Thank you to everyone who read or reviewed the last chapter. You are all absolutely lovely.

I say this chapter is about 40% new material, but it's been integrated into the new material throughout. I also removed at least 10% of the old chapter. A lot of stuff just didn't need to be there.

Chapter 14: The Tabloids Are Going to Love This

After being woken up by the London legal team a little after 2:00 AM this morning her time and a very long conversation with her middle child about appropriate interview decorum, there was no point in Claire even attempting to go back to sleep. She would have to get up in less than an hour to get ready to pick up Tyler with Matt and Amanda anyway.

Tyler was coming home for good after his extensive stay in rehab after the Wilhelmina incident. That alone would make Claire happy except he didn't want to stay with her. Their relationship was still tenuous at best due to her lying about his father. Tyler would be staying with Matt in his tiny apartment in Chelsea until his Aunt Brianna returned from wherever the hell she was hiding.

The Brianna situation involving Claire's possible new grandchild was another thing, causing Claire to lose sleep. The recluse designer has been incommunicado for almost a week except for a few e-mails to Tyler. Claire really didn't know where to start with that situation. Claire has always been suspicious of the relationship between Alexis and Brianna. But the two would always argue otherwise. She knew better now.

After getting dressed and pouring herself a much needed cup of coffee, she called Monique to discuss the Daniel situation. After the wonderful job Monique did on the Wilhelmina shooting incident, she knew the Mode EIC would be the one most qualified to fix this.

Monique was not surprised at all by her early morning phone call. The new EIC was up most of the night dealing with a teenager who kept throwing up and some crisis in DC that she didn't want to talk about. Therefore Monique was already conscious when her former assistant Candy sent her the information pack containing an unedited version of the entire interview. Monique was already well briefed on the situation before Claire said a word. What did shock Claire was the Mode EIC's reaction or rather her lack of reaction.

"Honestly, something like this was bound to happen." Monique said nonchalantly before continuing. "In less than a week, it will be one year since Molly died. Even though he is with Betty, I know this is going to be a difficult time for Daniel. Anniversaries are always hard. You know this from personal experience. I was expecting something much worse than punching the British dick. I actually slept with Alex, someone who is not your daughter, during my one-year anniversary breakdown. Then, a few weeks later at fashion week I got arrested for punching Wilhelmina." Monique confessed.

"That's one of the best things on your resume. I suggested that Bradford offer you a job for that reason alone." Claire said with a laugh.

"My mother didn't see it that way when she had to bail me out of jail with Molly. This is manageable. After watching the nasty things that guy said about Betty and Molly, I wanted to punch him." She could see that the editor did have a point. Claire remembered pushing Wilhelmina into Bradford's grave at his funeral.

"I had hoped Daniel had moved on from such violent outbursts. I thought we were through with this sort of thing after the incident with the Community of the Phoenix last year. We should all be happy that Matt didn't press charges after that particular indiscretion at the U.N. That had the potential to be worse than the Airport incident." Claire mumbled under her breath remembering the incident at LaGuardia when Daniel returned from Tibet and the thing that managed to get Meade publishing banned from the U.N. for life. She was still trying to smooth things over with the TSA and the U.N. because of Daniel's actions from last year.

"The U.N. incident is still causing problems almost a year later. That thing almost prevented us from getting to use the Ben Franklin room at the State Department next week because it was the talk of UNGA 2009. I had to promise that Daniel would be nowhere near DC and I had to bring up the fact that we had video footage of a certain counselor affairs officer doing inappropriate things with Daniel on a copy machine. I heard that person's next assignment is somewhere in Iraq." Monique actually laughed as she said this last part. Claire was just happy that Monique was working with her and not against her.

"I assumed now that Daniel was with Betty and living in London on his own, I wouldn't have to be constantly cleaning up his messes." She said voicing her inner thoughts aloud.

"You're not. Daniel punched the idiot out on British television and Daniel with the rest of the London team will handle the fallout. I have a sick child, a wedding that is starting to fall apart, finalizing my ownership of Meade, and three photo shoots to deal with in the next 10 days. I do not have time to baby sit someone who doesn't need a babysitter and neither do you. I have full faith that Daniel can deal with this himself. You need to focus on Tyler today. Daniel is a grown up now." Monique's words did not comfort her.

"Yes a grownup who hit someone on national television." Claire voiced her doubts.

"On the bright side Daniel did punch someone, who according to twitter, 'deserved to get his ass kicked'. Daniel went to London to be his own person. He went there to find out if he could run Mode UK without you, Wilhelmina, or Betty holding his hand. It's time to let go." Claire would mention something about Monique's constant coddling of Amanda but chose not to for the sake of civility and not being labeled a hypocrite.

"I seriously doubt that Wilhelmina did any handholding. She took every opportunity to sabotage Daniel." Claire said with a snide and bitter laugh.

"Wilhelmina would not have even bothered to sabotage Daniel if he was not a threat. Damien was so under qualified for his job; I did not need to do anything to make him look bad. He did it all on his own. Wilhelmina had to deliberately try to make Daniel look like a fool. Daniel has real potential and I believe he can do good things in London without you and I coming to the rescue. Daniel needs to deal with this on his own. If things get bad, we intervene but according to Candy, things are under control. When you called Daniel to cuss out your baby boy they were already discussing how to fix it."

She knew nothing about that. She was too busy actually yelling at Daniel to find out how he was going to make the situation go away. She did not even know the entire story until she watched the video clip that Candy sent her. She felt foolish as she watched the entire thing.

"He is my son. I'm going to worry." She said stating the obvious.

"Trust me I get it. I just spent the entire night with my 15-year-old even though I had to get up way too early this morning for a business meeting with my favorite fashion vampire. Just focus on Tyler right now. If there's anything that develops because of the London situation that will affect U.S. interests I'll take care of it, otherwise let's just let London deal with it." Monique said reassuring her.

"You're right." Claire acquiesced. Monique's argument was too valid to completely ignore.

"Speaking of possible family issues that could cause a major scandal, Brianna contacted me yesterday." Monique's voice became very quiet as she spoke.

"She called you?" Claire asked.

"She emailed me. There's less chance of an argument breaking out via e-mail. She says she's in France, supposedly. She's planning on telling me the entire story when she gets back to the states." Claire could hear the obvious skepticism as she spoke.

"You don't believe her?" Claire asked.

"Not when there's footage of her leaving one of the best hospitals in New York with Alexis Wednesday afternoon." Again, she could hear anger in Monique's words.

"That's not unusual." Claire said, not understanding what she was hearing from Monique.

"Sorry, let me clarify. Brianna West-Hartley was seen leaving a Manhattan Hospital Wednesday with your daughter Alexis. Did you even know she was in New York? Suzuki e-mailed me those fabulous images last night. He wanted to get a quote from me confirming his story because Brianna is an old friend and his wife made him check with me first. The images and story will hit the Suzuki report website around noon because that's as much time Byron was willing to give." Monique said with an irritated sigh.

"Alexis would not come to New York without seeing me. Are you sure that it was her? Amanda's gynecologist looks exactly like my daughter." Claire asked ignoring the possible implications of another scandal.

"That's because Alexis showed her plastic surgeon a picture of Dr. Meir before the surgery." Monique remarked. "I am very sure that's your daughter in the pictures. I seriously doubt Alexis junior would be hugging the good doctor like that. I'm guessing Briana disappeared to tell Alexis what happen first."

Monique's explanation seemed perfectly logical to Claire. That would also explain why Alexis has been unavailable for the last week except for those phone calls to DJ that her grandchild ignored. That could even explain why DJ is currently hiding at his uncle's house in London.

In between yelling, Daniel was able to tell her about Alexis finally calling him last night and her coming to London tonight. If she wasn't helping Tyler get settled in, she would be on the first flight to Heathrow airport.

"Suzuki has pictures of the three of them together? Suzuki has a wife?" She asked finally realizing the press team may have something else to worry about this weekend besides the London incident. Even though Monique suggested that they stand down, she is still going to have the team prepare a statement regarding Daniel's actions this morning just in case. They already had something prepared for a possible situation involving Alexis West-Hartley.

The existence of such a picture would prove what she already knew in her heart. Alexis West-Hartley is the biological daughter of her oldest child.

"Yes, I guess Daniel never told you the truth. Suzuki is really family man and adoption advocate Brian Wu. I know all of this because Brian's wife works for my mom's charity. Let's just be happy that Byron knows that he can make more money with fake stories than the real ones. He's purposely putting out bogus information to protect Alexis Junior. If Suzuki did not have a soft spot for kids, we would all be fucked. Right now he's framing it all as the two becoming friends again." Claire exhaled in relief. She did not want to deal with another scandal right now.

"Briana and Alex's relationship was the best kept secret in Manhattan for years. I didn't know anything was going on until after we believed Alex/Alexis was dead." Monique said quietly.

"They were never really friends were they?" Claire asked already knowing the answer. She's known for years, despite all the denial.

"They were the best of friends who just happened to have sex with each other. They've been sleeping together off and on since freshman year up until the faking of the death." Claire actually dropped her phone when she heard that.

"They started their sexual relationship at 14?" Claire asked shocked. If that were true, she was personally surprised she did not become a grandmother earlier. Apparently, her oldest child did not pay attention to Bradford's safe sex lectures.

"That is what Briana told me. They were each other's first, but it was an open relationship. They kept it all a secret because Bradford hated her simply due to the fact her last name was Hartley until she broke off all ties to start her own business." Not the first time she wondered how much damage she did to all of her children because of her affair with Cal. Fortunately, the conversation was cut short by another phone call. "Claire, I have to go; Marc is calling. We're still dealing with fallout from the Nikolai thing."

"I understand." Claire said dismissively still lost in her thoughts.

30 minutes later Claire found herself being forced to slide in the backseat of Matt's baby friendly new car to pick up Tyler from rehab. They would have taken a limo but the seating arrangement made Amanda baby sick. Everything made her baby sick.

"I'm sorry you have to sit in the back Mrs. Meade. Amanda gets really nauseous when she sits in the back of the car or really any other time. Actually, she has been throwing up a lot. The doctors said its normal, despite the lack of weight gain, but I don't believe her. I am personally hoping Mandy stays unconscious until we get to the rehab center." Matt said as he pointed to Amanda who was sleeping up front clutching a bottle of ginger ale and the purse featured on page 46 of last month's issue. Claire also noticed the box of saltines and the paper bag in case of another incident in the front of the car.

"That's fine." Claire said as Matt started the car.

The ride was eerily silent after she asked a few more questions about how Amanda was handling the baby thing and the doctor's appointment Monday. She almost wished Amanda would wake up so she wouldn't have to deal with this quiet car. She even called Betty to have somebody to talk to. However, the call was very short due to the fact DJ was the one who answered and he did not want to talk to her, especially about his mother. Meaning that the distraction from the silence lasted less than five minutes.

Her relationship with Matt was complicated at best and that did not make for good conversation. What exactly could they talk about without encountering some taboo subject? There were only so many conversations you could have about work related matters, most of which were discussed when Amanda was still conscious. Even then the conversation could only last so long before, encountering an emotional landmine of sorts. Just like her own children, Matt was another victim of her affair with Cal. That cast a shadow on all of their interactions.

Tyler was an uncomfortable topic for multiple reasons. Just like Daniel, Matt was mad at her for keeping the existence of his brother from him for so long. Although unlike Daniel, Matt understood the gravity of the situation Cal put her in. Matt knows what type of person his father truly is, more than Claire ever did.

If she knew who Cal really was 30 years ago, she would have never fallen for his many lies. None of them would be in this situation, if she just said no. Matt understood why she did what she did even if there was still resentment there. Because of that, Tyler was a subject that was best avoided.

She did not want to talk about anything related to Brianna either. Claire was still getting over the fact that she had no idea how deep or long-lasting the relationship between Brianna and Alexis really was. They were together for nearly 20 years. Was she really in that deep of an alcohol haze back then? How could she miss all the signs from when they were teenagers? If she knew, she would have supported her child unconditionally.

Claire also couldn't help but wonder why her daughter Alexis and Brianna were exiting that particular New York Hospital. A DNA test could have been done anywhere. Why was her daughter photographed with the mother of her child exiting a medical facility that specializes in cardiac care? Why didn't Alexis contact her Wednesday if she was in town?

She tried to call Alexis immediately after ending her conversation with Monique but received no answer. She really wasn't that surprised. That has been the pattern for the last week. She hoped that Alexis really was on a plane to London.

Claire also did not want to talk with Matt about his cousin/niece, Alexis West-Hartley. After this morning's conversation she was 100% positive Matt's adorable cousin was her granddaughter. They already talked about that particular issue several times before this most recent information surfaced. She saw no point of bringing up the issue again.

A part of Claire understood why Brianna kept her daughters paternity a secret. She had a feeling that Cal said some of the same things to his sister that he said to her years ago. Instead of running to South Dakota, Brianna ran to France. Unlike Claire, Brianna was brave enough to raise her daughter despite the nasty articles in the tabloids and the glares of her family. Yet, Claire was still mad that Brianna never told her the truth.

Any conversations involving Cal or Victoria Hartley were to be avoided at all cost. Claire was still hurt by Cal's rejection of their son. According to Amanda; Matt was not on speaking terms with either of his parents. Both individuals trigger various unpleasant emotions and memories. It was impossible for any pleasant conversation to be based on Matt's parents unless they were bashing both. As cathartic as that may be this probably wasn't the time.

Fortunately for Claire, the silence was broken by the sound of nineties boy band vocal stylings blaring from Amanda's cell phone. A semiconscious Amanda grabbed her phone from her bag without actually opening her eyes.

"Marc, how was your night with the chubby one?" Amanda asked into the phone. She assumed chubby one referred to the photographer working with Marc to prepare for the DC shoot.

"I told you Cliff is now the chubby one and Betty is now Daniel's sexy chunky play toy." At least Claire wasn't the only one cringing in the car when Amanda said this to her best friend. Matt looked slightly disturbed.

"I'm glad he told you the truth." The truth about what? Claire thought to herself.

"Or rather you overheard. It probably worked out better than the dinner party idea. Don't panic. Daniel's lawyers are good and will work things out. You don't even have to talk to her." Why did Marc need a lawyer?

"Don't worry about Jade right now, at least until the lawyers confirm your meeting Monday. I will help you get everything together when you get back. I can even arrange for Justin's other mom to go with you, since I'm going to be busy. But right now use Cliff as a nice distraction. Maybe it's a good thing I packed your special toiletry bag. I'm kind of surprised some of the things in there were expired considering you have a boyfriend. Trouble in paradise?"

Claire actually heard Matt groan and Marc yelled through the phone that he and Cliff were just friends, and he had way too much to deal with regarding Jade before his voice returned to normal and she could no longer here the other half of the conversation. Who was Jade?

"First of all, Jody is totally a bitch and she really should've told you earlier. Second, I was planning on telling you, or rather have her tell you soon. Third, you and the chubby one are so not friends. I keep getting this 'I know you want to jump him' vibe every time you two are in a room together. I used to find it disturbing but now that I'm not alone anymore, I'm okay with you tickling his ginger, especially because he went to bat for you against your baby's mama. That definitely says he still cares. Why do you think I put "provisions" in your luggage?"

Claire was trying to figure out what Amanda meant by baby's mama. With Marc that doesn't make sense unless the allegations in the Nikolai letters were true. No wonder Monique switched over to Marc this morning. "Your argument is ridiculous. You don't love Trevor otherwise you would actually remember his name is Troy." Claire couldn't help but laugh at that.

"I don't think it counts as cheating if you can't remember your significant others name." Amanda said with a laugh.

"Bradford said the same thing, but it was the other way around." Claire mumbled under her breath.

"Plus he would be an awful step daddy for baby Jay. You're a father now. That means your daughter comes first. Yes, it happened because you slept with Jody to get a job but hey at least you saved a ton on in vitro and adoption." God, it was true. At least this one will only be making the rounds of the Mode rumor mill, as long as nobody knew that Marc slept with a woman just to get a job. Thankfully, Wilhelmina's ovaries were too shriveled for her to be the mother.

Claire wished she could hear Marc's part of the conversation because she was becoming more confused as the conversation continued. Then again she wasn't sure that would help. She loves Amanda like a daughter, but sometimes Claire wondered exactly how much coke Faye did during her pregnancy. At least she was able to actually stay sober for her pregnancy with Tyler. She knew for a fact that Faye could not do the same.

"Wait there's video footage of Daniel groping Betty in public on the web? What web site?" Amanda said just before pulling up the actual footage of Daniel and Betty doing very inappropriate things in a London alleyway. Oh she doesn't have the energy for this.

Yes, they were only kissing, but it was one of those kisses where it looked like they were only minutes from ripping each other's clothes off. If things kept up like that she would be getting a new grandchild very soon. At that moment, Matt was trying very hard to pay attention to the road instead of the fuzzy audio of the 'love sounds' coming from the two oblivious lovebirds. Amanda was too lost in a conversation about Daniel's kissing technique to notice Matt's extreme discomfort.

"Daniel did what? Why, am I not surprised? Send me the URL." Claire was positive Amanda and Marc were talking about the London Morning incident before Amanda pulled up the clip of her son punching someone out on British television.

"I got to show Matt the whole thing when he's not driving. This is funnier than when he punched my now boyfriend last year at the U.N. Why did we not post that? Daniel is so in love with his little churro. Who sent that to you?" Amanda asked, but unfortunately Claire could not hear Marc's response. She assumes Monique or the lawyers. Marc was now creative director at Mode. He would be on the list of people that the lawyers would call during a crisis.

"You got to love Google alerts. Good thing, Megan was the one responsible for telling everybody about the coin toss thing. You kind of owe Daniel for getting you the good lawyers. You've already had to teleconferences in less than 24 hours and they almost have your first visitation set up." Amanda explained before pausing to desperately look for her ginger ale.

"Matt can we pull over I think I am going to throw up again." Amanda said before proceeding to ruin the interior of Matt's new car along with Amanda's new $2000 bag because Amanda didn't grab the 'baby sick' bag on the floor in time.

After finding a car wash in the middle of nowhere and losing an hour to clean the car, they continued on to get Tyler. She was actually surprised they only lost an hour.

She was sure that Tyler was much happier to see his brother and Amanda than her. Although he hugged her, she felt the stiffness in his arms. She couldn't help but notice his angry gaze as he pulled away.

The car ride back was less silent but that was only because Amanda and Tyler chatted the entire time on everything from Monday's doctor's appointment to her trying to build her relationship with her biological father. (Although discussion about her new creative director's adventures in fatherhood were not discussed. Which was a pity because Claire really would like to know more about what happened.)

Amanda was unhappy that Spencer was not ready to acknowledge her publicly due to Victoria Hartley's interference. It hurt her to hear Tyler sympathize with Amanda. Claire realized she was doing the exact same thing. No one knew that Tyler was her son. Although Cal's involvement cannot be mentioned for various reasons, including Matt's power play weeks ago, she could still come clean herself. It's apparent that Claire owes Suzuki a favor for purposely misdirecting the press, regarding Alexis Junior.

The other reason why the ride home was significantly less quiet, was she was pulled into an emergency teleconference with Marc and Monique. Claire did not get to ask him about his daughter because they had another Nikolai induced crisis is to contend with. The two day photo shoot at the Department of State was cut back to just one day and their interview with Secretary Clinton about being the mother of the bride was canceled. Monique was blaming Isabella and surprisingly enough Lindsey publishing the entire time. Being upset about Isabella using Intel from a disgruntled former employee Claire could understand but not about her angry rant against Lindsey publishing. She must be missing something.

It seems that Isabella will be shooting at the State Department the day before Mode and most likely now had the exclusive with Clinton about Chelsea's wedding. Monique alternated between cursing Nikolai, Isabella and her own father for what happened. Apparently her father used to be friends with the former president. According to Monique's sister, Mercedes, there was a 'falling out' recently.

"I can salvage this. We still have the interviews and other things needed for the piece about illegal wildlife trafficking and poaching. That's the only reason why superstar actor and conservationist Andre da Vinci even agreed to be on the cover of the August fashion cares issue." Marc said trying to prevent a meltdown.

"You really don't need to be dealing with this on top of the Jade thing. This is a fucking disaster. We only reason we still have the da Vinci photo shoot is because Nikolai knew nothing about it. I'm positive our little defector completely fucked us over, if my father's antics did not. Like we need any more drama. Great, the fashion vampire was right." Monique said screaming. Claire had a funny feeling she was talking about Wilhelmina.

"I fucking despise that bastard." She heard Marc mumble though she could still hear him. It made her wonder exactly what Nikolai did to him. Marc rarely employed expletives at work.

"Well, considering he told the entire magazine about Jade, you have every right to hate him. You don't bring kids into this. This is war." Monique declared angrily. "I have some friends at the Smithsonian and I will see if we can arrange for something new on short notice. It looks like you and Cliff will be doing the tourist thing scouting for new locations tomorrow. Will you have time or do you need to meet with the lawyers?"

"I'm still too upset to even talk to Jade's mom right now. The lawyers are handling everything and they can do that without me. I can use the distraction anyway." Marc explained.

"As I witnessed in regards to my sister's divorce, it is always best to discuss custody arrangements when you can actually be in the room with the other person without trying to strangle them." Claire agreed with that advice. "Claire, if you know anyone in the DC government that could help facilitate some permits that would be good. E-mail everything to my temporary assistant L'Amanda." Monique said before opening the call at other options.

If it wasn't for da Vinci, Claire was almost ready to cancel the State Department shoot completely because Isabella was doing the exact same thing. Then she was emailed footage of the Marshall Wing entrance from one of Monique's contacts. The architecture of the historical building was brilliant. Let Isabella have the Ben Franklin room she had a better idea. At least working on the crisis gave her something to focus on other than the fact her youngest child hated her.

The uncomfortable ride to the city also involved three stops to allow Amanda to throw up, as well as an equally uncomfortable lunch at one of the better restaurants in town where discretion was just as important as the food. She realized as a no longer nauseous Amanda tried to eat half the menu that Matt was just as uncomfortable with the situation as she was.

Matt loved his Aunt Brianna, usually. When things were falling apart and his parents completely ignored him she was the only one really there for him. He knew she was the one to trust when he found out that he was going to be a father. He also knew that his Aunt Brianna was the one to turn to when he found out he was no longer an only child due to his father's lack of respect for the institution of marriage and his ability to use a condom correctly.

At the same time, his aunt was 'flaky'. She was known to disappear without notice or lock herself in her design studio for weeks at a time when inspiration struck. There was a reason why she was the only one who didn't judge Matt for his constant career changes. She has been more reliable since Alexis was born but honestly, Matt wasn't that shocked she supposedly took off for Europe without telling anyone just so she can avoid questions about baby Lexis's paternity. This was just who his aunt was.

He wasn't very surprised that 20 minutes ago he received a text message from his father asking what the hell his aunt was doing in Cleveland except for the fact that his father actually contacted him. (Even the Cleveland part did not throw him. Baby Lexis's godmother did consider the city home base because her mom was there and his aunt did go to see her all the time). He has received a lot of these messages over the years whenever Brianna went off the deep end. He's pretty sure his aunt has received the same type of messages from his mother in regards to his own actions.

Matt was so annoyed that he actually responded with "I don't know but I'm too busy having lunch with the child you wanted Claire to kill to find out." Matt did not receive any more messages from dear old dad after that.

The fact that he was with Tyler was the real reason why he was upset with his aunt. Because of her last minute trip to Europe to most likely tell Alexis Senior that she is the other mother/biological father of Alexis Junior, Matt was stuck dealing with the Tyler situation. In this case, it meant picking up his half-brother up from rehab with Claire and having Tyler sleep on his couch until Aunt Brianna decides to return to New York.

According to a phone call received from Monique last night giving him permission to be off today, that would probably be next week sometime but then again she completely lied about being in Paris. During this phone call Monique also e-mailed him pictures of the happy family leaving one of the best cardiology centers in Manhattan. Again, knowing his aunt the way that he did, he is not that surprised.

Matt also blamed his girlfriend for his predicament (and he was already annoyed at her for not telling him that his former yeti instructor really did get impregnated by Marc.) A couple of days ago during one of their regular phone calls, Tyler mentioned how uncomfortable he was with staying with Claire until Brianna got back from her urgent 'business trip'. Amanda was the one who suggested that Tyler stay with him, without even consulting him. Matt didn't want Tyler there, but he didn't want to turn his brother away either.

"I just want to let you know that the apartment really isn't that big. I am actually subletting it from a friend because I sold my loft when I was doing volunteer work in Africa." Matt said as he circled the block looking for a parking space.

The thing he hated the most about his current apartment was the lack of parking. He decided to spare Tyler all the details about why he was currently subletting an apartment from his ex-girlfriend so he could live by his current girlfriend because she was still mad at him for not trusting her. As soon as Amanda was okay with the idea, he was finding a nice four-bedroom apartment with underground parking. Also with Marc's adventures into fatherhood, Matt wonders if Amanda is even less inclined to move in with him than before. He knows that she's going to want to be there for her friend.

"That's fine. I've lived in worse. As long as you have a comfortable couch, I will be happy." He noticed a very sad look on Claire's face as Tyler said this.

"Tyler, the offer still stands if you want to stay at my house until Brianna gets back. I have plenty of room." Claire said from beside Tyler in the back.

"It's fine, Claire." Matt could see that Claire was unhappy that her own son was referring to her by her first name.

"Mrs. Meade, it's fine. It will give the two of them time to do the sibling bonding thing." Amanda interjected. "Matt is Tyler's only brother that's still living in the states. In addition, Matt's apartment is alcohol free because no one trusts me around anything alcoholic." Amanda actually sounded annoyed with that.

"I don't know why everybody stresses about me being around alcohol. I'm not going to do anything that stupid. Oh wait, that reminds me I forgot to show Tyler the footage of big Brother Daniel punching out some asshole British Matt Lauer want to be this morning." His girlfriend said passing her phone back to Tyler.

"At least he's not punching me again. I think he has anger issues. Has he considered therapy?" Tyler asked after viewing the footage.

"Probably and no I don't think he's considered therapy." Matt remarked. "Don't feel bad he punched me out last year during the middle of a photo shoot." It was at that moment. Matt finally found a parking space.

"That was so not Daniel's fault. You accused him of screwing Betty." Amanda answered back.

"I thought they were dating now? Actually, I thought they were dating when I first got here. Every time I tried to talk to her, he would freak out. They just seemed too close to be just friends." Matt was too busy parking the car into the just big enough spot to respond to his brother. However, Claire and Amanda did it for him.

"Seriously, how could everybody see it but those two?" Claire mumbled under her breath.

"Betty and Daniel both knew the truth and have for a while. They were just too terrified by it to actually do anything. It took Betty moving to another country for Daniel to actually make a move." Amanda said as she unfastened her seat belt and proceeded to get out of the car.

After grabbing Tyler's one small suitcase out of the trunk, they began walking to the apartment. When they turned the block, they could see dozens of reporters waiting for them. It had to be bad when Matt is not even sure what scandal they're there to ask questions about. He really hopes it's about a yeti instructor trading sexual favors for job placements, but he doubts it. Did they find out the Tyler truth? Thankfully, their questions focused on Betty and his aunt. He was ridiculously thankful for that.

When Suzuki started asking him about his aunt's relationship with Alexis Meade, Matt finally understood his father's text message from earlier. If Amanda would have checked her e-mail in the car, she would have found a video file of baby Lexis sleeping on Alexis senior's lap and calling her mommy, taken at the Cleveland clinic yesterday. Half the reporters were trying to get him to confirm that Alexis Meade fathered Alexis West-Hartley before her gender reassignment surgery. Seriously, why couldn't this be about yeti instructors screwing students? Technically, under New York State law that can be considered sexual assault.

The other half of the reporters were trying to confirm that he ended his public relationship with Betty Suarez because she was carrying on an affair with the then married Daniel Meade. His only response to their questions was to laugh and congratulate Betty on her new relationship. He was half tempted to let them know that Daniel's deceased wife was actually responsible for setting the pair up from beyond the grave. Although, he doubted that Betty would be very happy with him if he did that.

Thankfully, Amanda was able to sneak Tyler into the apartment as the reporters turned on Ms. Meade. Once Amanda came back out the reporters focused on her and because his girlfriend loved the camera, she gave them what they wanted.

"Daniel has been a good friend to me for over five years. He is one of the greatest people I know. He was there for me when I found out that Faye Somers was my biological mother and I was there for him when Molly died. He loved Molly very much and would never have consider cheating on her. Those rumors are completely false." Now, if Amanda would have ended her speech right there things would have been great unfortunately his girlfriend was sometimes too blunt and honest for her own good.

"He was way too in denial about being in love with Betty last year for anything like that to have happen. Molly knew about his feelings for Betty but Daniel didn't. That's why Molly asked her best friend to play postmortem matchmaker for the two most oblivious people in the universe." Matt is 99% sure that at least one reporter will have a picture of him, putting his head in his hands at this point.

"Why is everybody making such a big deal about it? It's not like Betty is the first person Daniel slept with after Molly died. That was me, sort of. But don't worry, it was just sex." God, oh God, why did she have to say that?

At that point, both he and Claire were literally pulling Amanda into the building to keep her from saying anything else. Before they were even up to their floor, Claire was on a conference call with the press department and Monique. No one was brave enough to actually yell at Amanda because that could trigger a pregnancy crying jag. Those needed to be avoided.

30 seconds later his phone started ringing. He tried to ignore it, but the person kept calling. Finally, he answered the phone only to hear the voice of his mother screaming at him about his supposedly loose girlfriend who probably was pregnant with someone else's child. God, this was not a good day.

To be continued