Alternate
Chapter 8: Confluence
A/N: Finally finished this one. I hope you enjoy it and especially the last part *wicked grin*. as always reviews are much appreciated and loved.
Dedication: To the wonderfully loyal Wolfhound159, ChristyLoisGilmore17 and DaisyDay. Also many thanks to an unnamed Guest reviewer.
The little girl scampered away and Donnie rubbed his eyes. He hadn't remembered leaving the car. He hadn't the slightest idea how he'd ended up in a park. His head hurt and he was about to lie down in the grass to continue sleeping it off when a shadow fell across the grass in front of him.
"I hope you're proud of yourself," Joey Moretti looked pissed "Get up before some idiot with a cell phone snaps a photo or some video and your drunk ass is all over the Internet."
Donnie pulled himself to his feet "What are you doing here anyway?" he asked.
"Doing my sister a favor that she will owe me until the end of time for," Joey replied "Come on I'll buy you a cup of coffee. I think we need to have a talk."
"Kate sent you?" Donnie asked bitterly and a bit disbelievingly.
"Well I certainly didn't come looking for you out of the goodness of my heart," Joey retorted.
"So, details?" Kate's sister-in-law Sandy had brought Kate a change of clothes. Sandy had gather from Joey that Donnie had witnessed something transpire between Kate and Daniel. She had dropped her children off with their grandfather for church early that morning.
Kate rolled her eyes "There's not much to tell," she shrugged. Not only was she not in the mood to talk about it, after finding out that Joey knew the details of how she'd discovered Donnie's affair, she wasn't sure she could trust Sandy.
"Tell me anyway," Sandy leaned forward conspiratorially.
Kate shook her head "Just let it go."
"Why would you do that to me?" Sandy sighed exasperatedly as her gaze turned to the ceiling "I thought I told you at Easter that there are three words I never wanted to hear again."
"Oops, I forgot," Kate smirked triumphantly. She hadn't forgotten in the least about how frustrated Sandy had become with that particular ear worm of a Disney song.
"No you didn't," Sandy accused "But since you're so willing to employ mental torture I'll drop the subject. I'll just say that I'm very happy for you."
"Thank you," Kate replied, then added as the words truly registered "You're happy I was unfaithful to my fiancé the evening we should have been on our honeymoon?"
"Unfaithful...? You didn't have sex in a hospital bed, did you?" Sandy was shocked.
"No!" Kate said loudly "We just kissed and told each other how we felt."
"Thanks for the details," Sandy grinned.
Kate groaned and smacked her sister-in-law's arm "Let it go, Let it go, Can't hold it back anymore..." she sang.
"I will pay you to never do that again," Sandy groaned.
"Just don't tell anyone about what you just tricked me into telling you," Kate sighed.
"I promise," Sandy said sincerely.
"Just like you promised not to tell anyone about Donnie screwing my best friend?" Kate countered.
Sandy's mouth dropped open "Damn," she murmured before looking directly at Kate again "I'm sorry. When I told Joey, it was right after he told me that you and Donnie were planning to get married again. I was surprised that you would even consider it after the things he'd done to you. To forgive may be divine but you're one of the few Catholics I ever met who put that into practice in such a dramatic manner."
Kate laughed a little nervously. Like Daniel, Sandy was not religious. She sent the girls to church but rarely accompanied them. Sandy was of the belief that religion had been used to justify too much hatred and intolerance in the world. When she and Joey had gotten married Kate and Joey's Great Aunt Carol had referred to it as a mixed marriage because of their differing beliefs and refused to attend.
"He did try to make it up to me," Kate replied lamely, not willing to get into the myriad of reasons that she had for saying yes a second time.
"Bull pie," Sandy remarked "You gave him a second chance because that bastard mind tricked you into thinking you owed him."
"Mind tricked me?" Kate was bordering on indignant.
"He's a lawyer Kate," Sandy told her "They are masters of the mind trick. I dated my share of them before I met Joey."
Kate nodded "It wasn't just that I thought I owed him..." she was considering spilling everything to Sandy when her doctor arrived with her discharge instructions.
"You'll need to change the dressing every day and keep the wound clean," he told Kate "And I want to see you in three weeks to take the stitches out."
Kate nodded "Thank you;" she said as she stood up.
"But honestly," Sandy continued as she walked with Kate down the hall "I think it's wonderful. Did you not see how he was looking at you when he sang at the rehearsal dinner. It was like you were the only one in the room. I've never seen Donnie look at you like that."
They reached the door to Daniel's room and stopped "Could you wait out here?" Kate requested of her sister-in-law.
"Sure," Sandy agreed "But if you want to make it to the second service we're gonna have to get moving soon."
Kate smiled, it had been good of Sandy to offer to take her to Father Pat's ten o'clock sermon. Especially since Sandy would have to sit through the sermon in order to drive Kate home afterwards. Though Kate was torn about whether to skip church. A day with Daniel seemed preferable. She was still debating the idea when she entered Daniel's room.
She found him dressed and sitting on his bed. He was getting his discharge instructions from his doctor and driving the doctor up the wall with his flippant attitude.
"Yes, keep my wounds clean to avoid infection and let someone know if there are any strange secretions or foul odors. Those are just injury care basics, you know."
Kate looked over at Max "What's got you so down?" she questioned.
Max sighed "Someone's got to apply antiseptic ointment to Doc's injuries."
"Including the one on my ass," Daniel added with a wry grin "I told Lewicki I'd figure out a way to do it myself but he insisted."
Max groaned and rolled his eyes "You never said you'd try to do it yourself," he corrected.
Daniel shrugged and smiled at Kate "You've been sprung too?"
She nodded "Anything I can do to help?"
"You could tell Doctor Pierce to take his recovery more seriously," the doctor who was in the process of discharging Daniel told her.
Kate chuckled before reaching over and taking the paper that had the discharge instructions on it from the doctor. She looked them over and handed the paper back "I'll make sure he does," she promised.
"You will huh?" there was a hint of mischief in Daniel's eyes.
"Well if Max gets fed up with you," Kate countered, shifting her hips in a subtly flirtatious manner.
"That's a definite possibility," Max huffed, oblivious to the hidden meaning behind the exchange in front of him.
The doctor looked at Daniel and sighed. He looked over at Max "Okay, get him out of here."
Daniel stood up and looked to Kate "Has Joey found Donnie?"
"Sandy got a text from him a little while ago saying he had," Kate assured him.
"That's good," Daniel remarked.
"Did something happen to Donnie?" Max inquired.
"You didn't tell him?" Kate raised an eyebrow at Daniel.
Under her scrutiny Daniel began to fidget slightly "It never came up," he explained.
"Told me what?" Max sounded a little irritated.
"Well, tell him," Kate changed her stance from relaxed to intimidating.
"You might be in over your head here," his younger self had appeared next to Max "What do you do? What do you do?" Daniel glared briefly at the hallucination. "She's getting impatient," his hallucination continued "If you don't do something soon she's gonna start to think last night was a fluke."
"Daniel?" Kate questioned.
"What haven't you told me?" Max hated feeling like a child being purposefully left out of the loop.
"This," Daniel turned and kissed Kate.
The kiss took Kate by surprise but it took her only a fraction of a second to respond in kind.
"Well that took forever," Max declared as he smiled brightly at the couple.
Kate and Daniel separated and stared at Max "You knew?" Daniel sputtered.
"I suspected," Max corrected "Strongly suspected."
"Kate," Sandy stuck her head in "We really should get going."
Kate glanced longingly at Daniel. It was tempting but her duty as a good Catholic was calling her "I'll see you later," she told Daniel.
"Unless you'd like to come to church with us," Sandy smiled warmly at Daniel and Max.
"Sandy," Kate began to exain "Daniel doesn't... observe-"
"She's trying to say I don't believe in God," Daniel interrupted.
"Me neither," Sandy informed him, holding her hand aloft for a fist bump "This family needs another heretic."
Kate smacked Sandy's hand out of the air "Let's get going," she said quickly.
"Maybe I will come along," Daniel announced.
Kate spun to face him and was not able to stop her eyes from rolling or her mouth from uttering "Why?"
Though affronted by her reaction Daniel forged ahead "Your religion is important to you. If we're going to be together then maybe I should make an effort to be more accepting of it as a part of our life."
Kate's hard demeanor melted at his words and she wrapped her arms around him "Thank you Daniel," she whispered "But you don't have to come with us today."
"She has a good point dude," younger him appeared over Kate's shoulder "Don't want to move too fast."
"I want to go with you today," Daniel said decisively.
"Have you heard a word I've said?" Joey asked as he waited in the living room of the apartment for Donnie to change.
"You don't think I'm any good for your sister," Donnie called back "Yeah I heard you, you only said it about fifty times. Anyway it doesn't matter what you think or what I think. I heard her, she loves him. I saw this coming, I did, and I thought I could stop it, make her love me again..."
"That was a stupid plan," Joey observed.
"I know that now!" Donnie shot back bitterly "Doesn't make it hurt less!"
"Are you ready yet?" Joey asked, shifting uncomfortably as he spoke.
"Yeah," Donnie emerged from the bedroom wearing clean clothes "Let's go."
The church parking lot was emptying out after Father Pat's first sermon. The sun reflected brightly off the pavement as the stragglers mingled with the early arrivals for the second sermon. Joe Moretti found himself in a conversation with Father Pat as his granddaughters bragged to their friends about their frilly bridesmaids dresses.
"I was glad to see on the news that Kate and Doctor Pierce were found safe," Father Pat was saying.
"We're all relieved," Joe replied. He had never been Father Pat's biggest fan. Even as a boy Pat had been nosy and quick to judge as well as determined to get his way on everything. Joe was really hoping that an out to this conversation would present itself. He didn't know then but his out would soon present itself in a big way.
"Has Donnie made any decisions about when to reschedule the wedding?" Father Pat questioned.
Why did it have to be Donnie's decision? Another thing about Pat that infuriated Joe Moretti was his seeming lack of respect for women. Was it any wonder he had entered the priesthood? Joe began to earnestly pray for a way out of talking to Father Pat. That way out arrived in the passenger's seat of his son's car and in the back seat of his daughter-in-law's car.
"Why don't you ask him yourself," Joe pointed to Donnie getting out of Joey's car.
Before Father Pat could get Donnie's attention Kate and Daniel clambered out of the back seat of Sandy's car. Across the parking lot Sandy and Joey locked gazes.
"Oh Shit," they mouthed in unison.