Hailey that she was the spitting image of her mother, from her acorn brown eyes to the blonde streaks in her hair, and this was why Caleb had always given her what she asked for. Hailey didn't think so. When she had left Newport aged 17, she thought that Caleb would be glad that he didn't have to see her every day. To him, she was a constant reminder of his wife, the love of his life, and a constant reminder that his wife was now gone. It was the same for everyone, even herself. The day after her mother's funeral, Hailey had caught a glimpse of what she thought was her mother in the hallway of their mansion and her heart had jumped in delight. When she had realised that it was only her own reflection in the mirror, she had become so angry that she threw the closest object, a vase, at it, smashing them both. When she had announced that she was leaving Newport, she knew that he wouldn't object. It was easier with her gone and Hailey had tried to pretend that she didn't care, but she did.
Kirsten had always held her to be the favourite child, but Hailey knew differently. He may have showered her with gifts and money, but she knew that Caleb would never have trusted her with the most precious thing he owned – his business. He had created and nurtured the Newport Group from a tiny office in the back of their first house into the multi-million corporation that it now was. It was the most important thing in his life and he had only trusted Kirsten with it. Hailey knew that the company had been a cause of many arguments between Kirsten and their father, and she wondered if Kirsten had ever realised how much it meant to him to have her working with him.
Hailey's thoughts moved to her sister. She knew that the one person she would be able to draw some comfort from would be Kirsten. Something in Sandy's voice had worried her but all had said was that Kirsten was too devastated to speak to her and that he would explain when she arrived. Hailey cursed the long flight that she had ahead of her. She ordered a vodka and tonic from the air stewardess, hoping it would lull her into a sleep for the next 10 hours.
Closing her eyes, Hailey pushed out all the thoughts that plagued her and thought about when she was a child and the times her parents would take her to the playground or the beach or the pier. She smiled to herself as she remember the way Caleb would lift her onto his shoulders so that she could see above the crowds, telling her that he would show her the world some day; and in that moment she remembered what it felt like when she was Daddy's little girl.