"Why am I still here?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

Not to me apparently. The question I posed to Alex hours ago still remained unanswered. With my prodding and much assistance from Alex, Casey was convinced to take a nice soak in the bathtub. At first she was wary of either of us touching her unclothed body. I was hoping that was just modesty and not a sign of more traumas she had suffered at the hands of her incompetent and unloving mother. After cleaning off all of the dirt and grime that had accumulated over the obvious many weeks without a bath, Casey was fast asleep in one of my big t-shirts on one of the beds in the hotel room. Alex was perched next to her, gently caressing her hair, obviously still in awe at the beauty of his daughter.

I sat outside on the small balcony the hotel room provided. I preferred being outside, especially since a scent strikingly similar to Kyle's was wafting through the air every so often. Though we had hardly been separated long, I missed him so much. I figured it must have been the hard goodbye, the fact that we didn't know when we would see one another next.

I felt Alex's presence behind me on the balcony.

"How's she doing?" I asked.

"Good," He answered coming to stand beside me and gaze out at the heavily wooded land our room faced. After a few moments of silence he fluidly turned towards me with a look of awe on his face. "She's so beautiful isn't she?"

I nodded. I was still a little torn as to why I was with Alex. I thought there was a purpose in my coming, but it seemed everything that had been accomplished so far could have been done fairly easily without me. My boyfriend was hurting while I was sitting in a hotel room with a man who had seriously undefined intentions toward me.

"Crystal wouldn't have given me Casey without having seen you," Alex finally said.

I studied his expression. When Crystal had come earlier to sign the papers, Casey had cried and cowered in a corner and it had taken nearly 20 minutes after Crystal's departure to coax her from the fetal position she had assumed. Crystal had thrown many knowing looks in my direction, looks I didn't understand.

"What's so special about me?" I asked.

"I had a…reputation, Lib," Alex said hesitantly.

I narrowed my eyes at his deliberate wording. "What do you mean reputation?"

He raised a perfect eyebrow at the growl in my voice. "Let's just say that I was never without a girl."

"Never?"

"Never," He confirmed. "If I had come alone, she wouldn't have given Casey to me. She would have seen that I had changed and that having Casey would make me happy. For me to be happy is pretty much the last thing in the world she wants. Since she still thinks I live the same lifestyle, she thinks Casey is going to become a burden to me."

At this point he looked inside the room towards his sleeping daughter.

"She'll never be a burden to anyone ever again," He stated softly.

I let him sit in silence for a moment before saying what was foremost on my mind. "Now what, Alex? What am I supposed to do now?"

He gave a grim smile. "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

I had opened my mouth to ask what he meant when I heard several howls. Though still distant, they were much closer than they should have been.

Alex's gaze jerked towards the noise. "Pack your stuff. Time to go."