A Fork Stuck in the Road-Part 2
Author's Note: This story won't be some epic journey, but it'll be a nice little snapshot of this point in their lives. I hope you enjoy it.
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Ressler stood at his breakfast bar drinking the water Liz handed him and looking at Agnes showing Luna around the bucket of toys that they kept at Ressler's place. They had come home about 10 minutes ago and, after some awkward introductions, he had told Liz briefly about Maria. Then he told Liz and his mom all he knew about Luna and the situation that landed them where they were.
Most of his apartment was packed up and he'd been staying with Liz more than anything lately but there was furniture, the beds in his room and what had become Agnes' room were still up, but most of his closets had been packed; most of his kitchen had been packed. It was just supposed to be him and his mom here for a couple of days until they left on their honeymoon with his mom and Agnes in tow to an all-inclusive resort in Aruba. Agnes would stay with her GG and he and Liz would have their own room. Liz wasn't prepared to leave Agnes behind, and he was fine doing whatever they needed to have a nice vacation after the stress of blending their family, buying a home and getting married.
"She's you, 100 percent," Liz smiled at him.
He nodded and took another drink.
"You seem a little shell-shocked," Liz said as she touched his arm.
He swallowed hard and nodded.
"She looks like Kimmy," Georgie Ressler said as she too looked at the little girl stunned.
"I thought that too," he said softly. "And a little bit like Aunt Andrea."
Georgie Ressler nodded. She did look like her sister-in-law a little too. "Through the eyes..."
"Her mom's Italian though, how is she so fair?" Liz asked.
"She was blonde with grey eyes," Ressler said. "Her family was from the North where blonde Italians are common."
Liz and Georgie nodded. His mom had actually met Maria once when she came home with him for Easter. They got along really well and his mom said she was a real person she could actually talk with not some of the other women he'd introduced her to. His mom was sad when he told her they'd ended things when she moved to Pittsburgh.
"And she can't hear a thing?" Georgie asked.
Ressler shook his head. "She seems pretty good at reading lips though. She saw that I said 'shit'."
Liz rubbed his back. "I'm not saying this to be cold, so please don't...you know you need to run a paternity test, right?"
Ressler nodded. "I called the lab while at a stop light. Which...I think she'd supposed to be in a booster like Agnes right? I put her in Agnes' seat."
"Yeah, until she's a certain height and weight you need to put her in a booster—good call babe," Liz patted his back.
"I can't believe Maria didn't tell you," Georgie whispered.
Liz and Ressler exchanged a look; she hadn't told Tom about Agnes.
"To be fair, you aren't a psychopath," Liz said to him.
He nodded and his mother looked between the two of them strangely.
"Hon, there are so many questions, my head is spinning..." Liz said softly. "But I think we should cancel the wedding and postpone..."
"No," he said quickly. "We've been talking about this for how long? No, everything is booked, and you said it yourself, we just need to show..."
"Don, think," Liz said as she looked toward Luna. "Her mom has just died, she's living with a stranger who is her father, who she's never met...we're going to take her to a happy event? With music and dancing and...it's not right. It's not."
He deflated in front of her. She was right; he hadn't thought about the mood of the day and a child grieving.
"Babe, I'm just saying, she's a child who has lost her mom..." Liz said as she leaned forward and placed her hand over his heart. "We can still get married, something quiet, just us...but the reception? It's not fair to her and the entire night we'll..."
He nodded and swallowed hard.
"I'll call everyone and...should I explain?" Georgie asked, unsure.
Liz and Ressler exchanged a look. How did you explain this?
"How about a family emergency came up?" Georgie asked.
Liz and Ressler nodded.
"But the chapel?" Georgie asked.
"Let's see if he can do it one day during the week next week, give us a few days to get Luna settled and..." Liz said to Ressler's mom. "Thanks for doing this, Georgie."
His mom nodded, picked up the laptop with all the guest info on it, grabbed his cordless phone and went to the bedroom.
"She and Agnes seem like old friends," Liz chuckled as she watched her daughter navigate sharing her toys with Luna. Agnes didn't seem to comprehend that Luna couldn't hear and Luna seemed to be understanding based on gestures.
"Jesus Christ, Liz," he sighed again.
She pulled him in for a hug and rocked him side to side slightly.
"Babe, we'll figure this out," Liz said. "She looks well-cared for and..."
"I don't doubt that Maria loved and cared for her, I'm just not sure how in 5 years and nine months she never got around to telling me. And I know this is different from Tom so let's just understand that," he said as they pulled back. "We were really happy as a couple, it didn't end on bad terms, we just kinda fell out of touch. I had a great job, I was upstanding, I was a good person...why would you keep a child from me?"
"Ressler, you said it yourself," Liz said as she looked up at him. "Maria had no one else but her grandma, and then this being comes along that she can have...maybe it was a choice? Maybe it was...planned?"
Ressler looked at her surprised.
"She moved away when she was 2-3 months pregnant? Did she...I don't need the details, but did she say she was on the pill but she maybe wasn't? All I'm saying is that it wouldn't be the first time a woman wanted a child and wasn't forthcoming telling the man he was now a father."
"I really can't see her doing that," he said honestly. "Maria was very...tell it like it is. But, then again, I would have thought she would have told me about a daughter I helped conceive..."
Liz sighed and nodded.
"We went away to Croatia on vacation in July, when, if my math is correct, Luna was conceived," Ressler said as he massaged the back of his neck. "We weren't 100% protected..."
"What do you mean?" Liz asked, her face confused. Ressler said that he had always practiced safe sex but, when in a longer relationship with no worries of STDs he didn't always.
"They only sell condoms in 3 packs there," he said, his face and neck reddening. "Had I known, I would have brought more but...anyways, we ran out a few times and..."
Liz smirked. She knew Ressler had a high libido and she knew that, if she wasn't on birth control, the likelihood that she would have been pregnant would have been pretty high. They had stopped using condoms a few months into their relationship.
"So, it was probably truly an accident," Liz said as she rubbed up and down his arm.
"Yeah, but not telling me wasn't," Ressler sighed as he watched the girls playing with barbies. "And the name Luna..."
"Moon, right?" Liz asked.
He nodded and cleared his throat.
"You can remember a specific...act?" Liz teased.
"One night," he said, trying to not look too happy with the memory as he spoke about it to his almost-wife. "There was a moon the size of...it was huge and we were particularly amorous..."
He clearly remembered that night and had, shamelessly, revisited it in some fantasies over the years when he had been without a partner. They had rented a sailboat for 2 nights and Maria had promised him she could sail enough to not capsize them. She had proven herself to be quite astute. They had spent most of those two days sailing around islands, skinny dipping, making love, eating fruit and cheese, and drinking delicious wine. He didn't remember using many condoms on the sailboat; they'd been together for over seven months and they'd both agreed it wasn't necessary always. And the last night on the boat, the moon was huge and white and looked like it was bigger than any moon he'd ever seen. They had slept on the deck that night talking, making love, laughing, and having deep discussions until the sun came up. It was a great night; a night that made him think he and Maria had a future, and he'd started to really think about talking about that with her. Then three weeks later, her grandma was rushed to the hospital because of a fall, and she was frantic and telling him she needed to move back home.
"No, her move back to Pittsburgh wasn't calculated," he said with a shake of his head. "She was upset about her grandma; she needed shoulder surgery. I helped her pack and move and then her grandma took a turn for the worst and required more care...and we spoke less...then you and Reddington arrived, and my life got busy."
"Well, she obviously thought that was the night because she named Luna after it, which is sorta sweet and romantic" Liz smiled at him. "Ressler, I know you want to find out the 'why' but maybe that will come in time, or maybe that'll never come...my point is, I think we need to help Luna and help her get to know us so she can be part of our family."
He looked at her and shook his head in amazement.
"I've literally dropped a child, who is also deaf, into our mix in the last couple of hours and you are just...sure?" he chuckled.
"She's yours," Liz said as she wrapped both arms around his waist. "I knew you needed to be replicated; I just thought I was the one who was going to do it."
He chuckled and kissed the side of her face. "I think we still need to consider that, but maybe once we figure out this."
"Fair," Liz chuckled with him.
"I think right now I need to learn sign language pretty fast," he sighed. "The paternity test is tomorrow and..."
His cell phone started to ring, and he picked it up.
"Ressler," he said as he stepped into the kitchen.
Liz watched Agnes and Luna playing and saw they were sweet together; they didn't need language to play. She hadn't been 100% honest with him about not being floored by this; she was. But he was so shocked she couldn't add to the mix. They had come together as a great little family over the last year, and she was a little worried that a five-year old whose mother had died and was essentially a stranger, would do to their happy little family unit. They were already cancelling their wedding (as they should) and likely their trip to Aruba. Ressler would be tied up for weeks with sign language lessons, lawyers, social work, going to Pittsburgh to deal with their apartment...and the house was closing in 3 weeks. A house they bought with the intention of renovating, mostly on their own, that may not see those renovations happen anytime soon. It was a lot. But paternity test or not, Luna was his and just as he had become a father to Agnes even though she was Tom's, Liz would become a mother to Luna even though she was Maria's. Nothing was ever straight-forward with her and Ressler—why should this be any different?
Liz walked over to the girls playing and smiled at them. When she saw Luna look at her she carefully enunciated her words so Luna hopefully got them.
"Would you to like spaghetti and meatballs for dinner?" Liz asked them.
Agnes cheered and then looked toward Luna for her approval.
Luna nodded and gave Liz a small smile; her first since arriving.
"Perfect, I'll see what daddy has or maybe I'll just order some," Liz smiled at them as they turned back to playing with their barbies. Agnes was narrating the entire storyline and Luna seemed to be going along with it. Where Agnes appeared big for her age, Luna looked delicate and smaller. They were probably close in clothing size. Liz threw on some water for the pasta and turned on the oven to pre-heat for some frozen meatballs he had while she half listened to Ressler's conversation with, what appeared to be, Maria's lawyer.
She walked back to Luna and her mom's bags and took them into Ressler's spare bedroom, the one they affectionately called Agnes' room. It had workout equipment pushed against the wall and a single bed with a bunch of glow in the dark stars over it and a little white dresser. It was a cute make-shift bedroom when they stayed at his place. It was going to be Luna's for a few weeks. She opened the first bag and realized it was Maria's. There was a bathing suit, some pants and tops, make-up and a hairbrush. Nothing besides the Outlander novel that told Liz much about the woman except that she liked casual clothes. Then she opened Luna's bag and found pajamas with cats all over them, children's books, medication, a giraffe stuffy, a couple of colouring books and crayons, a zebra print bathing suit, and a few clothes. She opened the truck bag that looked like it was falling apart and found some old jeans, a t-shirt and a raggedy dog stuffy. It all looked like it had seen better days compared to the clothes in Luna's bag from the hotel.
Liz started to take the clothes out of Luna's bag and put them in the dresser; removing Agnes' things and throwing them into a pile on the floor as she did. Luckily, they didn't keep much for Agnes here. She placed the books on the top of the dresser, the stuffy on the bed, and the colouring books next to the dresser on the floor. Ressler walked into the room, surprised.
"Oh, thanks," he said as he looked around at the empty bag and the new things on the dresser.
"She will be here with you for a few weeks so..."
He looked at her confused for a moment.
"Ressler, we can't all stay here," Liz smiled at him. "You have your mom and Luna and there's no room for me and Agnes."
"Oh, I hadn't thought that I'd be..." he said, suddenly realizing that they were not all staying together at his place or hers. It made sense, both were small and would not house 3 adults and 2 children.
"It'll be fine," Liz said standing and taking his hands. "Your mom will help for a few days and then we'll..."
"The trip," he said, suddenly realizing.
"I'll get them to credit us," Liz smiled at him. "Maybe we can go on a nice vacation in the fall as a family."
He sighed. "I'm so sorry Liz...the wedding, the honeymoon..."
"Hey, it's all good," Liz smiled at him. "We'll go, just later, okay?"
He nodded. "I know I've told you I love you, but shit Liz, I love you."
She smiled widely and chuckled.
"You better, because you are marrying me," she kissed him. "What did the lawyer say?"
"He's sending me some couriered documents first thing tomorrow morning," Ressler said. "He said Maria had me as Luna's guardian since birth and that I was listed on her birth certificate as her father. He said Maria left some clear and specific instructions and that I needed to come to Pittsburgh once I had a chance to look at everything."
"Interesting," Liz said. "He couldn't be more specific?"
Ressler shook his head.
"Okay, well, the water's boiling and the oven's beeping," Liz said as she whacked his butt. "Help me get dinner together for everyone. And you mom should take a break from the calls to eat."
He leaned in and kissed her; what would he do without Liz?
To be continued...
Let me know what you think!