Silco had never wanted a child, genuinely he hadn't, it wasn't just a pretence to keep up his image. He had thought Vander a fool for taking in and caring for four children. But now, quite against his will, this girl had adopted him as a father.
He had been told that the teenage years were the most challenging. But also what he had been hearing from parents around him was that all of the years were challenging.
At first, Silco had tried to treat Jinx just like any of his other employees, but it didn't work. Not when she didn't behave like his other employees. None of the others were quite so temperamental and unpredictable. Nothing in his years of managing people had prepared him for this.
"You don't trust me, do you?" Jinx said. She was suddenly there, leaning on the doorway of his office.
Silco looked up at her from the document he was reading. "Excuse me?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about," Jinx said.
"I can assure you I don't," he said.
Jinx looked the other way, plagued by memories of her past. To Silco, it appeared she had seen a ghost. Her head snapped back round to look at him, her jaw set with renewed fury. "Not only do you not trust me, you think I'm stupid too!" she said, walking over to his desk and slamming her hands down on it, making everything on it rattle.
Silco put his hand out to steady a glass and fixed Jinx with a stare. "No," he said, "I don't."
Jinx let out a cry of frustration and grabbed her head with her hands. She glared at Silco, who was clearly doing this to wind her up further. "Then why am I not allowed to go on the mission with the others?" she demanded.
Silco let out a breath. "Ah," he said, realisation dawning on him.
"You didn't even tell me this one was happening!"
"Because you weren't to be involved," Silco said. When she didn't immediately react, he looked back down at the document. But when he glanced back up, her eyes were wide and it looked like she was seeing ghosts again.
"It's because you don't trust me, right? Admit it!"
"I won't," Silco said, trying to keep his growing irritation out of his voice. "Because it's not true."
Jinx let out another cry of frustration, and kicked the leg of his desk. "It is!"
Silco clenched his fists. They had been having these sorts of argument repeatedly. It would go on and on until Jinx stalked away, then returned later to rekindle it. He was very annoyed with how much time this was taking up. Jinx didn't see how many allowances he granted her that nobody else got.
Just how was he supposed to get her to believe he trusted her when everywhere she turned she so readily found new reasons why he didn't?
Jinx was still standing there, silently fuming.
Silco glanced at the disassembled syringe on his desk. He needed to administer the drug soon. That gave him an idea. "Jinx, come here," he said.
Jinx eyed him, then crossed her arms and reluctantly sidled over to his side of the desk. She watched as Silco assembled the two parts of the syringe and tapped it with a nail. "You know I need this medicine to stop the infection spreading," he said.
"Yeah. What's your point? You've told me before," Jinx snapped.
"I want to give you a new job. One I wouldn't trust anyone else with," he said, holding out the syringe to her.
Jinx blew her hair out of her face, then took the syringe. She turned it over in her hands for a few moments, looking unimpressed. She looked up at Silco, who was waiting for her reaction. Jinx snorted. "You don't think I'll mess it up?"
Silco shook his head.
Jinx grinned and jumped onto his lap. She was getting a bit too big for this. "Okay, hold still!" she said.
Silco tipped his head back and slowed his breathing, determined not to let her see him tremble. He gently moved her hands so she got the syringe in the right position over his eye. "Now press the-" he began, but Jinx had already pressed the plunger. The needle went in and it was done.
Jinx took the syringe away and all Silco could see was her face huge and close to his. "I've never seen it work up close before!" she giggled, fascinated with what the drug was doing to his damaged eye. She wiped the excess drug off his cheek with her finger.
"You did very well," he said. "Now do you believe that I trust you?"
Jinx wrapped her arms around Silco and gave him a tight hug. He put his arms around her, and wondered if this was why people wanted children. This was nice.
