Chapter 21

Okay, so I usually don't apologize for the length of time between updates, since this is pretty much a hobby for me and I'm not getting paid, but I really am sorry it's taken me so long to update this story. I took a job in Asia in the spring, so I was preparing for that for months. Then, after three months oversees, the job fell through, so now I'm back in the US job searching again. That being said, I hope to update this story more frequently.

"So how bad was she?" Dave asked his dad as they stepped into his study.

"Which one?" Nicolo asked wryly.

"Dad," Dave sighed. ""Come on dad, level with me, was Hannah really as horrible as mom made her out to be? Because I gotta tell you, from mom's colorful descriptions, it sounds like I left you with the anti-Christ. Did her head rotate 365 degrees and did she vomit pea soup?"

"What can I tell you son? Your mother and your oldest daughter got along like oil and water. No, scratch that, they got along like fertilizer and kerosene."

"Great," Dave grumbled. Both he and Emily had been ordered by the Director to accompany the team to Idaho for a particularly gruesome case and, as a result, his parents had watched Emma and Hannah for nearly a week. While they hadn't wanted to leave the girls, both he and Emily had felt secure in their decision to leave them with his parents…that is until they'd gotten home and his mother had gone on and on about Hannah's behavior.

Nicolo chuckled softly. "I think your mother is having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that one of her grandchildren doesn't like her. It's obvious Hannah hasn't forgiven her for what she said about her father, but she wasn't that bad."

"Really?" Dave scoffed. "According to mom, my oldest daughter is controlling, rude, and blatantly dislikes her."

"Your mother wasn't exactly peaches and cream herself," his father said in defense of his granddaughter.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when it became apparent that she and Hannah weren't going to bond, she focused more on Emma. Plus, she didn't exactly care for Hannah's independent streak, nor her controlling ways with Emma."

"That's actually gotten a bit better for Emily and I," Dave said. "She's accepting us a bit more as the parents in the relationship, but it's taken awhile. I should have warned you both about that...sorry."

"Don't worry, Davie, it wasn't that bad. Besides, Hannah seems to have taken a shine to me, much to your mother's consternation," Nicolo said with a chuckle.

Sophia, having said her goodbyes to Emily, approached her son and husband. "You need to do something to set that girl straight, Davie," her mother warned. "She was rude, controlling, blatantly disrespectful, and downright unpleasant at times!"

"You didn't help the situation though, did you Sophia?" Nicolo said sharply.

Dave's mother propped her hands on her hips and glared at her husband. "What exactly do you mean by that, husband of mine?"

"It's true that Hannah wasn't your best friend, but you didn't exactly go out of your way to make friends with her."

"I don't know what you're implying," Sophia sniffed haughtily, "But I tried my best to get that girl to like me; it wasn't my fault that she likes you best."

Nicolo didn't want to argue in front of his son and future daughter-in-law, so he decided to cut it short. Turning to Dave, he said, "Don't be too hard on her, son; both she and Emma were fine."

"Well...okay," Dave said, not fully believing his father; he'd seen Hannah's moods and he knew she could be downright unpleasant when she wanted to be. "Thanks for watching the kids. Where are they?"

"Emma's on a play date at her friend Kara's house and Hannah went to the movies with some of her friends. She's going to take the Metro home and we told her to be back for dinner by six."

"Great, thanks again for all of your help with the girls," Emily said as they walked toward the front door. "Dave and I shouldn't have to leave together too often and we'll start looking at nanny services so you don't have to-"

"You will do nothing of the sort," Sophia interrupted. "No matter what happens while you are gone, both of those girls are our grandchildren and you will not leave them with strangers, capice?"

"We got it mom, and thanks again." With that, Nicolo and Sophia left the house and got into their car. The ride was quiet for a few minutes, until Nicolo spoke up.

"That was a nice thing you did back there, Sophia," he said as he kept his eyes firmly on the road in front of him. "But you realize you'll have to try harder with Hannah if we stay with them again, right?"

"Well she's going to have to try harder too, Nicolo," the older woman said petulantly, sounding very much like the teenager they were talking about. "I wasn't the only one who screwed up."

"No, but you are the more mature person in the situation and Hannah has a genuine reason to not trust you."

Sophia huffed through gritted teeth. "I apologized to her about that. What more-"

"Oh, I don't know, Sophia; maybe include her in things? Maybe not show such a blatant favoritism toward Emma?" Her husband said angrily.

"When did I ever show favoritism toward Emma?" Sophia asked indignantly.

"How about taking her shopping and then out for a treat Thursday afternoon?" Nicolo asked rhetorically. "You didn't even ask Hannah to go with you."

"But…but she wouldn't have wanted to go!" Sophia protested.

"That's not the point!" Nicolo argued loudly. "She's your granddaughter; she's family, you should have invited her for that simple reason." He lowered the volume of his voice. "She was really hurt by that."

"What?" Sophia asked disbelievingly, almost in a whisper.

Nicolo nodded. "When I got home that afternoon, she was nearly in tears. Sure, she tried to cover it up with a tough façade, but she couldn't hide the redness of her eyes. Remember how quiet she was at dinner that night? She barely said a word and she took maybe two bites of her food."

"Damn," Sophia said softly, as she realized what she'd done.

"Yeah," her husband said as he pulled onto the highway. "If you ever want to have any kind of relationship with her, you're going to have to be the bigger person and find a way to get along with her."

"I will," Sophia said with a quiet determination. "I'll fix this somehow."

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"So then we watched Finding Nemo, and Kara's mom made cookies shaped like fish! It was so cool! And then her cat must have thought they were real fish and he tried eating my cookie! And then-"

"Whoa, you need to take a breath, Princess," Dave interrupted. He'd listened to his younger daughter describe her play date for the past five minutes and he doubted whether she'd taken more than two breaths during the entire monologue.

"You also need to take some bites of your food before it gets cold," Emily added with a smile.

"'Kay Emily," the little girl said as she took a big bite of her beef stew. "Mmmffff ttthhhh-"

Dave gave her a stern look. "Chew, swallow, then talk." The little girl gave him a big grin, which showed most of the food in her mouth, and nodded.

Emily turned to their eldest child. "How was the movie?" She asked her.

Hannah shrugged. "It was fine."

"What did you see?"

"World War Z," the teen responded.

"Was it scary?" Emily asked, trying to get the teen to open up; there were days it felt like they were going backwards with her.

"Nah, there are more zombies in one episode of The Walking Dead than there were in the entire movie, but it was fun to be hanging out with friends again," Hannah said. "That reminds me, I was invited to a wicked cool Halloween party next Saturday; can I go?" She knew if her guardians asked too many questions about it, they would most likely say no, but she had to try.

"That depends, where is it? Who's hosting it? And we'll need to talk to the parents who will be there before we even think about letting you go," Dave told her. While he was a bit miffed at her, due to his mother's description of her behavior, he would have had the same questions and requirements even if she hadn't behaved abysmally while they were gone; it was a matter of safety and common sense.

Hannah huffed out a sigh. "God Dave! I was invited just this afternoon, so I didn't have time to interrogate my friend, but I think it's going to be held at a vacant mansion that one of my friend's families has up for sale."

"So in other words, no parents. Am I right?" He asked, already shaking his head.

"Probably, but so what? I can take care of myself!"

"Hannah," Emily said in a gentler tone than her fiancée, "If there are no parents, things can get out of control quickly; it wouldn't be safe for you to go."

"Plus, there will be drinking, drugs, sex, and God knows what else going on there," Dave added.

"Again, I can take care of myself!" The teen screeched as she slammed her fork down on the table. "I've been taking care of me and Emma for years and we managed to survive, so what makes you think I wouldn't survive a lame high school party?"

Emily opened her mouth to calmly respond, but unfortunately Dave beat her to the punch. "The answer is no," he said. "I know you can take care of yourself, but parties like this can get out of control quickly. Why don't you have a party here instead? You and Emma can invite all of your friends."

Emma's face brightened at the thought of having a party with her cool, older sister but it fell when she heard her response. "I am not throwing some kind of baby Halloween party that will involve a bunch of six year olds! I want to go to the party I was invited to!"

"I'm sorry Hannah, but that's not going to happen," Emily said firmly.

The teen glared at both of her guardians. "You're just pissed because I didn't get along with Sophia while she was here. And you want to punish me for not being sunny and happy with the social worker last week."

Dave narrowed his eyes at her; a few days before they'd left for the case, a social worker had come by for a surprise visit and Hannah had been downright nasty to her. Both he and Emily felt lucky that social services hadn't yanked both of the girls out of the house that night.

"You're half right," he told her. "I'm not happy about your recent behavior, but that's not why we're not letting you go; you're not going because I don't want you getting into a situation you can't handle. End of discussion."

"Whatever, this is crap and you know it!" She said as she got up from the table. She ran out of the room and up to her bedroom where she slammed the door loudly.

Hannah angrily threw herself face down on her bed and mentally ranted at both of her guardians for a little while before she finally sat up. "I'm going to that party," she said softly as she looked out the window. "And neither of you can stop me."