A week later - it had taken some time for her request to be processed, since prisoner visits on the whole fell on the lower end of priorities - Olive found herself standing at the start of a long corridor. In one of these cells was her father. Her heart was thundering in her throat, her gaze fluttering over everything and seeing none of it. The baby - a girl, Danny said - fluttered beneath her heart, sensing her mother's nerves, and Olive dropped a hand to her belly, rubbing it almost unconsciously. The guard she'd been assigned, a handsome young man, gave her a bolstering smile.
"Are you ready, miss?" he asked politely, and Olive sucked in another shaking breath before nodding. He strode down the corridor towards a cell almost directly in the middle, his voice and stance relaxed. "Jacopo, you have a visitor."
Olive - who had yet to move from her position at the entry - anxiously smoothed her dress; she'd made it especially for this occasion, though she doubted Jacopo... her... father would mind either way. After all, he was going to be expecting a small child and she... definitely wasn't one anymore. She startled a bit as a masculine voice replied ot the guard; she couldn't make out what was said, but did sense a bit of surprise, perhaps. She gnawed her lower lip, tangled her hands before her, and took another long, slow breath. In... and out...
She'd been concerned - as had Torram and Cy - that the prison of all places would bring out her Third Eye ability and, like they had been at the Peaks, it was unlikely these ghosts would be kind or well-adjusted. But if there were any spirits about, Oli couldn't sense them, couldn't see them. Every bit of her being was focused on the olive brown hands that hung just outside the bars of her father's cell. She dropped her gaze to her own medium brown hands, then back, already looking for similarities. The guard smiled at her, cocking his head and gesturing for her to come closer. She did, one slow, careful step at a time.
And then she couldn't quite look at him. She looked at his feet, at the cell, at her guard... After what felt like forever, her heartbeat pounding so hard in her ears she wasn't even sure if he'd said something, she found his face. She swallowed hard, forcing herself to calm down, and then she spoke.
"Um... I'm... I'm Olive," she said, a bit shakily. She ducked her head again. "I'm... your d-daughter." |