A/N: I know it's been almost 2 months and I'm so sorry, but all the McHart feels took over my life obviously. Hope you're still with the story though.

Chapter Nineteen

"Who wants to begin?" Diane addressed the three kids sitting opposite from her and Will in the living room.

Their own children didn't even dare to look her in the eye, only Marissa stared at Diane boldly, which she found rather cheeky than brave.

"It's all my fault and I'm really sorry," Marissa spoke right away, her eyes never leaving Diane's who was relieved to see real remorse in them.

"I'm sorry too," Em muttered under her breath.

"Me too," Nat joined in and even though Diane expected a more heartfelt version from both of them, she let it fly.

She glanced at Will, who rolled his eyes, which was exactly how she felt. They had agreed that she'd be the one leading the conversation, but she wanted to give him the chance to interfere whenever he felt like it.

"That's something," Diane noted turning to the kids, but didn't sound very pleased. "Obviously we want to know how it happened," she pointed out that the apology attempts weren't really enough.

"I invited some friends," Marissa admitted to breaking one of Diane's most important rules. "Em already knew them. We had fun the other day, so we just wanted to hang out with them."

"I thought we agreed that it would just be the three of you."

Diane tried to keep her cool, even if it wasn't really easy under the circumstances. She'd had enough time to prepare for this conversation after all, but facing the kids knowing what they had done behind their back wasn't much easier for her than for them.

"You weren't supposed to find out," Marissa muttered arrogantly and Diane didn't miss the look Emma gave her friend. At least her own daughter knew she owed her respect.

"Thank you for showing such a good example to my children," Diane made a sarcastic remark, which caused Marissa to shift her eyes on the ground, hopefully due to shame. "And you two, you should have called us right away."

"We didn't do anything wrong, Mom. We just had just some fun. Listened to music, ordered pizza, what's the big deal?" Em got a little cheekier now to Diane's surprise.

"Don't get testy with your mother, young lady," Will interfered, silencing Emma and making Diane smile inwardly, but she kept her serious expression.

"I never agreed to a party, just a sleepover and I saw there was alcohol too," she pointed out to burst the bubble of her daughter's newly found confidence.

"I swear I didn't drink," Emma stated quickly.

"Neither did I," Nat joined in, and Diane chose to believe them since Will had confirmed the same before.

She didn't miss the fact that Marissa was silent about this subject, but that wasn't her problem after all. Although she wished it hadn't happened at her house, because it made her partially responsible.

"We don't know who brought the alcohol, or where some of the people came from. Things got out of hand," Eli's daughter explained the situation further, and even though Diane could imagine something like that happening, she was disappointed at them trying to hide it.

"So why didn't you call?" she looked from her daughter to her son and back until one of them finally gazed back at her.

"Because it was harmless fun not a drug-fueled rager," Em tried to justify their actions, pointing out it could have been a lot worse, but it wasn't much consolation to Diane at this moment.

"Okay, I think I've heard enough," she noted dismissively, then looked at Will who didn't seem to have any questions either, so Diane turned back to the kids. "Does anyone have anything else to add?" When all three of them shook their heads she decided to let them off the hook for tonight. "Okay, you two go right up to your rooms and tomorrow we will discuss the consequences of this," she instructed her kids, who seemed relieved to be sent away. They both hurried up the stairs straight away, without as much as a 'good night'.

Marissa stayed there waiting for the verdict on herself, she still seemed too calm to Diane. Unlike Emma and Nat, it probably wasn't the first time something like this happened to Marissa and Diane was sure it wasn't the last either. She could only hope at least her own children learnt something from the situation.

"I really want to send you home right now, but it's very late, so you should stay here like we agreed, but I'm putting you up in the guest bedroom instead of Emma's room."

Diane decided to go rather easy on the girl, she would leave the parenting to her parents, but not tonight. It's the best for everyone if they just called it a night and continue dealing with it tomorrow.

"That's okay, thank you," the girl replied with a soft expression, she seemed actually grateful. "Have you told my dad?" she inquired coyly, which made Diane wonder if she really feared Eli's reaction.

Diane had the answer on the tip of her tongue: 'If I had you'd be in big trouble right now. I'm running for office. You know very well what that means. The last thing I need right now is to be accused of being a bad mother, because I can't even keep my own children under control. So you should pray no one finds out because if this causes any turmoil, your dad surely won't thank you.' but she kept it all inside.

"I haven't told him yet, so you have a night to figure out if you want him to hear it from you or me," she replied instead and Marissa nodded silently.

After Diane showed the girl to her room she went straight to the bedroom where Will was waiting for her.

"Come here," he said softly, opening his arms and Diane didn't hesitate to accept the warm hug he offered. She needed it badly and he probably did too.

"Would you like to take a bath? I can make one for you," he suggested, bringing a smile to Diane's face as she pulled out of his arms, but only took one step back.

"Thank you, but a shower will feel better now," she reassured him.

"I guess we should be grateful our kids only started rebelling now," he commented jokingly, but it was too early for Diane to look at the events that way, not to mention she was dead tired.

"Can we please not talk about this anymore tonight?" she begged him tactfully, not to hurt his feelings.

"Of course," he understood.

"But thank you for taking care of everything," she said gratefully and kissed him gently.

Even though he'd let her handle the actual conversation, he'd been a huge help with literally cleaning up the kids' mess and Diane wanted to make sure he knew she appreciated it.

While the hot water was trying to refresh her exhausted body, Diane's mind didn't get any rest. Her children were growing up very fast and seemed to need her attention more right when she wasn't in the position to give it to them fully.

Her carefully planned timing to run for office wasn't that ideal after all, but maybe there was no right time for anything. She just had to face the challenges as best as she could and hope for the best outcome. The only reassuring thing was that she didn't have to do any of it alone.