…

The next morning…

Vivien gently tucked the soft baby blanket Nora had crocheted around Joshua. He smacked his tiny lips in his sleep then gave a soft, sweet sigh that melted her heart. She'd been afraid that after so much activity and upset he would be fussy for days but he seemed to have forgotten all about the chaos from the night before. She marveled at his resilience and she knew it was better for him that way. Better not to remember such horror.

She felt the presence of another ghost in the doorway and looked over expecting to see Moira but it was the young man who'd given Joshua back to her in the basement. Surprised, she hesitated then gently placed the baby in his bassinet. Then she moved a few steps closer to the doorway, the skirt of her long white lounging dress fluttering lightly with her movement.

The teen boy was dressed in a dark blue and green striped sweater that was three sizes too big and had his thumbs thrust into the pockets of baggy jeans torn at both knees. His well-worn Converse All-Stars sneakers and uncombed, dirty blond hair shading his moody eyes gave him an unkempt orphan appearance that tugged at Vivien's overdeveloped mothering instincts.

"Hello," she said. "You're- you were one of my husband's patients, weren't you?"

Tate shifted his weight uncomfortably at being recognized. "Tate. Tate Langdon. My mother lives next door to you."

Vivien nodded slowly. Connecting that name to a face was a surprise she wasn't ready for and didn't know how to handle. "Ah. Right. I know Constance but..."

The woman hadn't said anything about Tate, which Vivien found odd given how long she'd been on speaking terms with the woman. But then she never said much about any of her children. Not even Adelaide.

Tate froze, seized up on the inside because he knew that was the perfect opening to admit what he'd come to tell her. But he couldn't speak. He wanted very badly to tell her; so badly it brought tears to his eyes. But he just couldn't say anything. It was like a slab of concrete had fallen over his stomach, trapping all the words under it.

"Thank you," Vivien said then. Her insides were churning as she tried in her mind to wrestle this pathetic, grubby teen into the monstrous form of Rubber Man. He was barely more than a boy himself. "For returning my baby. Do... you know if your mother has heard anything about Michael?"

Just like that the window of opportunity was closed. Tate ducked his head and looked at his shoes. A tear fell on the scuffed toe of one sneaker. "I saw her a little bit ago. She said he's doing so good they're going to let him go home from the hospital tomorrow. Father Jeremiah got out this morning. I guess he, um, got cut or something. I'm not sure what happened. But they're both gonna be okay."

Vivien looked relieved. "I'm glad to hear that. That's… that's good." She paused. "Do… Could you do me a favor?"

He nodded but he couldn't look at her. She was being so nice to him; it made him feel twice as tainted on the inside.

"When you see your mother again, could you ask her if I could… If I could see Michael?" said Vivien. She laced her fingers in front of her. She was feeling incredibly awkward herself. If he'd been an aggressive man or a monster, she would have known how to handle the situation. But he wasn't. "I'm… I'm his mother."

Tate sniffled wetly then. He couldn't help it. The tears wouldn't stay in his eyes. "I know." He pulled his hands out of his pockets and folded his arms tightly around himself. "I… I'm his father."

He scrunched his eyes shut then and flinched down, ready to be hit or yelled at or whatever hideous thing would happen next. Even with his eyes shut he could feel hot tears slipping down his face and dripping into his shirt collar.

A kaleidoscope of emotions washed over Vivien, one on top of the next. Hearing him say those words aloud prompted such a rush of conflicting feelings, they suffocated her to the point where her legs felt wobbly. She had to hold onto the bassinet to keep from slumping to her knees.

"But you're not…" She said in a numb way. "I saw the Rubber Man earlier… You were fighting… him."

"The suit's a monster," Tate said, relaxing his defensive cringe a little when he realized she wasn't going to physically assault him. "It takes over whoever's wearing it and makes them… do bad things."

Vivien remembered Halloween night and how she'd seen that rubber suit on her husband when they'd made love. She'd dismissed the vision at the time, but after last night, she wished she'd given it more attention. She stared at the teen; he still couldn't look at her. He looked so pitiful and weak, it was very hard for her to pair him with the broken memories of the night she'd gotten pregnant with Michael. The night she'd thought she was with Ben. She pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling dizzy.

"You… That was really you? That night?" she said.

He nodded and more tears fell on his shoes. "I'm really, really sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. I never ever wanted to hurt you or anybody in your family. I love Violet. Your husband's always been nice to me. And you're the best mom I ever saw. I'm so sorry I hurt you."

She shook her head. "Why are you telling me this? Now?"

Tate's shoulders hunched in a small and sniffled again. "Violet said you should know. That I should tell you. I'm sorry if that's wrong too. But I wanted to say sorry. If you want, I'll leave you alone now. You'll never have to see me again."

Vivien frowned. "Whoa. You're not going to dump this on me and then run off. I'm… I'm a little shell-shocked right now but I'm sure I'll have plenty to say when I- when I think this through "

"I stay mostly on the third floor," he said, glancing up only briefly. He just saw a flash of her white dress and a smear of her brown hair then his eyes were on the floor again. "Anytime you want to yell at me or whatever, just call for me. I'll hear you."

"I will," Vivien nodded.

He retreated then, leaving her alone and shaken. That kid was the father of one of her babies? Almost as soon as he was gone she wanted to know: Was he already dead when he did it? But she decided not to call him back. Instead she went and found a pad of paper and a pencil and started to write a list, beginning with that question.

…

Tate went from the nursery to the downstairs front parlor where Chad and Patrick were repairing a huge crack in the plaster portion of the paneled north wall. The earthquake had left a lot of cosmetic damage to the house that needed fixing, though Chad had determined most of it could be repaired without having to call in outside help. Although things in the house seemed to have gone back to 'normal' after the quake, he was reluctant to bring a living person back into the house so soon after things had gone to hell and back.

"Grab that stir stick and start mixing the paint since you're here," Chad said when he walked in, sensing Tate before seeing him. When he did glance back that glance became a disapproving look. He pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, thinking further. "If you're going to look like that, then you can dry your skin out helping Patrick do the drywall. I'll paint."

Tate had been so preoccupied with the conversation he'd had with Vivien that he didn't age down or clean up or anything before entering the room. He hoped that Chad's attitude meant he was off the hook for the oversight.

Chad got up from where he was working on the lower portion of the wall beneath Pat's ladder. The bigger man was patching up the higher part. Chad shoved a plaster spatula handle-first into Tate's hand. The teen stood there with it for a moment, looking at it blankly.

"Get to work," Chad nagged, shooing at him with one hand. Then he noticed how much drywall gunk was on his cuticles and under his nails. He made a face. "God! And it's going to be months before I can get a decent manicure."

Patrick and Tate exchanged a look. Then Pat rolled his eyes, Tate smiled, and they both got busy filling in the cracked plaster.

…

Author's Note:

So Vivien finally knows who Michael's baby-daddy is. This is one of those threads that's not going to be entirely resolved by the time this Season ends. It just can't be. Vivien's got a lot to process before she can get past this situation. She doesn't know yet that Violet's seeing him. Then there's the question of whether she's going to want Tate to be near Michael. Or whether she'll want more to do with Michael after she sees him. There's just so much there that I can't cram all the answers into this one episode. Likely the answers would bring more questions anyway.

So here we are mid-way through the last episode. I update on Saturdays around midnight MST. That gives us approximately one more month together with his Season. Then I'll be doing one-shots while I get my offline projects finished up. I'm not sure about a Season 2. Part of me wants to move on but another part can't help asking all these questions about the futures of the characters. So who knows what'll happen after I've got me real world stuff taken care of.

Next chapter things get uncomfortable again so I hope you enjoyed this little bit of 'down time'.