Elizabeth I:The Captian's Daughter

A long night

I woke up in the middle of the night, my new Bible is on my desk, with the kit propped against the wall, in the background I hear Dad beating on a punching bag downstairs, something he often does after a bad day. After a long time of tossing and turning, I decided to go down to investigate, so I went into the closet, and then down the elevator into the basement.

    I stay still watching through the barrier for quite a while, it's not until the bag finally gives out that he notices my presence.

    "Shouldn't you be in bed?" He asks me as he walks across the room to grab a new one.

    "I could ask you the same thing." He stares at me a moment. "I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep." He nods, and after hanging the fresh bag up, grabs a towel and walks over to me.

    "Did you have another nightmare?"

    "No, I don't think so." He nods.

    "Let's go up and get some tea." I nod, the brief and quiet conversation is a bit unnerving, however we are both tired.

    When we get back to the kitchen he puts the water on and we mainly sit quietly, until I break the silence.

    "Are you okay?" I ask, he jumps up a little as if surprised by the questions.

    "I'm alright."

    "You're just not usually using the punching bags so late, or for so long."

    "I couldn't sleep either." The water starts going off, so he gets up, rubs his eyes, and pours the tea.

    "What's next?"

    "What do you mean?"

    "Well, Hydra knows I exist, where I live, and I don't think they'll just leave me alone." Dad sits quietly for a bit, and sips his tea.

    "We don't need to figure that out now, let's wait until we can process everything before we figure out what we'll do." I look down my mug and the deepening tea, and nod. After I finish my tea, Dad sends me back to bed with a kiss on my forehead.

_______________________

I wake up in the morning feeling much more rested, I get changed, but am met with a surprise when I open my door. I find the door to the nursery open, the pale blue abandon room's door was open, despite us rarely going in there, I'm not sure anyone has even stepped foot in there this year, I gingerly look into the room.

    It's a small room, a bit smaller than my room, furnished with a crib, dresser, and a walking chair, with a few decorations, like a few stuffed animals, and 'JAMES' hanging over the crib. Aside from the thick layer of dust, the room seems ready for a baby at any day. We had always talked about converting it into a guest room, bet we never did as Dad couldn't force himself to say goodbye to everything.

    Dad is sitting quietly in the rocking chair, holding a picture of us, I know the picture too, as it's always been on the dresser. It's a picture of me at 4, and both Mom and Dad, it was the last, if not only, vacation we took as a family, before my mother died. Dad never really told me how it happened.

    "Dad?" I say hesitantly, he looks up at me, "What are you doing?"

    "Just," He pauses, and goes to put the picture back. "Thinking." Then it hits me, Hydra, my mom's never explained death, dad suddenly in the room he rarely even looks in, a chill runs down my back.

    "Did-did Hydra-"

The End

See you in book two, A Death in the Family.