In which Kala meets the parents.
Helena had her afternoon drink in hand as she made her way out to the terrace of the Hawthorne's beachfront property in Santa Barbara. This was the best weekend she'd had in a long time. Then again, this was the first weekend she'd had in a while that wasn't completely planned out by the people at rehab, and she was going to take advantage of that while she had it. Not that she planned on going back, mind you, but she had a feeling that the job was only going to move from the hands of the doctors, to the hands of her mother. She wasn't pleased with that by any means.
For right now, though, she was enjoying the sun and sunshine, and hoping that no one too distasteful interrupted her before she was ready.
Kala sat nervously in the car, her knee bouncing, as she watched out the window. Pulling up to a large house made her stomach jump around even more.
Ben reached over and grabbed her hand gently, giving it a slight squeeze. "Relax," he sighed. "You'll be fine."
She looked over at him. "Easy for you to say, you've already met my brood."
"Exactly. Which is why I know you'll be fine." He leaned over and kissed her gently. "They don't bite. I promise."
She nodded and tried to breathe. Ben gave her one last kiss on the cheek, before climbing out of the car and moving around the back to get their bags. She got out as well and blinked at the sunlight, then closed her eyes and just took a moment to breathe her surroundings in. The familiar scent of salty, warm air. Despite the situation that brought her there, she was happy to have it.
He took their bags out of the car, sliding them over her shoulders before holding his hand out the door and starting to lead the way into the house. The entryway was a wide, open air kind of structure, and you could see straight back to the ocean patio and the waves crashing on the shore. He placed the bags down in the hallway before shouting into the house. "Mom? Dad? Helena? We're here."
Kala went in with him and lingered in the doorway a bit, just glancing around at the house, very impressed.
"Coming, coming," Marianne made her way quietly down the stairs. She looked Kala over carefully, before turning to her son with a small smile. "How was your flight, Benjamin?"
"Fine, Mom," he replied, kissing her on the cheek lightly. Kala kept quiet, stepping back against the wall.
Ben glanced back at her and gave her a smile, extending a hand to her to pull her closer. "Mom, I want you to meet Kala, my fiancee. Kala, this is my mom, Marianne."
Kala gave the woman a smile and held out her free hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs. Hawthorne."
Marianne gave her a thin smile, before shaking her hand. "Likewise, Kala." She took a deep breath, before turning back to Ben. "Your sister is on the patio, if you'd like to see her. I'll have Jonathan bring your bags up to your room for you. I'm going to try and rouse your father out of his study for lunch -- I plan on eating around one."
"Yes, Mom," Ben nodded, before taking Kala's hand and leading her back towards the patio. "We'll see you then." Kala went with him, clutching both her hands around his and keeping close. "Relax," he murmured softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "You're doing fine."
"You think?" She chuckled slightly.
"Yeah, I do." Ben opened the door to the patio, and Helena looked up in surprise.
"Benny!" She gave him a bright smile as she pushed herself up from the chair and running over to her brother. "If it isn't my favorite little brother."
This made Kala smile and she let go of Ben to let his sister have at him.
Ben pulled Helena into a hug, rubbing her back lightly. "It's good to see you, Helena."
"Good to see you too," Helena nodded, before pulling back and looking over at Kala. "And this must be the girl."
Kala smiled warmly and nodded. "Kala."
"Helena," Helena said, before moving in and giving her a hug. "Welcome to the family."
She sighed relief and hugged the woman back. "Thank you. It's nice to finally meet you."
Helena nodded slightly as she pulled back before turning and heading towards the outdoor bar. "Let me fix you a drink -- you're gonna need it."
"I will not say no to one," Kala nodded, sliding her arm through Ben's.
"Good," Helena nodded, before sliding behind the bar. "What's your poison?"
"Surprise me," she grinned.
"A risk taker. I like her already," Helena grinned as Ben sat down at the bar. "So how did you two kids meet?"
Kala glanced at Ben, then back at Helena. "Want the parents version or the real thing?"
"Oh, please, I'm old enough to smoke, drink, and do porn. Give me whatever version of the story you want to give me."
"Well, we were alone at the same bar. He sent me a drink, came over to introduce himself, and kissed me." She nudged Ben playfully. "Somehow that won me over for the entire weekend."
"Atta boy, Benny," Helena smirked, before placing the drink down in front of Kala. "Though that's a better start than most of my relationships."
"I guess I lucked out with his charm. Otherwise he might have been slapped."
Helena laughed. "Now that I'm pretty sure hasn't happened to him since college."
"I find that hard to believe," she smirked over at Ben.
"Ben couldn't always hold his liquor. It took him a few years to know how to manage both that and a pick-up line."
"I guess like his women, he had to learn over time." And no, that wasn't at all bitter.
Ben glanced away at that, and Helena watched her brother for a minute before responding. "You told her about Caroline?"
"I like to be honest with people," Ben replied. "There's nothing wrong with that."
Helena rolled her eyes before turning back to Kala. "Caroline Parker was a severe lapse in judgment on my brother's part, and it won't happen again."
"I know," she said quietly, taking Ben's hand. "All the same. He learned."
"He did," Helena nodded, before placing the whiskey down in front of his brother. "So -- have you guys made any plans for the wedding yet?"
"We're working on them. We've decided on Hawaii. Honolulu."
"Hawaii," Helena said with a nod. "I'm liking this wedding already. Open bar?"
"Helena."
"Oh, please, this is a Hawthorne occasion. It needs a little kick to keep everyone from falling asleep."
"The open bar is debatable. My parents are a bit strict on the alcohol thing right now."
"Oh?" Helena replied, tilting her head to the side slightly.
Kala shrugged slightly. "They're...a bit overprotective of my youngest sister lately."
"Is she -- underage?"
"No. She's...been sober a couple years and had a couple setbacks recently."
"Oh. I understand that," Helena nodded. "That makes sense."
Kala nodded. "But...all the same, I'm not as concerned as they are. She's doing real good lately. Everything is an issue when you have a family as big as mine."
"I wish I could say I get that, but we aren't exactly the family types," Helena sighed. "We're the family portrait types."
"Well you'll meet mine and be more than happy you don't have to deal with them on every occasion."
"I wouldn't say that," Helena started to make her way around the bar again, settling back into her seat. "If my family was the family type, I might not have ended up with Doctor Feel Good and Sunnyland Meadows."
"While I'm happy with my family for the most part, I think my sisters might argue you further."
Helena shrugged. "We all have different triggers, it's just a matter of finding them and acknowledging them."
Kala grinned. "Now you sound like a shrink."
Helena smirked. "Was one for a while, before I got busted for writing myself prescriptions for sleeping pills I didn't necessarily need. Thanks to my legal ace of a brother, I managed to get off with just rehab, but I had to sacrifice my medical license. I could probably still practice psychology, but psychiatry is pretty much a no-go."
Kala thought about it and shrugged. "I think I'd find that a really depressing job. My oldest sister is a cop, my oldest brother does family law...I say the same for them. I couldn't do something like that."
"Most of my practice was rich people who just wanted someone to vent at and prescribe them pills. It was more -- boring, than depressing. I wasn't really helping anyone with any serious mental scarring."
"Only thing worse than a depressing job is a boring job," Kala nodded. She gave Ben a cute, teasing grin. "Isn't that right, honey?"
"Yeah, sure," Ben shook his head, but a smile was on his face. Kala just laughed.
"Either way," Helena said with a wave of her hand. "I think so long as you're doing what you enjoy, it doesn't matter how boring or depressing it is."
"I can't help but agree." An elderly man came out onto the patio, glancing at the three of them with a smile, before extending a hand to Ben. "How was your flight, son?"
"Fine. No trouble at all," Ben said with a smile as he shook his hand. "Dad, this is my fiancee, Kala; Kala, this is my dad, Ben."
"I know this is going to get confusing relatively quickly, but Benny insisted we stop calling him Junior when he was twelve," he said with a small smile in Kala's direction. "It all went downhill from there."
Kala smiled back. "I'll try to keep up."
"Good," he nodded, before moving back over to the table. "Marianne's trying to light a fire under Jonathan to get him to get the lunch out here. While we're waiting, if you don't mind, Kala, I'd like to hear more about you."
She shrugged slightly. "I'm not sure there's a lot to tell. I moved to New York to model and recently gave that up to begin an apprenticeship. That takes up most of my time."
"That sounds fairly interesting. What are you apprenticing in?"
"Oh, photography. I'm sorry I didn't realize I left that part out. I joined up with a woman who I had worked with in the past and she's teaching me everything she knows."
"Are you learning a lot from her?"
She nodded. "I believe I am. I'm really loving it."
"Good for you," Ben Sr. nodded. "It's important to do something that you love."
"It is," she agreed.
Ben Sr. looked over at her for a moment, before tilting his head to the side slightly. "You're allowed to relax a little, my dear. We don't bite."
Kala's cheeks went bright red. "Sorry, I don't mean to...I'm fine."
He gave her a bit of a smile. "I just don't want you to be uncomfortable, that's all. I know how -- terrifying these kinds of situations can be."
"I'm not terrified," she shrugged slightly. "Just a little scared," she admitted, a small smile coming to her lips.
"I'm sure Benny was just as nervous when it came to meeting your family," Ben Sr. replied before looking over at his son. "Speaking of which, when do we get to meet the family?"
Kala looked over at Ben as well. She had no idea when both families could meet.
Ben sighed slightly. "Well, you were supposed to take that trip out east later in the month? To check up on the branch? Kala has some family in the city, and you can meet some of them then, but otherwise, you probably would have to fly out to Hawaii."
"I'm sure we can arrange some time for a trip before the wedding," Marianne said as she made her way out into the patio, Jonathan coming in behind her with a tray of sandwiches. "We have a free week somewhere."
Kala shifted her eyes to Ben. "And…I'm sure we could arrange to meet you there."
"Of course," Ben nodded, turning back to her. "Kala's family is rather large, though, so -- probably meeting Lani in New York first would be best. Ease our way into things?"
"And I know she'd be very happy to meet you," Kala nodded. "She's the oldest of my siblings, so she tends to think it gives her a higher place in our family."
"Sounds like a plan then," Ben Sr. nodded, before picking up the newspaper on the table. "I fly in the Wednesday after Memorial Day, so hopefully we'll be able to make time for dinner. There's this great place off Park Avenue -- Francisco's -- it'll be my treat."
"I'll talk to my sister," Kala said. "I'm sure she'll be able to arrange it."
"Good," Ben Sr. nodded.
"How large is your family, exactly?" Marianne asked as she started to nibble at her food.
"Well...my parents and there are eight of us kids."
"No aunts, uncles, cousins that might be coming to the wedding?"
"No, not really. But I have in-laws, neices, nephews, and some not quite in-laws," she nodded.
Marianne nodded. "Just want to have an idea of a headcount. The Waldorf needs reservations for large parties far in advance, and -- "
"Mom, we're not getting married in LA," Ben interrupted gently. "Or New York for that matter. Kala was hoping for somewhere a little more closer to home."
Kala's hands twisted in her lap. "We both thought it might be easier. With you here on the west coast and all of my family in Hawaii. And my father owns a restaurant where we could have the reception."
Marianne was quiet for a moment, before Helena spoke up from her lounge chair. "Mother -- "
"Of course," Marianne sighed before her daughter could go further. "It is your day, after all."
Kala quietly looked over at Ben for support.
"Mom. We're already handling planning the wedding," Ben moved closer, sliding an arm around Kala's shoulders. "Just let us handle this, alright?"
"Fine," Marianne sighed, holding up her hands. "Don't mind me -- I'll stop interfering."
Kala leaned closer to Ben and kept quiet.
Helena rolled her eyes, before pushing herself up from the chair. "I'm going down to the ocean. Who wants to join me?"
Kala looked up and got to her feet. "I would love to see the ocean," she said. "Can't tell you how much I miss that."
"Fantastic," Helena said with a nod, before taking the girl's hand and leading the way down to the beach. Ben watched them go and could already tell that it was going to be a long weekend.
For right now, though, she was enjoying the sun and sunshine, and hoping that no one too distasteful interrupted her before she was ready.
Kala sat nervously in the car, her knee bouncing, as she watched out the window. Pulling up to a large house made her stomach jump around even more.
Ben reached over and grabbed her hand gently, giving it a slight squeeze. "Relax," he sighed. "You'll be fine."
She looked over at him. "Easy for you to say, you've already met my brood."
"Exactly. Which is why I know you'll be fine." He leaned over and kissed her gently. "They don't bite. I promise."
She nodded and tried to breathe. Ben gave her one last kiss on the cheek, before climbing out of the car and moving around the back to get their bags. She got out as well and blinked at the sunlight, then closed her eyes and just took a moment to breathe her surroundings in. The familiar scent of salty, warm air. Despite the situation that brought her there, she was happy to have it.
He took their bags out of the car, sliding them over her shoulders before holding his hand out the door and starting to lead the way into the house. The entryway was a wide, open air kind of structure, and you could see straight back to the ocean patio and the waves crashing on the shore. He placed the bags down in the hallway before shouting into the house. "Mom? Dad? Helena? We're here."
Kala went in with him and lingered in the doorway a bit, just glancing around at the house, very impressed.
"Coming, coming," Marianne made her way quietly down the stairs. She looked Kala over carefully, before turning to her son with a small smile. "How was your flight, Benjamin?"
"Fine, Mom," he replied, kissing her on the cheek lightly. Kala kept quiet, stepping back against the wall.
Ben glanced back at her and gave her a smile, extending a hand to her to pull her closer. "Mom, I want you to meet Kala, my fiancee. Kala, this is my mom, Marianne."
Kala gave the woman a smile and held out her free hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs. Hawthorne."
Marianne gave her a thin smile, before shaking her hand. "Likewise, Kala." She took a deep breath, before turning back to Ben. "Your sister is on the patio, if you'd like to see her. I'll have Jonathan bring your bags up to your room for you. I'm going to try and rouse your father out of his study for lunch -- I plan on eating around one."
"Yes, Mom," Ben nodded, before taking Kala's hand and leading her back towards the patio. "We'll see you then." Kala went with him, clutching both her hands around his and keeping close. "Relax," he murmured softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "You're doing fine."
"You think?" She chuckled slightly.
"Yeah, I do." Ben opened the door to the patio, and Helena looked up in surprise.
"Benny!" She gave him a bright smile as she pushed herself up from the chair and running over to her brother. "If it isn't my favorite little brother."
This made Kala smile and she let go of Ben to let his sister have at him.
Ben pulled Helena into a hug, rubbing her back lightly. "It's good to see you, Helena."
"Good to see you too," Helena nodded, before pulling back and looking over at Kala. "And this must be the girl."
Kala smiled warmly and nodded. "Kala."
"Helena," Helena said, before moving in and giving her a hug. "Welcome to the family."
She sighed relief and hugged the woman back. "Thank you. It's nice to finally meet you."
Helena nodded slightly as she pulled back before turning and heading towards the outdoor bar. "Let me fix you a drink -- you're gonna need it."
"I will not say no to one," Kala nodded, sliding her arm through Ben's.
"Good," Helena nodded, before sliding behind the bar. "What's your poison?"
"Surprise me," she grinned.
"A risk taker. I like her already," Helena grinned as Ben sat down at the bar. "So how did you two kids meet?"
Kala glanced at Ben, then back at Helena. "Want the parents version or the real thing?"
"Oh, please, I'm old enough to smoke, drink, and do porn. Give me whatever version of the story you want to give me."
"Well, we were alone at the same bar. He sent me a drink, came over to introduce himself, and kissed me." She nudged Ben playfully. "Somehow that won me over for the entire weekend."
"Atta boy, Benny," Helena smirked, before placing the drink down in front of Kala. "Though that's a better start than most of my relationships."
"I guess I lucked out with his charm. Otherwise he might have been slapped."
Helena laughed. "Now that I'm pretty sure hasn't happened to him since college."
"I find that hard to believe," she smirked over at Ben.
"Ben couldn't always hold his liquor. It took him a few years to know how to manage both that and a pick-up line."
"I guess like his women, he had to learn over time." And no, that wasn't at all bitter.
Ben glanced away at that, and Helena watched her brother for a minute before responding. "You told her about Caroline?"
"I like to be honest with people," Ben replied. "There's nothing wrong with that."
Helena rolled her eyes before turning back to Kala. "Caroline Parker was a severe lapse in judgment on my brother's part, and it won't happen again."
"I know," she said quietly, taking Ben's hand. "All the same. He learned."
"He did," Helena nodded, before placing the whiskey down in front of his brother. "So -- have you guys made any plans for the wedding yet?"
"We're working on them. We've decided on Hawaii. Honolulu."
"Hawaii," Helena said with a nod. "I'm liking this wedding already. Open bar?"
"Helena."
"Oh, please, this is a Hawthorne occasion. It needs a little kick to keep everyone from falling asleep."
"The open bar is debatable. My parents are a bit strict on the alcohol thing right now."
"Oh?" Helena replied, tilting her head to the side slightly.
Kala shrugged slightly. "They're...a bit overprotective of my youngest sister lately."
"Is she -- underage?"
"No. She's...been sober a couple years and had a couple setbacks recently."
"Oh. I understand that," Helena nodded. "That makes sense."
Kala nodded. "But...all the same, I'm not as concerned as they are. She's doing real good lately. Everything is an issue when you have a family as big as mine."
"I wish I could say I get that, but we aren't exactly the family types," Helena sighed. "We're the family portrait types."
"Well you'll meet mine and be more than happy you don't have to deal with them on every occasion."
"I wouldn't say that," Helena started to make her way around the bar again, settling back into her seat. "If my family was the family type, I might not have ended up with Doctor Feel Good and Sunnyland Meadows."
"While I'm happy with my family for the most part, I think my sisters might argue you further."
Helena shrugged. "We all have different triggers, it's just a matter of finding them and acknowledging them."
Kala grinned. "Now you sound like a shrink."
Helena smirked. "Was one for a while, before I got busted for writing myself prescriptions for sleeping pills I didn't necessarily need. Thanks to my legal ace of a brother, I managed to get off with just rehab, but I had to sacrifice my medical license. I could probably still practice psychology, but psychiatry is pretty much a no-go."
Kala thought about it and shrugged. "I think I'd find that a really depressing job. My oldest sister is a cop, my oldest brother does family law...I say the same for them. I couldn't do something like that."
"Most of my practice was rich people who just wanted someone to vent at and prescribe them pills. It was more -- boring, than depressing. I wasn't really helping anyone with any serious mental scarring."
"Only thing worse than a depressing job is a boring job," Kala nodded. She gave Ben a cute, teasing grin. "Isn't that right, honey?"
"Yeah, sure," Ben shook his head, but a smile was on his face. Kala just laughed.
"Either way," Helena said with a wave of her hand. "I think so long as you're doing what you enjoy, it doesn't matter how boring or depressing it is."
"I can't help but agree." An elderly man came out onto the patio, glancing at the three of them with a smile, before extending a hand to Ben. "How was your flight, son?"
"Fine. No trouble at all," Ben said with a smile as he shook his hand. "Dad, this is my fiancee, Kala; Kala, this is my dad, Ben."
"I know this is going to get confusing relatively quickly, but Benny insisted we stop calling him Junior when he was twelve," he said with a small smile in Kala's direction. "It all went downhill from there."
Kala smiled back. "I'll try to keep up."
"Good," he nodded, before moving back over to the table. "Marianne's trying to light a fire under Jonathan to get him to get the lunch out here. While we're waiting, if you don't mind, Kala, I'd like to hear more about you."
She shrugged slightly. "I'm not sure there's a lot to tell. I moved to New York to model and recently gave that up to begin an apprenticeship. That takes up most of my time."
"That sounds fairly interesting. What are you apprenticing in?"
"Oh, photography. I'm sorry I didn't realize I left that part out. I joined up with a woman who I had worked with in the past and she's teaching me everything she knows."
"Are you learning a lot from her?"
She nodded. "I believe I am. I'm really loving it."
"Good for you," Ben Sr. nodded. "It's important to do something that you love."
"It is," she agreed.
Ben Sr. looked over at her for a moment, before tilting his head to the side slightly. "You're allowed to relax a little, my dear. We don't bite."
Kala's cheeks went bright red. "Sorry, I don't mean to...I'm fine."
He gave her a bit of a smile. "I just don't want you to be uncomfortable, that's all. I know how -- terrifying these kinds of situations can be."
"I'm not terrified," she shrugged slightly. "Just a little scared," she admitted, a small smile coming to her lips.
"I'm sure Benny was just as nervous when it came to meeting your family," Ben Sr. replied before looking over at his son. "Speaking of which, when do we get to meet the family?"
Kala looked over at Ben as well. She had no idea when both families could meet.
Ben sighed slightly. "Well, you were supposed to take that trip out east later in the month? To check up on the branch? Kala has some family in the city, and you can meet some of them then, but otherwise, you probably would have to fly out to Hawaii."
"I'm sure we can arrange some time for a trip before the wedding," Marianne said as she made her way out into the patio, Jonathan coming in behind her with a tray of sandwiches. "We have a free week somewhere."
Kala shifted her eyes to Ben. "And…I'm sure we could arrange to meet you there."
"Of course," Ben nodded, turning back to her. "Kala's family is rather large, though, so -- probably meeting Lani in New York first would be best. Ease our way into things?"
"And I know she'd be very happy to meet you," Kala nodded. "She's the oldest of my siblings, so she tends to think it gives her a higher place in our family."
"Sounds like a plan then," Ben Sr. nodded, before picking up the newspaper on the table. "I fly in the Wednesday after Memorial Day, so hopefully we'll be able to make time for dinner. There's this great place off Park Avenue -- Francisco's -- it'll be my treat."
"I'll talk to my sister," Kala said. "I'm sure she'll be able to arrange it."
"Good," Ben Sr. nodded.
"How large is your family, exactly?" Marianne asked as she started to nibble at her food.
"Well...my parents and there are eight of us kids."
"No aunts, uncles, cousins that might be coming to the wedding?"
"No, not really. But I have in-laws, neices, nephews, and some not quite in-laws," she nodded.
Marianne nodded. "Just want to have an idea of a headcount. The Waldorf needs reservations for large parties far in advance, and -- "
"Mom, we're not getting married in LA," Ben interrupted gently. "Or New York for that matter. Kala was hoping for somewhere a little more closer to home."
Kala's hands twisted in her lap. "We both thought it might be easier. With you here on the west coast and all of my family in Hawaii. And my father owns a restaurant where we could have the reception."
Marianne was quiet for a moment, before Helena spoke up from her lounge chair. "Mother -- "
"Of course," Marianne sighed before her daughter could go further. "It is your day, after all."
Kala quietly looked over at Ben for support.
"Mom. We're already handling planning the wedding," Ben moved closer, sliding an arm around Kala's shoulders. "Just let us handle this, alright?"
"Fine," Marianne sighed, holding up her hands. "Don't mind me -- I'll stop interfering."
Kala leaned closer to Ben and kept quiet.
Helena rolled her eyes, before pushing herself up from the chair. "I'm going down to the ocean. Who wants to join me?"
Kala looked up and got to her feet. "I would love to see the ocean," she said. "Can't tell you how much I miss that."
"Fantastic," Helena said with a nod, before taking the girl's hand and leading the way down to the beach. Ben watched them go and could already tell that it was going to be a long weekend.