Author's Note: This is an unusually short chapter but the characters ruled this one.

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She saw this day coming. She saw it coming the moment Trish was pregnant. She saw it the instant Nevaeh was born. And she hoped it wasn't going to happen. But of course, she knew it was.

Constant discussions in Nevaeh's 18 years and Stephanie felt she told Dave and Trish exactly they needed to do. She couldn't have been more precise. She couldn't have been clearer. Yet, both of them were sitting at her living room table looking like they just totaled Mommy and Daddy's car and were waiting for the punishment.

Stephanie watched the two pathetic souls in her palace, shaking her head as she tried to figure out a way to tell them both off politely. They knew what Edge was capable of. They knew what powers Nevaeh had. And what did they do?

Absolutely nothing.

The coddled Nevaeh like she was still the infant daughter instead of embracing the young woman before them. Instead of teaching her the knowledge and possibly prevent the grown catastrophe taking place, Dave and the rest of the Family members decided the old standard of 'Not Doing a Damn Thing' was going to work on Nevaeh.

If it were up to Stephanie, Dave and Trish would suffer forever.

But it wasn't up to Stephanie. It was a matter that had long left her hands. Her current role was that of moderator. If Dave and Edge were going to tear each other up, she would let them. If Trish wanted to end her life, Stephanie would only think it was a bad idea but wouldn't stop her.

But unfortunately, neither choice was on the menu. She had to figure out a way to get Dave and Trish out of her home. Their daughter, their problem as far she was concerned. "Why in the fuck are you still here?" She politely asked.

Dave glanced up and looked at his mentor. Stephanie didn't have to mutter one word to express her disappointment. He knew he fucked up. He knew The Family as a whole fucked up. He didn't need reassurance from Stephanie on the fact. But he knew it wasn't going to be that easy. Nothing with the Queen Mother ever was. "You know why we're here, Stephanie," he said humbly.

"I know," she grabbed a wine glass from a servant and sat down at the head chair. She propped her shoes on the table and continued to stare. Stephanie wasn't sure if she was more upset at the audacity of Dave and Trish to come to her for help so late or the fact they actually thought she would give it to them. Either way, both of them were trying her.

"What can we do?" Trish asked.

A slow grin spread on Stephanie's face as she held the wine glass to her lips. The question itself forced Stephanie to pull away from the glass momentarily as tried to contain her laughter. "What can you do?" She repeated, clearly mocking the naïveté and stupidity of the question. "You're asking that, now?"

It had only been a week since Nevaeh ran away from home. One week without a phone call. One week without some sort of contact. Was she okay? Was she safe? Most importantly, was she still alive? The thought was almost too much for Dave to think straight. For all he knew, his daughter could be dead and Stephanie wouldn't tell them were her corpse was. It was a punishment, unfortunately, well deserved. "Look, I know we're late…" Dave began.

"Late is not the appropriate word for what you're conveying, Lover," Stephanie grinned, "stupid is more honest."

"Stephanie, I know you're mad at us…"

"Mad?" She questioned. "Please don't humor yourself, Lover. I'm actually quite entertained by this fuckery."

Dave was quite used to Stephanie's facetious remarks over the last 200 years. However, now was not the time or place for any of them. "So we just wait? Is that what you're telling us? We just wait while that animal destroys our daughter?" Dave asked.

"Did you mean, destroy, Lover?" Stephanie questioned. "Or the proper term you're looking for is, fuck? Because you know that's exactly what he's doing right now."

"What are we supposed to do?" Trish asked. "He has our daughter and you're mocking us!"

"I'm mocking you two because it's fun and you deserve it," Stephanie answered, "you knew this was going to happen and you let it. I laid everything out for you and what do you do for the last 18 years? Nothing," She stood up and smiled, "I think I'm the one who should be asking the question, what am I supposed to do?"