Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in Guest Quarters - Family Woes Part II

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Guest Quarters - Family Woes Part II

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in Guest Quarters - Family Woes Part II
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Taking the glass, Anthony drank from it for several moments. He didn’t quite smirk at Kane’s remark. His bluntness was rather refreshing, especially after the previous night. Anthony liked him. He rested the glass on the arm of his chair. “Allison wants a divorce.” His gaze flicked to Kane before returning to Alexis. Allison had been cruel and blamed everyone but herself for her u happiness. Especially Alexis and then Anthony. “Given normal circumstances I would be inclined to give her her way. I won’t make her stay with me if she is that unhappy.” Apparently Cmdr Forbes would be happy to take his place, according to Allison anyway. He didn’t buy it. “Allison thinks that threatening to make things difficult for Alexis and you will make me give her whatever she wants.”

Anthony

Kane listened and when Anthony finished, he looked at Alexis and gave her a small half-smile and wink with his hair-covered eye. He looked back at Anthony and said “Lex and I thought she might pull that card. Not a smart move on her part. Especially for someone so concerned with her social standing and image.” He looked at Lex and said “Wanna tell him?”

Kane

Alexis shared the look with him. There was no other possible outcome. Eventually it would come to this. The threats. She gave Solomon a quiet half nod. She didn’twant to tell her father, but it was her family and her responsibility. “We…added some entries into mom’s medical file.” Anthony started to open his mouth not quite sure he wanted to know, but Alexis continued anyway. “Nothing that will draw attention to her, nothing that will stop her from living her life the way she pictures it.” She explained the entries, the timing, the behavior.

Anthony sat back and stared at Alexis and then at Kane. “Well that’s going to be interesting. I set some stipulations for your mother. The first being she has to attend couples counseling with me for 6 months prior to filing the divorce to 6 months after it is finalized. I don’t expect to reconcile with her but it will insure she doesn’t turn this into a 3 ring soap opera.” Anthony turned his gaze on Kane, “One of the others is that she agrees to any stipulation or requirement you want concerning yourself and Alexis.”

Anthony

Kane looked at Anthony for a long time in silence. Unlike his usual glare, this was a look of deep thought, planning… and even concern.

“The problem with this-” he began, “- is that the longer it draws out the more opportunity there is for something to go wrong. And if you two go to counseling, those entries will be reviewed and your wife will absolutely deny it and try to blame you. Or Lex. Or me. So I want to ask you something… what is it that makes you want to do this? Because there is no good outcome for you. Just a year of bulls#!+ and pain. And take me and Alexis out if it. Now is when you think about you. No one else. Alexis and I hacked a trained Intelligence operative’s brain… we’ll be fine. No one messes with us… especially when we are together against them. We need your plan, Anthony. And if you want… you can be part of this-” and he gestured back and forth between him and Alexis, “- and we can all get out of this together. Same time. One and done.”

Kane

Anthony nodded, “Oh it is a problem but when I suggested it I didn’t know you were going to play with her Medical records.” Alexis was picking at the hem of her shirt and he reached over and squeezed her hand. “I can’t say I like it. I prefer to deal with things up front and honestly and fairly, but life doesn’t always work that way. I do think it’s a good preemptive plan.” Then he sat back. “I don’t want to do this. After the last 48 hours I would gladly walk away and never look back. However 1, I would rather Allison’s ire be focused in me and not Alexis, and 2…” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t want Allison showing up at the Academy creating a scene. I have my career, and it’s important to me, my students. I know she will do it. When I signed the papers to let Alexis serve her final year ship side, Allison was on campus…or pitside campus every day creating problems. It was nasty.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that?”

Anthony smirked, “Because you were 17.”

Bonner

Kane looked at him and said “Anthony, if you want to walk away and be done with it, Alexis and I can absolutely make that happen. And I can absolutely guarantee that she will not ever set foot on Academy grounds to cause you… or your students… any issues. Or anywhere you don’t want her to be.” He leaned back and chuckled. “And no, I’m not talking about any harm coming to her. For all of her faults, I haven’t put her that high up on the list.”

Kane

Alexis looked at him and rolled her eyes. He sounded so dangerous when he said things in that way. He was but still…she leaned against him a little.

Anthony shook his head. “I appreciate and will probably take you up on that. But Allison is my wife, or was, and the desolving of my marriage is my responsibility. I can forgo the cou seeing and use a legal mediator instead. That would have to happen anyway. Allison would like nothing better than for me to walk away. She would get it all and make quite the fuss about how I abandoned her. And right now,” his gaze settled in Alexis with a fierce protective Ness before he looked away, “I am angry enough to make her life difficult, as petty as that is.”

Kane gave him a wink and said “Oh, we can do petty. And its not like she doesn’t deserve a taste of it.” and he chuckled.

Alexis figured her father would disagree. Despite how her mother was he had always been kind and fair toward her mother. She was…disappointed it had come to this. She was disappointed in her mother. To her surprise her father agreed. “Quite a large taste of it too. I am in a mood to be quite petty. Including making her find her own way home. I won’t because there is no reason to waste it, but I may make her pay with her own credits I stead of using my allowance as an officer. And anything else we come up with.”

“Honestly I haven’t really decided how I want to handle this. Only that I wanted Alexis to hear it from me and not her mother. She has swung from she wants to leave today to she is staying to spend time with her daughter and back.”

The thought of spending time with her mother was unpleasant, but not really concerning for her. That was easily handled. Alexis tipped her head to the side after taking a dri k of her water. “Daddy, what about the bakery?”

Anthony chuckled, “Yes…she has conviently forgotten we all own thirds in her precious business.”

Bonner

Kane thought for a moment and then said “I have an idea. And it would insulate both of you from her ire and give us all the leverage we need to keep her ‘civil’.” He looked from Anthony to Alexis and back.

“Sell me your parts of the bakery.” and he smiled.

Kane

“Welk now that’s a problem. See the way it’s set up is that we can sell to each other or family without informing the other owners. The other owners can’t stop us from selling but we have to give written notice to sell to anyone else. I can sell to Alexis and not tell Allison or vice versa. I can’t sell to you without telling her first.”

Alexis laughed, “Let her know. I wanna be there to see her face.”

Bonner

Kane grinned at Alexis. “Well… we are getting married. Right? That would legally make me family. So… we do it, don’t tell Allison, you sell me your parts of her precious bakery for something reasonable like a credit, and we don’t tell her until we need to tell her. Let her do her drama, wail and gnash her teeth about how she’s gonna rake you over the coals-“and he grinned at Anthony, “- and let her operate like she has the advantage. And then…” and he clapped his hands together with a loud SMACK!!! “… we pull the rug out from under her. Petty? Absolutely. Harsh? Yep. Damaging? Not in the least. But… it sets the tone going forward. She isn’t stupid, but she is very scared of looking like anything but the doting wife and mother. And petrified of looking foolish. And if we, the three of us, can do something that shady?” and he smiled broadly. “She’ll live in perpetual fear that we’ve done something else. Her own imagination will keep her in check.” and he shrugged.

Kane

Anthony nodded. “Are you sure you want to deal with taking that on. Here’s the thing, I have no problem holding it over her. It’s Alexis’s recipes that make the money, for all of Allison’s gripping. It is also her only livelihood to support herself on her own. And for whatever her feelings and behaviors are now, she was my wife for many years and is the mother of my child. It’s hard for me to just toss her to the side even though she deserves it and I would like nothing more than to be done with it. Being married would allow us to sell without needing to inform her. Kane if you want to take that on and deal with all the business legalities and what not, sure I’ll go along. It’s a pretty crappy way to welcome you to the family by making you deal with Allison.”

Kane smiled his predatory smile. “Oh, I think that’ll be okay.”

Anthony held his hands palm up and shrugged a single shoulder in acceptance. But a look at his daughter said she wasn’t happy with it, but she was having trouble putting her thoughts…most especially her emotions, into an order that she was comfortable with.

Alexis was quiet and then, “No. I’m not having a wedding just so we can spite mom. That’s how all this crap started in the first place.” For Alexis it just made her mother right.

Bonner

Kane looked at her and smiled his sincere smile. “Lex, we’re getting married because we want to. We decided that before I even met your mom. And even though we both know the ceremony is mostly irrelevant to us…” and he looked at Anthony, “… I bet you and your dad would like him walking you down the aisle. Even if at the end of the aisle is a tattooed a$$hole in a suit.” and he laughed.

Kane

Anthony smiled. He would like that, and of course it was one of those things that he had thought about almost from the time they found out Alexis was a girl. It was also something that Anthony had put away. Not that he thought Alexis would never find someone, but he knew that what she and that person decided it would look like would be as unique as his daughter was.

Normally Alexis would at least grin at him. She didn’t find it funny at all. Like she told Myqian she didn’t really are much about the wedding, a single moment, but the Cmdr was also right that it would mean something. “First we’re doing this now because by chance my parents happen to be here and my mother is having palpitations over a ring and won’t shut up. Then we’re not because my mother is a huge narcissistic @$$. Now we are back to having a wedding because, again, my mother needs a taste of her own medicine. It might be mostly irrelevant to us, but it shouldn’t be about having the opportunity to screw with my mother’s head.” She stood up and snatching her glass up and moved around behind the counter that marked off the small kitchen. Frigga lifted her head watching her.

Anthony’s eye brows rose. It was the most emotional response he’d heard from Alexis in a long time. Granted he hadn’t seen her in years. He could ask her that if this was the plan, to give the shares to Kane without her mother knowing, did it matter if their wedding was now or 5 years from now. Especially if it was ‘mostly irrelevant’? But it wasn’t his place. This was between her and Kane and he felt that now would be a good time to exit to conversation. No one needed their dad hanging around for that. His goal in coming here was simply to tell Alexis. He didn’t want her hearing it from Allison and Allison go on a tirade about how it was all Alexis’ fault. He sat there quietly for a moment, thinking about how he might manage it when he remembered something. There was one thing he could say that might give her a bit more perspective. He stood up and walked over to her putting his hands on her shoulders. “Alexis, there is a provision in the contracts for the bakery that does say we can sell our shares to family. I had forgotten until now, but part of that was when and if you got married the shares would be redistributed equally among the four of us. Your spouse would get 1/4th of the total shares, not partial control of your 3rd. We would all own 25%.” He kissed her forehead and then he left. If they needed him they knew how to find him.

Bonner