Chapter 3: 3.Happy times never last forever
3.2 Years later
'So now I'm six.. yesterday my parents did a little party between us, they are extremely protective, a while ago after much child whining I was given an headset for educational braindances, my dad actually said that I can't have any type of cyberwere at my age for two main reasons
1. Is useless for children they firstly need to grow since any type of implants don't grow with the body so
2. As I said they are protective, literally overprotective
so the past few months I was give some chips for BDs(braindances) with the history of this world and one about the introduction of the profession of ripperdoc so it's not all that bad but sure this past few years have been extremely boring '
In this timeframe Claire parents didn't bring her outside very much, being ripperdocs they knew the shithole that was night city but in the past they decided to see what their daughter will do after the BDs when Claire received the ripper chip her eyes were practically glowing, she absorbed every bit of knowledge like a sponge;
And like that they began to bring Claire at their work and like that she watched her parents work
To be fair her mom was more of the receptionist and her dad was the ripper but it was still interesting watch the work of a ripper, Claire was also around this time able to assist her father in some operations, the clients where she was assisting were friend of her father so no go with strangers yet
"Dad when can I learn more about the rippers?"
"Bunny, I'm in the middle of work right now, so in the meantime wach after today you will have some chips so you can study more ok?"
"Ok dad" said Claire rolling her big eyes, but sincerely smiling
'i didn't think having a dad was like this' thought Claire thinking about his past with melancholic look
----- Cole POV
'my daughter, my beautiful bunny, sometimes I think she is really special'
In these years Cole felt lucky to have a daughter like her, strange, clever, a little bizarre, but he knew this moments, this past few years will not be granted, he had to appreciate moments like these, a storm was coming and as a ripper he could see that storm approaching
In 2051 there was an epidemic flu, the so called 'bird flu' claimed 7000 lives and as a ripper Cole knew corporate rats had their hands in this shit show, he since the day her daughter was born swore to himself that he would protect his little bunny, so he secretly amassed a good amount of Eddis or Eurodollars, whatever you wanna call it, he saw the storm coming and so in advance he decided to live a frugal lifestyle for himself, so if in any moment he would not be in this earth anymore his wife and bunny would at least have money to live by themselves, without risking their life at least for a few years
'nobody in night city live long, and I don't think I'm an exception for this rule, bunny the city has already sucked me in, I hope you at least will leave when you will have the opportunity'
Cole wasn't an outstanding ripper he was decent, but the profession was difficult and of ripperdoc there weren't never enough in this crome plated city
And just like that in the midst of the operation on his client his thoughts began drifting
'Bunny is already 6 year's old, born in 2053...mmm... I need to speed up her curriculum on ripper studies, she isn't repulsed or scared of seeing the profession at work, and she is far to clever for a child I won't let her waste her potential'
--------- 2059~~Claire POV
' now that I think about it I never read the Cyberpunk lore and...I can do nothing about it now plus I'm a freaking child, but at least I have a dad, honestly I love my dad I don't know, I don't feel the same with my mom, I know she loves me but in my heart there was only one mom, I feel conflicted about this, but with my dad it's not like this, maybe this is the cause of me liking spending more time with my dad'
And so from the beginning of the 2059 Cole submerged Claire with study materials about rippers, human biology, medical,mechanical knowledge, crome,neural and muscular implants and much more, Cole provided a vast amount of chips each from Novice Knowledge to Professional Knowledge, all of them bought in the black market years prior her birth, it should be noted that technological advancement does not wait for anyone so a good ripper need to be always knowledgeable how to install and how new crome works
In the middle of the year 2059 exploded a second wave of the bird flu,for the common joe it was a nightmare, unfortunately this time the wave came to the Glover family, the trauma team had to come to save Camilla, Cole had to treat her daughter but surprisingly she was hit not that hard and in a span of a week Claire recovered, the problem was that for healing Camilla the Clover family had a major blow in their finances so Cole had done a hard decision, he ignored his health, and persevered eventually healing by himself but with aftereffects and so his health began to decline, albeit slowly but nonetheless steadily
In this period Claire seeing all of this, his family, the people in the streets or in the study of her dad, all of this gloominess, all of this death, emotionally she was hit hard, and so she immerged more in her studies to escape from that situation at least mentally
----2 year later 2061
In the past two years Claire began to really value her family, and resolved her emotional conflict regarding her mom, she concluded
'she is the mom of Claire not Oliver's it's stupid not thinking her as my mom, she is my mom, Claire's mom'
In this timeframe Claire dad's health was getting worse and worse with each passing month and so in the few last months of the year 2061 a third wave of the bird flu overwhelmed the city....the Glover family...was not special
The wave involved them too, Cole collapse on the third day he contracted the virus... Trauma Team...was not ... enough
His health had deteriorated too much he hid from his family how much his health was..gone
Even without the third wave only a few more years he would have lived, that dumb man if he wanted he could have avoided at least dying so early...he cold have lived at least 5 more years
-----
Claire hugging a cinerary urn, in the middle of the funerary complex cried like never before, she....
She could have accepted her death, any person death but not one of the people she loved, she was not ready... No one will ever be ready regarding this type of loss
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!!"
the screams were gut wrenching, even some bystanders had chills down their spines,
The screams and sadness of a child were never a good moment to see even for strangers, in that place they were not alone similar situations were common in night city,
In 2059 the bird flu claimed 10000 lives
In 2061 the same virus claimed 12000 lives
At a mental age of 34 Claire lost the fist important person in her life
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Hi guys as always I hope you had a good day!
I hope I have done a good job at conveying the hard feelings in this chapter, I know I didn't develop Cole as a character at all but I focused more on a Claire POV
As always report with a comment if you find any grammatical error!!