Never Going Back Again

64. Accepting Defeat

The minute they got back to the hotel, Stevie and Lindsey started packing their things; moving back and forth while the girls slept in Stevie's bed for the few hours before they got on a plane to go home.

"This is fucking ridiculous... Why the hell would Kristen leave and tell the girls to out us like that?" Stevie panicked a bit in a whisper as her thoughts came to life.

"I dunno..." he shrugged, keeping to himself as he mentally searched for answers. "I'm shocked after all of this, that Stella would actually say something..." he whispered.

"It's not her fault," the blonde softened immediately as she plopped in the nearest chair. "I should have coached them beforehand, but I thought she knew..."

"Stevie, it wasn't about coaching them. Kristen did this on purpose for a reason... In a small sense, it is a good thing; it's all finally out. But I just wanna know why now..." he kneeled in front of her.

"I know," she nodded, rubbing her head. "I know, in the long run, it will be good for us. The now of things; this is gonna be a huge scandal if it hasn't already started surging the news and newspapers and stupid magazines."

"We'll get through this," he assured her. "There has to be a reasonable explanation," he stood tall so that he could finish gathering the rest of the girl's and their things.

Finishing up, Lindsey had started taking the bags down to Karen's SUV---just doing it on his own while Stevie woke the girls to get ready to leave.

Karen had been up as well; doing what she could to help and thus far, she had arranged a car and flight for Will for the morning, Pacific time.

The way Stevie had helped arrange; she was hoping they'd all get home around the same time since she kept this near to six hour flight in mind from Washington to California and the Arizona to California would have been about three hours. Having given that information to Karen, she wanted to figure out the best times for him to come home so he wasn't alone when he got there.

"You guys can sleep on the plane---we're gonna go home," she assured, rubbing Stella's leg.

Leelee nodded and got herself up, slipping her sweatshirt on along with her Converse sneakers.

"It's cold out there right now, so bundle up, gals," Stevie added.

Stella slipped into her Ugg boots and threw her Sherpa lined jacket on with her mother's help. And as she did so, "Mom?"

"Hm?" she hummed quite bluntly.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked, knowing both her parents were a little cold at the moment, but her sister wasn't---though both girls were scared to find out what would happen next.

"No, sweetheart," she said as warmly as she could. "There's just a lot of stuff to do when we get home and daddy and I are tired," she assured as she threw her purse over her shoulder and picked Sulamith up.

"I don't want you to be mad," Stella assured, hugging her at the side.

"I'm not," she stated once more. "Come on---let's go meet daddy and Karen," she added, sticking her hand out.

Stella also grabbed her sister's hand; wanting her just as close.

At this point; moving through the hotel floors and lobby, they were glued together and not even worried because Stevie knew the secret was out; there was really no point in hiding any longer.

And while Stevie was turning the keys in at the front desk, Karen came in to come and get her.

"Stevie, I'm gonna do another sweep through the rooms; the car's all packed up for you and the girls."