= Walla Walla =

The yelling wasn't hard to miss.

Madelyn and Mackenzie stayed back for a few minutes, just listening. It was Laurel and their dad. They exchanged looks and Madelyn twisted her face at the sound of it. She was glad that they'd convinced everyone to let them go and find Oliver, though she still wasn't sure if she really wanted to have anything to do with him.

"You're keeping things from me, Oliver! That's a big deal!" Laurel shouted.

"What do you want me to say? It's not that I was keeping things from you, I just haven't exactly told you everything about my life."

"I thought I knew everything about you...about your life," Laurel ranted. "Oliver, what could be so big that you've kept it from me?"

"Dad!" Mackenzie shouted and ran out of where they'd been standing. She flung herself at Oliver before Madelyn could stop her twin.

Not knowing if this was the best time, Madelyn let out a sigh and walked out from where she'd been standing. "Kenzi, wait!" she called using her English accent purposely. The look on Laurel's face was worth it all, she looked so confused.

A moment later, Speedy was practically mauling Oliver and Mackenzie. It seemed like the moment between Oliver and Laurel was over...at least for that moment. Mackenzie just hugged her dad and started to go a mile a minute about London.

"Wait," Laurel finally said. "There are two?!"

"Oh, don't feel bad," Kenzi said as she pulled out of the hug and turned towards Laurel. "We didn't even know about it. Separated at birth. We found out at summer camp by complete accident...and then we switched places."

Laurel eyed them both and then turned to Oliver. "You have two daughters...one that you haven't seen since she was born and you didn't think that maybe that was something I should know? We're engaged! We're supposed to be joining our lives together!"

"Laurel, I-"

"No!" Laurel shouted. "This is ridiculous! I thought you had changed, Oliver! I thought you'd finally outgrown your stupid childish bad boy phase! I can't be with you if you're going to keep something so big from me!" Laurel threw her ring at him and started to stomp off.

"Dad, I'm sorry," Madelyn whispered. As much as she didn't like Laurel, she still hadn't meant to cause so much upset in his life. "All I wanted was to finally get to know you."

"And I wanted to know my mom," Mackenzie spoke up.

"Do you honestly all know?!" Laurel questioned angrily.

It was then that she realized that not only was Laurel still in eyesight, but so was everyone else. Madelyn watched Oliver, how he seemed to change when he saw her mother. She swore, there was still something between them...but there was also shock there too. "Felicity," he whispered and then swallowed hard.

"Dad," Mackenzie said.

He put up his hands. "No...I need...I need some time," he said as he started to back away. "This is just...this is too much."

Maybe it was just too much in a short span of time. The fact that Madelyn had revealed herself. The fact that Laurel had just broken up with him. The fact that her mother and everyone else was there. Maybe it was just too much. Madelyn didn't know because he just walked off and they let him.

Madelyn looked over at her twin, expecting to take her cue from Mackenzie. Her twin just seemed confused and to look back at the adults for what they should do. Her heart clenched as she stood there worrying. She was angry and disappointed in the man that she'd been so excited to get to know, but she hadn't wanted things to go sideways like this. She wanted her father to be happy and if it was with Laurel, then that was fine...Madelyn knew that she could now go home to London. She didn't have to be in that awkward and uncomfortable situation, but then she realized...Mackenzie would...and she'd have to leave her twin behind.

How could she do that?

She couldn't forget.

Things had to change.

This couldn't be it.

"I'll go after him," Sara finally volunteered after a long silence spread between them. She seemed to think it over for a long moment because she didn't move. She looked over to Thea, who just stared back at Sara for a long moment. "Maybe…"

"Felicity, you go," Thea told her.

Madelyn was shocked at that. Her mother hadn't seen their father in so many years...why would they send her after him?

"I-" Felicity seemed to stumble. "I-I can't…"

"You can," Thea insisted. "Ollie has never stopped loving you."

Donna let out the most exasperated loud sigh she'd ever heard. "I can't believe I'm saying this," she spoke up and came forward. "But Thea is right." She shook her head. "Oliver always loved you, Honey. Moira and I-I shouldn't have ever gotten in the way of that love…" Donna seemed heartbroken all the sudden and her voice broke. "But Honey… We should have never stood between you. It's our fault that you both were separated...and worse than that...that the girls were separated."

Madelyn couldn't think of her Nan in that way, where she'd purposely be mean. For her entire life, her Nan had always been so loving. Maybe sometimes she'd be a little crazy, but she was never malicious as far as she could think of. This was something that felt like it had to have been another lifetime for her Nan...for everyone else involved.

"Okay," her mother finally said reluctantly. Her mother seemed to be trying to decide if she was ready or not to go after him. Madelyn knew that this was hard on her mother. She had no idea how her mother was feeling or how she even felt in that moment. There were so many emotions and this was not something that any of them were used to in London.

"Mom," Madelyn whispered as she moved to her mother and took her hand. She stared up at her, looking her directly in the eyes. "I'm sorry. I had just-"

"I know," Felicity told her gently and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "I can't fault you for wanting to know your father. I always told myself that I wouldn't let my child grow up only knowing one parent...and I guess I did it anyway."

"Felicity-" Nan started.

"I should go and you all should go back to the house," Felicity said as she pulled away from all of them. She threw both of the girls a smile and then motioned towards the house. "Try to behave until I get back, okay?"

"We could play poker," Mackenzie suggested.

"I thought Mum said we needed to behave," Madelyn countered.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen with poker," Diggle commented.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Madelyn pointed out.

"Shh…"

Somehow, they'd slipped away after everyone else had gone into the house. There seemed to be a lot of catching up going on, which had made for a good distraction. Kenzi had just grabbed her and dragged her out the window. Madelyn hadn't even noticed that there was a ladder, that she was fairly sure was supposed to be really only used to escape the house in case of a fire emergency.

Now here they were standing behind a tree and spying on their parents. It was so odd to Madelyn to actually see them together even if it was just their backs as they sat in the grass. They were quiet, not speaking, though she was certain that they could have missed some conversation as it had taken them about twenty minutes or so after their father had stormed off to get to that point.

"They're amazing, our girls," Felicity spoke up. They weren't even looking at each other, they were just looking straight ahead and she was picking pieces of grass from the ground.

"Maddie speaks British?"

"Yes," Felicity responded with a short laugh. "I think it comes with the upbringing in London."

"I had never thought that this would ever happen, I mean...we knew that eventually, we'd have to tell them the truth," Oliver said. Madelyn was surprised at how gentle and quiet he was with her mother. "I guess, I never thought that there would be a good time for it."

"Or that it would work itself out without us having any part in it?"

"I can't even imagine what they must have thought figuring it out by meeting at summer camp," Oliver said with a loud sigh. "They must think we're horrible."

"Maybe," Felicity conceded. "But they can never know what it was like for us back then…"

"But did we do the right thing?"

Felicity finally turned her head to look right at him, "No."

Silence.

They were just staring at each other for the longest time. "We should have run away together," Felicity whispered and she sounded so sad. "We should have told them that we didn't care what they thought. We should have run away and raised our girls some place...anywhere...as long as we were together."

"Traveled the world?"

"I would have liked that."

"The girls would have probably liked that."

"You've built a home here, Oliver," Felicity pointed out. "I love the wine."

"You've had my wine?" Oliver asked, clearly surprised.

"Of course," Felicity said. "Sara sent it."

"Of course she did." He sighed. "And you've made quite the name for yourself."

"I don't know that any of it is worth all of those years," Felicity pointed out.

"And what do we do now?"

"I don't know," Felicity said. "All I know is that I don't think it's fair to keep the girls apart...to not let them be a family or sisters… Could you imagine growing up separated from Thea?"

"No."

"But neither one of us can just uproot their lives either, that's not fair," Felicity pointed out.

"We'll figure something out."

"The girls have to be involved in this decision," Felicity added. "And no one else. Just the four of us."

"What about John and Sara?"

"Okay, maybe them too…"

Oliver chuckled in response.

"Are you okay?" Felicity asked after a bout of silence. "Really?"

"I don't know."

"I'm sorry...about Laurel."

"She's just upset. She has a right to be. I kept important things from her."

"I could talk to her?"

Oliver laughed. "Thanks, but I think that might only make things worse." He sighed. "It just feels like the world has come crashing down around me the last few days. I thought I was starting over...with Laurel. Maddie, who I thought was Kenzi, hasn't been happy about Laurel...and maybe I should have taken that as a sign."

"It's not easy."

"It's been so long, Felicity. Is it horrible of me for thinking that there's someone else out there for me?"

"No, of course not."

"You've never remarried."

"No," Felicity said and bowed her head. "I never found anyone who came close to the right person that I found all those years before." She looked up at him again. "I always just remind myself that Maddie is the most important person in my life and that she's enough."

"After everything that had happened, my mother use to make me feel stronger," Oliver confided. "She'd give me advice and pep talks. She was the only person who made me feel better after you went away to London… I just don't know what to think anymore."

"I am sorry about your mother, Oliver."

"She didn't like you very much."

"No, but then my mother didn't love you either."

"We were different people," Oliver said.

Felicity nodded. "And now we're even more different."

"Everything went wrong when we decided to let other people dictate what our lives should look like." He was quiet for a moment. "Maybe I can talk to Laurel. Maybe that isn't going to happen. I don't know. All I know is that you're right. We have two beautiful girls that are obviously too smart for our own good...and one of them I haven't taken the time to get to know."

"Madelyn really is different from Mackenzie."

"I found that out," Oliver said with a short laugh. "But I want another chance with her, hopefully she'll allow it."

Madelyn looked over at Mackenzie. "What are we going to do?" she asked in a whisper.

"They're not fighting," Kenzi pointed out.

That was true.

Looking back at them, she sighed, this was something that she'd thought about seeing before...both of her parents together. It was something that she never thought would happen. Maybe she had been hard on Oliver, but she couldn't help it...Laurel was awful as far as she was concerned. She wanted her father to be happy, but not at her expense. "But you can't transport the vineyard to London...and Mom's jobs are mainly all in the UK or on that side of the world." She frowned deeply. "I don't want to lose you now, Kenz."

"You're not going to!"

Madelyn reached out and took her twin's hand before looking over to watch their parents. "We should get back to the house before someone comes looking for us and finds us spying."

"I was going to consider it recon," Mackenzie said with a smile and a shrug.

Rolling her eyes and then shaking her head, Madelyn reluctantly moved away from where they'd been hiding and headed back towards the house with Mackenzie. Whatever was going to be discussed, she was just glad that it would be done together (or so that's what they'd heard). Madelyn just couldn't think of a way out of it right now, how to make it work right.

It was so odd to have their parents sitting next to each other. Her father was dressed in plaid and jeans while her mother looks absolutely stunning in her dress, like she'd stepped out of a fashion magazine. Even though she was looking at them, it was clear to see that their worlds weren't ones that aligned often. The look on their faces, though, was what was killing Kenzi and making her regret the switch. They both looked like they'd been told that someone they loved died...and Kenzi only knew that look because her father was making the same face that he had when he'd been told that her grandmother had died.

The future didn't feel happy.

This was going to suck so much.

Sara was standing with her arms crossed, sort of staring out the window, while Diggle seemed to be guarding the door. Everyone else had been forced to take a walk apparently. They had been left alone, not even Speedy was in sight.

"It seems like a lifetime ago," her dad spoke up quietly and so sadly. "We were so young…" He went quiet and that's when Kenzi noticed something she hadn't before. Not only were her parents sitting together, but they were holding hands. "We made decisions that were selfish at the time…"

"We were so consumed in that time...in the chaos and the upset and what felt like a war...and that's not what either of us wanted you raised in," Felicity added. "The choices we made...they were selfish, but they had the best of intentions… We didn't want either of you raised in that kind of constant battling...and I think," she said as she looked to Oliver for a moment and then back to the girls. "I think that we did that, but at the same time...we fully recognize that we robbed you both of something...of growing up together…"

"And of having another parent," Oliver said. "How this all happened...this was never how we would have wanted the truth to come out...for you two to meet and for us to meet the daughter we never knew...and only dreamed of."

Kenzi reached out and took her sister's hand. This was an apology and somewhat of an explanation that she'd never expected to hear. For your parents to flat out tell you that they knew what they were doing all those years ago was selfish, that was both good and hard to hear. One thing they had right, though, her life had been one of little upset (for the most part). There had been no fighting. She'd had a doting father, a super awesome aunt, a grandmother that had showered her with love and gifts for as long as she'd been around, and she'd had the most wonderful friend and person closest to a mother in her life in Sara.

From what she knew of life in London, Maddie had had it pretty good too. She had a mother who was always home and was absolutely amazing. Sure, their clothes were a little different, but they were still awesome. Donna was amazing and she'd obviously adored Maddie. Then there was Diggle who was like some kind of male version of Sara...because they could both play the parent role and they were both basically like jedi masters.

Life hadn't been so bad after all.

That still didn't mean that they didn't want more now. Kenzi didn't want to give up her mother or her twin. Now that she had a twin sister, she wanted to be able to share everything that she'd never gotten to share with her before… They'd never gotten to finish each other's sentences, argue over stupid things, fight about who's clothes the other was wearing, or anything else she knew that kids with siblings and twins did. There was obviously a clear gap in life experiences.

"What are we going to do now?" Maddie asked ever so beautifully and quietly.

It was the accent, Kenzi decided. She wondered what occasions her twin decided to turn it off because she knew that she could. "You can't just separate all of us...living separate lives just is not going to fly…"

"Well, we're going to have to figure that out," Oliver said calmly. "But we have been living two very separate lives…"

"The girls could spend part of the year with me," Felicity offered, though clearly unsure and hesitant about the idea. "But I think that still complicates things…"

"That's sending them to two different schools every year," Sara pointed out. "And in different countries."

That was definitely something that Kenzi didn't want to do. She didn't know how they were going to make this work, but that didn't seem like a good plan. Either way, it seemed like someone was going to have to give up something. Kenzi just wasn't thrilled by the idea of spending the first half of the year in London and coming back after Christmas to figuring out how to make life work in Walla Walla at her normal school...but she knew she also definitely didn't want to be home schooled.

"You know, Felicity...you could technically work anywhere in the world," Diggle spoke up.

And he was right.

Though their mother consulted in person, most of her work could be done from the comfort of her own computer chair at home. She could be like a normal person and take a business trip, she knew that she'd done that in the past. Her twin's passport had way more stamps to other countries than hers had.

"But I like London," Maddie complained.

Kenzi turned to glare at her twin. "Well, I like the vineyard…"

"Well, we're going to have to figure out a compromise," Oliver told them both. "Or else things will just have to go back to how they have been."

She just stared at her twin, unsure how they could make this all work.

Could they?

Or was this a losing battle?

Christmas

Never in her life had Kenzi pictured herself where she was currently and never had she thought that she could be so happy and content with life. She didn't want more, she was happy with exactly what they had.

Life had changed.

It had found a way.

"It's snowing!" Kenzi shouted as she stood at the window with hot chocolate in hand and Speedy at her side. It wasn't like it was a new concept to her, but it was different. This place was different and they were some place new.

"Well, of course it's snowing, silly!" Maddie told her twin as she joined her. "It's Christmas!"

It had taken them months of going back and forth to figure out what was going to work the best. Behind everyone's backs, their parents had plotted to find the best and most perfect solution to their predicament. Green Arrow Vineyards still stood in Walla Walla, but her father had gotten someone else to take charge of it in their absence, but it was arranged so that they could vacation there at times. The house in London was being rented out to someone that their mother knew and worked with sometimes. None of those places were needed except perhaps for vacationing now.

They had a new home.

Now they lived together on the new Green Arrow Vineyards in Wales. Her father hadn't wanted to give up the bit of country he could have that was something that gave him purpose, something that he'd found that he was actually good at...and Felicity and Maddie hadn't wanted to let go of London. Though Wales wasn't London, it was closer than Walla Walla. As much as she hadn't been sure about it at first, it was quite the move, Kenzi had fallen in love with it nearly immediately.

She and her father lived in the main house with her mother, sister, Sara, and Diggle. The guest house was used for when Nan and Quentin came to visit. There were talks of building two other small houses in the property, so that Diggle and Sara could have their own respective homes.

Really, though, none of it mattered except they were together.

All of them.

"Are we going to have breakfast anytime soon?" she heard Quentin complain from behind.

When she turned, she couldn't help but smile at the grand Christmas tree they had that was fully decorated and reaching up towards the ceiling. "We're waiting on Nan," Kenzi replied brightly.

"Oh...and Digg...he went out and hasn't returned quite yet," Maddie added a moment later.

"Yeah, well I need my coffee," Quentin grumbled.

Nan was there behind him as he turned, dressed in a revealing red dress with her hair and makeup perfectly done. "Oh, Quentin...the coffee's been ready since you woke. The thing is on a timer," she informed him far too brightly. Before she let him pass by though, she pointed upwards to where a mistletoe hung. She didn't seem to wait for him to say anything and just kissed him.

"Oh! Eww! There are people watching!" Kenzi exclaimed as she covered her eyes.

The bell rung a moment later and the twins pushed their way past Nan and Quentin to see who it was. It had to be Diggle because he was the only one out as far as Kenzi was concerned. Their parents were there opening the door before they could even get to it. Kenzi was confused at the exact reason why her sister was making a high pitched screech sound, but she soon hugged the woman Diggle had brought with him.

"Thank you for having me," the woman said and seemed not to be too fazed by Maddie's spaz attack.

"It's so good to meet you in person, Lyla," Felicity said and hugged her. "Happy Christmas."

"Merry Christmas."

Instead of moving towards the kitchen, though, everyone moved back to the living room where the tree was and where they found Quentin and Nan making out. Kenzi was fairly sure that she wasn't going to be able to get any of these far too intimate images out of her brain anytime soon.

Then it happened again!

Lyla and Diggle had noticed the mistletoe. Kenzi was about ready to die from all of the public displays of affection and as she glanced over at her twin, she just seemed to melt at that display. When she looked back over her shoulder as her parents followed, it struck her that they seemed different.

Moving in together...all of them, it had been a challenge. Luckily the house was large enough and there were enough bathrooms that that didn't become another challenge all on its own. But things had taken time to get used to, but there they were. Her father dressed in a suit with a festive tie while her mother was wearing a dark green dress and her hair was curled. That wasn't what had caught her eye though. It hadn't even been the way that they had smiled, it had been that they were holding hands and they were walking closely together. She looked over to see that somehow Sara had snuck in, too, likely in from the kitchen. She was hugging her dad and seemed to be introducing herself to Lyla. Even her Aunt Thea seemed to know who Lyla was.

Kenzi felt so confused that everyone seemed to know who Lyla was.

"Who-" Kenzi went to ask as she looked back, but found her parents both kissing under the mistletoe. Instead of covering her eyes or 'eww'-ing in response, though, she just stared at them, wide eyed, and with her jaw dropping. "Well, Merry Christmas…"

The End.