She was unsure if she was excited or nervous about this evening.  Either she would enjoy it or dread it.  Then again when had been the last time she had even seen her Father much less sat at the same table as him and had a meal.  That wasn't all though.  Claudia Vespucciano was going to be there as well, her Father's girlfriend and also partner in his new business.  So it was a woman that her Father not only worked well with, but had got him to start dating as well.  Something happened between the two that had led to that.  Ciarra hardly believed that it would take just any woman to get her Father to date again.  After all her Father had at one point said he would never date again.  Not after losing Ariella.

Time had passed since then, quite a significant amount of time.  And Ciarra didn't know her Father that well.  She spent so much time trying to impress him, just to get in his view that she never really knew what her Father liked or disliked.  There was normal Family gatherings or anything like that.  Her Father was the only family she had.  Her Father had no record of his real parents, so if she had other family there was no way of them ever knowing.  Her Father had tracked down the orphanage where he had been found but there had been no records of the people that placed him in there.  Only a story about the mysterious black haired child left at the orphanage's doorstep. 

Now things were much different.  Ciarra finally did have her Father recognize her, and acknowledged her.  He finally said all the things she had wanted him to say to her for so long.  And then things changed for both of them.  Her Father was still changing.  And Ciarra was still finding out about herself.  Maybe not a orthodox way of finding oneself but it seemed to fit in with how her Father was.  And that felt just fine to her.

After months of training out in the wilderness she couldn't help but feel someone at peace with herself with what she had accomplished so far.  Her mentor, Vane Hendric, insisted that her training was only just beginning and that she still had much to learn.  Fighting werewolves was just one way for her to find herself.  But maybe not the best one.  However, she loved her life as it was now.

Ciarra was dressed in a dark purple dress that went down just past her knees.  She had black high heels on and a black warm jacket over her.  It was probably the first time in way too long since she had gone without the weighted clothing.  But tonight was special.  She wanted to look nice for her Father and Claudia.  She wanted to tell him everything that she had been doing.  She wanted him to be proud of her.  She couldn't help but smile, it would be silly of her to think that her need to satisfy her Father would ever go away.

Entering the Burning Pot she was welcomed by the night atmosphere and was found almost immediately by the evenings head server.  Elaine Hart came up to her with her brilliant honey blonde hair, so much more colorful than Ciarra's.  Ciarra's hair was jet black, just like her Fathers, but much much longer. 

"Elaine!  How have you been?"

Elaine wrapped Ciarra in a quick hug before stepping back, "I've been great.  What about you?  You've been gone forever.  I swear you are just like your Dad.  You should drop me a line if you are going to be gone so long."

"I'll remember it next time.  Speaking of my Father.  Is he here yet?"  Ciarra asked.

"Not sure, he may be in the back.  I think he had to pick up Claudia.  But the booth for you guys is all ready.  I'm sure I don't have to tell you which one it is," Elaine laughed.

"My Father's favorite of course.  Anyway, I'll let you get back to work," Ciarra smiled back at the honey blonde girl.

"You want your usual drink, hun," Elaine asked as she started walking away.

"Yeah that's fine," Ciarra said as she watched the head server walk off towards some customers.  Ciarra made her way over to a booth in the darkest corner of the tavern.  It was her Father's favorite place to sit.  She could only assume that there was a reason her Father was partial to the darkest corners of any place he went.  She never understood it, but a part of her always wish she did.  As she took a seat she sighed as she waited for the other two in question to arrive.

There were really very few things that made Claudia nervous at this point in her life.  However, sitting down to a rare dinner with Ciarra had to be one of them.  She had heard from various friends that she should consider herself lucky that Alex's daughter was an adult as entering into a relationship where children are involved can prove to be a bit complicated.  Ciarra had always seemed to have a good head on her shoulder, still the desire for this dinner to go smoothly had caused butterflies to find their way to her stomach.

Hanging her coat on a hook near the door, she gave Elaine a small smile in greeting as they made thier way to Alex's usual spot.  Elaine had been relatively easy to get a long with.  She was loyal to Alex, but she didn't get a jealous vibe as she often did when Caroline was around.

She had never been privy to finding out exactly how Ciarra felt about her relationship with Alex.  The future was always uncertain, but if things continued to work as well as they had been she could see spending the rest of her days with him.  That meant she would also be in Ciarra's life for the long-term.  She could imagine it wasn't easy to have a new woman around, but every person was different.

Taking a breath as they approached the booth, her smile was genuine as she said, "I'm glad you could join us this evening, Ciarra.  It's good to see you."

Alex needed to relax.  To find some kind of calm in order to approach this night.  If there was anything above all else that he was unsure how to approach it was his very own daughter, Ciarra.  It was something different when Ariella had been alive.  It had felt so natural with his wife at his side, but after that it became painful.  All he saw in Ciarra was that of his deceased wife.  In the end he had only been childish and because of that he knew he had done a lot of harm to his daughters development growing up.

As much as he tried not to be reminded of all the things wrong it was something he could not ignore in the end.  Alex had not done his best to raise Ciarra.  Hell he had paid for someone else to take over.  Instead all he did was bury himself in work.  Taking on extra assignments and even going as far as to do the paperwork he avoided simply so he wouldn't have to go home.  He avoided his daughter much like a person would towards a person they hated.  Because of that...

They were here.  Claudia understood a little bit of the difficulties between Alex and his daughter.  She knew about it quite some time ago when Alex had confessed about the things he had done, and how much he had avoided his own daughter.  And also how much Alex hated how he had done what he had.  He could never tell Ciarra any of that.  In the end he just wanted to help his daughter find happiness.  But telling her how much he had screwed up with her wasn't going to help them. 

Time had passes since the last time he had seen his daughter, but seeing the smile on her face as they approached made him waver for a moment.  It was such a similar smile to that of her Mother's, and yet it was uniquely Ciarra.  Alex could tell instinctively that his daughters confidence had grown significantly, just by the way she held herself sitting in the booth.  Just what kind of training had Vane put his daughter through?  Now that Alex thought about his own time with Vane when they were in France...it would probably be better if he didn't inquire of the details.  If Ciarra was hunting down werewolves...well then her appearance at this moment did nothing to show just how much his daughter had grown as a warrior.

"Ciarra," Alex said finally with a smile.  His Fatherly instinct was to want and hug his daughter but...he wasn't sure he would ever have that right ever again.  The truth being was he felt like he didn't have that right.  "Early as usual I see."  Alex helped Claudia in to the other side of the booth and took the time to avoid eye contact with his daughter.  Good job, Alex.  Just treat her like you did when she was a trainee back in the Ministry.  Weren't you past this?  Alex mentally chastised himself but he couldn't really help it.  He still wasn't sure how to be a Father.  After all he hadn't been one to her in a very long time.

"It's nice to see you, Claudia.  I love your outfit," Ciarra commented with a smile on her face.  She really was an incredibly beautiful woman.  She had heard a lot about Claudia when she was a Auror-in-training, and most of them were not too flattering.  Perhaps it was because Ciarra heard she had been an incredibly flirty woman.  Ciarra didn't know it wasn't like she had ever seen such an event.  And it wasn't like her Father had ever been known to flirt with any woman so this pairing only confirmed to Ciarra that something had to have happened at some point to change the dynamic of the two to what it is now.

Her Father commented on her being early, "And you're not late.  I'm guessing Claudia had to do something to ensure that didn't happen."  Her comment could have been taken a number of different ways, but she meant it in jest and gave a slight chuckle looking over at Claudia.  If she had been around her Father long enough she would probably know that if something isn't an emergency he will often drag his feet.  Usually because her Father couldn't stop over thinking situations...and typically over analyzed everything.  He was somewhat paranoid in that way.

"I half expected you just to apparate into your office and walk out from the back," she added with another chuckle as Claudia and Alex sat across from her.  "I'm really happy we could have dinner together.  It's been way too long."

Ciarra meant that with every fiber of her being.  She knew it continued to be a strained relationship between her and her Father.  Even after they had cleared the air of a lot of the issues.  They still had a long ways to go to repair their relationship.  Things had moved quickly and instead of that Ciarra had ran off to train and became Vane Hendric's apprentice.  Now she was a werewolf hunter and spent most of her time tracking down wild werewolves...wherever that would take her.  It was just that right now they were in London.  But knowing Vane that could change at any time and for any reason.  If the threat was here then that just meant they would be here while there was still a threat.  But if a bigger threat appeared somewhere else then it would be time to move out.  However considering her state of dress she was counting on that not happening tonight.

"How have you two been?  I got the general rundown of what you had been doing," Ciarra eyed her Father for a moment.  She knew about the situation with Uncle Marcus and how he had been taken.  That was also why her Father and Claudia had pretty much disappeared.  Ciarra however, had been off with Vane so she had missed the whole event.  But people knew where she was...or rather who she was with and what her career was.  She wanted to know how her Father was feeling though.  It must have been a rough time trying to track down Marcus.  And even though Ciarra didn't agree with him not telling Moira about what had happened she couldn't scarcely imagine what thoughts and feelings were going through her Father.  Losing Marcus might have been just as good as killing her Father.  She wasn't sure if her Father could handle a loss like that again.  Then again...she had no idea how Claudia fit in with her Father.  They were dating...but just how supportive and close were they?  That was what Ciarra wanted to know. 

As she settled in the booth, Claudia glanced at Alex.  She had a feeling that she wasn't the only one a bit unsure how to act that evening, but she wished she could in some way make this easier.  Complicated father-daughter relationships weren't exactly something she had a great deal of experience with.  Thankfully Ciarra seemed to take it in stride, and she returned the smile...she had a feeling there was likely quite the internal monologue going on in Alex's mind.

Her hand found Alex's, the action an unconscious one at this point.  It had started as a silent show of support with the stress and strain of Marcus' disappearance and it had simply become habit.  It had been quite some time since she had truly given it any thought.

"How have you two been?  I got the general rundown of what you had been doing."

"Better, now that things are settling down again," she said.  "It's good to be home and to be able to do things like this."

She wasn't so foolish to think that the reprieve would last...it was only a matter of time before life threw something else at them.  Between the life she was now leading with Alex and Ciarra's work it wasn't a guarantee that they would all be in the same city for terribly long.

"Honestly the last few months are a bit of a blur," she admitted, glancing at Alex.  Certainly she had been involved with nearly everything that went into tracking down Marcus, but it wasn't entirely her story to tell.  Part of her felt like this was an area to defer to Alex a bit on.  It was really more up to him what they shared with Ciarra.  The last thing she wanted right now was to overstep the boundaries she was still trying to figure out.