Somehow I Will Ch.49 Family
by LilAngelGirl
 

Family

Slightly opening the door to her friend’s home Gwen frowned. There in complete darkness Miguel sat staring at the walls. He was still wearing his clothes from the night before and from the look on his face, his father coming home was weighing heavy on his mind. Such pain showed in his face, the way he just sat there thinking, lost somewhere in the past. Gwen felt her heart drop as she watched him, so grown up, this wasn’t a normal twenty-one year old man, no Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald had lived a life that made her own look like a slice of Heaven.
"Can I come in?" She questioned, the sound of her voice causing Miguel to jump. "Relax its just me." She smiled flipping on the light.
Miguel looked up at her, his eyes swollen and red, "How’d you find me?" He questioned his voice drained.
She walked over to him sitting down on the sofa. "I figured you’d want to be somewhere close to Luis, and his home seemed like the place to look."
Miguel shook his head," Nothing has changed in this place. It still smells like Sheridan, and Luis is just everywhere."
Gwen felt a frown form on her lips. "You want to talk about it?"
He turned to her lowering his eyes. "Not a lot to talk about really. Papa is back and there is still such a void in my heart. Its like him being here doesn’t even matter to me. Without Luis here I just don’t care."
"Miguel, I’m not going to tell you to jump up from here and go find your father and hug him and pretend he was never gone." Gwen said her words gentle.
"But you are going to tell me I’m wrong." He sighed. "Am I right?" He asked looking at her.
His smooth charm had left him she realized, and in front of her was the real Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald. No longer a game for either of them, life had suddenly swept in and she knew it was time to get serious.
"Miguel, your father does love you, I’m not saying his leaving was right, but he loves you. I saw that much in his eyes last night. You have a family that is true, people that care about you no matter what you do. Loosing Sheridan and Luis could have ripped you and your family apart instead it brought you closer. Do you know how lucky you are to have what you have? I have a father who loves me, but his mind stays on his money and how to make more of it, and a mother." She frowned. "Who only cares about me when I’m doing what she wants. You need to find a way to forgive your father."
"I don’t know how." He frowned. "He’s the reason Luis grew up so fast, when he left one brother ran off and the other had to jump in to shoes he wasn’t ready to fill. Gwen it wasn’t fair!"
Gwen touched his hand. "Life isn’t fair, we talked about this last night Miguel. I understand how you feel, and believe me you have a right to feel this way, but Martin is back, and you have a chance to be a family, why not just see what happens?"
"You think I should talk to him." Miguel sighed.
"Only when you’re ready." Gwen smiled. "And you will know when you’re ready."
Miguel shook his head and looked at Gwen. "You’re good for me, you know that?" He asked squeezing her hand.
"I like to think so." She smiled.
Standing up he looked at her, "Theresa called me right before you walked in, she wants us to come over, I think she wants to figure out what to do next."
Gwen frowned and lowered her head. "That’s a family matter Miguel, should I really be there?"
Miguel grinned taking hold of both of Gwen’s hands pulling her off of the sofa. "She told me to bring you Gwen, it doesn’t take long for a Lopez-Fitzgerald to consider you family, and as far as I know, we all feel that way."
Gwen moved away from Miguel, "We haven’t talked about what we are."
Miguel nodded his head, "And I know you’re not ready to do that yet."
"I just want to go slow." She sighed.
Miguel reach out and hugged the woman in front of him, "I understand that, and when you’re ready to talk about us, we’ll discuss it, but right now my sister wants to see us."
Gwen smiled taking Miguel’s hand, "You knew I’d come looking for you today didn’t you?" She asked confused by her new realization.
"I have a pretty good idea how you think Gwen." He smirked. "That’s why I told Resa that as soon as you got here we’d be right over."
"You told her that?"
Miguel smiled, "I’m a pretty smart guy sometimes, one day you’ll figure that out." He laughed as they headed out the door.
"I think I’m starting to." Gwen blushed.
~*~*~*~*~

Julian Crane sat at his desk, his mind everywhere but in his work. Being a honest man was odd for him, yet at the same time it was quite refreshing. He had his son, a man that cared for him finally, and his beautiful granddaughter, who had to be one of the sweetest children he had ever met, but along with that, he had his wife, and his extended family.
"Family." He smiled to himself. "I have a family."
If felt good to him, to finally understand what that word meant, so good in fact that he had called his youngest child Ericka and asked her to come home, the shock in her voice made him smile, and when he told her to find her brother, he heard her giggle. Later he would ask Ivy to talk to their oldest girl, see if she could help him with Jasolyn, that would be a job that even a man like Julian Crane couldn’t do alone.
"You wanted to see me." A loud voice suddenly said from his door jolting him from his thoughts. Looking up he smiled. "Ah yes, Carrie thank you for stopping by."
"What do you want know Mr. Crane? I’m a very busy woman." She frowned looking at the man she had come to hate.
"I’ve been doing a lot of studying my dear, finding out all sorts of things on you."
Carrie frowned. "What sorts of thing?"
Julian moved from his desk and looked at the woman. "I know my dear. I know everything."
"Everything?" She gulped.
"That’s right, but darling I’m afraid there’s a few things you don’t know."
"I have no idea what you’re talking about." Carrie said her face showing fear.
"Don’t play me for a fool child, I don’t have time for that. I know you’ve been working for my father, that he paid you to come here, told you to cause trouble in this family."
"Why would I do that? I don’t know you’re father Mr. Crane."
Julian laughed, "Oh you know father, because he called you right after you lost your last job, not sure why he did that, but he did it just the same. I know that he asked you to come to Harmony, why I’m not sure, But I do know he was very unhappy with me. Now you see his plan might have worked, except father is getting old loosing his touch." Julian laughed.
Carrie moved toward the door, "What are you talking about."
"It didn’t take me long at all to figure it all out this time, a few phone calls and his little secret was under covered. So you know what that means right my dear?"
"You can’t stop him, Al will never let you win!" Carrie suddenly yelled. "Jada is going to be the Crane heir, Al is going to take her and raise her to be just like him!"
Julian frowned. "That was his master plan? He was going to take that child from Chad?"
"No, I’m going to do that! With his help."
Julian studied Carrie, "Except you really don’t want that little girl do you? You only want the money attached to her."
Carrie rolled her eyes, "He said I wouldn’t have to worry with the kid, he would take care of me as long as I helped him. He told me you had went soft, and Chad would never make it as a Crane. He said your other kids were too dumb to run the business, he was going to mold Jada to be the perfect business woman."
"And you believed all of that?" Julian questioned. "Father never intended to make Jada the heir, if he wanted to make anyone the heir, he would have took Matthew from Theresa, my father doesn’t believe in women handling the Crane business, He simply wanted to make me pay for turning my back on him, and taking Jada from my son would have hurt me more than anything."
"You’re lying! Besides you still can’t win! He’s more powerful than you!" Carrie smirked.
Julian shook his head, "You see that’s where you’re wrong. Father has no power left, because you see my dear, I had him committed to a loony bin."
"You what?" The woman gasped.
"You heard me, I was quite worried about father’s mental state, so after many test were done on him, a few doctor friends of my found him a danger to himself and everyone around him. Your meal ticket has been locked up, which only leaves one thing left for you." Julian laughed.
"What?" The woman whispered.
"You, are to leave Harmony now, and never return! Your free ride is over dear, and my son’s nightmare has just ended as well."
"You can’t make me leave!"
"Oh I can, and I will, because I’m sure if you worked with daddy dearest, you broke a few laws along the way." Julian smirked. "So shall I make a few more calls? Or are you ready to leave now?"
Carrie frowned. "What about Chad?"
"Oh you don’t worry about my son, he’ll be glad just to hear that you can’t bother him anymore. My son is happy and as I said before, I won’t allow anyone to hurt him."
"You’re smarter than I thought Mr. Crane." Carrie said opening the door.
"Dear, there’s one thing you must learn about us Crane’s."
"What’s that?" Carrie asked crossing her arms.
"You never, ever, mess with our families!" Julian yelled. "Go now, or else I’ll make sure you live to regret it." Julian warned as Carrie quickly bolted from the office slamming the door on her way out.
Julian clapped his hands together and smiled. "Well that problem is out of the way." He laughed sitting down to savor his victory.
~*~*~*~

Theresa stood in her living room smiling as she heard the noise in her kitchen, looking up she saw Gwen and Miguel walk through the door hand in hand. "Well you two finally made it." She laughed. "I almost gave you up."
"I had to wait for Gwen to show up." Miguel said kissing his sister’s cheek. "So any food left?" He grinned.
"Of course, I out did myself again!" Theresa giggled. "Its so nice to have a house full of people again, I missed it."
Gwen smiled, "Thanks for inviting me Theresa, its nice to be included somewhere."
"Gwen, you’re like part of the family, You’ve been here for all of us, right Miguel?" Theresa joked winking at her brother.
"Right." He smiled. "I think I’ll get into that kitchen before the food is gone, Gwen you coming?"
Gwen looked up at him. "I’ll be in there in a second."
Miguel nodded his head and headed through the doors.
"You are so lucky." She said turning to look at Theresa. "You have this real family, its not fake like mine."
Theresa frowned. "Is everything okay with your parents?"
Gwen rolled her eyes, "Nothing is ever okay with my parents. I’m always fighting with one of them, if not both, sometimes just being around Miguel and your family, it just makes me feel better."
Theresa smiled. "Well if you’re going to hang around this family, your going to have to learn how to grab a plate of food without someone eating out of your plate before you sit down." Theresa joked walking toward the kitchen.
"Wanta teach me how?" Gwen asked.
Theresa nodded her head as Gwen followed her in the kitchen, inside familiar faces sat around the table, laughing, eating, even yelling.
"Do not touch that last blueberry pancake, that baby is mine!" Miguel called out.
"Hey, last one here gets leftovers." Justin joked.
"Aunt Resa I want more eggs!" Kendra yelled looking around for Theresa. "Aunt Resa!"
"Coming right up!" Theresa laughed.
"Daddy! Justin’s hogging the syrup!" Jada whined.
"Pood! Pood!" Matt babbled.
"Chad can you get Matt some more food?" Theresa begged as she filled Kendra’s plate.
"I’ll take care of Matt." Gwen offered.
"No, Chad can do that, you fix yourself a plate." Theresa smiled, then when a wink looked at Gwen. "So you think you can handle us?"
Gwen looked once more at the busy kitchen and smiled, realizing for the first time what a real family was, because for the first time she knew she was part of one. "I think I’ll manage." She answered Theresa as she teasingly slapped Justin’s hand as he grabbed the last piece of sausage.
"That’s my girl." Miguel laughed. "Welcome to the family!"
~*~*~*~*~

Martin kissed Pilar’s cheek as they sat down on their sofa. "Its so quite here now."
Pilar smiled. "That’s because everyone is eating at Theresa’s today."
"So do they usually eat here?" Martin asked. "Like when they were all little?"
Pilar frowned. "They haven’t in a long time. Not since we lost Sheridan and Luis."
"Darling how are you? Loosing Luis must have been so hard for you."
Pilar leaned up against her husband. "Sometimes I forget he’s gone. I keep thinking he’ll be back."
"Oh Pilar."
"He had this rare love with Sheridan, to pure, so right. They fit together so perfectly. I want that for our other children Martin, a love that is just meant to be."
Martin took his wife by the hand. "And do you think they have found it yet?"
Pilar quickly nodded, "Theresa and Chad, I truly believe what they have will never die."
"But he is Julian’s son, does that not worry you?:"
Pilar laughed, "Julian is a good man now as well, and Chad, he’s a wonderful young man, full of heart. He loves Theresa very much, and she loves."
"And Miguel, how do you feel about this woman he’s dating? She’s much older than him, and darling, you know who her parents are."
Pilar turned to Martin, "There was a time when I wouldn’t have allowed Gwen to step foot in my house, but time changes people Martin. I can’t judge Gwen because of her parents! She forgave Theresa for something many women would have never gotten past, and Miguel is good with her. He’s more mature, I believe in time those two will come to realize what they have isn’t just something to play around with. I have a good feeling about it as well. I also pray that Pal and Antonio wherever he might be, will find happiness as well."
Martin smiled. "You are a wonderful woman Pilar. I love you today more than yesterday and I never thought that possible."
"I’m so glad to have you home Martin, to have our family in a place where we can build again."
~*~*~*~*~