Chapter Seventy Nine: A Father's Love

The scent coming from Kayla's apartment was heavenly, it was a familiar mixture of cream, pepper and bacon reminding her of evenings perched at the kitchen table doing her homework while her father made his famous carbonara. She smiled to herself closing the door to the apartment behind her, her ears straining for a moment before she realised she could hear the low dulcet tones of Bach serenading her from the portable speakers she kept in the kitchen.

Although she hadn't expected her father to be here, she wasn't entirely surprised that he had turned up. He'd been pushing her to meet Roman ever since he'd found out the young patrolman had stepped into her life and she admitted she wanted his approval. He would have reservations, she understood that after what happened with John but in time he would come to see the type of man Sean Roman really was. She longed for that day although she knew it may take a long time to achieve. Like she had been before, her father was naturally distrustful of any man that entered her life, the only exception being the guys at 51.

They had been her champions during that dark time, the brothers she had never been gifted with through blood. She loved each and everyone in their own particular way and she appreciated the way they had bolstered her through such a traumatic event despite the fact it had been committed by one of their own.

Severide had never forgiven himself for not realising what was happening to her by the man under his command. Both Capp and Tony had carried that guilt upon their sleeves for such a long time despite her protests. John had been clever to hide his cruelty the way he did and the only reason it had gone unnoticed was because she was on relief, bouncing from one fire house to another. They had all known he had a temper, sometimes it came with the job but behind closed doors nobody had imagined that he was a monster.

she reminded herself as that familiar chill ghosted up along her spine like an icy fingertip. She always went cold when she thought about what had happened to her, the memory of it sucked all the warm right out of her body some nights. It was those nights that Sean would gather her up into his strong arms and wrap the the covers around the two of them until they were cocooned in a blanket of love and warmth. Nothing else existed in those moments, just her and him, she felt safe and protected.

Her gaze came to rest upon the handsome man laid out upon the couch, his blond head resting on a pile of cushions as she watched the raise and fall of his chest from her position in the doorway. She loved how peaceful he looked while he slept, he didn't have a care in the world and she hoped that his dreams were as pleasant as the ones she'd been having since he had come into her life.

"I tossed the blanket over him after he dozed off." her dad uttered in a low tone from the doorway of the kitchen as he wiped his hands on a cream colored towel.

The crisp white sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows, his grey waistcoat was still fastened, matching his suit trousers and shiny black shoes. Whenever she pictured of her father he always looked like this, she didn't remember him as the firefighter he had been before her mother had disappeared from their lives. Becoming an arson investigator had been the safer, more logical step for a single father raising his newborn daughter. He had scarified the job that he loved so he could raise her and Kayla could never tell him how truly grateful she was to him for that.

She stepped forward placing an affectionate kiss upon his clean shaven cheek by way of greeting.

"Good day?" he asked her, treading back into the kitchen so that their conversation didn't awake the sleeping patrol officer on the couch.

"Better than yesterday." she responded before crossing her arms over her chest and giving him her best unimpressed expression. "I thought we agreed I'd come over to yours after seven?"

Phil leaned against the opposite counter from Kayla, crossing his own arms over his chest. It wasn't hard for her to see where she had gotten her mannerisms from despite the fact the two of them were almost polar opposites in terms of their physical appearance. She took after her mother with tanned skin, dark eyes and hair, she had always wished she looked more like her father growing up, it was hard growing up a little different.

"I wanted to meet him." her father said without an ounce of apology in his voice.

"Dad, I told you..." Phil raised a hand cutting her off mid speech before she could continue.

"Just hear me out." he requested in that soothing voice of his. Kayla bowed her head for a second before nodding her agreement. "I worry about you Kayla, I worry about you all the time. I worry about your happiness, your job, if you are eating right but I never had to worry about the decisions you made until you met Sheppard."

There was silence between the two of them as Kayla wrapped hugged herself, her delicate hands rubbing up and down her arms as if to ward off a chill despite the fact she was still wearing the leather jacket he had bought her for her birthday. He knew what mentioning that name did to her, it was only recently that she had stopped flinching whenever she heard it. It had been over a year years since that horrific night but sometimes it still felt like he was trapped there in that nightmare, losing her all over again.

"Now there's a new guy on the scene and I just want to make sure that he's a good guy." Phil informed her as gently as he could. "It's my duty as a dad, especially after I messed up so badly the last time."

That guilt was always there in the pit of his gut, gnawing at his subconscious whenever he thought about Sheppard. He should have known when she stopped turning up at his house but he had been busy with work, his head buried in the sand. Sheppard had been a member of Squad 3 under the watchful eye of Wally Boden, he had been a firefighter and that had lulled him into a false sense of security, one that had almost gotten his daughter killed. he couldn't stand to think of his grand baby, the one that had been nestled up inside of her when Sheppard had lost his sanity. Even now that pain was just too raw.

"You didn't mess up." Kayla murmured, switching sides so that she was resting against the counter alongside her father. Her hip gently nudged in a show of solidarity, he knew he could do no wrong in her eyes. His daughter's love was unconditional.

"So what do you think of him?" Kayla asked slyly, a smile pulling at her lips as she ducked her head in order to meet her father's piercing blue eyes.

Every time Phil saw that smile, it made him want to smile too. He didn't try to hide that fact as his daughter reviewed him eagerly.

"I like him." he admitted. "He speaks his mind, gave me the time of day despite the fact he's unwell. His colleague and superiors only say good things."

"But..." Kayla prompted, drawing out the word like one of those cartoon characters she liked to watch so much as a kid.

"I don't know him." Phil shrugged his shoulders loosely before he continued. "But I'd like to. I'd like to be able to trust him with you."

Kayla's lips curved into a knowing smile before she glanced around the kitchen, taking in the pasta bubbling quietly upon the stove and the creamy white sauce settling in the pan next to it before she spoke.

"Well having dinner together is a good start."