Game of Riches (ONC)

The third step.

An eternity passed before the screens showed my father arriving. Him and his men spilled out into the small docking bay. This ship was big, but it was no where near the size of Station 457. 

They filed out through the ship unhindered. Some of the men broke off and took up places around the ship. My father walked with a purpose I hadn't seen since before my mother died. He was armed and covered in the thick, black shells of armor they wore on Shiffir. 

"Come meet me!" He yelled up at the cameras. 

The Captain stood and yanked me up with him. He would not make the same mistake of leaving me alone. I counted the steps as I went to take my mind off the inevitable meeting. It was one thing to see my father on a screen, another to see him in person. Four hundred and twenty six steps. Four hundred and twenty six moments before we came face to face in the corridor surround by guards and prisoners alike. Everything here was cold and sterile and it was nothing like the reconciliations I'd imagined countless times. I had been right to disregard those are ridiculous, childish dreams. It could only happen like this, I realised. On barren ground, surrounded by people who didn't give a damn. 

When we met, I couldn't move my eyes from him, yet he never even looked at me. His eyes were only for the Captain.

"Seize him." The words were a blessing. He'd been lying. He didn't hate me. He didn't think I was worthless.

The Captain's arms wrapped around me and something cold and hard pressed up tight against my throat. The gun.

"Back off!" He yelled and the men halted. 

Cold seethed inside of me, freezing me in place. 

"Yes, you know what this is." He said and pulled me backwards. 

"You can't take the ship back. I have men everywhere." My father said, still as cool and collected as ever.

My father got further and further away. I'd been blinded by the thought that this man cared about my life for some reason. I'd been nothing but a pawn. 

"You didn't think I was innocent did you." I whispered.

"No."

The cold spread from my gut, out through my limbs as the realisation set in. "You wanted me for this."

"Collateral." He said and I would have nodded had the gun not been at my throat. 

"You wanted my father. You knew who I was, who my family is."

"Yes."

One piece didn't fit. How did he know I would end up on the prison ship? How did he know I would want to leave?

An impact threw us forward from behind and he sandwiched me into the ground. 

"Cora!" Evan shouted and shoved at the Captain's unconscious body. 

I clung to him, pressing my face into his neck. Breathed him in. My blood was pumping so hard, I couldn't make out his next words.

He pushed me away to arms length. "Are you okay?"

I smiled. Always asking me how I was. "I'm fine."

He stared into my eyes, as if disbelieving I was standing there fine, right in front of him. He took a moment to press a kiss to my lips. Then turned and motioned to Danyon who follow us, along with the last man, to where my father and his men were waiting. 

When we rounded the corner, that was the first time my father really saw me and ran straight at me, not paying Evan any attention what so ever and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into the air.