Pride unconsciously stirred a large pop of red beans and rice with a deep scowl on his face; the team was gone for the evening and there were no pressing cases to puzzle over, so his mind had turned to a personal problem. It had been over two months since Laurel had stopped by to visit and, what was even worse, he couldn't get a straight answer out of her as to why.
He thought back to the last time that he'd seen her. As far as he could think, she wasn't angry with him and, even if she had been then, two months with barely a phone call from her was unfathomable.
There was definitely something amiss and her indirect cagey excuses frightened the daylights out of him.
"Dad?"
Her voice made him spin around with joy, but when he saw her face, his eyes widened in horror and the elated greeting died on his lips
"What the—?" he snapped sharply, dropping the spoon on the stovetop and bolting to her side with a chair in his hand.
"Sit," he instructed, dropping it in front of her.
His experienced eyes couldn't miss her bruised cheek, split upper lip, and black eye, even though she'd given a valiant effort to cover them with makeup.
"I'm okay, dad," she said, trying to reassure him, "I'm okay."
He shook his head emphatically, "No, you're not, baby girl. I know better than that." He squatted down in front of her, searching her eyes, trying to find the answer, "Am I gonna have to kill Orion?"
"No, no, no! It wasn't him!" she cried, vigorously shaking her head.
"Okay, okay, then tell me what happened?"
She hung her head and was silent for a long minute, a few tears sliding down her cheeks.
"Come on, baby girl!" he insisted, reaching out to her, "You've got to tell me what happened."
"I know, I know," she admitted, "I came here to get your advice." She paused again, shuddering, then dropped the bombshell, "It was mom's new boyfriend."
Pride's eyebrows shot upward in surprise. Linda's new boyfriend? He didn't even know that his ex-wife was seeing someone again. The last that he'd heard, she'd broken up with...whatever the guy's name was.
"Your mother is seeing someone? Why didn't you tell me?"
Laurel nodded silently, a few more tears sliding down her blushing cheeks. "I'm sorry, dad," she answered in a small voice.
"Has he hurt her too?"
Laurel shook her head, the tears flowing faster now.
Pride could never abide his daughter crying and he moved quickly to scoop her into his arms, cuddling her as he had when she was little. They clung to each other for a few minutes then Laurel pushed away.
"Dad…" she laughed softly.
He pulled her close again, "We've gotta talk, baby girl." Heading back to the stove with her in his arms, he stirred their dinner and asked, "Can you eat something?"
Sniffing the aromatic steam coming up from his cooking, something of her old self returned before his eyes. "Well, if I couldn't before, I can now," she answered, sighing contentedly and kissing his cheek.
He gently set her down in a chair at the table and kissed her forehead before returning to the stove to dish up two heaping bowls of food and fill their glasses with sweet tea.
"Don't you usually have a drink at night?" Laurel asked as he sat down beside her.
"Not when I'm working," he answered, "and I've gotta a feeling that I'm gonna be working late tonight." He paused for a moment, taking in the sight of her and nursing his fury against the man who'd hurt her, then he demanded, "So, tell me about this guy?"
"Well, ah," she began, her voice catching a little before she forged ahead, "His name is Angelo Lopez."
Pride's eyebrows rose sharply again, "Not the big oil man from Austin?"
"Yeah, him." Laurel nodded, nervously stirring her food for a minute before taking a bite, "They started seeing each other a couple months ago. He said that he saw us eating at a Papa John's and mom just inspired him so he found out who she was and asked her out." She rolled her eyes, "I know, it sounded cheesy to me at first."
Pride scowled, snarling something savage under his breath. Laurel's story instantly set off warning bells in his head and he couldn't help but wonder if Linda was being targeted as a way to get to him; he couldn't believe that she'd be fooled by that pick-up line; it had to be the oldest stalker line in the book.
"He's was nice though, dad," Laurel argued.
Pride shook his head, "You're mom is better than that."
"And romantic," she continued.
"Laurel…" he gently warned, intensely disliking that description.
"And he was super sweet to me," she went on, ignoring him, "...at first." She finished her description with a downcast sigh.
A dangerous light flashed in Pride's eyes. "At first?" he questions, pressing for more details, "What's that mean?"
Laurel blushed deeply, knowing that he would have a fit over the next part of the story, "Well, ah, um, he bought me a bunch of stuff: clothes, jewelry, anything he thought I wanted." She could practically feel the temperature in the room rise to the boiling point as she watched her father's reaction, "He even tried to buy me a brand new car."
"Laurel!" Pride exploded, "What the—"
"Whoa, dad, whoa," she quickly interrupted, holding up her hands, "It didn't happen; mom put her foot down on that one." She hurried to continue before he started ranting, distinctly embarrassed by what she'd already told him. Pride's expression made her cringe, but she was glad that he'd stopped yelling.
"Then, about a month ago," she continued, cautiously eyeing him, "he seemed to decided that he'd had enough of me. He stopped buying me things, I wasn't invited to go out with them when I visited from school." She shuddered again, "Sometimes, I'd get to his house and they won't even be there. His housekeeper knew to let me in, but then I'd be there all alone overnight." She shivered, "Mom hates it when that happens, but somehow he always manages to argue her down."
Pride felt sick; why hadn't anyone told him about this? Then again, was he getting so slow that he just didn't pick up on it? Then a sudden light bulb came on in his head; this must be why Laurel had been avoiding him for the last couple months!
"Then," she said, her teary voice bringing his attention back to the present conversation, "this past weekend, I went to Austin to take mom out for a surprise birthday lunch. I wanted it to be just the two of us since Angelo is always crowding me out lately and I chose lunch over dinner because I figured that he'd be at a golf course, or his club, or somewhere else during the day and I didn't want to start a fight between them."
Pride's stormy expression made him look formidable, but he remained silent, listening, sensing the climax was just ahead.
"But, when I got there," she continued, "he met me at the door and said that mom was waiting for him at his club and they were gonna fly to Palm Beach on his private jet and stay at Donald Trump's Mar a Lago resort for the whole week to celebrate her birthday." Tears streamed down her cheeks again, as she finished, "He said that I should just go back to school and forget about trying to take mom away from him. I don't know how he found out about the lunch, but," she indicated her face, "he did this to emphasize his point."
Pride moved like lightening to scoop her up again, tears coming to his own eyes now, "Shh, baby girl. You're safe now. I've got you. I've got you. I'll take care of this; I swear, I'll take care of this."
"I didn't know what else to do," she said, her body wracked with sobs as she clung to him, "I'm sorry, dad. I was ashamed to come before because of all the things that he was buying for me and then this happened and I didn't know what else to do."
Pride carried her out of the kitchen and all the way up to his bedroom, then he tucked her in and kissed her goodnight, "I wish you'd come before, baby girl, but you did the right thing now." He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand, "Sleep tight, Laurel."
"Where are you going?" she asked, sitting up on her elbow.
"I'm gonna call your mom to wish her a happy birthday," he said; the smile on his mouth told her that he'd do more than that.
"Be careful!" she blurted out.
He looked amused, waiting for an explanation.
Laurel blushed, "Sometimes Angelo picks up her phone."
A mixture of pleasure and danger flashed into Pride's expression, "Well, then, I'll just have to have a very interesting conversation with him."
Author's Note: Since this is my first NCIS New Orleans chapter story, I ought to let my newest readers know that, for the most part, I'm pretty terrible about updating my chapters in a timely manner so I invite you to please click "follow" if you want to read this. In fact, I'm not even settled about how many chapters I'm going to write for this story so that's even more reason to "follow" if you're going to read it.