Caeden and Dougal

Haruo seemed to have a major fascination with the violin, as he seemed to pull it out whenever possible. Well, at least it kept him occupied and out of trouble, so it seemed. The simple fact of the matter was that the rest of the family decided that it would be too much trouble just to sell the violin when he wasn't looking so they all got earplugs. And people had to YELL just to be heard. But at least it silenced the horrible caterwauling of the mediocre violin playing. Maybe they need to make a closet just for him to play his violin in.

On the other-side of the Blue River, two pairs of eyes looked towards the hill and the luxurious dwellings on what was known as Millionaire's Row.

Caeden McIrish looked over at his companion, "They said that Fiona and her family moved here. This was where Fiona was from originally."

"You ain't thinking that you can walk back into Fiona's life and take up back where you were...right?" Dougal McArthur opined warily. "Because I know that I moved Cait so many times...it wasn't right, but well, what can you do? When you got investigators searching for you in several locales, looking for back monies owed, you can't stay in one spot or they'll find you."

"I don't know, Doug...all I know is that I left my girl pregnant with my daughter on the way and I need to make it right."Caed replied...as he looked off into the distance.

"All I can say, Caed, is I wouldn't get your hopes up. You don't know how Fiona will react to you and your daughter is now middle-aged in her late thirties. She's lived a whole life without you."

"I know..." Caed had conflicting emotions warring within him as he stared off into the distance yet again.

"Right now, we have to get jobs...you got any ideas?" Dougal asked..."After all, we have to pay the bills on the shack we just bought." he said as they slowly walked back towards the little hovel that was all that was theirs in this world.

"I don't know, maybe ask the local boss if he has any job-openings?" Caed responded sarcastically. "Do I look like an upstanding citizen to you? I don't think the police department would give me a second look, eh?

Surprisingly there were openings, but payday wasn't until next day, so they wouldn't be able to do anything unless they managed to filch a few objects to sell off. They didn't want to make their reputation known yet, keep it on the down-low to keep themselves from becoming a target by others out to make their name in the game. However they did it, they would have to bin for the night to ensure that they didn't end up spending the money that they had carefully held in reserve.

However it just so happened that Dougal got into an argument with one of the citizens of Riverview just outside the diner. That didn't bode well for the other guy, because Dougal was hot-headed and mean-spirited and he rarely ever lost a fight.

Evidently Dougal insulted the guy...because he stepped back with one foot and glared at Dougal. Way to make friends and influence people, Dougal.

Lo and behold, who should appear but a family who strode into Hogan's diner like they owned the town and they did (Haruo was the chief investor for practically all the businesses except for Good Citizen's Warehouse - he didn't delve into criminal enterprises. Caed realized that it was Fiona's family when to his surprise, she stepped out of the vehicle, she was dressed finely as he used to remember she did. But then there was yet another woman, one who he suspected was around what his daughter would be as Dougal had mentioned. He had been away from her for a long time. He called out to her, "Miss?" The woman in the red Canada 150 t-shirt looked back at him, "Yes...?"...and to his surprise, she approached him, as Fiona and a young girl were talking by the sidewalk as others got out of the car.

"I am a Mrs...I'm married." the woman ventured, and as Caed looked deeper into her green eyes, he realized the fine age lines starting to accentuate his daughter's face.

"I've been away too long." he said.

"What?" the woman asked him, and he realized he had said it out loud.

"What's your name, mine's Caed." he asked.

"River." she replied looking back at him.

Caed's heart exulted that his daughter was so open. Certainly her life hadn't made it so that she was distrustful of everyone.

"River..." he said quietly, feeling the way her name rolled off his tongue. "I don't know if your mother ever told you about me..." he continued, pausing only for a moment when he saw that she had tensed up.

"What are you talking about? I have no idea who you are?" It was too dark to see facial features very well in the dim light around the diner, they really should put up lights around the area for security.

"River..." he pressed on, "I don't mean to be forward, but you must be about mid-30s now." he looked at her for confirmation.

"I really don't know why I'm telling a total stranger, but I'm nearly forty." River said...and Caed nearly sank to his knees as his heart welled in a paroxysm of grief. He'd left his daughter for nearly the entirety of her life.

"River...oh...River..." Caed said brokenly, "I should have come back sooner." as River reared back in alarm.

Caed felt a piercing gaze in his direction and looked towards it. Fiona was striding towards them with a dire look of enmity in her gaze. "Why the ~bleep~ are you here? Caed?" She snarled at him, "When you left me 38 years ago, you didn't even think to care that you were leaving our daughter for me to raise alone. And I think I did a pretty darn good job, no thanks to you. So why did you come back? Who did you swindle this time? Or is someone after you now?"

River was in shock. She never realized that the man that she was talking to was her long-lost father, the man who had never been around to see her grow up, get married, start a family and age into the fully-adult woman that she was now.

There was a tumult in her head; the confusion of questions trying to work their way out of a mouth that seemed to be too small to get them all out at once. "Honey, did he say anything hurtful?" Fiona asked her.

With all the confusion in her brain, all she could do was shake her head, "No..." she said simply - and out of that confusion only one word came out, "Why?"

"Please Fiona; I know I did wrong," Caed pleaded, "I know I didn't do the right thing, but I want to do it now...to make up for all the years that I missed." He paused for a long moment, ignoring even the wet contact of fist meeting flesh as Dougal knocked the guy he was arguing with right out like a burnt out light. "Fiona, please, I beg you, don't keep me from my daughter."

"Not now, Caed, I'm going to have to really think about whether or not I'm going to let you back into River's life...or tell you to leave us alone."

"You had a choice...you took the one that left you with the least amount of obligations. You chose to not do anything to make contact with your daughter. I had to raise her from the time she was a baby to the time that I handed her hand off to her husband. She has now been married for over 19 years and in all that time, you were never around. So you're darn right I'm angry. As a matter of fact, I'm livid."

"I need time to think, Caed. I need to think about what this means to her and what this means to me. I also need to think about whether you deserve a second chance - you won't get one from me, I'm already married to a new man, but whether you deserve a second chance with your daughter. I need to think about whether you're worthy of a second chance or whether I should just tell you to go to hel. I suggest you leave...before I change my mind and give into my latter inclination." Fiona snarled.

If one could look into Caed's eyes, one could see the devastation those words wrought in his heart. But he knew that he had royally woohoo'd the pooch and the realization was a bitter pill to swallow. He resisted the temptation to look back. If Fiona told him to go to hel, even remembering his daughter's face would hurt too much.

As they changed to go into the diner, Fiona looked into her daughter's eyes to see the pain and anguish in them...and she knew that she would have to talk with her daughter about everything that happened before River even existed. And it was not going to be an easy talk.

Fiona noticed that her daughter was quiet all through dinner as the cataclysm of new information cascaded through her. Her father was back and he wanted back into their carefully ordered life.