February 9, 2007

"Daddy!"

Meryl threw herself in the arms of Roy as soon as the front door opened wide enough to allow her to do so. He couldn't help but smile holding his daughter like he had when she was a little girl. He kissed her cheek and stood her back arms length out to look at her.

"Hi, sweetheart."

"I missed you so much."

"I missed you too."

"Hey, look...I brought someone with me this time."

Roy smiled and extended his hand Dave.

"It has been a while."

Dave gave his hand a firm shake.

"It's good to see you, Roy."

Roy gestured them an invitation inside and Meryl and Dave followed him down a short corridor and into a sitting area. Roy Campbell's home was a straight reflection of his years in the military: Minimum furnishings with clean, sharp lines and dark colors. He nodded them in the direction of a short sofa and seated himself down in a chair across from it.

"So, how was the flight?"

"Long as always, daddy," Meryl said immediately, "You've got to move closer to Alaska."

"Or maybe you guys could move closer to Arizona."

"Actually, Dave and I were talking about moving to New York."

"Really?" Roy looked at Dave now, "Tired of Alaska?"

"Let's just say there are things there I'll be more than happy to leave behind."

Roy nodded solemnly, "That's perfectly understandable. To tell you the truth, I'm still not sure why you stayed there after everything that happened."

"I guess I really didn't know where else to go."

"New York seemed like the perfect place to go to for a change," Meryl said, "Especially after Hal suggested it."

"Doctor Emmerich," the name made Roy grin, "I didn't know you still kept in contact with him. How is he?"

"He's in England right now but, he should be coming back to the states pretty soon." Dave said.

"I was talking about him with someone the other day," Roy said and shifted his eyes to the left to wait for the name to come back to him. "Oh yes, Nastasha. I called her to congratulate her on her wedding."

"Nastasha got married?"

"You sound surprised, Dave."

"She just never struck me as the marrying type."

"Well, she was married once before you know," Roy reminded him, "To a man named Richard Ames. I told her that pretty soon, I was hoping to hear news of the same fashion from you two."

Meryl and Dave's smiles came from different places.

"I don't think so," Dave said, "Nothing good has ever come out of marriage."

Meryl playfully bumped the side of her body into his.

"I think what he's trying to say is that we really haven't talked about it yet, but, I'm sure we'll get around to it."

"No rush," Roy said, "there's always time to talk about that."

"But, we already did talk about it," Dave insisted half looking at Meryl, "We both agreed that what we have right now doesn't ever really need to change."

"Daddy, could you excuse us for a few moments?"

Dave quickened his pace to keep up with Meryl out into the hallway.

"What was that back there?!" Meryl waited impatiently in the beat that passed between them.

"Meryl, we had this conversation months ago. You said you couldn't ever see marriage for us. We both agreed to that."

Meryl grimaced at the memory of the conversation. "I never said that. I said that marriage was so far down the road for us that I couldn't see it at that moment but I never claimed to not see it at all. Look, my dad's right. There's no rush. We have plenty of time to talk this over."

"My mind is made up, Meryl. Marriage is unnecessary, and it almost always changes things." Dave ran his hands over her tensed shoulders and arms, "And I don't want us to change."

"Marriage doesn't have to change anything unless you want it to."

"But why even tamper with the formula if it's already working?"

Meryl wrung herself free of his hold as if it had burned her.

"I don't want to talk about this right now. I came here to spend time with my father and that's what I'm going to do. Even if I have to do it alone."

"Alone? Meryl..."

"Please, just...fly back home, okay? I'll see you in a week."

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't want you here right now, that's why!" her voice stabbed at him through the deep halls. Dave regretted immediately ever wanting an answer. Meryl lowered her voice, remembering her father's presence nearby.

"Could you please just do one thing I want, Dave?"