CHAPTER 4

Monday morning Elizabeth and Emily are waiting in admin for Headmaster Lee, neither knowing why the meeting was called. Emily felt she'd done well on the PSAT's and looked to get a 4.0 on the mid-year exams, she hadn't been in trouble and hadn't skipped school once.

Once they're settled in the office with coffee Elizabeth stares down the headmaster daring him to find anything negative about her daughters behaviour since starting school.

Just as Elizabeth is about to demand an explanation there's a knock and the door and Terrence Murdoch slips in with a smile and apology.

"Before you ask no Emily isn't in any trouble, I just wanted to touch base especially after the last two weeks." Headmaster Lee assures them.

"From an academic standpoint Emily's performance is remarkable, all of her teachers report back they are more than happy with the work she's doing." Terrance smiles at the two of them. "Except for the week before last your attendance has been perfect."

"How is the baby now?"

"She's fine" Emily wasn't sure where this was going.

The Headmaster smiled again "After your interview with us in August; Terrance and I discussed your particular situation. It centred on whether to inform your teachers of your unique circumstances or not. Terrance argued and I agreed that you should be judged on your work and behaviour as it is now and not on past decisions. Which is why, at the beginning of term, none of the faculty were informed of your struggles in Rome and Fleur's existence."

"I know Mrs. Calhoun has met Fleur and knows she's yours and I assume Miss Galatas knows everything but have you told anyone else?" Terrance asked.

"Yeah, Tania, Melissa and Nicole know as well." Emily smiled "They all met Fleur on Friday night… we had pizza at Melissa's" Terrance knows the girls she's made friends with and they're all good kids.

"Emily... we'd like your permission to officially inform the rest of the faculty about Fleur." Headmaster Lee leaned backwards, knitting his hands over his stomach attempting to appear as nonthreatening as possible.

"If she say's no?" Elizabeth wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page before a decision was made.

"If asked we would neither confirm nor deny... we would advise them to approach Emily."

Turning to look at her daughter Elizabeth could see she didn't like that idea and suspected it had more to do with the inevitable follow up questions so she leaned over and whispered in her ear. Emily nodded her agreement to Elizabeth suggestion.

"We agree to you informing the staff on the proviso that if any of her teachers have questions beyond how she is coping with the work and the work load they call us and schedule a conference much like you have. Her Father or I will need to be present at any discussion involving events prior to the current school year." Elizabeth stared the Headmaster down "If this condition is not met... well I've already destroyed the reputation of one school."

"Acceptable. I will confirm that Fleur is Emily's daughter and that while we were not covering up the existence of Fleur we wanted to allow Emily the chance to settle in and make friends without her every moved being judged. We have a staff meeting this afternoon at 4pm, you and your husband are welcome to meet here afterwards to speak with her teachers yourself"

Mentally going over her schedule for the day Elizabeth nodded "I'll be here, I'll need to check with Emily's father and confirm his availability."

"Ummm" Emily interjected raising her hand slightly "Should I come too with Fleur?"

Elizabeth nodded when Headmaster Lee looked to her for confirmation.

"That's entirely up to you... I don't have a problem with it."

At 5pm that afternoon Emily and Elizabeth were waiting with Fleur in one of the conference rooms.

Not knowing how long the staff meeting would take Emily pulled out some homework and Elizabeth read through reports.

When Headmaster Lee walked in he found Emily sitting sideways at the table one foot on the stroller rocking it back and forth as she read through her physics text and made notes.

"I asked them to give me a few minutes" he stated, walking up to the stroller to get his first glimpse of the baby.

Dark, curious eyes blinked up at him before Fleur's face broke out into a smile showing off the teeth that had given them so much grief a few weeks before.

"Are you sure about this Emily?" he asked.

"No... Yeah..." Emily sighed and chewed on her lower lip for a moment "It was going to happen eventually and at least this way... Mom's here..."

Fleur chose that moment to voice her discontent with being contained. Emily quickly undid the straps and pulled her out, reaching into the bottom of the stroller she pulled out a couple of toys and moved over to sit down on the floor away from where Elizabeth was sitting.

Peter Lee wasn't sure if she sat with her back to the door on purpose or not.

At the door Maria watched Emily interact with the baby and considered what she'd just found out.

Poisonous was the word Peter had used to describe Emily's school in Rome. Malicious students and apathetic teachers...

Combined with absent parents it was a recipe for disaster.

It explained the confusion on Emily's face when Maria came to check on her in sick bay.

When Peter told the Prentiss' he'd wanted to give Emily a chance to settle into the school and make friends without the stigma of being a teen mom he wasn't lying... what he'd added when speaking to the staff was Emily's trust in educators had been destroyed, and she'd needed these first two months to be treated as an equal to all the other students and as long as no issues with her school work or health became evident their treatment of Emily was not to change. The parent's had done their part by getting her out of that environment and supporting their daughter as she walked a very tough road. It was now up to them to remind Emily not every school was like the one in Rome.

With the new information explaining several things she had been wondering about Maria felt she had already made a few inroads in gaining Emily's trust, any more information she got she wanted to be given freely by Emily.

Nodding at Elizabeth she walked over and sat down on the floor with Emily and Fleur and started chatting quietly about Fleur.

When was her birthday, did she have a favourite toy, favourite food... had Emily been talking to her in other languages.

This is how she would gain Emily's trust and respect be interested and non-judgmental.

Emily's Physics and Chemistry teachers also came in to speak with Elizabeth... their questions innocuous, for now centering on her homework load and how to tell and what to do if Emily was struggling, both requesting private meetings before Christmas break.

The head of languages Stuart Collins waited patiently inside the door, when he'd found out they were getting a student who had greater fluency in French and Spanish than their instructors he'd been ecstatic at the possibility of getting her to tutor some of his students for extra credit. He'd been firmly rebuffed by Emily who she stated she didn't have time.

He was hoping to get a few minutes with her and her mother to see if there was any flexibility at all.

He watched as Elizabeth flipped open Emily's homework binder and pulled out several sheets of paper.

"This is the first draft of her physics homework from today..."

"It's in… Arabic?"

"This is your warning sign that she's stressing about something... the calligraphy requires her complete focus and concentration, which helps calm her down. As long as her class work is done in English she's fine."

Stuart nearly laughed at the glare Emily threw over her shoulder at her Mother, she thought they hadn't noticed.

"Sorry to interrupt" Stuart stepped in "how many languages can Emily speak."

"She's fluent in English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Greek. Her Russian is iffy and her father has been teaching her Latin."

"and German" Emily adds.

Over in the corner Emily continued to chat with Mrs. Calhoun while keeping half an ear on her mother's conversation.

Fleur had grown bored with her toys and crawled up to Emily. Using first Emily's thigh, then knee, elbow and shoulder the baby slowly pulled herself up until she was upright. Unsure and unsteady Fleur looked around the room from her new vantage point wondering what to do next.

"Hey Mom... check this out" Emily called

"That's a first" Elizabeth grinned just as Fleur drops down onto her diaper clad bottom.

Emily winced at the unmistakable squelch that came from said diaper. Leaning back she snagged the diaper bag from the bottom of the stroller and quickly changed the baby.

Feeling the desire to show off in front of Mr. Collins Emily shuffles around so they're both facing her mother.

"Fleur, où est maman?" (Fleur, where is Maman?") She asks the baby loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Ba" she points to Elizabeth with a happy sound.

"Maman a besoin d'un baiser" (Maman needs a kiss).

Fleur's eyes light up and she lurches forward scrambling across the carpet to Elizabeth who picks her up and accepts a sloppy baby kiss.

"Retour à Mommy" (Back to Mommy) Elizabeth puts her back on the ground.

"We speak more French than English at home." Emily explains smiling proudly at her daughter.

"Speaking of French" Mr. Collins walks over to Emily "My offer of extra credit for tutoring is still open. Just tell me what you need and I'll make it happen."

"Honestly… The problem is our schedules are really tight. Mom and Dad have been really good about organising their day's around my school timetable to limit the amount of time she's with a sitter so I can't get to school any earlier or stay any later than I already do. The rest of Mom's week is going to be a nightmare after being here this morning and afternoon."

"So if I can find someone who could watch Fleur? I have two students who are really struggling and they need to bring their grades up."

Emily chewed on her lip, she really did want to help and the tutoring would look good on her college applications; but not at the cost of the delicate balance they'd found in the last two months, her parents schedules couldn't be changed easily and her mother had warned her to be cautious when changing Fleur's.

"Let me talk to my parents… can I come and talk to you during my study period tomorrow?"

Stuart nodded his agreement, it was better than the outright refusal he'd received a month before.

"Thanks..."

A frank discussion is held with her parents that night over whether it is a good idea or not and what term's Emily will need to set.

"This is politics at its most basic" her mother smirks at Emily's horrified look "you have something they want, you negotiate from a position of power and come out on top."

Rapping lightly on Mr. Collin's office door Emily stood and chewed on an already ragged thumbnail as she waited for a response.

"Emily!" whipping around in surprise she saw him coming down the hall with a student she didn't recognise.

Unlocking the door he let the girls in and sat them down.

"Emily Prentiss this is Lillian Baker... Lillian... Emily. Here's the deal... I have two students failing French, they both have the potential to get athletic college scholarships... if they can bring their grade up from a D to a B-, and they're willing to put in the work but need help. Emily could almost pass as a native French speaker but has responsibilities at home that don't leave her with any time which is where Lillian comes in. Lillian is doing an independent study in child development..."

Emily's eyes go wide as she realises what he's implying.

"Emily...? Do you mind if I explain?"

She shakes her head...

"Emily has a nine month old baby at home... if she's to tutor these two students then someone needs to keep an eye on Fleur. Lillian can use the time she's spending with Fleur to track development and milestones for her study... Everybody wins."

Emily watched Lillian out of the corner of her eye for her reaction. The older girl turns her head to look at Emily mouth opening and closing a few times as she tried to form a response.

"I'd heard a rumour..." she murmurs before shaking her head slightly "I'm in!"

"Emily? Will this work for you?"

"Yeah..." a smile breaks out on her face "That'll work, we'll need to sit down and work out a schedule that works for all of us. I can't just make changes at the last minute so once we set a time it needs to be stuck with. Ummm... my Dad wants to meet everyone first and if possible can everyone come to my place? It's easier than hauling the baby and all her stuff somewhere."

"Ok, meet back here same time tomorrow to work out a schedule that works for everyone."

The girls agree and leave the office at the same time, as they're wandering down the hall the silence becomes a little awkward.

"Ummm" Emily breaks the silence first "It might be better if Fleur meets you before I leave her with you..."

"I have Volleyball this afternoon but I can come over after that, meet Fleur, go over anything I need to know and I'll fill you in on the study I'm doing."

The two exchanged phone numbers and addresses agreeing to meet at 5:30 that evening.

As she walked to algebra Emily wondered if she would have 5 friends by the end of the day...

The meeting between Lillian and Fleur goes well, as does the initial few tutoring sessions in the lead up to Christmas. After a lot of thought Emily figures her father was onto something and gets them translating their other homework assignments into French and then reading the translations aloud.

Thanksgiving is spent at Aunt Theresa's, Emily entertains herself by leaving the room anytime her Aunt walks into it. Theresa seems to have moved on from criticising Emily for having the baby to criticising the way she's raising the baby.

Given her cousins avoid their Mother as much as possible she's not putting too much stock in the 'advice' she's getting.

Seemingly content to crawl for the moment Fleur hasn't attempted to get back on her feet. They have another week of horror just before Christmas when her next set of teeth are coming through. Emily end's up staying home from school for two days after an issue in Chemistry.

Doctor Talbot casts a quick eye over the quizzes as he collects them up making sure they all have the students names at the top. They'd all noticed Emily struggling the last few days and he has low hopes that she's done any well let alone finished the quiz.

Slow steady steps take him past her and he does a double take as his eyes flick over her paper. Every question is answered but he has no idea what it says.

He makes it back to the front of the room just as the bell rings.

"Emily..." he calls the teen over as she's walking past him.

"You need to go home." he says when only Tania is left hovering by the door.

"I'm fine Sir" the protest is mechanical and expected, he pulls her quiz from the top of the pile and hands it back to her.

Scanning it over she looks at him quizzically not understanding what the problem is.

"It's not in English..." She looks back down at the paper and flushes in embarrassment as she finally realises she answered everything in French.

"I'm so sorry sir... I can translate it for you right now if you want."

"Don't worry about it... go home, get some sleep and you can re-take the quiz when you're not randomly switching between English and French."

That evening when Jules gets home he finds Emily lying flat on her stomach asleep on the den floor, Fleur lying on top of Emily head resting between her mother's shoulder blades. The school had called him after Emily had been sent home, he'd agreed that she wouldn't returning to school for the rest of the week. He doesn't attempt to move Fleur only drops a light blanket over the two of them.

When Elizabeth gets home an hour later Fleur has woken and is sitting next to a still sleeping Emily using her rib cage as a back rest playing happily as Jules works on his marking on the couch.

Pulling out her own stack of marking Elizabeth settles down next to him.

Not long later Fleur crawls up to Emily's head and starts patting her face trying to wake her up.

"Ba, ba, ba, ba…" When she doesn't get a reaction Fleur turns to look at her Grandparents with a scowl. A quick glance at his watch tells Jules it's the baby's dinner time and Emily's not stirring.

"Which beast should we risk waking… the big or the little one?" Jules asked his wife.

"Neither" Elizabeth stands "I'll feed her right there..."

5 minutes later she's sitting next to them spooning a warm concoction of mashed potato, carrot and peas into her mouth.

Fleur's eyes light up as the first taste hits her mouth "mmmmmm" she mimics the sounds Emily makes when feeding her, tiny pink tongue poking out with every bite.

Fleur's first Christmas is massive, while her parents a sensible about what they buy the 10 month old her friends are not.

Every day the pile of gifts for the baby gets bigger.

Emily tries telling Calandra, Tania, Melissa and Nicole to stop but they refuse to listen. Fleur will never have a chance to wear all of the clothes they've bought her before growing out of them.

Even Lillian leaves a gift for the baby.

Her parents decide to open their house for everyone they know who has nowhere else to go… by midday the baby is so overwhelmed by all the new people and noises she has a very loud meltdown when she looks up from her playpen and can only see strangers. Emily was in the kitchen when she heard Fleur's terrified cries, she bolts to the den to discover her father had gotten to her first but the baby is inconsolable and throws herself at Emily who has to take her upstairs to try and calm her down.

When Elizabeth sticks her head into Emily's bedroom 30 minutes later she finds Emily sitting up in bed with Fleur cradled in her arms nursing, both their eyes are closed and bodies relaxed. Hearing the door open Emily cracks her eyes and gives her mother a watery smile.

"She asleep?"

"Not really, she's not even actually eating but every time I try to move she wakes and latches back on…" Emily winces as Fleur does just that, her teeth digging in "She wasn't angry or upset Mom… she was scared… I've never heard her cry like that…"

"She's never had a reason to" Elizabeth sits on the bed with them "it's a terrible thing when your child is scared and there's nothing you can do but hold them until it passes…"

"Come back down when you can." Elizabeth presses a kiss to Emily's cheek before leaving the room.

It's another half hour before Fleur is deeply asleep enough for Emily to put her in the crib.

Her mother's words stay with he, simmering in the back of her mind as New Year and January passes. Emily never brings it up with Elizabeth simply because she doesn't know what question she wants to ask or what she wants to say.

"Everything ok Em?" it's late January and she's back in Melissa's kitchen with Nancy, feeding Fleur while chatting with Nancy.

"Yeah… I've just… Mom said something and it got me thinking…"

Since that first night in November Nancy had become a bit of a confidant, Emily using her as a dress rehearsal when she needed to speak to her parents.

"Fleur had a meltdown on Christmas day… too much going on and too many new people… she was terrified when she couldn't see one of us. Mom said it's terrible when your kid is scared and all you can do is hold them. I just… it got me thinking about how she felt when I disappeared from Rome…"

"Hmmm" Nancy was non-committal, Emily spoke happily about living in Athens and Amman but seldom said anything about the time between leaving Greece and staying with her grandparents while pregnant.

"I told you I'd been a mess for a while and you've probably done the math and know I was 15 when I got pregnant…" Nancy nodded "Mom and Dad knew I was unhappy in Rome… but they'd been busy and didn't notice just how bad it was… I waited until they were on their way to Washington a few days after my 16th birthday before leaving. At the time I really believed no one would notice or care that I was gone... I thought they didn't care anymore. I found out later they were making plans to get out of Italy… get me out… anyway when I got to my grandparents the first thing my Papa did was call Mom and Dad. They drove 12 hours without stopping to get to me… I was asleep when they got there and I woke up and my Mom was right there… holding me… I was so caught up in being… well me… that I didn't notice how tightly she was holding on… how scared she was that I'd disappear again."

"Oh Em…" Nancy chuckled "and guess what's going to happen when Fleur is 16… you'll be terrified every time she leaves the house and she'll have no idea… it's the curse of Mothers and Daughters. As for running away… I get you were scared and your mother does as well… parents see a lot more than our teenagers think we do."

"I get that now, Mom and I spent a lot of time talking at the Chateau and I don't really want to bring it up with her again… I think I just needed to tell someone else."

"You can talk to me anytime… but Em, I want you to make me a promise…"

Three days before her first birthday Fleur takes her first steps. She'd been pulling herself up on anything she could reach since mid-January.

She and Tania were seated on the floor of the den doing their Chemistry homework, Jules was on the couch with his marking and Fleur had been entertaining herself using the couch and Jules to wander back and forth.

Emily looks up to see Fleur looking at her… lifting her hand Emily blows the baby a kiss a giant grin breaks out on the little face and she takes a wobbly step away from the couch and towards Emily.

Then another…

And another…

Fleur gets to five steps before dropping to her bottom and crawling the rest of the way. For the rest of the week Emily greets everyone with "Fleur's walking!" and a squeal of joy.

That Sunday all of Emily's friends from school, her aunt uncle and cousins all come over for a birthday lunch.

Fleur show's off her new walking skills and they're all grateful when the sugar finally works its way out of her system and she crashes.

That week at the school invites go out to the entire junior year, one of the football jocks is having a party while his parents are away for the weekend. Nicole and Tania both want to go, Calandra has an event at the Greek Embassy she has to attend and neither Melissa nor Emily are interested.

The girls don't push Emily to explain, she's never come right out and said it but enough hints have been dropped about how she ended up pregnant to know she won't attend a high school party like the one Kevin is planning.

The Monday after the party the school is buzzing over the events of that Saturday night… apparently a bunch of the seniors had crashed and brought friends from other schools, the police had been called somewhere around 1am.

Tania and Nicole were grounded until further notice…

All of the juniors were called into the gym for a lecture on the dangers of binge drinking and drugs.

"Tha sas váloun ekeí me mia baniéra gemáti apó vrómikes pánes tou Fleur" (They should put you up there with a tub full of Fleur's dirty diapers) Calandra whispers in Emily's ear making her cover her mouth so no one see's or hears the giggle.

One of the Junior's had claimed they'd both been at the party but quick calls to their parents had quickly debunked that, confirming both Melissa and Emily had been at the Prentiss house all night, Calandra's parents had laughed and confirmed her whereabouts as well.

By now the entire junior year knows about Fleur and it was a last ditch effort of the student to get herself out of trouble.

With the weather warming up in March and her being a Mom common knowledge Emily wonders if it would be ok to take Fleur to a home football game. The baby's fear of strangers at Christmas still fresh in her mind she wants her daughter to start getting used to seeing more people she doesn't know. They can sit in a quieter area with people Fleur is familiar with.

Hanging back after Algebra one day she asks Maria what she thinks, the algebra teacher doesn't see an issue with it but warns Emily not everyone will be receptive to a junior bringing their toddler to a school event.

Her parents agree with Maria and encourage Emily to talk to Headmaster Lee before making a decision.

With the Headmasters agreement the first home game in April see's Emily navigating the crowd with Fleur in her stroller, there are quite a few looks from parents and students. A lot of them downright nasty. He along with Elizabeth and Jules had been protecting Emily from the backlash received from the other parents and for the most part since their outing last November it's died down.

'Do not let anyone look down on you. You take what happened and wear it like armour, own it!'

She vaguely notices Mr. Murdoch intercepting a parent who is heading her way… she doesn't see Doctor Talbot doing the same.

She settles in a quieter part of the bleachers between Melissa and Calandra. Lillian and her friends sit behind them, the schools top baseball player Trent (one of the boys Emily tutors in French) sits with a few team mates in front of them.

Maria Calhoun takes a seat nearby forcing anyone who wants to approach Emily to go past her first, as the first whistle is blowing Headmaster Lee sits with her.

Fleur is watching everything from Emily's lap eyes wide, babbling away as she points at whatever catches her attention.

She has a small vocabulary 'Ball' and 'Ma' can be heard clearly… 'No' appears to be a catchall word for most other things.

Calandra is 'Lala', Tania Ta, Melissa Issy and Nicole is No.

By the half time whistle Fleur is dozing in Emily's lap exhausted by the excitement.

It's then she finally notices the interference being run by her teachers, catching Maria's eye Emily mouths 'Thank you'.

GDS wins the game which takes them through to the play offs, the night had gone well enough for Emily to make tentative plans to come to another home game.

As the SAT's approach Emily's stress levels skyrocket, despite carrying a 4.0 all year she's convinced she's going to fail. Fleur feeds off her mother's stress and the happy toddler is nowhere to be found which upsets Emily even more.

After a week of two unhappy girls despite Emily's protests that she needs to study Elizabeth and Jules pack the girls into the car and take them down to Cape Charles for the weekend.

When grades are posted at the end of the school year Emily hasn't just maintained her 4.0 GPA but her marks from the year before in English, French, Spanish and History stood as the top grades putting her in the number 2 place in her year.

Emily purchases small gifts to give out to her teachers during the last week of school… they're not large or expensive but she makes sure they're all thoughtful and perfect for the intended recipient.

One last girls night is planned at Melissa's and the five of them plus Fleur spend the night before they go their separate ways for the summer.

Two days after summer holiday's starts Jules drops Elizabeth, Emily and Fleur at the airport, he still has commitments at GWU but will be joining them in a week. The flight to Paris is uneventful as is the connection to Turin. As their rental car makes its way up the winding alpine roads Emily starts bouncing in her seat, as happy as she'd become in Washington the Chateau was still home.

Before Elizabeth even has a chance to cut of the engine Emily was out the car door and running towards Andre who was sitting on the porch. In that moment she could see Fleur at 17 running towards Jules.

Grinning as Emily threw herself her Grandfather, Elizabeth exited the car much more sedately and lifted a sleepy Fleur out of the car seat. Andre's eyes lit up as he saw the toddler, her face was a little rounder, hair a little lighter and nose not quite as long but she has Emily and Elizabeth's eyes, cheeks, chin and skin.

Right down to the dimples.

Placing the toddler on the ground Elizabeth leans down and whispers in her ear "Go to Grandpapa…"

"Gapapa…" despite being only 3 months old when they left France Emily has been showing Fleur pictures of her great grandparents and telling her stories hoping that she at least won't shy away from them when she finally sees them again.

With a giggle the little girl toddles towards them.

From the front door there's a gasp and Fleur senior watches the scene with tears in her eyes.

The broken girl who'd arrived at le Bijou nearly two years before was gone as was the scared girl who'd left with her father a year ago. In her place a healthy happy young woman stood… she can see the future, the woman her Emily is becoming.

Strong…

END CHAPTER 4