Back in Town

Chapter 13: Post Trauma-Day Six

"The nurses are allowing me to continue extended visiting privileges. I suppose they think we've earned it after yesterday's excitement." Alec sighed and rubbed Liv's hand gently. "You'll be so proud of Ellie. CS Jenkinson says she handled the interview with Jim 'exceedingly well given the circumstances.' I promise you that none of us are going to do anything to screw this up, darlin'. We're going to make sure you get to see him rot in jail for what he's done to you." He paused, his eyes slipping shut a moment. The exhaustion from the past few days: mental, emotional, and physical was catching back up with him. He lifted her hand up and kissed her knuckles.

-*-*-

*Flashback – Month 6 of Alec and Liv*

"So, you must be the infamous Olivia MacDonald that Daisy has told me so much about." Tess Henchard looked the woman over.

"Aye, that'd be me. It's a pleasure to meet you, Tess. Please, call me Liv—all my friends do." Liv smiled and held her hand out to the woman.

Tess forced a strained smile as she shook Liv's hand. "And you'd like to consider me a friend?"

Alec stood in the kitchen, hands pressed on the counter as he leaned over with his face hung down. He was not at all thrilled with the idea of Tess being here tonight, but Daisy had wanted both women there to see her off to the prom. They only had another half hour and the Latimer's would be there to pick up Chloe and Daisy and drive them to the dance.

"I'd like very much not to consider you an enemy, Tess. If not friends, then at the very least we can be on friendly terms. For Alec's sake, and especially for Daisy's. We all want what is best for Daisy." Liv spoke calmly. She had been thinking about and considering this meeting for a long time, before she even knew when it would actually happen. What Alec hadn't told her, Ellie had—enough to know that Tess Henchard could be a strong ally or a volatile enemy.

"And you think that you galivanting around with her father is what is best for her?" Tess was quick to snap back.

Liv sighed. Tess was not going to make this easy. "You don't think that her father being happy is good for her? You are Daisy's mother, and I would never want anything but a good relationship for the two of you. But you know by now, I know everything that happened. You have no right to keep Alec from happiness—with his daughter, or with another woman."

"No, but if someone is going to be sleeping with her father, in the room next door, that is my business," Tess said quickly, her words dripping with attitude.

Liv frowned, and for a moment within her eyes flamed a particularly Scottish type of anger, but she grew quiet, though stern, with her reply, not wanting to be overheard by the girls down the hall. "I believe you've made an incorrect assumption, Tess. You need to take a step back. I've barely seen what the inside of Alec Hardy's bedroom looks like, let alone been having hot sex with him with your daughter in the room next door. Believe it or not, Tess, not all relationships are built around sex. Sometimes they're built around friendship, love, and trust. And even if we were, to think that Alec wouldn't have enough sense to be discreet with his daughter around is appalling. Perhaps you're mixing up his relationships with some of your own."

Tess's expression went through a variety of expressions, from angry to mortified to ashamed within moments. But she spoke no further.

About that time, Alec finally had gained the courage to come back into the living room and brought with him two glasses of wine that he handed to both the women. Tess had stopped talking the moment he walked into sight, and he glanced between the two women. He recognized the look in Liv's eyes, but he wasn't sure he had ever seen the look on Tess's face. He decided it might be best for him to move the conversation to what surely would be safer ground. "The girls still haven't come out yet?"