Disclaimer: Characters aren't mine, but the story is.

All The Way Home

Her hand covered her mouth, stifling the cry that welled up in her throat at the image before her. The feel of the cold gold band she wore touching her lip, knocking her even more off kilter as she spun and moved away from the cabin and towards her car. And all the while her mind couldn't help but scream the question at her, Was this how she felt? Was this what hare mother had felt when she walked in on them all those years before? she shuddered at the thought as she started the car and threw it into reverse, the tires kicking up dirt and gravel, as she sped away. Her mind was still screaming at her. Was this payback for the drunken one-night stands when she thought there was nothing left? Or for the affair with Ben when she just---- When he hadn't been what she wanted or needed? she amended as she shifted into drive and speed down the winding country road and away from the cabin. And that was it in a nutshell wasn't it? She wasn't what he wanted. Needed. Maybe never had been. Their whole relationship she had chased after him. Had begged for his attention. Schemed. . . and for what? Three children, one divorce, and a handful of seperations and reconciliations later what was left? she wondered as she skid on a turn.

Yanking the wheel to stay on the road she cursed as she eased her foot off the gas pedal and tried to focus on the road as realization of just how dangerous the road was set in.


Another woman had lost her life over a situation similar to this not far from here. She wouldn't allow them to make her do the same.


After all, she wasn't the first.

She wouldn't be the last.

So, she would go home. She would pack up the kids--- her life--- and move on.

Away from here.

Away from him.

And maybe she'd find herself again.

Find the woman who would've seen this coming.

Who wasn't quite so naive and clingy.

Desperate.

The woman who went into an office everyday to do spin control, or who snooped as a PI. Two jobs she had loved but had given up for him. And though the voice nagged that he had given up the chance to be Senator for her, she countered that it hadn't been a fair trade off.

He had his chosen career.

He had gained the family he had dreamed of.

A life he wanted, or at least had claimed to have wanted.

He had always known who he was, but what about her?
She loved her kids.

Could deal with her work.

But who was she?
Hell, she hadn't recognized the woman who stared back at her from the mirror in a long time.

No, it was time--- past time--- to put an end to this, she decided as she pulled into the driveway of the house they shared. She wouldn't be like her mother, or Harley, or any of the others who had stood by and forgiven the men in their lives. Why should she when he hadn't her?


And she wouldn't stick around to watch him and this mid-life crisis. Or wait for him to try to win her back if for no other reason than the children. Instead she was going to move on.

One good thing about their never getting remarried, she figured as she unlocked the door and walked into the house, was that she was free to walk away with the kids.

Free to make the changes she needed to.

And if he tried to stop her--- get the kids away from her--- he'd be sorry.

She had made Ben go easy on him during the divorce, but there were files--- things he didn't know she knew. This time she'd be damned is she would stop short of destroying him. Because this time something inside her had reverted to the woman she once was. Seeing them like that had changed her.

She wasn't Blake Marler doormat any more.


No, for the first time in years she was once again C. Blake Thorpe, and nobody messed with her without facing the consequences.

Not even the man she had thought she had loved.