(Untitled)

[a_sport]

Calvin had been steeling himself to go straight into the rec room once he got to the Compound, but at the looming possibility of a daughter-from-the-future, he hesitated just outside the doorway. Palms sweaty, heart racing, the need to throw up hadn't completely gone away. The marriage license had been bad enough, and that was just a piece of

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[polly_okeefe]

I waited.

Mother warned me that it might be a while, but she promised that Daddy would come, so like she asked, I waited in the rec room, a wreck.

I couldn't clean. I couldn't _think_. Thank goodness, the jukebox decided to keep quiet, or I might have pulled a fit again. So instead, I just sat, at the end of the couch furthest away from the door, perking up and looking over every time the door opened, and somebody -- not Daddy -- came into the room.

That happened a lot.

Eventually, my nerves compressed me into daze, and I slouched on the couch, staring at the table in front of me, unresponsive as people came and left. When the door opened yet again, an hour after Mother had left, I didn't move. I didn't look up. Until, that was, I became aware of a figure standing there for a long moment, staring at me.

[a_sport]

There was no mistaking her. Once he got a glimpse of the girl on the sofa, there wasn’t a question if it was Polyhymnia or not. It had to be. The color of her hair, the line of her jaw, something even in just her posture, it was familiar and still altogether strange.

Just looking at her made him long for home. All grown up like this, she looked almost unsettlingly like his sister Josie. Or, put another way, like a less gawky, softer and altogether prettier version of Calvin himself.

“Hi, Polyhymnia.” It was still a helluva name, but now that he could look at her, it seemed fitting too. He was still across the room from her, just barely past the doorway, but he couldn’t get himself to move yet. “Ah, how’s it going, future progeny?”

[polly_okeefe]

His voice shook me out of my reverie. I jumped to my feet, a lot faster than I'd intended, and stared at the apparition by the rec room door. Even prepared as I was, seeing Daddy like this was a shock. He had no beard. He was thinner, lankier. But everything else that marked him as Daddy was all there: the hair, the eyes, the smile... especially the eyes and the smile, even if the smile suggested that he was as scared as I was.

I put one hand on the arm of the couch to steady myself. I swallowed. "Daddy." I took a deep breath, and I waited.

[a_sport]

Daddy. He hadn’t been expecting that, but maybe he probably should have been. It shook him a bit, more than he’d admit. Made it a bit distressingly real.

Well, okay. Here she was. Now what was he supposed to do now?

For a long moment, silence stretched between them as they just stared at each other. But then he forced himself to cross the length of the room until he was standing in front of her. Despite himself, his hands crept into his pockets as he looked at her.

“Hi,” Calvin said again as he looked at her up close. She looked pretty freaked out. Was he supposed to hug her? Was this a hugging moment?

[polly_okeefe]

Boy, did the tension mount as Daddy came over and stood in front of me. I could see in his eyes how hard this was for him, and I could understand. Imagine if I had a daughter who suddenly showed up here. How would I react?

Then again, perhaps I shouldn't imagine that. Knowing this Island, it might happen tomorrow, just to mess with our heads, and then where would we be?

I had no idea what to say, no idea where to begin. I took a deep breath. My whole body wanted to tremble.

Then he spoke, and familiarity of his voice shook me again. "Oh, Daddy!" I gasped, and I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight.

[a_sport]

He took a startled breath as her arms went around him and was caught awkwardly with his hands still in his pockets as she clung to him. But he managed to pull his arms free and put them around her and hugged her close for a long moment.

It was, like the rest of her, unsettlingly foreign and tremendously familiar. Like there was a part of him who knew, recognized and loved this girl, even as the rest of him could barely get his mind around her actually being who she said she was.

“Um, hey,” he said in a shaky voice, because apparently he could think of nothing to do but greet her over and over again. But he touched his hand to her hair once, fondly, and maybe that would be enough until he got his language back.

[polly_okeefe]

I drew a shaky breath. "I'm sorry," I said. "I-- I know this is a shock. I-- It's just that I was alone here, a long way from you, from Mother, from the rest of the family. Is... Mother okay? Will I... see her again?"

He just stood there, staring at me, which is what I would have done in his shoes, I'm sure. Maybe it was time for me to take the initiative.

I nodded at a nearby table, with two seats across from each other. "Maybe we should sit down... and talk."

[a_sport]

“Oh, she’s wigging out pretty fierce,” he said with a familiar passing fondness. There was something reassuring in the knowledge that, not too far away, she was as freaked out as he was about this. It was a moment before he realized how that sounded and added. “But, you know, that’s Meg. She’ll be okay once things settle. And, yeah, of course you will. Just got to get her feet under her.”

He took a breath and then nodded slightly as he walked over to the table. Calvin looked at her for a moment longer then sat down. “Um…do you have any questions for me?”

It’d give him a bit of time to get his own feet under him. Work out just what the hell to say.

[polly_okeefe]

I smiled nervously, then looked down at the table. After a moment's thought, I said, "So... how've you been?" I winced. As in 'how've you been since the last time I saw you, which is sometime never.'

I rested my head in my hand and looked up at Daddy. "God, this is weird, Daddy. You're young enough to be my brother."

[a_sport]

His mouth curved up in a shy sort of smile as he shrugged. "I've...been okay. Good. It was just a normal day until it suddenly got really, really weird."

Calvin sat back in his chair and looked at her for a long moment then shook his head in bemusement. "It's so weird. I- this wasn't what I ever expected to happened." Then he paused and blinked. "You don't...have a brother do you?"

[polly_okeefe]

I looked up at him, and gnawed my lip a moment. I wasn't sure if I should tell him this -- both for the paradox it might cause, and for the fact that it might give Daddy a heart attack at nineteen. But at this time and in this place, it seemed wrong to lie, or even hide the truth.

"If you're sure you want to hear this, Daddy," I said, pausing. Then, "You have -- will have -- seven kids. I'm the oldest. Then there's Charles, Xan, Den, Peggy, Johnny and Rosy."

I leaned back and watched him nervously, in case I had to give him CPR.

[a_sport]

Calvin almost fell out of his chair.

He sat back in it with a near-violent force and almost tumbled back head-over-heels.

Seven children

God damn, they were like their own clan.

"Oh- oh my God."

[polly_okeefe]

I lunged across the table to try and catch him, but he righted himself before I could reach him. "I'm sorry, Daddy!" I squeaked. When I was sure he was all right -- relatively speaking -- I eased back into my own chair and watched him warily.

"I'm sorry," I repeated. "Maybe... if you don't want to ask any more questions, I... understand."

The last thing I wanted was to have Daddy run screaming from the room.

[a_sport]

"Seven kids," he says as he shakes his head somewhere between stunned, appalled and amused. "Seven." He rubbed his hand over his mouth as he waited for it to sink in a little bit more.

After a moment, his mouth curled up in the start of a smile as he shook his head in bemusement. "Oh, Meg is going to go out of her damn mind when she hears that."

[polly_okeefe]

"Uh..." I said, biting my lip. Because I could see the explosion happening in my head. But... "Yeah, you're probably going to have to tell her, now. I'm sorry in advance for the screaming. She'll scream, right?"

But I smiled at Daddy's smile. I couldn't imagine how he could handle this so well, but it was Daddy through and through.

"So... where do you live, on the Island? You have a hut?"

[a_sport]

Meg's reaction was going to be epic. As though one kid-from-the-future wasn't enough, she brought news of six more. Because apparently they not only have a family but a pretty good-sized one. "Oh, yeah. I might be sleeping on the floor for a couple days." Calvin gave her another little smile. "Besides, it's hardly your fault, no need to apologize."

He took a breath and let it out as his hands absently gestured to go along with his words. "Yeah, we do. Right down by the beach, in the last copse of trees before the sand, left of the signpost."

She'd probably walked past it more than once, if she'd been here for any length of time. Had they really just been missing each other? The island was supposed to be too small to do that.