I didn't pass anyone between my room and the bunker, making me wonder where they all were. Maybe they decided to take a trip planet-side without me, since I was stuck in bed anyway. But no, I had been confined to the Phoenix, if they did that they would've needed another ship big enough for everyone. The must've been in the common room; a room I didn't pass through to get off the ship.

Wondering where they were made me realize how much I had been missing my friends the last two days. Sure, they hung out in my room sometimes, but never all at once. Regris wouldn't let them. Too much stimulation, he said. So Lenna and Kade would take turns, Axon and Kam sometimes, too. But it wasn't the same. I missed us all being together. But all of those thoughts quickly left my mind when the bunker door opened and I saw my father sitting at the table.

He looked so...normal. Gone was the uniform and rigidness, in its place was the man I remembered in my dreams. He wore black slacks and a blue shirt, leather jacker so much like my own over it. His silver hair was still slicked into place but then it always had been, for as long as I could remember. He shifted, and the light in the room reflected off the skin on his face. It reminded me what my own skin looked like when light hit it. The coffee mug between his hands was new though - I didn't remember him ever being a coffee drinker.

He looked up when the door closed behind me, a tentative smile on his face. He gestured to the chair opposite him, "I can make you a cup if you'd like? Or tea, I know Regris keeps tea in buckets here."

I headed for the chair, nearly wincing as it scraped against the floor as I pulled it out. Was there a lot of tension in the room or was it just me? "Regris hasn't been letting me drink caffeine."

My father smiled bigger then, "I won't tell him. Besides, I've seen the report. You should be feeling pretty good by now."

I tried to take in the demeanor of the man across from me and compare him to the one I had seen on that station only a few weeks ago. They didn't add up, at all. My head was starting to hurt and I was sure it had nothing to do with the concussion. "Uh, tea is fine." As he rose to get me a drink, I tried to wrap my mind around it all. This was not what I had been expecting when I walked over. But then, what should have I expected? It wasn't like he'd come here in full uniform, that would be a little too risky.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I made fists under the table. I'd been trying to work through everything while stuck in bed but obviously it hadn't worked out that well. I could feel my stomach churning and knew there was no way tea would stay down. My foot started to tap on the ground, unable to sit still. "I don't know if I can do this." The mug getting set down in front of me startled me. But the look on my father's face made me realize I had said those words out loud. I hadn't meant to say them out loud.

His eyes wouldn't meet mine as he sat back down. For a minute, I wasn't sure he was going to say anything. So when he sighed, I was prepared for the worst. "I'm sorry, Temp- TJ...I'm very sorry."

That...was not what I had been expecting. "What?"

His lips were in a thin line when he looked back over at me. His brows pulled down, making faint wrinkles show up on the sides of his eyes. I'd never seen my father look so human. "I'm sorry you had to go through what you did. I wasn't there for you like a father is supposed to be...I thought I was doing what was best, staying away from you." He looked pained when he searched my eyes, "I can see now that I was wrong. And for that I'm sorry."

I didn't know what to say to that. I didn't know what to even think.

He seemed to understand because the small smile he gave me was reassuring. "It's okay, I can only speculate what must be going on that brilliant head of yours. I just needed to say that."

Holding the mug of tea, letting the heat from the liquid seep into my skin, I tried to order my thoughts. "I-When did you find out...?"

"About your mother?"

My tongue got stuck on the roof of my mouth again. I nodded my head slowly.

Sighing, he ran his index finger along the edge of the mug. "Not for a week...I was stationed in a remote area of the Outer Rim and of course, they weren't quick to get the information to me." He eyed me for a moment before his eyes closed. I wondered what he was seeing behind his eye lids. "They showed me footage, showed me the proof they knew I would need." His hands clasped the mug so tight his knuckles turned white. I was afraid he'd break the mug - Nakeer were insanely strong - but then his hands relaxed. "I got back to Earth as soon as I could but there was no trace of you." His eyes opened, crystal blue pools shinning from the light above us. "That's when they threatened you, too. Said that if I got in their way, they'd take you from me like they did Allison. I couldn't take that chance."

"So you let me be."

"I thought, by staying as far away from you as I could, that I could protect you. You thinking the worst of me I could handle - imagining you dead...I could not." He chuckled but I knew there was no humor in it. "That worked, for a while. Until someone had to help people in need of saving."

I thought back to the dying transport ship, the smoke suffocating as we got the Maji on board the Phoenix. There hadn't been any other option. They needed help - I couldn't leave them. "How did you know that was me?"

He smiled, gave me a look over the rim of his mug. "You missed one of the security cameras. It caught an image of you - a pretty clear one, too."

Scrunching up my face, I couldn't help but cross my arms in disgust with myself. "Knew I missed something."

He chuckled, the happiness in the sound reaching his eyes. A memory floated through my brain, of the last time my family had been together before everything went wrong. He had been happy then too - so had I. I wondered if I'd ever feel that happy again.

Clearing my throat, I sat up properly again. "Look, I don't know if I can just forget everything-."

"I don't expect you to." He interrupted, the small smile he now wore sad instead of happy. "I'd be shocked if you did. My only hope is that we can grow from here. Move on from..." he sighed, "everything."

Shrugging a shoulder, I studied the tea in my mug. "Well, that might happen sooner than you think."

He raised a brow in a silent question.

"I don't know if Kade and the others will be sticking around after the stunt I just pulled."

He snorted - well, as close to my father could ever come to snorting - and waved off my words. "Those kids - your crew - would do anything for you. And I didn't need to get lectured to believe that."

Snapping my gaze up, my brows pulled tight. "Lecture? What are you talking about?"

"Before Kameron went to get you, I arrived and your crewmates were still here. All three of them gave me a talking to but it was that Captain of yours - Kade - who really had something to say."

My throat threatened to close up on me. Swallowing, to try and clear it, I gripped my mug tightly. "They cornered you?"

Another chuckle, "Oh yes, very effectively, too. That young man, what's his name? Axon? He'd make a brilliant pilot in my fleet. He's got the guts."

I shook my head, "I don't get it. I thought they were mad at me."

Tipping his head from side to side, he shrugged. "They probably were, for a time. But I'd hazard a guess that they were over that before you ever came back but then you showed up injured and-."

"They freaked."

"Like any good friends would."

"I guess I thought..." I shrugged helplessly, "I don't know what I thought, really. Maybe that there was no way these two parts of me could mesh and work? They didn't sign up for any of this."

He gestured towards me, "But neither did you."

A laugh escaped me before I could stop it, "Oh, I know. I contemplated running again, forgetting about all of this and just...being out there somewhere."

"But you couldn't."

I shook my head, "No. I couldn't."

He leaned onto his elbows, his eyes level with my own. They looked exactly like the eyes that stared back at me in the mirror, "And why was that, TJ? Why couldn't you just run and live a care-free life?"

I scrunched my brows up; a frown pulled at my lips. "Because that would've been wrong. People would die - are dying - and I'd have walked away when I could help."

Smiling, he pushed himself back and stood from his chair. Reaching for my mug, no filled with cold and untouched tea, he headed for the sink. "And you think your friends could turn their backs on the people who need them?"

"No." I knew they wouldn't - couldn't. It's why Kade and I hit it off like we did. It was why Lenna and Axon had become a part of the crew. It was why we had helped those Maji, helped Hazel.

Coming to my side of the table, he slowly - as if to give me time to stop him - rested a hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to choose between one family and the other, TJ. Or your past and your present. They can work together."

Looking up at the face of my father, at a face I wished dead for so many years, I wondered if he was right. Could I move passed my feelings and accept the new reality in front of me? Could the crew of the Phoenix work alongside my dad and his team of GPF agents? Taking a deep breath, I gave him the best smile I could muster in the moment, "I hope you're right. Because I can't do this without them."

"And I would never ask you to." He squeezed my shoulder before walking around me and heading for the bunker door. "I believe they should be returning soon, shall we go see what it is they found out?"

"Found out?" I got off the chair and followed him, "They weren't on a supply run?"

This time, it was his turn to look confused. "No, they're on a scouting mission. No one told you?"

Gritting my teeth, I moved around him and smacked the button for the elevator. "No. No, they did not tell me." And so help me, no one better be shot.

A/N

Phew. So that was a chapter. I never wanted to make TJ's father the villian - just wanted it to seem that way.
Now, do you think TJ can get over the beliefs she held for so long?
Xx