Nowhere to Run

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 21 (Broken Hearts)

"It isn't something you need to worry about; there isn't anything you can do." Trina took aim at the target in front of her and pushed her thumb over the hammer. David was in the booth next to hers, and was aiming with the same gun type of gun. Her eyebrow rose as she watched his finger slide onto the trigger. "God, we even have the same tastes in pistols."

"Best gun I've ever owned."

"That's the truth." She smirked and fired off multiple rounds at the bullseye, striking it once and the rings around it twice. Some shots missed, much to her frustration. She pulled the gun back, wincing as the pain in her wrist cut into her. "God, my aim sucks now."

"I'd say you're doing fine."

"I was doing better before." She cursed herself and looked at the swollen area on her wrist. It would heal soon enough, and until then, she wasn't going to let a little sneak attack destroy her. "Before, I at least hit the target with each shot, and most of them were closer to the bullseye."

"So work on it and give yourself some time. Have patience. I can't tell you how many times my aim was affected because I busted a joint or something. It always gets better and sometimes your aim even improves after you've healed."

"You're right. I shouldn't worry so much." The gun was heavier in her hand because of the injury, but that just meant she could try to improve her aim with the injury and be even better once she healed.

A smirk formed at her face and she aimed once more at the target. "At the very least, I've missed your advice." She focused on the target and steadied herself, fighting against her trembling hand. The pain in her wrist was beginning to travel up her arm, but she ignored it and fired off multiple shots. "Damn Jorge."

"Jorge?" She lowered the pistol and turned partially as her dad glanced over the booth wall. "Wasn't that the dealer that was bothering your sister? Last I checked, he's supposed to be on probation."

"Like I said, Dad. Don't waste your time worrying about it. I have it under control."

"Forgive me, but it really doesn't seem like you've got anything under control. You were just jumped last night, behind a strip club. Trina, you were almost killed out there, and you expect me not to worry?"

"It seemed like it might be standard for you not to at this point."

"Now that's not fair." He stepped out of his booth and Trina pulled away from hers with a sigh. She removed her goggles and narrowed her eyes. "I'm trying, here."

"It is going to take some time."

"I know, but could you at least give me a chance?"

"What do you think I'm doing right now?"

"Judging me. Understandable, but still, it stings." She raised an eyebrow and holstered her gun. She looked down to her gun and made sure the extra strap she attached to the holster was buckled around the handle. It was a safety mechanism she learned and preferred to do so no one could simply run up to her and grab the gun out of her holster. "I see you picked that extra buckle from me."

"Yeah dad, I'm just like you." She rolled her eyes and swept her hands through her hair, pulling it back to adjust her ponytail. "I hate to burst your nostalgia trip, but it's time for you to come down to earth. Things are a lot different now."

"True, you have a boyfriend. Is he good to you?" David's brow furrowed and he leaned to the side. Trina lowered her hands and exhaled gently. "Treats you right and makes sure to remind you that he loves you?"

"Every day." Did he think she was the broken one? She was the one trying to live a normal life, or at least figure out how to do that without getting herself or her sister killed. "I'm not sure where we went wrong, Dad. Perhaps you can fill me in."

He dropped his head and Trina moved her hands to her hips. "Tori's the only reason I managed to keep afloat." She narrowed her eyes and began to circle him, clenching her fists and grinding her teeth. "Everything I've done, I've done because of her. Hell, finding Jason is probably the only thing I've ever done for myself. I had to grow up fast because of you."

She cracked her head to the right and stood behind him. Her chest throbbed as she came close to tears. "I loved you, Tori loved you, but did you ever love us?" He leaned his head back and dropped his shoulders.

"Of course I did."

"Then why did you stop?"

"I never stopped, Trina." He turned around and raised his hands up momentarily, then dropped them. "I had a difficult-"

"Don't even start." She crossed her arms and narrowed her glare. "There are millions of police officers with high job stress that don't turn to drink, they don't neglect their children or throw them out onto the street. You chose the easy way to deal with your problems-avoiding them."

"And how exactly have you dealt with yours, Trina? By running away? How are you handling this life so far?" David's shoulders rose and his voice began to rise. "Because insofar what you've told me is you went to work at a strip club to pay off a drug dealer and your sister's stalker boyfriend." She leaned to the right and smacked her lips as David raised his hand into the air and shook it to the side. "And then you leapfrogged from club to club halfway across this goddamn country."

"At least I didn't give up on Tori when she needed someone to be there for her. You were the one that resented us because your job was hard or mom was cheating on you-oh boo the fucking woo, Dad!"

"Trina!"

Tears burned down her cheeks like streams of fire and her lungs burned with rage. "Everything's an excuse to you."

"We can't go back, we can't change what's already happened, we can only move forward. There's no use in this screaming match."

"No? Because I find it oddly therapeutic."

David breathed in slow and closed his eyes. "Look, if we just calm down. Both of us. You know you get that temperament from me?" She rolled her eyes and he chuckled once. "You've become a remarkable woman, and honestly I couldn't be prouder. I know I messed up, but if you'll let me try to make things right…"

"How would you do that?"

"I still have connections in LA, there are probably even connections here. Let me call someone, and I can try and get these thugs off your back." She raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips.

"So you want to try and protect us now? It's a little late for that."

"Trina…"

"I think I'm doing fairly well." She shrugged and turned away from him. "Raymond wants me working more as a bouncer, I think Monica wants that position permanent. The money I'm earning can put me or Tori through a good school. I mean, she and Jason want me to finish my Associate's, but I don't know-Jason supports whatever I decide."

David's eyebrows rose and he clapped his hands, then folded them over his nose. His hands slid down with a sigh and he quickly shook his head. "Let me pay for both of you to go back to school. I have enough saved up."

"Oh bloody…Go buy yourself a yacht or something, Dad. You're retired, spend a little money on yourself."

"I would rather see to it that you and your sister have a good life."

"I'm making sure that happens."

"How? By almost getting yourself killed?" She started to growl and turned towards him. She knew he had a point. She didn't like it, but he was right in that she hadn't gotten so far as she would have liked.

"I'm doing the best that I can."

A sudden noise brought her back to reality, forcing her to twist around and glare at her surroundings. David turned his gaze up and his muscles tensed as his eyes fell onto a PA speaker. She followed his gaze and huffed as someone began to play a song through the speaker.

"They can hear us fighting," she muttered. To her amazement, and annoyance, the song they were playing was Confessions of a Broken Heart, Daughter to Father, by Lindsay Lohan. "Seriously? Is that some kind of joke?"

David bowed his head and began to shake. Trina looked to him and pressed her lips together. A dull ache spread across her chest, then down into her arms and legs. Her hands clenched tight as the words of the song spun through her head, wreaking havoc like a violent storm threatening to destroy everything in her wake.

"Tori's the one that's broken, not me. She's the one that went into drugs, she's the one that had to break out of the habit." Her nostrils flared as her tears fell from her face, dripping like rain on the floor.

"But I was the little girl you took to the beach, the one you led into the deep waters to teach how to swim…I was the one you took to shooting ranges, the one you spent time with, and then you stopped. Dropped me like a hot potato."

Tell me the truth, did you ever love me.

She sneered at the speaker and slowly looked to the target at the end of the wall. In an angry frenzy, she unlatched the buckle on her holster and approached the target, screaming as she fired off several rounds into it.

The song started to come to an end and she was running out of bullets, but whichever came first, she wasn't sure. She had fallen to her knees and was trembling with greater pain than she'd ever felt, letting out all the resentment and anger after all these years.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around her and she threw her head back with a gasp. "It's okay." David pulled her into a fatherly hug, weeping with her. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't there, that I was distant."

She set her gun down and raised her hand to her forehead, choking out another cry. "I never meant for any of this, Trina."

"I fucking hate that song, Dad."

"We had it coming, fighting in this place." He chuckled, but there was a soreness in his tone. "I do love you, you and your sister both. I know I've never shown it the best way, or in any way at all, and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I hurt you. I want the best for both of you, I do, and I wish I had been the father you both deserved to have."

Trina wiped away the tears beneath her eyes and breathed in shakily. "W-We should go. Tori…I don't know how she's going to react."

"In a moment."

She nodded slowly and curled her arms around him while burying her face into his shoulder. It was embarrassing, but necessary in some way.

By the time they made it back to Jason's place, she had managed to relax enough to try and talk to her sister. When she called Jason, he said the girl barricaded herself in the guest room and absolutely did not want to see David, so Trina made sure to send her father on his way.

At least until Tori was ready to see the man.

She approached the closed bedroom door and knocked gently. "Tori, it's Trina, open up please." She breathed in slowly and waited until she heard the lock on the door click off. Trina glanced down the hall, smiling slightly at Jason and the others. "Give us some time…"

Yeah Tori's reaction is essentially the same as Trina's was, so there's not much to see which is why it's left open. Looks like Trina and her father started to reconnect again, or at the very least compromise. So, the next chapter is entitled Thunderstorm, I'll leave you to figure out what that means. Has anyone died in this story yet? No? It may happen. So what are your thoughts on this chapter?