Part 35

Emily crept down the stair she heard silence from the main room. No harsh, raised voices or…anything else. She desperately didn't want to see…oh, please don't let them be doing that again.

"It's okay, luv, you can come down now." Her father's voice rang from the living room. "Your mum's left."

To her relief, her dad was in the exact same position he'd been in when she'd left the room. "What, no fight?" she tried to joke.

"No fight," he confirmed, looking a little sad and thoughtful. He sighed, "I told your mum goodbye tonight."

She frowned in puzzlement. "What? Of course, you…" then the pieces fell together and she could see the picture. "For real? Really goodbye?"

"Yup." He reached up and pushed the hair off his forehead, of course, it fell straight back again. "No more holidays. No more working for her. No more…well, you know."

"Wow," she flopped down next to him, letting the idea slowly sink in. It was what she'd wanted for years, for her parents to stop trying to play happy family when they were far from it. But it was another big change, a welcome change but still a change in a world that had changed so rapidly in the past few weeks. "I'm…ecstatic, but what brought this on? Oh…you and Gillian? She did just go home to rest tonight, right? You guys didn't have a fight, did you?"

"No, no fight," he reassured her. "Well, maybe I did raise my voice a little. But it was really just a disagreement…that got a little loud."

"Dad!"

"Don't give me that tone. It was just a disagreement. She's working herself to death trying to take care of me and the Group. I convinced her she needed a break."

She studied his features for deception. Seeing none, she nodded. "She did look really tired last night."

"Exhausted. She's going to do some nice relaxing girly things tonight."

"Girly things? What does that entail?"

"Don't know and didn't ask. Whatever makes her feel good." His expression turned serious. "It can't work between us if I'm still hanging on to your mum. And I really want it to work with Gillian."

"Wow," she repeated, taking in his strangely calm demeanor. "And there was no fighting. When did you get to be so mature, Dad?"

He cuffed her lightly on the back of her head. "Respect your poor old dad. And the answer is pain pills."

"So you're high? What happened to setting an example for the teenage daughter?" she teased.

"Not high," he denied. "I just don't hurt for the first time in weeks. Feels so good it's hard to get upset about anything."

She took his hand, rubbing her thumb over the indent where his wedding band used to rest. "I'm glad, Dad. Both that you feel good tonight and that you told mom to take…told mom goodbye. You've always been so much happier when you're around Gill."

"Have I?" he frowned. "I guess I've kinda forgotten what it means to be happy."

"Listen to Gill. Even with all the crap she's been through, she's pretty good at happy."

He grinned, reaching over to ruffle her hair. "She is, isn't she? Listen enough of this. Like Gillian said, we're moving forward now. How about we have a nice night of father-daughter bonding?"

"Pizza?" she suggested with an impish grin. "I'm tired of cooking."

"Pizza it is," he grabbed his cell phone. "And what do you have in that bag you lugged over here?"

"I borrowed Shelly's Wii. I thought we could play some games. I read that physical therapists like to use it to help patients regain muscle strength and coordination."

"And you think its something your broken old man needs?" She could read the tiny bit of anger beneath his teasing grin.

"It'll be fun, Dad, really. And if it helps you out a little bit too, why not?"

"I'll suppose I can give it a try," still not totally convinced.

"Why don't you order the pizza and I'll hook the game up to the TV?"

"Pepperoni or sausage?"

By the time her father hung up the phone, she had all the wires connected, the sensor in place and the Wii powered up. "First we have to make you a Mii," she explained as she clicked the correct box.

"Wha?"

"A Mii…an avatar. It'll represent you in the games."

"So that little guy is supposed to be me?" he squinted at the screen. "I don't look like that, do I?"

"Well, I can make him a little bit shorter," earned her another cuff. She changed the avatar's hair color. "You want to have glasses or not."

"Sure, give me glasses."

She inserted the disc with some of the basic games. "Oh, here's a shooting game. You'll like that." She connected the controllers to the plastic guns. "And we can both play at the same time."

Soon they were blasting away at ducks, targets, balloons and tin cans. "Dad, you're not supposed to shoot me!"

"Sure I am," he grinned unrepentantly. "Look how many points I got."

The final stage involved saving a whole gaggle of their little Mii's who were running around in a panic trying to avoid an invasion of UFOs. "Dad, save me!" She giggled so hard she couldn't focus enough to shoot her own gun. "Don't let 'em kidnap me! Save me!"

Fiercely focused, he picked off the marauding aliens with amazing accuracy. "Oh, no you don't," he growled at the screen.

"That one in the corner," Emily bounced on the couch, forgetting about the controller in her own hand in her excitement. "Get him. All right. Good shot, Dad."

The last UFO in flames, the Mii's lined up, only one missing from their number, and cheered their safety. Rising, Emily did her own victory dance, then collapsed into her father's lap.

"My hero," she gushed through her laughter. Then looking up into his beloved, oh, so thin face, now covered with a smug grin, tears unexpectedly erupted. She'd been so close to losing him. To never being able to share anything silly with him again.

"Sweetheart, what's wrong?" he pulled her close, letting her soak his shirt with her tears.

"I love you so much, daddy," she babbled. "And I was so scared when you were in the hospital. I don't want to lose you."

"You didn't, luv. You didn't lose me. Shhh…it's alright. I'm okay now."

"It was soo bad in the hospital. Seeing you like that. I just wanted to cry all the time."

"Shh, darling."

"Gill being there helped. She was so strong. She even told Mom off once. Gill was there every day, did you know that?

"No, I don't remember much."

"Well she was. Every day. All day. Looking out for you, working with the doctors, watching out for me. She really cares about you, Dad."

"I know," he assured her. "I love her too. But I'm out of the hospital now."

"I know," she took a deep breath to try to calm the flow down her cheeks. "That's why I'm crying now. I really missed you and now you're back."

"I love you, too," he whispered. "It'll be okay."

Gillian leaned back into her idea of heaven. A warm bubble bath, a good romance novel, a plate of freshly baked cookies on a tray in front of her with a big glass of chocolate milk. Life didn't get much better than this.

Her eyes straying from the page, she let her thoughts drift over Alec's visit. When he'd been there, she'd been so shocked she could barely respond. Now she let herself consider all he'd said. Simple confirmation it hadn't been her all her fault was amazingly…freeing. Oh, she'd told herself a million times, as had Cal, that Alec carried most of the blame. But there'd always been a small voice that told her she was the one who'd screwed it all up. She should have been more supportive. She should have been able to bear his children. She should have loved Alec more and Cal less.

Now Alec's simple apology silenced that little voice. Oh, she still bore some of the responsibility. It was over. They hadn't been able to make it work, because the two of them together didn't work.

Her cell phone interrupted her gentle musing. Glancing at the screen, she saw Cal's landline.

"Hey, Cal."

"Hey, luv." She smiled just from hearing his voice. "How's your night off?"

"Wonderful. You were right. I needed this."

"I'm always right, luv," she could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Well, not always, but about this you were." She conceded. "Is Emily there?"

"Yup. Hey, Em," he called. "Pick up the extension and say hi to Gill."

"Hey, Gill, getting unstressed?"

"Sure am," She smiled. "I'm taking a bubble bath and eating some chocolate chip cookies I just baked."

"Oh," the teen groaned. "Hope you saved some for us?"

"Emily, don't beg," her father chastised lightly.

"I baked a double batch, so there's plenty for everyone," she grinned. "What have you guys been up to? Your dad hasn't been getting into mischief, has he?"

"No, he's been good. We've been playing some games. I powned him in table tennis."

"Table tennis!" she gasped, trying to recall if she'd ever seen a table tennis set-up at Cal's house.

"Video games," Cal assured her. "I didn't leave my chair. And I…what was that word, Em?"

"Powned. Positively owned."

"Yeah, powned her in the shooting game."

"And he saved me from being kidnapped by space aliens."

"Yup, downed every one of them," he informed her smugly.

"I'm glad you guys had a good time," She said through her laughter.

"We did. Now say good night, Em, so I can talk to Gill."

"Sure, Dad. Good night, Gill. Don't worry about, Dad, he's in good hands."

"I know he is, sweetheart."

"Have a good night and see you tomorrow, right?"

"I'll be back tomorrow," she confirmed. "You have a good night too. Sweet dreams."

"Night, Gill." And the teen dropped off the line.

"Are you really de-stressing, luv?" Cal murmured, his low voice doing sinful things to her insides.

"Yeah, I feel much better. But you know, the strangest thing happened."

"What?"

"Alec dropped over. I haven't talked to him for more than three months."

"And what did that wanker want?" he growled.

"He wanted to apologize."

There was a moment of silence over the line. "Apologize?"

"Yeah, stunned me, too."

"He's not trying to get back together with you?"

"No," she soothed Cal's suspicions. "In fact he's being transfer to the Ambassador to Korea's staff. He just wanted to apologize. Said it was part of his program to atone to people he's wronged."

Another long silence. "That's good. I guess. Kinda a strange coincidence, though. Zoe stopped by here tonight."

Gillian felt herself tense. "Zoe?"

"Yeah, she dropped Em off and we had a little talk."

"Talk?" she found herself monosyllabic.

"I cut the strings, luv. I ended it for good this time."

"Oh, Cal…really…for good?"

"For good. I told her I won't be her puppet any more."

"Oh, Cal, I don't know what to say."

"It's what you wanted, yeah?" Insecurity crept into his voice. "What you always wanted?"

"You didn't do it just for me, did you?" She didn't want him to cut Zoe out of his life just to please her. He had to want it and mean it.

"No, darling, it was time. I should have done it years ago." He cleared his throat. "Now that we seem to have the exes out of the way, does this mean we can move forward?"

She leaned back, letting herself slid down into the tub. "I'm practically living with you now, Cal."

"Isn't it grand?" he smiled.

"Well, I think we might have some kinks to work out."

"Sure," he agreed amiably. "Par for the course. Well, Emily wore me out with her videos games and I'm keeping you from your bubbles, so I think I'll say good night now."

"Okay, we've got the rest of the weekend to try to work out some of the kinks. Go ahead and go to bed."

"It'll be lonely without you there."

"Yeah, for me too, but I'll be home tomorrow."

"Home," he whispered. "That sounds good."

"I love you, Cal."

"Best lullaby I've heard. I love you too. See you tomorrow."

Author's note: Thanks everyone for the great reviews. But no one needs to apologize for not leaving one. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't wandered into never-never land along the way. It's easy to get too close to what you're writing and not see if you've taken a wrong turn. Any way, thanks a lot. I really do appreciate any and all reviews.