Daughter AU - Practical Skills

[troublewillfindme]

The next time she joins him, it is with a pack of cards in hand.

“I’m crappy at poker, but do you wanna play?”

 

“Sure,” he says, finishing his beer. “You can’t be that bad.”

“I only win when I cheat.”

“Card counting?”

She shakes her head. “Worse. Psionics.”

“At least you’re honest about it.”

She holds a hand to the corner of her mouth, mimicking a whisper. “Between you and me, I don’t actually know how to count cards.”

“You wanna learn?”

Her eyes light up. “Yes, please.”

–

“We were a Looney Tunes house,” she says over their fifth hand. “Our dog had Daffy and I had … have Marvin the Martian.”

“Wait, the dog had her own Daffy Duck?”

“Yeah,” she nods, considering her cards. “Jack got it for her.”

“Jack. Jack Marlowe.”

“Yes?”

“Bought the dog a stuffed toy.”

“Why is this so hard to believe?”

“It’s not what I expected from the man.”

“Fair. I guess I do have a different perspective on him.”

“A little.”

“But yeah, he bought Daffy for Jane not too long after Dad adopted her.”

“And then he got you Marvin?”

“No, that was Dad.”

He stares at her for a beat, unsure of how to respond.

“It’s okay; you can laugh. The irony isn’t lost.”

“How’d you find out?”

“Jack told me. Right around when Moore showed up, I think.”

“Must have been a hell of a conversation.”

She lets out a short laugh. “It was easier on me than him.”

“You weren’t upset?”

“I mean, Dad was gone and I wasn’t sure I was ever gonna see him again, so upset was the baseline. But about the Ethereal thing? No. It’d be like being mad at someone being left-handed. Letting the base fall, though, that was a different story. Even knowing the reasons, it took … a while for that to stop hurting. First, for the obvious reasons, and then …” she trails off. “I think Jack’s comment to me was something to the effect of ‘If it was hard for you to lose him, don’t you think it was hard for him to lose you?’ That snapped me out of it pretty quickly.”

“Took a lot of maturity.”

She shakes her head. “The last thing he said to me before he left was ‘I love you.’ I’ve never once doubted he meant it.”

-

It turns out he’s a good teacher, a surprise she files away with the myriad corrections she’s needed to make to her impression of the man since actually meeting him. He’s funny and patient and answers her questions the best he’s able.

If she squints, she can see what Dad sees in him.

Well, if she’s honest, maybe she can see with a bit more clarity than that.