Dinner
Josie wanted to strangle her agent. There was no need for her to be up so early on a Friday. Her daughter had been suspended yesterday, she should be sleeping in with her. Sleeping in was rare for Josie considering Mason only had a month sleeping through the night.
When her agent, Gwen, arrived at the hotel room Josie let her in right away. She had already made coffee but was grateful when her agent handed her a cup of coffee from a nearby coffee shop. Josie asked her agent to give her a second to go get a sweater so they could go for a walk and have a much-needed conversation. Josie grabbed her sweater and woke Jade. She let her know she would be back soon.
As they walked around the town Josie and Gwen made their way to Mystic Grill. They sat on a table outside to be able to have some peace for their conversation.
"You want breakfast?" Gwen asked Josie as she ordered her food.
"I'm okay," Josie told her. "Jade is making breakfast for us. By the time I'm back at the hotel my daughter and son should be awake and ready to have breakfast together."
"Okay, I'll get to it," Gwen stated. "Are you ready for the plan I have? For your book tour and your reveal."
"About that." Josie gave Gwen a smile. Josie knew her words were about to upset her agent. "There is so much going on in my personal life right now. I don't have time to reveal to the world that I am Olivia Saltz. I need to get settled back in and deal with my family first."
"Okay."
"Really no push back." Josie was surprised. Ever since her first book was published Gwen had wanted her to reveal who she was, she wanted the world to see that she was Olivia Saltz.
"No," Gwen answered. "From all these years in working with you Josie I have learned that you usually have good reason to do what you do. You are not ready to let the world know who you are that's okay. When you are ready. I am ready to set up meet-and-greets, and another book tour for you. I will handle canceling this book tour I set up. You have nothing to worry about."
Josie was thankful that Gwen was understanding with her. She needed just time, maybe a year or two to get herself into a good routine and get her life settled.
~~~~
Josie knew she could no longer avoid the dinner she would be having with her Hope and her family tonight. Josie refused to go into the family dinner alone, she was dragging Jade with her. Josie looked in the mirror one more time deciding she looked pretty enough in the red dress she chose. It was a simple knee-length dress with spaghetti straps. It reminded Josie of the red dress she wore when she gave birth. Josie still had the dress stored somewhere safe, she could not bring herself to throw it away.
"Jade, do we look pretty?" Josie chuckled softly at what her daughter ask the vampire. Andrea was nothing like her, she was outgoing, fierce, and determined when she wanted something. Josie knew those traits did not come from her.
"You two are the most beautiful girls I have ever seen." Josie smiled, whispering a thank you to Jade.
As they made their way to Lizzie's apartment Josie mentally prepared herself to face her family. To answer all the questions they had about why she left and how she ended up with both Mason and Andrea. She was also preparing for the inevitable conversation she would be having with Hope about Andrea. Josie needed to give Hope the truth before she told anyone else.
"Make sure you keep your cardigan on Andrea."
"Why?" Andrea whined. "It might be hot in there."
"Andrea. Just do as your told." Josie ordered her child. She did not mean to sound so harsh. Once Josie was convinced that her daughter would keep the cardigan on she knocked on the door of the apartment. Josie smiled when she was greeted by MG. She let MG know that she needed to invite Jade in, which MG gladly did.
Josie made her way into the apartment. Josie wasn't sure how she would be greeted but she was relieved when her mom and dad hugged her. Josie had missed her parents, she really could have used her mother's advice to prepare for her daughter. She and Jade could have used her father's help when they were trying to put the crib together, both times.
Josie stepped away from her family and looked over at the tribrid. Josie was too afraid to step closer to her. Josie smiled when she felt Hope crash into her and wrap her arms around her. Josie hugged Hope as tight as she could. Josie hated to admit it but she missed being in Hope's embrace, not just that she genuinely just missed Hope.
Josie was grateful they made it through dinner peacefully. There wasn't much conversation considering that the kids were with them at the table. Josie knew that everyone more importantly Hope had questions for her.
After the dinner, Josie and Hope agreed to let Jade take Andrea and Mason to get ice cream a block away. MG would be going with them, that way the adults could have a much-needed conversation without the kids being there to overhear anything.
"You know what I can't do this anymore!" Lizzie snapped as soon as the kids, MG, and Jade were gone. "What the hell were you thinking Josie. You left us and you didn't even say goodbye. You left me alone when I needed you the most, what kind of sister-"
"Dammit, Lizzie!" Josie shouted, cutting her sister off. "This isn't about you. For once this wasn't about me making a decision that benefitted you it was about me making the choice that was best for me, this once. Actually, scratch that it was about making the choice that was best for my daughter. I would have loved to stay here but considering the situation, I knew it would be easier if I left."
"Considering what situation honey?" Caroline questioned.
"Do you want to tell them or should I?" Josie looked at Hope. They took a couple of seconds before making a decision. Josie looked at the floor knowing she wanted to avoid her parents' gaze when Hope told her parents their secret.
"What Josie is trying to say is that there's a possibility that Josie's kid and mine are siblings." Hope was not about to tell Caroline and Alaric their daughter and her had a threesome. Hope would rather be dead, she would actually prefer to go back to being forgotten by the whole world than to look at Alaric and Caroline in the eyes and say she had a threesome with her ex and their daughter.
"Landon hooked up with both of you?" Alaric did not want to ask the question but he needed an answer. He could feel the anger bubbling inside of him how could one boy be so irresponsible as to get two girls pregnant around the same time. Alaric looked over at Caroline who had stood up and handed Mason to her. He knew that was her way of keeping him calm.
After all the awkward information was out of the way, Josie spent the rest of the time explaining where life had taken her in the past couple of years, she told her family the story about how she got Mason and explained the huge help that Jade had been to her since Andrea was born.
By the time the kids returned everyone was silent. Josie got to properly introduced everyone to her daughter. She knew that now she could never leave Mystic falls again, at least not permanently.
The ones that had ones that gained the most were the kids and the parents knew that. When they explained it to the kids Andrea and Niklaus did not seem bothered. All they questioned was if they could have a sleepover in the possible future which both Hope and Josie agreed to.
Everyone had settled down to watch a movie. Josie got up to walk Jade to the door. The vampire had to go to work.
Before Josie could go back in she heard the door close behind her. She was surprised to see her sister. Josie offered the blonde a smile and was relieved when Lizzie smiled back.
"I'm sorry I went off on you," Lizzie said. "I just really missed you, and I was upset that you left because I need you, Josie. Hope needed you, we all really needed you. "
"I know Lizzie and I'm sorry." Josie took a hold of Lizzie's hand. "I don't regret leaving because I did a good thing. Have you seen my kids?"
"I have, they are beautiful" Lizzie answered. "Josie you need to win the merge. For those kids in there. They're going to need their mom-"
"No. We are not gonna talk about this. We still have two years." Josie let go of Lizzie's hand to wipe her tears. All the time she spent away, she had shoved the thoughts of the merge in a deep corner of her brain. "I thought mom and dad were working on finding a way to stop it."
"All they found was that the only way to stop the merge was that one of us has to die."
"We will worry about that when we get there." Josie did not want to spend the rest of the night crying. She knew the merge was a real threat. Josie even thought that Lizzie would be the one to win. What shocked Josie the most was that Lizzie just offered to lose the merge.
One thing Josie was certain was they would worry about the merge when they had to for right now Josie wanted to enjoy her family.