May 11, 2019
After confirming that Bobbi was on the way, Fallon finally turned to Liam, just waiting as he ran his fingers over her cheeks and her arms as if Adam really had gotten her and she just didn't want him to know. It was like he could see the elaborately constructed emotional-house-of-cards that had been built inside her because of her family and everything else that had previously happened to her.
"Why didn't you warn me?" She asked eventually, clearly nervous about what the answer might be.
"Blake caught me and made me leave. Adam must've snuck by while Anders was trying to find a way to get me back inside."
"Sam didn't say anything?"
Liam stiffened, his gaze drifting towards the direction of Alexis's loft, and it took only moments for Fallon to put two and two together.
"Oh no," she breathed, before turning around and rushing along the path that led from the driveway to the stable house. Liam followed closely behind her, and neither were truly surprised when they heard shouting coming from a closed door on the ground floor of the building.
"Sam!" Liam called out, approaching the door to wiggle free the brace that Adam had slid through the handle to block it from opening.
"Hey!" Sam returned. "What-? Can you let me out?"
"Working on it," Liam told him.
Fallon stepped forward to speak to him as well. "Are you okay, Sam? He didn't hurt you?"
"No, but- I thought I heard a gunshot?"
"You did," she confirmed just before Liam managed to get the door open and released Sam.
Once freed, Sam rushed forward to hug Fallon, making her eyebrows fly up in surprise. "I'm sorry," he told her sincerely. "When he realized I'd lied, he took my phone."
"It's okay," Fallon assured him, actually giving him a real hug in return. "Bobbi's on the way, and... I mean, I don't know what'll happen." She stepped back to make him look at her properly, so Sam, too, could register that she was okay. She was shaken, yes, but in one piece. "She's arrested him before, though. And while we haven't always seem things the same way, I trust her to dig and prove to Blake who Adam really is, even if we can't do it ourselves."
"But the fakes...?" Liam lifted an eyebrow.
"They're ready."
The three of them sort of hesitated, unsure if they really wanted to go back towards the house. After a moment, though, Fallon realized that they ought to check on Alexis as well. The fact that she hadn't come downstairs because of the commotion was concerning, but when they made it upstairs, she was just painting, seemingly absentmindedly. Fallon just waved her hands at the boys, redirecting them before Alexis could recognize their presence.
Inevitably, they made their way back towards the front door to wait for Bobbi. Sam seemed more fidgety than usual, which could be attributed easily to his lack of a phone to distract himself with. But Fallon was more focused on the way Liam situated himself between her and the front door, his arms wrapping around her waist from behind as she checked in with Jeff, Michael and Kirby.
The police lights seemed to take an eternity, but when Bobbi showed up and took in the trio of shaken and confused people in front of her, she didn't ask questions. Instead, Fallon let them inside, refusing when Liam suggested they should stay outside.
When they located Blake, Adam and Anders at the dining room table, everyone entering – cops and all – were deeply shocked. Fallon stepped forward in confusion, staring at Anders, who had the gun in his hand, now. At Blake, whose crossed arms and deep scowl made clear just how angry he currently was with his eldest son. But especially at Adam, whose hands were literally tied to the chair he sat in.
"What-?" She began, just gaping in her attempt at following Blake's decisions. Why he felt that the best idea was to make Fallon feel abandoned yet again, she wasn't sure. Maybe to convince Adam into coming downstairs with them or into giving up the gun?
At some point, Fallon felt that her family was going to need to develop some sort of signal system.
"Fallon," Blake began, stepping around the table towards her. Somehow, he looked surprised when she stepped away, towards Bobbi and Liam. Blake held his hands up belatedly, realizing what the mood was. "He's all yours," he told Bobbi, gesturing towards Adam.
Fallon narrowed her eyes at her brother, wishing he'd never come back to them in the first place, no matter how happy it made Blake for those brief few weeks. Adam opened his mouth but she held up a hand. "I would recommend against saying anything without a lawyer present. I don't know if you'll be able to afford one without Dad, though."
Several sets of eyes shifted to Fallon without her acknowledging it – she'd called him Dad, after all. And that was very telling. It made Liam furrow his brow in curiosity, but no one said anything until Bobbi stepped forward to handcuff Adam, reading him his rights.
Fallon tapped the heel of her shoe against the floor in front of her as she sized up her father. He sat on the other side of his desk, looking both frustrated and ashamed, which – if she were being entirely honest – Fallon sort of reveled in seeing. She gave him a few moments of silence before finally speaking up. "You know, Liam's waiting for me, so-"
"I'm sorry, Fallon."
She blinked at him at first, not sure how someone responded when Blake Carrington said those words. Perhaps it would've helped to have Cristal join them. But this was about a father and a daughter, and everything between them.
"Really," she responded, unsure if she meant it as a question or not.
He nodded, clasping his hands atop his desk. "Yes. You... you were right."
Fallon shrugged, as if to say it certainly wasn't the first time. "Well, I can't say I understand a father's point of view, but I suppose it would be hard to think badly about someone you've spent so long wondering about."
Blake's eyebrows lifted, and she knew what he was thinking. How strange for Fallon Carrington to be considerate and thoughtful about something like that. Clearly, Liam was having a questionable influence on her.
"Speaking of someone you've spent a long time thinking about, your boyfriend lied to me earlier. What were you trying to do?"
Drawing in a slow breath, Fallon tried to come up with an excuse on the fly. Mercifully, it wasn't entirely untrue, so she figured it probably sounded honest. "I was pretty sure you wouldn't want me to come home."
"Well, perhaps we can change that," Blake suggested slowly, as if easing her into it. "I intend to speak to Steven and Sam as well, about you all potentially moving back home. I clearly dove into believing Adam when my very own voices of reason told me not to."
"You're being oddly forthright about your mistakes, Blake."
He shrugged slightly, but nodded. "I thought we'd lost Adam for good. And then he returned, only to send my other son away, and nearly kill my daughter. I didn't really know him. I wanted to, clearly, but what sort of trade would that have been?"
Fallon lifted an eyebrow, attempting to quell the unfamiliar hope she felt. "Well. I do remember pointing out that the only time I recall you admitting that you care about us was after Grandpa died. Better late than never, I guess?"
"If you want to move back home, you're welcome to," he said firmly, clearly not interested in continuing the discussion if it involved Fallon roasting him for his emotions.
"And I appreciate that, Dad. I don't doubt that Steven and Sam will. But... Liam and I are making plans. Real ones, this time, with actual goals that are based in- in love and what we both want. It's... It's really good. I mean, we both knew I had to move out eventually."
"Well, you could always come back to Atlantix. Culhane isn't there for you to target anymore."
"Cute."
Blake lifted his hands in surrender, actually cracking a smile.
"I'm working on some new business plans, but it will probably take me a while. Really that's for the best, though. I'm going on Liam's book tour with him, so I'll have some down time first."
Blake lifted an eyebrow, clearly taken aback by her commitment. "Perhaps if I find a break I should look into it."
Fallon tilted her head. "What?"
"The book? If he's your... choice, or whatever you're calling it, then maybe I ought to start pretending to be supportive."
She just blinked at him again, before shaking her head in amazement. "I- Well, sure. If he ever lets me read it, I'll buy you a copy. But first I need to focus on putting my money towards a company I can lead, like you have with CA."
"Maybe you buy me the book and I buy you Morell Corp back."
Fallon sighed, of course feeling deeply tempted. But that wasn't how she wanted to start her new chapter, no book pun intended. "Thanks," she replied, "but I'm all right. Even if I don't get it back, I'll build something new. I don't want you to spend all your money on me, like we Carringtons do with our problems. I just want you to be my dad. I used to be your favorite, remember?"
"Not that I'd ever tell Steven that."
Fallon looked away but allowed a pleased smile to bloom across her face.
"Besides," Blake continued. "Eventually children need to build dynasties of their own. Families, businesses... whatever they please."
She wasn't prepared to say it with as much conviction as she really felt it, but Fallon wanted that sort of legacy – that sort of future – with Liam. Or maybe she was ready, just not in front of her father. He'd heard her say things like that before, when she lied about Jeff and thought she meant it about Michael. Maybe she could've meant it about Michael if she hadn't met Liam. And maybe that wasn't fair, but it was the truth.
"Yeah," she agreed. "But I do think you should reach out to Steven. Sam mentioned today that he thought maybe he and Steven would travel, do some good, that sort of thing. But they'd need somewhere to come home to that they don't have to pay constant rent on. And if you're offering, I'm pretty confident they would take you up on that."
Almost unbelievably, he promised to do so and even stood up to hug Fallon as she left. Deciding to save that one for story time whenever she next saw Steven, Fallon hurried onto the back patio to join Liam down by the pool.
She rather liked Liam's hugs better, she found, and happily accepted one before sliding her hand down his arm to twine their fingers together. "So."
"So?"
"Dad suggested I should move back in and work at Atlantix again."
Liam's eyebrows rose slowly, before pulling together sharply with his disappointment. "...Oh. What did you say?"
Fallon shrugged, acting like she was going to lay down some bad news. "Well... I may have told him that I had bigger plans."
A proud smirk pulled at his lips, and Fallon's expression quickly shifted to match. "You sure? I know how much he means to you."
"He hasn't stood by me. Not really. And all of that talk in there was just his guilt. Or maybe him hoping I won't go telling the story to anybody. I don't know. I'd like to think he had a change of heart, but it's Blake, so..." She shrugged. "I may want his approval, but I don't need him. Not like I used to." Fallon stepped a little closer, ducking her chin so she had to look up at him under her lashes. "You might be unsurprised to learn that you matter more to me, now."
Liam leaned forward to kiss her, even going so far as to lift her off the ground in both joy and awe at how far they'd come. She let out a quiet laugh of surprise, making him grin in response before setting her down. Fallon swatted at his arm, though she obviously wasn't bothered by the gesture, so Liam took her hand once more to keep her from hitting him again. "So does that mean we can go home?"
"Home? We should upgrade from your apartment, honestly."
He feigned hurt. "My apartment is fine."
"Sure," she shrugged. "Until you see how many boxes are actually in my room upstairs."
Fallon turned towards the house again, tugging him by his hand to go show him. In the end, he firmly agreed about the apartment situation. But it wasn't like he'd really thought they wouldn't move. After all, if Fallon was going to start her new career, they'd need to pick house wherever that job took her. So, leaving the boxes behind, they left for home ('for now,' as Fallon said), and after a well-deserved dinner featuring Fallon's favorites, Liam made sure to show her just how relieved he was that she'd made it out of that room alive.