Everyone familiar belongs to Janet. Mistakes are mine alone.

"Well, that was a lot of fun," Edna said, after shutting Helen down and cutting off the connection to her. "I let her get away with that kinda crap for too long. I may be old, but I'm still her mother."

"Like I keep reminding Stephanie," I told her, "Helen is an adult, if only on paper. She's responsible for her own actions. She should have stopped needing to be parented when she became one herself."

"But I raised her."

"I think it was the mindset that you didn't agree with but felt forced to follow is what raised her, Grandma," Steph graciously added. "Val and I almost had to succumb to it too, but we had outside forces to help us do our own thing. You had no one."

At her mention of 'outside forces' my wife had sandwiched my hand between hers, squeezed, and gave me a smile, so I assume she's once again giving me credit for something she'd already figured out for herself. If she hadn't, she would have already been married to the dickhead detective and starting a 'tippling' hobby like her mother's to get through the day, before I became far more than just a mentor and friend to her.

"I had you every time you ran away from that," Edna said, tapping a nail painted the color of orange sherbet against my wife's phone. "I shoulda scooped you and Valerie up and lived on the lam. Harry was gonna die with or without me there watching him do it."

This is the first time I've heard Edna talk about her own marriage. It must have been Steph's too judging by her next question.

"Where you happy with Grandpa Harry?"

Edna's smile was a sad one. "Yes ... well as happy as I knew how to be back then. He was a good man, but old way before his age caught up to him. As your mother likes to say, I never grew up so I always was wantin' to be doing or seeing something different. Your Grandpa wasn't built like that. When I had your mother, it was the closest I got to playing. Oh we were well-behaved whenever we left the house, but we sure had some fun times at home in those early years. I don't know where I went wrong, but I must've. Helen was very much the way Valerie had been by age seven. She was a mini-Harry and I ended up living with two people who were only interested in living a respectable life, not seeing any reason why they should also be enjoyin' it. I thought there'd be other kids to add some chaos to our life, but that didn't happen. Today, I'd be able to have my internal plumbing looked at to see why that was, but back then ... I had to accept the fact that I was on my own in the fun department. Having lived with Helen two separate times in my life, maybe one child was a blessing in disguise ... God's way of having mercy on the Burg by preventing more Mazur kids from trying to take over and run it."

Steph grinned. "If you believe that, God would've had to have changed his mind about creating chaos when I came along."

"Darn tootin'! You spiced up life like you were born to do it."

"Maybe I was. I definitely turned Ranger's life completely upside down, not just yours."

"And I remain grateful every day that you did, Babe."

She bumped shoulders with me in thanks. "So what do we do about Dad?"

"Call him up and tell him to get his caboose on over here," Edna said. "We need us a plan. She ain't gonna be quiet for long."

"Daddy kiss," Olivia suddenly ordered, rushing over to the table and holding her arm out to me.

"Did you hurt yourself?" I asked, as I picked her up and kissed the spot she pointed to.

Steph's expression was suspicious as she studied Olivia's grin. "She didn't unless the couch cushions suddenly grew sharp edges," my wife said, tickling Olive's side to make her grin grow. "I had one eye on her the whole time, and she's only been planting fake flowers in Grandma's couch for the last seven minutes. I think somebody just wanted a kiss from you."

"Jealous?" I teased.

"Yeah, a little. But I don't want to embarrass Grandma Mazur or make her jealous by kissing you while we're only sitting three inches away from her."

Edna snorted. "Nothin' embarrasses me no more. Go ahead and get yourself a smooch. I don't mind waitin'."

She doesn't mind watching either, so the kiss I gave my wife wasn't as thorough as I would've liked. Olivia seemed content to keep sitting on my lap, so Steph got up and brought over a light-up stacking game for our amusement as she hit Frank's place on her cell.

"Hey, Dad? Ranger, Olive, and I are at Grandma's. We need you to come over if you're not in the middle of something. You're free? Good. See in a few minutes. He's on his way," she told us.

"If he's been avoidin' Helen, he ain't gonna be happy about this," Edna said.

"He won't," I told her, slipping the correct shape onto the plastic tower so it would flash purple for Olivia. "But he needs to know she's amping up her actions so he can plan accordingly. I can keep her off my property, but he needs to tell me that's what he wants first."

Steph stretched out her arms in front of her on Edna's table and then rested her head between them. If it weren't my wife, I'd say it was a sign of surrender.

"Is it wrong to say that I'm happy that this is going on only years into our marriage so I have living and loving proof that this isn't what a typical marriage is like?" She asked instead.

I slid my hand up and down her back in understanding and reassurance. "Thank you for acknowledging how unlike your parents we are," I told her. "If this is getting to be too much for you, I can referee them in your place."

"I'm okay. I just can't figure out why anyone would want to live like this ... never feeling settled or happy, always bracing for the next showdown or meltdown, having to prove yourself over and over again. It's insane."

"It is," I agreed.

"Door's open," Edna called, when Frank rang her doorbell a few minutes later.

I had hopes for this conversation when I noticed his eyes softening when they landed on Olivia.

"Pay tack," she informed her grandfather.

"She's playing a stacking game," Steph translated. "In case you happened to miss the Vegas light show that's going on in front of her."

His smile was small, but it is there.

"Pull up a chair, Frank," Edna ordered, leaving no doubt what gene of Olivia's comes from her. "We got some plottin' to do."

"For what?" He asked.

"What we should say or do when Helen shows up, because she will. She called Stephanie last night when she couldn't get hold of you," I told him.

His close to the surface smile was a distant memory at the mention of his wife. "I'm sorry. I would've answered had I known she would call you to complain that I hadn't."

"Technically," Steph said, "she called Grandma to complain and also to order her to get you to call her back. I was Mom's last resort when Grandma wouldn't do what she wanted either."

"That daughter of mine really ticked me off so I waved a red flag and sorta challenged her to try to come here and get you and see what happens," Edna said to Frank. "Now you gotta tell us if you want to keep her outside the gate, or do you got somethin' you wanna say to her?"

We all watched Olivia attempt to find the correctly shaped tower to slide her blue disk onto as Frank came to a decision.

"I can't hide forever," he said after a few beats. "She needs to know that you and Olivia are off limits."

Steph looked over at him. "I appreciate you wanting to think of us, but none of your decisions should be based on me. I promise you that I can handle whatever Mom throws at me. You need to make sure you're ready to face her. Believe me when I say she can wipe out every one of your accomplishments in one fell swoop if there's even one cell in your body that believes the crap she says about you. She's like a cancer that's slow-growing but will still kill you eventually. Don't let her. You've got too much on the line to lose, and I'm not just talking about your relationship with me and Olive. You seem less weighed down and more open to the world these past few days. If you feel happier while still being almost locked down, imagine how great fishing trips and bowling games will be when you already feel good and are doing something you love."

He thought about what Steph said. "I know what I'm doing," he told us.

That isn't reassuring, since he isn't offering up an actual outright and outlined plan.

Steph sighed. "I really hope you do, Dad, for your sake as well as ours."