When Twins Take Charge - Chapter 3
When Twins Take Charge
Tags: Miranda/Andy with help from Cassidy, Caroline and Nigel; Angst/Romance
A/N: Andy and Miranda meet again a little less than a year after Paris and both realize the feelings they have been hiding are in fact returned by the other. They come together for a few brief hours then lose it all.
A/N 2: The idea for this came from another story I read. The other was sad and I hate sad so using the theme of coming together and believing their time had passed I wrote this.
Disclosures: I own nothing. I’m just playing with them for a bit.
Previous chapters: 1 http://icequeen1955.livejournal.com/14851.html
2: http://icequeen1955.livejournal.com/2014/05/06/
Chapter 3 - The Twins to the Rescue
Still Present Day - Still Andy Sachs’ Apartment
“Andy we need to ask you a very important question and we need you to be really honest with us because it is really important.”
“Ok, I’ll try. Ask away.”
“Are you in love with our mom?”
There it was out there. Cassidy and Caroline both let out the breaths they were holding.
Andy just sat there dumbfounded. Her first thought was to deny it and get these two out of her apartment. But then the comment “well not so fine” came hurtling back at her and she realized how very brave these two were for even coming here much less asking her that question. And she knew in her heart only one thing would make them that brave and that would be if something were wrong with their mom. The Priestly women all put on a good show at being aloof and cold but when it came to each other they were fiercely protective. They deserved the truth, no matter how painful if might be to actually say it out loud. Again.
“Yes Cassidy, I am in” her voice broke for a moment and she swallowed a sob “in love with your mother. Very much in love. But nothing can come of it so we are trying to move on.”
“Not doing a very good job of it from what we can see.” This was said as both gave her the same up and down critical look she had lived with during her tenure at Runway. Then they did a quick sweep with their eyes of the apartment and when both sets of eyes looked back at her the eye rolls she got were perfect.
“Ok look I’m struggling but I, we have no choice. So cut me some slack. I’m doing the best I can. Now tell me about Miranda because unless there was something wrong with her neither the two of you or Nigel would be sticking their noses in, quite frankly, where they don’t belong.”
Wrong with her. That was the understatement of the year. If left unchecked, Stephen would end up with every dime she had, Dad would haul them off to his house with Sherry or send them to boarding school and Irv “the slime” Ravitz would usher her out the door in a matter of weeks. They had all come to this conclusion at the lunch they forced Nigel into the Saturday following ‘The Sunday of Doom’, as they had started calling it.
Nigel was understandably nervous and worried. His boss seemed to be coming apart at the seams and it was all he and Emily could do to keep things on track until they figured out what the hell had happened. Then he got the call from the twin terrors and as usual he caved. He picked them up for some “uncle” time and took them to the burger place they always went too. He knew he was about to be grilled by his twin mini-Miranda’s but was hopeless to escape.
They had no sooner placed their orders when Cassidy, who always got this job, spoke up.
“Ok Uncle Nigel, give. What’s wrong with mom and what does Andy Sachs have to do with it?”
The question about Miranda he had expected had in fact been planning on asking the same question of them but the one about Andy caught him completely by surprise.
“Uh girls, I have no idea what is wrong with Miranda, I was hoping maybe you could tell me. As to Andy I wasn’t even aware that she and Miranda had spoken or seen each other in the last nine months. Why do you think she has anything to do with Miranda’s current, current”
“Apparent nervous breakdown is what we are calling it. Ok here is what we know. Last Sunday we came home to find mom practically catatonic on the couch in her study, Patricia was literally guarding her. When we climbed up to sit with her she didn’t even seem to know we were there. Uncle Nigel she looked so sad and lost. Later that night we heard her crying and well we listened outside her door and she kept calling Andy’s name only the way she says it you know ’Andrea’ and telling her how sorry she was and that she couldn’t fix it.
The next day we did some snooping in her desk and don’t you dare look at me like that. This is mom we are talking about and she does not just sit around staring into space or cry all night. We needed to do something. Anyway, we found a whole bunch of copies of the newspaper Andy works for in mom’s desk - all the copies had articles written by Andy and then we found a file folder with photos of Andy and mom and newspaper clippings of Andy.
So what is it mom can’t fix and what does Andy Sachs have to do with it?”
Nigel listened and was simultaneously impressed with and terrified of the twins. God help whoever these two end up with and working for.
“Ok, well I will admit that when Andy worked for Miranda they had a connection I had never seen before between your mom and an assistant. I knew Andy admired your mom, although she would never have admitted it back then and after a bit I thought it had turned into a bit of crush. As for Miranda, she plays her cards close but every once in a while I did catch her watching Andy with a strange soft look in her eye. So we know your mom obviously has feelings for Andy based on what you heard and found. How deep? Well apparently very. Now the question is how does Andy feel? I for one am not about to ask her - are you?”
“Well I guess if you won’t we have to. We’ve done everything else so far why not that? Uncle Nigel we are worried. Stephen’s lawyers are still coming at her and if dad thought she was losing it he would either move us in with him and bubble head or ship us off to boarding school.”
“Unfortunately you are most correct on both assessments and I can add that Irv Ravitz would move quicker than a rattle snake to use this apparent emotional collapse against her. Whatever we do we need to do it quickly.”
“Ok, look we can’t do anything until next Sunday. Dad and Sherry are picking us up tonight to go to some lame play so we can bond with the air head and we won’t get back until late Sunday. Next Saturday we start lacrosse practice and then mom is taking us out. Can you find Andy and then arrange to get us to her next Sunday morning?”
He thought about it and decided immediately that Andy would stand no better chance against these two than he did. So left with either watching Miranda go down in flames or exposing Andy to the two newest dragons on the block he gave Andy up.
“I can. Let me work it with Roy and I will send you two a text. In the meantime, I’ll hold down the fort at Runway and you do the same at home. Good news is that Irv left yesterday for a two week cruise with his wife and most of the VPs are out as well. We don’t go to print for another three weeks so we have some breathing room. You two keep an eye on her at home and try to keep her distracted. She and I have an event at MOMA next Sunday morning so I can keep her occupied while you work on Andy. Agreed?”
The twins nodded, both feeling a whole lot better about the situation.
So here they sat and the time of truth was upon them.
“It’s like this Andy. Two weeks ago, Sunday night to be exact, we came home to find mom sitting on the couch in her study. It looked like she had had a visitor because there was a tray with all the stuff you need for tea on the table in front of the couch. She had obviously been crying for a very long time. Her eyes were red and her face all blotchy. What was worse was the empty sad look in her eyes. Andy she was devastated and we don’t know why. When we sat with her it took her nearly an hour to realize we were there. This is mom Andy, mom who knows before we open the door we are home, mom who’s by our side in a flash if we wake up in the middle of the night not feeling well or scared from a bad dream. She doesn’t sit for an hour before she even sees us. Anyway, later that night we heard her crying. So we listened outside her room and heard her call for you. Heard her apologize for not being able to fix something and for it being too late. She has done that every night for the last two weeks. So whatever it was you did or she did or the man in the moon did We. Need. To. Fix. It. Now. or she is going to lose everything. The magazine, the divorce settlement and us. Our dad is just waiting for a reason to go after her and in her current state he would win and we cannot not live with our mom. Please Andy what’s wrong with her?”
Andy was crying, the tears rolling down her face. Her beloved Miranda was in pain and apparently as much pain as Andy but Andy couldn’t see a way out. If they were together, Miranda would lose everything, if they remain apart Miranda would lose everything. All because Andy Sachs went for a walk two weeks ago. And these kids would be the collateral damage. She hated herself.
“I, I don’t know what to tell you. There is nothing I can do. If I get involved it will only hurt her more. Maybe if you get her to talk to someone they can help her. I really wish I could but you just don’t understand what will happen for sure if I become part of this. I love her too much to hurt her. I have to stay away. I just have to.”
She buried her faces in her hands and cried.
The twins both stood up and went to the woman who was in just as much pain as their mom.
Ok they both thought looking into each other’s eyes as they tried to sooth the weeping woman. Andy loves her but her coming back will be worse than her staying away. That just didn’t make sense unless… unless.”
The light bulb went on in both heads at once. Andy coming back will give someone leverage over mom.
“Andy, are you worried that Stephen might use you against mom to get a bigger divorce settlement?”
Andy was incapable of answering so she just nodded.
“Listen Andy, we’ve never told anyone but Stephen did some things back when they were married and if we told well let’s just say he’d be lucky to come out with the shirt on his back.”
Andy’s head popped up and she looked into twin sets of blue eyes, her own brown ones ablaze with anger.
TBC