AN: I own nothing but Amelia and Danny. This is strictly for fun and not profit.
The Last Summer
All relationships have their own ebb and flow their own structure and purpose much like the beach house and the ocean tide. Nolan and Emily's friendship is no different. They've stood side by side in battle with Grayson's; they have disagreed and fought even refusing to speak to one another.
They know each other better than they know themselves. Nolan knows when to reel Emily in and when to let the whirling dervish of revenge fly free. Just like Emily knows when to tell Nolan who not to sleep with and when to hand him a condom.
They had never really planned for what happens after the end of the Grayson's. Sure, in the abstract they had planned worldwide trips but never really thought it through completely, it's here now they are both floating at the precipice of "What's next."
He steps up on to the porch of the beach house and around the large squares of ply wood meant protect the large picture windows from winter storms.
"Ems," he calls out and runs dead on into Amelia flying from the house like a bat from hell.
His six year old goddaughter rams into him and nearly trips the both of them over the particle board. "Whoa, Millie where's the fire?" He asks as she clings for a moment then backs away.
"I need out… I can't" she hiccups and he notes the tears tracking down her pretty heart shaped face. Her dark curls hanging in her pretty sorrow filed face.
"No farther than shouting distance doodle bug." Emily said from behind her. Nolan lets her go and the girl stalks off.
"This is so much harder than I thought it would be. She's so tender hearted and hard headed all at once." Emily said letting him in the house.
"Sounds like someone I know." He said. He looks about a little saddened by the cloth covered furniture and neatly ordered filled and sealed boxes stacked along one wall of the living room.
"Daniel." She replied quietly.
"No you." He answered.
"She's having a hard time, in her opinion Daniel hung the moon and stars in the sky and now he's gone and…" sadness pulls softly at the space between her brows.
"And What Em?" He prompts stuffing his hands in his pockets as he waits.
"And I don't know how to keep her from becoming me." Nolan has no suitable answer for that so he just changes the subject. "Where's Danny?"
"Playing with the boxes in the study." She gives him a tender smile.
-/-/-/-
Having Daniel's children changed Emily and Daniel too. Nolan had been afraid that having a child with someone Emily could barely stand would have disastrous implications but having Millie was complicated and scary. It was hard and it drew the pair closer and made Emily's love for him a little more true than before.
Fatherhood made Daniel more caring and attentive, he was so determined not to become like Conrad and he succeeded. For a time Emily's revenge took a back seat to love and motherhood.
Then Daniel got sick pancreatic cancer at 35, Emily found the best oncologist in the country and bribed him to play one of the flight victims family members. In exchange for Conrad's full confession of his involvement with the initiative and his wrong doings he would heal Daniel with the best and rarest treatments at his disposal. Despite those treatments Daniel still passed on early in the morning on the twelfth of July.
Victoria warped with grief and sorrow over Charlotte's unshakeable opinion that she ruined both of her fathers, and her refusal to speak with Victoria caused Victoria to stuff herself with pills and white wine leaving the maid to find her only two weeks after Daniel's untimely demise.
-/-/-/-
"Saving the study for last huh?" Nolan states as he picks up eight month old Danny who is playing with an old issue of Voulez.
"Seemed appropriate it was my father's favorite room in the house and then Daniel's as an homage and partly because for once I didn't have the guts to do it by myself." She gently took the magazine away from the boy.
"I'll help." He hitches Danny higher on his hip.
"You always do." She replies reaching over and rearranging Danny's downy curls. "The only things I ever got truly right." She said mostly to herself
They work in companionable silence for a bit boxing up all things Daniel related. Emily holds a molded print of Millie's hand it's painted in a messy manner and well used it had housed everything from rubber bands to cuff links.
"Will they hate me when they learn their father was a pawn in a game I found was pointless too late?" She asked softly then cleared her throat.
Nolan looks back at her gingerly holding up the palm print as he puts away books. "Did he die a pawn?"
"No." Comes in simple answer as she wraps the mold in newspaper.
"Then, be honest and tell them that your vengeance started with love and ended because of love. Because of them and Daniel. That not all things are easily fixed or understood. That because your love for him was gradual it became more valuable. Tell the truth and hope it's enough, it's the secrets that broke you and David both." He said holding a copy of Anna Karenina.
Emily doesn't reply just exhales slowly.
-/-/-/-
They stand babies in tow on the gravel meets sand path before the boarded up house with a for sale sign jammed into the middle of the yard.
Nolan inhales. "What's next Revenge Barbie?"
"Bite me." She retorts as Danny tugs on the necklace holding her wedding rings.
"High maintenance females just aren't my bag sweet pea." He snipes.
She ignores the barb. "Well, as for what's next? Amelia's recital in the city, her first day of first grade and maybe that beach in Morocco for spring break, like we talked about. Come on, Millie baby, they're delivering the swing to the brownstone I promise." Emily held out her and the girl came to her side holding her hand.
=/=/=/=
"I hate to say this because I adore her and love her more than my Apple products but-"Nolan says in a whisper from beside her. Emily cut him off. "She has the rhythm of an elephant or Daniel Grayson? Yes, I know this but I find her clumsiness rather charming "She said watching her daughter falter through her ballet combinations.
"So, she's not graceful at least she's pretty and smart." Nolan returned.
-/=/=/
She sits on a beach blanket with Danny who's playing with his sand bucket as she watches Nolan teach Amelia how to surf. She kisses the top of Danny's head and looks back up to see Millie standing up on the surf board.
She turns her face skyward "She can't dance but she can surf! How about that Daniel?" She smiles to the sky.
For the first time in what feels like ages the hunger for vengeance is gone and in its place is complete and total happiness.