In the living room, Mary and Wilson finally begin to pull it together.
"Feel better now?" She asks him.
"Sort of, not really."
"If you don't want to admit it, fine." Mary says with a smile.
"Come here." He tells Mary, pulling her onto his lap. "You know, you're the only woman I could cry with."
"Good to know."
Wilson rubs his eyes with the back of his hand, still embarrassed from weeping on Mary's shoulder. Mary smiles, and pulls a tissue out of her pocket.
"Let me do that for you."
Mary wipes Wilson's eyes, but he touches her hand, stopping her. He slowly pulls her hand from her face, and sets it down at her side, the whole time staring into Mary's hazel eyes. His kisses her lips lightly, barely touching them. Mary wants more. She attempts to escalate the kiss to the next level, but Wilson doesn't let her, still teasing her. "He's back." Mary thinks to herself as she pulls away from his tender lips. Mary stares into Wilson's eyes, trying to find out if he is really ok now, or at least for the moment. She isn't really sure what she is looking for, but is satisfied with what she sees.
She slides off of Wilson's lap, and sits back down on the couch. Mary looks over Wilson's shoulder, and sees both of her parents staring at them.
"You were watching us?!" Mary screams, hurt that her parents would betray her like this.
"Um…yes." Eric admits.
"For how long?"
"Long enough. Wilson, what's wrong?"
"No! Don't think that just because you're going to help us now that means it was okay to stand there and watch me with my boyfriend!" Mary yells.
"Well, Ruthie came into the kitchen and said that you both were crying in the living room, so we came in here." Annie says.
"You've been watching us for that long?!"
"Yes, it was wrong. We're sorry."
Mary still wants to protest, but gives up. She figures there's no use in it. And besides, if she wanted them to help her, she can't scream at them anymore.
"So do you want to talk now? We're here for you, both of you, whatever it is."
Mary looks over to Wilson, and he nods. "OK."
Reverend and Mrs. Camden walk into the living room, and close the sliding doors behind them. They sit down on the couch opposite Mary and Wilson.
"Ok, so what's up?" Eric starts.
"Well, me first." Mary starts. "I've kind of kept something from you- something you should know."
"Ok…" Eric says, still convinced that Mary is pregnant. Mary grabs Wilson's hand quickly, which worries Eric even more.
"Wilson and I…"
"Oh gosh," Eric thinks as she pauses, "this is it. The end of her life."
"…are kind of, well not kind of, we are, l-living together in Ft. Lauderdale."
Wilson couldn't help but smile as Mary told her parents. She looked so cute as she floundered in front of the two of them. As he does this, Eric lets out a huge sigh.
"That's a relief. Well, it could be worse."
"I think that's fine. You're an adult now Mary, and you have to make your own decisions. We can't forbid you from living with Wilson, and frankly you're 21 now so I wouldn't. We raised you right, and if you were to move in with anyone we would pick Wilson indefinitely."
"W-we're OK with this?" Eric asks Annie.
"Yes Eric, we are."
Mary was actually sort of happy her parents were watching her before. Her mother felt she had to go on her "we respect your freedom" trip after that. Mary had no intentions of telling them that they slept in the same bed every night. Her father is still recovering from heart surgery, she didn't want to be responsible for shocking him into having another heart attack. Although, as awful as that would be, Mary finds humor in it. She smirks to herself as she pictures it.
"But, um, that wasn't the important thing. We have something else to tell you." She turns to Wilson. "Do you want to tell them or should I?" she asks him, lowering the volume of her voice.
"I'll start. I don't think you want to explain to your parents about after our breakup." Wilson whispers into Mary ear.
"Its kind of a long story. I'm going to start from the beginning," as he commences with his story, Wilson tightens his grip on Mary's hand. She can feel him shaking. He is obviously nervous, not to mention more emotionally unstable than he has ever been in his life.
"It all started when…"
"Yes?"
Mary goes upstairs into her room, and lies back on her bed. She knew that Wilson was downstairs, practically right beneath her at the very moment, and that was killing her. She desperately wanted to be with him- to tell him how proud she was of him, how much she loved him, and remind him that everything would be all right. Nothing could go wrong now; she just knew that in the bottom of her heart. She listens very carefully, and can faintly hear the shower still running. She figured he'd be in there for a couple more minutes, and as soon as she heard the shower stop she'd run down and wait at the door until he got out.
Her predictions were wrong, tough, because as soon as she figured out her plan, the shower stopped. She ran down the stairs, almost bowling Ruthie over and running straight between Kevin and Lucy en route to the bathroom.
She gets to the door, and knocks lightly.
He had a feeling it was her. "Mare?" Wilson asks through the door.
"Yup."
"One second."
Wilson wraps a towel around himself, and then opens the door. Mary walks inside and closes the door behind her.
"Is it all right for you to be in here?"
"Probably not, but I'm willing to take the risk- just because its you."
"I'm honored."
"Listen, I have an idea."
"Uh oh."
"You haven't even heard it yet!"
"Sorry, reflex."
Mary rolls her eyes at him. "I was thinking, after you get dressed," she says tracing the outline of his muscles on his chest with her index finger, "remember when we fell asleep in my bed the first time we got back together?"
"How could I forget that? Best five minute nap in my life."
"Well maybe we could, uh, recreate that," she says raising an eyebrow.
"What do you have in mind?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, don't you trust me?"
"To some extent."
"You know, you're being pretty mean to be considering I spent the whole day helping you."
"I'm sorry. Let me make that up to you." He leans down and kisses Mary, pulls back slightly, and then goes in for another kiss. Mary cuts the second one short.
"Now go get dressed."
"I never thought I'd hear you tell me to put clothes on."
Mary opens the door, and starts to walk out. Before she leaves, she turns around, insisting on having the last word. "Just for that, you owe me another kiss."
Mary walks out of the bathroom and upstairs to change into her pajamas. She pulls them out of the drawer, when Kevin appears at the door.
Mary looks around the room. "Uh…Lucy isn't up here."
"I know."
"So then why are you here?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"Me?"
Kevin nods.
"Ok." She says apprehensively. From hearing all of Ruthie's storied about Kevin, she is kind of scared of him.
She sits down on Ruthie's bed and Kevin sits across from her on Lucy's.
"I think there's something you should know. Well, actually, this is confidential information, but you're part of this family, and I want to be part of this family, so I have an obligation to look out for you."
"What are you talking about?"
"When they called me into work today, I looked up some stuff on this Wilson guy."
"Now why would you do something like that? And isn't that not allowed?"
Kevin doesn't answer her question, but asks one of his own. "Do you know what happened to Wilson this summer?"
"Yes, Wilson tells me anything. And personally, I don't think his life is any of your business."
"And you don't have a problem with this?"
"Why would I?"
"Are you sure you know what happened?"
"Yes, but Wilson is expecting me downstairs so if you'd just cut to the chase and tell me why you hate him it would save us both a lot of time."
"Its Wilson West, correct?"
"Yes."
"And his son is Wilson West Jr.?"
The fact that he knew that worried Mary. Nobody calls Billy Wilson, or even knows that his real name is Wilson Jr. "Do you have a point?"
"Mary, you're not listening to me. What I'm trying to say is that Wilson was arrested for child abuse in June. He beat Billy. He spent three months in jail and the state took his son away from him."
"What? You're lying to me!"
"No, I'm not." He says sounding sympathetic, at least for him anyways.
"Yes you are! You obviously know nothing about Wilson!"
"No, you're the one who doesn't know anything about him. "
"Why would you even make something like that up? There's something really wrong with your head Kevin."
"Fine, don't believe me. But if he hurts you don't blame me."
Mary thinks for a second. "Are you sure of all of this?"
"Yes. And if I were you, I'd be careful around him."
Kevin gets up off of the bed and leaves the room, his words lingering in the empty four walls. Mary falls back onto the bed, wishing she had someone to turn to in her moment of self-crisis, or moreover self-doubt.