Hey guys so here's the next chapter, by reading your comments I can tell you want some fluffy family time , so I promise you I will write a couple of chapters of nothing but fluff. It's funny, with most of my stories I would struggle to get to 1,000 words, but for some reason this story comes so easily to me. I can't believe that this chapter actually has 10,000 words. Sorry for the speech I'm just really excited. Anyway hope you enjoy :)
XXXX
2 months later:
Her perfectly manicured hand grabbed the brushed nickel doorknob as she pushed open the lark oak front door of the house holding one hand high above her head trying not to let the dry cleaning drag on the floor as she walked down the flagstone pathway towards the car. As she stepped down onto the concrete driveway she could feel the heat radiating from the concrete onto her bare feet. As she walked over to the trunk of the car she reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the car key. Attached to the car key, was the key to the house in D.C., the house in Santa Barbra and the apartment in San Francisco as well as a little blue ugly doll keychain. Whenever they were at the toy store Jerry would always love to look at ugly dolls and so for his birthday they had bought him three average sized ones and one giant one. The giant one was blue with a giant pink nose and two adorable eyes, it had also come with this identical keychain which now resided on the keys to the range rover. She pulled out the key and fumbled with the buttons trying to make sure that she didn't hit the alarm button. Her other arm began to get sore with holding the dry cleaning so high up, and she considered putting it down so she could open the trunk. She decided against it though because she didn't want the just bought, newly dry cleaned outfits to get dirty or she would never hear the end of it from her mother. Finally she was able to click the right button as she stepped back as to not have the opening trunk hit her in the face. That was another thing she didn't need tomorrow, a massive bruise on her face. She began to giggle as she remembered that a few days before their wedding Fitz had had his blood drawn at the doctor's office and on the way out he ended up fainting , hitting his head on the sidewalk. Long story short he had ended up having to wear a ton of cover-up on their wedding day since he had a monster bruise on her forehead. A smile filled her face as she thought about her wedding day. She remembered that mix of fear and excitement, wondering if she was making the right choice. She remembered her mother that day, she had spent hours lecturing Mellie about how awful men were and that her getting married was an awful idea. Her mother's constant fear mongering had gotten her so worked up about the wedding that she considered just running away and skipping the whole thing. She was actually on her way towards the car when she ran into Abby who convinced her to stay. Abby reminded her about how much she loved Fitz and how they were mean to be together. She also reminded Mellie how lonely she was as a child, and how she shouldn't let her mother take away her chance at happiness. As she looked back on that day, Mellie was so glad that she had listened to Abby's advice and married Fitz, he had made her happier then she had ever thought possible. He had filled her life with love and happiness. He had given her two beautiful children, he had loved her and worshiped her and made her the happiest person in the world.
She continued to think about this as she opened the trunk and moved some bags out of the way to make room to lay the dry cleaning down in the trunk. She considered hanging the clothes on one of those handles on the side of the car, but she decided against it because she didn't want them to block Fitz's vision when he was driving. As she closed the trunk she turned around to see her neighbor John Stenson walking his two English Terriers.
"Morning Mellie" He called as he waved to her
"Morning" she said with a smile as she waved back with a smile
"Maybe we should get a dog" Fitz said as he walked up behind her and pulled a duffle of his shoulder and placed it on the pavement
"Yeah right like we have time for a dog?" Mellie asked as she rolled her eyes.
"We do, I mean I do, I mean I will. In the fall Karen's going to start preschool and I'm going have tons of extra time with nothing to don't so why don't we make the kids happy and get a dog that can fill my time"
"Well we could get a dog or you could just go back to practicing law" Mellie suggested
"Ugh I hated law, I only went to law school because I was trying to impress a girl I liked" he said with a smile
"Oh really, so how'd it work out with the girl?" Mellie asked
"Well I was right to go to law school because I started dating that girl and after three years of all-nighter's and history professors and notes in class I finally asked her to marry me. And after a really dorky proposal she said yes. And finally we got married and we had two amazing babies and we moved all around the country and every day I fall more and more in love with the girl, and she has made me happier than I ever thought possible and I love her and I love the babies she gave me and I love the way I feel when I with her... I'm so glad I went through law school because those four years of studying and work was all worth it for the lifetime of happiness that I got with this girl." Fitz said
"Wow she sounds like some girl" Mellie said with a smirk
"Oh she is" he said seductively as he walked over to her and began making out like there was no tomorrow.
"You realize the neighbors are probably watching us right now" she muttered as he continued to assault her neck
"Well why don't we go finish this inside"
"Ugh I wish but I have to get the kids breakfast and finish packing if we want to get to my mom's on time."
"Or we could just skip your mom's and stay here the whole weekend and bone"
"Believe me I would love nothing more, but I mean it is her 65th birthday and you know how she loves to parade around the prodigal daughter like some kind of show pony" Mellie said as she rolled her eyes.
"Oh Mellie ... It always warms my heart to hear about how much you love and admire your mother."
"Oh please like you didn't despise your father ... and I mean she not that bad she's just , she's made a lot of mistakes that she never tried to make up for" Mellie explained
"Yeah well who knows maybe 65 will be the year of amends"
"I doubt it" Mellie said with a chuckle as she let go of his and headed back inside the house. Once she got back inside she headed to the kitchen
"Jerry Karen Breakfast!" she yelled hoping the kids heard her. She knew they had because a second later she heard the sound of four little feet running down the stairs. A second later they were barreling into the kitchen each one sliding with their socks on the hard wood floor.
"Oh now don't run" Mellie said as she worried about the kids slipping and hurting themselves. Jerry didn't slow down but Karen did a little.
"Hey sweetie how are you this morning?" Mellie asked as she waked over to Karen and picked her up , planting a kiss on the little girls cheek.
"Ready for breakfast?" Mellie asked as she set the little girl down in the high chair
"I hope you guys are hungry" she said with a smile as she walked over to the counter and grabbed the two sippy cups for the kids
"Here you go my little man, here's your yellow one and here you go Karen, here's your purple one" she said as she placed a cup in front of each kid
"I want the purple one" Jerry exclaimed as he reached out to try to grab it
"The purple one is her's honey" Mellie explained
"I want it"
"I want it" the kids said a the exact same time
"Well Jerry it's her's, you can have it tomorrow okay"
"No! I want it now!" he said as he began to bang his hands into the table
"Jerry calm down" Mellie said as she tried to stop the tantrum before it started
"NO I want it now!" he screamed as his face began to turn red
"But its mine!" Karen whimpered as she started to cry, Mellie knew that she had to fix this now, before it spiraled out of control.
"Hey okay Jerry listen to me! How about you let Karen have the purple one today, and then you get to pick the first movie we get to watch in the car ... okay"
"Okay fine but only if we can watch star wars"
"Oh no sweetie that movies too violent for your sister, how about something else like Shrek?"
"I don't like Shrek, I wanna watch Star Wars!"
"No sweetie we can't watch that, how about we watch despicable me? You always love that movie"
"I only like the second one"
"Well then let's watch the second one"
"But if we don't watch the first one then you'll be confused" Jerry explained
"Oh well I've already seen the first one sweetie" Mellie explained with a giggle
"Really?"
"Yeah remember, me, you, daddy and sissy all went to see it last month remember"
"Oh yeah I remember that ... let's watch it"
"Okay great now can you please let go of the bottle?" Mellie asked as she reached for the purple bottle as jerry loosened his grip on the bottle, letting Mellie hand the bottle back to Karen. After that Mellie went over to the toaster and prepared some of the miny frozen toaster waffles. The kids loved these and they were easy to make. After they were ready she heated up the butter and the syrup and before pouring it all over the kid's waffles. While the kids devoured their food Mellie checked her emails on her phone. That was the hard thing about being a senator, the work never stops. Mellie was lucky that she was even able to go to the party this weekend, considering that for the past 6 weekends she had had to go back to California for events and fundraisers. It would be nice to have one weekend with Fitz and the kids before it she went back to being away every weekend. She finished checking her emails before walking over to the fridge and grabbing herself a blueberry Greek yogurt. A few minutes later she and the kids had finished their breakfast.
"Hey guys lets go upstairs and brush your teeth before we leave"
"Where are we going mommy?" Jerry asked
"Were going to grandma's house"
"Really!? Are we gonna see horsies?" Jerry asked
"Yeah we can see some of the horses" Mellie said as a massive smile filled the kids face.
"Yay Horsies!" Karen squealed in delight as she accidentally knocked over her sippy cup. Luckily the lid kept the orange juice at bay while Mellie quickly leaned over and propped it before any of it spill. After that she picked Karen up and balanced her on her hip
"Jerry baby come one we gotta go upstairs and brush your teeth"
"Okay mama" he said as he hopped off the chair and ran down the hallway towards the stairs. Mellie followed suit with Karen in her arms. They headed up the stairs, jerry headed to his bathroom which was attached to his bedroom as Mellie took Karen to the hall bathroom that the little girl used. Mellie sat the little girl grabbed placed the little girl on the edge of the counter as she grabbed the sleeping beauty toothbrush off the counter and covered the bristles with globby white toothpaste. Both Karen and Jerry used special non fluoride toothpaste that was okay for kids who didn't understand yet that they had to spit it out. Mellie instructed a very squirmy Karen to open her mouth as she rested one hand on the little girl's hip stopping her from falling off the counter. After a few minutes of brushing Mellie helped her rinse before wiping Karen's mouth with a wash cloth. After throwing the cloth in the hamper she picked Karen up and carried her into Jerrys room where she set her down on his red race car bed. She looked up through the open door to see Jerry standing on his Thomas the train engine foot stool in front of the marble vanity, brushing his teeth.
"Hey buddy which stuffed animals do you want to bring to Grandma's house?" she asked as she picked a few stuffed animals up off the floor
"I want Cowwie and big toe and Lammy and blankie and Rory the rhino and Ellie the elephant and ... that it"
"Thank god" Mellie muttered under her breath as she suddenly heard the sound of tiny snores as she looked down at the bed to see Karen lying fast asleep on the bed. Karen was so funny when she slept , because she did this thing in which she sucked her thumb and with her other hand she would twirl her hair , she had been like this since she was a baby and if she wasn't doing that then she would never fall asleep. For a second Mellie just stared at the little girl calmly sleeping as she performed her usual routine of thumb sucking and hair twirling. Suddenly Mellie was snapped out of her trance by Fitz's voice
"You ready to go?" he asked as she turned around to see Fitz standing in the doorway of Jerry's room with the go bag in his hand. The go bag was a massive black bag that they put everything in. It heled toys, books, snacks, stuffed animals, Band-Aids and changes of clothes. It was always funny to Mellie that only a few years ago she would leave the house with nothing more than her credit card, but now she couldn't leave without hours of planning and countless bags full of stuff. As tedious as it was to always be packing random things for a million random situations, with two little kids you had to be ready from everything.
"Yeah almost ... Um can you just take her out to the car?" Mellie asked motioning to the little girl sleeping on the bed"
"Um well my hands are a little too full for that" he said motioning to the bag in his hand.
"Okay fine then I'll take her to the car but can you just grab some stuffed animals for Jerry? She asked as she carefully pick up Karen and walked towards Fitz
"Yeah of course ... by the way have I told you , you look fantastic today" he said as rested his hand on her hip letting it slide down , his fingers slowly caressing the edge of her ass.
"Oh yeah well you look pretty sexy too" she whispered seductively as she leaned in and began to kiss him.
"Ew mommy daddy stop" Jerry wined as Mellie pulled back with a giggle
"Sorry sweetie" she said with a smile as she left the room. Once she got downstairs she headed to the basement so she could grab some headphones before heading out to the car. Once Mellie got out to the car she carefully strapped a sleeping Karen in her car seat before wrapping the little girl in a blanket before placing the noise cancelling headphones on her to try to keep her from waking up. After that , Mellie headed back inside to go the bathroom and grab her purse before heading back to the car and sitting in the passenger seat. A few minutes Jerry walked out to the car and climbed into the car sitting on his booster seat as she asked Mellie for help setting up the DVD player. After a few uncomfortable minutes of her leaning back into the back row fiddling with the DVD player, she finally figured it out, setting up Despicable Me 2 much to Jerrys excitement. After a few minutes Fitz got into the car and settled into the driver's seat before hitting the gas and pulling out of the driveway.
XXXX
9 hours later:
It wasn't supposed to take this long. Usually the drive from D.C to Ashville was only about six or seven hours, but today it had taken them nine and they weren't even there yet. That was the problem with traveling with kids, it seemed like every ten seconds they needed something. Karen's sleeping was short lived because only minutes after leaving the house Jerry got all punchy and decided it was a good idea to poke Karen till she woke up. The lack of sleep had made Karen cranky beyond belief. She began crying and screaming and throwing things, Jerry began to feel sick and Mellie got a serious headache. Altogether they had stopped seven times for things ranging from lunch to diaper changes to throwing out a barf bag. Finally after nine stressful hectic tedious hours they were finally getting close. Mellie could tell they were close when she began to see the tops of her native Blue Ridge Mountains. Mellie had been born in Ashville at her family's massive estate. The Caraway estate had been built in the early 1800's by Mellie's great great great grandfather. Mellie's family had made their money in logging in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains hundreds of years ago. They had increased their wealth through shipping and banking, and also some less pure methods mainly slavery. While the rest of her family had been extremely blasé about the family's slave past, Mellie had always felt guilty about it. Anyway, it didn't matter in the south how you made your money as long as I was old money. You see the social classes of the south ad been determined years ago as the great families of the south bred and schemed for power. The Caraways were a perfect example of that, a blue blooded family constantly breading with other families in order to preserve their wealth and social class. Mellie's father Benjamin Caraway had been the only child and heir to the caraway fortune. As a teenager and young adult he was rebellious, he was a womanizer who would burn through cash on lavish parties and call girls. He was the true black sheep of the family causing his parents grief with his reckless party ways. They decided to take control of the situation by giving him an ultimatum, he would both settle down, get married and carry on the family name or else they would cut him off from his beloved trust fund. In order to exert even more control over the situation they had already picked out the perfect wife, the wealthy young debutant Katherine Thorne. Katherine was a 29 year old fellow blue blood, the youngest daughter of the famed Thorne family. She was extremely wealthy with a massive dowry that the Caraway's loved. Finally after much badgering from his parents Ben finally caved in and agreed to marry Katherine. Even though they were married they couldn't have been farther apart, she was young at only 29 years of age while he was already in his late 30. As there "Marriage" continued, she used the title to become the queen bee of Ashville social life while he carried on his affairs. After four years of marriage the Caraway's became terrified that they would never have a grandchild to carry on the family name. So again they threatened to cut their son off, and exactly nine months later they were cradling their perfect blue blooded granddaughter. Growing up Mellie had been the panicle of a Sothern belle, the only daughter and heir to the family dynasty she was primped and prepared for a life of party's and fundraisers and power. Mellie had grown up at the massive Caraway estate under the watch of maid's nanny's and housekeepers. Her entire life her mother had been throwing parties and events trying to keep up her perfect public profile. Mellie's father on the other hand was often away on business but would always bring back gifts and toys and candy for his daughter. Even though he hadn't wanted to have her, once she was born he feel in love. She was his little girl, the apple of his eye who he would dote on. When her mother would have her fancy dinner parties and she would force Mellie to eat early in the staff's kitchen so she wouldn't get in the way, her father would sneak down and give her candy. All of her father's love and affection had blinded Mellie to not be able to see her father's indiscretions. In the south, people did not want to be on the wrong side of the town's gossip so they buried their family's secrets. It seemed like everyone in the family had known about her father's affairs except for her.
Mellie had heard some rumors about her father but she had never believed it until winter break of 8th grade. That winter she had gone with her prep school model U.N club to Switzerland and when she returned everything was different. From the second that she arrived back from the airport she knew something was wrong. Her main nanny at the time, Rose had gone to the station to pick her up. This was extremely strange because the driver Peter was always the one to pick her up from places. Instead Rose was there to pick her up. Rose guided her to the car and instead of driving she stayed parked in the parking lot as she began to talk to Mellie , slowly explaining that her father had been in a relationship with someone else and that her mother had kicked her father out of the house. The second that Rose said this, it was like Mellie had been hit with a ton of bricks, she couldn't move she couldn't breathe she was in shock. She didn't want to believe it, she loved her father and she couldn't fathom that he would ever do this. Before Rose could say or do anything, Mellie shoved open the door of the car and ran away as fast as she could. She just kept running until she knew that Rose could no longer see her. She ran until she found a friendly truck driver who was willing to give her a ride to the outskirts of town where the Edminster house was. The Edminster house was a smaller home that her family owned. Once the driver dropped her off she ran down the long windy driveway to the front of the house where she rang the doorbell. After a second her heart was shattered when the door was opened by no one else but her father's secretary Tiffany. She was standing in the doorway in a tight neon pink leather skirt along with a tight sheer reveling green top and in her arms was a little blond baby The second Mellie saw the baby she felt like she was going to faint. With her green eyes and pail skin she could tell without a doubt that it was her father daughter. Suddenly Mellie heard her father's voice booming through the house
"Baby who is it?" He bellowed as he walked into the foyer shocked to see Mellie standing in the doorway
"Go inside I'll handle this" he muttered as he exited the house and closed the door behind him
"What are you doing here? Did Katherine send you?" he asked visibly annoyed
"What... No mom didn't send me"
"Well then why are you here?" he asked getting even more annoyed
"Why am I here? I'm here because I got home from Europe and I find out that you and mom are getting divorced and I... I can't believe you didn't tell me" she said as she eyes welled up in tears
"You know what I can't believe, that you're so stupid, I never loved your mother, but I love tiffany and I love our baby"
"Your baby?"
"Yes my little harmony"
"Harmony ... You didn't" Mellie said as she felt the hot wet tears sting her face, it was bad enough that he had a secret love child, but naming her Harmony was something else.
"Of course I did, It was the perfect name for my perfect girl ... I love harmony in ways I never loved you, just like I love Tiffany in ways that I never loved your mother."
"How could you do this? How could you do this to our family?" she asked as the tears continued to roll down her face
"Our family was built on lies, this is a family built on love , this is my family now and I'm sorry but you're not a part of it" and with that he shut the door leaving her alone in the frigid outside air as her whole body began to shake. This felt like a bed dream, but no matter how hard she pinched herself she wasn't waking up. After a couple minutes of crying she finally composed herself just long enough to call for peter the driver to pick her up. The entire drive home she was silent just staring out the window trying to process what the hell had just happened. When they finally got home Mellie could see all the staff just watching her as she walked inside and up towards her room In the hallway Mellie ran into her mother but she was so disgusted she couldn't even look at her , all Mellie did was just head towards her palatial bedroom , climb under the covers and cry. She would cry for days, she would cry till she had no more tears left, she had loved her father and he had betrayed her. One night after 3 full days of crying, she was so hungry that she had to go downstairs. In the middle of the night she crept downstairs and headed towards the kitchen. On her way down she saw a light on in the office. The door was a crack open, and she could hear the conversation. She could hear her mother on the phone with who she assumed to be her grandparents. As she listened she couldn't believe what she was hearing, she had heard her mother say "He needs to come home now before people start talking" was the one line that had always stuck with Mellie. From the second that she heard it, she felt sick. She couldn't believe her mother would forgive her father just in order to save her reputation. She knew thought that it was something that any southern woman would do, they would put their reputation before their happiness and that was something Mellie could never get on board with. Instead, that conversation helped open her eyes to the toxicity of the south. After that moment she stopped crying, she stopped sulking and she began applying to northern boarding schools. She was already planning on going to boarding school, but never one in the north , all southern girls stayed south except for her. She had applied to schools like Andover, Exeter and Choke. In the end she ended up attending Andover, and just in time. You see once the trophy wife vultures heard the news about her father everyone started looking at her different and gossiping about her and she was so glad that she could finally get away and go somewhere where nobody knew her. Suddenly Mellie was snapped out of her trance by the sound of Fitz's voice.
"Mel's you okay?"
"Yeah ... I'm just thinking" she said as she continued to look out the window, running her finger down the cold hard glass.
"Thinking about what? He asked
"The past" she said as she continued to look out the window, Fitz slowly took his hand and rested it on her knee
"I know it's hard coming home but it's only a few days, and I'm here and the kids are here and were going to help you get through it" he said as he squeezed her knee.
"I know ... It's going to be okay, it's all going to be okay" she said with a week smile
"Good because were here" he said as he pointed to the massive wrought iron gate that separated the Caraway estate from the rest of the world. As they drove up to the gate, Mellie entered the pin and was buzzed in. Slowly the gate opened and they began the drive towards the house. The house had the quintessential long southern driveway framed by hundreds of beautiful she tree's. As you drove down the long driveway the massive mansion finally came into focus. The Caraway house had been built in the early 1800's and renovated over the years. As one of the oldest and largest homes I the south it contained 15 bedrooms 22 bathrooms , a staff's quarters , a home theater , an arts and crafts room , a green house , a pool house , 3 guest houses and a stables all scattered along the 200 acre property. As they drove down the driveway Mellie began to feel her palms sweat, she was always nervous when seeing her mother. Soon they were at the end of the driveway right in front of the massive plantation style mansion. Suddenly they heard the sound of feet on the gravel as a valet seemed to appear out of nowhere. Fitz and Mellie got out of the car and were reaching from their stuff when the valet stopped them.
"I can take your things inside"
"Oh no I don't want to add to your work load" Mellie said with a smile
"Oh it's no extra work ma'am, this is my job" he explained
"Right well okay thank you, let me just get the kids" she said as she quickly opened the door to the back seat and unstrapped Karen from her car seat as she let the little girl rest her head on her shoulder as she began to nod off . Jerry was also pretty tired and hadn't even been watching the movie for the last few hours so he didn't even notice that Fitz had turned it off. Slowly Fitz picked up Jerry who was nearly asleep as he clung to his giant blue elephant. He had gotten Ellie the elephant from Abby when he was born and now he took it with him everywhere he went. Fitz reached into the passenger's seat and grabbed the go bag shutting the door and throwing the keys to the valet. Mellie and Fitz walked towards the massive oak door each with a kid in their arms. Mellie rested her hand on the large stone doorknocker with the family crest on it. She slowly took it in her hand and began to knock. After a moment of waiting the door was suddenly opened by Ester, one of the housekeepers that had been instrumental in raising Mellie.
"Why hello Mrs. Mellie, come in come in we've been expecting you" she said with a smile
"Wow Easter you look amazing, it's so good to see you" Mellie said with a smile as she gave Ester a quick hug. They were suddenly interrupted by Katherine's booming voice echoing throughout the marble foyer
"Melody is that you?" she called as she descended the marble staircase
"Ya mom it's me" she called back as her mother got to the bottom of the stairs
"Oh Melody look at you, you've lost some weight" he bother said she began to examine her daughter causing Mellie's face to flush red
"No not really mom"
"It's a compliment Melody ... and oh lord please stop slouching its unladylike "her mother scolded
"Esther what are you doing here?" Katherine asked
"Oh I was just saying Hello to Mrs. Mellie"
"Oh ... and how do you know melody?"
"I ... I worked for you when she was growing up" Ester explained to her extremely spacy boss.
"Oh right, why don't you go on down to the kitchen and see if Carla needs some help" Katherine suggested as Rose excused herself
"Wow ... somethings never change" Mellie said with a smile
"Like this house, this town and me because of Botox" Katherine said as she chuckled dryly causing Mellie to shoot an uncomfortable glance.
"Oh Fitz you look great as always and oh look at my angles they've gotten so big Katherine said as she cooed over her grandkids trying to give them a hug.
"Oh mom please don't I just got them to sleep and I need them to take a nap so that there ready for the dinner with dad tonight"
"Oh of course you're sucking up to your father again" she said her voice icy
"Mom I ..." Mellie said speechless about what to say
"Close your mouth Melody you'll catch flies ... Relax, I'm kidding you can go see your father but you have a mama's girl at my party tomorrow okay" her mother said with a fake smile
"Okay we can do that right Mel's" Fitz said trying to defuse the situation
"Yeah we can do that" Mellie said with a weak smile as she walked away from her mother towards the staircase. As she walked up the massive staircase she found herself in the long hallways of the upstairs. She walked down the hallways towards the kids rooms. When the kids were born, her mother had had a room decorated for each kid. The rooms in the house were all massive, each one looked like something out of a pottery barn catalogue. They were expertly designed and perfect for each of the kids. While Fitz put Jerry down for his nap, Mellie headed into Karen's room and took of the little girls shoes before placing her under the covers of her Lilly Pulitzer bedspread. After planting a kiss on her daughter's forehead she headed back into the hallway where she found Fitz.
"Hey um would you want to take a walk with me, just to clear our heads for a bit" Mellie asked
"Yeah of course, I always love walking here" he said with a smile as he grabbed her hand and they headed downstairs. They headed through the massive rooms, past the drawing room, past the kitchen past the study and the billiards room until they found their way outside. Once they had traipsed thought the massive mansion they found themselves outside. The outside of the house was almost as beautiful as the inside. When you exited the massive French doors into the back yard you found yourself in a large flat area where there was an infinity pool built into the hill. The way the pool was built made it look like it went on forever. Past the pool was land as far as the eye could see. The backyard alone contained 200 rolling aces along with streams, bridges ponds, and miles of hiking trails. It also contained three guest houses and a horse stables. As they walked down the hills by the pool Mellie could see some work men setting up a massive white outdoor tent for the party tomorrow. They continued to walk down the trails and soon they came across the massive horse stable. As they walked inside the stables they saw each stall filled with beautiful purebred horses. A beautiful chocolate brown horse caught Mellie's attention as she walked over to it and began to pet its main.
"Can I help y'all?" asked a voice with a thick southern accent as Mellie and Fitz both turned around to see a young woman in beige riding pants and a plaid shirt holding a rope in her hand
"Oh um no sorry ... hi, I'm Mellie, my mom owns this house" Mellie said as she shook hands with the woman
"Oh wow so you're the famous daughter everybody's always talking about?"
"Yeah ... that's me and um this is my husband Fitz"
"Nice to meet you" Fitz said with a smile as he shook the woman's hand
"So ya'll here for this big fancy party?" the lady asked
"Oh yeah ... my mom would never let me get out of it." Mellie said with a giggle
"Yeah well ... we better get going we have that dinner soon" Mellie said reminding Fitz
"Yeah well I better get going and wrangle some horses, it was nice to meet you" she said as she walked away
"We better get back ... we don't want to be late"
XXXX
1 hour later:
After leaving the stables you they walked back towards the house. Once they got inside they headed upstairs they woke the kids from their naps and began to get them ready for dinner. Mellie put Karen in a light pink tutu and a pink long sleeved shirt with a cat on it. After that she put Karen in her tights by pulling her in the air as she pulled up the little white tights. While she got Karen ready, Fitz put Jerry in Khaki pants shorts and a light blue collared shirt . Mellie pulled on a beautiful extremely expensive light blue dress as she tried her best to look and feel confident. She didn't want to go to the dinner, she didn't want to see her father, she didn't want to see Tiffany, she didn't want to see the people who ruined her life. She knew that she had to see them, that she had to play nice so that they wouldn't badmouth her to the press but still , it was humiliating having to look at them , much less talk to them. After her father's abandonment they didn't speak for years. He hadn't been at her wedding nor was he at any of her graduations. Mellie had only reached out to him about 4 years ago when she had started to get involved in politics and she knew that she couldn't have her father ruin her career just because of their feud. So she bit the bullet and called her father. Now they would see each other once in a while much to Mellie's charging.
After they all got ready, they said goodbye to Mellie's mom and headed out to the car. After they loaded the kids and all of their stuff into the car. They drove about 15 minutes towards the old oak room a fancy Ashville steak restaurant. They drove inside and parked the car before opening the doors and pulling the kids out, Mellie holding Jerry and Fitz holding Karen as they walked inside the restaurant and up to the desk.
"Hi um reservation for Caraway I guess" Mellie said with a smile
"Oh yes of course, Mr. Caraway is already here, he's at the table in the back would you like me to show you?" the lady asked
"No I think we can find it thank you" Mellie said as they walked through the restaurant towards the back. Suddenly she stopped dead in her tracks as her blood went cold.
"Mel's what's wrong?" Fitz asked immediately becoming confused
"She's here" Mellie whispered still paralyzed in fear
"Who's here" Fitz asked as he looked towards the table to see a young blond woman sitting next to Ben "Oh my god is that Harmony?" Fitz asked in shock.
"Yes and we need to leave now" Mellie said as she felt herself start to hyperventilate
"Leave ... what are you talking about we just got here" Fitz said
"It doesn't matter we need to go I'm not going to dinner, I'm not sitting and smiling at Harmony, I need to go"
"Mel's you can't blow of this dinner because of Harmony"
"Yes I can and I will ... now come on lets go" She said as she quickly tried to turn around but Fitz stopped her
"Mellie you can't run from this and you can't run from her so were going"
"No were not" Mellie said but it was too late, by the time she looked up Fitz had already made his way to the table and was shaking hands with her father. All Mellie wanted to do was run away but instead she put on a fake smile and walked over towards her arch nemesis Harmony.
Ever since she saw Harmony that day 27 years ago she had hated her. Of course at that time she had had no reason to hate the little girl except for the for the fact that her father had chosen her over Mellie. Even so Mellie would always resent harmony, she would stay up late nights at boarding school trying to think of why Harmony was better than her. She could never understand why her father had chosen Harmony over her. Over the years Mellie had tried being cordial to Harmony but Harmony was anything but cordial. It was ironic that Harmony was so rich considering how awful her manners were. She would curse and smoke, she would get sloppy drunk and always wore clothes that looked like they were straight from the set of a porn. Not only that but she was mean, she would constantly yell at people especially educated people. Harmony was like a mutt in Mellie's opinion, her mother's trailer trash routes did not mix with her father's blue blood. Harmony had been a notorious bad girl all her life, even now she just bounced around from place to place feeding off her trust fund.
Mellie quickly walked toward them continuing to display her fake smile. Soon she was at the table only inches away from her father and Harmony.
"Hey guys sorry somebody was a little fussy and didn't want to come to the table" Mellie said motioning to Jerry who was in her arms.
"Oh that's okay sweetie ... it's good to see you" Her father said as he gave he a quick kiss on the cheek
"Great see you too dad oh and Harmony it's a pleasure again" Mellie said in a curt tone as she quickly slid into a seat next to Fitz before placing Jerry in the seat next to her
"So how was the flight up here?" her father asked
"Oh um we actually drove um we were going to fly but somebody is sick of spending her whole weekend flying" Fitz said with a smile as he rested his hand on her shoulder
"Oh right of course ... So how long was the drive?"
"Oh my god daddy stop talking about driving it so boring" Harmony complained
"I'm sorry baby, daddy didn't mean to upset you" Her father said as Mellie and Fitz both became very uncomfortable.
"Hey daddy I'm going to go up to the bar and do some shots" Harmony said with a wink
"Sweetie I don't think this is that kind of establishment" Her father said
"Oh please I'll I gotta do is flash these and then it's that kind of establishment" Harmony said as she pointed to her massive and clearly fake breasts as she stood up and walked towards the bar
"So you're staying at the ice queen's house?" her father asked
"Excuse me?" Mellie asked hopping that she misheard what he said
"The ice queen , that's what Tiff and I call your mother" her father explained as Mellie began to feel her face flush red with anger , Fitz could tell she was about to explode so he quickly tried to diffuse the situation by changing the topic
"So um speaking of Tiffany where she is?" Fitz asked
"Oh she's at home recuperating she just had surgery" Ben explained
"Oh my god is she okay?" Fitz asked
"Oh yes, it's not that kind of surgery, it plastic surgery, implants mostly"
"Like mother like daughter" Mellie muttered under her breath
"You know Melody I gotta say I'm disappointed in you, I mean a democrat really? I don't know where you got those ideas, maybe it's from all those northern schools you went to, I never thought those were a good idea but you know your mother wanted you as far away as possible" her father said as Mellie felt the color drain from her face, she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she felt just like she felt when she was 12 years old
"You know I think going there was Mellie's choice, not her mom's" Fitz said quick to come to her wife's defense
"Oh please Fitzgerald you weren't there when Melody was growing up, her mother never wanted her around, she would make her eat in the staff's kitchen because she didn't want to spend time with her, it's just the truth Melody"
"You know what I ..." Mellie said as she was suddenly interrupted by Harmony
"Well I'm back and buzzed and starving" She said as she flopped back in her seat
"Yeah you know what let's eat" her father said as he opened his menu.
A few minutes later the waiter came by, Fitz ordered filet minion, Mellie ordered tilapia and she ordered butter pasta for both the kids. After that they continued the awful pattern of her father insulting her and harmony being extremely crass
"Mommy I'm bored" Jerry complained as he rested his head against her arm
"Oh I'm sorry buddy, but you know I think daddy might have some stuff for you to do while we wait"
"Yeah ... how about this, I have some crayons and your star wars coloring book. And for Karen I have the animal book that she can look at" Fitz said as he reached into the go bag and pulled out that stuff
"Wait do you carry that shit around with you all the time?" Harmony asked
"Oh my god, you don sat S-h-i-t in front of children" Mellie said in complete shock
"Why not?" Harmony shot back
"Because if they hear something they might repeat it" Mellie explained in an exasperated tone
"Oh please they won't say anything, I mean that one doesn't even talk, I think she might be retarded or something" Harmony said motioning to Karen who was deeply enthralled in the pictures of the book
"What are you talking about ... she's not retarded, she's two" Mellie said as she began to go into extreme mommy mode
"Just keep telling yourself that" Harmony said with a snarky smile. Mellie was about to respond before Jerry spoke up
"Mommy I have to go to the bathroom" he said
"Okay let me take you" Mellie said as she began to stand up
"You go with him to the bathroom?" Harmony scoffed
"Yes because once again he's a child" Mellie said as she stood up and carried him to the bathroom where she waited until he was done before making him wash his hands. They then headed back to the table for the rest of the awful diner. For the rest of the time her father continued to tell her about how unwanted she was and how awful her mother was and how getting divorced was the best thing that ever happened to him. With every comment he made Mellie found herself becoming more and more depressed. By the end of the dinner all she wanted was to go home, crawl under the covers and just cry. The entire ride home she was completely silent and when they got back to the house she hurried upstairs. Fitz knew something was wrong, of course something was wrong, that diner had been awful, her father was awful. Luckily for him the kids had passed out on the car ride back so he didn't need to deal their baths or bedtime storied , all he needed to do was just put them in their Pj's and then put them to bed. After that he headed to his room. As he pushed open the door he immediately knew that Mellie was not okay. She was lying under the covers facing away from him with the covers pulled above her head. As he slowly walked towards the bed he began to hear her sniffles. He slowly sat down on the edge of the bed and was surprised that he didn't turn around. After a minute of sitting there he began to speak
"You wanna talk about it?" he asked
"Not really ... I just ... I wish that he loved me" she said as she began to sob
"Shh shh don't cry I've got you I've got you, your safe, and your safe" he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her and held her as close as he could , trying to keep her safe and trying to erase the memory of her father's abandonment.
XXXX
It was early the next morning when Fitz awoke to find Mellie lying in his arms with her eyes closed. He began to pull his arms away when she stopped him without opening her eyes
"Stay ... please don't leave" Mellie said as her eyes remained firmly closed
"Okay don't worry I'm not going anywhere not now not ever"
"I know but I just ... every time I leave those dinners I think I couldn't possibly get worse and then at the next dinner it's worse." She said with a sigh
"Yeah well your fathers a prick so..."
"Fitz!" Mellie said a she whipped around
"What it's the truth I mean the whole diner I was just itching to beat him up for all the awful things he said"
"Oh really so then why didn't you?" Mellie asked semi serious
"Well because I don't think I can make love with you when I'm in prison and you know how much I like that"
"Did you seriously say make love?" Mellie asked as she raised an eyebrow
"What ... would you rather me say, I don't want to go prison because I can't fuck you"
"Oh god no ... go back to the love part"
"Okay ... that's what I thought, and if you really want me to beat him up just say the word"
"Your my husband you shouldn't ask me to beat him up you should just do it" she said with the first smile he had seen all day
"Okay well then let me get going" he said as he go of the bed, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the bed."
"I thought you wanted me to go beat him up?"
"Actually I would rather you just stay here, I wanna be with someone who loves me" she said in melancholy tone as she rested her head on his chest
"I get, I had the same thing with my dad, growing up all I wanted was to know why the person who was supposed to love me most in the world ... didn't. Mellie your father is a horrible person who did horrible things and a get it that you want his approval but you don't need it , he is a horrible human being and he is so blind If he can't see how beautiful and amazing and wanted you are."
"I know it just ... it hurts, it hurts to think about what he did and it hurts." she said as a singular tear rolled down her face
"I know but I think that you can't let this anchor from your past keep you from the bright lights of your future. You are an amazing and you will do great things without your father ... I need you to know that okay, and I also really need you to know how much I love you."
"I know ... and I'm going to be okay, at least for today, you know I think I have a newfound appreciation for my mom today"
"Well that's good because it's her birthday ... now let's go get ready" Fitz said with a smile.
After that they headed to the shower and got clean before putting on their clothes. Since they were in the south they needed to be as preppy as possible so Mellie had bought the whole family matching outfits. She and Karen were wearing matching dresses with the quintessential Lilly Pulitzer colors of pink and green. She had bought shorts for Fitz and Jerry which were the same pattern as her and Karen's dresses. She had also bought them bowties that matched the dresses along with plain while collared shirts. By the time they were done dressing the kids the whole family looked preppy beyond belief. Soon after they were done getting dressed the party started. The party was an extremely lavish extremely formal affair. Everyone who was anyone in the south was here. Mellie was trying her best to navigate the crowd. Since the pool was right there Mellie had to hold Karen in her arms to make sure that the little girl didn't fall into the pool. Mellie found herself moving around the crowd talking to people and schmoozing. Luckily for her, being a politician made her ready for hours of talking to people.
XXXX
7 hours later:
Finally after hours of talking and drinking and socializing the party was finally winding down. As Mellie walked across the lawn under the paper lanterns towards where Fitz was standing looking at his phone. He looked up when he saw her footsteps.
"What are those" he asked pointing to the slips of paper in her hand
"These are checks for my campaign ... seems like a lot of people would love to give the maximum personal contribution in exchange for the property taxes on the California homes staying low."
"Wow they were willing to give to a democrat, that's a shocker"
"Well I'm not complaining, my senate account could use the cash"
"Well that's good ... so maybe this whole weekend wasn't a total fail overall"
"Maybe it wasn't ... but still I'll be glad to get home"
"Me to ... now come on lets go upstairs and be with our two favorite people" Fitz said with a smile as he led Mellie from the lawn into the house. They said goodnight to Mellie's mother and then headed upstairs to their bedroom where they found Jerry and Karen curled up under the covers. They quickly changed into their pajamas' before climbing under the covers themselves, trying not to wake the kids. Once they were all settled in Mellie looked around to her amazing husband and two perfect kids and began to realize just how lucky she was.
XXXX
So that's the end of this chapter , I hope you enjoyed how long it was , anyway I added some of Mellie's backstory in this chapter because I think that what happened in her past has truly affected her on the show. In the last episode how Olivia kept asking about why Mellie didn't want to leave Fitz and I think it's because she's terrified of being alone because of what her parents did. Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review.