X Author's Note

Got this out later than I planned. Getting back into the college groove is a pain. Anyway, I'm excited that you all enjoyed the first chapter so much! Thank you! :-) Please enjoy this chapter! As Nolan's daughter makes her appearance! (There may be some spelling errors is FFNet saving weirdly for me.. if so, I'll be sure to fix them later)!

Chapter Two: My Girl

The sun had begun to set by the time Nolan made it to the airport. He leaned against his SUV facing the doors of the terminal. The airport pick-up and drop-off bustled with swarms of teenagers filing into and out of private cars, limos and buses.

Nolan craned his head to the crowd when he saw a teenage girl in a thick green coat. She walked towards a row of charter buses. HAMPTON CHARTER AND BOARDING SCHOOL was written in big bold lettering on the side of the bus. A line of luggage toting students and teachers wrapped around from the terminal doors to the bus. The teen stopped mid-step, almost dropping the handle of her suitcase. With a loud exasperated sigh, she veered around from the buses. She reached into the pocket of her jeans, pulled out her cell phone and stalked off towards the direction of the SUV.

Nolan lowered his Ray-Bans and took in her appearance, her curly brown hair was longer and had grown out past her shoulders. And her usual glowing caramel skin was pale and sun-deprived.

He chuckled as his daughter unknowingly walked past him. Nolan pushed off the SUV and turned to her. "Hey, Rebecca!" He called out.

Rebecca craned around, her long hair whipping around her face. She spotted her dad with an over-sized teddy bear in his hands.

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

"I got your text message from earlier, figured I'd surprise you and pick you up."

Becca dropped her suitcase and ran into her dad's arms.

Nolan smiled as he pulled her into a hug. "I missed you so much kiddo."

"I missed you too." Becca pulled away from the hug and smiled up at him. "Thank you for saving me from a bus ride from hell."

She pointed to the row of charter buses which were already crammed full of people.

"I just spent the last six hours on a private plane. I don't care how much AC that bus has." Her face twisted in disgust, "sweaty people are a no-go."

Nolan chuckled and handed her the bear in his hands.

Becca smiled at the giant, green heart teddy bear. "Aww, he's so cute!"

They walked around to the back of the SUV. Becca placed her suitcase in the trunk. A large green bumper sticker of a forest, with the words, MAY THE FOREST, BE WITH YOU, and another sticker of a black silhouette of Sasquatch decorated her suitcase.

Becca peeled off her coat, which was starting to make her green t-shirt of the Hulk stick to her skin. She flung the coat over her suitcase,"Oh my god, I thought I was going to have a heat stroke wearing that."

Nolan slammed the trunk shut."Why didn't you just put it in your suitcase?"

"The AC on the plane stopped working," Becca explained. "The entire ride here was like flying in an ice box."

Nolan gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry to hear that. Well, how about we head home? I have a surprise that I think you're going to like."

Becca gave him a look. "A surprise? Dad, you know I don't like surprises."

Nolan smiled. "You're gonna love this one. Trust me."

Nolan pulled into the driveway of his beach house. They got out of the SUV and Becca darted to the trunk grabbing her suitcase. The beach house had been one of Nolan's old houses that he'd go to when he was in the city. It was in a quiet, little neighborhood without any reporters, cameras or crazed, choke holding, knife-wielding hitmen. With the beach as their backyard, the house was a sanctuary. A place Nolan and Rebecca would be out of the public eye and relax, away from all the craziness of the Hamptons. As of late, it was their home away from home.

Becca walked into the wide open space foyer. Large white windows above the door overlooked the ocean capturing a view of the setting sun. She looked in awe as the orange rays of sunlight seeped through the cream-hued canvas shades, bounced off the crystal chandelier above the stairway. The fractured rays of light sparkled like diamonds across the hallway.

"This is a nice place." Becca spun around to her dad."I didn't know we had a beach house."

"Figured it was time for a change of scenery," Nolan explained as he set his keys in the on the wicker end table next to a potted plant by the front door

Becca wheeled her suitcase up the stairs. "I'll be down in a bit. I'm gonna change and put my stuff away."

"You're room is the second room from the bathroom." Nolan called out.

He waited till she was all the way up the stairs. When he heard a door close he dashed down the hallway to the kitchen. Nolan pulled out his cell phone and glanced at the fan of menus on the fridge.

An hour later, after a long shower Becca walked down the stairs. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail. She wore a comfy, faded t-shirt with Ironman on the front, and black yoga pants. She was glad to get out of those sweaty clothes and into some fresh clean ones. Becca's stomach growled out with hunger. It had been awhile since she'd eaten.

She was about to walk into the kitchen when Dad rushed out, holding out his arms blocking her way.

"Wait, don't go in there!"

Becca gave him a suspicious look. "Why? What's up?"

She tried to stand on the tips of her toes to see past him. Of course, that was useless. She was a short five- foot four while her dad was a Sasquatch at six feet.

"Your surprise is in the living room," Dad explained. "It's a surprise, so, close your eyes."

Becca smiled, excited to see what her dad had gotten her. She covered her eyes with her hands. Dad placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her into the living-room.

She came to a stop when she felt the plush carpet under her feet. Something was placed atop of her head and she guessed that it was a party hat of some kind.

"Okay, you can open your eyes," Dad said excitedly. She removed her hands and opened her eyes.

"Welcome home Rebecca."

"Whoa." She breathed.

A myriad of balloons floated around the living-room. Across the ceiling raced lines of colorful party streamers which branched out from a WELCOME HOME banner that hung above a flat screen TV. The coffee table was full of gift bags of various sizes. Becca walked around the living room and stopped when she saw a Xbox 360 sitting among the gifts on the coffee table. Her eyes widened as she picked up the video games next to the console. "Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Halo 4?" She turned to her dad, "How did you get these? They haven't been released yet!"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "I know a few of the game devs."

Becca walked over to her dad and gave him a hug. "You're definitely the coolest Dad ever."

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Anything for my girl."

She grinned, her hazel eyes sparkled with excitement as she waved the game around in her hand. "Come on, let's play."

Just then, the doorbell rang out. "I'll get it," Dad disappeared through the kitchen door.

Becca turned on the TV and the Xbox and placed the game into the disk tray.

"I didn't know what you wanted to eat," Dad reappeared in the living room with various takeout bags in his arms. "So, I brought all your favorites."

Becca grabbed a couple of takeout bags from his hands and placed them on the crowded coffee table. She opened a grease-stained paper bag, pulled out a burger and plopped onto the couch. Nolan sat next to her with his Chinese food in hand. Becca lifted the bun off her burger inspecting the meat patty.

"This is real meat, right?" Becca asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Once you've eaten chickpeas disguised as 'beef'," She used air quotes and shuttered, "You don't take any chances."

Dad rolled his eyes at her. "You saying you didn't have a good time? You're the one that wanted to go to a boarding school in Portland. I suggested the tech schools in LA, and Miami, even Canada."

Confident her burger wasn't fake, Becca took a bite. "This is so good." she exclaimed. "Living in Portland was awesome, you know except for the rain and no sunlight." Becca murmured with a mouth full of burger.

"Do you see how pasty my skin is?" Becca laughed. "It'll take a week for me to look like my normally tanned goddess self."

"What did you do over there? I hope you used that scholarship money for something other than buying comics and CDs."

Becca took a fry from the bag and popped it into her mouth. "My roommates and I did all kinds of stuff. We hiked at Mount Hood. I ate donuts with cocoa puffs on them, and I did an experiment at OMSI, where we had to make a working robot. That got covered by the Times and the Portland Tribune." Becca paused, her mind was moving faster than her mouth. There were too many awesome things she'd done to recall at once. "Oh, here's something interesting; my professor says there's actually more trees than people in the entire city of Portland."

"Did you meet anyone interesting?" Nolan asked with a smile.

Becca laughed at his subtlety. "You mean did I find a tall dark and handsome that swept me off my feet?" She chuckled. "Don't worry Dad, there won't be any secret boyfriends in the front yard, serenading for my hand anytime soon."

Dad smiled. "Sounds like you had a great time."

"I did meet a few annoying people." Becca murmured to herself, before taking a bite of her burger. By people; Becca meant one person in particular. One person that annoyed her to no end and made her year away a living hell. But, that person didn't matter. Becca was here in New York. Half way across the country. While they were in Paris, or London or whatever country their mother's fashion line did business in.

Suddenly, the TV screen flickered to life. The music from loading screen blared from the TV, pulling Becca from her thoughts.

"Bet I can beat you at zombies," Becca exclaimed, grabbing the controller off the table.

Nolan took up the control. "I'd like to see you try. In case, you forgot I'm a pro at this game."

At that moment, Nolan couldn't help but feel that everything was just perfect in his world.

Later that night, after Becca had won against her dad five times in a game of zombies. Nolan's claim was that he'd let her win.

Becca sat in her bedroom on her laptop, headphones over her ears. She hummed along to the lyrics of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot".

She was glad to finally be home. In her own bed, surrounded by her collection of comic books and CDs. The year at boarding school was an amazing experience. She wouldn't have traded it in for anything. But, she missed her dad more than she realized. Video chats and phone calls weren't enough.

She was glad to see him, and more importantly in one piece. It was terrifying to watch the news and hear that your home was invaded and your dad was stabbed - the worst part? There was nothing you could do when you're half way across the country - Becca shuddered at the memory. She pulled her stuffed bear off her desk and held it close to her chest. Her eyes fell to the half-opened bags on her desk. CD's of Elvis Presley, Bonnie Tyler, and Aerosmith were stacked beside a power tool set and a mini robot making kit.

At least some things didn't change, She thought.

Suddenly, there was a knock at her door.

Becca lowered the volume of her music. "Come in,"

Nolan walked into the room, he looked a lot more casual in a black long sleeve, sweats and slippers. He smiled at Becca and took a seat on the edge of her bed. "You working on something?"

"Nope, just surfing. What's up?"

Nolan shrugged and laughed. "I just wanted to see if you needed anything."

Truthfully, Nolan just wanted to see that she was physically here. Every day, he'd walked past her bedroom hoping that he'd see her face. Now that she was here he just wanted to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"Nope. I'm good Dad. Thanks for all the gifts, they're amazing."

Nolan smiled. "You're welcome, Princess."

Becca started to rub her fingers against the soft fur of the bear. She glanced away from her dad and stared at her laptop screen. She swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat before she spoke.

"Dad, nothing bad is gonna happen right, like last time?"

Nolan looked at her, wondered where this was coming from. "What do you mean?"

She let out a shaky breath, "You know…when you got stabbed by that Tyler Barrol guy."

Nolan understood why she was acting strange now. That was a scary experience for both of them. She'd called him right after the news aired. Nolan had to calm her down and after a long conversation finally convinced her into not flying all the way to the Hamptons.

"Becs trust me. I won't let anything like that happen again." He assured her.

Becca's vision started to blur as tears began to pool in her eyes.

He placed his hand over hers, "Hey listen, kiddo." She snapped her gaze up to him. "We're a team remember? It's you and me against the world."

Her dad was right. He'd always said they were a team, no matter what happened they'd always have each other.

Becca wiped away the stray tears with the back of her hand. "Right." She sighed deeply, laughing from the moment. "We're a team."

Nolan leaned down and kissed the top of her head. "Goodnight, Princess."

Becca reached up and wrapped her arms fiercely around his neck. "Good night, Dad."

Nolan sat in his office chair with the glowing screen of his laptop in his face. He stared at the list of business emails and clicked the trashcan icon on the screen. With a loud sigh, Nolan stretched his arms over his head.

Work can wait, He thought.

He closed his business window and clicked on the internet browser.

Suddenly, his eyes fell on a photo icon in the taskbar. He clicked on the icon. A picture of him and Rebecca at the beach popped onto the screen. He smiled fondly remembering the event. It was the first time that she'd try to swim in the ocean.

Nolan scrolled through the long list of photos. He clicked on one when they'd gone to a carnival at Coney Island, with Nolan sporting a pair of sunglasses and Becca holding a whale plush - that he'd won her in a game of balloon darts-. A ruby-eyed, golden dragon stood in the background in a picture where they'd gone to Chinatown for Chinese New Years.

He clicked off the photos and returned to the browser window. He pulled up REBECCA'S ACHIEVEMENTS, it was a folder he'd started over the last two years. His digital scrapbook of sorts contained all of Rebecca's biggest and greatest moments. Of course, she didn't know he had it. She didn't like it when he made a big deal about what she did. This was something he'd kept for himself.

Nolan searched through the folder, till he found the newspaper article, TECH SAVVY TEENS TEACH ROBOT TO TYPE.

He clicked on the article.

The image on the front page showed Becca standing proudly next to an oddly constructed robot made of Popsicle sticks and Pepsi cans. The scrawny robot sat at a typewriter, the words HELLO PEOPLE OF EARTH on the screen. Becca stood with two other girls each of them were smiling big and holding gold trophies with, TECH AWARD 1ST PLACE, etched into the gold plaque at the base of the trophy.

He read the heading underneath the image: "Marisol Vega, Jasmine Farhadi, and Rebecca Thompson create a functioning soda can and Popsicle stick robot that can type."

Nolan smiled sadly, this was one of the moments he'd wish he'd been there for her. Where he'd proudly say to the world that she was his daughter. But he knew that moment was never going to happen.

As far as the public knew Nolan Ross was a simply a cagey billionaire, party playboy, and fashionably savvy tech genius.

Not the father of a seventeen-year-old girl.

Nolan had a list of reasons why he wanted Rebecca to keep her mother's maiden name. The most recent and urgent; the two home invasions, both incidents resulting in his bodily harm.

Nolan involuntary touched his bicep. The scar on his arm had faded long ago. But the scar would ache sometimes. He figured it was caused by the fear of getting stabbed and it was like a reminder of the event. But, Nolan wasn't going to psychoanalyze it. Besides, he didn't like therapists.

He brought his glass of bourbon to his lips, took a long sip and reclined fully in his chair.

Nolan wasn't stupid. He knew that the risks involved in their escapades when he decided to help Emily. He'd vastly underestimated the lengths the Graysons and their friends were willing to go to keep their dirty laundry hidden.

Nolan shuddered. Just thinking about the white haired man sent a cold chill up his spine. Occasionally, he'd wake up in the middle of a night, in a cold sweat, heart racing from nightmares about being back in the albino's Hannibal torture chamber. That was a story he didn't tell Rebecca.

If anything was to happen to Rebecca because of his actions. Nolan wouldn't forgive himself.

He'd sworn to her that he'd protect her. That she wouldn't be alone again. He was still new to the whole world of parenting, and he'd made more than a few mistakes in the beginning. Hell, he was still learning how to be a dad. But, no matter how many mistakes he'd made, Nolan promised himself that he'd be a hell of a better father to Rebecca than his own. Definitely a better parent than her mother.

Nolan craned his head to the clock on his desk.

He smirked. "10:30 PM."

Nolan sat up and reached for his cellphone and turned it on. Disappointment crossed his face when he saw there were 'no new messages'.

Usually around now, Emily would call him and ask him to hack into a security camera feed or track a cell phone.

"Even ninjas need their rest." The thought of his blonde ninja always brought a smile to his face.

Nolan hated to see her so sad earlier. "That's gonna change Saturday." He reminded himself. He would do whatever it took to get back his red sharpie-wielding angel of justice.

X Author's Note:

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Leaving a review/fav/follow lets me know that you enjoyed the story!

Until next time,

- DDLJ