Sat on the bathroom floor, I was a mess. I'd thrown up my guts. My hands shaking, I was so nervous. A cold heat took over my body.

I had to pull myself together, but how could I? I made myself sick, he wouldn't want me. Hell, why did he even agree to meet me? Who was I to him anymore?

I pulled myself together, dragged myself off the floor, cleaned everything up, including myself and left the bathroom.

"Are you okay?" Henry asked.

I sat down on the sofa and pressed my palms on my jeans, moving them up and down nervously. "I'm okay." I lied.

He sat down next to me, wrapped his arm around me and held me close. He gave me a comfort that I'd only ever dreamed about before him. "I know you're not, and it's okay that you're not, no ones expecting you to be."

I leaned into him. "How is it that you always know the right thing to say?" I asked, chuckling a little to myself.

"I'm a magician, wasn't it in my file?" he nudged into me gently whilst wearing a huge smile like it was his favourite jumper.

"You know I don't think it was." I laughed at his terrible joke, only to realise that I didn't feel sick anymore, my stomach had settled in the time he'd distracted me.

"How do you do it?" I asked, my eyes wide.

He furrowed his brow at me. "Do what?" he asked, but just as he asked the door bell rang.

"You're going to have to answer that you know, I'm far too nervous for that." I motioned for him to get up.

"I'm on it."

He jumped up from the sofa and opened the front door. I gripped the cuff of my jumper nervously. My eyes flickered between my hands, the floorboards and the door. I didn't know if I was ready to see the face I'd cried over for years walk through that door.

"Daisy?"

The voice I had once forgotten pulled me out of my trance of thought. I looked up to see him, my father. Like an ethereal being standing right in front of me. My body was frozen in time, in this moment.

"Dais." Henry snapped me out of it.

"D-Dad." I stuttered. I stood up, ran over and threw my arms around him. "I never thought I'd see you again." I squeezed him tighter. The smell of his aftershave hit me, he still wore the same one,

"You're all grown." He pulled away from me and held me at arm's length.

I studied him, the eyes I knew too well, the new age of his face. I couldn't believe he was standing in front of me. "I am." escaped my lips.

"Shall we sit?" Henry asked. He closed the door behind my dad and walked us to the sofa. "I'm going to go-"

"No, please stay." I grabbed Henry's hand before he could walk away. He moved the solid wood coffee table back and sat down on in.

"So, Henry told me that they kidnapped you? And then you had to go into hiding."

"I can explain everything. We were on a mission, in the hive of the enemy. We were there to take out someone called Christoper," I gulped at his name. "But something went wrong, someone had informed them that we were coming and they were ready for us, so they killed my partner in front of me and held me hostage for information. After there was no response the reinforcements came in and found me, but going back home wasn't an option. I couldn't put you and your mother in danger like that." I winced at the mention of her. "So I found myself having to leave with no other option, I knew you'd be safe that way. Daisy, I'm so sorry." he finished.

"Safe? Safe? I wasn't safe with that woman. After you left, she started locking me inside my bedroom, and when that wasn't satisfying enough for her, she started to hit me." I spat. I was teething with anger, my chest use and fell rapidly with the quickness of my breath.

His eyebrow twitched the way it used to when he was angry. "She did what to you?" he asked, trying to keep calm.

A tear rolled down my cheek. "We moved not long after you left. She locked me in the bedroom, then she started lashing out at me and continued all the way into my teens. She never stopped, until I made her stop. One day she was particularly angry for one reason or another and she took a knife to me. Yes, your wife, my own mother tried to kill me. She stabbed me, but I managed to get the knife and I ended it all that day."

"Dais." Henry uttered.

"No, he should know the truth, because without it I'm not the person I've become, I'm just a little girl who loved her daddy." I sighed and looked back at my dad. "The reason you never heard anything about it is simple. A man, named Christopher, found me, kept me alive, took me to safety and had the mess cleaned up. He took me in and gave me a home when I didn't have one. Granted, he trained me to work for him and that's exactly why we are here now." My dad shifted in his seat a little. "He sent me on a mission to gather information on Henry, and when I tried to avoid killing him he ordered it. He and his paranoid daughter deemed it necessary, but I didn't. So I went to Henry and we ran."

I breathed out, not realising I was holding my breath the entire speech. I was afraid to look him in the eye that I was once the apple of. I played with my cuff nervously until he threw his arms around me.

"I'm just happy you're safe and alive and here." His words breathy, I could hear the emotion course through them. He held me the tightest he has ever held me. "If I had known I would have taken you with me." He squeezed me. "I love you Daisy and nothing is going to change that."

"I'm going to put the kettle on, tea, coffee?" Henry asked.

"Coffee please" My father and I said in unison. We both laughed at each other and pulled away from each other. I pulled my leg up on the sofa and turned to face him properly.

"So what's your life like now?" I asked.

"It's good, I'm retired. I run a bar and have a baby boy."

"I have a brother?" I squealed with excitement.

"Yes, you do," he laughed. "His Name is Jake and he's five, he keeps me on my toes, that's for sure."

"And you have a partner? I'm guessing?" I asked curiously.

"I do." he half smiled, I could tell he felt guilty from the look on his face, but he didn't have to be. "And you? I mean, aside from running from the oppositions agency and being in hiding with Henry?" he frowned at his own question.

"I was in a relationship with Cassie, Christopher's daughter, but I fucked it up. I guess that's why I'm here. Apart from that I don't really think there is anything to tell. Feel free to ask me anything." I sighed.

Henry walked in with a tray of coffees. He sat the tray down on the coffee table and sat down next to it. He passed the hot coffees to us carefully.

"Did she tell you she saved me because she did."

"Stop, you saved me just as much." I smiled at him.

"Do we have biscuits?" I asked Henry.

"Yeah, I'll get them." he said.

"No, don't be silly," I placed my coffee down.

"They're in the yellow tin." he informed me.

I walked into the kitchen, placed my hands on the side and took a deep breath.

Everything I was worried about seemed so small now. All my dad cares about was the fact I was alive and well, not how I got here.

I took the tin and started walking to the front room. I slowed down at the sound of my dad's voice. "You seem close, I never thought I'd see you smiling, especially after Maddie."

Maddie? Who was Maddie? I'd never heard of her, she wasn't recorded in his file at all. Maybe I had missed something.

"Part of me will always be with her. I'll never get that back, I don't want it back. 'Time heals most but not all.' Is that not what you taught me."

"Your dad would be proud of you Henry." my dad sighed.

"What are you talking about?" I asked as I re-entered the room.

"Just how you've been looking after Henry." my dad lied.

"You're joking, right? He's the one who's been looking after me, seriously, stop being so modest." I beamed at him.

"As are you." Henry smiled back at me.

I couldn't believe how the stars had aligned and how I was sitting here in a room with the only men I'd trust with my life.

***

So I feel like this is one of those chapters that had to happen? What did you all think? I'd love your thoughts/suggestions/and everything.

Love 💕💕💕