an End, A New Beginning 2/3

"Tim, get up!"

Caleb's voice was loud as he barged into Timothy's room in their hotel suite. Tim cursed grouchily as Caleb opened the blinds. Blinding light pierced his skull causing his head to pound painfully. He threw the cover over his head and tried to sink back into unconsciousness. His drinking binge had gone past way too much less than an hour after leaving the banquet and by the time his guards poured him into bed, he had been a sloppy, near-sobbing mess. He tried to feel embarrassed about dumping everything on Caleb last night, but he just couldn't. He felt drained and nauseous.

"What plausible reason could you have for waking me. Just let me die, man." Timothy's muffled voice came from beneath the covers.

Caleb chortled merrily. "You brought this on yourself. I have information about Sage. Don't you want to meet your son?"

The blanket came away from Timothy's face abruptly and he stared toward Caleb. "What are you talking about? "

"Sage is being released from the hospital in a few hours. He finally gets to be a real boy. So, if you want to see him you had better get up. You know as well as I do that once they hide him in that Lane compound you may never get another chance." Caleb watched as Tim tried to rise, failed, and then bolted toward the bathroom. "I have set pain reliever on the counter. Take a shower, you smell like you slept in a whiskey barrel. I'll be back with clothes. You can't wear one of your power suites." Caleb checked to make sure Timothy was alive when he got no answer. His friend just waved him off which made Caleb snicker quietly.

Serves him right. Caleb hadn't been sure last night if Timothy had been trying to commit suicide by drowning! Now Caleb just needed to find something for Tim to wear that made him look like the hacker legend and less like the ruthless CEO.

When Timothy felt like he had expelled enough of the poison from his body to get off the floor. He set to brushing his teeth, and finally felt his stomach begin to settle. Tim downed the pain reliever for his pounding head and climbed slowly into the shower. He had never been this hungover in his life.

When Caleb returned, he found Tim in a bathrobe typing furiously on his laptop. His friend hit one last key and a bar showed on the screen as a file transferred to a flash drive.

"Is that the training game that you built for Sage? Did you finish it?" Timothy had been using every spare moment to build a hacker training simulation game for the boy. The game would force him to chase a goal then back him up. It would constantly deceive and then change tactics walking the kid into traps that he would have to carefully work his way out of before making it to the next level which would be harder than the last.

"Yes, just finished. Though, I don't think he will accept it." Tim sighed.

"Of course he will. You just need to offer it to him in the right way," Caleb supplied.

Tim scowled at his friend, "and what is the right way?"

Caleb laughed, "that boy is as arrogant as you are, use that Barrett arrogance against him!" Tim grinned.

"How do you know about any of this," Tim asked taking the clothes that Caleb handed him. "I have not had any notifications all day. No one has called."

"That is because I have your phone. Do you not remember?" Caleb was smirking with great humor. After a moment he handed the phone back to Tim.

At first it was a blank for Tim but slowly with dawning horror the hidden memory returned to him. He had drunk-texted Mia. He had told her that he needed her, that she was his life and that he had no purpose without her and the twins. Where had those words even come from? Tim rubbed his hand over his face violently trying to scrub the memory away.

"It's not that bad," Caleb sighed.

"It's bad. I sounded weak," Tim scoffed.

"That is why I took your phone from you, you're welcome. Now get dressed."

"Did she reply?" Tim asked with great hesitation.

"I don't know, it's your phone. I'll be in the sitting room. Get dressed." Caleb turned to leave but hesitated. "Timothy, I think everything that happened yesterday was a good thing for you." A violent look crossed his friend's face. "Hey, hear me out. I like Mia. I like you better when she is around. You two have been stuck in anger over the past, constant miscommunication, and outside interference getting between the two of you, but now she has finally laid it all out. She has given you terms Timothy. You are a businessman, a closer. Show her that you can close this deal on her terms, and you will get your family back. I honestly believe you have a real chance for the first time since we started this crusade. Mia gave you that when she told you what to fix." Caleb watched as Tim absorbed his words before leaving the room.

Tim understood what Caleb was saying but Mia had sounded so final the day before. He had dealt with his family because she was right about them not because he thought it would sway her. Timothy wanted to punish them because they took her away from him again and destroyed his life. Could it be possible that there was still some small chance if he could manage to lay his cards out perfectly?

Tim picked up his phone noticing that he did indeed have a notification from Mia. He was scared to look. He had woken with no hope but after what Caleb said, the hope was there. Timothy was terrified to face the loss of it again.

Tim told himself to stop being a coward and opened his text. There was only one line, a single sentence, but it made his breath hitch in his lungs. The text read 'You don't know how much I wish that mattered.' Mia wished her answer were different? Then he just needed to make sure that he changed the circumstances enough that she could change her answer. It was a small hope at least.

With that thought he got dressed in the clothes Caleb had provided him with. The clothes were very casual. He was wearing light blue jeans and a long sleeve beige tee with some basic sneakers. Timothy had not dressed this casually since college. He stared into the mirror wondering how this was supposed to make Sage like him more. He called Caleb worry evident in his tone.

"Are you sure this is what I should wear? How is this supposed to help?" Tim watched his friend walk into the room through the mirror.

"Actually, I think what you are wearing is perfect. You don't look like such an asshole." Caleb responded and Tim's scowl deepened. "Let the kid meet Mr. Barrett some other day. Be the hacker that fights terrorists today. You are trying to get him to like you not intimidate him." Tim acknowledged his words with a slow nod.

"Is the gift I ordered for Ginger here yet," Tim asked. Caleb nodded in the affirmative producing a small package. Tim took it from his friend. Inside was a small, beaded charm bracelet with a silver heart charm inscribed with the initials 'GL.' Timothy took the bracelet and slid it into his pocket where he had the flash drive already.

"Why does the heart only represent the Lane's? Shouldn't you be represented as well," Caleb frowned at his friend.

Timothy sighed, "That would be ideal, yes, but I did not want to give them a reason to not let her wear it. This is better for now." Changing the subject, Tim asked Caleb if he knew who was going to be present to pick up Sage?

"That is the one thing I cannot help you with. You do have your affairs in order, right?"

Timothy chuckled at the question but realized that the answer was that he did not have his affairs in order. Tim rumpled his hair absently. He had been so busy between working remotely and trying to keep up with Mia that he had not even considered what it meant to be a father in relation to who he was.

"Actually, that is something I need to focus on soon. I want Mia and the twins protected in case something happens to me." Tim said seriously. He knew they were protected by the Lane family but that was not the point. The twins were his responsibility; his heirs and they were too young to protect themselves from the vultures that would come calling if he were not around.

"Something such as the Lane brothers killing you for daring to intrude," Caleb retorted with a smirk. Tim just scowled. "It is time to get going anyway. We don't have an exact timeline, but our source says that he is supposed to be released in the next couple of hours. We are going to have to wait around and hope for the best."

Timothy nodded in acknowledgement. "Then let's go."

***********

Dominic sat behind the ornate wooden desk in his study at Lane residence. His brothers Connor and Nathan sat across from him while his beloved wife Eva leaned against the edge of the desk near him. They had been discussing last night's banquet and the stories that were already trickling in. Dominic was trying to breathe through his rage.

Finally, an alert sounded from his laptop. He had an email notification which he promptly opened. The email included a series of videos from his insider at the party.

"Put it on the big screen, honey so we can all see," Eva urged her husband. Dominic blue toothed his laptop to the large screen on the wall and hit play on the first video. The classless debacle between those women played before their eyes. A short clip followed in which Mia told off the Barrett's.

The next video played and focused on Mia and Tim outside. The camera was too far to pick up many of the words that had been spoken but it was clear that neither party had been happy at the end of their conversation. Mia had kissed Barrett but even Dominic could see that it made them both look more miserable if anything.

Dominic could not help but watch as Barrett stared down the drive for a solid five minutes. It made him uncomfortable, but he could not turn it off. He was grateful when Caleb joined Barrett and the video ended. Barrett had looked like he might just remain a statue in that place for the rest of time and the thought caused an echo of something nearly forgotten to linger in his mind, an old pain.

Dominic was glad as the next clip started but that sentiment ended immediately as the vulgarities being unleashed about his baby sister were heard. Dominic willed himself to breathe as hot rage bubbled in him. Eva placed a hand on her husband's shoulder trying to urge him to be calm.

"They are awful," Eva hissed as the video ended. "There's one more." They hit play and it was clear that their insider was close to the scene. They could read expressions and hear every word. Timothy had been ruthless as he defended Mia; everything about him had projected his desire for violence. Eva was shocked, she had thought he did not care about Mia or the twins but none of his actions in these videos implied that. It looked like he cared a great deal about Mia. Eva looked at Dominic watching him rub his temples like he had a migraine.

Dominic finally looked up at them. "This changes nothing, Barrett needs to leave." Conner had a thoughtful expression on his face while Nathan simply lifted an eyebrow at his brother.

"Honey, you can't be serious, of course it changes things," Eva started. Dominic tried to interject but she silenced him with a look. "Hear me out. Our contention with Barrett was that he was a selfish man that did not care about Mia or her twins but that is not what his actions just said. He gave bone marrow with no hesitation, he has taken your beatings and abuse and still refused to leave. Can you honestly say when you watched those videos that Timothy looked like he didn't care?"

Eva sighed, "our way did not work. It was never going to work with Sage's illness, there is no way to wish the situation away anymore. They have children together. We need to back off and trust that Mia knows her own mind and her own heart. I think we should take a hands-off approach. Let Mia set her own boundaries."

"I agree," Conner said reluctantly.

"Well, I don't," Dominic roared. "I want him to stay away from her."

"Dom, I am sorry, but I agree too. We are only pushing them together by trying to keep them apart. We should back off but encourage Nicholas to step up. What is his problem anyway? Now that Sage will be home, he will have more time for Mia," Nathan finished with a frown.

"I don't want to push so hard that Mia ever decides it is us she needs to run from." Eva said. She thought about the text conversation she had accidentally seen this morning on Mia's phone when Mia had gotten up to help Ginger at the breakfast table. The sentiments were clear. Her family would need to adjust to the possibility that things were not necessarily over between Mia and her ex-husband.

"Fine," Dominic growled, "hands off unless that bastard crosses the line."

Eva sighed inwardly. "Connor, Nathan, and I will go with Mia to pick up Sage." She loved her husband, but she had a suspicion that Timothy would show up today and her husband was still too angry. Dominic nodded, not needing to have her reasoning spelled out to him.

"We will keep a sharp eye on him, brother. If he shows up as the arrogant Mr. Barrett, I will take him outside and beat him to death," Nathan assured Dominic.

"Besides, Sage has been in that hospital for his whole life. Do we really want his first real world experience to be one of us killing his father?" Conner scowled at the thought.

"He might not mind," Dominic snarked. "Sage has a deep dislike of the man."

"He would mind," Eva challenged, before adding a quiet "eventually."