"No. Drive at the speed you are comfortable with the conditions at hand. But letting you know, you will have better traction from the more people weight you have in your camper. I'll be behind in your tire tracks."

"What do you expect me to do as your daughter?" Macey asks.
 
"Many things which you will learn and do in time. But the most important ones are to Respect, Love, Honor, Obey and Learn. I have many things for you to learn and do, and first thing is you need to learn is - What I say you have to do. You may not agree with it, you may not want to do it but you will do it. If you don't, there will be consequences to deal with." Fernando tells her.
 
"Consequences?" She asks.
 
"Punishment." He tells her.
 
"You going to beat me?" She asks.
 
"If I must. But there are other ways of punishment." He explains.
 
"Like how?" She asks.
 
"Lets supposed you did something wrong and wanted to go to a town festival. Guess what? You're not going as part of your punishment. Or if you see something at the market you want, you're not getting it." He tells her.
 
"What do you consider something I do as wrong?" She asks.
 
"Stealing for one. Lying is another. Disrespecting others is a third. Hurting somebody to hurt them and not in defending yourself, in short, bullying, is also top on that list. There are many other bad things you can do but these will get you the most trouble. Look. If you be nice others, they will be nice to you - most of the time. There are bad people out there that will want to hurt you, and I can understand you hurting them to get away from them, but there is a limit as to what you can do. Let me do my job of father and we will be a wonderful father/daughter couple. You will be speaking to your 'older sisters' about this, but when I do not know. Everything in its time, so give it time." He explains.
 
Macey sighs as she thinks.
 
Fernando adds, "When we get to the hotel, touch nothing. In fact, go to the bathroom if there is one and sit on the toilet and wait for me. I will take our things in. After that you and I are going to take a long bath or shower together."
 
Macey's face lit up, thinking she's going to have some privileged attention. He sees her reaction from the corner of his eye.
 
"It's not what you think. You have some bugs - parasites - in your hair and on your skin, and I will be putting on special medication to get rid of them. That includes me combing out your hair to make sure the bugs are killed and taken away from your hair and skin. And then when we are done, you will put on the new clothes I will have set up for you. Your old clothes will be wrapped up until we can get them washed and the bugs off them. When I see that there are no more bugs on your things, you can wear your old clothes with your new ones. Understand what I'm telling you?" He says to her.
 
"Yes." She says as she bites her lower lip.
 
"Good." Fernando replies. He then picks up the radio, "Jeanette. If we are going to a hotel, get a good with a bathroom in each room. I don't mind if we get a large multi-room suite and we share the bathrooms with ourselves but not with the rest of the hotel guests."

"I hope Jeanette does not mess up." Fernando says to himself.
 
"Who don't mess up? Your partner?" Macey asks.
 
"You should not be listening in when I'm talking to myself." He tells her, but adds, "Yes, if you can call her that."
 
"So if you're my daddy, does that make her my mom?" She asks.
 
"No it does not. I and only I signed your papers, nobody else. It is not that I do not trust her. The problem is in the both of us signing those papers would make her your mom and my wife, and she is not my wife. The law is funny that way; so you have to be careful in what you sign your name to or else you will be stuck with a deal you did not agreed too. But you are to respect her and listen to her as if she was your mother because she is an adult who will be taking care of you when I am not around. The same with that young looking one - Hikaru." He explains.
 
"I'll listen to them." Macey says cautiously. She then adds, "Are you having sex with them?"
 
"Oh, hell no!" Fernando lets out.
 
"Huh? Why Not? They're your partner, right?" She asks.
 
"Just because they are my partner, does not mean that I'm having sex with them. For one, Hikaru is married to a friend of mine and I give her and him that respect as my friends. And as far as I know Jeanette has her own mate. And as for me, I had a mate but we broke up because of problems she was creating. So frankly I do not want to be bothered with relationships other than you being my daughter and they being my work partners." He explains.
 
"But what about... uhm... sex? Don't you need it everyday? I can give you that if you want... uhm need it." She asks.
 
"What do you mean, 'need it everyday?'" He asks.
 
Macey hesitates in thinking to find the right words, "Mom told me that men need sex all the time, everyday. And if we women don't give it to them, they will find somebody else to get it from, which is why she runs her business but she is not only one running a cat house in town."
 
"First of all, we men do not need it everyday. Men who say that are lying. There is a thing called Self Control, where both men and women do not need to be having sex or anything else they want all the time, they can control themselves in not getting it until if and when they can. And having sex all the time is not good for you either. It burns out your body at a younger age and makes you look older when you are young. Sex is fine, in fact it is great, but only in moderation - once a week or once a month depending on how each other feels. Not everyday. But any man that tells you that he needs it everyday is lying to you, because he does not need it everyday for one, and two he is taking advantage of you to give him sex all the time which will burn out your body at a young age. Sex is only for when you are up to it. And then there is Love." He explains.
 
"You mean when they tease you that you LOVE  somebody and you say you don't love them because you do not want to have sex with them and have their babies?" She asks.
 
"That's one way. But love comes in many shapes, sizes, and colors. You do not love your mother the same way you would love your boyfriend." He says giving her a quick glance. She looks heavily confused. He adds, "We can talk about that later."
 
"Yeah... we can talk about that later." She says.
 
Not since Rachel was a young girl has Fernando dealt with a girl who's mind has been poisoned by the falsehood of sex like Macey is showing now, and it took years to repair the damage done to Rachel. But he thinks perhaps things can be quicker in Macey's case as he has experience with Rachel and can handle it better for Macey, and has his other daughters to (hopefully) help her too.

Fernando does not answer as Jeanette rolls to a stop, seeing the fort in front of them and the armed guards walking up to Jeanette's camper.
 
Before the guard come to his camper, he tells Macey as he rolls own the window, "Don't say anything, not even a word. Just do as they say and let me do the talking."
 
Macey just nods.
 
A pair of guards approach Fernando's camper at either side. With the barrel his closely held rifle pointed upwards to Fernando, "Lets see some hands and faces."
 
Fernando holds ups his hands to the open window, mocking the guard, "Sorry, I only got two."
 
"You making fun of me?" The guard growls at him.
 
"I'm trying to make it funny for the girl. We found her hiding in a caravan wreckage some raiders attacked days ago, back there some 30, 40 miles. So far she has not spoken a word since we found her, so who knows what she had seen besides seeing her friends and family slaughtered." Fernando tells him, trying to distract the guard's attention on anything that might be out of  place.
 
The guard looks at the mess Macey was in and took it as a viable story. His partner looks across the camper, though Macey's window was closed. They both nod to each other before the first guard talks to Fernando.
 
"You know how it is, we only search for mutants and contraband. We do not take in highway orphans." The guard tells Fernando.
 
"You're more than welcomed to come in and look. As for the girl, we are taking her to some family she might have some where south. According to these papers, it's in Texas somewhere." Fernando takes the sealed envelope from under his leg.
 
"Texas is a long way from here. What are you doing this far north?" The guard says as his partner opens the side door and looks inside.
 
"Remember that earthquake further up north a few months ago?" Fernando asks as he puts the envelope back under his leg.
 
"Yeah." As other guards begin to gather around Fernando's camper.
 
"We were part of the rescue crew that came the south to help out. Months of searching and you only find 3 survivors in a large field of mud, broken homes and dead bodies where a whole town used to be. Nothing like finding hand sticking out the mud to remind you how cheap life is. I'm just glad we're going home." Fernando tells the guard. As the second guard closes the side door after looking about inside, Fernando throws at him, "Any good hotels and eateries here? Four hours on the road can make a person hungry."
 
"There are a few good places in the center of town. Pick and choose as you please. They all accept either gold and silver. Only those on the edge of town accept bartering. I would stay away from them." The guard tells him.
 
"Good to know." Fernando tells him.  
 
"How long do you intend to stay?" The guard asks.
 
"It depends on the ladies in the other ambulance but nothing more than over night, if that. I just want to wash up, eat and keep going. But you know how women are - three hours in the bathroom and they are no better coming out than when they walked in."  Fernando answers.
 
"Yeah, we know. Most of us here are married." the guard replies.
 
"Anything more?" Fernando asks.
 
The guard looks at the other guards and they all nod to each other, "That should be it. You're all clean. You all can go in."
 
"Thanks." Fernando says as he puts his hands on the steering wheel. Then he lets out loud enough to be heard, "I hope she does not grind the gears. I hate that noise, its like she can't properly shift."

Fernando undoes his seat belt and then reaches over and undoes Macey's seat belt, telling her. "Stay here to keep warm. I'll be outside to talk to Jeanette, then I'll let you known when to come out and where to go."
 
Macey nods at him, before he steps out of the camper.
 
He walks over to Jeanette, "OK, what's going on?"