"Why haven't we heard anything about this young man before?" Olivia wondered as she finished with her curling iron and set it aside.

"I don't know. She says she wanted to wait until our lives were a little less chaotic." Gregory tossed back a tie before selecting a smart silver one. "Meaning she didn't want to introduce us until she was sure we'd behave."

Still fretting with her hair, Olivia stopped, realizing what she was doing when he lowered his hands to her shoulders. "We haven't been that bad, have we?"

"Maybe she's just self-conscious." He supposed as he massaged her shoulders. "She must really like him, whoever he is."

She sighed, closing her eyes and leaning back into his touch. "You're not thinking of Caitlin are you?"

He laughed, dropping into a suggestive tone. "I was thinking about what we could do after we get home from dinner."

"Were you?" Getting up reluctantly, she put her arms around his neck for a moment. "I know it's been a few days-"

Gregory cut off the apology he knew was coming. "You've been tired Liv. I understand that."

Running her tongue suggestively over his bottom lip, she looked into his eyes gratefully. "I'm not tired tonight."

He teased her back through the dark gray satin of her dress. "I'll remember that."

Olivia took a step towards him, just close enough for her breasts to brush against his chest. "I'm counting on it."

Cole ran his hands through his newly light brown hair and then put on his glasses. "What do you think of the new me?"

Caitlin studied him thoughtfully. "Still so handsome." She straightened his tie, trying to get used to the glasses. "But I'm not sure if I like that hair. It's too different."

He shook his head, hoping she was joking. "Different is the idea. Your parents have my mug shot. They know what I look like."

"I don't think I like the accent." She complained as she adjusted the tight red dress she had from her trip to Monte Carlo. "Couldn't you do Italian or something sexier?"

"Deschanel is a French name." Cole pointed out in his fake accent. "It wouldn't make sense for me to be Italian." He opened the door from their new apartment in the Lichfield. "Do you remember the backstory we talked about? I'm sure your father will ask a bunch of questions."

Caitlin nodded as she punched the button in the beautiful glass elevator. "I remember-"

"Julian and I met in Paris." Caitlin gushed as Cole filled her wine glass. "I was lost on my way to the Louvre and he rescued me when my French failed. Isn't that romantic?"

"It sounds lovely darling." Olivia replied as she dipped her bread in the plate of olive oil. "Your father's never liked Paris...too crowded."

Gregory took the bread from her hand and teased her with it. "Florence was our city, but please, go on."

Cole jumped in, smiling into Caitlin's eyes like she was the only woman in the world. "And as soon as I looked at her, I knew I wanted her."

"And you'd been living in Paris with your Grandmother?" Gregory asked as he past the bottle of wine on to Caitlin without taking any, "The infamous Julianna Deschanel?"

"My namesake." Cole said with a soft grin. "The woman who took me in when my mother disappeared."

"What about your father?" Olivia wondered softly as the dark eyes behind the glasses bored into her. "I never knew AJ had a son."

"He didn't either. My father is a wanderer, a free spirit. Even his own mother had trouble finding him. We didn't meet until I was nearly grown." Cole didn't take his gaze off Olivia's face. Studying the fine lines around her eyes that made him proud that he had etched them there.

"That must have been difficult for you." Gregory offered as he made room for his dinner in front of him.

"I had my grandmother when I was a boy and now I have Caitlin to look after me." Cole took her hand and Caitlin kissed his cheek.

Olivia toyed with her pasta before taking a bite. There was something about him that made her uncomfortable, something in his eyes that was familiar. Maybe it was just his connection to AJ.

Cole watched as her mouth closed around the fork, admiring the fullness of her lips.

Gregory looked at the blind adoration in his daughter's eyes and shuddered inwardly. "I'm glad you appreciate our daughter as much as we do."

Caitlin muttered into her napkin that they don't give a damn about her, but she smiled when she put it back down into her lap. "Julian's so sweet to me. He bought me this for the one month anniversary of our first date." She extended her wrist to show them a diamond tennis bracelet Cole had presented her with just that morning as part of their cover.

Gregory examined it and nodded as Caitlin moved her arm over to show her mother. "It's beautiful sweetheart."

Olivia agreed, setting down her fork after barely eating any of her dinner. "You have your father's taste."

Placing her hand on her thigh, Gregory subtlely inquired about why she wasn't eating without saying a word. She took his hand and squeezed it. "Doesn't it look like something AJ would have picked out?"

Caitlin took her wrist back and took a long sip of her white wine. "I suppose good taste just runs in the Deschanel family."

Cole smiled inwardly when he realized Olivia was correct. AJ had marked the woman he had stolen it from, so she was right, in a manner of speaking. "My father does try to make up for the time we lost as much as he can now that we know each other."

Caitlin muttered something in her napkin again, and this time Gregory caught the end of it.

"Is there something you'd like to add Caitlin?" He pressed with a raised eyebrow.

"I was just saying that it seems like AJ's doing his best to be a good father." She replied with a forced smile. "Which is wonderful for Julian."

Cole smiled pleasantly, sensing the electrical tension in the air between Caitlin and her parents. She was a bomb waiting for a trigger and he was only too happy to oblige. "Caitlin's too sweet to me, we have much in common. Our love of art and the French countryside. Our shared affinity for jewelry and fine fashion-"

He paused, taking the time to take a bite of his veal before adding the clincher. "How much we both love children."

That had the desired effect. Olivia choked on her water and started coughing. Gregory rubbed her back as he tried to hide his glower.

Caitlin just smiled, her bright blue eyes icing over. "And we do." She added with the same false cheerfulness. "Julian and I both just love babies. In fact we were just talking about that before we came to meet you for dinner. How much you both must be expecting that pitter-patter of little feet coming around any corner."

Olivia stopped coughing, but she stared miserably across the table at her daughter, unable to hide the guilt in her face. "What do you mean darling?"

Gregory's hand closed down hard on her wrist. "Yes Caitlin, I'd love to know what you mean by that."

Cole jumped in, trying to seem gallant and oblivious at the same time. "We were just talking-"

"Yes,and you mentioned Julian, how odd it must be for my parents to have all their children grown up and gone. With Sean in school and me nearly moved out, it must seem like a house full of ghosts without the sounds of children around." Her smile didn't have any warmth in it at all. "We just thought you'd be missing your babies terribly."

Olivia looked from her plate to Gregory and then at Caitlin. Cole watched with barely controlled amusement at the obvious struggle going on in her mind.

Gregory intervened, staring down his daughter like a troublesome client. "It's quiet, yes, but we knew you and Sean were going to move out and on with your lives. Didn't we Liv?"

It took her a few seconds to respond, as if she had lost to ability to find the words. "Yes, yes we did. But we do miss you. You're right Caitlin, you're so busy it's like you've moved out too."

Her daughter's stare lost what little emotion it had left, going completely stone cold. "I didn't think you'd noticed I was gone mom-"

Gregory cleared his throat, beginning a reprimand, but Caitlin cut him off.

"Oh don't you start defending her." She snapped, keeping her tone frighteningly even. "You're just as bad. Why do you think I had to ask your secretaries to set up dinner? It was bad enough when it was just you working dad, but now you're both gone all day, and you're with mom every moment when you get home."

Olivia's guilt settled in a cold mass in the pit of her stomach. Cole watched her hands twitch with her napkin. She must have been dying to tell Caitlin the truth. It was too late. The truth was going to arrive in the most spectacular fashion and he could sit back in his chair and watch.

"What is it dad? You're afraid if you leave her alone for a second she'll start drinking again?" The bitterness in her tone was ascerbic and tore through the restaurant. "Or maybe you bought her little melodrama of how sick she is."

"Caitlin, that's enough!" Gregory warned, the small hairs on the back of his neck starting to stand up.

"Which one is it dad? What could possibly be going on with mom that you need to be with her every moment of the day?" She pushed back her chair, gaining volume as she looked from one parent to the other.

Gregory's jaw was set and his hands clenched beneath the table as she got up out of her chair. "Take your seat young lady. This isn't the place-"

"Dad's not going to tell me." Caitlin purred as she circled to behind her mother's chair. "What about you mom? You've been quiet all evening." She rested her hands on the back of Olivia's chair, smiling the same icy smile. "Maybe you just aren't feeling well?"

She slid her hand down her mother's arm, looking at her in a grotesque mockery of concern. "Let me guess. You're nauseous-"

Olivia shook her head, swallowing against the rock in her stomach.

"Maybe you're dizzy or a little faint today?" A hollow laugh bubbled up in her throat as she stood up again. Caitlin tilted her head to the side and put a hand on her chin, pretending to be lost in thought. "I wonder, what could possibly have those symptoms?"

Gregory's hand closed over Caitlin's, prying her fingers off the back of Olivia's chair. The menace wasn't lost on her, and her laughter continued. "I suppose neither of you thought I had a right to know, after all, I'm just your daughter. It's perfectly acceptable to lie to me."

Taking a step away, she was quiet for a moment before slamming her hand down to the table hard enough to spill Olivia's water glass. Everyone jumped back from the table and the cascade of water. Conversations around them ground to a halt, and each one of them felt the eyes of strangers take in their growing drama.

Gregory careful to put himself between his wife and his daughter. "That's enough." He repeated with equal malice. "This dinner is over."

"Stop." Olivia begged as she tugged at his arm. "Don't be angry with her. Caitlin's right. She's completely right, we have been lying to her."

Caitlin crossed her arms over her chest and turned back to her mother. The guilt-stricken resignation on Olivia's face was almost as gratifying as the dark fury in her father's eyes.

Shaking his head no, Gregory looked from one woman to the other, unable to prevent Olivia from confessing in a whisper.

"I'm pregnant."

"I'm sorry mom." Caitlin apologized with a triumphant glare at her father. "I almost didn't hear you, let me make sure I get this right-"

She took a look around the full restaurant, knowing her father would remember this dinner as long as he lived. Instead of getting lost in the shuffle of plates and bodies around them like her mother's confession, Caitlin's voice carried over the uncomfortable stillness filling the room, echoing into every corner. "You're pregnant!"

The shuffle dropped away into silence. The kind of uncomfortable quiet that happens when an entire crowd of people stops speaking at once. "Of course you are! That's exactly what any responsible woman in your position would do when someone was trying to kill her."

"Well miss high and mighty," Olivia's voice startled Caitlin. She had expected her mother to cower behind her father, to tremble in fear because her secret was now going to be all over the town. "It's easy to judge when it's not your life."

Even Gregory was surprised as his wife pushed past him to face down his daughter. Olivia took his hand, uniting their positions. "Your father and I lied to you. We're not proud of that, but as parents we have to try to do what's best for our children."

Gregory caught her meaning and backed her up. "All of our children."

"Especially the most vulnerable one." Olivia finished with quiet conviction. "Darling you're nearly a grown woman. You don't need us to protect you all of the time. Your father and I needed-"

"It's always about you and daddy lately isn't it?" Caitlin interrupted, her hands shaking in fury. "God, you're so selfish!"

"We lied to you because we needed to protect this baby." Olivia's hand went to her stomach, forming a fragile barrier between her unborn child and the rest of the world. Gregory took a step closer to her, adding his hand over hers.

"We thought, we hoped, you'd understand." She explained calmly, ignoring the way the eyes of everyone else in the restaurant seemed to be a captive audience to their little scene.

She picked up one of the wine glasses that had remained upright when she had shaken the table. Looking at the liquid thoughtfully for a moment, she tilted it back, studying the red wine Cole had choosen. "Looks a little like blood doesn't it?"

Gregory tightened his grip on his wife, unable to decide what he needed to protect her from more. His wayward daughter, or the maniac, Cole. "What are you getting at?"

Swirling the glass slowly, the young blonde looked around the restaurant. The eyes on her were strangely gratifying. Finally her parents were going to exposed as the frauds they were and to the very people who looked up to and admired them.

"It's not the secret that bothers me." Taking a slow breath, she seemed to be calming down. Relieved, Gregory started to thank her for being reasonable, but she threw the glass of red wine over both of them.

The red liquid splashed across their clothes, staining the white of Gregory's shirt and Olivia's dress. Stunned, neither of them moved. Across the room someone dropped a knife and it clattered against the floor. "When Cole kills that poor, innocent baby, there's going to be blood all over both of you."

Without even waiting for a reply, Caitlin took her purse from the back of her chair. Walking quickly out of the restaurant, she whirled back for one last parting thought. "But I'm glad you told me. After all- the truth will set you free."