The Girl Who Lived
"So Steve?" Strickland asked Sandra later that night. She was sitting on one of the kitchen stools while her feet rested on the other. There was a wine glass in her hand and she watched as he finished cleaning up the remains of dinner. Since her accident with the pasta, the stove, and getting burned he had requested she stay out of the kitchen for a little while, that included the washing up after dinner. She thought he was going a little overboard but she was hardly going to argue when it came to the dinner clean up. She thoroughly enjoyed sitting there drinking wine while he filled the dishwasher.
"What about him?" she asked nonchalantly taking a sip of her white wine.
"You offered him the job" he added as he rinsed a pan off in the sink.
"I did, you were right there when I did it" she reminded him.
"Can I ask why him?" he pushed curious as to why she finally settled on the Scotchman.
"He seems just quirky and driven enough to get along with Gerry and Brian. Plus you seemed to be trying to push me in that direction through most of this case." She explained to him with a slightly pointed look.
"That maybe true, but you made the decision not me," he countered with a smile.
"True I did" she replied grinning back at him.
"See I told you that you would know when the right person came along." He told her taking a break from the dirty dishes to take a drink of his own wine.
"I suppose you did, you want a gold star?" she asked sarcastically.
"I'll settle for a kiss."
"You drive a hard bargain" she laughed leaning over and kissed him.
"You think Gerry and Brian will be okay with Steve?" He asked being serious once more.
"They have been asking for a replacement for weeks now they say they can't do all the work on their own. But I think it will take them a little while to get use to Steve, we all will. Now it is their time to deal with change" she answered. She was a bit concerned about how the three would get along with each other. Steve seemed like a pretty easy going, easy to get along with guy but Brian hated change and Gerry was a wild card. He could take a liking to Steve or view him as an outsider and give him the cold shoulder.
"Are you okay with this?" he asked still a bit concerned, it was a big step for her replacing Jack.
"Yeah we are a team that was one member short and as you said it felt right." She replied she was sure Steve was right she was just afraid Brian and Gerry would not agree.
"Then what are you thinking about so intensely? You have been watching me loan the dishwasher with that look on your face that says something is bothering you. I am just hoping it isn't my method of filling this thing." He joked while he questioned her, if Steve wasn't the problem then he had no idea what was going on in her mind. He turned part of his attention back to the dishes and began hand washing the knifes.
"This case, that man, he scared, twisted and beat these women so they never doubted him and they were too afraid to leave. I can't even imagine living like that. Scared all the time, cut off from everyone I ever knew and loved. Dependent on one man who wasn't always there, moving around all the time in fear for my life because of all the lies he told me. Those poor women really they were just girls and his little daughter already brainwashed, how long will it take for her to recover or any of them?" She exclaimed to him, she just couldn't stop thinking about Georgia and what she had been through. The faraway look in her eyes radiating fear haunted Sandra and she couldn't get it out of her mind.
"People, especially children are very resilient," he tried to reassure her, though he too couldn't seem to get the case out of his thoughts.
"Those women will never trust again," she added.
"It will take a time but people can surprise you."
"You are quite optimistic tonight" she observed.
"I have to be" he told her, his tone was strange and it confused her.
"Why I thought things turned out quite well all things considered." She said shooting him a questioning look.
"They did and I no longer have to bug you about finding a replacement for Jack." He replied with a weak smile.
"Yes, so what is the problem?" she asked it was her turn to question him.
"It's Hermione" he sighed as his daughter's name came off his lips.
"What's wrong with Hermione?" she asked him confused and concerned about the girl.
"I spoke to Helen earlier today and she told me Hermione has a boyfriend. A real one, not just a boy she holds hands with at school. Apparently they are going to the cinema this weekend," he moaned.
"That is going to make reading Facebook interesting" she laughed but inwardly she cringed, she didn't need to read about teenage love.
"Don't laugh this is serious," he admonished her.
"It isn't the end of the world" she tried to tell him, it was just a date.
"But she is going on a date and I don't even get to meet him first," he whinged.
"So you can do what? Glare at him? Threaten him? Or disapprove of him?" she asked shooting him a look of warning.
"Yes, what if he isn't a good kid?" he asked her greatly concerned.
"I'm sure her mum is not going to let Hermione go out with some would be criminal. And let me tell you this as a very important warning. The more you tell her you don't like a boy the more she will want to be with him." She informed him and she knew it was true.
"Seriously" he moaned.
"Oh yes I speak from experience. I was all set to break up with this bloke and my mum made the mistake of saying she never liked him, I dated him for another three months just to spite her. Terrible three months we fought the whole time and I did it all just to upset her." It was not one of her better moments but Grace had been far from happy either.
"Helen told me not to make a big deal out of it but how can I not this is a boy." He stressed the last word as if she was unfamiliar with dating.
"She's right there are going to be a lot of boys. She isn't going to be with this one forever. And she is going to bring the important ones round to meet you. You need to be patient." She warned him once more.
"But she is my baby!" he exclaimed.
"I know but please be reasonable" she begged him pouring more wine into both their glasses.
"So I just have to get use to this, no one asked my permission," he grumpled unhappy with the idea.
"You are going to have to accept that she is growing up" she told him cautiously.
"And what if she meets a man like Barry Flint or anyone of the murders we've arrested over the years?" He asked her working himself up and becoming more and more concerned about his daughter.
"As with everything in life you teach her and raise her the best you can and then…" she may have been using his own words on him but they were true.
"Let her lose on the world?" he finished her thought with his own fears.
"Not exactly you make her sound like the plague, but yes that's the general idea. Come on Hermione is a good kid, and she is only fourteen give her a chance." She tried to reassure him once more, Mione was not going to go off and do crazy things. Sandra could still remember what it was like to be a teenager and she felt the need to stick up for the teen.
"I don't have a choice do I?" he moaned.
"Nope I believe this one of the joys of parenting." She couldn't help but laugh at the face he made when she said those words.
"Ah the joys of parenting the biggest joke ever," he whinged.
"I have faith you can deal with this," she assured him taking his hand and squeezing it.
"I make no promises" he warned her.
"Then I guess it is a good thing I'm here," she smiled.
"Yes it is" he replied kissing her. "So what do you think you're father would have done?" He asked curious trying to imagine Gordon Pullman watching a boy date his daughter.
"Robert" she warned, the last time they talked about her dad it ended in a huge fight and him drunk on the sofa. It had been a banned topic ever since.
"No I mean it, what would the man you knew and loved; what would he have done when the apple of his eye brought home a boy for the first time? Would he have been calm or would he have threatened to shoot the boy if he touched you?" He asked her he really did want to know.
"I would like to think he would have been calm." She answered with a small smile thinking of her father.
"He was a cop, I think he would have done some threatening," he disagreed. The man would have stared down any boy as if he were a juvenile delinquent.
"You can think whatever you want," she sighed it felt like he always thought the worst of her dad.
"He had to have been an over protective father, he loved you," he explained she had clearly miss understood his previous comment he wasn't trying to fight or disagree. She didn't seem to understand that thought it was a good thing her father would have threatened her boyfriends.
"He did love me so he would have wanted me to be happy," she countered. She didn't want to believe her father would have over reacted like her partner now was.
"He would have thought no man was good enough for you, his daughter," he informed her thinking of Hermione.
"So you don't think he would have liked you?" She asked thought she already knew the answer.
"No I don't think he would have, he would have known my intentions toward you." He told her honestly with a suggestive smile.
"He would have seen right away how much you mean to me, and he would have accepted you. Just like you will do when Hermione brings home that boy who makes her eyes light up. And you won't dare say anything to risk her happiness." She countered, her dad only ever wanted her to be happy she knew that despite the way he ended things she knew how much he loved her.
"I suppose you are right, how did you get so smart?" he asked kissing her once more.
"I've always been this smart," she reminded him with a smile.
"You do know your dad would dislike me just like Gerry, Jack, and Brian did." He didn't know why but he felt the need to tell her.
"And just like the three of them he would have accepted you because you are important to me." She told him firmly, she knew her dad would have been slightly suspicious but he would have seen how good a man Robert truly was.
"So what did happen when you brought boys home?" He asked her still curious. He was now filling the dishwasher with the last of the dirty dishes as he waited for her response.
"I didn't really bring any boys home for a while. I hadn't actually gone on a date before my dad died and I was angry for a long time after that and when I finally did go out with a boy I didn't bring him home. I didn't tell my mum I just went out or snuck out." She said remembering back to those days.
"A wild child who didn't follow the rules even then." He smiled shaking his head.
"I followed the rules except my mum's, well did follow the rules until I meet those three." She reminded him, she had been all about the rules for the most of her time at the met.
"So you've said" he countered with a laugh.
"I do wonder what things would have been like if my dad had lived, all the things I never got to do with him. And I know there are all those things he did that we would have had to deal with but still I would have gladly dealt with it if it meant he was still alive and around." She couldn't help but be curious, she had been doing it most of her life. She usually tried not to think about it much anymore but his question brought it all up.
"I know" he replied sadly, he felt bad for bringing the subject up.
"There is one thing I have never wondered," she told him refusing to think about sad things right now.
"What that?" he asked.
"He would have liked you I know he would," she reassured him once more.
"No doubts?"
"None" she replied firmly.
"I am sorry we will never get the chance," he truly meant it even if the man would have disliked him.
"You would have liked him too," he added.
"I know I would" they had fought over her dad in the past and his disapproval had hurt her. He didn't want to repeat that experience, he didn't want to hurt her again. At the same time he still couldn't help but dislike her father for all the hurt he caused her over the years. Yet if the man were still alive he would have tried to get along with Gordon Pullman because his daughter loved him. And he didn't want them to fight about her father ever again not after what he did the last time. He realized it didn't matter what he thought of the man he would never let her know. He was determined to keep any conversation involving her father as happy as possible and free from judgments on his part. She had experience enough hurt and pain because of her father over the years he was not going to be the cause of any more of it.
"I still think I should get to meet Hermione's boyfriend," he told her after a minute returning to the original subject.
"Be calm about it now and you will get to at some point in the future. If you make a fuss you will turn Hermione against you," she reminded him.
"Fine" he agreed though he still didn't like it.
"It will be okay I promise" she assured him with a smile.
"Why can't she just stay little when all she cared about puppies and bunnies why do they have to grow up?" he moaned.
"I don't think I have to actually answer that," she countered trying not to laugh. He was a little adorable when he got this way.
"No you don't but things were so simple then before Facebook and twitter and boyfriends" he complained once more.
"I know but I also know you can do it because you love both your children and you want to make sure they grow up happy and healthy. Isn't that what every parent wants for their kids?" she asked him.
"Yes it is but I don't have to like the idea that my little girl is growing up and going on dates with boys." He replied pouting a little as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"Nope you don't have to like it but you do have to accept it." She reminded him and Strickland was quite for a while. "I know you can do it" she said nudging him.
"Thank you" he said finally.
"For what?" she asked taking a drink of wine.
"Talking me down, calming me down."
"Isn't that what we for each other?"
"Yes I guess it is. God I love you." He said as he turned the dishwasher on.
"I love you too. Now what do you say we open another bottle of wine and see what we can find on the telly?" she offered. She figured he might still need a bit of distraction.
"Sounds like the best offer I've had all night," he said standing up and holding out his hand to her.
"It better be the only offer you're had all night." She replied accepting his hand with a grin.
A/N Hope the week is going well. Good things are worth repeating repeating-Thank you for reading and the reviews.
