Chapter 5

Revised chapter 5, instead of Juvy it's now Evian. See how a few words can fix that?! Amazing.

Disclaim

Kay smiled; her father always had this way of making her feel at peace, "Well, Shy and I have been well, not living, per say, more like. . . um, it's sort of complicated."

"Honey, you can trust me with anything." Sam said reassuringly.

"I've been living with Sheridan and Gwen." Kay breathed out.

"What?" Sam and Kay turned, "You've been living with Sheridan and Gwen?"

Kay cringed, this was not good, she turned and faced her half-brother, "Hi Ethan."

"Kay it's been six years. No letters, cards, no notes, nothing. I was crazy with worry and all you can say is 'hi Ethan'?"

"You look good. Congrats on your marriage and isn't Theresa pregnant again?" Kay attempted civil conversation, but she could see that Ethan wasn't going to go with it.

"Kay, when I walked up you told dad that you'd been living with Gwen and Sheridan. Is that true?" Ethan demanded.

"Why? Do you feel bad about dumping Gwen at the alter and then marrying Theresa weeks later?" Kay asked innocently.

"That's not fair and you know it. Did you really expect me to allow Theresa to raise MY son in the Crane mansion, alone?" Ethan argued.

"Mommy I'm bored." Shy's quiet voice startled Ethan and his jaw dropped as he saw the tiny girl at the table with Kay and Sam.

"Who is that?" He asked with disbelief.

"Shylah, my daughter." Kay said simply.

"Shy, do you want to go with your grandpa? I want to buy you something. If it's ok with your mommy?" Sam looked at Kay.

"No problems here. Why don't you go with grandpa Shy? Ok?" Shy nodded and hopped of her chair.

"Bye strange man." She waved.

Ethan waved in silence as Shy and Sam walked out of the Book Café hand in hand. He was still in shock as he sat down and processed the information he'd just received, "How, how old is Shylah?"

"She'll be 7 in May." Kay sipped her coffee silently while the news sunk in.

"You left town pregnant. Why would you do that? Why not come to me? Or at least dad! He's been worried sick about you for years. He put so much time and effort in to finding you that Grace left him for David." Ethan chuckled, "And that worked so well."

"What do you mean?" Kay asked, her interest peaked at the thought of her mother unhappy.

"David doesn't love her. He's only with her because of Joy. He's been seeing someone on the side for about two years." Kay spit her drink out.

"WHAT?!" Everyone in Book Café turned to her, "Back to your business people." Kay lowered her voice, "What? Are you serious? Who?"

"I have a little guess but I don't know." Ethan said as he wiped the coffee off of his suit.

"Is it your mother? That'd be classic. Though she's probably following dad around like a dog to a steak." Kay mused.

"Oddly enough she's been single. Something between Dad leaving Grace and Grace and David being together she's left him alone." Ethan sighed, "I thought for awhile it was Eve, but she just got married to Julian."

Kay's jaw dropped, "You're joking! No, Dr. Russell is far too good to cheat on TC and then leave him for a Crane. She wouldn't do something like that."

"Apparently Eve told TC something about her past and he left her. He tried to kill Julian and then he disappeared. It was really weird too, Julian and Eve were in love years ago or something and they had a son together. They thought he was dead or something. I dunno, but TC hasn't been seen in a few years." Ethan said in a quiet undertone, "You know how the Cranes are. He's probably buried in the rose garden on the estate or something."

"Amazing. So, Dr. Eve is married and Ivy and David are having an affair. What about Dad?" Kay asked.

"What about him?"

"Where does he fit in all this? I know TC was his best friend and he never trusted David."

"Dad doesn't care anymore." Ethan shrugged his shoulders.

"Doesn't care? What has he been doing that he doesn't care?" Kay wondered.

"More like who." Ethan said.

"EW. EW. I did not need to hear that Ethan. EW. What are you talking about?" Kay cringed.

"He's got a secret girlfriend. They've been seeing each other for a few months and I just found out about it a few days ago." Ethan said with a self-satisfying smirk.

"Who?" Kay leaned in.

"NO idea." Ethan whispered.

Kay backed up and glared at him, "What do you mean you have no idea? Don't you do any digging? Sheesh Ethan."

"This is digging. I've been getting all the goods on people. My wife is amazing at picking up information." Ethan smiled.

"Oh, wife. Totally forgot, congrats. Theresa's a little nuts but I heard she's gotten better." Kay motioned for the waitress to bring her more coffee since hers was on Ethan.

"She has. She doesn't lie, no more cheating, she loves her job and we have a wonderful son and a baby on the way. You know Junior is about the same age as Shylah, they could play together." Ethan smiled and backed up a little when Kay's cup was refilled.

"Wow, two kids. What does she do?" Kay asked, ignoring Ethan's attempt to turn the conversation back to her.

"Fashion design. Mostly wedding stuff. What a minute! You've been spending this entire time talking about everything but you! Why don't you tell me what I walked in on with you and dad?" Ethan demanded.

"Oh, that. What did you hear?" Kay asked. "You know what I heard. Now, tell me the truth." "Yeah, been living with them. Far away from Harmony and anyone that could hurt our children." Kay said defiantly.

"Children? Gwen was pregnant when she left town too!?" Ethan asked scared.

"Keep your pants on. No, Sheridan. Sheesh. Calm down. Mika is Sheridan's daughter." Kay explained.

"Oh lord. I almost had a heart attack. Wow, so Sheridan has a daughter too. This is big news." Ethan was breathing normally.

"Yeah. I actually have to get going. I promised them I'd be back with dinner." Kay grabbed her purse and threw a few bills on the table.

"Kay, wait." Ethan asked.

"Yes?" Kay stopped and turned.

"They're here? In Harmony?" Ethan asked.

"Who?"

"Sheridan, Mika and Gwen."

Kay debated and realized he'd know soon enough, "Yes. But please just leave Gwen alone." Kay pleaded.

"I will if that's what she wants, but I still want to see Sheridan and meet Mika." Ethan said.

"I'll tell her to call you, ok?" Ethan nodded, "Bye."

Kay left feeling very happy about all the things she'd found out from her little meeting with Ethan. She spotted her dad and Shy sitting on a bench with hot chocolate and Shy had a big stuffed bear in her arms. Smiling she watched as Sam helped Shy drink her hot chocolate and keep her bear clean too.

"Kay?" She turned around and faced Gwen.

"Hey!" She hugged her and saw the look of sadness that passed on her face as she looked at Shylah and Sam, "You want to talk?"

Gwen nodded, "Will Shy be ok?"

"Oh, yeah. Dad's having a ball with her. Come on, let's sit over here." Kay brought her to a bench where they still had a good look at Sam and Shylah and could talk with out being disturbed, "Now, what's wrong?"

"It's just hard for me to be back, you know?" Kay nodded at her motioning to continue, "Well I haven't really seen anyone that I know and I sort of realized that there is no one here that cars if I return or not. I mean my mother is well, for lack of a better word, gone and Ethan is someone I don't want to be in contact with, my friends from my old life aren't people I want to see again. The only other person is my father and he came to visit us anyway. I've got nothing to bring me here or keep me."

"You've got us." Kay said simply.

"Yeah, I guess I do." Gwen said smiling. They hugged and Gwen wiped the tears off of her face, "Thanks."

"Always. Now, I'm going to see if my dad wants to have dinner with us, ok?" Gwen nodded.

~*~

Sheridan hummed a little as she began putting things away in her drawers, she was glad she's had the cottage remodeled when she'd almost married Luis. There were more rooms now so everyone wouldn't be stuck in the living room and the floor. Mika was watching TV and coloring quietly, which in its self was odd. "Mike?" She called.

Mika walked into her room a moment later looking like that cat that ate the canary. "Yes mommy?"

"What were you doing sweetie?" Sheridan asked.

"Nothing." Mika smiled innocently.

"Fess up missy. I know you were up to something, what were you doing?" Sheridan asked.

"I just wanted to see the picture. I didn't mean to hurt it!" Mika looked terrified.

"Sweetie, what picture?" Sheridan kneeled down and Mika ran out of the room, Sheridan followed and saw a broken frame face down on the floor.

"I'm sorry mommy." Mika looked like she was going to start sobbing.

"That's ok sweetie, it was just a mistake. No one got hurt." Sheridan turned over the frame and saw the picture she was looking at earlier, her and Luis.

"Is that my daddy?" Mika asked.

"Yeah sweetie, it is." Sheridan said sadly. Before she could say anything else, the phone rang. "I don't remember plugging that in." She said to herself. She picked it up cautiously, "Hello?"

"Sheridan my dear, it's been too long." Alistair's voice boomed over the line.

"Father." She said coldly.

"Now is that anyway to treat me?" Alistair asked.

"Yes. What do you want?" She asked, hoping he'd get to the point soon.

"I've seen Mika, she's beautiful, even if she is part Lopez-Fitzgerald. I'm having a party to celebrate your return. It will be in three days and I'd like all 5 of you there. Yes, I'm including the children. I expect you to be there." He hung up without so much as a goodbye and Sheridan felt her heart sink. And her entire body went cold. Well, she was strong she'd show up and show her father just how strong she really was.

~*~

Fox walked upstairs with a black cloud hanging over his head.

Paloma sighed and followed him up to their bedroom, she thought about the conversation they had earlier. When they'd started dating her mother had been furious, she practically threatened to disown her. While the Cranes had made similar threats, they didn't bother taking away his inheritance because they had no one else to give it to. They decided instead to send him away, forcing him to attend Ivy League schools and threatening to do something to her if he didn't graduate. He did, with flying colors. Turns out all he needed was incentive to do what he needed to do. Alistair laughed when he retuned and told him that she was never in danger. It was sick what this family would do to keep their children in line. He'd proposed two years ago, and she'd of course accepted. As soon as they were engaged they began looking for a house, someplace that wasn't the Cranes and that they could start a family in. He still didn't know. After they got married she'd told him her secret and she thought that he'd leave her.

**Flashback**

Paloma heard the front door open and she quickly dried her eyes. She took in his image as he walked through the doorway, his face full of happiness.

"Hello beautiful." He leaned down and kissed her. She responded almost urgently, knowing that this could be the last time she'd ever feel his lips on hers. After a few minutes he pulled away, "Well if I get greeted like that every time I come home I'll never be around." He laughed and looked at her face, he stopped and his eyes were full of concern, "You were crying what happened?"

Paloma bit her lip and prepared for the worst, "You know I love you right? I mean I've never felt this way about anyone. You are the one person in my life that I can count on. Well, when I was younger I did something stupid."

"Lo, you know that I don't care about your past. We've both done things we're not proud of and. . ." She cut him off.

"Please, no interruptions. What I have to say affects us now. I know that you love me and that we've both made some mistakes in our past but this will probably hurt you more then anything I could ever say or do. I've been living a lie for years. When I was younger, 16 in fact, I lost my virginity to my boyfriend Diego. He was 18 and I thought it was love. I got pregnant and you know how small I am. Well, the doctors told me that if I kept the baby, I'd die giving birth and the child probably would too. It's against everything I believe in to get an abortion so I kept the baby, thinking that maybe I could go full term and be ok. The doctors monitored me closely, I had a special diet plan and Diego took care of me. In my 6th month I went into premature labor. They couldn't stop it and the baby was dead before she was even born. I was really weak, and giving birth had almost killed me. I was stuck in the hospital for two months. When I got stronger the doctors told me that because of the premature labor my body had been badly hurt." Paloma was crying now and Fox sat there in awe.

"Lo, it's ok. It's ok." He tried to hug her and she backed away.

"That's not it. That's not even the worst of it yet!" She began sobbing, "I can't have children! I can't get pregnant! You'll never get the heir your grandfather so desperately desirers. I have a 2% chance of getting pregnant! Can you imagine how that feels? Now knowing that you're going to leave me because of it."

Fox sat there dumbstruck, not sure what to say or do, it was too much. So much to sink in, "I need to go out." He got up and left.

Paloma fell to the ground in a heap, sobbing and damning herself for letting him know the truth. She should have waited, waited till she knew that he would never leave her. It had been two hours and she was still sitting on the floor sobbing, suddenly she felt strong arms wrap around her. She knew it was him, but she didn't bother asking him why he was back. He carried her up to their room and placed her in their bed. He lay down next to her and held her. The tears had slowed and she eventually fell asleep in his arms.

**End Flashback**

When they'd woken the next morning he didn't say where he'd been, he didn't even mention it again. Things were good between them, better in fact. He understood why she would suddenly burst into tears sometimes and she knew that he needed his space once in awhile. They talked about it from time to time but it was never hard. He forgave her and loved her in spite of her problems. She walked into their room and heard the shower running, she giggled and walked into the bathroom silently. She quickly stripped and entered the shower, "Hey handsome."

"Lo, I'm not really in the mood at the moment." Fox sighed.

"I'm sorry what?" She was not only insulted but also incredibly lost.

"It's not you baby. It's my grandfather. That man makes my blood run cold sometimes and it really isn't the best mood setter." Fox explained.

"I understand." Paloma said, still a little hurt she began to leave to shower, until Fox grabbed her arm, "Fox, I need to get dressed."

"I love you." He smiled and kissed her, and then pulled her back into the shower to, well you know and if you don't maybe you shouldn't be reading this.

~*~

Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald was nothing if not a passionate man, when he suddenly got the urge to be with Beth the other day he'd left work and gone home to make love to his wife. Part of him knew he didn't really love her and the rest of him knew that he wanted to be with Beth forever and damn anyone who tried to break them apart. He lay in their bed after their lovemaking and felt Beth get up.

"Where are you going?!" He demanded, he couldn't be without her. He needed her at his side and needed to know she wouldn't leave him.

"I'm just getting some water Luis." Beth smiled, things were going amazingly. Luis had left work to come home and make love to her. He was protective and caring, he was perfect and he was all hers.