Fic Title: Family Business
Author: April
Fandom: McLeod's Daughters (Claire/Alex, Tess/Nick, Meg/Terry)
Feedback: Yes, please
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All usual applies. I own none of them (unfortunately).
Summary: Revelations take place after Claire & Alex return from the city.
Warnings: inferred main character rape in later chapters
Author's Notes: 'You Don't Know Me' is not mine, it's by Michael Buble & SEVERAL others. Neither is 'Mary's Song' mine, it's by Taylor Swift. Thanks to Becky & Asta for all their hard work. ;)
CHAPTER 1
Tess Silverman looked around the party, taking a sip of her champagne. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Claire had been in such a good mood lately that she'd allowed everyone to have half a day off and the girls had thrown Jodi a little spa party first, just the sisters, Jodi, Becky, and Meg. She could remember her own twenty-first like it was yesterday. It had been one of the best days of her life, but she wished that Claire had been able to be there…and Nick. As if he could read her thoughts, Nick appeared out of nowhere, putting his arm protectively around her. "Penny for your thoughts."
"Quarter. Inflation." She teased. "Everyone looks so happy."
"They do," he said, smiling as he watched the way Alex was holding Claire close to him, smiling down at her. Finally admitting that they were head over heels in love with each other had done them both good. "Where's Dave?"
Tess took another sip of her champagne before putting it down on the table nearby. "We broke up. He…he couldn't handle it." She had been terrified over the possibility of having cancer like her mother, but what had made it worse was that Dave hadn't been there for her.
Nick looked down at her, not able to pretend that he was sorry. He'd never liked Dave, not for Tess. She deserved so much more and to leave her now, when she was so scared of dying like Ruth had, was unforgivable, in his book. "His loss."
She smiled slightly, the strains of a Michael Buble song beginning. You give your hand to me. Then you say hello. I can hardly speak my heart is beating so and anyone can tell you think you know me well, but you don't know me.
He held his hand out to her. "Dance?"
No, you don't know the one who dreams of you at night and longs to kiss your lips and longs to hold you tight. Oh I'm just a friend. That's all I've ever been 'cause you don't know me.
She had been watching Claire on the dance floor, so close to Alex, so obviously in love. She was happy for her sister and her friend, but part of her longed to have that closeness, that familiarity with her best friend, even if the thought of it scared her to death. She almost didn't register his question but, once she did, she smiled, looking up into his eyes. "I'd love it."
I never knew the art of making love though my heart aches with love for you. Afraid and shy, I've let my chance to go by the chance that you might love me too.
She felt his arms go around her, holding each other close, moving together. She felt so safe here with Nick, loved, cared for. At times like this, neither could remember why they hadn't worked out. She'd convinced him that he could overcome his scars, the heartbreaks of his accident and of being raised a Ryan. He had been the one who'd been there for her every step of the way, even as she'd suspected her cancer until now, after she'd been cleared.
You give your hand to me and then you say good-bye. I watch you walk away beside the lucky guy. You'll never, never know the one who loves you so. Well, you don't know me.
Nick felt Tess's head on his shoulder as he held his arms around her waist, so close that he could hear her heart beating, hear her humming softly under her breath. He had been in love with Tess from the first moment he saw her and, try as they both had, his feelings for her had never stopped. She looked up at him and, seeing the look in each other's eyes, they kissed and didn't let go.
You give your hand to me, baby, then you say good-bye. I watch you walk away beside the lucky guy. No, no, you'll never ever know the one who loves you so. Well, you don't know me.
The song had always been so sad to Claire, always reminded her of her relationship with Alex. She'd been in love with him for as long as she could remember, since they were kids. She'd tried to forget, tried to move on with her life, assuming everyone else always took precedence. She gathered that Alex also knew the feeling of the song, since he'd told her he'd been in love with her long before the pregnancy, before their partnership. She was just glad that, this once, there was finally a different ending to the story.
"What?" Alex asked, looking down at her, thinking along the same lines as she was. He knew he was lucky to finally have her and had made a promise to himself never to forget it. She, BOM, were miracles in his life, something he had never believed in, at least not for him.
She smiled, reading his thoughts, taking his hand, slipping away from the party with him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they walked towards the house. "Jodi looks like she's having a great time."
Alex nodded. "Yeah. So does Tess."
She smiled, having seen the same thing he had. "Good for her." She paused. "Dave left her. Couldn't handle the waiting, the worrying…He left her now, when she needed him most."
He knew she was thinking of Peter. Their relationship had started with a lie, trying to protect her and Charlotte, but it turned out to be the best thing in the world for all three concerned. "One of us should go check on Charlotte."
"I will." She paused. "Jodi got a letter today…from Jack." He looked at her strangely. "It must have been written before he died, of course, but…" It had been strange, seeing her father's writing on the envelope. "She wants Tess and me to open it with her. I'll check on BOM then."
He nodded. "Right." He kissed her cheek and she moved his head so that he kissed her lips, smiling as he pulled her closer.
"Stay…after the party." He nodded, nuzzling her neck softly, finally letting her go, watching her walk into the house. It was rare that he saw her wearing a dress and, although she always looked good to him, it was a special kind of beautiful then, like on Meg's wedding day or Jodi's bachelorette party.
Tess finally broke the kiss, touching Nick's cheek, their foreheads touching. "I have to go…" He looked at her, expecting her to do another runner. "Jodi got a letter from Jack, wanted Claire and me there when she opened it." She paused. "Will you be here?"
"Right here." She kissed him again, slipping out of the party as Alex came back in.
Jodi Fountain sat in the office chair, Claire on her right side, Tess on her left, Tess' hand on her shoulder. Her hands were trembling as she opened the letter, wondering if maybe she shouldn't have allowed her mother in anyway. The reason she had allowed Claire and Tess was that it was one of the last remaining new discoveries of Jack and she felt they should have a part in it, as he had been their father. She read quietly to herself, feeling Tess study every word and Claire struggle not to let how interested she was in what her father had to say show. Jodi read the letter two or three times to herself, not understanding at first, then not sinking in, then the words sinking in all too well. Claire was gone out of the room, the door slamming open, before Jodi could even fold the letter up again and slip it perfectly back into the envelope. For once, Tess was the one rendered speechless and Claire was the one who had far too many words.
Meg Dodge was standing on the other side of the door, worried, terrified, that Jack would tell Jodi the truth, that after all these years her secret would be revealed. Her fears were more than met when she saw Claire's expression when she stormed out of the room. "Claire!"
Claire doubled back and answered without thinking, "How could you, Meg? All this time?"
"Claire…"
"I mean, it was never any secret that you two were having a fling, but how could you not tell me this?! Especially after Tess…" She still remembered the pain she'd felt when her sister had been jerked away from her at such a young age. "To not tell me I had another sister!"
Meg looked like she'd been slapped. Before Claire could say anything more, Charlotte began to cry and Claire went upstairs to her daughter. Tess came out of the room, still speechless, and saw the crowd that had gathered that both Meg and Claire had been oblivious to, Terry, Alex, and Nick standing at the front. She connected eyes with Alex and Nick, Nick nodding, breaking up the scene, and Alex hurrying upstairs to check on Claire. Meg walked into the office where Jodi was crying, not knowing what else to do. She hadn't wanted any of this. Her life had been mixed up as it was; Meg had been the only constant in it. The man she'd thought was her father had left when she was a baby, Terry was great to her mom but he wasn't her father, not really. And then to add Jack onto that seemed too much.
Alex opened the door to the nursery, watching Claire rock Charlotte, tears in both their eyes. He hated to see either of them cry, but could understand why Charlotte did: she was hungry, tired, wet, didn't feel good, or, like now, frightened. Usually there was something he could do. Claire's problems were never as easy to fix. He remembered when Peter had broken her heart, how depressed she'd been, how much she'd cried. He had never seen her cry after Jack's death, but he knew she'd been depressed over how much she'd lost. Most of the time she was like him, kept going, kept moving through it, thinking it would fix itself or go away…it was very rare that Claire cried. For some reason, this news about Jodi was as painful as his own paternity had been for him and he knew there was nothing he could do but be there for Claire, just as she had always been. He didn't speak, just stood in the doorway, watching his family.
Meg walked outside and saw Terry waiting. "Is Jodi okay?" He asked quietly.
"She wouldn't talk to me, wanted to be alone." Her heart hurt that her daughter was hurting, that she had caused Jodi any pain, but at the time she and Jack had both thought it was better the girls not know the truth. She'd trusted him not to tell, had no idea he would still cause this much trouble even after his death. "Terry…" She felt she owed him an explanation, although it was long before they'd been together.
"Claire'll calm down." He knew she had always considered Claire and Tess surrogate daughters, just like she finally had Becky as well. "And Jodi…" He didn't pretend to understand, but he knew somehow that he couldn't walk away from Meg or from Jodi. They needed him and, like always, he would be there.
"Terry, the whole town…" She felt like she'd been exposed, like everyone knew all her dirty laundry. "And the girls…" Like with Alex with Claire, he couldn't comfort the woman he loved, just held one of her hands in each of his own, letting her cry without harsh words or looks of condemnation, something he knew she would get more than her share of later, given the vast amounts of witnesses to what was no longer Jack and Meg's little secret.
Jodi was asleep in the shearer's quarters with Becky, Claire and Alex were upstairs with Charlotte, and Terry had taken Meg back to the cottage by the time that Nick finally came in the house. He went upstairs to look for Tess, finding her room empty. Charlotte was asleep and the door to Claire's room was closed. He went back downstairs, finally spotting a shred of blonde hair on the floor behind Jack's desk. He knelt down to the floor, wincing from the pain as he did.
"What are you doing down here?" He asked Tess, noticing that she was still wearing her dress from the party.
She looked at him from underneath the desk where she just barely fit. "When we were little, Claire and I…we used to hide here. In Jack's office. Especially when he and Mum were fighting. Nothing bad ever happened here. He…he made it safe. He made us safe."
Nick knew the feeling. When he'd lived at Killarney, even as an adult, whenever he was feeling bad, whenever Harry was making life unbearable, he'd had hiding places from when he was a boy that he went to, places he could feel at peace. "Everyone has a safe place, Tess." She nodded. "I'm sorry…"
"Jodi was born two years after we left." She paused. "He and Mum used to fight all the time. But I don't think it was about Meg. She loved her…or maybe Claire and I did and I was too young to know the difference."
"Or maybe nothing was happening, Tess. A lot can happen in two years." She nodded, thinking back how much had happened the last two years of her own life. "Are you okay about Jodi?"
"Claire knew Meg and Jack were having an affair. She must have." She thought back about the words that her sister had said. "Why didn't she say anything? Why didn't Jack tell her Jodi was our sister?"
"People around here aren't exactly big on the truth regarding paternity," he said, sighing, thinking of his mom and Alex, Claire and Charlotte, now Meg and Jodi. "What you have to think about Tess, is if it changes anything or not." She looked at him. "Alex is still my brother. I don't care if Harry, Bryce, or the stork fathered him." Tess cracked a half-smile. "And Charlotte is still my niece. It doesn't matter the way I look at them. Does the fact that Jack fathered Jodi make any difference at all in the way you see her?"
Tess was silent for what seemed like eons before finally answering. "No." The truth was that Meg had felt like a mother, Jodi and Becky like sisters, since long ago. DNA changed nothing, not in her eyes. Like Alex and Nick, they'd been through too much to see them as anything else, regardless of DNA involved.
"Then tell her and Meg that. Help them. Help Claire." He couldn't imagine how badly his friend must be hurting. She and Jack had been more mates than father/daughter, especially during her adult years.
Tess nodded. "Where is everyone?" She asked, giving him her hand, allowing him to help her stand.
"Claire's upstairs with Alex. Becky took Jodi to quarters. Meg and Terry were walking towards the cottage last time I saw them." He paused. "Why don't you go take a shower, change? I'll make you some tea."
"Nick…" She kept holding his hand, long after she'd stood. "Will you stay? Keep me company?" She paused, confessing, "I can't sleep." He nodded and she smiled slightly, going upstairs to change.
Nick looked over at Tess, again with her head on his shoulder, his arms around her. They'd watched movies last night until they fell asleep, not talking anymore about Jodi, letting her escape thinking about it, just for the night. Only he had fallen asleep too and now it was morning; neither had really been to bed. He started to cover her with the blanket lying nearby and she woke up as he moved.
"Feeling better?" He whispered, noticing that the eye bags formed by stress usually hidden by makeup were back in full force.
"A little." She looked at the morning coming up over Drover's, something she loved to watch when Claire made her get up that early. "Are you hungry?"
"A little."
"I'll go check on Charlotte, make some breakfast." She doubted very seriously that her sister had gotten much more sleep than she had and wanted to go to her niece before she started to cry and woke Claire.
He nodded, walking to the kitchen with her, seeing Alex up walking with Charlotte, talking to her in the low whispered voice he used to calm her. She was smiling, watching him like he was the only man on earth, which he was as far as she was concerned. She had already begun to recognize him and 'Uncle Nick' and they were always the center of attention with her.
"Is she okay?" Tess asked, her voice barely above a whisper herself.
"Yeah." Alex smiled at Charlotte. "She's great." Although he'd had doubts at posing as dad to the little girl from time to time, especially during Claire's later pregnancy, when Charlotte had been born, she had wrapped him around her little finger, much as she had her mother and everyone else in the family. "Aren't you, BOM?" He used Claire's nickname for her. "She's perfect."
Meg came into the room, unable to look Tess in the eye. She had been torn between pretending nothing had happened and coming to work as usual or taking the day, maybe the week, off. She had decided to come and let the chips fall where they may, unable to not take care of her girls, regardless of what else was going on at the time. "Good morning, Alex, Nick, Tess…" She looked at the little girl she'd adopted as a granddaughter before she was even born, kissing the top of her head. "BOM."
"Meg…" Tess started and then stopped, not knowing what to say. The other woman looked like she hadn't slept at all and Tess closed her already tied robe a little closer to herself.
"I'll start breakfast," Meg said, her voice breaking slightly at the end. For the first time, she realized what Liz Ryan must have gone through and felt sorry for the other woman. "Is Claire coming down?"
"She's gone," Alex said softly, nuzzling Charlotte's head gently. He saw Tess's panicked look. "She was gone when I woke up this morning. So is Blaze. I figure she's on the hill." Tess nodded, knowing where Alex meant, the small gravesite where all of their family was buried, including Jack. "I was going to check on her as soon as one of you woke up to watch Charlotte."
Tess shook her head. "I'll go." She looked at Nick, silently asking if he minded, and he squeezed her hand lightly, indicating that he didn't. He had been over at Drover's many times before and it would give him a chance to compare notes with Alex about what to do. She saw the stricken look on Meg's face. "She'll be okay. I'll bring her back." She was sure that her sister just needed some time alone to think things over.
Claire had ridden all over Drover's and found herself at the gravesites. She dismounted, walking over to Jack's, touching it gently. She'd come up here many times before, sometimes just to get her head clear, sometimes to talk to her father, but she'd never missed Jack so much before or been so angry at him, even when he was alive. He had been a part of her life for so long. With her mother dead before she was two, Ruth only here five short years, all the family she'd ever had was Jack. Tess coming back into her life was difficult enough to adjust to, although it had turned out to be the best thing for her in the end. This was impossible to believe, impossible to fathom, and she felt like her world was crashing in. She started crying, finally able to weep the tears she'd never been able to after his death.
Tess saw her sister and urged her horse into a gallop, dismounting, sitting beside Claire on the ground. "I thought you'd be here."
"You said once that Jack was never the bastard that Harry is." Claire wiped her eyes as Tess nodded, remembering. "What do you think now?"
"I think that Jack, that Meg, might have made a mistake. Just like Liz did. Just like you did with Peter." Claire nodded. "Should he have hidden it from you, from us? No. Does that mean we don't love him? Don't see what Meg's done for us over the years?"
"I'm angry." She finally admitted, something she hadn't been able to do with Alex the night before. "I'm so angry at him, Tess."
"I know. But we'll get through this." She held her sister's hand. "Nick and I talked last night, a little bit." Claire nodded, glad something good had come of this. There had always been a little nagging voice in the back of her head that said they might have been together if she hadn't been hurt in the riding accident, hadn't gotten pregnant. "What he said was that we have to decide if it changes anything or not. You always knew that Meg had an affair with Jack." Claire nodded again. It had never been a secret to her; they weren't exactly discreet. "So nothing's changed there." She paused. "Becky, Jodi, they've always felt like sisters to me. Does the fact that Jodi is biologically our sister make that much of a difference?"
"I always wondered why Dad put so much effort into making sure she went to school, making sure she had everything, never had to do anything when she was home…" Claire paused. "I love the time I spent with him. I love my life here at Drover's. But…"
"But you wanted to finish school." Claire nodded. "I don't know why he did that. We'll probably never know." He paused. "But Claire, there's nothing saying you can't go back."
Claire forced a smile. "With a property to run, a breeding program to get started, a daughter to raise, there's no time for school." Claire shook her head. "It's too late for me."
Tess frowned, knowing she could argue that Alex could manage the breeding program, she could head the property, and they would figure out something for Charlotte on nights she had to attend, but knew that wasn't the point. "Then we'll just make sure Charlotte has every opportunity, just like I did. Just like Jodi did. Everything that's best for her." Claire nodded, contemplating that silently.
