I couldn't wait...here is the next chapter!
Her long legs were on display thanks to the figure fitting, yet modest black dress she wore. Even after all these years she still had the most amazing legs he had ever seen. Dylan's eyes quickly scanned over her body, memorizing all the new things about her.
The picture he had created of her in his mind was nothing compared the vision walking towards him. Her hair was cut short in a sleek bob framing her face. She looked older of course, but so did he.
He watched the smile drop from her face, after realizing her daughter was not standing alone in the hallway. 'She didn't recognize him.' He thought, as she quickly pulled the girl behind her.
"Prudence, how many times have I told you not to talk to strangers?" She scolded softly, looking down at her daughter.
"I apologize if she was a bother, Sir. She's so—"Brenda said trailing off, looking up and realizing who the man standing before her was. "Dylan." She breathed out, almost choking on his name.
"Brenda." answered her in the same breathy tone. The air shifted as they locked eyes with one another. He reached out impulsively for a hug, but stopped at the last minute, unsure if she would accept his touch. The last time they had seen each other they hadn't left on good terms.
"Mummy!" The girl said pulling on her mother's dress trying to get her attention, "This is Dylan! He knows Mr. Pony." She lifted the stuffed animal from her side and up to her face, giggling into the fur.
"I know baby." Brenda answered after a moment, finally breaking away from Dylan's intense gaze.
She watched as he stood to his full height now towering above her. He slowly crossed his arms over his chest, causing his muscles to bulge.
'Damn...he looked good. This was going to be hard.', she decided after looking him over.
She hadn't felt this feeling in a long time. A thick dark beard hid most of his face, but he was still dangerously handsome. His eyes still had their mysterious edge to them, but something was different about him, she couldn't put her finger on it.
Pulling her thoughts away from Dylan and his looks, she leaned down to her daughters height, pushing her bang fringe out of her eyes. Brenda smiled, Prue was growing to be a carbon copy of herself when she was younger.
"Did you go to the bathroom baby? We are about to begin."
"No, Mummy. I'm sorry. " The girl answered, still stealing glance at Dylan and clearly not sorry. Brenda chuckled at her daughters behavior. She had known Dylan less than 5 minutes and she was fascinated by him. 'Like Mother, Like daughter.' she laughed to herself.
"Okay. Well go and ask Uncle Brandon to take you. I'll be along in just one minute."
Prue opened her mouth to object, wanting to stay with Dylan, but Brenda cut her off, pushing her down the hall. "Right now Miss."
"Yes, Mummy." The girl finally agreed handing her mother the stuffed animal before turning around and zipping down the hallway towards the bathroom. She stopped about half way and turned towards them again. "Will I see you later Mr. Dylan?"
He shot Brenda a look, but she avoided his gaze. Dylan was shocked that her daughter would want to see him again, "Yeah, I'll see you later sweetie."
Brenda and Dylan watched until the girl disappeared behind a door at the end of the hall. Brenda cast her eyes downward to stuffed horse she was holding, wanting to look anywhere but his eyes. She let the hall fill with awkward silence, unsure what to say to the great love of her life.
Dylan reached out and bopped the tip of Mr. Pony's nose, like he had done moments before to Prue. Brenda looked up and smiled, "Hi, Dylan."
Dylan smiled softly, remembering the last time he saw her. He remembered that horrible day. He remembered every day he spent with her, the good and the bad, the played them endlessly like a movie in his head, "Hi Bren. I'm so, so sorry for your loss. Is there anything I can do?"
"Thank you for your condolences." Brenda robotically replied, "But I'm fine, everything is taken care of."
She had been receiving guests all morning on behalf of her family. Her responses were almost canned at this point. She was just waiting for the chance to go home, put Prue to bed and cry.
"Your father just died. You are not fine." He said softly, catching her by surprise when he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arma around her. He pushed his body against hers so she was molded into him and just held her close, rocking her back and forth.
Brenda took a deep breath and sighed. The familiar feeling of his chest against hers and the smell of his familiar after shave sent her senses into overdrive. She could feel herself tearing up and gripped onto him tighter. She had been trying to hold it together all morning, and of course it had to be Dylan who broke through her resolve and caused her to crumble.
"Anything you need you let me know okay." He murmured against her ear.
"Just hold me." she whimpered, breaking down letting the tears fall down her cheeks.
He felt so warm and familiar. Dylan stroked up and down Brenda's back in a soothing motion as she cried, mourning the loss of her father.
They stood entwined, not caring how much time was going by. Dylan couldn't help but think about his own father's funeral and the compassion she showed him that day.
Even after he had given her a million reasons not to care for him, she still did. There was a dark part of his consciousness that knew if Brenda and her family hadn't reached out to him and welcomed him back into their home, he wouldn't be here standing alive today.
Dylan squeezed Brenda once more before pulling back. He thought about the little girl who had ran into him earlier and asked the question that had been buring on his tongue.
"So you uh…had a baby?" He said, hoping his voice did not betray him and sound as sad as he felt about it. He couldn't help the lone tear that had escaped from his eye and swiped at it quickly, hoping she didn't see.
It was selfish of him to be upset, he knew, but he couldn't help it. The idea of Brenda having a family with someone else left a painful ache deep in his chest.
"I did." Brenda replied softly, playing with the toy and watching him closely. She wondered if the tears in his eyes were for her father or because of something more.
She decided not to press him about it and answered his question, "Prudence Randolph. Just turned four... she's my entire world."
Dylan looked at her and smiled. He opened his mouth to reply, but stopped. He knew how much she wanted to be a parent and after what they went through together in London, he was glad to see her dream come true.
Thinking about their past caused his throat to get tight. He coughed trying to get rid of the umconfortable feeling. It was not the time nor place to be thinking about this. he mentally scolded himself for even bringing it up in the first place. He was at her father's funeral for crying out loud and as always he was making everything about himself.
"What?" Brenda asked him after watching his face change. She could always read him like a book. He looked like he wanted to say something, but was holding back.
"It's nothing." He responded trying to brush it off. "Just thinkin."
"Dylan." She huffed out, putting her hands on her hips, "Tell me right now."
Dylan smirked softly at her stance and shook his head, same old feisty Brenda. "I just thought…I thought you couldn't carry a baby. Well, that's what Kelly told me anways. I'm happy for you, I know how much you've always wanted a baby."
Brenda's face turned sour at the mention of her former best friend's name. Years may have gone by, but she still couldn't forget the last time she had spoken to Kelly. It was one of their worst fights ever.
Tears were shed just as quick as the insults were thrown. They had argued about everything from Dylan to Ryan and strangely enough Brandon . . . the conversation didnt end well.
That was the night she decided she was leaving Beverly Hills and everyone in it behind… for good. She had hopped on a plane that night and never looked back, until now.
"She's was right. The last time I was in Beverly Hills, a doctor told me I wouldn't be able to carry a baby to term myself and after I left, I explored my other options. After years and years of no hope. I found a miracle Doctor who helped me produce enough eggs to attempt to have a baby via surrogate and it worked. "
"Randolph." He said aloud thinking about her daughter's last name. He felt his face fall after connecting the dots. "Don't tell me you had a baby with that Roy Randolph creep from college Bren. He must be like 70." He tried to keep his tone light, teasing, but he was jealous.
"He's not 70 Dylan, Roy is in his late 50's." Brenda retorted quickly, "But yes, Roy is Prue's father. When I returned home to England, I jumped right back into work trying to distract myself from the all the drama. Roy happened to be producing the play I was in and one day after rehearsals he found me crying in my dressing room. I told him about my fertility problems and my fear of never having a family of my own and right there on the spot he offered to help me and I jumped at the chance, there was no way I could afford any of the fertitlity treatments on my own. "
"Wow." Dylan said shocked, listening to her story.
"Roy's only request was that the baby have his last name, so he has someone to leave his fortune to and I wanted a baby so desperately, I didn't care much about her last name, so it was win-win. It was a pretty crazy time, my dad was so not happy about Roy or me being pregnant and living on my own, but thankfully after she was born he came around." Brenda said trailing off remembering how upset her father was after he found out she was going to have a baby, unmarried and to a gay man. They didn't speak for days and it took a long time for her father to come around to the idea.
Brenda shook her head trying to hold off the tears, but they came again. Looking back on the time she spent not speaking to her Father because of her stupid pride made her sick to her stomach. What she wouldn't give for just another day with her father, she felt there were so many things left unsaid between the two.
"See." Dylan said apologizing after realizing she was crying again, "I shouldn't have brought it up. I didn't want to upset you."
"It's not you, I promise." She said trying to downplay her emotions, "So you and Kelly are still a thing huh?"
Before he could answer, the door at the end of the hall opened revealing Brandon, Cindy and Prue. Prue was entertaining them with some story so their attention was focused on her.
"Oh my, Dylan McKay is that really you?" Cindy called out as they got closer. When she was close enough she wrapped her arms around him. She appeared to be in good health, Dylan noticed. Her hair had long faded from brown to silver, but she was still the same Cindy Walsh, but with much sadder eyes.
"Thank you for flying all the way out here. It means so much to me that you came. I know you and Jim had your issues in the past, but he loved you so much." She whisperered into his ear as they embraced.
He pulled back from her and shot her a greatful smile, touched by her words. He looked over at Brandon next and shot him a nervous look. He was unsure if you could call them best friends, given how much time had gone by where they hadn't spoken, but he still considered it true.
Brandon reacted first, holding his hand for a shake. Dylan looked him over, same old Brandon. His hair was flickered silver, but he still held on to his handsome good looks from their younger days. He had chased the political trail all over the world. Brandon was constantly in another country or city for his job so it was hard to stay in touch.
They shook hands for a moment before Dylan tugged him into a friendly hug. After two quick claps on the back Dylan released him, but still held onto his shoulder.
He murmured softly to him, "I got a bellboy's uniform out in the rental car. If you need me to go get it, just say the word, I'm here for all of you, for all of you like you were there for me so long ago."
Brandon cracked a small smile and slapped Dylan on the back appreciatively, embracing him again. "Thank you man, means a lot."
They all lingered in the hallway, not ready to go in and start the service.
"I should head to my seat." Dylan said after a few moments, politely excusing himself. "I will make sure to find you after the service."
He didn't address the statement to anyone, but set his gaze firmly on Brenda's. She nodded at him and watched him disappear into the church, getting losy in the crowd.
"We should head in ourselves." Cindy said, "But before we do. I just want to say how proud you both made your father. He always said the greatest achievement of his life was being a father to you twins. I can't believe he's gone. I just can't believe it."
Brenda sniffled softly and moved to embrace her Mother. "He loved you so much Mom. I know its hard, but he is with us always."
"Brenda is right Mom." Brandon chimed in, "And we will always have each other."
Cindy smiled and kissed both of her children on their cheeks. Together the all walked into the church room, now ready to say goodbye to the patriarch of their family.
I just couldn't make Dylan the Father of her baby. Don't hate me. Review and let me know what you thought.