Chapter 5

Elizabeth Cambridge was in a quandary. She very much wanted to go see her son in the recovery ward, but her new "daughter-in-law" was still in there. Hell, she had been in there for nearly an hour now. Already she could see things with this Moira woman were going to get really complicated, superfast. Just the look in that girl's eyes when she spoke about Phillip was enough to let her know that. She had to find out just what was going on in that girl's head. But that would have to wait for a bit. For now Elizabeth had a very precocious little girl to contend with. Looking down at the little girl at her feet, she couldn't help but smile. She was almost a carbon mini-copy of her mother. And the adorable, as well as scary, things this girl said ... well Elizabeth was just glad Ian had decided to go get something to eat while she had been on the phone with Mandy and still hadn't come back.

Her favorite question seemed to be, "When can I see daddy again?"

The fact this little girl seemed to already think of Phillip as her new daddy was a little frightening. Cute, but frightening. She could almost imagine what Ian would have said if he had heard that. A simple "I don't know sweety" seemed to suffice though.

As she waited for her chance to see Phillip she wondered how she was going to broach this subject with Mandy. Although Elizabeth knew that Mandy had been a bit distant with her brother since their father's death, she also knew that Mandy simply adored her twin brother still. Trying to explain about Moira might prove just a tad bit hard.

So immersed in her thoughts was Elizabeth that it took her brain a few minutes to register the light tugging at her pants leg. Looking down she realized that Kathleen had been trying to get her attention.

"Grandma, can I sit in your lap again," asked Kathleen.

"Sure sweety, come on up here." Helping the girl find a comfortable spot on her lap she tried playing with the girl and her toys, but was still distracted. She simply did NOT know what to make of Moira, or what she saw coming.

Catching movement out of the corner of her eye she looked up to find Mandy standing in the doorway with her and Phillip's friends, the Daloudin Twins behind her. All three wore puzzled expressions on their faces as they saw Elizabeth sitting with Kathleen in her lap. The little girl must have noticed her movements cause she looked over at the new arrivals and innocently asked, "Who are they, Grandma?"

To say that Mandy and her friends were shocked by this statement would be like saying that a great white shark was only a fish. A tremendous understatement. Composing herself as much as she could she gestured the trio into the room and admonished Mandy, "Close your mouth girl or you'll catch a fly."

Once they were seated Elizabeth explained about the subway attack and Phillip's injuries as best she could. She could tell Mandy was just as terrified for her brother as Elizabeth herself had been. But even more telling were the expressions that ran across Lana's face. They were a mixture of fear, longing, and ... unless she was mistaken, love. Oh Good Lord she thought, this was going to get even more complicated really fast.

Once she was done explaining as much as she knew she wasn't surprised by Mandy's first question.

"Ok mom. We get that Phillip is going to be alright. But that still doesn't explain why this little girl called you grandma, now does it? And if Phillip's going to be all right why aren't you in the recovery ward with him?"

How to broach this subject, she thought? Well, there's no better way than straight on. So she told Mandy and her friends about the situation with Kathleen and Phillip. She explained how it made things easier for the hospital to think that Kathleen was his daughter or that Moira was his wife. She explained all of it as she knew it, but she could tell that Mandy was not happy with this explanation. NOT HAPPY AT ALL. Not surprisingly, Lana looked nearly as upset as Mandy. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor she chose to remain quiet about what she suspected about Moira's feelings for Phillip.

This decision was a wise one for if she knew what Mandy or Lana had been thinking at that moment she would have been shocked to say the least.

Mandy's mind was screaming in protest. "Phillip is MY twin brother. MINE dammit. Some two bit Irish floozy comes running along and tries to snag him away from me. Not gonna' happen. No way, no where, no how. I should be the one in there pretending to be his wife! I should be the one to sit by his side and watch over him! I have loved him desperately, and now some slut wants him?! NO!!!!" The minute she saw this floozy she was gonna' give her a piece of her mind. Now this might not have been rational considering she had been trying to deny her feelings for him for years, but it was exactly what was running through her mind.

For her part Lana wasn't any better. "I have been hopelessly in love with Phillip since I was old enough to like boys. I've been dreaming of wearing my grandma's antique white wedding dress, and walking down the aisle to Phillip since I was fifteen! I love my computers and I'm considered one of the best hackers in the state, but none of that meant anything to me until Phillip told me he thought my skills were amazing. I've tried dating and all of them have failed miserably for the simple reason that none of my dates were Phillip! I would have gladly pretended to be his wife. Hell I've desperately longed to be his wife for real! Now some Irish ho was trying to claim my man?! Not fucking gonna' happen!!!" Just wait till she got ahold the little tramp.

"Well this certainly looks cozy."

The sudden statement caught everyone by surprise, but it did help break the tense quiet as everyone turned to the doorway where Ian had reappeared. "I see my sister and her new "husband" have some more visitors." Ian couldn't help himself and his voiced fairly dripped with sarcasm at calling Phillip his sister's husband.

Now although both Mandy and Lana were seriously pissed at Moira for pretending to be Phillip's wife, they both none the less heard the implied sarcasm aimed at him. And that was something that they simply could NOT allow to go uncontested. Both girls surged to their feet and stormed up to within inches of his tall frame. Looking up into his surprised face they both tore into him with a fury that would have amazed even them had they been calm enough to hear it.

"Just what the HELL do you mean by that sarcasm asshole?" demanded Mandy in a near shout.

"Yeah, fucking explain yourself buddy. And you had better make it good or I'll kick your ass myself." Lana's voice was noticeably quieter then Mandy but no less fierce.

Surprised by there anger, and actually a bit unnerved by it, Ian started to splutter. "Well, it's just that ... I mean it's kinda ... I don't know. Kinda ... kinda ... weird is all. That's all I meant."

This was the wrong answer as far as the girls were concerned. Mandy was outraged. "Did you just say weird?! Are you implying that my brother, my TWIN brother is weird?!" Ian tried to open his mouth and explain when suddenly Lana lit into him too.

"I'll have you know, you jack-off, that Phillip is NOT weird! He's ... he's ... well he's simply amazing! He very smart and considerate. He always thinks things through. He's one of the kindest people I know."

"That's right asshole!" said Mandy. "He's got incredible talent too! He's a world class artist who can both draw and paint! He's even had a few pieces displayed in galleries he so good. And ... and ... he knows karate too! He's got a black belt in the stuff even."

Now Mandy would have continued on even more but then Lana couldn't help herself. "And don't forget drop dead gorgeous!"

"That's right!" agreed Mandy.

"He's incredibly good looking! What with all that muscle of his and those incredibly wide shoulders, he's practically got half the high school female student body and even some of the female faculty drooling at his feet! But does he take advantage of that?! NO!!! And the reason he doesn't take advantage of it is because he's goddamned gentleman to boot!!!" By this point Lana was almost screaming herself.

Of all the things that the girls told Ian, only one really registered with him. Unable to stop himself he asked, "Did you say high school? Do you mean to tell mean this guy's still in school?"

"Yeah, we said school butt-face. Problem with that?" demanded an increasingly mad Mandy.

"Yeah I got a problem with that. If he's still in school then he's still just a damn kid!! My sister, my twenty year old sister, is pretending to be the wife of some dumb high school kid!" By this point Ian was practically yelling as well. As it was he couldn't keep the disgust from his voice, as he thought of his sister with some young kid.

Ian's statement, and the disgust he failed to hide, were just too much for Mandy and Lana. With cries of outrage they practically leapt at Ian like a pair of rabid cats. All three were saved from creating a potentially problematic scene when Oscar caught both girls in mid-leap. All three arguers had been so caught up in their little scene that they failed to notice Oscar had left his chair to come up behind the girls. He had sensed that the girls were simply getting madder by the moment and he knew that his sister could do some seriously dumb things when she lost her head. He had wanted to prevent her from doing something stupid. When both girls had leapt at Ian, Oscar simply acted out of instinct. With a girl under both arms he turned and walked back to the seats, where he dumped each girl without any sympathy for potentially sore butts.

As Mandy and Lana rubbed their suddenly bruised behinds they looked up at Oscar and were about to open their mouths to complain when he gave them a look that said, "Don't even think about it." Choosing to spare themselves Oscar's wrath they hung their heads and tried to calm themselves. Both were a little embarrassed by their outbursts and what they had almost done. Suddenly they looked over to Elizabeth to see how she was taking their behavior.

Elizabeth for her part was quite embarrassed by her daughter's actions. She was also more than a little amused. She gave both girls an angry look that was only a little spoiled by the smirk that was trying very hard to bust loose. There outburst also gave her something more to think about, as the girls had accidentally revealed quite a bit about their innermost feelings for Phillip. This day just seemed to be getting longer and more complicated as it progressed. Shaking her head a little to clear it, she turned to Oscar with a smile. "Thank you Oscar. You managed to stop a very bad scene from getting totally out of control."

Oscar blushed at her thanks but nodded to let her know he appreciated her comment.

Unfortunately for Ian he just couldn't keep his big mouth shut. "Yeah Oscar, thanks. You saved my ass from getting into trouble with these two little heathens there."