PART 2: WINTER BREAK
Tai stood out on the porch, leaning against the railing as he watched his older daughter's car pull into her usual spot near the garage. He waited for the car to shut off before calling out to his daughter and her girlfriend.
"It's about time!" Tai yelled, grinning, as he pushed himself away from the railing.
Yang stepped out of the driver's side. "It's been a long day, Dad. I don't really wanna hear it."
The smile from Tai dropped as he raised an eyebrow. He stepped off the porch and onto the dirt, walking towards the car. He watched as Blake got out of the passenger seat, hiding her face behind her hair. She kept her head lowered, avoiding eye contact with him.
"Is everything okay?" Tai asked cautiously.
"I need to go to the bathroom," Blake declared, giving Yang a quick glance.
Yang nodded in response, causing Blake to make a beeline past Tai and into the house.
Tai looked over his shoulder as Blake power walked by, his eyebrow still raised. Once the front door of the house was shut behind Blake, he turned back to his daughter. "Is, uh... is everything okay with you two? Blake seems more like the Blake you told me about at the beginning of the semester as opposed to the Blake I met over Thanksgiving Break."
"I need to talk to you in private for a few minutes," Yang said in a lowered voice.
"Alright..." Tai said cautiously as he approached his daughter, deciding to lean against the side of her car. "What about?"
"Blake..." Yang hesitated, struggling to find the right words. "Blake got this email, right before we left the dorm today. It's from her parents."
Tai's jaw dropped open. "Her... parents?"
Yang nodded. "Yeah. Her parents."
"Aren't... I thought she said her parents were dead?"
"Yeah, she thought so too." Yang let out a long sigh. "I read through the whole thing myself. It's... it's a lot, but it's legit, at least from what I could tell."
"How? How is that even possible?"
"The paperwork, the story, it all... matches. Stuff Blake's never told anyone. Not even me. No one. We're going to the capital tomorrow to meet them. They've been emailing back and forth since we've left campus and everything matches up."
Tai shook his head, holding up a hand. "Woah, woah, woah. Back up a second there. You're going to do what tomorrow?"
"Blake and I are going up to the capital tomorrow to meet them."
"Absolutely not!" Tai exclaimed, leaning in closer and lowering his voice more. "Are you out of your mind, Yang? You have no idea who these people are, who claim to be Blake's formerly dead parents, and for all you know, you could be walking directly into a setup by that kid they found in the crater!"
Yang raised an eyebrow. "You know about Adam?"
"Yes, of course I know, I talked to Qrow after it all went down." Tai shook his head and sighed. "That's not the point, though. The point is you are not going to the capital tomorrow."
"Dad, it's all we've been talking about for the last two hours. I was super suspicious at first, but the more Blake talked to them and the more Blake and I talked, the more on board I got with it. I looked up these people, they exist and they have absolutely zero connection to Adam or anyone connected to him whatsoever. They live on the opposite side of the capital for crying out loud!"
"The capital might be bigger than Patch, but it's not that big."
Yang shook her head, pulling out her phone. "Do you want to read the emails yourself? I have screenshots."
"Yes, absolutely." Tai held out his hand, waiting for Yang to pull up the screenshots and hand the phone to him.
As soon as he had it, he read each screenshot carefully, occasionally stopping to ask questions. Yang answered them, having complete answers to every question he threw at her.
"Alright," Tai eventually said, handing the phone back to her, "I'm still uncomfortable, but... I know I can't actually stop you and I trust you'll use your better judgement here."
"I will, I promise," Yang replied with a nod, tucking her phone back into her pocket. "I'll send you text updates every step of the way."
Tai pulled out his own phone. "I'm going to text you some numbers of old co-workers from when I used to be on the police force in the capital. I want both you and Blake to save the numbers, just in case, and I'll fill them in on what's happening."
Yang opened her mouth to protest, but quickly shut it again before nodding. She knew that was a fight not worth picking, especially since he had just given in to them going to the capital in the first place.
"I'd rather take all precautions and you be safe rather than sorry." Tai shoved his phone back into his pocket and looked back at the bags still inside the car. "We should get all of this stuff inside."
"Yeah," Yang agreed, opening one of the doors and beginning to pull bags out of the car, handing them off to her father. He headed inside once his arms were full, Yang following not far behind.
She paused for a moment at the bottom of the porch steps, taking a deep breath. The next twenty-four hours were going to be something, that was for sure. She just didn't quite know exactly what that would mean yet.
And, in all honesty, she didn't think she would get to find out what that would mean anytime soon.
The car ride to the capital was quiet for a while. There wasn't a whole lot that could be said at first. They were driving into the fairly unknown, on their way to meet Blake's parents, who they hadn't even known existed just twenty-four hours before. They'd left fairly early in the morning, anxiety flowing through the both of them.
It took a while for Yang to notice the tapping. It was soft at first, almost silent. As time went on, the rhythm of Blake's fingers gently hitting the inside of the car door got louder and louder, until it was completely impossible to ignore.
"You okay?" Yang asked softly, breaking the silence and causing the tapping to stop.
"No," Blake replied, her voice cracking, causing her to take a deep, shaky breath. "Not really."
"We can talk about it, if you want," Yang offered.
Blake shook her head. "It's pointless. The anxiety isn't going to stop until all of this is over. Not until we get back to your house today. It probably won't even stop then."
"Well, yeah," Yang said with a shrug, "us talking isn't going to make it go away entirely. But it can lessen it a bit and help you out."
Blake was quiet for a few moments, taking deep breaths and trying to steady herself. "I..." she stammered, shaking her head before continuing. "I'm really scared."
"I know," Yang replied softly. "What about, exactly?"
"I'm scared about what information I'm about to learn." Blake began tapping again. "I wish they'd never sent that email. I wish I'd never read my email. I wish I didn't know about any of this."
"I know," Yang repeated, softly. "Ignorance is bliss, after all."
"My whole life feels like it's been flipped on its head. Like, everything I've known for the last eighteen years is a lie." Blake shook her head, dropping it into her hands. "Why me? Why now? Everything was going so well. I just want to be happy, is that too much to ask?"
"Hey," Yang said, reaching over and placing her right hand on Blake's knee, "everything is going to be okay. I promise you. Things might be a little crazy for a bit, yes, and things might be different than what they used to be, but we'll get through this, together."
Blake pulled her head out of her hands, looking up at Yang. "I... I'm going to have to come out to them. I didn't even think about that, oh my god."
"Hey," Yang repeated, "everything is going to be okay. I'm going to be right by your side, the entire time. We can leave whenever you want, no questions asked, and I will get us out of there. And after today, I'll be right there with you too, however you want to handle this going forward. You are going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. I want to hear you say it."
"Okay," Blake agreed after a moment, placing her hand on top of Yang's. "Everything is going to be okay."
"Good," Yang replied. A sign passed above them, indicating that the capital would be coming up soon. "There's one more thing you should know before we get there. I was waiting for a good time to tell you, but I don't think there's going to be one."
"Oh?" Blake jerked her head up, alarmed. "What is it?"
"Yesterday, when I told my dad... He gave me the phone numbers of some of his old coworkers from when he used to be on the capital police force. He told them vaguely what's going on, in case we need to call."
Blake tilted her head to the side. "He... your dad used to work in the capital?"
Yang nodded. "A long, long time ago. Before my mom died."
"Oh," Blake said softly, leaning back in her seat. "I appreciate the sentiment, but... God, that's embarrassing. I don't even want to think about the texts he sent them." She closed her eyes, shaking her head slightly.
"I know," Yang sighed. "I'm sorry, I wish I'd been able to tell you sooner. I know how you feel, but I also get where he's coming from. No one has met these people before and he was concerned about it being a setup from..."
"I figured," Blake cut her off, not wanting to hear the name. "I know he means well. It's just... hard. All of this is hard."
"I know," Yang repeated, shaking her head. "Everything's going to be okay."
Blake looked out the window, seeing the skyline of the capital approaching rapidly. "I really, really hope so."
The address they'd been given was not horribly difficult to find. The street was lined with multi-family houses, with small yards and chain link fences keeping them uniform. Parked cars lined both sides of the street, but Yang determined she didn't want to park there anyways, an underlying fear of someone connected to Adam sabotaging her car.
They found a parking garage a couple of blocks away, taking the walk towards the house slowly, Yang trying to talk Blake through some of her increasing anxiety as they got closer.
"Have you ever been to this part of the city?" Yang asked, her hand firmly wrapped around Blake's as they walked.
"The commercial area where we parked the car, yes, a couple of times. Never the residential parts around here. Never had any reason for that."
"Why'd you go to the commercial areas?"
"It's where the Planned Parenthood for the city is," Blake replied with a shrug. "It's the only place where I was able to get birth control as a teenager."
"Oh, okay." Yang paused a moment before asking another question. "Does this look anything like where you grew up?"
Blake shook her head. "I always lived in apartment complexes, never houses." She looked up at the houses as they walked past. "Although most of these are probably smaller than some of the apartments I've been in. The multi-family homes tend to be really small when it comes down to it."
"Huh, never would have guessed," Yang replied, now trying to visualize the insides of the houses.
Blake stopped walking and turned, staring at the number on the house she had stopped in front of. It was the same number as the address that they'd been given.
Yang squeezed her hand. "Are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," she said with a sigh, placing her hand on the gate to the chain link fence that stood in front of them. It took her a moment to actually lift the latch on the gate, her mind racing. Another squeeze came from Yang and she pushed up the latch, swinging the gate open.
"Door on the right," Yang repeated as they approached the front steps, remembering the instructions that they had been given in the email.
They walked up the steps, Blake's heart feeling as if it were pounding out of her chest. Her hand hovered in front of the door for a moment before she took a deep breath and gave the door a firm knock. She took a step back, planting herself firmly next to Yang and squeezing her hand. Yang reciprocated, having to stop herself from literally holding her breath as they waited for the door to open.
A few moments passed before the doorknob turned and the door swung open. On the other side was a shorter woman with cropped black hair. Yang immediately noticed her eyes as they grew wide - the same exact amber as Blake's.
"Hi," Blake said softly.
"You came!" the woman cried, joy in her voice. "You actually came!" She called over her shoulder into the house, "Ghira! Ghira! Come here! She's here! Our daughter is here!"