HUGH LAURIE!?!?!?!??!

Lumi was out shopping in Dahlin, because where else could she possibly go shopping at? It's not like there were any other cities in Amelia. She was shopping for the basic necessities, food and whatnot, and occasionally throwing in a little gift to herself now and again.

She walked down the road, looking into the shop windows for anything of interest. It was sort of a busy day in Dahlin, and she had to be careful not to run into anybody.

John was in Dahlin for no particular reason. He was just sort of window shopping, if he spotted something maybe later he'd go back and buy it for himself or his young wife or children.

With his eyes only on the windows of the shops, he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, that's when he bumped into someone.

"Oh sorry Miss, I..." his eyes got huge when he saw who he bumped into, and whispered. "Eileen?"

As careful as she was, Lumi couldn't control how careful anyone else was, and an older man bumped into her. She didn't drop anything so it was no big deal. She was ready to just accept his apology and move on, when he called her a name she didn't recognize.

"Oh--I'm sorry, you must be mistaking me for someone else," she said politely, trying to just continue on. The man looked sad and shocked. Maybe she shouldn't just leave him there, so she waited a few moments to see if he'd pull himself together.

Of course it wasn't Eileen, what was John thinking? She had died when she gave birth to... "Tell me," he pleaded. "What is your name?"

Normally she wouldn't have, but the strange man seemed to desperate to know her name. Maybe that was an even better reason not to tell him, but for some reason she felt compelled to. "Um, Lumi," she told him wearily. "Lumi Flint."

John felt tears form behind his eyes, but he didn't let them fall. "Did you grow up in an orphanage called *insert orphanages name here*?"

Whoa. This was getting freaky. "Yes..." Lumi replied, backing away a couple of steps. If Dahlin hadn't been so populated today she didn't think she'd be sticking around to talk to this weird man.

"Please believe me when I tell you this Lumi," John replied in a shaky voice. "Luke I am your father."

Lumi stared at him. She took another step back, barely able to comprehend what he was saying. "What...?" she said in a whisper. Could this possibly be real?

"Do you," John said. "Do you believe me?"

Lumi forced herself to look him in the eye. She couldn't see any indication that he was lying, and she always knew when clio were lying. Numbly, not knowing what to think, unable to speak, she gave a single nod.

"Do you want go somewhere, to sit?" John asked.

At first Lumi was going to say "no." She didn't want to talk to this man. Her father. But the curiosity, the need to know her own history, to hear it from the source...She had to. She had lived her entire life without knowing anything about herself. She never had any family until she married Quinn and had their kids. She wanted to know how, what, why, everything.

"Y-yeah," she replied shakily. "Let's sit..."

So father and daughter headed over to Casa Nova's and sat at an outside table. A waitress came over to them to take their order, and John just ordered some plain old coffee, not sure what Lumi ordered because I'm not Lumi, but whatever.

"You're probably wondering," he said to her while looking her straight in the eye. "Why I didn't keep you."

Well if she hadn't been before, she was now. She didn't have a reply to that, so she just looked at him intensely and waited for him to continue.

"When I was much younger," John told her. "When the Eilemaiden's fought and despised each other, me and your mother met and fell in love. Normally, that would be okay, but I was Cuir, and she was Solas." He took in a deep breath, "So of course, our family forbade us to be together." He shook his head and let out a little laugh because of how ridiculous it was, "But we were in love, and tried to stay together as best we could...and then she had your brother...Rene." He wondered how his son was, if he was still alive or not. "And even though your mothers parents hated me and your brother, she still kept him, and me." He looked up at the sky and blinked back tears, then looked back at his daughter. "Then she got pregnant with you, and when her parents found out, they locked your mother away and threw your brother out on the streets. He was barely three years old...and when I found out about that, I helped your mother escape, and we ran away together...and then she gave birth to you...and she died." He sniffed, the tears hadn't come yet, but they wanted to. "I didn't want you to have the same fate as your brother, so I took you to that orphanage, and returned home..."

(He's heard about the psycho killer being locked away and stuff, but he never knew the man's name.)

Lumi looked away and blinked rapidly. She'd thought she'd been prepared to find out, but now that she had, it was just too much to take in. She managed to look back at John (let's just say he introduced himself as they walked to Casa Nova's) and felt mixtures of bitterness, sadness and pity. Although she was bitter, she couldn't help but pity John, who apparently had no idea what his son had become. But the bitterness was overpowering.

"I spent my entire childhood at the orphanage," she told him quietly, her voice thick with emotion. She didn't often think about her childhood. Nowadays it almost felt like it had been someone elses' life. That cold, loveless childhood...

"I didn't want you out on the streets," John replied. "And I was too young, too immature, I had too much grief, to raise you by myself..." The waitress had brought them their drinks and John stared into his sadly. "But you have every right, to hate me..."

Lumi could understand that, but she didn't understand why he couldn't have at least found a family to adopt her...Even in his grief, he could have at least done her that service... "I don't hate you," she told him, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice. "How can I? I don't even know you."

"You didn't grow up," John replied. "Wondering why your parents didn't want you? Growing to hate them because they gave you to that orphanage? I would have, I would have sat in there, hateful towards the clio who called themselves my mother and father."

"Of course I wondered," Lumi snapped. "I wondered why all the adults who came to that orphanage, looking for children to adopt, didn't want me. They had faces. I saw them. I hated them. You didn't have a face or a voice. For all I knew you weren't even alive. You were nothing to me." She glared down into her untouched drink.

"I should have come back for you," John replied sadly. "As soon as I had a steady job, and my own home, I should have gone back to get you, but I never did." He shook his head fiercely, angry at himself all over again. He was always so angry at himself whenever he thought about what he did. "How could I be so selfish?"

"I don't know," Lumi replied coolly. She wasn't going to tell him it was okay, because it wasn't okay. It was the opposite of okay.

John scowled at his drink for what seemed like an hour, then he pounded his fists on the table enthusiastically and said, "I want to make it all up to you, it might be too late, but if you let me, I want to be a part of your life..."

"I don't know, John," Lumi replied, because it felt too weird to call him 'Dad' or anything. "I'm a grown woman. I'm a parent myself. I don't need a father at this point." She shook her head and ran her hands through her hair. "This is all so much to take in. I just don't know."