Ch 6
Theresa woke up to knocking on her bedroom door. She looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was 11:32.
"Who is it?"
"Theresa?"
"I'm not awake yet, Ethan. Go away."
"I have coffee." He offered. "And the newspaper."
Theresa assessed her pajamas: a T-shirt with the words La Jolla Beach on it and a pair of boxer shorts.
"Okay, come in."
He held out the mug to her. It was the color of mud. She took a tentative sip. It was sugary. She had drunk coffee this way until she started juggling her job as a paramedic and a mother. She had taken to drinking her coffee stronger, with less cream. But Ethan wouldn't know that, and she realized that she didn't want to spit in his face after making this gesture. "Thanks."
"Sure," Ethan nodded. He put the paper on her bed and stood awkwardly in the middle of her room.
Theresa pointed to the chair by her vanity. "Pull up a seat."
"Thanks," he dragged the chair over and sat down.
"So, what's up?"
"I met Emma." He said.
Panic flashed through her.
"Paloma introduced us all as family friends. Miguel looked like he was going to cry. He and Kay and Sheridan and Sam took Olivia and Thomas and sidewalk chalk to a park. Luis and Hank went for a run and a talk. Paloma's playing Candyland with Alex and Emma and Ethan's putting together a puzzle." He looked at her. "They're amazing, Theresa."
"Thank you. I hear Rosemary's pretty amazing too. Hank is very fond of her," Theresa said. "I hear Mama loves her too."
"She is something special." Ethan said. "But I am a little bit biased."
"I think we all are. Emma and Livvie are the best of friends. So are Alex, Thomas, and Ethan."
"Ethan seems to take rules and order seriously."
"God knows where he gets that." Theresa flashed a quick smile. "He has Thomas to keep him from being too serious."
"What is Thomas like?"
"A well-behaved clown, most of the time. He's addicted to making us laugh."
"Was Antonio like that?"
A smile crossed Theresa's face. "Yeah he was," she nodded. "God I miss him."
"Yeah I know."
She looked at him. "I heard about Gwen. I'm sorry. I hated her but no one deserves to lose their mind."
Ethan nodded. "I know there wasn't love lost between you, but I think you'll agree that she didn't deserve to have Rebecca for a mother. More problems go back to that woman." He shook his head. "Separate talk."
"What is it?"
"She wants me to send Rosie to boarding school." Ethan said. "She's scaring her with that kind of talk. She's four, for heaven's sake. She's not going anywhere."
"I always knew you'd never send your kids away. You'd find a private school that was in the same city and you'd send them there but you'd never send them away, no matter what."
"Well, I guess I just remember the feeling of having no family around. It's not a good one."
"I've never been that far from family." Theresa said. "I wouldn't want to be."
"You've been a country away from them."
"Sheridan, Kay, and Poe are my family too, ya know."
"I don't want to argue. I want to know what your life is like here."
"Nothing special. The kids have their school, Kay has school, Sheridan has the clinic, we all have the club, especially Poe, and I have my job."
"What are your routines?"
"We get up, we eat, depending on what day it is one of us gets the kids to school. Sheridan goes and opens the clinic, Poe opens the club, the kids come home, I go to work and come home. By that time, mainly everyone's asleep, unless Kay has a test she's studying for or Hank's here."
"How often does he visit?"
"He's like driftwood. Some mornings we just wake up and there he is." She laughed.
"That's fun."
"Yeah. So, what are you doing? Tell me you're not still living in the mansion."
"Rosie and I have our own place. It's not much to look at, but Whitney does what she can to make sure we have curtains in the windows and food in the cupboard at the least." He made a nervous gesture. "She's been a good friend to us. It hit her hard--losing you, and then Chad."
"Yeah, Hank told me. Wild, huh? I'm not surprised that Simone joined a convent."
"Eve almost left town. It all came down on Whitney. You know how she idolized her mother. And TC--things were a mess for a while there."
"I can imagine," Theresa nodded. "So how is your mother?"
"She lived to wheel away another day." Ethan shrugged. "She rode Gwen hard, and when my wife snapped...well, no one got really hurt but it finally divided Rebecca and Ivy permanently."
"So the Witches of Eastwick are now enemies. Poor Rosie."
"What?"
"It must be hard for her when her grandmothers hate each other."
"I do what I can to limit her contact with them. The way I see it, they caused half of her mother's problems. When we signed her into the hospital Gwen's father kept saying he should've gotten rid of Rebecca and raised Gwen at home, not sent her away to boarding school." Ethan shrugged. "I'm not going to let them make the same mistakes on Rosie."
"Good for you," Theresa smiled. "Sheridan says she won't ever send Thomas away either. She wants him raised with his cousins not with strangers."
Ethan literally bit his tongue. Theresa noticed his internal struggle. "What?"
"Well, did you ever think about how Chloe and Rosie are going to feel when they grow up and realize they've been left out of the cousin's club?"
Theresa sighed. "Ethan, this is home for us. I won't pack them up and bring them to a strange place just so you feel better. I have a job here. One I like. Face it. We're not the same people anymore."
"We were never the same people, Theresa." He said. "I'm not asking you to come back to Harmony. I just thought it would be nice for cousins to meet each other sometime."
"That would be great. If you can make it happen be my guest. But Kay always said that the thought of going back to Harmony makes her stomach knot up. So she isn't going back anytime soon, no matter what my brother or your father says. As for me, I have no desire to go there."
He shrugs. "In a large degree, your issues are your own. But I know Pilar would like to see her grandchildren."
Theresa looked away. "We called her a few years ago. We asked her to meet us in Kansas for a few weeks without Luis or Miguel or you. She refused."
"I can't believe it." Ethan sat on the edge of the bed, back to Theresa.
"Ask Sheridan if you don't believe me," Theresa paused. "Speaking of Sheridan, there's something you should probably know."
"What?" Ethan asked, nervousness putting an edge in his voice.
"Just, you can't tell Luis, okay?"
"Okay," Ethan nodded, turning to face her. "Theresa?"
"She was hospitalized after Thomas was born. She wasn't too stable even before we got here but it got worse. Finally she just couldn't function and we put her in the hospital. I was named next of kin so I had to sign the papers," Theresa said as she looked down at her hands.
"It's hard to do." He said. "Even when there is no choice."
"There wasn't," she looked up. "But she did get better, thankfully. It took six months of in-patient therapy and another year of out-patient appointments but she did get better."
"Thank you." He said.
"For what?"
"For taking care of her when I couldn't."
"We all take care of each other."
He nodded. "How is Kay?"
"She's good. She's on her way to becoming a great teacher. She's already a terrific mother. Livvie is a great kid."
"What's her personality? Emma seems to be the chief mischief maker, but is Livvie and active or reluctant participant?"
"She's calmer but she does do her share of mischief." Theresa looked to the clock. "Shoot! I have to get ready and go to work."
"You have forty-five minutes."
"Have you ever battled traffic downtown?"
"Uh no."
"Right," Theresa got out of bed. She paused and turned around. "You have to leave now."
He laughed honestly. "Be careful? We still have more talking to do."
"Right. See you later," she shooed him out of her room and closed the door.
HR
"Livvie's a great kid," Miguel said to Kay while they watched Sam play with Olivia and Thomas.
"She's perfect." Kay said wistfully. "I look at her, and that's what I see."
"She doesn't even know who I am."
"Do you want to fight with me?"
"Yes. No. I'm not sure. Half of me wants to kill you, the other half wants to grab hold of you so you don't run away again."
Kay sighed. "I'm too close to my teaching degree to run away again."
"You really want to do that? I thought it was just kid stuff when you used to say that."
"Of course you did. It didn't have anything to do with you so why should I be serious, right?"
"I meant that you used to make me and Reese and Jess play school for hours."
"Right," Kay nodded.
"And then all of a sudden, you were all about softball. It was all you talked about, all you thought about, almost all you did."
"Because I wanted to be around you, dummy."
"But I joined the team because you did." He protested.
"But you talked about it before I joined it," she pointed out.
"Cause Antonio and Luis played." He laughed.
"Oh," Kay said, as she looked back at Olivia. "I think she'll be a tomboy."
"There are worse things." Miguel said agreeably.
"I'm not going back to Harmony and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. The thought of it makes my stomach knot up."
"Who suggested going home? Where your mother and sister and brother are."
"I have sisters here and listening to my mother tell me what a horrible thing I did by taking my daughter away from Harmony before she was even born does not rank high on my list of things I want to do in the near future."
k4writer02: "What about attending your brother's wedding?"
"I'll send a gift like I did with Jess' wedding," Kay said. "I'm not going back to Harmony."
"Livvie would like it there." He said simply. "The beach, the waves."
"There are beaches here."
"The water's dirty, and the Pacific is rougher than the Atlantic."
"You're arguing with me over the quality of beaches as an incentive to pick up my life, my daughter, leave a place I love to go back to a place I hated? You should thank God that you're pretty, because most of the brains in your family went elsewhere."
"Insulting me is not going to change my mind on where you should be. You and Livvie belong back in Harmony with our family."
"What is it with you? Do you see your mother and brother as the only stable family in the world because you're all blood related? I have got news for you Miguel. There are other ways to be family. Blood doesn't make a family, love does. Sheridan, Theresa, Poe, and I are family. We're sisters. It's not about who's related to who by what way. It's about loving each other and being there for one another. That's the way we're family."
"That and all five of the kids share a grandmother, who has never seen three of them."
"Your mother had her chance to see Livvie, Thomas, Emma, Ethan, and Alex. She refused."
"What are you talking about? Mama goes to Mass every day, and lights candles in the windows for all of you to guide you home. Ten candles in the kitchen windowsill--no wonder our house kept burning down."
"There are nine of us."
"She's still praying for Papa."
"Oh. Anyway, what I am talking about is a certain phone call we made to her a couple of years ago. We asked her to meet us in Kansas so she could see the kids. She said no because we didn't want her to tell any of you."
"She never told us." He said slowly.
"I figured," Kay looked back at Livvie. "Excuse me, I'm going to go play with my daughter."
"Hey, Thomas, Livvie, lets use some of that sidewalk chalk." Miguel called to the kids.
"Okay!" the kids ran for the two of them.
Sheridan came back from getting some sodas. She handed one to Kay. "You all right?"
Kay nodded, "Yeah I think so. Pilar never told them that we called her."
"Really?" Sheridan asked, as Sam came up behind them, carrying juice boxes.
"Thanks Dad. Livvie? Thomas? You guys want some juice?"
Livvie looked from the chalk in her hand to the juice box. After a moment of conflict, she shook her head. Following her lead, Thomas also refused.
"Save them for later, I guess," Kay smiled. "Beautiful day."
"Yes it is," Sam agreed. "Sheridan, can I have a moment alone with my daughter?"
"Uh, sure," Sheridan nodded. "I'll go help Miguel."
Kay looked up at her father. "I missed you Dad."
Sam looked at her. She turned away from the sheer pain in his eyes. Had she done that? She had been so tired, so desperate to get away. She thought no one would notice, or care if they had. But her father had noticed after all.
"I missed you too," he said as he looked at Olivia. "I missed a lot. She looks like you."
"She's prettier than I was." Kay said, an automatic thought.
"No, she's not. She's just as pretty as you were, as you still are."
"The difference is she feels pretty."
Sam literally bit his tongue to hold in a sharp retort. "Your mother and I were harder on you than we thought." He admitted. "But you were always one of the lights of our lives."
"I got replaced."
"Stop that." Sam scolded. "So you felt that Charity came in and took over your life. Quit the poor little me act. You've had five years on your own to grow up and past that."
"I did get past that. I got past feeling like I wasn't good enough for mom. I am a mom now. I love my daughter and I will never make her feel the way Mom made me feel. I will never call her evil. She, and any other child who comes along, will always come first. I won't let a niece I've never seen before come between us."
"You know what your problem and Grace's problem was?"
"I always thought it was that I was never good enough, but please, enlighten me." Kay said bitterly.
"Your personalities clashed. You were always a bit edgy. Your mother doesn't understand edges. For her, life should always be nice and everyone should get along over cake and cookies. That life wasn't for you. You threatened her. By the time you were six you were ready to explode. You didn't fit what she expected from a little girl. You were wild. She was always trying to correct it. I didn't help, I know it now, but I never backed her up.
He continued, "You would scare her to death by jumping out of a tree, or getting in a fight at school, and all I could do was laugh sometimes. She always took it seriously. I never could. I saw a lot of Hank in you, and he turned out okay, even if he is a drifter. But I saw my old man try to control him, and I saw how it ripped them apart, so I didn't want that for you and me. I couldn't see that it was happening to you and your mother.
He sighed. "She's usually good with feelings, even if she does keep that innocence glowing a bit brightly. She loves you so much, and was so scared of losing you, that she tried to change you, even when you were a little girl. And because she was trying to change you, you thought she didn't love you. And so you two struggled against each other, and it was love you were feeling, even when you were frustrated and furious." He rested for a minute.
"I know it did you a disservice, but I never thought you didn't know how much we love you." Sam said finally. "I've had a long time to think about what I would say to, about what I did wrong. So has your mother." He finally frowned. "We love you. We miss you. And she would not have supported taking Livvie away from you."
"I believe that you wouldn't have. You and I have always gotten along better then Mom and me. But once Charity showed up she became the one thing mom had always wanted. A daughter who was willing to arrange her life around what God said. I'm never gonna be that way. I don't want to be that way. I finally realized that I'm not the daughter Mom should have had. Charity is."
"Your mother has a lot of issues about her past. She lost her past, and with it herself. She lost a lifetime. Much as you claim to hate Harmony, would you really want to begin your life all over at the age of twenty? Start as a blank slate, with no memories of home or family? Imagine that you couldn't remember me reading to you at night, or fighting with Noah and Jessie in the leaves. Imagine you didn't even know their names. Then out of the sky drops Jess's daughter. You don't remember that you used to fight with her mother, you can't remember anything. You just grab onto that thread." Sam sighed.
Her father continued. "I'm not getting through to you, am I? Please, let me put it in terms you can relate to immediately. You said you love Livvie, that you'll never make her feel the way Grace made you feel. So you love her and guide her and take care of her for eighteen years. And suddenly she spits in you face, calls you names, and runs away. And for five years, you don't know where she is. You don't know if she's safe, if she's lonely or happy, if she misses you. You've had your child for less than five years, but can you imagine tomorrow without her?"
Kay looked at her shoes and then at her father. "I had a reason for those things. I was in love with Miguel and I had been his best friend for my entire life. But suddenly that was thrown aside for a girl that just dropped out of the sky. But did Mom understand that? No. Because she's always had your love. She's always had your support. You are her best friend and you've never dropped her for a complete stranger. You know what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under you. You know what it's like to be left in the dust. I didn't want to hurt you Dad that was the last thing I wanted. But the minute little miss holier than thou showed up I was yesterday's news. To my family and to my friends. You try living with that," Kay finished angrily and then she walked away, leaving her daughter with Sheridan.
Sam clenched his hands. Even though his daughter couldn't hear him, he mumbled. "I don't know what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under me? Who do you think David was? Married twenty years and for all we knew he could have been her husband. What do you think Ivy did to us? And what about this? Luis gets to go a little crazy because Hank's his best friend. Well I'm his brother, and I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet about his lies."
HR
"Okay, enough," Luis said. "We've been running for forty minutes. "We need to talk."
"Wimping out on me?"
"Funny," Luis shot him a look. "My sisters? Sheridan? Kay? Is any of this ringing a bell?"
"They needed help, Luis. They needed a connection to home. They turned to me, and I couldn't turn them away."
"But you could lie to me and to Sam for five years? Five years, Hank. My brother doesn't even know his own daughter."
Hank looked at him, and Luis saw guilt in his eyes. "But they're all alive. Couldn't you see that Harmony was killing them? Suffocating them, choking them. If they hadn't gotten out, Theresa would've been the one to snap, not Gwen. Sheridan would've been in Julian and Alistair's power. Kay would've-- lord knows what she might have done." Hank shut his mouth stubbornly.
"You forgot someone."
"She need to get away most of all."
"Paloma had just gotten home, why would she need to leave so fast?"
"That's not for me to tell. It's for you."
"The least you could've done is gotten Sheridan to call me and let me know that she's okay and that Alistair didn't lock her up in a sanitarium somewhere."
Hank hid his surprise at the accuracy of Luis' remark while his mind drifted.
I"Hello?" Hank said into the phone, groggily. He checked the clock on his nightstand. 1a.m.
"Hank?"
"Theresa? Do you know what- What's wrong?" He asked, suddenly wide-awake as he sat up in bed.
"It's Sheridan."
"What happened?"
"She had a breakdown tonight."
"Is Thomas okay?"
"What?"
"He's fine. She's not."
"I'll be there tomorrow."/i
"Earth to Hank." Luis said sharply. "I was scared to death. I knew losing Antonio hit her hard. I knew she was scared about the baby, and me, and her family. I knew all that, so when she disappeared--" Luis bit his lip. "I did some research on her condition. It's called a fugue. It's a dissociative disorder, where an alternate personality is created. I thought she might've slipped back into with all the stress."
i"Sheridan?"
"Who's Sheridan? My name's Diana. Have you seen Brian?"/I
Hank shook his head. "You need to talk to Sheridan. I'm not the one who has the answers you want."
"You have some answers. You just won't give them to me."
"They're not my answers." He said. "I can only answer for what I did, and that's more than enough for me. I saw the pain I could have helped, and I hated myself for not doing it, but there were...other factors. I know I may have permanently damaged our friendship. I know Sam may never speak to me again, and I know that the rest of Harmony is going to side with you. But the girls needed me. You're allowed to hate it, but can you respect it?"
"I don't know. I don't know how you could know where they were, watch us wonder, watch us worry, and not say anything. My mother-"
"Threw away her chance to see them. And if you don't believe me, ask her. I was in the room when Poe and Theresa called her. She wouldn't see them because of her loyalty to you."
"But her loyalty to them meant she didn't say anything." Luis said bitterly. "Twice cursed for inaction, that's my mother."
Hank nodded. "Look, I understand you're angry. If it was me, I'd be homicidal and I know you probably haven't ruled that out. But I'm still your best friend Luis. I hope you're still mine," Hank finished and then he started to jog back to the apartment.
"Wait." Luis called.
Hank turned to face him.
Luis noted with respect that maybe the time for running had ended, that maybe it was time for all of them to turn and face the consequences. "You did a good job taking care of them."
"Not as good as I would've liked." Hank responded.
"But was it the best you could do?"
"I think so."
"Then, thank you," Luis shook his hand. "We should get back. I wanted to talk to Theresa and Poe."
Hank checked his watch. "You can talk to Poe. But you're gonna have to wait awhile to talk to Theresa."
"She's on duty again?" Luis asked, a grim mix of surprise and anger and maybe respect in his voice.
"She doesn't call off because she worked hard the day before." Hank said. "She takes her responsibilities seriously here."
"Public servant."
"Must run in the family. I think it's called 'a desire to save the world gene'." Hank grinned.
"At least it skipped one of us. The club looked great. Did my baby sister really do it all?"
Hank shrugged one shoulder. "Talk to her about it. The club might be a good way for her to start talking."
"Good idea. C'mon, I'll race ya."
"One, two,- Hey!" Hank shouted as Luis took off running.
HR
"Emma, do you want some juice?" Paloma asked her niece.
Emma looked piquant for a second. "What about fizzy water?" It was the family code for soda.
"You had some last night. Today is a juice day."
"Okay," was Emma's glum response.
Paloma smiled. "Here, have some of your mom's cookies."
A smiled beamed from the little girl as she grabbed three.
"What's the magic word?" Paloma's voice lilted lightly in reprimand.
"Please and thank you Aunt Poe."
"You're welcome. Sit at the table to drink the grape juice."
Emma obeyed and Paloma checked on Ethan and Alex who were in the living room.
They were giggling, but when they noticed her, they stopped. She raised an eyebrow. "What are you boys doing?"
"Nothing," Ethan said in an innocent voice that Paloma didn't buy for a minute.
"Alex?"
Her son looked to his cousin, who shook his head slightly. Alex looked up at his mother. "Nothing." He repeated, in a guilty tone.
"Okay," Paloma nodded. "By the way, tonight, Livvie, Emma, and Thomas will be watching Aladdin while you two clean your rooms."
"We didn't do anything!" Ethan exclaimed indignantly. "Yet." His conscience pricked.
"So, what were you going to do?" Paloma asked.
Alex poked his cousin, who poked back. Neither answered. She was about to begin a serious interrogation, when the door opened and Luis came in.
"Hi Mr. Luis," Alex said.
Luis looked at his sisters' children and recognized an expression he often saw on his own daughter's face. "You do know that they're going to catch whatever you're planning."
Ethan and Alex made faces at him.
"Mama, can I have a snack?" Alex tried.
"What do you want?"
"Goldfish."
"Ethan?"
"Mama's cookies."
"You need to sit with Emma at the table."
"Okay. C'mon Alex," Ethan said as the two boys ran into the kitchen.
Paloma listened and was satisfied that neither of the boys needed any help.
She turned to Luis, "How was your run?"
"Hank said that to get answers, I needed to talk to you."
"Me?"
"And the others. Paloma, we hadn't seen you for years. What was so bad that you had to leave after less than two days at home?"
"My sister was going crazy so I wanted to help her. Getting her the hell away from that house seemed like the best idea."
"And Kay and Sheridan?"
"They were Theresa's idea. She knew leaving them there wouldn't do much for their mental health. Especially Sheridan. How on earth she survived with Julian and Alistair all those years is beyond me."
"To all of us." Luis agreed. "But you're deflecting the question. I'm not sure I really know you anymore, but I do know that isn't that whole reason."
"Luis, can't you just accept that we couldn't be happy in Harmony and that we had to go some place where we could be happy?"
"How did you know that you wouldn't be happy there? I understand the others, but not you."
"I didn't know that I wouldn't be happy there. But Theresa did. I didn't want her to be alone with one baby and another on the way. The day we decided to leave we heard Kay and Miguel out in the hall having an argument. When we talked to her we just knew we couldn't leave her there. Theresa knew the same was true of Sheridan when she talked to her. And honestly, can you tell me you're not a little glad that Ethan wasn't Julian's and that Thomas didn't grow up at the Crane mansion?"
"I'm working on it." Luis said. "Honest. But it's not easy. Intellectually, I might understand why you did the things you did. But in my heart, I still can't."
"Look over there at those pictures. Particularly the ones of Sheridan and Thomas. Look at their smiles. Look at their eyes."
He sighed. "Your club looks good."
"It's our club."
"Right," Luis nodded. "Hey, what time does Theresa get off?"
"She's supposed to get off at eleven but that's only if there's nothing big going on or she doesn't have a last minute call. There's a police radio in my office downstairs."
"Is that legal here?"
"Sure. We got it from a cop. Theresa works at Station 33."
"Where's that?"
"It's at 6406 South Main Street. The South Central part of LA."
"That's a rough area."
"I know." Paloma said. "We all took self defense and carry pepper spray and are very careful."
"Still, she's a-"
"If you say girl, I will deck you."
"Can I say woman?"
"I'll still deck you."
"And to think that your name means pleasant and mild."
She laughed. "How's Chloe?"
"She's good," Luis dug for his wallet. "That's her."
Paloma looked at her and smiled. "She looks like, well, I hate to admit it but, she looks like Beth."
"I like to think she looks like me," he said, a bit stiffly.
"She does." Paloma said. "Is she as stubborn?"
"Yes and no. She can be stubborn about some things."
"Ah. She's like Mama then."
"And you." He said.
"And Theresa." She defended.
"Theresa's stubborn about everything." Luis refuted.
The siblings smiled together briefly. Then, Paloma noticed the silence coming from the kitchen. "They're being too quiet. I think I better check on that."
"Alex is some kid."
"I know." She beamed. "Thanks."
"Is he anything like his father?"
Paloma froze. "They are inothing/i alike, do you understand me?"
Chilled, Luis watched her leave. Maybe his instincts about her marriage were right after all.
HR
Theresa pulled her hair back after she'd changed out of her uniform. She grabbed her bag and headed downstairs. Waving a goodnight to the first watch crew she went down the stairs to the street.
"Theresa!" Toni yelled after her.
"Hey," she turned around. "Thought you left."
"Oh I was talking to some of the guys. Mom wants to know if you're coming this weekend. Mickey's getting married."
"I thought he was still in jail."
"No, that's big Mickey, this is little Mickey. He just became a CPA."
"Fun."
"Anyway, you coming?"
"When?"
"Sunday. You have off right?"
"Yeah. Is there gonna be a fight?"
"There's gonna be beer."
"Okay, I'll come," Theresa laughed.
"Great," Toni grinned and then whistled. "Hello Hunk."
Theresa turned and looked, "No. Not hunk. Brother. My brother."
"Still cute. See ya tomorrow."
"Bye."
"Theresa!" Luis called. She waved.
"What are you doing here?"
"Didn't want you to walk," Luis said.
"I don't. I usually take the train when I don't drive in."
"Well, I borrowed Kay's car," Luis pointed.
"Luis, I do know how to take care of myself you know."
"How's this? I want to interrogate you about our baby sister and my nephews and nieces and your life and how you really are."
"The diner up the block is open all night. You hungry?"
"I'll even buy."
"Good. I'm starving. Tonight was hard."
"Wanna talk?"
"I don't like bringing work home."
"Unless you get it out of you, you do bring it everywhere."
"It was just one call after another. Traffic accidents, drug OD's, chest pains, and my personal favorite, a guy who was up a tree naked, drunk, and singing songs from My Fair Lady."
Luis snorted. "Naked in a tree? Was he a soprano?"
"He had a worse voice then you do."
Luis mock shuddered.
Theresa laughed as she pulled open the door of the diner. "Hi Maddie."
"Hey Theresa," the older woman said. "And who's this?"
"My brother, Luis. Luis this is Maddie Risotti. She's my partner's mother."
"Pleasure to meet you , ma'am," Luis turned on the charm.
"You too. Look at that smile. Is that something all the boys in your family get? Cause your nephews have that too."
"Each and every one of us, ma'am."
"How many of you are there?"
"Now, just five. There were six."
Theresa's face got serious.
"Oh right. Your sister Sheridan's husband," Maddie said to Theresa.
"Right. Oh I told Toni I'd be at the wedding."
"Good. You bring that family of yours. All of them."
"You sure you could handle all of us? Paloma can barely do it in the club."
"The more the merrier. You want the usual?"
"Yes, please. Luis? What do you want?"
"What's your usual?"
"The bacon cheeseburger platter."
"Sounds good to me."
"Coming up. Park it over there," Maddie pointed to a booth.
"Thanks Maddie."
Brother and sister sat down.
"Nice lady."
"Yeah. She's had a rough time though. Her first husband died in the line of duty. He was a cop down the street at the Southwest Community Station. Then her second husband died of cancer."
"That's rough. She work here long?"
"All her life. Toni's grandfather started this place after he got out of the army."
"It seems like a good place." Luis said.
Theresa nodded. "It is."
"Are we ever gonna talk about what we're both thinking about?"
"I can avoid it if you can."
"What do you know about Paloma's husband?"
"Almost nothing. She doesn't talk about him much."
"She almost flipped out when I asked if Alex is at all like him."
"She's done her best to make sure there are no resemblances between Alex and Alejandro."
"So you know his name?"
"Santiago. Alejandro Santiago."
Luis flinched. "Alejandro Santiago, from Cataluna?"
"No, Barcelona."
"When was the last time you took Spanish history? Barcelona is the capital of Cataluna."
"Why does it matter?"
"Because Alejandro Santiago from Seville was not the kind of man I'd want anyone in my family associated with."
"You knew him? Wait, you just said he was from Barcelona."
"Of him." Luis shifted uncomfortably. "He was involved in the family business. Mostly petty stuff, but seven or eight years ago the family got involved in gunrunning."
"In Spain?" Theresa looked doubtful.
"Yes," Luis nodded. "Paloma was married to him?"
"Hold on, we don't know if it was the same guy. We don't know anything."
"Because she won't tell us. She won't tell you, she keeps changing the subject with me."
"Maybe there isn't anything to tell."
"Well, if there is, she must've told someone."
"She did."
"What?" Luis looked shocked.
"Hank."
Realization hit Luis. "He said she needed to get out more than the rest of you. And there were those guys..."
"What guys?"
"Big guys came around asking about her the day you all left. We didn't think about it much. There was enough else to worry about."
"So Poe was married to the mob."
"Not quite the mob, just a disreputable family. A wannabe."
"Close enough," Theresa said. "Oh well. Que serat, sera."
Luis looked down at the table. "I pissed her off."
"Don't worry about it. You do it often enough that she'll forgive you."
"What about you?"
"Will I forgive you?"
"Her. For not telling you about him and the danger if might've put the rest of you in."
"If she thought we were in danger she would've told us. She didn't so we weren't. Nothing to forgive on that front," she said before smiling at Maddie. "This looks great. Pete cooking tonight?"
"You come here too much to be so skinny," Maddie waved a finger at her.
"I lift people into and out of ambulances for a living. I also have two children. You have seven. You know what I'm talking about."
Maddie laughed. "Enjoy your meal." She looked at Luis. "Make sure this one gets taken care of."
"She'll get home safe."
"I always do, whether I have one of Harmony's finest watching me or not."
Luis nodded. "This one likes talking tough," he told Maddie. "Don't know where she got it."
"Yeah right," Theresa rolled her eyes.
Theresa woke up to knocking on her bedroom door. She looked at the clock on her bedside table. It was 11:32.
"Who is it?"
"Theresa?"
"I'm not awake yet, Ethan. Go away."
"I have coffee." He offered. "And the newspaper."
Theresa assessed her pajamas: a T-shirt with the words La Jolla Beach on it and a pair of boxer shorts.
"Okay, come in."
He held out the mug to her. It was the color of mud. She took a tentative sip. It was sugary. She had drunk coffee this way until she started juggling her job as a paramedic and a mother. She had taken to drinking her coffee stronger, with less cream. But Ethan wouldn't know that, and she realized that she didn't want to spit in his face after making this gesture. "Thanks."
"Sure," Ethan nodded. He put the paper on her bed and stood awkwardly in the middle of her room.
Theresa pointed to the chair by her vanity. "Pull up a seat."
"Thanks," he dragged the chair over and sat down.
"So, what's up?"
"I met Emma." He said.
Panic flashed through her.
"Paloma introduced us all as family friends. Miguel looked like he was going to cry. He and Kay and Sheridan and Sam took Olivia and Thomas and sidewalk chalk to a park. Luis and Hank went for a run and a talk. Paloma's playing Candyland with Alex and Emma and Ethan's putting together a puzzle." He looked at her. "They're amazing, Theresa."
"Thank you. I hear Rosemary's pretty amazing too. Hank is very fond of her," Theresa said. "I hear Mama loves her too."
"She is something special." Ethan said. "But I am a little bit biased."
"I think we all are. Emma and Livvie are the best of friends. So are Alex, Thomas, and Ethan."
"Ethan seems to take rules and order seriously."
"God knows where he gets that." Theresa flashed a quick smile. "He has Thomas to keep him from being too serious."
"What is Thomas like?"
"A well-behaved clown, most of the time. He's addicted to making us laugh."
"Was Antonio like that?"
A smile crossed Theresa's face. "Yeah he was," she nodded. "God I miss him."
"Yeah I know."
She looked at him. "I heard about Gwen. I'm sorry. I hated her but no one deserves to lose their mind."
Ethan nodded. "I know there wasn't love lost between you, but I think you'll agree that she didn't deserve to have Rebecca for a mother. More problems go back to that woman." He shook his head. "Separate talk."
"What is it?"
"She wants me to send Rosie to boarding school." Ethan said. "She's scaring her with that kind of talk. She's four, for heaven's sake. She's not going anywhere."
"I always knew you'd never send your kids away. You'd find a private school that was in the same city and you'd send them there but you'd never send them away, no matter what."
"Well, I guess I just remember the feeling of having no family around. It's not a good one."
"I've never been that far from family." Theresa said. "I wouldn't want to be."
"You've been a country away from them."
"Sheridan, Kay, and Poe are my family too, ya know."
"I don't want to argue. I want to know what your life is like here."
"Nothing special. The kids have their school, Kay has school, Sheridan has the clinic, we all have the club, especially Poe, and I have my job."
"What are your routines?"
"We get up, we eat, depending on what day it is one of us gets the kids to school. Sheridan goes and opens the clinic, Poe opens the club, the kids come home, I go to work and come home. By that time, mainly everyone's asleep, unless Kay has a test she's studying for or Hank's here."
"How often does he visit?"
"He's like driftwood. Some mornings we just wake up and there he is." She laughed.
"That's fun."
"Yeah. So, what are you doing? Tell me you're not still living in the mansion."
"Rosie and I have our own place. It's not much to look at, but Whitney does what she can to make sure we have curtains in the windows and food in the cupboard at the least." He made a nervous gesture. "She's been a good friend to us. It hit her hard--losing you, and then Chad."
"Yeah, Hank told me. Wild, huh? I'm not surprised that Simone joined a convent."
"Eve almost left town. It all came down on Whitney. You know how she idolized her mother. And TC--things were a mess for a while there."
"I can imagine," Theresa nodded. "So how is your mother?"
"She lived to wheel away another day." Ethan shrugged. "She rode Gwen hard, and when my wife snapped...well, no one got really hurt but it finally divided Rebecca and Ivy permanently."
"So the Witches of Eastwick are now enemies. Poor Rosie."
"What?"
"It must be hard for her when her grandmothers hate each other."
"I do what I can to limit her contact with them. The way I see it, they caused half of her mother's problems. When we signed her into the hospital Gwen's father kept saying he should've gotten rid of Rebecca and raised Gwen at home, not sent her away to boarding school." Ethan shrugged. "I'm not going to let them make the same mistakes on Rosie."
"Good for you," Theresa smiled. "Sheridan says she won't ever send Thomas away either. She wants him raised with his cousins not with strangers."
Ethan literally bit his tongue. Theresa noticed his internal struggle. "What?"
"Well, did you ever think about how Chloe and Rosie are going to feel when they grow up and realize they've been left out of the cousin's club?"
Theresa sighed. "Ethan, this is home for us. I won't pack them up and bring them to a strange place just so you feel better. I have a job here. One I like. Face it. We're not the same people anymore."
"We were never the same people, Theresa." He said. "I'm not asking you to come back to Harmony. I just thought it would be nice for cousins to meet each other sometime."
"That would be great. If you can make it happen be my guest. But Kay always said that the thought of going back to Harmony makes her stomach knot up. So she isn't going back anytime soon, no matter what my brother or your father says. As for me, I have no desire to go there."
He shrugs. "In a large degree, your issues are your own. But I know Pilar would like to see her grandchildren."
Theresa looked away. "We called her a few years ago. We asked her to meet us in Kansas for a few weeks without Luis or Miguel or you. She refused."
"I can't believe it." Ethan sat on the edge of the bed, back to Theresa.
"Ask Sheridan if you don't believe me," Theresa paused. "Speaking of Sheridan, there's something you should probably know."
"What?" Ethan asked, nervousness putting an edge in his voice.
"Just, you can't tell Luis, okay?"
"Okay," Ethan nodded, turning to face her. "Theresa?"
"She was hospitalized after Thomas was born. She wasn't too stable even before we got here but it got worse. Finally she just couldn't function and we put her in the hospital. I was named next of kin so I had to sign the papers," Theresa said as she looked down at her hands.
"It's hard to do." He said. "Even when there is no choice."
"There wasn't," she looked up. "But she did get better, thankfully. It took six months of in-patient therapy and another year of out-patient appointments but she did get better."
"Thank you." He said.
"For what?"
"For taking care of her when I couldn't."
"We all take care of each other."
He nodded. "How is Kay?"
"She's good. She's on her way to becoming a great teacher. She's already a terrific mother. Livvie is a great kid."
"What's her personality? Emma seems to be the chief mischief maker, but is Livvie and active or reluctant participant?"
"She's calmer but she does do her share of mischief." Theresa looked to the clock. "Shoot! I have to get ready and go to work."
"You have forty-five minutes."
"Have you ever battled traffic downtown?"
"Uh no."
"Right," Theresa got out of bed. She paused and turned around. "You have to leave now."
He laughed honestly. "Be careful? We still have more talking to do."
"Right. See you later," she shooed him out of her room and closed the door.
HR
"Livvie's a great kid," Miguel said to Kay while they watched Sam play with Olivia and Thomas.
"She's perfect." Kay said wistfully. "I look at her, and that's what I see."
"She doesn't even know who I am."
"Do you want to fight with me?"
"Yes. No. I'm not sure. Half of me wants to kill you, the other half wants to grab hold of you so you don't run away again."
Kay sighed. "I'm too close to my teaching degree to run away again."
"You really want to do that? I thought it was just kid stuff when you used to say that."
"Of course you did. It didn't have anything to do with you so why should I be serious, right?"
"I meant that you used to make me and Reese and Jess play school for hours."
"Right," Kay nodded.
"And then all of a sudden, you were all about softball. It was all you talked about, all you thought about, almost all you did."
"Because I wanted to be around you, dummy."
"But I joined the team because you did." He protested.
"But you talked about it before I joined it," she pointed out.
"Cause Antonio and Luis played." He laughed.
"Oh," Kay said, as she looked back at Olivia. "I think she'll be a tomboy."
"There are worse things." Miguel said agreeably.
"I'm not going back to Harmony and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise. The thought of it makes my stomach knot up."
"Who suggested going home? Where your mother and sister and brother are."
"I have sisters here and listening to my mother tell me what a horrible thing I did by taking my daughter away from Harmony before she was even born does not rank high on my list of things I want to do in the near future."
k4writer02: "What about attending your brother's wedding?"
"I'll send a gift like I did with Jess' wedding," Kay said. "I'm not going back to Harmony."
"Livvie would like it there." He said simply. "The beach, the waves."
"There are beaches here."
"The water's dirty, and the Pacific is rougher than the Atlantic."
"You're arguing with me over the quality of beaches as an incentive to pick up my life, my daughter, leave a place I love to go back to a place I hated? You should thank God that you're pretty, because most of the brains in your family went elsewhere."
"Insulting me is not going to change my mind on where you should be. You and Livvie belong back in Harmony with our family."
"What is it with you? Do you see your mother and brother as the only stable family in the world because you're all blood related? I have got news for you Miguel. There are other ways to be family. Blood doesn't make a family, love does. Sheridan, Theresa, Poe, and I are family. We're sisters. It's not about who's related to who by what way. It's about loving each other and being there for one another. That's the way we're family."
"That and all five of the kids share a grandmother, who has never seen three of them."
"Your mother had her chance to see Livvie, Thomas, Emma, Ethan, and Alex. She refused."
"What are you talking about? Mama goes to Mass every day, and lights candles in the windows for all of you to guide you home. Ten candles in the kitchen windowsill--no wonder our house kept burning down."
"There are nine of us."
"She's still praying for Papa."
"Oh. Anyway, what I am talking about is a certain phone call we made to her a couple of years ago. We asked her to meet us in Kansas so she could see the kids. She said no because we didn't want her to tell any of you."
"She never told us." He said slowly.
"I figured," Kay looked back at Livvie. "Excuse me, I'm going to go play with my daughter."
"Hey, Thomas, Livvie, lets use some of that sidewalk chalk." Miguel called to the kids.
"Okay!" the kids ran for the two of them.
Sheridan came back from getting some sodas. She handed one to Kay. "You all right?"
Kay nodded, "Yeah I think so. Pilar never told them that we called her."
"Really?" Sheridan asked, as Sam came up behind them, carrying juice boxes.
"Thanks Dad. Livvie? Thomas? You guys want some juice?"
Livvie looked from the chalk in her hand to the juice box. After a moment of conflict, she shook her head. Following her lead, Thomas also refused.
"Save them for later, I guess," Kay smiled. "Beautiful day."
"Yes it is," Sam agreed. "Sheridan, can I have a moment alone with my daughter?"
"Uh, sure," Sheridan nodded. "I'll go help Miguel."
Kay looked up at her father. "I missed you Dad."
Sam looked at her. She turned away from the sheer pain in his eyes. Had she done that? She had been so tired, so desperate to get away. She thought no one would notice, or care if they had. But her father had noticed after all.
"I missed you too," he said as he looked at Olivia. "I missed a lot. She looks like you."
"She's prettier than I was." Kay said, an automatic thought.
"No, she's not. She's just as pretty as you were, as you still are."
"The difference is she feels pretty."
Sam literally bit his tongue to hold in a sharp retort. "Your mother and I were harder on you than we thought." He admitted. "But you were always one of the lights of our lives."
"I got replaced."
"Stop that." Sam scolded. "So you felt that Charity came in and took over your life. Quit the poor little me act. You've had five years on your own to grow up and past that."
"I did get past that. I got past feeling like I wasn't good enough for mom. I am a mom now. I love my daughter and I will never make her feel the way Mom made me feel. I will never call her evil. She, and any other child who comes along, will always come first. I won't let a niece I've never seen before come between us."
"You know what your problem and Grace's problem was?"
"I always thought it was that I was never good enough, but please, enlighten me." Kay said bitterly.
"Your personalities clashed. You were always a bit edgy. Your mother doesn't understand edges. For her, life should always be nice and everyone should get along over cake and cookies. That life wasn't for you. You threatened her. By the time you were six you were ready to explode. You didn't fit what she expected from a little girl. You were wild. She was always trying to correct it. I didn't help, I know it now, but I never backed her up.
He continued, "You would scare her to death by jumping out of a tree, or getting in a fight at school, and all I could do was laugh sometimes. She always took it seriously. I never could. I saw a lot of Hank in you, and he turned out okay, even if he is a drifter. But I saw my old man try to control him, and I saw how it ripped them apart, so I didn't want that for you and me. I couldn't see that it was happening to you and your mother.
He sighed. "She's usually good with feelings, even if she does keep that innocence glowing a bit brightly. She loves you so much, and was so scared of losing you, that she tried to change you, even when you were a little girl. And because she was trying to change you, you thought she didn't love you. And so you two struggled against each other, and it was love you were feeling, even when you were frustrated and furious." He rested for a minute.
"I know it did you a disservice, but I never thought you didn't know how much we love you." Sam said finally. "I've had a long time to think about what I would say to, about what I did wrong. So has your mother." He finally frowned. "We love you. We miss you. And she would not have supported taking Livvie away from you."
"I believe that you wouldn't have. You and I have always gotten along better then Mom and me. But once Charity showed up she became the one thing mom had always wanted. A daughter who was willing to arrange her life around what God said. I'm never gonna be that way. I don't want to be that way. I finally realized that I'm not the daughter Mom should have had. Charity is."
"Your mother has a lot of issues about her past. She lost her past, and with it herself. She lost a lifetime. Much as you claim to hate Harmony, would you really want to begin your life all over at the age of twenty? Start as a blank slate, with no memories of home or family? Imagine that you couldn't remember me reading to you at night, or fighting with Noah and Jessie in the leaves. Imagine you didn't even know their names. Then out of the sky drops Jess's daughter. You don't remember that you used to fight with her mother, you can't remember anything. You just grab onto that thread." Sam sighed.
Her father continued. "I'm not getting through to you, am I? Please, let me put it in terms you can relate to immediately. You said you love Livvie, that you'll never make her feel the way Grace made you feel. So you love her and guide her and take care of her for eighteen years. And suddenly she spits in you face, calls you names, and runs away. And for five years, you don't know where she is. You don't know if she's safe, if she's lonely or happy, if she misses you. You've had your child for less than five years, but can you imagine tomorrow without her?"
Kay looked at her shoes and then at her father. "I had a reason for those things. I was in love with Miguel and I had been his best friend for my entire life. But suddenly that was thrown aside for a girl that just dropped out of the sky. But did Mom understand that? No. Because she's always had your love. She's always had your support. You are her best friend and you've never dropped her for a complete stranger. You know what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under you. You know what it's like to be left in the dust. I didn't want to hurt you Dad that was the last thing I wanted. But the minute little miss holier than thou showed up I was yesterday's news. To my family and to my friends. You try living with that," Kay finished angrily and then she walked away, leaving her daughter with Sheridan.
Sam clenched his hands. Even though his daughter couldn't hear him, he mumbled. "I don't know what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under me? Who do you think David was? Married twenty years and for all we knew he could have been her husband. What do you think Ivy did to us? And what about this? Luis gets to go a little crazy because Hank's his best friend. Well I'm his brother, and I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet about his lies."
HR
"Okay, enough," Luis said. "We've been running for forty minutes. "We need to talk."
"Wimping out on me?"
"Funny," Luis shot him a look. "My sisters? Sheridan? Kay? Is any of this ringing a bell?"
"They needed help, Luis. They needed a connection to home. They turned to me, and I couldn't turn them away."
"But you could lie to me and to Sam for five years? Five years, Hank. My brother doesn't even know his own daughter."
Hank looked at him, and Luis saw guilt in his eyes. "But they're all alive. Couldn't you see that Harmony was killing them? Suffocating them, choking them. If they hadn't gotten out, Theresa would've been the one to snap, not Gwen. Sheridan would've been in Julian and Alistair's power. Kay would've-- lord knows what she might have done." Hank shut his mouth stubbornly.
"You forgot someone."
"She need to get away most of all."
"Paloma had just gotten home, why would she need to leave so fast?"
"That's not for me to tell. It's for you."
"The least you could've done is gotten Sheridan to call me and let me know that she's okay and that Alistair didn't lock her up in a sanitarium somewhere."
Hank hid his surprise at the accuracy of Luis' remark while his mind drifted.
I"Hello?" Hank said into the phone, groggily. He checked the clock on his nightstand. 1a.m.
"Hank?"
"Theresa? Do you know what- What's wrong?" He asked, suddenly wide-awake as he sat up in bed.
"It's Sheridan."
"What happened?"
"She had a breakdown tonight."
"Is Thomas okay?"
"What?"
"He's fine. She's not."
"I'll be there tomorrow."/i
"Earth to Hank." Luis said sharply. "I was scared to death. I knew losing Antonio hit her hard. I knew she was scared about the baby, and me, and her family. I knew all that, so when she disappeared--" Luis bit his lip. "I did some research on her condition. It's called a fugue. It's a dissociative disorder, where an alternate personality is created. I thought she might've slipped back into with all the stress."
i"Sheridan?"
"Who's Sheridan? My name's Diana. Have you seen Brian?"/I
Hank shook his head. "You need to talk to Sheridan. I'm not the one who has the answers you want."
"You have some answers. You just won't give them to me."
"They're not my answers." He said. "I can only answer for what I did, and that's more than enough for me. I saw the pain I could have helped, and I hated myself for not doing it, but there were...other factors. I know I may have permanently damaged our friendship. I know Sam may never speak to me again, and I know that the rest of Harmony is going to side with you. But the girls needed me. You're allowed to hate it, but can you respect it?"
"I don't know. I don't know how you could know where they were, watch us wonder, watch us worry, and not say anything. My mother-"
"Threw away her chance to see them. And if you don't believe me, ask her. I was in the room when Poe and Theresa called her. She wouldn't see them because of her loyalty to you."
"But her loyalty to them meant she didn't say anything." Luis said bitterly. "Twice cursed for inaction, that's my mother."
Hank nodded. "Look, I understand you're angry. If it was me, I'd be homicidal and I know you probably haven't ruled that out. But I'm still your best friend Luis. I hope you're still mine," Hank finished and then he started to jog back to the apartment.
"Wait." Luis called.
Hank turned to face him.
Luis noted with respect that maybe the time for running had ended, that maybe it was time for all of them to turn and face the consequences. "You did a good job taking care of them."
"Not as good as I would've liked." Hank responded.
"But was it the best you could do?"
"I think so."
"Then, thank you," Luis shook his hand. "We should get back. I wanted to talk to Theresa and Poe."
Hank checked his watch. "You can talk to Poe. But you're gonna have to wait awhile to talk to Theresa."
"She's on duty again?" Luis asked, a grim mix of surprise and anger and maybe respect in his voice.
"She doesn't call off because she worked hard the day before." Hank said. "She takes her responsibilities seriously here."
"Public servant."
"Must run in the family. I think it's called 'a desire to save the world gene'." Hank grinned.
"At least it skipped one of us. The club looked great. Did my baby sister really do it all?"
Hank shrugged one shoulder. "Talk to her about it. The club might be a good way for her to start talking."
"Good idea. C'mon, I'll race ya."
"One, two,- Hey!" Hank shouted as Luis took off running.
HR
"Emma, do you want some juice?" Paloma asked her niece.
Emma looked piquant for a second. "What about fizzy water?" It was the family code for soda.
"You had some last night. Today is a juice day."
"Okay," was Emma's glum response.
Paloma smiled. "Here, have some of your mom's cookies."
A smiled beamed from the little girl as she grabbed three.
"What's the magic word?" Paloma's voice lilted lightly in reprimand.
"Please and thank you Aunt Poe."
"You're welcome. Sit at the table to drink the grape juice."
Emma obeyed and Paloma checked on Ethan and Alex who were in the living room.
They were giggling, but when they noticed her, they stopped. She raised an eyebrow. "What are you boys doing?"
"Nothing," Ethan said in an innocent voice that Paloma didn't buy for a minute.
"Alex?"
Her son looked to his cousin, who shook his head slightly. Alex looked up at his mother. "Nothing." He repeated, in a guilty tone.
"Okay," Paloma nodded. "By the way, tonight, Livvie, Emma, and Thomas will be watching Aladdin while you two clean your rooms."
"We didn't do anything!" Ethan exclaimed indignantly. "Yet." His conscience pricked.
"So, what were you going to do?" Paloma asked.
Alex poked his cousin, who poked back. Neither answered. She was about to begin a serious interrogation, when the door opened and Luis came in.
"Hi Mr. Luis," Alex said.
Luis looked at his sisters' children and recognized an expression he often saw on his own daughter's face. "You do know that they're going to catch whatever you're planning."
Ethan and Alex made faces at him.
"Mama, can I have a snack?" Alex tried.
"What do you want?"
"Goldfish."
"Ethan?"
"Mama's cookies."
"You need to sit with Emma at the table."
"Okay. C'mon Alex," Ethan said as the two boys ran into the kitchen.
Paloma listened and was satisfied that neither of the boys needed any help.
She turned to Luis, "How was your run?"
"Hank said that to get answers, I needed to talk to you."
"Me?"
"And the others. Paloma, we hadn't seen you for years. What was so bad that you had to leave after less than two days at home?"
"My sister was going crazy so I wanted to help her. Getting her the hell away from that house seemed like the best idea."
"And Kay and Sheridan?"
"They were Theresa's idea. She knew leaving them there wouldn't do much for their mental health. Especially Sheridan. How on earth she survived with Julian and Alistair all those years is beyond me."
"To all of us." Luis agreed. "But you're deflecting the question. I'm not sure I really know you anymore, but I do know that isn't that whole reason."
"Luis, can't you just accept that we couldn't be happy in Harmony and that we had to go some place where we could be happy?"
"How did you know that you wouldn't be happy there? I understand the others, but not you."
"I didn't know that I wouldn't be happy there. But Theresa did. I didn't want her to be alone with one baby and another on the way. The day we decided to leave we heard Kay and Miguel out in the hall having an argument. When we talked to her we just knew we couldn't leave her there. Theresa knew the same was true of Sheridan when she talked to her. And honestly, can you tell me you're not a little glad that Ethan wasn't Julian's and that Thomas didn't grow up at the Crane mansion?"
"I'm working on it." Luis said. "Honest. But it's not easy. Intellectually, I might understand why you did the things you did. But in my heart, I still can't."
"Look over there at those pictures. Particularly the ones of Sheridan and Thomas. Look at their smiles. Look at their eyes."
He sighed. "Your club looks good."
"It's our club."
"Right," Luis nodded. "Hey, what time does Theresa get off?"
"She's supposed to get off at eleven but that's only if there's nothing big going on or she doesn't have a last minute call. There's a police radio in my office downstairs."
"Is that legal here?"
"Sure. We got it from a cop. Theresa works at Station 33."
"Where's that?"
"It's at 6406 South Main Street. The South Central part of LA."
"That's a rough area."
"I know." Paloma said. "We all took self defense and carry pepper spray and are very careful."
"Still, she's a-"
"If you say girl, I will deck you."
"Can I say woman?"
"I'll still deck you."
"And to think that your name means pleasant and mild."
She laughed. "How's Chloe?"
"She's good," Luis dug for his wallet. "That's her."
Paloma looked at her and smiled. "She looks like, well, I hate to admit it but, she looks like Beth."
"I like to think she looks like me," he said, a bit stiffly.
"She does." Paloma said. "Is she as stubborn?"
"Yes and no. She can be stubborn about some things."
"Ah. She's like Mama then."
"And you." He said.
"And Theresa." She defended.
"Theresa's stubborn about everything." Luis refuted.
The siblings smiled together briefly. Then, Paloma noticed the silence coming from the kitchen. "They're being too quiet. I think I better check on that."
"Alex is some kid."
"I know." She beamed. "Thanks."
"Is he anything like his father?"
Paloma froze. "They are inothing/i alike, do you understand me?"
Chilled, Luis watched her leave. Maybe his instincts about her marriage were right after all.
HR
Theresa pulled her hair back after she'd changed out of her uniform. She grabbed her bag and headed downstairs. Waving a goodnight to the first watch crew she went down the stairs to the street.
"Theresa!" Toni yelled after her.
"Hey," she turned around. "Thought you left."
"Oh I was talking to some of the guys. Mom wants to know if you're coming this weekend. Mickey's getting married."
"I thought he was still in jail."
"No, that's big Mickey, this is little Mickey. He just became a CPA."
"Fun."
"Anyway, you coming?"
"When?"
"Sunday. You have off right?"
"Yeah. Is there gonna be a fight?"
"There's gonna be beer."
"Okay, I'll come," Theresa laughed.
"Great," Toni grinned and then whistled. "Hello Hunk."
Theresa turned and looked, "No. Not hunk. Brother. My brother."
"Still cute. See ya tomorrow."
"Bye."
"Theresa!" Luis called. She waved.
"What are you doing here?"
"Didn't want you to walk," Luis said.
"I don't. I usually take the train when I don't drive in."
"Well, I borrowed Kay's car," Luis pointed.
"Luis, I do know how to take care of myself you know."
"How's this? I want to interrogate you about our baby sister and my nephews and nieces and your life and how you really are."
"The diner up the block is open all night. You hungry?"
"I'll even buy."
"Good. I'm starving. Tonight was hard."
"Wanna talk?"
"I don't like bringing work home."
"Unless you get it out of you, you do bring it everywhere."
"It was just one call after another. Traffic accidents, drug OD's, chest pains, and my personal favorite, a guy who was up a tree naked, drunk, and singing songs from My Fair Lady."
Luis snorted. "Naked in a tree? Was he a soprano?"
"He had a worse voice then you do."
Luis mock shuddered.
Theresa laughed as she pulled open the door of the diner. "Hi Maddie."
"Hey Theresa," the older woman said. "And who's this?"
"My brother, Luis. Luis this is Maddie Risotti. She's my partner's mother."
"Pleasure to meet you , ma'am," Luis turned on the charm.
"You too. Look at that smile. Is that something all the boys in your family get? Cause your nephews have that too."
"Each and every one of us, ma'am."
"How many of you are there?"
"Now, just five. There were six."
Theresa's face got serious.
"Oh right. Your sister Sheridan's husband," Maddie said to Theresa.
"Right. Oh I told Toni I'd be at the wedding."
"Good. You bring that family of yours. All of them."
"You sure you could handle all of us? Paloma can barely do it in the club."
"The more the merrier. You want the usual?"
"Yes, please. Luis? What do you want?"
"What's your usual?"
"The bacon cheeseburger platter."
"Sounds good to me."
"Coming up. Park it over there," Maddie pointed to a booth.
"Thanks Maddie."
Brother and sister sat down.
"Nice lady."
"Yeah. She's had a rough time though. Her first husband died in the line of duty. He was a cop down the street at the Southwest Community Station. Then her second husband died of cancer."
"That's rough. She work here long?"
"All her life. Toni's grandfather started this place after he got out of the army."
"It seems like a good place." Luis said.
Theresa nodded. "It is."
"Are we ever gonna talk about what we're both thinking about?"
"I can avoid it if you can."
"What do you know about Paloma's husband?"
"Almost nothing. She doesn't talk about him much."
"She almost flipped out when I asked if Alex is at all like him."
"She's done her best to make sure there are no resemblances between Alex and Alejandro."
"So you know his name?"
"Santiago. Alejandro Santiago."
Luis flinched. "Alejandro Santiago, from Cataluna?"
"No, Barcelona."
"When was the last time you took Spanish history? Barcelona is the capital of Cataluna."
"Why does it matter?"
"Because Alejandro Santiago from Seville was not the kind of man I'd want anyone in my family associated with."
"You knew him? Wait, you just said he was from Barcelona."
"Of him." Luis shifted uncomfortably. "He was involved in the family business. Mostly petty stuff, but seven or eight years ago the family got involved in gunrunning."
"In Spain?" Theresa looked doubtful.
"Yes," Luis nodded. "Paloma was married to him?"
"Hold on, we don't know if it was the same guy. We don't know anything."
"Because she won't tell us. She won't tell you, she keeps changing the subject with me."
"Maybe there isn't anything to tell."
"Well, if there is, she must've told someone."
"She did."
"What?" Luis looked shocked.
"Hank."
Realization hit Luis. "He said she needed to get out more than the rest of you. And there were those guys..."
"What guys?"
"Big guys came around asking about her the day you all left. We didn't think about it much. There was enough else to worry about."
"So Poe was married to the mob."
"Not quite the mob, just a disreputable family. A wannabe."
"Close enough," Theresa said. "Oh well. Que serat, sera."
Luis looked down at the table. "I pissed her off."
"Don't worry about it. You do it often enough that she'll forgive you."
"What about you?"
"Will I forgive you?"
"Her. For not telling you about him and the danger if might've put the rest of you in."
"If she thought we were in danger she would've told us. She didn't so we weren't. Nothing to forgive on that front," she said before smiling at Maddie. "This looks great. Pete cooking tonight?"
"You come here too much to be so skinny," Maddie waved a finger at her.
"I lift people into and out of ambulances for a living. I also have two children. You have seven. You know what I'm talking about."
Maddie laughed. "Enjoy your meal." She looked at Luis. "Make sure this one gets taken care of."
"She'll get home safe."
"I always do, whether I have one of Harmony's finest watching me or not."
Luis nodded. "This one likes talking tough," he told Maddie. "Don't know where she got it."
"Yeah right," Theresa rolled her eyes.