A/N: Thanks to Supernatural1985 for reminding me about Noah and Reese with her pm and suggesting that idea.
And a big thanks to everyone that's reviewed in general, and that has updated their women of the otherworld fanfictions, all those updates have inspired me to get out of my writer's block and update before 2011 ends.
Just as a general note, I was thinking about adding some action later on but as there is some serious emotional baggage between these characters and I introduced two new ones, I don't want to rush anything. In addition, I've also posted character pictures for Gia and Mirella on my profile page. And happy new year and holidays to everyone.
As usual I own nothing. Everything except Mira and Gia belongs to Kelley Armstrong.
*Translation Notes: senti. Nonostante tutto. questo è … imprescindibile = Listen, Despite everything, this is absolutely necessary.
When I woke up I thought I was back in my room in Brooklyn and that everything had been an awful dream caused by the type of hardcore indigestion brought on by too much greasy pizza and boxed wine. But the sheets felt different and the smell was all wrong. It smelled empty and generic, and my room always smelled like sage and those little sacks of potpourri that my mom put all over the house in white satin bags with little pink ribbons. Everything had gone so horribly wrong that all I wanted to do was sink into the bed and disappear in the spaces between what were no doubt five hundred thread count sheets. I didn't know what I had expected to happen but maybe daytime television had polluted my brain so much that I believed announcing yourself to long lost family members was simple. That everyone would be surprised at first and then you would cry, exchange phone numbers and then set up a lunch date at a diner that smelled like weak coffee and freshly cleaned blue vinyl seats. My fingers twitched beneath the satin pillowcase and I knew that my unrealistic expectations had nothing to do with the tube and everything to do with me. That beneath all my toughness, when it came to family I was as naïve as a five year old putting out cookies and cold milk for Santa on Christmas Eve.
I sat up in the bed and leaned back against the headboard, but all I could hear were the sheets rustling instead of the familiar squeaking of my old brass headboard. It made more noise than the tin man and it smelled like a gigantic pickle jar filled with years' worth of forgotten pennies. I'd found it at some garage sale and had somehow convinced my mom that I had to have it because it had character. When I looked back at the headboard I remembered that my mom was driving here and I imagined my parents standing in that oversized living room like characters from all those dusty leather bound books lining the Sorrentino library walls, facing off on a polished cherry wood battlefield like two opposing armies waiting for the signal to fire their cannons. It was exactly why I hadn't wanted her to come, the risk of emotional carnage was much higher for her because they had the history, because she would get this strange look on her face and her nose would wrinkle when she read his name on my paycheck envelopes. Because her voice sounded flat whenever I called to tell her I got to work okay.
I kicked off the comforter with all the force of a cage fighter and got out of the bed that felt about as warm and cozy to me as I imagined eating a bowl full of nails for breakfast in my day old eye shadow with a one-night stand would be. There was a pair of clothes on the nightstand, a Burberry warm up suit, but I couldn't bring myself to touch it. My wrinkled white shirt and work skirt would have to do for now. I felt strange accepting things from them, the way you feel when you see a trampled five dollar bill on the floor and you're not really sure whether you should shove it in your back pocket or not.
I slowly got out the bed and looked at myself in the mirror that was standing on the opposite side of the room. I looked like I had done the walk of shame three mornings in a row, drank five shots of jack and then fell asleep on the A-train. Plus I was hungry as all hell, since I'd never eaten lunch. Note to self next time I get myself into these kind of situations at least pack a sandwich, because cigarettes, gum, and an old pack of life savers do not constitute as food. I sighed and hesitantly made my way into the hallway, the cold wood stinging the bottom of my still bare feet, as I wondered what these people had against using area rugs. Maybe it was a werewolf thing? I kept walking unsure of whether I had even gone down the stairs or not, my brain was a muddy mushy mess, and I could feel a piece of dried up mascara scratching the corner of my eye.
I passed by a room and instantly got the painful burning sensation of someone trying to light a match on the back of my neck. There were more of them. More werewolves besides Nick and Mr. Sorrentino, Antonio, whatever the hell I was supposed to call him. I stared at the floor watching the rainbow colored flashes from a television spill over the tops of my feet, before finally touching the fancy ass handle and opening the door. Instantly I felt my stomach punch my vocal chords. There were two kids, two teenagers in there playing video games. I knew I shouldn't have been surprised, why wouldn't a guy who already had a son and a love child not have a whole bunch of living breathing one night stand mementos running around. Blonde hair and the other one was a brunette, they looked nothing like Nick and I, but I guess Sorrentino Sr. followed the whole variety is the spice of life policy. It still made me pissed, I kept telling myself over and over again that I didn't want anything from them, that I just came to find out what species I was a mix of, but as I walked up to that blonde one with the constipated look on his face, I felt angry. How come he found them, how come they got to live in the house with the rug phobia and the golden doorknobs? The house with the iron railing on the stoop, the glass coasters, and the man who came home early on weekends to take them to the movies and ask them how school was going and the name of the girl they had been texting non stop for a week.
''I'll get Nick for you.''
The blonde haired one spoke, and I could tell by the appraising looks from him and the dark-haired one who would be cute if he did something to his hair, that he had probably mistook me for another one of Nick's overnight play dates. I really didn't get it, maybe it was the whole no shoes combined with smudged mascara look, but why did people always think that I was doing one of the Sorrentino's instead of making the connection that I was one of them, genetically speaking of course.
''How many goddamn kids does this guy got?''
I didn't realized I had said anything out loud until I heard Nick's voice behind me, it was lighter than earlier, but he still sounded like all he wanted to do was go make himself a stiff drink.
''Two, just you and me Brooklyn. Noah, Reese I'll fill you guys in later, just no matter what you hear going on stay in this room, Gia you're mom's outside and she has that face you had in the car.''
I raised my eyebrow, and bit my lip trying to squint into the slightly darkened room. Maybe that dark haired one was cute, even with the bad hair. I shrugged off the thought and followed Nick back to that goddamn living room again, Now was really not the time to be thinking about getting laid, but maybe that meant that Nick and I had more in common than I had imagined. I made a mental u-turn back to his phrase. He hadn't called me Brooklyn since we were still almost friends, since the last time we had gone to Starbuck's together and he bought me a venti redeye. The day I had busted his balls for not so inconspicuously checking out the woman writing the names on people's frappucino cups.
''Are we a'ight?''
He shrugged and paused for just a second before he turned around and looked at me as he spoke.
''We'll see how it goes.''
I could sense my mother before I actually saw her. It was that odd numb sensation you get when the dentist shoots you up with so much Novocain that your mouth feels like it was filled with a thousand of those little marshmallows that come in the deluxe packages of Swiss Miss. That's what magic was. It wasn't fantastic or some over the top 3-D surround sound orgy of Latin chanting, demonic rituals and special effects that were worthy of an Oscar. Magic was that prickly feeling you got on the tip of your tongue when you were two seconds and one more sip of coffee away from remembering someone's name. It was that fuzziness that fogs up your brain in that awkward time slot between your last dream and the annoying ass sound of your alarm clock having an electronic orgasm on the nightstand.
Nick guided me to the living room with his hand awkwardly gripping my shoulder. Ma and Nick's father were standing across from each other like they had never met before. And I saw 's face soften as he looked at her, but my ma's face looked hard and decided.
''Gia let's go.''
I looked at her and then at Nick. I might've felt about as comfortable as an ass full of hemorrhoids in that place, but maybe something good could actually come out of this. I had no intention of getting all Lindsay Lohan à la the parent trap and trying to get those two crazy Italians together, but this was a chance for me to know something about myself. To know who my grandparents were, to know why I always had that one piece of hair that would never lay flat, and where I got my eye color from. A chance to know all that cheesy shit that I had tried to act like I didn't give a rat's red ass about.
''I wanna stay the weekend. You know if it's a'ight with you and you don't have no plans or nothin'.''
I looked at my father, and I saw him hesitate before he answered me, caught between having the opportunity to have this very messy situation go away, and possibly having something else unknown and intangible. Having me here on loan for the weekend like a rental from blockbuster wouldn't erase what he did, but maybe it was start. What if we were actually supposed to fix this thing, to make it work out somehow? I wasn't an optimist, I just wanted to know what it was like to have a guy around, to talk to someone about practical things and watch really bad action movies with, and if he turned out to be a dick then at least I would know. At least I wouldn't spend my entire life wondering what the man who gave me the other half of my chromosomes was like.
****************Antonio POV***********************************
I had never been much of a daydreamer but when Giovanna said stay the weekend I found myself lost in some fantasy world. Mirella would stay the weekend, we'd make love and then afterwards I'd look at her impossibly tangled hair and listen to her off-key humming, before feeling the seismic rumbling of my chest erupting with laughter after she said something completely off-color. I would see how she had changed, devoting my time to seeing if the same old scars were still waiting for me on her neck and the side of her right hip. And then she would go into the kitchen with her hair in an awkward bun held in place by an old pen, and she'd make that terrible coffee of hers that smelled like burnt tires and could probably double as paint stripper. But none of that would ever happen, because I had destroyed everything like a little kid stepping on an anthill. It was too late to even attempt anything with her beyond direct eye contact but maybe if I let Gia stay the weekend I would never have to endure the pain of seeing her wearing the same angry expression as her mother.
''If agrees to it and I have a discussion with my alpha then yes, that would be alright.''
As soon as those words left my mouth Mirella looked at me and I ran a hand through my hair, suddenly self-conscious, and desperately wishing that I could hide the secret between us under one of the upholstered seat cushions. She despised me and she wore it on her face as conspicuously as an oversized campaign button pinned to the lapels of a winter jacket.
She looked different. All the awkward lines of her frame that I had learned to appreciate had smoothed and her hair had calmed down. Her features were the same but everything felt softer and there was a self assurance that hadn't been there before. Her awkwardness had all but disappeared and even though intellectually I knew that she had to have changed in the almost two decades since I had seen her, I wasn't prepared for the sight of a gorgeous woman in her late thirties standing in my living room and wearing all of Mira's old expressions and carrying that same scent. I still pictured the awkward young woman with the strange outfits, but it was obvious that just like Gia she had grown up without any of my doing. I hadn't been there to witness anything; they had suddenly just reappeared before me, a set of before and after photos on a late night infomercial.
''Why? It wasn't necessary to discuss with this alpha when you were making her''
I'd almost completely forgotten about that side of her, the sharp biting phrases she could roll off her tongue had all been eroded away by some idealistic version of her I had created over the years. Time had a way of manipulating people's personalities to the point that memories were often times more fiction than fact, and I found myself mentally wincing at the harshness of her statement. No matter how true it had been.
''Mirella just.''
Giovanna cut me off before I could even make a sentence that was worthy of any kind of punctuation. Nick's hand was still perched uncertainly on her shoulder, and my eyes rested on the crisp lines of his dress shirt clashing with her wrinkled nicotine scented ensemble.
''Ma, senti. Nonostante tutto. questo è … imprescindibile I just, I gotta do this. If they're all complete assholes then at least I'll know, but not knowing is gonna make me nuts. I'm an adult if I wanna deal with them, let me learn the hard way.''
Mirella wouldn't break eye contact with me, and I tried to place myself in her position. If this were Nick would I feel comfortable throwing him into a situation with someone who had abandoned him before he had even taken his first step or started eating solid food? If someone had left him like that I'd want to rip them to shreds with my bare hands and feed them to a pack of wild dogs, and judging by her face that was exactly the kind of fantasy Mirella was probably indulging in. I had to take control of the situation, it was ridiculous that out of all of the adults in the room, Giovanna, a teenage girl from Brooklyn who wasn't even old enough to order a glass of wine, and had every right to hate me for what I had done was being the most sensible and mature person standing in the library. I didn't know how Giovanna had any more words left in her, she looked as if she would collapse onto the floor if Nick's hand wasn't on her shoulder. I was still shocked, I was still ashamed that my son and possibly Noah and Reese were going to see the man they had looked up to and aspired to be like had been such a cowardly bastard. In that moment I hated myself more than I did the first day I had ever seen Giovanna, those gigantic hazel eyes of hers sadly peeking out from beneath the pink cotton cap the hospital gave to every newborn girl. I looked at Mirella and fingered my cufflinks, what I had done was my decision, I couldn't punish Gia because I was angry at my cowardice.
''Mirella, I would really like Giovanna to stay here for the weekend, and I promise you that she'll be alright. If I didn't have any intention of getting to know her, we all wouldn't be standing in the living room right now.''
She raised her left eyebrow and I saw a slight flash of red touch the side of her neck. I had said the wrong thing, although I had an inkling that nothing I could have said in that moment would have pleased her, the pope himself could have entered our living room and vouched that I had only positive intentions, and that cold deadly temper of hers would still make the entire house feel as icy as a Siberian winter.
''I see. Giovanna, you and" she paused and looked between me and Nicholas, visually establishing our relationship before she continued. '''s son, can look for something to discuss in the hallway for ten minutes, yes?''
''Honestly ma, if you gotta say something, I think I'll survive if I hear it, and Nicky over here isn't exactly still in pull-ups.''
She had a point but I agreed with Mirella, if this conversation was headed in the direction I imagined it would, then I preferred if Nicholas and his sister didn't hear, regardless of their ages and the fact that my former secretary used so much profanity that I wished she came with a built in sensor button.
''Nicholas take Giovanna into the kitchen.''
''Dad I can't, Gia's right, her and I aren't exactly in nursery school and I think we've both had enough secrets to last us into the afterlife.''
An icy silence fell over the room, but it didn't last long, Mirella wasted no time in following up on her earlier train of thought.
''So now that it's convenient for you to know her, that makes everything okay. I should just give her to you, smiling, and have full confidence in the person who went away before the ink on the birth certificate was dried.''
I felt sick to my stomach; seeing the mutated faces of all the rogue mutts Clay had tortured was like watching a Disney movie with Kate and Logan compared to this. I hadn't felt so tortured by guilt since I had inadvertently caused the death of Nick's mother, the first love of my life. I wasn't Jeremy, it was clear that I was meant to be alone; I had destroyed the only two women that I had ever been in love with. Nick's mother was six feet under the ground, her life barely even half lived, and Mirella was still alive but it was clear that she had never truly gotten past this. There was no ring marking her left hand, and there was an anger from her that only comes from bottling up something for so long that when it was finally uncorked anger leaked from ever pore in your body, and even your teeth felt like they were rotting with it.
''Mirella, this.''
''Don't call me that name.''
'' this isn't about us, I'm not saying I wasn't wrong, but now isn't the time for this conversation. This is about Giovanna, and she wants to stay the weekend so she can see for herself if I'm worth knowing, and if she wants to have her brother in her life. She already knows how you feel about me, I'm sure, but she wants to make her own decision about me and I think she's intelligent enough to do that.''
''He's right ma. I wanna see for myself how they are, and that's my right. So I'm gonna stay even if I don't got your permission.''
They exchanged a look, that secret non-verbal code that every parent seems to have with their children. It was followed by a series of brow furrowing, lip biting, and Giovanna's fingers vigorously twitching, but eventually the silence was broken, and Mirella let us all in on the outcome of their almost telepathic conversation.
"I still don't like this.''
She silently left the room and I could hear the trunk of the car let out a squeak as she opened it and slammed the lid shut, returning seconds later with a green duffle bag that she plopped in front of Giovanna's feet.
''I carried it, in case on the return, we stopped somewheres''
I watched her face soften as Gia left Nick's death grip to embrace her, afraid her mother would change her mind, or possibly just grateful to let someone hold her, and have thirty seconds of vulnerability without agonizing over the consequences.
''I'll be fine seriously, if they were psychopathic human eating were wolves they would've eaten me up faster than a white castle burger when were in the benz, or when I fell asleep.''
'' there's a guest house if..''
''I'll sleep inside the car, if anything happens to her, I will come in three seconds to rip you a new one.''
A part of me had wanted her to stay. The same part that wanted to slip my hand around her small wrist to stop her from walking out the door. There were still so many things I wanted to tell her. A million questions suddenly invaded my brain, each one flashing in my mind as clearly as a Broadway marquee as she made her way out of the house and towards the driveway. Even though she wasn't married had she found someone else? Did she remember the day we met as vividly as I did? Could there ever be a chance to repair what had happened between us? What would Noah, Nick, and Reese think of me now?
''Dad I'll get Gia settled in the guest room so you can call Jeremy.''
My only answer was a slight nod as I reluctantly punched in the alpha's phone number in rhythm to Nick and Giovanna's footsteps. The dial tone stopped and I took a diaphragm bursting breath before I finally spoke.
''Jeremy, I didn't mean to wake you up, but do you remember when I spent that year in Venice?''
