daddy's girl
[word count: 796]


"Honey, you're going to wear a hole in that pot."

Huh? Vanessa looked up from where she was busy washing dishes, into her father's dark eyes. Mr. Rae was smiling down at her, expression soft with concern. He gestured at the sink, which was full almost to the brim with water so hot it turned Vanessa's hands pink.

"What's wrong?"

It took a moment for Vanessa to decide whether she wanted to answer him or not. She glanced at her hands, buried in the suds, fingers wrapped tight around a ball of steel wool for optimal grease scrubbing. There was a time once when she'd shared almost everything with her father. But that was before Super Van, and then Vulcan, and boys.

As a girl she'd never been very good at keeping her mouth shut. As a woman she was sitting on a mountain of secrets and it was a miracle, really, that she'd not spilled a single one of them. Not really. Any secrets she had shared she'd given only to Kam, and he was Gehenna. So that made it okay.

But she couldn't talk to Kam about this. Or Blake.

Vanessa heaved a great sigh, tired of missing her father when he was standing right beside her, and looked to Mr. Rae again.

"Kam's back," she said, voice soft.

Mr. Rae's eyebrows lifted into his hairline. He leaned with his shoulder against the fridge, arms crossed in front of him. There was a lot about Vanessa's life that she kept hidden from him, the way he imagined all daughters did, but he was an attentive father. Mr. Rae knew enough to understand how significant Kam's homecoming was.

"You saw him?"

"Yeah," Vanessa brushed a stray lock of her away from her eyes with her forearm, because her hands were too wet. "He invited me over."

"...Vanessa..."

"Dad," Vanessa hurried on before he could scold her. There was an edge to her voice, "I know what it sounds like. But it wasn't... like that. He-

"He what?"

"I kissed him."

Mr. Rae stood silent, very carefully not judging or reprimanding his daughter. When he said nothing Vanessa flushed.

"He knew about Blake, though. He didn't kiss me back. Dad, I swear I didn't mean..." Vanessa's fingers tightened around the steel wool, eyes suddenly filling with tears. Her voice trembled. "I just missed him so much, and he wouldn't kiss me back."

"Why not?"

"I don't know!" Vanessa said, hands working so furiously upon the pot in the sink that it had started to shine. "He said..."

What had he said?

'I'm not going to be that guy.' The memory of Kam's voice rang in her ears. 'I'll be here if you need me, but things are different now. They have to be.'

She closed her eyes.

"He said he doesn't want to be 'that guy.'"

"I see," Mr. Rae said, biting his cheek to keep from smiling at his daughter's predicament. Not out of cruelty, but because he thought that he understood what was going on better than she did. He had dated a little since his wife's death, but only very little, and had ultimately decided that there would never be another woman for him. Listening to Vanessa now reminded him of other reasons why it was better to remain single.

His heart was no longer as strong as hers. "What do you think he meant by that?"

"I don't know," Vanessa said, head hurting.

"Here," Mr. Rae covered his daughter's hands with his, and tried to take the ball of steel wool away from her. She held on. "Let me do this. You should sit. You work too hard."

"I'm fine," Vanessa said, touched by his concern, but needing the work to keep her hands busy. "Really, dad. Just let me finish it."

"Okay." Mr. Rae hesitated before taking a step back, wiping his wet hand on a tea towel that hung off the back of a kitchen chair. "That water is too hot, you know. You're going to dry out your hands."

Vanessa shrugged, and a comfortable silence fell between them. Mr. Rae lingered, unwilling to leave his baby girl when she was so obviously distressed. He pursed his lips.

"Does Blake know?"

"What?"

"That you kissed another man."

The way he said it made Vanessa wince. She shook her head.

"Ah," Mr. Rae said.

Vanessa glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and was surprised when he did not give her a lecture.

"Aren't you going to tell me that I have to?"

"No," he shook his head, "you're a big girl."

A woman, even. Mr. Rae's smile was fond and bittersweet.

"You already know what you need to do."

Vanessa sighed, because he was right.