Taylor walks into his living room and freezes. Before him is a sight he never thought he'd see again. His girls, both of them, and Christian's two daughters are sitting on the floor laughing. Phina is laughing! Each young woman has a glass of white wine (taken from Christian's personal wine cellar) and is undergoing some form of 'beauty' treatment.
Sophie's soft blond hair is up in curlers. Phoebe has that weird spreader thing women put between their toes, getting them painted by Phina. Phina's face is covered in shades of pastel makeup that has transformed her from her usual depressing self into a laughing angel. Ella is having wax and strips of cloth applied to her legs by Sophie.
"Good morning Mr. Taylor!" Phoebe looks up from her pedicure to grin at him. All of the girls stop what they are doing and greet him. Taylor is unable to respond, speechless by the smile on Phina's face, the real smile that reaches her eyes.
While he stands there like a dumbstruck idiot Phina gets up and walks over to him. "Good morning daddy." She says before wrapping her slim little arms around him and hugging him tight. Taylor unfreezes as she starts to pull away and pulls her into him. He buries his face in her sweet smelling blue hair.
"Oh, my baby!" He says on a choked sob. He hadn't seen the sparkle in her eyes since the day Ted left for collage three months early. Every one had done every thing in their power to cheer her up, Christian had even let her drive his favorite car (at the time) and then took her out to an expensive dinner. She had spent many nights at the Grey's house with the girls, but nothing had worked.
Seeing her like that, laughing and truly happy, after so many years of despair...he is overwhelmed with emotion and tears spill down his cheeks. "It's OK daddy. Please don't cry." She begs.
"I'm just so happy!" Sophie is up and moving towards her father who pulls her into the hug. The three stay that way for what seems like forever. Taylor finally releases his girls and smiles. "It's good to see the two of you so happy." He sniffles.
"Do you want to join us Mr. Taylor?" Ella holds up a set of the toe spreader things.
"NO thank you ladies. You can keep your torture devices to yourself." He picks up a metal contraption that looks down right dangerous. "What is this thing?" Sophie pulls it from him and puts it up to her eyes.
"It's an eye lash curler."
"Like I said, I'm quite happy with my lashes uncurled." He plays off his emotional moment and rushes away. Taylor has no idea what has changed but he's happy it has.
The two Taylor girls sit back in their places and smile at their friends. Phina is truly happy to be home. For the first time in twelve years she can smile and laugh without feeling guilty about it. Who knew that one real discussion with Teddy would lift years of weight off her shoulders. She didn't have to bear the pain alone, she didn't have to be alone.
"So, any idea where Teddy is taking you?" Phoebe asks with a knowing little smile on her face. Phina shakes her head, she didn't even want to guess. It seemed so surreal to be going on a date with him. "Well he is rich, maybe not as rich as daddy, but rich enough. Daddy does romantic things for mama all the time, like renting out entire restaurants. I bet Teddy will do something like that."
"I don't think so," Sophie puts in. "Teddy has always been more of a picnic kind of guy. I think he'll take her somewhere private and feed her peeled grape."
"Peeled grapes?" Phina makes a face, grapes are a weird enough food, but having them peeled would make the slimy.
"It's supposed to be romantic." Ella says with an exasperated sigh. "Seriously, didn't those hunky famous guys do anything romantic with you?"
"Honestly most of those relationships were just publicity stunts. His manager and mine, Sophie, would arrange for us to be seen in public together. We acted besotted and shared a few kisses then pretended to have horrible breakups. It's something for the magazines to report on. In reality, I don't have much time for men." She takes a sip of her wine, pleased to see the shocked looks on her friends' faces.
Sophie confirmed her story. "Well that's true, but you did date a few guys seriously."
"Yeah, and they all turned out to be emotionally stunted losers."
"Oh honey, all men are that way." Phoebe takes a long sip from her own glass. "Now, what were you planning on wearing?"
Phina shrugs. "He didn't tell me where we were going," She shoots an accusing look to her sister who gives her a doe eyed innocent look. "I don't remember saying yes to a date... I was asleep."
"Whether you said yes or not, you have to dress appropriately. Do you have any nice dresses? What am I saying… you're famous, of course you have nice dresses."
Sophie holds up a hand. "Everything she owns is black! We can't let her go out in any of her own cloths."
"Not all black!" Phina denies.
"Oh, OK then, you have a few shades of gray." Phina smiles and nods.
"What size are you in now?"
"Ella! It's rude to ask a woman her weight!"
"I didn't ask your weight, I asked your size. I'm fitting into an eight these days, I need to know if my clothes will fit or hand of you like old rags."
"I'll fit an eight." Phina admits. These women are her friends, what can it hurt to admit to them that she'd had one twinkie to many?
"Phina!" Sophie snaps. "I can see the disgust on your face. Eight is not fat, hell, it's down right skinny! Do you think Ella is fat?"
"No!" Phina is appalled by the suggestion. "Ella is stunning!"
"Since you and she are the same size than you can't possibly be fat."
"It's not that I think I'm fat. Ella is stunningly beautiful..."
"You are gorgeous! Well you were before your hair turned blue. Ted must think you're something special, even with the blue hair, seeing how he saw you and still wants to date you. So get over yourself and come let us chose you a suitable dress." Ella pulls her best friend to her feet and heads out the door with the other girls following. Phina is cringing. It has been years since she let anyone choose her clothes for her, she fired her stylist years ago. This can't be fun!
Christian is sitting in his office, in the very same place he'd been twelve years ago after he'd overheard Phina's confession. He and Ana have been fighting lately and it was mainly his fault. With the two children spending so much time together, he has been agitated and worried that the truth would soon come out. Ana knew him well enough to know when he was hiding something and she was continually pestering him about it.
He scrubbed his hands over his face and ran them through his hair. He didn't want to argue with his beloved wife, he didn't want to spend the rest of his life at odds with his only son. Christian just wished he knew how to make everything better. He wanted to go back to when Teddy thought of his father as a super hero who could do no wrong. He wanted not to feel that niggle of guilt every time he and Taylor were alone.
A knock sounded at the door and he is startled to see Ted standing there. "Can I come in?" Christian gives a terse nod. His son hadn't sought him out for twelve long years. Christian remembers a time when Ted had come to him with everything.
Ted sits in the chair opposite his father, the same chair Phina had once sat in hugging herself and crying. "Son." Christian isn't sure what to say. He hates this awkwardness between him and his boy!
"I know how weird this is, so I'll just come out with it shall I? I want you to apologize to Phina." Christian starts at this. He isn't sure what he was expecting but that wasn't it. "Let me finish." Ted demands before Christian can say anything. "I want to have a future with her, and I can't until the entire past has been cleared away. She has spent the past twelve years vilifying us, and it has to end."
Christian doesn't know what to say, he isn't sure he's sorry for his actions. One thing he is sure of is he can't let his usual hardheadedness be a barrier between him and his son any longer. "Theodore, I agree that a discussion between the three of us is long over due. But I think an apology is out of question. I am not sorry that I demanded she have an abortion. If Phina had carried that baby to term, assuming she and the child would have survived, there was more than a chance that her father would have had you arrested.
I am sorry about the way things turned out, and I will tell her as much. I was not willing to let the two of you ruin your lives over some stupid mistake. I stand by what I did and would do it again if I had to." The office door swings open and Ana enters the room. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she is not smiling.
"Mom!"
"Anastasia?" Christian stands and reaches for his wife, she doesn't let him touch her. Christian knows she overheard their conversation. "Baby, Ted was just leaving. You and I can discuss what you just heard in privet tonight." he holds out his hand to her again.
Ana glares at him. "Explain, now." she isn't yelling. Only disapproval shows on her still beautiful face. Ted doesn't want to explain anything to his mother, but he sure as hell doesn't want her to hear his father's side of the story.
With a deep breath and short prayer to Faith for strength, he tells his mother all about what happened twelve years ago. He doesn't tell her that Phina instigated the elicit encounter, just that she had been a wiling participant. He doesn't want his parents to ever think anything negative about Phina. When he gets to the part about Christian's involvement his father cringes.
Ted explains how he understands that Christian was concerned for everyone's future. But the abortion hadn't been what he or Phina wanted. Ana listens, her face impassive. She had watched her husband and son drift further and further apart. She had seen Phina fall to pieces, but there had been nothing she could do about any of it. If her husband had come to her with the information instead of making such rash decisions, all of their lives might have been different.
After what seems like an eternity she speaks calmly, but firmly. "I didn't raise my son not to take responsibility for anything wrong he's done. I didn't accept it when he was a boy and I will certainly not accept it now he's a man". Christian tries to say something to her, but she holds up a hand in warning and continues talking.
"This is not about you and me, Christian, but be certain that we'll both deal with your keeping this from me for twelve years later. This is about these two kids who royally screwed up and have been paying a high price for it". She looks between Christian and Ted, clearly not happy with either of them. "You need to come clean, and then you should both ask for Gail's and Jason's forgiveness. You deceived them to protect yourselves and our family, but ended up brutally hurting their family by doing so. It's the least I expect from you two".
(for those of you asking there will be lemons coming up soon! :-p) I just want to take a minuet and thank my Betareader Chloe Smith2 for all her wonderful suggestions and hard work!