A/N: A short little drabble written at 4 am, some inspiration drawn from BatmansBabe's Father Knows Best (I highly reccomend it, and anything else she's written, it's fab). This is set post AWE, some possible AWE spoilers. J/E.

Embrace

A single tear reflects the moonlight; her face is bathed in the pale glow. Ghosts of her past serenade her in the night, imprints of time that had slipped through her fingers. Her father comes this night, accompanying her on her journey.

Not all is lost, he says.

She almost laughs. What is left? she wonders.

Many things.

She blinks in confusion. He smiles.

I'm proud of you, always have been. He sounds different, she realizes.

Even when…

Always, he says.

She reaches for him, but her hand finds nothing but the night air. She sighs and turns to the sea, watching as the surf drifts lazily over her footprints, erasing them. When she looks back, her father is gone.

He finds her, limp and graceless, on the beach, the moonlight still trapped in her hair. She has lost too much, in such a short space of time, he thinks, as he lifts her from the sand. She stares at him for a long moment before pulling him close to her, hoping to find solace in his embrace. He feels the gentle swell of her belly against him, feels her tears on his shoulder. Soft words are whispered in her ear. The dawn approaches.