CW: Passing mention of suicide, nothing graphic.

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"They're here, they're here," Flora yelled through Owen's apartment. She bounded across the hardwood floors and wrapped her arms around Jamie and Dani both at once. The young girl, now ten, was impossibly taller than she had been two years ago. Her hair was short now and sat just below her shoulders. Time, however, could not take from her a joyful innocence.

Jamie crouched down beside the young girl, "Excuse me, ma'am, but have you seen Flora Wingrave? Dainty little thing, she is. Definitely not this tall young woman wearing a pink dress in front of me." She began to tickle Flora until the girl fell from her feet out of laughter and into Jamie's arms.

Miles stepped out into the entrance way and nodded once at each Jamie and Dani. Twelve now, Miles stood almost at the same height as Dani. He was a bit more sad than Flora appeared at first sight, but he had always been more pensive while Flora was the one to hide her own feelings to brighten up a room.

"Good to see you both," Miles said. His voice squeaked a bit and Dani and Jamie shared a look between the two, trying to control any chuckles they had brimming against the surface. "Can I offer you any tea?"

"Oh, we grabbed coffee on our way here," Dani said.

"Coffee, egh," Flora said, and made a face as she did. Then, she looked over at Dani. "Miss Clayton, what do we call you now?"

Jamie winked at the young girl, "How about Mrs. Taylor?"

"You're married?" Miles asked. It was the first time since Jamie and Dani had entered that they had seen him offer a genuine smile.

Dani playfully hit Jamie's arm, "She's just joking. You can call me Dani."

"You should get married, you know," Flora said. "Your wedding would be perfectly splendid."

At Flora's favorite phrase, Jamie smiled, but Dani felt a sharp pain reverberate through her head. She cried out and buckled over for a moment, hand on her forehead.

"You okay?" Jamie asked. She placed her hand on Dani's back and leaned down a little to get a better view of what was happening.

The pain had subsided so Dani straightened back up and nodded. "I haven't been sleeping well so I'm a bit tired. I'm just sad about Henry and excited to see you two." The kids brushed it off, but Jamie clearly didn't. Her eyes narrowed as she looked Dani's face up and down. "I'm okay," Dani whispered just to Jamie.

"I know what you need," Flora stated. "Owen says, when you're sad, all you need is some hot tea and a generous slice of cake. I'll fetch it for you now. Come along, Miles." She grabbed her brother's hand and led him off into the kitchen.

"What was that?" Jamie asked, taking advantage of the brief privacy.

Dani shook her head, "I don't know. It was only there for a second, and then it went away." What she didn't tell Jamie was that what had been a quiet scratch by the Lady before, suddenly turned into a pounding in that moment. The kind of knock that says 'if you don't let me in, I'll find another way'. "I'm fine now, I promise."

Jamie didn't seem convinced, but before she could continue, Owen popped his head out from a neighboring room and waved the two women down. "There you are. Mind stepping in here for a minute?"

The room in question was a simple study. Bookcases lined the walls. There was one leather armchair in the corner and a desk in front of the window. A strange man sat behind the desk, looking over some papers. Owen stood before him, arms crossed as he stared down at the paper.

"This is Robert Carlisle. He's not the attorney that handled Henry's estate, but he is the one the other firm refers to in Paris. Mr. Carlisle is just about to go through it with us." Owen pointed at the two women beside him. "This is Jamie Taylor and Dani Clayton."

"It's a pleasure," Mr. Carlisle nodded. He was clearly French, though his English was impeccable with only a slight accent hovering over his speech. "Shall we jump right in? It shouldn't take too long and I have another appointment in an hour."

"Sure," Dani shrugged.

Mr. Carlisle pulled his glasses from atop his head and placed them on his face. He picked up the papers, blinked at them for a moment, shuffled a few around, and then placed a handful onto the table. "I won't bore you with the collections and heirlooms and such. The other firm will organize all of that and we will send confirmation of the process to Owen via post. We'll focus on what is relevant. To begin, Mr. Wingrave was struggling a bit financially the past few years. After he and the children went abroad, he eventually stopped drinking, made a few very smart business deals, and nearly doubled what he had prior to his fall."

"He stopped drinking?" Jamie whispered to Owen. Mr. Carlisle looked up over the paper and stared at her as if to tell her to quiet down. "Sorry."

"So, sixty percent of his assets will be split equally between Miles and Flora Wingrave on top of what was already left to them by their parents. The other forty percent will be split equally between the three of you. That leaves a little more than thirteen percent for each of you, but don't be fooled. It is still a large inheritance you are each receiving based on early estimates. The financial supervisor at the other firm is currently organizing the final amounts and their delivery to each of you. You'll receive more information in the post shortly." He went quiet and began to scan the page again.

"Is it meant to be used for anything?" Dani asked. "Like Miles's and Flora's education?"

Mr. Carlisle shook his head. "Mr. Wingrave is very clear. It is yours to do what you wish with. He says you are family to him and the children so it only felt right to honor that. Now, before I leave, there's one more thing." He pointed at Dani. "You are Danielle Clayton, correct?"

"Yes, that's me," Dani said. She was surprised she had been thought of in his will, for only having known Henry for a few months. It felt odd that there would be something else specifically addressed to her.

"Bly Manor has been left in your name," Mr. Carlisle said. Dani paled and she could feel Jamie turning toward her, upset. "Since it was in the family so long it is fully paid and he has set up a bank account dedicated to paying the continued property taxes on it for 25 years, it looks like. There's an odd line in here that I don't have much information on. Mr. Wingrave wrote this in himself. It says, 'I urge you not to sell the manor until you have broken the lock'. The other firm will know more about that. Additionally, he gave his lawyer a letter that was overnighted to me. Apparently, this explains everything." He pulled the letter out of his briefcase, handed it to Dani and then began to pack up.

Jamie turned to Owen, "Did he leave any other letters that anyone could find?" Owen, with a grave face, shook his head no. All three stared down at the letter in Dani's hand with the weight of meaning behind it.

Unaware of the quiet exchange, or simply used to it now and able to tune it out, Mr. Carlisle grabbed the last of his things. "Since I am not with the firm in charge of this will, I am afraid I cannot answer many questions. I have left their phone number on the desk and you can call them with anything else."

"Let me show you out," Owen said and left the room with the older man.

"I don't understand," Dani said as she stared at the letter. "Why would he leave this for me? Why would he leave me Bly?"

Jamie shook her head, her face starting to turn red with anger, "We're going to sell it, first chance we get."

"We can't," Dani said. "Clearly, he had a reason. Everything he did in the last week was methodical. He planned everything down to the last detail."

"I don't like this, Dani," Jamie insisted. "It feels like he just opened the door you've been trying to close and you're letting it happen."

Dani poised herself to respond, but before she could, Flora walked in holding a tray that bore a cup of tea and a piece of vanilla strawberry cake. She stared carefully as she moved to ensure nothing spilled over. "Here you go, Mrs. Taylor," Flora said through a grin. "Just what the doctor ordered."

"Thank you," Dani said. She leaned over to grab the tray from the little girl. "But I told you, I'm not Mrs. Taylor. Just Dani."

"I know," Flora nodded. "But Owen said if we really want something to happen we have to put it into the universe so it knows we want it. Kind of like a Christmas list for Santa Clause."

Jamie laughed, "Owen's been saying a lot of things it sounds like. Should probably go and have a chat with him about that."

"Christmas," Dani whispered to Jamie, her eyes a bit wide with stress.

Jamie remained frustrated about the ownership of Bly Manor throughout the rest of the trip, but after the first day decided to let it be a topic of conversation for when they returned home. It was already stressful enough, the transition from it being just Dani and Jamie to being Dani and Jamie plus Miles and Flora. The first time it felt real for Jamie was when Miles asked Owen if he could stay up late to hang out with the adults and Owen deferred the question to Jamie.

"Oh," Jamie froze. "Dani should be back soon, she can decide." She nodded, feeling good about that answer. Dani had gone out to get some more wine for the three of them only five minutes prior.

Miles groaned, "But that's so long from now. I would have to start getting ready for bed in case she says no, but then what if she says yes and I'm already in my pajamas?"

The whining was getting to Jamie a bit and she rubbed her eyebrows. "Okay, okay, okay, I'll make a decision." She thought for a moment. Really, she thought about how she didn't know how to do this and she pleaded Owen for help. He held up his hands in defense of his neutrality in the situation. "Fine. My decision is, you should sleep."

"Please," Miles begged.

"No," Jamie shook her head. "The time change will be hard on you and I don't want you losing sleep when you don't have to. That's my decision and I'm sticking with it. Now, go brush your teeth. Or whatever."

Miles pouted all the way to the bathroom and shut the door a bit too loud for Jamie's taste. She shouted after him that if he broke Owen's door then he would have to build a new one. Owen laughed.

"You handled that superbly," Owen said.

Jamie looked over her shoulder at the door. "Great, Dani can get back any time now. I could really use some of that wine."

When Dani did return, Jamie immediately retold the story, including many glares Owen's way for his part, and downed her glass. "Seriously, Poppins, you made it look easy."

"Well, I would have probably said he could stay up," Dani said. She took a seat next to Jamie on the couch and watched as Jamie paled. At the sight of her girlfriend's inner panic, Dani laughed and set a hand on her thigh. "I'm kidding. I would have told him no and to get his ass to bed."

Jamie sighed, "Such a comedian, this one. Don't know what I'm going to do with her."

"What's this I hear from Flora about a wedding?" Owen asked.

"This comedian over here," Dani pointed at Jamie, "thought it would be funny to make a 'Mrs. Taylor' joke to Flora and now she can't get it out of her head."

"I thought you should know that she has elected herself the official wedding planner," Owen informed them. "You will each ride in on white horses that are draped in flowers."

Jamie nodded, "Exactly what I was thinking. She's hired."

Dani squirmed in her seat. As much as she loved thinking about a life with Jamie, it was getting harder and harder to see over the scratching and knocking of the Lady in the Lake. It was getting closer, Dani could feel it, the day she would finally come. The scariest part wasn't that she was coming. The scariest part was that Dani now knew, from the moment that she had heard Flora say the words 'perfectly splendid' only a day prior, she wasn't coming for Dani. She was coming for Flora and Dani's refusal to let that happen would result in her own death.
She had woken up in the middle of the night the day before worrying about this very thing. Her mind was full of thoughts that maybe it would be better if she left before anything happened. But, she couldn't bring herself to do that. Leaving even one day before she had to was too much, because as much as she was afraid, she wouldn't give up even one day with Jamie.

"Did you read the letter?" Owen asked. The room had fallen silent for a while and evidently all of their minds had wandered.

"No," Dani shook her head. "I can't get myself to read it. I just don't understand why he wanted me to have it."

Owen set his glass down on his coffee table. "The letter or the manor?"

"Both," Dani said. She pressed her eyebrows together. "Have Flora and Miles talked about what happened?"

"Flora said something a few days ago," Owen nodded. "Something about how every once in a while she misses being tucked away with her mum and how she wished she could be tucked away with Henry for just a moment to say goodbye. Miles reminded her that Henry told them it was all a nightmare and that it wasn't real."

"Is that for the best, though?" Jamie asked. "Letting them forget and move on is one thing. Should we be lying to them about what happened?"

"If it helps them move on and heal," Dani's voice trailed off.

Jamie huffed and shook her head, "I think it does more damage to make them question what they know is real. Children deserve the truth."

"Do you think they should know why I'm going to end up leaving some day?" Dani asked. Her voice was quiet and tight and her eyes locked in on a spot in the carpet. "Do we tell them now or do we just see how much time is left?"

Owen leaned across the table toward them, his eyes darting back and forth between the two. "What are you talking about?"

"The Lady in the Lake," Jamie whispered. "To save Flora, Dani had to invite her in and someday, Bly is going to catch up with her."

"And Henry left you Bly," Owen said, putting the pieces together. Dani nodded and took a large gulp of her wine. "There's got to be a reason he did it."

"Enough about reasons. The man was a drunk," Jamie snapped. "He drove himself into a tree and now he's practically inviting Dani to do the same."

"Excuse me," came a delicate voice from the corner. Flora stood, half peering around the corner. "Can Owen put me to bed?"

He nodded and stood up from the couch, "Sure." He raised his eyebrows in concern as he passed Dani and Jamie.

With the two out of sight, Dani stared at the corner where Flora had stood a moment before. "How much do you think she heard?"

"It's Flora," Jamie said. Her voice sounded exhausted. "We'll probably never know."

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