Dad didn't make it back to his place until the next day because there had been an impromptu party at the clubhouse the night before. Turns out Jax wasn't the only one who had been eager to get away from guns and drugs. Well, I guess the fact that the club voted his way had already proven it, but the party really showed how truly happy everyone was that it was finally done.

JC was true to his word and didn't try to take our make out session any further than that. He was also the one who finally brought us back to reality after nearly a full solid hour. I almost begged him not to leave, but I forced myself to stay quiet. He was respecting my wishes and I didn't want to be wishy washy. We'd had enough missed signals between us lately, I didn't want to start sending more, so I let him leave.

When dad finally made it home, he found me in my room trying to put it back in order. Yes, laying on the bed had been more comfortable for us, but that was only after we had dumped everything on the bed onto the floor. Thankfully none of my fragile items broke during our haste to clear the bed. But some of them had rolled under my bed, which resulted in the cleanup process taking longer than I had expected.

"Did your room get hit by Hurricane Maria too?" He asked form my opened door.

I finished folding the shirt in my hands and put it in a drawer before I turned around and answered, "I guess you could call it that."

He looked surprised about my response. The look on his face almost made me laugh. I was a big girl and I could admit that I had acted somewhat immaturely at the clubhouse. At least I could admit it to myself. Now, whether or not I would do the same with him was up to how he treated me and what he said to me next.

He stepped into my room and picked up a couple of books that had fallen at the foot of my bed. I think that's when he finally noticed the boxes in my room, along with my pieces of luggage that I had put away in to his crawl space for storage.

"Going on a trip?"

"Nope," I answered as I continued to fold clothes and put them away.

"Are you redecorating?"

"No."

He probably glared at my back that I kept turned to him on purpose during the exchange. Like I said, whatever was going to happen between us was up to him. And I really didn't feel like making the process any easier on him right now.

I heard him sit down on my bed as he growled out an aggravated noise. I smirked and bit my lip to keep from laughing at him because I didn't want to make matters worse unless I had to. "Alright… fine… Why are all of your moving boxes back in your room?"

"Because I was thinking about doing that."

"Doing what? Moving?"

"Yep."

"Out of our house or out of Charming?"

"You know… It never really occurred to me that I could leave Charming."

"Maria!" He snapped out in exasperation. "Would you do me the courtesy of looking at me while we have a conversation?"

I slowly turned to look over my shoulder replying, "I didn't realize this was a conversation. Give me a second to finish this."

"If this wasn't a conversation, then what the hell else would it be?"

"An interrogation," I replied without a moment of hesitation. "You know, since you've just been barking questions AT me since you came in here."

"No, I…"

I closed the dresser drawer and turned around to give him a pointed look with a raised eyebrow. That got him to stop and think about it before he replied, "Well, the easiest way to find out information is to ask most of the time."

"That's true. But it really only works that way if you're willing to listen."

"Yes. Yes, it does. So? Are you ready to listen or are you going to have another temper tantrum?"

"Am I…? Dad, you're the one who kept cutting me off at the clubhouse."

"Only because you were ranting and raving non-stop."

"Ranting…?" I stopped to take a deep breath and rested my back against my set of drawers with my arms crossed over my chest. "So sorry that I was worried about you since you had a head wound after you were shot at. Next time I won't fucking bother to care about you."

"Language."

"Fuck," I sighed out as I started massaging my temples because this argument always gave me a migraine. "Dad, you have to get over this sexist bullshit already. Yes, I'm female. But that doesn't mean that I can't fucking swear."

"Yeah, well… I tried to raise you to be a lady. Ladies don't curse."

"No, they don't. That's very true. But, I can't survive as a mechanic if I act like a lady all the time. The guys would eat me alive and laugh me out of the garage."

I heard him heave out a dejected sigh before he quietly said, "That's true."

My head snapped up as I gasped out, "Holy shit. You actually agreed with me?"

He rolled his eyes at that. "Don't be so over dramatic. So… back to what I walked in on. What did you mean when you said that you thought about moving?"

"Just exactly that." I wasn't going to elaborate but he gave me in unimpressed look, so I decided I might as well lay it all out on the line for him. "It's just… after having JC be a complete piece of shit to me because of 'club business' and then you doing the same, I thought it would make me feel better to leave without you knowing. But after I cooled down and slept on it, I thought it might be a little rash and that I should give you the courtesy of talking to you about it first."

"So? You admit that your behavior at the clubhouse was out of line?"

"I didn't say that. I just said I wanted to talk to you about moving first. Sure, I was a bit hot-headed last night, but you were being completely pig-headed. I just see it as tit for tat."

"I wasn't being pig-headed."

"That's your opinion and you are more than welcome to it."

"Maria…" He tried to level me with a look, but I wouldn't budge. He should have learned by now that I got my stubbornness from him, so I wasn't going to give in that easily.

"You can growl out my name all you want; it's not going to change the way I feel."

"Fine, I'll bite. How do you feel?"

"Hurt."

"Hurt?" He asked looking and sounding thoroughly confused.

"Yes, hurt. I could have lost you for good yesterday. And all you could do was yell at me for being worried about you and your wellbeing. I don't know how I'll survive if I lose you, Dad. Seeing you like that, covered in your own blood, getting out of a shot up car… It scared the hell out of me."

"You aren't going to lose me."

"You can't guarantee that or promise that. At least not until Jax finishes getting the MC out of muling for the CIA and you guys finally cut ties with the IRA."

"CIA…? How do you know about that?"

I stood a bit taller and probably looked more defiant than I meant to when I answered, "JC stopped by yesterday. Part of his apology to me for being a dick since the whole Frankie Diamonds debacle in Tahoe was coming clean about everything. Since Jax told the club all of it to get you guys to vote his way, JC figured there was no harm in tell me too."

"Except that it's club business…"

"And I'm a part of all this shit too. I work for the club, Dad. But more than that… Even if I wasn't dating JC, I would still be your daughter. Even if I wasn't a mechanic at TM, I would still be your daughter. What the club does, it affects me too."

He shook his head and looked even more unimpressed than he usually does. "That might be true, but Mia… There's some things you should know about for your own protection."

"I totally get that, Dad. But at the same time, that's also a huge load of horseshit and you know it."

"Excuse me?"

I let out a humorless laugh at the look on his face, but tried to sound calm and collected when I elaborated saying, "No one was supposed to know you were my father for my protection and yet I still got attacked and now I have a tri-brow."

"A tri-brow?"

I smiled because that joke seemed to have ease some of the tension that had been building between us. I pointed at my left eyebrow answering, "The scar from my stitches bisected my eyebrow. Now instead of having two eyebrows, I have three. Ergo, tri-brow."

I could tell that he was putting in a considerable amount of effort not to laugh, but I could still hear the amusement in his voice when he said, "You are so not right in the head sometimes."

I shrugged then nonchalantly replied, "With my genes are you really that surprised? I mean really? How could I be?"

"Mia…"

I gave him a cheeky grin. "You know I'm right, Dad."

"Yeah, you might be. On both counts, but that doesn't mean I can't do everything in my power to try to keep you as safe as humanly possible. The more you know about the club and our business, the more likely it is that someone might use hurting you to get back at us… at me. Or hurt you to get information. Right now there's something going on between Clay and Jax… I don't know what it is, so I didn't want to get into everything in front of Clay because I know he won't hesitate to hurt you if he thinks it will give him an advantage."

"Oh… yeah… that makes sense. For the record, I think their beef has to do with Clay being the ringleader of the Nomads and their home invasions, but Jax doesn't have a way to prove it yet… so he hasn't brought it to the table yet."

"How…? How do you know about that? Oh wait… shit… Juice, right?"

"Yes." I dropped my arms to my sides so I would look less defensive as I took in a deep, cleansing breath. "Alright… Dad, I'm sorry I thought the worst when you cut me off. I hadn't thought… hell, I hadn't really even noticed that Clay was there. And given what he has done already…" I shivered at the thought.

"How do you know what Clay has…? Dammit Juice! You shouldn't know any of that!"

"And as far as the rest of the MC is concerned, I don't know any of it. Look Dad, I'm willing to admit that my behavior yesterday wasn't the greatest… I'm not proud of it. But that being said, I will not apologize for being worried about you or getting frustrated when I thought that you weren't listening to me."

"Good to hear."

I stared at him for a couple of minutes in a stunned silence. When he didn't say anything else or look like he was going to, I scoffed softly.

"What was that for?" He asked with an annoyed bite.

I tried my best not to roll my eyes or sound as irritated as I felt when I retorted, "That's all you have to say? 'Good to hear'? There's nothing else you want to say to me?"

"Like what?"

I gaped and stared at him in utter disbelief because I knew he was totally serious. He honestly had no idea what I wanted to hear from him right now. Even worse, he genuinely didn't think he needed to apologize. Scratch that. The worst part was that he didn't WANT to apologize for anything at all.

"Nothing… it's… forget it. I just thought… Forget it… Never mind…" I took in a deep breath then started again, "But back to what you walked in on. I think… Scratch that… I KNOW I need out."

"Out? Out of where?"

"Here. Your house. I'm going to start looking for a place of my own so that I can have my own space."

"Your own space?"

I swear it almost sounded like I was speaking another language by the way he kept repeating what I was saying. But I could tell from the confused look on his face that he really didn't get it. Not that I could blame him because I wasn't sure I fully knew what I was trying to say right now either. I knew what I felt, but putting feelings into words wasn't always my strong suit.

But as I stood there staring at my dad, the words just sort of came to me. "Yes, my own space. Right now the only time I'm really way from the MC is when I'm in the bathroom or I'm asleep. Even then… It's just, between working at TM, dating JC and living with our, there barely a second when my whole world isn't focused on something to do with the MC. Actually now that I've stopped to think about it, I'm kind of surprised all of this didn't come to blow sooner."

"You are?"

"Yeah, I am. Liz was… an absolute disaster as a mother, but one thing I learned despite her was being okay with spending time on my own. In fact, I grew to really love moments of solitude. But since moving here, the only time I've had to myself as at the garage after hours. Now that's gone, so I'm hoping that if I put a little distance between myself and the club when I'm off the clock that it will help. And I don't mean just between you and I, with JC too."

"That… that actually does make sense. So you and Juice…?"

"No," I interrupted in a firm tone. "I'm sorry, Dad, but I don't want to get into the nitty gritty about my relationship with him today… at least not with you."

"Alright… alright. But I have to ask. You aren't considering moving in with him, are you?"

I laughed out loud at that. "Wouldn't that just be a 'same shit, different pile' situation?"

Dad actually cracked a smile at that question. "Yeah, I guess it would be. So this…? I mean moving, that's what you really want to do?"

"Yes, Daddy, it really is."

He nodded then stood up and took a couple of steps towards me. Instinctively, I took a step back, but there was nowhere for me to go. I instead just stumbled against the front of my dresser. He didn't show any signs of noticing my epic lack of coordination as he wrapped his arms around me to give me a tight hug.

"I'll do what I can to help you find somewhere suitable to live, Baby Girl. I'm sorry I didn't notice how hard all of this has been on you. I'll try to pay more attention from now on so that you don't have to hit me over the head with a tumbler of whiskey."

"HA!" I huffed out as I playfully punched him in the side. "It didn't even come close to hitting you." He squeezed his arms around my torso before he let me lean back so that I could look him in the eyes again, "Thank you for listening, Daddy. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Baby Girl."