March 28, 2019
Wow wow wow! Thanks, y'all, for the lovely reviews. I'm so glad that someone is enjoying this as well - at least indulging me in my love of theorizing and plot twists. Haha. Starting tomorrow my schedule of posting may be a bit slower, but I know exactly where I'm taking this, now, and will get as much writing done as I can outside of my work and class schedule now that my break is over. Not sure if I'll post again before the episode tomorrow but YAY FALLIAM IS COMING. Or, according to the summary online, it sounds like Liam is, anyway.
Really, she had no reason to think as much, but it certainly seemed like Adam had been waiting for her to leave her room that next morning. A few moments after she closed and locked hers (just in case, she told herself), she reached the top of the stairs and he opened his door, leaving it open behind him as he followed her downstairs. Fallon tried to pretend she didn't see him, aiming for the kitchen.
But as she stepped off the bottom stair and turned around towards the promising smell of breakfast, he called out a casual, "Morning, Sis."
She stopped short, her jaw tight with her effort to hold back a scowl. Though she considered telling him not to call her that, or that she was not, in fact, his sis, she said nothing at all. Instead, she just made her way to the kitchen and picked something up to take with her.
Fallon turned back around, aiming for the front door, and nearly jumped when she realized Adam was standing right behind her, blocking the exit into the dining room. "What?" She snapped, eyes narrowing.
"You sure are in a rush," he mused, tilting his head slightly.
"And you're coming off like more and more of a stalker every time that I see you," she replied, gesturing with her free hand for him to move aside. He did, but only enough to allow her to squeeze past, her shoulder brushing against his.
Something about that contact, no matter how small, made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She picked up the pace, hurrying out the front door to get into the car and leave for the office.
Liam stood when Fallon walked into his office, just doing so instinctively. He'd half thought it was his mother coming through the door, but he waited for her to say something - and when she instead closed the door and strode over to drop into the seat across from him without explanation, Liam slowly sat back down.
"What's wrong?" He asked somewhat cautiously.
"My new brother is a complete creep," she declared, her shoulders shaking a little, as though she were trying to brush Adam off. "But what's worse, Dad's already moved him in, and at dinner they kept talking about how helpful Ada was. I don't know what she thinks she's getting out of this whole thing, or how it helps Michael. Maybe it doesn't. But Jeff was right; we can't do anything about her."
Liam frowned, sitting back a bit in his chair as he tried to decide whether or not it was worth suggesting what he had started to believe over the past couple of days. In the end, he figured he had to voice it. "Maybe we should just... drop this completely."
"What?"
He sighed, bracing himself for the oncoming battle this would inevitably be. "I mean, she hasn't actually done anything to us. If anything, she's helped your father, and reunited your family."
Fallon shook her head fervently. "No, that's what she would want us to think, Liam. Don't you get it? They must know I'm watching Culhane, so what better way to distract me than by placing a stranger in our home and making him mess with me?"
"Mess with you?"
She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "He just has this really bizarre vibe. I had to brush past him today and got the most disconcerting feeling. I don't think he's here for a family reunion. It feels like something different. Something bad."
"Listen, if he makes you uncomfortable, then I'd say you need to trust your gut on that one. But do you really believe that Michael would come after you like this?"
"Yes," she confirmed without hesitation. "He put me and my family at risk, and that's when we were still engaged. Ada offered him the blackmail she had on me and he kept working with her anyway, only to come home and act like nothing was wrong. And even after I called off the wedding, he took a job with my father despite knowing how that would hurt me. We don't even have proof that Ada got rid of everything she had."
Liam stood up again, walking around the desk to lean back against it, still facing her but closer, now. He wanted to make his point without her having any excuse not to listen. "Fallon. I believe you. I always have, remember? If you think that the company is at risk, then I need you to tell me what you want me to do."
She considered for a moment before frowning. "I'm not sure you can do what I want done."
He just waited, sure that she was probably right but trying to get her to at least tell him her desired plan.
"I think we need to fire him. Send him back to Atlantix, I don't care what. But as long as he's here, Ada has a chance to do something that will threaten your family's livelihood, and my family name."
"Have you ever thought about giving up the family name and living your own life?"
"You mean like you did," she said, almost challengingly.
"Yeah," he conceded. "For a while, I was just free."
Fallon let one corner of her mouth lift in a disbelieving smile. "That's not true. You always worried about your mom. And you wouldn't have risked getting locked in with me if you were so pleased with your life of freedom."
Liam finally broke eye contact, looking down at his hands where they were clasped atop one of his knees. "I don't know about that, Fal."
The quiet that came over his office was one of tension, but maybe also a hint of regret. Liam couldn't tell. He certainly felt it, at least. Realizing that she wasn't going to respond to that, he stood up and started pacing for lack of a better idea. "Listen, I know you don't want to walk away from your family. And that's fine. But you risk infinitely more than they realize, and never get anything in return. I'll do what I can about Culhane, but he's under contract. Convincing them to break it will take some effort, or a big mistake on his part."
"Now that," she replied, tone brighter and more determined, "I can certainly make happen."
A knock sounded from the other side of Michael's door about an hour and a half into the work day. When he stood to answer it, it swung back to reveal a teary-eyed Fallon, who looked both distraught but also ashamed to be seen by him when she was like that. Though she may have thought it of him, he wasn't heartless or anything. As wrong as she had done him, he didn't love seeing her this way.
"Something happen?" He asked, brow furrowing.
She nodded, her eyes darting up and down the hallway in embarrassment. But she didn't ask to be let in. So he stepped back to silently offer it. Fallon lifted her chin slightly, sniffling quietly, before she walking in, heading straight for the chair opposite his own.
Michael walked around her after closing the door, sitting on top of his desk in a stance that was a little too like Liam for Fallon's tastes. "What's going on?" He had his suspicions, of course, but she couldn't know that.
Fallon twisted her hands in her lap, staring down at them. "I don't know what I'm doing, anymore." She brushed her hair back a little when it drifted in front of her face. "Sorry, I know you shouldn't have to listen to any of this. But I'm sort of... on the outs, at home. I don't have anyone else."
"What did you do?"
Fallon lifted her chin sharply, eyes narrowed at him despite the tears. There she was. He felt way more comfortable with that side of Fallon than this new, sad one. "Dad found the real Adam, apparently. I don't trust him at all, though. He's... strange. Not like we are, that is. He's just-" she shuddered slightly, making him frown even more deeply in his confusion. "Anyway, I didn't want Dad to look into this, after Hank and after he found out about the baby, and-"
"Baby?"
Fallon tilted her head in confusion, but some sort of realization came over her and she turned her head down in apparent shame, reaching a hand up to brush at her cheek.
"Fallon," he said, firmer that time. "Are you-?"
She stood abruptly, waving her hands as if to say she couldn't handle the discussion anymore. Michael reached towards her as she spun around, but couldn't stop her as she rushed for the door, clearly distraught.
"Fallon!"
The door opened and slammed shut behind her. He followed, but her own door was closing just as he opened his to go after her.
Safe in her office, Fallon drew her phone out of her pocket, turning on the front-facing camera to check if her makeup had started to run. Thankfully, it hadn't.
"Well?" Liam asked, having turned around in his chair when she walked in. "Hey, are you-?"
"I'm fine," she brushed his concern off. "But he won't be."
Liam lifted an eyebrow, but didn't ask. If it came down to firing Culhane, he was pretty sure he didn't want to know the details.
"It'll take a couple days, probably," she filled in for him. "But I'd say his productivity will probably start to go down. He can't see you anywhere near here anymore, though. That'll throw everything off."
She opened the door just a crack, checking to see if Michael had shut his once more. He had. Quietly, she turned back to Liam. "Go on. I'll let you know if things change."
Confused and admittedly curious, he shot her a look that clearly said, you'd better, before heading for the elevators. Fallon watched him go for a moment, then ducked back into her office, convinced that she was taking herself down the right path to protect Liam, but the wrong one when it came to keeping him around on a personal level. She couldn't tell him the truth of what she was doing without risking him being disapproving again.
But she was putting him and his family first. If she could freak Michael out enough to make a mistake, she could get rid of him and make sure that the only person viable for Ada's attack would be Fallon Carrington herself.