As she sat in the car, Pyrrha couldn't help but stare out the window. That one week had passed since she was both told about her family situation, and since she confessed her feelings to Ruby. Now, here she was, riding in Qrow's car as they drove to the location that was chosen for Pyrrha to meet and speak with her father. Needless to say, Pyrrha was feeling a bit nervous for how the meeting would turn out. She had dressed nicely for the occasion, but it wasn't extravagant, a nice shirt paired with a skirt with leggings underneath. Given how her week had gone, she was hoping that this was something that went well for her.
Ever since she spoke with Ruby about how she felt, things had been hard between the two of them. Pyrrha spent less time with Ruby, for fear that she would do something that would further jeopardize their friendship. Ruby had been very understanding of this, and she only wanted to make sure that Pyrrha was comfortable by the end of it all. Even when they did spend time together, it was easy to see that there was something going on between them that felt a bit awkward. Pyrrha would often try to avoid looking at her, and Ruby would turn away form Pyrrha every time she did look at her, for fear that Pyrrha would catch her staring.
Regardless, Pyrrha knew that she had to not worry herself with that at the moment and focus on what she was doing now, and that was getting ready to meet with her father for the first time in months, and have a full conversation with him. She was nervous, most definitely nervous. Through that though, she was hiding her demeanor quite well, she did have lots of practice at putting on a fake image of herself, years of experience at it. She was however, glad that Qrow was there with her, even if it was a part of his job to do so. Having someone she felt like she could actually trust watching over her as she went through this was a nice way for Pyrrha to stay calm.
Pyrrha noticed as they drove down the streets, that they were getting into the city, the deep heart of the city. She looked over to Qrow, who was focused on driving, and she figured that the meeting was set up in a place downtown, possibly someplace public, just to be safe. Returning to her window staring, she noticed that the Schnee Corporate office was in view. Pyrrha knew that Weiss' father spent a majority of his time in there, and from the few interactions she had with him, he seemed like a pretty nice guy, even if he and Weiss used to have bad blood between them.
It surprised her even more when they came up to the Schnee Corporate office's building and Qrow turned to park in the garage. Now Pyrrha was greatly confused as to what was going on, as she looked over to Qrow, they were driving up to the security gate and a security officer stopped them. "Excuse me, sir," The officer began. "Do you have an appointment with us today?"
Qrow pulled a single sheet of paper that was folded up out of his inside coat pocket and handed it to the guy. After taking a second to read the words on the paper, the security officer turned to a companion in side of the gate control booth and gave him some kind of signal. Next thing Pyrrha knew, the gate was opening and the officer turned back to Qrow.
"Find the receptionist, she'll make sure you get to where you need to go today Lieutenant."
"You two have a good day," Qrow responded as he had his paper returned to him, as well as a second sheet of paper that had some significance to it. Pyrrha wondered what exactly was on the paper, but decided not to press the issue at the moment. Qrow returned to driving and soon found a parking spot that he pulled in to, a V.I.P. parking spot to be specific. Qrow took the sheet that the security officer gave to him and placed it on the dashboard up near the windshield, afterwards he opened the door to his car and stepped out.
Pyrrha figured he had to do something first before they went over to their meeting. "Hey," Qrow said to Pyrrha from outside the car. "You coming or not?"
She realized that this was the place they were having their meeting at, so now she was greatly confused as to what was going on. "Wait, our meeting is here? In the Schnee Corporate office?"
"Yep," Qrow said once Pyrrha stood up from the car. Closing the doors behind them, Qrow locked the car and led Pyrrha over to the building entrance. "Don't worry, everything will make sense once we get the meeting started."
Pyrrha followed him into the elevator and they proceeded to go down to the main lobby. Once they reached it, Qrow led Pyrrha over to the receptionist desk, reaching into his jacket pocket while they walked. "Excuse me," Qrow said, grabbing the receptionists attention. "I was told to come speak with you about this, and that you would help me find where I need to go."
Taking a look at the paper, the receptionist stood up from her desk. "Tana, cover for me for a few minutes," She said to her co-worker, who got the idea of what was going on. "If you would follow me please."
"So polite," Qrow commented, drawing a smile from the young receptionist. Pyrrha just watched silently as she was led back towards the elevator and the three of them stepped inside. It didn't take long for the elevator to reach it's destination, but once it did, the receptionist continued to lead Pyrrha and Qrow over to the conference room. Leading them inside, she asked if there was anything that they needed, Qrow asked for some coffee and Pyrrha just wanted some water. Taking a bow, the receptionist walked out to fetch the items in question, leaving Qrow and Pyrrha alone.
"Why are we here?" Pyrrha asked after a moment.
"Um, we're here for your meeting with your father, that's why," Qrow replied, unsure of why Pyrrha was asking the question.
"No, I mean, why here specifically?" Pyrrha went on. "My father has nothing to do with the Schnee Corporation, so unless the company owes you a favor or two, it just seems a bit odd that it would take place here of all places."
Before Qrow could explain anything, the receptionist returned with their drinks, leaving a tray of different creamers and sugars for Qrow to choose from. Not a second after the receptionist came in, Mr. Schnee himself joined them as well.
"Ah, Qrow, a pleasure to see you again," Mr. Schnee said.
"Frederick," Qrow replied, standing up to shake the man's hand.
"And you must be Miss Nikos," Frederick said, turning towards Pyrrha. "Your father has told me quite a bit about you already."
When Pyrrha heard about that, she was surprised. "Wait, how do you know my father?"
"Well, before I go on to explain that, I must inform you that I am aware of your current relations with your parents," Mr. Schnee mentioned. He noticed how tense Pyrrha got when he told her about that. "Before you ask, Weiss was the one who asked for me to step in and help you, and that is what I have done. Weiss was really eager to help you out, she must have a really great friend in you for her to give such high regards."
"Weiss and I are close friends, yes," Pyrrha said, though she was still confused to what was happening. "But if you don't mind me asking this, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you don't seem like the kind of person who would help my family out, just because Weiss asked you to. So how is it that you've helped me exactly?"
"That will be explained in a minute when your father shows up," Mr. Schnee said.
Before Pyrrha could press the issue any further, the conference door opened up and in walked Pyrrha's father. "Sorry I'm a bit late sir, got caught up in...traffic..." Artemis didn't notice that his daughter was there at first, and once he saw her, he was speechless. "Pyrrha?"
"Artemis," Mr. Schnee said, breaking Pyrrha's father out of his trance. "I wasn't exactly truthful when I said that you were needed at a meeting today. Instead of a performance review, this is a chance for you to speak with your daughter once again."
Artemis was nearly brought to tears after hearing that. "Thank you sir," He said after a few seconds.
Pyrrha, for her part, was still confused as to what exactly was going on. "Wait, what's going on now?"
"Ah, my apologies," Mr. Schnee explained. "When I said before that my daughter asked me to help you, she had suggested that we help by ensuring that your father worked to become a better man."
"Meaning," Pyrrha said, hoping for some elaboration.
"Pyrrha, they offered me a job working with their company," Artemis said instead. "There was a few conditions that I needed to meet in order to keep the job, but I knew that it would be worth it in the end."
"As a part of his arrangement with this company," Mr. Schnee continued. "Mr. Nikos is not allowed to consume any alcohol, he is required to undergo weekly checks to ensure that he is fulfilling these requirements, and in turn, we have given him a job as one of the managers of our storage warehouse along the outskirts of the city. So far, he has upheld his end of the deal."
Hearing all of these things about her father, Pyrrha was nearly brought to tears. She didn't expect it to be so real, to have her father finally away from alcohol, but there was still that lingering doubt in her mind that made her wonder if this was all real or not.
"I'll take my leave now so that you may have some privacy with your daughter," Mr. Schnee said as he walked towards the door, but he stopped just before leaving. "Miss Nikos, the reason I agreed to help is because like your father wants to right now, I had to work hard to rebuild my own relationship with Weiss. You could say that I felt obligated to help the man ensure that he had a chance to do the same." After saying that, Mr. Schnee finally walked out of the conference room and left Pyrrha, Qrow and Mr. Nikos alone.
"Why don't you take a seat Artemis?" Qrow offered. "There's a lot that I'm guessing you need to explain, and I don't want you to feel left out."
Taking a seat opposite of Pyrrha, Mr Nikos rolled up his sleeve to show something to Pyrrha. "As part of the deal I have with the company, I have to wear this bracelet at all times. If it breaks then that's one thing and it gets replaced. The thing with it is that it keeps an eye on my blood alcohol level at all times, and a little computer keeps track of the data the entire time. It was actually my idea too, I needed something to keep me from wandering down the wrong way again."
Pyrrha was speechless, all of this, just so that he could regain his daughters trust, it was almost too real. "At the same time, I've been going to these meetings, with people like me. The kind of people that who are trying to overcome their alcoholism, or their drug habits," Artemis continued as he pulled something out of his pocket. He then flipped the object, which happened to be similar to a coin over to Pyrrha, who noticed that it said 90 days on it. "I got that just the other day, for being sober for three months now." Seeing the coin in her hands now, Pyrrha knew that everything he said was true, she just knew it.
"How?"
Hearing Pyrrha finally speak up after hearing all of this, all of his explanation, it was a surprise to both Qrow and Artemis. From the way Pyrrha sounded too, it seemed like she was ready to cry.
"How did you manage to do this? How did you finally manage to kick the bottle away?" Pyrrha asked.
Artemis looked down at his hand as they rested on the conference table, smiling at his reason. "Well, it's simple I guess," He began to explain after a moment of pause. "The entire time I was away, there's one thing that I wanted more than anything else. Well, two things actually, but one isn't possible without the other."
Qrow could tell that Pyrrha was on the edge of her seat, waiting to hear his response. He knew this moment would come, ever since Pyrrha first explained that her father wasn't that bad of a person, and that she only resented him because of his alcoholism. To see that Pyrrha filled with such hope that everything was about to work out was a wonderful sight to see.
"What I wanted to do more than anything else, was just give you the father that you deserved to have all those years," Artemis said. "To be there for your softball games, comfort you while you cried over crushes that didn't work out, watch a movie with when it's raining and there was nothing else to do. But there's one other thing I wanted, and that was one day, when that time comes, I wanted to be there to walk you down the aisle for your wedding. If I could manage to regain that honor, then I would finally feel like I deserve to be called your father."
It was all too much for Pyrrha, she couldn't take it anymore. Tears started to flow from her eyes, and she covered her face in her hands. After a few seconds of crying, she stood up and all but ran around the table to her father. Once she was there, she nearly tackled him to the ground in a hug, crying into his shoulder one she reached him. It certainly was a wonderful sight to see, father and daughter reunited once again.
One thing still stood out in Pyrrha's mind, but after a few moments of letting the tears of joy out, she finally spoke out on the subject. "I can guess that mom isn't too happy about the fact that you get to see me still."
"Heh, I'm not too worried about her, considering we got divorced a couple months back," Artemis said. Hearing that, Pyrrha nearly shrieked in surprise. "I've actually helped Mr. Branwen over here help keep her away from you after what she had done."
"That I can confirm," Qrow said. "He's been a major help to us."
Pyrrha wrapped her arms around her father yet again, happy that she has her family back again. "Dad..."
For the first time since before Pyrrha left home, she called her father 'dad'. Feeling excited after hearing that, Mr. Nikos tightened his hold on Pyrrha, overjoyed at hearing her say that again. "You don't know how long I've waited to hear that, my little warrior princess."
The nickname that her father said to Pyrrha got a bit of a chuckle out of her, but the two stayed like they were, just getting the most out of the moment.
AN: Well, I think I can officially say that Pyrrha's really starting to get her life back together.
There was something that my fiancee said to me regarding Pyrrha's relationship with her father. What she called it was a "Broken Relationship", and when she explained it further, she said that it didn't mean that their relationship couldn't be fixed, but it would take both of them in order to fix the relationship between the two of them. For Pyrrha's father, that meant he needed to prove to Pyrrha that he had changed and was no longer going to let alcohol affect his life, and for Pyrrha herself, she needed to take a leap of faith and trust her father, give him the chance to prove that he was doing things right.
Now, some guest reviews that I want to address:
Tatya1999: For the most part, it's just a matter of Ruby needing to figure out her own feelings for Pyrrha, and as such they aren't officially together...yet.
Ch. 10 Guest: Blake is fully capable of lightening the mood, don't just discourage the thought based solely on some events in canon, there are some canon events where she is lightening the mood pretty well actually.
Ch. 13 Guest: While you are technically right, I have to say that you're also wrong at the same time. You do bring up a good point in that technically Ruby and Pyrrha are sisters BY LAW. By blood however that isn't anywhere near the case, and once Pyrrha turns 18 (which is actually in a few chapters believe it or not) and is considered an adult, all of that is basically no longer an issue because Pyrrha will be her own woman. What it's basically saying is that she will be allowed to live there so long as Taiyang allows it, but she also wouldn't technically be Ruby's sister anymore. It's a whole bunch of child custody laws and stuff revolving around that which I'm not going to get into right now. Regardless you did bring up a good point and I saw where you were coming from, but those concerns should hopefully be alleviated now.
Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, hopefully it gave some closure on a very important issue for Pyrrha. Don't forget to fave/follow/review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. Hope to see you again and have a Happy New Year!