Elizabeth I:The Captian's Daughter

Mr.Barton and a surpise

    I wake up under the comforter, I can hear Dad taking a shower in the other room. It takes me a couple moments to get oriented and remember where I am. I sit up and comb my hand through my hair, it doesn't get far before it hits a snarl, so i decide to comb it out best i can, this time bottom to top. A few minutes later my dad comes out and tosses me a cheap plastic comb. I use it gently as to not break it.

    "Clints on his way to pick us up."

    "Mr.Barton?" I raise my eyebrow. "Wasn't he in Iowa?''

    "He just flew in last night before I called"

    "Where are we anyway?"

    "Near the Pennsylvania border, a few hours from the City." I nod in response. "I'm going to head down and get breakfast, what do you want?''
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A few hours later we're watching the TV again, the weather, the news talking about an event the local school hosted, a few overexaggerated sitcoms and dramas, eventually we hear a knock on the door, Dad goes to answer it.

    "So, how's your vacation going? You know, Lila was worried about you" Clint says casually, my wheelchair beside him as he looked past my dad at me. I narrow my eyes at him. "I got a got a fresh change for the two of ya." He tossed me a rolled up change of clothes and handed my dad one.

    "Thanks" I say, as he starts to try to get my chair through the somewhat narrow door without scruffing either side. Once the chair isbeside me, I climb in.

    "You can change in the bathroom." I nod as I go in, and shut the door behind me, glad that, while we didn't get an accessible room, there was still a fair amount of space in the bathroom. As I change into my fresh clothes I hear him and Mr.Barton talking about something, but the discussion is too muffled to understand.

    "How do you think they found out?" I heard Mr.Barton ask as I opened the door, Dad was next to the door, and Mr.Barton sitting on the kitchenette's counter.

    "I don't know," My dad responds, glancing at me. "I think it may have been plain luck, they somehow followed me home, attacked while I was gone and," He stops mid sentence as if to keep me from knowing what I already knew. Barton grimences, and then glances at me.

    "You ready to go?" I nod, and we head out.

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The drive is long, and somewhat tedious, but I enjoy having a change of scenery, most of the ride consists of either forests or rolling farms. Mr.Barton and Dad are talking quite a bit, but most of it didn't interest me, although my ears do perk up some when the conversations shifted over to his family. While I did see them some during the summer, as Dad liked getting me out of the city once in a while, it's been a few very long months.

After a few hours we stop at a buffet for a late lunch, or is it an early dinner, one of the two. We walked in and a waitress sat us at a table. After taking our orders for drinks Mr.Barton whispered something to the waitress before she left. After a quick prayer, we filled our plates, very full. We ate, talking some, but mostly eating.

A few plates later I spot a group of waiters and waitresses approaching us, the one in front carrying a slice of cake, they didn't, they stopped next to me, they did. The waitress placed the slice in front of me while they sang 'Happy Birthday' while I feel the blood rushing to my face. Half way through the song my face is buried in my hands, but despite that I'm laughing.

"Thank you," I say after the group leaves, smiling, this isn't the first time my Dad had missed my birthday, and while it always hurt a little, he always tried to make it up for me.

"Happy 13th""My dad says with a warm smile on his face.

"Plus" Mr.Barton slouched. "I left a gift from Laura on your table." Despite being good friends with Laura, we didn't always manage to get each other gifts in time, and as School has been tough for me recently we haven't been talking as much.

Soon we finish our desert and leave to finish the final stretch.