Darren kissed Rona's forehead again as he adjusted the covers around her. "Can I get you anything, Ronnie?"
"Well, while you were passed out, Uncle Finn suggested warm milk would help my stomach."
Darren rolled his eyes. "You're not going to let me live that down, are you?"
She tilted her head to one side, her eyes rolled up to look up at the ceiling like she was thinking. She looked at him with an impish look. "Nope, not a chance. But I really want some warm milk." She pouted out her lower lip, and blinked her eyes pleadingly.
"Hey, no fair!" He laughed. "You know I can't resist that face."
"Why do you think I use it?"
Still smiling, he leaned in close, and whispered something in Ryl. She smiled again, and said in reply, "Isn't that how I ended up pregnant in the first place?"
He gave her his best innocent look. The door chimed at that moment. Both of them rolled their eyes. "Of all the…" He groaned. "I'll go see who it is. I hope for their sake it's not a salesman."
"Maybe you should answer the door naked?" she asked hopefully.
He gave her that look. "You just want a better look at my ass, don't you?"
"Hey, in my defense, it's a nice ass."
"I'll be right back with that warm milk as soon as I get rid of whoever's at the door." He headed out of the room, and closed the door. Going down the stairs, Darren thought about how great the day had been so far. This day just couldn't get any better. He opened the door saying, "Whatever you're trying to sell, we don't want an—" He stopped before he could finish the sentence, because he saw who was standing at the door, looking like he would rather be a thousand light years away. "Well, today certainly is a day for surprises. Hello, Drogo," he said coolly.
"Darren," his father-in-law answered. "How have you been?"
"We've been good. You?"
"Surviving." He ran a hand through his head tentacles. Drogo seemed very fascinated with his feet all of a sudden. "So, uh, guess you're wondering what I'm doing in this neck of the galaxy."
Darren leaned on the door. "I have a pretty good idea. After all, you haven't called me a low life scoundrel or, you know, tried to punch me in the five minutes we've been making small talk."
"I deserved that. I haven't exactly been the, uh…well."
"Look, if you're looking to apologize, don't. Not to me. I'm not the one who you hurt." Darren said. "I understand a father thinking no one is good enough for his little girl; I saw it happen between my Dad and older sister. Ronnie's your little girl, and always will be, and I'm not good enough in your eyes. But you went too far, Drogo. Way too far. Then to have the nerve to show up for the wedding, and not even let her know you were there. That was a pretty shitty thing to do. And to be perfectly honest, I don't know if I can forgive you, so don't try with me. Rona, however might."
Drogo cringed. "You knew I was there." It was not a question.
Darren nodded. "Yeah, I did. So did Ronnie. You forget, man, we're Force Sensitive too. We felt you, even if we didn't see you. She cried so hard that night she was sick. It made her believe all the more you wanted nothing to do with her."
"Darren!" Rona's voiced drifted down the stairs. "Who's at the door?"
"We have a visitor, sweetie." He called back, not taking his eyes off Drogo.
"I'll be down in a moment."
"No, wait there. I'll bring him up." Darren looked at Drogo. If eyes were laser beams, Drogo would have been well done. "I'm going to take you to her. If you upset her…if you leave her in tears, and I don't mean the good kind, well, if I were you, I would start making up excuses as to why you won't be at the reunion."
Drogo took a step back. He had never seen anyone--other than Finn and himself--get that overprotective of Ronnie. He nodded. "Seems.." He cleared his throat. "Seems fair enough to me."