“Come on baby… that’s it… come to Momma…”

“Come on Daisy, next foot!”

Daisy was currently attempting to pull herself out of her aunt’s grip, more squatting than really standing upright. Reese had her by the hands, and was trying to assist her in walking over to Jenna. Jenna sat on the floor with her back against the couch, arms open and trying to coax her baby onwards.

Finally Daisy yanked herself down and planted her bottom on the floor, so Reese conceded defeat.

“She’s getting better.”

“She is, normally she’ll only go three or four steps.” Jenna smiled brightly. “Don’t know why she’s so stubborn, Will couldn’t wait to move.”

“God, I remember,” she said. “You helped him up and he wouldn’t let you leave him.”

“In for the duration, yep.” Jenna pulled her legs under herself and started getting up. “This one only pulls that trick when you’re trying to put her to bed.”

Reese glanced at the clock. Bedtime had been some time ago but Daisy had kicked up a fuss. It took a long while to get her down, and even after that she’d quickly woken back up. Eventually Mom heaved a sigh of acceptance and brought her back downstairs.

“This is why Aunt Reese enjoys handing her back.”

“Yeah well just you wait, this’ll be you soon and you won’t have the luxury!”

“Well actually…”

“What?” Jenna’s head snapped up. The pause was tantalising, it suggested news.

“Not as soon as originally planned,” she said.

Moving over to the table, she took another slice of pizza. It had lost most of its heat by this stage but it was still good. Dean had gone out to Drake’s bachelor gathering and they’d had a night in with the kids. They played Candyland with Will, watched Aladdin, and then after they’d sent him off to bed they ordered the pizza and cracked open the ice cream (to hell with their dresses, that was what corsets were for). Daisy’s diva fit derailed their plan to watch a movie more to their tastes, but that didn’t matter. The sisters in law got along pretty well so they were happy just to gossip.

“Oh really now? So what gives?” She sat down on the couch, keeping an eye on Daisy as she crawled around the rug.

“So…” The corners of her mouth went up in a happy curve. “My old firm got in contact with me about a job they had going.” That was a little fib, but she needed to keep it up with everybody but Justin and Trace. Sarah was also sworn to secrecy, though she was so happy at the outcome that she hadn’t batted an eyelid.

“Oh wow,” Jenna exclaimed. “Back to LA?”

“Yes. I spoke to Drake about it earlier, he’s on board, and we’re going to take a month or so to fix everything and get out there.”

“Well that’s… wow! I’ll miss you, but that’s great. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” It felt like she was carrying a small candle around inside. It wasn’t big; it was a tiny light that was lit up in her chest, warming her through. It was more than enough, however, and she felt like she must be glowing. Drake’s acquiescence was a huge weight off her shoulders. “Though I didn’t actually get the job in the end. But it got me feeling like I want to go back there, and as it turns out we might as well because  they just told me at work today that Mason’s retiring and we’re shutting up shop. They’ll still pay me for the two weeks’ notice, but by the time I get back from vacation I won’t have a job.”

“Oh wow,” Jenna breathed.

“Yeah. I should have figured, I’ve been really pushing my luck with time off lately and they couldn’t care less. Should have known something was up.”

“Man. Well, thank God he at least waited until now when everything’s paid for the wedding,” Jenna said. “Would have been really bad timing for one of you to be out of work. What you going to do when you get there though?”

“I have history with some temp agencies out there, so I called and they’ve got some things I can do while I’m looking.”

“Wow,” she repeated. “You’re braver than I am. I wouldn’t want to move an hour up the interstate without everything locked in but you’re ready to just pack up and go to the other side of the country; that takes guts. Always admired that about you, you know.”

Reese smiled, blushing a little. That description sounded much more like a dynamic person, the one Tiffany had said she was. In a way she felt like it wasn’t only her sister in law giving her the thumbs up - it was Harmony. That was nuts since Jenna never met Harmony but nobody said feelings had to be logical. It felt like the kind of thing she’d support.

“Won’t lie, I’m a little nervous not to have something locked already, but I figure since I’m gonna be unemployed either way it might as well be where it’s richer pickings. In a way it works out though because they needed the PA to start real soon; this gives me longer to organise the move. Like, I’d probably have to cancel the honeymoon for that.”

“Geez, to hell with that. After the planning and then the day you need the vacation just to get over it.”

“Oh you know it,” she laughed. That was the nice thing about being the second in the family to get married – she felt like she had an ally who understood the stress she was under. Somebody like Nadine didn’t understand. It wasn’t that she was unsympathetic or didn’t realise the importance of the day for her. She simply thought it was strange to get so worked up about what she viewed as essentially a party (not helped by the fact that Nadine was in general ill-disposed towards the notion of marriage).

“I told Dean I didn’t care where we went; there was just no way in hell we were going straight back to work.”

“Speaking of big bro, what time they due back? I probably ought to go soon but if I’m going to get called to pick their asses up I’ll wait.” She laughed.

“Soon I think. At least for Dean anyway, he’s on shift tomorrow.”

“Oh!” Reese heard the familiar sound of Beyonce coming from her phone. “Maybe that’s one of them.”

The name flashing up told her it wasn’t.

“Hey, T,” she said brightly as she answered. “How’s tricks?”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at Dean’s, me and Jenna are hanging. You okay?” Lines creased in her forehead. He sounded strange.

“Oh that’s close. Okay, stay there, we’re coming to you.”

“Why? Who’s we?”

“Me and Justin. Just stay there and if either of you get any phone calls, I’ll explain everything when we get there.”

Trace hung up before she could ask any more questions. Reese was looking at Jenna, slack-jawed and confused. What the hell was going on? Why was Trace coming there? What phone calls was she supposed to expect and why in God’s name was he with Justin who was supposed to be in California?

Jenna’s face immediately paled in trepidation. Her sister in law’s expression could not herald anything good. “What is it?”

“I have no idea, but we’re about to have company.”

**

When the doorbell finally went both Reese and Jenna bolted for it. Both were equally on edge; that was Trace’s fault. When he said either of them could expect calls it doubled their worry, because they didn’t understand what he could have to say that would affect both of them.

Perhaps if he was sober he would have realised being so abrupt would only frazzle their nerves, that he should have given them the basics, but he wasn’t running on full throttle. Most of his concentration had been on trying to calm Justin down. The two of them had walked towards Trace’s place from the bar. Along the way it occurred to them that there was every chance of people being injured or arrested as a result of the brawl taking place. Quickly deciding that it would be better coming from them than the local sheriff’s office, they’d changed direction. Dean and Jenna’s house wasn’t far from his so it hadn’t taken them long to get there.

“What in blazing hell is going on?” Reese asked without preamble. “And what are you doing back?”

Justin would have to ignore the second question until they were alone. “Can we come in?”

The girls stepped back, hustling them in with as much speed as possible. “So?”

“Maybe we should sit down,” Trace said.

“Oh God that can’t be good.” Jenna’s words tumbled out in a worried rush.

“We, uhh…” Justin put a hand to Reese’s back and started leading her back into the living room. Daisy was still sitting nonchalantly on the rug, chewing a stuffed dog. “We were out for a drink, and we happened to come across Drake and your brothers.”

Reese froze solid. This did not sound good, though it explained Jenna’s involvement. “And?”

“We, uhh… well…umm…”

“There’s no good way to say this, but, umm, just before we left it got really ugly between your brothers and one of Drake’s friends,” Trace finished for him.

“What?” Jenna asked. “Why?”

“He said something. About Reese.”

“What?”

“I’d, uhh, rather not repeat it.”

“Trace…” She growled threateningly. “You do not get to call and scare the living daylights out of us then not tell us what’s going on.”

“Alright, alright. From the beginning.” He pulled a chair out from the table and sat down on it. The world weary slump gave him an air of having survived a great battle, like he was a veteran recounting an ambush. “So we’d been in there, hanging out, and as we were leaving we saw your brothers so we went over to say hi. Then Drake comes over, says they’re moving bars, and did Justin and I want to join them.”

Neither of the women interrupted him at this point, though they shared a confused glance sideways at each other. This didn’t sound bad so far. Reese was actually quite pleased with her fiancé for that magnanimity.

Justin picked up the thread, not sitting down but standing rigid with his hands shoved in his pockets. The walk went a long way to calming him down but he was still angry. “We said no, we had to go, so we said goodnight and I shook Drake’s hand, but then as we were walking away this asshole said… said…”

“He said he didn’t know why Drake had even asked since Justin was never going to hang with the guy who… umm…”

“Who what?” Jenna asked, starting to connect the dots.

“I’m really sorry to repeat it, but his exact words were ‘took over the pussy.’ Sorry, Reese.”

Trace cringed, waiting for her to start shooting the messenger. His expectations were squashed, however, when a grim look of comprehension came over her face. Jenna let out a gasp and clapped her hand to her mouth, but Reese seemed a lot less perturbed than he’d predicted.

“I bet that was his friend Shane. I’ve never met him but Drake’s told me some stories, says he’s all mouth when he gets drunk. It sounds really funny when you’re just hearing some of it back but Drake says he’s got them into hairy situations before.”

Justin bristled at hearing this. So the mechanic was telling the truth – even so, he still wasn’t giving him any leniency. He never should have tolerated it the way he did. Not that.

“So I’m guessing the dipshit was stupid enough to say that in front of my husband?”

Jenna pushed a hand back through her hair, pulling it from her face. Her back teeth scraped the inside of her cheek, gnawing on it anxiously. Her brain was rapidly filling in the blanks. Dean was fiercely protective of his family, and insulting one of them in his presence was dangerous. In his younger days he’d been extremely impetuous and got into a lot of fights (something he had in common with Drake – they were similar characters which might be why he was the Bennington boy who took to him best). Age and maturity had chilled him out a lot, his temper was usually firmly under control, but coming for one of his family was still a health hazard. She got a feeling she knew how the rest of this story went.

“Yes,” Justin replied. “He was standing right next to all three of them, was like the guy had a death wish. Dean got in the guy’s face and Drake was trying to calm it back down, saying he didn’t mean it, but Dean and Ollie were still pissed. Sam tried to make the guy apologise but then the way he was talking he was about to say something else and the two of them just went for him. Last we saw all four of them were smacking the shit out of each other and Sam was getting whaled on trying to break it up.”

“Sorry, we would have tried to help but I figured I needed to get Justin out of there before his presence made it newsworthy.”

“No, you did the right thing.” Jenna’s hands were wringing together, but she managed to pause them long enough to give Trace a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “So when you said we should expect phone calls you meant from the cops?”

“I don’t know,” Justin answered. “We just didn’t want you panicking if you got calls from the emergency room or something.”

“Yeah,” Reese said with caustic acidity in her voice. “The stitches and black eyes will look great in the photos. God I can’t believe those idiots.”

Jenna glared at Reese. “Because that’s what’s important right now?”

Immediately she felt chastened. “Sorry honey, just being sarcastic. To hell with the photos, I just can’t believe they’ve been so dumb.”

“No, you’re right.” Jenna reached out and slung an arm around Reese’s waist. Reese looped her own arm around her sister in law’s back and gave her a squeeze. “I’d make cracks about our next family gathering being fun, except the wedding is the next damn family gathering.”

“Oh.” She squeaked out. The room began to spin, delirious panic blurring her vision. “My fiancé and my brothers have been beating the crap out of each other. They’re never going to speak again are they? Oh Lord…”

Daisy broke the spell by letting out a loud wail. While they’d been preoccupied she had hauled herself up on her walker but then fallen over, face planting on the floor. Jenna rushed over to scoop her up, looking harassed.

“I should get her into bed. Reese, can you try and call one of the guys?”

“Yep.”

Grabbing her phone off the table, she frantically tried each number in turn. Her swearing got louder and more vociferous every time she was greeted with a voicemail message. It was punctuated with threats of bodily harm against Drake, Dean and Oliver. Sam was spared only because he at least had been trying to stop the melee, even if he’d made it worse. The points for intent saved him.

“Well fuck it.” She tossed her phone down angrily on the table, as if it was the device to blame. “They got themselves into this so they can get themselves out.”

Trace said a silent prayer of thanks. Half of him had worried that Reese would try to go down there. He didn’t know whether they’d still be there or not but he imagined her presence would inflame the situation further.

She touched her hand to her forehead – it felt warm and there was a headache brewing. It wasn’t an actual fever; she was just agitated and flushed. How could it be that a few short hours ago she had been trying on that wedding dress? It felt like everything had tipped upside down since then. Her news, Drake’s news, the agreement to move, the beginnings of a family feud…

“Least you two were smart enough to keep yourselves out of it. Small mercy at least.”

“I wasn’t,” Justin said with a matter of fact pinch. “I’d have been first in line to hit the asshole if Trace hadn’t hauled me out.”

Reese leaned over and kissed Trace on the cheek, looping her arms around his neck from behind to give him a hug. “Thank you for being the only sane man in my life.”

“Thank you for finally acknowledging my superiority.” He reached up and rubbed her hand. “Listen, now we’ve given you the bad news I need to jet. You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah.” She gave him one more kiss and then stood up so he could get up. “Still on for lunch tomorrow? I can’t promise I won’t be bitching.”

“You know it. JT, you alright to call a cab from here or you want to do it from mine?”

“I wanted to talk to Reese for a minute; I’ll stay and grab one from here.”

“Okay.” Trace eyeballed him, looking him up and down with a suspicious gaze. Surely he couldn’t be about to make any grand declarations now? It wasn’t exactly an opportune moment. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Justin was still standing in the same spot, in the same pose. His hands were balled tightly into fists, stuffed in his jean pockets. Standing there like that somehow allowed him to keep a lid on things. It was as if he’d managed to mentally push all of his fury into his hands; if he kept them in check he therefore kept himself in check.

Reese saw Trace out of the door, shutting it gently to avoid disturbing Jenna and Daisy. She wasn’t hearing much from up there, so she hoped that meant Daisy was settling down - though she wouldn’t blame Jenna for hiding up there anyway just to try and process things. Her eldest brother might have a heart of gold but he was a hothead and he was old enough to know better. She felt guilty that he’d done this on her behalf. She didn’t care what some moron she’d never met thought of her and she didn’t want him in trouble on her account. Jenna hated this aspect of him and she didn’t like to see her reminded of it. Normally he had it under much better control. Oliver she was angrier with because he wasn’t a hothead. If he’d got caught up in this it was out of some dumb macho pride or simply to follow Dean, and she expected better of him.

Drake… she didn’t know how she felt about Drake right now. She’d been so full of gratitude and appreciation for him earlier that evening. He hadn’t been in a great mood after announcing his news – that his mother had found out about the wedding and was threatening to show up – but she’d had to press on with telling him she wanted to leave anyway. She loved him for the way he’d still handled it so well. He hadn’t looked thrilled, had asked a lot of questions and raised a lot of objections (especially since they’d be doing it without much of a safety net), but he’d eventually conceded. He could see how much she wanted it and the important thing was being together, he said. Now he’d ruined it by getting into some dumb fight with her family, and over what? Why hadn’t he taken his idiot friend away instead of trying to defend him?

When she moved back into the room, she could see Justin was brooding on something. His hands were stuffed into his jean pockets and his jaw tense. His shoulders were hunched in so tightly that his unzipped leather jacket had almost closed itself round his body; you could only see the faintest glimmer of the grey t-shirt beneath.

“I’m going to leave too. Do you want me to drive you to your mom’s and we can talk on the way?”

“If you wouldn’t mind that’d be great, thanks.”

His words and his tone were too careful. The usual rhythm of his speaking was off, too slow. That should have warned her that maybe it was safer to have the conversation there, where Jenna’s presence would restrain things. Normally she might have, but she was understandably preoccupied. Instead she found a pad and pen and left a note for Jenna on the table.

It never crossed her mind that the night could possibly have more to dump on her.