"... you remind me of her a lot, actually," Mr. Waters said, attempting to fill the silence after his story - the full story of what had happened to Will and Evelyn Caster, how he had been friends with Will since they were young men in college. "You're intelligent, ambitious. Caring. Just like Evelyn. Will was very lucky to have her…"

Gwen eyed Mr. Waters with a small amount of questioning at the way his voice trailed off, but before she could really understand what was going on in his mind, he spoke up again. "You have to be careful. Because if you get into trouble - any kind of trouble - I know that my son will do anything to get you out of it."

"He's smarter than that."

"He loves you. What he knows won't matter," Max supplied. "Believe me."

Gwen froze, unsure of how to react. She'd had a feeling, of course, for a short while now that Bryce felt something towards her, and she couldn't honestly deny feeling something for him as well - but it just wasn't the time to think of the possibility. She stammered a few syllables before shaking her head and looking away. Max cleared his throat and stood up, walking over to where she had placed her work bag down on the table. He glanced at her for permission first, and when she granted it, he reached in and went looking for the leatherbound journal that he described as containing her notes. He began thumbing through the pages and ripped out the most recent pages in one swift motion. She flinched slightly, as though the possibility of him damaging her work physically hurt her as well, but Max Waters held up the pages for her to see that they were still intact.

"I'm going to keep these safe," he explained. "No one will think to look for them with me."

"Will is going to want me to bring Evelyn back," Gwen said suddenly as her eyes caught sight of some of the doodles on the notes that had made Will's return possible - these things, like so many others, brought the events of recent days rushing back in an unpleasant wave that still made Gwen feel sick. "But I know I can't keep going with this, not knowing what I- what I already did. Whatever happened to Duggan was because of me. It was wrong. But if Will Caster is the same man that you told me about, all he'll see is the possibility to do it again -"

"I'm not sure the possibility exists anymore, Gwen," Mr. Waters said, shaking his head.

"But he'll want me to find a way -"

"Of course he would, I want you to find a way," he admitted before catching himself. He groaned and scratched the back of his neck. Gwen blinked at him with nothing to say, attempting to piece together something she was already beginning to suspect, but was interrupted by the sound of her front door opening yet again. Mr. Waters only just managed to tuck the papers away into his coat pocket before Donald Buchanan entered the living room.

"Max," he acknowledged with a familiar nod.

"Don," Mr. Waters replied with almost a tone of reverence. "I was just leaving."

Max gave Gwen one more nod and patted where he had hidden away her papers in his pocket before taking his leave of the Buchanan home. Gwen paused and was about to go upstairs to sleep until her father cleared his throat and brandished a bag containing a few boxes of chinese takeout. He gave his daughter a weak smile.

"I know it's been a long day, Gwenny, but I was hoping you'd have dinner with me?" he asked. "You know, like we used to before."

Gwen chuckled and sat down on the couch; her father followed suit and pulled out a pair of the disposable wooden chopsticks from the bag and handing them to her. He waited until she had taken a bite from the small box of potstickers before he cleared his throat to speak.

"Gwenny, I owe you an apology."

"Dad, no-"

"No, please listen," he said, holding up a hand to halt her protests as she placed down the food she had just started eating. "That night, I wasn't even the one you ran to when it happened. I was at there work - I was two floors away, it would have taken you less than a minute to come to me, and you ran to Max Waters instead because I wasn't the one you trusted to protect you. I did that to us, and I'm sorry."

Gwen felt her chest grow heavy with emotion, and she clenched her jaw to keep from crying - but it was difficult. Her father wasn't an emotional man, and when he got this way, when his stoic demeanor broke, even for just a moment, she knew it was the serious. The last time she had seen him really show he was feeling, rather than being her pillar of support, her rock, was when her mother had died. This situation that she gotten herself into with Milford Duggan, she realized, was that bad. And again, she broke, allowing her eyes to water. Seeing the change in his daughter's expression, Don Buchanan reached forward and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, gently coaxing her to lay her head on his shoulder. "I should have supported you when you told me about Generativity - I should have been happy for you," he said guiltily. "And instead, I pushed you away - you didn't even come to me -"

"It doesn't matter anymore, Daddy," Gwen said miserably, shaking her head and wrapping her arms around him. "I don't want to -"

"We're going to track down Milford Duggan and make him pay for this," Don said resolutely, and Gwen slowly pulled away to reveal her own fearful expression which he couldn't understand. "He needs to-"

"If - if he could just stay away forever, it'd be better for everyone," she said, suddenly looking away in shame - Don interpreted it as shame for what had happened to her, and he reached out and took her hands into his, squeezing them gently. Gwen squeezed back briefly before pulling her hands away and folding them in her lap, her gaze still glued resolutely to the floor. Don exhaled through his nostrils, feeling the outrage that any father would feel upon seeing his daughter this way - in this moment, it became a personal vendetta that he would find Milford Duggan and make him pay whether or not Gwen wanted it to be so - before he straightened up and cleared his throat to speak again with regained composure.

"Director Hadley has informed me that he wants to give you some time off to take care of yourself," Don said carefully - the tightness in his voice was one that Gwen knew indicated displeasure, and she finally looked at him, her face slightly puckered in concern. It took a few moments of mulling before she realized what he meant.

"You mean, I'm suspended?" she asked, shaking her head incredulously. "You can't -"

"I can't do anything about it, I tried," Don said, running a hand over his forehead tiredly. "The by-laws don't allow me to step in and veto the directors' decisions, and Hadley said that until Duggan is found and this situation is clarified, it's better for you and for the organization…"

Until Duggan is found. Gwen's shoulders drooped in defeat, and she felt tears welling in her eyes again for a completely different reason. She had worked so hard to even get her father to allow her into the organization, and now, once she finally had managed to get one foot up the ladder, it was gone. She buried her head in her hands, shaking her head miserably. Don reached out and gently rubbed his hand over his daughter's back.

"I - I have to leave for the Gatekeepers' Summit in the Netherlands in the morning," he reminded her. " It's three weeks, I can take you with me -"

"No. I - I don't want to go," she said, looking up and revealing her red eyes and slowly splotching face. "I just need some time alone…"

"Okay," Don said reluctantly. "I'll have Mr .Waters check up on you while I'm gone - I don't want you cooped up by yourself in this house with no one knowing how you are."

Gwen laughed weakly and looked up at her father with a lopsided smile. In front of everyone else, he was granite. He was stone. But for her, he was nothing close - she leaned over and hugged him tightly again, and in that moment, Don Buchanan could have sworn she was still the little girl he'd practically had to raise on his own, the little girl he had always protected. To him, Gwen always would be that little girl.

"I love you, Gwenny," he said, embracing his daughter tightly. "And I'm going to make sure this gets fixed. You've worked too hard, and I'm not going to let them take that away from you."

"I love you too, Daddy," she said with a sad smile. He couldn't fix this, she realized. No one could.

A/N's

Briefly - I know this is a short chapter, but the next update will be sooner to make up for it. This will be a double-whammy update, so stay tuned! In the meantime, also check up "Singularity's End" in the Transcendence fandom by jseah. I will be uploading Chapter 7 of this story soon. Cheers!