Chapter Text
“Claire Elizabeth Morgan-Strand, do not walk away from me.”
She froze.
He’d never talked to her like that before. He’d been firm before, but never this. Never this loud or angry.
She heard him walking closer. If she’d kept walking, if she hadn’t faltered, this wouldn’t be happening. Or maybe it would. Maybe it was always meant to. She didn’t know.
He got closer. She looked down. Her hand had gone to her necklace at some point and pulled it out from underneath her shirt. She couldn’t make herself put it away.
He was in front of her. She could feel him, she could see his shoes and pants. She didn’t look up.
“Claire..”
She shook her head.
His hand slipped behind her head, feeling her curls and settling on her neck. Holding on for a moment.
“Kiddo, look at me.”
She was crying. She didn’t want to cry. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
She felt him look at her necklace for a moment, and she knew what he was thinking. About the chain being her mothers, the pendant being Tyler’s, the little baby bracelet that was hers, but most of all, the ring. His wedding ring. His wedding ring that was for his and Gwyn’s marriage. The love that made her.
His other hand came up and both slipped to cradle her face, so gently pulling it up so he could look at her. He stared at her for a moment, before turning her face to the left and then right, like he needs to check for something.
He says “Hi Claire.” And she burst into sobs.
He pulled her in. Her head landing on his chest, inbetween his turnouts and tucking in further. His hand cradling her head again, his other arm wrapping around her shoulders. He hugged for tight. Like he’d been missing her for 6 years. Like he hadn’t moved on from her.
Her arms wrapped around him and her fingers curled into his turnouts and pulled. Twisting in them like he’d try to get away from her. To pull back now.
He started to rock them side to side just a little.
She couldn’t hear anything, she just cried.
It took a solid few minutes before she could hear him mummering to her “it’s okay. You’re okay kiddo. Dad’s got you. I’m here. Breathe. You’re okay.”
She hugged him tighter, knees shaking and he just held her up. Always so strong.
“Dad?”
Tyler was there. She doesn’t know when he got there.
He wasn’t close enough to see her face but he knew something was happening.
His dad was hugging someone for a reason.
She pulled back, a little, and then more. She looked at Tyler and saw the moment it hit him.
He went pale. He looked like he’d be sick.
He said “Claire??”
She nodded. Their dad kissed her forehead and let her go and then she was stumbling to TK. Her hip giving out before she got to him and she fell and then he was there. Grabbing her into his arms, practically cradling her.
TK was crying. She could feel it landing in her hair, could feel him shaking.
He says, broken “i thought you died. Claire, I thought you were dead.”
She starts crying again.
It took minutes for them to stop crying. Claire clinging to TK, her head on his chest, ear over his heart. It was pounding.
Owen eventually drops down beside them, a hand going to rest on both of his kids.
TK stops crying first, and she can feel the shift. He tenses and she already knows what he’s going to ask.
“Where have you been, Claire? How are you here? Why now?”
She tucks her head in tighter, not answering.
He pulls back, almost pushing her away, saying “Claire. Where were you?”
And then his eyes caught on her clothing. On her shirt that says “LAFD EMT” and his eyes tighten.
He says “you’re an EMT. How?”
She looks away. Owen is looking closer now. He looks down to her name tag.
“K. Rowan.” He says, voice dry and full of something she can’t name. Maybe anger.
She looks at him for a moment and then away.
“What’s the K, Claire? Because Claire doesn’t start with a K.”
“It’s Kennedy. Isn’t it. That was you in the medical tent earlier. You named yourself Kennedy..” TK said. And he definitely sounded angry.
Owen saying, voice stoney “You’re working under a fake identity? Why do you even have a fake identity?”
She doesn’t respond.
Owen says “Okay then. Get up.”
She looks at him in shock, but he’s already reaching for her and helping her stand. He starts leading her to the command center. Claire dragging her feet, saying “I’m one break. I need to eat and go back.”
Owen looks at her, sharp and says “You legally can’t even be here. You’re coming with me.”
He brings her into the tent and makes her sit in a chair off to the side. Brushing off the other captains who ask about her. He just starts working again.
She tries to move away at one point and he notices immediately. Making her sit back down.
She zones out, thinking about how she ruined everything just now. How she should have kept walking. But also about how her plan clearly worked. About how Tyler is alive and not sick anymore.
She zones back with her dad sitting by her, on the phone. He’s saying “No. Yes, she’s right here. No, I don’t know how she got the paperwork. She’s just sitting here. Yes, you can talk to her.”
And then he’s passing her the phone. She takes it.
“Claire?” Larson asks, voice in his US Marshal mode, his serious, no room for nonsense tone.
“Hi Papa…” she says, bracing.
“I’m about 2 hours out. You either stay with you dad or brother, or when I find you, and I will, I will press charges for every crime I can prove you committed over the last six years.”
“Okay..”
“Do you even know how much trouble you are in? A fake identity, Claire? Working as an EMT under one? I did not raise you to do stuff like that.”
“I know..”
“If you know, why did you do it then?”
“…….
“I’ll be there soon. Behave.”
He hangs up.