Starcrossed

did. I won’t do it anymore, Helen.”
    “Good,” Helen said, seeing a spark in her father that she had never seen before. “I don’t want you to waste one more second of your life waiting for anyone. Not even me. My life is crazy right now and I can’t promise that I’ll never disappear again, but I can promise that I will always come back to you. I’m not going to leave you, Dad. Ever.”
    “I know you won’t,” he said as if he was just realizing that it was true. He took a deep breath and sat quietly for a moment, thinking. “Well, I always knew you were different, and I also knew that someday you were going to realize it. That’s all the explanation I’m going to get out of you right now, isn’t it?”
    “For now.” Helen said smiling warmly at what had to be the best father ever.
    “Would it do any good to ground you?” he asked with a humorous glint in his eyes as he stood up and stretched.
    “Probably not,” Helen laughed.
    She stood up and gave her father a hug. He hugged her back with more than forgiveness. He hugged her to let her know he accepted her exactly as she was—sleepless nights and all. As they walked to the stairs together a happy thought occurred to Helen.
    “You’re going to bed?” she asked, glancing over at him with a sly look in her eyes. He nodded. “I saw Kate’s car outside. Is she in your room?”
    “She is,” he said with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. “That’s why I was on the couch.”
    “You’re not on the couch anymore,” Helen observed innocently. Jerry paused at his bedroom door and turned to face her.
    “Are you going to be okay with this?” he asked seriously.
    Helen knew that if she said it bothered her he would turn right around and spend the rest of the night alone.
    “Dad. I’ve never been more okay with anything in my life,” Helen said honestly. She went into her room and closed the door firmly behind her to let him know that she was going to give him some privacy.
    Helen heard her dad wake Kate up and let her know that everything was okay, and then turned to tear up the note she had left on her desk. She flew out her window to meet Lucas on the widow’s walk.
    “Did you hear all that?” she asked when she saw the sympathetic look on his face.
    “Does it bother you?” He took the sleeping bag from the chest and spread it out for both of them to sit on.
    “No,” she said, shaking her head. “I would have told you, anyway. Somehow, it’s like whatever I’m going through hasn’t happened to me until you know about it.”
    “I know what you mean,” he whispered.
    They sat down next to each other on the edge of the widow’s walk, their thighs threaded between the bars of the railing and their feet dangling off the side of the house.
    “It’s Monday. We’ve got school in a few hours,” Helen said. “I suppose if we all stayed home it would look suspicious, huh?”
    “Very suspicious,” Lucas replied. “Besides, you’re safer in a public place. The Hundred won’t attack you in front of human witnesses.”
    “And what about you?” Helen asked, looking at her hands. “Are the Hundred going to come after you and your family now?”
    “I don’t know,” Lucas replied with a tired shake of his head. “But whatever they do, they know that if they kill one of their own kin they’ll become Outcasts, and the more Outcasts there are, the farther they are from attaining Atlantis. I think they’ll focus their energy on Daphne and Hector. And you.”
    Helen nodded, and debated whether or not she should keep asking questions.
    “And tomorrow—what should I say about Hector if anyone asks? Or Pandora?” Helen asked gently, knowing that every time she said their names it hurt Lucas a little more.
    “Pandora went back to Europe to study art in Paris,” Lucas said in a hushed tone. “And Hector is home with a nasty case of the flu for the next few days until we can coordinate a plan with your mother.”
    “I don’t trust my mother,” Helen said as she stared out at the rising sun.
    “Neither does Cassandra,” Lucas replied without looking over at her. “She thinks Daphne is hiding something.”
    “Do you think my mother is dangerous?” Helen asked. She turned to Lucas with worried eyes.
    “I think she’s entirely committed to freeing the Rogues and the Outcasts,” he answered, choosing his words carefully. “As long as we remember that, I don’t think there’s any reason not to trust her. She hasn’t