Chappie FOUR! You will discover some of Alex's past...and more later...I have this whole plot set out, only the ending is a bit sketchy, I haven't finished it yet...I started thinking of this when I was halfway through "To Be The Greatest", soo...the fruits of my labor! My ickle labor of looooove...yes, so...read, and, and, like, comment...okay? (intimidating face) Do it!

Lol...just kidding...heh...or...am I? (dun dun DUUUUN!)

(...I know...I'm such a loser! Lol!)
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Lily wasn't joking, Alex thought to herself, as she stood in front of Gabriel Daelin's house. She gave an appreciative whistle. This place is huge

It had at least four aboveground floors, maybe five, and seemed to loom up into the clouds. There was a high, steeple roof, then four rows of windows, the last of which being where the door sat; the house itself was painted a fresh white, while the shutters were a pretty sky-blue, as was the large deck and awning porch in front of the door. Alex stood a few yards from the bottom step of the porch, eyeing the house with awe.

Finally she gathered all of her courage, and hustled up the steps, to the door. She hesitated, then knocked loudly. A few seconds later, a short, plump woman with short, dark curly brown hair, small dark eyes, brown skin, and wearing a white uniform including a blouse and skirt with white socks and shoes, answered, staring at her with a slightly suspicious look on her face.

"Hola,"the woman greeted. "Si?"

"Er..." Alex fumbled for words, then finally blurted, "I've come to see Señor Daelin."

"El señor? Uno momento,"she answered, and closed the door briskly. Alex listened, and heard someone moving about swiftly in the house. She then heard a voice call, "Señor Daelin, la guesta."

"Gracias, Martà," a warm masculine voice suddenly replied, and as Alex's heartbeat quickened, she heard steps approaching the door. Then it swung open.

She blinked for a moment up at the man in front of her. He stood tall, at six feet, and had dark brown hair, much like her own, scattered with grey and trimmed neatly around his scalp, and he had a fine-kept grey-splotched dark brown moustache. His skin was tanned from much time in the sun, he had laugh lines and wrinkles around his dark brown eyes and heavily etched on his forehead, and he wore black slacks and a white lined button-up shirt.

"Yes?" he asked, smiling politely. His voice was shockingly like her own, only with a very masculine edge to it, as well as something older; his accent traced that of Lunaras, the sound of the language the woman had spoken. "May I help you?"

"Uh...Gabriel Daelin?" she asked, trying to keep a stammer from her voice. He looked at her closely, frowning slightly, then said curteously, "Would you like to come inside?"

"Um, okay," Alex mumbled and followed him inside. She blinked in awe at all the furniture and priceless items lining cabinets, coffee tables, and oaken stands. She had to stare at the fineness of the house itself; Mr. Daelin was a very wealthy man, it seemed.

"Take a seat," he offered, motioning to the couch draped with a white blanket. She nodded, swallowing hard, and took a seat. She felt a buzzy feeling in her stomach, and felt uncomfortable and nervous, fidgeting slightly. "Namì!" he called, and a second white-uniformed woman bustled quickly into the room. She was much, much slimmer than the other woman, and very trim and healthy-looking, though she had the same curly dark brown hair, shoulder-length this time, and the same small dark eyes and brown skin. Gabriel told the woman something in her language, and she nodded and hurried out, apparently into a kitchen.

She returned nearly immediately with a pair of lemonades, carried on a tray, which she sat on the coffee table sitting in front of the couch, where Alex sat, and across from the armchair the man had selected. He let her take a nervous sip of the lemonade, then as soon as she sat it back down he spoke.

"So, may I ask what you are doing here?"

"Um..." she racked her brain, trying to think of something. Finally she just let her mind work everything out, and her mouth began to move. "Look, my name's Alex. I'm an outlaw; I used to be an orphan, before joinin' a gang, then leavin' to become infamous on my own. I discovered, the day of my fourteenth birthday, that my last name was Daelin; an' that you, Mr. Daelin, were the only known existin' family I have. S' I trecked my way from where I used to be, in April City, to here, Lunaras, to meet you and discover more of myself and my history."

There was a long silence, in which neither of them moved or did a thing. Then, finally, Gabriel spoke.

"Alex Daelin? I suppose that's short for Alexandra?"

"Alexandria, apparently," Alex answered, quietly, anxiously.

Suddenly, to her utter surprise, he burst out laughing. "I knew it, from the moment I lay eyes on you! You're my granddaughter, my first and only!"

Her eyes widened, and she laughed, relieved. "How did you guess?"

"Well, first of all, we look so familiar, and sound familiar, didn't you notice as well?" She nodded, and he continued. "And, plus, it's your name, but I'll get to that later. There's so much I want to tell you!" He stood, and began pacing the room. "Where to begin, where to begin?"

After a pause, he seemed to come to a decision, and he settled back down. She sensed the atmosphere in the room change; a storyteller had just taken control.

"The Daelin bloodlines have always been extremely rare," he began. She nodded, leaning in with curiosity."There were only two Daelins who started out on this planet, and they were twin girls. The younger girl died from a fever, and the older one apparently married for a brief time, conceiving a child, but then divorced before the child's birth and spread out into the world. A young male was born, and she died when he was but a young one, who had only recently noted his last name of Daelin.

"He grew up, married, and his wife bore another pair of twins, this time a boy and girl. Then the father died, and the twins spread out into the world. One died much later on, but the other managed to carry on the Daelin name. Slowly, throughout the years, the name Daelin has spread down, from mother or father to child, but there have never been many Daelins alive at one time; at one moment in history there were up to six, but then things thinned out again. The Daelin line was at a constant threat of being extinguished.

"At one time, it did leave the world, when a Daelin mother died in labor and her child was given the name of the woman's consort's family. After the child grew up, though, he discovered his true name, and once again the Daelin name was entered into use. At many other points in time it was near to vanishing, but some brave, proud soul always brought it back with the stubbornness and determination known in our veins.

"I was born into this world as a Daelin, but my own mother, the only other Daelin, died when I was but a teenager. But I strived onwards, and eventually I learned of the injustice and brutality carrying on in this world. I decided to do something about it; so after I came across an outlaw-ridden town known as Lunaras, I joined the sheriff and soon became a deputy. Eventually, as I know you know, I became the sheriff.

"I met a woman at some point; she was a proud, cold, and incredibly independent outlaw, and I was the one who was sent to arrest her. It went off mostly without a hitch, save for the fact that I fell in love with her and she hated me from first sight. But eventually, as she sat in prison with me as her only companion, she wore down and we grew into close friends, which continued into lovers and eventually spouses.

"She took my name without argument, and from her we bore one child, a daughter, who looked exactly like her mother, and acted exactly like her, down to her ice-cold blue eyes and ivory skin and cold, icy, distant personality. But my wife, the outlaw, soon grew restless, and one day she simply...vanished."

Here, he stopped, and seemed to drift off. But then he snapped back to attention, and said, "Your mother, my daughter, did the exact same thing, when she was a mere eleven-year-old. Just one day vanished, a little girl in a great big world. I haven't seen her since, but I know for a fact that you're her daughter. A bit in appearance, though you look more like the Daelin blood than that of your grandmother, but mostly, in airs. You have that same independent, proud, stubborn, and wild side to you...the same thing that turned your grandmother, as well as your mother, into an outlaw."

"You haven't seen her since?" Alex asked. She was now incredibly curious, not only about this history but about her mother. "What do you think happened to her?"

"Through my connections as a sheriff, which I retired from only five years back, I learned that she became an outlaw, fierce and dangerous, feared all over Gunsmoke. But I lost word of her a year before I retired, when she would have been fourteen, and I never heard a single thing about her since. No crimes, no reckless actions, nothing. Not even a death."

Alex felt a chill go up her back at the last word; was her mysterious mother already dead?

"I'm afraid there's not much more I can tell you," he said finally, shifting in his seat. "You're welcome to stay the night here, if you wish."

She was tempted to accept the offer, but finally she declined. "Thank you, but I already have a room in mind at the inn."

After that the customary courtesies were exchanged, and then, as she headed out the door, she turned to face him. "Thank you, once again, for everything you've told me."

He smiled, and said, "It was no problem, Alex." Then he paused, and after a moment smiled in a bittersweet way, adding, "My daughter was always thinking of names, she loved making names, mostly in thought of a future in businesses where she could change her name around, you know, things like that. My daughter's favorite name was Alexandria."
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Yes, I probably farked the Spanish up even more in this one. Don't be mad at me...(cries)...I know Spanish, French, and can count in Korean, so I just went with the one I know best, Spannie...haha, Spannie, I find that amusing...

"You say 'erb', we say 'herb', because there's an effing H in it!"
-Eddie Izzard, British comedian

-Wolf