Part II
Evie's Notes:Thank you for all of the love and support you have given the story so far! I hope you enjoy the new chapter!
After getting Antonia settled down for a nap, Fabian made his way back out to the main room. It was amazing how little the house has changed in the ten years they had been gone. Entering the sitting room, Fabian caught sight of a blond head he hadn't seen in years. "Mick! Oh my gods mate, I haven't seen you in forever. How have you been? How's Sierra and Victoria?".
"It's good to see you too man. Sierra's around here somewhere. I think she went out back to shoot some hoops. Apparently, they installed a basketball court the year after you all left".
"I've got to say I'm surprised to see you here".
"Well Anubis has always been a large part of my life, and even though I left in year eleven, this place is still super special to me. I would hate to see a torn down… after all it's home".
"Yeah, hopefully we can come up with a plan to stop my asshole father".
"Heard about your fall out with you parents, tough break mate"
"Less of a fall, more of a push… but yeah. I wasn't gonna leave Toni though, she didn't deserve that".
"Well I'm proud of you, for what it's worth".
"Thanks Mick".
The rest of the pair's conversation was cut off with the rambunctious entrance of two familiar toddlers.
"Uncle Fabian!" screamed Cassidy.
"Hey Cass" greeted Fabian, hugging the little girl "Did you have fun with your grandpa?"
"Uh huh, we got to go to a restaurant and have tiny little sandwiches" informed the girl with a very serious face.
"The brown water was yucky though" added her twin Tucker with a disgusted face.
"Yeah, it takes a little while to get used to the taste of tea" agreed Fabian. "Where are your mum and dad?"
"Dad's parking the car and mom, well she was behind us…"
"Where did you little terrors go?" came Patricia's shout.
"Eeek! Hide us!" begged the twins running behind Fabian.
"They're definitely not in here Patricia" sing-songed Fabian.
"Oh Fabian, thank goodness" gasped the woman as she entered the room "and Mick what wonderful surprise!"
"Hey Trixie. It's been too long"
"Damn straight! We haven't seen you since the wedding. Speaking of which, is Victoria here with you?".
"No, Vicki had a conference and wasn't able to join us this time".
"Well that's too bad! Let her know to give me a call sometime soon, I'd love to catch up with her".
"Patricia where did you go" called Eddie's voice
"We're in the living room".
"I can't believe my dad never fixed the parking issues on campus. He's literally had ten years to add more parking spaces, but no! He decided to build a fourth library. We don't even have that many books!" griped Eddie.
"So tea with old Sweetie went well then?" teased Fabian.
"The usual, him rambling on and on about how I'm not living up to my potential and how I need to bring honor to the Sweet name even though I never took his name. I still think he would've been happier if I married Amber"
"Hah! That girl would. Eat you alive. Ambs is my best friend and all… but I'm pretty sure that Alfie is the only man on earth who is compatible with her" corrected Mick.
"Too true" laughed Eddie.
"My fashionista senses are tingling, is someone talking about me?" joked Amber strolling into the room.
"Amber!" shrieked Patricia launching herself at the blonde.
"Trixie!" the two began to speak at a rapid-fire pace that Fabian could no longer keep up with. Clearly, he was rusty having not hung out with the pair together in a couple years.
"Fabian! Great to see you" greeted Alfie. "Is my goddaughter around here somewhere?".
"Good to see you too Alf. Toni is currently trying to sleep off the time difference".
"Oof! I do not envy her, or you. Jet lag is killer".
Joy popped her head into the living room "K.T. and Jerome's flight just landed while Nina's connection just got delayed again. She says she will probably be later than expected so we'll start when KT and Jerome get settled in".
*Long Live - Long Live - Long Live*
"Alright people let us come to order" announced Joy two hours later as she banged her gavel on a podium Willow had scrounged up. "I know that we are still missing Nina, but we should get started and just plan to catch her up later with Mara. Willow is going to present what we know so far".
"Thanks Joy. We are all gathered here tonight to try and ascertain a way to save this Estate from demolition by Rutter Industries. According to the forms filed with the local government's office he plans to use this land for new office buildings. Of course when it comes to the Frobisher Estate, I think we have all learned that nothing is at it seems".
"Our first plan was to try and have Fabian infiltrate Rutter Industries, but with his unfortunate fall out with his family that door was closed to us" added Joy.
"After quite a bit of online sleuthing and morally questionable hacking, thank you Jerome".
"Always happy to be of service" smirked the blond.
"We found that Mr. Rutter himself will be here on Thursday for a week to oversee the initial planning. If we were going to strike, well now is the time" explained Willow.
"So what's the plan then?" asked Patricia only to be interrupted as the door creaked open.
"Hi everyone! I'm so sorry that I'm so late!" babbled Nina as she burst into the room. Fabian swore his heart stopped as he took in the beautiful blonde curls of the woman he once loved, for the first time in eleven years.
"Welcome Nina" chirped Joy. We were just about to explain our plan, so if you want to grab a seat on the couch with Jerome, we can get on with it"
"Of course!" agreed Nina quickly settling down between Jerome and Mick.
Joy seeing that everyone in the room clearly wanted to catch up with the late arriving blonde intervened, "I know we all want to talk to Nina. But right now we need to focus on building our game plan to stop the demolition. Willow made reservations for dinner tonight at Jackson's in town. Yes, I am just as shocked as all of you that it is still open, so we will have our chance to catch up over dinner later this evening. In the meantime, the floor is all yours Wills".
"Thanks Joy. To answer your question Patricia, we have four days before Mr. Rutter and his team arrive. In that time we have to assemble a list of properties we need to protect at all costs. Collect signatures from neighbors protesting the demolition, assemble a historically based counter proposal and explore possible environmental arguments".
"That's quite the To-Do list we've got there, Willow" commented Mick.
"That's why we're going to split up into teams" explained Joy.
Moving over to the whiteboard Jerome had found in cellar she jotted down each of the tasks. "Let's start with the environmental research, I'm going to go ahead, and volunteer Mara and we should probably have one or two more people with her. Any volunteers?".
"Put me down to help Mara, Joy" piped up Willow.
"Great! Moving on, the next category would be collecting signatures from the neighbors. This would require the team members to be rather personable and willing to deal with difficult personalities".
"Ambs and I can join that team" offered Alfie.
"Awesome, who else?"
"I'll help them" volunteered Mick.
"Count me in too!" added K.T.
"Ok. So that leaves us with the historical counter proposal and the danger spots".
"I suggest that Patricia should be on the danger spot team and I'll handle the historical research. That way the two people involved in all of the Frobisher-Smythe nonsense the longest can approach the issue from both angles" suggested Fabian.
"I'm down with that plan" supported Patricia. "I should probably take Eddie though since I wasn't really with it our final year and Nina will be more help with research. Especially since she knew Sarah so well".
"That period of my life is seared into my brain so I'm sure that between the two of us Fabian and I can put together some sort of defense" smiled Nina encouragingly.
"I'll join team Williamson-Miller since my time here ran parallel with the murder mystery shit, but not directly connected. I will therefore have a different perspective on what to save" offered Jerome.
"What murder?!" shouted Mick, but he was ignored by Joy in favor of wrapping up the meeting.
"Well that settles it then, I'm the only one left and I will plan to handle the tracking of Rutter Industry's movements" remarked Joy as she jotted the final names down on the whiteboard. "Let's break for dinner now and then spend the rest of the evening strategizing with our various teams".
The group split up to get their coats and kids before heading into town for diner.
I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story so far in the comments or my Tumblr House-of-Secrets! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie