It's Time {AU Huntcy Story}

[safetypinalert10]

Today was one of those days where Sirena was asking about everything under the sun. It made cleaning the house extremely difficult for Macy. The nine year old asked everything from multiplication tables, to asking about how grass is green. But then she flung a question at Macy, that the mother was not ready for. Nor did she think she would ever be ready for.

“Why isn’t my Papa here?”

When Macy paused with her wiping down of the counters and looked at her daughter, she realized that the brigade of questions launched at her was a rouse. Sirena stood there with her thumbs hooked in the belt loops of her jeans, had her head tilted to the side, and was looking at her mother with a serious blank expression. It was an expression so much like Hunter’s, that it sucked Macy’s breath right out of her chest.

Macy quietly folded the old rag she was using, and motioned for her daughter to follow her to the living room. Macy sunk down onto the couch, and waved her hands for Sirena to come and sit also. The young girl’s expression remained serious, but someone intrigued that she was finally about to receive some answers.

“Sirena, I try to talk to you like an adult,” Macy began, receiving a nod from her daughter, “So I think I should tell you everything. Thank you for asking me, because I don’t know how I would have been able to bring it up.”

In came another breath, and Macy tucked a strand of loose hair behind her child’s ear, and smiled warily at her.

“Your father, Hunter, and I were friends growing up.” Macy blinked a few times, before a tiny smile came back across her lips from the memories that she had pushed away, “We got into a lot of trouble. One night, he came over, and we didn’t know it at the time. But his mother had died.”

“My Nana?” Sirena asked curiously.

“Yes, your Nana. Your father disappeared for a long time afterwards. I loved him, very much. I wasn’t entirely aware of it at the time. I spent so many years looking for him. And then I did find him. I didn’t think I would, honestly. But he was…a shell of a man, it seemed.” Macy continued, lowering her eyes, and wringing her hands. Remembering that day as clear as can be—Hunter looking surprised and disheveled about the ghost from his past he almost had run over.

“He was into some very bad things, that I didn’t know of right away.” Macy leaned her head back, and sighed, and squeezed her hands for a moment, trying to give the less gruesome details to her daughter.

“My father is Captain Hook, right?” Sirena asked, having remembered her mother explaining to her what was happened when Sirena started to see a mermaid swimming about. And right on cue, a woman with long blonde hair and a blue tail, swam around the corner, followed by a ticking crocodile sauntering below her. Sirena twisted around, and smiled, reaching out to touch fingers with her ghostly friend.

“Yeah.” Macy said quietly, looking at her own character. Tick-Tock. There was a hate and love relationship she had with the creature. He was the reason that Hunter…or rather Hook, ran from her. And the constant ticking in his belly had driven Macy to literal madness during her pregnancy.

“And Hook doesn’t like Tocky, does he?” Sirena asked, also looking down. Macy shook her head.

“Are you telling her, Macy?” The crocodile bellowed, his voice deep, and he tilted his head, fixing her with one murky green eye.

“I am. If you can Ocean could give us a few?” Macy asked, looking away from those eyes that haunted her for nearly a decade. The mermaid nodded, and ushered the crocodile out of the room.

“I’m sorry, Macy.” Came the low grumble again, and Macy remained stiff, and with a straight spine until the ticking faded.

“Hook made Hunter run, no matter how many times I tried to call. After a while, he just…disappeared again.” Macy said quietly, pressing her lips in a thin line.

“Did Papa know about me?” Sirena asked in a small voice. She wanted to know, but was also afraid.

Macy shook her head. “By the time I found out, he stopped talking to me. I left him messages, saying I was pregnant. I called again after you were born, and told him he had a daughter. That I gave her his name. I called again a little later, to tell him you had his beautiful eyes.” Macy looked at her daughter. For a long time, those eyes in her child’s face broke her heart.

Sirena had curly blonde hair, and fair skin like her mother. But she lacked the green, flecked eyes—and instead had her father’s. She resembled more of Macy in her features, but the way she stood, laughed, and twisted her mouth, scratched her head—it was Hunter. Always Hunter.

“After that… the line was disconnected.” Macy bit the inside of her cheek—she would not cry. She would not. She sniffled quietly, and wiped at her eyes before the tears got out of control. Her throat felt achy, and tight, with trying to hold the tears back. Sirena crawled forward into her mother’s lap, and Macy wrapped her arms around her, and hid her face in her daughter’s hair.

“Did you love him?” Sirena asked, her fingers twirling in her mother’s long hair while she was cradled.

“Very, very much.” Macy whispered, her voice trembling, squeezing the child.

“Did he love you?”

“I don’t think he did…or…I don’t think Hook allowed him to.” Macy sniffed a little louder, and straightened up, blinking back tears, her eyes red from irritation.

Sirena leaned back, and asked the ultimate question. The child’s blue eyes were watering, and her lips were twisting in a way that she was trying not to cry also. “Do you think he would have loved me?” She asked again, her voice squeaking, and high pitched, trying to get the words out.

“Oh, Sirena. He would have adored you.” Macy took the child’s face into her hands, tears threatening her own eyes again, witnessing her daughter’s face crumble. “He would have loved watching you walk for the first time. I think he would have adored your singing, too. You would have been his world.” Macy said in rushed, urgent whispers. Her own tears were gone while facing her daughter’s sobbing, red face.

Macy tugged her back in, and wrapped her arms around her tightly, rocking the young girl gently. Macy kissed her head, her little ears. Her round cheeks, wet with tears, her forehead, and cradled the child until Sirena had cried out the last tears in her little body.

The pair sat in silence for a moment, before the girl sat up, and rubbed her eyes hastily with the back of her small hand. “Do you know where he is?” Sirena asked, her voice defeated, and sad.

Macy looked at Sirena for a long moment, before gently sliding the girl back to the couch. She stood up, and walked over to the counter she had been dusting. From her necklace where she wore her favorite watch, she took out a small key, and opened a tiny box on the counter. Out came a little paper, and Macy opened it slowly.

“I never stopped looking for him. I just never had the strength to call again.” Macy murmured, passing the paper to her daughter.

Sirena seemed to consider the paper for a moment, before getting off the couch and wandering to the cordless phone. Macy leaned against the wall, biting on her thumb while she watched her daughter punch in the numbers, then lift the phone to her ear.

“Mama, it’s ringing.” Sirena whispered. Macy remained in her same expression, before Sirena seemed to jump from a start.

“Hello?....Hello?….Hunter?” Sirena looked up at her mother with wide, puffy eyes, and Macy’s hand at moved from her lips, to covering her entire mouth, trying to hold every emotion, every sob, and every gasp inside.

“...Yeah, who wants to know?….Papa?”




The End

[HUNTER KNOX]

The sun glistened on the bright waves as Hunter stood at the railing of the small fishing boat, gazing outward toward the sea at large. He had to admit, he hadn’t really expected Tempy’s old fishing trawl to actually survive the trip from the city to pretty much anywhere. It had been so beaten up when he first saw it that he had considered it little more than a floating heap of scrap metal, and yet regardless of that fact, here they were. It was almost like the boat had done it just to spite Hunter. Just to show him that it could weather anything, stand any storm and ford any ocean. It was a far call from the elegant and masterful ship that The Captain had called home, but Hunter had found himself drawn to the cozy charm that it held, and Temperance was overly attached to it, so he hadn’t exactly had a choice about abandoning it.

He was glad that they had come here. The city had been far too cold. Far too grey. Sure, there had been an ample supply of customers, but Hunter had had enough of the overbearingness all those tall buildings and glass and chrome exuded. He had had enough of the memories and people there as well. He had needed to escape in order to save himself from insanity.

A cool breeze washed over him, carried with the tide. The Gulf of Mexico was gorgeous this time of year. Hell, it was gorgeous any time of year, and that had been exactly what Hunter had been looking for. The Captain was a little bit antsy because it was so close to that tropical paradise he had been trapped on for so many years, but right now it was exactly what Hunter needed in order to garner a bit of rest and relaxation.

Temperance was off getting supplies for the boat. They had run low on the trip over and she was so neurotic about keeping stock and everything in order that Hunter couldn’t exactly stop her even if he wanted to. They had been all over the world together in the time since they left the city, to Africa, to Australia, to South America. Anywhere the oceans could take them. The lifestyle of rampant piracy was one that offered them the opportunity to go wherever they wanted to go. To do whatever they wanted to do. It was always fast paced. There was always something to do, someone to kill, some drugs to sell. It had been the perfect lifestyle for Hunter and The Captain to dive into in order to forget what he had done in the city. In order to forget who he had left in the city, who he had ignored and pushed to the side so that he could run off and play the part of the dashing and debonair drug lord.

Now though, when there was nothing to do except look out at the ocean and inward at himself and the things he had done and the person he had become....Hunter wished he had never left. He wished he had found some way to ignore the Captain’s terror which had gripped Hunter’s entire body, washed over every one of his senses and told him that the only way to survive was to get as far away from Macy as possible. The only way to keep from dying a horrible death of mashing teeth and grinding bones was to run as fast as he could and never look back. Sure, he had been able to sugar coat his running as being part of a business matter, a way to find new drugs and new sources and new customers, but he knew that it all amounted to only one thing. So long as he was on the boat and never stayed in one place for any extended period of time, she would never be able to find him. There would never again be one of those just by chance situations where he would bump into her on the street and they would talk and laugh and catch up on old times.

It was then, with the sun shining down on him and the boat gently being pushed against the large mangrove roots that they had hooked up next to that Hunter realized what he had done. He had ignored her and abandoned her. He had left her alone with that child he could never see. He was the same kind of deadbeat dad that ran at the first sign of trouble as his own father had been. Hunter had grown up fatherless and with only a mother to care for him, and now his own child would be left to the same fate. She would grow up wondering who exactly that mysterious man was that could have loved her mother so dearly, and yet still found it possible to leave her behind as he disappeared off the face of the planet.

It was then that he was jarred out of wallowing in his own self pity. His cell phone ringing. Well, business called him back to the real world. No sense in looking back and feeling sorry for himself. He couldn’t get back his girl or his high school love even if he wanted to at this point. He had to look forward. He had to think about the future. He could hardly make a good sale if he was busy being all weepy about what could have been.

“Hunter?” Jeez, whoever this was sounded like a frickin’ kid. Part of him was a bit uncomfortable with the fact that there was someone so young calling him to get some of his product, but he had long ago given up any scruples about such things. When your business thrived on illegality and breaking as many laws as possible, it was hardly an option for him to suddenly draw the line and live up to some kind of moral code. If the kid had money then he really didn’t have a choice but to sell her whatever she wanted, right? Now all that remained was to set a price and place for her to pick up. He never used this phone much. The calls were always short and sweet. Nothing for anyone to be able to trace or pay much attention to. Get on the line and then hop right back off so that both people were relatively protected.

“Yeah, who wants to know?” It was his customary way of answering stupid questions like that. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d had to listen to people walk up to him all shifty eyed and jittery and ask if they could possibly get some drugs off of him. It was pathetic the way people went about it. He swore that if he could just teach people to get right to the chase and not bother with beating around the bush and putting up all that worthless fluff to make it look like a conversation the world would be a better place. People should just -

“Papa?”

The soft word knocked the breath out of him. For a second, Hunter didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to respond to that. What could he possibly say? Where could he possibly go from that? How had she gotten the number? Could this even be possible? He had to be dreaming, right? This couldn’t be real. This girl, how old was she, anyway, she was.... she couldn’t have gotten his number. She couldn’t have found out where he was.

“Is this.....Are you.... Are you Macy’s kid?” He waited with bated breath for the response. He needed to know for sure.

“No, it’s some kid off the street. Of course it is! That’s momma, and you’re papa, right?” Hunter choked out a small chuckle at the way she replied. God, she was just as sarcastic as her mother. Just as sarcastic as Hunter had been back when the two of them had been in high school together, ready to face the world and damn the consequences.

“Umm, but, did you really have to ask? Are there.... are there other people who call you papa? Do I have any brothers and sisters? Are they with you?”

Hunter actually laughed at that. God, he had never had time to have kids. Temperance, well, she couldn’t exactly have any, and it wasn’t like they were ever going to just pick up a kid off the streets and take them with them on drug-filled adventures. Hunter was 32 and the only kid he had was one he’d never met. “No, uh, it’s just you, kiddo. You’re the only one.” God, he didn’t know what to tell her. He didn’t know what she already knew. Where did she think he was? What had Macy told her? He could assume that Macy didn’t come out and tell her that Papa had left because there were magical spirits from books living inside him and Mommy that made them stay away from each other. What would that do to her? She would be in therapy for years trying to figure that one out.

There was silence on the other end of the line. He had to be the one to keep the conversation going. This might be the only opportunity he would ever have to talk to his daughter, and he wasn’t going to waste it. “Sweetie, Sirena - that’s your name, right? I.... I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’ve never been there. I wish I could have been there to see you growing up. I bet you’re a big girl now, aren’t you? I bet Mama’s gotten you to grow up into a beautiful girl, didn’t she?” At this point all he could hear on the other end of the line was sobs. God, why wasn’t he better at this? He wished he had more practice to be a better father, to know what to say at times like this.

“Papa - Daddy, I just.... where are you? Where are you right now? Can you come visit us? Can I see you? I just want to meet you, just once. Is that okay?” Hunter started to protest, but before he could get a word in she added, “I promise Tocky won’t do anything! He likes me! He’ll let you come in, just so I can meet you. Or... or I could go without Mom and Tocky and it’ll just be me and you. Hook won’t mind that, will he? You could - You could meet Ocean! Momma said Hook would like Ocean. She said they might have known each other before.”

Hunter didn’t know what to say. Now it was his turn to be silent and try desperately to absorb the information that was getting thrown at him. She knew about Hook, and she knew about the croc. He had no idea who Ocean was, but it sounded like that little girl, Sirena, his DAUGHTER was a reincarnate herself. She had discovered the truth about herself before she was nine, when she was just a little girl. Hunter couldn’t help but feel responsible. He had done that to her. He and Macy. She couldn’t just grow up like a normal little girl, because the two of them had made her the vehicle for some story book character. She would never know what normalcy was for her entire life. She wouldn’t even get a taste of it in high school like Hunter and Macy had, because she had awakened before she was even ten years old.

“Please Daddy, Papa, please do this just for me? Just for ten minutes. Just so I can meet you!”

“Sweetheart is.... is Mommy there? Could you.... could you put her on the phone for me?”

[safetypinalert10]

Macy continued to clasp her hand over her mouth, trying to keep from breaking down. Part of her wanted to run to the phone, and just hear Hunter's voice one more time. Unlike most of her school friends, Macy hadn't married, nor had she gotten serious with anyone. For once, Sirena made it extremely difficult...and second, she always ended up comparing her date to Hunter.

"Umm, but, did you really have to ask? Are there....are there other people who call you papa? Do I have any brothers and sisters? Are they with you?" Sirena chirped, and leaned foward as though she were talking to Hunter face to face. Hearing the question, jealousy ripped at Macy's heart. Did Hunter ever have other children? Temp..Tempress? Temptress? Oh! Temperance the Temptress, that was it. That's the woman Hunter had run off with, she knew that much.

Had that woman given him kids? She wasn't able to hear Hunter's response, which she was somewhat greatful for. If Hunter had said yes, Macy would have gone into a fit. Running from his first daughter, but continuing to bounce to and fro with the others. Macy had sunk down against the wall, and was leaning her head against it, her legs to the side.

Sirena nodded, before she started crying again. Her mother was going from shocked and desperate, to angry. Very quickly. Hunter had made Macy cry so many times since she first met him, and she had cried the hardest on the nights she tucked Sirena into bed, and crawled into her own bed alone. "Yeah. Momma...she's a little crazy, but she's the best momma I could have." Sirena smiled towards her mom, who was sitting on the floor.
Macy had gone back to chewing her thumbs, and her expression looked somewhat blank. Her eyes moved, watching her daughter, ready to snatch the phone away should the child become too distraught. And that's when Sirena went into that horrifying, terribly frantic rant.

"Papa - Daddy, I just... where are you? Where are you right now? Can you come visit us? Can I see you? I just want to meet you, just once. Is that okay? I promise Tocky won't do anything! He likes me! He'll let you come in, just so I can meet you. Or...or I could go without Mom and Tocky and it'll just be me and you!" Tears were almost spilling out of her red face again, while she pushed, looking almost desperate and frantic at the idea of having her Father, seeing the face. Knowing the face. She had never seen pictures. During one of Macy's breakdown over Tick-Tock, she had gone on a rampage and destroyed every single picture of Hunter she had.

The idea of her daughter going to meet Hunter, and Hook without her or Tick-Tock shocked her to her feet. "Hook won't mind that, will he? You could - You could meet Ocean! Momma said Hook would like Ocean. She said they might have known each other before." Sirena continued on, now on a roll. But each word just horrified Macy more and more.

Macy had left out the bits about the mermaid showing up. There had never been an awakening for Sirena. Ocean had just always been there. The first time Macy saw her, was when she started to go into labor. Since then--Ocean had been Sirena's protector and guardian. Aiding Macy in raising the child, and keeping Tick-Tock in check. For a long while, Macy had suffered from post-partum depression, brought on by the lack of Hunter. And the appearance of the ever present ticking crocodile, and now the mermaid that swam throughout her house.

"Please Daddy, Papa, please do this just for me? Just for ten minutes. Just so I can meet you!" Sirena was tapping at her chest, and clutching her shirt. Her face was one of begging, almost hoping that Hunter could feel her, could see her. Macy almost roared when that begging face turned dejected, and then confused. If Hunter was hurting her baby, she really would take a big old bite out of him.

"He wants to talk to you." Sirena said, her brows furrowed and confused. Wondering almost why Hunter hadn't been as excited as she was. Macy numbly walked over and snatched the phone. Her fingers curled around it tightly, almost shaking.

"Hunter?" She breathed, stumbling to the back porch. She motioned for Sirena to star behind, and Ocean peeked her head out of the kitchen, her hair floating about her head as though she were in water.

"Sirena, honey. Momma is about to get scary. Why don't we finish your seashells." Ocean murmured, leading the child away, so she wouldn't witness the explosion that was about to happen.
Macy remained silent as she walked out the back door onto the deck. She picked up her pack of cigarettes, and stuffed one into her mouth, fumbling with the lighter, her hands trembling. "What the hell Hunter?" For a moment, she seemed relitively calm, expelling the smoke out of her mouth. But when Macy was calm...it was about to get a lot more frightening.

"I called you how many fucking times?!" She roared into the phone, "You could have at least called back fucking ONCE to tell me you didn't want shit to do with me or her. And so help me god, if Sirena didn't want to see you, I would personally let Tick-Tock have a piece of Hook. DO YOU FUCKING HEAR ME CAPTAIN?" She screeched into the phone, not noticing that Macy and Ocean were watching from a nearby window.

"FINE if you didn't want to be with me Hunter. But I've been having to deal with a crocodile who can't shit out a fucking clock, and a sassy mermaid since the time Sirena was born. And when my mom found out Sirena was YOUR kid?" Macy waved her hand in the air, "Ooh, Hunter I swear to God." Macy was shaking from head to toe, and she took a long drag on her cigarette. "I had to do this shit on my own, while you and that bitch went all over the world, partying and having a grand old fucking time. Don't you dare get my daughter's hopes up. If you don't want to fucking see her, then you tell me right now. That way I can actually go be a god damn parent." Macy was now pacing back and forth.

She loved Hunter, still. After so long, she still loved him. But she had grown up, she had become a mother. She raised Sirena, and worked her ass off. She had her own home, her car, and everything was done with blood sweat and tears. But there had always been that part of her that was missing something. But she was more angry with Hunter, than anything else. Macy could understand him leaving her...well not entirely, but she could deal. But he had walked away from their daughter.

"And if I hear that trollop's voice while I'm talking to you, I will make sure Ocean drowns that bitch, do you hear me?" Macy threatened, her hands shaking. Temperance was not going to interfere at all. She may be Hunter's main squeeze now--but whether he wanted to aknowledge it or not, Hunter had a family. And Temperance was not part of it.

"So what the hell am I going to tell OUR daughter? Sorry, honey. Daddy's too busy being Hook's puppet.?" Macy sunk into a chair near the table, pushing her hair out of her face. She had finally run out of steam. She crushed the cigarette in the ash tray, before lighting up another one. "I'm tired of cleaning up your messes, babe."