After the contentious custody battle, Frank & Mary go on with their lives as usual. But it isn't until an eventful night at Ferg's that Frank starts to wonder if maybe his life might be missing something. Now that his niece has a normal life, maybe...
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Trigger Warning: Animal cruelty
Frank and Joey walked into Jessie's house hand in hand and found Evelyn in the living room with Sheryl. Joey knew that her boss was one of the toughest women that she had ever met and had no problem making new friends, but Joey still felt protective of her and couldn't help but hope that Frank's mother had been kind to her as Sheryl entertained her.
Frank let out a sigh when he saw his mother and Sheryl sitting on the couch and squeezed Joey's hand. One of Joey's favorite things about Frank was how much he cared about the people in his life; even friendly acquaintances like her boss. He had been thinking the same thing that she had been thinking and she loved how insync they were.
"Mother." Frank cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Frank." Evelyn politely smiled up at him but her eyes seemed to freeze over when she not only saw that Joey was with him, but that they were holding hands and appeared to be a united front. "Sheryl here was just telling me about...well, telling me about everything, actually. I had no idea that your little town was so colourful."
"I'll let you visit with your handsome son." Sheryl offered as she pushed herself off the couch. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, thank you." Evelyn pleasantly answered as if her and Sheryl were now old friends. "Thank you for keeping me company."
Sheryl lovingly smiled at Joey and mouthed 'breathe' to her before she left them alone. Joey took her advice, but after her boss had gone, Joey didn't know where to look. She was uncomfortable and felt completely out of her depth with a woman like Evelyn.
All things considered, family drama had never really been Joey's forte. For as much trouble as her biological father had caused, Mitch had stayed away for the majority of her life and her mother had gone out of her way to spare her and Alice any undo stress.
Joey had grown up loved unconditionally and knew that her mother had always been proud of her. She wished that Frank could have experienced the same growing up. But now that Joey was in the same room with the woman that had the power to fix what she had broken in the man that Joey loved, Joey didn't want to let the opportunity pass and tried to calm her nerves and rise to the occasion.
"Did you need a ride to your hotel, mother...or to the airport?" Frank suggested, half teasing.
"I was still hoping that we could talk...privately." Evelyn added without taking her cold eyes off of Joey, implying that she wasn't welcome to join them.
"Evelyn." Frank sighed with a heavy heart. "Anything that you say to me you can definitely say in front of Joey."
"Is that so?" Evelyn challenged. "So this is where we are then? This is the woman that you think would be a suitable replacement for Diane. Someone that can braid Mary's hair while they watch reality tv and then can teach her how to apply her eyeliner?"
