Sorry about leaving the last chapter off so very suddenly! I hope that this chapter is good enough to make up for it! Please take a moment to review if you can! Enjoy this chapter!
Filip was in a rather uncomfortable position. He was currently holding and comforting his sobbing wife in their bedroom, while their daughter was in her own room, obviously still reeling from the news she had just heard. Fiona was beside herself, wondering if Kerrianne would be okay, afraid that she hated them, debating whether they had made a mistake. He was at a loss as to what he should do. On one hand, his instinct said to immediately hate anybody who made his Fiona cry like this, but on the other hand, he understood how Kerrianne was feeling, and knew exactly what she was doing.
They had spent a half hour or so trying to break Kerrianne's silence in the restaurant. It didn't work. It seemed as if she just didn't want to speak at all. Filip had thought that she might still be processing it, and he wanted to allow her time to do that. He was the same way, at times, prone to making sure to think things through before opening his mouth, for fear of saying the wrong thing. At least, he sincerely hoped that was what she was doing. For all he knew, she could be plotting to kill them, but he really hoped that she wasn't.
Fiona was not nearly as content as Filip was to allow Kerrianne to enjoy her silence. For several minutes, Fiona had just pushed and tried to get Kerrianne to talk, to say anything, but all she got were shrugs and grunts. Eventually, the refusal to talk lead to anger on both parts, which manifested itself in both women glaring across the table at each other. Filip was, by this point, feeling very, very uncomfortable and really wanted nothing more than to be at home. He knew, judging from the stony, fed up expression on Fiona's face and the stubborn, immovable expression on Kerrianne's face that they had come to an impasse and would be getting nowhere
Their lunch had pretty much been a lost cause at that point. He somehow managed to convince both girls to leave, and he was amazed at their ability to create such a prolonged, awkward silence. He had driven them both home, with barely a word said on either end. No sooner had they pulled in before Fiona was out of the car, headed towards their bedroom before the tears started. He entered the house just in time to hear Kerrianne's door slam shut. It was at this point that Filip seriously began to hope that this impending child would be a boy. He had just about all of the women he could handle.
He tended to Fiona first. Her crying was something that he just couldn't abide by, so he ended up in their room, holding on to her tightly, while she let everything out. There were times when he could talk Fiona out of whatever she was going through, but he was smart enough to know that this was not one of those times. He knew that once she calmed down, she would be okay. This whole situation was stressful on her, and with the amount of time she spent worrying about him, worrying about Kerrianne, and worrying about the new baby, he was beginning to wonder when she would worry about herself, or if she ever did at all. He made a mental note to make sure that she took some down time, and soon.
He noticed that she had stopped crying, and for that he was glad. He leaned back a bit and took her face in his hands, using his thumbs to wipe away the remaining tears on her cheeks. He kissed her softly, resting his forehead against hers. She was far and away the best, most beautiful woman he had ever met, and he loved her, more than anything. He would do whatever he could to fix this, whatever it took to make her smile.
"You okay, Fiona Rose?" he asked her, using her full name because he loved the way it sounded.
"Yes," she replied, quickly following it up. "No. I don't know. It's hard to be anything but happy when I'm here with you. I've got my husband back, I've got a little baby growing inside me. Everything should be wonderful, I should be happy. But it's hard to be happy if she is miserable. She's my baby."
"Yeah, I know. She is going to be fine though, Fi. She is just working it out; these things take more than a few minutes to process sometimes," he tried to reason with her.
"I know that. She can be so much like you sometimes. It's just," she paused as if looking for the right words to say. "Is it too much to ask for things to just work out exactly right for one time in our lives? Couldn't she have just been happy and helped us pick a nursery color? No, of course not. Now I will have to spend the next nine months arguing with her and trying to convince her that I really do want what's best for her, and chances are, by the time I am done she will still think I am ruining her life. It's like having to fight an uphill battle that you just know you are going to lose."
He chuckled, "It is going to work out exactly right, Fi. We will figure his out. You will be okay and Kerri will be okay and this wee one will be okay. Now come on. Let's go deposit you into a hot bath full of girly bubbles, and you let me deal with Kerrianne."
"You will deal with Kerrianne? Have you noticed that she has suddenly become mute?" Fiona asked, allowing herself to be pulled up from the bed.
"Maybe, but don't you worry about that right now. Seriously. Bathtub, now. Use the bubbles that smells really good. I like it when you smell really good," he demanded with the most innocent look on his face. "And no getting out of the tub for at least an hour."
She finally cracked a small smile. No matter how insane things were, no matter how pregnant she got, no matter how mad and silent Kerrianne was, she could at least smile, knowing that she had the sweetest, most wonderful man in the world. He always, always looked out for her and took care of her, and loved her beyond reason. After kissing him soundly, she made a mental note to herself to make sure to shave during this mandatory bath time. Come hell or high water, her husband was getting lucky tonight.
After drawing her bath and seeing her settled in the tub, Filip shut the door and made his way down the hall to Kerrianne's room. He and his daughter had a lot to talk about. He loved his little girl and knew that she had every right to feel however it was she was feeling, but he needed to help her see that there were good way and terrible ways to express those feelings. Most of all, he wanted her to know that she would be fine and that he would do whatever was required to make sure she would be happy and safe here in Charming. Finding himself facing her closed door, he knocked softly.
"Go away," came the slightly muffled response from the other side of the door.
"Not a chance, Kid," he said kindly but firmly. "Open up."
There was nothing, no response at all, for a solid minute. Finally, the knob turned and the door opened to reveal Kerrianne walking back across the room to her bed. He followed her inside, shutting the door behind him. He looked around the purple room slowly, before taking a seat in the desk chair. This room had slowly but surely become hers over the past few weeks. There were posters advertising obnoxious bands covering the walls. There was makeup and perfume littering the top of the dresser. Some of her favorite books were stacked in the bedside table, next to the small, framed picture of the two of them on the day she had been born. There was a shot of the three of them, taken on his last trip to Belfast, hanging on the wall right next to him. It was as if this room had always been hers.
Kerrianne was looking at him, as if she was unsure of what he would say or do. He could tell by her flushed cheeks and wet eyes that she had been crying, and that tore at his heart just as much as Fiona' tears did. Neither of his girls should be crying, ever. Without thinking, he reached over to where she was sitting and took her hands in his own. He kissed them and held them tightly, noticing her tears starting again. He wasted no time in joining her on her small bed and holding hugging her, her tears falling in the exact same, already damp spot where her mother's had fallen just minutes ago.
"Kerrianne, don't cry. Please talk to me. Just tell me what's going on in that head of yours," he softly pleaded with her.
"I don't know, Da," she said, her voice sounding strained. "I couldn't even begin to explain what I am thinking or how I am feeling."
"Your Ma seems to think you are mad about the baby, thinks that you have some grand hatred for the wee little thing" he told her, hoping to at least get her talking about it.
"I'm not mad. Not really anyway. It's a huge surprise, and I didn't even think you guys wanted another baby, but I don't hate it," she assured him. "I didn't ever even think of the possibility that you two might have another baby."
"Trust me kid, neither did I. So if it isn't the baby, is it the move here?" he asked.
"Maybe. A little bit, anyway. I didn't expect you guys to make me move," she told him honestly.
"I know, Honey, and I am sorry. Maybe I am a selfish, awful Da for saying this, but I can't have you and your Ma going back there now, I can't have you guys away from me. I love you guys, and this new brother or sister of yours, way too much to have you away from me again, and considering this history and bad blood in Belfast, it's just safer here," he explained.
"So if it weren't for this baby, you would be fine with us leaving?" she asked in a mildly accusing voice.
"Not even a little bit. I won't pretend I haven't been hoping and praying that you guys would stay here; that I haven't been searching high and low for a good reason to make you. I just didn't expect to find in in exactly this way," he said.
"Yeah," she agreed.
"Charming isn't all that bad though, is it? You could be happy here. The school is really good here, and you will do really well. You have Tristen now, and in a few more months, Juice and the rest of the guys will be out. Everybody here adores you. I am here, and I love you, so so much. Is it really going to be so bad living here?" he asked, hoping and praying that she would agree with him.
"No, of course it won't be all bad. I just wasn't ready for it, all of a sudden," she admitted.
"I know Kerrianne, and I wish it could have happened a different way. The truth is, I don't know how to make this better. I need you to at least give me some idea of how I can make this okay. I can't handle your Ma crying because she thinks you hate her, and you crying because you are miserable. It kills me, Baby," he told her, very nearly on the verge of tears himself.
"I don't know, Da. It's just all changing, so fast. I mean, my life is completely different than it was a year ago. Back then, I was living in Belfast in a locked down house with my Ma and a man who was terrifying in every way. Each and every move I made was controlled, and not by me. And now, here I am, a year later with my Ma and my Da, in my purple bedroom in California, and now I will go to a new school, with new kids, surrounded by new people, and there will be a baby brother or sister on top of all of that. I would take you and Ma any day over all of everything in Ireland, but I wish I had something familiar to cling to. It's just so much change, all at once," she explained, desperate for someone to understand what she was going through. And he did.
"Oh, my girl. You may not believe or understand this, but I have been there. There was a time when I thought I had lost everything and I found myself here in Charming with literally nothing familiar to ground me. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but I made it through. You are not me, and your situation is not what mine was. You have the fortune to have your Ma and your Da who love you more than fish love water. I am here, Baby, and so is your Ma. If there is anything we can do to help you, anything at all, we will, and I think you know that. But you have got to give us something here. You can't close yourself off and not talk to us. That's not how families work, Kerri," he said to her.
She looked at him, studying him with her eyes. Slowly, she nodded, "Yeah, okay Da. I can try."
"Thank you, Sweetheart. I mean it; we are both here for you always. Do you think you might be able to do me another favor?" he asked, managing a small smile.
"What?" she asked wearily.
"Can you try to be nice to your Ma? She is having a rough time today. She thinks you hate her, and she is completely pregnant and hormonal. She could use a break," he told her, hoping that she would understand.
She smiled. "I suppose I can do that. I will go talk to her. I have about a million questions about this whole baby thing. You're pretty excited about this, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I really am. Want to see a picture?" he asked, reaching for his wallet when he saw her nod. He pulled out the little sonogram that he had been carrying with him at all times for the past two days. Handing it too her, he pointed out the little baby in the middle of the picture.
"That? That is my little brother or sister?" she asked, completely disbelieving. "That looks like a Sour Patch Kid!"
He laughed. "I thought so, too, but don't tell your Ma that. It will grow and look a lot less like a sea monkey and a lot more like a cute little baby," he assured her.
"I sure as hell hope so," she told him, still staring at the picture, before looking up at him and smiling. "Congratulations, Da."
"Thank you, Baby," he said, genuinely touched.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek, before standing up and grabbing a piece of tape off of her desk. She secured the sonogram picture right alongside the picture of the three of them hanging on her wall, before smiling at him and going to find her Ma. Filip leaned back on the bed, utterly exhausted. He knew, however, that even when both of his girls were in crisis mode and he was more stressed out than ever, he knew full well that he would rather be exhausted and stressed out with them than on his own any day.