Sunday July 15th- 2:00pm
Once lunch was over, and everyone was caught up, it was decided that it would be best to break for the night, get Antonia, Melody, and Aiden to the safe house, and start back at it in the morning. Aiden was happy to oblige, his long night the evening before was starting to catch up with him, and Melody was not interested in letting go of him anytime soon.
Ace offered to drive the girls to Hodgins' house with their belongings from the beach, and Aiden agreed that he would pack a bag for each of them with fresh changes of clothes and gather groceries. Melody had a minor meltdown when they went their separate ways, but eventually settled into her car seat with Bonnie in her arms, her thumb firmly in her mouth as she watched Aiden drive away with a scowl on her face.
Antonia looked back at her once more and sighed, noting that Ace was watching her. "What?"
"She'll be fine. She is going to have to get used to people coming and going. Abandonment issues don't just go away because you made a promise." He said, knowing that she already knew it to be true, but found comfort in Ace's confirmation.
"I know. Doesn't keep me from feeling guilty though." She said with a sigh. "She's only started sucking her thumb since Aiden left the house. I don't know why all of a sudden she's finding comfort that way."
"Doesn't matter. She's comforted, and she's not screaming. She'll be a little mad at him now, and then when she sees him later, she'll forget all about it." He said, looking in the rear view mirror, he noticed her scowl was now on him. He stuck his tongue out at her, and he watched her eyes lighten up and a spark of mischievousness appear in her eyes as she stuck her tongue out at him.
"Ace, don't teach her that." Antonia said, smacking his arm as he turned and stuck his tongue out at her.
"Who do you think taught it to you?" Ace said as he smacked her hand away. "Be nice to me, I brought you home."
"Yeah, yeah." She said, looking out the window, a happy and content smile on her face. "It is nice to be home." She sighed and watched the passing scenery, turning her attention back to Ace, she caught him looking over at her again. "What? You keep looking at me."
"Nothing, just… happy looks good on you." He said sincerely. "You look like you've gotten a lot off your mind lately."
"I… have found that a great burden is lifted when one has someone around to talk to about things that are seldom, if ever spoken of. Someone that I can trust." She said, watching him for a moment. "Someone who isn't being paid to listen, or will give me medication to dull the pain. You know that I hate therapists."
"I know that. You've told Aiden about Deuce, haven't you?" Ace said, watching her eyes flick to him, and back to the road again.
"I have." She said quietly, taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a moment and released it slowly. "I know that you and I haven't talked about it much in a long time." She said, looking outside, she shrugged. "Have you ever told Mom or Dad that we've talked about it? Do you think they know that you're the one that has helped me through all of that?"
"No." He shook his head. "No, no." He said. "I am much smarter than that. That's between you and I. If your parents knew that you were coming to me about that stuff instead of them, they'd get all weird. We don't need them to be getting weird." He laughed.
"Yeah." She sighed. "Ace?" She said, looking over to him thoughtfully, he lifted his eyebrow and looked to her as he watched her brain cranking away at some thoughtful subject. "Are we good now? You and I?"
"We're getting back to it." He said, nodding. "You need to slow down though, and I have to talk to you about things if they're bugging me, not lash out and be a jerk." He said, rolling down the window as they approached the back gate of the Hodgins estate. He pushed the intercom button and waited.
"What's the secret phrase?" Hodgins' voice came over the intercom, a humored tone to his voice as Ace grunted.
"Are you serious, Hodgins? Just open the goddamned gate." Ace said with a growl.
"That's not it." Hodgins laughed.
"Let us in, Uncle Bugs! Let us in! Let us in!" Antonia exclaimed from the passenger side as Ace glared at her.
"There it is." Hodgins said, as the gate opened.
Ace glanced to Antonia, and she shrugged with a smile. "What? That's the secret phrase." She said with a bright grin, as Ace just shook his head and drove onto the grounds.
Hodgins and Angela met them at the guest house, bright smiles and hugs were given as Hodgins and Ace pulled the bags from the back of the truck and lugged them into the guest house.
"How is our girl doing?" Angela asked Antonia, tipping her head toward the car as she picked up a bag from the back of the truck.
"She's doing alright. Her food cravings have gotten better, mine have gotten worse." Antonia smiled.
"About that, young lady." Angela said, shaking her head.
"What?" Antonia laughed.
"Three months! Three months, you've known, and you haven't said one word! One word! Here I am thinking you've got chronic fatigue syndrome, or you're suffering from some debilitating form of depression, and it turns out you're just pregnant." Angela shook her head.
Antonia laughed. "I was trying to wait to tell Mom." She grabbed another bag and walked toward the guest house with Angela as Ace went to get Melody from the car.
Angela tried to stop Antonia before she walked in, touching her shoulder as she stepped into the foyer. "Oh, by the way… the guest house has been…"
Antonia's jaw dropped as she walked inside, as she was suddenly surrounded by lace, tulle, flowers, centerpieces, party supplies and satin. "Holy crap, holy crap."
"Right. This is your sister's staging area for the wedding." Angela cringed. "I forgot to warn you."
"It looks like a craft store threw up in here." Antonia said, looking around at all of the items around the room. "Angela?"
"Grace will be here this evening to move things into a more manageable space, so you guys have some room to move around." Angela explained.
"Move around? How about breathe? How many people are coming to this wedding?" She asked as Ace came up behind her.
"I know, right?" Ace laughed, as Melody looked around in wonder. "Your sister is absolutely insane."
"Oh, yeah." Angela said with a sigh, glancing to Antonia. "Um, also... she's bringing your dress by this evening for you to try on to make sure it fits, and she is bringing a few dresses for Melody here to try on too."
"What?" Antonia asked, her attention flicked to Angela, her eyes wide.
"She said she needs a flower girl… and since Nate and Luke are her ring bearers…" Angela shrugged.
"Oh my God, it's like a cult, and they're trying to recruit." Ace said, his voice a bit too giddy as it gained a glare from Antonia. "Insane." He said, carefully handing the little girl over to Antonia. "I should get going." He said, taking a step backwards. "I told Beck I was on my way home an hour ago."
"Ace." Antonia said desperately, her eyes wide with worry. "Ace, I need to go into double hiding! Double hiding!" She exclaimed. "I need to hide from murderers and my family. Please!" She begged.
"Sorry, kid. You can't hide from family." He said, turning on his heel, he walked out of the front door and waved to Angela, as he headed back toward his truck.
"Traitor!" Antonia exclaimed, watching him wave to her from the truck as he prepared to leave. She grunted angrily and turned back to the house and stepped in the foyer. She looked into the living room area and sighed, stalking over to an oversized chair covered with random decorations. She tossed them onto a table, and flopped back with an exhausted grunt, as Melody settled against her cautiously.
Hodgins stepped around the corner, stopped by Angela before he walked into the room, she gave him a pleading look and nodded toward Antonia. He nodded and shrugged, walking into the room where Antonia had planted herself. "Hey, kiddo." He said, watching as she looked up at him, her eyes were filling with tears. "Oh, sweetie." He said, crouching down toward her, he took her hand, watching as Melody lay her head on Antonia's chest, watching Hodgins carefully. "Are you okay?" He whispered.
"I missed you, Uncle Bugs." She whimpered, her lip trembling slightly.
"Aw, I missed you sweetheart." He said with a happy smile, his bright blue eyes watching her with such love and patience, it only made her want to cry harder. She had no idea what she was so upset about, but she was finding it harder and harder to control her tears. "Is this one of those emotional pregnant woman moments?" He asked honestly.
"Uh huh." She whimpered, nodding her head.
"Do you need me to go get you something? Anything. You name it. What can I get you, baby girl? Do you want some pie? A glass of chocolate milk? A pony?" He asked, his voice sincere and coddling.
She sniffled and let out a laugh, smiling through her tears as he kissed her fingertips. "I think I'll be okay." She sniffed. "I just need Aiden to get here so I can take a nap." She whispered, sitting up carefully as Melody rested against her, holding onto her.
"Do you want to see if she'll come with me? And you can go lay down in one of the bedrooms?" He asked, signing something to Melody, the little girl looked between Hodgins and Antonia.
Her head lifted in confusion when he signed, and she sniffled. "You're signing? You just asked her if she wanted to play." She whispered.
"Uh." He said, smiling slightly. "Yeah. Um, Doctor B said we needed to learn how to sign so we could talk to her prospective granddaughter." He said.
"She didn't say that." Antonia whimpered. "Mom!" She sobbed, pulling Melody closer to her as she cried.
"Oh boy." Hodgins said, looking toward Angela. "Oh boy, oh boy. Ange? Can you come in here please?"
Angela walked into the room and came toward the chair quickly, as Hodgins looked at her pleadingly. "Jack, what did you do?"
"I didn't mean to!" He exclaimed, trying to smooth Antonia's hair back as he talked to her. "Ant? Ant, sweetie." He whispered. "I'll be back. I'll be right back." He said, standing up, he headed for the door.
"Jack, where are you going?" Angela called to her husband as he disappeared around the corner toward the door.
He poked his head around the doorway. "I'm going to go get her a pony." He said, disappearing again leaving Angela to deal with the overly emotional Antonia.