Hindsight

Burn

Hank Voight stood in his kitchen as he looked in his refrigerator, thinking of something to make for dinner. He was in the crossroads of ordering in or whipping a quick meal for Erin and him.

He could make spaghetti, Camille's recipe. It was Erin's favourite. She can't ever get enough of Camille's spaghetti. He remembered the first three months when Erin had moved in with them, it was the only food she wanted to eat. While everyone else got sick and tired of it by the first week, Erin refused to eat anything else.

The most important thing in his life was his family and when he had them, he took them for granted. They were now gone - his wife and son - and missed them so so much. It was too soon. They didn't deserve to die. If anything, it was him who deserved to be taken away.

Taking all his loved ones away from him was probably God's sick way of teaching him a lesson, a payback of all the wrongs he had done in his life. And when he almost lost Erin, he sure as hell almost lost his mind. Erin's who he had left. His only family.

He shut the door to the refrigerator just as Erin came through the doorway, yawning and scratching her eyes.

Shaking his head, he smiled. It was like time hadn't flown twenty years into the future. She looked nothing past fifteen, to him at least.

"Hey, kid." he greeted as she went to grab a mug off the shelf.

"Hey."

She's the same grumpy fifteen year old.

Sighing, he watched as she slumped onto one of the chairs in the kitchen table, taking a sip of the orange juice she had just poured for herself.

"Head still hurts?" he asked with concern when she frowned and began massaging her temples.

She nodded.

"You should get that checked. It could be high blood pressure."

"It's probably just stress. Nothing to worry about."

"Yea, probably." he reiterated.

He was worried about her. Actually he have been worried about her since he rescued her from the streets seventeen years ago. From every boy she talked about to every time she step foot out of the house, he worries about her. He knows he shouldn't but he can't help it; it's the father in him that wants to protect her till the end of time.

Truth be told, it was putting a strain on his health. The constant worry of not knowing whether today's the day she'll break and do something to hurt herself was tiring. That will soon change as next week, she's going to be back at the station and in that way, he can keep an eye on her. Excessive and constant worrying have been giving him chest pains lately. Stress; he shrugged it off, just like she had. It was nothing to worry about and besides, he wants to spend some time with his daughter, stress free.

"I have Tylenol. It's safe."

She shook her head. "It's alright. I can handle it."

After the stunt she had pulled, the drugs and the drinking in the first four months of her pregnancy, she doesn't want to take any more risks. She opt to be drug free for the remainder. It's for the best and in fact, she've gone through worse pain before.

She watched as Voight took a seat in front of her. Resting his elbows on the arm rest, he ran a hand over his chin as he looked at her.

"What? You're staring."

"I'm so proud of you, kid." he nodded, "Have I told you that?"

"About a billion times." she laughed. He have always told her how proud he is of her, he never failed to let her know that. But she just doesn't believe that herself.