It's early evening in Two Harbors, and in a modest house in the north end of the city, reside the Carters. Inside the Carter house this evening, the family's youngest, Hailey, is preparing for one of the biggest nights of her life. Hailey stands in her bedroom, before an old floor mirror passed down from her grandmother Frances, with Stephanie beside her, changing for her engagement party to Bradley Davis. She stands in a floor length gown, tailored perfectly to her body. A gift from her husband, she had been to the tailor's early that morning to have everything just so for tonight.
Hailey glows as she stands in the mirror, turning and posing over and over. Stephanie excitedly walks over to the stairs up to Hailey's attic bedroom and calls for their mother, Anna. Anna runs up the stairs and is dazzled by what she sees. Anna shakes her head, telling Hailey, "Your father is going to fall over dead when he sees you like this, I tell ya!"
Hailey and Stephanie laugh, with Hailey still posing in the mirror. Hailey chimes in: "Well he better stay alive until the wedding, I have to have someone walk me down the aisle."
"And we sure as hell don't want Jackson Davis to be the one doing that!" Stephanie quips, elicitly a shudder from Anna and Hailey.
From downstairs comes the sound of a slamming door. The women perk up, and Anna quickly heads for the stairs, deciding that she should hold him off for a minute. Stephanie shoos Anna from the stairs, and insists that she do so, noting "Hailey still has to finish putting on her makeup, and I've never been the girly girl of the family, so you have to play judgmental mom."
Anna concedes, and Steph runs down to greet her father.
Anna stands beside Hailey, looking into the mirror with her. She smiles widely. "You know, I can't even believe you're getting married, never mind how grown up you look."
Hailey beams with confidence, and goes to put on her lipstick. As she does, she tells her mother "You know, it's really funny...you never know how life's going to go."
"How so?"
"Well, I mean, you and dad weren't at all excited that I was marrying Brad when I told you, right?"
"Right."
"You know, 'I'm too young for him', 'why don't you wait a few years?' and all that?" Hailey continues, "And yet here you two are, you're acting so....happy for me. It's really amazing."
"Honey, we are happy for you," Anna tells Hailey, placing a hand on her shoulder, "You're our little girl, and we want you to be happy above all else, no matter who you're marrying."
Anna turns Hailey around and mother and daughter share a hug. Pulling away, Anna smiles, finishing, "And I know how clichéd that sounds, but you know what they say about clichés."
Hailey laughs, fanning herself as she tears up a bit, "Oh great, now I have to fix my makeup."
Anna rolls her eyes, asking "If you're this bad now, how are you gonna be at the wedding, honey?"
"God knows," Hailey says, grabbing a tissue from the box on her dresser, "I think I'll need a Hollywood crew or something to touch me up every five minutes."
Both mother and daughter turn as they hear footsteps up the stairs and the chatter of Steph and Lucas.
Anna walks over to her husband, "Honey, look at our beautiful daughter."
Hailey turns gracefully around in a full circle before posing, facing her father. Lucas' smile grows quickly as he looks at a daughter he's forever seen as a young girl, now transformed into a vivacious young woman.
* * *
"Well this is exactly the kind of warm, spirited welcome I've come to expect from the Davis family", Colin exclaims, making a pointed jab at his family, currently stood before him in the doorway for the Davis home, mouths agape at his surprise arrival.
"Well, what did you expect?" Jenn chimes in, "A marching band and a parade?"
"'Nice to see you' would suffice," Colin shoots back, stepping into the doorway despite the less-than-warm greeting.
Marian steps forward at this moment to give her son a warm hug. This rare show of affection causes her other children to tighten up slightly in surprise. She steps back from hugging Colin, and holds him at arm's length, looking him up and down with a big smile. She kisses his cheek and tells him softly, "I really missed you, dear."
"Not as much as I missed you," Colin replies, "And all of you, really!"
This outburst of emotion is immediately greeted with eye rolls and incredulous looks from his brothers and sister, who've turned and begun to make their way toward the living room. Jenn is particularly revolted, telling Colin, "Oh come on, Colin. The last time we saw you, you had embarrassed us all with that newspaper article you wrote, and then left for Seattle and we didn't hear a word from you for two years."
"Well, that's partly why I came back," Colin says, becoming suddenly rather earnest in tone, "I didn't like how I left things with any of you, and I think I owe it to you, in particular, Brad, since it's gonna be your big day soon, that I...you know...set things right, and congratulate my older brother, here."
This sets Brad a bit at ease, the initial tension between him and Colin upon Colin's entry subsiding noticeably at this moment. He reaches out his arm and wraps it around his younger brother, pulling him in with a couple manly slaps on the arm so as not to seem "weird". Colin doesn't expect this and is taken aback slightly, but at this point, the whole situation's so awkward that's basically par for the course.
Robbie pipes up, "So how long are you back for then?"
Colin smiles wryly, and says simply, "Until I'm done."
Jenn pulls Marian aside in this moment and asks her if she'd invited him to come back for the wedding. Marian admits that she had, but she also offered to cover their younger brother Jordan's ticket home as well, but that Jordan "had a very important exam come up and couldn't get out of town."
Jenn scrunches her nose at this, "Mother, it's too late in the month for exams, even for the summer semester, he'd have finished his exams in the first half of the month, no?"
"I don't know, it's been years since I've been in school, and we had summer vacation, so I can't judge."
"I never said anything about judging, but I sure as hell don't believe him."
Marian rolls her eyes, dismissing Jenn with a quick "pish posh", before turning back to Colin.
"Colin, darling, I'm so glad you're coming. I'm going to get in the car, and everyone, I expect to see you in the car in a moment, yes?" Marian announces to the group as she grabs her clutch and steps out the door, closing it behind her.
Jenn rolls her eyes in exasperation, throwing her hands up as she walks towards the door as well. She gestures at her remaining family, telling them, "You see? This is what the next six months are gonna be, right? I'll save the real estate section of the paper tomorrow."
Robbie attempts to follow, but Jenn slams the door behind her, narrowly missing hitting Robbie in the face and hands. Robbie jumps back slightly, then opens the door and walks out himself, smiling awkwardly back at Brad and Colin.
Leaving them alone, Brad grabs a small bag off the counter, while Colin rummages through one of his bags, pulling out a small gift bag. Brad and Colin both turn around at the same time, and stop facing each other.They laugh a little upon seeing their respective gift bags. Colin wonders why Brad has a gift bag at his own party. Brad tells him he has a big surprise for Hailey at the party.
Colin smiles at the mention of this gesture, telling Brad "You know, she's lucky to have you, yeah?"
"I'm sure you mean that," Brad retorts with more than a hint of sarcasm.
"No, seriously, I do," Colin says, putting his hand on Brad's shoulder, "I know you really love her, man, and I know you'll treat her well."
Brad gives Colin a faint smile. He thanks him for supporting him, telling Colin "I know it's gotta be hard for you, but I'm really glad you're back for this, means a lot, man."
They lean in for a quick hug, before setting out for the hotel ballroom.
* * *
"Well, when are you gonna be there, Gina?" Hailey says in a disappointed voice into her cell phone.
Stephanie and Anna are listening in, but pretending not to. Hailey looks behind her as her sister and mother look away, pretending to finish primping to get ready for the party.
"11? Wow...that's really late....yeah no that's fine, I just want my best friend there for my engagement party, of course!" Hailey tells Gina, to the delight of her mother and sister, who flash wide smiles at each other before hiding their feelings from a suspicious Hailey.
"Yeah I'll see you then," Hailey says into the phone before hanging up, and tells her family the news, to their feigned surprise. Stephanie reassures Hailey that she'll have everyone else around her to help her celebrate. Hailey smiles, but remembers that Colin won't be there, and nor will their eldest sister, Kayla. Steph gives her sister a quick hug, and tells her, "You're probably better off not thinking about Colin right now anyway."
Hailey nods somewhat woefully, knowing her sister's probably right, though she'd rather not believe it. "I know you miss him, Hailey," Steph continues, "But it isn't like he was there for you after he left or anything. Look who was!"
"Brad", Hailey finishes, sighing heavily, "I know, I know. I just....we spent a lot of time together the two of us, and --"
"And you still love him, somewhere in there", Steph cuts in, motioning to Hailey's heart and head.
"Pretty much"
"Hailey, just enjoy what you have now. Brad, as much as I can't believe it, really stepped up this year," Steph tells Hailey, almost disbelieving her own words, "Hold onto that. Okay?"
Hailey smiles slightly, hugging Steph again, treasuring the sage advice.
"Now, I'm gonna finish getting ready, and we'll meet you out at the car, okay?" Steph tells her sister, before heading upstairs, calling up to her mother to hurry.
Hailey stays downstairs, thinking over what her sister's just told her, recalling for the first time in awhile her love for Colin. As she looks into the mirror to adjust her hair, she looks behind her, and sees Colin walk into the room. He smiles and holds his arms out, announcing to her, "I came back for you, Hailey."
After a moment of shock and disbelief, Hailey spins around fast to find no one's in the room at all. Hailey looks around the room, not sure if she was hoping to be seeing things or not. Finally realizing she'd been wrong about Colin being in the room, she breathes deeply and coaches herself back to reality, reminding herself that she's engaged to the man who she loves that also loves her back, and that it'll all be okay.
This seems to set her at ease for the moment, as her family returns to the living room, ready to leave. Taking one last look in the mirror, Hailey smiles and follows her family out the door to the party.
* * *
Jackson Davis storms out of the dining hall where his son Bradley's engagement party will very shortly begin, cell phone in his ear. Jackson demands to the voice on the other end of the line that he'll be unreachable tonight. After a slight pause, Jackson breathes deeply and replies, "Gina, you know exactly why I won't be reachable tonight, because I'll be at the engagement party."
Jackson gestures as if he's magically bestowing reason upon Gina through the phone, "GREAT! See you later, Gina!", and hangs up.
Shaking his head in disbelief, Jackson turns to head back into the dining hall when Marian enters the lobby and calls out to him. Jackson turns back around and smiles, "Sweetheart!"
They give each other polite hugs and kisses, devoid of intimacy, before Jackson raises his head to see Colin enter the room. Jackson takes in the sight of his long-estranged son in before greeting him, "Junior."
Colin nods, replying quickly, "Jackson."
Marian ushers the rest of the family into the dining hall to see what the hotel had done to set up for the party, leaving father and son virtually alone in the lobby. They stand apart, with a wall of tension between them one could almost see with the naked eye.
"So," Jackson begins, "I see you decided to take me up on my offer then."
"Don't even think that for a second," Colin stops him, stepping closer to him with intensity in his eyes, "I'm not here to do any of your dirty work, I'm here for me, and no one else, got it?"
Colin ends the standoff with his father after staring him down for a moment, heading into the dining room. Jackson stays behind, with a smirk emerging on his face.
