What the Rich Want
Author: PaulenaK
Email: toukalah@hotmail.com
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Everything WWE belongs to Vince McMahon. Everything BTVS belongs to Joss Whedon.
Feedback: Is loved and appreciated.
Summary: Wanting, taking, getting… and to hell with everyone else.
 
 
 
**
 
Prologue
 
**
 
 
 
The girl didn’t move.
 
Nor did he.
 
One of his hands was partly under the girls arm pit and partly on her breast, but the other was actually gripping the flesh of her bare leg well above the knee. He glanced sideways to see her skirt rumpled up almost to her thighs. His glance at the same time took in his sister leaning against a tree and saw that her expression was a fiendish mixture of laughter and glee. And as if reading his thoughts she cried, “Well, why don’t you then? Go on.”
 
Unconsciously his hand had been moving along the girl’s bare flesh and upwards, but it stopped when the body beneath him drew in a deep shattering breath. He looked at the face under his and saw it for a moment through an artist’s eye.
 
Her skin was beautiful, her lashes long and dark upon her cheeks and her lips, slightly open were moist. An unbearable feeling started in his loins, his body was hot as if in a fever and he felt like if he didn’t have release from this agony he would die.
 
He must. He must!
 
His sister’s voice jerked his head around to her again as she cried, “Go on! Take her!”
 
“Go away! Do you hear me! Go away!”
 
She made a sound like a laugh and moved from the tree, but as soon as he turned his head from her she stopped and her eyes went back to the two figures on the ground, one heaving with passion, the other stunned and frightened.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
It was the exploring hand and the contact of strange warm flesh that brought her out of her stunned state. One second she didn’t know where she was, the next she was screaming like she’d never screamed before in her life and for an untold amount of minutes she tore and struggled with the body on top of her – first in an
effort to escape and then for no apparent purpose but to still the pain between her legs.
 
After that the life seemed to flow from her and she lay still like one dead. Her eyes wide, tear bleared, she stared upwards conscious of the dark head nestled in the crook of her neck, but she had no energy now to push the body from her. Not even when she heard the terrible voice thundering as if god himself were speaking or when the startled shriek of a woman shook her ear drums did she move. She only knew that the body was lifted from her as if a mighty hand had swiped it away as it would a pesky fly.
 
She closed her eyes tightly against the indescribable pain – not in her body now, but in her heart. And when she opened them again it was to see a man standing above her. He was tall and unbending. His stance saying that he was a man of stature and authority.
 
Her hands fumbling she pushed down her skirt and rolled away from him. And when some minutes passed and she was able to drag herself to her knees – she was alone.
 
 
 
**
 
Part One
 
**
 
 
 
8 Months later…
 
 
Life on the street was tough. Always having to watch your back, look out for number one and survive as best you could in a world where one wrong turn or misinterpreted look could determine wether or not you lived to greet the next day.
 
Hadn’t she learnt that the hard way? She thought rubbing a tired hand over her very swollen belly. But looking back on that day eight months ago although she hated what had been done to her she knew she wouldn’t hate what she carried inside her womb. That man with the dark hair who’s image she would never forget hadn’t known it then, but he had given her something to live for. Something worth living for.
 
“There you are…” Came a voice from behind and she turned her head a notch to peer over her shoulder at the young man who stood there with his hands on his hips. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere, I’ve got a surprise for you.” He continued plopping down beside her on the grass and it was then she noted he held a small brown paper bag in his hand.
 
“Charlie,” she began her tone stern. “How many times have I told you not to steal food for me.”
 
“But-“
 
“I’m pregnant not useless. I can steal my own food.”
 
“But-“
 
“I’ve survived this long on my own and I can and will survive a hell of a lot longer after my baby comes-“
 
“I know!” he exclaimed a little too loudly and then in a more softer tone added, “I didn’t steal this, I helped old man Gayda unload bags of flour from his truck and his daughter Jackie gave me this food as a thank you, but hey if you don’t want any then I’m sure I could find someone else to share it with.”
 
He was about to get up, but stilled when he felt her hand on the warm skin of his bare arm. “I’m sorry Charlie. Please don’t go. I’m very grateful to you for thinking of me. You’ve been so good to me for so long and I hardly know why? I know I can be a bitch more often then not and that I tend to take everything out on you…” her words trailed off as she felt his hand on her belly.
 
“You may not want any help and certainly not a man’s, but sooner rather then later your going to need someone then-“ He paused to hold up a hand when she made to protest. “I’m just thinking of your baby. You can’t look after it if your not well yourself. All I’m saying is I’ll always be here for you Willow no matter what. For you and your baby.”
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
After feasting on a meal of fresh bread rolls and sticky current buns Charlie lay back on the grass to watch the clouds scurry across the sky as Willow leaned back against the tree they sat under and contently stroked her hand back and forth across her belly.
 
“Do you like her?” she asked.
 
“Like who?” Charlie replied.
 
“The baker’s daughter.”
 
He cleared his throat and shifted into a more comfortable position before again looking up at the sky. “She’s okay I guess. Why do you ask?”
 
She stole a peek at him through her lashes. “Because I think she likes you. Every time you cross paths with her father she gives you something.”
 
“So.”
 
“So… I think she likes you.”
 
“Maybe,” he shrugged and then grinned cheekily up at her. “But I only have eyes for you.” He replied and she would have believed the teasing tone in his voice if his eyes hadn’t of remained serious. 
 
Okay awkward moment, she thought rolling over so she and her belly could get up off the ground.
 
“It’ll be dark soon I better go and find a bridge to spend the night under.”
 
“Already taken care of.” Charlie replied jumping to his feet and holding his hand out to her.
 
“It is?”
 
He nodded and reached for her hand when she didn’t readily accept his. “Best door step in the city.” He grinned down at her. “Come on, trust me will you. I would never willingly let anything happen to you again.”
 
“Charlie, what happened to me wasn’t your fault. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
 
“Yeah, but you left out the bit about why you were there in the first place.”
 
She sighed, why did it always come back to this.
 
“You were waiting for me,” he continued. “That’s something I’m never likely to forget. Now come on it’s starting to get chilly.”
 
He pulled her along after him till they reached the road where he paused and let go of her hand to adjust her little knap sack on his shoulder when a loud blaring sounded from behind them causing her to jump and nearly lose her footing on the curb.
 
“Willow!” Charlie cried his arms shooting out to pull her back. “Bloody idiot!” he yelled at the driver, but his words were lost as the car continued on its way. “Are you okay?” he asked turning back to Willow.
 
“Not gonna let anything happen to me hey?” she said trying to laugh it off, but he could see that she was clearly shaken.
 
“Come on,” he said placing an arm around her shoulders. “It’s not far now.”
 
She nodded and they headed off both oblivious to the long shiny black limo parked across the street or the man watching them from inside.
 
 
 
 
**
 
Part Two
 
**
 
 
His shoulders straight and broad. His hands clasped behind his back and his eyes surveying the city that was New York from his pent house suite window. He sighed deeply as he remembered a day not too long ago of a man drunk on riches and power and a woman who had fed off the man’s antic’s like a hungry dog would a puddle of vomit. He shook his head wondering how those two people could have come from his loins. He sighed again. He had given no thought to the consequences of his son forgetting himself, had been too angry and above all ashamed by having found him forcing himself on a young
woman and then seeing his daughter standing there with a crazed look in her eyes and shrill like squeals of delight passing through her lips as she watched. He had acted on his anger and hauled his son up by the back of his shirt and half carried half dragged him to the waiting limo not having to turn back to see if his daughter was following. He knew she would and as his son struggled to straighten his clothes inside the limo he could only look with disgust upon his children.
 
They had left straight after that, no thought or even a last look towards the young lady left lying on the ground.
 
If the sound of a car horn hadn’t of caught his attention, if his eyes hadn’t of clapped onto that bright red hair that had his head whipping around for a second look, hell if he hadn’t of seen her belly swollen with child – possibly ‘his’ grand child – he wouldn’t be still here right now waiting for news from a private investigator.
 
If the child she carried belonged to his son then he or she would be brought up under a McMahon roof. He had already decided to pay off the mother, no doubt she’d be more then happy to get rid of the child for the right price. One thing he’d learned while growing up was that everyone had a price, which is probably where he went wrong with his own children. Both were spoilt, bratty and selfish.
 
As punishment for there act he had sent his son abroad to Japan to look out for his business interests there and to get him away from his sister. Her influence over her brother even scared him at times and he had wasted no time in meting out a punishment just as deserving for her in the form of marriage. Let her outlandish acts and wicked tongue fall at the door of her husband. He had had enough. He hadn’t seen either id them for over six months yet he always made sure to keep himself informed of there well being. They were his children after all. His heirs.
 
His son was doing well so he’d been told, his business in the orient was blooming and he’d been nominated business man of the year in ‘Business HQ’ the worlds leading finance and business magazine. His daughter he’d been told was learning the finer requirements of ‘how to be a lady’ in her husbands home town of Blackpool, England. Time apart was obviously doing wonders for them both.
 
A light knock brought his attention to the closed door of his suite and he turned away from the window to stand over as desk before barking, “Come.” The door opened and a tall man stepped inside not bothering to close the door as he approached the older man. “Well?” he continued. “What news do you have?”
 
“She’s a homeless waif,” the man said opening a manila folder he’d been holding and laying its contents out on the desk. “Her name is Willow Rosenberg.” He began pointing to a head shot of the red head. “She’d got no police record, no last known address, no next of kin…” His hand moved to the next photo. “Is always in the company of this man, a Mr Charlie Haas – also homeless. I’ve been told it’s more of a friendship then anything else.”
 
He ignored the PI’s words about the man in the photo. As far as he was concerned friends can still be lovers and made a mental note to check the baby’s DNA.
 
“I’ve got scouts out following there every move right now and they check in with me personally every twelve hours.”
 
He walked back towards the window. The other man took that as his cue to leave and headed back the way he had come only to stop in the doorway when the older man spoke again. 
 
“I want to know exactly when her baby is born.”
 
The other man nodded in understanding, “You’re the boss Mr McMahon.” And then he was gone leaving the older man to once again ponder over all he had learnt today.
 
 
 
**
 
Part Three
 
**
 
 
 
“I was going through an old chest today and I found these.”
 
Charlie turned at the sound of Jackie’s voice behind him to see her standing at the door way watching him as he loaded bags of flour onto the back of her father’s truck. She came forward holding up a baby shawl and various other items including a small yellow teddy bear with a matching rattle.
 
“They use to be mine, you may have them if you wish – for your friend…” she continued her words trailing off as Charlie smiled.
 
“That’s very generous of you Jackie. Willow needs all the help she can get and I know for a fact how grateful she’ll be to you for thinking of her, but are you sure you wanna part with these?”
 
She grinned up at him teasingly. “It’s not like I use them anymore.”
 
He chuckled. “I know that, but don’t you want to keep them… maybe hand them down to your own children?”
 
“I’m sure I’ve got other stuff packed away some where from my child hood days to pass down to my kids, like I said I went through ‘one’ chest, there have to be at least a dozen packed away in the attic. So please take them… with my love.” She said holding the items up to him again.
 
“Thank you,” he said his fingers touching hers as he accepted her offering.
 
“Oh Charlie!” she cried flinging her arms around his neck. “I can’t hold back any longer, I need to tell you that I love you. I would give all my possessions away just to hear you say you love me back.” Surprised all he could do was stand there while she clung to him all the while dropping little butterfly like kisses on his neck and cheek. “My father adores you,” she continued. “All this could be yours – the bakery and my father’s wealth could all be yours if we married.”
 
“Married?” he stepped back trying to put some distance between them but she followed.
 
“Yes, you could ask daddy now… I could get him-“
 
“No!” he exclaimed taking another step back only to come up against the side of the truck. “I mean… thank you for these.” He held the baby things up before moving out from the truck and from her and walked hurriedly away.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
Charlie sat beside a small pond situated in the middle of a park – one of many spots he liked to come and think, not because it was calming with Mother Nature all around, but more because it wasn’t. 
 
It was one of those ‘forgotten’ spots now overgrown with weeds and littered with beer bottles, trash and syringes. Not a pretty place at all, but he liked to come here and imagine what it may have looked like had the council kept coming around to clean it.
 
He always told himself that one day he might come here and devote the whole of his day to cleaning it, but every time he came he ended up sitting back against this very tree he was propped up against now and staring out at what lay before him and dream. Dream about life, the life he use to have and the life both he and Willow were living now.
 
“It could all change…” he whispered his words going up and dissipating in the breeze. “It could all change.”
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
“Charlie!” she screamed as the pain tore up her back, goddess she felt like she was being turned inside out. She knew when the time came it would hurt but damn she didn’t think the pain would be akin to a hundred knives stabbing continuously into her back!
 
She screamed again as her stomach tightened and knew she wouldn’t make it out from under this bridge where she had stopped to rest. 
 
“Charlie…” she cried again as the urge to push flared up inside her.
 
“You’re going to be alright.”
 
Oh thank you, she thought as the voice pierced through the pain that was slicing a fiery trail through her lower back. She opened her eyes to see a tall stranger hovering over her before the pain in her back intensified as it branched out and down and all she knew was she couldn’t ignore the urge within her anymore and she pushed.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
When it was all over she lay still and admired the little bundle of joy the stranger had wrapped in his coat before gently laying the little parcel in her arms.
 
“Here you go little lady,” he said sitting back on his haunches.
 
Willow noticed now that this man had been wearing a business suit and that his coat alone had to of cost hundreds of dollars. He must have been walking on the bridge and heard her screams. His suit now though was completely ruined. His once white shirt now stained with her blood, his sleeves rolled back up over his forearms and it was missing more then a few buttons. She smiled and reached out to place her hand on his. 
 
“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for coming.”
 
“You just rest. You lost a lot of blood. I’ll go back to my car and call an ambulance. It’s not far so don’t worry, I’ll be back.”
 
She smiled again before nodding so that he’d know she understood and then watched as he jogged up the trail to the top of the bridge.
 
Once he got to his car he grabbed his car phone and dialled emergency services alerting them to what had happened and then he withdrew a vial that held a sample of the baby’s blood in it and performed a simple blood test before comparing his findings to the ones he had on file.
 
When he found what was required he punched in another number and when the gruff commanding voice responded with a curt ‘McMahon’ all that needed to be said was, “You have a grandson.”
 
 
 
**
 
Part Four
 
**
 
 
 
“You still with me?”
 
Willow lifted her gaze from the tiny bundle she held in her arms to smile fondly upon the man who had helped her.
 
“The ambulance is on its way,” He continued going down on his knees beside her. Sure enough within minutes the sound of sirens could be heard blaring in the distance, the sound growing and growing until it came to a stop on the bridge above them.
 
“This is my card,” Willow felt the stranger press the item into her palm before his hand closed over hers. “Call me any time,” He added catching and holding her gaze in his for a moment before he got up and stepped out from under the bridge to alert the medic officers.
 
“Over here!” She heard him call out and after a rumble of footsteps
vibrating through the ground beneath her, her little bundle was taken from her arms as she and the baby were tended too, loaded onto a stretcher and then hauled into the back of an ambulance - All through which she never saw the stranger again.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
The first thing Willow saw when she opened her eyes was Charlie. 
 
His body was slumped in a chair by the window, his head bent forward and his expression relaxed in sleep. Her gaze moved on to the clear plastic Hospital Board approved box on wheels that passed as a crib, but not just any crib. This crib held her son.
 
He was wrapped snugly in a white blanket and through the tiny blue woollen hat on his head she could see a thatch of dark hair poking out the front.
 
Her son had dark hair. Her son… ‘HER SON’. Willow Rosenberg had a son!
 
An ear to ear grin spread across her face.
 
“Willow you’re awake,”
 
Her grin stayed and was matched with Charlie’s as she met his gaze.
 
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there, I passed by Gayda’s bakery and saw the old man unloading his truck and you know me I had to stop and help, Jackie gave these for you.” He gabbled on holding the baby things up in one hand. “Which was nice of her don’t you think?”
 
“Yes, it was nice of her although I reckon the gesture was more for you then me.”
 
Charlie felt the blood rush to his head and lowered his eyes when a giggle escaped Willow’s lips.
 
“And don’t be sorry,” She continued taking pity on him in his embarrassment. “You have absolutely no reason to be sorry. Neither you nor I could have predicted when my little fella here deemed it time to make his appearance in this world.”
 
“But you shouldn’t have had to be alone-“
 
“But I wasn’t.” She expected the confusion that appeared on his
Face and added, “A man was there-“
 
“A man? What man?”
 
“A nice man, he helped me, talked me through the birth.”
 
“Where is he now if he’s so nice?”
 
“I… I don’t know…”
 
By the hard set to Charlie’s mouth Willow could tell he didn’t like the fact that another man had come to her aid – And a strange man at that.
 
“He gave me his card,” She added holding her hand up and flexing her fingers. She could almost still feel the pressure of it as the stranger had pushed it into her palm. “But I don’t know where it is now.”
 
Charlie expelled a long slow breath obviously satisfied that Willow had no other link to the stranger so he let it drop and said, “The main thing is you and the baby are fine.”
 
The smile came back to her features. “Yes, we are both fine.”
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
Charlie left the hospital two hours later and only when the nurses took it upon themselves to physically escort him to the door just to be sure he actually left. They weren’t to know that they only reason he didn’t want to leave was because he didn’t want to return to there make shift house under the bridge alone, yet it was thoughts of there make shift house that had him leaving this time without a fuss. Willow would be discharged soon and by all things soft and cuddly he couldn’t allow her to bring her baby back to a
bridge.
 
What could he do? He was a bum who lived on the streets and more often then not begged for food. He had nothing to offer her before she got pregnant and now that she had become a mother he still had nothing to offer her. Nothing that is but a make shift house under a bridge and maybe a few bread rolls and current buns from the Gayda’s.
 
‘All this could be yours if we married…’
 
Those had been Jackie’s words to him. He would never have to sleep on a cold dirt floor or scavenge food from a rubbish bin ever again if he did what Jackie so clearly wanted him to do and what was more important – Willow and her new born son wouldn’t have to either.
 
 
 
**
 
Part Five
 
**
 
 
 
“What am I gonna do?”
 
That was the one question that had been buzzing around inside her head all morning and now that she had actually voiced them she imagines the letter dancing around her head like little bumble bees.
 
After a two week stay in hospital she and her baby were being discharged, being let back out into that world she called home, a world of hungry nights and cold mornings.
 
She looked down at her son sleeping soundly in her arms. He was so little and so adorably cute she mused leaning down to touch the tip of his tiny little nose with hers.
 
“What are ‘we’ going to do?” She whispered her head lifting towards the clock that hung on the wall.
 
Charlie would be here soon. She didn’t want to look at him when he entered already knowing his expression and his thoughts would only be a mirror image of her own, so when a few minutes passed and he did indeed enter her gaze went over his shoulder to stare at the pristine white wall behind him.
 
“You ready then?” He asked.
 
He was smiling. Why was he smiling? He knew as well as she did that she had no where to go but back under that bridge providing some other bum hadn’t decided to set up house there.
 
“I… I don’t know if I have all the things the hospital gave for little Xander,” She said holding her son close to her breast while she rifled through the brown paper bag that held all the free gifts supplied to her by the nurses. Gifts like medi-wipes, cotton swabs and nappy rash cream.
 
“Willow,” Charlie said from right behind her. She felt his comforting arm on her shoulder. “It’s time to go.”
 
“But-“
 
“Come on,” He said wrapping his arm about her arm. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
 
They said there goodbyes at the nurses station and soon Charlie was leading her out through the hospitals double electronic door and out into the car park.
 
“Why are we going this way?” Willow asked when instead of leaving the hospital grounds as she had expected Charlie instead lead her through the car park to a nest of small cottages Willow knew were reserved for visiting doctors and nursing staff.
 
“Charlie?” She whispered in askance her face telling of her confusion but he merely smiled, reached into his jacket pocket and extracted a small set of keys before inserting on into a door on one of the small box like compartments.
 
“Come on,” He said again placing a hand at her back to guide her inside. “Let’s get Xander settled in and then I’ll explain.”
 
The first thing Willow noticed was a single bed which took up most of the room and alongside it an identical hospital approved clear plastic box to the one Xander had slept in inside the maternity ward. Along one wall was a small two burner hot plate, a mini fridge and a fan. She walked to a closed curtain hanging in another corner of the room and pulled it open to reveal a shower cubicle and toilet.
 
“It’s yours Willow,” he said dropping the keys on the bed.
 
Willow walked to the bassinette and lay Xander down inside. “What are you talking about?” She wanted to know once she was facing him again.
 
“This bed sit, it’s yours. Jackie’s father pulled a few strings. I know it’s not much but its better then returning to the bridge.”
 
Willow was floored and it showed in her expression. “This is ours?” She gushed her tone still a little unbelieving.
 
“Well it’s not-“
 
“We have a place!” Willow shrieked cutting him off only to pull herself up when Xander protested to the noise. She quickly went to sooth him back to slumber but her smile stayed. “I was so worried about where we were going to go, but I should’ve known you’d take care of me.” She continued. “You’re always taking care of me. Charlie and Willow, Willow and Charlie that’s how it’s always been and now its Willow, Charlie and little Xander.” She sighed then leaving little Xander to wrap her arms around Charlie.
 
His expression was pained as he buried his head in her shoulder, his arms holding just a little tighter then usual before he pulled back.
 
“There’s more,” He said quietly turning away from her and taking a step back.
 
“Let me guess,” She said her thinking face coming into view. She sat down on the bed and crossed her legs. “You won a raffle and this was part of your winnings. Or you sold your soul to the devil in exchange for an actual roof over our heads.” She was chuckling by now but Charlie had yet to smile. “What is it?” She asked when she realised how serious he was.
 
“This bed sit isn’t ‘ours’ Willow, it’s yours. For now at least.”
 
“I don’t understand,”
 
Even though they were never anything other then friends he knew that they had both at one time figured they’d be together forever, as friends and as more and that’s why he knew what he had to say would hurt her, but he also knew that it had to be said.
 
“Willow…” He said only to pause as his gaze met hers and he could already see the hurt starting to surface there.
 
“What did you do?” She asked her voice sounding choked.
 
“Willow…” He repeated only to stop again when his mouth didn’t seem to want to voice what he had to say.
 
“What did you do?” She said again this time her voice was clipped and he watched how her fingers began to pick at the hem of her shirt, a sure fire sign of the turmoil that was going on inside her.
 
Without saying anything he raised his left hand, Willow only then noticing the band of gold that encircled his third finger.
 
“I did it for us Will’s,” He said when she remained silent. “I did it so we wouldn’t have to go back on the streets. I did it for you, for Xander and for me.”
 
Willow could only shake her head in disbelief.
 
“I did it for us.” He repeated going down on his knees in front of her and wrapping his arms around her waist.
 
Willow felt like ice. She felt like he had given her the most precious thing in the world only to snatch it back at the last minute, yet she couldn’t find it in her heart to hate him for it no matter how much she wanted too.
 
“Jackie.” She said her eyes remaining on the door behind him.
 
He nodded the side of his head rubbing against her belly.
 
“Well,” She sighed turning away and causing him to shift from where he had been kneeling in front of her. “You better go then you don’t want to keep your wife waiting.”
 
When he had actually gotten up and when the door actually closed behind him as he left she had no idea… all she knew was as soon as he did, her tears came.
 
 
 
**
 
 
Part Six
 
**
 
 
 
 
“What news have you for me.”
 
Vince stood as solid as a rock behind his desk, his words as hard and powerful as his stance.
 
“Well, man. Don’t dawdle. I haven’t got all day.” The matriarch of the McMahon family continued causing the man with him to take an unnecessary step back.
 
“They were discharged from the hospital this morning…” He began pausing to let the man who signed his pay cheques comment, but when none came he cleared his throat and went on. “…but have not left the hospital grounds. They are staying in one of the hospital bed sits, the bed sit itself is under the name ‘Gayda’, which upon further investigation is the name of the family Miss Rosenberg’s friend Haas has married into.”
 
“A bed sit?” Vince repeated obviously not having heard anything else. “She has taken my grandson to a bed sit?” He thundered only to relent a few minutes later as his mind pondered over the situation. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction considering she slept under a bridge before the baby was born, but the best place for my grandson to be is here, in this house where his father grew up. He can have so much more under a McMahon roof in a week then what his mother could provide in a life time.
 
He started to pace. “This house is where he will be brought up and you are going to be the one to see that that is exactly what happens.”
 
He stood perfectly still and listened to his boss rant. He didn’t like what Vince was cooking up in that maniacal head of his, but he knew whatever it was ‘he’ would see it through.
 
“Set up a meeting, I’ll make her an offer for the child she’ll no doubt have a price. I haven’t met anyone yet who didn’t.” Vince was saying now. “And if money fails to tempt her then we’ll move on to plan B.”
 
“Which is?”
 
“Getting my grandson no matter what it takes.”
 
The other man nodded once and backed out of the room.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
“Charlie!” Willow greeted him warmly as she saw him gingerly threading his way through the hospital car park. His shoulders stooped, his hands were shoved in his pockets and his head hung low to his chest, but upon hearing her voice he raised his head and smiled, his step picking up a little as he neared her.
 
“Willow,” He began hesitantly. It had been a few days since he had last seen her and hell having to stay away, but after her learning of his marriage to Jackie he had been loathed to come back in case she told him she never wanted to see him again. And then where would he be? In a marriage he didn’t want, a marriage he had only agreed to so that she wouldn’t have to go back to living under a bridge and now because of the choice he had made she wouldn’t. Not now. Not ever again. But was all that worth him being in Willow’s bad books? Was all that worth Willow cutting him out of her life forever? No. He soon realised, that’s why he was here now to throw himself at her feet and beg for her forgiveness.
 
Now that he was here though he couldn’t even look her in the eye, he felt his mouth open and then close and then open again, his palms were sweaty yet he couldn’t even find the nerve to pull them out of his pockets to rub them down the front of his jeans.
 
“Willow…” He began again his eyes on the ground, but that was all he got out as Willow flung herself at him, her arms wrapping around his neck, his arms automatically encircling her middle.
 
“I’m sorry Charlie,” She said. “I shouldn’t’ have sent you away like I did. You are my best friend, I trust you more then any one else in this world and I know that you were only thinking of me and little Xander, of course you had to do what you thought was best and I can’t hate you for that. I can never hate you Charlie so I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m happy for you and Jackie and that I miss you-“ She stopped then and inhaled deeply before adding. “-terribly.”
 
“Then you’re not mad anymore?” He asked burying his head in her neck and inhaling the scent of baby powder.
 
“I was never mad Charlie, shocked and more then a little sad… but… but I’m over it now.” She replied her hold on him tightening.
 
He knew she was lying, but the selfish thing that he was would take whatever he could get. He couldn’t imagine his life now without her in it in some way, shape or form.
 
She pulled back then and smiled up at him.
 
“I just want you to be happy.”
 
‘Willow, Willow, Willow…’ He thought sadly. ‘I’m only happy when I’m with you.’
 
“Now come inside,” She continued pulling him towards the bed sit. “My little man is due to wake up soon and you can visit with us both.”
 
 
 
 
**
 
Part Seven
 
**
 
 
 
Willow was falling into her role as a mom like autumn leaves fell from the trees. It was like a second nature to her and she found herself settling into her new life with awe for what each new day would bring and contentment for what her sons little life brought into hers.
 
Her friendship with Charlie was up and running again after there little hiccup, she had even hinted to him that he could bring his new wife over if he wanted, but he always had some excuse or another for why he always visited alone.
 
Willow knew the real reason though, Jackie didn’t want to know her now that she had what she wanted even a blind man could see that. But for Charlie’s sake she had wanted to get to know Jackie in more then a ‘Hi’ and “Bye’ situation, but she wasn’t going to go out of her way anymore then she already had. If Jackie wanted to know her then she would have to make the next move.
 
A sudden sharp knock at the door had her head snapping her out of her thoughts with a start and her first reaction was to check on her boy, smiling when she still found him sleeping peacefully in his bed.
 
The knock came again and she quickly got up to answer, not for a minute cautious as to who it might be as Charlie was the only one who came by.
 
So when the door opened and she was faced with the man standing on the other side all she could utter was a choked, “You.”
 
“How are you Miss Rosenberg?”
 
His voice was deep and low and not at all like what she remembered and it was a few moments more before she could summon her tongue to work to get a reply out.
 
“H… How did you find me? I thought I’d never see you again.” And then remembering her manners she moved out of the doorway and beckoned him entry.
 
He stepped inside and Willow closed the door, immediately regretting doing so once she turned around to face him. He was huge! His presence as well as his physical self filled the tiny room that was her home.
 
“Please sit down,” She said inching passed him to stand beside Xander’s bassinette.
 
“I’ll stand thank you.” He said his eyes darting to the tiny bundle. “How is he?”
 
Willow smiled talk of her son putting her at ease.
 
“He’s perfect,” She beamed. “…in good health and gaining weight everyday.”
 
The stranger nodded his head in approval.
 
“And you?” He asked. “How are you?”
 
“Better then when our paths last crossed,” She grinned and lifted her gaze to him, but his eyes were still trained on her son.
 
“Does he…“ He motioned with a nod to the bassinette. “…want for anything?”
 
“No. All he needs at present is his mothers love.”
 
Her brows furrowed as she continued to watch him – watch her son and only then did caution start to grow within her taking the place of the gratitude she felt towards this man.
 
“How did you find me?” She asked again.
 
He turned to look at her and instinctively she inched closer to her still sleeping son.
 
“What is it that you want?”
 
As if sensing her unease he relaxed his stance and took a step back.
 
“I mean you no harm Miss Ros-“
 
“Willow.” She cut in. “My name is Willow.”
 
“I mean you no harm Willow,” He corrected. “I am here merely to deliver a message.”
 
“A message from who?”
 
“My employer – Vince McMahon.”
 
Willow’s brows met in the middle and after a moments contemplation she shrugged and said, “Never heard of him.”
 
“He on the other hand has heard of you and wishes to make himself known to you… and your son.”
 
“Why?”
 
His eyes went back to the bassinette and it was like an icy claw had grabbed hold of her heart when he replied, “Vince McMahon is your son’s grandfather.”
 
Her grip on the edge of the bassinette tightened and she shook her head in disbelief.
 
“No… How… He can’t be…”
 
“He is Willow,” He said taking a step forward and clasping her upper arms in his hands. “Come and sit down.”
 
She allowed him to lead her to a chair and once she was seated he crouched down in front of her.
 
“That day…” She was saying now, her forehead furrowed as her mind conjured up images of Xander’s birth. “…You… did something…” She stared up at him her eyes full of mistrust.
 
“I took a sample of the boy’s blood.” He confessed. “I had to be sure.”
 
“And your tests were positive?”
 
He nodded.
 
“Mr McMahon requests a meeting Willow.”
 
She chuckled derisively.
 
“For now!” Her reply was harsh. “But I’m sure he won’t stop at just a meeting.”
 
The stranger remained quiet and she knew it was because deep down he agreed with her.
 
Willow lifted her head, her expression showing none of the harshness her words had portrayed, her eyes two dark green pools of misery.
 
“His son raped me.”
 
It was barely a whisper. A tortured pain filled whisper, but he heard it just the same.
 
“I know,” He replied in kind, his thumbs moved in comforting strokes where his hands held hers. “I arrived just as Mr McMahon pulled his son off of you.”
 
She remembered back to that day in the park. A woman’s voice screeching in her ears, being held down, pain and then the weight on top of her being lifted and then a tall shadow standing over her.
 
“Mr McMahon punished his son and daughter for there actions. You need not fear them now.”
 
“He’ll take my son away from me wont he?”
 
“I can neither agree nor disagree on that one, but there is something you must know. Vince McMahon is a very rich and powerful man and if he chose to he could take your baby off you without a second thought. All he’s requesting for is a meeting to see his grandson.”
 
Willow knew she had no choice but to agree. ‘A meeting’ when weighed up against ‘losing Xander altogether’ was certainly the better option, only ‘a meeting’ would just be the start of it.
 
“Shall I tell him you agree?”
 
She lifted a hand to wipe away the tears that were only now starting to fall.
 
“I won’t have to meet with his son will I?”
 
He shook his head.
 
“No. Shane had been sent overseas. You will be quite safe.”
 
“W… will you be there?”
 
“If Mr McMahon permits it - Yes.”
 
“Okay,” She whispered. “We will meet.”
 
He smiled then and reached forward to brush her hair back out of her face. He looked like he was about to say more, but a tiny whimper from inside the bassinette demanded both there attention. He stood to his feet and moved back.
 
“I’ll leave you to it then.” He said already at the door. “You’ll be seeing me again Willow.”
 
“Wait!” She called out before he disappeared from her sight altogether.
 
He came back to stand in the doorway.
 
“Yes?”
 
“What is your name?”
 
He smiled again and made a motion of tipping his hat as a gentleman would, even though he wore no hat.
 
“Names Helmsley, Hunter Hurst Helmsley.”
 
 
 
**
 
Part Eight
 
**
 
 
 
She knew it was *him* as soon as she saw him.
 
His eyes alone spoke of power and wealth, head held high and shoulder that went on forever. This was definitely a man who got his own way.
 
Always.
 
He came to a stop a few feet from her his gaze trained on the tiny bundle in her arms. Over his shoulder she saw Hunter waiting by the limo as impeccably dressed as his employer.
 
“Miss Rosenberg.”
 
Goddess, his voice is as sharp as his attire, she thought lifting her chin, refusing to allow his staunch frame to intimidate her any more then it already was.
 
“Mr McMahon,” She said amazed at how steady her voice sounded.
 
Vince McMahon took a step forward, his eyes holding hers steady and all he said was ‘The child’ and she knew immediately that he wished to see her son and even before she knew what she was doing she pulled the shawl she had wrapped around Xander back to reveal his tiny face to the older man’s view.
 
She watched as his eyes scrutinized the face of her boy for a few minutes. A few minutes that to her seemed to last forever and she inwardly sighed in relief when his eyes lifted to meet her own.
 
“How much?”
 
Willow’s brow furrowed, but it quickly turned into a sneer when it dawned on her what exactly it was he were asking.
 
“How much what?” She said through teeth that were clenched.
 
“How much would you take to release the child into McMahon care.”
 
“Release?” She exclaimed tucking the shawl securely around little Xander again. “You make it sound like he’s being held prisoner.”
 
“You are single right?” He went on as if she hadn’t said a thing.
 
“So are a lot of people,” Was her reply.
 
“I’ll take that as a yes,” He said his gaze still boring down on her. “You have no job, no income, no family. You live alone in a match box bed sit with limited space both inside and out. Don’t you think that’s rather like a prison?”
 
“I’m his mother,” She said unconsciously taking a step back.
 
“I would pay you well, you as well as the boy would want for nothing.”
 
“I already want for nothing.”
 
“Think of the boy. I could open so many opportunities for his future. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want him to have the best of everything?”
 
“He has my love,”
 
“And with me he’ll have his grandfathers.”
 
“He’s not for sale.” Willow said moving to step passed him to make her way back to the hospital, but he moved too barring her path.
 
“I’m willing to pay you anything.”
 
“I don’t want your money!” She spat turning on him. “I want my son. Now please let me pass.”
 
As soon as Vince McMahon stepped aside Willow hurried back up the path towards the road, passed the limo and passed the man who waited there.
 
And she didn’t look back.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
Hunter watched as she walked away.
 
He had told her that Vince McMahon wouldn’t physically try to take her son away from her and he had been true to his word, but the word of his boss always came with a clause.
 
No, he hadn’t physically tried to take the child, but the threat had been there just the same.
 
It was hard not to look at the man striding towards him now without a little bit of hatred in his eyes, but in the end he knew Vince McMahon would get his way no matter what. And that way always included him. It always did and no matter what the circumstances it always would.
 
“Hunter,” Vince said pausing by the now open limo door. “Get me all the information you can on Charlie Haas.”
 
Hunter made no reply as Vince climbed into the back of the limo. He didn’t need to. Vince McMahon already knew his answer.
 
 
 
**
 
Part Nine
 
**
 
 
 
She paced from one side of the room to the other, and then back again, over and over and over. Her movements edgy and stiff in the confined space, yet she hadn’t paused in her task since she’d entered her little bed sit and placed Xander in his bassinette. Her thoughts in turmoil she could only pace and go through her meeting with Mr Vince ‘Legend in his own mind’ McMahon. And she was still pacing when Charlie arrived his brimming smile turning down at the sides as soon as he saw her expression.
 
“What is it?” He asked. “What’s wrong? Is Xander alright?”
 
“Yes, yes,” She was quick to reassure him with a wave of her hand towards to bassinette. “Xander’s fine.
 
“Then what is it?”
 
Again her hand came up to wave off his question as a silly one. “It’s nothing Charlie, I’m tired is all.”
 
Her comment brought a frown to his brow. “Damn it. You shouldn’t be doing this alone.”
 
“Yet I am alone, in every sense of the word bar one – Motherhood. And that’s not going to help me if…” Her words trailed off.
 
Charlie swore under his breath. “If what Willow? What’s wrong? Please tell me what’s wrong?”
 
Her eye lids lowered shielding the truth she knew her eyes would reveal and whispered, “I’m tired Charlie, that’s all, just tired.”
 
“Then come,” He said taking her hand in his. “Rest, I will watch Xander… and you.”
 
Willow told herself that with her thoughts how they were there would be no way she’d be able to comply with Charlie’s wishes, but she allowed him to lead her to the bed anyway, smiled when he pulled a blanket up over her and closed her eyes when she felt his lips on her forehead.
 
Moments later she was asleep.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
Charlie watched mother and son through worried eyes.
 
He had promised himself that he wouldn’t allow any regrets to plague his mind, told himself day in and day out that he had done the right thing in marrying Jackie. Willow had a roof over her head, she never lacked food for herself or the daily necessities required for Xander.
 
“I did do the right thing, I did,” He mumbled under his breath, but the regrets were there just the same because there was still one thing he couldn’t give her, not now anyway - Himself.
 
 
 
**
 
 
 
Willow woke to Xander’s soft cry, a smile quick to form on her lips at the thought of her son only to vanish when other thoughts she’d rather not remember surfaced as her mind rose more out of slumber, thoughts that made her brow furrow and her small hands clench.
 
Getting up from the bed she leaned over Xander’s bassinette and gently lifted him into her arms, her smile again coming into play as her son’s warmth and smell permeated her and then the sound of his mouth making the tell tale sucking noises of hunger greeted her.
 
“Okay little man,” She cooed when his little body started to move restlessly against her as his sense of smell caught and held the scent of her milk.
 
It wasn’t until Xander was sucking hungrily at her breast that she noticed Charlie was still there, sitting on a chair his head bowed in sleep.
 
“Charlie,” She called to rouse him. “Charlie,”
 
He made a hurried snort and sat up in the chair groaning at the ache in his back and neck caused by sitting in the same position for far too long.
 
“Oh crap,” He grumbled slowly getting to his feet.
 
“It’s late Charlie, Jackie will be wondering where you are and not liking where her wondering mind would be taking her.”
 
Charlie lifted his hand and for the first time Willow noticed the gold Rolex he wore on his right wrist.
 
“Shit,” He swore lowering his arm again. “Newly married and-“ his words stopped short when he realised Willow was nursing Xander. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the little mouth moving hungrily against Willow’s breast and he couldn’t shake the jealous feeling he felt crept up his back.
 
“Newly married and?” She prompted.
 
He cleared his throat. And then cleared his throat again. “Ah… newly married and already in the dog house.”
 
Willow chuckled. “You better go then,”
 
Almost reluctantly Charlie turned toward the door.
 
“Oh and Charlie?”
 
“Yes,” He didn’t turn back to face her. If he did he might do something he’d regret so he kept his eyes trained squarely on the door.
 
“Thanks.”
 
The door opened and then closed and as Charlie stood outside the bed sit his very active mind and body welcomed the chill night air.
 
 
 
**
 
Part Ten
 
**
 
 
 
Days passed and Willow neither seen nor heard from Charlie. She hadn’t seen or heard from Vince McMahon either, but she welcomed that. And a tiny bit of her welcomed Charlie’s absence too.
 
Life was good. Once the staff from maternity found out she was living in there back yard they all made frequent visits, bringing this and bringing that for the young mother and her son, yet with all this new attention the thought that it may not last long always managed to push its way to the forefront of her mind, demanding attention and souring Willow’s deposition. No matter how many days were spent in good company Willow knew that something big was looming on the horizon.
 
And then one day it came.
 
How she knew escaped her, but that knowledge allowed her the time needed to stand in front of Xander’s bassinette before her front door burst open and a frantic Charlie rushed inside.
 
“I didn’t do it, Willow, I didn’t do it!” He cried falling at her feet his arms clamping around her thighs as if she were a life line. “You have to believe me Willow, I didn’t do it!”
 
“Do what? What is it?” She said her words just as hurried as his were. When he didn’t readily reply just continued to bury his face in her legs she lowered herself to her knees forcing him to meet her gaze. “Charlie,” She said cupping his cheeks between her palms. “Tell me, what didn’t you do?”
 
“Jackie’s father,” He cried openly now, his face flushed and his hair slick with sweat as if he had done a lap of the city before bursting through her door. “I didn’t do it.”
 
The sound of sirens which had been a blur before now screamed in Willow’s ears and these weren’t the sounds of an ambulance careening its way too or from the emergency depot either, these sirens were different. These sirens stopped right outside her door, there flashing lights shining through her open doorway illuminating the little room in red and blue.
 
Xander began to cry then, but before her brain could even send the command to go to her son a blur of uniformed men entered her little abode with raised guns.
 
“Hands up!”
 
Willow squinted through the bright light that one of the men shone down on her and felt the claw of Charlie’s hand digging into her as he was lifted and dragged away from her.
 
“Wait!” She cried. “What’s going on?”
 
The men ignored her and through the haze of chaos that had erupted around her she heard Charlie sobbing while another man read him his rights.
 
She caught the elbow of the closest uniformed man to her. “Phew,” She pleaded, “What has he done?”
 
The uniformed man look at her for a minute and then sighed, “I’m sorry miss,” He said flicking his hat back a tad from where it sat on his head. “Mr Haas is under arrest.”
 
“Yes, I can see that, but why? What did he do?”
 
“The charge is murder.”
 
“What? No! Who?”
 
“If you’ll excuse me…” He began and started to move towards the door after his colleagues, but again Willow grabbed at his arm.
 
“Please,” She begged. “Who?”
 
The man sighed again, pulled a note book from his pocket, opened it and replied, “Deceased name Gayda, his father in law I believe.”
 
Willow was too stunned to stop the man from leaving this time.
 
Mr Gayda, she thought slowly getting to her feet, Xander’s furious cries reached through to the mother inside her and she quickly went to him even though her mind was still trying to take in what the officer had said. Picking Xander’s tiny body up in her arms and holding him close to her she crossed the room to the now empty doorway.
 
“Shh…” She cooed rocking Xander gently, “Everything’s okay, everything’s gonna be okay…” But even as she said the words she knew they weren’t true. What was she going to do? How was she going to help Charlie? She knew he was innocent, that was the only thing she was sure of right then. Charlie wasn’t a murderer.
 
She was about to step back from the open doorway as the last of the police vehicles drove away, but something caught her eye causing her to do a double take on the door step and with furrowed brows she looked out into the night again and through the darkness a man appeared moving into the light where she could see him.
 
Hunter.
 
 
 
**
 
Part Eleven 
 
** 
 
 
“Let’s step inside out of the cold.” 
 
It wasn’t a request and Willow well knew it. Holding Xander to her chest she turned stepping over the threshold and back into the bed sit. 
 
“Charlie didn’t do it, did he?” 
 
Like him her words were a statement more than a question. He ignored it. 
 
“I warned you-“ 
 
“You told me he wouldn’t try to take Xander.” She cut in. “You looked me straight in the eye and told me your boss wouldn’t try to take my son.” 
 
“At the time I…” His words trailed off and then he exploded with, “Damn it, I thought you’d take the money.” 
 
“You thought I’d take the money?” Her expression as well as her tone told him what an idiot he has been to assume that! 
 
“Look how you live?” He said trying to justify what had and what was happening. “You live in a one room shoe box a fart away from the city morgue. Hell yeah I thought you’d take the money.” 
 
She wanted to scream at him that he’d thought wrong, but Xander’s warm breath on her neck was what kept her from losing it. 
 
“I will tell you what I told your boss,” She hissed. “My son is not for sale. Not for any price.” 
 
“Not even to save your friend?” 
 
Willow had known this was coming. As soon as she’d seen him outside she’d known. Her throat closed over in misery and her eyes were squeezed shut as she fought to still the tears of frustration that were building. Her body shook and it was on wobbly legs that she moved to put Xander down before her arms failed her, but she had taken all but three steps when she felt herself being swept up and carried the rest of the way to the bed, then Xander’s weight was gone from her arms and through a wall of unshed tears she saw Hunter lower her son into his bassinette. He appeared by her side a few moments later, his expression grave as he brushed the hair back from her face. For a minute he reminded her of the caring man who had helped bring Xander into the world and then he spoke, his words meant to offer comfort but only resulted in proving that that caring man of before had only been doing his job. 
 
Just like now. 
 
“Here’s the deal,” He began speaking in calm gentle tones all the while his fingers kept stroking through her hair. “Your friend has been arrested for murder and once he’s been tried he will go to prison, now Mr McMahon, he has a lot of friends in a lot of high places, he could get the charges dropped-“ he clicked his fingers “-just like that.” 
 
Willow remained silent already knowing what was coming. 
 
“All you’d have to do is give him his grandson.” 
 
There is was she thought. The words had been said. 
 
“There’s two ways this could end Willow,” He whispered his face very close to hers. “You can either give up your son and save your friend…” 
 
Willow’s eyes shut tight. 
 
“…or you can lose them both.” He continued. 
 
He stood then and the only sound she heard was his heavy footfalls as he walked to the door. 
 
“I’m sorry it had to come to this,” He said keeping his back to her, he waited a few moments more, but when she didn’t offer a reply he left. 
 
 
** 
 
Part Twelve 
 
** 
 
 
Willow sat in a state of shock. Her eyes stared but saw nothing. Her mouth was a thin line above her chin, her skin pale and her hands two lifeless objects resting in her lap. 
 
Her son for Charlie or lose them both. 
 
Never in her life had she hated someone as much as she hated Vince McMahon right now. Never had she hated his gutless lackey Hunter Hurst Helmsley the man who had been so kind to her at one time. Never had she hated Charlie so much and most of all never had she been so utterly disgusted in herself for what she was about to do. 
 
Xander lay sleeping in his bassinette. Willow had risen earlier than usual that morning to bathe her son, a task she took her time in performing and then she gently towelled him dry, dressed him in a blue grow suit, fed him his full of breast milk, held him against her and softly patted his back till he burped and then lay him back down again. She then readied his things, clothes and toys both Charlie and the hospital staff had given her, only to empty the bag back out again when she was done knowing they probably wouldn’t get used anyway, would probably just end up in the trash. It was then she settled back in a chair and waited. 
 
** 
 
The knock at her door when it came, though expected, still made her jump and it was on shaky legs that she walked to the door, turned the handle and pulled it open. Her eyes widened at the sight of Vince McMahon himself standing on her door step. She hadn’t expected him to come personally, had in fact expected him to send Hunter, but then again after all she had come to acknowledge so far about Hunter she knew the other man wouldn’t be too far away and fought the urge to look beyond the man standing in her doorway. 
 
“You won’t regret your decision Miss Rosenberg.” He said as she stepped back to allow him entry. 
 
She responded with, “Like I had a choice.” And then stuffed her hands in her pockets before she did something she regretted like use her fingernails to claw the much older man’s eyes from there sockets. 
 
Ever so carefully he picked Xander up out of his bassinette. “He won’t want for anything, I promise you that.” He started to move towards the door. 
 
“H… his name is Xander… Alexander.” Willow said her words tumbling out in a rush. 
 
Vince turned, nodded and sent her a half smile. He started towards the door again. 
 
“His shawl,” She said stopping him again. “M… may I keep it?” 
 
“Of course,” He said removing it from around Xander and handing it to her. 
 
Her fingers wrapped around it’s softness as Xander’s warmth seeped into her bones and she fell to her knees as the reality of it all hit and the cry that tore from her as Vince McMahon walked away with her son in his arms echoed through out the bed sit, but it may as well have been a whisper for all the good it did. Her son was still being carried away from her. 
 
She was still on her knees when Hunter entered. Without a word he picked her up and carried her across the tiny room to the bed, she expected him to release her, but instead he sat on the bed, pulled her against him and held her until her sobs subsided and her body stopped shaking. It was then her senses returned and she rolled over putting her back to him, flinching when he tried to pull her back into his embrace. 
 
“I’m sorry Willow, I wish…” 
 
She didn’t hear much after the word ‘wish’. She closed her eyes, her ears and her mind to the sound of Hunter’s voice. She had told Charlie before that she was alone in every sense of the word but one, and now even that was gone. Now she was truly alone. 
 
When Hunter left she had no idea, but when she finally found the will to move the sky outside had grown dark and the only light in the small room was supplied by the moon. It was enough though to remind her that all was changed now, that it was an empty shawl she still clutched in her fingers and that that hospital approved bassinette beside her bed would never know the weight of her son again. And it was in that same moon light that she saw the stack of one hundred dollar bills as thick as her thumb sitting on the bed beside her. 
 
 
** 
 
Part Thirteen 
 
** 
 
 
The money kept coming, month after month. Same amount, same thick wad. Passed over every time by Hunter’s hand and always, always it joined the other thumb thick wads inside what was once Xander’s bassinette to be covered up by his shawl and forgotten.
 
Charlie, after all charges had been mysteriously dropped became the new owner of Gayda’s bakery and a very rich man. He rarely visited Willow anymore, yet on those few occasions when he did, his visits were always shrouded in silence, both unwilling to talk about what she had done for him. And at the end of every visit as she watched him walk to his expensive car, in his fine expensive clothes and Italian shoes the same thought would always come to her; There was nothing in Charlie’s mind, but Charlie. 
 
** 
 
“Morning sir,” 
 
“Morning,” The tall man replied as he stepped confidently out of his limo. “There’s two bags in the trunk,” He instructed the two younger men who stood behind the no nonsense man who had held the head butler position inside the McMahon mansion since before he was born. 
 
“I’m afraid we weren’t expecting you sir,” The butler was saying now. “I’ll have one of the upstairs maids ready your rooms at once.” 
 
“Take your time,” He replied surprising the old man by clapping him cheerily on the back. “I didn’t think to tell anyone of my plans to return to Greenwich until I set foot off the jet so I can hardly fault your very competent staff for my rooms not being readied.” 
 
The old butler stood gob smacked. Never had he or his staff been subjected to an inkling of a kind word from this young man let alone a whole sentence. And the smile the other man wore? There was no sense of snarkiness in that smile, just genuine pleasure with his lot and those around him. 
 
“Sir,” The butler called when the young man turned to make his way inside. 
 
“Yes?” 
 
“W… welcome home sir.” 
 
Shane turned and took the few steps needed to bring him back in front of the butler and lifted both his hands to rest on the old man’s shoulders. 
 
“Thank you,” He said his smile shining down on the old man. “It’s good to be home.” 
 
 
** 
 
 
A lot of ‘Welcome home’s’ and ‘Good to have you back’s’ were what Shane was subjected to as he made his way through the open foyer to the stairs getting more than one curious glance when he replied in kind. 
 
“Where’s my father?” He asked the next servant he came across when both the library and his father’s study lacked the man himself. 
 
“I think he’s in the nursery sir.” A pretty maid replied. 
 
“Nursery?” Shane said after the maid continued on her way. “When did we get a nursery?” 
 
He continued on through the mansion in the direction of the east wing seeing as to his recollection that was the only wing not in use when he was last here. 
 
“Shane.” 
 
Bingo! He thought quickening his step towards the other man. 
 
“Hunter, how are you?” 
 
“Fine.” 
 
Shane smiled use to Hunter’s laconic sense of speech when it came to him. 
 
“Same day, different shit hey…” 
 
He smirked with a raised brow. 
 
“Does your father know your back?” 
 
“He will in a minute, is the nursery this way?” 
 
“There’s something you should know,” Hunter began but Shane cut him off. 
 
“After three years away I’d be worried if there wasn’t.” He grinned and then disappeared through the door Hunter had just exited. 
 
“Shane,” His father’s voice shone with surprise. 
 
He rolled his eyes. 
 
“Is it really such a shocker to see me home?” He asked turning at the sound of his fathers voice, but there he stopped, his throat closing over at the sight of a little boy sitting in his father’s arms, a little boy with dark unruly hair and even darker eyes. Eyes that mirrored his own. 
 
** 
 
Part Fourteen
 
**
 
"A son?"
 
Shane paced back and forth in front of the great hearth that dominated one whole wall in his father's study having just read the pathology report on the child's parentage.
 
"I have a son."
 
"Not just a son Shane, but an heir." His father replied. "Do you know how much it pleases me to know that the McMahon line will go on long after I have gone?"
 
"I can imagine," Shane said his eyes going to the door as it opened and 'his' son's nanny entered with the little boy in her arms.
 
"I'm about to put him down for his nap," She said.
 
Shane was amazed at the tenderness that appeared on his fathers face as he beckoned the woman closer.
 
"Sleep well darling child," The older man said taking his grandson from the nanny's arms only to replace the embrace with his own. "We'll play more after dinner."
 
Shane could only watch as the little boy smiled back at his grandfather. Like his eyes, his smile glowed with life and innocence. The sweet curve of his mouth shouting that the old man was the only thing in his universe. It was beautiful and heart breaking at the same time. Beautiful because of the trust that passed between boy and man, heart breaking Vince had never shown such affection with him.
 
A few minutes later Vince handed the boy back to his nanny and then the woman left just as quickly as she had entered.
 
"Where is his mother?" Shane asked as soon as the door had closed leaving them alone again.
 
"Don't worry about the mother, she has nothing to do with the child now."
 
"How did he come to live here? Did you adopt the boy or did his mother die in child birth?"
 
"Neither," his father was quick to reply. "She gave him to me. In return I have been sending her three thousand dollars a month for the last two years for her up keep, although I know not what she does with the money, from what Hunter tells me she's still living in that one room match box behind the hospital-"
 
"Are you saying she sold the boy to you?" Shane cut in.
 
"In a way I guess I am and in a way I guess she did." His father replied. "As well as the income I supply her with she works two jobs, toll collector up on bridge two and a waitress at night."
 
"Yet other than working flat stick she hasn't done a thing to change her living circumstances?"
 
"Not a thing, but when you're born into poverty, its hard to climb out. Maybe she thought it would be better to stay with what she knew."
 
"Behind the hospital you said,"
 
Vince nodded. Then frowned. "Stay away from her Shane, there's no reason to go open an old coffin that's lain in rest these past two years, besides you might give her cause to want more money."
 
"Since she's still living how she did two years ago, I highly doubt she gives a rats arse about the money."
 
**
 
Willow looked this way and that as she crept along the high wall that separated the McMahon estate from the rest of the world, it was Thursday. The day she most looked forward to out of all the days of the week because that was the day she saw her son. On the sly though, always on the sly.
 
She had no doubt that if she were caught she'd be looking at the world from behind bars, but if sneaking around on McMahon land resulted in her getting just a glimpse of her boy, then sneak she would.
 
crouching low she crawled on her hands and knees through a break in the tall fence and stayed low until she had reached a clump of shrubbery that proved to be an excellent source of cover for her to hide under.
 
And then she saw him.
 
He was getting bigger and bigger every week, she mused as she watched his chase his nanny around the little clearing, the woman stopping every now and then allowing little Xander to catch her and then rewarding him with a hug.
 
So lost in getting through the opening and her weekly fix of seeing her son she hadn't noticed that she had been seen crawling through the little opening, therefore lost to the fact that said person had followed her and was now watching her watch her son.
 
Without meaning to, said person took a step toward her, then another, like a moth lured unwillingly by a candle burning in the centre of the night and inevitably on the third step, a twig snapped beneath Shane's boot.
 
**
 
Part Fifteen
 
**
 
Willow's body twisted at the unexpected son, but it wasn't until her gaze clapped onto her intruder that fear overtook the surprise in her eyes.
 
"Don't be scared-"
 
His words came too late he realised as she made a mad dash for the fence line.
 
"Please wait... I'm not going to hurt you!" He called after her, but her petite form was already disappearing through the gap she had entered through, the same gap he had used to follow her when he'd seen her walking where other's wouldn't dare.
 
He followed her now back through the gap, stumbling in his haste and then he found himself running to catch up to her before she left him behind altogether.
 
"Please wait."
 
Willow stopped abruptly. It was that or run right into him as he stepped into her path. He held both his hands up in a gestor of surrender. Willow shifted from one foot to the other, ignorant to the taste of blood in her mouth caused by the gnawing of her teeth into her bottom lip or the dark red crescent indentations on her skin where her nails dug into her palms. There was nothing but her and him, and the memories seeing him again brought.
 
"Do... Do you remember me?" He asked only to close his eyes and mutter to himself, "...Of course she remembers you." How could she not, you raped her you silly sod, but he didn't say that out loud.
 
He tried again. "Do you know who I am?"
 
She nodded once before her gaze darted around them again and when his eyes followed Willow moved cutting away from the fence line this time, but he moved with surprising speed and Willow again found her way blocked.
 
"I'm sorry," He blurted out in a rush. "For what I did... you have no idea how much I regret my actions that day."
 
Still she said nothing.
 
He looked behind her to the gap in the fence.
 
"You can see him any time you want," He said causing her head to jerk up at his words. "You can come up to the house, I won't stop you."
 
"Y... Your father-"
 
"My father has no say in the matter. Not where the boy is concerned. I'm back now and... I plan to make things right."
 
Willow digested all she'd heard with an equal measure of surprise and hope. Surely he couldn't be suggesting that she would get Xander back... No, that was too much to ask after all now that he was back and knew... well, like father like son. Her shoulder's drooped as reality set in. She wouldn't get Xander back. That wasn't what this man was offering.
 
"Did you hear me?" The sound of his voice brought her out of her reverie and she lifted her gaze to meet his. "You can see him," Shane continued. "Whenever you want."
 
The ghost of a smile appeared on Willow's lips finally accepting what this man, the man who had raped her, the man who had fathered her child was offering only to disappear when he added, "Though why you would want to sell your child when its so obvious how much you love the little boy is beyond me."
 
Willow's mouth fell open and this time her resolve rose above her fear. She had no trouble at all finding her tongue.
 
"Sell him?" She spewed the words back at him. "I didn't sell him."
 
He frowned. "But my father's been giving you money every month-"
 
"Yes!" She cut in. "But I didn't sell him."
 
"Then how..." Totally baffled now he threw his hands up in the air in an awkward shrug.
 
"Your father came to me, asked a price, I said no. He didn't listen, took matters into his own hands. Next thing I know a friend is charged with murder. Your father's man comes to me, paints a nice picture of how my life would be without one or both of them in it." She took a breath and look down at herself. "Look at me, I'm nothing, have nothing. I'm no match for your father and all his money, just like I was no match for you that day in the park, so I saved my friend. And yet I still lost them both." The last was said in a whisper that Shane barely managed to hear.
 
"I didn't sell my son," Willow said her honest no nonsense approach giving her words strength. "Your father got him the only way he knew how."
 
**
 
Part Sixteen
 
**
 
Vince didn’t need to look up from the papers he was perusing to know that his only son was in a snit, the way Shane had stormed in with eyes a blazing swore testimony to that fact. Calmly he set the papers he’d been reading through down and met his son’s gaze head on.
 
“I take it you went against my wishes and saw that woman anyway.” He said.
 
Shane’s whole body showed his disgust in the man before him. From the rigid breadth of his shoulders to the soles of the extremely expensive shoes he wore, but from the neck up was another story. The way his head slowly shook from one side to the other, his beady intense stare and the lopsided slant of his upper lip told the older man of his sons dislike at how he had handled things. Vince actually paled, but a stubbornness that was bred through all McMahon males came to head and he stuck his chest out.
 
“Did you really expect me to let her bring him up in a car park?”
 
“You could gone a different way about it. Calling me would have been a start.” Shane stated.
 
“And then what? You’d have come back and married the girl?” Vince scoffed. “Highly unlikely, marriage wasn’t a word in your vocabulary back then and probably still isn’t now.” The corner of Vince’s mouth kicked up at Shane’s silence. “You made the mother of all mistakes,” He continued. “I fixed it. What else is new.”
 
“Mistake?” Shane exclaimed. “I raped her! There should have been no fixing!”
 
The ball of Vince’s meaty fist hit the desk top and his chair swung back wildly as he jumped to his feet.
 
“Well there was damn it! You’re my son!”
 
“And Xander is mine!”
 
Vince walked around his desk until he was standing in front of his son. 
 
“I did what I thought was best for you back then. And I did what I thought was best for your son by bringing him into this house by any means possibly. I don’t regret it and would do it again in a heart beat.” Vince lifted his hands until they rested on his son’s shoulders. “Let it go son. He’s ours.”
 
Again shook his head. “No dad,” He said taking his fathers hands in his and removing them from where they rested. “He’s not ‘ours’, he’s mine… and he’s his mothers.”
 
**
 
Everything has a downside, Shane mused as he made his way to his room. Even wealth. He couldn’t get away from it, even if he closed his bedroom door because his bedroom itself spoke of a luxury few enjoyed with it’s huge bed, plush furnishing and sink your toes in carpeting. He hated it. He knew he did, but he also knew that he couldn’t live without it. He could not even imagine what it would be like to go without… anything. Everything he desired he got with no questions asked.
 
His father had been right about one thing. He wouldn’t want his son to be ‘without’, to be hungry or cold. No. He wouldn’t want that at all.
 
He lay down on his huge bed and stared up at the pristine white ceiling and tried with all his might to spot a flaw, any flaw. After a few minutes had passed he sigh. There were none. His thoughts went back to his son and the little red head who loved him so much she risked prosecution for just a look at the boy.
 
I can’t fault that he brought the boy here, he told himself, but there is definite fault with his method. Closing his eyes he expelled a deep sigh. He had to find a way out of this mess, one that would be agreeable to all parties concerned. Not just the McMahon’s…
 
…So it was later on that evening that Shane found himself standing at the front door of Willow’s little bed sit with his hand held up to the door paused for the inevitable first knock.
 
“What are you doing here,” 
 
It wasn’t a question. Slowly he turned, his hand falling to his side when he saw Willow.
 
“I came to see you,” He replied.
 
“Why,” 
 
Again it wasn’t a question.
 
“We need to talk,”
 
“So you can tell me again how much McMahon money can give my son and how much I can’t? So I can watch you turn your nose up at where and how I live, at where I work, what I wear? I don’t think so. I’ve heard and seen it all before and if the unthinkable happens and I forget, well there’s that continual slap in the face that your father sends every month, so no, I don’t think we need to talk at all.”
 
“We do if you want your son back.”
 
Willow froze at his words.
 
“What’s this then?” Another voice asked from the shadows.
 
**
 
Part Seventeen
 
**
 
“Who am I?” Shane replied curtly eyeing the new comer up and down before allowing his gaze t rest on the man’s face. “Who are you?”
 
“Haas is my name, I own Gayda’s Bakery.” Came the reply.
 
Shane merely looked him over once more and then turned his full attention back to Willow.
 
“You can trust what I say,” He said his gaze intent. “On the boys life you have my word on that.” And then he turned, shouldered his way passed Charlie and disappeared among the cars that littered the hospital’s rear car park.
 
Charlie looked fit to spew, but at that moment Willow didn’t care about the boot to his ego at the other man’s obvious ignorance to his name and wealth. Her head was too full of what Shane had said prior to Charlie’s appearance.
 
If you want your son back, he had said. If you want your son back.
 
A ray of sunshine cut through the doom and gloom that had shadowed Willow’s life since she and Xander had been parted. She smiled.
 
“Who was that?” Charlie asked stepping closer to her, so close in fact that she had no choice but to meet his gaze. “What did he want?”
 
His gruff manner didn’t’t even put a dent in her good mood. Her smile increased. Pearly white teeth showed.
 
“That was Shane McMahon, Vince’s McMahon’s son,”
 
“What?”
 
“He says I can have Xander back,” Willow rushed on not hearing the anger in Charlie’s tone. “I’m going to get my son back.”
 
So overwhelmed with her joy she didn’t’t see anything else but that, not even when Charlie took a step back and shook his head as he looked down at her.
 
“You really don’t think he’s going to give Xander to you just like that do you? You can’t be that stupid Willow. He’s after something…”
 
Now Willow’s smile began to dim.
 
“…And I’ll tell you now he’ll want more than a polite thank you if he show’s up on your doorstep with Xander in his arms.”
 
By the end of Charlie’s verbal spiel Willow’s smile was nonexistent. Without another word she stepped passed him, wrenching her arm from his when he tried to stop her and disappeared into her bed sit hoping he’d follow, which he did, so that when she swung the door shut it’d slam right in his face, which it did.
 
**
 
Willow saw it as soon as it turned into the lane way and entered the queue of cars whose owners were waiting there turn to pay the toll cross Bridge No.2. And then watched as the long shiny black limo entered her toll lane. It pulled up along her booth and then along still until she was parallel to the passenger window which slowly slid down.
 
She gasped at the sight that awaited her there in.
 
“Xander…” She whispered, her eyes locked on him as he stared curiously up at her from his car seat.
 
He broke the contact by turning away, and then broke her heart by asking, “Who dat daddy?”
 
**
 
Part Eighteen
 
**
 
Her eyelids weren’t quick enough to conceal the hurt Shane saw mirrored there in her eyes at Xander’s innocent words. Quickly he leaned across the seat and smiled up at her as if nothing had been said.
 
“Hi.”
 
“Hi.” Willow replied her gaze still lowered.
 
“How about a ride?”
 
“A ride?” She repeated as if in a daze.
 
“Yeah,” he smiled again. Willow’s left brow kicked up at that smile. “You, Me, Xander… and the driver of course,” Shane motioned to the front of the limo with his hand. “What do yah say?”
 
Willow poked her head out of the booth’s small window and looked at the long line of cars all waiting to pay the toll.
 
“I can’t leave,” She said her eyes still on the long line of cars.
 
“Sure you can,”
 
Willow jumped. His voice came from right in front of her.
 
“W…What are you doing?” She stammered open mouthed. Shane had gotten out of the limo and was now standing between it and her booth.
 
“Willow Rosenberg,” He bowed low and smiled that devilish smile again as he righted himself. “Myself and Master Xander request the honour of your delightful company in a turn about the city.”
 
“Are you crazy? I can’t leave-”
 
“Yes you can,” He cut in showing her two rows of pearly white teeth. “You can do whatever you want.”
 
For an instant Willow wanted to believe him, especially when he looked at her like that. She felt all warm and glow-y like, but the honking from the horn of the car behind Shane’s limo quickly brought her back to her senses.
 
“No I-”
 
“Great!” He cut in again. With little effort he opened the booth’s door, grabbed her hand and hauled her out. “I’ve cleared my whole day and we’ve got a super picnic basket packed with every kind of picnic food Xander and I could find in the fridge.” He said hustling her into the limo.
 
Only when the door closed and her view of the booth started to get smaller and smaller as the limo drove away did she realise she’d probably lose her job. And then she clapped onto Xander’s shining dark eyes a mere arm span away and all thoughts of losing her toll booth job disappeared.
 
**
 
“Why do you work two jobs?”
 
Willow didn’t know why she felt surprised by his question. His father probably had a big fat file tucked away somewhere titled ‘The Mother’, hell, he probably knew what colour undies she had on.
 
‘Think of something else Willow,’ she told herself, thoughts of undies bringing up the fact that the first time he had seen her he had literally ripped hers off.
 
She shrugged. “Better than sitting at home thinking about ‘what if’,” she replied her expression showing nothing but joy as Xander stood next to her smiling at the daisy flower chain she’d made and draped over his shoulders.
 
The park Shane had instructed his chauffeur to drive them too was teaming with people. Loads and loads of people.
 
“I thought you’d be more comfortable…” He began shifting awkwardly on the travel rug across from her. “You know,” he continued, “…with the crowd…” His words trailed off and the only sounds that broke the uncomfortable silence that had enveloped them was from the boy who bonded them together no matter what.
 
“So,” he said, “Why do you need two jobs? Is the money my father gives you not enough because you know I could…”
 
As soon as he realised what he had said he wanted to do the undoable and reach out to take it all back. Willow’s eyes blazed and she was up on her feet so fast that even Xander looked up from where he was sitting on the grass, his attention taken away from the daisies in his lap. Shane was up on his feet moments later.
 
“I’m sorry,” He was quick to apologise. “I’m just curious because you…”
 
“…work two jobs?” She finished for him.
 
“Yes,” He replied.
 
“I didn’t ask for your fathers money. I couldn’t care less about it, but its given just the same. If he wanted it all back its still there for the taking. As for why I work two jobs…” She chuckled derisively. “…possibly one job now, the money that comes from that will buy my freedom.”
 
Shane’s brows met in the middle.
 
“I don’t understand…” He said.
 
“Where your father gives me money to keep me out of Xander’s life, I’m working my arse to the ground to keep someone else out of mine.”
 
**
 
Part Nineteen
 
**
 
Shane’s back stiffened considerably at her words.
 
“Who?” he demanded. 
 
Willow chuckled and scoffed. “It doesn’t matter who.” She turned to Xander who was still staring wide eyed at the two of them. She noticed his chin start to wobble and immediately edged her way across the rug to where he sat, still with a lap full of daisies. “It’s okay little man,” She cooed now wanting to pick him up and hold him, but more than anything she didn’t want him to pull away from her so she picked up the chain of daisies instead.
 
Shane turned away from the happy picture mother and son made. A powerful surge of protectiveness shot through him at her words and though he now had his body under control what showed in his eyes was something different all together. 
 
He shouldn’t be feeling what he was. He knew that. But knowing didn’t stop it. As he watched Willow interacting with Xander he realised that he wanted to be a part of it. He wanted them. Both mother and son.
 
It’d never happen his mind told him. You raped her! That’s something no woman would ever forget. Even if she forgave you.
 
“Look dada,”
 
Shane turned swiftly and then looked down to see Xander tugging onto his pants leg. A new chain of daisies draped over his head. He leaned down and picked his son up in his arms.
 
“Pretty,” Xander continued reaching up to pat the delicate arrangement adorning his crown.
 
“Yes,” His father replied. “…very pretty.” But Shane’s eyes weren’t on the daisies. They were on Willow.
 
**
 
Willow smoothed Xander’s silky hair off of his sleepy brow. The simple caress the only physical luxury she had allowed herself to give the little boy not for his enjoyment or Shane’s entertainment, but for her alone. Something to tuck away inside her mind to treasure always.
 
There day had progressed well into the afternoon and if not for Xander’s tiredness showing through in a mighty big wail accompanied by a full onslaught of crocodile tears they’d probably still be in that park.
 
Shane hadn’t brought up the subject of her working two jobs again, but she could tell by the set of his brow that that particular topic was still on his mind.
 
“You don’t have to walk me to my door,” She said once she was out of the limo.
 
“Yes I do.” Was all he said before leaning down to give instructions to his driver who then immediately got out of the drivers side and came around the limo to stand beside the open door where he’s easily keep both Xander and Shane in view. Then Shane was leading her by the arm through the hospital car park to her little bed sit.
 
“How about dinner?” He asked before she could even fish her keys out of her pocket.
 
Willow looked back at the limo wistfully. Shane knew she was tempted to say yes just to spend a little more time with Xander, but when she turned away from him and slipped her key into the key hole he knew her answer would be no and as if she’d been reading his mind she pushed the door open before turning back to shake her head causing her red hair to fly in a sleek mass across her shoulders.
 
“I’ve got to be down town in less than an hour.” She said. “Waitress.” She added when he quirked a brow.
 
Damn. For the few minutes it had taken for him to walk her to her door he’d forgotten all about her second job.
 
“I can’t skip out on it like I did the toll booth one, I need this one because I may have lost the other.” She continued.
 
Hands shoved deep in his pockets he nodded silently and then caught her gaze in his and held it.
 
“I’ll pick you up tomorrow then,” He said.
 
Stunned she could only watch as he turned and headed back towards the limo.
 
“Hey wait!” She called rushing after him.
 
He stopped suddenly. She didn’t and rushed right into him. Caught off guard she looked up into his eyes.
 
“I… you…” She shook her head. “…tomorrow… why do you need to pick me up tomorrow?”
 
He smiled again and as much as he liked having her body flush up against his, he set her back from him not wanting to alarm her with the obvious arousal growing in his crotch.
 
“Breakfast,” he replied glad he didn’t sound as strained as he felt. “…with myself and Xander. And then I’ll drop you off at your toll booth job.”
 
“But I may not have a toll booth job anymore.” She said to his back as he started towards the limo again.
 
For the second time he stopped, turned and looked back at her with a smile in his eyes.
 
“Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll still have you’re job.”
 
He left her then. Forced himself to put one foot in front of the other and then repeat as necessary before he confessed to her that she’d have her job back alright, even if he had to buy the whole damn tolling company!
 
**
 
Part Twenty
 
**
 
A voice drew Shane’s attention out of his thoughts of Willow and her need to work and he looked up as he neared his limo, his brows drawing together even more when he recognised the man standing idly beside his driver. The look on the other man’s face told him that whatever it was he’d been saying to Shane’s driver he hadn’t liked the answer if he’d gotten one at all.
 
Shane didn’t smile. Nor did he glance at the other man, merely issued his driver with instructions and then made to climb into the still open limo door where he could see Xander fast asleep.
 
“I want a word with you.”
 
Shane paused half in and half out of the limo, sighed and then stepped back out to face the other man.
 
Brown bored eyes me fiery hazel ones.
 
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
 
“The baker right?”
 
The other man’s chin came up at the obvious jibe. “Owner.” He corrected harshly.
 
“Right,” Shane amended trying and failing to keep the amusement from his tone. “Owner.”
 
“Willow doesn’t need you coming around here.”
 
“Tell you that herself did she?”
 
“I see what you’re doing.” The other man went on his voice rising with every word. He looked Shane up and down with a look of disgust. “You couldn’t get up Willow’s skirts the first time without forcing her and now your using that boy.”
 
His son being mentioned so crudely as ‘that boy‘ had Shane‘s hackles rising… so much in fact that the former part of the other man‘s accusation went over his head. 
 
“That boy is my son.” Shane said having no idea how he kept his voice calm when his fists were itching to pummel the man into the ground. “…and Willow’s son too… or had you forgotten.”
 
“Leave Willow alone.” Came the reply neither man caring that they were starting to draw a crowd in the hospital car park. “She doesn’t need you. She has me. I look after her. Have looked after her for the past three years. I…” He said lifting his hand to poke a very determined finger into his own his. “…I love her.”
 
Shane looked away from him then. This last three words cutting him more than he thought possible. He hadn’t even given a thought to the fact that maybe there was another man in Willow’s life. Had assumed there was no one. Surely she wasn’t involved with this man. She couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be possibly. Not to his way of thinking… but… what it if was?”
 
The other man chuckled. “I see she didn’t tell you about me…”
 
Shane hated the hint of knowing that laced the other man’s tone.
 
“…but then again why should she? You see I know everything.”
 
Shane’s head snapped up at his remark.
 
“Yeah, that’s right Sparky. I know what happened in that park three years ago. I know what you did you cheap fuck.”
 
“Haas…” Shane murmured a sigh of realisation crossing his face. “…Charlie Haas.”
 
“That’s right-”
 
“You’re the friend Willow saved from taking that murder wrap” Shane continued talking over the other man. “She saved you and you left her in this dive, while you wile away your days living the life of a rich man and not just any rich man either, but a married rich man. Tell me, what would your wife think if she knew you were in love with another woman? Especially now that her father’s dead and everything that was his has now passed on to you.”
 
“It maybe a married man Willow sees when she looks at me, but at least she doesn’t see a rapist.”
 
Shane bristled.
 
Charlie’s mouth kicked up at the corner. “That’s something she’ll always see…” He added, “…no matter what.”
 
**
 
Part Twenty-one
 
**
 
A silver platter with his mail sitting on it awaited Shane when he strode into the breakfast room early that morning. Ignoring it for the moment as well as the older man sitting at the head of the table he went instead to the buffet that lined one whole side of the room where he helped himself to coffee from the percolator that sat there rather than seat himself and wait to be served, which was the norm. That done he then took the required steps back to where he father sat, seated himself and then prepared to read his mail.
 
He opened a large yellow envelope marked ‘express’ first. Perused its contents. Smiled. And then stuffed it all back into the envelope. He had made some fast calls last night and paid good money for his lawyer to push his plans through after his unexpected chat with Haas yesterday. He knew he’d never have a future with Willow, not the future he wanted anyway, so he was going to do the only thing he could to make up for his past wrongs. He was going to take himself and his father out of the equation.
 
Shane could feel his fathers eyes on him, but still he ignored the older man and calmly sipped his coffee while he scanned the rest of his mail. He heard the flick of paper as his father shook the newspaper he’d been reading with a sharp flick of his wrist. Shane knew his old man though, knew he was trying to get his attention… without seeming too obvious. Hah! He thought and with a chuckle he reached inside his jacket pocket and drew forth his mobile phone. He keyed in a number and then waited.
 
It was picked up on the second ring by an operator. Shane politely asked for a specific number and then waited again to be put through.
 
“Tolling Industries?” He asked when the connection was made.
 
**
 
Giving up on the farce of reading the morning newspaper he held Vince laid the pages down and watched his son through shrewd eyes. He hadn’t missed the name of the corporation his son was calling and his brain wasn’t that addled with age that he couldn’t put two and two together.
 
He waited until his son had ended his call before saying, “Let it be Shane, please…”
 
Shane lifted his cup to his mouth and finished the remainder of his coffee with one gulp before setting his cup back on the table.
 
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” he said drawing the contents out of the huge manila envelope again. “I was going to wait till later,” He continued reaching into his jacket pocket again to replace his mobile and bring forth a gold ball point pen. He immediately began scrawling his mark on several of the papers he had pulled out and once done placed a portion of them on the table in front of his father, “…but no point in holding off the inevitable.”
 
Vince’s brows drew together in a stern ’V’ before he allowed them to drop to the pages before him.
 
“You can’t do this…” He said, his shock at what he was looking at evident in his voice. “Shane…” He said lifting page after page in swift hurried motions. “You can’t…” But Shane was already up and striding towards the door.
 
“It’s already done dad…” He paused only long enough to say to the only other man who stood silently in the room. “…and what’s stated in those pages goes for you too big guy.”
 
Wether Hunter acknowledged his words of not Shane had no idea nor did he care.
 
“Shane…” he heard his father call as he made his way down the hall away from the breakfast room. “SHANE!”
 
He didn’t look back.
 
**
 
Part Twenty-two
 
**
 
As instructed his limo, driver and son were all waiting for him as he descended the front steps of the McMahon mansion. With a smile and a thank you he plucked Xander from the arms of his nanny and got in the limo. A wide eyed little boy with his thumb in his mouth had time to raise a chubby fisted hand in offer of a wave to his nanny before the limo door shut.
 
**
 
“Thank you for breakfast,”
 
“It was my pleasure.”
 
“…and for the ride…”
 
“Think nothing of it.”
 
“…oh… but I must…”
 
A dark brow rose. 
 
“You must?” He queried.
 
She nodded enthusiastically. “I must I’m afraid.”
 
His brow stayed raised, that action alone an unasked question.
 
Willow nodded to the view outside the limo window and stated. “Your drivers going the wrong way.”
 
Shane’s gaze followed Willow’s to the clean suburban street lined with brick veneer town house after brick veneer town house, each sporting a patch of deep green lawn covering the front lot with a row of bright brilliant flowers lining the foot path that lead to the letter box.
 
He turned back to Willow with a smile on his face. “We’re not going the wrong way.”
 
“Bridge two is down town, you’re heading into… no scratch that, we’re already ‘in’ the suburbs.”
 
“But not just any suburb,” he still wore his smile. “Neighbourhood watch is in full force in this area. I had it checked out. There’s a play ground just around the corner, a mini-mart two minutes walk in the opposite direction and a school two streets over. A terrific spot and pretty too, don’t you think?”
 
“I guess so,” she said her eyes not on the view outside at all. “…but my job is on the other side of town and now because of this little joy ride into a neighbourhood I’m probably never going to see again it’s a given fact now that I’m really going to be looking for a new day job.”
 
“Wow,” His eyes were as big as saucers. “…did you breathe at all… at any time throughout that?”
 
“Shane!” she cried in exasperation.
 
He stared at her.
 
She stared at him.
 
And then they both stared at Xander, who gave them a wide smile. Willow’s frustration fled immediately.
 
“I told you I needed this job,” She said now calmed beyond distraction by the tiny form across from her.
 
“Yes, I know.”
 
He didn’t explain more and Willow didn’t ask for more as the limo pulled up outside one of the town houses.
 
“Who lives here?” She asked, but again Shane kept silent, merely got out of the limo pulling her with him and then leaned back in to get Xander. They walked up to the front door together and before she knew what was happening Shane had produced a key.
 
“Here,” He said finally shoving Xander at her. “You hold the baby,” …and after she had Xander in her arms, “…you’re less likely to kill me with our son in your arms.”
 
Silently she followed him over the threshold. 
 
“What’s going on?” She asked scared and excited at what his answer would be.
 
“Come into the kitchen Willow,” He said placing a hand at the small of her back to lead her.“…and I’ll explain everything.”
 
**
 
Part Twenty-three
 
**
 
“You’re leaving?”
 
“A new branch of the family business is starting up in Australia.” Shane explained. “I’ll be heading it up.”
 
“Oh.” Was all Willow said. She didn’t hear anything else after that. Inwardly though was another thing altogether and she lowered her lashes knowing her thoughts would show there.
 
‘He’s taking Xander away,’ her mind told her. ‘…an ocean way, where I can’t follow.’
 
“…living in a bed sit, which comes down to why…” but none of his words registered. She could see his lips moving, but no sound broke through the clanging that had erupted inside her head.
 
“Willow?”
 
She felt his hands on her arms now, leading her.
 
“…sit down I’ll get you a glass of water… or I could if we had a glass. Damn…”
 
He was at her side again and his hands were cradling her face in there palms, smoothing back her hair and bringing warmth back to her skin.
 
“…I was in such a hurry to deck this place out I forgot the little things… like cups and such…” he added with a chuckle, but his attempt at amusement didn’t relieve the milky white colour from Willow’s hands as they lay clenched in her lap or the concern marring Shane’s brow.
 
“What is it Willow? Don’t you like it? It’s not final if you don’t, we can go look at some other places… anywhere you want, any suburb, any city… I’m leaving in a few days you see so I made some calls… quite a few calls actually to get you and Xander settled in before I left.”
 
Willow’s eyes flicked up to his.
 
“Me and Xander?”
 
Shane looked confused for a minute and then chuckled. 
 
“Haven’t you heard a thing I’ve been saying?”
 
“Nothing after you said you were leaving and everything after you said me and Xander.”
 
He laughed outright now.
 
“I swear Willow, you are not like any woman I have met before.” He tugged on a lock of her hair, his eyes still shining. “All of this,” he went on flinging an arm around the room. “…is yours… and Xander’s. I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing you and Xander were living in that blasted bed sit while I slept in a room big enough for twenty. It’s all signed, sealed and delivered, at least on my part, the papers still need your signature to make it legit and you don’t need to worry about my father, Xander will be your responsibility, not his.”
 
“You’re giving him back to me…” her expression went from shocked amazement to happy-happy-joy-joy in less than three seconds. “Oh my god… you’re giving him back to me!”
 
She threw her free arm around his neck conscious of Xander’s weight tying up her other arm, yet still managed to squish the little boy between them. His giggles floated up around them loving this new game.
 
Willow stepped back a few moments later much to Shane’s dismay, but the warmth and joy that radiated from her eyes and her wide grin more than made up for it. His gaze flew to Xander before he did something he shouldn’t, like lean just that little bit more closer till his lips touched hers.
 
“He never should have been taken away from you in the first place, but then again… I wouldn’t of known he’d existed if my father hadn’t done was he did.” He lowered his eyes to the floor now and stepped back. “All I ask is that I may see him now and then whenever I’m in town… I will be able to see him right?”
 
Willow smiled. “Of course, whenever you like.”
 
He smiled back and then remembered that up until a few minutes ago he’d been talking to himself so back tracked a little to bring her up to speed with the other arrangements he had made.
 
“I’ve set up a trust so you won’t have to work-”
 
“I will still work,” she cut in. “…just not so much, I’m still beholden to someone… and I need to be free…”
 
Shane’s eyes darkened at her words. Who, how and why ran through his head. It’s a good thing I talked to that toll company, he thought, at least he knew she’d still have her job there now that he held a major share in the company. He may even see that she got a raise… or he could just offer to give her what she needed and opened his mouth to do just that.
 
“I could help-”
 
“No, Shane.” she cut him off again. “This I have to do myself… besides,” she added her smile creeping back into her expression. “You’ve done enough already. Thank you.”
 
He felt his chest expand and felt like he was floating on top of the world even though she had just refused his assistance. He doubted it’d be the last time. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a pen and held it out to her before picking up the documents that lay waiting for them on the table.
 
“Then I guess,” he said spreading the pages out on the table for her to see. “…the only thing left for you to do is sign.”
 
**
 
Part Twenty Four
 
**
 
Shane never thought he would ever feel this way about the mother of his child, but damn it he was ready to strangle Willow.
 
Thank god he had the house furnished before he sprung it on her otherwise she would have refused it all. Right now she was ignoring him and his dagger filled gaze as she went down aisle after aisle at K-Mart - K fucking Mart! - and all that sat in the trolley Willow pushed along besides Xander was a Thomas the friggin’ Tank Engine bowl, sipper cup and cutlery set. 
 
Obviously not for her, he told himself so not liking her idea of ‘shopping for kitchenware‘.
 
They walked down two more aisles before Willow spun around to face him, a big smile on her face.
 
“Well, I’m finished.” She declared and then spun back around and started heading towards the check out before he could even open his mouth.
 
“Willow,” He called after her.
 
She hurried away hoping she’d make it to the registers before he could stop her and when she did she expelled a long slow sigh, yet only a few moments passed before the sound of his voice came again, this time from right behind her. She closed her eyes trying to still the tingles that only tingled more the more she was around him. She forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying.
 
“…when you refused to let me take you to Donovan’s Kitchenware, a place Kyle, my fathers head chef swears by as Chef Heaven in favour of K-Mart I said nothing. When you ignored every suggestion I made on dinnerware, silverware, crockery and glassware I said nothing, but I will not, repeat not keep quiet about the lack of items filling this trolley.”
 
His eyes and then hers went to the blue smiling face of Thomas the Tank Engine looking up at them from the inside of the trolley like a nosy chaperone. 
 
“We came here to shop for the stuff I missed the first time around.” He continued.
 
“Exactly,” Willow replied and then grinned. “You missed Thomas. Xander needs something to eat off and that’s what I’ve got.” She smiled and then rushed on. “Isn’t it cute and Xander’s eyes practically glowed when he saw it.”
 
“But what about you?” Shane said moving with Willow as she went up the queue and placed her items on the counter. “You’re going to need something to eat off, eat with and cook in.”
 
“I’ve got a pot and a steamer back at the bed sit, as well as a few bits and pieces.”
 
“Bits and pieces!” He cried smiling through clenched teeth at the sales girl who sent him a weird look. He reached into his back pocket for his wallet and drew out his credit card, but before he could hand it over Willow was emptying her pockets onto the counter. A pile of one and two dollar coins formed there.
 
“Please,” She said counting out the coins needed to purchase the novelty Thomas the Tank Engine dinner set. “…you’ve spent enough money on us already.”
 
“But I want to spend money on you…” He argued, but just like the other comments he’d made today since they’d started out on there little shopping spree, Willow ignored this one as well.
 
Jamming his credit card back into his wallet and then repeating the action only this time with his wallet and the back pocket of his jeans he stalked after Willow, wishing with every step that she weren’t so damn independent.
 
**
 
Part Twenty Five
 
**
 
Dark lashes fanned out above rosy cheeks, the tell tale shine sign of drool formed at the corner of his slightly parted mouth and his chest gently rose and fell with every breath he took.
 
‘Yep…’ Willow thought not for the first time that night. ‘…I’m really here. This is really happening.’
 
Leaning forward in the chair she had been sitting in for the longest time she placed a tentative kiss on her sons brow, pulled the covers up closer around his shoulders and then left the room.
 
She was in awe as she walked along the semi lit hallway and took the time to count the steps it took for her to reach her bedroom; Eleven in all! In her small bed sit it had taken her - If she used her bed as a centre point - it took her only three steps west to reach the table, three steps south to reach the front door and three steps east to reach the door to the bathroom. 
 
Willow smiled as thoughts of Shane flittered through her mind. He was a nice man, regardless of there first meeting. He had given her Xander, provided a roof over both there heads, spent the day helping her move in and had asked for nothing back in return other than his right as a father to visit his son now and then. 
 
She had a feeling he had had something to do with her not only still having her job with the Tolling Company, but also with her hours being shortened and the unexpected but very much wanted pay rise. He of course denied having anything to do with it and she’d have believed him too - if he hadn’t of grinned all the way through the phone conversation she’d had with the CEO of the Tolling Company. He’d left soon after and Willow spent a good twenty minutes telling herself it wasn’t disappointment she’d felt as the door had closed behind him and it was only after he had gone that she realised that she may never see him again or at least for a while. Australia was an awfully long, long way away.
 
Ignoring the turned down sheets that covered the huge four poster bed that sat on one side of the room she crossed to the window and looked out at the lighted neighbourhood.
 
A slight smile turned the corners of her mouth up. Shane McMahon, she mused, was a true gentleman.
 
**
 
“There’s nothing I can do.”
 
Hunter stood stock still for a moment before moving to the bar where he poured a generous amount of dark ruby liquid into a glass and then brought it forward to sit it down on the small table beside the chair where his boss of so many years sat staring into the fire.
 
“I’ve had a team of lawyers go over it front and back, but it’s locked solid. Short of kidnapping the boy there’s nothing I can do to get him back.”
 
Hunter quirked a brow at that. “Well, you more or less already went that route.”
 
“Oh shut up.” Vince said waving a frustrated hand at the other man to silence him and Hunter as always obeyed, albeit this time he did so with a smile on his face.
 
The sound of a long breath being exhaled drew Hunter’s attention back to his boss.
 
“I want my grandson in my life.” Was all the old man said.
 
Hunter knew Vince loved the boy… if only he’d accept the boy’s mother… it’s was plainly obvious Shane had.
 
When Vince turned back to again stare at the flames burning in the hearth Hunter turned and moved back to leave the old man to his musings.
 
**
 
Part Twenty Six
 
**
 
Phew! What a morning!
 
After stressing wether or not to keep the day for her and Xander or to spend it checking out possible day care centres so she could start earning there keep and in so doing there freedom… well there really was no choice - Xander of course. Yet something still niggled away at her insides and with a sigh she knew that she would do the other. She smiled nonetheless because as of a few moments ago she had formed her first sentence where the word ‘there’ referred to her and Xander. And her and Xander alone. So, her day set she bundled Xander up in his stroller, ignored the brand new Honda Extreme parked in the drive way and went in search of a bus stop.
 
An hour later she found herself in the ‘mother-leaving-child-at-day-care-for-the-first-time’ role. Something she nor Xander liked very much, but it had to be done and wether they liked it or not it was something they both had to get use too.
 
Two hours after that she was leaving the Tolling Company. She had expected and was prepared to be put straight to work by the manager whose personality she had always likened to that of a dragon in the fairy tales she use to read so long ago, but today it seemed said dragon had been slayed, surely the kindly smiling woman whose office she’d just left with a cheque in hand, on which was scrawled a ridiculous four digit figure and told it was owed Christmas pay couldn’t have been her dragon.
 
Willow harrumphed and as if in a daze started walking only to stop when she heard her name being called and looked around her. The expectation alight on her face and in her smile dimmed some what when she caught sight of Charlie cutting through traffic to get to her.
 
“I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” He said as he jogged the last few steps towards her. “The bed sit was empty when I went there last night. Where have you been?”
 
Willow’s eyes narrowed. For the bed sit to be empty when he called he would have had to have gone there pretty late because she and Shane didn’t finish moving her things until just before midnight and not because she had a lot to move because she didn’t, but more because Shane had tried and tried again to talk her out of taking anything from the bed sit with him taking her and Xander shopping again as the alternative - This time his kind of shopping. She had been that close to ordering him to wait in the limo it just wasn’t funny. Now on the other hand it was, extremely so. She smiled in remembrance and it was that smile which greeted Charlie.
 
“Did you hear me?” He said after another moment of silence.
 
Willow lowered her eyes, but despite her growing weariness towards Charlie she couldn’t keep the smile from her voice. “Shane has handed custody of Xander over to me.” She beamed.
 
Charlie’s eyes went heavenward. “I thought I told you there was only one reason that man would give you the boy.”
 
“I don’t care what his reasons were, if any. He gave me Xander.”
 
“And what else? A house I suppose… a car…” His arm snaked out his fingers digging into her upper arm. “…and did you give him what he wanted? Did you Willow? Did you give him what you’re denied me since day one?”
 
“You’re hurting me.” She hissed although her face showed nothing of the pain his fingers were causing.
 
With a disgusted look Charlie turned away from her, his shoulders shaking.
 
“I love you Willow.” He said, the tone of his voice reminding her of the Charlie he use to be… when they were friends. 
 
‘When they were friends’ her mind reiterated. ‘When they were friends’. And it suddenly dawned on her that they weren’t, that they hadn’t been for a very long time.
 
“I love you.” He said again turning to meet her gaze.
 
Keeping her eyes trained on his face she said what se knew had to be said. “You may say you love me Charlie, but you didn’t choose me did you? You chose Jackie. You chose the bakery. You chose wealth. Shane may have raped me, but it’s you who has kept me like a whore in waiting all these years.”
 
Reaching into her back pocket she drew forth the cheque she had been given earlier. 
 
“I was going to wait until I had the full amount… but… well… here.” She lifted it up between them. “…it’s not much, but think of it as a down payment.”
 
His hand lifted and grasped the cheque almost automatically. Now why didn’t that surprise her.
 
“…a down payment on what?” He asked his voice sounding choked.
 
“Rent owed.”
 
His eyes flew to hers.
 
“You see,” She continued. “…I found out not so long ago that I don’t own the bed sit as you once led me to believe.”
 
He had the decency to blush then and Willow slowly shook her head.
 
“Even then you wanted it all didn’t you.”
 
She had left him then, without another word or another look… and he hadn’t tried to stop her.
 
Yes, she thought sighing tiredly. It had been a very full morning.
 
**
 
Part Twenty Seven
 
**
 
The first night in there new home Willow had watched her son as he slept peacefully for a while before leaving him to find her own bed. 
 
Now however, in the span of twenty four hours she was about ready to burst into tears. Why? Because Xander was beyond upset and all Willow’s attempts to calm him had been in vain.
 
She didn’t know what was wrong. He seemed happy enough when she’d collected him from day care that afternoon, even chirped and giggled in his stroller on the way home, but once there his tune changed dramatically.
 
His face now blotchy and flushed from hours of crying looked around him forlornly before his mouth opened to let forth another heart felt wail. She’d tried everything she could think of. Cuddles, soothing tones, candy, she even tried her hand at crooning a lullaby, but he dismissed them all and when she’d moved to lift him into a cuddle he’d turned away from her and hid his face in the bed covers.
 
So, at her wits end she’d left him, left his room where once in the hallway she’d slid down the wall, covered her ears with her hands and let the tears come.
 
How long she’d stayed like that she had no idea, but when she did lift her head no sound came from within Xander’s room. Wearily she slid back up the wall and tip toed back in.
 
He sat on the floor, his body leaning heavily into the side of the bed. His shoulders moving with every other heart beat telling her that hiccups had followed in the wake of his sobs.
 
Willow moved closer to him. He didn’t move and taking that as a good sign she lowered herself down beside him.
 
He looked at her then and she felt like crying all over again. His expression was so sad… so lost.
 
She reached out to him and he turned his face hiding it in the covers again as they dangled over the side of the bed.
 
Not knowing what to say or even if she should say anything she merely sat back and watched him. How much time went by she didn’t know, but when Xander finally brought his head out of the covers again there were more tears in his eyes and her heart broke ten times over when he said.
 
“Not like you.”
 
**
 
Part Twenty Eight
 
**
 
“Won’t you sit down.”
 
She took a deep breath before following in the wake of the very man she thought never to meet face to face again. Her eyes darted up and took in the laughing eyes of her son as his arms wrapped around the neck of his grandfather. And there they stayed. Her son’s joy mirroring that of the man that held him. It didn’t take long for Willow’s gaze to fall to her lap.
 
It had been a very long night. Sleep came for Xander, but not for her. After his innocent confession damning her into a wakefulness that she couldn’t shake. So when his tired little body fell under sleeps embrace she lovingly picked him up and laid him down on the bed. His eyes opened once as his head hit the pillow, but he didn’t awaken fully. Then she slid to the ground besides the bed and let the tears come. And by the time the first stirrings of dawn started to peep through the blinds she knew what she had to do.
 
Shane had tried to do the right thing by giving custody of Xander to her and she would forever be thankful to him for that, but what he’d failed to see… what they’d both failed to see was how there actions would affect Xander.
 
Two and a half years is a long time to be without her son, but two and a half years was long enough for him to form a bond with the older McMahon. A bond that didn’t include her.
 
That was what Xander knew. That was what Xander missed. Those people and those surroundings. She maybe his mother by birth but it was as plain as the colour of her hair that to Xander, Vince McMahon was who he wanted to be with. She hoped Shane wouldn’t come to hate her for her decision especially after everything he did to see Xander back in her care… but Shane was gone now or at least she assumed he had gone. 
 
‘A few days…’ He had said. Well, it had been more of less a few days already since she had seen him…
 
“Thank you,” Vince McMahon’s smooth rumble of a voice broke through her thoughts drawing her gaze back to him and Xander who now had his little head nestled in the nape of his grand fathers neck. “Thank you.” He said again.
 
Willow’s eyes went back to her lap not wanting to see the happiness radiating from her sons eyes. A happiness that should have been reserved for her.
 
“I… I’ve brought these…” She began holding out the manila envelope Shane had given her. “…everything’s there. The deed to the house and all it’s contents… well… everything Shane paid for… and Xan… Xander’s custody papers as well. I’m afraid I’ve already signed them… so… I don’t know…”
 
“It’s okay,” Vince said when her words trailed off and left only silence between them. “That can all be sorted out later.”
 
He turned then and addressed the man who’d been silently waiting by the door. “Bring Miss Rosenberg something cool to drink… and maybe some sandwiches.”
 
Hunter raised a brow at the older man that simply asked ‘Do I look like a bulter?’ but he left to do the old man’s bidding anyway.
 
“I’m afraid I can’t except that envelope. What’s inside it concerns you and my son… when he comes down-”
 
“Comes down?” Willow cut in. “…you mean he’s still here?”
 
Vince frowned, nodded and then replied. “He’s not leaving until tonight.”
 
**
 
Shane was up in his room packing when the knock came at his door and on his command it opened and Hunter filled the doorway.
 
“I thought you’d like to know,” he began not making any move to further himself into the room. “…that she’s brought him back.”
 
“Huh?”
 
“Willow,” Hunter explained. “…she’s brought young Xander back.”
 
**
 
Part Twenty Nine
 
**
 
Shane hurried down the stairs his fingers nimbly doing up buttons on the shirt he had snatched off the end of the bed on his way out of his room pushing passed Hunter in his haste.
 
What had happened? Why had she brought him back? Wasn’t she pleased with the arrangements he’d made? Wasn’t she happy?
 
His mind consumed by thoughts he all but fell through the den doorway, thus bringing Willow up with a start from the sofa she’d been seated on.
 
On seeing his son Vince rose with Xander still in his arms. “I’ll leave you two to talk.” Catching Shane’s gaze with his, he nodded, smiled and then left the room quietly closing the door behind him and Xander.
 
“Willow…” Shane began once they were alone.
 
“I… I thought you’d be gone.” She said wanting to turn away from his gaze, but couldn’t seem to find the strength.
 
“I leave tonight.” He said wanting to say more, but not able to summon the words.
 
“Yes… you’re father told me…” She waited for a reply, but when none came she continued with, “… he’s not all that bad is he? Your father.”
 
Shane walked around the sofa until he was standing in front of Willow.
 
“Why?” He said. “I thought this was what you wanted. I thought you were happy.”
 
“I was happy,” She said with a half shrug and a sad chuckle. “… but Xander wasn’t. Not with me.”
 
“But-”
 
“You should have seen him when he caught sight of this house. If he hadn’t of been strapped in I swear he would have leaped from the stroller just to get here that little bit quicker. And his face as the door opened and then when we were shown to this room and… well it was like all his Christmas’s had come at once when he saw your father. I could tell it was the same on your fathers side. This is where he belongs Shane. Not with me.”
 
She watched as Shane’s hand lifted and closed her when his thumb brushed along her cheek to catch a tear she hadn’t realised had fallen until his thumb came away glistening with the tell tale sign of moistness.
 
“I wanted you to be happy.” He said.
 
“And I was for a while… I know what it feels like to hold my son, to hear him laugh and know that he’s a part of me. No one… ‘No One’,” She stressed taking his hand in hers. “… has ever given me a gift as great as that.” Standing up on her tippee toes she pressed a kiss to his warm cheek. “Thank you.”
 
Taking a step back she leaned down and retrieved the manila envelope from the sofa and held it out to him. 
 
“If those are what I think they are I swear to god I’m going to-”
 
“Take them,” Willow cut in. “…they’re yours. You brought everything because you thought Xander would with me to share in it, but… he’s not going to be. He’s staying here, so I don’t need the house, the car and everything else.”
 
“Willow… they’re all in your name, to do with as you please. There’s no reason you can’t go on living there if you wished too.”
 
She just shook her head. “It’s way to big for just me.”
 
Shane couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Of all the selfless and yet stupid things…
 
“Where will you go?” He said turning when he realised that she wasn’t standing in front of him anymore, but had moved to the door. “Willow, where will you go?”
 
Pausing she let her eyes drift back to where he stood and held his gaze for a moment before replying, “To what I know.”
 
 
**
 
Part Thirty
 
**
 
Still some what in a daze over Willow’s visit, with bag in hand Shane made his way downstairs where his father, son and Hunter waited. He summoned a smile for his father that shone more in his eyes then his lips before lifting a hand to ruffle Xander’s unruly mop of dark hair.
 
‘Willow…’
 
Her name came to his mind just as easily as air to his lungs. She’d given up her happiness for Xander’s. Gone back to what she was use to, to allow there son to have what he was used too.
 
It took him a few moments to realise that as one they had all moved to the front door, which Hunter was at that moment opening to reveal a limo waiting in the drive way, it’s driver coming to attention at the sight of them. They watched as the driver scooted down, picked up what looked like a clear plastic box and started towards them.
 
“Part of your luggage?” Vince inquired with a raised brow.
 
Shane frowned. He’d seen a box similar to that in Willow’s bed sit, in fact it’d been among the items he’d helped cart to Willow’s ‘then’ new place.
 
“Where did you get that?” He asked the driver.
 
“The young miss left it. Asked that It be given to the Mister’s McMahon.”
 
Like the other times he’d seen this box the outside was clear, but instead it held a crocheted shawl.
 
“I remember that shawl,” Vince said as he took a step closer. “Xander was wrapped in it when first he came to live here.”
 
Lifting his hand Shane reached forth, picked up the shawl and then nearly dropped it again when they saw what it had been concealing.
 
Money. Green backs all rolled up and secured with rubber bands.
 
“What the-” Both Shane and Vince said in unison.
 
Immediately Shane’s mind went back to the first time he’d seen Willow on his return, watching Xander at play from her secret hiding place through the break in the stone fence.
 
“I didn’t sell my son.” She’d hissed at him with fire in her eyes. “I didn’t sell him, you’re father got him the only way he knew how.”
 
Without another thought, another look or another word Shane turned and headed back into the house.
 
“What are you doing?” Vince asked following him up the stairs to his room. 
 
Shane dumped his bag upon entering and went straight to his desk. 
 
“You’re going to miss your flight.” Vince continued.
 
“Fuck my flight.” Shane replied finding what he wanted and tucking it under his arm. “You’ve got what you wanted dad, now I’m going to get what I want.”
 
That said Shane hurried passed his father, down the stairs and out of the house.
 
Vince smiled to himself as he listened to the limo driving away from the house. He had a pretty good idea of where his son was going. He looked down at Xander and shifted the boys weight in his arms.
 
“Quite a woman you’re mother.” He said to the boy as they too left the room.
 
**
 
Part Thirty One
 
**
 
“Willow!”
 
His fists pounded on the door of the house Willow owned, yet refused to live in because she had relinquished custody of Xander into McMahon hands. It was a long shot he knew, but after first going to the bed sit and still finding it empty he had hoped to find her here.
 
“Willow!” He called again. He moved around the side and peered through one of the low placed windows he found there. The gap in the blinds didn’t provide much in the way of a view inside, but the view he did get told him Willow wasn’t there either. It was as clean and spotless as the day he had purchased it.
 
“Damn.” He muttered to himself walking back around to the front of the house. “Where are you Willow? Damn it, where the hell are you?”
 
His steps back to the limo were slow and his shoulders drooped as thoughts that maybe she had gone back to Charlie entered his mind.
 
His brow cocked.
 
“She wouldn’t go back to him, would she?” He asked himself. He knew Willow enough to know that she wouldn’t see asking Charlie for help as anything more than a friend asking another friend a favour, but what worried him was Charlie’s reaction to it. Hadn’t Charlie already confessed that he loved her?
 
He barely realised his steps to the limo increased tenfold.
 
“Damn.” 
 
The limo door slammed closed. He had to get to the Gayda Bakery.
 
Fast.
 
**
 
The tinkling sound above the bakery door alerted the young girl behind the counter that someone had just entered. She looked up and smiled.
 
“Good evening Sir, how may I-”
 
Shane stilled her words with a hard look before his eyes focused on the door marked staff only. He walked towards it with a purpose, which in turn snapped the shop assistant out of her perplexed state.
 
“Um - Sir… excuse me Sir. Excuse me!”
 
But Shane was beyond hearing as his fingers wrapped around the door handle. A moment later it opened to reveal nothing but a desk, a computer, various cabinets and a pinball machine, but no Haas… or Mrs Haas for that matter.
 
He rounded on the shop assistant not needing to say anything, his look alone said it all.
 
She backed up a step and then another all the while casting longing glances at the counter.
 
Probably wishing she had stayed behind it. Shane thought with a hint of a smirk curling up the corner of his mouth.
 
“Ah… Mr-” She swallowed. “…and Mrs Haas have gone on holiday. T… Teresa - Mrs Haas assistant has been left in charge, but she’s gone to the bank to deposit today’s takings-”
 
Shane held up his hand to silence the girl.
 
“The Haas have gone on holiday?”
 
The shop assistant nodded causing her blond curls to bounce around her face.
 
“They left this morning, quite unexpected actually… I wasn’t even rostered on today and then I got a call-”
 
This time what brought the sound of her voice to a halt was the bakery door slamming shut behind the most disagreeable customer she had ever had to face.
 
**
 
Part Thirty Two
 
**
 
She hadn’t.
 
She wouldn’t.
 
She may have.
 
Shane hated to think on the latter, but hating it didn’t stop it from happening.
 
‘To what I know’ had been her last words to him. Did that mean that she had gone back to Charlie? Was Charlie was she knew? Had she run off with him in the guise of his wife?
 
Stop it, you fool! He berated himself silently. Just calm down, take a deep breath, take another one and then way up the pro’s and con’s like the calm rational man you can be. And after a few minutes contemplation on what he had learned about Willow, he knew deep down in his gut that his thoughts were leading him up the wrong path.
 
“Then where are you Willow?” He asked the empty interior of the limo. “Where is ‘what you know’?”
 
It was at that moment his gaze focused on the goings on outside the limo window. The heavy traffic had thinned out, trees and houses had replaced the tall mainly glass buildings of the city and side walks, letter boxes and sprinklers replaced traffic lights, road signs and hurrying commuters. And then when a clearing came into view Shane brought himself up close to the window, so close that his nose touched the cold pane.
 
“Stop here.” He ordered.
 
His driver pulled to the side of the road and shut off the engine. Shane worked the automatic window control and it slid down to reveal in full force of the sun’s descent what had caught his attention.
 
A park.
 
He’d first seen Willow in a park. She had been standing under a huge elm as if waiting for someone. Stephanie had come upon the little red head first and it was Stephanie who had goaded him into doing what he had. It was a long shot, but at this point, he was willing to try anything. 
 
Opening the limo door he stepped out. If his hunch was right and his gut was telling him it was - He’d find Willow in a park. And this park seemed a good place to start.
 
**
 
“Damn. Damn. Damn.” He cursed turning on his heel in yet another park and all but ran back to his limo. “An hour. A bloody freaking hour I’ve been at this and nothing. Fuck!”
 
Giving into his frustration he slammed his fist down on the roof of the limo, only to wince as a sharp sparkle of pin pricks shot through his fingers and wrist.
 
“Fuck!” He cursed again.
 
“Oh that’ll help you in your quest.”
 
Shane spun around at the unexpected voice and saw his fathers lackey standing just a few feet away. He hadn’t even heard the fuckers approach! Eyes narrowing he casually leaned back against the side of the limo.
 
“Fuck you.” He sneered.
 
Hunter smirked. He’d heard those words many times since joining the McMahon employment line, most of those times - like this one - had been directed at him by the McMahon heir and even the heiress, but he didn’t let it faze him. He didn’t take his orders from them. But that wasn’t why he was here. He was here for Willow. He felt he owed her for his part in Xander being taken the first time and as they all had seen that afternoon, she had showed tremendous courage in bringing Xander back the second. She was remarkable woman and it was about time she had a little happiness. Even if that happiness was with his boss’s fuckwit son. His mouth kicked up at his thoughts.
 
“I’ve got something for you.” he said holding out his hand.
 
“What is it?” Shane heard himself asking as his eyes zeroed in on what Hunter held out.
 
“An address.” He released the slip of paper as Shane took hold of it. “Do you know it?”
 
Shane nodded.
 
“You should find her under the bridge.”
 
“Under the bridge?”
 
Hunter had turned and was already making his way back to his car.
 
“Hunter!” Shane called to his retreating back.
 
The other man knew what Shane was wanting to know and he turned back around, confirmation filling his eyes.
 
“It was home to her,” he said. “…before the bed sit.”
 
**
 
Part Thirty Three
 
**
 
“Pull over here.”
 
“But this is a-”
 
“I said pull over!”
 
The limo came to a stop causing a foghorn of car horns to erupt behind them.
 
“What the hell are you doing? This is a fucking one way bridge!” 
 
Shane heard a driver of a blue Volkswagen yell at his driver as the Volkswagen squeezed past.
 
“Idiot!” Another driver, a woman this time yelled not long after.
 
Shane paid no heed as he walked around the limo and leaned over the bridge. Bout fifteen feet below he saw bush, bush and more bosh. He crushed to the other side amid another blasting of car horns and irritated drivers to lean over that side of the bridge as well, only to be met with more bush, although about a hundred metres on the bush thinned out and Shane could make out a series of public barbeques and picnic tables scattered here and there, a domed shaped building - no doubt public rest rooms and spaghetti like tracks for walkers, bikers, roller blade users and the like. He leaned over more trying to get a glimpse under the bridge and barely caught himself from toppling head over arse.
 
Angling his gaze to the side he saw a man made trail leading down from the end of the bridge to disappear beneath.
 
That was all the invitation he needed. He jogged to the end of the bridge and swung his legs up and over to the other side, pushing prickles and gorse out of the way as he skidded and slid his way down to the track bottom.
 
And came face to face with Willow.
 
He was on his butt in the dirt and she was standing over him with a tree branch raised over her head.
 
Shock registered on both sides.
 
“Shane!” she said.
 
“Willow!” he replied in kind. And then his eyes went to the tree branch she still held above her head. “I come in peace.”
 
She stood there with a goofy look on her face for a few moments before it dawned on her that she was still holding the tree branch and that his eyes were glued to it.
 
“Oh!” Eyes wide Willow lowered her arms. “Sorry… I thought you were… well, I thought you were a squatter looking for a place for the night.”
 
His brows drew together, but he didn’t comment on it. He had a pretty good idea already at what she meant by ‘squatter’ and ‘place for the night’. And he hated it. Hated that she had felt she had no choice but to come back to this.
 
Slowly he got to his feet and followed her as she turned and made her way through the bushes until the under belly of the bridge blocked out the sun.
 
Shit, he thought as he saw the blanket spread out on the ground, a back pack shoved up against the cold concrete wall - Probably she’d been using it as a pillow - a bottle of water lying on top of the blanket and then said it aloud when she plopped herself down in the centre of the blanket.
 
Hunter did warn you that this is where she was living before the bed sit, he reminded himself.
 
He shook his head.
 
“Shit.” He said again. “Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.”
 
Her chin tilted sarcastically. “Well if I knew you were going to drop by I would have cleaned up a bit.” She kicked at the dirt at her feet. “What are you doing here anyway? You should be half way to Australia by now.”
 
“I should be… yes…”
 
“Then why aren’t you?”
 
Yes, his mind asked as well. Why aren’t you?
 
Pushing her question and that of his conscience to the back of his mind he instead asked one of his own.
 
“Are you in love with Charlie.”
 
Her mouth opened. Closed. And then opened again.
 
“Ah… how’s Xan-”
 
“Willow, will you just please answer the question.” He hissed through clenched teeth. She didn’t know it but he was fighting a losing battle within herself and it took every bit of restrain the could muster not to take her by the shoulders and shake her till eternity.
 
“I guess I do… I mean I did… at one time, but everything has changed now.”
 
“How?” Shane pressed. “How have they changed.”
 
Willow shrugged. “He was my friend… my only friend… he looked out for me… and then…”
 
“And then I raped you.”
 
“No!” Willow shook her head furiously. “And then you gave me Xander… and Charlie got married. Our paths separated… changed. I did love him once… but I don’t think I ever loved him as much as I think I could love someone else.”
 
Goddess, you weren’t supposed to say that much! Her mind told her. Suddenly embarrassed her chin dropped to her chest. What must he be thinking?
 
His hand appeared in her line of sight, his thumb gently lifted her chin up until she had no choice but to look at him. Smiling, she realised. He was smiling.
 
And then time stood still, her eyes fluttering to a close as he kissed her.
 
 
**
 
Epilogue
 
**
 
 
Some weeks later…
 
“What is it? Can’t you see I’m in the shower?”
 
“Well excuse me…” A voice broke through the heavy beaded drops that drummed down on his head. “…for thinking a letter, that just arrived special delivery would be less important than you jerking off in the shower.”
 
He heard the door slam after that, but he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned everything in his life had gone from sunshine to shit. Cursing himself and his life he shut off the water and stepped out of the cubicle.
 
One thing that had stirred his curiosity though was the mention of a letter. And it was that letter his eyes zeroed in on as he secured a towel around his hips.
 
He picked it up and flipped it over. No return address, he noted before ripping into it.
Inside he found a cheque for the sum of five thousand dollars and these words:
 
The amount enclosed is hereby given to one Charlie Haas for rent owed on property owned at Lot No.4 Mercy General, from the period starting 12/06/2003 and ending 21/03/2005.
 
And it was signed: Mrs Willow McMahon.
 
 
**
 
End
 
**
 
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