A/N: Thanks to Thunder903 and Smartone17 for reviewing.
Chapter 3: Time Heals
Saturday
Frank was sitting at his kitchen table staring down at the cup of coffee in front of him as if it held the meaning of life. The peculiarities of life were something that he had been thinking about a lot lately. His pondering never seemed to do him any bit of good, because he never found the answers that he was looking for. He didn't know how things had gotten so complicated in his life and he sure as hell didn't know what to do to go about fixing them.
"Morning, Frank," Lyn greeted her husband pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Morning, Lyn," Frank replied his voice sounding a little strained.
"Do I want to know what you're doing up this early?" Lyn asked him with an arched eyebrow.
"I was just thinking." Frank told her and then he added. "I didn't hear you come home last night."
"That's because you and Gus were both passed out on the couch. I didn't have the heart to wake either of you." Lyn informed him.
"I know, when I woke up at one I carried him to bed and you were already sleeping. What time did you get home?" Frank asked out of curiosity.
"I got home around eleven and I was pretty wiped out from the day I had, so I fell asleep pretty quickly." Lyn answered him.
"I guess you had to get your rest for the charade that we have to put on today." Frank threw out there.
"Frank, I know that things are hard right now, but sooner or later we're gonna figure this out." Lyn retorted she didn't know what else to say to him at this point.
"We've been through hard before, losing Oriana was hard, Bianca not talking to us for years was hard. This on the other hand is downright unbearable." Frank spat out at her.
"I don't think it's as bad as you're making it out to be." Lyn really didn't want to have this fight with him right now.
"Lyn, we're legally separated the only way this can get any worse is if we actually get divorced." Frank pointed out to her.
"Frank, we're not gonna get divorced, we just aren't seeing eye to eye right now." Lyn corrected him.
"Right, if we were going to make this work I'm thinking that we wouldn't have gone through with the separation." Frank observed rolling his eyes.
"Frank, we're both just stubborn." Lyn really didn't know what else to tell him on the matter.
"Lyn, I think we need to face facts we basically just use each other for sex and that doesn't even happen as often as it used to. And if it does happen it's because we're really pissed off and we take our aggressions out by fucking." Frank stated bluntly.
Lyn glared at her husband before rolling her eyes. "Frank, you mean more than a quick fuck to me and you know that. I love you and I always will, like I said before we're just not agreeing on a whole lot right now. However, that doesn't mean that I don't want to work this out. We've been together too many years and have too much vested in this marriage to throw it away now."
"I love you too, Lyn, I just don't know how we let ourselves get in this situation." Frank sighed running his fingers through his hair.
Lyn walked over and kissed him on the mouth. "I can't have you going to pieces on me right now, Frankie, we have to get through today for that beautiful granddaughter of ours. The rest we will sort out in time."
"I can do that, I never thought that we would get to go through this with Oriana." Frank replied a half smile making its way to his face.
Lyn grinned back at him. "I know and that means that we really have to have our shit together today. I need to know that you're going to have my back." She leveled with him.
"I'm more than ready to put on the charade of us being happily married, I mean we do it every day for Gus, this shouldn't be that much more difficult." Frank told her.
Lyn gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I knew I could count on you."
Nicole walked into her living room with her youngest son on her hip. She could only shake her head when she saw her oldest son passed out on the couch. "Deacon, be mommy's big helper and wake Troy up." She said sitting the little boy down on his feet. She knew that Deacon would be more than happy to wake his big brother up in the most invasive way possible.
Deacon took a running leap and dove onto Troy's stomach. "Roy, mommy say it time to get up." He yelled in a singsong voice. He was lifting his brother's eyelids and poking him in the face in hopes of waking him.
Troy grunted as he finally stirred. He felt a brief moment of panic when he felt a weight sitting on his chest. He breathed a sigh of relief when he figured out that it was just his brother. "What are you doing, little man?" he asked scooping him up in his arms.
"Mommy, say it time for you to wake up." Deacon explained to him like he should have thought of that.
"Well, mommy is a little bossy if you ask me." Troy replied tickling his little belly.
Deacon let out a loud squeal of laughter. "Stop, Roy, that not nice." He protested.
Nicole smiled seeing both of her boys play together. "How'd you sleep last night?" she asked her older son.
"Like a rock, I'm pretty sure the couple of cocktails I had before bed helped. I so was not looking forward to sleeping on this couch again." Troy replied. He had given his bed in the basement to his grandparents. They had come all the way from Georgia for Aubrey's christening.
"I'm gonna pretend like I didn't hear that, because if I didn't hear that then I don't have to yell at you." Nicole said shaking her head. "Are you gonna be ok with him? I've gotta get in the kitchen and see about getting breakfast started."
Troy shot his mother a charming grin. "We'll be just fine, mom. I'm pretty sure that Mawmaw is already in there cooking, I heard someone banging around in there earlier." He replied.
"It was either my mother or your father. Good lord knows that my daddy has no business cooking." Nicole said kissing him on the head. "You two don't play around in here too long we need to be getting a move on and besides that I still have to wake Dom and Savannah up. The only reason Deacon is up is because he slept with your daddy and me last night."
"Go on, mom, we'll be along shortly." Troy assured her while fighting the urge to roll his eyes.
Nicole was pleasantly surprised when she walked in the kitchen and saw that not only did Tim already have Dom and Savannah up, but also he and Audrey were actually getting along and making breakfast together. "I thinking that I should pop down to the underworld really quick and make sure that hell hasn't frozen over." She commented sitting down at the table next to her father.
"That was really funny, Nicky, you know that Audrey and I have always gotten along." Tim corrected his wife.
"How did you get Dom and Savannah up without a fight?" Nicole asked him ignoring his last statement.
"I had no problem getting those two out of bed, it was our oldest that I had the problem with. He actually chucked a pillow at me and told me to go away when I tried to wake him up." Tim replied with a chuckle.
"You know that that boy likes his sleep." Nicole retorted shaking her head.
"I'm sure it didn't help that he had half of a fifth of whiskey before he went to sleep." Tim said pointing to the half empty bottle of whiskey on the counter.
"That boy told me that he had a couple of cocktails before he went to sleep. He failed to mention that he had half a bottle of whiskey and he probably passed out." Nicole observed with a loud sigh. She didn't know what the hell to do about that boy sometimes.
"Now, mom, I will have you know that passed out implies that I just blacked out and went to sleep on the first flat surface that I could find. That is just not the case, I knew damn well what I was doing when I laid down on the couch." Troy disputed as he walked into the room with Deacon in his arms.
Dominic shook his head at his daughter's oldest child. "Troy Timothy, you have always been a character and I can't say that you've mellowed out any with age." He told him.
"Pa, you know that you wouldn't know what to do with me if I behaved any other way." Troy shot back with a grin.
"I for one would like to know when you plan on settlin' down and givin' me some great grandbabies to spoil." Audrey said staring at him intently.
"You've got Nixie, Shane, Aubrey, and the one that Savannah has cooking in the oven. I think that you'll be fine for awhile." Troy said gulping at the thought of having children, hell for all he knew he had children running around that he didn't know about.
"That didn't answer my question at all, but then again, I don't know why I expected anything else, you do have your momma and your Pa's lawyer genes at work in your system." Audrey said with a resigned sigh. She worried about her grandson; he was getting a little old to be running around the way he was prone to do.
"It'll happen when it's supposed to happen, Mawmaw." Troy said going over and kissing her on the cheek. And if he had anything to say about it, it wouldn't be happening for a long time yet.
Parker stood in his bathroom studying his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were bloodshot and he had deep dark circles underneath them. The truth be told he really didn't feel like being up right now and more than that he really didn't want to go do what he had to do today. If this were for anyone else he wouldn't be doing it, but Chord was his best friend and he couldn't just turn his back on him because he wouldn't feel comfortable.
Chord was just like a brother to him and he couldn't bring himself to let him down. It didn't really matter that doing this would be like pouring salt in his wounds he had to do this because he had made his best friend a promise. He took a deep breath and splashed cold water on his face to make him more alert.
"Come on, Parks, get it together. You can do this it's not like this is the first time that you've faced something that is hard to do. You defeated the source twice and you took down the Triad. This should be a walk in the park for you." Parker coached himself. Of course he had to bring up the things that had happened in the glory days, as he liked to refer to them. He had been on top of the world back when he had first met his family, things had only gotten better from there. He was a far cry from that now and he didn't think he would ever get back to that again.
He figured that it might be nice if he cleaned up for the occasion. He lathered his face with shaving cream before he picked up his razor in a shaky hand. "Calm down, Parker, you really can't afford to cut yourself." He told himself. He knew he was shaking because he hadn't had a drink in awhile. The last thing that he needed was another blemish on his face at the moment; he already looked bad enough from the fight he had gotten into earlier in the week.
If not for the fact that he had promised himself that he wouldn't show up at the church smelling like a bar he would have taken a drink right now. Honestly it was taking everything that he had in him not take a drink at the moment. He looked up at the ceiling with tears in his eyes. "Jesse, I don't know where you are right now, buddy, but daddy could really use your help to get through today." He spoke to his son. He didn't know when he was going to feel like a normal person again and what's more he wasn't even sure that he knew what it was like to feel normal anymore.
"Wyatt, tell me that you've seen my shoes somewhere in this damn mess that we call a closet." Liz begged her husband. She was already mostly dressed. She was putting her earrings in and the only thing she had left to do was put on her shoes and she would be ready.
Wyatt was in the middle of tying his tie; he finished before he turned to answer her. "Lizzie, I have no damn clue what you do with your shoes when you take them off. I have a hard enough time keeping track of my clothes when I take them off much less yours." He replied with a helpless shrug.
Liz arched her eyebrow at him. "That was an invitation for you to help me look." She told him bluntly.
"Liz, I can't help you look right now, I've got to watch Nixie and Shane to make sure that they don't fall off of the bed." Wyatt explained pointing at their two children.
Liz had her head in the closet now and she turned around to glare at him over her shoulder. "Never mind now, I found another pair that will go better with this outfit than the ones I was going to put on." She informed him.
Wyatt heaved a great sigh. "Baby, I'm not trying to piss you off this morning, but it seems like I'm doing a pretty good job of it." He said sounding helpless.
Liz went to him and put her arms around him. "Wuvey Bear, I'm not pissed off at you, I just get frustrated sometimes. I don't mean to take my aggressions out on you, you just happen to be an easy target. I forget sometimes that you have really tender feelings. I promise that I'm not mad at you." she assured him.
Wyatt gave her a lopsided grin. "That's alright, I'm pretty sure it states in the marriage vows that you get to use me as your personal punching bag anytime you want to." He joked with her. He couldn't help the wave of guilt that swept over him at that moment. Here she was apologizing for going off on him and he was keeping something pretty big from her. But, what he knew wasn't his secret to tell she needed to hear that from her mother.
"But still, I shouldn't berate you in front of the kids." Liz replied.
Wyatt kissed her on the forehead. "Don't worry about it, Doll, they already know that you're always right and I'm always wrong." he told her with a wink.
"Who is the most handsome man in the whole entire world?" Chris cooed at his son who he had just finished dressing. "Danny is that's who." He ruffled the little boy's hair and he laughed when he giggled.
Rachel walked into the nursery at that moment and smiled watching her boys together. "I must say that I'm impressed, you got him and yourself dressed in the time it took me to get ready."
Chris grinned up at her. "That's because Danny and I are guys. I promise you that if I had Paige to get ready too she still wouldn't be dressed." He replied with a chuckle.
Rachel had to laugh at that. "That's because our daughter is just like her mother. She hates having to wear anything frilly and feminine." She pointed out to him and then she remembered her purpose for coming into the room to begin with. "Zip me up, would you?" she asked turning her back to him.
"Of course." Chris complied with her request. He pulled the zipper up on the emerald green dress that she was wearing and he kissed her neck when he had finished. "There you go, love, you're all set."
Rachel turned around and kissed him on the mouth. "Thank you, baby, I don't know what I would do without you sometimes."
"You would go around with your dresses unzipped and being a total mess without me." Chris joked and then he shook his head when he heard a groan from the doorway.
"Now you know why I always knock when I come over here. I never know what I'm going to walk in on." Henry said rolling his eyes.
"Hank, I assure that what you just walked in on is nothing. I would feel weird fooling around in my son's nursery." Rachel informed him seriously.
"Don't listen to him, Rach, the idiot has been like this all morning. You know that he thinks he's funny as hell and without me to restrain him he can get a little out of control." Bianca said she had Trip in her arms.
Rachel took Danny from Chris and consulted her watch. "We're running that late?" she asked her cousin.
"No, we're just early. I insisted on getting up early since I know how someone's daughter is about getting dressed up." Henry retorted rolling his eyes again. It was really a wonder that they didn't get stuck like that sometimes.
"Hey, I will have you know that she wasn't that bad this time. I was expecting a full scale riot before I could get her in that dress, but she went easy on me today." Bianca said slapping him playfully on the chest.
"Where is Ace?" Chris asked. He found it odd that his daughter hadn't come rushing up the steps to see him.
"She's down in the living room with Victor and Anna. I gave them all their last rites about getting dirty." Bianca told him.
"You have nothing to worry about with Anna Banana she is an angel is the older two who won't listen." Chris pointed out to her unnecessarily.
"Trust me, we know." Henry said shaking his head.
"Don't act like Paige is that bad, I get hardly any trouble out of her." Rachel scolded him playfully. Truthfully Paige didn't give her any problems at all, she was a really big help to her.
"That's because you don't have to deal with both of the twins at the same time." Bianca corrected her.
"Bullshit, I can't tell you how many times I have had her and Vic at the same time." Rachel disputed.
"I personally don't think that the twins are that bad together, I don't know why everyone carries on about them that way." Chris observed.
"You would think that those two are you and Hank made over." Bianca pointed out to him.
Henry made a show of looking at his watch. "I think that we better get this show on the road if we don't want to get in trouble with the boss lady for being late."
Rachel handed Danny back to Chris. "Put your son in his car seat, we've gotta go. I for one don't want Aunt Lyn pissed at me." she said. She was a grown ass woman and she was still terrified of her Aunt Lyn.
"Jakie, please tell me that we are about ready to go for a change." Lilly begged her husband as she walked into the living room where he was with their kids.
"Baby, we have just been waiting on you. I have the kids dressed the only thing left to do is for us to walk out of the house and get in the car." Jake informed her with a smile.
Lilly grinned back at him. "Thank you for having things together for a change." She said gratefully wrapping her arms around him.
"Not a problem, baby girl, it takes you longer to get dressed than it takes me, so I figured I would get the kids ready." Jake replied pressing a kiss to her temple.
"It should be illegal to get up this early on a Saturday. This is the only damn day that I get any peace, we all know what I have to do with my Sunday evenings and that is not fun at all." Lilly said her voice coming out in a whine.
"You're telling me, watching you and Aunt Piper go over the weekly expense sheets isn't fun for me either." Jake agreed rolling his eyes.
"We should probably get a move on if we want to be on time." Lilly said reluctantly untangling herself from Jake's arms.
"Being on time is so overrated." Jake cracked with a small grin.
"I'm sure that would fly with Aunt Lyn as an excuse as to why we were late." Lilly told him wrinkling her nose up.
"Have I ever told you how cute you are when you make that face?" Jake asked seductively.
Lilly looked up at him and grinned. "Don't start something that not only don't we have time to finish, but we also have an audience right now." she warned him.
Jake threw his head back and laughed. "I'm not starting anything, ma'am, you're the one with your mind in the gutter." He corrected her.
Lilly looked at him with a wicked gleam in her brown eyes. "You are so going to pay for this later." she promised him.
Jake grinned at her. "I know, but it is so worth it." He replied. "Come on, we need to go." He added. He really didn't want to have to deal with Lyn or his mother if he were to be late.
"Mommy, why do I have to wear this tie?" Charlie asked his mother a heavy whine in his voice. His little fingers were pulling at the offending garment around his neck.
Prue took a deep breath and sighed. She seriously questioned that that boy was hers sometimes with the way he liked to complain about getting dressed up. "Because this is one of those important things that you have to get dressed up for." She explained to him patiently.
"But I don't like wearing this." Charlie complained.
Prue took another deep breath because she felt like she was going to lose her cool with her first born. "Chuck, if you know what's good for you, you will come deal with your son before I lose it." She told her husband.
Chuck walked over to her with their youngest in his arms. "Here, you take Cal and I'll deal with Charlie." He said handing the baby to her.
"Good luck with that that boy is as stubborn as I ever dared to be." Prue said cuddling her baby to her chest.
Chuck kneeled down in front of his oldest. "What seems to be the problem, Charlie Coop?" he asked with a disarming grin on his face.
"I don't want to wear this tie, daddy." Charlie informed him in a tone that said he should have known what was bothering him.
"Buddy, believe me, daddy knows that you don't want to wear that tie. I don't like wearing my tie either, but sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do." Chuck told him reasonably. He realized that trying to talk sensibly to a three year old was useless folly, but he had to give it a shot.
"I still don't want to wear it." Charlie replied stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest.
Chuck shook his head. This is what I get for having kids with a Halliwell. He thought to himself. "Look, Pal, you have to wear the tie, there is no getting around that, but I promise you that you can take it off as soon as possible." He swore to him.
"Fine, but I still don't have to like it." Charlie finally relented.
"Cheer up, son, it's not that bad." Chuck said cuffing him lightly on the side of the head.
Prue wore an impressed expression on her face as she looked at her husband. "I must say that you handled that a lot smoother than I thought possible."
"The boy has to be treated with kid gloves sometimes. He is just like you when he wants to be and I'm well versed in dealing with you when you get in one of those moods." Chuck replied.
Prue looked at him through narrowed eyes. "You're so lucky that we have to go and I don't have time to lay into you right now, but don't think for a second that you're not going to pay for that comment later." she warned him.
"I would expect nothing less than that." Chuck responded with a shrug of his shoulders. He was so used to being in the doghouse with his wife that it didn't even faze him anymore.
"Maria, I really wish that you would relax for a minute, we're running ahead of schedule. There is no reason for you to be running around like a chicken with your head chopped off right now." Tyler told his wife rolling his eyes.
"Tyler, you know as well as I do that that is subject to change at any moment. You also know what mom will do to us if we're late." Maria pointed out to him. Not that she should have to remind him what her mother was like.
"I don't need you to tell me how your mother is, you're just like her." Tyler muttered under his breath. The look that Maria gave him told him that he hadn't said that as quietly as he had thought.
"I will admit that there are times when I can be exactly like my mother, but that is neither here nor there at the moment. Ty, you know how important this is to my baby sister. Hell, you know that none of us ever thought that we would get to do this for her." Maria reasoned with her husband.
Tyler gave her a sympathetic look. "Baby, I know all of that I was right there with you. You just need to calm down; we're not going to be late. The kids are all dressed and we're ready, we can walk out the door just as soon as you decide it's time to go." He assured her.
Maria wrapped her arms around her husband's neck. "This is why I married you, you are what tethers me to the ground when I start getting crazy." She told him pressing a kiss to his lips.
Lyn shook her head as she came into the room and saw her parents kissing. "My parents have no idea how embarrassing they are." She groaned.
"Hey, little lady, I don't want to hear anything from you. I swear if you keep it up I'm going to give you to your Aunt B, you get more like her the older you get." Maria warned her after she had pulled away from her husband.
"I don't see that as a bad thing." Lyn retorted.
"Oriana Lyn, I don't know what I'm going to do about that mouth of yours." Maria said rolling her eyes. She didn't remember being that sassy when she was nine.
"Lyn, please be daddy's good girl today. I know that I'm asking for a lot, but this means more than you realize to your mommy." Tyler begged his oldest child.
Lyn fought the urge to roll her eyes. "I wasn't planning on doing anything bad, daddy." She informed him.
"I know that you weren't, but I was just double checking." Tyler replied.
"And I do know how much this means to mommy I have younger siblings too." Lyn told him like he should have thought of that.
"Baby, I know that you get where I'm coming from right now. I'm just stressed and I'm sorry if I seem to be taking it out on you." Maria apologized. She knew that she could be kinda hard on her oldest from time to time.
"It's ok, mommy, I promise that I'll be good." Lyn assured her.
"That's all I ask." Maria replied with a smile. "What are your brother and sister doing?" she asked.
"They are in the living room playing. Don't worry though, I'm not letting them do anything to get dirty." Lyn promised.
Maria beamed at her with pride. "That's my girl."
"Remind again why we have to make a big production out of this." Chord more or less asked his wife.
"Mostly to appease my mother's unreasonable bitch of a mother." Oriana answered him with a smile. She had their daughter thrown over her shoulder and she was trying to burp her.
"On a scale of one to ten how important is this?" Chord asked. He really didn't see the need to go through all of this trouble.
"It's a family tradition, that's all I can tell you. You know how my Nonna is and I'm mostly doing this for her. Besides that it's not like it's going to hurt Aubrey, I went through this too and so did my brothers and sisters." Oriana replied.
"Baby, I'm not complaining, you know that I just go with the flow. I was only asking a question." Chord said throwing his hands up in a sign of surrender.
"You, sir, just had the misfortune to marry a woman who is Irish Catholic on one side and Roman Catholic on the other. This is a pretty big deal to my family, hell it should tell you something that B even does this and you know how much she likes to piss people off." Oriana leveled with him.
"As I said it was just a question, one that I'm almost sorry that I asked now." Chord said shaking his head.
"Babe, I'm sorry, I've just been really busy with this all week and I don't mean to take it out on you." Oriana apologized.
"You don't have to be sorry for treating me like a human punching bag, that's what I'm here for." Chord assured her.
"Yes I do, I don't want you to get tired of my nagging and decide that you can't deal with me anymore." Oriana replied.
"Honey, that's one thing that you never have to worry about happening. You two girls are my life and I don't want to be anywhere that you aren't." Chord told her pressing a kiss to the side of her face.
"Chord Isaiah, don't you dare mess up my makeup, you know that my mother will kill both of us if we're late and I'm not joking." Oriana said pulling away from him.
"I know how Aunt Lyn is, you're not telling me anything that I don't know. Bree here is going to be just like her mommy and her nana when she gets bigger." Chord retorted.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Oriana teased him.
"For me it is a bad thing, you're hell on wheels, I have a hard enough time keeping up with you." Chord joked right back with her.
"As much as I like to argue with you, we really need to get out of here." Oriana replied.
Chord checked his watch. "Let me put Bree in her car seat and we will be ready to go. I've just been waiting on you two."
"Just so you know I'm blaming you for having to get up this early on a Saturday." Nicole greeted Lyn when she stepped into the church.
"Don't blame me for this, blame my mother, she's the one that Oriana is trying to appease not me." Lyn replied rolling her eyes.
"I've met your mother and it is safer for me to blame you for this." Nicole retorted.
"Don't tell me that you're scared of my mother." Lyn begged her friend.
"Your mother is a scary woman." Nicole reasoned with her.
"Nic, I'm just going to pretend like I didn't hear you say that." Lyn said shaking her head.
"Are Oriana and Chord here yet?" Nicole asked.
"Yeah they actually surprised me by showing up early for a change." Lyn chuckled.
"Here is the important question, has the Godfather shown up yet?" Nicole asked. She was really worried about Parker showing up on time.
Parker chose that minute to walk into the church after spending fifteen minutes in the parking lot gathering his courage to go through with this. "I will have you know that I shaved and everything, Nic." He announced cheerfully. He was actually wearing a nice suit with a black tie.
"With you we can't be sure these days." Lyn said leaning in close to him. She was really trying to see if he had already been drinking.
"I'm here on time, I'm dressed, and I'm sober, I don't know what more you can ask of me. This is hard enough as it is, just let me be numb for a few hours." Parker replied sharing a meaningful look with Lyn.
"Well, I guess I can't expect anything else out of you, for you this is good." Nicole told him.
"Do I want to know why you have stitches?" Lyn asked him pointing to the cut over his eye.
"No, you don't want to know and I don't want my sisters to know, so I'm not going to tell you. But, I'm really surprised that Maria didn't tell you what happened." Parker made a weak joke.
Chord came over to save his best friend at that moment. "Park, you're here on time. If I had known that I would have been waiting for you, no one should have to deal with those two this early." He said pointing to his mother and his mother-in-law.
"They're not so bad, at least they're a little bit better than my sisters. You have to remember that I'm used to dealing with difficult women, because I'm related to the four most difficult women on the face of the planet." Parker reminded him.
"Come on, let's just go by Oriana and the baby before we make them mad." Chord said gulping when he saw the look that he was getting from his mom.
"I think that would be very wise, Chord." Nicole advised her middle son. She just didn't know what to say to that boy sometimes.
"We better go before you get in trouble like you always do." Parker said throwing his arm around his shoulders and leading him away.
No sooner had Parker and Chord walked away than Paige, Dom, and Victor came walking in the church.
"Paige Victoria," Lyn groaned when she saw what her granddaughter was wearing.
"What could I have possibly done already?" Paige asked. She really didn't have a clue as to what she could have done this time.
"Your Nonna is gonna kill you when she sees that you're wearing pants in church." Lyn informed her.
"Don't start on me already this morning. I haven't had the easiest last few days. As a matter of fact I've only had four hours of sleep in the last four days. I didn't get to sleep at all last night and I really don't care if I make somebody mad by wearing pants. At least I'm wearing a suit and not jeans." Paige replied rolling her eyes.
"What did you do last night?" Lyn asked her.
"Let's see my tactical team got called out to a hostage situation and no sooner had I got that taken care of than I got called in to be a sniper. So then I had like five hours of paperwork to get through and when I finally got home I threw on the first nice clothes that I could find." Paige explained.
"Ok, you're forgiven for wearing pants and I'll try to keep my mother off your back." Lyn told her.
"Thank you," Paige said sounding grateful.
"Really, thank you, Vic and I are the ones who suffer when she is in a bad mood." Dom chimed in.
"She's really not in as bad a mood as she could be in considering the rough time she's had at work lately." Victor defended his sister.
"I'm not in a bad mood I'm just not in the mood to be messed with right now." Paige corrected him.
"You married her willingly." Nicole pointed out to her son when she saw the look on his face.
"I didn't say anything and I don't plan on saying anything." Dom retorted he knew when it was wise to keep his mouth shut with his wife.
"That's how I know that you're going to enjoy a long happy life." Bianca said walking up to her son-in-law.
"I have no comment." Dom replied.
"I can't believe that you're wearing pants." Bianca told her daughter. Not even she had balls enough to do something like that.
"I know, I'm a horrible person and I'm going to hell for wearing pants in church." Paige replied rolling her eyes.
"I wouldn't go that far, but you know that Nonna is going to have something to say about this." Bianca pointed out to her.
"Mom, you know how things have been at work lately. So, you know that it's a miracle that I'm even here right now. I'm on call as it is and there is no telling how long before the next crisis that I just have to deal with comes up." Paige felt the need to remind her mother.
"I know, and I also know that you've been working really hard the last few days. I could care less what you're wearing right now." Bianca assured her. "Now what do you say that you come help me coral your brothers and sisters?" she asked.
"That sounds like the easiest job I've been given all week." Paige replied with a chuckle.
The church service had been really nice even if it had been really long. Everybody was now crowded in Frank and Lyn's house for the reception.
Calleigh found her way to Parker's side, because she just had to see how he was holding up. "Hey, how are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm doing, I don't know if that is good or bad." Parker replied with a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders.
"I know that I'm not doing so great right now. As a matter of fact I think I'm going to get out of here as soon as I can." Calleigh informed him.
"Cal, I don't even know what to say to you half the time. I don't know how all of this is going to play out, but I don't see it ending up happily ever after." Parker told her with a tense smile.
"Park, I know that things seem bad now, but you really shouldn't think like that." Calleigh pointed out to him.
"I don't know how else to think and I don't know what else to do. I'm doin' the very best that I can right now, Cal, and that just doesn't seem to be good enough." Parker lamented.
"Now is not the time or place for this, but one day really soon, you and I need to sit down and talk about this and I mean really talk. That means you'll have to be sober." Calleigh was blunt with him. Everyone had already spent too much time babying him and that's why he was always drunk.
Parker drank out of the glass he had in his hand until it was empty. "Yeah, Cal, I'll get right on that one." He snorted sarcastically.
Calleigh glared at him hatefully. "You're really an asswipe when you want to be, Parker. This is serious and you want to joke about it." She spit out at him.
"Who said that I was joking?" Parker asked. He was just trying to be a jerk now.
Calleigh shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I don't know why I even try with you sometimes. You're obviously not the man that I married anymore and you damn sure aren't the man that our son adored." She said before stalking away from him.
"There you go, Cal, now you see what I've been trying to tell you for months now." Parker said softly to himself as he watched her walk away.
"So, mommy, how's it going?" Maria asked her baby sister with a smile on her face.
Oriana looked at her oldest sister with a huge grin on her face. "Maria, being a mom is the most unbelievable experience of my life. Had anyone told me that having a kid would be this amazing I wouldn't have believed them." She gushed before placing a kiss on her baby girl's head.
"It is one of the greatest things in the world. The first time I held Lyn I knew that things would never be the same. I know that I like to tell B that my getting pregnant the first time was her fault, but the truth of the matter is if it wasn't for Lyn I would have been a wreck just like our sister was." Maria replied putting an arm around her.
"I know that you're over here badmouthing me." Bianca said coming over to her sisters.
"I wouldn't dream of badmouthing you where you couldn't hear me. B, you should know by now that it is no fun for me to say things about you if you're not there to get pissed off." Maria smirked at her.
Bianca flipped her off. "You know when my girls get older I'm probably going to regret fighting with you so much, but right now I just can't bring myself to give a fuck."
"Oh, your niece so got your mouth." Maria told her rolling her eyes.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Bianca said with a fake smile plastered on her face.
"I hope that one of your girls gives you every ounce of trouble that gave mom and then some." Maria cursed her.
"Have you met Paige?" Bianca asked her with an arched eyebrow.
"Touché," Maria countered with a nod of her head.
"Why is it that I think you three are over here causing trouble?" Lyn asked her daughters as she walked up to them.
"Because, you are highly suspicious by nature." Bianca retorted with a smirk.
"Why is it that I knew I was going to get a smart ass answer out of you?" Lyn asked not expecting a reply to that question.
"It's what she does, mom, you should know this by now." Maria pointed out to her.
"I will have you know that we are all behaving for once in our lives." Oriana told her sounding highly offended.
"I'm only going off past behavior here. You ladies don't always get along the best of any three people I have seen." Lyn reminded them.
"Mom, we are all grown women now, I'm pretty sure that we know how to get along." Maria explained to her.
"Ok, I'll believe you on this one." Lyn said throwing up her hands in a sign of surrender. "Go talk to the cousins that you don't see regularly." She ordered her three daughters.
"Mom, I still don't understand why we had to invite half the damn family tree." Oriana whined to her mother.
"You know how your Nonna is. We all do things to appease her so she will stay off of our asses." Lyn reminded her.
"You don't need to remind me what that woman is like, but I suppose that I'll play nice." Oriana relented rolling her eyes.
A little while later Prue made her way over to where Oriana was standing. "Hey, you, how's my goddaughter?" she asked. Since Chord had picked Parker to be godfather Oriana had gone with Prue as godmother.
"She is absolutely perfect." Oriana replied with a bright smile.
"I wouldn't know anything about little girls seeing as I have been blessed with two boys." Prue scoffed. She loved her sons, but she wished that she had a daughter.
"According to my mom her life would have been easier if she would have had three boys instead of me and my sisters." Oriana informed her.
"I know that boys are easier to raise, it's just that it would be nice to have a daughter to take shopping." Prue reasoned with her.
"Prue, you force your boys to go shopping with you." Oriana pointed out to her.
Prue shrugged her shoulders and smirked at her friend. "You know that it is no fun if you have to drag them there under protest."
Oriana could only nod her head in agreement with that. "I'm honestly starting to see why they talk bad about us." She observed.
"Since when have we let that bother us?" Prue asked not needing an answer to that question.
"So, little brother, how is being a father treating you?" Troy asked when he walked over to his brother who was holding his niece.
Chord couldn't keep the smile off of his face when Troy asked him that. "It's the most amazing thing ever." He replied.
"That's the response that I tend to get from you people. It makes me think about settling down and having one of my own one day." Troy informed him.
"You would have to find the woman who is capable into making you sit still for that long." Chord pointed out to him.
"I will have you know that I have been dating Val on and off for the last seven years, that right there proves that I'm capable of sitting still." Troy retorted trying to sound offended. "Besides that, I really wish that you wouldn't bad mouth me in front of my niece. She needs to know that her Uncle Troy is the coolest guy in the world." He added.
"Did you want to hold her?" Chord asked him.
"Dude, of course I want to hold her." Troy said taking Aubrey from him. "Hey, Bree, you and Uncle Troy are gonna have so much fun together. Just so you know I'm the coolest uncle you have." He cooed at her.
"It's not like you have much competition between Dom, Chase, and Gus." Chord chuckled shaking his head at his older brother.
"Hey, don't crush my ego in front of the child. That is not a very nice thing for you to do." Troy called him down. It seemed like someone was always busting his balls for some reason or another.
Calleigh had kept true to her word about getting out of the reception as quickly as possible. She was now in the one place that she used to avoid like the plague.
"Cal, it's nice to see you as always." Freyja greeted her daughter from her usual perch.
"Hi, mom, I hope that you don't mind my just dropping in like this." Calleigh replied hugging her.
"Nonsense, you know that all of my children are welcome here anytime." Freyja dismissed her concern.
"I know that, I just don't want you to feel like I'm being disrespectful." Calleigh offered.
Freyja smiled at her oldest child. "You are not the child I would accuse of being disrespectful. I'm sure I don't have to name names on that one." She retorted with a chuckle. She was of course referring to her son, Huck could be one more pain in the ass when he wanted to be.
"Noah Puck got better while he was in the army, but as soon as he was discharged he went right back to his errant ways." Calleigh agreed with a small chuckle of her own. She didn't have much of a reason to laugh these days. Hell, it was all that she could do to just make it through the day at times.
"There is nothing you can tell me about your brother that I don't already know." Freyja told her. "Now what bring you by?" she asked. She knew that her children avoided coming to Valhalla if they could.
Calleigh shrugged her shoulders. "I needed to get away from the real world for a little while. I figured that I would come out here and help with training some of the warriors." She answered her mother.
"You want to help train warriors?" Freyja asked her sounding confused.
"Yeah, I mean being a Valkyrie is part of who I am. I need to get in touch with that part of my powers." Calleigh explained to her mother.
"Are you sure that that is all this is?" Freyja asked the tone in her voice suggesting that she thought otherwise.
"Maybe I'm thinking about becoming a Valkyrie full time." Calleigh replied cryptically.
Freyja sighed and shook her head sadly. She had suspected that her daughter was up to something like this. After things had gone south with Mike she had considered becoming a Valkyrie. "Calleigh Anne, you know that I would love to have you out here all of the time. But, I'm going to tell you like I told you last time, I want this to be a decision you make because it's what you want to do, not because you're trying to escape your feelings."
"Mom, the feelings that I'm having right now aren't the easiest in the world to deal with." Calleigh reasoned with her.
"Cal, I know that you miss Jesse and I know that things with Parker aren't what they once were, but you can't run away from your problems." Freyja lectured her.
"If anyone has earned the right to run away from their problems it's me." Calleigh argued.
"Cal, I'm going to tell you like I told you all those years ago when things with Mike ended. You're stronger than you think you are and I wouldn't be doing you any favors by giving you an easy out." Freyja gave her a motherly piece of advice.
"You should know that nothing has ever been easy for me. I mean hell, I did raise my brother because I had no mother to speak of growing up." Calleigh spit out before she could stop the words coming out of her mouth.
Freyja took the accusation that her daughter had hurled at her in stride she knew that the young woman was just hurt. "It's true that I haven't been there for you as much as I should and for that I am very sorry."
Calleigh took a deep breath and sighed. "No, mom, I'm the one who should be sorry, I didn't mean that. I love you and I know that you did the best the you could with Huck and me." She apologized. "It's just I feel like I failed Jesse, the day he was born I promised him that he would know that love and contentment that came from living in a house with both of his parents. Parker and I both wanted him to have that, because we never did." She went on.
Freyja laid a calming hand on her shoulder. "Baby, you and Parker neither one failed that little boy. He knows how much you both love him and that you're doing everything in your power to get him back. And I want you to notice that I said knows and not knew, you can't make me believe that that little boy is dead. He is out there somewhere and what you need to do is stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to looking for him." She pointed out forcefully.
Calleigh couldn't help the small smile that now graced her features. It seemed that her mom knew just what to say to make her feel better. "Thanks, mom, I'm pretty sure that I needed that kick in my ass to get me in gear. You always have known just what to say to make me see when I'm being an idiot." She said gratefully.
Freyja smiled back at her. "Honey, you're not an idiot, you're just a stubborn mule like your father and that means that I sometimes have to make you see the error of your ways." She teased her gently.
"I guess that I should probably get back to the real world and talk to my husband before we both do something that we are going to regret." Calleigh mused more to herself than to anyone else.
"One more piece of advice before you go," Freyja offered up.
"Go on, I'm listening." Calleigh replied knowing that her mother was going to offer her advice whether she gave her permission or not.
"You and Parker aren't good for each other right now, maybe you should stop beating that horse to death while there is still something left of your marriage to salvage. I promise you that if you stay on him right now the only thing that is going to do is push him further away and you two will never have a shot at getting back together." Freyja advised her.
Calleigh shook her head and rolled her eyes. Though that did sound like a pretty good piece of advice, beings that she just didn't know what to say to her husband anymore without them getting into a huge fight. "I'll take that under advisement, mom." She replied before pressing the pendent on her neck and opening a portal back home.
Parker was lying on spread out across a bed in a seedy looking motel room. He had various liquor bottles lying around him, so he was in his own world where he could care less what his surroundings looked like. He was well into drinking himself into oblivion once again when there was a knock on the door. "Keep your damn panties on, I'm coming." He yelled out as he got up to open the door.
"The last thing that I want to do is keep my panties on or I wouldn't be here right now." A female voice answered from the other side of the door.
Parker opened the door and pulled the woman in the room quickly before anyone could see her. "Jesus Christ, Lyn, I don't think that was funny." He bitched. "No one followed you did they?" he asked the older woman.
Lyn gave him a withering look for asking that question. "Parker, I made damn sure that I had a good cover story or I wouldn't be here right now. I have way more to lose than you do if anyone ever finds out about this. Not that I would have to worry about that, because your sisters would kill me." She mused.
Parker gave her a little smirk. "How much time do we have?" he asked her.
Lyn grinned back at him. "Frank thinks that I'm catching up on paperwork right now, so we have a couple of hours before he's going to miss me."
Parker walked to her and wrapped his arm around her waist. "God, I must be out of my fucking mind. I have wife and your husband could kill me without leaving a trace." He said while pulling her closer to him.
Lyn reached up and cupped his face gently with her left hand. "Parker, neither one of our marriages are really working out right now, so it's not like we're doing anything wrong." She reasoned with him.
"I know, but I still can't help feeling a little guilty about all of this." Parker replied. He obviously wasn't feeling too guilty at the moment though, because he started trailing kisses up her neck.
"I'm the one who should feel guilty you're younger than my oldest two girls and your sisters are my best friends. I really shouldn't be taking advantage of their little brother when he is in pain." Lyn replied.
Parker wasn't really listening anymore, he had turned his brain off and he was thinking with his little head now. He was busy working the buttons on Lyn's shirt. "Do you really want to talk about my sisters right now?" he asked her with a hint of a whine in his voice.
"No, I'm just reminding you that we have to be very careful. I saw how you were looking at me earlier." Lyn told him teasingly.
Parker gave her a dramatic eye roll. "Please, like anyone would think anything of that, everyone knows that next to Piper I'm the most afraid of you. Besides, I'm like the only person who knows that you and Frank are separated." He reminded her.
Lyn pulled his shirt over his head and chucked it across the room. "Parker, stop talking and kiss me like you mean it." She ordered him knowing that he wouldn't disappoint her.
"Yes, ma'am." Parker growled pulling her close to him and capturing her lips between his.
This thing between the two of them had started purely by accident one night. Parker as usual had had way too much to drink while he was bartending and Lyn had pretty much attempted to drink her weight in alcohol. Needless to say confessions were made and rash decisions were made that put the two of them on the crash course that they were currently heading down.
"Damn, boy, I can't get over what an amazing kisser you are." Lyn told him after she pulled away from him.
Parker gave her a smug smirk. "You know me, I do what I can."
"You're still seriously overdressed for this little party, smart ass." Lyn informed him as her hands went to his belt.
Parker grabbed her hands to still them. "Not so fast, you show me yours and I'll show you mine." He taunted her knowing damn well that she could kick his ass if she really wanted to.
"I would, but I feel like making you do all the work." Lyn replied seductively. All the while the quiet part of her brain was screaming at her to stop playing with him like this. She knew that they were both just using each other at the moment and so did he, but that still didn't make what they were doing right.
"You know I like a challenge, don't tempt me." Parker retorted he pushed her shirt off of her shoulders and had her bra off quicker than either of them thought possible. "I would say that that makes us about even." He smirked.
"We won't be square until you lose the pants." Lyn informed him her voice taking on a more husky quality than usual.
"I'll tell you what, I'll get rid of my pants and then I'll move onto yours. I don't mean to spread tales, but it's kinda like unwrapping a present." Parker replied a devilish grin on his face. He pushed her back on the bed gently.
Lyn smirked up at her lover. "Park, you only think that you can handle me." She reminded him.
"I haven't heard a complaint out of you yet." Parker replied stepping out of his jeans.
Lyn sat up and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I didn't say that you don't satisfy me, I just said that you can't handle me." She corrected him.
Parker leaned closer to her and kissed her on the mouth. He picked up her legs so that they were wrapped around his waist and he sorta fell down on the bed with her underneath him. "I would like to see you get out of this one." He countered knowing that he was living dangerously by talking to her that way.
Lyn locked her legs tighter around his midsection and flipped them over so that she was on top of him now. "You know better than to challenge me like that." She pointed out to him.
Parker just shook his head at her before he flipped them back over and pulled her underwear off over her long legs. "God, I don't know that I will ever get used to these long ass legs of yours." He commented.
Lyn took both of her legs and wrapped them around his neck. "I'm sure that you'll manage." She told him conversationally.
Parker gazed at her with a look of amusement on his face. "Well played, Lyn, very well played." He chuckled before getting down to business.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I know that there were more than a few surprises. Until next time please review.
