Kendall watched as her mother did a lap around the living room before slamming her purse down on the counter and staring out the window. She glanced over at Jackson, who had sat down on the couch and leaned his head back with his eyes shut. She could only imagine the wrath Jackson had endured before they left to come here.

Kendall took a couple of steps toward Erica. "Look, mother…"

Erica whipped around and glared at her daughter. "Kendall, I just… I don't understand how you could…"

"GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!" Zach said loudly as he clapped his hands and came around the corner from the bedroom. "Who needs coffee?"

Kendall just smirked at Zach, who looked scrumptious in his jeans and grey sweater, as he traversed around the kitchen, pretending that Erica wasn't there. He hummed as he got the coffee set to brew and smiled at Erica while she glared at him. Erica huffed loudly and stormed across the room and sat on one of the ottomans in front of the fireplace.

Kendall walked over to him. "What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Making coffee then some omelets. You want one?" he whispered back.

"Zach, in case you failed to notice, we've kind of got visitors."

"Yes, in fact, I did notice the looks of love Erica shot in my direction, but neither one of us have eaten in like 24 hours and you need to keep up your strength, so I'm making omelets. Hell, I'll even be nice…" he whispered before leaning back.

"Jackson, Erica, either one of you care for an omelet?"

Erica glared at him for a moment before turning back to the fireplace. Jackson politely said no and returned back to his original position.

"Well, they just don't know what they are missing. I make fantastic omelets" he said as he cracked an egg into the skillet.

The scene sent Kendall of into a giggle fit. The idea of her husband making breakfast while her mother sat in the living room, wanting nothing more than to kill him with a spatula – well, it was a scene that Kendall had never imagined and that made her laugh even harder.

Zach glanced over at her and smiled. "You alright?"

Kendall quickly regained her composure and leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Yeah. I'm going to go get dressed. You going to be alright?"

Zach glanced back over his shoulder to where Erica and Jackson were. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm standing in front of the sharp knives, so unless Erica brought her own, I should be safe till you get back."

Kendall smiled warmly at him and headed back to the bedroom.

Ten minutes later, Kendall returned and smiled at Zach, who was halfway through his omelet. He had set her a place with a large omelet and a glass of orange juice. She sat on the stool across from him and smiled before digging into her omelet. Zach was glad to see her appetite was back.

"Do we have any salsa" she asked after a couple of bites.

"I knew I forgot to set something out" he snapped as he turned on his stool and grabbed the jar of salsa out of the fridge.

"Can I get some coffee?"

"No."

"Zach, c'mon, just a little isn't going to…"

"No."

"You're a hateful man" she said, pouting at him.

"But you love me anyway, right?"

Kendall just smiled and nodded as she took another bite of her omelet. While they had been talking, Erica had watched them and had had enough. She crossed the room and slammed her hands down on the counter.

"What in the world do you two think you are doing?" she screamed at them.

"Having breakfast" Zach said, smiling at her sweetly.

Erica glared at him and turned toward her daughter. "Kendall, I don't know what you think you are doing, but…"

"I know exactly what I'm doing, mother. I'm having breakfast with my husband. What I'm trying to figure out is what you are doing here?"

"Look, Kendall, can we talk?"

"I think we are."

Erica glanced over at Zach. "Alone."

Kendall looked over at Jackson. "You going to kick Jackson out, too, mother?"

"Kendall, Jackson and I came here to talk to you. We spoke to Ryan last night and…"

"If Jackson doesn't have to leave, then neither does Zach. Last time I checked, you lived across town, not here" Kendall spit out as she smiled at Zach and took another bite of her omelet.

Erica turned her attention back to Zach. "You couldn't just do us all a favor and get the divorce, could you? You had to make more of a mess of things by staying married. What could you possibly have been thinking? Why would you want to continue this charade?"

Zach took a deep breathe and got up from his seat. He walked around the counter and dropped a kiss on the top of Kendall's head before going toe to toe with Erica Kane.

"Look, Erica, in case you missed it, Kendall and I are both adults. We don't need your permission or your blessing to live our lives. Kendall and I were in the middle of something when your precious Lavery interrupted us on the island. I didn't feel right about getting a divorce without knowing what Kendall wanted to say to me. We talked New Year's Eve and we both, together, decided that we didn't want to get divorced."

"Wait" Erica said, whipping around to look at her daughter. "You were with him on New Year's Eve?"

Kendall, who had been cleaning up the plates, turned and leaned against the countertop, crossing her arms across her chest. "Yes, mother, why? Why could you possibly be surprised that I was with Zach on New Year's Eve? Is it because you thought I was going to be with someone else?"

"Well, yes, actually. I told Ryan to come to the casino so he could get you out of there and…"

"Oh god, Erica" Jackson groaned, dropping his head into his hands.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Zach said. "You invited Lavery to my casino?" he said, glaring at Erica.

"I told Ryan that he needed to come get Kendall so they could talk and start the New Year out right, but…"

Zach turned back to Kendall. "Did you… did he… where…"

Kendall could see he was flustered. She loved it when he got flustered. "No, Zach, I didn't see him. Apparently Bianca cut him off and… well, it's a really funny story I'll tell you some other time."

"Your sister, always sticking her nose in" Erica grumbled to herself, or so she thought.

"Yeah, I guess that apple didn't fall very far from the Kane tree, did it Erica?" Zach shot back at her.

"Don't you talk about my family, Slater. What could you possibly know about family?" Erica shot back at him.

"THAT'S IT!" Kendall screamed. "He's my family, mother. He's family, whether you like it or not. I love him, I love him so much and he loves me."

"Oh really, Kendall. How long did it take him to convince you of that?"

"Erica, he didn't have to convince me of anything. I know it from the depths of my soul – he loves me. I can see it when I look into his eyes. I can feel it when he kisses me. There was no convincing because it was already there."

"But Kendall, this baby needs to have its family around him."

"And he will, mother, he will. It's me and Zach and this baby – that's the family."

"What" she heard Zach gasp out from behind her.

She turned and looked at him and smiled at his wide eyes and dropped jaw. She walked over to him and placed her hand on his cheek.

"I want a family, I want to us to be a family – me, you and this baby" she said, pulling his hand to her stomach and covering his hand with hers. "I mean, if you want…"

"I want. I want very much" he said, smiling down at her.

"So, you're going to let a Cambias be a father to your child?" Erica roared from behind Kendall.

Kendall whipped around and walked over to her mother. "Zach may have Cambias blood in him, but he's not a Cambias. He's 100 times the man his father and brother could have ever hoped to be. Zach is going to be a great father to this baby. It's what I want and if you can't deal with that, well, then… I guess it will be a shame that this baby will never real know his grandmother, but he won't be lost. He will be more loved than you could ever imagine."

Kendall couldn't even believe the words were coming out of her mouth and she did her best to hold her tears at bay. The shock of Kendall's words hit Erica hard and she just stared at her daughter for a moment before grabbing her purse and coat and walking out the door. Kendall just watched her mother walk away. The tears started to come as she felt Zach put his hands on her shoulders.

Jackson had watched all this develop in front of his eyes, knowing that he couldn't stop it. He had begged Erica not to go to Kendall's angry and to try to respect what she wanted, but all his words had fallen on deaf ears and now Kendall was threatening to cut Erica out of this baby's life.

Jackson walked over and stood in front of Kendall.

"Kendall…"

"Jack, please, I don't think I can…"

"Just hear me out. I know… I was so awful to you on Thanksgiving, but Greenlee was hurt… Anyway, that's beside the point. Let me talk to her, let me try to get through to her before you decide to completely cut her off from the baby. Just let me try, alright."

Kendall just nodded. Jackson gave her a slight smile and took off after his wife. As the door closed, the tears that Kendall had been holding back started to fall. Zach turned her around and closed his arms around her, promising her that everything would be fine and it would all work out, but unsure of how he was going to make that happen.

TBC….