A New York Evening

by LangsonGal

Based on the Video Killed The Radio Star episode in s23. Trevor and Olivia's date at the gala and what happens afterwards. Originally a one shot but with all the lovely comments and encouragement, this will be multichapter :)

13. Chapter 13

So I know that this chapter doesn't compare to the last one, I feel like its gonna be hard to top — but this chapter goes out to all of those of who have parents who dont understand their child's personalities that cause them to have to water down their personalities and who they really are for fear of rejection and to all those who have at least ONE parent who you can be your 100% authentic self with.

I have a few ideas going forward from here. Some of you want Liv to be pregnant but naaaaaah, I don't think its happening, sorry! I hope to be as quick with the next chapter too. :)

Let me know how you find it, drop me a comment etc and I will love you forever ;P

---

Rory reached his hand out to Ava and smiled at her, pulling her close and giving her a hug. She laughed and hugged him back. "I'm so glad you feel better! It was so lonely without you!," she exclaimed.

The fourteen year old boy grinned at his beautiful friend that he was desperately in love with. He missed her too. "I know, it sucked! That was so nice of you, your Dad and Noah to drop the soup and stuff at my door the other last Friday though, no one has ever been that nice, even my Dad thought it was really kind and he rarely says much."

"We wanted to make sure you were okay," Ava shrugged letting him walk her to her locker so she could get her books.

"Well, I appreciated it…. You guys are the best. Are we in English first this morning?," he wondered.

"Yeah… Mr Kent's English and then I have French, kill me…" she rolled her eyes.

"With pleasure," someone muttered behind her. Ava knew better than to react. She tried not to let it bother her anymore and so far so good. Since the boys had been suspended for physically assaulting her and since Olivia and her partner went to visit their parents, everyone left her alone — physically at least. There were still little comments but less of them and no more vandalising her property.

"How are you going with the social media black out?," he asked as she shut her locker and headed down the corridor toward the classroom.

"Not too bad. I am less anxious without looking at Instagram. What about you?," she wondered.

Rory laughed. "Its boring now, it's not really helped me with studying or anything, if anything at all it's made me just play video games more."

They both laughed. "Well, I might log back in again tonight, but its been nice to hang out with Noah and study without much distraction and Liv is home with us tonight and she promised me a girls afternoon or activity this week…"

Rory smiled at his friend. "I wish my Dad would meet someone as cool as Olivia. Does she have any sisters?," he joked. "I want a little sibling as a bonus too. I can't believe that you don't get annoyed with him or anything. Everyone always complains about their sisters and brothers."

"Yeah but I always wanted to be a big sister. Like, always. And Noah is so cute and sweet and we have a lot in common even if there's an age difference. Olivia is actually just the best thing that's happened to us. She makes my actual biological mother look like a piece of shit— not that that's hard."

Rory shrugged. "I don't wanna speak out of turn, but maybe your Mom-"

"Sarah," Ava corrected him, "her name is Sarah. She made her choice, not me."

"Maybe Sarah will come 'round, maybe she needs time. It's hard not to think of your parents as people, but maybe she's truly going through some stuff."

Ava had no tolerance for the defence of her mother, not when Liv wasn't even related to her and was a better support that she felt a deep feeling of unconditional love from. "She can be going through something, I'm not a monster, but I didn't ask to be born. I didn't ask for this life or to be who I am, it is what it is and it kills that she doesn't want me. But I have dignity and I'm not going to want someone who doesn't want me."

He felt bad and put an arm around her and gave her a squeeze. "Sorry, Ava, I should keep out of it."

She shrugged. "Its okay…I know you're just trying to help, but I think I like things how they are at the moment and if I ignore the fact that my Mom who is supposed to want me, doesn't, things feel manageable."

They let themselves in to the classroom and found their seats at the back. Ava didn't like to sit at the front anymore because she couldn't be sure what people were doing behind her back. Rory sat with her and made it his duty to meet her after every class regardless if they were taking the same one or not. He wanted to make sure she felt safe. He knew if he didn't and people continued to hurt her, her Dad would make her change schools and he wasn't ready to lose his only friend and first love.

/

Olivia got a text just after lunch when she and Trevor had just arrived back at his place with her bag of things and a few sets of clothes for Noah.

"This is getting annoying, isn't it?" Trevor asked, "bringing clothes back and forth…" he told her.

"Yeah, but unfortunately for the time being we just have to deal with it," Olivia responded. She put Noah's stuff in what was slowly evolving in to his own room. She put her things down too.

"Why don't we just buy Noah a few more school uniforms and he can keep them here and we can get him some clothes to keep here too," Trevor suggested.

"Yeah, that might be an idea," she replied.

"Well…" he began with a sigh, "I'm sorry but I have to go and do the zoom call with my client but I don't think it'll be very long. I just have to really go over the process with them and see explain things carefully. What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna go downstairs and see what's in the fridge and make a shopping list and figure out dinner tonight."

He smiled. "If you wait, I could help…"

"No," she smiled back at him, "I don't mind. You've been perfect baby, I've had enough rest. I want to do a few productive things. I'll do some laundry for the kids and get some Mom stuff done. Go have your meeting."

Trevor smiled. It lit him up inside that she encompassed his daughter when she referred to doing chores for them. "Maybe we should teach these little freeloaders to do their own laundry," he joked, standing over her and leaning in for a soft kiss. He put his arms loosely around her neck. Her arms in turn rested upon his hips. She smiled back up at him. "I think we can teach them, but I don't think we should be too hard on them, they're just kids…"

"Pfffft!," he rolled his eyes good-naturedly, "push over!"

She knew he was kidding. "Fine, fine, let's get Noah a little butler's outfit and Ava can have some maid's rags… take them out of school too. I'll get Ava a buffing wand to work on the china and Noah can answer the door, collect our packages and dust the house in quiet times."

They both laughed together. He kissed her again, grinning at the woman he loved.

"Do you want a coffee? I'll bring you one in your new special coffee mug."

He chuckled, "absolutely, yes. I want to see how this creative vessel holds my liquid."

"Wait… are you talking about my mouth or-"

"Olivia!," he gasped, shocked at her dirty joke. They both laughed wickedly. "That's as shocking as anus rash!"

"Oh it is not!," she giggled. Trevor broke up again, thinking of her little boy retorting with the insult with irritation in his young, sweet little tone.

"I can't…" he shook his head, "I can't even think about it…" he began to chuckle to himself at Noah's insult. He kissed her again and made his way downstairs, leaving her to do what she wanted.

/

Olivia checked her phone as she made herself a coffee and put her air pods in her ears to get some motivation music going. The text was from Amanda.

"Hi Liv, I heard there was an issue yesterday with Fin. He should have called me, I would have worked for you. Are you okay? He said you got really upset…"

Liv rolled her eyes, she started to reply, "Yeah, it was a whole thing. I got upset because Trevor had planned this beautiful day for us and managed to get the babysitter locked in overnight… All he wanted was for me to get some sleep because I was beyond exhausted and Fin tried to have me come in. Trevor was right, I was so exhausted that if we got in to a dangerous situation, I would have been useless, I could hardly see straight. I was tired and emotional and Trevor was angry with Fin…. And tbh, so was I…."

Olivia smiled at her new coffee cup that Trevor had made for her. The words he had inscribed so perfectly; My lovely Olivia. She took a sip and then poured one for Trevor. His new clay pottery mug that Imogen had complimented upon pick up earlier said, "My forever" She smiled to herself and had made a big show of not letting him see it until they picked it up.

When they'd arrived Imogen had put it in a box for her, thinking she would be gifting it to him. So it was agreed he would see it when she made him his first coffee. She got another text. She opened it up and read it, "I'm sorry that happened, Liv. Got enough sleep now? Did you end up having your afternoon with Trevor? What did you guys get up to or is that too private ha ha! Love you, boss!"

Olivia smiled and texted back. "Don't be silly. We went to this pottery class, which turned out to be a really awesome date! Maybe the best one I've been on yet. We made silly coffee cups for one another and then we went to dinner and we came home annnnd Elliot was at my door. It shook things up for a bit but we actually had a really relationship-changing talk and….the rest is private ;) xo"

She put her phone down and sprinkled some chocolate powder on top of Trevor's coffee the way he did for her and took it through the living room and through to his office. He hadn't started his meeting yet, he moved around looking for the right paperwork and accompanying legal books and was leafing through them to find what he was looking for.

He finally took a seat as Liv stood in the doorway taking stock of how lovely he looked.

He looked gorgeous in a plain white button-down shirt and a pair of black pants. His glasses were perched on his nose as he looked so serious scanning his eyes over some documents with a highlighter poised in his hand.

He looked up, sensing Olivia's presence; immediately his face relaxed and a smile spread across his pink lips, pleased to see her. "Uh… the unveiling," he joked, happy to finally see the words on the cup.

"I don't want to interrupt you, so I'll dump your coffee and leave you to it," she told him.

"I have a few minutes," he replied, rolling his chair back as she circled his huge mahogany desk to place the coffee down on a coaster.

"Ta-da!," she laughed at herself, self-conscious of how stupid and immature what she wrote could have been received. "Its so anti-climatic now…"

He ducked down to look at it and beamed at it. He glanced up at her and reached his hand out and pulled her on to his lap. "I love you! You are so…," he took her cheeks in his hands and made a frustrated growl with a laugh, "you are too much!, I can barely stand how much I love you," he added.

She laughed at his response. "Really? I can go…" she went to get up, joking. She understood what he meant, the feeling so deep within her that sometimes she didn't know how to adequately express it.

"No, no, stay for a minute…" he murmured finding her mouth with his. She felt the tip of his tongue against hers and circled her arms around his neck. He slipped an arm around her waist and reached up with the other, playing with her hair, letting his fingers brush over her ears knowing that she always responded well to it.

"I love my coffee cup," he told her, breaking the kiss as he gazed at her. She couldn't help but to smile back. "It's the best… I won't drink out of any other vessel!," he said decisively.

"Me either," she replied, leaning to kiss him again. He let his eyes fall over her beautiful face. Something caught his eye and he smirked to himself, feeling his cheeks redden.

"Sweetheart, have you looked in the mirror today?," he wondered, pushing her hair from her neck.

"Not at any great length, why?," she wondered. She was suddenly very self-aware. He let his eyes follow her shoulders all the way back up to her eyes. She felt her face and jaw, thinking that there was something there.

He gently pulled her hand away and caressed a spot lightly with his thumb. "I left a love bite, I didn't mean to and I'm sorry about that…" he made a face, a grimace.

"Trev…" she sighed and shook her head. "How bad?"

He tried not to laugh; "I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose," he murmured, appraising how bad it was. "All I'm saying is that if Ava sees it she will never let me live it down…"

"Great…" she tried to stare him down with annoyance, trying to show him that she wasn't impressed but the way he stared right back looking a little mischievous while stifling a smirk made it very hard to be annoyed.

He chuckled first sheepishly. "Come on, its not that bad…"

"Lucky I'm not going to work for a few days and you're on your own if Ava sees it…"

"We'll just say it's a heat rash," he shrugged. "She probably won't even know," he added.

"Yeah right, I'll be covering it over with make up before we go to pick them up from school," she told him. "You're just lucky I love you and that you're kind of hot so you get a free pass…"

"And also because you love when I kiss you there…" he teased.

"I put up with it," she replied in monotone, "it's OK."

"Oh," he rose an eyebrow, "well that's news to me, I guess I'll keep my mouth to myself…"

"Probably for the best," Olivia shrugged. With a smile she leaned over to kiss his mouth but he turned his head.

"No, no… wouldn't want you to put up with me if you don't want…" he replied.

"Oh shut up, as if I don't want that beautiful mouth of yours all over me at all times," she let a laugh erupt from her throat as they kissed again.

"Okay as much as I want to stay here with you like this, I better go call my clients," he sighed, regretfully pulling away.

"Sure, okay, I'll go collect some laundry and do some Mommy things. Love you." She kissed him one more time and left him with the coffee.

/

Olivia emptied Noah's laundry basket and then went to get Ava's. She piled it all on the floor and put them back. She sighed and turned her music up a little. She started throwing the kids clothes in to the machine and stopped when she happened upon blood.

It was a wash cloth and it was odd. It was definitely from Ava's pile of laundry. She frowned. She tossed the wash cloth aside to soak it to get the blood out and decided to talk to her first before going to Trevor. As she got up to leave she noticed bed sheets wedged between the machine and the tumble drier. She pulled them out and wondered what was going on. She put them in the machine, wondering if Ava had had an accident or something in the night.

She left it all to wash and went to have a look around Ava's room. She was careful not to snoop, but just to see if she could see anything that stood out to her. She went in and glanced around Ava's neat room. She never really kept anything out of place, she was surprisingly clean for a girl of her age.

Something caught her eye peaking out from beneath her pillow. It was a notebook that was opened up. She pulled the pillows back and looked at it. It was a drawing, particularly good, she thought, of a smashed mirror with droplets of blood around it.

Concerned, Olivia used all of her self-control not to leaf through the book. Instead she put it the pillows back and left the book exactly as she had found it.

She tried not to worry about it and continued about, cleaning up a little bit.

/

"Are you ready?" Trevor called, waiting for Olivia at the foot of the stairs. She nodded. "Yeah, can you please grab my phone?"

"Got it, got your purse too."

Olivia smiled to herself and put on a slouchy sweatshirt over Trevor's t-shirt and a pair of black jeans. She put on a pair of Adidas kicks and met him at the door.

"I texted Ava and let her know that we will walk by school and she can come out when she's ready and we'll keep going to get Noah."

"Cool, sorry I made us rush…" she apologised as they left his apartment.

"Its fine sweetie, you needed that nap, I'm sorry you felt like you had to clean my apartment, you didn't have to do that…"

Olivia smiled, "No, its fine… I got started and then I just… kept going but I feel good and accomplished," she told him, linking her arm with his as they walked along.

"Well, I appreciate it, thank you…"

"You're welcome…" they headed the few blocks toward Ava's school.

They arrived and waited outside school just as the last bell went. "Remember when we met, Ava was so grossed out by the idea of you picking her up and dropping her off school," Olivia reminded him.

He laughed, "Yeah, and now look at her, she's so excited to see us, probably you more than me…"

"Don't be stupid. Ava Langan loves her Dad…" she replied, taking his head. "I love her Dad too, as it happens."

He chuckled and leaned over to kiss his girlfriend softly and lingeringly.

"Ewww Dad, not at school!" He heard Ava's voice and pulled away from Liv, chuckling. He glanced over and found his daughter standing with her friend Rory.

"Hey Rory!," he greeted him. "I'm glad you're feeling better."

"Thanks Mr. Langan, I appreciated the soup and the stuff you guys brought over the other night, it was so nice."

"You're welcome, kiddo, anytime. If you ever need anything, just phone us, okay?"

It wasn't lost on Olivia that Ava was hanging off Rory's arm and had only let go to give Olivia a hug. She, in turn went to give her Dad a hug hello.

"Okay we better go pick up Noah. Are you gonna come, Rory?" Liv asked, extending the invite.

"No, I gotta go home and make dinner and study for my French exam." He lifted his hand to wave, glancing longingly at Ava. She smiled back at him.

"Bye Rory," she made her way, close to him and gave him a hug which made both Olivia and Trevor exchange glances. It was a lingering hug that just went on for a few seconds too long. Rory looked reluctant to let go — their eyes met and they both smiled as Ava pulled away.

"Bye Ava, bye Mrs. Benson and Mr. Langan."

"I've told you, you can call us Liv and Trevor," Olivia smiled at him.

"No, Mr. Langan will be just fine," Trevor joked.

Rory laughed. "Fine by me," he shrugged.

"Trevor is fine," Trevor confirmed for the teen who was trying to play down his awkwardness.

They waved goodbye and started walking in opposite directions. "How was your day, kiddo?" Trevor asked as Ava walked between them. He put his arm around his daughter and was surprised when she wrapped her arm around him too, leaning in to him.

"It was okay," she shrugged.

"Anything I need to know? Did anyone say or do anything today?," he pushed, knowing that sometimes she was afraid to tell him in case he took her out of school. She was close to Rory and he knew that they both played down things so that she wouldn't have to leave.

"No, everything was okay. Sometimes kids say dumb stuff but its okay, they say dumb stuff to everyone, not just me. I just ignore it."

"Okay, if it goes beyond that, I need to know," he told her.

Ava just nodded. "Did you guys have a good date? Liv did you enjoy the pottery class Dad booked?"

Olivia laughed, "Oh, he told you about that?," she asked.

"Yeah! We looked for stuff you guys could do on google…" she replied. "It looked fun. I'm a little jealous."

Liv felt the girl's hand slip in to hers as they walked in to Noah's school. She felt content and blessed to have such a great relationship with Trevor's daughter. "Well, maybe you and I could go to one of the classes together and have a girl date, what do you think, Dad?" Olivia looked up and glanced at Trevor who was smiling to himself.

"I think that'd be nice for you girls," Trevor replied.

They got to Noah's classroom and waited around for a moment for the teacher to finish chatting to them. One by one the kids came out, grabbing their bags on the way. Olivia smiled, liking that Noah's teacher kept order, rather than having 20 kids all spilling out at once, pushing for the door.

Noah was so excited to see what he considered to be his three family members. He dropped his bag on the ground and didn't know who to hug first. He went to his Mom and squeezed her tightly. Olivia grinned and hugged him back. When he let go, he moved on to Trevor and Ava joined in on the hug.

"I missed you and Mommy, Trev!," he exclaimed, "Mommy are you working tonight?" He asked, turning to Liv.

"No honey, I'm off work for a few days," she smiled.

"Yes!" Noah hissed, "are we going to our house?," he asked Liv.

"No, not tonight babe, we're staying at Trevor and Ava's apartment tonight."

"Oh…. Can we pretty please go back home because I left my Minecraft game there and I want to play it for my screen time tonight," he said.

"Come on honey, do you have to play that game? Trevor and I just came back from home, can I get it for you tomorrow?," Liv asked. "I don't really feel like having to go back there."

"Mommmmm," Noah sighed.

"How about…" Trevor interrupted, "I take Noah to get his game," he said softly, hoping that Liv wouldn't be upset with him. "You guys can go home and do whatever, I actually wanted to get something but didn't have the time this afternoon because my meeting ran so late."

Olivia stared at Trevor and it seemed that he was being sincere. "Okay…" she relented, "Noah, you don't always get your way, kiddo, I spent a lot of time cleaning up after you at Trevor's place today and you know how I feel about you picking up after yourself, Trevor's home is not yours, you don't get to leave things everywhere. When you get home, you're going to organise the guest room a little better and put all of your clothes and toys away neatly, you're too old for me to be cleaning up after you."

"Okay Mommy, sorry."

"It wasn't that bad, Liv…" Trev dared to add. She gave him a look that made him close his mouth. She knew if the roles were reversed he would be having a similar conversation with Ava.

/

"So tomorrow after school, Dad's gonna go get Noah and take him to dance class and I'm gonna come with you to swimming training, okay?"

"You don't have to come Liv," Ava told her, "I know that it's a pain for you to have to come. I'll be okay."

"No, it's not a pain and I'm going to be there. You know the drill, this is technically outside of school and I want to keep my eye on Rhiannon because that girl is on thin ice…"

Ava said nothing and sighed. "Okay sweetie," Liv got up from Ava's bedside. "I'm gonna go and put Noah to bed and say goodnight and Dad's gonna go downstairs to his office for awhile and I'll come and hang out like promised."

Ava smiled and nodded.

"Oh, Liv?," her soft voice called as Olivia, clad in her summer pyjamas; shorts and a plain tank turned around to glanced at Trevor's daughter.

"Yeah babe?"

"Nice love bite," she started to giggle.

Olivia felt her face redden. "It's not a love bite, it's a rash and I'm very sensitive about it," she shot back, covering it with her hand and feeling the heat rise over her neck.

Ava just laughed more, "yeah right, I believe you're sensitive about it. And I believe it's a rash. A rash from KISSING! Gross! I hope you have another boyfriend cos my Dad—" she pretended to make a vomit motion.

"Your Dad is right, you are a brat!" Olivia shook her head and rolled her eyes with a laugh. She was at least glad that the teenager was more amused than disgusted. She hated the inappropriateness of it, but tried not to pay it any attention.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to Dad about it," Ava called after her as Olivia walked out. She slumped back down on to her bed with a little stir of satisfaction. It seemed like Olivia and her father were getting serious and she wanted so much for Olivia to move in with Noah already.

Olivia was surprised to find Trevor in Noah's room, sitting on the bed and chatting to him. They were both laughing. Her heart warmed as she stood in the doorway and listened.

"Its funny, right?" Trevor asked.

"Yeah, really funny!" Noah replied, "is it rude to say it out loud?"

"No, it's not rude, it's like using the correct names for your private parts," he informed the little boy, "but in saying that, there's no reason you need to keep repeating it unless you need to talk about it in a serious way. You shouldn't tell your friends that they're being a gluteus maximus."

Noah cracked up again at the stupidity of it.

"What on earth are you talking about?," she wondered, smiling at the two of them.

"Noah had questions about his book." Trevor held up the anatomy book that was focusing on muscles. "Some of the muscle names are really funny, right Noah?"

He giggled, "Yeah… and so are some of the private words too!"

"Okay giggle it out of your system," she told her son who was at that age where toilet humour was hilarious to him. "Mom, did you know your butt is your gluteus Maximus…"

Trevor couldn't help but to laugh at Noah's excitement to teach his Mom something silly. "Yes, Noah, I knew that." She glanced at Trevor and tried to remain serious despite how much she felt for him and his relationship with Noah. She stifled a smile but Trevor knew it was there. "I hope you don't go to school saying that to everyone," she said to her son.

"No, Mom, I promise, no more name calling from my book," he said seriously.

"Or name calling anyone from anything, it's not on."

"I know Mom, I apologised to Osiris like you said, we are friends now, it's okay," he told her.

"Good… I'm glad to hear it." She took a seat next to at the head of his bed next to him.

"Tomorrow can we sleep at our house? I miss my things and I keep forgetting stuff," he pouted.

Olivia glanced at Trevor, not wanting to sleep without him but she knew her son had to be her priority. "Yeah, if you want. Maybe its good to have a night with just you and I…" her voice trailed off, trying not to sound too disappointed.

"Noooo," he replied as if he was impatient with her, "I mean, with Trevor and Ava too, but just at our place…"

"Ohhh," Liv shrugged. "I guess that depends on Trevor, he might have to work, babe. I know its hard to keep going back and forth." She leaned over and kissed her son's forehead. "Trevor and I will try to come up with a plan so it's not so annoying for you and Ava."

"Why can't we just all live together at our house?," he asked with a pout. "Ava's room could be the big one," he told his Mom referring to the guest room that used to be Olivia's office that was now more of a junk room.

"That's something for Trevor and I to discuss, honey, we want to make sure you and Ava are totally okay with sharing Moms and Dads because it won't just be sometimes, it'll be always and we have to make sure you're both ready for that."

Noah shrugged, "I'm ready to share you with Ava and Trevor, I already do, I'm good at sharing," he smiled.

Trevor smiled to himself. "You're the best at sharing and when Mom and I decide to live together with you and Ava-"

"Hey wait, are we moving in together?" Ava asked, her eyes wide, in the doorway of Noah's room.

"No-" Trevor said quickly, "no that's not what's happening-" he thought for a moment Ava looked upset, but she wasn't.

"Oh," her face dropped, "well, that sucks, why are you even talking about it then?"

"Because it's good to talk about, to figure out exactly what that might look like for you guys." Ava let herself in to Noah's room and crawled in the space beside Noah and smiled at the little boy that she considered to be something of a younger sibling.

"What did you tell Lucy last night?" Ava asked Noah.

Noah thought for a second and looked at her sheepishly. "Its okay, you can tell them, they won't be mad, you're allowed to have feelings, right, Liv? Right Dad?"

"Of course," they both agreed.

"But if it was private, you don't have to tell us," Olivia told her son.

"I said I wish that we could all live together and that Ava gets to share the best Mom ever and I would get to share the best Dad ever." His voice was small as though he was afraid to say it out loud.

"But the best part," Ava said, "was that I was the best sister in the entire existence of the world," she exaggerated with a laugh.

"Aww honey, you are the best son in the world," Liv smiled, tickled by her son's ability to love everyone so much without any selfishness or jealousy.

"Mom's right," Trevor smiled. "You're the best kid ever. And if we move in together at some stage, you'll be the best bonus kid I could ever hope to have," he told him.

"So, it just makes good sense," Ava shrugged, "Also, because I left my swimsuit at your place, Liv, and we're not allowed to wear something other than our school swimwear… And I hate waking up and not knowing where I am, or not having my hair products or whatever, its actually really frustrating."

Trevor hadn't considered that chopping and changing where they were staying was actually such a huge disruption, but it made sense.

"Okay guys, we hear you," said Olivia. "I'll grab your bathing suit tomorrow and I guess I can come by school and take you from school to swimming a bit earlier so you can have it for practice."

"But wouldn't it be cool," Noah asked, looking from Trevor to his Mom, "if we all lived together?"

"It would be really nice babe, but Trevor and I have to talk about it with you both separately and he and I need to discuss things."

"It would be really nice," Trevor smiled at both of the kids, letting his eyes flick up to meet Olivia. She smiled back at him.

"Wellllll that's disappointing, I thought a decision had been made," Ava sighed, getting up. "Dad, can I get my phone back for a little while to text Rory?"

"For ten minutes and then we will be having a talk as to why you were on social media at 2am this morning."

Ava frowned at her Dad. "What are you talking about? I wasn't on social media at all last night."

"Ava," he sat forward too, a warning edge in his tone. "Do not lie to me. Olivia told me." Ava was confused, she looked at Olivia accusingly.

"Why would you tell him that?," she asked, "I wasn't on social media! Ask Lucy! I gave her my phone like she asked when I went to bed!"

"Go and text Rory and we'll talk about it in a minute, hurry up, before I change my mind," Trevor said with annoyance.

"No!" Ava stood, feeling attacked. "I did not get on social media! Liv, do you even know how it works?"

"Ava, you replied to me, come on, don't be silly, we're not mad, but we don't want you to do it again."

"Show me, I want to see this supposed message I sent. I don't believe you, I wasn't online, I swear!" Her eyes began to feel hot, wondering why her Dad's girlfriend was making up lies. It seemed off for Liv — maybe she was mistaken.

"I told you guys, I was taking a break for a few days with Rory, we agreed not to use anything except text!," she insisted. "We were both going to log back in today but we decided to go another day,"

"Ava, lower your voice," Trevor told her calmly, "its Noah's bed time. Go downstairs and we will discuss it there."

Ava turned her back and left the room before the tears of betrayal fell down her face. She felt angry with Olivia for telling her father a lie and even angrier with her father for believe Olivia over her.

/

Ava went to her phone in the kitchen and turned it on. There were a few messages from Rory. She wiped her eyes and ignored them for the moment and logged in to her instagram page. She tried a few times but she got a wrong password error. She reset her password and waited for a few minutes before it arrived.

She felt antsy because she knew something was wrong. Suddenly with a sense of doom, she remembered; Rhiannon had access to her password. She had given it to her once before when they were friends so she could fix some settings for her.

She chose a new password and logged in.

She let out a sob when she saw her profile, feeling sick, like she could vomit everywhere. Everyone would know, she thought. With shaky hands she went in to her inbox and saw the messages Olivia was talking about. It wasn't her, someone had hacked her and Olivia had caught them out.

She began to cry as she dared to look at her instagram feed again. The boxes at the top spelled out 'whore' in each box and three photos below were going to haunt her forever. Everyone would know. It was a photo from her snapchat; the app that her father had made her delete when she moved in because of the reports he'd read about it. Her password was the same as her instagram one.

It was a photo of her kissing Rhiannon on the lips— the photo that she had dared not tell a single soul about and thought that Rhiannon would never tell anyone about because it made her look just as bad.

It was after the picture was taken that things started to sour between the girls. In fact, almost overnight Rhiannon had changed which confused Ava since Rhiannon was the one who had instigated the kiss; encouraged her to take the pic and until she had realised it was probably all just a cruel joke to begin with.

The second picture, well; Ava wasn't sure where that had come from. It was a picture of her kissing Rory. She knew exactly when it was taken — just in the past week. The caption beneath it said, confused whore: I don't know what I am, I say I'm gay but maybe that's just for attention cos here I am kissing the school ogre….

There were other pictures too, not as embarrassing as the pictures of her and Rory and Rhiannon but other embarrassing ones that were captioned with harsh, stupid words.

"Ava, what's wrong?" Liv asked her softly, coming down, finding her in the kitchen sobbing in front of her phone.

"I told you it wasn't me! And you didn't believe me!" She broke down, angry at Liv. Olivia made her way over to the emotional teenager and took the phone gently from her. Olivia saw the profile grid and immediately came to the realisation that Ava had been hacked.

"I'm so sorry babe," she told her softly, pulling her close, letting her cry. She looked at the contents over her shoulder as she comforted her, wondering about the pictures — but it was besides the point. Ava hadn't posted them, somebody else had without her consent.

"What's going on?" Trevor asked, shocked. "Ava, it's not that much of a big deal, we just don't want you on your phone all night."

"It wasn't her," Liv told him, giving her head a little shake. "Her account was hacked."

"Are you sur-" Olivia handed him the phone and his eyes fell over the pictures. At first he was immediately angered by the sight of his daughter kissing more than one person — anyone really, he wasn't prepared, she was too young.

Ava pushed Olivia away and couldn't bare to look at either of them. She went back upstairs and closed her bedroom door and sat against it trying to sob silently. She felt sick knowing that her account had been unlocked so the whole school had probably seen the photos by now.

The idea of what she would face turned her insides to liquid and made the bile rise in her throat, something that happened often now that she was unable to deal with her emotions. Before she began to vomit, she jumped up and made her way to the bathroom.

"Is she vomiting?" Trevor asked, listening upstairs.

"Sounds like it."

"What the hell…" he seemed angry. Liv grabbed his arm. "Trev, stop, you can't be mad at her."

"Why are there photos of my kid kissing? Who takes these pics? Did she do it? Of course I'm mad."

"Trevor-" Olivia hissed as he continued up the steps. "Stop!" Olivia snapped, raising her voice. "This is not your daughter's fault. She is 14, of course she's going to kiss some kids! You need to and calm down, do not take your own hang ups out on her."

Trevor searched Olivia's eyes and realised she knew what she was talking about. He drew in a deep breath. "I can't deal with this…" he murmured with resignation. "I don't know what else to fucking do…"

"Please go and make yourself a drink and calm down. I will go and make sure she's okay and find out what happened, please."

He nodded slowly and turned and started back down the steps.

/

"K sweetie, come on…" Olivia helped lift Ava from the floor. "Come on, let's get you up and we can grab a cloth for your face and you can get your pajamas on."

Olivia felt sad for her. She hated that Ava, who had such a wonderful heart had been outcast in such a cruel way. Olivia let warm water run all over the cloth before handing it to her. Ava held it over her face and Liv stood behind her, gathering her long blond hair together at the back of her head and began to braid it loosely.

"Come on…" she guided her out of the bathroom back to her bedroom where Ava sat on her bed still wiping fresh tears, shuddering a little as she recovered from her sobbing and vomiting. Liv moved about her room and took some pajamas from her dresser that she had left folded in a pile for her. "Here… why don't you put these on…" she passed her some pajama pants.

Ava just nodded, taking them and holding them in her lap. "Olivia, I want to die…" she murmured softly.

"No," Liv replied softly, her words breaking her heart. "Please don't say that to me, Ava, you don't want to die, you just want this situation to stop."

"I hate my life and everybody hates me and I don't know who I am and maybe they're right, maybe I am a whore."

"Ava," Liv said seriously, blinking back her own tears. "You're fourteen, honey, its okay if you don't know who you are, this is a really big part of growing up… the important people in your life love you so very, very, very much. I have known you now for only seven months and I know if I didn't have you in my life, I would have a gaping hole in my heart, Ava Langan."

She wiped her eyes but Olivia could tell something had finally broken inside of her. "I can't go to school tomorrow," she murmured. "I don't ever want to go back to school and I know Dad is mad about the photos."

"You don't have to go to school. I think you can stay home with me, what do you think?"

Ava nodded but she was staring off somewhere else; absent, thinking of something and it worried Olivia.

"Honey, put your pajamas on. I'm gonna go talk to Dad and I'll come back up here and we can talk, okay?"

"Okay," she replied.

/

"Sorry," Trevor apologised when he saw Liv coming down the stairs. "I just wanted to explode and you're right, it's not Ava's fault. I just really wasn't expecting to see pics of my baby kissing girls and boys."

"Maybe she's unsure of what she wants," Liv replied, coming to his side at the kitchen counter, taking a sip of his whisky on the marble top. She gave his back a rub. "And that's okay, you know, she's 14, she's still figuring it out. I saw that thing happening with Rory a mile away…." She added.

"Me too and yet, I didn't really think there was anything to it deep down, not from her, anyway."

"But it's okay, he's a good kid and he truly cares about her," Liv told him, "so try not to freak out."

"What do we do?," he asked with a sigh. "Should I go up and talk to her?" he asked.

"She's getting changed. She told me she wanted to die…" she knew she had to tell him on the off chance his daughter did an irrational thing.

"Do you think she meant it?," Trevor asked, his cheeks sallowing, something shifting within him. "I should talk to her, I don't want her to feel like that… fuck…"

"I think she's been pushed pretty far to the edge, I don't think she really means it, I think she wants the situation to end, but she's a teenage girl and that comes with a lot of pressure before we factor in to anything that's happened here…"

Olivia picked up her phone and took a screen shot and then took screenshots of all the individual pics with captions before locking the account and deleting all contacts. She was planning on taking it to get one of the computer specialists to look at it to trace back to who uploaded the photos.

He took another long chug of his whisky and sighed. "I'm gonna go and speak to her and give my baby a hug."

"Okay…"

"Are you coming?," he wondered.

"In a second, I'm going to call work, I'll be up in a few. I'll give you guys a second to talk."

/

Trevor found Ava laying on top of her covers with tears running down her face. "Hi baby," he greeted her and came to sit. He hated to see her cry. "I'm so worried about you," he murmured with honesty. She still said nothing. He reached over and wiped some tears from the sides of her face. "I want you to know how much I love you. You did nothing wrong to deserve this, Ava…"

"But that doesn't stop it from happening," she muttered, her nose blocked.

"I know in a way you don't want to leave your school because of swim and Rory and the way you have things in place, but I think it's time we try something else."

"I can't go back. I look like a slut now."

"Don't," he said warningly, "you do not look like anything but a teenage girl who has had normal crushes on boys and girls and it's okay, Ava, you did nothing wrong."

"I did. I was stupid enough to think Rhiannon liked me and that when she wanted me to kiss her, she meant it but now I know it was just to trick me so she could tell everyone that I finally admitted I was a lesbian."

"That's on her, kiddo. It makes your heart pure and her heart dark… and you didn't deserve that and I'm really sorry."

He had known there had to be more to the story with Rhiannon than her suddenly deciding she didn't like his daughter anymore based on her sexual orientation.

"Mom was right…" she sighed.

"About what?," he wondered gently.

"I told her what happened with Rhiannon when it happened and we got in to a huge fight and she told me I was so stupid and I'd embarrassed her with the other Moms-"

Trevor went to cut her off but Ava talked over him. "She said she wished she never had me, that I was a mistake and that if it wasn't for you, she probably would have got rid of me and that every avenue of her life I was just a pain in her ass."

Trevor bit hard on the inside of his lip until he could taste blood. The fury that burned inside him had to stay inside him. It turned his insides black and all he wanted to do was scream.

Instead he took a deep breath. "Your Mom definitely didn't and does not feel like that," he said firmly. "I remember a lot further back than you do, my darling," he told her softly, wiping more tears from her eyes, "and I can tell you that your mother delighted in your existence. We know Mom had her funny ways of showing affection and love sometimes, but that wasn't about you… sometimes when things don't work out as we expect, we get angry with ourselves and we take it out on others and I'm sure that's all that was."

"She meant it. I know she meant it," Ava replied, unflinching. "You can stop making excuses for her. You weren't there, you don't know what she was like after you left."

It occurred to him that she was right. He really didn't know what Sarah was like. They were so estranged that he would have put nothing past her.

He felt his emotions getting the better of him. "I should never have left you with her…" he said softly, "and I'm sorry that I let you down by leaving. I should have just put up with your Mom and stayed, Ava, you were worth it to stay, but I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought it was going to be healthier for you to not endure us fighting or ignoring each other."

"I don't want to make you sad, Dad," she murmured, watching her father swallow sharply, clearing is dry throat.

"You don't make me sad. You do the very, very opposite of make me sad," he replied. "I don't think you will ever understand how much I love you. You are my greatest joy," he told her. "It makes my heart break to see you so sad, Ava."

"I am sick of feeling like everyone hates me, of being so scared and anxious and worried from the second that I wake up to the time I shut my eyes and then I dream about it and I hate it and I wish it would all just stop."

Trevor felt his eyes misting over. He had no idea it ran that deep, most of the time he felt like his daughter was happy but clearly he only saw what he wanted to.

He wiped away a tear that fell from the corner of his eye as quickly as it had materialised. What worried him most was the monotone of which her admissions came. There was no feeling in her voice, it was gone. She sounded numb and he was scared for her. "Come here…" he let out a shaky, heavy sigh. Ava glanced at him and realised the weight of her father's burdens from her pain. She slowly sat up and let him gather her in his arms.

"I wish you'd tell me when you're scared and anxious rather than pretending that you're fine, I won't ever leave you to feel like that on your own. I'd be home more, I will do whatever I can to help you, sweetie." He kissed her forehead.

Olivia stood in the doorway and decided not to interrupt. She went and made sure Noah was asleep and went back downstairs to pour them both a drink because she knew Trevor was going to need it.

"I won't work tomorrow, I'll stay home with you and we can do whatever you want, whatever will make you feel relaxed and will make you smile, kiddo…"

"Its okay Dad," she murmured. "You don't have to do anything special."

"I know, but sometimes I get worried that with Olivia around you might feel like you can't interrupt or you can't come and ask for just my attention."

"I love Olivia," she replied. "I love you so much and I love her too. I like hanging out with you but I like hanging out when its the four of us…"

"Okay…"

"Dad I'll be okay, I'm just sad."

"Honey," he stroked her hair, "you don't need to console me," he said, "that's not your job. You don't have to do anything but feel how you want to feel and just be honest about it." He paused, "and if you have a bad dream, come and wake me up and we can talk about it."

"I'm not a baby," she sighed.

He smiled to himself. "Yes you are. You are my baby and you will always be my baby and I don't care how grown up you think you are, you're still a kid and I don't want you to start shutting me out."

"Okay…" her voice trailed off. "I'm gonna try to go to sleep, Dad."

"Do you want to talk to Liv?," he wondered, "she was really worried."

"Yeah…"

"Alright. Have a good sleep my sweetheart, I will sort out everything for you and I will make sure this situation ends, I don't want you to ever have to feel anxious or scared, sweetheart. I just want you to feel happy…"

He watched her get under her covers. He pulled them up beneath her chin and kissed her forehead. "I love you so much, Ava Langan, please never, ever forget that."

"I won't. I love you too, Dad."

/

"Are you alright?" Olivia asked him as he descended the stairs looking as forlorn as she had come to expect. He held up a hand and shook his head.

"Love, here… I made you a drink…" she pushed it across the counter. He picked it up and clutched it taking a few gulps.

"Thanks," he said, clearing his voice. "She wanted to go to sleep but she wanted to see you first."

"Okay…. What about you, how are you?"

He shrugged and sighed. "I can't talk about it right now, I'm a little emotional. Sorry Liv, it's always a drama."

She frowned and shook her head, "Its not a drama that I want you to deal with on your own, love, not at all. I'm invested too. I want Ava to be okay as much as you do. It's totally okay to be emotional. We said last night we would stop doing this, stop hiding how you feel and I will too."

She sircled the counter and wrapped her arms around him. He felt relief wash over him with Liv's words. He kissed the crown of her head. "Love you, thanks Liv."

"You're welcome baby. I won't be long upstairs."

"Take as long as you need. I need to go and figure out what to do about all of this," he sighed.

She tipped her head back and kissed his jaw. "I'll help. Love you…" she let go of him and went back up to say goodnight to his daughter feeling a little like they were tag-teaming.

She pushed open Ava's bedroom door. She had her nightlight on and was cuddling a teddybear. Liv almost smiled. "Are you going to sleep?"

Ava shrugged. She held Ava's phone up. "Rory's been texting…do you want me to reply and let him know you're in bed?"

She nodded. "Thanks…"

She tapped away a quick text and sent it through to Ava's friend. Olivia slid down beside Trevor's daughter. "Talk to me…" she prompted her, "tell me what's going through your head right now…"

"I can't." Ava replied. "I just want to go to sleep and try to make it all go away."

"Ava, I need to ask you something and it's totally between you and I and nobody else, okay?"

She nodded but rolled over with her back to Liv sensing that she was going to ask something that may be embarrassing about Rory or Rhiannon.

"Honey, I was doing some laundry today and when I was in the laundry room I found some sheets hidden away…"

"Oh… I just like doing my own sheets."

Olivia touched her shoulder. "Ava, talk to me okay?," she implored her. "Come on, look at me…"

Reluctantly, Ava turned to face her. Her vision was blurred by tears. "Ava, I don't want to embarrass you, but… did something happen? It's okay, I'm not judging, I just want to know what's going on."

She avoided Olivia's eyes. "Just nightmares, but it was just that one time… please don't say anything to my Dad, I will die of shame."

"No, it's between you and me, I mean that. I'm sorry that you're having nightmares…" She searched the girl's face for a moment. She let her eyes fall over the red-faced barely-teen. It tore her up to know that she was having dreams so bad that was causing her to have accidents. She knew how deeply the fear must have been plaguing her in order to be having such dark dreams. "We don't have to talk about it again," she murmured when Ava covered her face.

She stroked her hair thoughtfully for a few minutes in silence. "Its okay…" she whispered to her. ""How would you feel about talking to someone about everything?," she asked, "about what's going on at school…"

"Like a shrink?"

"Yeah, like a shrink…"

Ava shrugged. Olivia reached over and pulled her hands away from her face. "I'll talk to Dad, but I have a good friend who you might be able to talk to…" she suggested. "Its somebody I work with," she added.

"What? Some type of cop?" Ava asked, confused.

"No, babe, she's someone that specialises in child and adolescent abuse — violence and otherwise, I think maybe it would help to talk to someone who isn't your Dad and who isn't me because I know how it feels to hold back feelings because you're worried about upsetting someone that you love."

Ava wiped a tear with her palm. "Dad is so sad," she agreed, "and I feel guilty for making him sad and putting him in a bad mood because then he's in a bad mood with you."

"No, he's not," Olivia replied. "Your Dad might be sad but he doesn't take it out on me or Noah or even you. He just wants to solve it."

"Liv, can I tell you about that pic with Rhiannon?," she asked softly. "I need to tell someone because it's making me so sad."

Liv moved in close to her and put an arm around her. "Of course Ava, you can tell me anything," she thought for a moment, "why don't you start from the beginning…"

"I told Rhiannon that I liked girls just before I moved in with Dad and she was totally fine with it. I didn't tell her but I had a tiny crush on her, but it wasn't serious, I knew it would pass, its just that…. Rhiannon has always been allowed to act a little more grown up than me," she explained, "so when she started wearing make up and stuff, she changed… and right before I moved in with Dad she made some other friends at school but they included me," she shrugged, "everyone was so nice and now I realise they weren't that nice, they were just making fun of me."

"I'm sorry sweetheart," Olivia murmured.

"Rhiannon came over for a sleep over here like, maybe a few weeks before I first moved in. That night, Rhiannon said she also had crushes on girls and by that time I felt like I was past my crush on her, but she kept talking about it and said that we should kiss for fun to see what its like since we both like girls and I was a bit uncomfortable but… it was Rhiannon and I didn't want to upset her."

"Had you kissed anyone before Rhiannon? Was she your first kiss?"

Ava nodded, frowning, troubled by the idea.

"She said we should take a snapchat pic to see how cute we look but we both agreed never to send it to anyone, it was just for us so we could remember our first kiss, so I did it on my phone and I saved the pic and I never sent it to her, I was supposed to but she literally started acting weird the next day… so I didn't send it."

"Do you think she was setting you up as a nasty joke?"

Ava nodded again. "Yeah… and because I let her have my instagram password once to fix something for me, I think she did this and that pic would have been saved on my snapchat archive and the password was the same."

Olivia was annoyed but she wasn't surprised. She endured a lot of kids pretending to be her friend for nasty reasons at school. Girls were awful as teenagers, she thought with a sigh. "Babe, you don't have to feel embarrassed about that picture. It's just a pic but I'd probably caution you from taking photos like that with anyone… but its okay."

"I don't know how they got that pic of Rory and me but I know when it was taken…"

"Someone cares enough about what you do to follow you," she told her.

"I wish they wouldn't," Ava murmured. "Do you think I'm stupid for kissing Rory?" She asked.

Olivia thought about her response and shook her head. "No, I think you're 14 and you're still trying to figure out what you want and that's okay."

"I feel like a hypocrite for saying I like girls and I wasn't interested in boys and now I don't know."

"You know what? It's so normal to have crushes on girls and boys at your age. Wanna know a secret?"

"Yes…" Ava replied, looking up at Liv.

"I had crushes on girls when I was a teenager and I even kissed two girls when I was at college," she admitted.

"Oh…" Ava was surprised, "how did you know that women weren't for you? How did you know that you only wanted to be with men?"

Olivia shrugged. "Only one thing I know for sure is that I love your Dad like I've never loved anyone before and I want to be with him more than any man or woman and I don't think that will change. And exclusively, I've only ever had boyfriends because I think its what attracts me more. But I can say that women are beautiful and sexy and I can't say for certain that if I was single and the right woman came in to my life things would be different…"

"Are you bi?" Ava asked softly.

"I don't think so, I think I'm a straight woman, but all I'm saying is that it's okay to feel attraction to the opposite sex or the same sex even if you feel a stronger pull toward one or the other and that not all feelings are absolute for everyone."

"Rory is the only boy I've ever felt those feelings for," she admitted. "I've had so many crushes on girls but never, ever felt a crush on a boy until I met Rory and he cares about me and I like the way he makes me feel."

"I know babe, I can see that and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You just need to do what's right for you. Its okay that you don't have it figured out. Even a lot of us adults don't even have it figured out, we just pretend very well."

Ava finally smiled weakly.

"Liv, I really want you to move in with us," she murmured as if she was scared of Liv's reactiona. "I want you here all the time. I was so sad on friday night when you stayed at your place…"

Olivia smiled at her and squeezed her gently. "You might hate me if I move in…"

"Never… you're here a lot anyway, I would hate you already if I was going to… and I miss Noah so much when he's not here too. Both Dad and I end up in bad moods and get snippy with each other."

She laughed. "But I think your time with your Dad is important… you guys are just getting a nice healthy relationship where you've got to know each other and spending time together is important."

"We can still do that with you here. You've helped that Olivia…" Ava told her. "And if Dad really is the person you want to be forever, you need to move in and we can be a family."

Olivia said nothing for a minute until Ava looked up at her, worried she said something wrong. "I mean, I know you're not my Mom…" she added quickly.

"Babe, it's okay, you don't have to clarify that, family doesn't always mean someone has to be Mom or Dad, it just means togetherness and I want that for us too, but it might just take a little time. I have to talk to Noah and your Dad and I have to make decisions."

"Noah and I talk about it all the time," she admitted. "We have been trying to parent trap you both in to living together for awhile but neither of you are getting the hints."

Olivia managed to laugh, "you guys better not be leaving stuff at each others apartments on purpose to make us do all this running around," she said, realising that they may have been setting their parents up.

"No, no, that was genuinely an accident and I don't think Noah is that manipulative," Ava replied.

Olivia laughed again. "Just be patient with Dad and I, okay? We'll figure it out… We also have to figure out where we will live and what will be best on you kids and we have other things going on too."

"Okay."

"Well kiddo, I think you should get some sleep," she told her, "its after 9 and just because you're not going to school, doesn't mean your routine should end up ruined."

"Liv can you delete all the people from my Instagram except Rory and you and put it on private?"

Olivia nodded. "I actually deactivated it for the moment. I told Rory you will text him when you wake up. He must have seen it, he was really worried."

"Thanks Olivia."

She gave Trevor's daughter a kiss on the temple. "You're welcome, honey. Sleep well and if you need us, just come and wake us up, okay?"

"Yeah right as if I'm just gonna barge in," Ava said with a little laugh, "goodness knows what I'd walk in to."

"Don't be silly."

"Yeah I think I'll definitely be knocking first," she replied.

Olivia sighed and smiled at her, getting up from her bed. "Do what you have to do, kiddo," she replied, "but if you need us, you get us…"

"I love you, Liv… I still feel sad but you and Dad made me feel a little better. At least I know I have you both and Noah too."

"Always," she smiled. "I love you too, kiddo. Sleep tight."

/

"Is it socially acceptable to tell Rory to keep his little paws off my girl?" Trevor asked in spite of himself as he scrolled through a few texts he exchanged with his daughter's friend.

"No," Olivia replied sipping her red wine;. "No it's not acceptable. That's the bit you just have to bite your tongue and butt-out of. Let your daughter figure it out."

He sighed with frustration. He and Olivia sat on the couch. She had her legs over him, resting against the arm of it. He was tired and emotional. "Sooo…" he turned to the woman that had been his saving grace all night, "the kids really want us to move in together."

Olivia chuckled. "Ava told me that she and Noah talk about it all the time and they were coming up with ways to parent trap us… whatever that means."

Trevor was able to laugh. "Wow… well maybe we should start talking about it." He shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. "I mean…" he paused and began to think, "its been over six months now, how do you feel about moving in with me?"

Olivia let a smile linger over her mouth. "I don't know, I have fears but… it's mostly about me and not about you."

"Tell me…" he prompted her, taking a sip of his drink.

She thought it over for a few moments and shrugged. "I guess I get worried that I'll become boring to you and we'll fall in to this pattern of getting absolutely complacent and even taking one another for granted."

"You don't think that we probably do at times have elements of that regardless of if we're living together?"

"Not really, I don't ever look at you and take your presence for granted, I am really passionate when I see you, every day…" she felt her cheeks flush.

"Have I ever made you feel like I don't appreciate you?"

"No…"

"And we basically already live together, just out of a different place all the time…"

"I'm scared that Noah doesn't really understand how to share me with you, that if it was permanent, if he couldn't go home or have time away he might start resenting one of us."

"I think you are projecting your fears on to Noah. I think Noah will adjust, he already has. If anything its probably more disruptive as things are now."

Olivia looked at him, letting his eyes burn in to hers for a moment. "I wanna wake up beside you every day," she said slowly, "and go to bed together in a place that's ours."

"Okay," he smiled. "So let's find a place to rent. We can put our apartments up for short term rent for the time being until we see how it works, that way if something isn't working out, we still can go back to our own homes."

"Yeah?," she smiled, wary of huge changes.

"Yeah…" he nodded, returning the smile.

"At least if we start fresh, neither kid will feel like it's their domain, you know, like Noah feeling like Ava is cramping his space or vice versa."

"That sounds good…"

"Good…" Trevor smiled at Olivia longingly as they had just come to an agreement. "So, officially, love, will you and Noah please move in with Ava and I?"

Her small smile grew in to a grin. "Yes, of course. I wanna start our future together."

He leaned in and kissed her. "Good, that's the best news I've heard today," he replied. "Something nice amongst the shit."

She reached up and stroked his prickly cheek. "I'm sorry it turned sour, but no matter what happens, it's our number one priority to keep Ava safe and she will be fine. A little heartbroken maybe, but she will be okay."

"Maybe I'll homeschool her."

"Nope," Olivia shook her head. "I mean, she's your kid, but I beg that you don't do that to her. She already told you she felt anxious, that would just reinforce it and you want her to be a normal teen with normal social interactions. She is such a good kid and I really feel that homeschooling stunts children."

"It also protects them…"

"Trevor, honestly please just find a better school. One with an actual policy for bullying that will actually do what they say. You should try Noah's school, they have things in place."

"I was going to do that three months ago, I should have," he sighed. "Anyway, I will clear my schedule tomorrow so I can be with Ava. It's not your burden."

"Baby, one thing— if we plan on moving in together, I want us to be on the same page with the kids. I am not expecting to be Ava's Mom, but I expect that the kids are both of our responsibilities. It's not your kid, my kid… its the kids. When it comes to Noah, I want you to have a hand in discipline as well, not just leave it all to me especially if he gets a little smart-mouthed or rude."

Trevor smiled. "You want me to parent your son?" He was a little happy to hear her words.

"Within reason, I mean… as long as we agree. I think we have the same values… I think you're a really good and fair Dad when it comes to discipline from what I've seen but Noah is younger and he's pretty sensitive sometimes."

"I know and I take that in to account. He's also pretty wonderfully behaved for the most part. I think I've only ever had to give him a look once or twice and it was enough."

Olivia laughed. "He knows a look when he gets one. But, he can be pretty awful when he's mad or upset, he is probably just too scared to let you see that part of him yet, but you will be on the receiving end of it one day soon."

Trevor chuckled. "On friday night I told him to turn his game off and get ready for bed and he looked at me like I'd insulted you…"

She laughed again, "See? That's one thing I struggle with, finding that middle ground with screen time. I don't need him to become addicted."

"One thing I was clear about when Ava moved in was how much time she was allowed to have on her phone. Everything has to be transparent. She has to have everything connected to my cloud so I can see what she's sending. She had to get rid of things like snapchat because she walked around the house taking selfies or whatever they call them literally all day long and it was so… insipid…. And vain."

"Yeah that's the gross part about it. They have thousands of people who can view it and they don't even know who is on the other end of the phone."

"And not only that, it's not even so much the taking photos of herself thing I take issue with although that's entirely weird to me, but… it's that they post it and start putting so much value and validation on how many likes they get or how many views they get. I do not want that for her so she snapchat had to go. And you know the rest of it. She isn't allowed to have her phone after 8:30 and she's not allowed to have it until she is ready, dressed and has eaten before school."

"I think that makes you a solid parent," Olivia smiled. "And I expect that you will help me hold Noah to that same standard."

"I will. I promise I'll be the best male influence in his life, I will always do the right thing by him and you."

"I know you will and I will be there for Ava whenever she needs me and I want to help you take care of her and that includes turning up when you have to work to be there for her or to help her with things that you don't think that you can."

"I love you so much for that, thank you." He put his empty glass down and reached for Olivia's wine that she held in a stemless glass. She smiled and watched him take a long sip before handing it back.

"Wow, I buy good wine…" he remarked with a laugh. He rarely drank red unless he was out to dinner.

Olivia laughed too.

"You know, Ava told me all this awful shit that her mother said to her. I knew there was more to the story with Rhiannon and as it happens, around the time the fallout happened with Rhiannon. She told my kid she was a mistake, that she should never have had her and that she always caused problems."

"Ooft, maybe don't tell me that because I don't know Sarah, but that's the kind of thing that makes me feel an unfiltered hatred for." She paused, "its the kind of thing that makes me feel like I should encourage your daughter to call me Mom and I know that's not right of me."

"Don't worry, it's how I feel too. I think I honestly don't want Sarah to ever be a part of her life again after knowing what I do."

Olivia sipped her wine and offered more to Trevor. He took some and handed it back. "I shouldn't have an opinion of her especially when kids can often construe things a certain way…but…"

"I don't think Ava has it twisted, Sarah basically confirmed everything Ava told me," he shrugged. "I don't want to hate her, I wanted to coparent happily with her, but it's just never been that way."

"I hope that whatever form I need to step in and fulfil the responsibilities that her mother has shirked, Ava will understand and appreciate just how much I love her."

"I know she will…" he smiled.

"Anyway, I had planned to catch up with Amanda for brunch tomorrow. Are you happy for me to take Ava with me while you have your meetings?"

He thought for a moment and shrugged. "I guess, as long as she's not gonna get in the way," he paused and as she went to say something he held up his hand, "no wait, let me be more direct, we aren't going to do this anymore, not be dance around what we mean."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"What I wanted to say is that I'm happy for Ava to go, but I'm concerned you guys will talk about work cases and I want to keep Ava away from too many case details."

"Oh," she smiled at him reassuringly, "honey, I hope you know I would never expose either kids to the inappropriateness of my job. I'm very aware of how harrowing my it is and I don't even share the worst of it with you so I would never share any of those details with your daughter."

"I didn't mean it like that… I'm just… a little over-cautious."

"No, it's alright," she smiled and he was relieved she didn't take offence. "You gotta cover all bases, I understand baby."

He sighed deeply and rested his head back against the back of the couch and let his hands rest on her legs. He stared at the ceiling thinking about all that had happened. He caressed Olivia's calves absently, both of them taken way by their thoughts.

He closed his eyes, just wanting some reprieve to how bad he felt. He sat up and turned to Liv who had just drained her wine glass. "Wanna go to bed?"

"Sure…" she replied.

"Maybe we can just lay together and do something mind-numbing like look up some real estate?" He suggested.

She smiled softly at him. "Sounds good, let's do that…"

/

"Totally fine, looking forward to meeting your new daughter ;) ;)" Amanda teased Olivia by text.

She rolled her eyes and smiled at her phone before locking it. "Okay sweetheart, are you ready to go?," she asked Noah, putting the phone in to the pocket of her active pants.

"Yeah, bye Ava! I hope you feel better today," he grabbed his bag and glanced up at the older girl who he adored to bits.

"Are you kidding? You're not even gonna give me a hug? Oooh, you changed Noah Benson!," she laughed.

Noah quickly made his way back to the dining table where Ava was nibbling on some fruit. She held her arms out and hugged him tightly. "Love you, Noah, have a great day today."

"I will, I hope you have a good day with Mom," he felt a bit sad at first knowing Ava was off school but he sensed there were problems with her friends again and he knew better than to ask for a day too.

"And me?" Trevor asked, coming from his office back to the kitchen.

Noah giggled. He glanced up at his mother's boyfriend and grinned at him. He loved Trevor. At first Trevor seemed a little scary because of his height at he seemed a little stern, but he and Trevor had so much fun together in a different way to how he spent his time with his Mom and Ava.

Trevor had taken him to his favourite Trampoline place and jumped with him the whole time and then he'd taken him to the book store to find a book they could read together. It was a special day for him and it made him love Trevor so much. "Sorry, Trev!"

"I thought you forgot about me!" Trevor exclaimed. Noah ran at him and Trevor laughed catching him in his arms and lifting him up for a hug. He wrapped his arms around the tiny 9 year old and hugged him tightly for a moment. He kissed his cheek and set him down.

"I would never forget you, Trev!"

"Glad to hear it," Trevor replied. "Love you kiddo, you have a great day and I'm gonna get you from school today because we have something important we have to do — just us boys!"

Noah looked Ava and his Mom for her confirmation. "For real?," he asked with a little smile.

Olivia smiled back at him, "If that's what Trevor says, then that's what is happening…" she shrugged, playing off as it if it were the first time she'd ever heard it. "You know, I'm not always the one who makes the decisions," she told her son, "Trevor makes decisions too and his decisions sometimes get made without telling me and you don't have to ask me for permission, you can ask Trevor the same things you ask me."

"Oh…" Noah was a little confused but never-the-less shrugged. "Okay, bye Trevor!"

"Bye kiddo," Trevor grinned at Liv as he made his way to her and kissed her lips. "See you soon."

Olivia walked past Ava and took her shoulders, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "Can you do me a favour and get ready as soon as you're done picking at your food?," she asked her, "I'm taking you out with me this morning."

"Okay," Ava replied nonchalantly. "Where to?"

"Just to do a couple of things while Dad has some meetings," Liv replied. She waved to the pair she was leaving behind and opened the door making sure Noah had everything before they stepped out.

/

"Babe, remember last night when we were talking before you went to sleep?" Olivia reminded her son as they walked to school hand-in-hand.

"Yeah, about my book?," he wondered.

"No, about moving in together. How do you think you might feel about that?," she wondered.

Noah smiled up at his Mom. "Would we move to Trevor's house or our place? Because I like our place because all of my things are there."

Olivia smiled. "I know, well… I was thinking that the four of us get a whole new place and we take all of your things and all of my things and Trevor's and Ava's things and we put them in a new place and that way its fair to everyone. Its not your place it's not Ava's place — it's everyones. Does that make sense?"

Noah thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, would I get a bigger room than the one I have at Trevor's?," he wondered.

"We'll try. We'll try to get you a room as big as the one you have now. But I want to know how you feel, if you have anything you're worried about or if maybe there's a part of you that doesn't want to live with them."

"No," Noah said, "I like it sometimes better when you're at work and Trevor and Ava look after me instead of Lucy," he shrugged, "I love Lucy and I like it when I see her, but it's just different."

"I know," she smiled. "But Lucy is like family too and I think she'll help out a lot still because Trevor might become busier, we don't know…"

"So what if I told you that soon we might move in with Trevor and Ava, how would that make you feel?," she pushed, wanting a direct response from her son.

"I would feel really happy," he replied, "would you be happy?," he asked.

Olivia smiled back at her son and gave his hand a squeeze. "I would be so happy… but there will be some changes and some things that you might not be prepared for and we will have to work them out as we go and be patient with each other."

"Okay," Noah said simply as they walked in to his school.

/

"Hey…" Trevor began, sitting down at the table with his daughter. He reached for Noah''s half eaten egg and toast and put it in front of himself. Ava made a face.

"Dad that's gonna be cold."

Trevor shrugged and picked up the fork. "Its fine," he replied. "So I wanted to tell you something…"

She stared at her Dad and put her fork down. She wasn't hungry anyway.

"Last night when you guys went to bed Olivia and I-"

"Gave each other more love bites?" She couldn't help but to interject.

Trevor stared at her, his mouth hung open for a second before he closed it and tried not to let a smirk cross his mouth. His daughter was impossible. It wasn't funny that she had picked up on it, he never wanted her to think of him that way, but he was always impressed by her bluntness and her ability to take no shame in calling him out.

"Ava-"

"Dad, giving love bites to your girlfriend is gross, even at 14 I know that…"

"Look," he felt his cheeks turning red, humbled by his own teen. "It was an accident and I don't want to be discussing this with you."

"Oh yeah, I can see how bruising someone with your mouth could be just a misunderstanding," she loved watching him go red. She was laughing, "Oops sorry, Liv, my mouth fell on you and I had to keep sucking at your skin like a vampire or an Altoid; my mistake, I thought it was a cough drop."

Even Trevor began to laugh with awkwardness. "Okay, okay!" He held up his hands, "I'm sorry, its gross and I didn't mean to make you feel any type of way about it. It won't happen again."

Ava laughed, "Dad, its okay," she said with a shrug, "I don't care. I mean, it's kind of gross and I don't want to think about it, but you guys are in love and I love that."

He smiled finally at her. "Can I tell you what I was going to tell you now without you cutting in with your smart mouth because I really feel like you might like what I'm going to say."

"Okay, sorry," she replied.

"Olivia and I looked at some real estate last night."

She stared at her father for a moment, his words slowly setting in. "Seriously? Does this mean….we're moving in together?"

Trevor was stifling a smile but let it spread across his mouth, happy with his daughter's momentary shock. "Yes honey, but wait— don't get too excited just yet."

"Why?," she asked, "that's so exciting! I can't wait! When are we gonna move? Get me some boxes! I'll pack today! I'll even help you pack!"

Trevor couldn't help but to laugh. "Okay, okay, but wait…" he said quickly, "listen to me, okay because this is important."

Ava folded her arms and tried to remain serious but Trevor could see the happiness all over her face. He smiled at her, "aww, look at you, I'm happy to see you smiling, sweetheart," he couldn't help but to remark, reaching over to smooth her face. "I'm glad you're happy."

She smiled for a moment back at him and as if suddenly overwhelmed, he noticed her face turning red, she let out a little sob and tears started streaming down her face.

"Whoa, Ava!" Trevor jumped up from his chair and came to his daughter's side, the short distance, "honey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" He leaned over her and pulled her close to him. He considered that perhaps she was just being brave and that maybe she wasn't entirely happy with the way things were progressing between him and Olivia.

"I'm okay," she said quickly, wiping her eyes. "I promise, Dad, I'm okay."

"Why are you crying? We don't have to move in, honey, this is a decision you and I have to make together, I'm not making it on my own."

"No, I want us to move in with Liv and Noah," she sniffed.

He slowly let go of her and looked at her with a frown. He grabbed his chair and moved closer to her. "Ava, please tell me what's wrong, it breaks my heart to see you cry."

"I'm happy, that's why I'm crying," she told him, her cheeks reddening, she managed a laugh, feeling stupid.

"Oh, honey…You are so sweet…" Trevor hid a smile. "I didn't realise you felt this strongly about it."

"I feel embarrassed to tell you this Dad, but…" she started but paused, trying to figure out if she should share her feelings.

"You can tell me anything, honey, it's okay…" he prompted her.

"I always wanted to have a Mom or someone that I could talk to, who would tell me she loved me and who treats me like I matter…"

"Everyone should get to have a Mom like that, sweetie and I'm so sorry that that wasn't your experience," he murmured.

"I know Sarah wasn't the worst Mom and I know that she did her best and gave as much as she could to me and I thought that as I got older she might… like me more or connect with me more… but…" she shrugged, "I guess I've always felt like I'm an inconvenience to her."

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I wish I knew you felt like that, I would have brought you to live with me and it would have been different. But I want you to know how much Mom loved you, she really does, she's just been through a lot herself and I'm not saying that to excuse her, but we're all a bit of a product of how we were brought up."

Ava shrugged and wiped her eyes. "You were so busy with work and I remember you and Mom fighting every time you picked me up and dropped me off — always Mom wanting money for something." She paused, "I know Liv had a really hard time growing up and she doesn't act like Mom and Mom always told me you don't have such a perfect past… but you don't treat me badly because of it."

Nothing got past Ava, not even when she was younger, he ignored the shitty part of Sarah speaking out of turn, probably alluding that Trevor had done some shady things. He focused on the subject of their conversation though, "You feel like with Liv, you have someone to lean on, like a mother figure?" he suggested.

She nodded, "I know I'm probably not supposed to admit that."

"You're allowed to feel whatever way you want to feel, sweetheart. You know, I think Liv is very careful to draw boundaries and to make sure she isn't overstepping in to a place that she shouldn't be out of respect to your Mom…"

"I know that, but one day I hope it'll feel like she's really my Mom… I know that will take time but right now I'm really happy for us to move in together because I love our little family… I don't care what you guys say, I will tell everyone that Noah is my little brother."

Trevor smiled. "You already do…"

She giggled.

"I just like that Olivia cares about me and she talks to me like she cares about how I feel and my opinions and feelings… And I can ask her questions I could never have asked Mom."

"Like what?" Trevor asked curiously. "Is it stuff you could ask me?"

"Not really," she shrugged, "girl stuff… I couldn't have called Mom when that thing happened at school and I needed Olivia to come and get me… I wouldn't have known what to say and it would have felt so awkward."

"When you got your period?," he asked, trying to remove any awkwardness between them for the things that he needed her to understand was just a fact of life. If he wasn't embarrassed then he hoped she wouldn't be embarrassed.

"Yeah…" her voice trailed off.

"I'm sorry, sweetie, that you didn't feel like you had that support in your Mom," he apologised.

Ava shrugged. "I had all my happy times with you on weekends and on the special occasions," she smiled, "like…" she thought, "remember when you took me to see Taylor Swift when I was 9?"

"Oh jeez," he rolled his eyes with a laugh, "how could I forget? But rain, hail and shine, kid, I was gonna get you to the front of that hell fire of screaming teenage girls."

"Yeah but you made it the best and you didn't complain even though I know in hindsight you had to have hated it!" Ava told him with a smile. Trevor laughed because she was right, it was an awful experience but he would have happily endured it again for her, "I went to school the next day and the kids treated me like I was the celebrity with all the cool photos you took for me," she smiled at him. "You're the best Dad, I hope you know that."

"Thanks honey, I try to be a good Dad, I know I can be hard on you, but it's just because I love you and I want you to have high standards in life."

"I know and I don't think you're that hard on me, I don't feel like you're super strict or anything. I know when I was friends with Rhiannon and the other girls, they were allowed to do what they wanted and I remember thinking that their parents mustn't have cared as much as you did."

Trevor smiled, glad that his daughter didn't mind some of his old fashioned ways.

The front door opened, disrupting their conversation. Olivia had arrived home and found Ava still in the same spot she'd left her when taking Noah to school. At first she was frustrated, but realised she and Trevor were having a serious conversation.

"Hi baby," Trevor greeted her. "Noah get off to school okay?"

"Yeah," she smiled. She put her handbag down and lingered behind him, wrapping her arms around him, kissing his cheek. "Am I interrupting?"

"No," Ava smiled, "I was just telling Dad that he's the best Dad."

Olivia smiled, "He's a pretty good Dad, I think you're both very lucky to have one another," she remarked.

Trevor smiled at his daughter. "I was just telling Ava how we looked at some places online last night…"

"Oh yeah?" Liv smiled, "And… how do you feel about that?"

"Super excited," Ava grinned at Olivia. "I really can't wait."

"Good, because I just talked to Noah on the way to school and he was as excited as you seem to be… so I guess Dad and I keep looking at real estate until we find something perfect for us all."

Ava pushed her chair back, grinning to herself as she took her plate to the sink. She caught a look of recognition between her Dad and Olivia. "Okay, I'm going upstairs to get changed, you think you can get ready in record time?"

"I can be quick. Where are we going?"

"We're going to do some boring tasks and then I'm taking you to brunch with one my detective friends, Amanda."

"Oooh," Ava smiled. "Okay, I promise I won't take long."

She made her way to her Dad and held open her arms. He smiled and hugged her. "I love you, princess, you make me so proud and so happy every day."

"I love you too, super Dad!" She kissed him on the cheek.

/

Olivia sometimes couldn't believe how much of a soft-heart Ava was. They walked along on the sidewalk sharing one of Liv's air pods each. "Liv, this is a good song, you have good taste in music," she told her.

"Yeah? You think?" Liv smiled, feeling Ava grab her hand and lean in to her.

"Yeah, I like it…"

"What about you? What kind of music do you like?," she wondered.

"I like songs where I can listen to the lyrics and I can feel them," she replied to Olivia with a half-shrug. "At the moment I feel pretty angry sometimes if I am on my own too much so I listen to songs that are angry…"

"I relate to that," Olivia nodded with understanding, "maybe we could do something fun and share our favourite songs with each other."

"Oh yeahhhh!" Ava exclaimed, "like, just make a playlist for each other?," she wondered, "and then I can send it to you?"

"Yeah we could do that," Olivia replied. "Remind me and we can do it tonight if you want… do you have some good headphones?," she wondered.

"Just my AirPods…"

"No, I mean like really good, over ear-type headphones. Because if not, we'll go get you a pair."

"No it's okay, my AirPods are fine," Ava shrugged.

"You know, sometimes I want to do something nice for you and it's okay for you to say, 'awesome, Liv, that'd be great, thanks!'" She told the young girl. Ava laughed.

"I just don't want Dad to get mad… and I feel bad for you spending your money on me."

"What did I tell Noah this morning? Sometimes your Dad is the boss and sometimes I'm the boss. Sometimes you can ask me for permission for things, you can even ask me if you needed money for something, babe, when we move in its all gonna be fair like that. Dad and I are gonna be parenting you guys together…"

"Okay…"

"And as for feeling bad," Olivia started, "I don't see you with a job, you don't have money unless we give it to you," she teased her, "and by right of birth your dad agreed to feed you, shelter you, clothe you and support you — and when I agreed to be with your Dad, I agreed to take on responsibilities of his child and he agreed to take on responsibilities with my child."

"Okay Liv, thanks for doing something nice for me," she said seriously.

"That's my girl… come on, this way," she nodded down a little side-street. "There's a cafe in here we're going in to, I hope you're hungry because they have the most amazing pastries."

"I'm hungry now." Ava replied with a laugh.