Carter Brothers: One Shots

Dane And Emery: Passing Storms

Dane And Emery: Passing Storms

Dane rests his hand over Em's jittering knee. She's nervous. Understandably so. After all this is the first time she's meeting her father, anyone would be nervous. He himself cannot imagine what his life would've been like without his dad in the picture and maybe it's a bit different because he's male but everyone regardless of gender should have a strong male role model in their life. Em didn't even have an uncle to fulfil that position. Though now she is meeting the other 50% that made her, two and a bit decades later.

It wasn't a decision made likely and as she well should have, she took her time making it having talked to both him and her mom. Despite everything though his Honey Bee is curious by nature and this big mystery is one she can't leave unsolved. He's equally proud and concerned about her decision. How much truly can this one man do now, after all these years when she is now a fully grown woman? Dane's feelings about this man is certainly erring on the side of caution with a tinge of disdain.

"Sorry," she apologies stopping the knee and instead starting to pick under her nails.

He eyes the behavior, not bothering to stop it this time. Instead his hand on her knee squeezes in reassurance.
Abruptly, she turns to him and with pleading eyes asks, "you will be here with me, won't you?"
"Yeah, Honey Bee. I'll be right here. But I'll go get us something to drink first," he insists.

Maybe with a cup of decaf in front of her she'll have something better to refocus her nervous energy. Seeing as they're in a coffee shop, it would make sense to buy a drink even though loitering around is the norm in such places. Knowing her drink order he grabs her decaf latte while he gets just a regular. Monday afternoons aren't exactly the busiest time of the day so he's back to their booth in no time.

She greedily takes the drink, taking a small sip and sighing. Dane smiles about to sit down when he hears her name being called.
Turning around he's greeted by the man he presumes is her dad. The man has bronze colored, curly but clipped short with eyes that are a cornflower blue. He appears relatively fit but more weathered than Dane would have a thought a man his age would be.

Em quickly rises to her feet, wiping her hands on her jeans before holding out one to her father.
"I'm...Emery," she spits out settling on her name rather than any title.
"David," responds the man fitting his palm into her and folds his other hand over hers.
Dane silently notes the gesture, trying to figure out if that means the man is serious about getting to know her or not. As he contemplates this, David's hand goes straight to him.

Not missing a beat, Dane gives the man a short shake.
"Dane Carter," he states and then despite knowing the man already knows his relationship to Em, he reaffirms, "Em's my mate."
To the man's credit he meets Dane's eyes dead on and doesn't even flinch.
"So I heard," he monotonously agrees before suggesting they all sit.

Dane gets comfortable with an arm over Em's shoulders as he sips his own drink. He'd told himself he wouldn't get too involved in this. She should be allowed the curtesy of forming her opinions without him clouding that judgement with his own prejudice and spite against the man. For Dane, it's really very simple. A man who turns his back on his family with no real, good reason is not worthy of being called a man. But then again, he has 4 shining examples in his life-his brothers and his dad.
Em's only got that recently so he can understand why she may welcome David back into her life.
However, right now, despite his best intentions seeing her birth father makes him unreasonably angry and it's with great strength he has it reeled in.