AN: Kinda short, sorry.
Chapter 3
Sarah shifted her weight from her heels to the balls of her feet then back to her heels again, rolling back and forth. "So."
Alec looked down and shook his head in amazement, the smile still on his face. "So. Now what?" He looked up at her again. "You wanted to meet me? I don't think your grandfather will exactly appreciate me busting into your life now." He corrected himself at Sarah's crestfallen expression. "Don't get me wrong. I would love to be your father, you know, be a dad and all, but last time he and I talked…well, let's just say he doesn't like me very much."
Sarah chewed at her lip. "It's hard, you know, not having parents. It's just me and my grandpa, and most times, he can't even look at me without seeing her,and then he looks sad, or else I guess he sees you, and then he—he hates me," she exclaimed, tears springing unbidden to her eyes.
Alec closed the distance between them in a flash and knelt down, enveloping his daughter in his arms. It felt natural to do it and her small body fitted against his as if she had been made to do so. "No, no, no, don't think that. I'm sure he doesn't hate you. He might hate me, but not you. You're his daughter's daughter and I'm sure he loves you. I've only just met you and I love you already," he murmured into Sarah's hair, memorizing her scent.
"I love you, too…Dad," she sniffled, burrowing her face into his shoulder. They stayed there for a minute, in their first father-daughter embrace.
When they pulled away, Sarah's brow was furrowed in thought. "Does the reason why Grandpa doesn't like you have to do with how my mom was sick for two years before she died?" She gazed at her father earnestly. "I mean, I know someone put a bomb under the car and she got Grandpa out but she got hurt instead because of the blast." She stopped as Alec flinched. "That's all they told me, but I'm not stupid. I'm still a kid, but I'm not a baby and I'm not dumb. I know that you're a transgenic, I know that they trained you to—to—"
"To kill people?" Alec finished quietly. "Are you asking me if I killed your mother?"
Sarah's lower lip trembled slightly and her luminescent eyes widened, shining green in the refracted light from the pool and shining with tears. "I guess. Yeah. Did you?" she queried in a shaky voice.
Alec took several shallow breaths before answering. "The truth? I planted the bomb but I didn't push the trigger. I might as well have, but I couldn't. I told her to get out, run away, to save herself, and—and that's what got her killed." He paused, his own eyes filling with tears. "I'm so sorry, Sarah," he whispered, gently lifting a brown curl aside to cup his daughter's cheek in his hand, his thumb brushing away a tear.
"You never told me the whole story," came from the doorway leading out to the pool. Alec snatched his hand away as they both whipped around to see Robert Berrisford standing there, unarmed from what was visible to Alec, but his look was murderous enough to kill.
AN: Dun-dun-duuuun. Uh-oh, will Berrisford try to kill Alec again?