The Other Woman (1/1)
Title: The Other Woman (1/1)
Author: WibbleyWobbley
Characters: Holly, entire Walker family
Rating: PG-13
Summary: In a way, she is part of the family.
Spoilers: Not really
Word Count: ~1,990
Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: There's a little bit of Evil William in here, and Holly's not the villain of the piece.
She realized one night that she marked the events of her life by children she had ever only known from a distance.
***
Rebecca had a sleepover the night Paige was born, which turned out to be a good thing. William had shown up, drunk on whiskey and smelling like cigars. He was ecstatic, of course, but also fighting the feeling that he was old. He was a grandfather.
She had laughed, sworn to him that she still found him sexy and irresistible, and then she proved it several times over. Before he left for the hospital again, he pointed out that this meant more time for them. With Justin in high school, off in his own world of friends and surfing, Nora had been rather clingy of late. But now she had a new baby to dote on, and William would be free to come over much more frequently.
She had smiled at the thought, and sighed as well, trying to figure out how she would deal with that. Rebecca was old enough now to ask questions, after all, and she knew that excuses about her mother’s friend Bill wouldn’t hold up much longer.
But she didn’t want to worry about that much, at the moment. While William showered, she opened her closet and removed the bag she had stuffed in the corner.
“Here,” she said to William as he walked back into the room. “I bought this a couple weeks ago, on a whim. It can be your excuse.”
William held up the onesie and read aloud, “Grandpa’s Little Angel.”
She shrugged. “I’m happy for Sarah and Joe,” she said.
William leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Thank you,” he said. With that, he was out the door, back to his wife and daughter and granddaughter. She looked around the room quietly. Then she began to clean up, so no sign of her visitor would be there when Rebecca got home.
She would have to remind herself, over and over again, in the years to come that Sarah was hurt and angry and lashing out. Punishing her because she couldn’t punish her father, not anymore. Knowing that never really helped, though, and she ended up fighting with Sarah almost every single day.
***
She had recently been rejected for a role and was feeling rather ugly and useless the night she met him. That didn’t last long. Because, oh, how he flirted. William had made her feel special, gorgeous, desired. He was witty and charming and debonair. As the night went on, the flirting became something more, became dangerous and real.
William pointed out his wife at one point, a rather mousy woman he left on her own as he worked the room (or perhaps, more accurately, worked her.) He even talked of his children, pulling out a picture of a young girl missing her two front teeth, who apparently was the star of her kindergarten class.
“That’s my princess,” William had said.
“Four kids,” she had commented, starting to feel a little twinge of something telling her to stop, to walk away.
Maybe William had heard something in her voice, because he put the picture away. “Yes,” he said. “They can be quite a handful, especially for Nora. They’ve…taken their toll.”
He stepped closer, and she felt a flutter in her stomach, and she couldn’t stop.
“I’m sure,” she said. “I imagine your wife doesn’t have too much time for you.”
“I’m afraid not,” William had murmured.
“That’s really a shame,” she had replied, running a hand down his tie.
He walked away that night with her number, and he called the next day on his way to look at some land. She turned down his offer of a weekend together. She turned him down several times in the weeks to come, actually. Sometimes, it was because she could see that little girl with her tongue sticking through the gap where her teeth had been. And sometimes, it was because she liked the feeling of power it gave her, liked knowing that he wanted her that badly.
A month after they met, she stopped saying no.
That picture was all she could think of, years later, as she watched the towers fall. Barely an hour after the second one crumbled, she couldn’t stop herself anymore. She called his number, and he picked up on the first ring.
“Kitty?” he had asked, the worry and fear and hope clear in his voice.
“No, it’s me. You haven’t heard from her?”
“No. I can’t talk. I have to leave the line open.”
“I understand. Please - please call me when you know.”
He had hung up then, with barely a goodbye. She hung up as well, taking a deep breath as she thought of his daughter, in danger and so far away.
***
William had laughed and laughed and laughed as he told her about Tommy’s first day in the warehouse. He had told the foreman to ride him, and the man had. The other workers had hid their grins, slacking off slightly as the boss’s son took on the majority of the work. Tommy sweated more than William had ever seen him sweat before, the muscles he had gained for football working hard to load the trucks.
But Tommy had never complained.
And that summer, he worked the orchards, spending hours in the sun as he helped plant and cultivate and eventually harvest. He stayed with other laborers during the week, and on the weekends he would come home. Nora would make him wash his hands three times before dinner to remove the soil stubbornly crammed beneath his fingernails. And then late Sunday night or early Monday morning, he would climb into the old truck he bought after he finally paid off the totaled car, and he drove back. And he never complained.
William would check on him a few days later. It became a pattern. Weekends with the family, a few days at the office, a couple days at the orchards, sneaking back for one night with her, and then back to the house for the family dinner. She would smile at and tease William about the look of pride on his face as he talked about Tommy. And later, when he thought about possibly buying a vineyard and wondered how he could run two businesses at once, she knew the solution long before she could see the answer start to appear in his brain. He never had the chance, though. And she remembered the hope and pain in Tommy’s eyes when he finally asked her about it. She may have said more than she really knew, but she couldn’t let him think that William didn’t appreciate or respect his work.
She would forget that for a while, later. When she was so mad and so hurt, she couldn’t see straight. When the one person in the family who had been willing to give her a chance betrayed her. It took a long time - and Rebecca's pleas - for her to remember the truth about the family business. The others, she knew, believed she dropped the charges to protect her own position in the company once Sarah returned. Perhaps she had; she wouldn’t deny it was part of the reason. But there was some small part of her that knew she also did it because…she still loved William, and she couldn't send his son to jail. And because she remembered that Ojai was Tommy’s. It was his home. He had built it just as much as William or Saul or Nora had, with blood and sweat and tears. It had made him the man he was, and in the end, it nearly destroyed him. Everything William Walker touched turned toxic in the end, it seemed.
***
They had been split for nearly a year when they reconciled for the last time. She was several months pregnant by that point, and she had already decided that David would not, could not be involved. She would not let her child be disappointed and hurt by him, not like she was. She had never been smart when it came to choosing the men in her life.
Case in point: opening the door and letting William in.
That was the night Aaron fell off the dock and never stood up again. William was exhausted and worried when he showed up. She listened in disbelief as he described the events of the night, and she wondered why Kevin - who she had always heard described as harmless, quiet, studious, shy, mild…weak, even - would physically fight with his friend. William’s ears turned red, as they always did when he was hiding something, and he denied any knowledge of the reason or cause. Several years later, when Kevin finally came out and William arrived at her place again, upset and angry, she guessed at the truth.
But that night, she had simply let William in. Let him stay for a few hours, working out his frustrations and emotions with her body. Before he left again, they officially reconciled, and William promised to support her again, and the baby too. He had even seemed strangely turned on by the idea of sleeping with her while she carried another man’s child. William always did enjoy competition and displays of power. And she had agreed, perhaps in a moment of weakness, perhaps because she never could quite stop loving him. He went away again, to go back and deal with Nora and York and the kid’s parents some more. She had curled up on the couch, wondering what she was getting herself into and wondering if Kevin was all right.
A week later, William left for a business trip; she would find out, decades later, that that was the trip he got Connie Lafferty pregnant. But he came home to Nora and the kids, and he came home to her.
It had been a crazy year, the year Aaron was paralyzed and Rebecca was born. She couldn’t help but look back on it with wonder, the year Kevin found out about Aaron and his child was born. She went to the hospital by herself, arriving minutes before visiting hours ended. She smiled as she looked through the nursery window at the little cart labeled Walker-Wandell and the squirming baby inside. Kevin was stronger than William had given him credit for, and much stronger than he himself had been.
***
They had one of their biggest arguments ever in late 1979. She liked to believe, naively she knew, but she liked to believe that there was nothing real in that marriage any more. That perhaps William would never leave her or the children, but that didn’t mean he still loved Nora. They simply had a marriage of convenience and habit long devoid of any passion.
She had been filming a movie that summer and hadn’t spared much thought to the regular trip to the Ojai cabin. But a couple months later, she found out that the trip had been fruitful in more ways than one, and there was another kid somewhat unexpectedly on the way. She was forced to confront the truth of William’s marriage and his feelings for his wife, and she yelled and cried and threw him out of the house. For only two weeks.
Honestly, she felt like a stepmother at times. She knew so much about those kids, had been there through their triumphs and defeats. She loved them, in a way, and perhaps more than she loved William even, because she did honestly feel regret at causing them such pain.
At the end of it all, Holly did finally let go of William, deciding to live the rest of her life for herself, whatever way she could. Holly accepted David’s love and later his proposal, and began to consider a future and a career outside of Ojai, outside of living off of something William Walker had built.
And ironically, it wasn’t long after that that Rebecca got married and those children became her family again.
The End
Author: WibbleyWobbley
Characters: Holly, entire Walker family
Rating: PG-13
Summary: In a way, she is part of the family.
Spoilers: Not really
Word Count: ~1,990
Disclaimer: Not mine
A/N: There's a little bit of Evil William in here, and Holly's not the villain of the piece.
She realized one night that she marked the events of her life by children she had ever only known from a distance.
***
Rebecca had a sleepover the night Paige was born, which turned out to be a good thing. William had shown up, drunk on whiskey and smelling like cigars. He was ecstatic, of course, but also fighting the feeling that he was old. He was a grandfather.
She had laughed, sworn to him that she still found him sexy and irresistible, and then she proved it several times over. Before he left for the hospital again, he pointed out that this meant more time for them. With Justin in high school, off in his own world of friends and surfing, Nora had been rather clingy of late. But now she had a new baby to dote on, and William would be free to come over much more frequently.
She had smiled at the thought, and sighed as well, trying to figure out how she would deal with that. Rebecca was old enough now to ask questions, after all, and she knew that excuses about her mother’s friend Bill wouldn’t hold up much longer.
But she didn’t want to worry about that much, at the moment. While William showered, she opened her closet and removed the bag she had stuffed in the corner.
“Here,” she said to William as he walked back into the room. “I bought this a couple weeks ago, on a whim. It can be your excuse.”
William held up the onesie and read aloud, “Grandpa’s Little Angel.”
She shrugged. “I’m happy for Sarah and Joe,” she said.
William leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Thank you,” he said. With that, he was out the door, back to his wife and daughter and granddaughter. She looked around the room quietly. Then she began to clean up, so no sign of her visitor would be there when Rebecca got home.
She would have to remind herself, over and over again, in the years to come that Sarah was hurt and angry and lashing out. Punishing her because she couldn’t punish her father, not anymore. Knowing that never really helped, though, and she ended up fighting with Sarah almost every single day.
***
She had recently been rejected for a role and was feeling rather ugly and useless the night she met him. That didn’t last long. Because, oh, how he flirted. William had made her feel special, gorgeous, desired. He was witty and charming and debonair. As the night went on, the flirting became something more, became dangerous and real.
William pointed out his wife at one point, a rather mousy woman he left on her own as he worked the room (or perhaps, more accurately, worked her.) He even talked of his children, pulling out a picture of a young girl missing her two front teeth, who apparently was the star of her kindergarten class.
“That’s my princess,” William had said.
“Four kids,” she had commented, starting to feel a little twinge of something telling her to stop, to walk away.
Maybe William had heard something in her voice, because he put the picture away. “Yes,” he said. “They can be quite a handful, especially for Nora. They’ve…taken their toll.”
He stepped closer, and she felt a flutter in her stomach, and she couldn’t stop.
“I’m sure,” she said. “I imagine your wife doesn’t have too much time for you.”
“I’m afraid not,” William had murmured.
“That’s really a shame,” she had replied, running a hand down his tie.
He walked away that night with her number, and he called the next day on his way to look at some land. She turned down his offer of a weekend together. She turned him down several times in the weeks to come, actually. Sometimes, it was because she could see that little girl with her tongue sticking through the gap where her teeth had been. And sometimes, it was because she liked the feeling of power it gave her, liked knowing that he wanted her that badly.
A month after they met, she stopped saying no.
That picture was all she could think of, years later, as she watched the towers fall. Barely an hour after the second one crumbled, she couldn’t stop herself anymore. She called his number, and he picked up on the first ring.
“Kitty?” he had asked, the worry and fear and hope clear in his voice.
“No, it’s me. You haven’t heard from her?”
“No. I can’t talk. I have to leave the line open.”
“I understand. Please - please call me when you know.”
He had hung up then, with barely a goodbye. She hung up as well, taking a deep breath as she thought of his daughter, in danger and so far away.
***
William had laughed and laughed and laughed as he told her about Tommy’s first day in the warehouse. He had told the foreman to ride him, and the man had. The other workers had hid their grins, slacking off slightly as the boss’s son took on the majority of the work. Tommy sweated more than William had ever seen him sweat before, the muscles he had gained for football working hard to load the trucks.
But Tommy had never complained.
And that summer, he worked the orchards, spending hours in the sun as he helped plant and cultivate and eventually harvest. He stayed with other laborers during the week, and on the weekends he would come home. Nora would make him wash his hands three times before dinner to remove the soil stubbornly crammed beneath his fingernails. And then late Sunday night or early Monday morning, he would climb into the old truck he bought after he finally paid off the totaled car, and he drove back. And he never complained.
William would check on him a few days later. It became a pattern. Weekends with the family, a few days at the office, a couple days at the orchards, sneaking back for one night with her, and then back to the house for the family dinner. She would smile at and tease William about the look of pride on his face as he talked about Tommy. And later, when he thought about possibly buying a vineyard and wondered how he could run two businesses at once, she knew the solution long before she could see the answer start to appear in his brain. He never had the chance, though. And she remembered the hope and pain in Tommy’s eyes when he finally asked her about it. She may have said more than she really knew, but she couldn’t let him think that William didn’t appreciate or respect his work.
She would forget that for a while, later. When she was so mad and so hurt, she couldn’t see straight. When the one person in the family who had been willing to give her a chance betrayed her. It took a long time - and Rebecca's pleas - for her to remember the truth about the family business. The others, she knew, believed she dropped the charges to protect her own position in the company once Sarah returned. Perhaps she had; she wouldn’t deny it was part of the reason. But there was some small part of her that knew she also did it because…she still loved William, and she couldn't send his son to jail. And because she remembered that Ojai was Tommy’s. It was his home. He had built it just as much as William or Saul or Nora had, with blood and sweat and tears. It had made him the man he was, and in the end, it nearly destroyed him. Everything William Walker touched turned toxic in the end, it seemed.
***
They had been split for nearly a year when they reconciled for the last time. She was several months pregnant by that point, and she had already decided that David would not, could not be involved. She would not let her child be disappointed and hurt by him, not like she was. She had never been smart when it came to choosing the men in her life.
Case in point: opening the door and letting William in.
That was the night Aaron fell off the dock and never stood up again. William was exhausted and worried when he showed up. She listened in disbelief as he described the events of the night, and she wondered why Kevin - who she had always heard described as harmless, quiet, studious, shy, mild…weak, even - would physically fight with his friend. William’s ears turned red, as they always did when he was hiding something, and he denied any knowledge of the reason or cause. Several years later, when Kevin finally came out and William arrived at her place again, upset and angry, she guessed at the truth.
But that night, she had simply let William in. Let him stay for a few hours, working out his frustrations and emotions with her body. Before he left again, they officially reconciled, and William promised to support her again, and the baby too. He had even seemed strangely turned on by the idea of sleeping with her while she carried another man’s child. William always did enjoy competition and displays of power. And she had agreed, perhaps in a moment of weakness, perhaps because she never could quite stop loving him. He went away again, to go back and deal with Nora and York and the kid’s parents some more. She had curled up on the couch, wondering what she was getting herself into and wondering if Kevin was all right.
A week later, William left for a business trip; she would find out, decades later, that that was the trip he got Connie Lafferty pregnant. But he came home to Nora and the kids, and he came home to her.
It had been a crazy year, the year Aaron was paralyzed and Rebecca was born. She couldn’t help but look back on it with wonder, the year Kevin found out about Aaron and his child was born. She went to the hospital by herself, arriving minutes before visiting hours ended. She smiled as she looked through the nursery window at the little cart labeled Walker-Wandell and the squirming baby inside. Kevin was stronger than William had given him credit for, and much stronger than he himself had been.
***
They had one of their biggest arguments ever in late 1979. She liked to believe, naively she knew, but she liked to believe that there was nothing real in that marriage any more. That perhaps William would never leave her or the children, but that didn’t mean he still loved Nora. They simply had a marriage of convenience and habit long devoid of any passion.
She had been filming a movie that summer and hadn’t spared much thought to the regular trip to the Ojai cabin. But a couple months later, she found out that the trip had been fruitful in more ways than one, and there was another kid somewhat unexpectedly on the way. She was forced to confront the truth of William’s marriage and his feelings for his wife, and she yelled and cried and threw him out of the house. For only two weeks.
Honestly, she felt like a stepmother at times. She knew so much about those kids, had been there through their triumphs and defeats. She loved them, in a way, and perhaps more than she loved William even, because she did honestly feel regret at causing them such pain.
At the end of it all, Holly did finally let go of William, deciding to live the rest of her life for herself, whatever way she could. Holly accepted David’s love and later his proposal, and began to consider a future and a career outside of Ojai, outside of living off of something William Walker had built.
And ironically, it wasn’t long after that that Rebecca got married and those children became her family again.
The End