A/N: Sorry for the delay and hope you enjoy the new chapter! -Cat

Chapter Thirty-Three

Victoria and Pogue sat down at the table in the kitchen as Richard put down the enormous plate of pancakes, before sitting down himself. "How you holding up Victoria?" He asked looking at her with a sympathetic gaze.

Victoria shrugged before glancing at Pogue, "I'm managing." Pogue smirked at her from under his hair. She shook her head though and looked back at Richard, trying not to let herself get too distracted. "So, you really didn't know anything about my mother?"

Richard instantly looked both uncomfortable and sad. Victoria figured that Richard probably would have been the last person her father would have told about an extramarital affair, as Richard was completely devoted to his wife, but she had to try, "Unfortunately no, your father never saw fit to talk to me about her." Victoria felt deflated once again. Suddenly a hand rested on her knee and she looked to see Pogue's hand there. Supporting her. "The only information I have for you," Victoria looked back at Richard, "Is that he met her at the MET, at a fund raiser. Catherine Buchanan came from a very old, very well established family in New York. And I believe she was a very beautiful, very kind woman. From what he did eventually tell me."

Kind. Victoria blinked, "Thank you."

Richard nodded before starting to dish out pancakes, "So do you two have any plans for the day?" He made a show of focusing on the pancakes instead of them.

Pogue looked at Victoria who shrugged, "Not really, we were thinking we were just gonna hang out here today, maybe watch TV..." He trailed off keeping things vague.

Richard nodded, again, not pushing them, "Well, Victoria you are more than welcome to stay if you don't want to head back to the dorms tonight. We have more than enough guest rooms in this house, I am sure you can make yourself at home." He smiled welcomingly at her.

Victoria blushed, "Thank you," Was all she managed.

"Anytime." Richard looked back at Pogue, "So, I see a enormous stack of letters on the hall stand. All addressed to you. From all over the country..." Pogue smiled pouring syrup over his pancakes, "Thinking about opening any of them, at any point? Just curious."

Pogue scoffed as Victoria looked back and forth between Richard and Pogue, "Letters?" She asked, Pogue met her eyes and it dawned on her, "Acceptance letters?" She asked.

Pogue sat back in his chair looking uncomfortable, "Well, we don't know-

"They are all pretty thick...acceptance package thick." Richard added raising his eyebrows.

It dawned on Victoria that even with everything going on in their world, life was still moving right along. And in a week they were graduating. And after that Pogue would being going to college. Possibly very far away. She smiled her best smile at him, they would figure it out. "We should open them before we Netflix." She nodded.

He narrowed his eyes at her, "Really? Should we?"

"Oh come on, they are collecting dust, put me out of my misery." Richard joked, making Victoria laugh.

But suddenly she stopped as sounds of tires spinning on the gravel driveway out front filled their ears. Richard looked at the front door with a curious expression. Pogue looked over his shoulder towards the driveway before looking back at Victoria who was looking numbly at the table. She had a feeling she knew who it was.

They sat in silence as they heard the powerful engine shut off, the car door slam and the banging start on the front door. "VICTORIA! VICTORIA I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Victorias heart sunk in her chest as Reid's voice filled all their ears. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked at Pogue who was watching her with a worried expression, "What do you wanna do?" He asked her, cutting to the chase.

"VICTORIA PLEASE! I HAVE TO TALK TO YOU!"

Victoria looked at the door before looking at Pogue, and shaking her head, "I don't wanna talk to him, I can't talk to him."

Pogue nodded before standing up but he was stopped, "Pogue," Richard stood up as well looking over at his son, putting a hand up, "I'll handle it. You stay here with Victoria."

Pogue nodded before looking down at Victoria, "Come on," He put his hand on the back of her chair before leading her back into the house.

Pogue let Victoria walk past him into their enormous back family room, equipped with pool table as well as an actual pinball machine in the back corner.

"You ok?" He asked as she paced, they could still hear Reid at the front door then it stopped. Richard must have opened the door.

"I'm fine." She said looking a little frantic, like she was purposefully trying not to focus on anything.

"Look, Vic," Pogue stepped closer to her, "If you want to go talk to him-"

"No!" She snapped suddenly, turning away from him.

"Victoria," Pogue said crossing his arms and hating what he was about to say but knowing he owed it to her to say it, "It won't bother me or anything, if you want to go talk to him about last night-"

Victoria spun around to face Pogue her eyes ablaze, "No, the last thing I want to do is talk to him about last night." Pogue instantly felt his whole body tense as Victoria met his eyes, picking up on her waves of emotion, "The reason I don't want to talk to him, or see him, is because I really don't want to explode your beautifully landscaped front yard, so can we leave it at that?"

Instantly Pogue crossed the room to stand in front of Victoria taking her arms in his hands, "Victoria what's going on? What did he do?" It was odd that Pogue could be so outraged by the idea of Reid doing anything to hurt or upset Victoria, especially considering what ever he did must have been the catalyst to clear the way for them, but still he was enraged. "I swear if he hurt you-"

"Pogue!" She barked, "I told you, I don't want to talk to him. And I don't want to talk about it, so let's just hope your dad gets rid of him, so we can just get on with our day." With that she turned and made to walk into the back yard. Pogue had a moment of indecision, unable to decide between following her or running to the front door and demanding Reid tell him what happened. In the end, he took a deep breath, ran a hand through his hair and followed her out into the back deck.

"VICTORIA PLEASE! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" His fist hit the door again, desperation clawing in his chest.

After leaving Caleb's room, Reid had frantically searched the hotel for Victoria, only to come up empty handed and breathless. He had found Tyler, Caleb and Sarah all in the restaurant talking in hushed whispers, they all stopped when Reid ran to their table. He had sat down heavily beside Tyler.

"Dude, what's going on?" Tyler had asked sounding concerned.

Reid had ignored him rolling the Cobra key over and over in his hand. Instead he stared pointedly at the table, really unable to meet any of his friends eyes, "I've looked everywhere, I searched the hotel, I checked the gym, the spa, she's not here. She's not picking up her phone." He put his elbows on the table and his head in his hands, "I just need to find her and talk to her." Suddenly, Reid had looked up at Caleb, "Do you have any idea where she is?"

Caleb took a deep breath, shifting beside Sarah, looking uncomfortable by the question."Look man, what happened?"

Reid shook his head, "I just have to find Victoria first, talk to her first. I need to."

Caleb shook his head but eventually gave it up, "She's back home, in Ipswich at Pogue's house."

Reid's head snapped back up as he looked at Caleb, he actually looked devastated, "She's at Pogue's house?"

Caleb pursed his lips, before nodding, with that Reid had gotten up and taken off out of the restaurant, like a bat out of hell.

Now, here he stood, on Pogue's front door step, pounding on the door praying it would open.

Suddenly it did, Reid had been expecting it to be Pogue, hoping it would be Victoria, but expecting Pogue. His plan was to just shove past him and run around the house till he found Victoria and force her to listen to him, to hear him out. He could explain this away, he knew he could, he just had to talk to her. Face to face. But instead, the door opened, and Reid found himself coming up short to see Richard Parry standing in the doorway.

"Good Morning Reid," He said quite calmly, like Reid hadn't been screaming into his front door a moment ago.

"Uh... Morning, Dr. Parry. Sorry to disturb-... Look, uh, is Victoria here?"

"Yes, she is Reid."

"I really have to speak to her," He said about to step in through the door but very gently, Dr. Parry put a hand up and stopped Reid on the threshold.

"Reid," Richard Parry took a step out of his front door to join Reid on the wide front step, "I'm sorry but Victoria doesn't want to see you right now."

It was like getting a knife in the gut. He had been surviving on blind, and desperate denial up until having to hear that. "No, no, she has to listen to me, I have to talk to her... to explain what happened-"

"Reid," Richard Parry put his hand on Reid's shoulder and it felt like a thousand pound weight. "I don't know what happened, and I don't need to know. But can I offer you some unsolicited advise son?" Reid met Richard's eye warily, "If you come in here, guns blazing, all frantic when she doesn't want to see you, no matter what happened she won't hear you out fairly. You need to give her time, give yourself time to know what you are going to say to her."

Reid stepped back, shrugging off Richard's hand, "I'm not your son, and I don't need your advise." He snapped, defensive walls coming back up around him. Who was Richard Parry to tell him what to do?! Like he wasn't only concerned about his own son! "I need to speak to my girlfriend."

Richard's eyes looked sad, "Well, I'm sorry Reid, you are going to have to wait until tomorrow at school then to talk to her."

Reid shook his head, stumbling down the front steps, "Screw you," He only half mumbled, but Richard didn't take the bait. He only stood on the front step as he watched Reid go back and sink into the drivers seat of the Cobra.

Reid sat paralyzed for a moment before forcing the car into drive and peeling out of the driveway sending gravel flying.