She had chosen to retreat to her home office and throw herself into Mode. No surprise there, following the usual pattern of using Mode to deflect from her real problems. Using penurious things to hide the big deterrence. Little did she know, this time when she brought up a problem that would give her time to run, to escape, to ignore...It would do her good...This time.

He on the other hand took to the attic which was weird walking into. He really hadn't been up there since it caved in and nearly killed Willie, and she definitely hadn't been up there since. It was the neatest the attic he had ever seen though. She hated clutter and the idea of an attic but when they compromised they had an agreement to maintain its clean stature. Yet, he really didn't see the point because his idea of a clean attic was a place where all the old stuff goes to collect dust.

But when he did get down or in this case, confused and down...he visited the old dusty stuff of theirs. She would probably castrate him if she knew that he went through her stuff when she wasn't looking but she'd never find out. So he thought.

So he sat down on the floor in his old man pajamas with a clean white box before him, the ensemble intriguing him. All he could see was her eyebrow peeking out on a poster and he couldn't help himself. With a smirk, he pulled at it and out popped this large Styrofoam mockup cover. She was on the cover, wearing a coveted hairstyle from nearly 7 years previous. Her arms were folded and her face drew stoic with each second glance. A snake embossed coat and purple pencil skirt, she...She was the cover of a magazine...Slater magazine. Everything was precise right down to the font...IT all was perfect...HE could tell that she had a hand in everything because nothing looked out of place, nothing looked like she hadn't tweaked it to make it her own or control some aspect of it.

He remembered it from somewhere. Flashing back those 7 years to remember her stomping into a conference meeting after the funeral of his father and showing them him and Alexis her new magazine. Slater. Despite the evil smirk, he still saw the spark in her eyes, how she lit up whenever she said something about it. The magazine business was her passion...But owning one of her own...The power...That was her dream.

He dug further into the box and found a thick binder full of photos and articles and notes and tabs and scribbles everywhere...IT was the mockup for her first book. Each sticky-note had a date...2012...2010...2004...1997...1991...She had been doing Slater in her head since day one...She had the articles, shot the photography, the models, the fashion, the concepts, the launch was there...She just hadn't done anything with it yet...

The box was full of mockups...of magazines for Slater...HE could tell that as she moved up the ladder in her career she was able to book private shoots...newer models…Better fashions...There were at least 30...Just mockups...mockups for her dream that had been sitting dormant in an attic.

It wasn't just the power...IT was the ownership. The ability to say that something was hers...Truly hers. The ability to take possession without fearing that someone would snatch it back. She would never get that at Mode. She would never feel secure at Mode. With his mother dangling the contractual deed over her head and threatening to fire her anytime they had a fight. Wrestling against Fey Sommers' memory and standard...She never had the locked in security that resulted in true power...Power that you can feel...Absolute power...just does something to you...She looked like she had it...But, she didn't.

And that alone kept her from enjoying the things that she did?

OoO

Watching The September Issue for the umpteenth time and laughing anytime Ana Wintour's eye twitched had become her mantra at 2 am. She was bored, sad, and had pregnancy insomnia. She was like a night owl, sleeping for ten minutes and then laughing at Ana Wintour's reflexes the next.

Until the doorbell rang.

She grabbed her bat immediately, inching slowly towards the door. Normally she wouldn't have gone but since they had a small peep hole, she looked through and saw a familiar face...Who she didn't expect to see.

"Ariel?" The door was open and the girl stood before her mother at the front door, wearing pajama pants and a sweat shirt.

"Can I come in?" Wilhelmina stepped aside, crossing her arms over her yellow kaftan as Ariel passed her and stood in the foyer, clutching her car key against her bare flesh after holding so hard to break skin.

"Are you alright?" She asked, concerned for the young girl's appearance in the midst of the night.

"I never apologized."

"What? What are you talking about Ariel?"

"Mom I never apologized! I didn't speak to her for 4 years and the last thing I said was that she wasn't your child, I was...I called her an evil botch and told her to get the hell out...And I never apologized..." Her head fell between her shoulders as she cried...as she mourned...as she grieved her sister for the first time. "All that we went through together and I never apologized and now she's dead and I-"

Her mother embraced her in a fierce hug, holding her head to her shoulder she sobbed into the silky material, clutching her keys in her half bun. She and Nico were sisters...They were sisters...They got through boarding school together and even when Ariel got out of school, she stayed in Paris to keep her little sister company...They were like Frick And Frack..And with one fight they become oil and water.

"I never...I never..." The words sputtered form her mouth as Willie shushed her, just allowing her to let go. Just like her mother, she had sustained her emotions for as long as she could, kept them at bay until she could no longer hold on. She was drowning in guilt. Drowning in it and she couldn't breathe...Until she let go.

OoO

After staying up for hours on end, soothing her daughter through the loss of her other daughter. She awoke to Ariel's melon sized head beneath her chin, sleeping on her chest with an arm cast around her as if she had held on, clung to her to fall asleep. IT brought back memories...She remembered that all of her kids were clingy at Izak's age, always wanting to be around her, never leaving...Especially when they were lost.

That's probably why; sitting in her office that morning...Ariel was sitting on the chaise like it was her desk. Wherever her mother had gone, she went along as if magnetized and Izak took notice but that's another story.

She wore a fine vintage Pierre Cardin black dress. The black crepe fabric dipped into a low v all the way to the quilt stitched waist band in a parallel to the free dolman sleeves that held the outfit together with Jimmy Choo studded black heels, suede. Simple jewelry, Diamond Hoop Earrings in 14K White Gold completely covered in with diamonds inside out, giving an elegant twist to the classic twist and a religious shout-out with a Black & White Diamond Cross Pendant formed with precise intricacy.

With her hair falling flowingly to her shoulders and creeping down her back, her eyes flickered up from the white of her lap top when she saw Daniel walking through the door, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Ariel can you run down to photos and get the run-throughs for the February cover from Chavo?"

"Chavo? The Russian guy that thinks he is Columbian?"

Wilhelmina nodded and Ariel exited, knowing her cue when she looked up and saw Daniel waiting at the door. Willie closed her laptop and stared ahead, waiting for what he could possibly have to say.

"You're fired." He spoke harshly in a firm voice.

"Excuse me?" She asked, a little stunned and worried that she was losing her hearing with assurance that she heard him wrong.

"You're fired."

"Daniel you can't be serious."

"I am."

"Is this about what happened yesterday?"

"Yes."

She stood up to his height, walking around her desk. As she came closer his steps moved backwards with the fear that she might strike him. "You mean to tell me that I can't talk to you without -Oh my God...I can't belie-You stupid mother fu-"

"Okay...wait a minute..." He chuckled, holding his hands up as he was cornered against a wall. "First...Put the eyebrow down." He referenced her fiercely arched eyebrow that nearly rose off of her face with anger. "Two...calm down..."

"Calm down? Calm down! Are you fucking insane!? You just fired me!"

"Wilhelmina!"

"You do not know how close you are to having vintage Jimmy Choo stuck...up...your...ass."

"Okay...you know what..." He ran from the corner that she had him in and backed up, fearing her wrath. "Sit..."

"What am I, a dog?! No, if anyone in this room is a bitch it's your pale Geico caveman ass!"

"Wilhelmina just sit down and I will explain everything...Just sit down."

She folded her arms over her chest and tapped her foot, unwilling to cooperate.

"Damn, you are so difficult! I am going to help you."

"Help me with what?!"

"Slater."

"W...What?" She whispered, not thinking that he knew anything about the secret ambition of hers.

"The magazine that you wanted to start..." He approached her cautiously, her mind so fixated on the magazine that she didn't even notice that he had made her sit down on the chaise. "I...I have this..." He pulled a piece of paper from his breast pocket. "I was up all night and this morning calling in favors and friends and I have this possible list of advertisers in order of most legitimate to most rocky because some people are on the fe-" His words were silenced when she met his lips, ceasing any discussion that he may have had in mind. He on the other hand, immediately got lost in it all and found his hands at her waist but pulled back at her smirk. "Wait you haven't even heard the best part...I found your books...And I have Marc putting and pulling all of the best ideas for your first issue and I've already decided to fund you for the first few months while you get on your feet and then there are a list of Mode employees willing to transfer to-" She stopped him again with a kiss and he chuckled, his fingers running up her waist. "Are you excited?"

"I really don't know what to say...I just...This is what you decided to take what I told you yesterday and do?"

"Nothing is more important to me than your happiness..."

She blushed a bit, pecking his lips again before stroking at the gruff she previously made fun of. "How did I get stuck with-?"

"My pale Geico caveman ass?"

She chuckled, pecking him one last time. "I love you..."

"I love you too...and you..." He looked towards her stomach and her eyes widened, taking his hand in hers.

"Oh! Let me show you something..." She placed his hand on her hip and moved upwards, closer to the side of her abdomen... "I had forgotten to tell you..."

"Tell me wh-" He fell silent with amazement, like a child in a candy store just intrigued with his current entanglement.

"D-"

"Shhhhh..." He hushed her and she chuckled softly, finding it comedic how his interest suddenly shifts. Like a tidal wave moving back and forth, it was like a fluttering...a fluttering that was, to him, the highlight of his year.

"Did you just try to shu-?"

"Shhhh.."

"Da-"

"Shhh."

"D-"

"Shhh."

"Daniel, don't make me ruin this moment..." She joked, feeling the impulse to hit him as he became so immersed in such an experienced. "

"I'm sorry...I just...Was that her?"

"Or him..."

"Or she..."

"Are we really going to go through this again?"

"No, because it's a girl..."

"Wait..."

"What? Is there something wrong?"

"What about Mode?...I mean if I'm gone then...Who is going to run Mode.."

"Oh! That's your second surprise..." He got up from the chaise and stepped out quickly, footsteps following closely behind him when he returned. "Willie..." He stepped aside and revealed a radiance flowing through the smile of one singing person. She had taken the smug off and replaced it with the happiness she used to possess and...It nearly brought her to tears.

"Come here you old goat." Wilhelmina stood up and embraced herm despite the last time they spoke leading to her turning herself in and a fight...That didn't matter right then. She stepped back and looked at her mother-in-law...seeing a glow about her. "Claire Meade...You look good."

"I feel good." Claire smiled, grinning ear to ear as Daniel closed the door from the gaping employees so surprised to see the Meade matriarch back, not knowing what transpired in court the other day.

"I thought you wanted to go to prison."

"Well..." Claire glanced at the couple, shrugging a bit. "Considering that you can spawn children now...And I don't completely hate you...I figured that I do have some things worth living for..."

"Wils...I offered mom the position when you're ready to leave...She uh..She wants to see your dreams come true too."

"Oh Daniel could you be any cornier?" Claire questioned and Wilhelmina snickered past the tears that welled in her eyes.

"Oh my God...The devil has tear ducts."

Willie shakes her head, turning back to grab a Kleenex quickly with the knowledge that if she began the sob train there, she would never stop considering the tears she had been suppressing. "I've just been a hormonal...mess lately...But if you tell anyone I will castrate you with my bare hands."

Daniel scrunches his face in confusion. "How?"

Claire raises her brow and Wilhelmina embraced her once again, but this time it was personal...It was...so...sincere...Probably one of the most sincere hugs she had ever received, which is probably why she froze upon the touch. Who knew someone so icy gave hugs that could melt the North Pole. "Thank you..." When she heard that mumble, she at first didn't know how to respond until she realized just what she was being thanked for...killing...the man that tortured her...that tried to ruin her life...She was thanking her for ending a...never-ending nightmare.

Just as Daniel slipped out of the room, Wilhelmina pulled with the realization that she was beginning to tear up again. She reached for the tissues but Claire grabbed her hand, holding them both together. "I am...so very sorry...For your loss..." She shook her head at the prospect of losing a child and what she went through with Izak. "No mother...No mother should ever have to feel what you're feeling right now...It's not meant to be that way."

The dam broke.

The bridge snapped.

The floodgates opened.

The walls came down.

It all began with one single tear as she tried to remain as composed as she could, nearly trembling until her head fell to the shoulder of the most unexpected person, her usual sworn mortal enemy...She had fallen to her shoulder in sobs, breathtaking sobs, gasping sobs, air grabbing sobs where your lungs expand yet it doesn't even feel like your breathing because you're feeling the pain of everything all at once. "I told you this four years ago, it's okay to cry...you're supposed to...If you don't you'll lose your mind.."

"I wasn't there..."

"You can't always be there..."

"I didn't protect her..."

"You couldn't protect her...from herself...You can't blame yourself..." She comforted her enemy, her sworn enemy. "You just can't..."

OoO

"You missed a spot..." Claire aided, sitting beside her on the chaise after what seemed like an hour...She had let her cry...She cry her heart out...Pour out the contents of her soul in lieu of hysteria...She bonded...over grief...over loss. "Here..." Claire took the tissue from her and dabbed the slight black mark right beneath her eye from such heavy crying that even waterproof mascara couldn't fend against.

"Your hand is trembling..." Wilhelmina observed. Sitting patiently and humbly before the older woman. She surrendered in a sense...To her wisdom...to her knowledge...She was a formidable strong woman who could hold her own and needed...guidance...Just like her daughter who was nearly half of her age...Because guidance is subjective to anyone who needs it...because there will come a time when all...will need it.

Claire smirked. "That's because the sight of you in tears has permanently scarred me for life..."

"You know I wasn't kidding about the castration..."

"I know...That's why I didn't take a picture of you."

Wilhelmina smiled lightly, having a thought or a revelation more so. For years she had dealt with the death of her mother and for years...She had pushed away the one that had been sent to her.

OoO