A/N: Jumping ahead a little, it's Thanksgiving!
I've got more chapters that I can't wait to crank out.
I just hope everyone's enjoying themselves up to this point.
Tori and Mia pulled up to the house. It was nice, not too large. And very understated in design.
(So, this is where Jade West lives now? I never would have imagined.)
A young Jade probably would have been comfortable in a Victorian style home painted black. It would be 150 years old, so it's haunted as fuck.
But this was a sensible and pretty home.
The goth girl had really come a long way.
The Vegas traversed the stone pathway and rang the doorbell.
Within moments, Alice opened the door and smiled at the guests.
"Happy Thanksgiving!"
Tori was surprised when Alice gave her and Mia a hug. The teen was less surprised; she was used to this little ball of sunshine.
(Just smile and let it happen.)
"Thank you," Tori said. "Where's your mom?"
"Right here," announced the lady of the house.
She emerged from the kitchen wearing a red apron which complimented her all-black ensemble very well.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Jade."
Tori's smile was returned.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Tori."
The Latina blinked and realized she forgot something in the car.
"Excuse me, please!"
She dashed out the door and returned with a couple of bags. Inside the brown paper bag was a bottle of Chardonnay. Jade took the wine and read the label.
"Seven years old, nice. A Chardonnay younger than four is just not worth it."
Tori blushed.
"We don't have that many traditions for Thanksgiving, but my parents instilled in me that a proper wine to pair with dinner was an ingredient most people miss."
Jade smirked, "Damn straight." She leaned and noticed the plastic bag. "What's in there?"
"Oh, something mom used to make ONLY for this day..."
Tori handed the bag to Jade who had carefully set the wine bottle on the table nearby.
"What the...? I see chocolate!"
"It's a peanut butter pie. I started making it myself after Mia was born."
Alice toddled over and looked at the dessert, the smell coming through the plastic lid.
"That looks amazing."
"It tastes awesome, not gonna lie" Mia said. "That's why you make it for get-togethers, so you don't risk eating the whole thing yourself."
Everyone chuckled.
"Well, damn, Vega! The pumpkin and pecan pies are gonna be jealous."
Jade facepalmed.
"Oh, crap! I have pie but I completely forgot..."
Tori then pulled out a tub of Cool Whip.
"Ah, bitch!"
That was Jade's affectionate way of saying you saved my ass.
"Girls, why don't you set up and I'll help Jade in the kitchen."
"Tori, I'm fine I don't need..."
Before she could finish that sentence, Tori pushed the confused woman back into the bright room.
In the kitchen, Jade straightened up her clothes as soon as Tori let her go.
"You don't need to do this," she insisted.
"No way!" protested Tori. "I'm not sitting on my butt while you do everything. Besides, I always helped mom with dinner."
"Okay, fine. But don't call me mommy!"
(I mean unless you really want to. Wait, where did that come from?)
"So, what's the sitch?"
Jade rolled her eyes.
"Well, Kim Possible, I need you to check on the potatoes and the yams. I'll handle the bird."
"Aw, you used to always give me the bird."
She held up her oven mitten hand.
"Just pretend that I am right now," she grinned.
Tori opened the oven for Jade so she could pick up the turkey and set it on the counter. The little timer hasn't popped out yet, but from the look of the golden-brown exterior, it won't be long now. Once the oven was free, Tori opened the top door which housed the side dishes.
"The green bean casserole is already done. But I ran out of room so when those two are done, I may have to put it back in to warm it up again."
"Damn, Jade!" she said. "You made a ton!"
The pale woman blushed a little.
"Yeah, I haven't had a true Thanksgiving in a long time. At least one that I hosted. I may have overdone it."
"Well, look at it this way," Tori said, stirring the mashed potatoes. "Y'all can eat really good up until Christmas."
"Nice," Jade chuckled.
"How's the play going?" asked Mia.
"Oh! It's a lot of work but I'm having a great time!"
Alice produced a bunch of white cloth napkins, and the silverware was already lined up on the table.
Mia took charge of the plates and glasses while Alice neatly folded the napkins and set the flatware for each seating.
"Haven't seen you at lunch that much since you took over as director."
"Sorry about that," Alice said. "I've just been too excited these last few days. I would be talking with the costume girl and the dudes lighting the sets. They've got a lot of good ideas."
"Jenna did seem less stressful lately."
She smiled at Mia. That was nice to hear.
Alice couldn't help it. When she gets involved in a new thing, she gets lost in the details. But due to her kind nature, her obsessive mind never seems to neglect her actors. Alice really did go out of her way to accommodate. One guy broke his foot last week, so Alice rewrote his part so that he was in a wheelchair. She was pleased to see how happy he was that he wasn't recast.
Whispers traveled around Hollywood Arts of this freshman who seemingly came in out of the blue and spearheaded the school production. If this goes well, Alice will have made quite the impression on the first semester of her first year. There were times she worried if it would turn out okay. Not so much for herself, but she hoped it will be something they can all be proud of.
"How have things been with you?" Alice asked. "We haven't talked much in a while."
The taller girl shrugged.
"Eh, I'm okay. I...I appreciate you inviting us for dinner."
"Oh, you're so welcome!" Alice smiled.
"It's not just that," Mia explained. "For a long time...the holidays...have been a bad time for me."
It flashed in Alice's mind.
She hadn't considered the implications of the gaping hole her father no doubt had left in her heart. Alice's dad was miles away, but he was still in the picture. She would see him eventually and if she got impatient, he was only a phone call away.
Alice set her utensils down and hugged Mia.
"What are you...?"
She didn't say anything else; Alice just tightened her grip.
Mia's lip quivered and she reciprocated the hug.
Her eyes began to water but she held them back as best she could.
About twenty minutes later, the four were sitting down for dinner.
Tori looked to Jade.
"Do you, um, do anything before?"
"You mean like say grace?" Jade asked.
Tori shrugged.
"No, not really. And no, we aren't hopping around the table to say what we are thankful for."
She looked around the table and smiled.
"But...I will do this."
Jade then stood up and raised her glass of wine. Tori followed. So did the girls, only they had Cherry Pepsi.
"To friends new..." she made eye contact with Tori. "and old. Cheers."
"Who you calling old?" chided Tori.
Mia snickered to herself and Alice let her know she saw that.
They said "Cheers" and sat down.
"Now somebody pass the rolls and please save me some stuffing!" Jade demanded. "God knows I deprive myself of bread all year for this day."
"On it," Alice said, moving the basket of round rolls down while looking in the other direction.
Alice was watching Mia with fascination as she piled a bit of everything onto her plate. And when she was all done, Mia picked up the gravy boat and slathered it over the entire thing. The teen looked up and noticed the eyes on her.
"What?" asked Mia.
"Oh yeah, she loves her gravy," Tori said.
"Careful," said Jade. "That's our great gran-gran's gravy recipe. You eat that, you'll never be the same."
Mia gave a dubious look until she tried a taste and her eyes bugged out.
"Told you!"
"Pass the green beans please?" asked Alice.
"Yes, ma'am" Tori replied, moving down the pan.
"Heard you have a part time job, Mia?"
The teen looked toward Jade.
"Uh, yeah. Just some local deliveries for some place."
Something about her response seemed off and Jade noticed that suspicions were not coming off Tori's reaction.
(If she's hiding something, she's hiding it from her, too.)
"Just hope everything is okay with that," Jade told Mia. "I had one of those when I was in high school, and it sucked trying to balance work and school."
"Well, she says she only does a couple times a week," Tori chimed in.
Jade's eyes darted back to the girl.
She looked uncomfortable in her seat when her mom said that.
(But why?)
"Luckily she gets off holidays, isn't that right?"
Mia evaded the question with a non-committal face and shoveled more food in her mouth so she couldn't say more.
(Classic move. You're not fooling me.)
They continued on making conversation, which was interwoven with periods of silence as everyone chowed down. The food was that good. Tori knew Jade could cook when she wanted to but didn't peg her as a wiz in the kitchen to the level of totally knocking Thanksgiving out of the park.
"If we're hosting next year," Tori started. "I'd better bring it because Jade raised the bar."
Mia mumbled something incoherent in agreement as her mouth was still full.
Jade's phone was on the table beside her plate when it rang.
She huffed and answered it.
"Hello?"
Jade made a face.
"Alice, is your phone turned off?"
The girl shook her head and then checked her cell.
"Ohhh, I left it on silent."
"Your father's calling," Jade explained, passing the phone over to her daughter.
Alice took it and stood up from the table.
"Hey, dad!" she said, wandering outside the dining room. "Happy Thanksgiving..."
Tori noticed the discomfort in Jade's face.
"Jade, are you...?"
"Excuse me," she said, abruptly leaving the table.
Tori and Mia were left alone at the table. They shared troubled glances.
"I guess we just wait for them?" Mia shrugged.
"Probably," muttered a concerned Tori.
She took a small sip of wine while her mind reeled.
(What got Jade so upset all of a sudden? I know her and her husband ended on bad terms, but him calling was practically a trigger.)
After about ten minutes of awkward silence, Tori got up.
"Where are you going?" asked Mia.
"I'm going to use the bathroom and check on Jade. Just stay here when Alice returns. If she asks, just tell her we'll be right back."
Mia dug her fork into her yams.
"Uh, oooookaaaay."
Tori decided to try the upstairs and every door was open save for one.
She knocked on it.
"Jade?"
Tori could make out some human sounds on the other side and tried the knob.
It opened, revealing what appears to be Jade's bedroom.
The raven-haired woman was on the floor, crying. There was a bottle of whiskey beside her, no glass.
Jade went to take a swig when Tori took it away from her.
"Hey..."
"What are you doing, Jade?"
She wiped her face and sat up with her legs toward her chest.
"Don't think I didn't like the wine," Jade said in a shaky voice. "I just needed something...harder."
Tori sat beside her.
"Did it have to do with Alice's father?"
Jade wasn't drunk but the bitterness that swept across her visage was evident that she was trying to numb the pain.
"You know what's the worst thing about divorce?"
Tori shook her head.
She honestly didn't know and fortunately for her parents, they avoided that outcome.
So, she chose to listen because that's what Jade needed right now. Not alcohol.
"It's the feeling like you failed. You get married, try to work it out, things cool off like they do, you catch him having an affair, he apologizes, you get counseling, then he does it AGAIN! At that point, you call the whole thing off. Once those papers were filed, his family just looks at you like you were the reason it didn't work out."
Tori side hugged her.
"I'm sure they don't think..."
"Oh, they do!" Jade protested. "Believe me, once we separated, the way they looked at me...changed."
Tori wrapped her other arm around Jade to make it a full-on embrace.
Jade just started sobbing.
"Here I am," Jade sniffed. "Going on and on about heartbreak to you! I'm so sorry, I must sound stupid."
Tori looked sadly toward her friend.
"What? No, it's not stupid."
"IT IS STUPID! At least Alice still has her father in her life."
Jade buried her face in her knees.
"I couldn't fathom what you gone through..."
"Enough."
Tori forced her head up. Jade was covered in tears and Tori was on the verge of starting herself.
"Don't say that! What happened...was...terrible. But divorce sucks, too. It must have been painful."
(Why is she being so nice to me? How dare she validate my pain after what she had been through?)
"It must have been a lot," Tori added.
Jade started to manage her breathing and sat up. Tori never left her side.
"You're not a failure, you know."
"Huh?"
"I said, you didn't fail because you got a divorce. This isn't like quitting something because you didn't try. Harry gave up on you first."
She collapsed onto the floor much to Tori's surprise.
"That's the other thing," Jade said. "Why did he cheat? I can almost squeeze a little respect out of him if he had left and then found someone else."
"I know," Tori sighed.
"I thought it sucked when me and Beck broke up but this...this was way worse."
Jade coughed from crying so much.
"We've been together for so long and to just...cast me aside. How do you not question your worth after that?"
Tori helped Jade up to her knees.
"Listen to me," the Latina said, also on her knees so she could be eye to eye with Jade. "You are not worthless! He thought he could do better than you, well then Harry's just a fool. I guess some men make better fathers than husbands."
Jade shrugged.
"Perhaps."
"Some people don't appreciate a good thing they have even when it's staring them in the face."
Tori brought her in for a hug.
"And just think, now that you're out, that means possibilities. Your heart is open to another chance."
The scent of Tori's shampoo was enticing. She couldn't help but breath it in when she was this close to her. Tori attributed the sniffing to her crying.
"Yeah, maybe," Jade said.
"Come on."
Tori said as she got up to her feet. She offered her hand to Jade who took it.
"The girls are probably wondering where we went."
Jade nodded, "Okay."
Tori got a little ahead of Jade when she stopped short of the bedroom door.
"Hey, Tori?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for...what you said back there."
She looked back at the pale woman and poked her in the shoulder.
"It's easy for me to say when its the truth."
Jade's heart was beating fast. It was like Tori's eyes brought her back to life.
"Um...uh-huh."
They descended the stairs and saw the dining room table was vacant.
A bit confused, they followed the sound of the TV and the girls were situated on the couch, each with their own piece of pie.
"Hey," smirked Tori.
"What's up?" nodded Mia.
"Everything okay?" asked Alice.
"We're fine," Jade replied, masking that she had been crying for nearly half an hour.
Tori and Jade saw that their daughters were watching Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.
"Interesting choice for Thanksgiving," Jade noted.
"Yeah," Tori nodded. "That always felt like a New Year's movie."
"But it takes place at Christmas," Alice said.
"I know that!" Tori said. "It's just they always played this on New Years Eve."
Jade looked again at the teens.
"I think they have the right idea, let's have dessert in here. We can clean up afterwards."
Once they finished the movie, the moms began the dishes while the daughters cleaned up everything else.
Jade excused herself while Tori scrubbed the last serving pan.
She peaked in and saw Mia step out of the room.
"Hey, Alice?"
"Yeah, mom?"
"A strange question but...has Mia told you anything she didn't want her mom to know?"
Alice shrugged.
"No, nothing really."
Jade put her hands on Mia's shoulders.
"I know she's your friend and she means a lot to you. But if she's in trouble and confides in you, it's not being a bad friend to tell someone who can help."
"Do you think something's wrong?" she asked.
Jade thought about it.
"I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right."
"Okay, mom, I promise if it's something really bad, I'll get help."
"That's my girl."
Mia returned with the vacuum to help out with the rug surrounding the dining room table.
"Well, I'll leave you ladies to it."
With that, Jade left and went to assist on the drying.
It was getting late, and it was time for Tori and Mia to head home.
"We have to invite you two over for Christmas!"
Jade looked troubled and told Tori, "Actually, Harry's family wanted us for Christmas back east. The both of us."
Tori was disappointed but put on a happy face with a head shake.
"That's okay. How about New Years? I was gonna invite Alice's friends, we were going to really trick out the roof with lights, it'll be fun."
The pale woman rubbed her arm.
"We'll see. Harry's folks usually make a whole week and a half out of Christmas. Won't be surprised if I spend the last of December in Massachusetts."
Now that made Tori's smile fade.
"Oh," she said.
"Sorry," Jade said with sincerity.
"Thanks for having us," Mia said.
"It was a pleasure," Jade nodded. "Don't be a stranger. We don't have to hang on just holidays."
Jade looked at Tori hopefully.
"That's right," Tori nodded.
"Goodnight, guys."
"Goodnight, Jade. Goodnight, Alice"
"Goodnight, Mrs. Vega. 'Nite, Mia."
Mia gave a one-armed hug to the diminutive Alice.
"Yeah, you too."
Tori and Jade looked at each other.
They waved bye and parted ways.
A/N: I still can't get over the dynamic between the daughters. It's like Tori had a little Jade and Jade had a little Tori.