Daddy Issues

Posted on 30 Aug 2017 @ 5:49pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin

1,375 words; about a 7 minute read

Amaranai was seated in her apartment with Charlotte. The two were dressed in formal wear, sitting in awkward silence. Their father, Gideon, had contacted Amaranai the previous day stating that he had finally realized that Charlotte was not> at home, where she was supposed to be. The conversation was not pleasant, nor was it cordial. At the end of the call, Gideon decided that he would come to San Francisco to take both his daughters home.

"I'm not going to let him take you," Amaranai said.

Charlotte didn't say anything, but instead, nodded.

There was a pounding on the door. The targ, Snuffles, whom Amaranai was taking care of, rushed the door and was growling at the stranger it smelled on the other side. Amaranai struggled for a moment to move the targ back to her room before approaching the door and the angry person that stood there. When she opened the door, her father stood, tall and stern-faced, and didn't say anything. He looked down to the young woman that was his daughter and instead of saying to Amaranai, moved into the apartment and stood before Charlotte.

"What made you think you could run away?" Gideon said.

Charlotte was quiet, stoic. Unsure of what she should say.

"She didn't run away, sir," Amaranai spoke.

But the man didn't react to the words. Instead, he kept staring down at Charlotte as she sat on the seat. It was clear to Amaranai that her sister was terrified of her father and of all the things that both girls had been through in their lives, this was by far, the most stressful.

"I will ask you one more time," Gideon said. "Why did you run away?"

"She didn't run away," Amaranai repeated. "I took her to safety."

Gideon took that moment to turn quickly and slap the older daughter across the cheek. The impact was enough to make a loud noise and caused Charlotte to jump. But Amaranai didn't flinch and didn't react. Gideon returned his gaze to the younger daughter.

"You are coming with me, young lady," he said and took her by the arm. "Your mother has been worried about you."

The statement cut through the awkwardness and caught Amaranai off guard. Their mother was only ever "active" in their upbringing during childbearing and birth. They weren't even nursed by their mother, having been raised by nannies and wet nurses their entire lives.

"When?" Amaranai said to her father, causing him to stop and face her. "When has our mother ever been worried about any of us?" She paused and stepped closer to her father. "When any of us were arrested? No! When your son brutally attacked and raped three girls? No! When one of your daughters decided that embezzling funds from one of your competitors was a good idea and then was caught and is not allowed to be involved in any business ever? No!" She took a deep breath, adrenaline running through her mind.

Amaranai was enraged. Her parents had led a life of greed and selfishness and didn't care about their own children. As it was, though Amaranai was not going to voice the question - why had it taken three years for Gideon to come after Charlotte? Amaranai knew the answer was not going to be a happy ending for the girl and instead decided then and there that she needed to something about it.

“We love all of our children,” Gideon said, slowly raising his voice. “So much that we gave you everything you ever wanted. We gave you money to do with as you please. We gave you freedom to do whatever you wanted with whomever.” At that, Gideon faced his daughter once more. “And when you got in trouble, we fixed it. And that’s all that mattered.”

“None of that mattered!” Amaranai said. “We just wanted parents that loved and cared for us!” She wasn’t going to cry. There was no reason to cry for her family any longer. She had done enough of that over the years. “We wanted parents to listen to us! We wanted parents to help guide us through life and help us become wonderful people, not clones of our terrible parents!”

Gideon advanced on Amaranai and this time, Amaranai lost her confidence and backed up until she was against the wall. Gideon raised his hand as if to hit his daughter once again, but the hit didn’t come. Instead, Amaranai saw Gideon’s face change in shock and horror and he fell to the ground. Behind him, Charlotte was standing, holding a phaser. Amaranai rushed her sister and pulled the phaser out of her hand.

“What did you do, Charlotte?”

Charlotte was silent. She hadn’t said anything in the several minutes since Gideon had arrived and must have been in shock to not want to say anything now. Amaranai helped Charlotte sit down and looked at the phaser in her own hand – maximum stun. Not that she was sad her father wasn’t dead, but the legal run around and logistics that Amaranai would face if he were dead were too many to fathom. Amaranai placed her arm around her younger sister.

“You need to leave, Charlotte,” Amaranai said. “Dad will have brought William with him for help, if necessary, so he is probably waiting nearby. Leave the building. Head to Nara’s. She’ll keep you safe.”

“What . . .” the girl whispered. “What about you?”

“I’m going to fix this once and for all,” she said. “Go. I’ll talk to you later.”

Amaranai watched as her sister left the apartment quickly. Amaranai moved to her father and grabbed the communicator from his pocket. At the same time, she placed stun cuffs on his hands to keep him from attacking her. Flipping the communicator on, Amaranai called her brother, William, whom she had not seen in several years. He was initially surprised to hear his sister’s voice but was cordial and asked about their father. Amaranai informed her brother that Gideon was going to need assistance in leaving her apartment. William, understanding what had happened, told his sister he was on his way.

After a few minutes, there was a chime at the door and Amaranai went to the door. When it opened, Amaranai was caught off guard as her brother shoved the door open, knocking his sister back. She was ready for the ambush, though, and caught her balance and retaliated, landing a punch to William’s abdomen. A strike from her brother caught Amaranai in the cheek and knocked her aside. Amaranai lifted her leg to kick her brother, again in the abdomen, and knocked him down. He panted and raised a hand in surrender. He was clutching his chest and looked up to his sister and smiled.

“You’ve gotten better,” he said. “I guess Starfleet was helpful, after all.”

Amaranai didn’t say anything but looked down at her brother.

“Get your father out of here,” she said as she motioned to the man slowly coming to on the floor. “I don’t want him bothering Charlotte or myself any longer. I’ve had enough. If he tries to come after Charlotte or me in any way, the Federation will learn a lot of things about our dear, devoted father.”

William stood up and looked at his younger sister and then at their father.

“We’ll see,” he said. “You know how he can be.”

“And I know that you can be persuasive,” she offered. “Please.”

There was no pleading. There was no begging. Just Amaranai telling her brother to protect his younger sisters from their bear of a father. Amaranai watched as William helped their father slowly get to his feet. Amaranai stepped forward and did something to the stun cuffs.

“They’ll release in twenty minutes.”

William walked out with his father in front of him leaving Amaranai alone. She hoped that her brother would be able to keep their father away from Charlotte and Amaranai, at least until Amaranai was given orders to join a new ship. For now, she had to deal with her scared sister and the ramifications of assaulting her brother.

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