Father First| An Alan Rickman Story

Secrets

     Alan kept the stack of papers clutched in his hands. He wasn't going to let anyone take them from him. They'd be going straight back to their rightful owner.

     "My daughter has told me a little bit about what happened. I know you don't know her well, but she's incredibly honest.  I know she is telling the truth about what her mother has told her. I just don't know if what she's been told is the truth... She believes that her mother was being abused by her husband and was helpless when it came to stopping him. I'm here to ask that you look into this. It wouldn't be fair or right for the victim to pay for the crimes of the abuser." He was gauging the response of Officer Bailey who didn't seem even slightly surprised by what was being said.

     "Please just see if you can find the truth here and provide the proper justice only to those who deserve it."

     "For privacy reasons, I can't tell you everything that's happened with this investigation. I will tell you that this has already been brought to my attention and it's being worked through as we speak." His expression was stoic until he noticed Alan clinging to the papers from his desk. His sternness softened.

     "I brought that to give to you. It's a story written by your daughter, it's very good! I was sure she'd like to have it back."

     He didn't need an explanation, he knew what it was the moment he saw it. She'd been working on this for months. She carried it everywhere she went. Although, he hadn't seen her with it in three or so weeks. He'd never seen her put so much time into a project. She obviously cared immensely about this story, but she was self conscious about her skills as a writer. The paper she wrote the prior year and won an award with at school was the first thing she'd ever shared. This new story was bigger and more important to her. She trusted Alan more than anyone, but she hadn't even let him read it yet. She wasn't ready to share it, but somehow it had ended up here and at least one person had read it.

     "How did you get this?! Did this come from my home?" He was growing angry and protective of his daughter's work.

     "This was given to us by Makenzie. She took it from Adam, her husband. She requested that we get it back to you."

     Alan was truly baffled, his eyebrow arched, "how the hell did he get it?!"

     "From what I understand, she submitted this to the English department at her school for review. She wanted to get feedback from the teachers. Adam isn't her English teacher, but he is one of the English teacher's at her school. He was the most recent one to review her story." He said this rather nonchalantly, but Alan was about to come out of his chair with shock and anger.

     "He works at her school?! Has he been around her before this?!" He was so furious he felt like he could spit fire. None of this made sense at all.

     "I don't think so, we haven't gotten the full story yet though."

     "I need to speak to Makenzie. How did all of this happen at the same time that she magically showed back up for our child after 15 years? I can't make any sense out of any of it. I want an explanation for all of this."

     "She has not been released from custody. We have more investigating to do. Unfortunately, you can't see her right now."

     "Fine. Please just figure this shit out and be sure there is not any threat to my child." He jumped out of his chair and walked out, slamming the door. He was angry, and drowning in his own thoughts.

     He sat down in his car and examined the damage to the pages of Ashleigh's story.  A lot of the pages were ripped into several pieces. He knew how important this was to her and how hard she'd worked. He had to fix it for her.

     He drove over to a small market beside the hospital and ran inside. The man at the counter pointed him to the aisle where he could find a roll of tape. He bought the tape and a folder he found on the same aisle and took them back to his car. He carefully laid each page out in the passenger seat beside him and taped them back together one by one and then placed the story neatly in the folder. His curiosity had been burning for months, wondering about what she was writing. Still, he didn't read it. He'd wait until she was ready to share it with him.

     When he arrived at the hospital, Emily was waiting for him in the parking lot. His demeanor calmed at the sight of her.

     "You look very stressed, Al. Is everything ok?" She handed him the bag of food she had ordered for them.

     "I'll have to tell you later about the meeting I just had." He took her hand and led her to his daughter's hospital room. He could feel her hand getting sweaty and see the nervousness building on her face.

     "Don't be nervous. She'll like you, I know she will. She's giddy to meet you!" He kissed her softly and brought her into the room.

     Ashleigh sat up in her bed, grinning proudly and reached out to shake Emily's hand. "It's so nice to finally meet you!"

     "I'm so happy to meet you as well! Your father talks about you all the time!" She took a seat beside the bed with Alan sitting beside her.

     Ashleigh's gaze fell to the folder in Alan's hand. "What'd you bring Dad?"

     He handed her the folder, not saying anything, just hugging her. She opened it and her eyes filled with tears. "You got it back? Thank you!" Trying to avoid the tears building in her eyes, she changed the subject. "Emily do you like to play rummy? My nurse brought some cards so we can play while we eat."

     "I love rummy! We can gang up on your father," she winked.

     Ashleigh began dealing the cards as Alan took the food from the bag setting it out for the two women in his life. The stress had temporarily lifted from him. He'd get the answers to his questions soon. For now, this felt right. This felt like family.