A/N: Once again, thank you all for the amazing reviews! Now, as for your requests I am on it... mostly. ;) Nobot, I am sorry about the lack of Abbierena, I promise in the next story I will put them together just for you! Now, prepare for mayhem!
Elle shook with what could only be described as fury before storming off in the direction of the back door, opening it so fast that Laura cringed for fear her daughter would break the French door's glass, "Spencer! We are leaving, now!"
Elle turned back towards the main group and Jane tentatively reached out for her sister's hand only to be brushed off. "I can't believe you'd do this to me, Casey."
Everyone could only watch the scene unfold, as Elle crossed the kitchen toward her younger sister, her deep brown eyes practically overflowing with anger, "I warned you, Casey. What happens from here is your own mess, just keep that conniving bitch away from me."
"Elle, can we just talk?" Alex asked, clutching Casey's hand tight.
Elle stared directly at her sister, completely ignoring the blonde's question. "You are my sister, and for that I will try and forgive you, but right now I am finding that impossible..."
"Elle," Spencer's firm, soothing voice cut across the room, effectively silencing the brunette.
"We are leaving, Spence." Elle stated flatly, her eyes still not breaking from Casey's.
"Elle, stop it!" Laura's voice finally broke through the commotion as Bill entered the house. "You are not leaving! If you need a break, then go upstairs or for a walk, but you are not leaving. This is Thanksgiving and we are a family. You are going to stay unless the FBI needs you, and even then they will have to go through me first!"
Seeing tears in her sister's eyes, Casey looked to the floor as Elle muttered, "Fine," and stormed past her to the back stairs.
"Well, that was interesting," Spencer said, rubbing his hands together at the awkwardness of the situation. Nodding at nothing particular, he began to walk towards the direction his wife left in, spotting Alex on his way.
"Hi," he said as he walked over to greet the unfamiliar woman as Jane and Abbie still seemed to be recovering from the whole initial shock and recent outburst, while Bill was catching up on the events from Laura. "I'm Spencer Reid," he said holding out a hand.
Alex awkwardly took the man's hand, shaking it, while introducing herself, "Alex Cabot."
"Oh," Spencer said with his eyes going wide as he quickly retracted his hand. Stepping backwards, he muttered, "I will be upstairs with my wife."
Swallowing hard, Alex turned to her fiancé, whispering, "Casey, I think I should go and let you and your family have a moment together."
"Yes, you should go!" Abbie suddenly lashed out.
"I can't even believe you had the nerve to come here after everything you did." Jane added.
"Jane, Abbie, you don't understand," Casey tried to interject only to be cut off.
"No, Casey, you don't." Abbie said walking right between the couple causing them to break hands. Jane followed directly behind her twin, and didn't miss the opportunity to bump Alex's shoulder with hers along the way.
As the kitchen became eerily quiet, both Bill and Laura looked at their daughter and prospective daughter-in-law. "Well kiddo, I think you two have a lot of explaining to do," Bill said, pulling out the trash can to pick up the broken casserole dish.
"Please, let me help you with that," Alex said, quickly rushing to help the older gray haired man. She knew Bill Novak from her teenage years and always thought he was nice, sometimes a bit hard on his children but overall a good dad and a great man.
Casey crossed the distance to her mother, "Mom, let me explain..."
"Casey, you don't have to explain anything," Laura soothed patting her daughter on the back as she passed Bill a roll of paper towels.
"Yep," the husky voiced man laughed, looking at Alex, "You got off good. Laura's dad was a nightmare, so we decided when the twins were babies that we'd go easy on whoever the girls decided to marry."
"Well, easy to an extent," Laura corrected.
Bill locked his blue eyes with Alex's, "Do you do drugs?"
"No sir," she replied.
"Do you drink too much?"
Again she answered, "No, sir."
"Have you ever hit a woman?" He asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"No, sir."
"Good," he said. "Now, do you love my daughter?"
"Yes, sir. Very much so." Alex smiled.
"Would you do right by her? And support her desire to be a starving writer," he added with a laugh.
"Dad," Casey groaned as Laura wrapped her arm around her daughter.
"Yes, absolutely. I would do anything for her." Alex replied as she blushed and smiled at her fiancé.
Bill nodded, "Then you are good enough for me on one condition." Alex looked at him nervously, as he spoke, "You have to make things right with my other daughters."
"Dad, that's not fair! You know how stubborn Jane and Abbie can be!" Casey sighed.
"I do," he laughed with a big smile, wiping up the last of the mess. "They got it from your mother!"
"William Novak!" Laura feigned.
"I'm teasing," he said, standing and kissing his wife's cheek.
"I know, they got it from your mother," she laughed.
His eyes went wide as he nodded, "Damn right."
"So, ladies," Laura stated as she picked up the salad tongs, "While the others cool off tell us how y'all fell in love..."
The two looked at each other and smiled. Blushing lightly, Casey replied, "It's a long story, how much time till dinner?"
"Plenty," Bill said with a grin.
Pacing her bedroom, Elle couldn't help but rant, "I just can't believe she'd do this to me, I can't, she's my sister!"
"Elle, stop." Spencer ordered, causing the brunette to slow but not fully stop. "Casey, didn't do anything to you. She doesn't know."
"I know." She muttered finally sitting on the bed next to him and her sisters. "I just can't believe they are getting married. I was finally able to breathe again when I got to college and now I have to be around her every family holiday and watch the sister I am closest to have kids with her!"
"Hey!" The twins exclaimed.
"You know what I mean," she scowled.
Laughing, Abbie whispered in Jane's ear, causing Jane to laugh as well and whisper back. Reid looked at his wife who just shrugged the two off. "They have their own language, roll with it."
Finally agreeing on their secrets, Abbie announced, "Don't worry about it, Elle."
Grinning boldly, Jane added, "Yeah, we got this. Old Blondie will be gone well before any 'I do's' can occur."
Sitting up, the younger sister asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Well, we have to be smart about it," Abbie began, "We all know Alex, it won't take long for her to show her true colors."
"So," Jane continued, "We are going to submarine her. We will make things happen that we know would set her off, she will show her true colors and Casey will leave her. Casey's smart, she will wise up on her own and be happier for it."
"I don't think that's a good idea." Spencer interjected. "She's your sister and if she's as smart as you say she is, then she will figure it out and likely hate you for it."
Everyone stared at him. Elle knew her husband maybe right, but she also knew what Alex Cabot was capable of doing. Finally, looking to her sisters, she replied, "Fine. I am in, but I want to just be left out of it. You two do your thing, and leave Spencer and I alone when it comes to it. I just want to enjoy the holiday as much as possible."
"Deal," Jane answered a little more excitedly than necessary.
"Tone it down," Abbie corrected touching her twins shoulder, "You don't want to set off dads spidey-sense."
Smiling, she nodded, "Right."
With the table set and food prepared, Bill called upstairs for his children to come downstairs. He couldn't help but laugh to himself as he walked to the bar, opening two bottles of wine for dinner. The gray haired man found it mildly humorous that his children were acting like small children again instead of talking things out like adults. Finishing, he walked to the kitchen and poured the wine into glasses, before setting the unused bottle on the table.
Casey and Alex each picked up a glass of the red wine, Alex quickly drinking half the glass. The redhead couldn't help but laugh as they walked towards the dining area. Leaning into her fiancés ear she whispered, "Don't drink too much...getting handsy at the table might just lose you my dads vote." Alex couldn't help but blush furiously at her words.
Rounding the corner, Abbie and Jane saw the perfect opportunity for round one of 'Rid the Novak's of Alex Cabot.' Casey and Alex were standing at the entrance to the dining room, their younger sister holding a large glass of red wine and Alex wearing a white designer blouse and jeans. This couldn't go any better if they'd purposely set the scene up.
Not needing to say a word, Abbie and Jane began walking and joking in the direction of the lovebirds. Laughing at each other, they began play pushing one another, Jane giving Abbie just the right amount of push as they neared Casey's side, effectively bumping her arm and sending a glass full of red wine all over Alex. The shriek that left the blonde as the red liquid coated her from head to toe was priceless.
Casey could only look on in horror as Alex wiped the wine from her eyes. "Oh my god, baby! I am so sorry!" She finally managed.
Alex shook her head clear, and could only smile. "It's okay, baby. Accidents happen."
"What's all the commotion in here?" Laura asked as she ran in from the kitchen with Bill on her heels, before exclaiming, "Oh my god, Alex!" as she noticed the blonde soaked in red liquid.
With her shirt sticking unpleasantly to her body, Alex managed another smile, "It's fine, really. It was an accident."
Sighing Bill muttered, "I'll get the paper towels..."
Scowling at the twins, Laura gave them the look that said, 'I know you two were behind this.' "Well, let's get you changed into something else. I think I have some of Casey's clothes upstairs still."
Watching Alex follow their mother upstairs, Abbie whispered to Jane, "Well that didn't go as I would have guessed."
"Got that right," Jane muttered as Casey turned quickly on her heel pinching them both in the arm.
"Ow!" They cried out in unison.
"You both deserve worse! What is wrong with you two!" The redhead snapped.
"It was an accident!" Abbie defended.
"Accident my ass!"
"Innocent until proven guilty," Jane countered.
"Don't give me your law bullshit," Casey spat in a whisper hearing their father approach, "I'm watching you two."
As Alex followed the older redhead upstairs, she was led past a staircase of pictures. Some she remembered from her younger days of being in the house and some where new. Seeing them made it impossible to not travel back in time in her head, to a time where she and Elle would run up the stairs laughing. Elle always had an amazing laugh, and a way of scrunching up her face when she laughed hard...smiling, Alex realized Casey did the same thing.
In a lot of ways the two women were alike, although still very different. She could clearly remember spending the night in ninth grade for the first time and Casey falling asleep on the floor with them watching movies. Casey would tag along and Elle never cared. Alex didn't care either. When Casey finally had her own friends to hang out with come their eleventh grade year, they'd all hang out together. It was easy that way, everyone got along. Alex couldn't help but smile at those memories. Yet, now once again Alex had arrived to destroy the perfectly happy family.
"Alex?" Laura's deep soothing voice broke, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay really," Alex repeated for the third time slapping a smile on her face again.
"Well, I was right, here are the softball tee and jeans Casey left." The woman said passing the clothes over. "You can change in the bathroom down the hall."
"Thank you," The blonde said softly taking the clothes and walking to the bathroom.
Seeing herself in the mirror, covered in the red liquid, she frowned. As she removed her shirt and pants, then cleaned her skin and hair of the wine, she began to wonder what she was doing here in this house. What did she plan to accomplish?
Hearing a knock at the door, she broke from her thoughts with the sound of a warm voice, "Baby, I am here."
Alex didn't hesitate she opened the door and pulled Casey tight in her arms, "Thank you, I needed a hug."
"I am so sorry, baby."
"Don't, I'd battle anything for you." Alex replied smiling against her fiancés neck, before pushing back, "Plus, it was an accident. I love you. Let's go eat."
As they made their way back down, Alex again noticed the pictures on the wall and couldn't help but remember her purpose for coming to dinner.