A Secret Service [NOW PUBLISHED]

Chapter 22 - "You want to crash here on the couch?"

Her gaze flickered to Donovan. She could see in his eyes that he wasn't fooled by the impassivity of her expression. Link leaned forward on his knees.

"She just left out of the blue?" he asked.

Carter nodded.

"I was a surprise baby." The story rushing forward, tumbling out before she could stop it. "Second year of college my mother got pregnant. They got married. My father went into the military and became a Navy Seal. My mother left college and passed up job opportunities to raise me."

Carter looked down at the spotless carpet.

"When I was 14, she got offered a position she said couldn't pass up. So she took it. Left my father alone with me. In the four years since, we haven't seen her. Not once. Until yesterday, when she showed up at our apartment, unannounced.  I told her to leave."

Carter's shoulders relaxed as if bottling up her past had weighed them down. With a sigh, she looked up. Link was staring at her, a hundred questions darting through his eyes. She turned to Donovan and found understanding looking back at her.

"You saw her again today," he said. "In the office."

Carter nodded.

"She wanted to have lunch and talk. She walked into my school and my life as if it was the simplest thing in the world and nothing had changed in the last four years. I told her to leave my dad and me alone."

Carter buried her face in her hands, suddenly tired.

"Is that what you really want?" Donovan asked.

"I don't know. I don't know what I want," she said, playing with her thumb nail.

"Why did you come here?" 

Her gaze jumped to Link.

"Honestly..." She took in a breath. "I didn't have anywhere else to go."

The words hung in the air between them.

"As far as I can tell, you have gone through something similar," she said. "I wanted to know what you did when you first met your father?"

Pain spiked Link's features and he shifted, his eyes dropping away from her. Carter's shoulders sagged.

"I understand if it's too difficult to talk about," she said.

Link tossed his glasses onto the table and ran a hand through his hair.

"I almost hit him," he said.

Carter raised an eyebrow. Link looked up, the aspects of his father's face clear in his features. A grin appeared on his face at the surprise on her's, the sight wiping away his pained look.

"A Secret Service agent stopped me before I could throw a punch," he said. "I didn't say anything to him that first time. He was so cold I didn't know what to say."

"How long was it before you saw him again?" Carter asked.

"A few weeks. My mother convinced me that I should at least talk to him. I did. Eventually, we got past everything. Well, almost everything, but it took a really long time. It's still not ideal. I only see him every few months. If that."

Carter nodded slowly.

"You forgave him?"

A wry smile came to Link's face.

"Not completely," he said. "What he did was terrible. But for the most part I wanted to know him. I was twelve, I wanted a father." He let out a low chuckle. "In some way, I still do. Part of a father is better than none."