Home Safe(?) Home (OTA, tag to his daughter)

[circusoffools]

Syracuse was fishing fewer hours in the last two weeks. He was catching enough, still, to provide his quota to Kate and the fancy restaurant and some for Ruby, too, but he would moor his boat a half-hour before Annie was due to get out of school and he'd be waiting outside the school for his daughter when she got out. He wasn't paranoid, mind. He

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[notyour_queen]

Gorgo had been sitting at a bench by the playground for quite some time. She had noticed the man arrive and stay, looking very patient as he sat there.

She decided to approach, smiling, giving him a nod. "Good day," she greeted, standing before him as he sat on the table. "Are you waiting for your child?" Said as she looked toward the school while she placed a hand on her growing belly.

[circusoffools]

"I am," Syracuse said, terse as he usually was, until he noticed how pregnant she was. He gestured for her to sit. "My daughter."

[notyour_queen]

Gorgo gave him a polite nod before taking a seat at the bench.

"How old is your daughter?" She asked, still with a hint of a smile on her lips.

Such a doting father.

[circusoffools]

"She's eleven," he said, smiling. "And smarter than me." After all, he read, moving his lips.

[notyour_queen]

That made Gorgo laugh. "She sounds delightful and you sound very proud of your little girl."

She smiled warmly at him. "What is your child's name, and yours as well?"

[circusoffools]

"Her name is Annie," he said with a small smile. "I'm Syracuse," was added. Not Circus, not here. "And what shall I call you?"

[notyour_queen]

"You may call me Gorgo," she said, canting her head to the side to regard that man that lit up when speaking of his daughter.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Syracuse. I hope you do not find it odd that I sit here and watch the children even if my own is yet to be born."

[circusoffools]

"Is it your first?" Syracuse asked. He was no one to judge something's strangeness. "Due in a couple months?"

[notyour_queen]

"A few months, yes" she looked down at her belly, caressing it, her smile fading a little. "But not my first. I have a son who is eight but he was left in my world as I arrived here."

Gorgo turned back to Syracuse. "You are a blessed man, then, that here you have your daughter."

[circusoffools]

All he could do was nod. Being here without Annie would surely drive Syracuse made. "Sorry your son's not here. You must miss him." And she was having another baby.

[notyour_queen]

"I do miss him. He was a very active boy," she said this fondly. "But I am assured that if and when I leave here, I shall see him again at exactly the right time when I was taken." A small reassurance. "It does not make me miss him less, though. Did you arrive here with your little one?"

[circusoffools]

"We were on our way home and ... ended up here." He gestured toward the forest. "How long have you been here, then?"

[notyour_queen]

"It has been close to a year since I have arrived," she told him. "And you are quite correct anout this little one. Two more months and she shall be here."

"You and your child? How long now?" Gorgo asked.

[circusoffools]

"A few months." Not nearly a year. But Syracuse was in no hurry to leave. "Were you hurt that weekend?" A pregnant woman amidst the monsters?

[notyour_queen]

Ah, that weekend. Gorgo shook her head. "My husband was there to protect us," she told him, looking at Syracuse with concern. "You and the child...were you safe?"

[circusoffools]

"We were on my boat," Syracuse said. "We weren't hurt."

He looked back to the school, though, frowning. "Just want to keep her safe."