FanFic100: #010 Years
It’s not that he doesn’t want to. Be nice, that is. Honestly, he does. It’s more a question of not being able to, despite his best efforts. The guy who’s standing in front of his fireplace, looking at the pictures on the mantelpiece, with his hands in his pockets and unaware of being watched himself, is a decent man, he’s sure of that.
In the last two days, he’s gotten to know the man Laura brought home better and really tried to be polite, forthcoming…everything but the stereotypical father meeting the guy who’d take away another one of his little girls. He knew the moment Laura announced she’d bring home another boyfriend that it would be something more, even though she tried sounding as casual as possible in her letter so he figured he better be nice. Neither Laura nor Helen, his wife, would have been overly thrilled if he’d done the jealous father thing… again.
Still… He takes another look at the Major. Something must have captivated the man’s attention because he still hasn’t turned around. Stepping a little closer, he can now see what interests Lorne so much. It’s Laura’s section of the pictures on the mantelpiece and above it on the wall. Well, naturally he’d be interested in pictures from his future wife’s past. Neither Lorne nor Laura have said anything in that direction yet, but from the way they behaved… it was evident that they were just waiting for the right moment to announce… it.
Taking care to keep his distance and not to make any noise, he throws a look at the pictures himself, although he knows them by heart from years of looking at them. Laura three days after her birth, Laura at two on Christmas Morning, a big grin on her chubby face, her big hazel eyes sparkling and Laura at five, in a fairy gown, complete with a little crown and a sparkly wand… looking thoroughly discontent with the whole arrangement. In fact, only minutes after he’d taken the picture, an unequalled tantrum had followed. That had been the last time Helen had tried to dress Laura up.
An involuntary smile appears on his face. God, his little girl… had always been a handful, from her first minutes in this world to the moment he’d fetched her and her boyfriend from the airport two days ago. Now faced with the man who is very likely to take her away from him, memories of Laura came back to him. Bloody knees after forays through the forest, tears after break-ups, overwhelming pride when he saw her graduate from high school, ROTC, college…
“She always was a lot to handle, wasn’t she?” A little startled he focuses on Lorne again. The Major hadn’t turned around when he spoke to him and that tells him that Lorne knew the whole time he was being watched, probably even by who. Well… figures. From the very few things Laura and her Major could tell them, he could gather that his daughter’s newest boyfriend is some top-notch Special Forces soldier, 2IC of the top-secret operation both are part of. Of course such a man would never fully let his guard down, not even on leave.
Not even trying to pretend that he hadn’t been watching the Major, he takes a few steps towards the fireplace, until he’s standing beside Lorne. Now both of them are looking at Laura’s pictures. “Yes, she was. Still is.” And you better damn well treat her right; he wants to add but knows that it would sound ridiculous.
Lorne now turns to him. “Too true.” On the Major’s face there’s a smile indicating he has a few Laura stories of his own… and that makes him strangely jealous again. For the majority of his daughter’s life he’d been the one constant… boyfriends would come and go, but dad would always be there. This one, though… is here to stay, he just knows it… and there’s nothing he can do about it. And dammit, there’s nothing he should do about it. He also went through all of that before with Megan, Laura’s older sister, and he’d survived letting her go… even though that had been hard.
A few more moments are passed in silence but then Lorne clears his throat. He attempts to say something, rethinks it, wants to try again… and suddenly it dawns on him why Lorne is standing in his living room, while Laura and Helen are in town, visiting Megan and her husband. He clears his throat. “You and I, we both know what you’re going to ask now, Major… and you and I both know what Laura would say to that.”
The Major now looks a little embarrassed and rubs his neck. “Yeah, she’d give me an earful and ask me where I was when we discussed Women’s Lib in school.” And she’d also give her old father an earful about making her boyfriend feel like it was necessary that he had to ask his consent for marrying his daughter. But strangely… had they just gone and done it… he would have felt resentment against the Major, even though it’s their right and their right alone to decide about getting married. Lorne takes a deep breath. “So… I just won’t ask you anything then, huh?”
It actually makes him smile a little, still amused about Lorne - obviously a seasoned soldier, a man in his prime who knows what he’s capable of and isn't shy to show it - wanting to do the decent thing and ask the father of his girlfriend for her hand in marriage, even though he knew what she would say about such old-fashioned behavior. “It’s better that way, yes. And I won’t answer anything of course.” However… he feels like he owes this guy some sign of respect and grudging consent, most of all because he didn’t give Megan’s husband a bad time, either... well, for long. Taking another look at the pictures that show Laura, he adds, “Although… had you been stupid enough to ask… I probably wouldn’t have said no. Left you hanging a little… but not said no.”
For a moment, Lorne looks actually dumbfounded but when the full impact of what his future father-in-law just told him registers, a slow grin starts spreading out over the Major’s face… and he’s surprised to see relief in the Major’s eyes as well. “Good to know. Thanks for hypothetically not saying no.” Lorne’s eyes graze a picture that shows Laura in her prom dress, looking so beautiful and happy. “Had I been stupid enough to ask and had you actually not answered no, I would of course have promised to take care of her.” And again he takes a deep breath, growing serious. “I love Laura, Mr. Cadman. And not just hypothetically.”
That… is more than he bargained for. It does throw him a little off track. Until now, he could pretend to himself that Lorne was just some guy that happened to have something going on with his daughter, regardless of the feeling that they would soon announce they wanted to get married. But Lorne telling him to his face and in all earnest that he loved Laura… it’s something different… cementing the need to get used to the fact that from now on there will be another man in Laura’s life as important as himself. It makes him speechless… and he’s very grateful that suddenly the front door opens and lively chatter can be heard from the hall.
Only a few moments later, the living room’s door is thrown open by a glowing Laura and he feels strangely caught, even more so when Laura’s radiant smile turns into a wary frown. “Uh-oh. Please tell me he didn’t tell you the story of that fairy dress picture, Evan.”
Lorne throws him a very short look… a little conspiratory… but then grins at Laura. “No… unfortunately he didn’t.”
She has reached them now and gives him a light whack on the arm. “Just for that you won’t ever get to hear it now. Isn't that right, dad?”
“Yes, of course.” Laura’s face turns into that smug face she always put on when she had successfully wrapped him around her little finger. However… he owes Lorne something for being considerate enough not to leave him out of the loop on the whole question of engagement. “I was thinking more along the lines of digging out some old videos anyway.”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Dread mingled with indignation appears on her face, making him grin because she still looks like the little ten-year-old Laura who just realized her sister was about to tell her dad that she still needed a nightlight to fall asleep, just to spite her.
He can’t help grinning and walking over to the cupboard where they keep all their home videos. “Watch me.” Laura charges him and while they playfully wrestle over who gets first to the cupboard, he throws Lorne another look… silently acknowledging what the Major’s admission indicated. Yeah, he would probably have to give away his little girl at some point not that far into the future… but at least now he’s sure he can do it knowing he gives her to the right man.