Familial Ties(Hollie)

[Michael Clarke]

He had never been comfortable with shore leave. It felt too ambiguous, too free form for his own taste. There was no discipline during shore leave, no structure, just the normal confines of life. Those feelings did dissipate when he came back home however. The crisp air of Green Bay did wonders for him. Michael stepped out of the shuttle that had taken Hollie and himself to the home that his parents now inhabited. It was nestled in a farm community, about half a mile away from the nearest neighbor. It was a wonder these communities still existed with all of the modernity that had swept across the galaxy, but agriculture was still a vital part of Earth's economy. Therefore his parents would still engage in it to the end. He helped Hollie out of the shuttle, the snow crunching underneath her feet as she emerged(there was about four inches on the ground. A bit on the light side for this time of year). Michael couldn't help but feel apprehensive about this: taking Hollie back to Wisconsin wasn't something he had wanted to do, seeing as his parents would have a LOT of questions to ask, but he knew it was the right thing to do. They needed to see their granddaughter. And Michael needed to set some things straight with his daughter. So it was a win-win situation in the long run.
"Hold onto me now. Could be ice underneath the snow. I don't need you bustin your head open before your grandparents see you." Almost on queue, his mother emerged from the quaint two story home, her slight frame trembling with excitement.
As he guided Hollie up the steps leading to the porch where his mother stood, his mother's expression turned from one of joy to one of puzzlement. After all, Michael hadn't told his mother that he was coming, let alone bringing someone with him.
"Honey, who might this be?" Janine asked
"This is Hollie, Momma."
"Who's Hollie?"
"That's what I need to explain."

[Hollie Clarke]

Yeah. Nervous didn't even begin to describe how Hollie felt right now. Ever since those words 'I'm your father' had left the Captain's lips, her life had reverted back to that emotional rollercoaster she thought she'd hopped off a good few years ago now. All her feelings about this discovery conflicted entirely. Part of her was just all out angry with him for not being there all that time. But mostly, the poor, hurt child inside of her just wanted to cling onto him for dear life. She finally had a Dad, an actual blood relative.
Make that blood relatives. Here she was, in Green Bay, meeting her Grandparents for the first time, and they had no idea she even existed. This was going to be... awkward.
Especially if she slipped on the snow and fell on her ass. That'd be just wonderful.
Gripping tightly onto the Cap... her Dad's... (man, it felt weird thinking it, let alone trying to say it out loud) arm, for both physical and emotional support, she remained silent as the first sounds of her Grandmother's voice hit her ears.
She would not cry. Don't you dare cry.
Hollie could smell the woman's perfume from the bottom of the porch, it only grew stronger as they grew closer. She wished she could see her, instead, she was probably staring into the space above over her shoulder, as per usual. It sucked.

[Michael Clarke]

Michael escorted Hollie into the home, the warmth of the cozy dwelling place filling Michael from head to toe. It had been too long since he had come back. The place hadn't changed much: the couch was still at an awkward angle, the holo's of cowboys long gone still decorating the hallways. Yeah, this was home. He took Hollie to the couch and gently helped her sit, Janine saying:
"Let me go get some cocoa started." As his mother went to the kitchen, his father, Ernest, walked through the front door, his large figure brushing the edge of the doorframe. He smiled warmly at the sight of his son, saying:
"Well if it isn't good ol Michael Clarke." Michael rose and shook his father's hand vigorously, saying:
"Good to see you, Pop."
"I'd say likewise, boy. Likewise." His father clapped a large hand on his son's shoulder, asking:
"What brings you on by? Aren't you supposed to be up with the Alliance?"
"We're on shore leave."
"Shore leave. Waste of time if you ask me."
"I feel the same way. But it does give me some time to do things. Like come back."
"And who might this young lady be?" His father walked over to Hollie, expecting the girl to rise.
"That's Hollie, Pop."
"Hollie? Well good to meet you Hollie. Keepin my boy out of trouble are you?" Janine walked back into the room with a tray, setting it down on the coffee table that separated the couch from another one directly across from the one that Hollie occupied.
"I need to talk to both of you."
"Alright then." Ernest and Janine sat down, Janine reaching forward to take a mug.
"What do you have to tell us old folks?" Ernest asked with a smile.
"Well...you remember Carla, don't you?"
"Carla...Honey, who was Carla?"
"That was Michael's high school sweetheart dear." Janine remembered things like that.
"Oh, right, Carla."
"Yeah, Carla. Well...I might as well cut to the chase. Carla and I had a child out of wedlock." Janine's hands began to shake and Ernest's expression turned from one of happiness to one of confusion.
"She had the child and I...I ran away. Ran away from her and the baby."
"Is that why you left for the Alliance, boy?" Ernest asked with a bit of an edge.
"You know why I wanted to join. This gave me more incentive."
"Why did yo.."
"Let me finish, Momma. You do have a grandchild. And her name is Hollie."
Janine dropped the mug she was holding.

Silence.

[Hollie Clarke]

Hollie folded her hands into her lap as she sat down, but then almost immediately reached up to push some stray hairs from her face, pushing them behind her ears. She scratched her nose, before letting her hands drop back down against her legs, looking upwards awkwardly even though she couldn't see a damn thing.
Another man's voice came into focus, and Hollie realised that was her Grandfather.
Honestly, what was she supposed to say or do until ... she couldn't decide what to call him. Until Michael said something.
With a nervous chuckle, she said, "as much as I can," when Ernest asked if she was keeping Michael out of trouble. There wasn't much she could do, but just being alive had to have some effect on his decisions, right?
And then it came out.
The sound of porcelain shattering made Hollie jump, and she dug her nails into her thighs, sucking in her bottom lip through the pain.
The silence that ensued was almost unbearable. What was she supposed to do? Why had he put her in this situation? Of course, she'd agreed, but she should have known better. She should have realised there was a chance that they wouldn't accept her, then what was she going to do?
"Umm, hi," Hollie said quietly to the both of them.
She could smell the hot chocolate on the table, and would have reached out and grabbed one, just to do something, if she thought she wouldn't just knock the whole table over.
"I'm sorry," she said suddenly, "maybe this wasn't a good idea." She rose from her seat and tried to move, but only ended up bashing her leg into the edge of the sofa. Damn her for forgetting her laser pen.

[Michael Clarke]

"Sit down, child." Ernest told her firmly. There was no malice or threat in his voice, but there was a sternness that permeated through the saying, as if she would not leave until he dismissed her. Michael had heard that tone quite a bit through his childhood.
"Michael, when did you discover this?" Ernest asked, Janine staying silent . It was obvious this discovery had rocked the couple to their core, but Ernest was being the mouthpiece for both of their feelings.
"It was a few months ago, when Hollie was put on my crew. It didn't take very much to figure out that our DNA was almost a perfect match."
"You didn't know about this sooner?"
"If I had, I would have gone after her sooner and we wouldn't be having this conversation." Ernest grunted, signaling his approval of Mike's answer. The captain was quite surprised: his parents were not reacting as violently as he thought they would. Rather, their silence was doing the communicating. Janine worked up the courage to speak:
"Michael, if this is Hollie...where's Carla?"
"I...I don't know. Hollie can answer that one better than I can. I left Earth and never stayed in touch with the woman. I was a scared kid. I made a mistake."
"And now you're trying to make it right? After all this time?" Ernest asked.
"I know this is terrible. I've had to live with the thought of abandoning my own daughter to the galaxy's whims for too long. I don't aim to hide behind guilt or emotion. I've told Hollie just as much. But there is one thing I want: I want healing. I want this family to become stable. And if it means I rip open a wound I thought was closed, then I gotta do it...right?"
"You gotta die before you gotta live." Ernest always said that. And how true it was.

[Hollie Clarke]

Hollie did as she was told. Something about the way Ernest said those three words made her automatically follow the order, regardless of whether she wanted to or not.
When Janine asked about Hollie's mother, Carla, whose name she had only learnt before when Michael first uttered her name, Hollie opened her mouth then closed it again. To be honest, she didn't know a lot about her mother, but what led on from that fact, she wasn't sure they wanted to hear it. Whether her Dad wanted to know.
"I, uh, Carla, my Mom, I don't know where she is either," Hollie piped up, wanting to be honest. She was always honest, she should be this time too. "She left me at the hospital after I was born, I never knew her. I was adopted by the Sampsons, a nurse and a teacher, but they were killed in a burglary when I was ten. I bopped around foster care homes after that till I was old enough for college. I got in on a scholarship and never looked back."
Pursing her lips and tilting her head down, she said, "I'm sorry we had to meet like this," why she was apologising, she wasn't quite sure, "but having a family for Christmas... well, it would... be... magical."

[Michael Clarke]

Michael smiled at her last comment, his parents also showing small smiles on their faces. Ernest was the first one to talk(again):
"Well young lady, I think we can arrange that. Have a lot of catchin up to do, now don't we?" Janine added:
"You know Michael, your brother is going to want to know this."
"I'm well aware of that. Is he in town?"
"He will be in two days."
"With all the kids?"
"Sure will." Michael looked over at Hollie and filled her in:
"My brother is a few years older than I am and has seven children. He's a good man." Ernest then asked:
"Hollie, honey, your eyes. You can't see, can you?" Michael knew that was going to be another topic that would have to be addressed. It wasn't like they wouldn't have found out eventually. The captain would allow Hollie to respond to the question, but in the meantime, he needed to clean up that glass before someone got their foot impaled. He walked over into the kitchen to retrieve a vacuuming unit when he felt his comm vibrate in his pocket. Raising an eyebrow, he took the small device out into the open and looked at the ID.

Unknown.

Michael allowed it to vibrate, mentally reminding himself to check the unit once there was a spare moment.

[Hollie Clarke]

Seven children? Wow. Her family was expanding rapidly by the minute, it was crazy.
"No, I can't," Hollie answered Ernest, looking in the direction of her voice, "I was blind when I was born. I never really looked into getting it fixed because I never had the money, but I'm looking into it now, with some help. We have a neurologist on board, we're hoping she can point me in the right direction, and maybe I'll be able to see, soon." After being part of a family, it was what she wanted most. Despite how forthright and strong she seemed, she was still afraid of some aspects of both her dreams, both had to do with; what if she got what she wanted only to have it ripped away from her again? She'd lost so much, she couldn't stand to lose anything else.
Reaching forward cautiously, she managed to get a hold on one of the mugs and picked it up, bringing the lukewarm hot chocolate to her lips. It tasted good.
"What do you guys do?" Holle asked, "Michael didn't really tell me anything. In fact, the shuttle ride was spent in a wonderfully awkward silence."
Aha, her personality was finding it's way back to her.

[Michael Clarke]

As Michael cleaned the mess on the ground up, Janine spoke:
"Well dear, I WAS an up and coming computer specialist over in New England before your..your grandfather came and took me away. Children become a full time job you know." Janine had to hesitate before she said grandfather, as if she was still attempting to accept the full reality of the situation. After she swallowed that hesitation, the word flowed off of her tongue naturally, as if she had been saying it for years.
"Well honey, it's not like you went off cussin and screamin." Janine laughed at her husband's remark, continuing:
"New England was quite the place, you know. A bit gritty, but a nice place nonetheless." Ernest then spoke:
"And because my wife forgot to answer the other half of the question, I was a spacecraft mechanic for most of my life. Never got to fly one, but boy I know how to fix one! Ain't never met a ship I couldn't fix."

Michael threw the glass away, walking to the edge of the kitchen before he stopped, able to see the three talking, faces moving in a lively manner. It was as if all of the years that they had missed were being made up in such a short span. Michael could only smile.

[Hollie Clarke]

Hollie chuckled a little, she was growing to like her grandparents already. "I'm a computer specialist," she said, surprised but happy that she had something in common with her grandmother, "on board the Venia. A pretty good one too. Not sure how the ship would run without me."
She had so many questions, it was hard to settle on just one, or remember them all.
"So, I have cousins as well, seven of them?" she said, "I bet they're a handful."
She could hear... her Dad (it was getting easier) milling around clearing up the broken cup. "Come sit down," she said, not exactly sure where he was, she just patted the seat on the sofa next to her with her free hand. She wanted him there, him close. If they were going to make this work, then she was going to have to get comfortable with him again, with the idea that he was her actual father, not just the man who was like a father to her. "Please."

[Michael Clarke]

"A handful? Those seven could practically run Earth from the way they talk! Using high-falutin words and talkin about politics like they run the show. And they're all under twenty! You believe that?" Janine jumped in as she added an almost apologetic statement, almost as if she were defending her seven grandchildren's honor:
"They all are in love with politics. They compete at school in debate, win honors all the time, high achieving kids. Sure they get a little fussy and sometimes we have to remind them where they stand in the family, but at heart they're good kids." Michael had taken a seat next to Hollie during Janine's talk, the Captain placing his right arm behind Hollie so that it rested right on the edge of the couch. It was a habitual position he frequented.
"You know Hollie, computer systems haven't changed much since I was in the academy. In fact, their programming has gotten much simpler. I can show you a few things if you like. I've kept my old stuff around here somewhere. Relics of the past, you know."
"It's true. Mom actually created a monitor that sensed if I was going through the refrigerator too late at night. The monitor would then tell me how much of a pig I was. It never worked though, did it Momma?"
"You never had to worry about getting fat though, Michael. Your brother on the other hand was quite chubby."
"He was a fat boy, Janine. Don't cover up for him."
"Oh Ernest, don't be so crude! He was large."
"Fat boy, honey. Large and in charge."

[Hollie Clarke]

The more time she spent with her grandparents, the more she liked them. They were lovely people, and once they'd got over the initial shock, were entirely gracious. They accepted her like she'd been a part of the family this whole time. She loved it, and truly appreciated it.
Janine had led Hollie upstairs after more chatter, intent on showing her the old systems that she'd constructed back in the day. Once Hollie was fairly familiar with it, Janine left her in peace to play for a bit; she was enjoying exploring the woman's work, admiring the construction of it all, the architecture.
"Amazing," she muttered to herself, an earphone hanging out of one ear as her hand held read lines of code back to her.
The floorboards outside the room creaked, and Hollie waved whoever was standing in the doorway into the room - she held out a hand, assuming it was her Dad.
That was more natural.
"We're both still alive, the house is in tact," she said, "I'd say that went well."

[Michael Clarke]

"I'd say it did too, sweetheart." He took her hand and squeezed it gently, looking over at what Hollie was scanning. Michael couldn't help but chuckle, saying:
"Mom could write programs, but she always said one day, someone in the family would get better than her. She always makes predictions like that; we used to call her Nostramom behind her back." He felt his comm vibrate once more, the Captain withdrawing the unit to find a message from Katherine stating that she and Hugo were being inserted into the Third. He silently wished them luck on their mission, knowing that the two of them would be in for quite the ride. His attention then turned to Hollie; more specifically, Hollie's handheld. Michael was still disappointed that she still had to use that thing and not use the eyes she was given. The girl deserved to see the colors and shapes that made life so beautiful.
"Hollie, your eyes...have you ever looked for a cure? They have so many alternatives. I even know of a guy who had his eyes replaced." He didn't want to upset her, but seeing as she was his daughter, he wanted to see if she had done anything and, if need be, DO something about her vision.

[Hollie Clarke]

Hollie let out a snort at the 'Nostramom' comment, bringing her hand up to her nose in an attempt to cover what she'd just done.
"Well, if Nostramom said that someone -me- has awesome computer skills, even better than her, then it must be true." It was nice to know either way that her interest in computers ran in the family, that she had a family to inherit things from; it was wonderful.
She took a breath when he asked about her sight - she'd mentioned some stuff briefly when his parents had asked before.
Pulling the earphone out, she bit her lip. "There are all sorts of things they can try, replacing the eyes was one, but I'd prefer not to have to do that if possible. Darcy looked into it for me. They've done things with computer chips and glasses in the past, but it seems a little artificial. Then they've been experimenting with stem cells, replacing the damaged tissue. That seemed like the most viable option. A little risky, but I'd keep my own eyes, and, well... I'd be able to see. Which would..." she sighed, "it would be a dream come true."
"I just haven't got round to arranging anything," she said, "because, if I'm honest, as much as I want it..." she hesitated, and murmured, "I'm scared."

[Michael Clarke]

Michael cocked an eyebrow up in surprise; scared? Scared of what? He assumed that sight, if granted, would be the most precious gift in the world to her, something that she would give anything for. And yet she was frightened by sight? Didn't make any sense.
"Scared?" He spotted a chair nearby which he relocated to within about a foot across from where Hollie was sitting, the Captain sliding into a seated position as he asked:
"What's holding you back, honey? Shouldn't you be excited at the concept of being able to see?"

Place was a dump. It really was. Gordon grunted as he looked around the small bar that the Captain had said he would meet him at(Gordon was thirty minutes early thanks to a shuttle that seemed to be going at hyperspeed the whole way). It was grimy and it smelled. Almost reminded him of the compound he used to be incarcerated in. The young man took a gulp from the beer he had ordered, now becoming impatient(he had been waiting for a grand total of two minutes). He wanted to DO something! Knock some heads together, drinking contest, whatever. But he knew he was going to get a slice of action soon...he just needed the Captain to tell him what the job was.

It sounded dirty.
Just the way Gordon liked it.

(CAMEO! *DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUN*)