"Tracy, have you read this?" Alan handed her the paper.
"Supreme Court to legalize gay marriage. Great. Now that I can legally get married to Allie, we're on the outs."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I always thought they should've criminalized Quartermaine marriage," Monica quipped.
"I love you, too, honey," Alan said.
"Good for them. You know, I kept lobbying those pigheaded members of Congress. Told them they were being hypocritical. Now, you and Allie can finally make my grandchildren legitimate," Edward noticed the stares, "What?"
"Father, it's just weird for you, of all people, to be concern about legitimacy. Are any of your kids legitimate?" Alan asked.
"At least, all of mine were born with their parents in some kind of marriage," Tracy pointed out.
"It's different," Edward protested.
"Right. I need to get to work." Tracy left for ELQ, knowing it was going to be a bad day.
"Mere, what does gay marriage means?" Morgan asked, watching the Today show. Alice glanced up and saw the bullet point, "Court to Legalized Gay Marriage." Oh, what irony.
"Gay marriage is where two people of the same sex get married. Before now, it was legal in some states and not others."
"So, are you and Mom married?" Aidan asked.
"In the great state of Massachusetts, we are."
"Oh. Are you going to get married in New York?" Morgan asked.
"Not this month."
"Granny! How are you?" Brook Lyn burst into Tracy's ELQ office on Friday mid-morning. Tracy held up her hand, signaling she was on the phone.
"Yeah, I know. Bad timing, huh? 'Not this month?' I can't believe you said that! On Wednesday night? I believe I have a dinner meeting. Maybe Kristina could….yeah, 6 to 9 o.k. Well, Brook just get here…no I don't know why she didn't come to the house first….I'll send her over soon. Yeah. O.k. I'll see you tonight." Tracy hung up the phone. "You need to call Alice."
"O.k. I thought I would see you first because I needed help with my math and knew you used Fridays as a catch up day. So things are not good."
Tracy sighed. Things were tense and the first therapy session didn't go well. Tracy and Alice both yelled and cried, blaming them and each other for a number of things. Eleanor Welles, the therapist, smiled and listened. Then she told them they were nowhere near ready for a divorce and they had a good foundation. Hopefully they could get back to that.
"Things are shaky. Alice's….it's going to take a long time to figure things out. But hey, she didn't immediately filed for divorce," Tracy said, optimistically.
"That's good. So no new legal marriage yet?"
"That's way off, to say the least," Tracy chuckled.
"I see you have worked to do. So I'll just go over to Alice's now."
"Tell her I'll be over tonight to help with the science projects."
"O.k. I'll see you later, "Brook Lyn said.
"I don't want to do this. It's stupid. And Mom's not here," Aidan whined. Alice sighed and massaged her temples.
"Yeah. Mom's better at this," Morgan added.
"Your mother will be here after work. But I want you to get some homework done. You don't need to start the project part until tomorrow. But I want at least the five page report done tonight."
Aidan and Morgan turned to their books and started too looked up information. Alice went to the kitchen and reached into the freezer, getting out the bottle of vodka she sorted in there. She mixed the vodka and orange juice and returned to the table.
"Hey." Tracy stood awkwardly in the door. Alice glanced up and caught her breath.
"Mommy! Do we have to do this now? It isn't due until Monday," Morgan said, smiling charmingly.
"Are you and mere going to get married?" Aidan asked.
Tracy rolled her eyes. "Yeah and you had two weeks to do it. You need to get it half done tonight at least. We are not making cell models at ten o'clock Sunday night. Its seven o'clock and you know Meerkats come on in two hours. So if you don't want to miss that I would work on the report. And Aidan, I believe Mere already answered that question."
"O.k." Morgan and Aidan grumbled.
Tracy and Alice settled down with the kids to work on the reports. After two hours the written reports were done barring proofing and Morgan and Aidan was off to watch TV.
"It wouldn't bother me except they are smart enough to get away with waiting until the last minute. I could never do that," Alice said.
"I could. But that caught up to me in grad school. So I should probably leave," Tracy said. Alice felt her heart skipped.
"Oh, do you need to go?"
"I could stay, if you want me to…" Tracy said.
"The cubs would like that," Alice said.
"I would like that too."
They sat in silent for a moment. Alice leaned over and kissed Tracy.
"Mmmm." Tracy smiled. "What did you do that for?"
Alice groaned. "I miss you. I miss you and I'm angry at you and I'm still in love with you."
"How bad do you miss me?"
"I miss the sex and it would be really easy to go upstairs and fool around but I don't think that's what we need right now."
"What do you need right now, Alice?" Tracy asked.
"Time. I need to clear my mind. I'm not even considering marriage right now. Maybe I should go out to Curves," Alice said, naming a lesbian bar. Tracy looked alarmed.
"But women will hit on you," Tracy protested, "I don't know if I like that idea."
"Well, we're separating. I could technically date other people," Alice said.
"I really don't like that idea."
"I don't exactly cherish the thought of you in bed with someone else, either. But at least, with me it's hypotheorical. For now," Alice smiled, enjoying watching Tracy squirmed.
"I suppose. " Tracy bit her lip. "If you get enough time and give me enough forgiveness, I would like the chance to woo you."
"Woo me?"
"Court you? We never actually dated before marriage. Let me take you out on a date."
"What a very Quartermainian backwards way to do things. Let me think about it."
Tracy headed to say good night to the twins.
"For the record, the Quartermaines can bring the woo."
