Sylvie felt like she hadn't been out in forever, it felt weird to leave Sophia and go meet up with Gabby and the girls all alone but Antonio had insisted that she go out and he would watch the baby and everything would be just fine. She was skeptical but she decided one Friday night wouldn't kill her.
"Oh my god! Is that Sylvie Brett I see in the living flesh, out at Molly's, sans husband and child?" Stella ran over and wrapped her in a hug; she thought she was going to suffocate. "Yes, it's me and it's Dawson not Brett." She pretended to scold her friend. "Nope, you're Brett always will be, Dawson is way to confusing especially when you get back to 51, can you imagine two Dawson's on ambo?" Stella laughed and dragged her toward the table in the back where Kim and Gabby were.
Gabby and Kim jumped up to hug her. "Hey Sis glad you could make it, did you leave Sophia with Antonio?" Sylvie returned their hugs, "Yeah he thought I needed a night out with you guys alone after the week we've had, running into Laura and everything." Gabby gave her a confused look, "What? When did you run into Laura?" Sylvie forgot she didn't fill her in this week.
Kim spoke up "She been showing up at district looking for Antonio constantly for months and Monday oopsie they all ended up in the lobby the same time." She giggled; Kim had already had several drinks and was feeling good.
Sylvie gave Kim a look, "It wasn't bad, long story short, we came to an agreement, she apologized, I accepted, Tonio's being stubborn, and I let her meet Sophia." Sylvie did not want to talk about this; she was here to have a good time.
"Wow, okay then, and you think it's all better now?" Gabby asked. "It will but can we change the subject please? What's been going on at work?" she was really wanting to know all the firehouse gossip.
"Fucking Upton keeps flirting with Adam, I wish we would just come out at work but no I don't want anyone to know." Kim was pouting. "Well you're the one with the rules, not him." Stella pushed her shoulder. "I mean he is cute, I'm sure lots of girls flirt with him all the time." Stella was prodding her now.
"Only I get to flirt with him." Kim was starting to get agitated. Gabby grabbed Kim's drink. "Okay, I'm cutting you off for a while or you'll end up drunk calling her and then you'll have a real problem with Voight." Kim nodded not protesting.
Sylvie felt arms wrap around her shoulders from behind startling her and she looked up. "Hey kid it's been forever, kinda like you ran off, had a baby and got married." Sylvie turned quickly in his arms hugging him tightly.
"Kelly!" she exclaimed. "It's been a month since I've seen you, you need to come over more." She kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah, I will, where's Tony?" Kelly looked around the bar. "He stayed home to watch Sophia so I could have a girls night." Kelly grinned. "Well don't let me interrupt you, I'll grab you girls a round, behave now." He winked and headed toward the bar.
Gabby had taken Kim's phone and called Adam around twelve to pick Kim up, she wasn't in any condition to drive and she didn't need to have her phone either.
"You need to stop the flirting with Upton or me and you are going to have a problem, she's upset." Gabby had pulled Adam to the side when he got there. "I'm not flirting with her, she's flirting with me." He tried to argue it.
"Either way shut it down, tell her you have a girlfriend or that it's unprofessional. Anyway you gotta do it cause she's one of my best friends and I'm not putting up with it." She was pissed. "Consider it done boss. I love her, you know, it's just so hard with her rules." He sighed. Gabby gave him a hug, "I know" she helped him get Kim out to the car.
Sylvie made it home at one in the morning and crawled into bed snuggling into Antonio. "Did you have fun?" she nodded into his side. "Did you discuss anything interesting?" she nodded again. "Upton is flirting with Adam, Kim's pissed." Antonio laughed. "Upton flirts with everyone." Sylvie popped her head up and looked at him.
"Oh really?" she was interested to hear this. He laughed, "I mean she's nice, she get's along with guys, it may seem like flirting but I honestly don't think it is." Sylvie wasn't so sure. "Uh huh okay…well maybe someone should say something to her because she's going to "accidently" piss the wrong wife off someday." She yawned. "You're tired, just go to sleep." He chuckled and kissed her.
"Yo, Dawson's who are wanting to go look at this house, you need to be ready to go in five or the truck's leaving without you" Antonio yelled from the kitchen. It was the last Saturday he would have off for awhile since he was going back on-call for the weekends. "We're coming dad, hold on, Sylvie's still changing Sophia so we can't leave yet anyway" Eva came from down the hallway pulling her hoodie over her head, Diego following right behind her carrying his shoes.
It was December and cold as fuck outside but the apartment was starting to feel claustrophobic, they needed to find a new place sooner rather than later. Five people shoved into a small place just wasn't working anymore. And truth be told he really wanted Sophia into her own room so he could have Sylvie to himself.
Sylvie grabbed the diaper bag to make sure everything was in there when she found the box that Laura had given her earlier in the week. She contemplated opening it but set it to the side deciding to let Eva do it and continued to load the bag.
"Eva, Diego come over here for a minute" she was by the couch strapping the baby into her car seat. "Your mom gave me this the other day to give to you." Eva gave her a weird look "When did you see mom?" she picked the box up off the coffee table. "The other day we ran into her, she said she had a gift for you." Sylvie didn't have time to explain right then but made a mental note to set down as a family later in the evening to discuss Laura.
Eva opened the box, Diego looking over her shoulder trying to see what they had got. "Wow, they're pretty" she said pulling a gold bracelet with her name on it out. "Look here's one for Diego and two for Sophia too." Sylvie spun around and took the box from Eva "Why would she get Sophia bracelets?" Sylvie was curious. Sylvie held them up, one was a tiny one that would fit an infant and the other was larger. "Umm, there's a note in here at the bottom with your name on it Eva" Sylvie lifted it out of the box and handed it to Eva to read.
"I wanted to get you something to show you how sorry I am for how I have been behaving, I love you and your brother and really regret that we cannot be a family at the moment, it's my fault, not yours or your dads, and I understand that. Family is very important to your dad and I want that for you and Diego so I bought you, your brother, and your sister bracelets so that no matter what is happening between us adults, you three know you have each other and that your bond cannot be broken. I'm working on becoming the mother I once was and I will get there, I just hope you can be patient with me and hopefully forgive me someday for how I have treated you. I've accepted that Sylvie is a part of your life and that you love her very much and I am thankful that she loves you too because there can never be too many people who love and care for you. I would love it if you and your brother could call me so we can talk. I love you two with all my heart, Love Mom."
Eva was crying and went to hug her dad. "I do miss her dad but she makes me so angry sometimes." Antonio was rubbing her back "I know but everyone deserves second chances and she is your mom." he said staring at Sylvie. Eva nodded her head and held her bracelet up to look at it, "Dad, can you put it on me?" he took the bracelet and helped put it around her wrist.
Diego just sat on the edge of the coffee table not saying a word "You okay?" Sylvie rubbed his back worried that he hadn't said anything. "Yeah, can we just go please?" Sylvie glanced worriedly at Antonio and he just shrugged his shoulders "Sure do you want to put your bracelet on?" he held out his wrist wordlessly and Sylvie snapped it on. Sylvie grabbed the smallest bracelet out of the box "It was thoughtful that she got one that Sophie can wear now and one she'll fit later" she thought out loud, snapping the bracelet on Sophia.
Diego and Eva went ahead to get in the truck as Sylvie and Antonio walked slowly down the stairs. "Maybe she is getting better? That seemed really genuine Tonio." Antonio just nodded his head as he continued down the stairs. "Come on you can't say that wasn't really sweet." She glanced over at him.
Antonio sighed. "That letter and the other day at district that was the Laura I knew, the one I married, the one I loved, she's a really good person, I just hope she stays around this time" he nervously peeked over at Sylvie to judge her reaction to his confession.
She stopped him, "Hey, you know it's okay that you loved her right? It's even okay if you still love her, I know you love me and you're not going anywhere, okay?" he nodded.
"I just feel bad, I know I shouldn't still have those feelings but they are there, not all the time but sometimes they sneak up. I'm in love with you and I would never act on them, I promise." He felt horrible thinking he should have just kept this to himself.
She smiled, "I know they're there, that's why you're so emotional with her, she broke you, I knew that coming into this and I'm okay with it. I would be naïve to think that there wasn't anything there, I can look and Diego and Eva and how happy and loving they are and know that they came from parents that obviously loved each other very much and that doesn't just go away. But I also know that you're a good man and would never hurt me and I trust you so you don't need to worry about me being jealous, I'm fine. So lets just get going before the kids think we go lost." She grabbed his hand and pulled him down the stairs.
Antonio pulled up to the curb of the townhouse and Sylvie got out to look around. "Hey, babe there's a park right up the street" she pointed. She started toward the front door when the realtor suddenly appeared startling her. "You must be the Dawson's, right?" She extended her hand.
"Yes, Sylvie Dawson, my husband Antonio, and our kids, sorry we're late." Sylvie shook her hand. Everyone greeted her, Antonio shaking her hand. "It's okay, lets have a look shall we?" the realtor ushered them inside out of the cold."
It was huge, it felt ten times bigger than the apartment. The kids went in search of their rooms and Sylvie went to the kitchen, Antonio following her with the baby in her seat. "I think I really like this one, can we afford it?" he sat the seat down and took Sophia out. "Yeah the payments not as bad as you're thinking."
"Lets just look around and see if we like it, okay?" he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the stairs. "Let's go check out that master bedroom, it think it might be my favorite room" he winked at her. "Funny Tonio" she giggled, pushing him up the stairs.
The house was perfect, each kid would have their own room and there was a game room on the third floor, there was more than plenty of room for everyone. The kids were excited, Eva would have a shorter commute to school and Diego was still in the attendance area for his. They decided to put an offer in on it and head home to wait for an answer, hoping the wait would be short.
"What does everyone want for dinner? I'm not cooking." Sylvie was exhausted from lack of sleep from her girls night last night and had no intentions of stepping foot in the kitchen. "I'll just order pizza and wings and I think we still need to have a talk with them about Laura, right?" he was talking low trying to keep the kids from hearing.
"Yeah, really though, I don't think it's going to be as big of a deal as you think, I just want them to get back on a good page with her, they deserve that. So lets just get it over with so we can all move on." She squeezed his hand. "Go order the pizza and we'll do it while we're waiting okay?" she said grabbing Sophia and heading towards the kitchen to make her a bottle.
Antonio called the kids to the front room. He was anxious to have this conversation because it had been so long since they had discussed Laura. The last the kids knew was that she had hurt Sylvie and neither had made any attempt to talk to her and had ignored her phone calls since the incident. Him and Sylvie didn't even let the kids know there was a restraining order, Sylvie had argued that the kids should be allowed to contact her if they wanted and knowing about the restraining order would only influence their decision and she didn't want that. He had tried to argue with her but relented knowing that she was right.
"What's up dad? Did we get the house?" Eva came into the room, Antonio having just called them. "No, we haven't heard yet, we're having a family meeting." He motioned for them to sit. Diego groaned plopping down in his chair.
"Me and Sylvie want to talk to you about your mom" he glanced over at Sylvie who was feeding Sophia on the couch next to him. "What about?" Diego sounded worried.
"You know that we saw her a couple days ago and we talked some stuff out" he was playing with his hands nervously. "Your mom, she apologized to Sylvie and to me, she really wants to see you two and we think it would be a good idea." He grabbed Sylvie's free hand and pulled it to his lap. "What do you think Diego?" he asked him.
Diego didn't answer immediately, his kept his eyes on the floor. Slowly he began "You remember when I was kidnapped?" Antonio exhaled slowly and nodded, that was the most terrifying event of his life. "You saved me dad, you and your team, I knew you would get me, that's what kept me from being scared, I knew I would be safe." He looked at his dad. "And right after that mom took us from you. You were my safe place and mom took me away. I was just a little kid and mom kept telling me that I couldn't see you and to stop asking." Diego started crying and Eva moved over to his chair and shoved in to hug him.
"You know that wasn't your fault right? None of it." Diego nodded. "I know it was hers, mom's been hurting all of us for so long and I'm tired of it dad." Antonio sat up and scooted close to the edge of the couch.
"There was a lot more going on then you guys knew, Jules had just been killed, I had been shot twice within a year and you were kidnapped, mom was scared and I didn't listen to her. It was my fault too, I could have left and got a different job and fought for her and you guys but I didn't, so I'm as much to blame as she is, if not more." Sylvie scooted over and leaned into him trying to comfort him knowing how hard it was to admit what he was telling the kids.
"Look, I'm not asking the two of you to forgive her right away but you do need to talk to her, she's your mom, the only one you have and she deserves a second chance. And I really think she has changed this time. Sylvie's forgiven her, I've forgiven her, so let's just try to move on with our lives okay?" he glanced over at Sylvie and she smiled at him.
"I'll try dad, maybe we could all have dinner together or something?" Eva was open to the idea, she loved her mom but they fought a lot especially about her mom's boyfriends. Diego didn't answer he just nodded his head and seemed to agree with his sister. "I think dinner would be a great idea." Sylvie said but she had alternate plans and hoped Laura would agree and Antonio wouldn't be too upset.
There was a knock at the door and Antonio's phone rang. Sylvie handed the baby to Eva and answered the door and paid for the pizza. Antonio had moved to the bedroom to take the call. The kids were getting their plates when Antonio reemerged.
"They accepted our offer!" he exclaimed. "What your kidding, that was fast!" Sylvie nearly jumped across the kitchen into his arms, kissing him firmly on the lips. The kids both screamed happy to finally be moving into a house and having more room. "The realtor said it should take about thirty days to close, so just in time to move in the snow and cold." He laughed, happy that everything finally seemed like it was coming together.