As he mentioned driving a girl crazy with his habits she smiled and just seconds before he opened the door she whispered just loud enough for him to hear "If you fold laundry the same week it comes out of the dryer I might just ask my new old man if I can keep you."  She was teasing him again... maybe.  She drew a deep shaky breath and followed him through the door.  

Her eyes were immediately drawn to Erik.  All those times her mother told her she had her fathers eyes suddenly made sense.  She had planned on asking if they were absolutely sure, but she no longer needed proof.  All the proof was there in front of her. She knew those eyes... his eyes very well.  She looked into them every morning.  She looked at his outstretched hand.  That didn't seem quite right.  She stepped forward and gave him an awkward hug instead.  "Call me Lu.. or if you want to use the name Mom did.  Gwennie."  She rolled her eyes.  "Leave it to a librarian to saddle her kid with Lucia Guinevere."  


She pulled out of the hug, and led them to sit down.  There was a lot to talk about it seemed, she glanced nervously at Serge.  She was scared out of her mind.  This was an entirely new situation, and unfortunately Serge was the one person she had latched onto earlier today as a target for her nervous energy.  She needed to make sure he was still near by.  "So Ummm uh... Erik.  Wow... where do we start? I promise I am usually a much better conversationalist, but I have had about..."  She glanced at her watch "87 seconds to adapt to this new information, so I am for once, at a loss for words."  

She opened her folio and pulled out a pen twisting it nervously in her hands.  She needed to do something, and this really was all she could come up with for the moment.  She glanced over at Serge once again before looking back at Erik.  "So... ummm I guess what I really need to know is what is your ideal outcome from this meeting?"  

Lucia was out of her depth.  She didn't deal well with the personal, so she turned it professional.  It was how she handled things.  If she broke it down to pieces, and worked one step at a time she could make it through.  "I do mean that personally, what kind of relationship are you looking for?  Family dinners once a month?  Phone calls on birthdays and a card on Christmas?"  She twisted the pen in her hands as if itching to take notes.  Maybe she should.  When this meeting was over she was likely going to corner Serge and make him give her the Idiots guide to the care and feeding of fathers.  

[i] Erik reached over and put his hand over hers to still the nervous twisting.  "How about we just take this one step at a time. I have been looking for you for a while, and I am really very glad my men were able to find you."  He said quietly [/i]

Lucia nodded.  "Yeah... I think I am glad too.  I have to admit, until literally seconds before I walked through the door I had no idea who you were, or really that you even existed.  Mom didn't say much, and I guess once I got old enough to understand she didn't want to talk about it, I didn't ask."  

Lucia really had no idea what she was supposed to do in this situation.  Part of her wanted to scream, to laugh, to cry.  She was sure Erik was feeling the same. She looked at Serge, she was about to beg him for help, when a new idea hit her.  

"Wait.. I'm... WE'RE going about this the wrong way."  She flipped open her folio again and this time pulled out a copy of her resume and flipped it over for the blank back.  "Dad, listen.  Mom used to say I was just like you.  We THINK... We Plan, and then only then we do we emote if time and situation allows.  We've been trying to do this like NORMAL people.  We aren't normal."  She moved closer to Erik and placed the Folio on both their laps and started scribbling at the bottom of the page.  She wrote in big bold letters "FATHER DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP"  She then circled it a couple of times emphasizing it's importance.  

"Ok.  We have an end goal.  So now let's work the problem right?  We know where we want to be, but now we need to figure out how to get there.  Ok first problem..."  She wrote a number 1 and scribbled strangers next to it.  "We are virtually strangers, so we have to fix that.  We fix that through time and communication."   

She was becoming more and more animated and excited as she started talking this through.  "Ok. So, you get my cell number I get yours... Voila I text you 'Looked good on CNN's camera, but ABC had a bad angle'  You text back 'lol' etcetera etcetera so on and so forth.  Ok.  Communication solved.  So moving on to time.  Unfortunately I think that might be the one thing we are perilously short of, You are campaigning, traveling, and basically a very busy man.  My schedule is not exactly forgiving, but we can work with that.  It means unfortunately we will be spending time together when neither one of us is exactly at our best.  However, if the psych classes I have taken tell us anything, that could actually be a good thing.  Nothing builds or destroys relationships like adversity, and just ask Serge... I can be adverse to damn near everything when a little short on sleep."   She was really rambling now.  Erik could likely follow her because her mother did the speed talking thing when she got worked up, but she wasn't too sure about the other men in the room.

She kept scribbling on the paper in front of her.  She was really excited about solving this particular problem in front of them.  "Ok, see this is reasonable.  We have a goal, we have obstacles, but we have a plan in place.  We can do this.  Right?"  

Lucia looked over at Erik, who looked just as relieved as she felt that there was an answer to this.  "Sorry. I've just kind of taken over here. I'm just not good with the touchy feely emotional crap.  I tried... I did.  I hugged and everything, but it's just not me, especially not in public."  She gestured to the bodyguards.