"You have a nice place here."
Eric glanced around Sirena's apartment with approval, taking a seat on the couch and casting his daughter a smile. "You've done well for yourself despite everything you grew up through - shows fight."
"Well, if I have nothing else, I have plenty of determination." Sirena said ruefully, sitting down in one of the big chairs by the window. "It feels very odd, having you here, you know. But I suppose it dawned on me that I really don't know anything about you, or you about me. And it's true that it's not your fault you didn't know I was born."
"Do I detect some tension between you and your mother?"
"I don't know." Sirena admitted. "When I first signed for her company, I was her priority in a lot of ways...but it feels like the novelty has worn off for her. You know, of having a kid? I'm pushed here or there for composition - if it hadn't been for Jetta's daughter Nancy I probably wouldn't have had a lot of material to use over the last twelve months - and now she's had the nerve to say it's not critical I have a record out in the next couple of weeks. This is my career, and Michael's stability - what in hell should I do?"
"She has you over a barrel, it seems." Eric looked thoughtful, considering things carefully. "After all, you have a small boy to support."
"Yeah, and she delights in calling him my brat." Sirena rolled her eyes. "Like she wishes he wasn't even there. I'm beginning to think more and more that Grandpa bullied her into making up with me and she signed me on because I was profitable, but she doesn't actually care about what I do. She pays more attention to Jewel than she does to me...it's always been that way." She sighed. "I'm friendly with Nancy and I owe her for the music she's pushed my way, but sometimes I do wonder who Mom would rather have as her kid."
"If you ask me, I suspect the answer would probably be neither one of you." Eric said wisely. "Pizzazz was never the mothering type."
"You don't have to tell me." Sirena sighed. "But enough of that. What brings you to Los Angeles? Did you come...just to see me?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes." Eric nodded his head. "My business in Canada is taking a lull and I took the opportunity to return home...as I said before, family's been on my mind for a while now. I've always been a career man, but as you reach the age most men retire, you start to wonder what happens after you decide to throw in the towel. I realised that I really don't have anything there."
"Well, don't think you're the only one." Sirena said flatly. "Grandpa won't be there forever and Mike will grow up and leave home...I'm in the same boat as you."
"Which is perhaps why you invited me here?" Eric suggested. Sirena looked startled, then she frowned.
"Don't know." She admitted. "I was curious. I've tended to believe Mom's side of things for so long, but she never told me about Chimera, and so if she didn't tell me that, what else has she kept a secret? She would've kept me a secret if she had had her way. She didn't even bother to tell you!"
"Image is important to your mother."
"Yes. Her image." Sirena snorted. "Noone else's matters. Only her and her stupid Gabor heritage and damn music company and business empire. Everyone else can go to hell. Me included."
"You changed your name to Gabor." Eric reminded her.
"Of course I did. I wanted to belong to Grandpa's family, and even more, I wanted Mike to." Sirena shrugged. "What else would you suggest I do?"
"Am I to assume, then, that you have quite a rapport with Harvey?" Eric was curious, and inwardly excited. Harvey Gabor, he knew, was still a very wealthy man and as Sirena had said herself, he wouldn't live forever. Sooner or later Harvey would pass on, and if his suspicions were correct, his daughter would feature in the will.
"So keeping her sweet might benefit me in the long run as well as the short run." He mused, as she nodded. "Better and better."
Out loud he said,
"Where is your son, anyway?"
"In San Diego, with Grandpa." Sirena ran her fingers through her thick wavy hair. "Mom led me to believe it'd be a busy week...she was wrong."
"You miss him?" Eric did his best to conceal the note of relief in his voice that he would not have to play up to an eleven and a half month old infant too.
"Yeah." Sirena nodded. "I'm used to having him around."
Eric hesitated for a moment, considering his words carefully. Then,
"I heard about what Riot did with your contract. He always was a slick operator, even when he was leader of the Stingers. Keeping him and his companions within the law was almost as hard as keeping the Misfits under control."
"Rory Llewelyn can go to hell, I don't give a damn about him these days." Sirena dismissed this with a careless gesture. "He lost out - I was his biggest selling act."
"Which is easily proven by the speed with which you secured yourself another recording contract." Eric observed. "You evidently know how to get where you want to be...I admire that." He smiled. "I think you inherited it from me."
"Mom has it too, so maybe I got a double dose." Sirena suggested dryly. "What about it?"
"Well, I've been wondering about relocating my business back to this city." Eric told her. "Canada is all very well, but renewing my paperwork to stay there is always a bind and sometimes - like now - there's a delay in the process and I wind up rather stranded. To work in America again would be much easier."
"Mom would love that." Sirena snorted. "Having you on her doorstep."
"Well, I don't much care to have any kind of contact with your mother." Eric told her quietly. "I've done business with Phyllis Gabor and lost out. I'm not going to make that mistake again. This time I want to keep things firmly on the level."
"What kind of business?" Despite herself, Sirena was curious.
"In Canada, I run a string of nightclubs. You might remember that." Eric spread his hands. "I was hoping that I might extend the empire south of the border."
"Los Angeles has a lot of clubs." Sirena pointed out. "Won't another one be lost among the rest?"
"Well, you're right, of course, but then Toronto also has a lot of clubs." Eric responded. "And I've been fine there. It all depends on the kind of talent you field." He paused, then, "I saw you perform on television the other night...I was proud to be your father. You shone brighter than your mother ever did, out there with the fans screaming."
Sirena stared.
"You saw my concert?" She demanded.
"Of course I did." Eric lied. "You're my daughter. I wanted to know what you were doing - and I was damn impressed. You have way more talent than your mother seems to give you credit for."
"Well, we agree on something." Sirena rolled her eyes. "But there's not a lot I can do about it."
Eric looked thoughtful.
"Well, my dear, maybe there is." He said slowly. "I have a proposition for you...tell me what you think."