Silence told him everything, but also what saved him at that moment was a knock on his door.
"Captain?"
"One moment please?"
"Kenzie I am going to put you on hold for a moment," he says and waits until she acknowledges his words.
"I just had a call about something being found in Intrepid park, would you like it brought to you when it arrives?"
"Yes please," he says and the officer nods and shuts his door.
Ken not knowing what else to grab his tablet and went to the messages, pulling up the conversation with the woman who only showed up in his life in the past month.
He stopped for a moment when he saw he had a new email.
It was the clinic, and he opened it and scanned it before going back to the text.
"Kenzie just called me, also I just got an email, so you most likely did as well. It told us what we already knew. Also isn't it a school day?"
It takes one minute for a text to come back to him.
"P.A Day, and yes I got it as well." She tells him but continues texting.
"If your comfortable with her on the phone, and have time keep her on the phone, if you have work I can rescue you?"
"I can manage, she isn't really talking, I never thought I would be the chatty one of this dynamic,"
"Oh just wait, one day you'll be begging for quiet," Rilla texts back.
"She has not run up long-distance is she?"
"No, she's good she calls the island a fair bit," Rilla replies and he takes a deep breath before taking Kenzie off mute.
"Sorry about that," Ken says into the phone. "An officer needed some papers."
"You're in the army?" She asks hesitantly.
"I am, I work in the #2 intelligence branch in Toronto," Ken tells her. "Apparently someone found something in Intrepid park, where Camp X was located during the war. They wanted me to verify something when it comes in."
"You weren't just texting mom in a panic?"
"I can multi-task," he says chuckling
"So you're a spy?"
"There isn't really spy's these days anymore, I just help our men with battle strategies if needed," Ken tells her.
"Right of course you can't talk about it, we'll need a code," Kenzie realizes and goes off thinking about what they could do. Forgetting just who she was talking too and the man she didn't know merely stayed on the phone listening to her as she explain her thought process about cyphers and how to create a good one. things he knew already from his own time at the Intelligence school, but he admitted she was smart.
"I gotta go eat lunch," Kenzie says abruptly.
"That's all right, go eat lunch," Ken tells her. "I have a meeting I should get too soon."
"Can I call you again?" She asks hesitantly.
"Of course," he answers, hoping it was the right answer and that her mother wouldn't mind.
He spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about the call and by the time he made it to his parents for dinner, he found his palms sweaty.
"I have a daughter, she's 9 years old, and I only just found out about her." He says and takes a long drink of the beer his father had handed him.
His mother looks at him and then his father before she takes a drink of her own wine.
"Can you repeat that slower," His father asks?
"Daughter, nine years old, I didn't know about her," Ken repeats simply. "Apparently when I was twenty-four and still partying it up like I was in college, I fathered a child that I didn't know about, until practically a month ago."
"Are you certain she's yours?" His mother asks hesitantly.
"We got a paternity test, she wasn't even truly looking for me. It was the ancestry site that Odette made me do a while back. There was some school project or something and we were connected. She wrote almost 6 months ago, but since I never used that email….well I didn't find out until Persis called asking why it said she had a niece or nephew." Ken explained, letting his head fall into his hands. "I am a bloody father! She called me today, unexpectedly while I was at work and the sound of her voice, it undid me. I don't even know her and yet…something about the idea of her makes me want to, Well, do anything to protect her. It doesn't even make sense!"
"The more I think about it, I wonder just how can I do this? I mean I have to do this! I was ready to raise a child that didn't even belong to me. She's my own blood and her mother spent the last decade alone not knowing who I even was. But it's terrifying, and I can't show that because showing fear and uncertainty is the first main way to get yourself killed."
"First off, showing your emotions to them is a whole lot different than being interrogated in the middle of a war, simulated or not." His father speaks up. "Every man is terrified, hell we planned to have you and the moment your mother told me she was pregnant I was terrified." Owen Ford tells his son.
"How do I not fuck this up?" Ken says groaning.
"You just do your best and be there for your child," his mother tells him. "As long you have official paternity?"
"We got it the other day," Ken tells her reaching for his wallet and pulling out the two photos and passing them to his mother. "Oh my dear," Leslie gasps. "Well there is little chance of paternity with those eyes, look at those Owen?"
"Summerside?" The elder ford asks.
"Her family is from the island," Ken explains, "They lived with her parents until almost four?" he says.
"Kenzie!?" Leslie exclaims one more
"Her full name is on the back of the photo." He tells them grinning slightly.
"Kennedy!" Leslie looks at the back of the photo. "My what a coincidence, though Blythe I feel like I know that last name."
"Didn't Persis have a pen pal from summer camp for a few years as a kid something Blythe?" Owen says.
"Yes!" Leslie agreed, "I believe I met the mother a few times, Christine, she was divorced if I remember correctly. She lived close by to us actually, so when her children came to visit, the girls would get together when they realized. Though I think they long lost touch when Christine moved out to Winnipeg with her partner Alicia. I wonder if they ever got married. But if they are from the Island. It's most likely a coincidence?" Leslie says before looking back at the photo.
"When do you meet her?" Owen Ford asks curiously.
"Next weekend, we wanted to give her some time to adjust to the news," Ken finds himself answering. Give him some time to adjust as well!
"Sounds wise enough," his father nods his head. "You'll have to let us know how it goes, and maybe eventually we can meet her as well?"
"Of course, I will bring it up with her mother," Ken tells him feeling a bit better now that his parents knew but he was still feeling very much out of his mind about everything.
Would she want to come over? Did he need to find a larger apartment? More child-friendly for possible weekends? Was that something Rilla would allow him?
They texted back and forth, between phone calls with Kenzie, sometimes before dinner, sometimes it was after. Sometimes it was in the car after gymnastics. It made his nights less lonely that was for sure. It always started the same she was quiet in the beginning, then chatty and then though the closer the day got, the quieter she became.
"We're going to watch Little Mermaid today," she tells him. "Do you like Disney movies? I guess if you do it probably the boy ones and not the princess ones" she answers for him going on about something else. "We can watch one Saturday, I have the Black Cauldron that's a boyish one."
This prompted him to go to the mall on Saturday. It made his heart beat fast. He didn't feel ready for this, but there is nothing stopping it now. He takes the subway downtown feeling awkward at the bright store decorated in Disney.
"Can I help you find anything, Sir? You look like a fish out of the water," The girl said smiling like it was some sort of inside joke. "Looking for a niece or nephew?"
"Daughter, Ummm she likes the mermaid? I really don't know much more than that," Ken says before groaning. "And now I sound like the world's worst terrible father, and the truth wouldn't help that either."
"Oh never think that, she must be overjoyed to have a father like you, how old is she?" She says over joyfully, this had to be a sales thing?
"Nine, grade 4 I think?" Ken says feeling overwhelmed by everything.
"All right, mermaids mean Ariel let's go this way." She says leading him over to 'under the sea' area. "Nine years old, so a bit too old for the play dolls, but we have a lovely collectors doll that she might still enjoy?"
The price shocks him, but he walks out with a doll. Something that another child fawned over, the lady even wrapped it up in a gift bag for him, probably out of pity if anything.
He places it beside next to the doors that were ready to go, questioning the gift for the millionth time. He didn't want it to look like he was trying to buy into her good graces, but it felt weird going empty-handed. Surely a doll would be fine?
He dressed casually this time around, a pair of chinos and a polo shirt and he pulls at the collar while driving to London once again, using his GPS to find the address the Rilla gave him in a text.
Rilla met him at the front door, she was dressed more casually than last time, skinny jeans and a tee-shirt that had a band, or what he assumed was a band on it. Theirs a sliver of midriff of pale skin, she looks younger than before, but then again she was young. Younger than him by a good six years, he smiles trying to shake his thoughts. This was not what he was here for, he wasn't going to be that sort of man.
He must have looked nervous because she has a look of amusement on her face.
"She doesn't bite," She tells him with a grin. "Not anymore at least, she'll most likely be a little shy at first, but give her some time and I'm sure everything will fall into place."
Ken merely nods and follows her up the stairs to her apartment.
"I told my parents," he tells her unsure of what to say. "Apparently your last name has reminded them of old neighbours, though they figure since you're from out East it wouldn't actually be you.
"Actually my Dad did his residency out in Toronto with his first wife. Dad was born on the island though, which is why he moved back eventually. " Rilla tells and he makes a mental note to ask more about it at a later date before she opens the door.
"Kenzie, someone is here for you," she calls out and she comes out holding a grey floppy-eared bunny.
She was taller than expected, her long dark hair rippled in unruly waves around her shoulders. A pink shirt and a pair of light-coloured denim short overalls. Still very much a child, but slowly losing the child-like features, she stoops down for a moment letting the bunny go.
They hold each other's gaze, greys eyes meeting for the first time.
"You're my dad?" She asks unsure of him.
"I am," he says nodding his head. "It's nice to meet you, umm I got you something," he says holding out the gift bag. "I didn't know if I should or not, but the girl at the store said you might like it?" he said awkwardly. "I'm sorry I'm new at this?"
"It's okay, so am I," she tells him honestly, looking to her mother, and he sees Rilla nod her head before she reaches for the bag, or what he thought was going to be the bag. Instead, she hugs him cautiously, her long gangly arms wrapping around his waist for a brief moment, enough time for him to give an awkward brush over her hair before she unhugs him as fast as she hugged him.