A/N: Wow, I REALLY suck for not updating this in so long!!! I apologize, and plead guilty because of an onslaught of work and big tests! I really want to finish this story for you guys, though, and I swear it's almost finished!! I am so sorry that this chapter is so late in coming, but because I really like it, I'm going to beg for reviews anyway!

The enormous Cleverly clan was still out getting a Christmas tree, and Vivien's vast estate currently had only three people on it. Megan was outside in the snow by herself, reveling in the winter she had never experienced in California. Marth had driven five blocks away, going on six. Link had very suddenly and unexpectedly asked Zelda, "what would you say if I asked you to marry me?"

It had just inexplicably slipped out of his mouth; he had spoken before thinking. Well, sort of: the question had been vaguely on his mind since the previous night. After having accrued such a wealth of knowledge and understanding of this woman over the past few months, Link strongly felt that he was supposed to be with her. He had a feeling that he had loved her the whole time she had employed him, he just hadn't known it. But this was absolutely no excuse for what he had done, to just blurt out that question after Zelda had punched her sleazy ex-husband in the face. A very weighty awkwardness had filled the air after Link had asked the question. The words seemed suspended between him and Zelda, waiting for some kind of reaction from her. But there was none. Her eyebrows contracted unnoticeably and she stared at Link for a very long time, as if wondering if he was real. She looked him over a few seconds longer, then slowly walked around him and headed for the kitchen. He remained where he was, still feeling as numb as Zelda at what he had asked.

Zelda grabbed her coat and went out into the backyard, where Megan was half-heartedly building a snow fort of some kind. The young girl looked up when she heard the door close, and she frowned slightly.

"Is he gone?" she asked.

"Who?" Zelda said, feeling drowsy.

Megan pursed her lips together. "Dad. Did he go?"

"Oh…yes. Yes, he's gone." She could see her breath. Zelda stuffed her glove-less hands into her pockets and curiously observed Megan as she continued with her snow fort. "Did you want to say goodbye?"

"No," Megan answered with a brief shrug. "Where's Link?"

"Link? He—he's inside." Zelda got down on her knees in the snow, and even though she immediately began to feel her legs freeze, she stayed there. "Megan, can I ask you something?" Her daughter nodded dutifully. "I want you to tell me the truth, okay? Don't worry about …I don't know, about anything. Just tell me what you really feel." She paused to gather her thoughts, but Megan thought she had come to a stop, waiting for a reply from her.

"I promise, mom," Megan said seriously. With that discerning, slightly solemn look on her face, it was weird to think she was only six. "What is it?"

"You…" Zelda idly picked up a clump of snow with her bare hand, softly crushing it between her fingers until it was a fine powder. That was dumb; her fingers would numb now, too. She impatiently wiped her wet hand on her coat. "Did you ever envision—I mean, did you ever… imagine me and you and your dad all living together? Did you ever picture us all in one house as a happy family?"

"No," Megan instantly replied, as if such an idea were repulsively childish. She thought about it for a moment, then figured she should explain what she meant to her poor mother, who looked rather surprised (and hurt?) by the terseness of the response. "I mean, I knew dad wasn't going to come back, so it'd be stupid to hope he would. And I didn't want him to, anyway. He hurt you." She was of course referring to the incident she'd witnessed when Marth had thrown a vase at Zelda's back; she had no idea of the deep amount of psychological pain that the man had caused her mother. "I hope he never comes back."

Surely if she were to cry in this weather, her tears would freeze into icicles before the finished going down her face—not Megan but Zelda, who felt incurably confused and a little sick. The air seemed to get colder, somehow.

"But," Megan suddenly said, "I always wanted one. A dad, I mean. Just not mine. I didn't want to say anything just now, but you told me to tell you the truth, so I am." Right away she still wished she hadn't said anything, because it seemed like such a harsh thing to just come out and say. "I'm sorry," she quickly added.

"Don't apologize, Megan, I'm the one who should be sorry," Zelda said, and her voice sounded somewhat strangled. She had never realized that during all of these years, her refusal to get involved with someone could have been detrimental to her daughter. In the back of her mind, Zelda had thought Megan would feel strange having another man in the house; she had assumed the girl didn't want or need a father figure. More to the point, Zelda had been selfish. She hadn't wanted a new man in her life because deep down, she'd been so afraid of being hurt again, and hadn't thought too much of how that could have disappointed and saddened her young daughter.

"It's cool to have a guy for a nanny," Megan decided. "It feels like having a dad."

Zelda had to smile slightly at that. "You really like Link, don't you?"

"Duh, mom. He's the coolest! You can count on Link."

"But what if you couldn't? What If he did something all of a sudden that just …I don't know, what if he hurt you?" Zelda had to ask. She couldn't believe she was having this conversation with her six-year-old daughter, but something had just pushed her into making the paranoid inquiry.

Megan surveyed her mother with a look that made it clear she thought Zelda was crazy. "Mom, Link would never do that," she said furtively and evenly; and Zelda could see that the girl hadn't hesitated for a moment to come to Link's defense. "You know that, don't you? He means the stuff he says, I can tell. Can't you?"

I've been so stupid. Zelda patted Megan on the head and got to her feet. Any idiot would have known by now that Link is one in a million. I don't know what's the matter with me. She silently walked around the house to Vivien's garage. With some effort, she managed to lift the door open, and then remembered that all the cars were gone. There was, however, a bike leaning against one of the walls…

Three Hours Later…

"Phew! It's going to take all the men we've got to get this sucker into the house," Vivien laughed. Her car was the first to pull up, and it had one of the biggest trees known to mankind tied carefully to the top. She nodded to Malon, who was in the passenger seat, and said, "Go on in and see if you could get Link to give us a hand, eh?"

"Will do, cappy," Malon agreed, getting out of the car and running up to the house. There hadn't been any other cars by the curb, so she assumed it was safe to think Marth had left by now. "Hellooo!" she called as she entered the house. She walked into the music room, but saw that it was empty. "Anyone here?" she asked a little louder. With a furrowed brow, Malon headed for the kitchen and looked out into the backyard. It looked like someone had built a snow fort, but there was no one outside now. She turned around and saw that she was suddenly face to face with Link, and his abrupt appearance caused her to yelp in surprise. He had to laugh at that, and she chuckled a bit embarrassedly before saying, "Hey, did you hear me hollering?"

"Yeah, I was just coming to try and find you," Link answered. He stepped aside, and Malon saw Megan sitting on the rug of the living room floor (adjacent to the kitchen) next to a deck of Uno cards. "We've just been passing the time—came inside about an hour ago to get warm; you just barely missed a really exciting game of Parcheesi."

"Hm, well, you'll have to count me in later," Malon said. She lowered her voice a little as Megan, out of earshot, shuffled the cards. "So um, did you meet Marth?"

Link snorted a laugh and his gaze shifted to the floor. "Yeah, I met him. I would have really liked to give him a piece of my mind, but he didn't stay all that long." He looked up to see Malon had raised her eyebrows. Link explained: "Everyone says Jack would've beat him up, and I would have liked to myself, but your pal beat me to the punch. Er, literally."

"Wait," Malon said after a short pause. Link looked at her expectantly, and she felt it was superfluous for her to say, "Explain," but she did anyway because Link didn't seem to know what she had stopped him for.

"Oh," Link laughed. "Well, uh… he made some sort of lewd remark and …I think she intended to slap him, but instead, her fingers curled into a fist and she just punched him, square in the face." He mimicked what had happened, throwing his own clenched fist into an invisible Marth with a proud grin on his face. "And then she just told him to get out. And he did."

Malon did not look as pleased as Link would've expected. "Chances are, this isn't the last time he'll drop in, though."

"Zelda said something like that," Link muttered in a low whisper, a small frown creasing his face. "But what makes you think so? If he and Ms. C have been divorced for so long and he never showed up before now, why do you think he'd come back?"

"Er, this isn't exactly the first time Zel has seen him since the divorce," Malon said quietly, now making doubly sure that Megan would not overhear. "Um… there was a time a couple of years ago where Zelda had to go on a business trip to Anaheim, and somehow, Marth found out about it. I don't know if you know this or not, but Anaheim is where Disneyland is, and that's where Marth and Zelda used to work for one summer when they were like, freshmen in college, I think. Or they may have actually been younger; Clarissa Cleverly had some connections of some kind."

"Wait, Disneyland?" Link muttered. He could not for the life of him picture his ultra-serious boss parading around in a Disney theme park.

"Don't give her any grief about it; she's still completely mortified by the whole thing," Malon said through her teeth. "All the Cleverly kids had to work at least one summer there, their mom was sadistic about it. Long hours for relatively low pay, and they squeeze every drop of sweat out of you that they can—I know because I thought it'd be fun to try for a while, but I had to quit pretty early. Ugh. What was I talking about again?" She seemed to have truly forgotten.

"Um…Marth—"

"Oh! Oh yeah. Okay. Well, as it goes, some kids who'd worked with Marth and Zelda at the theme park wanted to have a reunion of sorts, and Marth had the gall to call Zel about it, but she said she was out of the state on business. Of course he knew this was bull, and he tried bullying her into showing up, but no dice. Then he called her firm and found out which hotel she was at, and so he showed up on the night of the reunion and sat in the lobby around dinnertime, waiting for her to come down because the guy at the desk wouldn't tell him which room Zelda was staying in… and then that guy, the concierge?—anyway, he phoned Zelda's room and told her there was a blue-haired man waiting for her in the lobby, so she just ate in her room."

"I can't believe the nerve of this guy," Link growled, to give Malon time to breathe. "Did he stay there all night?"

"Yes, until they kicked him out, and then the next day he just hung out outside of the hotel waiting for her, and out she came. She saw him approach her and was about to turn and go back inside but Marth grabbed her by the arm and dragged her to his car." Malon hesitated here. She glanced at Megan, who saw that Link wouldn't be coming back soon, and so she had busily started building a card tower. "Although now that I think about it, I don't buy that. That's what she told me, though."

"Wouldn't people have noticed some guy dragging an unwilling lady into his car?" Link asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you would think so," Malon mused. "If you ask me, she probably saw him, knew that he saw her seeing him, and didn't want to look like a coward by turning back into her hotel. She had cultivated sort of a pride in her image by this time …but whatever the case was, he ended up driving her to Disneyland. They had quite a fight on the way over, apparently."

"Did she end up going to this reunion thing?"

"Zelda insisted there was a conference she had to get to and that she didn't have time to go to frivolous parties at amusement parks," Malon said. "But, surprise of surprises, Marth didn't seem to care. So just when they were slowing down to get into the park they sort of came to a stop, because there was a long line of cars to get in—and Zelda just pushed her door open and bolted in the opposite direction. The impressive thing is that she probably did it in heels and a skirt, but there wasn't really anything Marth could do about it. He's got a bad knee, and Zelda's about as fast as Jim Thorpe when it comes to making a getaway. And he would've driven after her, but as I said, he was essentially stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic."

This all created a very pretty mental image, but Link still couldn't get his head around it. He wondered if there would ever be an end to the mysteries surrounding Zelda Cleverly. "What happened after that, did he let her be?"

"Don't know," Malon said with a shrug. "When Zelda got to a payphone, she called her firm and insisted she get a new hotel. She must have been pretty embarrassed; they wouldn't acquiesce until she told them she was practically being stalked." She coughed and looked around, then seemed to realize something for the first time. "Hey, where's Zelda now? Lying down?"

"Ah. Um…"

"Mom went for a bike ride," Megan said from the other side of the room, causing Link and Malon to jump slightly. How much had she heard? "Just in case you were wondering, I mean. She left about three hours ago."

"Three hours? And she's still not back?" Malon cried. "Mother—! Link, please go out front and help the guys bring in the tree, will you?"

"Ooh, can I watch?" Megan asked, jumping to her feet and not seeming to care that this movement dismantled her careful set-up of cards. She skipped after Link as Malon pulled out a cell phone and dialed her best friend's number.

"Hello?"

"ZELDA. WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Hello to you too, Malon," Zelda sighed. "Relax."

"Relax?! When you've been gone on a bike ride in freezing temperatures for three hours?! How am I supposed to relax?!"

"Actually at the moment, I'm not on the bike," Zelda yawned. "I'm sitting in the most delightful little café in the next county. It's called 'A Cup of Joe,' I think I'm going to ask Viv if she's ever been. The coffee is top notch."

"You're in the next county? Zelda, what on earth is going on with you?" There was silence on the line for a few moments. "Hello? Zel? Are you there?"

"Did Link say anything to you?" Zelda asked in a small, soft voice.

"What? Well, yeah, we were just chatting…"

That answered it—if Link had told Malon what he'd asked Zelda, the redhead would've mentioned it right away. Zelda didn't think Link would have indulged the information to anyone, anyway. "Okay." She sighed deeply. "So you're back at Vivien's, right? Well, obviously. You said you talked to Link. I guess I should head back."

"Yeah. That would be good. It's getting dark outside, do you know how to find your way back here?"

"Of course. I just went in a straight line, now I head straight back. Bye."

"I swear," Malon muttered, shutting her phone as Terra walked into the kitchen. "Your sister can be such a turd sometimes."

"I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing that," Terra said thoughtfully. Megan walked into the room; Terra opened the fridge, took out a beer, and handed it to the girl. "Give this to your Uncle Jack, all right? He needs one whenever he's been around mom for any extended period of time."

"I hope that doesn't happen to me someday," Megan said, taking the can of beer and walking out of the kitchen with it. She spotted Jack and walked over to him, paying no mind to some of the other adults who were a little surprised to see a little girl holding the beer can. "Here, Uncle Jack," she said, tugging his shirt sleeve and handing the drink up to him. "Aunt Terra asked me to give you this."

"Ah, thank heaven for little girls," Jack said in his best attempt at a Maurice Chevalier accent. It didn't matter that he butchered it because Megan didn't understand the reference anyway. He opened the can and stooped to pat the girl on the shoulder. "Hey, how'd you like to help us put up some tinsel once we get it out of the basement?"

"You know," Link said as Megan nodded eagerly, "this tree is going to require quite a bit of upkeep to stay looking nice at Christmas."

"No doubt about that," Vivien sighed. "It doesn't help that it's sort of um, huge. But hey, we always get our tree around this time and we've never had any problems. Oh, except that one time that my husband and I kept thinking the other was watering it, and after about a week of that it looked all sad and droopy and dead, and um… yeah. But that hasn't happened since." She coughed uncomfortably. "ANYway…"

"Hey, Viv, check this out," Terra said, emerging from the door that led to the basement. "I thought I had picked up a giant box of tinsel, but then I opened it to check and there was just a mass of old photographs in it."

"Wow, I totally forgot about that box!" Vivien gasped.

"Look at this one I found; our old playing grounds!" Terra chuckled, passing the photo over to Viv, who grabbed it quickly so Link wouldn't see it. "Chill, sis. I was just talking to Malon, and she said she explained to Link all about our past jobs at the Happiest Place on Earth."

"Easy for you to call it that," Vivien moaned. "I had to wear that stupid costume!"

"Hey, we all had to wear stupid costumes, I just happened to like mine."

Vivien handed the picture to Link. "We don't know who all those little kids are… we wanted to somehow maneuver a picture with all of us in it, because photographs were strictly forbidden backstage …but sadly, we were never in one part of the park at one time, so I had to kind of lazily splotch these all together."

The picture, as it was, sort of resembled a badly-done collage, made up of six separate photographs: one each of Clarissa Cleverly's daughters, each of whom was dressed like a Disney character and posing with a young child. Terra's red hair leant itself well to the Little Mermaid (whose name Link could not recall), and then there were their other half-sisters Link had met only in passing. Dead center and with a smile as fake as her pale blue dress, Zelda stood in the regal costume of Sleeping Beauty. She was being embraced on both sides by identical twin girls, who looked like their dreams were coming true—whereas Zelda looked way out of her comfort zone. Link had to wonder who on earth would have given her a job that made her go out and pose for pictures with little kids in an over-the-top costume and exaggerated makeup. More to the point, he had to wonder why she'd accepted it.

"And who are you supposed to be, Viv?" Link asked, handing the picture back. "I don't think I recognize that one."

"Oy, nobody did," Vivien groaned. "I was the gypsy from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, which apparently no one saw, so kids rarely recognized who I was. But the movie had just come out, so they were really plugging it. Kind of sad, because I used to be Snow White and that was one everybody knew!"

"Wait a second, is that Megan?" Link asked, peering closer at the little girl in one of the pictures. "There, next to Cinderella?"

"Hm? Oh! Oh my gosh, so it is," Terra exclaimed. "That's our sister Rachel in the costume, her family couldn't make it this Thanksgiving because she's with her in-laws. I can't believe I forgot this. That was the only time Zelda consented to let the nanny bring Megan to Disneyland. She thought it was too much excitement for her."

Link's eyes went back to the picture of Zelda. She was a mother there. It suddenly struck him how young she had been when Megan was born; she hadn't even been twenty. He couldn't imagine what that must have been like.

"I'll go put this back," Terra said. "Hey Link, would you mind coming with me? The box was really heavy, and I don't know if I have the strength to put it back up where I got it from. Would that be all right?"

"Absolutely, just lead the way." Link followed Terra down into the basement, and for a moment, he thought he had walked into an underground complex that was a combination of Sports Authority and Circuit City. "Yeah," Terra remarked at Link's expression. "Viv likes to get her exercise on various machines when it's so cold outside, and so she and her husband figured why not go for the biggest plasma screens they could afford, right? They're not as shallow as that makes them look, I swear!"

"No, I know that," Link said as Terra opened a door into a giant closet beneath the stairs they had just climbed down. The walk-in closet was probably about the size of Zelda's living room. "This it?" he asked in a slightly dazed voice, coming to a stop in front of a large box of photographs.

"You're a very perceptive man, Link," Terra joked. She picked up an album that was lying on the top of the photos, which was labeled "Summer of 1996." Terra deftly took the photo from Link and slid it into the cover. "There we are! Fun to take a stroll down Memory Lane, isn't it? Although I don't know if it's really the same thing if they aren't your memories …is it?"

"Hm? Oh, I don't… it was a cute picture." Link really didn't know how to respond to the question, and when Terra chuckled lightly at him, he realized it had been rhetorical. "So you mistook this for a box of tinsel?" he asked, taking the box in his hands to put it back on a tall shelf. It had the word "PHOTOS" written in giant block letters on every side of it.

"Guess the secret's out," Terra remarked, going for a slightly smaller box that was on the floor and clearly marked "tinsel." "Malon had just been telling me all that she told you, and I thought having a photograph to illustrate it would help. Plus, this way, if Zelda ever decided to fire you, you could get back at her with blackmail. Can you imagine the media circus that would start up if they found out the most successful and talked-about lawyer in L.A. once had to prance around in a Princess costume for money?"

"Yeah…I guess I can see how she might find that sort of degrading," Link said, picking up another box of tinsel that Terra indicated with her foot. "Don't worry, I know she's sensitive about it. I won't bring it up."

"Oh, you should," Terra said, heading up the stairs. "Get her off her high-and-mighty pedestal once in a while! Everyone needs a job like that once in their lives. Before I did my time with Disney, I worked in a bookstore and had the most sadistic boss ever. I mean really, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada is like child's play compared to the woman I had over me!"

Link had never seen the movie, but he got the gist. "I suppose that's true. I mean, that you sort of need a hellish job at one point or another. It makes you realize the good in your life when you get it." Terra smiled to herself.

"Can you believe that crazy sister of ours?" Vivien said the second that Terra and Link reappeared. "Zelda's been gone three hours on a bike ride, dressed in no more than slacks, a sweater, and a light coat! Is she insane?? I'm telling you, Terra, sometimes I worry about that kid."

"Oh, Zelda can take care of herself all right," Malon said with a small scowl. "Calm down, Viv. Link, tell her what you told me our dear Ms. Cleverly did today."

"What she…oh." Link looked around to make sure none of the other Cleverly kids were listening in; eavesdropping would have made their Christmas tree trip totally pointless. "Well, you know that guy who said he was going to come by your house today? Zelda punched him in the face and told him to skip town."

"No!" Vivien gasped. She laughed loud and proud, slapping Link on the back as if he were an old drinking buddy. "For real, our Zellie? That is class, my boy, just class! It's about time she did it, too." Her smile faltered somewhat after that, and she took on a slightly more rueful tone as she added, "I hope that jerk doesn't bother her anymore. She deserves a clean break from him."

"That's what I said right from the get-go," Malon insisted in a sing-song voice. "Ever since we were in high school, I knew that bum was no good!"

"Guys, let's not discuss it anymore in here," Terra whispered. "We shouldn't be talking about it while everyone is still bustling around."

"Bustling" seemed to be the perfect word to use, as Vivien's entire main floor soon became covered with Christmas decorations and boxes upon boxes of ornaments, tinsel, and strings of lights. Packing paper was strewn higgledy-piggledy on the floor as people carelessly moved from decorating one aspect of the room to another. Only Clarissa Cleverly did not join in the festivities; she sat alone in an old chair by the crackling fireplace, looking on with a rather sour look on her face. Occasionally one of her grandchildren would run excitedly towards her to try and engage her in the fun, but she dismissed them with a regal wave of her hand. She had no interest in children until they had reached an age at which they could hold an intelligent conversation.

"Hey, kid," Malon said to a random child she didn't recognize. "Go and throw this tinsel on your grandma, but don't tell her who sent you, okay?" She was startled when the young boy looked over at Clarissa and burst into tears. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Little dude, chill out!"

"Malon, what are you doing?" Vivien sighed.

"Are you trying to terrorize my child?" Terra asked, coming over and scooping up her little boy. "What's the matter, sweetheart? Did mean old Malon scare you?"

The boy tearfully shook his head (Malon stuck her tongue out at Terra) and then pointed at his grandmother, who still looked incredibly bored with the proceedings.

All the preparation for the tree was so loud and distracting that no one noticed when Zelda came in through the unlocked front door. She quietly snuck around the foyer and towards the grand staircase that would lead to the floor that her room was on. Nobody saw her duck up the stairs, nobody heard her slam her bedroom door behind her. But even behind the closed door and from a floor up, she could hear her family and in-laws making a racket about that big, stupid tree.

It was definitely not as quiet as the open, snowy road had been. Sure it was a little reckless, maybe even dangerous, for her to have gone out on a slippery, icy, public highway on a dinky bicycle, but it had been so freeing. Getting away on her own, being truly alone, let her think clearly for once. It was akin to her routine back home, where once a week she would visit the beach at an extremely early hour and just sit there quietly to ponder various things. It was the only place she could get any time to herself.

"…fresh, as if issued to children on a beach…"

She'd read that someplace. Couldn't remember where.

Ugh. She had been wearing the same clothes for two sweaty days in a row, now. Her hair definitely needed to be washed, but she didn't want to take the time to do it at the moment. After searching a few drawers of the dresser in her room, she came across a rubber band, and used it to pull back her glistening, blonde hair. Zelda yanked the crimson sweater up over her head and did not expect it to feel so good. After exercising for so long, it was extremely refreshing to feel a slight breeze coming in from a crack in the window, and for several minutes, Zelda lay on her bare back on her bed. She felt exhausted.

But she couldn't put this off any longer. With a light groan, Zelda sat up and took off her slacks. I can't believe I biked in slacks. As she carried them over to her suitcase, she realized that she didn't own any casual clothes of any kind, and she really didn't feel like wearing a skirt or another pair of slacks right now. So she opened the closet and to her surprise saw some not-too-horrifying pajama bottoms hanging next to a laundry hamper. They looked as if they had never been worn; a straight black color save for a light pink stripe that went down each side. Wondering what her associates back at the firm would think of this outfit, she yanked them on. Hm… suspiciously perfect size.

The pants looked a little funny with the black, collared T-shirt Zelda put on next, but she didn't really care. It was just her family down there. Of course, that had never stopped her from wanting to look her best before. For what felt like ages, she stared at herself in the mirror—not vainly, but just curious as to whether or not she would actually go downstairs in such a ridiculous outfit. It was just her family, she kept telling herself. Exactly, said another part of her mind. Don't want to impress them? Don't you want to look good, to uphold your image?

"Dear, are you ill?"

Zelda's first immediate thought was that she was glad she was fully dressed before someone had taken advantage of her unlocked door. Thanks for knocking was her next thought as her mother strolled casually into the room. "That get-up doesn't quite seem your style, if I may say."

"No, it doesn't, does it?" Zelda said. For some reason, this buoyed her spirits. She liked dressing informally. It was so relaxing.

"All right, you aren't ill," Clarissa said, staring at Zelda's reflection. "And neither is Megan." She saw a confused look briefly take over her daughter's face before it was quickly repressed and Zelda turned around to see her mother eye-to-eye. "Unless you've already forgotten, that's why we were told neither of you came to get Vivien's Christmas tree. Megan got sick from being out in the cold and you didn't want to leave her. She looks perfectly fine to me know, running here and there with this and that to so-and-so."

"All right, mother, I confess," Zelda said with a dramatic gesture admitting defeat. "That was all mere fabrication to get you all out of the house and leave us alone."

"Yes, I thought it was a lie," Clarissa said calmly and smugly, examining her manicured nails. "You don't seem like the type who'd miss out on a chance to be with your sisters and your best friend just to look after your sick daughter."

Unbelievable!...or…is it, really? Still, that was quite a low blow and it took Zelda a minute to retaliate. "You're right, I mean, I had the great misfortune of inheriting most of your genes, didn't I? Missed your daughter's graduation from college to enter your dog in some sort of competition! Didn't come to see your first grandchild until he was two years old because you were just so swamped with work! Didn't go to your son's wedding because it would've meant missing out on an 'important' luncheon with your society friends! Didn't come to the help of your so-called baby when she was going to have one of her own, all thanks to the fact that she was practically raped!"

Clarissa seemed more horrified by the fact that her toughest daughter had just burst into tears than by the incredibly harsh things she had just said. She sat awkwardly at the end of Zelda's bed, waiting for the girl to collect herself. Just sitting there, waiting, not getting up to comfort her or get a tissue or say "you're right, I was so wrong."

"See! That's what you do!" Zelda nearly shouted (and if it hadn't been so loud downstairs, they might have heard her). "You make it feel like I can't cry in front of you! I was never good enough, mom, never! There's something more important than work, and money, and image, and all of it! It's family, mother! You must know what that is, because you've got a big one! Or did you just never realize that remarrying constantly would always wind up with more kids?! I hate that you made it this way!"

"What way? What do you mean?" Clarissa barked.

"For six years, ever since my child was born, I thought I was supposed to be just like you!" Zelda sobbed. "I never put her first, never! Don't you see how selfish and uncaring that is? Don't you see?? I was just so stupid! No one ever pointed it out to me, I didn't know there was anything else I could do! Viv, Terra, the others, they all broke out of it and they have their lives—they've got k-kids, they have husbands, they've had lasting relationships! Every single one of my siblings and my half-siblings, mom, they're all married and happy! And each one of them has a steady job, WHY did you pick on ME!? Why me?!"

"Zelda, I don't know what has gotten into you to suddenly make you so hysterical like this," Clarissa said in a dangerously low voice, getting to her feet. "But you will get a hold of yourself, right this instant!"

"Mom, just tell me one thing," Zelda whimpered, sinking to her knees in front of her mother. "Please, mom! Do you love me? Did you ever love me?"

"What a stupid question!" Clarissa snorted. "Of course I did! Of course I do! And as far as my personal life goes, I've been successful! I've had love! I've made as much money as a Rockefeller! Not just any one of my children could have followed in my footsteps, you were special! You, Zelda, you're brilliant! You astound me! I wish I could have been as good a lawyer at your age, really, I do!"

This was high praise coming from Clarissa Cleverly, but all Zelda could notice was the detached, angry tone to it. The woman was trying to justify years of careful molding and lack of real parenting. Zelda's whole life up to now had been Pygmalion. "Sure," Zelda said thickly, tears still coursing down her cheeks. "Sure, you're proud of me! You think I'm smart, you think I'm good at what I do, but that isn't loving me! Do you know the last time I cried before this trip, mom? Do you?!"

Clarissa only gave her an incredulous, "how should I know" look.

"It was when I was a kid and I told you I wanted to a veterinarian," Zelda said, her face still a picture of perfect beauty even as it was twisted up in sadness. "Jack's border collie had just been put to sleep, and I wanted to be a vet! I was going to help all the sick animals, and I was going to make their owners happy. I didn't care about the money, but I thought all of it would please you, but oh no! You had other plans for me! What if you kill one, Zelda? That's what you asked me, do you remember? What if I kill one while I'm trying to make it better? That just scared me so much, it—it scared me, and I cried myself to sleep that night, and I never cried again because you always got upset with me when I did. I had to be tough! I didn't cry when Aunt Laura died, I didn't cry when I got rejected by Yale and Princeton, and I didn't cry when Tony was killed in a car accident, and I didn't cry at all during labor!"

"Very nice, story, Zelda, very nice," Clarissa said loudly, trying to end the conversation. "You'd have made a fine actress!"

"Wait," Zelda whispered, suddenly realizing something. She hadn't thought about the aftermath of one certain night in quite a while. "I lied. I cried one more time."

"Zelda, what does that have to do with anyth—"

"The only other time I went outside California, before now," Zelda said, looking back up at her mother. "I was in New York, and I saw a really sad movie with a boy. The boy wasn't like Marth, he was kind and sweet and so gentle …I'd never met another boy like him before or since. He dropped me off at Terra's and I then I told her about him and then I told her …I told her I was going to marry Marth, which completely threw her off course, and so I had to tell her I was pregnant…" Zelda shivered and let out a sigh. The tears had finally started to cease, leaving only cold, wet spots on her face. She blinked hard to rid herself of the last of them. "I was so frightened ...but I don't know what's wrong with me now! I seem to have turned into a leaky faucet on this trip, I'm crying all over the place! It's all coming out, it's all just coming out. It doesn't have to be this way, mom, it doesn't! I can have it all, I can still do my job but I can be a mom, too! Did you ever figure that out yourself? Do you know that in my daughter's six years of life, I don't think I ever told her I loved her?"

"You going to blame this one on me, too?" Clarissa asked coldly, folding her arms in a disdained manner.

"Maybe I can't," Zelda breathed. "Even though you never once said it to me. Maybe this means something, though." She wiped idly at her face and then chuckled sadly to herself. "Maybe I only cry when I'm out of California and with Link."

"Link?" Clarissa said a little too quickly. "What do you mean?"

"It was him," Zelda whispered, unable to keep a wide grin from spreading onto her countenance. "He was the boy who took me to the sad movie, he's the one who first instilled in me a belief that…" She clicked her tongue once as she tried to find the right words. "There is love in this world. You just have to be open to looking for it. I was just too afraid to do that and now I… I think I'll be all right. I told him I love him."

Clarissa stared at her in shock. "Is that what you were doing when we were all out getting the tree?" she asked in a disgusted whisper. "Were you having sex with him?"

"I am so disgusted that you would ask me that," Zelda retorted, launching herself to her feet. Her mother was still two or three inches taller than her, but at the moment, Zelda felt it in her to be a giant. "Is that the only word you immediately equate love with, mom? Is that it?"

"Well, maybe it is, considering I'm talking to you and you are the only one of my children to have had a child when you were still a teenager," Clarissa said icily.

"This is not the same thing!" Zelda said, her voice raising in volume again. "I was just a stupid KID, mother! Marth was like a teen idol to me, I was blindly infatuated with him, call it any stupid, gross thing you want! This is different, and I really shouldn't be surprised that when I tell you there is a man out there who I really love, who I truly love and know loves me, the first question you'd ask is if I got Vivien to hustle you all out of the house so I could get him into bed while my six-year-old daughter was here!"

Once again stunned by Zelda's forth-rightness with her, Clarissa was left rather speechless. Forgetting that she was still wearing the collared T-shirt and the pajama pants, Zelda stormed towards the door. "We have more to discuss here, young lady!" Clarissa hissed. "Where do you think you are going?"

"To do something that will most likely utterly horrify you," Zelda said, and was about to slam the door after her before saying, "But don't think that I'm doing this just to spite you, don't you dare have the spine to imagine that's why I'm doing it. It will only be a nice perk."

Zelda shut the door and hurried for the staircase, getting a fair head start. Clarissa remained behind; their conversation was really only just setting in, and for once she didn't think she had the strength to go after Zelda. Her daughter, on the other hand, felt elated that she had finally, in a way, stood up to the old broad. She practically sprinted into the room where everyone was still congregated around the tree; she was looking unnaturally flushed and almost excited about something.

"Hey, Zel, where you been?" asked Jack from his position on a ladder, stinging some lights higher up on the tree.

"Doing some serious thinking," she said up to him. She scanned the room for Link, and quickly spotted him talking to Malon. He was wearing a Santa Hat that Megan had placed on his head, and he and Malon were now helping the girl to untangle a bunch of unruly tinsel. Without so much as a preliminary hello, Zelda walked up to him and somewhat matter-of-factly announced, "I would say yes."

"What?" Malon asked, when Link couldn't speak.

Zelda focused her eyes on Link's surprised, loving, blue ones. "If you asked me," she said slowly, "I would say yes."