"Where shall we go for tonight?" Jackson asked, now he was dressed for dinner. Going out for a meal in Saturday night was becoming a sort of tradition for them.

Erica was still in front of the mirror, doing the work that ensured she stayed a beautiful as ever.

"Surprise me?" she said as she fixed her ear rings.

Jackson sighed. Erica was still pretending that everything was fine. That she didn't have an issue with Marissa or that the fact that Bianca was no longer talking to her was breaking her heart. She had taken a little kernel of jealousy and then taken it way too far, and was now no longer willing to see the consequences! Jackson knew that you could rarely bulldoze Erica into changing her mind, but sometimes it paid to give her a good push in the right direction.

"I'll surprise you." he thought. "You're not going like it, but maybe it will do some good."

…

When the car dropped then off at Krystal's, Erica gave Jackson a chilling look.

"What are we doing here?" she asked.

"You told me to surprise you." Jackson quipped, "You look surprised."

Erica stepped back when Jackson tied to lead he inside.

"I'm not spending our time together in a room with that woman!"

"She has a name." said Jackson rather more sternly. "I thought it might do you some good to be reminded of the good work you and Krystal did together for your daughters, during JR's the trial."

"Why would I need reminding of that?" Erica asked.

Jackson sighed.

"I'm not a fool Erica. I can see what is going on. You spend all your time talking about our great family wedding, but right now, thanks to your actions, you barely have a family. You need to start re-building the bridges you are burning down, Erica, or soon there will be nothing left to save."

Erica faltered at that. How much did he know? And when he said 'nothing left to save', was he talking about their marriage as well?

"Come on," he said, smiling now and holding out his arm. "A little dinner and a bit of polite conversation, you can do it in your sleep."

Reluctantly Erica took his arm and they walked into the bistro.

…

The sight that greeted them froze Erica to the spot.

At the table opposite the door were Bianca and Marissa and the kids. They were laughing and chatting, turning back to Krystal who was behind the bar and including her in on the jokes. It was a perfect family scene. But that all changed when Bianca noticed her mother, her smile turned into a hard stare.

"You knew they were here." Erica muttered to Jackson, suddenly angry at being railroaded and trying to back out of the door. Jackson kept his grip on her arm though not letting her go.

"I swear I didn't." Jackson whispered back before striking forward with a wide smile and dragging Erica along with him.

"Hiya folks! It looks like you're having a good time." he exclaimed.

The kids all chorused back with happy greetings for him and Erica. Marissa and Bianca graced him with warm smiles as well, but Bianca's smile grew less open when she turned to her mother.

"To what to we owe the pleasure?" Marissa asked, keeping up her cheery expression.

"We came for a meal." said Jackson.

"We didn't know you'd be here." said Erica, clearly directing her words to Bianca.

"And what are you all celebrating?" Jackson asked.

"Ah well, it is day one of our fortnightly Montgomery-Tasker-Chandler Family fun day and Gabby won the choice for picking dinner tonight and she picked here." explained Marissa.

"Excellent choice." said Jackson, patting Gabby's shoulder and making her giggle.

"We went to the zoo!" exclaimed AJ. "It was awesome."

Miranda nodded.

"Did you see lions and tigers and bears?" Jackson asked.

"Just lions and tigers…" said Miranda.

"…The bear was sleeping." finished AJ sadly.

"I saw a w-abbit… rrrabbit!" said Gabby, looking up at him with a grin… still trying to remember her 'r's.

"But not just any rabbit!" said Marissa, taking up the tale with a playful grin. "It was the biggest rabbit ever"

Gabby's grin grew wider and she nodded.

"I brought one too." she said holding up a small black toy bunny for Jackson to see. "Only this one is little."

"And you got to feed the rhinos." prompted Marissa.

Miranda and AJ nodded.

"They fed the penguin's too." said Miranda.

"It sounds like you had a lot of fun." said Jackson still grinning. "But we shall leave you to enjoy the rest of your meal peace."

He pointed to AJ before they left,

"And don't forget sailing next Saturday."

"I won't!" said AJ excitedly.

…

Throughout the whole conversation Bianca and Erica had just been starting at each other on silence.

Bianca's eyes were pleading to her mother, 'Look at what you are trying to break up, please stop'.

Erica's eyes in return seemed to say, 'How can you think this will last?'.

…

Jackson led Erica over to a table a little away from the family dinner they had just interrupted.

"That was a happy accident." said Jackson, holding the chair out for Erica.

"If it was an accident." said Erica distrustfully.

"It was." said Jackson taking his seat.

He looked across to the happy meal going on a few feet away.

"They are such a great family. The kids look so happy!" he sighed.

Erica nodded. She couldn't deny that.

"So why do you have a problem with Marissa if she makes your daughter and her kids so happy?"

"I'm not having this conversation right now." hissed Erica in an angry whisper.

"You'll have to have it at some point." said Jackson, doggedly trying to get her to see what she was missing.

"Marissa is going to break her heart, I know it!" sighed Erica.

"How do you know?"

"Because they always do!"

Jackson gave Erica a long sad look.

"You can't control your daughter's life for ever. She's a grown woman now, with children of her own. Surely she's old enough now to make her own choices… her own mistakes. And for the record I don't think Marissa is a mistake. I think she is the best thing that has happened to your daughter in a long time."

There was only one part of Jackson's statement that Erica clearly heard.

"I'm not controlling." she muttered. "I'm protective!"

"Which amounts to the same thing." said Jackson. "You practically smothered your daughter when she was growing up. I sometimes wonder if she became anorexic, because food became the only thing she felt she had any control over!"

"That's not true." Erica exclaimed

Jackson held up his hands for peace.

"I know… I know," he soothed, "…that a lot of that had to do with what happened to you as a child. What your father did. But at some point you have to let go, Erica. You have to accept that your daughter has made her choice and you have to support it! I know you don't find it easy, like when Bianca came out, or when she decided to keep Miranda; it took time but you got there. This is no different. Accept her choice and we can all move on."

Erica wanted to tell Jackson to stop patronising her; she knew what she was doing! But she didn't want to make a scene when the person who was causing this disagreement was sitting a short distance away.

She didn't understand Jackson. How could he tell her, as a mother, not to look out for her child? Marissa was cheating; she knew it in her hearts of hearts. Just because there was no proof as yet and no one believed her, didn't mean it wasn't true. Bianca's straight lovers always go back to being straight, that was a fact!

Marissa, however, had picked the wrong adversary to try and fool. Erica knew all about affairs. She had lost track of the amount of times she had had to conceal the truth of affairs from her lovers, husbands and fiancées. She was an expert, she knew Marissa was going to trip up at some point. It was just a question of being there when she did.

Erica's eyes flickered over top the family dinner.

Bianca was talking and the kids were laughing and in the moment Erica caught Marissa starring at Bianca with a thoughtful expression on her face.

Anyone else would have seen in it as wistful gaze of love, but Erica didn't want to see that. She wanted to see that she was right and everyone else was wrong. What Erica saw was guilt, and a look of guilt meant that Marissa had something to feel guilty about…

…Namely Scott!

…