Participants:
| Scene Title | Telling Daddy |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Lucille rushes over to tell her daddy what happened to her, not realizing who her father use to be. |
| Date | March 09, 2010 |
The Ryans Home
She couldn't wait until the afternoon. Not after what happened yesterday. So when Lucille had woken up, though she had only gotten a couple hours worth of sleep. She got dressed and headed over to her father's house. Dressed warmly for the weather, a hood covering her head as she hops up the stairs two at a time, she is breathing heavily and her eyes are wide. She's still in shock.
After taking a deep breath, Lucille knocks on the door a few times. Then she's looking down at her phone. She spent half an hour last night just looking down at her phone, waiting for the phantom to text her again. But they never did.
"Dad?" she calls anxiously, she knows he is awake. He never sleeps in, that might have changed now though. Retirement and all.
Somethings never change no matter how much changes in a man's life. So it should come to no surprise when the door opens on a fully dress, wide awake Benjamin Ryans. With his worn jeans and a maroon Henley. Thin brows lift hight on his head when he sees who is standing there. Didn't people her age sleep till noon?
"Lulu." There is surprise in that deep rumble of his voice. Stepping aside, the door is help open for her to enter her childhood home. "Come in.. come in." He waves her on in.
"What's wrong?"
When your daughter comes to you in the early morning, looking like she does, tends to mean only one thing. "Come sit and tell me what happened. I have fresh coffee brewing and I think I still have some bagels." He offers softly, closing the door behind his oldest, once she's inside.
"Shit. Dad, this is insane. It's nuts.. it's crazy!" she says as she rushes into the house and removes her jacket and she's sitting down in a chair. Dragging her hand through her long blonde hair, she looks at Ryans with a confused expression. "So I'm walking down the street right.. you hear about that bus crash in Little Italy yesterday? I was there."
Lucille looks back down at her phone and then exhales loudly and places the phone down on the coffee table, rather hard. "I- Fuck. Someone contacted me and said to introduce myself to a woman at the bus stop, her name was Melissa Pierce." Lucille looks up at her dad, "I've looked for her in the phone book, she's not there. I can't find any record of a Melissa Pierce. Not anywhere." Well she hasn't really checked the internet yet. Not thoroughly.
Following in his daughter's wake, watching her with only a touch of concern on his face, Ryans has spent too many years wearing a neutral mask to truly show it. "You were there?" He asks simply, moving past her chair, a hand resting on her shoulder briefly, a sow of support, before he moves into the kitchen to retrieve a cup from the cabinet for her. He nods to the paper on the table, "The details are of course limited, but I did indeed hear about it."
Coffee is poured carefully, his eyes on what he's doing his voice continues it's calm tone, with the way it rumbles it could be a comforting sound. "Take a deep breath, Lu." The mug is set before her, his own mug not far, so the crme and sugar are already on the table. "And give me a run down on what happened." That is the company man in him talking, his mind is alert, while everything else about him radiates calm.
"No." Lucille says softly and she shakes her head after drinking the coffee. Placing the mug back on the table, "I can't be calm dad, it was.. I don't even know how to explain it. It was like the person was watching us, he or she. Sent me a photo of a man, his name was.. Felix.. Felix Invao.. or something. An agent of some kind, the texter asked me to distract him. I did."
"The girl, Melissa. She was gothy looking, blonde hair with some dark streaks. I met her before on the street, she liked starting random snowball fights. But.. there was a girl too. She was hurt, clipped by a car as it spun out. She had a broken arm or something." Lucille is now up and pacing back and forth.
The look in her eye is one of confusion and worry. She's not sure what's going on. "Someone was pulling the strings, they knew the bus would crash. And the texter told me to give the phone to Melissa. I did and then she was told to leave me. She erased the messages and then made off with the girl, saying I couldn't help and I had done my part. Bullshit." It's not just the whole situation that has her worked up like this, it's the meds she's taking. Contributing to her irritable mood and anger. "I mean.. who the fuck does she think she is?" Lucille's hand is on her hip and she's tapping her foot.
"Hmmm.." Is all Ryans says for the moment, settling into the chair he was occupying. A pen is plucked up from the table and he darts down a couple of things in the margins of his newspaper. Names mainly. He'll have to make a few calls, not that his daughter needs to know that.
What she's telling him, it worries him. Future aware texter giving him the most concern, maybe Veronica can use her connections to get him some phone records. "Do you remember some of these texts?" He asks curiously, glancing up from the paper, arching a brow at her.
"Something about, I was going to need Melissa's help to save a life and to hurry, that someone was coming for the little girl." Lucille looks down at Ryans. "Dad.. what are you doing? Taking down names?" she raises an eyebrow, he's not a cop.. or agent.. right? Luci sighs at her father. "Look.. I don't know what was going on. But the texter's goal was to get that girl out of there. I'm worried about her.. what if I made a bad decision by letting her go with that Melissa girl. Maybe I should have helped Felix get to her instead.."
Lucille sinks back into her chair and puts her head in her hands, obviously disappointed in herself. "Oh." Her head pops up and she smoothes her hair back from her face. "The Ferry. That's what the texter told me to tell the goth chick. That they were from the Ferry. Who are they?" she asks her dad, though she doubts that he knows.
"You know me." Ryans says giving her a small smile. "I'm an old man, Lulu. My memory is fading, so I'm writing down names, yes." It's a total lie, but they are easy for him, as much as he hates to lie. "The Ferry?" That one is an unknowing even to him.
"I do not know, but I'll keep an ear out for it. You know how up elderly folks gossip. I imagine it could come up in conversation." Age thinned lips pull into a smile for his little girl, showing that he's joking with her. "Have you thought about talking to the police about this?" Brows lift somewhat. "I know some one in Homeland Security that might be willing to talk to you about this incident."
Veronica's badge could be very useful.
"I don't know.. sure?" Lucille is uneasy about talking to the police and making an official report. Something is just telling her to keep this as quiet as she can.. but maybe if she draws enough attention. Then the mysterious texter will come out again.
"I was going to try and talk to that Felix agent guy if I could find him. Maybe.. maybe I should talk to Homeland Security. They might be able to help." The bartender drags a hand through her hair and sighs. "You know.. when you experience something that totally makes your world turn upside down? And then you feel as if nothing will ever be the same..?"
Covers her face briefly before looking back over to her father. "I feel like that right now, like something.. I don't know. It's weird." She shrugs lightly. "Whose your friend in HomeSec?" she asks, she knows that her father has connections. But she wasn't sure that he had kept them.. why would he even need them?
"Agent Veronica Sawyer." Ryans supplies calmly, with a small smile, leaning back in his chair, it creaks softly. A foot is brought up to rest on his knee, a hand holds it there, "I met her at the shooting range once." It's no secret that after his time in the teams he still goes to the gun ranges. "I meet a lot of cops and other law enforcement people that way."
"I've had lifetime of those world changing experiences. Joining the Navy. My time in Vietnam. The day I met your mother. The day you were born….. Midtown." The last said with a hint of sorrow to it. Blue eyes study his daughter with narrowed eyes, crows feet deeper and more pronounced. "This will not be the last time you experience something like that. Life is full of these moments and the world continues to turn."
"Heh, you took me and sis to the range once. Sis almost blew her foot off." She says with a quiet chuckle. "I'm sorry about the swearing and the panic." Lucille says in apology to her father. A small smile is thrown his way, "I hear ya, you'd think after Midtown.. I'd be ready for the next big surprise to hit me."
The former model stretches her arms out and curls up in the chair she's sitting in. "I love you." She says to her father with a bright smile crossing her lips. Then the woman is thinking back to what her father said. "Veronica? Someone.. you dating?" she tilts her head and raises an eyebrow. They don't talk about her father's dating life.. not at all. "We should meet with her as soon as possible. While the trail is still hot." She's unknowingly picked up a few things from her father, an alert and calculating mind one of them.
There is a light chuckle from her father, "I am not in the business of robbing the cradle, Lu. She's practically your age." His head shakes slowly as his foot slides off his leg. "No, she is only some one I've talked to. You know very well, your mother was the only woman for me." Chiding his oldest, Ryans climbs to his feet with his empty coffee mug.
"I love you too, Lulu." He says with rumbled affection. "I want you safe, so you be careful and I want you to contact me right away if this mysterious texter contacts you again." The old man might not know everything about technology, but he does at least know how to text someone, which he plans to do.
"I'll give Agent Sawyer a call, see if she's got the time to talk to you, and I'll let you know." Ryans presses a parental kiss on the top of his daughters head as he walks past. "I will not deny this whole thing worries and disturbs me. Still my little girl, I can not help but want to protect you from the world."
"Dad.. you can't spend the rest of your life alone." Lucille and her sister won't allow it. "Who knows what will happen, eh?" she grins as she stands up and finishes drinking her coffee. Stretching and moving to put her coat on. "I have to go, errands to run. Ya know, life of an adult." She grins at her father before buttoning her coat up. Walking into the kitchen to wash her mug out and lay it to the side.
"Don't worry, I'll let you know if they text me again." Though she's really not sure what she'll do. The blonde walks out of the kitchen and spins around to give her father a soft grin, "Read that book on the history of the CIA. Keep the good books, coming old man." She winks before she yells a farewell and she's out the door. On to the next part of solving this puzzle.
"Mmm.. and you so quickly forget what life with me was like." Ryans comments lightly, his mouth lifts in a brief apologetic smile. "I would not wish me on another woman, your mother was rare that way." The mug is set in the sink and he follows her enough that he can watch her leave, the concern and worry clear on his face, while she's not looking his way.
Once the door closes, Ryans is fishing a cellphone out of his pocket. Now, he is not the fastest at texting so it take time for him to type out the text and sent it to the Company agent.
I need a favor and your connections. Contact me when you can so we can talk. - Ryans
Another glance to the door, Ryans frowns. His old life seems to be slowly creeping back up on him and his. Some one texted his daughter, knew what would happen. That says Evolved. Hopefully, with Veronica's help they can get a feeling for what is happening and stop it before his family is drug into a world he'd rather keep them out of.