Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story


- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:

Okay, here's another one.  Have a good weekend.




Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


Eve walked in the front door, glad to finally be home. Her day at the office had been out of this world. Taking off her coat and slipping off her shoes, she hurried over to the sofa to rest before she started dinner. She laid her head back on the sofa then instantly sat up. Where was Endora? Where was her Angelpie? Every evening since she went back to work Angelpie would greet her at the door with her Mommy and Timmy dolls. Looking around the room, she noticed the dining room table was set for two with flickering candles. She also noticed the dim lighting. Crap, TC had planned a night of seduction. The last thing she wanted or needed tonight.

 

"Good evening, honey," TC greeted her, walking over to the sofa and handing her a glass of wine.

 

"Thank you. Good evening to you, too. Where are the girls?" she asked, no use in delaying the inevitable fight.

 

"Sugar Bear and Jessie-pie are working on a school project. Whit is with Resa. And Kay offered to watch Endora."

 

"Did she offer or did you ask?"

 

TC shrugged. "I don't remember. It's not important. What is important is us spending some time alone."

 

Eve sighed. He just didn't get it.

 

"Okay, what's wrong?"

 

She thought about lying, but why bother- -her frustration wasn't going to dissipate any time soon. "What's wrong is that you don't get it. How can you send Endora to spend the night with Kay when she is not completely bonded to us?"

 

"Oh, please, she's been here for over three months and I'm sick of walking around on egg shells around her. You say treat her like she's one of our daughters, well, when Whit and Sim were three- months-old we had spent a night away from them and the world didn't end and it won't end for her," TC spat, getting up from the sofa and slamming his wine glass on the table.

 

"They hadn't just lost their mother- -"

 

"How long is that going to be used as an excuse to allow that child's out of control behavior?"

 

"She's not that child. Her name is Endora. And I'm sorry her grieving for the loss of her mother and home is an inconvenience to you and your life."

 

Realizing how insensitive he sounded, TC quickly tried to make amends. "I didn't mean it that way. I'm just frustrated. She hates me. We never spend any time together. Between Whitney, Simone, the hospital, and now Endora, I never see you. When was the last time we were alone together? When was the last time we laid in bed together and held each other? This isn't about sex, though that would be really nice, but I just miss my wife."

 

She could see TC was being sincere, but how could he be so insensitive to a baby's needs? Hearing the stories over the years from Sam and himself, she knew it had taken TC years to properly deal with his dad's untimely death, yet he expected Endora to just get over Tabitha and her grief within a month or two. But pointing this out to TC would do nothing but fan the flames further and she didn't want that, not tonight. All she had wanted since lunch time was to order some pizza and veg on the couch with Angelpie in her arms and her pookies next to her. But obviously that wasn't going to happen tonight. "TC, I'm- -" no she wasn't going to apologize to him. "I know it's been a tough adjustment for you, the girls, me, and Endora. None of us could have expected our lives to turn out like this. I was looking forward to having you to myself again in two years when Simone went off to college and now we have another fifteen-and-a-half years before we'll be alone. I wasn't sure how I would feel with a baby in our home again, but I love it. I've missed having little arms wrap around me and butterfly kisses. I've been thinking maybe Endora deserves to have a sibling running around here her own age."

 

A big grin spread across TC's face. Now she was talking. Maybe a new baby would help Endora be less high maintenance and if they didn't succeed in making one then they could have a lot of fun trying. "I'm all for that," TC agreed, moving back towards his wife with a glint in his eye.

 

"No, TC, not like that. That particular train has left the station. I meant adopting a little brother or sister."

 

TC froze. She was back to the adoption thing again. He thought he had tabled this discussion after her failure to get pregnant after Simone was born. He couldn't raise another man's child. And he wasn't going to apologize for that fact. The only reason he had allowed Endora to move in with them was because she had no place else to go because if she had a father TC would have made sure that man came and got his daughter. "Eve, you know how I feel about this."

 

"I know, but that was then and this is now. Almost two decades have passed since we discussed this last."

 

TC shook his head as he walked to the table and blew out the candles. His evening of seduction and love making had officially been killed. He wondered if Sam was still at the station; maybe he could go hang out there with him for a while. "Time may have passed, but I'm still the same guy. And I don't want to raise someone else's child. If it's not a little TC or Eve, I don't want to have any part of the kid. Sorry Eve, but that's not going to change."

 

Eve felt the tears well up in her eyes; she fought hard to keep them back. He couldn't mean what he was saying. She prayed to God not. What would this mean for her son? Her son with Julian of all people. No. No. She had to try again make him see reason. "What if I had a child before we got together?"

 

TC laughed. Eve, his proper, rule abiding wife, having a child out of wedlock, what a joke.

 

"It's not- - it wasn't beyond the realm of possibilities, TC," she said, angrily.

 

"Honey, I'm not trying to upset you. I didn't mean to laugh, but the idea of you, Miss "I can't make an illegal u-turn" having an illegitimate child is funny. You have to admit that."

 

Now she really wanted to cry. That's how her husband saw her. A woman who followed the rules, made sure every "i" was dotted and every "t" was crossed. She had done such a good job lying and distancing herself from her past, the man she loved and trusted most in the world got the biggest kick out of imagining her as she really had been. Damn. Julian was right. Finding her son could quite possibly cost her her second family. She couldn't let that happen. "Say I did have a son, would you have still married me?"

 

Seeing this was for some reason important to her, TC answered honestly. "I don't know. I would like to think I would have, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure I would have even dated you if you had had a kid."

 

There was the blinding truth. "Why? Are you saying no man will marry Kay or Resa?"

 

"No, I'm not saying that. Out there are some great men and I know my girls will find them. But it's hard as a man, day in and day out, to look at and raise living proof of the other man your wife had slept with."

 

"But it was in the past?"

 

TC shrugged. "I know, but the kid would be evidence that your woman had a sex life before you."

 

"But it's okay for the man to have one? I would have dated you if you had a kid."

 

"That's why you women are so great. You're much more compassionate, loving, forgiving. Men aren't. That's why we're from Venus and you're from Mars. Or is it the other way around?"

 

Staring at the man she had been married to for so long she didn't know what to say. But in her heart, she knew her days of being married were numbered. And strangely enough it didn't break her heart the way it would have had Julian not come back into her life.












Enter the security code shown below:
Note: You may submit either a rating or a review or both.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.