Disclaimer: Still not mine, only Alison

Summary: Chapter three

A/N: Short chapter here...

Alison slept until noon the next day. She opened her eyes and got out of bed, ready for another day. She smiled to herself, knowing that her dad would playfully chew her out for sleeping so late. Then a dark shadow crossed her pretty face and she thought for a moment, the events of the past few days came back in a rush of emotion. She looked around the desolate kitchen. The others had cleaned up after they'd left. Alison's eyes fell on the flag that lay on the counter, set aside for whenever she got the courage to put it where she felt it belonged.

"It's now or never Allie." she said to herself as she gathered the flag in her arms and once again opened the basement door. Flicking the light on, she slowly walked down the steps. As she decended down the wooden staircase, a memory wriggled it's way into her thoughts.

"Dad?" Alison queried as she peeked in the basement.

"Down here." came the reply. Alison sat on the steps, watching as her father began to sand down the side beam for his boat. She rested her head on the rail and let her legs dangle from the open side. Her dad sent a grin her way, she smiled back.

"It's going to be beautiful when it's done." she said after a while.

"Think so?"

"Yeah. What are you going to call it?"

"Don't know yet. I guess we'll have to wait and see huh?"

"Yeah."

She sighed again as she watched her dad sand out all the splinter-y patches of wood.After a while, she got up and let him be, leaving a sticky note on the door.

"Went to bed." was what it said.

The girl sighed heavily as she made her way down the steps, her heart slamming in her chest as she walked into the semi-dark, basement. The skeleton of her father's boat loomed in front of her, waiting for it's turn to be finished. Sadly, it wouldn't ever be finished; not the way he had wanted it. Alison stood in the shadows of the skeletal boat and stared for a long while. She wanted to dash back up the steps, but something held her rooted to the spot, what, she didn't know.

"It's a shame he couldn't finish it." came a voice that made Alison nearly jump out of her skin. She peeked around the boat to see a friendly face looking back.

"For heaven's sake Tobias, you scared me." Alison said, still holding the flag close.

"How are you holding up Allie?" Tobias Fornell asked, gesturing to the flag.

"Don't know yet." the teen replied. She looked around the basement and spotted the perfect place for her father's flag. "Hold this for a minute." she said to Fornell. Alison climbed on top of the workbench and stood on tip-toe just to make sure she could reach the top shelf. Reaching back for the flag, she streched up high and placed it up on the highest shelf. "There. Perfect." she jumped off the workbench and stood back to look at the flag. She dusted her hands on her jeans and sighed. Sighing, she sat down on the stool and looked over at Tobias. "I never thought it would be this way." she said, her voice trembling with teary emotion. "I never, in my wildest imagination, thought that I'd have to bury him so soon. I doesn't seem real, you know." Alison turned away from Tobias, tears stung her eyes.

"One thing I know about your father, is that he loved you more than he could ever express. He wasn't big on emotion. Only anger and frustration."

"That's dad." Alison chuckled though her tears. "Do you think he knows?"

"Knows what?"

"How much I loved him, and how much I miss him?"

"Alison your father knew everything about anything."

"That's true." Alison replied.

"Of course it is." Tobias stood up and patted her knee, "You remember what I told you." he said before he disappeared in the shadows from whence he came. For a moment, Alison wondered if he was a figment of her imagination, but she quickly dispelled of that theroy. She stared at the boat, and then looked back at her father's tool box. Inspiration quickly stole over her and she jumped up from the stool and grabbed the sander from the box. Then, with long strokes, just like she had seen her father do so many times before, Alison got to work on the skeleton boat.