| Soon as mention of Andie McPhee was out, Mera knew she had lost. Watching Pacey�s expression grow somber, his already puppy-dog eyes droop further, she knew she�d spoken at the wrong time. �All I meant was�� she tried to reverse the damage. �Mera,� Pacey began, quietly. �I understand sometimes you may feel that your life isn�t fair. And that�s because sometimes it just isn�t. When your mother � when you came to live with me, I had given your mother my word that I�d look after you. I know I�m not your real father, I know that sometimes I�m not even a good father. But I try. I loved Andie. She meant everything to me, and as such so do you now. You may not understand this now, or want to believe it � but I am doing the best for you.� Mera was far from convinced, but she decided to let go � at least temporarily. She could � and would � always try again later when Pacey had had time to settle down. Maybe then� �Fine,� she said, turning on her heel to leave. Something made her turn around for one last look. �But Pacey � you were wrong. You are my father. You�re the only father I�ve got � you�re all I�ve got. Thank you.� As Pacey watched her leave, his heart clenched. Mera had always been a daughter to him. From the day he had brought her home � fourteen years ago � she had been his. With her beautiful honey-blonde hair and blue eyes � she was a spitting image of her mother. Andie. God, how he missed her. She had been his first real teenage love. The two had met one summer, when Andie had moved to Capeside with her brother Jack, and their emotionally unstable mother. She had been sixteen, him almost there. A relationship that had begun as sparring had turned into much more. And he still remembered � and cherished every memory he held of Andie. Their first kiss at the waterfront the night of the high school dance she�d forced them to attend. Her helping him to pass tests and eventually graduate from high school. But they had rough times too. Andie had fallen victim to the same mental illness that had consumed her mother. Her father, wanting the best, had taken her to an institute for the summer � and she had returned changed. Her moment of betrayal had changed everything. Their relationship had never been the same again. They�d graduated together � but apart. Andie�s mother did soon after, and she had disappeared. It wasn�t until 5 years later, when they were 23 that he located her. He�d been on a �fun� trip to Providence with his then girlfriend Lecey and her friends when he had run into Andie. She had been there all along. She met and married Ralston Mackey � a high roller�s sheriff�s deputy, and all around moron. He had soon realized that Andie was not happy. Ralston was physically abusing her � and their 2 year old daughter Mera. Andie�s sad tale ended dramatically. One morning Pacey had shown up to take her and Mera away � and had confronted Ralston himself. There was a struggle, and Andie was shot in the crossfire. She had come to Pacey before her death � an out of body experience, he had supposed � and told him to take care of Mera. After her death, her will confirmed this. Ralston was nowhere to be found, and if he had been, he�d be facing jail time. His family had not wanted �the child� and Andie�s surviving members were not available. So he�d gone to collect 2 year old Mera the morning after Andie�s death. She was an incredibly intelligent little girl. She knew who he was �cuz Momma always talked on you�, and willingly made the trek to Capeside with him months later. Their life together was reasonably relaxed. In record time, the courts gave him custody and she became his daughter. Feeling he owed her something, Pacey had told Mera that her mother had died of a �prolonged illness�. He�d hated lying to her, and felt as she grew older, she should know the truth. But he could never tell her. He could not destroy her life by telling her that her mystery father had been around, that it was he who had killed her mother. He was the illness. Pacey just loved her too much to destroy her that way. And he saw no reason to. As she grew, Pacey knew that she did not have a bone of Ralston Mackey�s in her. Upon her adoption, Pacey had gotten rid of the Mackey behind her name, leaving just the McPhee. And she truly was one. Even now at sweet sixteen, she was a normally bubbly girl. She had taken on committee after committee at school, had a best friend named Jeff (who was a girl) and dutifully did her homework each night. Yet so much was she like her mother, that Pacey often grew worried. In his forced upon role of father, he�d become quite the mother hen. He worried about bullies at school, he worried about drugs and alcohol. He worried about the mental illness that had seemed to be genetic between Andie and her own mother. And he worried about boys. Knowing that many years earlier, he and Andie � at 16 � had been sexually active did nothing to calm his fears. And now that Mera had begun discussing boys and dates, he had cause for concern. He�d made a promise to the out-of-body Andie the day she had died. And he would stop at nothing to keep it. To keep Mera safe. * * * Upon entrance to the school, she had subconsciously seeked him out. The front doors opened to a long bank of lockers, assigned on the first day of the classes that year. But because he had moved somewhat mid-semester, he�d simply been assigned an empty spot. Next to her very locker. Casually, as if she were going to her own locker for books which � in fact � resided in her backpack, Mera slipped in beside him. Almost immediately, he turned to face her, a half smile played on his lips. �Hey Mera.� Mera looked up, trying to muster an appearance of mock and surprise. �Oh, hey Vartan. Ready for Bio?� |
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