Chapter 2: The Meeting.
Erica was running fast. She knew that Eddie would come after her straight away because what he had said was true, their Mother wouldn't allow for Erica to ever meet her Father. Erica wasn't taking no for an answer though, she was determined to meet her Father especially because her Mother would never give her a reason to why she couldn't. She just assumed that it was to do with Mrs. Miller's own selfish reasons, not knowing that it was really for her own safety. Erica had been quite clever when planning to come to England to meet Mr. Sweet as she managed to go online and print off a map of the school, figuring out how to get herself to her Father's office. Also when she arrived at Anubis House, Joy had mentioned that Mr. Sweet stayed in his office late at night; so Erica knew that she would be meeting her Father very soon.
As Erica entered the school building and began to run down the main school corridor, she noticed that she couldn't hear Eddie calling after her. Erica thought that was a good thing because she would defiantly get to meet her Father and soon she arrived right outside of Mr. Sweet's office. Erica took a deep breath, she had been waiting twelve years for this moment and now it had finally came. She just wanted the moment to be perfect, so once steadying her very few nerves, she knocked on the office door.
"Come in" Mr Sweet said, making Erica smile slightly from hearing her Father's voice for the very first time as she opened the office door and stepped inside. When she saw him for the first time she smiled again, he didn't look anything like she had pictured. "Hello, students don't usually come to my office this late at night. Is there a problem?" he asked.
"Erm, I'm not a student" Erica frowned thinking that he must have never known what she looked like either.
"Oh, then are you lost? You can use the phone if you like" Mr. Sweet replied.
"No I'm not lost either" She told him.
"Then why are you here?" he asked.
"I'm Erica Miller, your Daughter" she explained with a wide smile on her face.
Fear immediately flashed through Mr. Sweets eyes and his whole body tensed up. This wasn't possible; there was no way it could be happening.
"No, I don't have a Daughter" Mr. Sweet told her and the use of his words immediately wiped the smile off of Erica's face.
"What do you mean?" she questioned. "I'm standing right here and I am your Daughter" Erica told him.
"Well I refuse to have a Daughter and I want absolutely nothing to do with you" Mr. Sweet explained. "Now get out of my office this instance and never come back, ever!" he yelled.
Erica felt like her heart was going to break. Her Mother and Eddie were right, she should have listened to them but of course she had to learn the hard way. All she had ever dreamed of was having a kind and loving Father but it now looked as if dreams don't come true. As Erica turned around to exit the office, she came face to face with Eddie who was stood in the doorway.
"Erica" Eddie said softly after hearing the whole entire conversation.
"Just leave me alone" she cried before running out of the office all the way back to the attic in Anubis House, where Trudy had told her earlier that she could stay there.
"Dad was that really necessary?" Eddie questioned angrily.
"I will see you tomorrow Edison for dinner like we have planned" Mr. Sweet told him calmly.
"It's Eddie and you didn't answer my question" Eddie replied, he wanted answers.
"Eddie, leave now" Mr. Sweet ordered, raising his voice slightly and for once Eddie did what he was told because right now he had to be there for his Sister.
When walking back to Anubis House, Eddie took the time to think. He couldn't understand why his Father had acted the way he did. It was just so unlike him. Eddie never possibly thought that Erica and Mr. Sweet meeting would have gone that badly but it was now completely obvious to him that his Mother had been right.
"Have you seen Erica?" Eddie asked Jerome, who was walking out of the kitchen.
"Yeh, she ran upstairs crying about ten minutes ago" Jerome replied and Eddie mumbled a quick 'thanks' before running up the stairs to find his Sister. When he reached the top he spotted all of the girls gathered outside of the attic door trying to get Erica to let them inside.
"How did it go?" Mara questioned.
"Even worse then you could ever imagine" Eddie replied before taking a bobby pin out of his pocket and using it to unlock the door.
"Eddie you can't do that, it's invading her privacy" Joy hissed.
"Well she needs me" Eddie explained as he made his way into the attic.
When he reached the top of the attic stairs all he saw was Erica curled up on her bed crying her eyes out. She looked completely heartbroken and it hurt Eddie to see her this way. He had never seen her so upset.
"Hey, do you want to talk about?" Eddie questioned and surprisingly Erica nodded before scooting over to make room for Eddie to sit down.
"Why doesn't he want to know me?" Erica asked.
"I don't know but he's an idiot for not wanting to" Eddie replied. "He has no clue what he's missing out on" he added.
"All I've ever wanted since I was little was a Dad who would pick me up from ballet class, a Dad which would pick me up and spin me around the room and a Dad who would high five me when I do well at school" Erica explained. "I want all the stuff that all the other girls my age get and I always end up asking myself why I don't get that. Those other girls don't understand how lucky they are to have a Father" she continued, letting the tears run down her cheeks and Eddie being the caring big brother he is wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a comforting cuddle.
"Any man would be lucky to have you as their daughter" Eddie replied.
"But now I think about it, you've been here for me through everything. You're more of Dad to me than anyone ever will be Eddie" Erica told him, her voice breaking a little. "Thanks for that" she smiled weakly.
"There's no need to thank me" Eddie told her, not really knowing what to say. What Erica just told him really pulled on his heart strings and she could tell that it had meant a lot to him. Instead of saying anything, Eddie gave her a big protective hug and kissed her gently on the forehead. He was there for her.
"I'm gonna leave you to get to sleep because you must be tired. Tomorrow will sort out what were going to do about school and everything" he explained. "I don't want you to worry about it. Everything is going to be okay" he reassured her.
"Okay" Erica replied and with that Eddie noticed a sudden beam of yellow light flash from the ring that Erica was wearing all the way to one of the pictures on the stain glass windows. He soon shook it off as him being tired though and decided to get some rest of his own, saying good night to his Sister.
When leaving the attic, Eddie knocked on Patricia's bedroom door and thankfully for him it was her who answered.
"Hey, how's your Sister?" Patricia asked.
"Broken but I'm hoping she will be okay" Eddie replied before leaning forward and kissing Patricia on the lips.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"You didn't get your good night kiss earlier" he explained.
"My good night kiss or your good night kiss?" Patricia teased.
"Good night Yacker" Eddie replied.
"Night" she smiled.
A/N: So you're lovely reviews made me want to update straight away, thank you very much for them. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
I'm now going to start writing the next one-shot for House of Peddie because it's getting late here in the UK it will be posted tomorrow.
Please review this chapter, thank you.