You Are My Light Part II

302 - Step fatherhood *Modern*

"They play well together, don't you think?" Francis asks, sipping his latte as the two of them watch the four children run around and squeal. Mary tilts up her sunglasses and smiles at the scene, the four children running and playing in the dirt, just as Francis and Mary had in those marvellous years in France, all those years ago.

"They do, indeed." Mary's voice is wistful, and she smiles as her little Matilda finally manages to wrestle Jean-Philippe to the ground, her twin sister giving a whoop of delight as they finally manage to topple the boys, uncaring of the mud on their red dresses or the streaks of grass stains on their cheeks. Her smile is genuine, but the pain of their circumstance makes her stop.

Who knows, in another life, this could have been their family?

Fate has not been kind to them, in this life. A beautiful childhood together after Mary's father's tragic death, stopped only when she had to take her fathers' legal place as CEO of Stuart Corporations, which had nearly been throttled by Tudor Enterprises in her time away, and while she had the legal title, her mother served in her stead until Mary became of age with the skills to run her fathers' business empire. 

She worked hard, her childhood friend morphing into a beautiful youthful romance in Edinburgh university. She and Francis, Kenna and Sebastian, Greer and Leith, Lola with Remy, Aylee with Julien, until that tragic accident that had taken Aylee and Julien from them all in their last year of school. Twenty two and drunk, Lola and Francis had found each other, and the two were sworn to secrecy, because only three days previous, Mary and Francis had wed in southern France, as a gesture of goodwill, and a brighter future for their companies and the inevitable merge. 

Seven months later, the secret was out and Julien abandoned Lola, not wanting to raise another man's son. With the birth of Jean-Philippe, came the divorce of the new Scottish CEO, fresh out of university and still in mourning over Marie de Guise's sudden death after an unknown battle with tumour lysis syndrome, the scandal was global, and Francis' father was furious, spending hours at James' grave, apologising to his old friend for not protecting his beloved daughter. 

Heartbroken and shoving herself into work, Mary had made her own drunken mistake, spotting Henry Darnley at one of her opening parties. Dashing with a way to bring down Elizabeth after the Tudor CEO had tried to steal one of Mary's most important investors, how could she resist?

A nonsense romance borne of pain and grief and drunkenness and lust had resulted in a surprise pregnancy, and by that time, it was too late to get rid of the drunken manwhore. His blood value was too great, Elizabeth Tudor had her eyes on him, to bring down Stuart Corporations. A man with claim to both their empires, it was a test who could get to him first. It was something Mary could not allow, besides, in the beginning, Henry was handsome and charming and everything she had needed after shit had gone down with Francis and Lola.

They had been unhappily married, the day after he had found out the woman he loved had been found dead after an overdose. Henry Stuart-Darnley had spent Mary's pregnancy slowly worming himself into her monetary values, wanting joint CEO-ship of all of the corporation, and more often than not, striking her and striking out whenever he did not get his way. The man had been diagnosed with syphilis, and although Mary and her baby were clean, the man had been taken into government custody as a threat to himself, and in need of treatment he would not consent to.

Of course, he had never made it out of that hospital, after the wrong medication had bee pumped through his veins, killing him before he had ever met his son, who was born on the same night. Jacob Christopher Benjamin Ashton Stuart had been born, and was beloved by his mother, despite the obvious resemblance to his horrid father.

But then the true danger came, five months later, a betrayal by her bodyguard, Bothwell, who had told her that he had killed the man as revenge for everything he had done to Mary throughout their marriage, and he himself had forced himself on the young widow, using her period of grieving to isolate her from everybody in her circle, when next thing the world knew, Mary was married and pregnant with twins. A sham, of course, James Hepburn-Bothwell had raped her until she fell pregnant, and forced her up the isle in a private ceremony so nobody saw the bump or the blood or the bruises. Married and vengeful, Mary waited out the political and private nightmare of her marriage in relative solitude, biding her time until the babies had been born, before tapping into the most unethical of ties her company has, using it to end her marriage and the bastard's life.

The truth of the marriage and the assault came to light, but the truth of Bothwell's death never would. The public thought he had a psychotic episode brought about by a brain tumour, and that killed him in the end. It is not hard to find a sleazy doctor to forge documents when one has enough money to do so, and all of that becomes so easy when you have to delve into the darkest parts of yourself to save the most innocent of all.

Fate is not kind to them, but time is a great healer, and the newly aquired CEO of Valois-Medici and co had sought his former wife out at Sebastian and Kenna's wedding, asking for a lunch to discuss a different kind of buisness deal, now that time and bad blood had long since past. And the awkwardness melted away with the moments the children instantly bonded upon first introduction, despite the age difference.

The twins are four, now, Jacob five and Jean-Philippe almost seven. But they play together well, and it echoes a time when blonde and brunette children would frolic in France, so very long ago.

Mary smiles at them all, turning back to Francis.

"How are you? After-after everything?" Francis scratches the back of his neck in a bashful show of nerves. "I heard what happened, but didn't know what to say to you."

"I'm alright." Mary whispers, brushing her hair behind her ear as she focuses on the man who, in another life, would have been the father of her kids. "I'm lucky enough that they don't remember their fathers, what happened to them both. It was hard, but I've worked on myself and focused on these three and the company. It's the only thing I can do, I guess."

"Yeah. Uh-Jean-Philippe, he's doing well in school. Got a little scientist on our hands, I reckon. Maybe a marine biologist, he loves his sharks and fish."

"That's good. Jacob's the families' future chef, or maybe a racecar driver. Little one can't make up his mind, although initially he wanted to be an astronaut." Mary uselessly says, unable to think of what else to say.

"And the girls?"

"Princesses." She smiles. "They want to be Princesses, or cowgirls. We'll see." She looks over as the girls leap onto the boys, decorating their hair with grass and dasies. The boys humour them, laying back for a few moments, before they begin to wrestle their way out.

"They look like you." Francis says, and Mary didn't know when he had leaned closer. "I'm glad of it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Because they replicate the most brave woman in the world for getting through what she has. I wish things were different, Mary. I wish we were in a different place." Francis looks down once Mary has leaned back from his words.

"The last few years would have been happier, if things had been different. But they're not, Francis. And we have to accept that, no matter what happened between us."

"Must we? Can we not start again, how we did all those years ago? Can we not give us another chance of happiness, of contentment? To be the family we once dreamed of?"

"I can't, Francis." Mary stands up. "This is not what I came here for, I didn't want to trudge up the past. I can't be what you want me to be, I'm not that girl you loved once. Too much has happened to me, too many things have gone wrong for me, I can't allow myself to be with another man. Not after James."

"I am not James, you can trust me."

"Not after Lola, I can't. We can't be together, Francis. I am not strong enough to be vulnerable after what happened."

"We don't have to be so close from the start. Can we not at least be friends? Like we once were? And when you're ready, I'll be here."

"I may never be, Francis."

"Then I will spend the rest of our lives by your side, one way or another. Because time may have passed, but how much I love you, that never will change."