“What are you still doing here?” Gen asked as she popped her head into Peter’s office.

“Huh?”

“Know what I like about you, Peter? Your eloquence.”

He cracked a smile as he glance down at his watch. “It’s not that late. Besides, I’m still waiting on Frank and Ashley Maxwell to get back.”

She rolled her eyes. “Do you have an ETA?”

“Well, no, but I figure there’s paperwork I can do while I wait. Follow up on some clients, figure out some new leads.”

She looked at him over the top of her glasses. “You know, I’ve worked with you security people long enough, I think I can make an educated guess as to why you haven’t gone home yet.”

“Oh yeah? We’ve been giving you on-the-job training, I guess?”

“Something like that. Mind if I sit?”

“Free country.”

She came around and took one of the chairs in front of Peter’s desk, the one Frank had been bracing himself on earlier in the day. Silence hung in the air between the two of them as Peter turned back to his computer. They both knew the reason behind his not leaving. It didn’t change the fact that he was going to try and ignore her.

Gen had raised both a daughter and granddaughter. She’d already seen the former out of this world, and onto whatever came next. She’d learned the waiting game. And the silent treatment.

Peter broke. “I talked to her at lunch about it.”

The grandmother made a non-committal noise.

“I told her it was wrong, that she shouldn’t fight.”

“Well, that goes without saying. Even if it’s some of you and your boys’ go-to.”

He sighed. “Look, she doesn’t want to listen to me. I’m not her father. What? Should I be her friend?”

She sighed right back. “I’m not saying that.”

“To be fair, you’re hardly saying anything.”

She snorted in laughter. “You need to be supportive. When she told you what happened, did you yell at her?”

“No. No, I didn’t yell.” He frowned. “Well, not really.”

She nodded. “Did you tell her you were at least proud of her for standing up for herself, and that you were glad she was okay?”

Shit. Did he? He thought back to their interaction at lunch. He frowned and shook his head. “No?”

“Look, the poor girl doesn’t have anywhere to turn. You and this pack are all she has now. If you don’t support her, who will? Lacy and I can only do so much. Sure, she’s a girl, but we’re still not like her, and you know it. She’s not human, Peter.”

“But how do I do that with approving of her almost putting those girls in the hospital? That’s what I don’t understand.”

“Well, tell her the spirit of it’s good but that her actions were what’s wrong. Standing up for yourself is never wrong, and you know that.” She leaned forward. “That’s what your pack is for, right? What you guys are for? Standing up for yourselves?”

Peter sighed. “But she won’t come out with us, Gen.”

“Have you even gone hunting with her? One-on-one?”

No. He hadn’t. And Gen knew it, because he would have told her if he had. He just sighed.

“Why not?”

“Well,” he began, squirming as his chair suddenly became very uncomfortable, “she didn’t take me up on the invitation to run with the pack, and so I just thought she didn’t want to run with any of us.”

Gen shook her head.

“Look, I extended the invitation, but she didn’t take it.”

“So you expect her to want to meet five older men by herself, and go running around the woods with them?”

“You just said she’s not a normal girl–”

“She’s still sixteen years old! And you guys are all intimidating! Do you remember what you were like when you were sixteen in the boys’ locker room? Wondering if you were big enough, or strong enough? Don’t you think she’s thinking something along the same lines?”

He went to open his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything say. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” he said finally.

“How much have you talked to her about all this?”

He looked away as Gen sighed.

“Just let her know you’re there for her, Peter. Bend over backwards to make yourself available, and Mary will come to you when she’s ready.” She got up to leave, paused at the door. “And part of that is going home at night.”

He groaned, wiped a hand down his face. “Yeah. I get it.”

“One last thing,” Gen said, popping her head back in. “You’re a good pack leader. Your boys respond to you and they respect you because they know you have their back.”

Gen left him alone in the office after that. She bustled out through the office, said goodnight to Lacy, who was still working on debugging the cell phones, and headed out the front.

Peter sat there alone, stewing. He definitely wasn’t going to get adopted father of the year. He laid his head back against the headrest of his desk chair and groaned to himself.

Maybe that was the problem. He was trying to be a father to her, when she was still grieving for her own natural one. But Gen was right. He still had to be there for her. He finished cleaning up his work and shut down the computer. What she needed was a pack leader. And he could be that, if she’d let him.

It was Lacy’s turn to pop her red-and-blue-haired head in. “Everything okay, boss man?”

“It this International Bother-Your-Boss-About-His-Feelings Day or something?”

She took a step back, hands in front of her. “Whoa! I don’t give a flying whatever about your personal business, dude. I just heard Grandma giving you a hard time and figured you’d wanna know your phone is good to go so you can head out.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m just—Mary’s giving me problems, that’s all.”

She snorted. “Yeah. I remember pulling that.”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Maybe. Shoot.”

“You were a screwed up kid, right?”

She gave him a lopsided grin and snorted again. “You could put it that way, I guess, if you weren’t being tactful.”

He smiled. “Sorry,” he repeated. “It’s just, how did you end up being half-way decent?”

Lacy shrugged. “If I knew, I’d tell you. Just, for some people it clicks, some people it doesn’t. Grandma Gen did the best she could. She loved me, and made sure I knew I was loved.”

He nodded and flexed his jaw.

“So, do you?”

“Do I what?”

“You know, love her? Make her feel loved?”

“I care about her, if that’s what you mean.”

“Close enough, I guess. That’s more than a lot of kids get, you know? What happened with her? Gen wouldn’t say anything to me about it.”

“She beat up three girls. Two Stephanies and, uh, someone else. I don’t remember.”

She grinned. “Three? Good for her.”

He shot her a look.

“Oh, come on,” she said, giving him a look, “you can still be proud of the kid, even if she did something stupid. Especially when she’s so tiny!”

He laughed. “To be honest, I was actually kind of proud. Just a little.”

“Then tell her. Don’t reward her anything, but say something, at least. Let her know you got her back, that you’re still on her side. It’s tough being the new kid.”

He nodded. “Yeah, okay. I will.”

“Now get out of here. I’ll call you when Frank and his client get back to the office. I wanna take a look at this girl I’ve been trying to hack for the last four hours.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, pulling himself up from his seat and swinging his suit jacket on, “I’m going. Worse than your grandma.”

“Well, she was a good teacher.”

He grabbed a file and went to leave.

“Nope,” she said, crossing her arms. “You can take it with you when you come back later. But not now. No work.”

“Oh, come on! I thought I was the boss around here!”

Lacy laughed. “Just for tonight. Go and talk to the kid, try to get through to her.”

He hesitated. “Fine.” He tossed the file back on his desk and shot her a look as he headed out of his office. “Happy?”

Lacy grinned. “I’ll call as soon as I see them.”