Time Makes You Bolder (Sequel to No One's A Fool)

Chapter 21

Wrenna grew up knowing how loved she was. She was keenly aware that Mick was not her biological father, but that never mattered to her. In the end, she decided to hyphenate her name, becoming Wrenna Lyric Nicks-Fleetwood. She gained Amy and Lucy as sisters, and soon enough, a nephew - Wolf. Wrenna was adored by Mick and Stevie as she grew into a teenager, and then an adult.

She was in college when Mick and Stevie finally decided to marry. By then it had been more than ten years since they'd started dating, and Stevie finally conceded to making it official. Wrenna, above anyone else, was excited, barely able to sleep the night before. She was all smiles on the day of the wedding, crying through most of the ceremony.

"You made the right choice." She told her mom later, as they danced together at the reception. "He's never going to leave us." These words brought Stevie to tears.

Both she and Mick walked Wrenna down the aisle a few years later, when she married Gabriel. They had worried about her getting married before she was even thirty, but neither of them could deny that Gabe was devoted to Wrenna in a way that could only be compared to the devotion Mick had for Stevie. Neither of them were surprised when Wrenna told them she and Gabe were considering adopting, and they were overjoyed when Aurora came into their lives. Stevie was fiercely proud of her daughter, and beyond happy that everything had worked out with herself and Mick. She sometimes thought back to how worried she had been during her pregnancy, fearing Wrenna would be missing something without Joe around. But Mick had made sure she never missed his presence, stepping up to fill that void and become her father. It was because of all of this that Stevie and Mick both felt the whiplash when Joe came back around, the summer that Wrenna turned 30. But Mick reminded Stevie then, as he had throughout the years, that he was Wrenna's dad – if not her biological father.

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"You'll be okay. You can do this." Amy said, her hands on Wrenna's shoulders.

"Right." Wrenna nodded, solemnly. After several days of storytelling, Stevie and Mick had pulled Wrenna aside and told her they thought it might be a good idea for her to hear from Joe as well. Wrenna, reluctantly, agreed, and now he was on his way to Maui. Amy, in turn, was returning to Los Angeles, along with Wolf, Jessi, and Aurora, who would stay with Amy for a few days while her parents met with Joe and then spent some time enjoying Hawaii.

"And if you're not okay, you can fly right home, and I'll come get you at the airport." Amy assured her. "But you've got your mom and Dad, and Lori, and Gabe. So I think you'll be okay. You can tell me all about it when you get back, okay?"

"Okay." Wrenna nodded. "But I'm nervous."

"I know you are. But you don't have any reason to be. If anything, he should be nervous. I think you're going to get some closure, though." Amy countered. Wrenna only nodded. "I love you, my baby sissy. Don't you ever forget that, okay?"

"I won't." Wrenna smiled, proudly. She said her goodbyes to Wolf, and Aurora, and then hugged Jessi hard.

"You've got this, Bird." Jessi told her. Wrenna watched as the car disappeared down the lane,

He was picked up by a car at the airport and taken to a hotel nearby where Mick and Stevie had a house, as he had been told. It was Stevie who had called and asked him to come, reminding him that when she went to him the previous summer he had promised her he would come whenever Wrenna was ready. He had agreed, and that next afternoon he was on a plane to Hawaii.

Mick came to his hotel room that night, shaking his hand and sitting down with him at the table.

"I'm not sure if you remember, but back in '94 I ran into you backstage at an awards show." He started.