The (Alternate) Stranger Series
"What if Gwen had contacted Alexander Cambias about her pregnancy with Maggie and Frankie and he returned to help raise them. What if when Alex returned to help Gwen raise Maggie and Frankie his relationship with Michael improved while his relationship with AJ, Alexander Junior (Zach) deteriorate.
When Alex returned and married Gwen what kind of relationship would Maggie and Frankie have with each other and their older half-brothers? When he went back to Gwen would Alex have given up his career to raise Maggie and Frankie with Gwen? Or would he have learned how to balance building a business empire while still being a loving father?
What if Gwen and Alex relocate away from Green Bay. Would Maggie and Frankie have ever met Billy Allan that day in the park?
If Alex returned and Gwen never started to drink or abuse Maggie and Frankie would Frankie ever travel to Pine Valley to con Erica? If Frankie didn't go to Pine Valley to help Vanessa con Erica and gotten in with her crazy aunt then Maggie never would have gone looking for answers in her murder and neither would have met Bianca Montgomery. Or would they?
Would Michael still attack Erica, Kendall and rape Bianca or would he have never even followed in his father's footsteps because Alexander gave up his career aspirations to raise Maggie and Frankie with Gwen? If Michael didn't follow in his father's footsteps, and tried to destroy the Cambias name, would he have ever met Kendall and returned with her to Pine Valley? If Michael didn't meet Kendall and move to Pine Valley would he ever find his way to Pine Valley?"
Title: Don't Talk To Strangers
Author: Megs
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from All My Children. I do however stake a claim to the story they are being borrowed to star in.
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: This is the second story in The (Alternate) Stranger Series. It takes off from the idea that Alexander Cambias did return to Gwen and helped raise Maggie and Frankie. This story focuses on whether or not Alex would have given up Cambias or if he'd learn to balance being a family man and a business man. In this story the relationship Michael has with Maggie and Frankie, as well as Alexander and Gwen, and the relationship AJ (Zach) has with everyone is talked about. As well as whether or not Frankie and Maggie would have met Billy Allan if they were to leave Green Bay.
Plot: Gwen and Alexander Cambias decide it is time to relocate their family. Michael already in college and now that Alex is off in the world not speaking to them, Gwen and Alex can focus on raising their twin daughters Mary Frances (Frankie) Cambias and Mary Margaret (Maggie) Cambias.
Part 1 of 1
-August 14, 1989-
-Green Bay-
The sun is high in the sky by the time the movers finally arrive. Gwen is sad to say goodbye to the old place but it is time to move on. It has been nearly eight long years since Alex returned to her. She is grateful everyday they are together for the gift of his presence in her life and their two beautiful children.
Gwen waits on the porch, the morning heat warming her skin as she sips at her iced tea. Inside the house she can hear the scuffling of furniture being moved around along with the sound of groaning men as boxes are dropped atop the carpeted floor just inside the doorway. The weight of the packed containers shaking the foundation of the deck as each one is stacked atop the next. She had been inside attempting to supervise but the longer she stayed in the house the more uptight she became and the girls were feeding off of her frustration and causing a great deal of trouble.
Alex had gently insisted as he touched both of her shoulders, that she take the girls outside to play while he supervised. She hadn't wasted a moment. She'd grabbed both girls hands and rushed out of the house and told the girls they were welcome to play in the yard while she relaxed on the chair on the porch with a glass of ice tea.
With a smile Gwen looks out into the front yard and sees two strawberry blonde children digging in the dirt. Their identical faces rapt with concentration and covered with dirt smears as they search the yard for worms. Conversation easily flowing between them and only occasionally do they slip into the language that the two of them alone can speak.
Gwen remembers a time where their language used to worry her, she feared they'd rely heavily on their shared language instead of English, but Alex and several doctors assured her that twins often times had deep connections and created their own languages that they'd only speak with each other.
Gwen wonders for the hundredth time in the last hour what her two daughters could possibly find so fascinating about worms. For some reason or another they have become fascinated with the slimy creatures.
Gwen shivers in disgust at even the thought of the small boneless dirty vermin.
Though she can't help but smile at the thought of how Michael had collapsed in laughter when she jumped out of her chair in fright as her two daughters placed the slithering slimy vermin in her hand, presenting the nasty buggers to her like a gift. Alex did his best to remain stoic to the scene. Gwen would not admit it, even under threat of torture, but it had been funny. So she couldn't blame her dear husband for giving in and laughing along with his then crying son and snickering daughters.
It was the scene of familial bliss.
Sadly AJ hadn't been present to enjoy in the scene. Not that Gwen expected him to be present for any familial moment. Gwen didn't really blame the young man. He had taken it hard when Alex left his mother Amelia for her. It was only natural for AJ to despise the home wrecker she was. Amelia…well Gwen tried not to think about the older woman much.
She had been a sweet woman by all accounts.
Gwen had never actually met her and before she knew it she could never meet her. The slick roads on a hill in California making sure of that.
AJ was devastated when Amelia died.
He wouldn't talk to Alex and Gwen was fearful of what he would do if she even tried to approach him. She was, after all, seven months pregnant, and did not misjudge the look of hatred in AJ's eyes when he looked at her. So, fearing for her safety and the safety of her unborn children, she stayed away. She put the olive branch out to him but wasn't surprised when he slapped it back in her face.
After all he was only five years younger than her.
It was a thought that disturbed her on occasion. She wasn't surprised when others were far more disturbed to know that Alex was twice her age and his children were closer in age to her than she was to him. The stares and whispers had stopped after the wedding though. For the most part. There are after all, always going to be brownnosers. But no matter the whispers or the stares Gwen was not going to give up her man. Not when she had only just gotten him back. It was touch and go there for the first two years of their relationship.
There were times in those first two years where Gwen wondered what they had been thinking and what they had smoked to actually think that they could make things work. AJ wasn't talking to them and had disappeared without a word.
Michael was acting out and doing horrible in school and getting into fights around school.
Maggie and Frankie both were colic babies and Alex still hadn't figured out how to be a devoted businessman and family man. All the while she was trying to keep up her GPA and work at least three shifts at the local elementary school.
It was a compromise she had made with Alex when he returned to her during her fourth month of the pregnancy. She wouldn't work at the bar while pregnant and after the babies were born would start school only when she was ready. Alex offered to pay for her schooling but she wasn't going to be some kept woman. She appreciated Alex trying to help her, but she wanted to make her own way.
So, with her resume and a bright smile she had gotten a job at a local grammar school as a teacher's aide. They only had free daycare for fulltime employees. So, she only worked their part time and Alex made daycare facilities available in every single one of his companies. At that point there were three headquarters; one in New York, one in Paris France, one in Canada and a temporary headquarters in Green Bay.
His image as a ruthless businessman slowly began to change as he stemmed off on his long hours in the office and spent more time at home with her and the kids.
Then, as their third anniversary rolled around things began to look up. Alex was home every night for dinner and his relationship with Michael drastically improved. Michael's relationship with her and the girls improved as he grew closer to Alex.
Michael actually spoke to her without scowling and his grades picked up. He joined the wrestling team and could fight without getting into trouble all he wanted. His coach had high hopes for him even as Michael showed an interest in becoming a police officer.
The girls were perfect angles—for the most part—for the next two years. They skipped right over their terrible twos and went right to their horrible fours. Except now she was a fulltime teacher at a nursery school and went to night classes while Alex took the girls to daycare at his office.
Michael showed less of an interest in his little sisters as his high school career continued and he grew five inches and bulked up. He quit the wrestling team and joined the basketball and football teams.
Alex was aglow with pride for his youngest son as he bloomed into a spectacular athlete and began to show a genuine interest in business. Michael, like his father, had an aptitude for business. Michael always kept his grades up and Gwen can't help but smile at the look of shock on his face as he opened his acceptance letter to Iona College in New Rachelle, the school offering him an academic scholarship rather than an athletic scholarship.
Still, Michael missed his older brother, especially during times of crisis when he couldn't ask his father about dating and was too embarrassed to ask her anything. She smirks at the thought of how Michael had quietly come into her office one afternoon, his head ducked low as he stood in the doorway afraid to come in any further.
Maggie and Frankie were playing in the corner and the moment they saw their older brother rushed over to him and begged him to play with them. He did, he sat down on the floor and helped them solve the puzzle they had been working on in the corner of the room. As the three solved the puzzle together he brought up how to ask a girl out on a date.
It was the cutest thing Gwen had ever seen. A teenage boy of 18 sitting with his legs crossed as he sat on the floor playing with his five year old sisters, sporting a deep crimson blush, asking his stepmother how to ask a girl on a date.
Gwen did her best to help him and he thanked her one afternoon after coming home from school with one single yellow rose. The girl had said yes. He said that he was lucky to have her in his life and he kissed her on the cheek, blushed, and then scurried away. She hadn't cried in front of him. She never would cry in front of him, but later that night while wrapped up in Alex's arms she cried. She cried happy tears at finally being accepted by her husband's youngest son.
Gwen knew that AJ would never accept her, and that stung but she would live with it. She had to because she was not going to leave Alex and no matter what she did she could not give him back his mother.
Today though she won't worry. Not today. Not moving day.
A lifelong dream of leaving Green Bay for greener pastures is about to come true. A dream Gwen knows is only coming true because of Alex and his dedication to making all of her dreams come true.
With a fond smile Gwen thinks of her husband.
Her eyes falling to the wedding band on her finger and like it has for the last six years her heart fills with love for the man that slipped it on. For always striving to make her dreams come true and being a loving and devoted husband and father along with thousands of other reasons, she loves him with her whole being.
Her Alex. Her Old Man.
"Mom!" Gwen looks up and over the railing to see Frankie rushing up towards the porch.
"Mommy can we go to the park?" Frankie asks hopping from one foot to the other bubbling with excitement.
Apparently they are done searching for worms.
"Yea…pwease mam?" Maggie pleads, her smile marred with her two missing front teeth.
"Hmm…let me see what you're father and brother are up to."
"Okay…" They both smile, assuming that this means yes and rush into the house uncaring as they drag what has to be pounds of dirt into the house.
For once Gwen doesn't scold them. Let them make a mess of the place. It's not her job to clean it up anymore. They have another house waiting for them in the heart of New York. Gwen, refused to move to California. Too hot…she had insisted. She needed to live where it at least snowed once a year.
So, needing to be somewhat close to one of his headquarters Alex had researched prominent areas in New York with available teaching jobs and good schools for the girls, but that was also close enough to HQ's that he wouldn't have to travel a great deal. He'd found one.
After talking about it with the girls and Michael—who was already attending college in New York—they had bought a house in the small private community in Queens and were leaving on the private jet as soon as the movers got their belongings to the airport.
"Daddy…!" Frankie and Maggie called out as they raced through the front door and bobbed around and through the movers in their search for their father.
"Dad!" Gwen smiled as she heard Alex's muffled 'umph' as he was tackled by his speeding children.
"Can we go to the park, please daddy can we? Please…?" Frankie did most of the begging, letting Maggie look up with the puppy dog eyes that Alex always gave in to. He was just an old softy when it came to his daughter's and the two munchkins knew it.
"What did your mother say?"
Gwen can't help the smile that lights across her face as she leans against the doorframe that leads into what used to be the master bedroom. He's learned in the years since coming back to her that he should never give an answer to either of the two hooligans' demands without consulting with her or inquiring about her opinion. They're only seven and Gwen can hardly win an argument against the two.
"She said to ask you." Maggie pipes up as she shuffles her feet while standing to the side of where Alex has Frankie wrapped up in his arms. "We want to go and play before we leave. We won't be able to soon…"
Gwen has to give it to Maggie. Her baby girl knows just the right cards to play to get the sympathy card from her father. Frankie, on the other hand, hasn't exactly mastered that art.
"Yeah…what she said!" Frankie pointed to Maggie and looked up at Alex with a bright hopeful smile.
Frankie's more about doing things first and asking questions later while Maggie has to wait and think about everything that might happen before she does it. And again…this is them at seven. Gwen can't wait to see the two of them as teenagers. It promises to be an adventure.
Gwen looks up when Alex clears his throat pulling her attention away from her baby girls. She sees the question in his eyes and she can only shrug. "How much longer do you think it'll take?"
Alex looks around the practically empty bedroom, there are only three boxes left in the room. "Maybe an hour or two." Alex confirms as he hears the movers walking about their home picking up and dropping off boxes full of the items they had collected together in the last eight years.
"Where's Michael?" Gwen questions as she looks down the hallway but only sees men in dust covered shirts down the hall.
"He was in his room last I checked." Alex admits after thinking about it for a moment. The unasked, why left unsaid.
"Girls…why don't you go ask your brother if he'll take you to the park."
Both Maggie and Frankie look up at their mother with matching bright smiles. It's only a moment more before the two disappear in twin blurs of strawberry blonde hair, their voices screeching as they call out their brother's name.
Alex raises a brow at his wife as she steps into what once was their bedroom. Sans the bed and nearly every item except three boxes of clothing that has yet to be packed into the waiting truck outside.
"What was all that about?" Alex asks as Gwen closes the door and locks it. His grin slowly curving as Gwen stalks towards him, the sway of her hips and the look in her eyes telling him exactly what that was all about.
"That was me getting rid of our children for an hour or two."
"But what about the movers?" Alex asks even as he puts his hands on Gwen's waist as she kneels down beside him on the floor.
"What about them…?" Gwen asks her lips brushing against Alex's neck his stubble tickling her nose.
"Nothing…nothing at all…"
"Michael…!" Frankie and Maggie yell as they rush into their brother's room and stop short when they see him. He's lying on the wooden floor fast asleep, a magazine covering his face as he snores.
Frankie looks to Maggie with a gleam in her eyes that is returned by Maggie. They move as one and jump onto either side of Michael's side, screaming out their brothers name in their attempt to rouse him.
What?" Michael shoots up from his makeshift bed and looks to his right and then his left and groans before falling back onto the floor. His sisters at either of his sides laughing at him. "Jesus…Squirts you two are evil."
"We are not." Frankie protests.
"We are a…cute and…"
"Charming." Frankie looks from Maggie to Michael her smile big and bright.
"Yeah…I guess that too…" Michael rolls his eyes as his ruffles both girls hair and listens to their protests as they try to fix their shoulder length strawberry locks. "What do you want?"
"Dad said you have to take us to the park." Maggie only nods in support of her sister's statement.
"He did huh?"
"Yep." They both echo each other and he wonders which ones cuter. Frankie with her dimples or Maggie with her missing two front teeth.
"Well, if it gets me out of packing….come on."
The girls squeal as Michael lifts them up into his arms and carries them under his arms out of his former bedroom and towards the front door. Their delight squeals making each of the packers and movers turn to the siblings with a warm smile.
Michael might even find a nice young woman babysitting her younger siblings while they're there. Michael is not ignorant. An older brother taking his younger sisters to the park always attracted the ladies to him. So, with only two hours left in Green Bay he might as well have some fun.
Once at the park Frankie and Maggie rush to two empty swings. They did their duty. They staid by Michael long enough for an older girl to come over and start to talk to him. When he smiled at the older girl they both looked at each other around the two icky teenagers and rushed out into the park. They never told their parents that Michael liked to talk to strangers.
They knew better than to talk to strangers. Well, now they did.
Mom and Dad had told them strangers could be mean and they didn't like mean people, so they didn't talk to them. It was better that way because the one time they had—they hadn't known about the rule to not talk to strangers yet—Mom and Dad had gotten really mad at them and at Michael for not paying attention to them. They didn't see the problem because the woman was just looking for her daughter and they'd pointed her in the direction of the jungle gym where they'd last seen her. But they were children and they often times didn't understand adults because how were they supposed to make friends if they didn't talk to strangers?
"Not too high…" Maggie and Frankie hear Michael call out from the concrete in front of the swings. He doesn't like sand so they're not surprised that he doesn't come into the play area of the playground.
They roll their eyes at him and his worrisome big brother attitude. He always worries for no reason just like Mom and Dad. But Mike is after all an adult now. He says so all the time. He turned twenty this year and is in college.
That makes him an adult and Frankie and Maggie don't understand adults. Not really.
They know that he wants to be a lawyer. They don't know what a lawyer does but they know that their Uncle John is a lawyer. They also know that Mom was proud of Mike for wanting to be one and Dad was sad, but only for a little while. Then he was happy and Mike was happy and they went out to Mike's favorite restaurant to celebrate. They were allowed three scoops of ice cream! They decided that they liked Mike becoming a lawyer.
"I'm going to go on the slide!" Maggie exclaims suddenly her mind moving from her brother to the tall metal slide off at the other side of the park.
Frankie looks over to the tall slide with the big kids sitting at the top of it talking and then back at Maggie. Frankie's legs still swinging back and forth, bringing her higher, even as Maggie's legs have stilled and her swing is slowing down. "I'm gonna stay here."
Maggie shrugs, "Okay." Maggie jumps off her swing even as it's still moving and rushes over to the tall slide.
Maggie laughs, eyes closed and hands thrown up to the sky as she slides rapidly down the silver big kids slide. Frankie had been too scared to come down with her. She said she was afraid of heights, but Maggie knows better.
Frankie climbs trees for fun, so it wasn't the height.
It was the kids at the top of the slide just sitting there smoking. Maggie hadn't been scared. She was too excited to be scared. She walked up the stairs with her head held high.
There were more stairs for the slide than there were to get to her classroom on the second floor of her school!
She had smiled at the older kids as they looked at her. She said excuse me, like Mom and Dad taught her, and they moved out of her way without saying anything. She had stood at the top, holding onto the bar and stuck her tongue out at Frankie, teasing her sister.
Then, with a swing, she threw herself down the slide and laughed joyfully.
Instead of stopping at the bottom, her small legs being unable to touch the sand underneath the slide, she flew off the end right into another small body.
The two groaned at the initial hit as they crumbled into a mass of small limbs.
"What the hell?"
Maggie quickly jumped up at the exclamation and stood next to the boy she had knocked over.
"I'm sorry…" Maggie whispered as she watched the boy get up. He was about a head taller than she was and had brown hair and green eyes behind his too large glasses.
"What's your name?" He asked tilting his head to the side.
"Maggie…" Maggie never told anyone her real name, because they just laughed at her. Unless she was with Mom or Dad. Then she had to say her full name.
"I'm Billy…" He smiled as he dusted the sand off of his arms.
"Nice to meet you."
Billy nodded his head and bashfully smiled back, "Yeah, nice to meet you too."
Frankie walked up behind Maggie to see if she was okay. She had seen the two fall and the boy get up and tower over Maggie. If he did anything funny she was gonna kick him. No matter how much trouble she would get in with Mom. Dad would only smile behind his hand and then clear his throat to cover it up before scolding her. Michael would help her kick the boy, so she didn't worry. She could still see him talking with the tall girl on the concrete by the parents' benches.
"You okay, Mags?" Frankie asks as she looks at her sister and glares at the boy standing before them. If her sister had any scrapes or bruises her mother was going to kill her, thinking it was her idea to go down the big kids slide without her here.
"I'm okay…" Maggie insisted to her sister before looking at the boy she had knocked over. "I'm really sorry…"
"Your twins…cool." He smiled at the two girls. He was missing his two front teeth too. "I'm a twin too."
"Really!" Maggie asks excited. She hasn't met anyone that had a twin before. After all she was only seven.
"Yeah, but we're fat-ner-nal…"
Maggie raises an eyebrow as the boy had a little trouble saying the word.
"A fat a what?" Frankie asks with a bored expression.
"You know…I don't look exactly like my sister cause we are fat-ner-nal."
"Oh…"
Maggie nodded her head, not understanding but that was okay. She'd ask Mike or Dad about it later.
"Billy are you okay?"
Maggie looks up to see a concerned girl as tall as Billy rush up to him and check him over, much like Frankie had with her.
"Barbie, I'm fine."
Frankie snickers slightly at the nickname that didn't fit the brunette girl at all. Maggie smacks Frankie right in the gut causing her sister to double over slightly as she hisses. "What was that for!" Frankie whisper yells at her sister as she held her stomach.
"Be nice!" Maggie hisses back as she looks at her sister.
"Fine, whatever…." Frankie rolls her eyes and turns back to the siblings with a smile.
"It was an accident." Maggie supplies as she looks at the taller girl.
"Sure, you should be more careful though." The girl said with the same attitude Frankie often said things with.
Frankie looked at the girl with a smirk; she suddenly liked the girl but didn't like how she was picking on Maggie. She was the only one allowed to do that. Well, Mikey and she were the only ones allowed to do that.
"Hey…!" Frankie steps up to the taller girl. "My sister said she was sorry. It was an accident. Maybe your brother should watch where he's walking."
The older girl's face turns red. Billy moves towards his sister while Maggie moves quickly towards Frankie. Both siblings trying to keep their twins from becoming physical.
"I'm sorry, we are gonna go." Billy admits sadly as he tugged on his sister's arm. "Come on Barbara!"
"That's right you better…"
"Frankie!" Maggie pulls harder on her sister.
"What's going on here?" Maggie and Frankie look up to see Mikey standing before them with the tall girl. Mikey moves to kneel in front of them and see if Maggie is hurt. "Are you two okay?"
The two nod and look down.
"What about you, you two alright?" The girl asks the fat-ner-nal twins.
"Yes Candy…"
Frankie smiles at the sad tone in Barbie's voice and snickers again at the name. Candy and Barbie…Frankie all of a sudden doesn't mind her name so much.
"What did I tell you about picking on the younger kids?"
"B-But…she hit Billy."
"What?"
Mikey looks to Frankie immediately and she throws her arms into the air. "It wasn't me!"
"It was me. I knocked into him. It was an accident." Maggie admits as she looks to her older brother hoping he'll believe her.
"Hey…it's okay Squirt." Michael comforts as he wipes away the lone tear from Maggie's cheek.
"Yeah…" Billy nods as he looks up to his older sister. "It was an accident."
Candy seems to relax even while Barbara stomps her foot and then storms off. Candy watches her sister leave so she knows where she is before she turns back to Michael and the twin girls beside him. "I'm sorry about that…"
"Don't worry about it…" Michael runs his hand though his hair and sighs. "It was an accident."
Candy nods and hearing Barbara's frustrated cry as she hits something on the other end of the park she stands up, Billy standing by her side looking at Maggie with the same bashful smile. "It was good talking to you."
"Yea…it was." Michael whispers to Candy's retreating back.
"Bye…Maggie." Billy waves as he holds his sisters hand and follows her to go look for Barbie.
"Bye…" Maggie waves back and turns red when both Frankie and Michael look at her with matching smirks.
"Maggie's got a liwwtle crush…" Michael teases as he gently pushes Maggie's shoulder. His sister's face turning even redder.
Frankie smiles the entire way home, not even upset that they left the park early because Michael continues to sing the Kissing song with Maggie and Billy's name in it the whole way home. Once they get home Maggie runs into her room and closes the door and Michael and Frankie share a high five before they both go to apologize.
"Come on Squirt, we can't leave her in there all day."
Frankie makes a show of sighing and dragging her feet, "Oh, alright…"
Michael looks down at Frankie in the corner of his eye and sees Frankie looking up at him the same way. He smiles brightly as he reaches down and pulls on Frankie's shoulder until her other shoulder his bumping against his hip as they continue towards Maggie.
For not the first time Michael is happy that his father found Gwen.
It upsets him to know that he had to break his mother's heart to find happiness but after he left his mom was happy too. They were happy away from each other. He was only thirteen and he didn't understand it then but now as a young man of twenty he understands that the life he had wanted to cling to wasn't worth holding onto. Not when both of his parents were so obviously miserable with each other. It pains him to know that Mother died only so soon after finding happiness away from Father.
He's glad though, that he didn't cling onto that unhappy life like AJ.
If he had then he wouldn't be here, walking besides his smiling little sister to go and comfort his other sister, whom he had just teased to the point of becoming a tomato. He wouldn't be a big brother that loves his little sisters even if he teases them both to no end. He wouldn't have grown close to Gwen and learned what a funny, sarcastic and intelligent woman his stepmother is. He wouldn't have gotten close to his father. He wouldn't have seen the loving and gentle man that Alexander Cambias could be.
"Maggie…" Frankie calls out against the closed door. "…come on Maggie…we're sorry." Frankie tries but fails to keep her snickers in.
"Come on Squirt open up. It's time to go…"
They're leaving the house that they've lived in for seven years but not the home.
Michael had feared that when his Father sold the house, the home they had finally found would break apart with the simple signature on a piece of paper.
He shouldn't have worried. Gwen wasn't about to let him or his father go. Not now. And he was grateful.
They might be leaving the house but the home was traveling with them. The home he found in his new family…his bigger family…was all Michael needed.
"Go away…" Maggie calls out from the other side of the door.
"Aww…come on Squirt…I was only kidding." He tries but Frankie's continuous snickering isn't helping him plead his case.
"Istal brent astl mibtls, Maggie."
Michael squints at the brown of the door as Frankie starts talking to Maggie through the door but he can't understand what she's saying.
"Yeah…uh…" Michael scratches at his blonde stubble. "..what she said."
Maggie's laughter filters through the door and the two siblings hear as a lock gives way and the door opens.
"Michael, Girls…?" Alex shouts from the bottom of the stairs.
The three siblings look at each other and then down the hallway towards the stairwell.
"Yea…" They all call back.
"Come on, the cars here." Gwen calls out as she sticks her head around the corner of the stairwell and sees the siblings standing in the hallway. "Come on slow pokes. Time to go."
"Okay…" Maggie and Frankie both rush towards their mother, their excitement about moving to New York palpable as they push past Gwen and run down the stairs.
Gwen turns to walk down the stairs but stops and turns to Michael. "You coming?"
Michael feels his breath catch at the welcoming smile gracing his step mother's face. "Ye…yeah." He nods his head and follows her down the stairs.
As they walk out of the house Gwen grabs his forearm and they both stop on the porch at the sight of Maggie and Frankie jumping all over Alex. Frankie is hanging over his shoulder while Maggie is held under his arm her legs the only thing Gwen and Michael can see as they thrash and laughter rings out into the afternoon air.
Gwen clears her throat and Michael watches as his father stills before looking up at her with a bright smile that is mirrored by his sister's. It's the 'I know I'm in trouble but it wasn't my fault' smile.
"Uh huh…right. Put them down."
"Yes dear." Alex complies and puts Maggie down and then flips Frankie over his shoulder and places her on the ground, his hand on her shoulder as she wobbles around for a few moments, dizzy from being flipped.
"Now, in the car. The three of you."
"Yes, mom."
"Yes, dear." The three turn to the car as one and get in, Alex helping the girls into the limo before turning to the two remaining members of the family.
Michael watches as his father helps Gwen into the car by taking her hand, placing a kiss to her knuckles as she dips into the darkness of the limo after her children. His father follows Gwen in, but halts much like Gwen had on the stairs and turns to him.
"You coming Son?"
Michael feels his heart tug at the love shinning in his father's eyes. "Yes…" Michael moves to the limo aware that even if he is an adult he will always be a child in his father's eyes and he wouldn't have it any other way.
Michael knows, as the limo pulls away, and the Squirts are talking animatedly about their time at the park Gwen and Alex riveted on their words, that he wouldn't give this life up for all the world.
Not for all the world.
THE END