Well everyone, here is latest chapter, not much to say other than read and enjoy my dear readers because this one is quite dramatic.
A few hours after Tony revealed his plan to Jade, Tori finally woke up, she walked over to her son's bedroom and knocked on the door three times, after not getting an answer she knocked once more.
"Mijo?" She asked. "Are you awake?"
Only silence greeted her, it was at this time that the Latina decided to use her ace in the hole.
"Tony, I'm both respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your mother by coming in anyway!" Tori said before she opened her son's bedroom only to be greeted by an unwelcoming sight (in her opinion), she saw Tony's hooligan of a girlfriend sleeping in his bed, with a deep growl, she walked inside ready to demand answers out of the young girl, mainly why was she in his bed?
"There had better not been any funny business under my roof!"
Tori poked Emily several times on her ribs and while she did get a reaction out of the blonde, the teenager was as dead as a doornail, finally having lost her patience, the Latina grabbed the sheets out of her son's bed, this did the trick as Emily groaned in annoyance, but still refused to wake up, Tori then opened the curtains, letting the sunrays directly into Emily's eyes, she let out an annoyed grunt.
"Damn it Tony… What is so important that you had to wake me…. EEEEK!"
The rebellious teen was now face to face with the only person who has ever managed to scare her and seeing as said woman was married to the Queen of terror in Hollywood, that was saying something, it was almost ironic that Victoria West who by all accounts was known to be the nicest celebrity in L.A. could be the one to give her a fright.
"What are you doing here Donovan?" Tori asked with narrowed eyes. "You better had not corrupted my son while you were in bed."
"Corrupted you…?" Emily's eyes widened at the implication. "NO! Of course not Mrs. West! I just got here this morning! Tony said I could sleep in his room while he started with the Thanksgiving meals!"
"Right, he invited you for dinner." Tori now remembered. "So why pray tell are you here this early?"
"I brought some food early this morning and then told him I would help him cook after I had a few more hours of sleep." Emily said quickly. "I even brought a second turkey because he believed one wouldn't be enough for the amount of people that are coming this evening."
Tori did a mental calculation and concluded that Emily was right; after all, her daughters were coming with their spouses and children as well as Trina and her family, so would Andre, Carly and their children, Cat, and Robbie as well as Jade's brother (their father having passed away a couple of weeks ago), not to mention the blonde haired demon in front of her would (unfortunately) be joining them for the festivities.
"Of all the girls in his school, why does Tony has to date the one that gives him hell?" Tori asked herself in dismay, unaware of the irony in the situation. "Why couldn't he date a girl he actually deserves?"
"Uhhh… You ok Mrs. West?"
"I'm fine." Tori replied. "I'm assuming you brought a chance of clothes with you, Donovan?"
"Yeah." Emily nodded, "If you don't mind, I would like to take a quick shower so I can go down and help Tony with the food."
"Knock yourself out." Tori said evenly. "Just don't take too long, Jade and I still have to take a shower and we would like to have some hot water."
Emily shuddered at what the Latina was implying. "That's an image I don't need in my head." The blonde suspected that the older woman said comments like these to not only get under her skin but also as a not so subtle way of telling her to not do something she and Tony weren't supposed to under her roof."
"And I thought my parents were overprotective."
She ran out of Tony's bedroom, leaving the mother of her boyfriend behind, who glanced at the sheets with distrust. "I better wash them just to be safe."
As Tori grabbed the pink bed sheets, she sarcastically muttered under her breath. "Just what every mother wants to see first thing in the morning, her son's girlfriend sleeping on his bed… Could have been worse, they both could've been doing it… That's an image I don't need in my head." She shuddered. "He's still my baby boy after all."
Tori began humming "Bang, bang", to this day it was her favorite song written by her wife and the Latina always thought of that "musical masterpiece" as she called it, whenever she needed to calm down, that soon came to an end when she began hearing voices coming from the kitchen, one that clearly was her son's and another voice that sounded like someone she didn't know but at the same time was kind of familiar, much to her confusion.
"Who is that?"
The Latina's curiosity grew the closer she got to the kitchen; it was almost as if she knew she was in for something she wasn't going to like.
… And to her chagrin, the moment she entered the kitchen she found out how right she was… And wasn't happy about it.
Tony was checking on the Turkey in the oven. "Ok so far so good." He muttered to himself, "I just need to make sure it's not overcooked otherwise dinner its ruined and I'm not about to let that happen." He added seriously before turning over to the microwave which had the second turkey in it with distaste. "Stupid microwave."
"Now, now Tony you don't need to be resentful towards a kitchen appliance." Holly said soothingly. "It was made to make our life easier after all."
"I know grandma, I know." He said with some resentment. "I just feel like I'm cheating by taking the easy way and putting the dead bird in a microwave even if it saves me a few hours of cooking and we're on a deadline."
"Think of it this way, now you have the time for me to teach you how to bake the world famous Vega Pot Pie."
"Oh cool!" He cheered. "I wanted to learn how to cook that for ages but Mama isn't very good in the kitchen and my great grandma isn't around anymore to teach me so…"
This is when the Latina dropped the basket of dirty laundry loudly, getting the attention of both her mother and son; they turned to the kitchen door to be greeted by a very displeased Tori West.
"Oh, hi Mama!" Tony said obliviously. "Slept well?"
"Hello Victoria." Holly greeted with an awkward wave of her hand. "Long time no see."
If looks could kill the older woman would be dead three times over, she had never seen such anger from her daughter's chocolate eyes which she swore were now blood red, then again she wasn't expecting a warm welcome from her youngest child.
"What are you doing here?" Tori asked icily. "I don't remember inviting you for dinner, scratch that I KNOW I didn't invite you, this is a family event and last I checked you aren't family."
Holly felt like she had been slapped by those cold, hard words.
"MAMA!" Tony admonished. "You can't talk to our guest like that!"
"Guest?!" She parroted. "Did you let her in? Without telling me?!"
"I invited her." He admitted. "Mom said it was ok."
"Oh she did now, did she?" Tori asked ominously. "I'm going to have to have a talk with her then… Be right back, and you!" She directed an angry finger at her mother. "When I come back you better not be here!"
Just as Tori walked out of the kitchen, Tony ran after but now before telling his grandma to "Stay put, I'll go and talk to her."
Tori angrily stomped over to the bedroom she shared with her wife ready to kill her for breaking one of the most important rules of her house if not the most important rule, "Never let Holly near their children", she didn't want them to be brainwashed as she saw it with her outdated views.
When Tori reached the door, she was about to grab the doorknob only to be stopped by her son who got in the way.
"Mama before you do anything you'll regret, you have to know!" Tony panted having ran as fast as he could to catch up to his mother. "Mom didn't know about me inviting grandma until this morning."
"That still doesn't explain why she even allowed her to set foot in our house!" The Latina said angrily. "She knows what Holly did to me!"
"I know Mama." Tony said. "She told me."
"And you still let her in?!" Tori said trying to contain her anger. "What were you thinking Mijo?!"
"Mom asked me the same thing." He chucked nervously. "But to answer your question Mama, I thought this was the perfect opportunity for you two to patch things up."
"There is nothing to patch up!" She bellowed. "She made her choice long ago!"
"Like mother like daughter,"
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"She made her choice, sure." Tony agreed. "But she also several attempts to reconnect and apologize to you Mama and each time you sent her away, so from what I'm seeing you also made your choice on this."
"Oh now that's completely different!" Tori defended herself; "She disowned me for loving another woman and you know I would never do that to you or your sisters for that!"
"I hear what you're saying Mama, believe me I do, it's hard to forgive and forget but not impossible, I invited grandma mainly for you."
"Say, what now?"
"Mama, put yourself in her shoes." Tony said empathically. "What if you couldn't talk to me or my sisters for years, how would you feel?"
"It would kill me."
"That's how grandma feels every single day she doesn't talk to you or Aunt Trina." Tony said. "And I know this because she told me, now I'm not excusing what she did, she has to live with the consequences of her actions every single day but imagine if the day comes where you do decide to patch things up and it's too little too late and I know deep down you don't want that to happen Mama."
"Mijo… Where did that come from?"
"I was inspired I guess." He shrugged. "Doesn't mean I'm wrong… So what say you Mama? Will you give grandma a chance?"
Tori stayed quiet for several minutes, taking in the words her son has said.
"I have a few conditions."
Tony couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you mom for writing the little speech that won Mama over."
Back downstairs Tori and Holly were on opposite sides of the living room's table WHILE Tony watched from the kitchen's entrance.
"Ok, Holly." Tori said slowly. "After a talk I had with my son, I reluctantly decided to give you a chance… You can stay for dinner."
"Really?" Her mother asked overjoyed. "Thank you Sweetheart… I promise that…"
"But this doesn't mean I forgive you." The Latina said. "Not by a long shot, I want to… But I just can't…"
This is when Holly sighed sadly. "I understand."
"Now, I have a few conditions." Tori continued. "So if you are really serious about wanting to stay then you have to be truthful with me, I'm giving you one chance, don't make me regret this."
"What are these conditions?"
"One; Jade is my wife and you better treat her with the rest she deserves." Tori said seriously, two; you will NOT bring to the table anything religious, especially towards my children and grandchildren, three and most importantly, don't try to act motherly towards me, you have to earn for me to call you mom again, for the time being you are a guest and nothing more, do you understand?"
"Crystal clear."
"Good." Tori grunted. "Now, I got to wake up Jade, she and I have a few errand to do before dinner later tonight, are you going to be ok Mijo?"
"We'll be fine Mama." He said. "I'll be in the kitchen most of the day, oh this is going to be so much fun!"
"I know you knock everyone off their socks with your cooking tonight." Tori said proudly. "Now, you sure you have everything?"
"Oh! Can you bring a few chicken wings?" Tony asked. "I don't want Foxy to be left out for dinner."
"Foxy?" Holly asked. "Who is Foxy?"
As if to answer her question, the silver fox entered from the pet door in the backyard, at first Holly jumped in surprise at seeing a "wild animal" in the house.
"Calm down grandma." Tony said. "That's just Foxy; I think u met him before."
The silver fox looked at the mysterious older woman who tentatively tried to pet him on the head only to be greeted by a growl from the family pet, showing that he clearly didn't like her.
"Sorry about that grandma." Tony apologized. "Foxy just has to get used to you, he's a by shy around new people."
"Could've fooled me." Holly said under her breath, looking at the silver fox warily. "He… He's trained, right?"
Meanwhile Tori was walking up the stairs, on the way to her bedroom she almost collided with Emily who was now wearing a different outfit consisting of a pair of jeans, a red jacket and a purple shirt.
"Oh um… Hi Mrs. West."
"Donovan." She said curtly. "Gonna help my son with Thanksgiving dinner?"
"That's the plan." The blonde laughed nervously. "I hope I didn't keep him waiting for too long?"
"Don't worry about it." Tori said. "We have been busy with an unexpected guest and…" This is when the Latina's eyes widened, an idea slowly formed in her mind. "Emily… You are going to be in the kitchen with Tony for most of the day, right?"
"Yeah, but don't worry Mrs. West nothing is going to happen!" Emily said at once, attempting to assure the older woman that she could be trusted with her son alone under her roof."
"That better be the case." Tori said evenly. "I trust you that the kitchen will be clean but that is not what I wanted to talk about… I want to ask you a favor actually."
"Oh?"
"Just to make it clear, this stays between us."
Just what is Tori up to? We'll just have to wait and see, no?
And this is chapter two, took longer than expected to write this to be honest, I know Tori is OOC but she still holds a grudge against her mom and isn't able to move on from that but admits she wants to, so that's moving forward.
I also noticed that Tori was a bit harsh on Emily, this is because the story takes place before she started to warm up to her and sorry Jade wasn't in this chapter, I just felt that Tori needed to handle seeing her mom on her own and having Jade around might have been the best outcome, I mean just because she gave Tony the go ahead with her plan, it doesn't mean she would be happy to see her mother-in-law.
Hopefully I'll post the final chapter sooner rather than later and as always constructive criticism is always appreciated, and finally free virtual cookies to whoever catches the reference to The Fairly Oddparents.
Invader Johnny Signing Off.
