So we meet again

"I know its just hard sometimes," Cecilia said, "I do my best to take care of her, sometimes i just have no clue what i'm doing." She sighed, "I don't want to mess up with her the same way my parents messed up with Elijah and myself. I want to be in her life no matter what, but they wanted to take her from me, Eli and Nick." Cec shook her head remembering in the hospital when she held Mollie for the first time. Even then Nick was trying to take Mollie way from her.

"I know it can be hard Cec." he said. "It's hard being a first time parents. Trust me, I know. And it can be harder for someone like you, when no one wants to help you, only take your child away. But they can't." he told her, suddenly angered by her words. Her own brother didn't think her capable enough to take care of her child. To him, Cecilia was more than capable, all she needed was help. Help that no one was giving her. And Nick, he didn't quite recognize who she meant, but he was only being a coward if he was just trying to take the girl away from her mother. He didn't see him going around acting like a real parent. If he was, he would be going around with Cecilia, taking care of the baby even if he didn't like her mother. Which it seemed obvious that he did not.

Jake wasn't exactly one to talk though. But the fact that he'd missed three years of his daughter's life was not his fault. Amara had decided to keep her pregnancy a secret from him. Had she not decided against telling him, Jake would have tried his best to be a great father for Anali. He wouldn't have tried to take Anali away from her mother, even though he knew that Amara was reckless and was anything but a suitable mother for his child. All he would have done was try his best to help her raise the young girl, so he wouldn't miss out on her life and Amara would become a better mother. It angered him that Cecilia was barely being given a chance to act like a mother without someone being there trying to take her daughter away.

"You should at least be given a chance to prove you can be a good mother, before they even think of taking your child away from you. Nick probably hasn't proven himself a good father, has he?" he asked her. "On the other hand, I can already see that you are a great mother for Mollie." he added, a smile crossing his lips.

"They said I couldn't even take care of myself let alone my child." She said quietly, "Thank you for believing in me." Cecilia didn't know how to explain Nick to Jake but she was glad that he understood that Nick was the father with out her saying so. "Nick Is Mollies father..." She said "He was drunk the night you found me, he had found me just before you had. We dated for a while but then Raphael was meant to marry me thanks o his and my parents. Raphael had disappeared for a while and appeared just before Nick remembered what had happened. He just doesn't like me.

"I think everyone deserves a chance to prove themselves worthy of being a parent before anyone decides that the child should be taken away from them." he said. "As far as I can tell, you're doing a good job with raising your daughter and Nick is just being an asshole." he said, the anger at this person he didn't even know clear in his voice. Jake didn't know anything about Nick but just by what he was hearing about him, Jake knew he wouldn't like him if they met.

They reached the restaurant they were heading for and Anali ran to the table she and Jake had sat at before. Jake followed his excited daughter along with Cecilia and Mollie, and he sighed. "Was meant to?" Jake asked. "So you didn't marry him? Did he 'disappear' again like he did before Nick remembered what happened?" he asked her softly. Anali stared at her father with wide eyes as she realized how angry he was becoming by what Cecilia was telling him.

"Daddy?" she asked quietly. "Yeah?" he responded. "Why are you so mad? Is she making you mad?" Anali clearly did not care that Cecilia could hear her and Jake shook his head. "No, not her. Other things." Anali chewed the inside of her upper lip and shrugged. "Okay." she said simply and looked at the menu in front of her.

"His parents called off the arranged marriage after they heard what Felix caused. That's why he disappeared. I haven't seen him since Mollie was born." Cecilia said quietly fallowing Jake and his daughter.
Cec was surprised at Anali's question of her fathers agitation. "I try not to make people mad. But it's hard to make everyone happy all the time." She said quietly sitting at the table with the two.
there was sadness and pain in cecilias eyes, anyone could read it on her face. But there was something else was it happiness? or was it the love she had always felt for Jake coming out to show itself once again.

"You don't seem to be making my daddy happy at all though." Anali answered in a rude tone. Jake had never seen his daughter act the way she was right now and he really did not like it. She seemed to want to make Cecilia feel bad in any way, and he wasn't going to let her.

"Anali, enough." he said, trying to keep his tone from upsetting the girl. "But - " Anali wanted to say something else, undoubtedly rude toward Cecilia and Jake finally lost his patience with the girl. "I said enough. Apologize." he told the girl his voice risen slightly and she froze. Anali looked down and said, "Sorry Ms. Cecilia."

Anali had the habit of adding Ms. or Mr. to anyone's name since that was how her mother had raised her. Jake sighed and looked apologetically to Cecilia. "I don't know what got into her." he said softly, glancing at Anali who continued to look down at her hands in her lap.

"It sounds to me like both Nick and Raphael are nothing but cowards. Although, I can't say much about Raphael, Mollie isn't his daughter and without the marriage he doesn't exactly have to stay." he said softly. "I would've stayed though. Even if the child wasn't mine." he added.

"It's Okay," Cecilia said quietly to the young girl. She had never seen Jake act like that but she could see why he had. "It's okay," She repeated to Jake with a slight nod. "You miss your mother don't you?" She asked tilting her head as she spoke to Anali. that was something Cecilia could understand, she too had lost her mother not to long ago.
"Then why did you?" she blurted out without thinking after Jake told her he would have never left. "Why did you really quit Hogwarts? Was it because you didn't like it, or was it because of me?

"Yeah..." Anali said softly, sadly, with a slight nod toward Cecilia. "I miss her a lot... But daddy says she's in a better place... And that she's happy and watching over me..." It was clear that the little girl was trying to fight back tears so she didn't cry in front of Cecilia. She had already embarrassed herself enough in front of the older girl. But the thought of her mother who was now gone made her so sad, and she didn't know if she would be able to stop herself from crying.

Cecilia's sudden outburst surprised both Jake and Anali. But the thought of her mother quickly reentered her thoughts and she looked down, wallowing in the grief of the loss of her mother. Jake on the other hand, stared at Cecilia with his eyes widening a bit. He couldn't tell her the real reason he left. But he knew she wouldn't believe anything else he said. "I didn't just like working at Hogwarts. I loved the job. I loved being able to be back in the place that had seen me grown and had been a huge part of my life." he told her. "There were two reasons I left. One because being a Beast Specialist allowed me to get closer to and study the creatures better. And second... It was because I couldn't be close to you anymore, okay? If anything had happened between us and someone found out, I'd get fired and you'd get in trouble. A relationship between Professor and student isn't allowed. Not to mention your family wouldn't have liked you being with a Halfblood." his voice was filled with sadness.

"I wouldn't have been able to handle seeing you with anyone else either..." he muttered. "I knew it would happen because you'd have to be married to someone else who was a pureblood... I didn't want to be there to see both of you together." he finished, looking away from her. Anali looked up at her father as he said those words and couldn't believe what she'd just heard him say. "Daddy..." she said softly, not even knowing how to react.

"My family has nothing to do with me," Cecilia said shaking her head. "I have always loved you." She whispered. She didn't know what else to say. "I didn't want to be with who ever they picked anyway. I Liked having the ability to chose. I just never could." she reached up and wiped just below her eye. "I missed you." She whispered looking up at Jake longing in her eyes anyone could tell what she said was true just by the way she looked at him.

"You have no idea how much that would've helped me before." he said softly. If she'd said anything to him before, he would have decided to stay and deal with any punishment he would've gotten for being with one of his students. It would've been better than having to be away from her for so long. But he couldn't change what happened in the past.

"I missed you too..." he told her. Anali shifted uncomfortably in her seat and looked at her father angrily. Jake sighed and looked at Cecilia. "We should talk about this after we eat when we go back to my house..." he told Cecilia, knowing Anali didn't like anything she was hearing.

A waiter finally came to their table and said, "Sorry for the wait. What can I get you?" Jake looked at Anali and she shrugged. "The usual for both of us." he glanced at Cecilia. "What are you going to have Cec?" he asked her. The waiter wrote down what Anali and Jake were going to have and he waited patiently for Cecilia to order.