"I am not a child anymore, Pacey. You can't just expect me to stay one forever, you know."

Pacey sighed as he eyed the 16-year-old girl before him. Her intense blue eyes were settled on his, the brows raised in a slight bemused gesture. She was not backing down.

"Yes, I realize that," he replied, fighting to control his voice. "But in the eyes of the law – as well as mine – you are still a minor. And as such, I do have a right to make your decisions."

Mera McPhee gave an exasperated sigh, and rolled her eyes. "Pacey! You are being totally impractical. I'm telling you I want to go on a date with this guy – not marry him or run away together."

"Ah yes my dear," he replied. "Maybe not just yet. But give the boy time. Before I know it, one simple date will turn into impure thoughts and then the two of you will be running off to Vegas to say "I do" before the eyes of Elvis, and…"

Mera couldn't help but laugh. No matter how angry she was about whatever – Pacey could always make her laugh. It was like a talent he had, something she remembered about him growing up. He could always take the most intense, most frightening situations and turn them into something laughable.

"Ah-ha! See, see? You are already plotting this travesty. That little laugh of yours…"

"Hey – how can I ever run away with him if we don't get that first date?" Mera asked, pseudo-mockingly.

Pacey winked at her. "My point exactly." When he saw the look of discontentment cross her face, he quickly added, "I mean, I don't even know who this boy is, what his name happens to be…"

"Vartan. Vartan O'Reilly. He's 16, too, his dad…"

"…is Rick O'Reilly?" Pacey supplied. If so, things were not in his favour. He knew Rick, who was a friend of his brother Doug's. Both men were on the Capeside Police squad, and – much as he hated to admit it – damn good cops at that.

"Yeah," Mera replied, her tone changing. "Does Doug know him?"

Pacey nodded, grumbling as he did so. Rick and his son had recently moved to Capeside after his wife's death. The two lived on the water, a small home not far from his own.

Though somehow, between his own job, Mera's busy life, and the time he tried to spend away from his genetic family – Pacey had only met Rick once, never his son.

"So … is it okay? Is Vartan alright by your standards, seeing as though Doug'd never be friends with anyone shady or anything…"

"Mera … it's not a question of this boy's safety level. Boys his age are all the same – they all have one thing on their mind, and will do and say anything to get it."

Mera snorted. "You don't know Vartan, though."

"No, but I once was him."

"Yeah, and my mother's parents let you date her."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Mera regretted them. She had known her entire life about her mother's life – and death. Pacey wasn't her real father, but after her mother's death, she had come to live with him here in Capeside. She had been 2 at the time.

She was curious about her past, and her mother's short 23 years of life. But even though Pacey often liberally spoke of Andrea McPhee – Mera had learned to judge his moods.

She knew that her mother had dated Pacey in their teenage years, but they had broken up shortly before graduation. Her mother had then moved away, and the two had lost contact.

That was until five years later, when he had run into her in Providence. Her sick mother had asked Pacey then to look after her daughter if anything were to happen. And it did.

Mera had virtually no idea on her father – if she even had one. Pacey never openly spoke about him, and the few times she had brought it up, Pacey had gone silent and closed up like a clam. Mera just made her own mind up.

She had decided her father had left before she was born, not wanting a child. That her mother had dealt with this because she always knew that her true love would return. And he had.

Mera knew her mother had been in love with Pacey Witter. She had entrusted to him her most valuable possession – her daughter.

So on this Thursday evening, when Mera was caught in a teen-angst fueled argument with Pacey – she had spoken without thought.

Soon as mention of Andie McPhee was out, Mera knew she had lost. Watching Pacey's expression grow somber, his already puppy-dog eyes droop further, she knew she'd spoken at the wrong time.

"All I meant was…" she tried to reverse the damage.

"Mera," Pacey began, quietly. "I understand sometimes you may feel that your life isn't fair. And that's because sometimes it just isn't. When your mother … when you came to live with me, I had given your mother my word that I'd look after you. I know I'm not your real father, I know that sometimes I'm not even a good father. But I try. I loved Andie. She meant everything to me, and as such so do you now. You may not understand this now, or want to believe it – but I am doing the best for you."

Mera was far from convinced, but she decided to let go – at least temporarily. She could – and would – always try again later when Pacey had had time to settle down. Maybe then…

"Fine," she said, turning on her heel to leave. Something made her turn around for one last look. "But Pacey … you were wrong. You are my father. You're the only father I've got – you're all I've got. Thank you."

As Pacey watched her leave, his heart clenched. Mera had always been a daughter to him.

From the day he had brought her home – fourteen years ago – she had been his. With her beautiful honey-blonde hair and blue eyes – she was a spitting image of her mother.

Andie. God, how he missed her. She had been his first real teenage love. The two had met one summer, when Andie had moved to Capeside with her brother Jack, and their emotionally unstable mother. She had been sixteen, him almost there.

A relationship that had begun as sparring had turned into much more. And he still remembered – and cherished every memory he held of Andie. Their first kiss at the waterfront the night of the high school dance she'd forced them to attend. Her helping him to pass tests and eventually graduate from high school.

But they had rough times too. Andie had fallen victim to the same mental illness that had consumed her mother. Her father, wanting the best, had taken her to an institute for the summer – and she had returned changed.

Her moment of betrayal had changed everything. Their relationship had never been the same again. They'd graduated together – but apart. Andie's mother died soon after, and she had disappeared.

It wasn't until 5 years later, when they were 23 that he located her. He'd been on a "fun" trip to Providence with his then girlfriend Lecey and her friends when he had run into Andie.

She had been there all along. She met and married Ralston Mackey – a high roller's sheriff's deputy, and all around moron. He had soon realized that Andie was not happy. Ralston was physically abusing her – and their 2 year old daughter Mera.

Andie's sad tale ended dramatically. One morning Pacey had shown up to take her and Mera away – and had confronted Ralston himself. There was a struggle, and Andie was shot in the crossfire. She had come to Pacey before her death – an out of body experience, he had supposed – and told him to take care of Mera.

After her death, her will confirmed this. Ralston was nowhere to be found, and if he had been, he'd be facing jail time. His family had not wanted "the child" and Andie's surviving members were not available.

So he'd gone to collect 2 year old Mera the morning after Andie's death. She was an incredibly intelligent little girl. She knew who he was "cuz Momma always talked on you", and willingly made the trek to Capeside with him months later.

Their life together was reasonably relaxed. In record time, the courts gave him custody and she became his daughter.

Feeling he owed her something, Pacey had told Mera that her mother had died of a "prolonged illness". He'd hated lying to her, and felt as she grew older, she should know the truth. But he could never tell her. He could not destroy her life by telling her that her mystery father had been around, that it was he who had killed her mother. He was the illness. Pacey just loved her too much to destroy her that way.

And he saw no reason to. As she grew, Pacey knew that she did not have a bone of Ralston Mackey's in her. Upon her adoption, Pacey had gotten rid of the Mackey behind her name, leaving just the McPhee. And she truly was one.

Even now at sweet sixteen, she was a normally bubbly girl. She had taken on committee after committee at school, had a best friend named Jeff (who was a girl) and dutifully did her homework each night.

Yet so much was she like her mother, that Pacey often grew worried. In his forced upon role of father, he'd become quite the mother hen. He worried about bullies at school, he worried about drugs and alcohol. He worried about the mental illness that had seemed to be genetic between Andie and her own mother. And he worried about boys.

Knowing that many years earlier, he and Andie – at 16 – had been sexually active did nothing to calm his fears. And now that Mera had begun discussing boys and dates, he had cause for concern.

He'd made a promise to the out-of-body Andie the day she had died. And he would stop at nothing to keep it. To keep Mera safe.

Upon entrance to the school, she had subconsciously seeked him out. The front doors opened to a long bank of lockers, assigned on the first day of the classes that year. But because he had moved somewhat mid-semester, he'd simply been assigned an empty spot. Next to her very locker.

Casually, as if she were going to her own locker for books which – in fact – resided in her backpack, Mera slipped in beside him. Almost immediately, he turned to face her, a half smile played on his lips.

"Hey Mera."

Mera looked up, trying to muster an appearance of mock and surprise.

"Oh, hey Vartan. Ready for Bio?"

He snorted. "Oh yeah, the highlight of the day for sure. Why does one strain of fruit flies have red eyes, while their counterparts are black?"

Mera laughed. "Those, and many more questions are answered on today's edition of Bio Quiz, with your host – Mr. McGregor!"

If there was one thing Mera could honestly say about Vartan O'Reilly (though she could say many) it would be that he was always making her laugh.

In fact, that's what had brought the two of them together in the first place. Vartan and his father had moved to town only a few months earlier, and though Pacey's brother Doug spoke often of their new deputy and his young son – she had never paid attention. Over the years she had gotten used to Doug's ramblings about new deputies. In his eyes they were either complete failures, or they were real winners. Rick O'Reilly had been fortunate to fall into the latter of the categories.

The day she'd met Vartan, Mera had been in a super bad mood. She had made plans with Jeff for the evening prior – only to have them broken when she'd been coerced into babysitting for Pacey's friends' Joey and Dawson's children. Dawson had been called to Hollywood – some faux paux with his new film. And Joey had previous committed herself to a top notch charity event.

On any other day, Mera would have been ecstatic to watch the kids – but not when she had made other plans.

So that day following had been one full of frustrating bad luck. She had forgotten about a short math quiz, a number of questions in her English text, and had missed Jeff on the early morning ride to school.

Lunch period had only seemed to compound the horrid day. She had been standing in line at the cafeteria, about to load a tray of pink Jell-O onto her tray, when it had tipped. From behind her, she felt a body fall heavily into her. The tray had clattered to the floor, spilling its contents every which way.

She'd turned around, ready to ream out whoever'd caused this catastrophe, when she'd seen him. Tall, blue-green eyes wide with embarrassment, brown hair curling slightly at the ends. When his eyes met hers, she had immediately changed her expression.

"Oh, god…" he had begun. "I'm so sorry. I … uh, I'm such a klutz sometimes, and I…"

She had shrugged. "No problem."

When she bent down to retrieve the contents of the lunch, he'd gone with her. Picking up lettuce leaves, he'd quipped,

"Well, I suppose if you wanted a tossed salad…"

Since that day, she had kept running into him throughout the school. It was their third meeting – discovering they were locker neighbours – that he'd introduced himself.

"Vartan O'Reilly," he'd said, quickly adding, "that's what happens when the French marry the Irish."

"Mera McPhee," she'd supplied, immediately. "And I think I've met your father."

She had gone on to explain how her "uncle" Doug had introduced her to Rick O'Reilly on one of her visits to the 'cop shop'.

Over the next few weeks, she had joined him for lunch more than once. Jeff was busy with the cheerleading and pep squad tryouts, and she often spent lunch working. But Mera hadn't minded. It gave her more time with Vartan.

They had both been unusually forward with their pasts – and how it had affected them. When he'd told her his mother had recently died – she had told him much as she knew about her own mother. And how she'd come to live with Pacey here in Capeside.

So far, though, their relationship was mostly plutonic. When Jeff's busy social life allowed her free time, she hung out with Mera and Vartan. She liked him as immediately as Mera had – and had no problem with sharing her best friend with him.

Mera hadn't actually thought anything of her friendship with Vartan until Jeff had brought it up one evening.

"Seriously, Mera," she had said. "He totally digs you."

"What?!" She'd done her best to appear shocked. "How can you tell?"

"Oh, it's wicked obvious." Jeff had outlined the 'obvious' signs. "Well, he looks directly into your eyes when he talks to you. And when he's talking about you, which – trust me – he does, his eyes light up unnaturally."

Jeff – ever the romance expert – had assured Mera that Vartan most likely wanted to ask her out, but was simply waiting for the right time to do so. She also figured he was intensely shy.

So it was on this belief that Mera had many times unsuccessfully attempted to broach the dating topic with Pacey. The night prior she had finally managed it.

"Mera?"

She snapped back into the present.

"Sorry," she shook her head.

"Late night?" Vartan shot her another of his adorable half smiles. "Out raving it up, gallivanting with Jeff Cavanaugh from party to party, hoping…"

"Stop!" She said, through peals of laughter. "You know that isn't true. I was looking after Dawson and Joey's kids, and trying to study. And avoid Pacey as best I could."

Vartan caught the sudden downshift of her eyes, and lowered his voice.

"Is everything alright?"

She shook her head, heaving a loud sigh. "Yeah, I guess. He's just – argh! So overprotective that sometimes it really gets annoying."

"I guess he cares, though." It was Vartan's turn to lower his eyes. "I mean, my dad's an awesome guy and all. I guess that this work's just … busy. I kind of wish we could spend a bit more time together."

"Sucks," Mera said. "Pacey's overprotective, and your dad's under protective. But Pacey's just silly about some stuff, I mean…" she took a deep breath, deciding within 2 seconds to just go for it. "Like dating. Pacey seems to believe I'm "too young" to even consider dating. But the thing that makes no sense is that he started dating my mom when she was 16. So I don't see the difference."

"Yeah." He forced a cough out, downcast his eyes, and lowered his voice. "'Cuz, I mean … I was going to ask if you wanted to see a movie tomorrow. Maybe. I mean, even a matinee…"

"With you?" Mera asked, voice high, then realizing Vartan may misinterpret the question. "I mean just you?"

"Well … I mean … if Prince William and Princess Mia Thermopolis already have plans…"

She laughed nervously. "You know, I'll bet they do."

He shrugged. "Guess it'd just be us then. Would that be … bad?"

"No!" She nearly shouted. "No, that would be fun."

"But Pacey…" he said, quizzically. "I don't want to go against anything he's said, or offend him or anything."

"I'll talk to him again today," Mera replied, reassuringly. "I'm sure he'll change his mind."

"Cuz if not, I could always stop by and ask him myself. Make my intentions clear…" as though realizing what he was saying, Vartan began to laugh. "God, listen to me. I should like I'm asking for your hand in marriage."

"Pacey said you wouldn't. Said we'd just elope…"

"What?"

Mera blushed. "Nothing. Just Pacey being overprotective again. I can totally talk to him again, let him know…"

She trailed off, spotting Jeff down the hall, bee lining their way.

Vartan turned, spotting her at the same time. "Oh, well … here comes Hurricane Jeff. Better let her talk to you before she destroys more barns and cattle. I'll see you, Mera."

With that he left, leaving her standing slack-jawed at the lockers.

By this time, Jeff Cavanaugh had made her way over, and was immediately talking. "Was that Vartan? What'd he take off so sudden for. Like a freaking bat outta hell there."

"Hey Jeff."

Jeff eyed her best friend. "What's your deal today?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "Or better yet – what's your deal tomorrow? I was thinking maybe we could check out the new matinee downtown, maybe…"

"Jeff, you are a genius!" Mera broke in. "You're an absolutely genius!"

"Thanks, but … huh?"

"A movie tomorrow. Perfect." Quickly, she summarized her discussion with Vartan and hoe he'd asked her out. "Great stuff … only Pacey doesn't want me "dating" yet."

Jeff smiled. "Ah, I see where your mind's going, you little devil. If I come along for the ride, you can tell Pacey it isn't a date, just a friendly outing with two of your chums, smart girl."

Mera smiled to herself. Maybe, just maybe she could pull this off."