Growing Up McGee

The Tragedy - Chapter 10

Morgan and McGee got up early the next morning, awaiting the arrival of the Fieldings. Morgan stuffed a couple more things into her backpack before going downstairs for breakfast. Before she entered the kitchen, she put a smile on her face, trying to make a little light of the situation. She walked in to find her Dad sitting at the island drinking a cup of coffee.

"Morning!" She greeted, causing him to turn around in surprise.

"Hey." He responded, a confused expression plastered on his face. He hadn't expected her to sound, well, happy. "You're up early."

"Yeah, I had to pack a couple things." She told him, grabbing a yogurt cup out of the refrigerator. "I hope they have yogurt cups over there. I haven't gone a day without one of these in weeks."

McGee chuckled. "Even if they didn't, I don't think it would put them out too much to get some. They have too much money to function."

"That's not a bad problem to have." Morgan added, taking a bite out of her yogurt. She looked up at her Dad, who was staring off into space.

Morgan knew that he wasn't trying to ignore her, he just had a lot on his mind. The next three months would probably be harder on him than her. She knew that she wasn't supposed to be worried about him, he was a grown adult and he could take care of himself. But, she couldn't help but feel guilty. She didn't do anything wrong, she knew that. However, ever since the accident, she had felt like a burden. He had been so concerned about her this past month, so the least she could do was worry about him.

"You okay?"

McGee seemed to snap out of his thoughts for a moment, to see his daughter looking at him with concern. The answer was no, but he couldn't tell her that. Every time he looked at her, he saw that little girl who refused to wear anything except her pink princess dress. He knew that she wasn't that innocent anymore, especially after the events of the last couple months, but he couldn't bear to tell her the truth.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He looked at his watch and saw that it was a quarter until eight. "You better bring your stuff downstairs. They could be here any minute."

Morgan only nodded and headed upstairs, a little upset that he wouldn't open up to her. He had promised that if she talked to him about her problems, he'd talk about his with her. That was the deal. She let out a sigh and lugged all of her bags downstairs by the door. Once she recovered from dragging a duffel bag and 50 pound suitcase down the stairs, she strolled into the living room and sat down on the couch. She pulled out her phone to scroll through Instagram, but she found herself looking around the house, taking everything in. She thought about all the memories they made in the house, to the extent that she felt a familiar sadness take over. It always came when she least expected it, like a tidal wave of emotions that had been dropped at sea to be forgotten. However, eventually, they would come back to shore to haunt her.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard a harsh knock on the door. Not a second later, her father emerged from the kitchen to open it, revealing the Fieldings. Mrs. Fielding wasted no time walking in, with her dark blue suit and cat eye sunglasses.

Morgan could feel her gut churning. She knew her grandparents weren't going to do anything to harm her. That would cause them to lose custody. But she still felt like something was off about the whole thing. Mainly because getting custody of her came with no benefits.

Did they want a child to show off at their fancy rich people parties? No, they could always adopt. It would be much easier than going to court. Plus, adopting a child would always look better on their image than taking their grandchild away from her father. Her thoughts were interrupted by the clicking of Mrs. Fielding's heels.