Robbie POV

I zip up my last suitcase and straighten up.

Cat's eyes, clearly sad find mine right away.

"I hate this part." She said quietly.

I smile and walk over next to her, sit down and kiss her hair.

"Me too. But it'll be longer for me than you." I say reassuringly.

"It always is." She said with a smile.

Life picks back up, she always gets caught up in the flow of it and I'm walking back thru the door way before she is expecting me to.

It is the total opposite for me. On the road, where the miles drag on and on.

"C'mon. Let's get this stuff to the car." She hopped up and grabbed my backpack.

I grab both my suitcases and follow her out our bedroom door.

A few steps outside the door Cat and I hear a "Wait!"

We stop and look up to see Corey rushing down to us.

"What's up bud?"

He rushed down the stairs and rushed right to my suitcase, pulled it out of my hand and started dragging it behind him.

I smile.

"Thanks man. I appreciate it."

"No problem daddy." He smiled happily back at me.

Cat looks quite happy as the three of us walk to the car and load my suitcases into the back.

We walk back inside and Cat calls Kevin down.

"It's time already?" He asks once he reaches the landing.

"Unfortunately man." I say.

He makes his way down the stairs, frowning all the way and plops next to Corey and his mom on the couch.

"Isn't Sydney supposed to be here?" Corey immediately asked before I can start my little planned speech to them.

"Yeah, but don't worry about that sweetheart." Cat said reassuringly.

"Yeah, she's old enough to take care of herself for a few hours. But enough on that." I say.

All eyes are on me.

"You guys know the drill. I'll be gone for 16 days total. I'll always have my phone on me if you want to talk, I'll be home as soon as I can, and hopefully with some funny stories."

Both Kevin and Corey laugh and smile.

"Where are you going?" Kevin asked.

"Back east. New York, Boston, Hartford, that area." I reply.

"Will it be cold?" Corey innocently asked.

"Yup, that's why I brought my heaviest coat."

"Aww. Phoo." He frowned.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. Now what about you guys? How's school? I'm going to miss progress reports." I say.

"Good. All A's and B's as of last Thursday." Kevin said nonchalantly.

"Good job sweetheart." His mom said softly.

I put on my bad guy hat and ask "What's the B?"

"Two. Math and English."

Cat beats me to my reaction. "You're good at English."

"There was a tough test on Macbeth. Several questions had like 3 answers that were right."

"Alright. Just make sure to get that up man." I say.

He nodded.

"What about you?" Cat rubbed Corey's knee.

He smiled at his Mom and said "I don't know. I forgot to ask."

"Forgot? That's not like you buddy." I say calmly.

If he knows he needs to do something, he does it.

"The teachers have been writing people up all week and working us to the bell. And I don't want to be late and get tardy slips sent home with me. I know you guys would be mad at me if I did." Corey explained, his eyes locked firmly on the floor.

"I'll call and ask. They know me." Cat said reassuringly.

"Thanks for being thoughtful Corey." I smile, and he returns it to me.

"When are you leaving?" Kevin asked.

I look at the PVR, where the time displayed is 5:15.

"Right now basically." I frown.

"Why? Don't you usually fly out later?" Corey immediately piped up.

"Yeah. But your mom and I are going to have dinner before I fly out."

"What about us?" Kevin asked.

"You're big enough to hold down the fort until your sister comes back. She shouldn't be that much longer, whatever it is she's doing." Cat said with a shrug.

There was a momentary silence where nobody said what was on the tip of their tongue.

Where is she, and what is she doing?

We told her that she needed to be here today. It's the last time I'll see them for basically 3 weeks.

"Anyway…" I get up, and everybody gets up with me. "I love you guys, and I'll be one phone call away. Got it?"

"Got it." Kevin and Corey say emphatically back to me.

I smile, and out of the corner of my eye I see Cat do the same.

"Now c'mere!" I reach forward and pick Corey up and hug him.

He laughed and said "Daddy!"

"Be good. Don't bounce too much off the walls." I say.

He nodded and smiled, and then I put him down.

"Dude." I smile, and Kevin comes and hugs me.

"Love you Dad." He said with a blank face.

"Love you too man. You too."

"We gotta go. Reservation is at 6 downtown." Cat said.

Corey snuck a hug to his mom, then we're at the door waving.

"Bye!" I say.

"Bye!" They say back.

Then the door shut.

I let out a sigh, then go to the car and back out of the driveway.

After a minute or two, I break the silence and say "You're mad."

"She was supposed to be home. We told her."

"I know." I say evenly.

"So inconsiderate." Cat spits out at me.

"I'm not holding it against her. You shouldn't either."

"That's my decision."

I shrug and make a right hand turn.

"And you know she's with Austin." Cat said harshly.

"She's just concerned about him."

"That's fine and all, but she knows the rules. Now she won't see you for 3 weeks."

"You know she won't really notice that much. It's that age." I say.

"No, it's that you didn't let me come with you to talk to her about not being her Dad!"

I groan and pull into the valet line.

"You know I'm right."

"No, I don't. We knew things would change. We both knew that. Don't act like you thought otherwise." I snap at her.

"So you're just going to let her off the hook like that? You know how she hugs you!" Cat said, voice rising.

However, the valet walked up before I could reply.

I handed him our keys and lead Cat inside, where the hostess is waiting to lead us to a secluded room for dinner.

Once we sit down and put in drink orders, I slip off my jacket and Cat does the same.

"So?" Cat said, keeping her voice down slightly.

"That's on her. Whatever she does is up to her. I really don't have a way to combat it."

"Robbie. You've been there for her your entire life. And now that she knows the truth, which changes the context of everything, but doesn't change what you did, she is clearly putting space between you and her!"

"And what am I supposed to do Cat? Pull her aside and tell her to make things go back to how they were before I told her?" I say, getting angry.

"I…well…no, but—"

"Exactly. I knew this might happen Cat. She just doesn't know what to do."

"She should, because you're her dad. Plain and simple. I don't care that it's not that way biologically." She snapped back at me.

"Cat, she's getting old enough to make her own decisions. If she puts all the space between her and me that she can, then fine. I don't regret doing it."

"But it hurts you." Cat said, with a touch of finality.

"Of course it does Cat. I've considered her my own, and now she's pushed me away. So no shit. Let's just figure out our order. Okay?" I say, officially in a bad mood now.

She didn't reply, and a moment later our wine came, and we placed our orders.

I got a salmon dish with a salad, plus vinaigrette sauce.

Cat got a big salad and breadsticks for us to share.

"I'll have that right out for you guys." The waitress said, and then disappeared.

"So what's on tap for you next week?" I change the subject.

"Not much really. A meeting to decide how we're going to do the album promotion."

"You still on your crusade."

She giggled and smiled at me. "Of course I am. I'm going to do it this time."

"Fine by me."

"So now you'll be the bad guy leaving home." She teased me.

"That's my hat, that black hat." I smile at her, and she smiled back.

She plays the good Mom, I ask the hard questions. That's how life usually is at home.

"Sydney asked me about her cover album."

"Oh really?" I ask, then sipping my wine.

"Yeah, about when to release it, and what she should do about singles."

"What'd you say?"

"I told her what I do. Announce the date, 3 weeks out max, and then the next week after she announces it, drop a single." Cat said.

"What'd she say?"

"Not much, but the way people were running around yesterday when I was down there, she relayed my thoughts."

"So 3 weeks you think?" I ask.

"No, 2. I do know that. I got blind copied on the confirm email to Sydney."

What?

I sit, there, in disbelief for a moment.

Then say "That's why you're so mad."

"She's just in the business of screwing you over. She is very much my daughter." Cat said bitterly, and then took a huge swig of wine.

"Cat, don't beat yourself up. Okay? I'll send flowers. She's just thinking of what's in her best interest. Just like we taught her."

"But we told her that she shouldn't allow outside forces control her career! We're inside forces!"

"It's her life. I'll just send flowers with a nice note. Alright?"

She shrugged and leaned back. "Beneath Your Beautiful is the single."

"Oh?"

That's a beautiful song.

"Her and Ellie collab'd it apparently. That was also in the email."

"Can't wait to get it."

Cat rolled her eyes in disgust.

Neither of needs to say what we're both thinking.

Thankfully, the trend of the night continued and our food arrived to cut off the escalation of the situation.

The next time either of us spoke, Cat asked "Can we find something nice to talk about? I don't want our last face to face talk to end on a bad note. That's not a good omen."

I nod, and eventually we settled on what she's doing for her new album. It sounds good. Getting back to her emotional roots, and writing about the happenings of the last year.

She happily hung onto me as we waited for the valet to get our car again, then started off to LAX.

Cat turned on some MRP lecture show, and that got us to the airport.

I pull into a parking spot in the garage and start trudging off to the terminal where Cat's plane usually is stationed.

It's not her plane, she doesn't own it. She has a time share with Jade and Andre for it. Basically it's split 3 ways.

Cat uses it for press stuff and single concerts. Same for Andre.

Beck and Jade use it to get to wherever their next project is filming.

I've only used it like once or twice.

Cat does all of the talking as I hand off the bags to the people loading the plane up.

When I turn, Cat's frowning again.

"I'll call when I get to Boston."

She smiled, then closed the gap between us.

"Don't yell at her too bad. She's just worried." I say quietly.

"Fine…" She replied, clearly reluctant.

I laugh, then smile.

"Love you."

"Love you too. Be safe."

"I will."

Against my wishes, I let her go and turn back to the plane and board.

The pilot's PA checks and clearance is like white noise as I try to get comfortable.

As I always say, this is the worst part.

(A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry about the massive delay in updates. My hard drive crashed and I lost everything, including this entire chapter that I had already written. So I had to wait for a repair, which got delayed, and now here we are a month later. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, and start 2014 off strong. –James)