I've Noticed...((Rookie and Zarek))...

[light]

The words seemed to be far away, yet loud enough to echo. Nothing seemed to focus. Jamie squeezed her eyes shut tight for a few seconds, hoping to wake up. No, not wake up, just stop feeling like her puppy died because she wasn’t there to feed it because someone locked her in a small box that repeatedly zapped her awake. Alleviating a tiny bit would give her enough relief to sleep peacefully.

Jamie quickly came into focus after Zarek’s first sentence, and felt immediately like she wanted to take an acid bath and scrub off layers of her skin with a dull razor blade. She felt dirty, filthy, and rather disgusted. He was the most childish person in that room at the moment, and not the cute kid type, and he called her “kid” and suddenly began acting neighborly. He was old enough to be her father, in general, and was also the new mate of her true father’s, which clearly meant he was going to have to show some more parentally attributes. Rook had learned the hard way in her toddler years, if she had no respect for you…she’d walk all over you.

At the comment of food, Jamie’s very stomach began to roll like a storm-tossed ship, quite violently. But she did manage to plaster an appreciative grin on her muzzle. Though it had been to give comfort in the form of food, she was glad that there was a time-limit she had requested the delivery. To her shame, it hadn’t been planned that way; only instincts guided her when she had turned on Keyxi to order the meal. Was that what it took to be an Angel? Instinct or careful planning…maybe both were required. As of late though, she had been guided with intuition rather than solid fact. Jamie knew she would have to carefully judge any conclusions she made. Detectives closed cases with facts.

Keeping her violet-grey eyes on them both, to read what body-language she could, Jamie focused as she became her work. Work defined her, all she was to most eyes, was her work. Zarek, unsurprisingly, was in a lax and rather cocky posture. It made sense, little boy doesn’t get way, silent treatment. Little boy gets toy, becomes darling little angel…until the next tantrum. Rook…there was so little one could understand concerning body language. Jamie didn’t need that though, she just needed to imagine what she would be feeling if she was in his shoes. This technique worked most easily on her father, for she had emulated him at a young age, wanting to be his little girl. She had plenty of practice in the matter. When doing this, Jamie could not be James Elizabeth Rook, and had to become as close as she could possibly be, Regulus Rook…her father. If she didn’t, then there would obviously be prejudice and biases on her part.

Jamie knew for certain, that if she was him, she would be utterly frustrated, to say the least, with both of them. She didn’t think that he had an idea on how she felt on the matter of him and Zarek, so he would be a little confused and torn over how much to tell her. Would she denounce him, would she squeal like an excited girl and start planning a wedding, or would she even care? Maybe he didn’t want her to care…but maybe he might also be frightened that she would by very apathetic to the whole mess. Which would be worse to her father?

The violet-eyed detective peeled the layers off, and became Jamie again after a moment of this. When a very Jamie thought hit her, one she had thought of before. Was he thinking of her, right now? Did he feel guilty, like a traitor to her memory? Mother. No, Cleo was not her mother, she had no ties to Jamie…except, Jamie was here instead of the vibrant fox whose mirror was cast in silver on the door of her death. Cleo…Jamie was the silver dipped version of the crimson fox that her father loved so dearly. If she approved, would Rook’s conscious be relieved…because it would be like the spirit of Cleo would be giving her consent? She doubted it, but it made her feel uncomfortable and silent.

Her father kissed her lightly on the cheek, a kiss that brought back memories of the time she was still young enough to be tucked in bed without taking offense, but old enough to remember. So he didn’t want to hear them speak like that to each other again. Jamie had qualms about that. If Zarek kept acting the petty child, she was going to lose all respect for him, and it would be impossible for her not to be cynical towards him. It was her nature; it was done with her father, teachers, friends, etc. She would walk all over them. Just because her father was romantically inclined towards him didn’t mean he got special treatment. Before her standards were severely lowered, due to her conclusion that his age, sex, position, and own nature gave her no reason to expect virtuous actions. The dynamics changed, people changed. Besides, she wasn’t unfair in the matter. Jamie would go great lengths to meet his standards as well. Not that he knew that. Rook would not hear them talk to each other like that ever again…she would ensure that any word of any sort of disagreement and malevolence would never reach his sharp ears.

Satisfied that any form of yelling had been currently been tucked in secret places at the moment, Jamie brought another topic to the table, “I want the full story, both points of view. Make sure you give detail to what you two are, couple, soul-mates, whatever; how it started; whether or not you two are happy…and any other details you see fit to add in. We’ve got about thirty-eight minutes until the food gets here, so just take your time. I won’t ask any more questions until both of you are done. Capiche?”…

[texas]

Zarek sat back on the couch looking like he was king of the world, but feeling like crap. What would happen if Jamie was against this? To Rook she was he whole world. So if Jamie decided that she would not be apart of Rook’s life any more if this continued then whom would he pick? The tiger had the worst feeling that it be the wolverine’s daughter and not him.

When Jamie decided to get the whole story it was Zarek who spoke up first. It was going to be his pleasure to tell the story first. After all, Rook really only came into after he got shot.

“For me my side of this begins way before Rook even had any idea about me.” He said with a haft smile. “When I first joined the Guild Rook had just become a Middle Angel. I didn’t get him for my apprenticeship, but I wasn’t that lucky. I was stuck with a wolf named Apollo. Of course I was younger and beginning in the Angels opened me up to newer things. So things kinda happened.

“Realizing that Rook wasn’t open to anything to so with anyone. I let myself go.” Flipping out his claws Zarek picked at them. “After that my sexual life is pretty much known to whoever you wish to ask. It isn’t like I try to hid anything.” That was only the haft truth, but there where things that happened that the tiger was not going to talk about.

“Anyway, I just choose to be friends with your father. He was a cool guy after all. I pushed back my feelings for him and went romping around with everyone else. Who can blame me? The one person I wanted I wasn’t going to get.” He chuckled ruefully.

“I pushed back my feelings for Rook, but they tended to come up at the oddest times. Luckily for me, your father is blind as a bat at times when it comes to hints about how people feel about him. I kept theses down until I got shot.

“It made me see that I may only have a few more days down here and I wasn’t going to waste them. So when he came to visit me in the hospital I kissed him. Of course he ran away from that and we, well he avoided me for as long as he could. I got sick of the of course so I came to his rooks to tell him what is what.

“Then this is what happened,” Zarek gestured to all of them in the room. “And so you know Jamie, if you approve of this or not I am pushing this as much as I can. This isn’t just some simple infatuation. I love Rook.”

Looking to the wolverine he smiled. “I guess it is out in the open now. I love you Mutt and I’m not letting you go with out a fight.”

[Rook]

Rook's ears, were perhaps, the best indicators of his emotions, and right now they were stark straight, as a German Shepherd's.

He shifted his deadly, now limp hands, int he tiger's grasp, Zarek's paws were small, neat and soft in comparison, his eyes narrowing or widening occasionally as he listened, traces of his anger ebbing away as Zarek talked.

Charming bastard. Can he tell I'm mad at him? Is that why he's saying these things? He knows I'm somewhat of a romantic, though I've never let it on.

It seemed so, but he was so ready and willing to believe the tiger was sincere, his paranoid heart looked for any trace of deceit, but he found none, perhaps he purposefully prevented himself from finding none.

He turned finally and looked into the amber eyes, said nothing, as was expected of him. Why hadn't Zarek told him these things before? Of course later he'd suspected that the tiger had had feelings for him even before the kiss, but to that extent...for such a long damn time....

How could he have missed it?

Hearing him talk this way was painful, because it was different than the rough affection they usually swung at eachother, it was right down to the bone, and despite the love being down there, there were also nightmares.

Nightmare's that bit, and did not let go.

I love Rook. I love you Mutt

Rook was not as capable as Jamie, it seemed, or perhaps that bit was more powerful than he'd expected, but a smile broke out onto his face, he could not control the amount of affection it had in it, even for the sake of his daughter.

It was a look of a deep, terrible relief.

[light]

Jamie kept still, like a deer faced with on coming headlights racing closer with their impending doom. Maybe they wouldn’t notice her. From the expression on their faces, they were too enamored with each other to notice how she was reacting to this revelation. Then, as quick as a flash, anything to indicate her initial emotions, she hid behind a mask of happy surprise. “I didn’t expect it to have gone so far, that’s very interesting,” she murmured. The sight of her father’s tail twitching, almost in a wag nearly set her over the edge, however.

Jamie knew how she had first felt when she had heard Zarek’s confession and Rook’s reaction. Disgust, jealousy, anger, fear, pity, shame, guilt, indignation, and a streak of the rash need to do something about it. What she wanted to know was how she felt about it after she ate, stopped feeling sick, slept a little, and had thought long and hard. After all, first impressions are usually the wrong ones, she chided to herself.

Jamie didn’t know how she was supposed to feel. There was nothing to compare it to. Her dad was gay, and loving it. What did this mean about her mother? Where there more secrets about their relationship that she had never even considered? Was her dad straight out gay, or bisexual, or straight with Zarek as the one exception? She didn’t know, and she didn’t want to know at that moment. Jamie wanted to mince the place into tiny pieces and hit a squishy pillow a few times. She wanted to do something! But she wouldn’t. Rook had always, well nearly always, been there for her, and accepted her. The least she could do was to pretend she was content.

It made her give a small smile, seeing her father gazing at the childish tiger with those moon-eyes. With traces of relief interweaving with the affection he felt towards Zarek. Was he so worried that Zarek didn’t love him back? Her father…insecure. Either he or she was losing it. Jamie guessed the later. After all, she had never had it…whatever she was supposed to have. She really wanted his happiness. It was a form of substitution for her own. If there was nothing that could really make her happy, she might as well make the dearest to her heart happy. Even if it meant putting up with the sick feeling pervading her body. Jamie didn’t just feel like she had the pelding, she was emotionally worn form the drama of the past week, and down-right sick of feeling tired. Not that she wasn’t used to feeling totally rotten, the feeling had haunted her far into her childhood, but you most certainly could get sick of being sick.

Jamie sat quietly, feeling comforted in the familiarity to the awkward silence that hushed any sound that might have come from any of them. Who was brave enough to shrug off the cloak of silence and break their thoughts with pointless words that seemed to make the world sharp with its irrational sounds formed with the throat? She was; this was something she could do, though it usually ended up being blunt and tactless, hurting people in the process. “As fascinating and hilarious as your expression is at the moment, Father, I need to get things ready for the meal. I’ll just leave you two for a minute, so don’t think you can start making out for hours, ‘cause I’m coming right back.” Her voice was firm and left no room for argument, and she used her long legs as an advantage and took long strides that swiftly carried her from the room…

[texas]

Zarek had completely forgotten that Jamie was in the room until she had spoken. He had been so consumed by the look Rook had in his eye he’d completely forgotten about the girl.

The relief had him so confused. Did it mean that Rook loved him? Or was it something else? Another thing that bothered him was that the wolverine wasn’t saying anything. What was he thinking about?

As soon as Jamie was out of the room Zarek pulled his paws away from Rook and grabbed the Arch-Angel’s chin, so that even if he wanted to pull away he couldn’t.

“Rook, you have to tell me what you are thinking. You can’t just leave me out in the cold. Not saying anything after a person tell you they love you is worst than telling them thanks.”

[Rook]

Rook wavered a bit in the air, still refusing to look at the tiger, though not using all of his strength to get away from him.
At first, again he made no noise, then he made a long, sighing sound, which sounded a lot like an ache in the head and the heart, if that could ever have been put into a sound.

He was like a Jamie, just a bit, tired and almost sick with it, he wanted to sleep, but there was still a lot of stuff for them to get through before he could rest and think about all these things on his own. Only then would he be able to make the right decisions.

He let his head move forward in the Tiger's grasp and rest against his head for a moment, on Zarek's chest, then in a soft, almost hoarse voice...

"You know that I do...love you, I mean."

It sounded so strange on his tongue, being spoken to another person besides his daughter or wife. What could he mean by it? What did this mean for them?

He obviously wasn't preparing any wedding vows or love poems, this whole issue filled him with nothing but pain and anger (yes, he was still angry at the tiger, but he'd address him for it later, perhaps the next time they got 'the urge' , he'd make *Zarek* get up send out a Do Not Disturb pulse.)

But despite his bitterness and constant worrying, he was also deleriously happy, deleriously relieved that the tiger had't laughed and admitted to "just fucking around with him". You know, the bragging rights of getting the Killer to care about someone.

I never really believed that, did I? Just keep worrying and pacing and you get paranoid, kiddies smoke as much marijuana as you want, 'cause this is the alternative.

He could remember, this was love no buts about it, yeah, but it wasn't all a box of candy hearts this time around.

but I don't want it that way either. he's not Cleo, he's not my wife. if I ever forget that it's done.

If I ever forget that, I'll be done.

He lifted his head a bit, from Zarek's warmth and closeness, but not before kissing him, gently on the side of his neck. It was confident, if a little weary, but it had none of the nervousness he'd shown all times before, it was actually rather possessive, if slightly chaster than anything deeply intimate.

It was both warm, soft and rough, and it was Rook.

He decided that it would be best to keep on telling the truth. So much easier for a tired mind.

"Too many things. Please give me some time, I can't ...produce all the answers, and sum it all up in one story, or one speech, sorry to say, it's not that simple.... and neither can Jamie, even if she wanted to...".

[light]

Jamie washed her hands in the sink and turned off her “Do Not Disturb” pulse and began to search through her Keyxi database for some music to pass the time. She finally settled on some sad hypnotic music that would distract her. Watching the video screen, she sashayed her hips to the beat, only because there was no chance of anyone seeing her. The exercise let some of her emotions drain through the punctuated actions that came with expressing her anger and sorrow. It was a jerky but slow dance that showed how deeply she was hurt. Soon the music stopped and she held her last pose, arms outstretched and a regretful expression on her face.

Jamie slowly relaxed her muscles and stood in place for a while before wiping the tears from her face, and made her way to the door. She would never let anyone see her cry, so she took her precious time preparing the meal. Probably giving the love-birds in the other room more time to speak hushed words of undying love, she thought with a hint of bitterness. Jealousy stirred in her chest, making its way up to her throat and strangling her. Some of it had to do with Rook being her father and all, but she had always been prepared to let another love him. Most of it had to do with the love part itself. Jamie seriously doubted it would be her turn in this life-time.

Shrugging, she took the food to the kitchen and began the inelegant ceremony of slapping it onto the appropriate plates and mugs. She had ordered comfort food, and comfort food she got. There was meatloaf, ramen, mash potatoes, and hot chocolate. Then using her Keyxi heat-reading software on the other room, she decided that it would be in everyone’s best interests that she did something to occupy her time for at least one more minute.

Jamie began sniffing the air, and searching through the cabinets before she found what she was looking for. This should make her father a happy man for the rest of the evening. Then gathering all the plates and mugs, including Rook’s noticeably undusted bottle of scotch, and carried it to the living room with lots of noise, hoping that they were done. “Dinner!” she shouted with fake gusto…

[texas]

Growling a little Zarek lend his head back and exposed his neck more when Rook kissed him. A little whimper escaped his throat as the Angel did not go farther. Sighing he took the Mutt's paw and kissed it.

"You take all the time you need. Just know that you can talk to me."

When Jamie came clanking out with the Food the tiger scooted away from the wolverine slightly. The girl was already mad at him, so there was no need for him to make this any worst. He still had to apologize to her and so he made a mental note. Zarek was no going to get a Keyxi. The whole idea just put him off. Files transferring from one location. It was too open for his liking. If someone wanted too he had no doubt that a person could hack a person's Keyxi.

"Wow, that smells great!" Zarek said matching her acting skills.

[Rook]

As the silky warmth of the tiger's fur was stolen away, he leveled his breathe, and smiled in his small, thoughtful completely unreadable way.

Rook was content with the fact that they were both trying to be civil towards eachother, that was well enough for now.

I'll have to find a way to bring them together.

Hey, for someone who rode once on top of burning cars, one hand carrying a baby and the other carrying a machine gun, how hard could be?

Rook would bide his time, eat his ramen, drink his scotch and let Zarek slowly seduce him, under the impression that if he kept his cool, and thought about the present, not that past, it would all turn out alright in the end.

A little of that foolish optimism still lingered in the old killer. Though the knowledge that his little girl was unhappy, gnawed at his ideas and desires, he would have to talk to her alone...or nothing would be resolved.

Resolved? Think you can heal years of wounds with a comforting word? Your both fucked.

[light]

((Actually, no one has found out how to hack a Keyxi yet, not even the creators. They designed it to be self sufficient in learning how to deal with someone trying to get in the system. So they're pretty safe, but Aurora Industries are devising a way of hacking Keyxi tech, so your fears may soon come true...))

Jamie gave her full attention to her mash potatoes, concentrating on scooping it into her mouth and swallowing. If it was anything else she would have chocked on it by now, she really wasn’t concentrating on moving her clenched jaw to chew anything. It was rather funny how hard she focused on it, if it was a person they would have passed out from anxiety. Eating and getting out of the room seemed to be the most important thing right now; that and keeping her dad as happy with her impression of contentment as much as possible.

Her thick, dark hair fell around her face in a makeshift curtain, further concealing the blank look she had in her eye. If they had a good look at her eyes they would have sworn right and left that she wasn’t thinking of a single thing besides her hot chocolate that she was chugging, but they would have been wrong. Jamie was heatedly thinking, no, not really thinking. It was more of trying to make sense of what she was feeling and what she was going to do about it. She still had the overwhelming urge to do something, anything. It was a very rash and unthinking need, but there was no way for her to shake it. No words described her pain, so she let it wash over her, and it felt…good. Maybe she was becoming masochistic…sick…twisted, but not so much that she craved it.

Jamie turned on her Keyxi quickly and checked her agenda. Then with a dejected sigh, she turned it off. There would be no sleep for a few more hours. She still had to study for school. That made her angry yet again at Zarek and strangely at her father. She didn’t need the drama that they had just put her through. Jamie hadn’t been kidding when she told Zarek. “I don’t play, let alone with other kids my age. I work hard all day and all night. I study, all day and all night. I execute my missions whenever it is required of me, be it day or night. Not that I’m sure you could understand, but that means I do not have free time to be fooling around like some people. Capiche?” All this stinking commitment she had going on was ensuring that she never got a good nights’ rest for weeks on end. It made her shudder to think about how much coffee she had been drinking. How much caffeine could a normal person take before kneeling over again? Oh yes, she could certainly “capiche”, but she doubted that Zarek with his silly, comfortable job could. Not that she blamed him, no more than she blamed any random person on the streets, but he was here and he had questioned her level of maturity.

The teenager gave them both a quick scowl and resumed her vapid look before shoving down her meatloaf. Seriously, the whole scene had a comedic look if one ignored the tense atmosphere. It made her stomach do strange flip-flops as the food made touchdown. Jamie looked queasy for a moment before going after her ramen noodles…

[texas]

"Hey Rook, could you give me and Jamie a few minutes alone. I think the two of us are going to need to talk, even though she'd rather pull me part limb from limb right now." He gave Rook a reassuring smile to tell him everything would be fine.

Jamie may think that Zarek would lose his head if it wasn't attacked to his body, but she was wrong on many levels. The tiger was smarter than a lot of people thought and he liked to keep it that way. If they all believed that he only really cared about was sleeping around and playing with his toys in his lab all the better for him.

Before he had grown up Zarek had been raised with a large family that didn't have very much money. However they had stuck to keeping the law and in doing so they ended up having more than their share of rough times. Through this though the tiger had gained a few important skills and had learned a few important lessons.

So despite what Jamie would have the world think. Zarek was not just a goof ball, floating from one thing to the next like a piece of trash.

[Rook]

Rook turned to Zarek, his eyes stern " No, I'm going to stay here, if you two want to work things out yourselves that's fine, but do it another time.

We've had enough drama for now, I think. And I've already screwed up enough, I think leaving you two on your own right now would be worse. Besides she just got us a bunch of food, have you lost all your man-hood"?


He smiled a little "Are you so cruel that you think I'd turn away a meal as soon as it's put out for me? I always have to make my own meals this late in the day".

And, with an act of pure mercy (and provincial laziness that spoke of a timeless bachelor), he twirled his fork into a bowl of Ramen and began to eat.

He stopped for a minute, his eyes lingering on his daughter's face

He could tell she felt ill, he had a good reason to suspect why, but nevertheless he offered "Do you want some carbonated water or painkiller or something hun"?

He felt awkward, Jamie knew where these things were, had she forgotten?

in his mind a stray thought spun up or is she just sick looking at her dad committing sodomy in front of her?

The sad thing, was, unlike his other thoughts, he did not feel ridiculous thinking that, as pushing it away.

[light]

The minute she heard Zarek, her ears perked up with the interest the rest of her body was too tired to convey, but when she understood what he wanted, they resumed their floppy, dejected stance. There was no way she could put up with that, no way, no way. Fortunately her father shimmied around that one with a good bit of diplomacy. Hopefully it was an excuse, because if she thought otherwise, there went another thing on her list. Make sure daddy has food. How much had he been eating? Jamie gave him a critical once over; obviously not enough. With a few inattentive blinks, Jamie added it to her agenda on her Keyxi. Rook needed her help in the kitchen if he thought that she was going to “…work things out yourselves…” it was an evident sign of food poisoning. The slightly aggravated teen then nearly spewed out her ramen noodles with a fit of laughter at the last part of his tirade. It really wasn’t a question you asked a gay man, was it? But, put it off as a fit of coughing and left it at that.

After it seemed things had calmed down a good deal, however, Jamie began to feel that lurching in her stomach yet again. Her heart was doing little flip-flops as she felt green in the face. She felt incredibly dizzy, and didn’t want to even think off standing up. Rook’s words came from a distance, but echoed with the sharp pain of a sword through her head. Jamie’s ears laid back and she barred her teeth with determination. She refused to look at either of them, knowing she was losing the battle. Why was she always the sickly weak one? With that last thought, the girl threw up, all over her father’s carpet. I never did like that carpet anyway, came her vicious rebuke. I purposefully did that, just to exact my revenge on that horrid color. Then with a few more just as ridiculous incoherent thoughts, she passed out. Not gracefully mind you, she was never one for that, and she was much too tired, but still managed to avoid falling forward onto the filthy carpet. Jamie’s unconscious body slumped to the side, having won the contest of wills…

[texas]

Zarek let the subject go but he would get his time to talk to Jamie. No matter how much she would want to avoid it.

I can't quite blame her though. Me and Rook did try to hide this from her in the first place.

Turning the idea of what he would say to Jamie over in his head and taking an approach he failed to notice anything was wrong until the girl regurgitated all of her lunch onto the floor, that was almost the same color as the liquid that had just escaped the girl's stomach. Getting up Zarek motioned for Rook to take his little girl.

"Go put her into your bed and stay there until she is looking a whole lot better." The tiger was finally starting to act like the uncle Jamie had grown up with. "I'll find some crackers so that her stomach will settle, then I'll clean up out here. Once she wakes up make her go stand under the shower."

Having helped raise his younger siblings Zarek's instinct just kicked in as soon as Jamie was sick. Sure he had been a pompous ass, but now he felt bad. Rook, without a doubt, knew what to do seeing as he had raised Jamie all on his own; however, for Zarek, it was hard not to boss another person around when it came to kids.

[Rook]

Fuck!

Rook was out of his seat before Zarek opened his mouth, he wasn't sure whether this was do to insight (he had been watching Jamie closely, but he couldn't decide at what point he had thought she was going to vomit) or just fast reflexes. Oh well, he'd roll with it.

At least the result had not ended up on his shirt, rather on the carpet. Not that he cared about the carpet, this might give him an excuse to get the bloody thing rolled up and taken away. How he hated that damn carpet.

His thoughts were like these words, very fast and rambling, letting his body do all the work as his mind raced. He did not think about gathering Jamie up in his arms, or looking sidelong at Zarek, grabbing the paper towels and stuffing them under his arm as he went, balancing even a glass of water into the equation.

Like Zarek, his muscles (rather than his mouth) were moving automatically while his brain worried and wet itself, and did nothing of real importance.

Something however, broke the chain, he had inadvertently taken her to his bed rather than her own.

This was strange, no matter how sick Jamie had been or what nightmare she had had, she was never allowed to sleep in his bed with him. He never forbade her, it had just been some unspoken rule.

not safe

A stray thought with no audible connections, or reasoning. Was that what had drived him all those years, when he and his daughter had slept on the couch together at a nightmare? When he had come over and slept in her room when she was sick? (Which had been often, he had always been so damn scared...so damn scared.)

As he lifted her onto his bed and set her down he tried not to notice that he was breaking out in gooseflesh, he couldn't tell exactly what memory had sparked it however.

He looked back across the hall, wondering how Zarek was faring, if he was worried (which he was, in some useless corner of his mind that Parental//Killer Rook had shanked and just shoved in a closet) the tiger would be inside out by now.

What he had said had not gone unnoticed even in this hyper drive, it had been strange coming from his mouth, it sounded to the analytical mind...like something someone said on impulse.

He looked down and stroked his messy, sick daughter's cheek.

He'd have to pry more information out of Zarek later. Whether the tiger wanted to share it with him or not.

"We're really more alike than I usually realize" he muttered to his unconcious cub. He took a paper towel and began to wipe the traces of vomit off her mouth, sitting on the side of his bed as he did so and hoping that nothing with teeth would show up.