Gavin walked briskly past the bodyguards and the people waiting outside of Bella's office. Not bothering to knock, he opened the door and closed it quickly behind him. Bella glanced up, the image of power and professionalism as she spoke stridently to some unfortunate soul on the phone.  Gavin managed to wait through exactly eight seconds of his pacing in front of her desk before he couldn't take it anymore, lunging forward and hanging up her phone in the middle of her call.

"I really need to talk to you. Emergency. No one is hurt or going to be hurt. It's just... I really need to talk to you."

As Bella looked up, her mouth opened slightly in surprise. There was something foreign in Gavin's eyes, that she'd only really witnessed a handful of times, always when one of the children was in danger, and it's presence during an otherwise normal day chased away her anger at her call being interrupted.

Wordlessly, Gavin removed a piece of paper from his interior jacket pocket and handed it to Bella. Gavin seemed to be radiating more emotion than he did during some months as he ran one of his hands through his hair and looked down at the floor. He said just one thing before forcing himself to sit down in the seat opposite her desk.

"It was a year and a half before I met you."

Dear Gavin,

I hope you are well.  If you are receiving this message it is because you are among those that I wished to say last goodbyes to.  I know that you're probably angry with me, or at least may have once been.  Or perhaps you weren't at all.  I will never know now.  I don't know what would have been, what might have been had I...  Well I'm certain you are as aware of what transpired after that night.  I should not have done what I did, but what's done is done.  What I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is you changed something in me that night Gavin Byrne.  Changed something in me for the better.  And for that I want to thank you.  I did not do right by you.  I should have stayed and I should have continued in my...  Research.  

But that is not the reason for this letter.  

If you have received this, it means that a young woman by the name of Katherine Pryde has found you.  She is a remarkable young woman, one of the most driven I have ever had the pleasure to know.  She's intelligent.  She's strong...  Or at least she could be.  Up until this time I have been able to protect her and shelter her, but I fear I have done her a disservice.  I know that we are none of us eternal...  But ironically as you're reading this, I thought I'd have more time than this.  

Gavin I don't have words to tell you this gracefully but the young woman before you...  Is your daughter.  Your own flesh and blood, and mine.  That night...  Arguably the best night of my life, was also the night that began the journey of this one here.  I regret not telling you of her Gavin.  I did a disservice to you and for that I will eternally be sorry.  I only hope this my last act, I can even partially redeem that shortfall by bringing you together.  Now obviously I do not expect you to enfold her immediately as if you have known her all your life, but please...  I do ask that you give her a chance.  Growing up...  She asked about you constantly.  She wanted to know her father and I...  In my weakness I did not tell her.  I will not give you excuses but know that I am deeply sorry for this choice of mine and were the power mine to rectify this wrongdoing...  I would hope that I would.  

You taught me to regret nothing Mr. Byrne.  Taught me to live each moment in the fullest in those few brief hours in which we knew each other...  It was a lesson that I wish that I had taken to heart and put into practice more with he that taught it.  I only hope you can teach her a similar one.  Teach her to live her life and not allow her own fears and limitations to stop her from achieving what she should.  

I understand if you don't want to or if this news is too...  unacceptable.  But I didn't know who else to turn to.  

I have never forgotten you, and don't believe I ever would want to,

Val

Bella read the letter up until the point where it introduced the idea of Gavin having a daughter.  Bella went back to the start of the letter then and re-read the opening and proceeded to the end.  She drew a breath and in the time it took her to exhale, the day she met Marie played through her mind.  The feelings of being a girl who had just lost her mother, of finally finding a father she'd wanted to know her whole life and learning he was the muscle beside a powerful Godmother.  

"Tutto torna di nuovo."  She said, more to herself than Gavin who she knew didn't understand the language.

She, very carefully, refolded the paper and then she offered it back to Gavin. 

Her aged doe-eyes took in the sight of him, the nervous father... no, the nervous husband she supposed.  As much of a shock as it was to meet the girl, it was a good thing to learn one had family unless you were married to a Godmother known for her jealousy and rage issues.  She leaned back in her chair trying to appear relaxed.

"So... where's your head at right now?"

Gavin was restless. He'd sat down, but popped up almost immediately, moving over to one of the rarely used storage cabinets in Bella's office. Rustling around, he removed a bottle of whisky, which he opened and drank from the bottle as Bella read. He made it through a fifth of the bottle before she looked up, curious where he'd found it, before uttering a sigh that seemed to wonder how many bottles of liquor he'd stashed in her various offices. If Gavin died before she did, she'd undoubtedly be finding them for months, if not years.

He took a deep breath.

"Not great. Can you get on the phone and get Aurora headed over here too?"

Then he returned to the bottle.

Her head fell slightly to the left and a whisper of a smile began.  She nodded slowly, if Gavin meant Aurora to meet her then he’d accepted her and that was all Bella really needed to know. 

"We should have her come to dinner tonight.  Let her meet William and Aurora both.  Make sure she knows how to find Hollowood and that it's her home now too.  I'll have the guards add her to the security & notification lists."

"APRIL!"  Bella called out loudly past Gavin railroading any protests or interjections he might have been about to make.

Her young secretary/guard peaked her head in.

"Mrs. Byrne?"

"Send someone to buy some pretty picture frames... four of them.  I may only need three but I want an extra just in case.  Maybe made of silver?"  

April began making notes, nodding as she did.

"I'll need a rack of lamb purchased from DiSalvo's butcher shop, have someone hit the market for potatoes, carrots, onions, and have someone grab dinner rolls & cannoli from that little bakery on 7th I like so much.  I won't have time to bake rolls & dessert if I'm making lamb.  And clear my afternoon schedule, I'll be leaving for Hollowood within the hour to get started.  The damn thing will take hours."

"Yes, Ma'am."  She stepped back out closing the door behind her.

The details in order she let herself look at Gavin's eyes again and got up moving up alongside him.  She put a hand on his shoulder, suspecting she understood why he was so troubled.  Not only his fear of her reaction (which she hoped he could see wouldn’t be bad after all) and just the shock of it all – but very likely some anger over the lost time.   

"I'm sorry about Val,” She said in a gentle reassuring voice.  “… but I’m sorrier that you didn’t know your first born sooner. Speaking as the firstborn of a man that didn’t know about my existence until I showed up on his doorstep, I can say from experience that your bond with her will be no less special despite the years that you both lost.”

She sighed.  Salvatore was a hard topic.

“I waited for him my whole life, Gavin.  And when I learned he didn’t know about me, I … I stopped being mad that he wasn’t there and instead just wanted to stop wasting time.  I wanted to be near him, to learn from him, and build something between us.”

Her smile grew, “The day I met him & later that evening, Marie, it was one of the happiest days of my life; right up there with the night William was born and the moment you proposed to me.”  She brushed his cheek with her hand.

“I was shattered by my mother’s passing, the only parent I’d ever had… but finding Salvatore and being accepted by Marie changed the world for me.  It gave me an identity I’d felt I never knew.  Now, maybe Katherine doesn’t need those things… but it occurs to me, we should be ready to offer it.  Marie gave me unconditional love – despite me being the product of something very dear to my father with someone who Marie would never be.  Not to me or Salvatore.  She never held any of that against me.  And I swear to you… I won’t do one inch less for Katherine.”

“You’re the best father I know Gavin.”  She let her hand fall away from his cheek and sat on the edge of her desk.  “You the best man I’ve ever known…and I think you know that’s saying something considering the men I’ve known.”

She smirked, knowing he’d make a joke of it in less than three seconds from now – drinking or not. 

“We’ll have dinner with her, let her see us together as a family and make sure she knows that she has a place here too.”  She lifted her chin slightly.  “She’s a Byrne.  We all come with our scars, but our strength is each other.  So… that’s our first lesson to her, yes?  Doesn’t matter where she’s come from or where she goes… her home is with us now.  She’s our daughter.  Yes?”

Gavin's eyes went wide. 

"Dinner... all... no. I'm having dinner with her tomorrow night myself to try to make sense of this. I just need to tell Aurora, so she knows- doesn't hear it from anyone else. Aurora is my daughter. My first daughter. I don't want her to feel less... anything."

Find Hollowpoint. Security lists. Gavin's mouth opened slightly, and he was stunned as he listened to Bella discuss lamb and fucking vegetables. Gavin imagined himself throwing the bottle against the wall and tell April to fuck the vegetables, but he forced himself to sit and listen to Bella.

Gavin looked up at Bella and there was anger in his eyes. His wife knew him well enough to understand that he wasn't angry at her... but he also wasn't ready to talk about this quite yet the way that she was. Still, he listened. When he spoke again, he'd regained his composure, stood, and buttoned his jacket, but his voice was cold.

"She is not my firstborn. Do not..."

He paused, struggling to process. 

"She's our daughter."

How could she say that so quickly, when he'd barely had time to think?

"I don't think you..."

He swallowed, thinking.

"I'm glad you shared that, about Sal. It does make me feel better, gives me hope. But I don't think you..."

Gavin looked at Bella with a depth that she'd rarely seen.

"You said I'm the best father you know. When we got Aurora... when we had William... I changed everything about my life. I could have been a crewleader. A Godfather. But I chose to be a father instead, and to measure my life's success by how well I cared for my children. To give them every part of myself that I could. And now..."

Gavin raised his hands, helpless. He'd failed Kat as a father without even knowing he'd been tested. He'd seen that Katherine was wounded by his absence, and the fact that he hadn't held the knife directly did not excuse him from the responsibility of scarring her. 

She could see it then.  She'd not seen that look in years.  That way he looked at Aurora sometimes in the first weeks.  That trepidation she sometimes thought was there because of how he saw himself, or how bad his father was to him.  The fear all fathers and mothers had that they'd mess up these perfect little things put in their hands.  And yet, Katherine wasn't little.  She most likely had her flaws and scars so...

Bella narrowed her eyes.

Never before had she considered how her arrival and the lack of knowledge about her had impacted Salvatore Luciano.  She'd never attempted to measure the guilt he might have felt - never even considered it - over not being there all those days she sat beside a window with a packed bag hoping her dad would pull up to carry her away to a better, happier, life.

These were insecurities she'd described in intimate detail to Gavin.  They were the scars upon her heart which were deep in her long before Elias' death and before he'd met the Wolf.  He knew this.  He knew she'd long had anger towards her own father, perhaps not for anything close to the tragic reasons Gavin had hatred towards his, but where pain existed there was little point in comparing.  Pain was pain.  Anger was anger.  To each man his was the worst ever known and there would have been no telling a younger Isabella that her pain wasn't the worst ever known even after she met Gavin and Tara and knew of some of their life.

All of this Bella suddenly felt IMMENSE guilt for having told him.  His rage over not being there for the girl was likely compounded by an intimate knowledge of what a lack of a father figure could do to a girl & by Bella's many long talks with him about all those important moments when she hoped for him to appear - and he never did.  Bella wished she could take it back and spare Gavin this... but what was done, was done.  And perhaps, God in his wisdom, had done this to make clear to Gavin the possibly delicate nature of this girl's heart and mind right now.

"Stop."  She said in a firm but caring tone.  She could not coddle him.  Her years with Gavin had taught her there was a time to be gentle with the man and there was time to give him facts so he could function.  He needed evidence, tools, and a plan forward.  If he had those things he'd find his own way out of his rut.  She couldn't lift Gavin out of his sorrows when he chose to embrace them, rare as that was, but she KNEW she could always show him the path and he'd walk it when he was ready.

"You put your life into those kids.  You measure your success by them.  So, measure.  Aurora is made of sterner stuff than both of us.  She was raised with the knowledge that blood and family aren't the same thing.  She is like you in everything thing she does, so much so most people who don't know she was adopted never question it.  These are facts."

"She learned when William was born that she isn't replaced when a new child comes into our lives.  She learned that more children doesn't mean less love for her.  She learned that love isn't finite, it's infinite.  It has no limit to how it can grow and that there is always more room at our table for family.  We saw that with how easily she embraced Salvatore in spite of how much easier it would have been to write him off.  Like you Aurora isn't scared of hard rodes Gavin.  She's a Byrne."

Bella shook her head.

"There's isn't a road so hard that girl won't find a way to run it if she chooses.  YOU helped her to be that sort of person and Gavin it IS a testament to your success, that every ounce of blood, tears, and sleepless nights you spent on building her up was worth it.  She's every bit as strong as you, smart as Tara, and ... well I'm sure there are parts of me in there too.  You get my point."  She waved a hand dismissively.

"And she's old enough to understand how babies are made and that her father had a wild youth.  If anything she has a heart so big she'll be worried for her sister... losing her mother like that, meeting strangers and having only them to lean on.  She and William will probably take to her easier than you and I.  Kids are far more resilient like that and as for me..."

She paused.

"Well, Gavin, I would think you'd see the parallels here between me and this girl and ... I'm sorry if all my own confessions about my pain and insecurities has given you pause; but the way I see it, you can view this two ways.  One, you can use all I ever told you about my anguish and rage at my father and use it to punish yourself for something you neither willingly did nor can you undo... or Two, you look at our years together as preparation for this moment.  None of us gets to decide how our lives play out Gavin, not completely.  I mean... would the boy who slept with Val ever have dreamed of the life you're living now?"

She shook her head.

"No.  I bet he wouldn't.  She and I aren't the same person, but I won't lie.  You're right to think that maybe some of our pain is going to be similar.  BUT some of what you know about me will help you to help her.  Hell, maybe you do better by her than Salvatore did for me.  Maybe, just maybe, the best testament to the sort of man and father you are isn't in building children who came to you as clean slates ready to be filled with the best of you ... but by what you do for the one who came to you with a lifetime of unknowns.  Maybe that's how you start building a bond with her.  She's a bit of me with my losses and rapid rise to power in my youth, and a bit of you... with another life beginning in her late teens.  Like happened for you when you and Tara met Jack, yes?"

She watched his expression, hoping she was making sense.

"She needs you, Gavin.  The same way both your other children needed and still need you.  She just lost her mother.  And deeper than any scar your absence has left on her life, that rend is going to be hell to mend and unlike me... she doesn't have to try to do that alone." 

Gavin would likely leave now.  Bella grabbed the edge of her desk.  She expected it.  This was the ebb and flow of how they were.  He' was troubled, she tried to talk to him - always not seeing something, he'd exasperated tell her where she had it wrong... she'd try again and this would repeat until she hit on something right. 

She'd never know what word or phrase did it, but in time he'd hear what he needed to hear and just leave her to go cool off.  To likely fume about the shit she always got wrong.  He'd drink or gamble.  She suspected sometimes he would go hunt in the countryside though he rarely admitted to that - but she knew he had tools and places he kept to himself.  Twenty years had taught her that when the Wolf's jaws were snapping back at her, it was always best to let him run.  After all, she didn't need to worry, the Wolf always came home.

She watched him silently and waited to see if they would go at her again, or if he'd chose this moment to run.

Gavin unbuttoned his jacket and sat down again, staring back at the ceiling for a long time, resting in Bella's chair. If she wasn't so familiar with his long pauses, Bella might have thought he was asleep. He sat for... who knows how long? Three minutes? Five? Ten? Eventually, the blank look on his face was replaced by a frown, but it still seemed to represent progress.

He sat forward in his seat, resting his forearms on his knees. After another minute or two, he sighed and spoke, seemingly like himself again.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow night. Figure things out. Thank you."

Gavin shook his head.

"I just don't know what to do. Part of me wants to go see her right now. Part of me wants to drink that whole bottle and forget about her. Part of me wants to take you in the bathroom and fu-"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door; in his depth of thinking, Gavin had forgotten that Aurora had been called. He refocused himself and still seemed slightly bothered, but still seemed more like himself than he'd been a half hour ago. He got up and answered the door, greeting Aurora warmly and sitting her down in the chair. Frowning, he spoke to her directly, as was his usual tack. 

"So... today I met a woman who said I was her father, and she's telling the truth. I met her mother a year or two before I met your mom. One night stand. Tried to look her up, but never found her, and she didn't want me to find her. Never knew anything about the situation until she showed up today. It's been... a lot to process... but I obviously wanted to tell you."

Aurora had come immediately to her mother's office.  She was rarely called in and almost never by her father of all people.  It likely meant real work, not deliveries or shit jobs her mom liked to pawn off on her and pass off as 'leadership training.'  

When she saw her dad's expression, heard his tone, and had HIM not mom sitting her down she knew the sort of talk she was in for - serious.  Mom talked to hear herself talk.  Dad talked when something needed saying.  Aurora listened intently.  At the end she glanced to her mom.

Bella smiled at her reassuringly.

Aurora looked to Gavin.  

She nodded.

She looked back to Bella who was giving her an encouraging nod as if to tell he to say something to her father.

Aurora looked back to Gavin and the nearby bottle of whiskey before asking, "You still processing it?"

Gavin nodded slowly.

"I know I haven't told you as much about my father as I should have, but let's just say that I always wanted to be the opposite of him. I always tried to be a good father to you and Will. It bothers me that I failed this girl without even knowing it. Now I'm just going to... figure things out, I guess."

]"Failure implies trying.  You didn't know, so you couldn't try.  So, you couldn't really fail her.  At worst you're guilty of failing to hunt down a non-trained pregnant woman which, let's be honest, is kinda funny."

"Rora!"  Bella's voice was like a whip cracking.  Her daughter's humor was poorly timed in her opinion.

Gavin looked at Aurora for a long moment before he cracked his trademark smirk.

"Technically true."

He took a deep breath as he looked as his daughter for a moment, and it seemed to steady him. He picked up the bottle of whisky and offered it to Aurora.

"Want any of this?"

"Uh, no. I'll pass.  Had a rough night last night."

Gavin nodded, keeping it to himself.

"Okay. Well I'm going to go do some thinking. Thanks- to both of of you. Thank God for Will; I suppose it's my blessing and my curse to be surrounded by women all my life."

With a wink, he slid off the edge of Bella's desk and headed for the door.