The father and child reunion (Sarah) (flashback)

[larry]

Larry slowly, almost lovingly, placed down a folder on the desk, before he looked around. The offices weren't much - a far cry, in fact, from the offices he was used to, but it would have to do. There was a desk for the girl who worked as a secretary here that faced the door, and a few more desks for the teachers to work on whatever it was teachers did when not in class. Larry wasn't all that sure what exactly that might be, but obviously it needed some office space.

He turned around slowly and took in the room. A door leading out into the courtyard, a door that led to the restrooms, and a short corridor that led to the offices of Jared Martins and Doctor Bowen. That and a small storage room filled with office supplies would be his world now.

He sighed softly and craned his neck until the bones there produced a cracking sound, before he sat down and opened the folder. How Jared Martins had ever managed to keep Willow Brooke running without a good tax advisor or a dedicated accountant on staff completely escaped him, but he was glad that the man had managed it nonetheless. Without him, his daughter would not have grown into the person she now was, the young woman he had left behind a few weeks ago to move to Montana and pay Jared back for everything he had done to help Sarah.

Lu grabbed a pen and a legal pad and started to go over the files of the land Willow Brooke owned. When the front door opened he didn't look up from familiarizing himself with the land titles and just muttered "good afternoon". Knowing all he could about Willow Brooke would come in handy one day, and there was no time like the present, so he had decided to learn as much as he could as fast as he could.

[sarahchien]

The last thing Sarah expected when she entered the offices was to see her father. For a second she almost went into panic mode, what was wrong? Did something happen to her mom? Though she quickly figured that made no senses. For one thing she was yet to actual tell either of her parents that she was working at Willow Brooke. He also looked like he was working and he clearly had a sense of purpose. She almost rolled her eyes, still carrying a small amount of bitterness about her father always choosing work. The feeling went quickly and the curiosity returned. He hadn't even noticed her, just muttered 'good afternoon' that seemed somewhat dismissive.

A part of Sarah was tempted to simply run for it, pretend she didn't seem him and avoid him until he left. The awkward 'I'm taking a break from college' conversation was hard enough and she was not looking forward to the 'now I'm a stable hand' conversation. Luckily, or maybe unluckily she was a little too grown up to runaway from he dad. Also she was extremely curious as to what exactly he was doing. "Dad?" She finally spoke confusion evident in her tone. "What are you doing here?".

[larry]

That voice was unmistakable, but he couldn't quite believe what he heard. Perhaps he had been thinking too much about Sarah since coming to Willow Brooke and he was just imagining things. But when he looked up the pen slipped from his fingers and rolled to the edge of the desk, hanging there for a second before it clattered down when Larry slowly rose. He kept his hands on the table and leaned forward, halfway across the desk, too stunned to speak for several seconds.

"Sarah?" he finally managed. "What on earth are you doing here?" He hadn't seen her in at least three weeks, hadn't bothered to tell her - or her mother - that he intended to go to Willow Brooke, as he was only a small part of their lives nowadays. They were happy together, so how had Sarah ended up here again? It couldn't be that she had run into another problem - or problems - that required a stay at the camp. That just couldn't be. He would have heard, her mother would have told him.

He slowly lowered himself back into the chair and reached down to pick up the pen, keeping his eyes on his daughter most of the time, glancing down only briefly to find the pen. "I work here," he answered her, realizing that they had both asked each other the exact same question, and that one of them would have to provide an answer first.

[sarahchien]

Okay, that was a shock to Sarah was he being serious. She took a few more steps into the room. "You work here?" She asked. "How? Why? You're a lawyer why would you can to work here? She asked, all these questions running through her head. It did seem like a cruel joke, it wasn't April first right? Why would he work there and why on earth would no one tell her that her father was hired.

It then occurred to her that she had not answered his question. She noticed the worry in his eyes and wondered what he thought? Did he think she was having troubles again. "I uh work here now" She said feeling slightly nervous. Would he mad at her. Think she was wasting her life. That was what she was afraid of, yeah she didn't have the best relationship with her father. It was not the worst relationship either and a large part of her still had the normal desire to make her parents proud. She was happy, happier being a stable hand. Unlike in college, she was so lost there and felt she didn't belong. She didn't know what she wanted and she believed the best way to find what she wanted was to go back to the place that changed her life. However she doubted her current job would make her father even remotely proud.

[larry]

"Yes, I am a lawyer." Larry raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "Do you think they don't need someone here to take care of some legal matters, or perhaps some accountancy?" He had to bite his lip not to mention what kind of kids were sent to Willow Brooke. That would sound all wrong. Compared to some of the run-ins with the law some of the current students had had, Sarah's past problems appeared small at best. Not all the legal problems surrounding some of those kids were exactly his specialty, but he would deal with it. Once his mind was made up, it would take a lot to stop him from following through.

"But you? You should be in college." He couldn't help wonder what her job was. So far he had only looked into the contracts of the teachers, or he would have known. Perhaps, he speculated, she was a riding instructor. He knew next to nothing about horses or riding, but he thought his daughter was good enough to be an instructor, as he thought highly of her in every regard. "What are you doing here?"

Larry also wondered what had brought her here, but flooding her with questions would not do. He would have to get the truth out of her one step at a time - if she would even open up to him enough to answer his questions. Not asking her straight out pained him, but he had hurt his daughter enough. Only when he had allowed her to live her own life had she become truly happy, so he would take this step after the other and leave it to her what questions she would answer, and how much she would volunteer.

[sarahchien]

”Right...” She guessed that it made sense but why him? She doubted they went through the student files to find someone who had a lawyer in their family. Her father probably decided to come to Willow Brooke but the question was, why? ”Why you, why did they hire you of all the lawyers in the world?”She asked him.
She knew the college comment would come up, she had been waiting for. She rolled her eyes at him before speaking. ”It’s a waste of time and money to go to college when I don’t know what I want to do with my life” She explained to him, it was true. It wasn’t as if she left college and would never return, once she had direction and goals she would go back to college but until she did it was pointless.

And that was the second part she had been dreading, because she knew being a stable hand sounded like nothing. ”I help out at the stables” She explained, somehow that sounded better then stable hand. ”I help the vet out too” She added, because it was true and it made everything sound that much better. She turned her gaze away from her father focusing instead on the wall. She did not want to see a disappointed look on his face.

[larry]

"A waste of time and money..." Larry mused, softly taping an index finger on the desk for something like three seconds, before he folded his hands. He had to concede that Sarah made a good point. If her heart was not in it, college would result in a mediocre degree and confine her future career options to something that would not make her happy either. He only wanted the best for her, but while he felt strongly that college was something she should do, the last few years had taught him the rather painful lesson that his ideas for his daughter's life were not always the best options.

When she continued, Larry felt a smile building up inside him, but kept it well away from showing on his face. He was very new to Willow Brooke, but he knew what a stable hand was - especially since Sarah had told him a little bit about the place after she had returned home after her stint as a student here. That was what she had to be, for he couldn't think of any good reason why she wouldn't have told him straight away what she did, if it was a more prestigious job. She had picked her words well to describe her job, and that certainly met with Larry's approval. "Helping the vet too? Now perhaps there is an option for a future career," he offered.

"But I still owe you an answer." He paused and studied his daughter. She would - most likely - think he had gone completely crazy. And perhaps he had. It was, after all, about the oddest thing he had done in his whole life.

"They hired me, because I volunteered for the job. And the rates I charge them are quite generous, so Mister Martins took me on board."

[sarahchien]

Sarah was expecting a lecture at that comment, but he stopped tapped his fingers and folded his hands. She guessed that meant he saw her point. It was always rare for her to win an argument; he was a lawyer after all. She didn’t exactly win the argument, but it was enough to force Sarah to have to hide a small smile.

”Maybe, I still don’t know what I want to do” She explained, because well she didn’t want a lecture or a talk about future careers. She wanted and needed to figure that out on her own. It wasn’t as if the idea of being a vet had never crossed her mine, working with animals had always been something she loved which was another reason why Willow Brooke was a great place to figure things out.

Sarah nodded with agreement, he did owe her an answer after all. She didn’t know her father’s rates exactly, she just knew that he wasn’t exactly cheap. The school wasn’t exactly brimming with money either. He rates weren’t generous normally (what lawyers were?) so he must of changed the drastically. It made no sense to her, he wasn’t money crazy but he lived comfortably.

”Why? You must of changed you’re rates a lot for it to be generous” She began ”Why would you want to work here when you could work practically anywhere”

[larry]

Larry slowly drew in a breath and expelled it just as slowly, in what might have amounted to a sigh if performed thrice as fast. His daughter was an intelligent girl and she would be able to figure it out for herself if given enough time. But leaving her question unanswered would be unfair. And besides, if anyone here would understand his motives, it was Sarah - not that he intended to chat about his motives to everyone and sundry, but at least with her he could talk about it, and they had their privacy for the moment.

"Can't you guess?" he began, not completely able to abstain from at least a little patronizing. But when he continued he spoke in a calm, measured voice. If he had stopped to think about it, he would have realized that he spoke that way because he, too, needed a rational explanation for his presence at Willow Brooke, to reflect on the choice he had made.

"When you came back home after your stay here, you stood up to me the first time in your life. Really stood up to me. And look what it lead to."

He looked at her and allowed a faint, wistful smile to distort his expression. Some days Sarah reminded him so much of her mother in her younger days, when Larry had first met her.

"The last few years you and your mother have been happier than I have seen you both in a long, long time. Believe it or not - I do care about that." He had given her little enough reason to believe it ever since the divorce, all through her teenage years, and all he could hope for was that she would believe him one day, as he doubted she could completely believe him now. The thought hurt, but that sting inside of him had also worked to bring him to Willow Brooke, for while Larry didn't know it consciously, doing penance was part of his reasons for moving to the boondocks of Montana and leaving everything behind.

"And in a way it all happened because of this place, because of Willow Brooke. I have a debt to pay."

[sarahchien]

Sarah didn’t miss the slight patronizing tone. It was nice to know something’s didn’t change. Ok, she would admit that was probably a bit unfair. Sarah would admit that she did not see it coming. Maybe she really should have, it was probably obvious from an outside view. However it wasn’t exactly something that she thought the father she knew would do.

She couldn’t help but hide the smile when he mentioned when she came home, when she stood up to him for the first time. She had felt so proud of herself in that moment, it was the first time in her entire life she had stood up to him. For years she had pushed back what she had truly wanted because she was too afraid too shy to speak up.

He was right though, she had been happier with her mother and her mother had been so much happier since she had returned home to her. His her mother she was always first priority but with her father she was second to his work. She knew his work was important but sometimes a girl just needed to know her parents cared. When she was a teenager she definitely needed a parent was their over work.

Maybe that was why she didn't guess it, why she didn't see the obvious because it almost seemed liked he picked something else overwork. She really did struggle to believe that.

"So..." She said as she tried to process the new information. "You wanted to work here because you owe it to them? Because they helped me?" She asked not completely able to hide the skepticism from her voice.

[larry]

"In a word - yes." While he could be quite eloquent when he had to, Larry had always preferred brevity. But the hint of doubt in his daughter's voice was not lost on him, so he decided to add a few more words to that straight answer.

"I am here because these people helped you, helped you discover something inside you that I could never have brought out myself. Something..." He hesitated for several seconds and drew a deep breath, before he continued. "Something that reminds me very much of your mother when she was your age. She always was a better person than me, if you look at it in a certain way. So yes, I am here to pay a debt, just as I told you."

It was a strange feeling, admitting to himself that Mei had always been a better person than him, even if he had been the more successful of them in life - strange, but not entirely unwelcome. It was a humbling thought, to realize that the work he had devoted his life to wasn't everything, but the thought had crept up on him slowly over the last few years. But the slow realization had also filled him with a new sense of purpose, for a purpose he needed, always had and always would.

"Speaking of your mother," he addressed his daughter, as he leaned back in his chair, "does she know you are here?"

[sarahchien]

She listened further to his explanation, not completely able to push away the doubt she had been feeling at his answer.

He was right though, without Willow Brooke she would not be in a good place. It had helped her when she felt that she couldn’t help and could not deny that was part of the reason she was drawn back to it. Even if she was just taking care of the stables she felt as if she was helping and that was a great feeling. So was it so impossible that her father was drawn to there for a similar reason.

She felt another surge of pride as he mentioned her mother, she had always been Sarah’s role model. Not her father who had the better job, the one who was there for her no questions asked. She just decided to ignore the comment about how her mother was a better person, it was basically true anyway. However she knew admitting it at all was a big thing for her father so she wasn’t going to rub it in.

It was the question she had been dreading but she knew it was coming. ”Not exactly” She told him, it wasn’t as if she was going out of her way to not tell her mom. She had originally came for a visit and didn’t expect to get a job there, she hadn’t exactly had time to talk to her mother. She couldn’t deny a large part of her was dreading it though.

[larry]

"Not exactly?" Larry asked and rolled that last word around his tongue as if he was savoring a fine wine. "Perhaps you do have more of a lawyer in you than I thought," he told Sarah while a faint trace of a smile played around his lips.

He had to wonder if Sarah had acted on a whim when she decided to work at Willow Brooke, or if she just hadn't told her mother because she wanted to stand on her own two feet, make her own way away from her parents. But as close as Sarah was to her mother, Larry very much suspected it to be the former. If it were the latter, if she had planned ahead, she would have told her mother.

"This puts us both in a very odd position," he stated, the smile vanishing from his face as he thought about their situation. "Sooner or later we both will have to tell Mei where we are, and what we are doing here. And we can't just pretend we don't know about each other, as your mother will learn about it eventually."

Regardless from whom Mei learned about one of them being at Willow Brooke, learning the other one was here second-hand would put either Sarah or himself in an awkward position, possibly both of them.

"I can see only one way around this..." Larry said and left it to his daughter's imagination to come to the conclusion he just had.