Jade Stays at Luke and Reid's Place - a fanfic

[nancygrew]

Title:  Jade Stays at Luke and Reid's Place
Author:  nancygrew
Rating:  PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ATWT
Notes:  Futurefic.  AU after Reid drives off to Bay City.  Takes place ~late August 2013.  Takes place after my fic The Fundraiser but you don't have to read any of my other fic in order to understand this one.
Warning:  Off-screen character death [Not Luke or Reid - you can skip to the bottom of the story if you want to see who before you read the story].
Summary: Jade is staying with Luke and Reid.
It was shortly after 8:00 p.m. when a tired Reid arrived at the sanctuary that was his home. He entered the door to find his husband sitting on one of the couches rubbing the feet of the beautiful woman lying on the couch. He would have been upset if the woman wasn’t Luke’s cousin. And if Luke wasn’t gay.

Reid walked over to Luke and kissed him in greeting. It was a wet, sloppy kiss that improved his mood a thousand percent. By the stunned look in Jade’s eyes, it had improved her mood as well.

"Move it, Calamity Jade," huffed Reid.

Jade considered her options. One, she could stay right where she was and Luke might continue to rub her aching feet. Two, she could move and not have to worry about what the vengeance of Reid Oliver, Magnificent Bastard, would entail. She decided to compromise by moving to an armchair but huffing loudly. That would teach him not to mess with her.

Reid plopped down on the couch and rested his head in Luke’s lap. Luke immediately began carding his fingers through Reid’s hair with one hand. Luke rested his other hand upon Reid’s chest.

"Tough day, babe?" asked Luke.

"An eight hour surgery followed by rounds and a discussion about zoning regulations. Zoning regulations for crying out loud! What was I thinking when I decided that being Chief of Staff would awesome? Why didn’t I try to find a job which consisted of people feeding me strawberries and fanning me with those big feathery fanning things?"

"I made some pasta salad earlier," said Luke. "I don’t want to set a precedence here of me waiting on you or anything but would you like me to fix you a plate?"

"Not right now," said Reid. "I’m comfortable here."

"Did the surgery go okay?" asked a concerned Luke.

"Of course," said Reid. "It was textbook. Even a lesser surgeon than I, which are all of them, could have handled it."

"So, you were defeated by zoning laws, Dr. Strange?" asked Jade momentarily forgetting her survival instincts. One shouldn’t engage the Reid Beast unless he was sated with food.

"Have you found an apartment yet, Minnie the Moocher?" snarked Reid.

"There’s an apartment over near Old Town but I need to save up for first and last months rent," said Jade. "I got a job today so it shouldn’t take much longer."

"Is it a legit job or is it one of your cons?" asked Reid with an interested expression. "And by cons, I mean a confidence trick, a hustle, a scam, a grift, a flim flam. Have you decided to pretend to be the long lost great great granddaughter of the Tsarina Anastasia or to be in contact with a Nigerian Prince?"

"You husband is a jerk," proclaimed Jade to her cousin.

Luke shrugged. "He’s really pretty, though."

"It’s a glamorous job as a library aide. Look, I was wrong when I tried to scam Lily and her family into thinking that I was her niece when I didn’t realize that I really was her niece," said Jade to Reid in exasperation. "But that was years ago, long before you ever came to Oakdale. Get over it."

"It was years ago," admitted Reid. "Years before you were arrested for being a getaway driver or arrested for suspicion of burglary. Have you paid Luke back for the lawyer and the private detective that he hired to prove you were innocent and to get you out of that Arizona jail last month?"

"I’ll pay him back," insisted Jade.

Reid rolled his eyes. Luke rubbed Reid’s chest. "Reid, you know that Jade was innocent the last couple of times she got into trouble. She just falls for guys who are criminally inclined. She’s powerless to resist the allure of losers. Like I’m powerless to resist the allure of sarcastic and brilliant neurosurgeons. What’s going on with you?"

"She threatened to out you when you were a teenager," said Reid. "You were young and scared and she used that against you. She used your fear as a weapon."

Luke smiled at Reid’s concern.

"I’m sorry I did that," said Jade sincerely. "Look, I completely understand that you dislike me for having hurt Luke. I can go and stay at Lily’s until I get back on my feet. And I’m not just saying that to try to get you to be sympathetic towards me. The only reason I didn’t do that from the start was because of the problems she and Holden are having."

"You don’t have to go," sighed Reid. "Luke likes you for some reason so you can stay here for a little while longer until you save enough to get out without moving into a cardboard box. But I’m counting the silverware and my fillings when you leave."

"She only blackmailed me when she was afraid and felt like her back was against the wall," Luke said. "But if you’re uncomfortable with her staying with us, she can stay with Mom. This is your home, too. It’s not like she’s not welcome at the Asylum. Mom has really missed her."

"It’s okay, honest," said Reid. "I’m just in a crappy mood and she was convenient. If you want her here, I can put up with it."

"Has something other than zoning laws got you all crabby?" asked Luke.

"You know that I’m really sorry that I couldn’t go with you to Lisa’s funeral the other day, don’t you?" asked Reid.

"Of course I do," answered Luke. "I was there when you asked Lowell to clear your schedule for that day. It’s not your fault that you had an emergency surgery. I’ve never had a problem with you being called away for a patient that needs you. I know you would have been with me if you could."

"I know that you say you don’t have a problem but I ran into Humorless Tom before I left the hospital. I expressed my sympathies to him about his mom but he really seemed ticked off at me," explained Reid. "I’m not sure whether he didn’t believe that I was sincere about how much I really liked and admired Lisa or if he felt that I had failed you by not coming with you to the funeral. Frankly, I’m not interested enough in him to care one way or the other. But it made me wonder if you secretly had a problem with me not coming with you and were being all stoic about it."

"I know you really liked Lisa," said Luke. "You were oddly charming with her whenever you took Grandma Emma to the Mona Lisa for lunch or when we invited Lisa to one of our parties. You were even good-natured about it when she would order you to dance with her. You didn’t dishonor Lisa by not going to her funeral or disappoint me; you were saving someone’s life. You know that she really liked you, right?"

"Yeah, I do," said Reid. "We hit it off even though she was all vivacious and Auntie Mame-like and I am all vicious and Uncle Fester-like. She was bold and bright with a will of iron and the work ethic of a thousand Protestants. I enjoyed her a lot."

"Tom Hughes is actually upset with me and you were just convenient cannon-fodder for him," admitted Luke.

"Why would Humorless Tom be mad at you?" asked Reid. "It would be like being mad at a big-eyed anime cartoon. Not the weird, tentacle sex kind of anime. The cute kind." Reid tried not to pay attention to Jade appearing lost in thought at the idea of tentacle sex.

"First off, thanks for the clarification regarding what kind of anime I am. Second off, you know how I was invited to the reading of Lisa’s will that they had this morning?" asked Luke.

"Yeah, you were pretty sure that the reason you were invited was because Lisa must have left you some of Eduardo’s personal belongings like photographs of Grimaldi family members having their rings kissed and such," said Reid.

"She actually left me all of the Kingsley-Malta stock that she inherited from Eduardo," said Luke. "It’s worth a lot but according to her will, Lisa felt that Eduardo’s legacy should pass down to a Grimaldi."

"How much is it worth?" asked Jade excitedly.

"None of your beeswax, missy," said Luke. "Reid, it is your beeswax. I’ll fill you in on dollar figures later. Tom’s mad because he is very big about family. He really didn’t hide the fact that he was resentful that Lisa would leave so much to someone who isn’t family."

"That’s dumb," insisted Reid. "She considered you family. If Tom doesn’t understand that, then he’s an idiot. And it’s not like Lisa didn’t have any other money. She had several wealthy husbands and a handful of successful businesses. Even without what Eduardo left her, she still probably left a large estate."

"She did," said Luke. "She loved life’s luxuries and didn’t hesitate to spend money on everything she wanted but she was a really shrewd businesswoman."

"Well, then what’s Humorless Tom’s problem?"

"Well, Lisa left most of her money to charity," explained Luke. "In fact, she left a half a million dollars to the Luke Snyder Foundation. Tom didn’t seem happy about that. Lisa requested that it be earmarked for LGBT causes."

"That’s very generous of her," said Reid. "It’s noble that she wanted to have her wealth help people. Iva’s going to be thrilled, both for the donation to the Foundation and about it being earmarked for LGBT causes. It makes me a little sad that Iva would have been a much better gay man than either you or I are. So, Lisa didn’t leave anything to her family?"

"She requested that the executor of her estate sell her various businesses and divide that money," explained Luke. "She felt that since no-one in the family is hurting financially that she could divide the money from the sales equally to all of the people that she considered family. In the will she asked that everyone spend the money as frivolously as possible and to think about how much she loved them."

"Well, it was her money to leave as she saw fit," shrugged Reid who didn’t see what the problem was.

"Lisa felt that a lot of people were family," said Luke. "She named a handful of longtime employees and her sons Tom and Scott. She named her stepchildren Brian, Diana and Kirk McCall. She named her grandchildren Adam, Casey, Lien, and Daniel. She also named her goddaughter Bonnie McKechnie and her niece by marriage Shannon O’Hara."

"So, no matter how much her businesses sell for, no one is going to make a fortune," said Reid.

"I don’t think it’s actually about the money per se," said Luke. "I think Tom has a reason to be resentful and I’m thinking that I should perhaps offer to buy the Kingsley-Malta shares from the family."

"I will divorce you if you go against Lisa’s expressed wishes just because you’re feeling guilty because of Humorless Tom’s attitude problem," said Reid.

"You will not," scoffed Luke.

"Okay, I won’t," admitted Reid. "But the fact that Lisa wanted to leave money to charity and to divvy up the rest to every person that she loved is extremely admirable and Tom should respect that. Inherited wealth is detrimental to both individuals and to the country as a whole, anyway."

"How is Lisa wanting me to have Eduardo’s family inheritance any different?" asked a curious Luke.

"It’s not different. It’s completely insane that you are inheriting yet another fortune. But it’s disrespectful to go against what Lisa wanted," said Reid. "It’s not like anyone is owed an inheritance. Sorry, Jade, I wasn’t referring to you."

Jade was curled up in her armchair. "Hey, I don’t think anyone is owed an inheritance either. I get why Cal didn’t set up a trust fund for me like he did for Luke and his siblings. He’s never been willing to overlook the way I conned my way into the family. He still doesn’t think of me as family. Even Lucinda considers me a family member now. Not a family member that she likes but still family."

"Now that you and Cal are both living in Oakdale, I’m sure that you two will form a relationship," smiled the ever-optimistic Luke. Jade smirked at her cousin and shrugged. Sometimes she worried that the world was going to destroy his improbable optimism and he’d end up just like everybody else. Disillusioned and bitter roadkill.

"Did any of the other Hughes give you a problem?" asked Reid.

"I think everyone was surprised," said Luke. "But Chris and Tom were the only ones who huffed and sighed and rolled their eyes. It was synchronized attitude. I had coffee with Casey afterwards and I asked him if he felt I should buy the Kingsley-Malta shares from his family and he agreed with you that everyone should just accept Lisa’s wishes."

"Huh, Grandbaby Hughes isn’t a complete moron," observed Reid. "The Tool isn’t going to stay in town long is he? I don’t want Katie accidentally running into him and being reminded about that ill-considered catastrophe that was their marriage."

"The Tool is flying back to New Zealand tomorrow. Casey’s going back to Carbondale on Sunday, so I’ve invited him to dinner Friday night," Luke informed his husband.

"If you’re inviting Grandbaby Hughes, I get to invite Katie and Jacob," insisted Reid.

"I already called Katie and invited them," said Luke smiling. "I asked Casey if he would have a problem with hanging out with Maddie because of their romantic past but he doesn’t. So I’ve also invited her and Lowell to dinner and they’ve both accepted. And Jade and Maddie have both agreed not to stab each other during the meal so that’s a bonus. Although it could have been interesting if we chose to look at it as performance art."

"Funny how my administrative assistant didn’t inform me that he and his girlfriend were coming to dinner on Friday," huffed Reid. "Someday he’s going to realize that I’m his boss and that he should fear me."

"I can’t picture Lowell being afraid of anyone," said Luke. "Lucy once told me that Lowell’s unflappability freaks out the entire hospital staff. There are rumors that he’s a cyborg. Maddie requested that I invite her brother so I invited Henry and Barbara to dinner too."

Reid moaned. "That’s just great. Maybe you want to invite the entire stupid town."

Luke lightly twisted Reid’s ear. "Will it make you happy if I let you choose the evening’s theme?"

"Can we have that gumbo that you make?" asked Reid momentarily forgetting his aggravation.

"Sure," agreed Luke. "We’ll have Cajun night. We’ll have gumbo and rice for supper and pecan pralines for dessert. And Cajun music on the sound system. Beausoleil and the Balfa Brothers."

Reid’s eyes opened in horror. "You’re not going to try to make me do that Cajun two-step thing again, are you?"

"No, I think we both learned our lesson on that one," Luke shuddered remembering bruised toes and bruised egos. "So far there’s eight of us for dinner on Friday, not counting Jacob. Do you want to invite anyone else?"

"We should invite Ethan and Natalie," said Reid. "They could bring overnight bags and spend the night."

"They’ll like that," said Luke. "And that reminds me that my mom called me today."

"What did Medea want?" Reid asked. Jade smirked at the nickname that Reid was currently using for his mother-in-law. She loved Lily but she could see why Reid got so aggravated with her. Lily had never made it a secret that she thought Reid Oliver, an incredibly successful neurosurgeon, wasn’t as good for her son as Noah Mayer, a former barista turned local television talk show Oakdale Today director.

"She wanted to talk to me about family therapy," admitted Luke. "When I finally moved out of the house, one of the things that I was happiest about was that I would no longer be required to go to family therapy every time the family imploded. However, since Natalie and Ethan have been spending so much time here since Mom and Dad’s separation, the therapist wanted you and me to come to the next session."

"Sure, when is it?" asked Reid.

"It’s next Monday at 4:30," said Luke. "Wow, I did not think you would agree to seeing a shrink so easily. You know that the therapist’s not going to be serving free prime rib with the session, right?"

"Natalie and Ethan are over here all the time, Luke," shrugged Reid. "I love them but it’s weird that they’d rather be here than at either of your parents’ homes even on nights when you’re at school and I’m doing paperwork. Even Faith is here all the time. She’s a college kid and spending time with her brother and his husband is the last thing that she should want to be doing. It’s like they’re refugees from your parents’ marriage seeking shelter. I don’t have a clue about what to say to them or how to treat them to make them feel better. I’m fine with going to family therapy if it’ll help the Lilden spawn."

"You are so hot," said Jade. "I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?"

Luke laughed. Reid rolled his eyes.

"So, Faith told me that she actually walked in on Lily and Dusty doing it doggie style," said Jade.

"Argh, shut up!" said Luke while Reid covered his ears and started humming The Star Spangled Banner.

When Reid felt confident that Jade had shut up about Lily and Dusty being caught in flagrante delicto by the traumatized Faith, he uncovered his ears. "We need to ask the shrink if we should cancel our trip to Rome next month. Keeping the kids from having nervous breakdowns is more important than us seeing the catacombs or the Coliseum," he said.

"Yeah, we should ask," said Luke. "But I think she’ll probably okay us taking our vacation. Even if the kids feel weird around Mom and Dad, Grandmother Lucinda and Grandma Emma will be around. So will Abigail and Aaron, for that matter."

"I can’t believe that Dusty and Lily were willing to risk their marriages," said a disgusted Reid. "It’s not even as though they’re in love with one another. Your mom’s busy trying to get Holden to forgive her and Dusty’s trying to find where Janet ran off to with little Hit You Over the Head with the Utter Italian-ness of his Name Ciccone."

Luke shrugged. This wasn’t the first time one of his parents destroyed their relationship and he suspected that it wouldn’t be the last. "Hey, that zoning discussion you had today, was it about expanding the hospital’s parking lot?"

"Yes," said a disgusted Reid. "Because of the new wings, we’re getting patients from a lot farther afield than we used to. We’re going to need more parking. And the life-sucking zoning commission isn’t going to let us expand our current parking lot."

"Well, you know how business at The Juke Joint is really booming and how it’s packed all the time?" asked Luke referring to the blues club/barbecue restaurant that he had opened for entrepeneurship and venture initiation credits for school. Luke had worked hard at designing the marketing plan, choosing the barbecue recipes, working with the architect on the building design. It had been an immediate success and he and his partner Carly Snyder had even started a sideline of marketing their barbecue sauces.

"Yes!" said Reid. "It’s a huge pain in the butt. You need to start a delivery service so that I can have barbecue without having to sit elbow to elbow with the hoi polloi."

"I apologize that the success of mine and Carly’s business is inconvenient for you," said Luke agreeably while Jade laughed. "Anyway, sometimes parking in the neighborhood is a huge pain in the butt so I was thinking of buying that empty lot that’s a few blocks away from the place."

"That’s probably a good idea," said Reid trying his very best to appear interested in the parking situation of The Juke Joint. Being a husband sometimes required sacrifices.

"I know that it’s about twelve blocks from the hospital, but if you think it would be cost-effective for the hospital to run a shuttle between parking and the hospital, I can build a parking garage instead of a parking lot. I already checked the zoning regs for the neighborhood and it’s fine."

"You are so hot," said Reid. "I’ll have to talk to the rest of the board but I think that you’ve found a solution to my problem.

"I’m going to charge for parking," warned Luke.

"That’s not a problem," said Reid.

"I’ll call Roth and see if he’s interested in designing a cool parking garage," said Luke. "I saw a ‘green’ parking garage in an article about architecture that was really visually arresting."

"He designed the renovations for our house and for The Juke Joint," huffed Reid. "You hiring him all the time isn’t good for his career. He should expand his client base more."

Luke decided to ignore the weird dislike that Reid had for Roth. "I was thinking about not taking any classes next semester."

"I would squeal with glee if I thought for a single moment that you were taking some time off school so that you could relax a little, but I suspect that you have a plan for some new project."

"Well, I noticed in the paper this morning that the bowling alley a few blocks away from The Juke Joint is closing down," said Luke.

"If it’s closing down, it’s because there isn’t enough business for a bowling alley in this town to make a profit," guessed Jade.

"Please, Jade," said Reid. "Don’t interrupt your cousin when he’s being all tycoon-y. Firstly, it’s sexy. Secondly, he’s probably already has a business plan in mind."

"Kind of," said Luke. "I know that some bowling alleys have live bands play in order to bring in business. I think if the bowling alley brings in rock bands at night, it would complement the blues bands that we have playing down the street at The Juke Joint. And since people who don’t even like the blues come into The Juke Joint because of the barbecue being so good, we should serve something special at the bowling alley so that the food alone would draw in business."

"That sounds cool," said Reid. "What kind of food were you thinking?"

"I’m not positive," said Luke. "Maybe some really good New York-style hand-tossed pizzas made in brick ovens and with fresh and exotic ingredients or maybe comfort food like meatloaf and mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese."

"I’m hungry," said Reid.

"Okay," said Luke. "Let me draw up a business plan and then you and I can talk about whether this is something I should do."

"It’s not like you need my permission to start a new business, Richie Rich," said Reid rolling his eyes.

"Well, new businesses usually fail," said Luke. "I’m risking your future alimony so you should have input into whether I risk losing money by buying a bowling alley."

Jade gawked at Luke speaking so cavalierly about divorcing Reid at some future point in time. Reid laughed at Jade. "He’s joking about alimony. Since I’m the only man who could ever meet all of his depraved sexual needs, he’ll never divorce me."

Jade eyed Luke. Luke shrugged. "He’s right about him being the only one who could possibly meet all of my depraved sexual needs. I know this. I’ve asked around." Jade was pretty sure her cousin was joking.

"Food," moaned Reid as he sat up. "Anyone want anything from the kitchen?"

"No, thanks," said Luke.

"Nothing for me, thank you," said Jade.

"So, Jade, have you given a thought to what you want to do with the rest of your life other than the sexy career of library aide?" asked Luke trying not to sound like he was Jade’s father. Not that her biological father cared about what she wanted to do with her life.

"Well, I’m not sure what I want to do professionally," said Jade. "But I’ve been thinking that personally I want to be the mother of your child." Jade was gratified to hear Reid start choking.

"Jade, I like you but not in that way," said a grinning Luke after glancing at Reid to make sure he didn’t need the heimlich. He’d been waiting years for the opportunity to give someone the heimlich. Unfortunately, it looked like this was not going to be that day.

"Since Rose and Lily were identical twins, genetically I’m your half-sister just as much as Faith or Natalie is," said Jade. "If I donate an egg and Reid donates the swimmers, it’s as close as a biological baby that you two can get."

Reid returned to the seating area with a large bowl of pasta salad. He sat down next to Luke.

"Thanks for offer but Reid and I will probably adopt if we decide to have a kid," said Luke. "It makes more sense to adopt a kid that needs parents."

"It might be cool if we had a baby that carried both of our genes," said Reid while avoiding eye contact with Luke. "And it’s sometimes tough for gay couples to adopt."

"Oh, if you want to do the surrogate thing instead of adoption, that’s fine," said Luke. "I shouldn’t have automatically assumed that you would prefer adoption."

"Well, it makes more sense to adopt or foster children that need a home," shrugged Reid. "But I like the thought of having a baby that’s sort of both of us."

"Okay, if we decide to have a kid, we’ll let Jade give us some of her eggs, if she’s still interested in donating in another ten years or so," said Luke.

"I think we should aim for seven years," said Reid. "By that time, you’ll have your degrees which means you’ll merely be running an international shipping company instead of running an international shipping company and going to school. In another seven years, I’ll have been COS for ten years and will have dragged Oakdale Memorial into the 21st century. I’ll be able to give up the COS job and settle for being the world’s best neurosurgeon and Chief of Neurology. We’ll actually have the time to be parents."

Luke was surprised. He and Reid and casually discussed maybe having a kid someday but the fact that Reid had actually put a lot of thought into it moved him. He took the bowl out of Reid’s hands and placed it on the coffee table. He held Reid’s face in his hands and gave him a world-class kiss. Afterwards they grinned at each other like idiots. Then they realized that Jade was still there and staring at them in fascination. Luke handed Reid his bowl of pasta salad.

"Okay, we have awhile before we start worrying about the baby details," said Luke. "Jade, if I buy the bowling alley, are you interested in managing it?"

"I’ve never had that kind of job before," said Jade with uncertainty.

"Well, I was thinking that I could pay for you to go to college to get a business degree," offered Luke. "You could go full-time for a semester until I have the bowling alley renovated and then you could take classes after the bowling alley is opened. I can hire a short-term manager who could teach you what you needed to know to run the place."

"I can’t take charity from you," said Jade. There had been times in her life that she hadn’t been averse to taking anything she wanted from anybody. But she had grown up. Maybe she’d never be the type of person who’s instincts were to be selfless and altruistic but she did love her family and wanted to be the type of person that they’d be proud of.

"It’s not charity," said Luke. "Lots of companies have a tuition reimbursement program because it expands the skill base and increases loyalty of their employees. Once you have a degree, it’ll be easier for you to find a good job if you decide that managing a bowling alley isn’t what you want to do with the rest of your life."

"You’d trust me to not rob you blind or anything?" said Jade. Luke rolled his eyes. Jade smiled shyly. Sometimes Luke’s faith in people was a burden. Sometimes it was pretty cool.

The front door to the house opened to reveal that Faith was letting herself in. She carried an overnight bag and looked exhausted. Luke got up to give his younger sister a huge hug.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," she whispered back. She released herself from her brother’s hug and waved to Reid and Jade. Jade waved back. Reid got up and gave her a quick, blink and you missed it, squeeze.

"You look like crap," Reid said. "Would you like me to fix you something to eat?"

"No, thank you," said Faith. "I had supper in the cafeteria."

"Have you been sleeping?" asked Reid in concern.

Faith shrugged. She curled up in the chair next to Jade's. Luke and Reid sat back down on the couch.

"Reid and I will be attending the next family therapy session," said Luke cheerfully. "With Reid there, I’m thinking it’s going to be the most exciting family therapy session EVER."

Faith smiled. "We’ll finally have a session where everybody doesn’t already know what everybody’s going to say because they’ve all been through it before. Since it’s Reid’s first time, we should do something special."

"We could all switch roles!" said a grinning Luke. "You could say the stuff I normally say and we’ll get Ethan to say your stuff and Natalie to say Ethan’s stuff and I’ll say Natalie’s stuff. Although last time, Ethan was too little to really be involved in the angst-fest."

"Well, he had a practice run with Mom and Damian’s divorce so it’s not like he’s a complete novice to this," said Faith.

Jade and Reid glanced at one another to try to gage whether the other felt that Luke and Faith were coping really well or really poorly.

"Maybe we can do the session using foreign accents," suggested Luke. "We could do a whole theme. I could wear lederhosen and speak with an Austrian accent. You could wear a kimono and speak with a Japanese accent. It’ll be fun."

"Why don’t Mom and Dad ever get tired of this?" asked Faith.

Luke shrugged. He wasn’t the teenage boy who drowned his hurt and anger with booze any more. He was an adult who had learned to accept that there wasn’t anything he could ever do to ‘fix’ his parents. "My current method of coping is to just accept that people are utterly fallible. They make huge mistakes that they can never take back. Sometimes they learn from the mistakes. Sometimes they don’t. Even if they learn from the mistakes, they just go on to make different, equally huge mistakes. Mom and Dad are no different than anyone else."

"I’m pretty sure they are," huffed Faith. "You and Reid don’t cheat on each other or keep secrets from each other."

"I think that we’re both really happy with our marriage," said Luke thoughtfully. "But maybe other people looking in would think that our marriage is weird."

"Like who?" asked Reid. "I want names."

"Well, no one has ever said anything to my face," said Luke.

"Other than Lily and Holden," inserted Jade.

"Other than my mother and father," continued Luke. "But people always seem surprised by how many hours we work each week and by how much we bicker with one another."

"The fact that we have fulfilling careers makes us more interesting to each other," insisted Reid. "It’s a turn on that we’re proud of one another and what we’re accomplishing. As for the bickering, we argue really well. We both try to be fair and we’re really good at compromising."

"I didn’t mean to insinuate that I thought our marriage wasn’t great," said Luke. "Just that the people outside of any relationship aren’t ever truly capable of understanding how or why the relationship works. Does that make sense?"

"Mom and Dad’s relationship doesn’t work though," said Faith while biting her lip.

"Maybe all of the drama and passion that they share when it is working, makes up for the times that it doesn’t," said Luke. "They keep going back to it so it must be worth it to them. You and I and Nat and Ethan just have to be aware that whatever problems they have, it isn’t our fault."

"I feel really dumb because I really thought that it would work this time," confessed Faith.

"I’m sorry," said Luke. "Is there anything that I can do to make this easier for you?"

"I know it’s stupid," said Faith. "But will you tuck me in and read to me for awhile like you used to?"

"I think that would make me feel better too," said Luke. He stood up and pulled Faith up out of her chair. Faith kissed Reid and Jade goodnight and then let Luke drag her upstairs to the guest bedroom that Jade wasn’t using."

Jade came over and sat next to Reid on the couch.

"If you ever tell Lily I said this, I’ll use your toothbrush and never tell you about it," threatened Jade. "But I think having Lily and Holden as parents would really suck. I think my time in the orphanage was relatively stress-free compared to the drama in that household."

"Having Luke as a big brother would be kind of cool, though," said Reid thoughtfully.

"Yeah," agreed Jade. "And Faith is really good at looking after Ethan and Natalie too. All four of them are lucky to have each other."

"Instead of nationality costumes, I’m thinking we should dress in classic movie monster costumes," said Reid. "Dracula, Frankenstein, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

"I’d pay money to see you, Luke and the kids show up at the session wearing costumes," said Jade.

"I’m pretty sure that I can talk Natalie and Ethan into it when they come over on Friday," said Reid. "If I can get them all excited about it, Luke won’t be able to say no."

Jade and Reid grinned at the thought of making family therapy fun.

Author’s Notes: I feel like I should apologize for killing off Lisa. I love Lisa but I had the need to bash Tom and to show that Luke is a grown up about the needs of Reid’s job. I’m sorry if anyone finds it upsetting.