Daddy's Girls: Chapter 26
Author's Note: The aftermath of the girls little adventure unfolds as our story comes to a close. But does the Saga truly end? You'll have to watch this section to find out. J
After three days of rest and recuperation on everyone's part, it was time to get down to more serious matters. Brad sought out Annie in her room in Boulderhill and found her trying desperately to brush her massively tangled long hair one handed. Oddly enough, she was concentrating so hard that she didn't notice him enter, at least until he walked over and took the brush from her.
"I think you better let me help."
She jumped in slight surprise, then stared at him as though he'd gone crazy, replying quietly, "It's pretty tangled, Dad..."
"And you're pretty stubborn...now come sit," He ordered as he pulled the chair by the bed away from the wall so that he could stand behind it.
Annie started to say something and then thought better of it as she sat down wordlessly in the proffered chair. They sat in silence for a little while as Brad gently worked at brushing the worst of the tangles out. When he was satisfied he could get the brush through smoothly, he began speaking as he parted and deftly started braiding her hair."
"I remember having to brush your hair out a lot when you were little. You used to have these horrendously thick curls before it grew out, and it was all I could do to keep them on top of your head." He paused, then added evenly, "Sometimes I wish your unruly hair was all I had to worry about."
Annie was glad that Brad couldn't see the hurt and somewhat angry look that flashed across her face as she sat with her back to him. She considered her reply carefully, deciding that she might get away more easily if she didn't make him anymore angry than she could sense he already was. So she swallowed what she wanted to really say and answered mildly, "I'm not sure I want to know what that means."
"I think you know what it means, Annie," Brad said slightly roughly as he finished the last twist of her braid. "Have a hair band ready?"
She offered him her left wrist so he could lift the hair band off of it and tried to appeal to her father's sense of reason, "Maybe if you let me explain...?"
"You may as well save the explanation, Annie, because I'm not the only one who needs to hear it."
"I definitely don't want to know what THAT means," she half-joked with a small smile, desperately hoping to lighten his mood as Brad stepped away from her chair.
"It means that we're going to have a very long and serious talk with Matt, Buddy, and Dusty, so stop stalling and let's go."
She dutifully followed her father through Boulderhill, breathing a somewhat mild sigh of relief. Even if it would be a rather strong four against one, Annie knew she'd be able to reasonably explain what happened, though she wasn't so sure how Roxy and Jess would fare. Then she started to feel rather unsure of herself when they met Roxy and Buddy in the hallway, and then saw Matt, Dusty, and Jess waiting for them outside what looked like Boulderhill's main control room. It dawned on her that 'we' also meant Roxy and Jess, so that her 4 to 1 odds had suddenly turned into a very bad 6 to 1, strongly against. Annie took a very deep breath and vowed then and there that she was not going to let them railroad her as they all filed into the control room.
Matt
sat down in his usual position at the 'head' of the circular
conference table and the other three MASK agents followed to their
usual seated positions.
"Sit down, girls," Matt
stated in his calm tone of command. "We've got a lot to
discuss." The girls complied with little hesitation by taking seats
on the opposite end of the table from their fathers.
"Frankly I don't know where to begin," Matt began," The PNA wants to congratulate you girls on your efforts to swart VENOM out of their latest plans. In fact, Duane has insisted you girls should come to New York for a formal ceremony."
The girls glance to each other surprise, as if they expected this meeting to take a more ugly tone.
Matt continued as he noticed the girls thought they were out of the danger zone, "But I decline the invitation on your behalf. Despite all the courage you've shown and all the good deeds you did. You were reckless, completely thoughtless about the number of people you left behind worried sick about your well-being, and worst of all you lied to your friends and family."
"Dad can I at lease say we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into?" Roxanne calmly remarked. "We were just looking for some fun surely at our age you did the same thing."
"We are not going to be comparing notes Roxanne," Buddy added. "Nothing we could of done can compare the mess you ended up in." Roxanne shrugged as if her attempt to reason was thrown off the table.
"Excuse me, Mr. Bond," Jess intervened. "As far as I know you weren't quite innocent in this matter. Okay, I made Roxy and Annie go with me, but in a away, it was you who got us involved, and second... if you had told anyone you'd been there in the first place, our little trip to Mexico could have been avoided or at least cut shorter. And third, if you hadn't decided on playing a solo and brought some back-up, this mess wouldn't probably have happened. How the hell were we supposed to know that Mayhem jr. was there? Did you know Vanessa was onboard the Orient Express the same time you were before she ran off, Matt?"
"Let me make this clear to you." He pointed directly at the three, "YOU GIRLS had no business what so ever at that club! Not only is that place home of the most lowest low lives you can find out here, but you're not even of age yet!"
"I tried to tell them that," Annie added in defensively. Matt shot Brad a glare not wishing to step on his toes.
Brad eyes looked directly into Annie showing he was deadly serious, "This isn't about who did what it's about acknowledging you made a huge mistake."
Annie met Brad's eyes with an equally serious gaze and very defiant tone. "Since when isn't this about who did what, Dad? Are you changing the rules in the middle of the game...again?"
"Excuse me, Annie?" Brad asked in a dangerously soft tone in order to keep himself from lunging across the table. "I'm almost positive I didn't hear you questioning me."
The last of Annie's frayed nerves snapped, and she replied without hesitation. "And I'm almost positive that you used to defend me once upon a time...oh wait, that was before you met your precious Roxanne..."
Buddy watched Brad's chair slide away from the table and interjected before his friend reached over and murdered his own daughter. "That remark was completely out of line, Annie, not to mention completely beside the point."
"This entire conversation is completely beside the point!" Annie shouted as she leapt to her feet. "As usual, nobody wants to put the blame back on the responsible parties, everyone would just rather lecture the hell out of the people who don't need it. And I am NOT going to sit here and listen to it when I didn't do anything wrong."
Brad jumped up and slapped his palms onto the table, drilling his angry eyes straight into Annie's, "Do me a favor and drop the innocent act, Annie, because you didn't let anything stop you from walking through the doors of that club either. And don't try to snow me and tell me you didn't have a choice, because I won't buy that coming from the person who's always telling me that there are always options."
The room sparked with electricity as the lecture turned into a more personal father/daughter power struggle. Annie leaned in to match her father stare for stare as she snarled at him, "The only thing that stopped me from waiting outside the club that night was the thought of having to face Dusty if something happened to Jess, especially after Roxanne showed up." Annie softened her gaze and turned to meet Dusty's eyes for the first time since they'd been rescued. "Dusty, if you can tell me that you wouldn't have blamed me if something had happened to Jess that night, I'll sit back down and take anything you guys are willing to throw at me."
Dusty's mouth dropped open, completely floored by Annie's request. His eyes drifted to his daughter's silent form, over to Brad's enraged features, and then back to Annie's pleading expression. Now I know how the pickle feels... He wasn't sure exactly what to say, especially since he was fighting his own mixed emotions, so he settled for the truth as he currently saw it. "I don't know what to tell ya, darlin'."
"It doesn't matter, Dusty, because we're not finished, and you're not leaving."
Brad said the last part to Annie in the parental tone of absolute authority, which she proceeded to ignore by casually walking out the door and storming down the hallway without another word.
It took about ten seconds for Brad to realize what happened. He sped out of the control room like a man on fire at the same time that the commentary started.
"Oh my god," Jess breathed in shock, "I can't believe she just did that!"
"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll kill her," Roxanne quipped, only half jokingly.
Buddy shot both girls a dark look. "We don't need any replies from the peanut gallery...you two are still in a lot of trouble."
"Somebody needs ta stop him afore he does somethin' he'll regret," Dusty drawled, standing up to rush to the defense.
"Sit down, Dusty," Matt said as the cowboy headed for the door. "Let Brad handle it."
"It's how he's gonna handle it that worries me."
Brad and Annie's angry voices carried easily into the control room from the hallway. The occupants of the room grew silent as they unconsciously tuned into the conversation they couldn't help but overhear.
"Just where the hell do you think you're going?!?!" Brad thundered, catching up to Annie in three furious strides and spinning her around by her good arm. "We're not through with you yet!"
"Well I'm through with you and your hypocritical friends too!" Annie screamed back at him. "I AM NOT taking the blame for Jess and Roxanne just because their parents won't pony up the discipline to make them be responsible for themselves!"
"Jess and Roxanne are not my problem...YOU are, and let me tell you something, Annie..."
"NO, let ME tell YOU something, DAD," Annie sneered, "you better make Jess and Roxanne part of the problem, because they're the ones who got us into that situation in the first place! I was TRYING TO be part of the solution! I was pulling damage control, or have you conveniently forgotten that I was the one who called you and told you where we were!?! So don't you DARE lecture me on the choices I made, because you haven't exactly made the best decisions in your life either, Mr. VENOM wanna be!"
Brad's vision turned blood red, and a sickening crack rent the air as his hand lashed across his daughter's cheek with enough force to send her staggering back a few paces. Stunned beyond any form of description, Annie lifted her left hand to her lips and stared in abject terror as it came away bloody. She blinked back a few shocked tears and tried to bolt, but Brad had her pinned mercilessly against the wall before she could take another breath.
"You're a hell of a lot more like your mother than I ever gave you credit for, Annie! That's just the kind of attitude she'd give me when she couldn't admit she was wrong, and I'll be damned before I stand here and let you talk to me like that after everything I've done for you!" Brad squeezed her left arm tighter as her eyes flashed and she started to reply. "I would be VERY, VERY careful about what you say to me right now, because the kid gloves are off! I will take you down right now and turn you over my knee like the child you're acting. And I hope the Rangers taught you to box one handed if you think you've got a snowball's chance in hell of taking me on."
The reply was nearly inaudible. "You're hurting me, Dad."
Brad released his grip on Annie's arm and stepped back enough to give her a small amount of breathing room while still interfering in her personal space. She wouldn't turn her head to meet his eyes so he snapped her back to attention. "Look at me when I'm talking, damn you!" He forced himself to continue through the look of unabashed fear in her eyes. "I don't know what the hell's gotten into you lately, but your attitude stinks! And until I find out what caused it, you are cut off! I certainly hope you like the new paint job I gave your bedroom walls, because that's all you're going to be staring at until I see some improvement. So say goodbye to every piece of civilization you hold dear little missy, including Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevadas!"
"You can't make that hold if you go out on another mission," Annie protested under her breath.
Brad didn't give Annie another chance to defy him as he hauled her back toward the conference room. "I can if I talk to Dusty about shipping your ass to Saint Catherine's. We'll see what the nuns have to say about you hiding knives and throwing them at people." He gave her one final warning as they approached the entrance, "You've had your say, now you're going to sit down and shut up or I am going to tan your backside right in front of all of them. I don't want to hear so much as a peep from you or see so much as a cross-eyed look in anyone's direction. Get me?"
Brad propelled her into the room with a forceful shove and shut the door as they both returned to their seats. Annie sat down quietly and stared at the floor, blinking back angry tears. This is SO unfair!
Dusty's eyes widened as soon as he got a good look at the bruise that purpled Annie's cheek, but Brad cut him off before he could say anything.
"Don't you dare coddle her, Dusty, she had a lot more coming than that. I think you better parent your own daughter before you worry about mine."
"Trust me, I will, Brad. But I won't stand here hearing this crap about parenting from you! I wasn't the one who sent her away."
"No, you just forgot that you have a daughter of your own."
"I know," Dusty said with tears in his eyes. "I was so busy trying to mend the damage you had inflicted on Annie that I didn't notice how much I hurt Jess with it. But you what makes us different, Brad? Jess and I sat down and TALKED, and we're trying to find a way back to each other. Can you say that about you and Annie?"
"Mend the damage I inflicted on my daughter?!" Brad stood up more aggravated, "Since when was she ever hurt to begin with! You think I enjoyed sending her away with complete strangers and asking them to raise my little girl. It was never because I couldn't do it myself! I spend every agonizing day wondering how she's doing and it tears me up that I had to be apart from her, but I did it for the sake of her future. You on the other hand you decided to forget your own children existed and decided to take it upon yourself to adopt my only flesh and blood. Sometimes I think she'd rather have you for her daddy then me. I want so badly for us to have a normal relationship, but thanks to her mother that hasn't been an easy thing to accomplish.
"There you go again hiding behind that witches name," Dusty stood up just as red in the face. "I've told you all along that if you left MASK and dropped out of the public eye by retiring your music career you'd have the same sort of life I have with my family."
"Yeah sure Dusty.... I'll be sure to raise my little girl just as blindly as you had raised yours."
The daughters of the two outraged fathers both had their jaws dropping. Neither of them had ever seen their father attempt to cut throat the other. Roxanne had to cover her mouth and turn her head as she attempt to cover her snickering. Matt shot Roxanne a disapproving look, but that did little to stop her inner laughter.
"Come on guys!" Buddy spoke up, "This is no time to be fighting. I don't condone what Brad did, but if they were my kids they'd all get a lot more then a slap in the face."
"Who ask you to step in Buddy?" Brad harshly shifted his eyes to him.
"You don't even have any kids and it's bad enough we let them hang around you, after all the stuff we found in your apartment. Your not exactly a good influence on the girls." Dusty hammered back.
Buddy turned speechless, "I....well...."
"Break it up," Matt finally decided to step in and slam both his fist onto the table, "...have you forgotten why we decided to hold this meeting? We agreed the three trouble makers sitting at this table were going to hear the same lecture whether they wanted to or not, but all I'm hearing is bickering between us about who should parent their children better. Before you go turning on me, I admit I haven't been as harsh as I should with my own, but she has another thing coming if she thinks she's getting off scott free."
"Sorry," Both Brad and Dusty uttered as they retook their seats and remained quiet.
Once the room remained quite again, Matt continued with his on going lecture, "It was bad enough you girls were put into a bad situation to begin with, but you all choose to take a greater risk by trying to play agent. Stealing MASK vehicles in the middle of battle when you've had no training what so ever to operate such machinery," Matt remarked glancing a Jess. "Making risky negotiations with terrorist," His eyes shifted to Roxanne. "And lastly attempting hand on hand combat with lethal terrorist especially when you don't have a weapon to defend yourself."
Annie was ready to open her mouth and deny the no weapon comment, but thought better of it after the talk her father had given her.
"You girls are NOT MASK AGENTS! That's our job; we signed up for this accepting all risks that come with such a demanding line of work and lay our lives down so others can sleep at night. But how do you expect us to do our jobs, when were worried sick about if our daughters are going to come home at night in one piece?"
"It's a shame those manuals on how to deal with terrorist don't get into details about how to raise a girl on the side," Buddy remarked half jokingly, which only sparked angry glares.
"Well I don't regret what I did," Jess openly spoke up. "If I hadn't done it, I'd probably be at my own father's funeral right this very moment."
"I second that," Roxanne added, "I know what I did was risky, but I saved somebody else life. Even if he doesn't appreciate the gift I have gave him. I will never take back what I did. Although," She casually remarked before Annie could speak up, "Annie probably still trying to figure out why the heck she did what she did."
Annie couldn't let that remark go even after the warning from Brad. She crossed her arms and stared back at Roxanne coldly. "I don't regret anything I did either, because unlike you, I have morals. I couldn't have left you behind even if I really DID want to."
The MASK leader locked eye contact with Jess, Annie, and Roxanne and realized these girls would never get the point they were trying to communicate. They all had the same determine look in their eyes that he had seen in his own agents, after another victory over VENOM. Maybe there isn't away to stop them from following in our footsteps. We all try to shield them from this and attempt to mold them into completely different individuals, but they are who they are. We made them into who they are strong, smart, independent women. If anything were just as much to blame for this as they are.
All eyes were upon Matt who seemed to be lost in thought, before he stood up ready to end this long meeting. "I respect the decisions you made, even if they're could have been greater consequences involve. In away we're all at fault. We've raise to be independent and not selfish in your decisions, because of that people are still alive. As leader of MASK, your all grounded from this base and you will not be making any travel plans besides going to school and catching up on your studies. Maybe one day when you girl prove to us that you're ready.... I just might considering letting you join."
'What?' Expression landed on everybody's face.
Without any further explanation Matt headed out of the room, "This meeting is adjourn. It's time to go home."
"This is not what we discussed about Matt," Brad interjected as he chase after him.
"Yeah who said you could even considering letting our daughter join such a dangerous line of work," Dusty remarked beside him.
"We did," he silently remarked, "We opened them up to everything we attempted to keep from them, but in the end gentlemen, no matter how much we plead and beg, they'll become exactly like their fathers. We taught them everything we knew that included how to deal with terrorist. If anything those girls are our future, whether we like it or not." Before Matt took off towards the transport back to the mansion he made one final comment, "It's clear they've all grown up so fast. We have so little time left before they head off on their own. Let us not forget how much they need us to continue guiding them, and how much they mean to us in our lives."
The hallway remained silent for a few minutes as Matt entered the transport and left MASK headquarters. Both Brad and Dusty adopted similar positions on each side of the hall; they leaned against the wall with arms crossed, staring at the floor as they each let the MASK leader's final words to them sink in.
"He's right ya know." Brad looked up at the sound of Dusty's quiet drawl. "We're just as much ta blame as the girls are. Gave 'em enough rope to end up hangin' ourselves."
"I know," Brad sighed before adopting a crooked half-smirk. "Here I am wondering where Annie's got her attitude from and it's been mine all along. I taught her how to be independent and think on her feet, then sent her into the mountains with people who doubly stress that sort of independent thinking. Sometimes I wonder if that really was such a good idea..."
"Listen Brad," Dusty paused a moment before he apologized, "I didn't really mean all that stuff I said in there 'bout you sendin' Annie away. I know ya did what ya thought was best, and I never intentionally tried ta undermine ya. I still see how much that girl adores ya, but for every lovin' look you sent her way, she got about three or four strange ones, most of 'em from our own teammates. I was just tryin' ta let her know there was someone else out there who could look past the outside, ya know..." He paused again and said rather emotionally, "I just wish I woulda saw what it was doin' to my Jessie a little sooner."
"I think we were both a bit blind when it came to our girls," Brad admitted as his own apology. He gave his old friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder before sighing again. "And I still can't decide whether I'm more angry about what Annie did, or because she HAD to do it. I never wanted her to have to make those kinds of choices, having to take the choice between the lesser of two evils. And I NEVER wanted her even considering possibly joining this team."
"None of us did, Pardner," Dusty drawled as he returned Brad's gesture of support. "But we got a little time afore they're old enough to choose for themselves, so we prob'ly better get back in there before they start takin' over the control room."
They shared a small laugh, putting their argument behind them as the walked back to the control room. They passed Buddy on the way out, dragging a semi-reluctant Roxanne behind him as he listed off the punishments she was in for in great detail.
"...I've got a toothbrush and some greasy floors with your name on them, and I don't remember the last time the men's room had a thorough cleaning either. I better get some extra toothbrushes..."
Both Brad and Dusty tried to keep straight faces, but managed to slip back into an aura of seriousness as they went to collect their girls, especially when they overheard the conversation going on inside.
"I can't believe he offered to make us MASK agents," Annie said quietly to Jess.
"I know! Can you believe the looks on our father's faces!?! Priceless!" Jess laughed free-spiritedly "And I've never known Matt to go back on his word, so if he says it's possible, we could be true MASK agents one day!"
"I wouldn't count on it," Brad interrupted harshly.
"Yeah, you two are still in a lotta trouble," Dusty agreed in the same tone, "so let's go."
Both girls looked at their still angry fathers and exchanged a knowing look as they followed them out of the room. Maybe someday...
