"If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself." – Albert Einstein

When Charlotte Grayson received word from her mother to return home, her fundamental reaction had been concern. Whatever her mother had been, she was certainly not the melodramatic type. During the flight home to J.F.K., Charlotte wondered what awaited and required her immediate attention. Upon entrance of Grayson Manor, Charlotte placed her suitcase by her side. "Mom..."

"...and Daniel should be home any minute with the twins," her mother's monotone voice could be heard clearly from the direction of the kitchen.

"Mom," Charlotte persisted, aware her mother hadn't heard her beckon from the foyer.

Delicate footsteps preceded the appearance of an elderly woman from the den, and her structural features were strikingly familiar, but Charlotte's overworked brain struggled to match the name to the face. Her confusion was compounded further, when the stranger didn't appear the least bit startled by her arrival, and even expressed joy in the shape of a toothless smile, "Charlotte."

Bewildered, Charlotte forced herself to return the smile and Victoria shook her head, amazed; Daniel's description, and even the photographs she had studied, didn't do justice to how much Charlotte mirrored her namesake. "Hi," Charlotte murmured, softly.

No introduction could be made, since Emily stalked from the kitchen, with Nolan trailing closely behind. "Charlie, welcome home!"

Emily embraced Charlotte, and Sophia obliviously hopped into the foyer on her crutches, "Grams, have you seen my phone?"

"Grams?" Her older sister repeated, eyeing Victoria carefully.

"We're home," Daniel entered through the front door, with Jacob and Hannah at either side. The youngest Grayson children immediately reacquainted themselves with their older sister, blissfully unaffected by the stranger's presence in their family home, while Daniel and Emily looked to one another for God's answer.

Nolan inwardly chuckled, "What a happy family reunion!" His snide remark prompted the same old smile from Victoria that sent ice-cold shivers down his spine. Emily's eyes soon pleaded with Nolan for assistance in a solution, and he offered Victoria an arm to steady herself on. "Victoria, why don't you and I let Daniel and Emily sit down with Charlotte and the twins?" Never one to relish Victoria's company alone - especially after his pivotal role in Amanda's revenge - Nolan tugged on Sophia's arm, "Soph, come on."

Daniel scooped his twin children into his arms and carried them into the den, while Emily guided Charlotte behind them. "Mom, please tell me this is a trick. I mean, there's no way that could really be who I think it is -" Charlotte swallowed the lump in her throat; their silence confirmed her suspicion. "How?"

"Who is it, mommy?"

"That lady," Daniel squeezed his son, his voice unsteady. "Her name is Victoria." He prayed for step-by-step instructions on 'How To Explain Your Mother's Return From the Dead to Your Children' but none came. "She's your Grandmother. She's my mom," he explained.

"But you said she was in heaven," Hannah scowled, unhappy at her father's blatant deception.

While Daniel stumbled over an appropriate response, Charlotte's eyes widened, more confused than ever. "Mom, if she's been alive all these years, why didn't she ever try to contact dad?" Millions of questions bounced around in her head, childishly. Her mother shook her head, equally lost for answers, and Charlotte pondered how crazed her father's childhood must have been with parents like Conrad and Victoria Grayson, if he could accept his mother's return from the dead in his stride. "What about you? How do you feel having her here? I mean, I'm assuming this wasn't your first choice."

Emily exhaled, heavily. "Well, you know how your sister can be when she puts her mind to something..." she shrugged her shoulders. "Let's just say, your Grandmother's alive and well, and she's here to stay from now on, okay?" Emily patted her daughter's shoulder, "Don't worry about me. Your Grandmother and I have finished our business, everything else can be dealt with, as a family." It all sounded so easy, when she said it out loud.

"Why don't you three say 'hello'?" Daniel prompted, beckoning his mother back into the room. "Mom," he patted the space beside him. "I'd like you to meet Charlotte, Jacob and Hannah." Daniel motioned to each one of his children, immensely proud.

An uncanny shyness washed over Hannah, as she twisted her blonde curls, "Hello."

"It's very nice to meet you," Victoria replied, enamoured with their sweet faces... especially, Charlotte's. "All of you."

At the doorway, Nolan and Sophia observed the reunion scene and Nolan leaned backward, "Well, well, well... this must be the most demure I've ever seen the Grayson's. I won't let myself adjust to the abnormality too quickly though," he sarcastically commented, "I'm positive you'll all be back on top form soon enough. Until then, Revengers," Nolan saluted Emily and departed from Grayson Manor.

Flashback

Daniel frantically scrambled to conclude his business in the office, as a six year old Charlotte started to run riot in the headquarters of Grayson Global, and employed her younger sister, Sophia, to exacerbate the chaotic atmosphere. His secretary held a stricken expression, when the little girls mercilessly raided her desk.

"It will be nice for the girls to see where you work, Daniel," he mimicked his wife's earlier complaint. "You don't spend enough time with them, Daniel. Sometimes, I wonder if you rather we had a son, Daniel." Daniel rolled his eyes; the bitterness wasn't an emotion he often held against his wife, but to pack their two young daughters off to work with him wasn't her most inspired, or thoughtful idea.

"Daddy," Charlotte whined, slumping herself in the chair opposite, "I'm bored!"

"One more minute and I'll drive you girls home, okay?" Her father promised, as he cursed the man - or, more likely, woman - who invented the school break. With his wife away from home, Daniel had been driven to a state of mental and physical exhaustion by his children.

In oblivion, Daniel didn't notice Sophia deviously sneak his wallet from his jacket pocket and deliver it to Charlotte for approval. He was too relieved they had settled into quiet distraction, which enabled him to focus on the paperwork. "Who are they?" Charlotte's bossy demand for an answer entered his head, and Daniel peered at the picture of his deceased mother and sister, which Charlotte had slammed onto the table.

Their photographs weren't plastered over the walls of Grayson Manor. In fact, he didn't think Charlotte or Sophia had ever been introduced to the memories of his mother or sister. Perhaps, it was because Emily had so few photographs of her family before him, that Daniel didn't feel free to expose his own. Perhaps, it was because his family had disappointed him so. He shoved the paperwork aside, "Well... they were two very important woman in daddy's life, long before you girls were born," he admitted, skirting around the issue as best he could. "This was daddy's younger sister."

"Where is she now?" Charlotte asked, wide-eyed and attentive.

Daniel lifted Sophia onto his knees and pulled Charlotte close to him, "She died. She's in heaven." Daniel wasn't a man of faith, but it was an easy explanation.

"What was her name?"

"Her name was Charlotte." The little girl's face brightened in excitable recognition and Daniel nodded his head, "You were named after her, because me and your mommy miss her very much." He was beguiled by how much his eldest child resembled Charlotte; the older she became, the more alike she became, too.

"Who's that?" Sophia pouted, not the centre of attention, and pointed to Victoria, in order to move the conversation along.

"That lady was my mother." Daniel matter-of-factly replied, "Your grandmother. One day, when you're both older and able to understand, I'll sit you down and explain what happened to them. Until then, all you need to know is that, if they were here, they would love you both to the moon and back."

Flashforward

The front door slammed, indicating Nolan's departure, and the three Grayson children reeled with the recent revelation.

"I'm going to go upstairs and unpack," Charlotte recoiled from her mother's arms, desperate to be alone, where she could decipher her family's latest Rubik's cube.

"Be downstairs for dinner at 6," her father requested, and his eyes possessed an authoritative glint. Clearly, he had witnessed her confusion and wouldn't allow her to run away from another secret that had wormed its way out of the Grayson family woodwork.

"Daniel." Charlotte ascended the stairs and his mother looked toward him, hopefully. "Would you mind terribly if we postponed dinner for an hour or so?" Her entire approach was so innocent, too innocent for Emily's inner-worrier to settle. "There's one errand I need to run."