When Twins Take Charge - Chapter 5 and Epilogue
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/
3: http://icequeen1955.livejournal.com/15370.html
4: http://icequeen1955.livejournal.com/15786.html
Chapter 5 - Confusion, Explanations, Resolutions
Present Day - Priestly Townhouse- Early Afternoon
Miranda finally pulled back and looked into those beloved eyes. Then she regained control of herself. She wanted this, she wanted Andrea but the cost would be her girls and she had to find the strength to stop before she went too far.
Before she could say a word a small voice from behind Andrea spoke up.
“Mom, wait. Before you say what I so clearly see in your eyes you need to listen to us. Please. Just come sit here on the couch and let us explain why we brought Andy here.”
“You and your sister, but how. She lives on the other side of town and why? You have no idea what you have done. The pain this will cause. Oh My God. And you, Andrea, you understand what is at stake. I did not get the chance to say this the other day so I will now then as before you must leave. Please. I love you my Andrea, I truly do. But if we do this I will lose them and that I cannot let happen.”
Andy put a gently finger over Miranda’s lips and smiled.
“I know all of that and believe me when these two showed up at my door this morning I said exactly the same thing. The one thing I forgot was that they are your daughters and unlike the two of us they decided to fight for what they love. They love you and they were losing you because of me. So they and a certain Art Director concocted a plan that allowed them to come to me and present me with some very compelling reasons for us to rethink our decision. Just come sit and listen. I think you will find it very interesting. Please?”
Miranda was lost. Her girls were looking at her with a fierceness she had never seen in them and hope and love in their eyes. She owed it to them to at least listen. They were obviously very worried about her - well hell so was she.
“Very well, but one moment.”
She stepped back out the room and walked to the landing.
“Nigel” she said in a deathly low voice, “I believe you need to join us. NOW.”
Nigel felt certain body parts shrink in fear. SHIT.
“Coming.”
“And bring the scotch.”
She returned to the room where her girls were waiting - all three and waited for Nigel to join them.
After he arrived and handed her a drink he sat down and everyone looked at Cassidy.
“Right, ok, so two weeks ago we came home and found you in your study and you were well mom you were out of it. You didn’t even seem to know we were there. Later we heard you crying and calling out to Andrea and apologizing for something. It scared us.”
“Oh Bobbsey I am so sorry. I just, I have been having a difficult time dealing with well obviously you know what and I just needed time. I will never do that to you to either of you again.”
“We know but you have cried every night the last two weeks and you just seemed to be pulling away from everything. So we did a little snooping and please don’t be mad. We sort of rifled through your desk and found all of Andy’s articles and the photos and the clippings and well we may be thirteen but we are old enough to understand caring about someone as more than a friend. So we called Uncle Nigel and made him take us out to lunch so we could compare notes.”
If the situation hadn’t been so truly serious all three adults would have been grinning madly at the thirteen year old. She sounded like Phillip Marlow in a crime novel. “He told us you were uh struggling at Runway and then when we told him about the stuff we found” Miranda was ready to crawl under the couch after she strangled her precious daughter “he and we agreed that maybe we needed to talk to Andy. He was afraid to so we did.” Now Nigel was ready to strangle someone.
“So this morning after you left for MOMA Roy picked us up and took us to Andy’s. When we told her how sad and upset you were she started crying and said she couldn’t help because her coming here would only hurt you more. That’s when we figured out she wasn’t worried she would hurt you but somebody would use her to hurt you and so the obvious was Stephen. So we let her in on a little secret. Now don’t be mad. But from the moment Stephen moved in, any time you had a function and he said he had to work late well that blonde he’s with now would bring him home about thirty minutes before you and she would kiss him good night outside on the street. We have the pictures.”
Miranda’s blood pressure hit the roof. That son of bitch was not only cheating on her from the get go, a suspicion she had long held, but had been doing it in such a sloppy manner that her young children were made to witness it. She would bury his worthless carcass so deep he would never climb out.
“Baby, why did you never tell me? I would have gotten rid of him long ago.”
“We didn’t want to hurt you mom. We know you are this amazing editor at work but we see how it hurts when dad or someone betrays you or does something mean to you personally and well we thought, oh I don’t know what we were thinking. I just didn’t want you to be sad.”
Miranda pulled her daughter to her and kissed her. She would do better by these two from now on. No she would do better by these three.
“There is more mom. See when you were out of town and he was left in charge, well he would”
“HE WOULD WHAT? DID THAT ANIMAL TOUCH YOU? DID HE HURT YOU? I WILL KILL HIM.”
Andy had jumped up and pulled Miranda into her arms. Cassidy really needed to work on her delivery skills. You would think she would have figured that out after this morning.
“Shhh, let her finish love. It’s okay. No really it’s fine. The girls are fine. Just listen.”
“NO MOM. NO. Why does everyone immediately go there? I, no, we would never let him or anyone else do that to us. All I was going to say was that when you were out of town and he was supposed to be taking care of us he usually ended up drunk in his study and would sleep the night there. We knew how to set the alarm and we never used the stove or anything but well he was of no use. We kept diaries and oh yeah more pictures.”
Miranda was shaking with anger. How had she let this animal into her home, her daughter’s lives? What kind of a mother would do that? And here she was trying to push away a woman she knew would love and protect her children no matter what out of fear and yet out of pride, out of trying to have the expected partner she had let this thing into her home. The world could just go to hell. She was going to live her personal life her way from now on and that included in her home.
She pulled Cassidy and Caroline to her and kissed them and whispered how sorry she was.
When everyone had calmed down and returned to their seats, Cassidy looked at Andy and then her mom.
Miranda went to speak but Andy put a hand on her arm and shook her head.
“So, there is more. After we told Andy about Stephen and after she went ballistic like you just did and after we calmed her down she said she still couldn’t come back here because she could still cause you hurt. So we thought she was worried we would get upset and say mean things to you and so we explained that hey we were the ones asking her to come here. It would be just silly for us to turn around and get mad. She said she wasn’t worried about us and that she really liked us but you could still get hurt and she loved you too much to be responsible.
That’s when it hit us. DAD. So mom, now you just need to listen and please don’t go where you went with Stephen. Andy did that and no Dad has never, ever laid a finger on us. But as we told Andy, he ends up passed out on the couch in den more times than not when we stay over. He’s usually out by 8:30. Again, we can set alarms and we don’t fool around in the kitchen. But like Stephen he’s pretty useless. The only times he is usually awake and mostly sober is when he has one of his girl friends over. ”
Andy put a steadying hand on Miranda’s arm and squeezed tight. Miranda held her breath.
“Then he usually just disappears into the bedroom and makes all kinds of noises. Sometimes in the middle of the night we catch the girls, and mom I do mean girls, coming and going from the bedroom to the kitchen, uhh, with no clothes on.”
Miranda couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see. Nigel just sat there with his mouth hanging open. Andy began rubbing small circles on her back. Caroline went over to Nigel and slapped him on his back.
When Miranda finally regained control of her senses she stood and paced for a bit.
“I have been an utter fool. I have let these men, Greg, Stephen and that worm Irv, pull me in whatever direction they felt like and I went. No More. I am the Dragon Lady and the Dragon is about to come out and play - for real.”
“Nigel I will be late tomorrow. I need to see my lawyers. Girls, may I have your diaries and photos? By this time tomorrow afternoon Stephen will be served with that revised settlement he has been asking for - one that not only gives him nothing but does in fact take quite a lot from him. My other ex-husband will also be put on notice that there definitely will be a change in the custodial agreement. I shall demand full custody. If he wants to see his daughters he will need to prove to me and the court that they will no longer be exposed to his antics nor will they be left unsupervised while he sleeps off his binges.”
She knelt down and opened her arms and the girls flew into them.
“I am sorry that you two had to go through this and I do not want to keep you from your father but you are my babies and I will not allow him to inflict further abuse on you. I know he did not physically abuse you but mentally he most certainly did. That stops now my darlings. “
Cassidy, Caroline and Andrea breathed a sigh of relief. The Dragon was definitely back and definitely ready to do battle.
“Nigel, tomorrow, while I am taking care of two of my three thorns would you be so good as to go into my private safe. There is a folder in there marked Confidential - CEO. Please deliver copies of its contents to each of the Board Members and our head of Legal. Irv Ravitz has been systematically embezzling thousands of dollars each month from various accounts. I only recently came into possession of the last piece of evidence needed to smash that bug and then forgot all about it two weeks ago when I apparently lost my mind and nearly lost my girls and the most amazing woman I have ever met.”
The twins stepped back and Andy stepped into Miranda’s arms.
“Told you girls, if we helped clear the field of Stephen and Greg, our Dragon would take care of Irv.”
The two women kissed and Nigel motioned for the twins to follow him downstairs. He mouthed the word ‘ice cream’ and they were on his heels in a flash. Their work was done and all was well in their world. They deserved the carbs.
Downstairs, Patricia yawned and stretched and tried to decide if she was thirsty, hungry, or wanted a walk. She decided to take another nap instead. After all it was hard work herding these humans and she was getting old. Her pack was back to normal, especially her Alpha Human and so she closed her eyes and dreamed of running through wide green fields.
Epilogue - And they Grew and Thrived and Lived and Loved.
Six Months Later - Priestly-Sachs Townhouse
Andy was seated in the kitchen at the counter working on finishing up a feature article dealing with various CEOs caught embezzling over the last two years. Her central figure was none other than Irv Ravitz, former CEO of Elias-Clarke. His trial had ended two weeks ago - pretty much a slam dunk based on the meticulous evidence her Dragon had gathered. Sentencing had been this morning. Fifteen years in a minimal security facility out in Arizona. Not hard time, but very unpleasant conditions. He would most likely spend the next fifteen years playing grounds keeper to a local military golf course earning 15 cents an hour and eating - well definitely not caviar. He had been fined $200 million dollars on top of that. It seems he’d been embezzling since practically his first day as CEO - some 20 years ago. The toping on the cake was his wife filing for divorce - in Lake Tahoe. She walked away with everything that wasn’t taken by the Feds. Sweet. He was ruined. If he lived to get out he would be in his early 80s and penniless.
She heard the front door open and close and the familiar click of leather heels on the entry floor.
She looked up as Miranda walked into the kitchen and straight over to her pulling her into her arms and giving her a very nice hello kiss.
“Wow, Mira, did you fire the entire staff today?”
Miranda sniffed and a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
“Why must you be so dramatic? Am I not allowed to kiss my finance hello when I come home? Where are the twins? I have news.”
She then pulled a chilled bottle of white wine out of the refrigerator and poured them each a glass.
“Due home any minute. Back to back lacrosse practices today. They texted about twenty minutes ago. Nigel’s with them, he has apparently become quite the fan. Their scrimmage team won the first and tied the second match. We probably need to order a lot of food. Those two are going to be starving and I am sure they will demand carbs after four hours of running up and down the field. Don’t forget they have a big game this Saturday. You know how they get if we miss the warm up session.”
“I acknowledge the health benefits of physical activity but why did they have to choose a sport involving bats and face masks and the potential for massive facial reconstruction? And the carbs they consume. My word. I can feel the pounds on me just watching them. It is on my calendar, Emily’s calendar, the other Emily’s calendar and Nigel has it circled in red on his wall calendar. I doubt anyone in the city will be allowed to forget.”
“Now whose being the drama queen? Ok so give. If not a day of dismissing hundreds of incompetents what has you so worked up?”
“Well if you must know, the last of Stephen’s accounts were liquidated today and I had my lawyers add the funds to the twins’ college funds. With today’s deposits each account has right at $7.5M in it.”
“Miranda, they could go to 20 universities each with that kind of money. I hope it’s not restricted to just college or they will both be lifelong students.”
“Of course not, but this way they both know they can take their time and should they choose professions that require graduate work they will have the funds. The guidance on the funds is simple: available for college/graduate school beginning at the age of 18. Between 18 and 22 the funds are only available for that. Should they choose not to go to college, then between the ages of 18-22 they will receive a small stipend each month. The sum of which will not be enough to live on thus requiring them to find employment. Age 22 the stipend will increase or can be used for more education. Age 25 another increase and so on every 5 years until age 40 when they will have full access to all the funds. I want them to know they have a safety net, but that it will not be enough to just lie about all day. They will need a profession of some sort. Of course there are also the trust funds from the father. But they do not know about them. It was part of the deal he and I made. Those funds carry a similar set of guidelines as you well know.”
“And have you heard from the jail bird lately?”
“No but my lawyers assure me that he won’t be eligible for parole for another 9 and one half years. He was lucky to get the deal he got. Three counts of statutory rape should have sent him away for a very long time.”
As for the other Ex, Stephen’s lawyers had been lucky he wasn’t charged with more than adultery. The threat of two counts of child endangerment would have meant serious jail time. In the end he agreed to a settlement of nearly $60 million plus all the property they jointly owned. It had taken nearly 6 months to liquidate most of his assets and as each new asset was added to her accounts, Miranda took a moment to feel vindicated. She had destroyed him. He had betrayed her yes, but he had treated her children with nothing but disdain and had put them at risk. Even the air head had abandoned him. She kept him at bay and powerless with the threat of the other charges. He would never again bother any of them again.
Greg’s undoing was by his own actions. When her lawyer’s reviewed the photos of the various women the girls had caught on film running about his apartment, one of them recognized one of the subjects as the 16 year old daughter of a friend. After one conversation with the twins, with both Miranda and Andy present, her lawyers were able to put more names with faces. One 16 year old and two 17 year olds and Greg was done for. The ADA in charge of his case let him plea bargain down to 20 years with eligibility for parole in 10. Miranda’s lawyers threatened him with child endangerment and a slew of other charges based on having minor children present while he was engaged in sexual activities with another minor. If he agreed to split all of his assets between two trust funds, one for each girl, and never reveal their existence to either, she would not file the charges. The result of those charges would have most likely meant an additional 10 or 15 years added to the original sentence time and no chance for parole before he was an old man. He agreed. Miranda would surprise the girls on their 30th birthdays with the trust funds. By then they should be established in their chosen fields and hopefully not prone to foolish behavior with money. Of course full access would not be granted until they were 40. She loved them but believed in being prudent. They were going to be very wealthy women and that was before their inheritance from her. Life was good.
She was brought out of her musings by the sound of her precious girls thundering through the front door and toward the kitchen. They always headed for the kitchen after practice and games.
“Hey mom, Andy. Man are we hungry. You should have seen Caro today. She was awesome.”
Caroline gave them each a shy smile and a hug. Cassidy had her head buried in the refrigerator. Nigel followed a few moments later with all the gear. He had taken to going to all their practices if he could. After their little ‘saving the Dragon and Andy’ episode he had grown even fonder of them than before. They were still terrors but now they were his terrors and he thoroughly enjoyed the time he spent with them.
“Ladies. Both girls played well. Cassidy has three steals to her credit and Caroline scored both the winning and tying goals. I do hope you plan on ordering large tonight. They deserve it - carbs be da - err darned. Oh you know what I mean.”
“Yeah mom. Lots of carbs. We earned it. You both are coming to the game on Saturday right?”
“You two may have all the carbs you want. And yes Cassidy, we will be there. In fact, I believe your Uncle has sent reminders to every citizen in the city of Manhattan to be there. Am I not right Nigel?”
“Funny. I just wanted to make sure that your assistants and department heads knew you were completely unavailable this weekend. Saturday is the big game and Sunday I am taking all of you out for brunch at a new place I want you to see.”
Though still fearful of his mercurial boss, the fear had somewhat diminished in light of the events six months before. In the office he was the ever respectful, diligent Art Director, but when this little family unit of six (including the pony-dog) was together he was more playful and less intimidated.
“Is there some special occasion I am unaware of this Sunday that warrants brunch?”
“No, nothing special but I want you two to try this place out. The venue is perfect, the staff top rate, the food excellent. Since you want the ceremony small and in the morning I believe this fits the bill. After all I am one of the two wedding planners so please just acquiesce and let me take you to brunch.”
Andy had taken to staying at the townhouse shortly after the reconciliation. In fact, in the two months that followed she had spent all of five days in her apartment. The night after the fifth night away the twins had cornered her in the TV room.
“Andy you need to give that place up and move in here.”
“Uh, I know you live here too but don’t you think that your mom should be the one asking me to move in?”
“No. Last night was worse than the other four you were away. She was a total, well you know. At one point she remarked she had no idea why you insisted on keeping that dungy place and just move in where you belonged.”
“Wow. We need to work on her communication skills girls. Ok. I’ll talk to her and see about getting out of my lease. Now, what movie are we watching?”
Later that night, after they were in bed Andy decided she needed to address her living arrangements sooner than later.
“So the girls tell me you were displeased I wasn’t here last night. They mentioned something about my belonging here or something.”
Miranda knew she was well and caught and took a deep breath.
“I have been meaning to speak to you about that very subject. I love you. The girls love you. The dog apparently cannot live without you. We are a family and families live together, all the time under the same roof. I, I not only want you to move in here, immediately if not sooner, but I, I, Will, I mean I think, Uh, OH HELL. Andrea would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
Andy sat very still trying desperately to calm her about to explode heart. She looked into eyes she could drown in. When her breathing calmed and she found her voice she said in a very soft, near whisper
“There is nothing else in this life I want more than to be your wife. Yes, Yes I will marry you.”
“Oh Thank God. I was so worried. When you stayed away last night I realized we had never spoken of a future or anything and I thought, well I was, oh damn, like Cassidy I have no idea what I thought. Come here.”
They kissed and loved for the rest of the night.
“I hope Wedding Planner Two will be there because I for one am not dealing with an irate British Red Head or her Brazilian Amazon Girlfriend.”
“Of course Andy, they will be there. So I take it that’s a yes. OK. Now let’s order because spectators work up an appetite too you know.”
The little family settled in. Miranda and Andy married four months later in a lovely ceremony held by the side of a quaint lake. The reception was tasteful, the food delicious and carb filled much to the delight of the twins, and although the string quartet that played was not to the twins’ liking Patricia thought it was nice and so apparently did the brides.
Their first child, a boy, was born three years later and was named after Nigel. He was quickly followed by twin girls two years after that. The oldest was named Emily Miranda and the youngest, yes they were on a roll, Serena Andrea.
Miranda eventually retired. She had a house full of children and a wife that was in high demand both as a journalist and novelist in the United States and Internationally. Andy worked from home but during the day was locked in her study not to be disturbed unless someone was bleeding or crying or just needed a hug. Miranda thought it perfect and about time she supported someone else’s dreams. Of course her seat on the Elias-Clarke Board didn’t hurt.
Nigel became Editor-in-Chief of Runway and Emily his Art Director. The line of succession fairly obvious to all.
The girls graduated high school then college and each found careers and partners they loved.
The other children followed in the footsteps of their older sisters under the watchful and loving eyes of their mothers.
Patricia trained her replacement on the care and herding of the pack and when she finally passed on she did so knowing her now very large pack was safe and protected.
The Priestly-Sachs clan grew and thrived and lived but mostly they loved.
The End.