Devastating Secret™

Family Ties

Eva was pulled from her dark thoughts by Amelia's shriek then all hell broke loose as the twins ran to their sister's aid. This of course entailed doing what their father taught them to do – protect their sister which meant piling on Jacques and pummeling him with their small fists.

"Oh, God!" Jacques' mother recoiled in horror as their punches turned to kicks and bites as Amelia and Eva tried to pull them off the boy while Connor laughed hysterically in the background.

To make the scene infinitely worse, Noah and the Canadian Prime Minister Jared Travail chose this moment to join them. Noah rushed in and took Amelia's place and both parents stood with a kicking fighting twin until Noah said, "At Ease!" and they immediately stopped.

"I am going to kill you!" Eva gritted out under her breath so only Noah could hear.

"My baby!" Madame Travail cried as she dried Jacques' tears and tried to right his clothes.

"Mommy, I'm sorry. He pulled my hair and it just came out," Amelia apologized, thinking the chaos was her fault.

"No sweetie, you did the right thing. He shouldn't have done that." Eva soothed as she put Will down and held his hand. "Daddy is the one in trouble," Eva clarified.

"Can someone tell me what happened?" Jared asked.

"Stupid pulled her hair," Connor supplied, and Olivia shushed him.

"Did you do that Jacques?" His mother asked.

"I didn't mean to hurt her..." He began.

"And the boys didn't mean to hurt you..."

"Yes. we did!" Nate corrected.

"Daddy said not to let anyone hurt Mila!" Will chimed in.

Eva glared at Noah and Jared started to laugh, "Don't be too mad, if I had a daughter I would've probably done the same thing."

"See! This is why we get along so well." Noah chimed in, accepting the peace offering.

"I'm terribly sorry for what happened today." Eva apologized.

"Water under the bridge. Kids will be kids. We can't all be diplomatic."

"So, are we still on for poker?" Noah asked.

"Poker?" Eva asked.

"Yeah poker?" Noah repeated

"I'm not much of a player..." Jared hedged.

"I notice all card sharks say that before they take my money." Noah teased, "We can say we're negotiating some crap, so they'd leave us alone."

"You're making a play date?" Eva teased.

"No!" Noah denied.

"Seems like it," Olivia muttered.

"I finally found a guy I wanna hang out with, that's all," Noah explained.

Eva realized he was trying to fill the hole left by Cooper and even though she couldn't stand his wife, for Noah to gain a friend she'd bear the woman's presence. "Do you want me to join you?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"No, that's alright. Eric and Uncle Wayland can join us." Noah informed her then added to Jared "You know what else I wanna do, we should see a hockey game!"

"Now that! I can get behind!" Jared declared as the men walked out making their plans.

*****

"I have news," Alex informed him with a smile as Noah arrived at FBI headquarters.

"So, you said on the phone," Noah said, dressed in jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. He also left the Secret Service cooling their heels downstairs for this trip. Eva was at another charity function and he didn't want her to worry over nothing, so he came by himself.