Part 15
David looked at Anna and rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe they were actually here standing outside the Chandler Mansion. David swore he wouldn't come here unless it was the end of the world, or he wanted to see Babe or his grandson. Though now as he thought about it he was here on Maggie's behalf and that was just as good as any to be there without it being the end of the world, though that didn't stop him from protesting.
"Anna, do we have to be here?" David asked as Anna rang the doorbell.
Anna turned toward David and rolled her eyes, she knew bringing David along was suicide but she was going to need his help. Anna was here to talk to Stuart but knew Adam wouldn't be more then three feet away, so she was bringing David...well she was bringing David as a decoy so she could talk to Stuart about what the plans were about finding his daughter, and Maggie's sister. So what if David and Adam kill each other? She'd deal with that after she dealt with finding Maggie's sister.
Anna let out a deep breath, she didn't know she had been holding in as the door was opened and Winifred came into sight.
"Well...Hello Mr. Hayward, I'm afraid Mrs. K and babe are out..." Winifred said looking at David almost completely ignoring Anna, which made the brit a little upset.
David smiled when he noticed the scowl on Anna's face, he knew there were a few reasons he loved Anna, and her temper was one of them. David pulled at his jacket and took a step forward, making Anna take a step back, he knew when he was in control and when he wasn't and right now he was in control so he was going to milk this cow to its very last drop.
"Actually, we..." David said moving aside so Winifred could see Anna, "...are here to see Stuart. Marian said we could find him here." David said smiling.
Winifred smiled and nodded her head as she let David and Anna into the main hall of the Chandler estate.
"There are in the main room." Winifred said and then hurried away when she heard Adam asking where his coffee was.
David smiled when he saw Anna was still upset that Winifred had addressed him and not her, or maybe she was just jealous that Winifred seemed to have a crush on him.
"Are you okay?" David asked whispering as they walked toward the main room.
"I'm just peachy." Anna said as she strode ahead of David and walked into the main room and smiled when Stuart stood from his seat and rushed over to greet her.
"Anna...it's so wonderful to see you again, so soon." Stuart said as he hugged Anna and pulled back. "Would you like something to drink?" Stuart asked and then noticed David. "Hello David." Stuart said and put his hand out to shake David's hand and David took hold of it happily and then released it when his eyes met Adams.
"What in the blue blazes are you two doing here?" Adam asked as he walked over to the four in a huff.
Anna smiled 'politely' as she looked at Adam. "We're here to talk about your plans concerning the information you received yesterday." Anna said.
"What information?" JR asked as he and Babe walked into the room, Jamie, Tad and Dixie not far behind.
Anna turned around and smiled when she saw Tad, Tad smiled as well and both stepped forward and embraced. "It's good to see you." They both said as they released the other from the embrace.
"Aidan's been filling me in. I was looking in Paris but, something happened and I had to come back here." Anna said looking at Tad when she saw the look in his eyes and knew what he was about to ask.
"Did you get anything?" Tad asked.
Anna nodded. "Before I left I found a family that had adopted a child around the time of Kate's adoption and that Madden had handled, they moved back here to the States and that's where their trail died off. I didn't get a chance to look further into it, as I mentioned something happened." Anna said.
JR and Dixie both stepped up when they realized Anna was talking about Kate.
"You had a lead?" JR asked.
"Why would you just stop?!" Dixie asked getting upset. "If you had a lead...why would you just stop...leads die as soon as you turn your back on them!"
Anna looked at Dixie and could understand why she was upset, so at first it didn't bother her. JR and Tad both stepped forward and whispered some things to Dixie that seemed to calm her down and Dixie just stepped back and then asked as she stood in the doorway.
"So...what came up?" Dixie asked.
Anna's tongue slipped out and touched her top lip as she nodded her head slowly and turned away from the people in the room, trying to keep herself from getting so upset that she'd actually explode.
"Gwen Stone died, and a woman I consider a daughter was distraught and needed me." Anna said turning to look at Dixie. "Her mother just died and she needed my help, she had to set up the wake and the funeral and then she found out that she had a sister her mother gave up for adoption as well, so excuse me but family priorities come first." Anna said looking at Dixie.
Jamie looked at JR and then over at his father before turning to Anna and David.
"Maggie has a sister?" Jamie asked.
"Yes..." Anna said looking at Jamie.
"So then why are, you here? And what did my father and Uncle Stuart has to do with the information given yesterday?" JR asked looking at his father as he spoke to Anna.
Anna looked down and ran her hand through her hair. "Stuart is the father."
"WHAT!!!?!" Jamie, Tad, JR, and Dixie all yelled as they looked at Anna.
"What does that mean?" Babe asked as she stepped forward from behind the group.
David looked at his daughter and smiled. "That means that JR has a cousin that happens to be related to Maggie, and it also means Maggie's mother past away and left this information in her will so we have no idea where this sister is."
JR looked at his father and watched him down another glass of scotch and rolled his eyes. His father wasn't handling this well, though Stuart was bursting with joy. JR smiled and walked up to his uncle and hugged him, congratulating him on having a child. He didn't doubt that this child was Stuarts because Stuart wasn't making any accusations about the child being his.
Jamie looked at Anna and then at David, he still considered Maggie a very close friend. He wanted to help her and he wanted to help Stuart find his daughter but he also needed to be there for his friend. Maggie would be having a horrible time with this, even if she wouldn't admit it, she would be dyeing inside about this. Jamie looked at JR and tapped him on his shoulder and pulled him aside as the rest of the group talked and Dixie apologized.
"JR...we have to go find Maggie." Jamie said to his brother. "She's going to need us. We have to be there for her." Jamie watched as JR thought about it. "Man we both owe her and Bianca! But she's my best friend...I need to be there for her. I couldn't be there for her with Jonathan, I need to be there for her with this!" Jamie said and made up his mind. "If you're not coming I'm still going."
JR looked at Jamie and knew he was telling the truth. Maggie was their friend and she as going to need them, or she might not but she was going to need their help with finding her sister. JR also knew that he was going to be looking for his sister and a his cousin, and he knew that helping Maggie with finding her sister and his cousin would be some kind of token for him. It might be the thing their friendship needs to bridge the gap that had settled over them from before she left.
"Alright...let's go." JR said and then turned back to group.
"Anna...do you know where Maggie is now?" JR asked and everyone turned toward him.
"Yes...she's at Erica's with Bianca." Anna said looking at JR with a raised eyebrow. "Why...?"
"We want to welcome her home and give her our condolences." Jamie said as he stepped into the room.
Anna nodded; she knew how much Maggie cared about Jamie and how much she had missed his friendship over the last few years. It would be just what they needed to bridge the gap and she was going to give it to Jamie, if not for JR it was more for Jamie.
Jamie patted JR's shoulder as he rushed to the door. Telling his father he'd be back soon to help out, with Madden under heavy sedation it would be the perfect time to get information out of him and Tad was going to take that time to get the answers he needed.
As JR was about to leave he went over to babe and kissed her softly before going to follow Jamie. Babe mentioned to give Maggie her condolences as well. JR nodded and kissed Babe once again, both knowing that Maggie and babe had never been friends and her presence would only cause problems. JR rushed after Jamie and they both hopped into JR's car and drove off in the direction of Erica's house.
Back in the house Babe was upstairs with little Adam and Tad and Dixie had left to go back to the hospital to wait for their opportunity to get at Madden, while Adam, Stuart, and Krystal talked with Anna and David about their plans concerning Stuart's daughter and Maggie's sister.
Anna looked at Stuart as she sat down, David standing behind her his hand on her shoulder. She wasn't sure why it was there but she soon realized how Krystal's eyes and Adams's eyes were on his hand and rolled her eyes. She turned back to Stuart and crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap as she sat forward.
"Stuart...I need to know where you're coming from with this. Maggie has the intention to find her sister and talk with her. Asking her questions and seeing what she wants to do. Maggie doesn't want to force anything on her she just wants to be apart of her sister's life. So has no intention to force her away from the family she's grown up wi..."
"That's unacceptable! This girl is a Chandler and she will be coming back here and living with her family!" Adam said as he slammed his scotch glass to the table, Krystal trying to calm her husband as she grabbed his arm and held him back.
Anna looked up at Adam as she addressed him. "Adam...it's not your decision. Its Stuart's and Maggie's and of course this teenager girls decision! She's lived with another family for 16 years, she grown up with them and now you're going to come in and take her away from them? That's not right! No child should have to go through losing a family they loved, and considered their own to live with a family that gave her up when she was a mere infant." Anna said looking at Adam.
"We never gave her up! That tramp did!" Adam said and both David and Stuart stood/stepped forward at that.
"How dare you! How dare you, she did what she thought was best for that child and in the end if was!" David said looking at Adam. "No child should have to live with you in the immediate area!"
Anna stood and took hold of David's forearm keeping her ex-husband away from Adam. "That's enough David."
David looked at Adam and groaned before looking at Anna and calming down. He took a deep breath and walked off toward the other side of the room. Stuart looked at Adam and then at Anna and thought about it for a moment. He did want his little girl to be a part of his life but if she didn't want that then he'd respect that. Maggie was right; he was going to go with Maggie's idea. If his daughter wanted to meet him then he'd be there in a heart beat. If she wanted to come with him back to pine Valley he'd take her here as well and if she wanted to stay where she was then so be it.
"I want to start the process. I want to...to meet my little girl...but if...if she doesn't...doesn't want to meet me...then...then that's okay." Stuart said and nodded his head. "That's okay..."
"Stuart...think, about this for a minute!" Adam urged.
"I have..." Stuart said looking at his brother. "I want what's best for my daughter, just like you want the best for JR. I want to see her desperately I do, and meet her but if she doesn't want to meet me then so be it." Stuart said and walked across the room and stood in front of Anna. "You'll look for..."
"We already have people looking for her." Adam said looking at Stuart and Anna and then sighed when he looked at Anna again. "Any help you can give us would be appreciated."
Anna smiled and shock Adam's hand and hugged Stuart before she and David made their exits promising to call when they got more information. As Anna and David were walking to the car Anna smiled at David and David looked at his ex confused.
"Did I miss something?" David asked.
Anna just smiled and laughed lightly. "No...nothing."
"Then why are you laughing?" David asked as he stood with his passenger side door open.
"Anna looked over the top of the car at David smiling brightly. "Some things just never change...that's all." Anna said and David looked at Anna seriously confused but the sound of a cell phone going off broke the conversation and they both reached for their cells.
It was Anna's and David just stood there waiting for Anna to finish her call, which from what he was hearing was not filled with good news.
"Aidan...what...wait slow, it down." Anna said as she covered her other ear as she pressed her cell phone to her left ear.
Aidan couldn't believe this. He was having enough trouble dealing with what was going on in Pine Valley once again, and how everything seemed to be tied to Greg Madden but he was not expecting something like this to come up, not when it had to do with Maggie and her sister.
"Anna we have a serious problem." Aidan said telling the truth.
"Okay...why do we have a serious problem?" Anna asked.
"Because...Greg Madden was the doctor that put Gwen's youngest daughter up for adoption."
Anna was now pissed. "You've got to be fucken kidding me!"
David was now walking over to where Anna was standing. "What? Anna what is it?"
Anna ran her hand through her hair and let it fall to her side. This was just great, this was perfect, just perfect. She told Aidan she'd be there in twenty minutes and hung up the phone. Anna kicked the dirt underneath her feet and took a deep breath trying to calm down.
"Anna what is it?" David asked as he walked around to stand in front of the brunette.
Anna looked at David and shook her head and went into his arms and hugged him. David wrapped his arms around Anna and held her for a few minutes as the silent tears slowly slipped free. Anna had been strong this entire time and now the frustration, the sight of Maggie in so much turmoil over so many things finally caught up with her and she just needed to cry for a little while. When she was feeling slightly better she pulled away from David and handed him the keys.
"You drive, I'll explain on the way." Anna said. "We have to get to Aidan's before we get Maggie." Anna said as he walked around the car and ducked into the car not waiting for David to answer her.
David looked up at the sky and shook his head; he made a decision then and there. After all this was done he was moving out of Pine Valley to somewhere less...dramatic.
TBC...