Author's note: Prepare yourselves people! There's a HUGE shock at the end of this chapter... Be forewarned now. ;) Thanks as always for reading!
"Daddy!" Sutton was beaming when she entered that hospital room later that night. They rushed over after dinner when Kristen got the call that Ted had finally come out of his coma. She rushed to his bedside.
"Hi, baby." He said with a tired smile. He wrapped his arms around his daughter and looked up, catching Emma's gaze, "Emma." His voice was soft. He opened his arm as to invite her in but she just smiled, "Come here." He said. She smiled and made her way to his bedside and leaned into his embrace. She hadn't spoken to Sutton since her blow up that afternoon, now that she thought of it, she hadn't said much to anyone since her blow up. It wasn't because she was mad at anyone specifically, she had just been taking everything in since her episode in the hallway. She wanted to know how Rebecca could even think about killing her baby let alone actually attempt it? All she knew was that she hated her mom. When her phone buzzed in her back pocket, she broke from the embrace and pulled it out to see who it was. A new text message her notification informed her, she looked to see who it was from: Lexi. She slid the icon and opened her texts, Hey lollypop! I've been thinking about you. How's the family thing going? Txt me, I miss you. Emma smiled. She missed her best friend like crazy. Even if her life in Vegas was overall shitty, she had one shining light in it all and that was Lexi. She began to type, crazy, shitty, amazing. Too much too even think about right now. How are you? I've missed you too. Then she slid the phone into her back pocket and looked up at her family. They all seemed so consumed in talking that it was almost like they'd forgotten Emma was in the room. She wondered if they'd even notice her if she left. Her phone buzzed again, tell me EVERYTHING. Why so shitty little bird?
She felt a tear well in her eye, she could definitely use her best friend right now, even though she had Sutton, it wasn't the same. Lexi knew everything about Emma. All of Emma's stupidest decisions happened with Lexi. Every bad fashion choice. Every crush. Every boyfriend turned ex. Sutton wasn't there when Josh, the school's class president broke Emma's heart in front of the whole school when he declared that she wasn't pretty enough for him and that he was seeing Carly the head cheerleader. Sutton wasn't there to eat almost an entire gallon of mint chocolate chip ice cream in bed while watching almost every episode of Friends in marathon while Emma cried and wondered why boys were such assholes. Lexi calling her Little Bird her old nickname from camp, made her think of days of face paint and super soaker fights in the woods at dusk. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard she wanted to tell Lex everything. But it was too much for Emma to relive, so she settled, It's just not as amazing as I was hoping to be. What's new over on the home front?
Travis got arrested again. Looks like Clarice realized you weren't the one stealing all her money. I'm sorry Little B. Come home? Emma looked at the last two words, her heart longed for her best friend but Vegas wasn't home. Hell, Phoenix was barely home. She almost couldn't wait to turn eighteen. Maybe then she could get as far away from the west coast as she could. In the little free time she had to herself, Emma had started looking into colleges. She'd always dreamt of one day walking the halls of an ivy league school in New England but she knew no foster family could afford a school of such calibre. Now that she'd made a space for herself in the Mercer family she began to dream once again. She didn't expect Ted and Kristen to front her $50,000 a year to go to Harvard or Yale. They already had to pay for Sutton's schooling. Not that Sutton would take it as seriously as she would. She'd probably worry more about the next frat party than the grades she made.
Figures. That little bastard had that shit coming for him. I wish Honey Badger, but I can't. Even if I wanted to, I have no money to get a ticket back. Come here? I could really use you. She watched as a tear splashed on the screen of her iPhone and her message send. She looked again at the Mercer's. No matter how hard she tried she would never be a part of that family. She'd only been in Phoenix a few months. She couldn't relate to their stories of family vacations or holiday memories. But when Sutton joined her on the couch and put her arm around her, she knew that she'd come to Phoenix with a purpose and that purpose was to get to know her sister, "Why the tears, Em?" Her twin asked her resting her head on her sisters shoulder.
Emma shook her head, "Just missing my life in Vegas."
Sutton looked up at her, "I thought you didn't have a life in Vegas. That's why you came here?"
"No, I didn't come here to get away from Vegas. It was a plus at the time, but I came here for you Sutton." She wrapped her arm around Sutton and pulled her into a hug, "I just miss my best friend."
Sutton hugged her sister, she tried to empathize with Emma, after all, it'd been months since she'd heard from Char and quite frankly she missed her like crazy, "I'm sorry, Em. At least you have me." She smiled.
Emma smiled too. She really was thankful to have Sutton, "I know that. I love you, Sutton. Thank you for finding me."
"Of course. I just wish I found you sooner." The twins hugged tighter when someone cleared their throat. The girls pulled away and looked up, Emma's heart skipped a be at for a quick second. But then she gathered herself and stood up.
"I am gonna go." She declared and without another word, she headed out the door, eyeing Rebecca who'd just walked in on the way out.
"Emma!" Rebecca called from the doorway watching her daughter disappear down the hall but Emma didn't turn around and she would never, ever, if it killed her look that woman in the eyes ever again. Sutton followed suit rushing after her sister, When Rebecca caught her by the forearm she looked at her birth mother, "Where are you going baby girl?"
Sutton ripped her arm from Rebecca's grip, "To find the best thing you ever gave me and the worst thing you ever took from me." Then she headed out the door.
Sutton found Emma sitting alone in the cafeteria, a cup of chocolate pudding half eaten sat in front of her, she wasn't paying attention to anything and just stared off into the distance, "Care to share?" She asked sitting at the table.
Emma looked at Sutton, "Get your own." She joked. Sutton made a pouty face, but Emma handed her the extra spoon the lady at the register handed her without realizing she'd gotten her own. Sutton took a spoonful, "So how about the academy award winning exit you just made? That was pretty epic."
"I told you, I want nothing to do with her. If you came here to talk to me about Rebecca then you can leave." She said twisting the spoon her mouth.
Sutton took the warning, "I didn't. I just came here to be with you. Hey, I got this mad libs app on my phone the other day. Laurel and I used to do these on long car rides when we were little."
"Really? Lexi and I used to do them all the time." The more time the girls spent together the more they realized how similar they were and how different they were. They realized their favorite ice cream was mint chocolate chip and Phish Food from Ben and Jerry's. The same Saw movies scared them when they were younger and they even loved the same rides at Disneyland.
Sutton pulled out her phone and opened the app. The girls had gotten so consumed in the games that they didn't realize how much time they'd spent talking, laughing, sharing stories. After so many mad libs they started a new game of 20 questions, "Does it live in the wild?" Emma asked. Sutton shook her head.
Emma was about to ask another question when a woman's voice startled them, "There you are!" Kristen was standing at the entrance to the cafeteria, Laurel behind her, "We have been looking everywhere for you. Come on, we are gonna head home. Visitation hours are over and you girls have school in the morning."
The twins stood up and picked up their trash that by now had grown to another empty cup of pudding, two bottles of diet Coke and a bag of skittles. They headed out of the hospital still consumed in their game of 20 questions.
"Why didn't you tell me about Emma, Rebecca?" Ted questioned. It was all he wanted to know since he found out about his twin daughters. He was sitting up in his hospital bed, the soft beep of the heart monitor sounded behind him.
Rebecca took his hand and he looked down but didn't pull away, "I wanted to, Ted. But I knew if I did, you'd take her from me." She looked away, "You knew I couldn't take care of two girls. So when I found out I was having twins, I thought if I only told you had one, you'd insist on taking her. All I wanted was a daughter, so I lied to you. I kept Emma and gave you Sutton. I'm sorry." Her fingers intertwined with Ted's, still he didn't pull away.
He looked up at her, "So what happened, Rebecca?" Rebecca looked at him. She'd relived her horrific too many times already that she wasn't sure if she was wanted to go through this again. But she drew in a breath and told him everything, the fire, living in poverty, how horrible she felt for dragging Emma down with her when she was so innocent. She told him how she tried killing her daughter and essentially dumping her in a day care center when she was 3 years old.
When she was done, Ted just looked at her, "You tried to kill our daughter?" His words were a mere whisper taken aback by her story, "You should have called me."
"You don't know how much I couldn't do that." She said. Ted looked at this woman.
"But dumping her at a day care was a better idea? She is my daughter, Rebecca. I would have raised her in a heartbeat if you had just called me." He wanted to yell at her but he just couldn't muster the energy to barely speak above a whisper.
Rebecca's guilty face just looked at him, "I know that. But I was sick, Ted. You know that. I never should have had Emma. But all I wanted was my baby. After 9 months with them, feeling them move and kick, after all of that, I wanted my baby so badly. I couldn't just give them up." She looked down allowing her tears to fall down her face.
"But it was easy to give up, Sutton?"
"No!" She looked up at him, her voice was soft but powerful, "But i gave her to you. I knew she'd have a good home and a family. She would be safe there."
"And so what? You were so selfish that you couldn't give Emma the same life?" Now he pulled his away from her and she just looked at him, her eyes pleaded with him to understand her. The more she talked about her past, the more she hated herself for the things she thought at the time were in the best interest of her daughter. In hindsight, she easily could have called Alec or Ted and said she couldn't raise this child and even if Ted would be mad for lying to her, at least he would have taken her and she never would have to see him again. But back then, in her time of illness, that was the worst thing she could have done. She couldn't face Ted after all she'd done, "Have you told the girls the other news?"
Rebecca looked at Ted, "No, we promised never to speak of that ever again."
"We promised a lot of things. But it seems that every secret, every lie we buried 17 years ago is starting to surface now. Maybe it's time we tell the girls about Thayer."
Rebecca nodded, "They need to know he's their brother, i know that, but right now isn't the right time. When everything calms down with the twins, we will tell them." The Ted slipped his hand in hers and pressed her fingers to his lips.
"We will get our family back." He said before closing his eyes again, allowing sleep to consume him.