Turning Points (1/1)
Title: Turning Points (1/1)
Author: WibbleyWobbley
Characters: Tommy, with references to and appearances by various Walkers
Rating: G-ish
Summary: Tommy imagines how his life might have been different if only...
Spoilers: Not really
Word Count: ~2,660
Disclaimer: Not mine
Prompt: Walker Challenge #8, Tommy, 2) “But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of ‘turning points,’ one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one’s life; but, of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had.” - The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
A/N: OH MY GOD, this story did not want to be written. It was hard enough to figure out how to structure this and the tone I wanted to take and everything. It certainly didn't help matters that I've been insanely busy in real life. And falling in obsessive, flaily love with Dr. Reid Oliver on ATWT. Anyway, all this to say...I'm not pleased with this story. I hope you all can figure out what I'm trying to do with it. I wanted to write at least one more story for my challenge besides this, but...that's not going to happen!
A/N2: Because of the previously mentioned busy real life, I was not able to go back and check canon on most of this stuff. If you see any glaring errors, please let me know, as I'm usually so anal about that kind of stuff.
1.
Tommy walked quickly out to the car, trying not to let on how much his arm was hurting. He barely noticed the gurney coming closer to him, at first. And then the color of the jacket caught his eye. He looked at the unconscious kid and realized it was Kevin’s friend. What had happened? But he hadn’t had time to think about it anymore, because running after the gurney was…
“Dennis?” Tommy asked quietly, turning slightly towards the running man. He watched after him a moment, confused.
And then he turned back to the car, walking closer.
“Get in the car, Tommy,” his mother said from the shadows.
*
Tommy was surprised that everyone else just accepted their mother’s promise that everything was OK. She had just spent the last half hour yelling hysterically at Dad and York, after all. And so he hung around downstairs as Sarah carried Justin up to his room, and Kitty - still sort of drunk - dragged herself upstairs as well. Kevin followed slowly, looking distracted and still worried.
As soon as they were all out of earshot, Tommy went to find his mother in the pantry.
“Mom?”
She jumped in slight shock and turned to Tommy. “Honey, what are you still doing down here? I thought everyone went to sleep.”
“No. I wanna know what’s going on.”
“Nothing, honey. Don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Nora took two steps away from him. “Tommy, please.”
“Mom! Just tell me the truth.”
Nora sighed, putting her hands to her face as she tilted her head back and tried not to sob. “That boy is really hurt,” she said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
Nora didn’t turn around, but Tommy could hear the tears in her voice. “He and Kevin had a fight, and he fell or - or Kevin pushed him or something, and…he’s hurt. He’s really hurt.”
“How hurt?” Tommy said forcefully.
Nora finally faced him, and her destroyed expression told Tommy all he needed to know before she even opened her mouth to whisper, “He’s paralyzed.”
Tommy was speechless for a long time. “What?” he finally asked.
“Daddy’s dealing with it,” Nora said. “Oh, that poor family.”
“Mom! I was there. I sat there while you told Kevin everything was OK. He trusts you, Mom.”
“How can I tell him? It will kill him. He’s so…he’s so fragile.”
“No, he isn’t, Mom! He goes to that school and has to listen to - every single day, Mom. He deals with Dad and…and me every single day.”
“You don’t know him like I know him.”
“If you think that, then you don’t know any of us.”
“Tommy, please. Your father and I will handle this.”
Tommy stared at her. Finally, he said firmly, “If you don’t tell him, I will.”
She took his ultimatum at his word, and things got much, much worse before they got better. Kevin went to see Aaron in the hospital and was immediately thrown out of the room. Tommy sat with him in the hallway as he haltingly repeated Aaron’s accusations of blame. Tommy stood guard outside Kevin’s room every night for three weeks, listening to his muffled sobs. Later, Tommy took turns in the driving rotation, bringing Kevin to his appointments with a therapist.
But then, every so often, there was a little bit of light in the darkness. The investigators ruled it an accident; Dad and Aaron’s parents reached a reasonable, out-of-court settlement. And best of all, two months after the party, Kevin smiled. And a week later, he laughed. A few days before school let out for the summer, and after multiple long discussions with his therapist, he sat down with the family and told everyone what Nora and Tommy (and it turned out Kitty) already knew. Tommy could tell his dad wasn’t pleased with the news, but after everything that happened, everything that Kevin had been through, he had simply stayed quiet.
And so maybe it had been an ordeal, and maybe it had been a risk to Kevin to tell him the truth. But, in the long run, it had made his coming out easier, and it had made his relationship with Tommy stronger. Kevin hadn’t received forgiveness or acceptance from Aaron, but he could forgive and accept things himself. And he knew he could always trust his parents to tell him the truth, just as he discovered he could always tell them the truth as well.
And years later, the whole family could stand up to York together, knowing full well that he had nothing on them.
2.
“Tommy, got a moment?”
“Yeah, Dad,” Tommy replied, looking up from the work on his desk. “What’s up?”
“I just talked to your sister,” William said in that infuriatingly casual way he had.
“Which one?”
“Sarah. She’s finally agreed to come back.”
Tommy furrowed his brow. “Come back where?”
William smiled, tilting his head back in laughter. “Ojai, of course. It’s going to take her a bit to get up to speed, but then I really think she’ll be a big help.”
“What about North Light?”
“Doesn’t matter. She’s back where she belongs.”
Tommy stared at his desk for a moment. “Yeah, OK,” he said.
*
“Listen to her, Tommy. She knows what she’s talking about.”
Tommy agreed, feeling something clench inside him as his dad praised Sarah yet again, ignoring the fact that Tommy’s worked there for years and he certainly knows Ojai’s needs as a company. He may not have a MBA from the Wharton School of Business, but he knew Ojai inside and out. He worked there every year since the summer he turned…Tommy smiled as he remembered his first job in the shipping department. Sarah had just finished her own stint there and was now a lackey in the offices, but she still took her Mom-packed lunch to the loading docks and ate with him, their legs dangling over the edge of the ramp. In the summer, they’d be the only ones to go out to the orchards with their dad, and one year they even buried a time capsule.
For years, working at Ojai meant working with Sarah. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, after all, to go back to that again.
Tommy sighed and then turned to his sister. “Can you start over? What’s this idea of yours?”
Sarah rolled her eyes in humorous exasperation. “Have you been listening to a word I say, little bro?”
“Why start now?” Tommy asked with a grin.
It still hurt when Tommy and Sarah found out she was to be president. William informed them the day after he revised the will, explaining that he knew they’d find a way to continue working together as well as they had been the last several weeks. He even hinted that he had something more in mind for Tommy, in the long run.
So, yes, it hurt. But Tommy knew it wasn’t so much an insult to him, as it was a long-planned outcome. And he knew that Sarah loved Ojai just as much as he did or their father did. He knew she would do right by the company, as best as she knew how. And he knew she would continue to rely on his advice and insight, just as she always had, no matter how much she pretended to dismiss his ideas as silly and often childish.
In the end, when Ojai closed for good, even after all their attempts to save it, Sarah leaned against him, taking comfort from Tommy’s embrace and Scotty’s singing. She sighed, and Tommy tightened his arm around her. She twisted to look up at him, and she smiled.
“We did all we could,” she whispered.
Tommy nodded.
“There’s no one else I would have wanted to drive this company into the ground with.”
Tommy chuckled. “Likewise,” he whispered.
3.
“We’ve been trying. A lot. And I guess I just wanted to see if…”
*
Tommy was actually at home when the doctor’s office called. He and Julia were taking a late morning together, being together just to be together for once, without worrying about which positions were best for conceiving.
She was in the bathroom when the phone rang. Tommy rolled over, picking up the phone without even really thinking about it.
“Yeah?”
“Mr. Walker, this is Lisa from Dr. Kent’s office.”
“Yeah?” Tommy repeated, somewhat nervously.
“Test results came back normal. Nothing to be concerned about.”
“Oh. OK, great. Thanks.”
Tommy hung up and fell back onto the bed, sighing in relief. After a moment, however, he thought, “Then why isn’t it working?”
And in that very instant, Julia burst out of the bathroom. “Tommy, what day is it?” she asked, the hope and excitement clear in her voice.
“Uh…Tuesday,” he said, confused.
“No, the date.”
“The…eighteenth.”
Julia shook her head. “All day long, I’ve been thinking it’s the fifteenth. I’ve been so off with that in-service day last week.”
“Yeah? So?”
“Tommy,” Julia said slowly, as if speaking to one of her students. “I’m late. Only a couple days, but still!”
Tommy sat up quickly, pulling her onto the bed in a joyful hug.
Things still didn’t go smoothly, of course. It was a difficult pregnancy, with bed rest and carefully-controlled diets due to risks of diabetes and hypertension. The baby came early, very early. It was touch and go, but Elizabeth made it through. And almost two years later, she made it through the surgery as well. She bounced back quickly, with the resiliency of youth. It took Tommy a little longer to recover, but he had his mother and his wife taking care of him, and his little girl on the bed beside him.
4.
He didn’t push Julia to come with him to Ojai that weekend…
Or maybe, it was they got to the hospital in record time…
Or maybe, they were able to do the transplant without risking both babies…
Or maybe, he hadn’t tried to rush Julia into any decisions when she was so physically and emotionally exhausted…
Something went differently that day. And they remained a happy family. Julia didn’t sink lower and lower into depression. She never went to Arizona. She never saw that guy, and Tommy didn’t give Lena a second glance.
And they had a daughter and a son.
5.
The plan was perfect. It was perfect. Saul seemed skeptical, but Tommy knew this would work. It would bring Ojai back under their control, the Walkers’ control. Holly would be out, and this would be a family business again. All he needed to do was play Rebecca just right, get her to think it was her idea. She would go to Holly, the ball would start rolling, and Tommy just needed to play innocent for a few weeks, at most.
*
“Tommy?” Holly interrupted his thoughts with a quick rap to the office door.
“Hi Holly,” he said, pretending to be distracted.
“Got a moment?”
“What’s up?”
Holly sat down in the visitor’s chair. “Rebecca came to me with this idea. I don’t know; I think it’s good.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, pretending to be ignorant.
And he listened, nodding in all the right places as Holly repeated the carefully-planted idea back to him. Once she finished, she paused, tilting her head at Tommy questioningly. “What do you think?”
Tommy looked back at her, pretending to hesitate and think it over. Holly’s face was open and trusting and…
Tommy couldn’t do it.
“I know this property. It’s no good,” he said quickly. “It’s a bad deal.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
It took him a while to convince Holly not to investigate further. And Tommy could tell Rebecca was confused and somewhat upset. But, in the end, they made it through the next few weeks and no one was the wiser. They worked together to find some better investments, and later they even let Rebecca run with her new idea about the cheaper wine. Ojai slowly turned around, and when other companies were going out of business all around town, they stayed strong.
6.
The phone rang three times before someone picked it up. Tommy sighed in relief when he heard Julia’s voice on the other end.
“Hello?” she asked, the standard greeting revealing nothing about the fears and worries Tommy knew she must be feeling.
“It’s me,” he said softly.
There was a pause. “Tommy?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yeah,” he confirmed.
“Where are you?”
“Still in Mexico.”
She took a deep breath. “I’m supposed to tell you that Holly is dropping the charges and it’s safe to come home.”
“Do you want me to come home?” Tommy asked.
There was another long pause, and Tommy’s heart clenched in panic and hope. “You’ve only been thinking of yourself this entire time. What does it matter what I want?”
“Julia,” Tommy said, dropping his head forward and rubbing at his temple. “It matters. I - ”
“Nora has plenty of room. And Elizabeth misses you.”
Tommy sighed. “OK, OK. I’m coming back.”
“Fine,” she said, hanging up the phone before Tommy could say anymore.
*
Tommy paced back and forth at the airport, trying to decide if he was ready to go back. Trying to figure out how everything had gone so wrong so quickly. Trying to calm his stomach and breathe deeply and slow down his racing heart. The desk attendant announced that his group was now boarding. Tommy stared at his ticket. He swallowed. He turned around and started walking away from the gate.
He made it four feet before he turned around again.
Without allowing himself to think about it anymore, Tommy handed his ticket to the gate attendant and walked through the doors to the plane.
Kitty met him at the airport. Nora tried not to hover as he unpacked and settled in the room. Sarah yelled at him and cried and hugged him. Justin punched his arm softly. Saul came by the next day and sat quietly in the kitchen with him. Kevin came by two days later and paced around the den as he detailed all the ways Tommy had screwed up; then he sat down with Tommy and explained all the legal and financial fixes he had already set in motion.
And Julia…ignored him. He’d go over to the house every two or three days. She’d work in the kitchen or the living room or the garden as Tommy spent time with Elizabeth. She’d say no more than three words to him, turning a deaf ear every time he tried to talk.
But Tommy kept trying. And ever so slightly, ever so slowly, she began to respond. It took a long time; it took months. It took tears and fights and more therapy, but one day she smiled at him as she invited him to stay for dinner. And one day, she remained in Elizabeth’s room as Tommy played with her, laughing at their antics. And one day, when she started crying again, she allowed Tommy to take her in his arms and hug her.
And one day, she lifted her face to his, and he kissed her.
7.
Tommy stared at the business card in his hand, then looked up at Paige standing next to the camera. She pressed record and Tommy took a breath.
“We were cleaning out the old desks the other day and, uh, I found this. Walker and Son Fine Produce. I made a bunch of these when I was a kid. I went to show Dad and he said, ‘That’s right. Some day it will be.’”
Tommy dropped the card onto the desk and clasped his hands together loosely.
“But unfortunately he was wrong. Walker and Son and Daughter. It, uh, doesn’t have the same ring.” Tommy paused. “He was right to bring Sarah into the business. If I hadn’t worked so hard to try to prove him wrong every day…things might be different. For…” Tommy shrugged. “For everybody.”
The End
Author: WibbleyWobbley
Characters: Tommy, with references to and appearances by various Walkers
Rating: G-ish
Summary: Tommy imagines how his life might have been different if only...
Spoilers: Not really
Word Count: ~2,660
Disclaimer: Not mine
Prompt: Walker Challenge #8, Tommy, 2) “But what is the sense in forever speculating what might have happened had such and such a moment turned out differently? One could presumably drive oneself to distraction in this way. In any case, while it is all very well to talk of ‘turning points,’ one can surely only recognize such moments in retrospect. Naturally, when one looks back to such instances today, they may indeed take the appearance of being crucial, precious moments in one’s life; but, of course, at the time, this was not the impression one had.” - The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
A/N: OH MY GOD, this story did not want to be written. It was hard enough to figure out how to structure this and the tone I wanted to take and everything. It certainly didn't help matters that I've been insanely busy in real life. And falling in obsessive, flaily love with Dr. Reid Oliver on ATWT. Anyway, all this to say...I'm not pleased with this story. I hope you all can figure out what I'm trying to do with it. I wanted to write at least one more story for my challenge besides this, but...that's not going to happen!
A/N2: Because of the previously mentioned busy real life, I was not able to go back and check canon on most of this stuff. If you see any glaring errors, please let me know, as I'm usually so anal about that kind of stuff.
1.
Tommy walked quickly out to the car, trying not to let on how much his arm was hurting. He barely noticed the gurney coming closer to him, at first. And then the color of the jacket caught his eye. He looked at the unconscious kid and realized it was Kevin’s friend. What had happened? But he hadn’t had time to think about it anymore, because running after the gurney was…
“Dennis?” Tommy asked quietly, turning slightly towards the running man. He watched after him a moment, confused.
And then he turned back to the car, walking closer.
“Get in the car, Tommy,” his mother said from the shadows.
*
Tommy was surprised that everyone else just accepted their mother’s promise that everything was OK. She had just spent the last half hour yelling hysterically at Dad and York, after all. And so he hung around downstairs as Sarah carried Justin up to his room, and Kitty - still sort of drunk - dragged herself upstairs as well. Kevin followed slowly, looking distracted and still worried.
As soon as they were all out of earshot, Tommy went to find his mother in the pantry.
“Mom?”
She jumped in slight shock and turned to Tommy. “Honey, what are you still doing down here? I thought everyone went to sleep.”
“No. I wanna know what’s going on.”
“Nothing, honey. Don’t worry about it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Nora took two steps away from him. “Tommy, please.”
“Mom! Just tell me the truth.”
Nora sighed, putting her hands to her face as she tilted her head back and tried not to sob. “That boy is really hurt,” she said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
Nora didn’t turn around, but Tommy could hear the tears in her voice. “He and Kevin had a fight, and he fell or - or Kevin pushed him or something, and…he’s hurt. He’s really hurt.”
“How hurt?” Tommy said forcefully.
Nora finally faced him, and her destroyed expression told Tommy all he needed to know before she even opened her mouth to whisper, “He’s paralyzed.”
Tommy was speechless for a long time. “What?” he finally asked.
“Daddy’s dealing with it,” Nora said. “Oh, that poor family.”
“Mom! I was there. I sat there while you told Kevin everything was OK. He trusts you, Mom.”
“How can I tell him? It will kill him. He’s so…he’s so fragile.”
“No, he isn’t, Mom! He goes to that school and has to listen to - every single day, Mom. He deals with Dad and…and me every single day.”
“You don’t know him like I know him.”
“If you think that, then you don’t know any of us.”
“Tommy, please. Your father and I will handle this.”
Tommy stared at her. Finally, he said firmly, “If you don’t tell him, I will.”
She took his ultimatum at his word, and things got much, much worse before they got better. Kevin went to see Aaron in the hospital and was immediately thrown out of the room. Tommy sat with him in the hallway as he haltingly repeated Aaron’s accusations of blame. Tommy stood guard outside Kevin’s room every night for three weeks, listening to his muffled sobs. Later, Tommy took turns in the driving rotation, bringing Kevin to his appointments with a therapist.
But then, every so often, there was a little bit of light in the darkness. The investigators ruled it an accident; Dad and Aaron’s parents reached a reasonable, out-of-court settlement. And best of all, two months after the party, Kevin smiled. And a week later, he laughed. A few days before school let out for the summer, and after multiple long discussions with his therapist, he sat down with the family and told everyone what Nora and Tommy (and it turned out Kitty) already knew. Tommy could tell his dad wasn’t pleased with the news, but after everything that happened, everything that Kevin had been through, he had simply stayed quiet.
And so maybe it had been an ordeal, and maybe it had been a risk to Kevin to tell him the truth. But, in the long run, it had made his coming out easier, and it had made his relationship with Tommy stronger. Kevin hadn’t received forgiveness or acceptance from Aaron, but he could forgive and accept things himself. And he knew he could always trust his parents to tell him the truth, just as he discovered he could always tell them the truth as well.
And years later, the whole family could stand up to York together, knowing full well that he had nothing on them.
2.
“Tommy, got a moment?”
“Yeah, Dad,” Tommy replied, looking up from the work on his desk. “What’s up?”
“I just talked to your sister,” William said in that infuriatingly casual way he had.
“Which one?”
“Sarah. She’s finally agreed to come back.”
Tommy furrowed his brow. “Come back where?”
William smiled, tilting his head back in laughter. “Ojai, of course. It’s going to take her a bit to get up to speed, but then I really think she’ll be a big help.”
“What about North Light?”
“Doesn’t matter. She’s back where she belongs.”
Tommy stared at his desk for a moment. “Yeah, OK,” he said.
*
“Listen to her, Tommy. She knows what she’s talking about.”
Tommy agreed, feeling something clench inside him as his dad praised Sarah yet again, ignoring the fact that Tommy’s worked there for years and he certainly knows Ojai’s needs as a company. He may not have a MBA from the Wharton School of Business, but he knew Ojai inside and out. He worked there every year since the summer he turned…Tommy smiled as he remembered his first job in the shipping department. Sarah had just finished her own stint there and was now a lackey in the offices, but she still took her Mom-packed lunch to the loading docks and ate with him, their legs dangling over the edge of the ramp. In the summer, they’d be the only ones to go out to the orchards with their dad, and one year they even buried a time capsule.
For years, working at Ojai meant working with Sarah. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, after all, to go back to that again.
Tommy sighed and then turned to his sister. “Can you start over? What’s this idea of yours?”
Sarah rolled her eyes in humorous exasperation. “Have you been listening to a word I say, little bro?”
“Why start now?” Tommy asked with a grin.
It still hurt when Tommy and Sarah found out she was to be president. William informed them the day after he revised the will, explaining that he knew they’d find a way to continue working together as well as they had been the last several weeks. He even hinted that he had something more in mind for Tommy, in the long run.
So, yes, it hurt. But Tommy knew it wasn’t so much an insult to him, as it was a long-planned outcome. And he knew that Sarah loved Ojai just as much as he did or their father did. He knew she would do right by the company, as best as she knew how. And he knew she would continue to rely on his advice and insight, just as she always had, no matter how much she pretended to dismiss his ideas as silly and often childish.
In the end, when Ojai closed for good, even after all their attempts to save it, Sarah leaned against him, taking comfort from Tommy’s embrace and Scotty’s singing. She sighed, and Tommy tightened his arm around her. She twisted to look up at him, and she smiled.
“We did all we could,” she whispered.
Tommy nodded.
“There’s no one else I would have wanted to drive this company into the ground with.”
Tommy chuckled. “Likewise,” he whispered.
3.
“We’ve been trying. A lot. And I guess I just wanted to see if…”
*
Tommy was actually at home when the doctor’s office called. He and Julia were taking a late morning together, being together just to be together for once, without worrying about which positions were best for conceiving.
She was in the bathroom when the phone rang. Tommy rolled over, picking up the phone without even really thinking about it.
“Yeah?”
“Mr. Walker, this is Lisa from Dr. Kent’s office.”
“Yeah?” Tommy repeated, somewhat nervously.
“Test results came back normal. Nothing to be concerned about.”
“Oh. OK, great. Thanks.”
Tommy hung up and fell back onto the bed, sighing in relief. After a moment, however, he thought, “Then why isn’t it working?”
And in that very instant, Julia burst out of the bathroom. “Tommy, what day is it?” she asked, the hope and excitement clear in her voice.
“Uh…Tuesday,” he said, confused.
“No, the date.”
“The…eighteenth.”
Julia shook her head. “All day long, I’ve been thinking it’s the fifteenth. I’ve been so off with that in-service day last week.”
“Yeah? So?”
“Tommy,” Julia said slowly, as if speaking to one of her students. “I’m late. Only a couple days, but still!”
Tommy sat up quickly, pulling her onto the bed in a joyful hug.
Things still didn’t go smoothly, of course. It was a difficult pregnancy, with bed rest and carefully-controlled diets due to risks of diabetes and hypertension. The baby came early, very early. It was touch and go, but Elizabeth made it through. And almost two years later, she made it through the surgery as well. She bounced back quickly, with the resiliency of youth. It took Tommy a little longer to recover, but he had his mother and his wife taking care of him, and his little girl on the bed beside him.
4.
He didn’t push Julia to come with him to Ojai that weekend…
Or maybe, it was they got to the hospital in record time…
Or maybe, they were able to do the transplant without risking both babies…
Or maybe, he hadn’t tried to rush Julia into any decisions when she was so physically and emotionally exhausted…
Something went differently that day. And they remained a happy family. Julia didn’t sink lower and lower into depression. She never went to Arizona. She never saw that guy, and Tommy didn’t give Lena a second glance.
And they had a daughter and a son.
5.
The plan was perfect. It was perfect. Saul seemed skeptical, but Tommy knew this would work. It would bring Ojai back under their control, the Walkers’ control. Holly would be out, and this would be a family business again. All he needed to do was play Rebecca just right, get her to think it was her idea. She would go to Holly, the ball would start rolling, and Tommy just needed to play innocent for a few weeks, at most.
*
“Tommy?” Holly interrupted his thoughts with a quick rap to the office door.
“Hi Holly,” he said, pretending to be distracted.
“Got a moment?”
“What’s up?”
Holly sat down in the visitor’s chair. “Rebecca came to me with this idea. I don’t know; I think it’s good.”
“Tell me about it,” he said, pretending to be ignorant.
And he listened, nodding in all the right places as Holly repeated the carefully-planted idea back to him. Once she finished, she paused, tilting her head at Tommy questioningly. “What do you think?”
Tommy looked back at her, pretending to hesitate and think it over. Holly’s face was open and trusting and…
Tommy couldn’t do it.
“I know this property. It’s no good,” he said quickly. “It’s a bad deal.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
It took him a while to convince Holly not to investigate further. And Tommy could tell Rebecca was confused and somewhat upset. But, in the end, they made it through the next few weeks and no one was the wiser. They worked together to find some better investments, and later they even let Rebecca run with her new idea about the cheaper wine. Ojai slowly turned around, and when other companies were going out of business all around town, they stayed strong.
6.
The phone rang three times before someone picked it up. Tommy sighed in relief when he heard Julia’s voice on the other end.
“Hello?” she asked, the standard greeting revealing nothing about the fears and worries Tommy knew she must be feeling.
“It’s me,” he said softly.
There was a pause. “Tommy?” she asked breathlessly.
“Yeah,” he confirmed.
“Where are you?”
“Still in Mexico.”
She took a deep breath. “I’m supposed to tell you that Holly is dropping the charges and it’s safe to come home.”
“Do you want me to come home?” Tommy asked.
There was another long pause, and Tommy’s heart clenched in panic and hope. “You’ve only been thinking of yourself this entire time. What does it matter what I want?”
“Julia,” Tommy said, dropping his head forward and rubbing at his temple. “It matters. I - ”
“Nora has plenty of room. And Elizabeth misses you.”
Tommy sighed. “OK, OK. I’m coming back.”
“Fine,” she said, hanging up the phone before Tommy could say anymore.
*
Tommy paced back and forth at the airport, trying to decide if he was ready to go back. Trying to figure out how everything had gone so wrong so quickly. Trying to calm his stomach and breathe deeply and slow down his racing heart. The desk attendant announced that his group was now boarding. Tommy stared at his ticket. He swallowed. He turned around and started walking away from the gate.
He made it four feet before he turned around again.
Without allowing himself to think about it anymore, Tommy handed his ticket to the gate attendant and walked through the doors to the plane.
Kitty met him at the airport. Nora tried not to hover as he unpacked and settled in the room. Sarah yelled at him and cried and hugged him. Justin punched his arm softly. Saul came by the next day and sat quietly in the kitchen with him. Kevin came by two days later and paced around the den as he detailed all the ways Tommy had screwed up; then he sat down with Tommy and explained all the legal and financial fixes he had already set in motion.
And Julia…ignored him. He’d go over to the house every two or three days. She’d work in the kitchen or the living room or the garden as Tommy spent time with Elizabeth. She’d say no more than three words to him, turning a deaf ear every time he tried to talk.
But Tommy kept trying. And ever so slightly, ever so slowly, she began to respond. It took a long time; it took months. It took tears and fights and more therapy, but one day she smiled at him as she invited him to stay for dinner. And one day, she remained in Elizabeth’s room as Tommy played with her, laughing at their antics. And one day, when she started crying again, she allowed Tommy to take her in his arms and hug her.
And one day, she lifted her face to his, and he kissed her.
7.
Tommy stared at the business card in his hand, then looked up at Paige standing next to the camera. She pressed record and Tommy took a breath.
“We were cleaning out the old desks the other day and, uh, I found this. Walker and Son Fine Produce. I made a bunch of these when I was a kid. I went to show Dad and he said, ‘That’s right. Some day it will be.’”
Tommy dropped the card onto the desk and clasped his hands together loosely.
“But unfortunately he was wrong. Walker and Son and Daughter. It, uh, doesn’t have the same ring.” Tommy paused. “He was right to bring Sarah into the business. If I hadn’t worked so hard to try to prove him wrong every day…things might be different. For…” Tommy shrugged. “For everybody.”
The End