Disclaimer: I only own Evie, her family, and Dr. Lynn. Ted owns himself. Kristen is a real person (Ted's real life wife), but the way I portray her is not the way I view her in real life because, well, I don't know her. This is all purely fiction to make the story go round. :)
A/N: A HUGE thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, I love you all! The end is near (sniffles). I know I said John would be in this chapter, but he isn't. He'll be in the next one for sure. Not much else to say except that the flashbacks are italicized. Enjoy! Read & review!
"How did you feel after you talked to your father?" Dr. Lynn questioned after Evie finished telling her what happened. "Has there been any contact between you since then?"
"I felt great after I went to go see him. I had been feeling those things for so long and I never knew what to do with all the anger I had built up inside me over the years. Something inside of me snapped and I told him exactly what I felt. Getting all of that hurt and anger out was like lifting a weight off my shoulders."
"I'm happy that you got that feeling, Evelyn. But, there is more to your healing process than talking to your father."
"I thought it was a good place to start." She whispered, fidgeting with her hands.
"It was an excellent place to start." She agreed. "You've got to move up from there. Now, you have all this pent of up anger towards your cousin and Ted."
Sighing, Evie nodded her head. Years of pent up anger and hurt was being released from her body. In order for her to move on with her life, Evie had to finally let go. Definitely not the way her and Ted had let go last year. No, it had to be different this time. Hugging it out and ignoring everything definitely wasn't the way to go.
Kristen was sitting in her backyard, playing with her phone. Evie, in the meantime, had gone inside to answer the door. Neither person knew it, but she had invited them both over. It was time for Kristen to learn the truth.
Randy shoved Evie in Ted's direction. After hearing about her latest therapy session, he decided it was time to step in. Evie talking to her father was one thing, but talking to Ted was going to be something completely different. Considering they hadn't talked in nearly a year and a half, it was going to be exceptionally difficult for her.
"I can't do this." Evie whispered, backtracking a bit.
"You've got to do this."
"I haven't talked to him in months. Its a little out of the blue, don't you think?"
The Viper rolled his eyes and gently pushed her forward. "The best way to move on is to talk to him right now. It'll be fair to him and it'll definitely be fair to John."
"Don't use him against me." She turned around, jabbing her finger into his chest. "You know how I feel about him."
"Yes, I know, Evelyn, you love him." He recited. "Grow a set of balls and march yourself over there."
Chewing on her lower lip, Evie placed one foot in front of the other and nervously started making her way towards Ted.
"Ted." Evie weakly whispered.
Her nerves were getting the best of her. This wasn't the right time. She just needed a little more time and then she would talk to him. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. Perfect, he still hadn't turned around yet. Evie still had time to escape.
"Evie?" Ted questioned, surprised.
Too late.
"Hi."
"Long time no talk, huh?" He was still wondering why she was standing in front of him. "How have you been?"
"I've been good."
Ted knew she was lying though. He had seen her around numerous times before and had seen she was a complete wreck. Like a fool, he just let it happen. Never did he ignore her wish of staying away and going to help. Not in the least bit. He just let it happen. It was a very stupid move on his part.
"That's great to hear."
They both knew that she was lying though. He had heard the rumors going around backstage and had even gone to Randy to get the real information. Evie knew he had heard some of the things being said about her. Though neither would bother to mention it.
"This is really awkward for me and no doubt for you." She finally said, her eyes wandering away from him. "But, um, I just really needed to talk to you."
"About what?"
"I don't want to talk about it here." Evie replied, her eyes still skipping away from her. "Are you free on Saturday?"
Her one time love nodded his head. Ted was surprised that she was speaking to him after nearly a year, but he was shocked to hear that she wanted him to be at her house in a few days. On Saturday of all days.
"I'll be there."
Adjusting her top and fixing her hair, Evie answered the door. A small smile gracied her lips to see him over after such a long time. Maybe, just maybe, they could finally fix things and move on with their lives. She can move on in figuring her feelings out and so he can he.
"I'm glad you could make it." Evie hugged him. "There was one thing I wanted to tell you before we move away from my front door."
His heart sank. She didn't love him anymore and wanted him out of her life for good. Every imaginable excuse ran through his head. Worry had become evident on his face and he was about ready to burst out into tears. Not before he walked out her front door at least. The last thing he wanted her to think was that he was some sort of crybaby.
"Kristen is in the backyard."
"I'm not getting back together with her." Ted snapped, taking one step back. "You can forget about it."
"I'm not trying to set you up. If you ask me, you can do a helluva lot better than her." Evie bit back. "She has no idea that you are here."
"Why did you ask me here?"
"I think its time we tell her everything. When we do, I'm kicking her out of my house. Things are still sour between us after what happened last year." Evie commented. "When she's gone, we'll find something to do. There are a couple of things I think we both need to get off our chests."
"Where is all of this coming from?"
Evie knew he was confused by her reasoning and that was all understandable. He didn't know about her therapy sessions. If he did know, he probably would have said something to her by now, she figured.
"I think because we never told her anything, we were never able to move on." Evie rationalized. "She has always been a constant between us and seems to never go away. If we tell her this, then maybe she'll go away and we can move on with our lives."
Ted mulled over it for a moment and realized she was right. Telling Kristen would be the best thing for them. Who knows? Maybe, it'll open a new door for them.
"Let's do this."
Five minutes later they were outside. Ted was following close behind Evie to the end of her yard.
"Kristen, we needed to talk to you."
The brunette looked up from her phone, very surprised to see Ted standing next to Evie. Going by the dirt she had heard about Evie, her cousin wasn't talking to Ted. Kristen just figured it had something to do with breaking up the wedding. Though she didn't understand why he felt compelled to do such a thing when he could have had her. Correction, could still have her. She had been planning a new scheme for quite a while. It would have been sooner, but it was harder with her dear annoying cousin not talking to him. However, it seemed that things have changed for her benefit.
"You're just in time." Kristen smiled, looking at Ted. "Evie was just about to apologize to me."
"First off, I wasn't going to apologize. I don't regret doing what I did to you in the least bit. If anything, you deserved it."
"Well, then, if you're not going to apologize, then I'm leaving." Kristen got up.
Evie was quick to push her cousin back into her chair. The annoyance and anger clearly written on her face. Kristen was going to listen to her even if she had to be tied down to the chair.
"What did you do to her?"
"She went on a rampage after she found out I told the family about her miscarriage!" She exclaimed, pointing fingers at her estranged cousin.
"I punched her in the face a few times before the wedding." Evie shrugged as if it were no big deal. "She had told my family about the miscarriage last year and they all gained up on me. Like I said, she deserved it for poking her nose in my business. You're just lucky Paul was there to pull me off you, otherwise, who knows what I could have done to you?"
Kristen shrank back in her seat, but quickly regained her composure. "Sure, blame it on me that you're such a whore. Its not my fault that you couldn't carry to full term."
"I didn't say it was your fault. It was your fault that you told the family." She was starting to lose her patience. "Anyway, this isn't what we're here for."
"Well, there probably isn't any point to this." Kristen snorted, getting up again. "I've to get some shopping done anyway."
Now it was Ted who was annoyed with her antics. She was always this spoiled and self-centered. He was beginning to wonder why he started seeing her in the first place. Better yet, he wanted to know why they had last so many years.
"Sit down!" Ted shouted. "We have something to tell you and you need to listen. I know its going to be hard for you, but stop being a brat for ten fucking minutes. You can resume with your life when we're finished."
Evie was surprised by his sudden outburst. In all the years they had known each other, she had never seen him snap at Kristen like that. Nor had she ever heard of any instances like that. Then again, Ted did tell her how he started distancing himself from Kristen. So, outbursts like that had to have taken place rarely or never at all.
"What's gotten into you?" She looked like she was going to cry. "I haven't done anything."
"Just shut up for ten minutes."
His on again, off again girlfriend sat down in her original seat. Her eyes never leaving the people standing in front of her. Whatever they had to tell had better been good. If it was something she didn't like then she had ammunition against Evie. There was no way she was losing Ted. He was hers.
Evie didn't miss the look on her cousin's face. She had known that face only too well. Kristen was plotting something. Not like it mattered anyway. Evie had known that just about everything was going to come out that day and she was prepared. The consequences were going to be big, but it was something that she was going to deal with. She just hoped that Ted wouldn't storm out of there before she had the chance to smooth things over with him.
"Ted and I were together." Evie said pointblank. There was no reason for them to beat around the bush.
"What?" Kristen was taken aback by their admission.
"We dated for a little while when we were in our mid teens. We couldn't have been more than sixteen and seventeen at the time." Evie looked to Ted for confirmation. "It was a short lived, turbulent relationship."
"This can't be true." She was in denial. "You hated each other then."
Kristen didn't know if she was heartbroken or angry. Evie had always known how she felt about Ted. Even when they were younger, she had claimed Ted as her own and told Evie not to go near him. For the most part she thought her cousin had listened. As it turned out, that wasn't the case.
"Do you remember that cheerleader that I went out with? The one I told you about when I went to you after the breakup. I said she moved away." He tried to refresh her memory. "I know you remember, Kristen."
She sulked in her seat, lowering her eyes to the ground to avoid Evie and Ted's stares. How could they do this to her? Evie shouldn't have done anything with him all those years ago. She knew better. She couldn't even begin to fathom why he wanted her. Evie was no good. This had to have been some kind of joke. That's it! They were messing with her emotions because they were heartless.
"You're lying." Kristen was deluded. "You really were with a cheerleader. Her name was Jamie Evans. I remember. Right around that time she had moved across the country." She started laughing. "Nice joke guys."
Evie shot Ted an annoyed look. She had always been like this. If she ever heard something she didn't like, she would pretend it didn't happen or find something that happened right around that time to make it work for her. Reality was her own worst enemy and it ate her up inside. Then a thought hit Evie, she was the same way. She always ran away and found excuses. Her perception of reality was way off which is why nothing ever worked out. Aside from telling Kristen so that they could finally move on, this was also her way of letting go of what never was.
"Stop laughing, you look crazy." Evie muttered under her breath.
"Be nice." Ted nudged her, slightly laughing.
Fighting a smile of her own, she looked at her cousin. It was clear to her that Kristen still didn't believe them. This was clearly going to be harder than she thought it would be. Sighing, she grabbed her cousin's hand, being sincere to her for the first time in years.
"I want you to listen to me." She said softly. "We really were together. Its true that we did hate each other as kids, but as we got older our feelings for each other changed. We were together for a little while until things ended."
Kristen still didn't want to believe them. How could she have missed this? There had to have been someone who knew what the deal was between them. As she thought about it a little harder, there couldn't have been a way for anyone to know. Evie was always closed up and Ted usually denied everything. Their families couldn't have known anymore than she did.
"That's it? You went out for a while and then broke up."
"There was a very big reason why we broke up." Ted spoke up. He looked over at Evie who nodded for him to go ahead. "Are you sure?" He asked her.
"I'm positive." Evie replied, her voice shaking and her eyes filled with tears.
"Evie got pregnant when she was sixteen." He finally said after a long period of time. "I was the father."
"I don't see a kid anywhere." Kristen was starting to get angry now.
"Well, Ted here thought I was lying to him when I broke the news. Ultimately, he ended things with me." Evie sobbed. "Nobody knew, Kris. His family didn't know and neither did mine. Because of that and the fact that I didn't have him by my side, I went ahead and had an abortion."
"You have to be eighteen to get an abortion." Kristen thought she had found a flaw. Really, the joke was getting old. "Therefore, none of this happened."
"I took Mandy's I.D. and used it as my own. By some miracle, everything worked out fine. I had some money saved up to pay for it and nobody ever knew." Evie was crying at this point. "Years ago I took away something from myself and I've hated myself for it ever since. Even though he won't admit it, I know Ted hates me too."
He was going to say something, but stopped himself. He would leave everything for when Kristen left. It was better she didn't hear what he had to say. Besides, his words were only for Evie. None of this concerned her. He was only going along with this for Evie's sake. He had heard the stories and knew about her therapy sessions. In the end, he was doing this for her own good.
Kristen sat back in her seat. She looked from one to the other as she tried to figure out if they were telling her the truth. Call her crazy, but what they were telling her was hard to believe.
"Believe us or not, Kristen. It happened." Ted broke into her thoughts.
"Have you been together since then?"
"A few times last year." Evie answered, feeling better about herself. "The baby I miscarried last year could have possibly been Ted's."
Without realizing it, his hand laced with hers. He gently gave it a reassuring squeeze. Their hands stayed like that for the remainder of the conversation.
"You slut!" Kristen screamed, jumping out of her seat. "When you started with that company last year your job was to find out why Ted left me and then to get him back together with me. The entire time I thought you weren't doing it because you constantly bitched about him. As it turns out, you were fucking him!"
"What I did with him is none of your business!" Evie shouted back at her. "Even if I did try to get him back together with you it wouldn't have worked because you're a psycho. You were a replacement for me. Ted is in love with me. Maybe, he was in love with you all those years ago. I don't know, that's something you two have to talk about. But, last year when he started seeing you again it was to use you to hurt me."
"Dear Evie, you are so full of yourself. He was always with me because he loves me!" Kristen pointed at herself. "You're just a no good slut. The whole reason why nothing worked out with John was because you probably couldn't get your legs closed."
Ted sat as he watched the girls arguing back and forth. He was hurt too. The only reason Evie started talking to him again was so that she could push them back together. Her intentions of being with him were never genuine.
"Fuck you! You don't know anything about my relationship with John." Evie exclaimed. "I don't care for you to know. You were told what I thought you deserved to know and now you can leave."
Grabbing her things, she started to walk away and then stopped.
"Get off your high horse, Evelyn. You aren't perfect, so stop pretending to be. Pregnant at sixteen and an abortion at the same age. My, my, my, you certainly did get around. Not to mention, you miscarried last year. Your wedding didn't work out. John probably hasn't been around since then. Not that I blame him though." Kristen smirked. "With the train wreck you are, its for the best that you didn't have those fucking kids. Hopefully, you never will. They'll be as fucked up as you. That miscarriage was a blessing in disguise."
Evie was starting towards Kristen when Ted pulled her back. "The reason why things with John didn't work out was because of me. I stopped the wedding and told her my feelings in front of the entire church. She got confused and as been avoiding me and John on her own. Okay? As for saying that about the babies, you have no right! You don't ever say something like that to her or anyone else again."
"I can say what I want."
"Karma is going to kick you in the ass." Ted snapped, gripping onto Evie tightly. "For the record, I never did love you. I was using you to stay close to her."
A shrill scream emanated from Kristen as she stomped out of the house. When she got to the sliding door, she stopped and refocused her attention on Evie.
"Its a wonder why your father always hated you."
Evie said nothing as Kristen walked back into the house and presumably out the front door. She wasn't worth the words.
"That didn't go as planned." Evie whispered.
"At least she knows."
Evie nodded her head. "She's probably going to go running to the family."
"You're getting stronger, Eves." He let go of her. "Therapy is working out well for you and you're looking a lot better than you did back in April."
She hadn't realized that he knew about her therapy sessions. The only thing she noticed was the sullen tone in his voice. He was walking away from her, his head down and his shoulders slumped. Bells were going off in her head, telling her that he was bothered by something. Initially, she thought it was about the abortion.
"Where are you going?" Evie ran after him.
"I'm leaving."
"Why?"
"Its clear that you didn't want me in your life to begin with." He muttered, stepping inside the house. "I better get going so that you can finally move on like you wanted to."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Evie gently grabbed his elbow.
Ted wasn't going to say anything, but he figured since she wanted to talk so bad, then they would. He was always keen on giving her what she wanted and then was no different.
"You were using me to get dirt for Kristen. The one person I wanted out of my life the most and you were doing her work for her. Not only that, you were going try to get me back together with her. Why would you want to do that?"
"After we broke up, I got into some trouble that she knew about." Evie whispered. "She never said anything when we were younger. She never mentioned anything until last year. Basically, she threatened to tell my Mom and I didn't want that to happen."
"I thought you didn't care about your family."
"Everyone but the scum that was my father. I didn't want them to know about it. Because I know that it would have hurt them."
"That doesn't justify what you did. It doesn't even make matters better. The only reason why you let me back in was for Kristen's purposes, not your own." He was heartbroken. "You still haven't forgiven me."
"I'll admit that's how it all started. As time went on, I called everything off. I couldn't do it anymore because I did forgive you and I had come to care about you a lot. I love you, Teddy. Please, believe me when I tell you that I'm being genuine." She pleaded with him. "I admit that I fucked up big time for that. I'm really sorry."
He was trying to read her face for any signs of insincerity.
"If you hate me and want to leave, then go ahead. I won't blame you." Evie whispered, knowing this was something that might happen.
Ted continued to search her face and finally came to the conclusion that she was telling the truth. Something inside of him told Ted that she was being genuine. If she didn't love or care for him, then they wouldn't have spent so much time together.
"Leave me, Teddy. I won't be angry."
Stepping towards her, he wrapped one arm around her waist and the other gently rested on the side of her face. Closing the space between them, he looked down at her. His feelings for her had never left and from the looks of it they never word. If she wanted to move on, then fine, he couldn't stop her. But, Ted knew that he would never find somebody who could match up to Evie. The bond he has with her could never be formed with anybody else. Often, he wondered if she realized it too.
"I still love you. Nothing and no one is going to change that." He whispered before gently pressing his lips to hers. "You seemed to have gotten better in the last few months and I'm happy for you. When you truly know what you want from me then give me a call."
"Teddy-"
"I want you as something more, Evie. But, I don't know and you don't even know what you want." Ted whispered, his eyes never leaving hers. "You just want to be friends? That's fine with me. You want something more than friends? That's great. Whichever you decide is going to be fine for me as long as you're happy with your life. I don't like that its taken me this long to realize it."
"You can't go." She cried.
"Shh, don't cry." He soothed her. "I'll always be here. More so than before. You just need to figure out how you want to do it, baby. Keep going to therapy. If you haven't yet, go talk to John. I don't know, Eves, just do something. Do what you feel is right. Don't worry about anybody's feelings but your own."
Ted broke away from her and started for the door. Just as his hand touched the doorknob, he felt Evie rest her tiny hand on top of his big hand.
"How did you know I was in therapy? I never told you."
"I have my sources."
In reality, Randy had told him everything. It was nothing he wanted to hear, but the second Randy had something to say, there was no way he couldn't listen to him. He could get obnoxious like that some of the time.
"You talked to Randy, didn't you?"
"I'm not naming names." He said before opening the door and leaving.
Evie stood outside and watched as he walked down the pathway that would lead to his car. As she stood there, she thought about what had happened in the last couple of hours. Tons of things had been brought out, a few things she hadn't expected. She felt great because of it. However, that still didn't stop her heart from ripping into two when she thought about what Ted said. The choice was hers. Her only problem was that she still didn't know what she wanted.
"I love you." Evie whispered as he drove off.
Time was starting to run out. The time to decide was coming up. This time, she had to figure out who was right; her heart or her head.
A/N: Three chapters left.