When Squall was finally released from prison, he got himself an apartment near Raine as well as a new job. Julie's twentieth birthday was coming up in a month's time. He wanted to get something for her but more than likely she didn't want to see him. But he had to try. "You can come with us over there if it's okay with Rinoa," Raine said the week before. "Let me call her and ask."
"I got it," Julie yelled to her mother. She grabbed the phone off its stand. "Hello?"
"Hi, Julie. Is your mother there?"
"Yeah, hold on. Mom! Phone!"
Rinoa picked up a phone upstairs and said, "Okay, you can hang it up now." There was a moment of pause then a click indicating the other phone had been turned off. "Hello?"
"Hi Rinoa. How are you today?" Raine asked.
"I'm all right. You?"
"Good. I have a question for you… Squall would like to see Julie on her birthday. Is that a bad idea or not?"
"I'm not sure. Um… is he with you now?"
"No. I just talked to him a little bit ago. He's probably at home."
"Okay, well, maybe I'll go talk to him." She said goodbye to Raine then told Julie to get in the car. "I'm going to drop you off at Raine's for a while."
"Where are you going?" Julie asked.
"I need to talk to someone."
"You're going to talk to dad, aren't you? Why? He might beat you up again."
"No he won't. I'll be fine. Don't worry." After parking in the visitor's lot, the two went in separate directions. Squall answered the door immediately. It seemed he was expecting her but the look on his face showed contradictory surprise. "Hello," Rinoa said. "Can I come in?"
Squall said, "Of course." She followed him down the hall to the apartment door behind the stairs. "Have a seat, please." He grabbed a chair from the kitchen for himself and had Rinoa sit on the couch. He didn't think she'd feel comfortable if he sat right next to her. "I assume Raine talked to you."
"Yeah. She called me a little bit ago. So you want to visit Julie on her birthday?" He nodded. "I think that'd be nice but it'd be hard on her. To tell the truth, I had a hard time coming here myself. But there's a difference. I could walk out that door and never look back again. If you came to see her, she wouldn't be able to do that. You would've entered the space she considered safe for a long time."
"So what can I do? I'd like to be involved in her life, if she lets me. I know I'd have to earn her trust again and let her take the time she needs to be comfortable with me."
"Maybe we can work something out. You had a present for her, right? I could give it to her for you. You could write a couple letters to her. Let's start with the present and I'll have a talk with her." Silence took the place of their talking for a few brief moments. Then Squall put his hand on Rinoa's.
"I'd like to see you again more often too."
"I don't know. I'd have to think about that. Maybe talk it over with Julie."
"Can I tell you something I think is important?" She gave him the go-ahead. "I know I can't take back everything I've done to hurt the two of you. I'm trying to fix my problem. I'm still in therapy so I wont pick up another drink again."
"Squall, I'd love so much to be with you. But I think I need to give this some thought. Let's take this one step at a time." After leaving his house, Rinoa went to join her daughter at Raine's place. She decided to talk to Julie at home, in private. And while Rinoa told her daughter everything, Julie sat in silence, contemplating and listening. She didn't know how to feel about the situation now brought up. It seemed her mother was giving into him but perhaps not. After all, he wasn't here now was he? And she was discussing it with her, which (despite the fact that Julie had only been a kid during their worst times) Rinoa had never done before. Finally it came Julie's turn to voice her opinion.
"I'm not sure what to do," she said when she found her voice. "I can't tell you what to do either. You should do what you feel is right. As for me… I need to think about it some more. I'll let you know."
She had a week to think this over. To help figure out a solution to this problem she asked Ellone for advice the next day. "Hm, well, I think you should do what you feel is the right thing to do," Ellone had said.
"I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not. I have both feelings about it. I don't know what to do. I can't forgive him for what he did to my mother."
"That's something hard to get over though. If he has changed, that may give you the closure you need to heal. Maybe you could think of some way to give him a chance without putting yourself, or your mother, at risk. You might be able to talk with his therapist and get his or her opinion on how well your father's recovery is going."
"Yeah I could do that."
Selphie was not as optimistic about the whole idea. She kept prodding the horrible outcomes of Squall having contact with them once again. Rinoa loved her friend like a sister but she was tired of hearing the same speech over and over. Weren't there good possibilities too? He could be serious about recovering, right? She was so confused. For the whole week mother and daughter contemplated their options, asking for the advice of everyone they knew but each other.
The day before her birthday sleep didn't find Julie right away. She was too busy looking at the good and the bad to allowing her father to have some contact with her again. 'So what's the good?' Lying in bed she propped her head up with her hand. 'It'd be nice to be a family again… I have missed my dad. He may have actually changed'. The bad came to her mind easily. 'He may not have changed. He could be lying about therapy. He could hurt my mom again.' The bad seemed to outweigh the good. Then again if she had some proof he was in all the therapy he'd said he was in, then maybe she could picture giving him a chance. But it would take a lot of time to even get close to the relationship they once had before all this began. Or maybe, what she'd only thought they had. By the time she came to her decision it was nearly three in the morning.
Rinoa was up before her daughter. She decided to make breakfast. While they ate they discussed their conclusions. Rinoa still remained undecided. "I don't think I can ever forgive him for what he did to you," Julie said. "But I'd like to give him the chance to prove he's changed and still working on it. If I see anything in him that makes me not trust him, I don't want to ever talk to him again."
"I think that's perfectly reasonable," Rinoa answered. She agreed to the same type of plan. A few hours after eating Rinoa traveled across town to the apartment complex. There she went over to Squall's home to retrieve the birthday present he had for his daughter.
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Thank you everyone who read this story and took the time to review. I hope the ending is suitable and enjoyable. I wanted it to be acceptable but not disappointing.