A/N: There is no excuse for the delay, so I'm therefore not going to give you an excuse. Just read this chapter, hope I'm not disappointing you!

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.

'The Great Mr. Jane'

It didn't come as the slightest surprise that I was woken up by loud knocks against the front door. I had my suspicions of who was there but honestly, it could only be one person.

I groaned and got up, as the knocks became harder and louder. It sounded even as if someone else joined. The knocks reached a refrain and I opened the door, pulling the robe I had quickly put on closer to me.

"Hi Auntie Grace!" Christina exclaimed, big, flashing smile on her face, and it was only now I could see the resemblance she had to her biological father, now that I had finally met him. Her smile looked like a smaller version of Mr. Jane's 1000-watt smile.

Teresa smiled apologetically. "Sorry Grace, but I figured, since Chrissie had already woken you up I might as well join."

Christina chuckled and grabbed my hand, but Teresa pulled her back.

"Chrissie, honey, we only came here to tell Grace something-"

"Oh, yes! Auntie Grace, we're going shopping today! So if you want to join us you need to put on your prettiest dress! Wayne is coming too so you don't have an excuse!" She chuckled again, and I could not help but smile. This girl had the strange ability to make people smile with cheeky comments. If it had been someone else, I would not have tolerated what the girl implied, but I couldn't blame Christina. After all, she was merely seven years old. How could she know that this was behavior not socially accepted by most people?

"Well then, if Wayne is coming I suppose I have to come too, huh?" I asked, and Christina covered her mouth with one of her hands and chuckled again. She nodded.

"Yes! Because Wayne likes-"

"Chrissie, that's enough," Teresa interrupted, and Christina chuckled again before sobering down a bit.

"Why don't you go play around the garden a bit, Chrissie, then Grace and I can pick out her clothes."

"Okay, Mommy," she said, motioned for Teresa to bend slightly and went on tip-toe to reach the last few inches. She placed a kiss on her mother's cheek and then waved at me and ran off.

"Don't get me wrong, I love her but I swear to god, sometimes..." Teresa muttered as she entered my house and closed the door behind her. "Okay, I'm not so good with this but I guess I can always help a bit."

I smiled, and nodded.
"What do you mean with not so good at this?" I asked as I climbed the stairs and Teresa followed me. She rolled her eyes.

"I suppose I'm not all that good at being a woman."

Now that didn't surprise me one bit, although it did surprise me that she put on a dress and made her daughter put on a dress as well.

"Yet you're wearing a dress."

"Yes, because I'm supposed to. Trust me, I don't like dresses."

I chuckled, nodding. I took in a deep breath and looked at all the clothes that were suddenly in my closet – how did they get there?

"Johanna made sure to put all your clothes in the closet yesterday," Teresa answered, as if she could read my mind. She walked over to the closet and got out a dress.

"I suppose this one will do," she said and handed it to me. I saw the dress and recognized it. I smiled. Just when I was about to say something, we heard a cry from outside and Teresa shot to the window, fearing the worst.

What we actually saw was probably worse than what she had been fearing – Jane was running with Christina through his garden, the two of them chuckling and having fun.

When I looked next to me, Teresa was already gone.

"Dammit!" I heard her exclaiming from the stairs, not bothering with censoring her language, and I quickly put on the dress she had chosen for me, then followed her.

"Teresa, it's okay!" I screamed after her, but I kept hearing the faint click of her heels until it disappeared, replaced by the front door being opened and Teresa's mouth.

"What do you think you're doing, huh? We discussed this, years ago, why would you do this to me?"

"To you? I just want to see my-"

"Don't you dare saying it. Don't you dare." By that time, I joined the fighting people in the garden, and Christina immediately ran over to me and grab my hand. Obviously, she was scared by her mother arguing with somebody she didn't know, and I could understand that. If only somebody would be able to come up with some sort of explanation for Christina, then her fears would probably vanish a tad.

"What is your problem?" Jane asked, incredulously.

"You honestly don't see it, do you?"

"No, honestly, I don't. I don't, Teresa. I have the right to see her, just like you do. We both-"

"Jane, stop it, now, please. Not when Christina is around, not ever."

"Then please, come inside. We have to discuss this-"

"We did that years ago, Jane. We came to this conclusion-"

"We didn't, Walter did. Teresa, you have to admit that we didn't discuss a thing. Walter set all the rules. I just want to talk to you, if just for a few minutes. If you don't want to talk to me, that's fine, but then listen."

"Jane..."

"Teresa, please. I'm sure Grace can take Christina with her, they're both capable enough-"

"How would you know-"

"I can see that, Teresa. Please. Just do this for me. Just this once."

Teresa turned around to look at me, an odd mix of anger and fear in her eyes. She walked over to me and stepped so close that what she was going to say could only be heard by me.

"I'm not sure about this, Grace."

"I know. I'll take Christina with me, we'll do something fun in your house, okay? Just listen to what he has to say."

She groaned, contemplating what she should do. I gently pushed her into Jane's direction, and she groaned once again before placing a small kiss on her daughter's forehead.

"Go enjoy yourself with Grace, Sweetie," Teresa whispered. Christina frowned, but nodded and grabbed my hand again. I smiled at Jane, knowing the two of them would come closer since I knew what he had to say, up to an extent at least.

"Don't kill each other," I joked, but Teresa didn't take it well. She now looked at me, angrily, and forcefully pushed Jane into the direction of his mansion.

When the two adults were inside, Christina squeezed my hand and I looked down at her.

"Who was that man?" she asked, her voice small. I shook my head. I didn't want to tell her if Teresa wasn't ready to tell her own daughter still. Don't get me wrong, I do think a child deserves to know who his/her parents are, but Christina was just seven. I didn't even know if she knew that biological parents could fight and hate each other.

"Mommy will explain it one day." I looked at the house once more, then pulled the girl with me to the Mashburn Mansion.

I just hoped that Teresa wouldn't kill Jane as he was trying to tell her what he had to tell her.

-YulianaHenderson-

Teresa returned after one-and-a-half hour, looking majorly distressed and if her red eyes were any indication, she had cried.

I had tried to entertain Christina by trying out beautiful hair-styles, but she had heard the front door open and had ran off to check on her mother.

Teresa refused to talk to anyone except her daughter, and even if she did, she didn't talk about Jane. Which, in a way, worried me. I knew what Jane had to say and what his thoughts were about the whole matter, and I knew that, in most situations with most people, he should've been forgiven already.

However, I couldn't read anything out of Teresa's expression except for the fact that she was obviously upset – but I couldn't figure out what this meant for their relationship.

She had thanked me for looking after Christina, and had apologized for ruining our shopping day. I didn't think she needed to apologize since this wasn't any of her fault, but it still helped a bit that she had said that. At least then I could tell her that it was my pleasure to look after Christina for the entire morning.

When Teresa had instructed for me to go with Johanna and Christina to the city center, I had refused. This was Teresa trying to make up for what she considered her own fault, and I didn't need that. I was here for her, not for the city or the shopping.

Maybe she had offered this to avoid being stuck in a house with me for the entire day. Not because she hated me, obviously, but because of the questions I could ask her.

What did Jane say?

Do you agree on that?

Will you give 'you' a chance again?
And if so, are you going to tell Walter?

No. I understood why she didn't want to face me. But honestly, I wasn't going to ask any of these questions. In fact, I was just going to make small-talk for the rest of the day until Christina returned and Teresa would probably demand a little show to show her the clothes she and Johanna had bought that day.

But just because I had planned that didn't mean that it wasn't highly awkward when Teresa and I were sitting in the living room in silence.

It was obvious she had cried, and with what I knew of Teresa, I figured that it would take a lot to make her cry. So whatever it had been, it had to be pretty big. And considering it had been Jane she had been talking to, it couldn't be anything good. I supposed I had to ask Jane about this that night.

I was actually the one offering to go out for a walk. It wasn't as though the environment was all that beautiful, but it wasn't bad. It was sure better than New York.

"Do you do that a lot?" I asked out of nowhere. No wonder Teresa didn't understand what I was talking about. I elaborated, "Giving Christina to Johanna so that both of them have a nice day but you don't include yourself in it?"

Teresa sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose briefly. Then, she nodded.

"Yes, actually. I have that most of times. When I'm planning on doing something with Christina, there always has to be something that interferes with it and ruins all the plans."

No, I wasn't going to ask her what it was, I knew what it was. And I wasn't going to ask her to elaborate on the Jane-matter either. It was probably hard enough for her as it were.

"So you trust Johanna enough?"

"Of course I trust her enough." She sighed, and brushed her hair briefly. "Johanna has been with us since she was sixteen. Her father... sold her to Walter, in a way." She shook her head. "No, he just didn't want to have anything to do with her anymore, let's just keep it at that. I suppose it had to do something with the death of her mother a few weeks before she joined us." She sighed. "Walter hadn't liked her since she was very shy at first, and she did her job sloppy. But I couldn't blame her. Her parents had been rich and they hadn't seen the need in her being taught how to clean and be an actual maid. They assumed that she would be able to buy a maid when the time would present itself. Guess that turned out differently..." she murmured the last sentence, and then looked at me again. "I love that girl, Grace. Walter still doesn't agree with her being here, but I love her immensely. Like she is my own daughter, even though the age difference is just a few years." She smiled an almost devilish smile. "Walter is paying for her wedding." She chuckled, and I couldn't help but join. I didn't know why that was funny, but I presumed it had to do something with the fact that Walter didn't like Johanna, but still was paying for her wedding. That just had to be Teresa's doing.

We fell into a comfortable silence, before the nagging question just popped out of my mouth. "And what about Wayne?"

She narrowed her eyes at that question, but then just smiled dangerously. "Why would you want to know?"

My cheeks started to burn as I realized what she was inclining and I looked away. She chuckled and touched my arm briefly to make me look back at her.

"It's okay, Grace. He..." she hesitated a bit then. "He and Cho, they have been life-long friends. They were my neighbors when I was younger, and even though they were younger than me, we still managed to enjoy ourselves when playing outside. It was nice. And then when I heard that both needed a job, I forced Walter into the idea that two cooks are actually necessary. I just didn't want to tear them apart. They may act like they don't like each other, but they really do. And, for what it's still worth, they are both single."

She cast me a meaningful smile, and I rolled my eyes.

"I didn't come here to meet a man."

"You never choose to meet a man whom you fall in..." she let her sentence wander and didn't finish it. I suppose we both knew that she meant Jane now.

She hadn't talked about her feelings towards Jane yet. I could imagine why she did that, she wanted to protect her child, but the fact that she completely shut out Jane meant that she either hated him, which after this morning I didn't think was possible anymore, or she was still in love with him and was afraid to ruin her marriage.

"Teresa, be honest with me: do you still have feelings for Mr. Jane?"

Her eyes widened and for now, I knew enough.

"What? No! No! Of course not!" she exclaimed.

No, sure not. Because this sounded convincing.

"Grace, I'm serious, I don't have any feelings for him," she said, this time more serious. I looked at her for a few more moments, then shook my head.

"It's not just you that's hurting because of this, you know. I had to keep Christina's train of thoughts off the track of Mr. Jane for what like days."

"You didn't tell her yet?"

"No, of course not, that's not for me to-"

"Thank you, I'd like for it to stay that way."

"Teresa."

She groaned, and nodded. "I know! It's just... I promised Walter never to tell Christina what has happened between me and Jane."

I nodded my understanding, but all the while contemplated what she had told me. So she really was afraid that her marriage would fail because of this. And she really didn't like Walter, for if she did, she would say that she loved him and that that was the reason that she didn't want to tell Christina.

"Did you like your time with Mr. Jane?"

Her eyes widened again, then she closed her eyes and stopped walking. I saw the corners of her mouth curl up a bit, just an inch, if not less. It was obvious that she was imagining being with him, and it warmed my heart that it triggered such a pure emotion from her.

She wanted to shake her head, but I saw she couldn't. So the movement she made next was an awkward mixture of a dismissal and a nod.

She sighed, probably realizing she couldn't put up the pretense much longer.

"I did."

"And do you still enjoy being with him, even though it's not like it used to be?"

"I suppose."

"Are you still in love with him?"

"Yes." She seemed shocked by this confession, and covered her mouth.

"Hey, it's okay, Teresa."

She shook her head.

"No, it's not! I shouldn't be in love with him, I am married for Pete's sake but all I seem to be able to think of his voice, and his smile. I shouldn't think of that, I should think of Walter. He has saved me from my father, Jane didn't."

"That shouldn't make a difference, Teresa. The heart falls in love with whom they want to fall in love with, no matter if it's okay or not. And you just told me that it's okay to be in love with someone."

"But I can't leave Walter."

I frowned. "Why not?"

"He..." She swallowed. "He will break me." Before I had the chance to ask for an explanation, she continued. "My mother died when I was twelve. Car accident. My father's mental health spiraled downwards ever since then. Up to the point where he started to hit me and my brothers. Them less, me the most. And before you're going to ask, that was because represented my mother the most. I kept hearing that I was her splitting image." She took in a deep breath, realizing she was wandering off.

"It came to Walter's attention how my father was treating his children and took me away from there. I heard later on that my brothers had escaped and that my father killed himself." She swallowed again. "Walter tried to convince me that he took me in because he had fallen in love with me, but I couldn't believe him and I still can't. When I told him that I wasn't in love with him, that the love I felt for him was much like friends would feel, he hit me and swore that he would damage my reputation. Now, my reputation is not important to me per se, but it is for most people here. I don't know how he is going to ruin my reputation, but I'm sure it will be horrible."

She was silent then. I couldn't believe what I was hearing now. Walter had been blackmailing Teresa into loving him? What a first-class asshole.

"Teresa, don't you want to be happy instead of forced into a marriage-"

"I can't be with Jane, Grace. Walter will kill both of us."

"So what if he kills you? Don't you want to die happy-"

"I love your childish naivety, but that's not how it works in the real world, Grace. Love is not supposed to exist when you can have money."

"Do you really believe that?"

Teresa shook her head, but continued walking. I stared after her before starting walking as well.

"Teresa, do you really believe that? Do you really think that money is more important than love? Do you really want to live the rest of your life being unhappy with how it is right now? I understand that you want to safe your marriage, but it's not going to end well if you and Walter continue like this!" She wouldn't listen to me, though, just started walking faster and faster until she was almost running. Luckily for me, she didn't have long legs compared to mine and I was relatively fast in running in front of her to stop her.

"Teresa. Think of Christina. Who do you think loves her the most? Who is the man that actually fights to see her, speak with her, if just for a few seconds. Who would do anything for her, even kidnapping her to play for her?"

"Grace, please, stop. I don't want this."

"It doesn't matter what you want. It's about what you need to do. For your daughter. You and Mr. Jane created this mess and it won't go away by ignoring it. You created a beautiful girl and that's something you can't ignore. Just think of what Christina is going to ask when she's old enough to understand it, when she notices something is wrong with Walter and the strange blonde man that she for some reason is never allowed to talk to. What are you gong to answer? That the blonde man is the man you're actually in love with but you thought money and reputation was more important than love?"
Teresa swallowed and hugged her body with her arms. She was silent for a long time, causing me to feel like she was telling me to mind my own business and back out, which she should have done, before she let out a long sigh and focused her eyes on mine again.

"What do you suggest I do?"

A/N: Please, reviews are very much appreciated. It's more for me to know what you think of this story than having to have a lot of reviews for this story. That's not what this story has anyways, so okay. But please, REVIEW! ^^