Chapter 6
“Nana…” Scott said, rubbing his temples “Before we get into anything else… What did I tell you a year ago about trying to decide these things for other people? It’s 2020. People don’t arrange marriages anymore.”
“If she married him, their first-born child would inherit the family seat and his title and...”
“Mum… we’ve been over this what feels like every five minutes for the last eight years” Michael said, shaking his head “Gwen is trans woman. As much as she wishes she could, she can’t get pregnant.”
“Well… I… I was hoping that, well, the smart people had figured that out by now.” She said before she turned and looked at Scott “I mean, I had to do something. If you had just listened to me, done what I told you to do like a good boy and not married that…”
Scott bent down till he was nose to nose with his grandmother.
“I don’t care the reasons, I don’t want to hear the moaning and the groaning.” Told her slowly “If you so much as DARE finish that sentence, it will be the LAST thing you ever say…”
“HOW DARE….” His grandmother began
“EHM…” A cough sounded behind her. She turned and was now face to face with a leaning down Daisy.
“Hello… Nana…” Daisy said, her arms crossed and bearing a tone that made it quite clear she was pissed off.
“Oh… Daisy… Hello dear…”
“Have you been faking being nice to me all this time? AFTER I saved you from those crooks?”
“Well… I… I…” The older woman stammered. She hadn’t thought Daisy had made the trip as well.
“Nana…” Scott said, standing next to Daisy “All we want to know is what was said between you and Tisch. The man is dangerous.”
Abigale looked between the five people in the room and suddenly exploded in anger.
“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE YOU… YOU… INGRATES” She yelled. “GET OUT!”
“NO!” Rhys yelled. “Abigale… What has gotten into you?”
“You’re taking their side? Instead of your wife? A husband doesn’t do such things.”
“No, I’m not a husband taking sides. I’m a husband asking his wife a question. Why are you acting this way? What brought this on? You’re not making any sense.”
“Nobody ever listens to me. No one supports me. No one respects me. By the time I get back, I want you all OUT” She yelled again and stormed out into the garden before turning back inside for two seconds “And get that plane OFF my lawn!”
The room was silent for a few minutes before Coulson spoke up “Is she usually like this?”
“No, this is a stretch even for her…” Michael said “I can’t believe she wanted to marry my child off to the son of a wanted criminal…”
Michael turned to his father “Dad, seriously, what is wrong with her?”
“I wish I could say… All I know was it was after she went to Manchester a few weeks ago.”
“Well… Part one of why we’re here is answered.” Scott said. “She was the one dealing with him.”
“Part one?” Rhys asked.
“For the sake of honesty, something we seem to be lacking in this family, I will tell the two of you that Gwen DID contact us, and we do know where she is. She and Laura are safe, and we’ve got people keeping an eye on her. For security reasons, I won’t tell you where she is. But I will say this… She was terrified, I could tell. And when we logged in and played back your CCTV footage, we saw Tisch in this house. It doesn’t take an absolute genius to put two and two together. We’ve been hunting him down for nearly a year, but the man is slipperier than a greased pig. He’s always been two steps ahead of us. Now that we have a lead, we can find him, and he can be brought to justice. But that lead just threw a hissy fit and stomped out the door.”
“Yeah, you know her and her old-fashioned ways…” Rhys said
“You mean her racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and everything else one cares to name…” Michael corrected his father
“Yeah… that…” Rhys said, again ashamed of his wife’s behavior “She insists she’s not a bigot… but she lost her cool when she heard Laura’s last name was Goldmark. She’s so old fashioned she complains still they don’t say mass in Latin anymore, so to hear our next great grandchild would be Jewish… didn’t sit well with her.”
“That part is obvious.” Daisy said, sitting down and turning to her grandfather-in-law. The way Abigale had spoken about her had gotten to her and she needed to have answers.
“I don’t mean to make this about me for a second, but… does she… how does she really feel about me?”
“Daisy… I honestly couldn’t tell you.” He said “I don’t know. She never talks about you or Scott for that matter. She only ever goes on and on about the Charlie, RJ and Gwen.”
“What about Toni?” Daisy asked.
“As far as Abigale is concerned… she doesn’t exist. She doesn’t keep any of her pictures around. She literally told someone at a party a few weeks ago she ‘couldn’t wait to become a great grandmother”
“So, what, she’s embarrassed about us?” Daisy asked, insulted even futher. “After I saved her life?”
“Yes.” Rhys admitted. “It breaks my heart, how she treats you all. Ignoring you own great grandchild over something they have no control over.
“Because we’re inhumans?” Scott asked.
“No…” he said… “It isn’t that.”
“Then…?” She began to ask as she stood up.
He nodded and confirmed it to her “Because you and Toni are Chinese… It’s always been the fact you’re Chinese. Sure, she wasn’t too happy about the inhuman part, but she mostly was just her hiding the fact she doesn’t like Asians.”
“I’m gonna go outside and vent to a wall…” Daisy said as she went out a different door towards Zephyr Zero with Coulson following her, while Rhys got up to go to the bathroom, leaving Scott and Michael alone.
“This family and it’s damn urge to keep secrets…” Scott said as he downed another glass.
“You kept the fact you stayed with Shield a secret…” Michael said to him.
“Not saying I’m not guilty… but the kinds of secrets I deal in tend to result in people dying when they get out… That’s the difference.”
There was a loud sound outside.
“What was that?”
“Daisy, venting at a wall. You might want to call a mason in tomorrow.”
“I thought…”
“Venting with Daisy doesn’t involve yelling.”
Scott looked out the window at the hole his wife had just put in an old brick wall. Coulson was keeping his distance, watching her none the less.
“Daisy and I have built our entire relationship around openness to each other, ‘all cards on the table.” Scott said “I only skipped telling her about Gwen because it’s not at the forefront of my mind. I’m just used to Gwen being herself.”
“There’s another secret I should tell you… two actually.” Michael said, “Do you have time for a little ride? Come with me.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t leaving until I get straight answers out of that mother of yours and until Daisy is calm enough to fly.”
The two got in Michael’s car and drove down into the city. The ride was mostly quiet, Michael only starting to talk as they got into Swansea.
“I know you see things from a different perspective, both as someone of a younger generation and having grown up in America… When I was a boy… I was taught that we didn’t share our emotions for everyone to see… Stuff upper lip and all that. Taught not to stand out.”
Scott nodded.
“Growing up… I know you spent most of your time with the General when your parents were busy… But when you were with us, did you ever get the feeling Nana favored RJ over you and Charlie?”
“I never… I just figured I’m thousands of miles away, and Charlie… was, well, Charlie.”
“And have you always noticed how defensive she gets when we call him RJ in front of her? Do you know why? Do you know why we call him RJ?”
“Isn’t it his middle initial?” Scott asked.
“No… His middle name is Peter after his grandfather…” Michael said as they came to a stop… Outside a cemetery. “He’s ‘Reginald Junior.”
Michael climbed out of the car and Scott followed, leading him towards a small grave marker in the back.
“Your mother was nearly cut off from the family because she didn’t want to name you Reginald. It was only luck that your Aunt Vivian also has a Reginald in her family she loves and was going to name on of the twins that… Here we are… Hello, Reginald.”
Scott knelt down and read off the stone
“Reginald Warrens. Born 7 June 1971. Died 24 December 1971”.