Back to where I don't belong(Etta/Harper)

[Micheal Andy Edelstein]

Harper was out and Etta was home alone. Tom was busy so she couldn't really go to town and she really didn't want to. She just wanted to sleep. She'd taken a small nap and woken up when someone knocked at the door.

"I'm coming!" she called. She looked through the peep hole. There was no way it was him... "Daddy?"

"Hey Et. Is Harper here?" Michael asked.

"No, she's out. She'll be back soon.." Etta said opening the door the rest of the way and letting her dad in. "What are you doing here? I thought you were busy in Ireland."

"I decided I needed to come seee my girls." he shrugged.

[Harper Adeliza Liven]

Harper had been out running errands. She'd offered to take Etta along, but her sister had wanted to stay back at the apartment. Etta'd said something about wanting to take a nap, and Harper had left it at that.

She dropped by the boxes to pick up their mail on her way up to the little apartment that they'd been staying in, balancing the bags of grocerries that she'd be getting Etta's help with putting away when she got back. She was busy leafing through the mail when she stepped into the apartment and didn't initially notice Michael.

"Hey, Et, I need help putting these away," she called, looking up as she spoke and freezing when she saw her father. "Mikael. What are you doing here?"

[Micheal Andy Edelstein]

Etta smiled weakly at her sister when she walked in.

"I got them, you two don't start yelling till I'm gone.." she said taking the bags and running to the bathroom. She didn't like them yelling at each other. Sadly, it happened every single time they saw their dad. Harper and him always yelled.

"I can't come see my girls?" Michael asked sincerly. He still had that look of depression about him.

[Harper Adeliza Liven]

"Etta! There's milk in one of those bags!" Harper called after her sister.

She sighed and returned her focus to her father. She hated when he came around; Harper and Michael never managed to have a civil conversation! She didn't like yelling at her father all the time, but it seemed like they could never just sit down and talk. It would start with Michael asking about her work for the Resistance (the DA in this time) and escalate from there until Harper inevitably kicked him out. That's how it always worked.

"I don't know. Are you ready to actually be a father?" she demanded.

[Micheal Andy Edelstein]

"Might as well go get more!" Etta called shutting the bathroom door with her foot. Sometimes she'd just camp out in there all night and eat whatever food she'd kept stored in there. "Oh! I forgot a pillow and a blanket! Just don't yell yet!" She ran to her bed and grabbed her fluffy pink pillow, fuzzy purple blanket and her stuffed lynx. Had to be prepared for anything!

Michael chuckled. That was his daugher. Looked like her mother, acted like Lexi, although she didn't refer to herself in the third person. He looked at Harper sadly, had she really asked if he was ready? He'd always been ready he'd just been depressed for two years. It's not easy to come out a deep dark depression.

"I guess you could say that, but I have always been your dad, Harper. I just don't want to lose any one else." he said.

[Harper Adeliza Liven]

"Make sure to throw out the carton when you're done with it!" Harper called after her sister. "Don't leave it in the bathtub!"

Etta had done that once or twice before. Harper wasn't sure if it was because she thought the bathtub was a trashcan or because her sister was being a smartass about it. She was leaning towards the second one, though; she wouldn't put that past Etta. It wouldn't be the first time her little sister had ever done that.

She crossed her arms and scowled at him. As she recalled, he had disowned her several years ago. Where had that gone?

"As I recall, you only have one daughter," she retorted. "You disowned me, remember?"

[Micheal Andy Edelstein]

"What ever you say, mom." Etta called from the bathroom. She shook her head, Harper could be a real pain in the arse sometimes. She loved her sister though, no matter how much she hated her sister telling her what to do all the time. "That's my bed! Although it screws up my neck.." She rubbed her neck and set her pillow blanket and lynx in the tub and started eating. She'd kind of tricked out the bathroom since she was in there so much. She had cool lighting, curtians, a fridge. She was working on getting a TV in there but there would be no cable...

Michael sighed. He hadn't actually disowned her, he'd just told her to get out and write when she found work and to send money. He didn't even remember why they'd had that fight in the first place. Oh yeah he did, it was because she refused to listen to him.

"If you had just listened and done what I asked it wouldn't have happened." he sighed.

[Harper Adeliza Liven]

"Leaving milk cartons in the bathtub is gross!" Harper insisted.

She was a little creeped out by how much work Etta was doing to fix up the bathroom, actually; she'd be having a discussion with her sister later about what was and was not a suitable room for sleeping in...after she got rid of their father, who was already starting to argue with her. Why couldn't he see that they weren't the only ones who had needed someone to fill her mother's shoes?

"The rebels needed Mom, too. You weren't going to fill her shoes, and Etta couldn't, so I did," she replied.

[Micheal Andy Edelstein]

"Not my fault you won't let me install a fridge!" Etta called back. A fridge would be really nice.

Michael sighed, another start to another fight. Why couldn't they just talk for once? Normal familes did, his sister's family actually had family sessions where they just sat down and talked about what was going on in their life. One way he found out his neice was going to have a baby here soon. Go figure.

"Harper, sweet heart, why can't we just be like a normal family and just talk for once? We always fight." he sighed.

[Harper Adeliza Liven]

"That's even more gross!" Harper retorted.

She eyed her father warily when he asked her if they could talk. She didn't like where that was going, but...he was her dad. It wouldn't...hurt to give it a chance, would it? Maybe he was turning over a new leaf...maybe they'd go back to being a family and living together. She could still kick him out if they starting fighting again...

"That depends...what would we be talking about?" she asked.