When Connor had his mind set on something then it stuck to that thought like a hungry wolf determined to get his prey. Something many people said that she had passed on to him; oh, how she wished she hadn't. As soon as she had mention to the two men that she was off for a dress fitting for Thran and Tess's wedding, her son was off like a rocket. Realising what she had done, Tia swore so loudly that the neighbours next door heard her. To everyone that knew the young woman then it was very rare for her to raise her voice let alone swear. So you can only imagine the look on the star striker and leader of the pirates face when she spoke one of the most forbidden worlds in existence. It was also what led her to be lying flat on her stomach next to the tiniest cupboard you can imagine that only a small dog or a small child would be able to fit into.
"Connor if you come with me to the fitting then we can go to the park afterwards." Tia tried to plead with the boy but as usual her son remained defiant.
"I'll be dead before that happens." The three year old shouted back at her. In frustration, the lawyer bashed her head against the floor, muttering curses into the wooden surface. Tia wasn't sure why the closet had been put their in the first place and hadn't even realised it existed at first until one day she was playing hide and seek with her child and after almost having a panic attack when she thought she lost him, he came crawling out of the door asking her if dinner was ready yet. It was at these times that she forgot that her son had superhuman hearing and had experience enough of his mother's bad tempers to know when she said something naughty. "That's twenty one pounds in the swear box!" He called out and in response Tia bashed her head against the wood again. Through all her anger, she could not help but smile at her son. Somehow he always made something good and funny. The sound of the floor creaking made her notice that someone was walking in her direction.
"He's thinks I find dress fitting fun." She mumbled, looking up to see a cheeky grin looking at me. D'jok laughed before deciding to join his old team mate on the floor.
"I expected many things when I came to see you Tia but… being a mummy was the last thing I expected. Have you been playing around Tia?" He mentioned and silence fell between them. Tia was used to the statement coming from others, but they were mostly arranged into meaner phrases, cursing her boy for being a bastard or herself as a slut. As always she had ignored them but they still hurt. But the way D'jok said it made it feel like it was just more then playful teasing and for some strange reason it really got to her.
"Well things change." The woman muttered before jumping to her feet and ran upstairs so she could get ready.
"Tia!" She heard D'jok called up the stairs but it was soon cut off when she closed her bedroom door behind her. Tia knew she was being stupid; her team mate wasn't being mean or anything. In all fairness the red head wasn't the mean type, big headed sometimes yes and short tempered but he would never go out of his way to scare someone. Yet the scares of her past had somehow managed to rip open and bleed again. Forcing the tears that were threatening to escape, she got herself washed and dressed for the day. Throwing on a pair of jeans and t-shirt, Tia bounced her way back downstairs and went back to the cupboard door to try and allure her son out. But before she had a chance to begin the use of her bargaining skills, she heard singing. Following the noise, she was led back to the living room where she saw Connor and D'jok sitting in the centre of the rug, performing a clapping song. But since the football striker was not use to this sort of game he kept messing it up. It didn't matter though, the red head seemed determined to get through one rhyme and Connor seemed to think all the mistakes he made were rather funny. For a spilt second, D'jok looked up and their eyes met. Her heart stopped as long as they made eye contact before she physically had to put a lot of energy into ripping it apart.
"Mummy! D'jok says that he'll look after me so I don't have to go dress shopping!" Connor beamed happily and the red head just shrugged like it was nothing. Tia was honestly a little taken back by the request.
"Are you sure? I would hate – "
"It's okay Tia I spend a lot of time with kids anyway, it's no big deal." Her old team mate answered with an easy casualness that made the mother feel a little more reassured about his ability to look after her child. To be fair, there were no strong arguments to not allow him to stay with the footballer, not to mention she was already running a bit behind schedule. Nevertheless, her motherly instincts still made her feel uneasy about this arrangement. Still, she trusted D'jok and decided he was better than a lot of people. In the end she sighed in defeat.
"Okay, I'll only be gone for an hour or so, behave Connor and make sure he doesn't eat anything sugary before lunch. Emergency contacts are on the fridge." With the stranded warnings given, Tia made her way out the door and was about half way down the stairs when she heard his voice again.
"Tia wait a second!" The red head called out behind her, spinning around on the spot, she watched him meet her on the same step. "I got the feeling I upset you earlier and I just want you to know I…" He didn't get to finish as Tia raised her hand and shook her head slightly.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have treated you like that, just a lot of bad memories resurfaced at the same time but that was not right to take it up on you." She smiled sweetly at him before running down the stairs to her car. "I'll see you later." She waved and strapping herself into her car, drove away, only checking her mirror once to see if he had gone back inside the house.
The main colours for the wedding were red and blue. Red because it was Tessa's favourite colour and blue for Thran's favourite and since they couldn't decide on which colour they decided to have both. This ended up in weird arrangements and decorations made up for the wedding which would usually seem odd but under Tessa's direction somehow seemed to work. For example, the flower decorations consisted of matching bluebells and red roses; the cutlery was mostly white apart from the red and blue rims around the edges with red or blue napkins to match and for the outfits, ruby silk for the dresses and sapphire material for the suits. Since Tia was playing best woman for the ceremony, she decided to use this as an excuse to not wear a dress and in the end was able to convince her best friend to have a suit styled for her instead. Looking at herself in the fall length mirror, she admired how the suit fitted her body perfectly, giving her a nice figure and the dark colours really help to show off her flawless snowy skin. Tessa had chosen a dark grey shirt with silver buttons, matching dark blue blazer with trousers and silver high heels. Oh yes, she defiantly felt much more comfy and sexier in this suit then wearing one of those…
"Wow Tia you look great!" Shelly smiled, walking into the room. Speaking of the unspeakable red dresses, her colleague and friend was pulling it off without a hint of embarrassment or any signs of acting uncomfortable. The outfit was long but had a knee length slit on the right side to show off a bit of leg, it didn't have any strap and had a small sequin display around the top half. There was one thing you could say about the Bing sisters and that was they could pull off wearing any type of clothing. The only other woman who would be wearing that dress was her friend Yuki, who sadly couldn't make it today with the Snow Kids training extra hard to win the galactic football cup again, since they had lost their chance winning the last cup for the fourth time to the Lightning's and for some reason the cup date had to be change making the program run two years earlier than it should. They would have to wait for themselves to arrive on Akillian before they could try out the dress.
"Thanks Shell, you look amazing yourself." Tia smiled back as the woman exchanged some cheesy poses together in the mirror before laughing their heads off.
"Oh you have to come and see Amy in her dress, she's so cute." The maid of honour clapped excitedly before pulling Tia out of the room. Leading her into the main waiting room, the lawyer saw her best friends three year old playing with her dress in the mirror. She had a lighter red dress then the other woman with a white ribbon around the middle and white little shoes to match; Amy looked like a little angel. Noticing her two godmothers in the mirror, she bounced over to them and started performing little circles and curtsies to show off in.
"Okay guys what do you think?" Tessa asked, stepping out of her own dressing room to reveal her own wedding gown. They already knew it was going to be mostly red because Tess had found the idea of wearing white ridiculous and such a boring colour. It was strapless with diamonds and pearls around the bodice with embroidery of silver roses down the side with a red ruffle held up to show off a white silk also stitched with the same patterns. She looked absolutely stunning. Now Tia had a feeling that even Thran's tux would somehow be fitting in with the colour scheme.
"You look amazing!" Shelly cried out excitedly and pulled her little sister into a hug but was careful not to mess up the dress. Amy seemed to be taken back but her mother's beauty and seemed a little eerie. Finally her mum looked at her and Tessa's face filled with joy.
"Baby you look so beautiful!" Her friend went all teary but held it back so she wouldn't ruin her makeup, pulling her own little girl into a hug. Tia didn't mind that she couldn't have moments like this with her son, she was sure she was patient enough to wait for grandchildren. After an emotional hug, Tessa seemed to suddenly remember that she had forgotten to tell her friend something important. "I've just remember, we got all the invitations from your old team mates so everyone will be at the wedding."
Arriving home, Tia was careful to carry her outfit through the house without damaging it in anyway. She had nearly gotten her head ripped off from the bride to be when she nearly got it splattered by water but she couldn't help it. Even though she had supported Thran's idea to invite all the old Snow Kid's to the ceremony she had been completely uncomfortable with it. It meant meeting a certain someone for the first time in six years and they had not parted on good terms. The first thing to know the house was still in order was the sound of group laughter echoing through the house.
"Hello!" Tia called out, placing the outfit on a hook but her voice failed to break through the event was happening somewhere in the back of the house. Popping her head in the living room, she was surprised to see not just D'jok but Sonny sitting in the circle with her son, playing with his auto-bot action figures. It took all the effort in the world not to laugh her head off at how much fun two grown man were having playing with dolls. Since they had their backs to her, they had not notice her return, it was Connor who noticed.
"Mummy!" Connor cried out, jumping to his feet and ran over to his mum. The two men froze where they sat, realising they had been caught out. Scoping him up into her arms, Tia kissed the top of his forehead before looking at the two men who had abandon the toys and tried to look like nothing had happen.
"So? Did you beat Megatron?" She questioned, tossing her bag to the side, so she could get a better hand on her son. He was wiggling around a lot as his head was still in the game and was moving his toy Optimus Prima around like he was flying or something and every now and then moved his arm and made shooting noises with his mouth.
"We kicked his butt mum but he got away again!" He answered and folded his arms as if he was a little mad at himself which was kind of funny because it wasn't real.
"You guys let Megatron get away!" Tia pretended to act shock sending both father and son a wicked look that made them squirm on the spot. It felt good to have this kind of power; she was going to use it as blackmail for the rest of their lives.
"Don't worry mum we'll get them next time!" He cheered with a fist pump in the air. Again Tia giggled and finally put the three year old down, dashing off with his toy, shouting something that sounded like he was going to find the enemy or something. Nothing was said between the three adults and the room was completely silent until Tia's phone went off. Looking at her wrist she saw it was Briar and he never called her unless it was work related or he wanted to ask if he wanted a drink and if he was phoning around this time it must be about work. Excusing herself, she moved into the hallway and took the call.
"What have you got for me Briar?" Tia asked, listening intently to what the man was saying, the picture had come up positive in the police database; they now had a name for the victim and a address.