Maura presses the numbers into the keypad and opens the door on the tall brunette man standing on her front porch. He holds out his hand and smiles, but she neither takes it, nor returns the smile.
"Come in," she says, although her tone says 'go away' very clearly.
"Dr. Isles," he says, "It's a pleasure to meet you in person after all our time on the phone."
Maura says nothing, as she has no wish to get hives, and gestures him into the living room. He takes off his hat, and then his coat, draping it over his arm. Maura bends to rid one of the arm chairs of action figures and motions that he should sit down.
"As I told you over the phone, Doctor Peyton, there was really no need for you to come."
Dr. Peyton smiles."I was hoping I could persuade you more fully when the click of a receiver is not enough to terminate our conversation," he replies. His gentle smile does not waver. It makes Maura mad. He seems to have noticed how inhospitable she is being, and yet it does not seem to phase him. "Is your partner home? I was hoping that I could speak with her as well."
"My wife is out with our children. I expect her home within the hour, but I also expect you to be gone by then."
Sometimes Maura Isles loves the things she got from her mother.
"Doctor Isles," for the first time, the smile on the man's lips falters a bit. "I did not come here to argue with you. You should not see me as a threat," He pauses as Maura scoffs, but continues when she doesn't say anything. "You know that Leah was transferred to me four days ago. I sent you the notes on everything she's going through. Everything that she believes. I am just trying to aid in my patient's rehabilitation."
Maura crosses her legs tightly, pointing a finger at him. "And what about my wife's rehabilitation? What about my children? Your patient came into my house. She terrified my children and she traumatized Jane. She tried to kill me. I want nothing to do with her rehabilitation, no matter how dissociative or regressed she may be."
The doctor's smile is back. "You read my notes,"
Maura narrows her eyes, angry at herself. "I'm not bringing Jane to see Leah."
"Because you're afraid of the psychological ramifications it might have for her."
"Yes."
"You think it will be damaging."
"I'm almost sure that it will be damaging, yes."
The doctor leans forward, "But what if it could help her? Maura-" Maura's eyes flash and he recognizes his mistake immediately, "Doctor Isles. Jane is suffering. She needs some type of closure. She's unable to come to terms with her actions because of what Leah symbolizes to her. She's not going to get better unless she's able to separate-"
"Don't you dare speak about her like you know her. Don't you dare tell me what she needs." Maura stands up, "It's time for you to go."
He stands, looking apologetic, "I didn't mean to upset you. And I don't mean to pry. But think about what I've said. I'm asking for twenty minutes of you and your wife's time. To hear me out. If you don't have any interest in what I'm saying. If you and Ja-Detective Rizzoli- do not think that this can help her in any way. I will leave you alone."
He moves to the door without her say so, but he hands her his card before he goes.
"Think about it."
...
Jane manages to hold it together through dinner and bath time and story time, chasing after a giggling naked Noah as he runs down the hall, and kissing all four children good night, singing their bedtime song.
Make believe you're brave, and the trick will take you far. You may be as brave as you make believe you are…
All her songs these days revolve around bravery and safety, and Maura laughs as the twins purse their lips and try to whistle. Levi almost gets it, and Sofia after a moment. Noah manages only to drool on himself, and Isabelle loses interest quickly, snuggling down under the covers.
"Can we all stay in here, Mama? Together?"
Jane glances at Maura who nods, lifting Isabelle and Noah into the top bunk, "Yes, lovelies, of course you can."
But now, without her children to confirm Maura's presence, Jane gets lost again, and when Maura descends the stairs from her shower, Jane is sitting on the floor in the kitchen, head on her knees.
"Jane!"
"No. No, please."
"It's me."
"Go away."
"Jane."
"go away..I can't. I-I can't. Please don't do this to me."
"Janie,"
But Jane clutches her head, her fingernails digging into her head, shoulders shaking. "Go away go away go away..."
Maura kneels down next to her wife, ignoring how she flinches when Maura touches her knee.
Maura bites her lip, thinking. "Fia was six pounds three ounces when she was born," Maura says quietly, squeezing Jane's knee again. "Screaming like a banshee, do you remember?"
Jane stills.
"She was so loud; waving her little fists around, even the doctor was surprised at how strong she was, even then." She waits, and after a moment, Jane speaks.
"More."
"Remember when Isabelle hid all of your socks?"
Jane's hands loosen around her head but she doesn't look up.
"She thought if you didn't have socks, you couldn't leave to go to work anymore, so she hid them all under the sofa, remember, Jane? I couldn't figure out what kept plugging up the vacuum?"
"She's smart." Jane's hands drop to wrap around her legs, and Maura rubs up her arms.
"They both are. They're both smart and resilient. And so are our boys." She pauses again as Jane's breathing evens out.
"Maura. I need to see." Jane looks up at her, and Maura nods, leaning forward to wrap her arms around her, burying her face in her neck, and the detective holds her tightly, as if afraid to let her go. Jane stands, and Maura wraps her legs around the slender waist as she gets up, still thrilling at the show of strength despite the situation. She loves the way Jane can lift her like she's one of their children.
Jane sets Maura down gently on the kitchen counter, and Maura lets her robe fall open to the shoulders, just above the start of her cleavage, looking up into Jane's face. Jane reaches out to ghost her fingers over Maura's collarbone.
"You're beautiful," Jane whispers.
Maura smiles, but doesn't answer. They've been employing a lot of the same techniques that they learned from therapy after Jane's shooting, and as Jane's eyes sweeps the clean expanse of skin, Maura waits for her to initiate contact again. Her cue to speak.
"It was so dark."
Maura nods.
"I was so scared." She leans forward and pulls Maura into an embrace, and Maura kisses Jane's neck, sighing. She can't help thinking of Dr. Peyton. While they are able to get these moments under control pretty quickly, the dreams and the confusion seem to be getting worse, not better, and Maura really is at a loss at how to decrease the frequency.
Jane is suffering. I can help her.
"I'm sorry," Jane whispers it like a plea into Maura's hair.
"Honey, I'm fine, I-"
"No," long fingers contract around her waist. "I'm sorry that I'm...Like this now."
Maura sighs, running her hands up and down Jane's back.
Jane is suffering.
"Maybe we should think about moving to-"
"No." Jane tightens her grip. It's not the first time Maura has brought up moving, temporarily or otherwise. "No. I'm not going to uproot...my kids."
Maura kisses Jane's neck, "whose kids, honey?" she asks gently.
"the..."
"Whose?" she prods gently, rubbing circles on Jane's shoulder blades.
"Our kids."
Maura nods, kissing her again, trying to put as much of herself against Jane as she can, to reassure her. "Okay," she says, "no moving."
Jane's stomach rumbles in reply and Maura chuckles, pulling away. "You're hungry." she says, slipping down off the counter, pulling her robe back up over her shoulders, "that's good." She feels Jane's eyes on her as she opens the fridge. "What do you want to eat?"
"Cereal. Frosted Flakes," Jane says, and Maura is about to protest that Jane needs more than that in her system when the memory hits her.
She and Jane stranded in a cabin in Colorado, snowed in with nothing but frosted flakes and Snapple iced tea. Maura smiles and opens the cabinet. "Okay," she says, "but I am one hundred percent sure that there is no Snapple in the house."
When she turns around, Jane's face is nothing but gratitude. Maura feels her own stomach squirm.
Omission is not a lie…Right? She hasn't told Jane about Dr. Peyton. She hasn't mentioned anything about Leah's recovery or subsequent transfer to the state inpatient facility outside of Worcester.
She tries to take a step back and see it from a logical perspective, to picture her wife as any other patient with anxiety and guilt.
What would Dr. Isles, clinical doctor, suggest?
"Jane," she says, setting the bowl down in front of her wife. "I have to tell you something.
...
"Married?"
Jane's hands squeeze Maura's immediately.
Dr. Peyton nods, "Four years. A woman named Janelle Roberts." He hands them a photograph out of the folder he's holding.
Maura and Jane look down at two women, one of them Leah, smiling wide, arms around a red headed woman with bright blue eyes. Jane frowns. She looks away. "At least she doesn't look anything like me," Jane says quietly.
"They were quite happy by all accounts. Janelle worked in accounting. Leah was on the fast track to become a detective, not unlike yourself, Jane."
Jane's eyes snap up to meet Dr. Peyton's and he smiles at her.
"So what happened, then? Did they divorce?"
He pauses. "Janelle was shot in a mugging on her way home from work. About a year ago."
For a moment there is silence, and Maura feels Jane shift back, like this information is pushing at her.
"She was out on a leave of absence for eight months. At the end of it, she and her therapist decided a new start would be beneficial for her…So she was transferred to Boston."
"This wasn't a new start," Jane says and her voice is dropping towards dangerous. "She'd already been here."
"Her therapist cleared her for beat work, and it was recommended that she be closer to her family." He pauses, "She mentioned that the friends she made in the Academy were some of the best she ever had. She mentioned that your relationship was one of her fondest memories."
"Why didn't anyone fucking say anything?" Jane bursts out. "Her wife gets murdered and she gets a transfer?"
"Doctor-Patient confidentiality requires that no details be given when the psychiatrist gives his recommendation. Her doctor at the time believed she was ready to enter the force again-"
Jane flushes angrily and the doctor continues, talking faster, "She wasn't given a gun, as you'll recall, and she was cleared only for beat-"
"I'm sure that will be a great comfort to the five victims she hit over the head and stabbed in the stomach. I'm sure John Jr. would love to hear that. Don't worry ladies," Jane looks up as though looking to the heavens, "She didn't have a gun. No big deal, John Jr. She only stabbed your father to death. Thank God it wasn't shooting."
"Detective-"
"Someone should have told us."
"How would you feel if your entire squad knew the intimate details of what happened between you and Hoyt? How that man played with your psyche?"
Maura catches her breath angrily, leaning forward, "Now you wait just one moment-" She begins, but Jane is already firing up again.
"HOYT WAS NOT MY WIFE." she bellows, "If I lost Maura?" the thought seems to render her momentarily speechless, and Maura puts her hand on Jane's shoulder. Jane swallows, and anger wins out over panic.
"If I lost Maura," She says, and her voice is low again, "You'd better damned well tell everyone in the city that Detective Jane Rizzoli has lost her fucking mind, and to be prepared because she's armed and crazy." Maura almost smiles at this. "Are you kidding me? Rodecker's wife died a year ago from Cancer. Left him with three kids. Cavenaugh won't let him look at a beat," Jane tries to show the extent of her anger with her hands, and Maura watches Dr. Peyton study the faint scars on her palms.
"I understand you're upset."
Jane points one long finger at the doctor, and Maura has to admit that he had been right. This is the closest that Jane has come to acting like herself in a while.
"You understand nothing."
"I understand that every time you look at your wife you're unsure if it's her that you wounded… Or even if it's her at all."
Maura catches her breath and Jane looks around at her with wide, angry eyes.
"She didn't tell me," Dr. Peyton says quickly. "She would never do that to you. I guessed from my work with Leah."
Jane looks back at him, completely at a loss for words, and he puts his hands out, "I guessed," he says. "Am I wrong?"
Jane flexes, rolling her shoulders, and Maura knows that if they were alone she would growl.
"Am I wrong, Jane?" Dr. Peyton asks again, and Maura glares at him, putting her hand up. He sits back in the arm chair, waiting.
Maura is finally on board. She agrees with him that she should see Leah and get some closure, but she is not going to let him push her too quickly or too far.
She reaches out and puts her hand on Jane's cheek, turning her so that they are looking at each other.
"Maur-" But Maura presses her lips to Jane's, her kiss lingering, not caring about the man that sits across from them.
"I love you," she whispers.
Jane's eyes stay closed even after Maura has pulled away, and when she opens them, she looks at Maura for a long time before turning away to face Dr. Peyton.
She takes a breath.
"What do you want from me?"
...
Leah's hair is brown. Jane looks startled when Dr. Peyton points at her through the glass of the observation room. Her hair is brown and stringy and she looks small and harmless.
They've driven down to Worcester in the driving rain, Jane in the backseat of Dr. Peyton's car, looking out the window like a belligerent child being dragged on a family trip.
She had balked twice at the door, and Maura had had to coax and bribe and flatter her through it.
Now they stand looking in at Leah McCarthy.
"We'll be behind that window over there," Dr. Peyton says, "If you stand up, Jane. We'll buzz you right out."
"Her arm is still in a sling," Jane says, frowning.
"The bullet tore the suprascapular nerve and pierced the artery as well," Dr. Peyton replies and Jane looks at Maura, who has flinched.
"It means she won't regain full use of that arm, Jane," Maura says gently, "Even with rigorous physical therapy."
Jane looks back through the glass. "Her hair is brown."
"She's been dying it since she was fourteen," He says, "She doesn't get hair dye in here."
Jane's frown deepens, "Why are you telling me all of this? Where's your Doctor-patient confidentiality?"
"She signed a release," Dr. Peyton says quietly, and Jane turns to look at him. "Anything you or Dr. Isles wanted to know…would you like to see the form she signed?"
Jane shakes her head.
"She gave me permission to speak with you, Detective, but she really would like to speak with you herself."
"What if I don't want to speak with her?" Jane squares her shoulders.
"If you did not, I think you would not have come," he replies, and Jane bristles at once.
Maura steps forward, "We can leave whenever you want, Jane," She says and when Jane's hands reach for her she takes one in each of her own, kissing them.
"Maur,"
"Do you trust me, Jane?"
One quick nod.
"Then go talk to her. If she says one word, and you hate it, we'll go. I'll take you home and we can watch The Rookie on repeat until I know it by heart."
Maura is rewarded with half a smile.
Jane turns back to the door and takes one, deep breath.
...
Leah stands over Janine, watching the bright blue eyes gaze up at her frantically.
"Please," she says, as Leah kneels down next to her. "p-please. I'll do, I'll do anything."
Leah frowns, kneeling down next to her. Taking the knife from her pocket.
"Don't say things you don't mean," She whispers.
...
"I didn't think you would come."
"I didn't think so either."
"Dr. Peyton said not to get my hopes up."
"He's not a great negotiator."
Leah surveys Jane for a moment, "Maura's here, then?"
"Keep your mouth off of Maura," Jane growls, and Leah's eyebrows shoot up, but she nods.
"Okay."
They sit in silence for a moment, Jane looking down at her hands and Leah studying Jane.
"Dr. Peyton told me you were married." Jane says.
Leah's face registers a spasm of pain, "Yes."
"He says you dissociated."
"I did."
"So you don't remember?"
"I remember pieces."
Silence.
"She looked nothing like me."
"She did…when I met her…but she dyed it. She wanted to stand out."
Jane frowns at her hands.
Leah takes a breath."I thought I would be safer, near you. I talked about that a lot with my therapist in Seattle. She said that if you were where I felt safe then I should come back."
Jane seems to sag under the weight of this confession, and Maura tenses behind the one way glass. "Jane can't take any more pressure," She says to Dr. Peyton. "She can't carry one more person."
But the Dr. points, and Maura looks back through the window.
"But I did it fucking wrong," Leah is saying. "We meant as friends. We meant that I could trust you with what happened…and I-I saw you and…I-all I could see was Janelle…and then." Leah stops, frowning at nothing. "It was like…seeing you. It was like Janelle wasn't gone…she'd just…left to come to Boston, and now here I was, and we could be happy again."
Jane shakes her head, like she doesn't care about any of this. "Why am I here, Leah? Why did you want to see me?"
...
The blow to the back of Jamie's head almost doesn't knock her to the ground, and for a second, Leah is both afraid and elated that she's found someone who will fight back. Who might put her out of this weird half-life that she seems to be in. Where her wife is with some look alike, and her children don't even call her mommy. She saw them yesterday, as that blonde woman picked them up from school. She'd waved.
They hadn't even looked at her.
But Jamie stumbles and rolls over, and the glow of the street light above her makes her hair look like it has orange streaks.
"Please…Please…I'm at the end of a twelve hour rotation. I want to go home."
Janelle would not have begged anyone for her life.
Jane most certainly wouldn't have.
"Don't we all," she growls, and she doesn't even feel the knife sink into this woman. And as the life leaves her eyes she is tempted to kiss her. Just once.
But she doesn't.
She's not a cheater.
...
"Why didn't you kill me?"
Jane's head snaps up. "What?"
"Why didn't you shoot to kill?"
Jane rolls her shoulders, "It was dark. I couldn't see-"
"Bullshit, Rizzoli," Leah says, and for a moment she looks like her old self. Like she could be flirting. "You could hit a fly in a snowstorm," she pauses and Jane looks up at her for the first time since she got there, and really looks at her.
"Why didn't you kill me?"
Jane looks at Leah for a moment, "You shouted out. Right before I pulled the trigger. You shouted out my name, and…" Jane pauses, "You sounded normal. The way you would sound when we were playing basketball, or when I would grab you when you didn't want me to…" She stops again and runs a hand over her face. "And I couldn't kill you, El. I couldn't. But I couldn't let you…"
"Kill Maura." Leah finishes.
Jane starts to cry.
...
"Get a grip? Get a grip?" Alan paces around and around the living room, "How can you ask me to get a grip, McCarthy, you killed my partner! You KILLED him. He's dead."
"Shut up." Leah doesn't recognize her own voice, she's not sure how she came to be here, in this man's apartment, covered in blood.
"This is fucked. This is so fucked. There's no way I can save any of this shit now. You're KILLING people. You crazy. crazy bitch!"
Leah blinks at him, her head hurts. She wants to go home. She wants to go home to Janelle…to Jane. She's in Boston…
That means Jane.
"Shut UP, Alan," she says, grabbing at her head, "let me think."
"No. No more of your ideas. I'm calling the cops. I'm calling Cavenaugh. Let them hang me in the papers and put me behind bars. I'm going to tell them you killed Johnny. I'm going to tell them so that his wife can have some-" But he stops talking abruptly, and it's only when Leah looks down that she realizes this is because she's jammed her knife into his stomach.
All the way to the hilt.
...
"Rosario's fine," Jane says, and then immediately regrets her choice of words, "Well... I mean. He's alive. Looking at twenty five to life."
"And I get these lovely accommodations," Leah says sarcastically, "because I'm crazy."
Jane cocks an eyebrow, "You don't sound crazy to me."
Leah nods. "It was like waking up. Seeing you with that gun. It was like waking up in someone else's body, holding things you've never seen before in your life." Leah looks up at Jane, and her eyes are wet. "You have to believe me, Jane. It was like living underwater. It was like sleeping. I just wanted to…"
"Go home," Jane finishes.
"You should have killed me" Leah says bitterly, "I'd fucking do it myself, but they took away my shoelaces even."
"Janelle wouldn't want you to die." Jane says so quietly that Maura and Dr. Peyton lean forward.
Leah laughs, but it sounds insane and off kilter. Jane leans back in her seat. "Janelle would hate me for what I've done. She wouldn't be able to look at me."
Jane shakes her head, her eyes back on the Formica table top that separates them. "She would want to hold you and tell you she loves you and that she forgives you."
Leah reaches out across the table and grabs Jane's wrist. Jane jerks in her grasp, and Leah redoubles her grip, holding on.
"No!" Maura puts her hands against the window instinctively, trying to get to her wife.
Dr. Peyton puts his hand on the red buzzer by the door, but doesn't press it.
"Do you forgive me, Jane? I know…I know I was your place holder. I know I was never like her," Jane flinches, "But did you love me? Could you have loved me?"
Jane stares at Leah, her brown eyes dry and wide, and Maura can read the answer there, clear and terrible.
"Oh, Jane," she whispers, catching her breath.
"Yes," Jane lies. "Yes. I could have." And Leah lets her go; dropping her head to the table, sobs of relief shaking her body, shand Jane puts a hand tentatively on the back of her head, looking down at her, frowning.
After a moment, she stands up.
"Good-Bye, Leah."
Leah doesn't answer.
Dr. Peyton presses the button to unlock the door. Maura rushes out of the little room and around the corner, desperate to put her arms around her wife, and when she does, Jane hugs her back hard.
"I want to go home," Jane says into Maura's hair, and Maura nods.
Neither of them cries.
"Thank you, Detective," Dr. Peyton has come up behind Maura, and Jane unlatches one arm from around her to shake the doctor's hand. "You've done more than you know."
"I want to go home," Jane says again.
"I'll call you a car."
They turn towards the entrance, Maura still holding onto Jane around the waist. "You did a really good thing for her back there, Jane," Maura whispers.
Jane looks down at her.
"She doesn't look like you at all, Maur."
Jane and Maura get home late and exhausted. Constance and Angela meet them at the door and each mother takes a daughter in her arms, holding on.
"I am quite proud of how you are holding up," Constance says into Maura's ear.
"There were no problems here," Angela tells Jane, rubbing her hand once up her back. "They all went down about twenty minutes ago. Same room.
"Thanks, Ma. Constance." Jane says tiredly, "I'm just going to go check on them,"
They watch Jane pull herself up the stairs, as though her feet weigh a ton, and Constance turns to look at Maura again, concerned.
"It was good for her," Maura says, to stop the questions before they come. "It was the right thing to do. We're both just…"
"exhausted," Angela fills in, "of course you are."
"We'll get out of your hair."
Maura smiles, "You're welcome to stay, have a cup of coffee…"
"Actually," Constance looks sideways at Angela, "We're going to go out for a late dinner I think. Catch up…" She pauses here, looking nervous and Angela laughs.
"We're going to go talk about you and your family behind your backs. I haven't had anyone to do that with in ages…in EVER."
Maura chuckles, kissing her mother and then Angela, "That sounds horrendous. I will not tell Jane."
She watches them down the sidewalk and then closes the door, arming the system and turning to climb the stairs herself.
...
"I'm scared. Do you think Mommy is home yet?" Jane is standing outside the twins room, listening, and though she starts a little when Maura slips an arm around her, she puts a finger to her lips.
"It's okay," Levi's raspy little whisper floats out of the darkness. "We're all here, and we'll keep each other safe."
"I miss Mama," Isabelle, always the first to get teary.
"Mama's with us. Even though she's not here," Levi says, and there is a pause while someone shifts on the bed.
"Mama's here?"
"Yeah. And she knows if we're okay. And she'll come get us if we're not."
"How do you know?" Sofia's voice is skeptical.
For a while there is silence, and Maura thinks they must be asleep until Sofia's voice drifts out of the darkness again, "How do you know, Lee?"
"I slipped and fell," Levi murmurs, and Maura feels Jane's stomach tighten.
"What?"
"when me and Noah was in the basement. When Mama came and rescued us. It was cold, and wet, and I couldn't hang on real good. She had to push really hard to get Noah out of the window and I fell back. Into the water."
Maura looks up at Jane, and her face is mask like as she listens.
"I thought she would go without me," he says,
"Mama would not leave you," Isabelle says certainly.
"That's what she said," Levi's voice is straining against unshed tears.
"I told her I couldn't do anything. I wasn't for saving."
There is more silence and more shuffling and no one says anything for a while.
"What'd Mama tell you then, Lee?" Sofia, her voice barely whispering.
"She said that when she was little she didn't think she was for saving either, but she is. She said that she had to realize it and she had a lot of help. but now she knows. if if she didn't have known, she wouldnta been around to help me. She said she would take care of me. But I had to try again. We made a deal."
And as Maura listens, she can see them down there. The little boy and the tall, sooty detective, squaring off as the water rose around them.
"What was your deal?" Isabelle. Enthralled.
"She promised to keep me safe, but I hadda climb through the window, and let the doctors and nurses at the hospital take care of me, and do what they told me." He takes a deep breath "She said...that even if she wasn't always with me. I was part of her now, and she would keep me safe. No matter what."
There is silence for a moment, and Maura squeezes Jane, feeling the detective's arms wrap around her too.
"Mama loves us," Levi says. "We's a part of her, and of Mom. They won't let nothing bad happen."
Jane pulls away from Maura, stepping into the bedroom. "Listen to your brother, Nugs," she says, "He's very, very smart," in the light from the hallway, Maura sees them all, Noah in Sofia's lap, fast asleep, Isabelle tucked against Noah, still a little teary, but they all light up when they see their parents.
"Mommy!"
"Ma!"
Jane is kicking off her shoes. "Scoot," she says, and Levi shifts over, allowing Jane to duck under and stretch out. She curls a finger at Maura, who smiles and follows, lifting Noah onto her chest.
After much shuffling and grunting, they make a sort of family sandwich, Jane, Levi, Isabelle, Sofia, Noah, and Maura, her back pressed firmly against the wall. Isabelle's eyes immediately start to drop closed, and after a moment, all of their children are breathing deep and even. Jane looks at Maura over Levi's head, tucked under her chin. Maura smiles and reaches out for Jane's hand.
Their fingers intertwine in the middle of the bed, over the heads of four very tired children.
"I love you, Maura."
Maura squeezes Jane's fingers and closes her eyes, smiling as Noah wiggles against her. They are all going to wake up sore, even the children. And someone's wayward hand or foot is going to cause a bruise and a fight.
But at the moment, she couldn't care less.
So there it is. Hope this answered most of your questions, and wasn't too hard to follow. I was trying a single space format for a minute but some of you said it was hard to read, so I reverted.
There are so many new handles of commentors I haven't seen before Francesca, Devil Child Vorn, Ejdj, chawkchic (actually, I think I've thanked you before?), .x3, thefabdonna, Billyryan, tearless soul,JAMiiiaaa, tatianavs, alex1966. Thank you guys! I'm so glad you enjoyed.
To the guest who requested that I not have Leah come into the house...I knoowwww. When I read that review I was like...oh...welldamn. LOL. Hope it worked out for you. Francesca! Thank you so much for your wonderful comment. Your email won't come through unless you space it out...stupid FF. BNH, your comments are making my life. seriously. AE, heatwave, Jobee, davis, Jessica, nikki, julez, Anon (although, sometimes I think you hate me :)), kryptochik, thatisneverthat, everythingshazy, Ireallyneedalife. I'm sorry for my minihiatus. This chapter took a second (5,000 words. phew) and then I was down for a while with some drama. But I'm back, and lets keep going, shall we? 14 more chapters...or so. Sometimes I just want to extend indefinitely love you all. Your comments are like my food.
happy reading.
tc