Author's Note:

So after a few years, I actually decided to go ahead and make a sequel to Troubles and Decisions. This one is more of a recovery one, than the huge plotting logistics of the first. It's actually a stand-alone as well- knowledge of the first isn't necessary to follow along. Originally it was going to be just one simple chapter outlining all of the events, but then it somehow changed into 115 pages and counting, so I've got quite a bit of this one written already. I just have to wait for my beta, Vo, to catch up. Vo didn't beta this part, but I wanted it out.

Story picks up directly where the epilogue left off.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Chapter One

Continuance

Quote:

"Life must be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward."

-Soren Kierkegaard

Richard had insisted that two of them sleep in his bed with him. He could barely sleep all night as he kept waking to look back at Rachel and his child his child sleeping beside him.

As it got closer to the morning he slipped out of the bed and headed to the kitchen. He was planning on making breakfast for his family. Cooking was something that he had become quite proficient in during his years without a butler or friends to help him.

Richard opened his refrigerator and noticed how pitifully stocked it was. He had thrown himself into work more as time went on and rarely even ate anymore. He sighed and then froze as he heard the near silent footsteps behind him. He snapped around and then was looking down at his sleepy-eyed daughter.

"You left," she said in her little girl voice that made Richard smile.

"I came to make breakfast," he replied as he gazed at her. She seemed so beautiful to him.

She came to stand next to him and gazed into the refrigerator as well. He felt slightly bad that she should see the sorry state of his refrigerator and then had to fight off the urge to laugh. He was afraid of being judged by a girl that barely reached his knees.

"Rosie always makes French toast," Robyn commented. "Do you have any?"

"We could make some," Richard said, eyeing the eggs and milk, "Does your mother like them as well?"

"They're good," Robyn went on. "Mommy likes them too. So does Rosie."

"So we should make some?" he asked her as he reached in for the eggs.

Robyn's hand beat his. "I can get that."

"Okay, then," he said as he looked at this odd creature that was his daughter.

She took the carton in her small hands and walked over to the counter. She stopped for a moment. "Your kitchen is a lot bigger than ours is."

Richard stopped. "It's your kitchen too now."

"Ours isn't this messy," she told him.

He looked around. Nothing was messy, it just wasn't…clean. There was a rather shameful layer of dust on everything and admittedly a large amount of paperwork was spread across the table and there was a dish or two in the sink, but still.

"Don't worry, I'll help you clean it," she said as she pushed the carton onto the counter. It was almost out of her reach.

Richard grinned at the fact that a four-year-old planned on helping him get his kitchen back in order. "Thank you very much Robyn," he said.

She nodded and began pushing a chair over to the counter. "You get everything else."

Richard got out the rest of the ingredients and the bowls and mixing cups and spoons and they were in the midst of adding cinnamon in companionable silence when Robyn finally spoke again. "I'm glad that I have a daddy now."

He felt a strange mix of emotions. One was a great happiness to hear her say that and to know that she liked him. The other was pulled from the great reminder of the fact that they hadn't been together. "I'm glad that I have a daughter now," he replied.

"Mommy always said that I had a daddy, but Rosie said I didn't."

Richard didn't say anything as he let her add the cinnamon. "Then mommy said awhile ago that I would finally get to see my daddy," she was adding the cinnamon slowly making a swirling design. "I told Rosie and then I got in trouble. Rosie and mommy got in a fight."

"About what?" asked Richard as he handed her a rubber spoon to begin stirring with.

"Mommy was going to give me to my daddy and Rosie said she was dumb," Robyn began stirring diligently. "I don't think Rosie likes you."

"Well she doesn't even know me, does she?" Richard asked as he pulled out a griddle.

"I'm not allowed to touch those," Robyn said as she pointed at the griddle, "They burn me very badly."

Richard smiled at her. "Is that from experience?"

"Yes. But mommy fixed it."

"She used her magic?" Richard asked as he took the egg-soaked slice of bread that Robyn was holding out to him and put it on the griddle.

Robyn looked at him almost sharply. "You know about those?"

"I helped train her," he replied as he adjusted the temperature setting.

"What does that mean?" she asked as she watched the toast sizzle.

Richard hesitated. He didn't know exactly how much he should tell her. "You'll have to ask your mother about that."

"You don't know?" she asked somewhat doubtfully. "You don't know what your own words mean?"

"Not always," he replied.

"Does mommy still have to leave?" Robyn asked suddenly. It was clear that she had been thinking about this for quite awhile.

Richard went over to her and grabbed her up in one arm- god, she was small. She was still holding another batter-dripping piece of bread and it dripped all over his arm and down to the floor but he ignored it. "No. You and your mommy are going to live with me forever. I won't let either of you leave."

There was a mix of relief and confusion on her face. "Not even to the park?"

"We can go to the park," he amended while suppressing a smile.

"What about the store?" Robyn asked. "Or to Rosie's? Or the hospital?"

"We'll still go to all of those places," he said quickly. "You've been to the hospital?"

"Mommy works there," Robyn said. "I play with the sick people."

Robyn was looking warily at the steaming griddle. "Don't put me too close. It burns me," she reminded him.

Richard shifted her further to the side and she held onto him tightly and then rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm tired of cooking. You finish it."

He was so caught up in the incredible feeling of holding his daughter that he didn't hear Raven- no Rachel- walk into the room. "Not as clean as I had originally hoped, but beautiful nonetheless."

He spun around and felt his heart leap as he looked at her. The long black hair hung messily around her shoulders and she was dressed in a pair of his pajamas. She was beautiful. Robyn clung tighter to him and giggled slightly as they spun and Richard could see that Rachel hadn't been talking about his kitchen when she said beautiful.

Richard walked over to her and held her to him as he kissed her. It was like soothing an ache that he had felt for so many years and he felt lost for a moment.

"You aren't supposed to kiss people like that. It's naughty."

Rachel and Richard broke apart and Richard felt slightly dizzy as he looked back at the child he was holding in one arm. "Rosie told me that."

"It's okay for mommies and daddies to do that, Bennie," Rachel said as she reached forward and pulled the girl into her arms. "Ro- Richard the food is going to burn."

He was distracted by the sight of the two before him. "Daddy," Robyn said as she pointed behind him. "You fix the food now."

It was with great warmth that he turned around and went back to the griddle. It felt incredible hearing the word daddy from the mouth of his daughter. How ridiculous that such a small thing should make him feel so happy.

"Hey Bennie, are you going to help me clean up this kitchen?" Rachel asked as she set her daughter down.

"Yeah, I already told daddy that I would," Robyn said as she headed to the table.

Robyn stood on a chair and began handing Rachel paper from the big stack on the table one-by-one. It was going to take awhile. "Hey Richard, where should I put these?"

"Just…stick them somewhere, it doesn't really matter," he said as he tried to remember what they even were.

"Okay, that sounds easy enough," she replied dryly, making him grin.

They all worked in silence for a moment before Rachel asked, "When are you going into work today?"

The thought suddenly struck him as he just now remembered that he had a job and not just a family- family­- and that things in the outside world were going to continue to make demands on him.

"I'll call them after breakfast. I'm not going in today. I think that I'll take a little vacation," he said as he gathered up a plate full of food and turned around.

Rachel glanced at him and then began gathering up the papers at a quicker rate. "I'll just finish this up."

Robyn nodded and then walked towards the cabinets. "I'll set the table." She looked at Richard expectantly. "Pick me up."

He smiled as he did what she commanded and helped her open the cabinet doors. Rachel looked up as Robyn reached inside. "You have to help her hold th-"

Robyn dropped the plates that she had been trying to drag out and three of the shattered on the floor. She looked up at Richard with a trembly face and he realized that she expected to get in trouble. "It doesn't matter," he said lightly as he reached for different plates instead.

"Bennie you know better," Rachel said.

"He let me do it!" Robyn retorted.

"Well he's never had to deal with a-" Rachel suddenly hesitated, "A four-year-old in his kitchen before."

Richard caught her eyes as the unspoken words suddenly made the air thicker. There was a slightly sad expression on her face. He moved forward and took hold of her hand, staring into her eyes as their enormous history passed through in the space of seconds. He squeezed her hand tightly and then went back to Robyn to help continue breakfast.

After breakfast was finished and Robyn went to work wiping down the table, alone by her own insistence, Rachel spoke with Richard near the doorway, just out of Robyn's earshot.

"I don't have any new clothing here or anything really," she said quietly. "I wasn't expecting to stay here with you."

Richard smiled. "It's nothing to worry about. As surprising as it is, I'm kind of rich. You can get new things."

"But until then can I just…borrow some clothes?" she asked.

"If you want," he said but then gave her a strange expression. "Why not just phase to your old…home and grab what you need?"

"I don't use my powers anymore," Rachel said bluntly. "It's not worth the risk. I've been in hiding since I left."

"Robyn knows about them," he said.

Rachel looked slightly guilty. "I use them to heal her. And some of the patients that I worked with. But that's it."

Richard grinned and leaned against the doorframe. "What does Robyn have here?"

"Just some clothes, and this blanket that she is obsessed with. I couldn't really bring her bed with her, after all."

"You didn't bring Mrs. Hopscotch?" a voice interrupted.

Richard smiled down at the sober looking child. "Who's Mrs. Hopscotch?"

Rachel sighed. "She's an old stuffed rabbit that Robyn found at Rosie's. Robyn has much better and cleaner toys and dolls and stuffed animals, but she insists on dragging that dirty thing around."

"Well we have to go get Mrs. Hopscotch," Richard said suppressing a smirk. "She's a dear friend, after all."

"Come on Bennie," Rachel said holding out her hand, "It's time to get dressed."

Richard watched them walk down the hallway and then he went into his office to use a phone. He call up his secretary, a man name Jonathon Lake, and informed him that he would be taking the next two weeks off and to call if there was an emergency.

When he went back into his bedroom he saw Rachel brushing out Robyn's long black hair before beginning to braid it into pigtails. Rachel had borrowed a pair of jeans from him and worn her sweatshirt from the day before.

"Hey daddy," Robyn said. "Do you like my dress?"

She was in a little pink dress with yellow leggings. "Of course," he said.

"Quit moving your head so much," Rachel commanded, as she bound the elastic band around one of the pigtails.

Robyn gave a long-suffering sigh and sat back. "Hurry up."

As soon as Rachel finished Robyn hurried over to the suitcase and began rooting through it until she found a small knapsack. "I didn't think that you were really into pink and yellow," Richard said while he watched Robyn struggle to put her arms through the straps.

"Robyn likes the bright colors. She can be something of a spectacle sometimes," Rachel murmured back. "Kind of like her father was." Her hand found his.

They drove in Rachel's car, she had the child-seat in it already, to the nearest strip. Richard held Rachel's hand the entire time and he couldn't stop gazing at her.

Once they were parked Robyn went around to Rachel and demanded to be held. "I'm tired of holding you," Rachel said, "You're getting too big."

"I can carry you," Richard said.

"No," Robyn said quickly. "I don't want you to."

Richard straightened up. "Then you'll have to walk," Rachel said flatly.

Robyn stomped angrily ahead of them until they reached the end of the parking lot. She looked around at all of the people milling around and she backed up. "I don't think I want to go in there," she said.

"Let your daddy hold you," Rachel said.

Robyn looked up at Richard consideringly. Finally she nodded. "You're big enough to scare those others," she said while holding her arms up at him.

He picked her up and she put one of her arms around his back and then sat up so she could still see. She swung one foot around while looking around at everyone. "Don't let go of me," she said.

Richard told her he wouldn't. Rachel smiled and in they walked.

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