A/N This post is made up of two parts. The first might seem like plain fluff, but there's a little more to it. The second is different than any I've written before – the reason I say this should be pretty clear right away. Anyways, let me know what you think! A/N
Part 1:
"Summer?" Sophia asked, flipping idly through a bridal magazine just as she had seen Summer do countless times.
"Yes sweetie?" Summer asked, barely looking up from the guest list she was attempting to finish.
Sophia checked quickly to see if anyone else was listening, a sure sign that she was about to say something she wasn't supposed to. "Do you have a Mommy?"
Summer dropped her pen and met Sophia's steady gaze. "Of course I do silly. How did you think I was born– did a stork deliver me?"
"No Summer," Sophia protested. "Not a mom. A Mommy."
"What do you mean?"
Sophia scrunched up her face in thought. "Ok like Ryan has a mom somewhere far away. But my Mommy is his Mommy now. That kind of Mommy."
"Oh." Summer considered this. "Well I used to have one when I was little."
"What happened to her?"
"She … had to go away."
"Like Ryan's mom?"
"Yeah, sort of." Summer agreed. She'd never thought about it before, but she and Ryan did have that in common. Both had been abandoned by their mothers; left to survive in Newport.
"What about now?"
"Well now … I like to think of your Mommy as mine too." Summer revealed.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Is that ok?"
"Uh huh." Sophia nodded. "So … we're sisters?"
"Kind of. But you know after Seth and I get married we'll be real sisters."
"Cool!" Sophia smiled and returned to admiring the pictures in her magazine for a few minutes. "Summer?"
"Yeah?"
"When you and Seth get married are you still going to come over to play with me?"
"Of course I am. Why would I miss out on hanging out with my super cool new sister?"
"So you won't be busy doing your taxes all the time?"
"What?" Summer's eyebrows knotted together in confusion.
Sophia sighed. "On Full House after Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky got married they were always in their room, and Joey told Michelle it was cause they were doing their taxes. Are you and Seth going to do that?"
Summer froze, unsure exactly how to answer that one.
Luckily – or not so luckily - someone else answered for here.
"I sure hope so." Seth said, walking over and checking out the guest list.
"Cohen!" Summer hissed, unable to hide the smirk on her face at his reply.
"Summer there's something wrong with this. Where are all my guests?" Seth questioned.
"Well Cohen, I haven't written the head table or side table on here, and parents are at the head table, and Ryan and Sophia are at the side one with Hailey, Jimmy, Caleb, Julie and the Nana."
"Wow that's going to be one crazy table." Seth commented. "But what about my other guests?"
"What other guests?"
"Like …" Seth trailed off, trying to think of someone.
"Yeah Cohen, that's all the people you know."
"That's not true." Seth whined.
"He also knows some horses: Captain Oats and Princess Chrismukkah." Sophia supplied helpfully.
"I'm so going to find some new friends." Seth decided, leaving as quickly as he'd entered.
"Have fun talking to Captain Oats!" Summer called after him with a wicked laugh.
Part 2:
"Kirsten we are not having an engagement party for Seth." Sandy declared in annoyance, loosening his tie and throwing it to the ground. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for celebrating, but not with the Newpsies."
"We can't just not do nothing." Kirsten sighed, deftly picking up the tie and placing it on the bureau.
"Yes we can." Sandy insisted. "It's so easy."
"Sandy, we're barely inviting any of them to the wedding-"
"What?!" Sandy shed his jacket onto the bed. "Some of them made it through the screening process?"
Kirsten rolled her eyes tiredly. "Like I was saying, if Seth gets married and we don't have some kind of party, they'll talk about it for years." She took the jacket and hung it in the closet, then gestured for him to unzip the back of her dress.
Sandy obliged, continuing to talk while he did so. "So what? Let's give them something to talk about." Upon hearing the words leave his mouth, Sandy smirked. "Let's give them something to talk about!" he sung. "How aboooout-"
"Sandy!" Kirsten interrupted, anger flashing in her blue eyes.
Sandy immediately stopped, recognizing both the look and the tone of her voice. "Kirsten," he pleaded gently. "Why do you even want to throw this party?"
"Because we are members of this community, and that is what people here do." Kirsten stated, moving his long forgotten shoes to their place with one swift movement of her foot.
"Since when do we do what the others do?" Sandy questioned. "I mean, how many other Newpsies have an adopted son from Chino and an almost twenty year age difference between their kids?"
"That's not the point." Kirsten slipped off her dress and pulled on her pyjamas.
"Well then I really think I'm missing whatever the point is."
Kirsten sighed again. "My dad wants to do this." she finally revealed, wrapping her robe around her small frame almost defensively.
"Oh! So this isn't about the community – it's about your father wanting his own way."
"It's about both. He's one of the leaders of the community-"
"Because he bought most of it." Sandy said, now wearing only his boxers and a Berkley shirt that had seen better days.
"He wants to do something for Seth, and this is the only thing he can think of."
"Why can't he just build Seth a house?"
"Sandy, my dad might be a lot of things, but his heart is in the right place. He just wants to celebrate his grandson's engagement. And being him, that means a big party."
"Well I don't think we should do it." Sandy said obstinately.
"It's not even your wedding, why are you whining?" Kirsten snapped.
"Because it's Seth's wedding," Sandy emphasized their son's name, "and I just think that out of the two of us, I'm more in tune with his interests."
Kirsten's mouth dropped open. "So you're saying I don't know my own son?" she questioned in disbelief.
"Kirsten I didn't say that-"
"But you meant it." she said bitterly. "Because you're always the one who knows what Seth wants, and I'm the evil monster who forces him to do otherwise."
"Well you are the one who wanted to stay in Newport when he was younger." Sandy argued, getting into the argument with full force. "And then there was Portland-"
"Not that again!" Kirsten shook her head angrily. "Sandy he was sixteen, he was upset, and he acted irrationally. I didn't regret bringing him home then, and I don't regret it now."
Sandy was about to retort when he caught himself. "What are we even arguing about?"
"I don't know, but it's serious." Kirsten retorted. With those words she seemed to lose all of her energy. "You know what, let's just … finish this later."
Kirsten slipped out of the room, leaving Sandy alone and wondering what had just happened.
He wasn't the only one who was confused.
Sophia had been playing with her toy ponies, even though she was technically supposed to be asleep. But the sound of her parents voices floating up through the vents had distracted her from Princess Chrismukkah's latest drama.
She couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but their tone and volume made it clear that her Mommy and Daddy were not happy with each other. Sophia pouted, tears springing to her crystal blue eyes. She couldn't remember ever hearing her parents fight like that. They always fought in a funny way, like when her Mommy got mad at her Daddy for leaving the kitchen in a mess.
Sophia grabbed Princess Chrismukkah and climbed into bed, wrapping her tiny arms around the soft pony and closing her eyes, trying to ignore the voices.
A few minutes later she heard the creak of the floorboards in the hallway, followed by the sound of her bedroom door opening slowly. Sophia pressed her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.
Kirsten padded quietly into her sleeping daughter's room, sweeping an errant curl off the little girl's face before making herself comfortable on the padded window seat.
She continued watching Sophia in the moonlight, unable to keep the slight smile off her face as she admired her baby girl. It was a ritual of sorts that she had developed after Sophia was born: after she and Sandy had a big fight she would sit and think while watching her daughter sleep. The truth was that the little girl in front of her symbolized the fact that she and Sandy could get through anything. Before her birth, things in the Cohen household had been tense, to say the least. After the boys had left – Ryan to Chino and Seth to Portland – she hadn't been sure she and Sandy would make it. And even once they came back everything was still so … wrong. But after Kirsten had found out she was pregnant, it seemed like everything had come back together again. Sharing Sophia had brought her and Sandy back together.
"Hi Mommy." a quiet voice greeted her.
Kirsten looked up in surprise to meet Sophia's clear blue eyes, eyes identical to her own. "Hi baby." she replied, walking the few steps to the bed and kissing Sophia's cheek.
Sophia shifted out of Kirsten's arms and scooted over in her bed to make some room.
Kirsten immediately slipped under the covers, hugging Sophia's tiny body close to her own.
"Mommy?"
"Yes sweetie?"
"Why are you and Daddy fighting?" Sophia asked innocently.
"Baby, we're not-" Kirsten immediately denied.
"I heard you." Sophia insisted. "You were using your loud, angry voices."
Kirsten bit her lip, filled with regret that Sophia had heard any of their argument. She and Sandy had always tried to keep their kids out of their own issues.
"Did Daddy do something bad?"
"No baby, he didn't."
"Is he wrong? Should I be on your side?" Sophia persisted. "Do you still love Daddy?"
Kirsten exhaled slowly. "Sophia, baby, listen to me. Your Daddy and I did have a disagreement, but that's all that it was. There's no right or wrong person, and I definitely do not want you taking sides. And most importantly, we still love each other, and we love you and Seth and Ryan. Ok?"
"Ok Mommy." Sophia nodded, nuzzling against her in relief. "Mommy?"
"Yes?"
"Are you gonna stay here all night?"
"No sweetie, I just came here to think for a little bit."
"Ok." Sophia yawned. "Night Mommy."
"Good night baby."
A little while later the door opened once again, this time allowing Sandy to enter. He had come to do exactly what Kirsten had been doing earlier – think. But to his surprise he found not one, but both of his 'girls' fast asleep in the pink canopy bed.
He lifted Kirsten easily and carried her downstairs, tucking her into their bed and getting in beside her.
"Sandy?" Kirsten mumbled sleepily, rolling to face him.
"Hey."
"I'm sorry, I-"
"I'm sorry too." Sandy whispered. "Now go to sleep – things will work out."
"They always do." Kirsten agreed, cuddling into his embrace and quickly falling back asleep.
