When he had walked into the medical bay after a couple hours on the roof, he’d sat on the edge of the bed, holding the hand of the still motionless form of his lover.

“I don’t know what I am doing baby, I really don’t know how to be a father, but I want to, so badly.  I thought, well, I thought she was safe, you know, even after I saw the notice that her mother had been killed.  And, well I made arrangements for everyone to be taken care of financially. I thought, well, she’s with the man she knew as father, and while it bothered me, I thought she was safe, and, fuck. I don’t know, I guess it meant I didn’t have to worry about her.   But I have, all these years while we were off fighting all this weird shit.  When suddenly she was there, and then, finding out Dryse had been a fucking dog for English all those years, and Amelia had betrayed me with him, and she was still alive, and I lost you, and now they are all here.  I just fucking don’t know what to do.”

“Earlier today, well, I guess yesterday now, Amelia asked me to take them to dinner, so that Olivia could start to get to know me, in some sort of fucking transition plan.  I don’t want to hurt my daughter, but I have lost so much time – how do I be patient?  I ain’t the one that has lied all these fucking years.  But my relationship with Dad was brutal after he dove into the bottle, and well, I know yours wasn’t very good either.  I just know if you were here you’d have good advice.”

“I miss you so much.”

Then he stripped out of his clothes, grabbing the pair of sweats he left here, and then crawled into bed with the young woman, cradling her still form against his furnace of a body.  He could be excused, maybe, for missing the slight movement the unconscious, maybe sleeping woman, made as she huddled closer to the warmth of his chest.

______________________________

He’d awoken after his usual couple hours of sleep, to the yet dark horizon visible through the large armored glass windows looking out onto the ocean.

He followed his routine, a workout across all of the areas, then a shower down by the armory.  Then, blending into the shadows, he approached the cells, noting the improvements he had made to make sure this particular section of the cells appeared to not be in use, with an extra door blocking it off to keep out nosy teenagers, who may or may not be looking for trouble.  Then he passed through all three security scans, before opening the cell, and then, and only then, releasing the energy barrier so that the fucktard behind it could say something.

“Early today, are we mate.  Bored?”

“Not bored, how about you skip the pretense of not knowing anything and just tell me what I want to know?  I mean, it’s going to happen eventually.  It will save a lot of pain, from me, from my brother, from needles with weird drugs.”

“Look, you bloody wanker, I didn’t do anything other than monitor your family.  Target of opportunity when you came back of course, and I saw you.”

“Well, then, how’d you track me out to the beach.  The others would have been easier to find.”

The bruised man in the chair just said, “Got a lucky tip.”

After several minutes of fruitless nothing, the interrogator said, “Fine, then, let’s talk about you monitoring the family.”

“Sure thing, mate, want to talk about how she chose me over you?  How she’d rather have me raise your kid because you were too damaged to trust with her? Which parts?

“How about you tell me about Courtney?

“Well, let me tell you about that night.  I mean, it’s a pretty good story right?  I mean, who knew that she considered me such a sexual magnet.  Still engaged to you and she asked me out for drinks and dinner?  I mean we didn’t even get to thad lame ass bar and grill before she had that sweet little blonde head down on mine, if you know what I mean, right mate? I mean, I am sure that you remember the feel of those lips, even after all this time, or well, maybe not?  Maybe she saved that for a sexual dynamo like me?  Why else jump me before she even broke it off with you.”

Maintaining a superficial level of calm, the interrogator, said, not for the first time, “She made her choice a long time ago, why is irrelevant.  It’s not like I have lacked for wild partners since then.”

“Sure thing, mate, whatever you wanna’ think.”

“It’s only fair, right mate, that we reunite the sisters, her daughters, all in one happy family.  Tell me where she is, I am sure she misses her family, even if you are a total nutbag.”

“Sure, sure, let me tell you about that first time, you know, later that night.  Didn’t even have to buy her dinner.  Wild, wild, almost more than I could keep up with. I mean, she had tears in her eyes that night, guess she didn’t know how high you could get off good sex with a real man.

For the next thirty minutes, the same went on, questions about the girl named Courtney, and responses that slowly drove the interrogator crazy.

“I mean, that sure wasn’t the first time she loved to get it in the ass but it sure was a sight, her positioned like that, eight months pregnant, screaming out my name.  Guess it didn’t take her long to get over you.”

The interrogator, with a slightly sibilant hiss in his voice, “What does this have to do with Courtney?”

“Oh, we gettin’ there, mate, we gettin’ there.”

“You know, I think, Olivia was maybe four years old, when I found it.”

“Found what?” the interrogator replied tiredly.

“Well, the box of course!”

“The Box?”

“Yea, I guess maybe she wasn’t as over you as maybe you thought.  Or me.  It had all this crazy shit in it.  Two game tokens from the Voyage Arcade, a picture of you and her and a bunch of other wankers in uniform outside the Raging Sheila. Man do you guys look young and naïve then.  A bunch of other little stuff, a room key from the Shark Bay Beach hotel.  A picture of you and her and the family at Christmas.  Shit, she still had that damn engagement ring in there. Meaningless shit like that. Typical sentimental woman, to keep crap like that.”

“I never told her I found it of course.  I mean why should I, what did it matter if she thought of you as long as she was slobbering my mighty Johnson.”

The interrogator got up, walked slowly toward the prisoner, then said, “Stand up.  We’re done for today.  I have more important things to do than listen to you tell stories about sex with your wife, as depraved as that is.”

As the prisoner stood up, and moved back behind the line, he turned back around to face the interrogator, but still didn’t see the enhanced reflexes slam a kick into his balls which resulted in a high pitch whimpering as he collapsed to the floor.

“I don’t think you will be hungry for breakfast, maybe someone will bring some ice and make sure that’s not ruptured this evening.  Think about telling the truth next time. Feel free to vomit on yourself.”

And then he walked out, activating all the security systems.   He didn’t slam a door until he walked through the library and out into the interior courtyard.