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Ash forked over the bail money to the bored looking processing officer. His eyes kept jumping towards the doorway that led farther into the police station. His heart pounded in his chest.
He had no idea how this was going to go. He'd like to think he'd learned something from how things went with Brandy, and had used that going forward with Beth. Which had been... an experience. But he'd also managed to find her just days after her life had gone to hell.
He wished he'd been able to find her sooner and stop it from happening in the first place.
She'd lashed out at him, but once he'd explained the situation, best he could anyway without sounding completely delusional--because demons were one thing, time travel and learning about her because an advanced AI powered bag of bolts a hundred years in the future accidently let her name and connection to him slip was another--she'd calmed down some. Enough that he'd managed to talk her into coming back to Elk Grove with him. The little girl had been unexpected, and it tore at him that a kid had been put through this demonic horseshit. But they wouldn't be alone, and that was the important part.
He wouldn't let anyone else go though this hell alone if he could help it, but especially not his kids.
Mia, though, she'd gone through almost the same exact shit as him from what they'd been able to piece together, but it had been eight years since then. She'd been hard to track down, having taken a similar route as him, running, hiding, doing her best to drop off the face of the earth. But she'd gotten arrested, public intoxication and disorderly conduct, and it'd come up on the... whatever it was that Kelly and Pablo had set up online to look for any mention of her name. He didn't understand any of that, navigating to porn sites was about the extent of his knowhow when it came to computers.
"This way."
Ash followed the officer into the holding area, willing his heart to calm. This wasn't a fight or flight situation, no matter what his nerves were screaming.
There were three women in the cell, but even without the officer pointing her out, he knew which one she was. It wasn't just the lack of hand, it was the way she held herself, off to the side, guarded, eyes constantly moving, scanning, on edge. He'd been there. He was pretty sure he'd gotten past that phase after eight years, but he'd also been on something ninety percent of the time by then and not all too concerned with his own survival to bother being on guard. Sure, he hadn't wanted to die at the hands of a deadite, but he hadn't exactly been loving his life at the time either.
"Mia Allen, your dad's here to bail you out."
Ash jerked. Fuck.
Mia had also jerked up at the wording. Her eyes locking onto him with such scrutiny, he felt like a strip search would be less intense. But she didn't contradict it, instead getting up and leaving the holding area with them.
She didn't say anything about it as things were finalized and they left the station.
She didn't say anything as he led her to the Delta and they got in.
Then she said something, "'My dad?'"
"Yeah, well, I hadn't expected him to blurt it out like that." He hadn't said not to. But he hadn't thought he'd have to. It'd been a while since he'd had to bail anyone out of jail, and almost as long since anyone cared to bail him out so the whole process had been a bit blurry in his memory. He'd figured he'd bail her out, offer to buy her breakfast, then break the news over some hotcakes. Hotcakes made everything better. Maybe he could still salvage some of that plan.
"Are you?" It was asked casually, like the answer didn't matter to her.
He glanced at her but she wasn't looking at him. It'd be easy to say lie, to say no, and just talk about the Necronomicon instead, claim he just used it as an excuse when the officer asked him who he was to her. But when had the easy way out ever not backfired on him? Besides, he didn't want to lie, not about this. "Yeah. I am." He sighed. "I know it doesn't change anything, but I only found out about you last-- a year ago. I've been trying to find you ever since."
She was looking at him now "Why? Why the fuck would you want to find me?"
"Because you're my daughter." That should be enough. To him, it was enough, she was family. Other than Cheryl, his biological family had mostly been shit, but they'd been his, and so was she, so was Brandy and Beth, and Kelly and Pablo even there wasn't any shared blood there, except for what they'd gotten drenched with when killing deadites. "And I know what you've been through."
"You know?" She laughed, harsh and disbelieving. "You don't know jackshit what I've been through! You think you can just barge into my life and act like-- What is that?"
While she'd been talking, Ash had rolled up his sleeve. Her eyes were locked onto the clear section of his wrist that melded skin to faux skin. "I told you, I know what you've been through. Because I've been there myself. Deadites, watching friends get possessed and die, losing a sibling to them, losing a hand, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis--"
"Naturom Demonto."
"What?"
Mia blinked, looking away from his artificial hand. "Naturom Demonto, not Necronomicon Ex-Mortis."
And Beth had said a similar sounding name when talking about hers. They hadn't pinpointed the differences yet. "Whatever, your Book of The Dead, I got one too." When she didn't respond with any sort of 'so it's your fault,' he continued, "How about we grab breakfast and swap stories? I'm thinking hotcakes."
"I... like hotcakes."
"Great." He might just be able to savage this situation after all.