10 Tennyson

After the meeting with Shane Matheson ended, Ten and the detectives headed back to the rental house. The kids and Jace had spent the afternoon making Christmas cookies to bring along to dinner at River and Barb’s house. They’d made Ten’s favorite snowball cookies and church windows, which were made with colored marshmallows, another O’Mara-Grimm family favorite.

While the kids played in the pool, Ten had planned to wrap some the Christmas presents he’d shipped to River last week. He figured sending the presents to his brother would keep the kids and Ronan

from accidentally seeing what they were getting and would be one less thing to pack when they flew down. River had the gifts waiting in his home office.

“Here we are!” River opened the door to his office and ushered Tennyson inside.

“Oh, my goodness,” Ten gasped when he caught sight of the mountain of boxes stacked up by the gas fireplace. “How the hell are we going to get all of this home?” The pile of presents was well over six feet tall and arranged by family. Some of the gifts were for River and Barb’s kids, but plenty needed to go back to Salem. Thankfully, Ten had told everyone to put their name on the address label to help with sorting. He had a feeling they were going to need to buy an extra suitcase or two to get everything home.

“When I was a kid, I had a friend who’s mother would fill an entire room with Christmas presents,” River said. “I secretly wished I’d be able to do the same for my kids one day and here we are.”

Ten looked around the room at all the gifts. “Much more of this and there wouldn’t be any room for you to work.”

“I know, right.” River laughed. “Here’s the special Santa paper you asked for, along with scissors and tape.” He set the supplies on the coffee table in front of the matching sofas. “Barb loved the idea of having wrapping paper for Santa gifts. We thought we’d use the same paper for Brooke and Delta’s gifts from the big guy.”

“It was something Ronan’s mother did when he was little and he wanted to continue the tradition for our kids. Jude and Fitz do it too.” Ten studied his brother. “Are there any traditions from your mother that you observe?” He knew how hard it was for Ronan not having Erin with them at Christmas. It must be just as tough for River, who’d only grown up with one parent in his life.

“My mom and I would make cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. Barb loved the idea, now she and Brooke do it every year. They love to spend Thanksgiving night researching recipes online and they pick their favorite two. This year they’ll do three, adding Delta’s favorite into the mix.”

Ten laughed. “The baby is barely a month old. How does she have a favorite cookie?”

“Brooke has a special bond with her sister and says she can hear her the baby talk to her. She said Delta’s favorite cookie is the one with red and green M&M candies.”

Ten thought about what Brooke said about her sister. “Do you think Brooke was just using her imagination when it came to her sister, or do you think there’s more to it than that?” He wasn’t sure how River would respond to his question, but his brother’s laugh took him by surprise.

“Are you asking if I think Brooke has a gift like yours?” River shook his head. “Are psychic powers genetic like our curly hair and dark eyes?”

“I don’t know. If there was anyone on the Grimm side of the family who had gifts like mine, it was kept hidden. I thought maybe I’d hear stories after my mother learned what I could do, but she thought my gifts were from Satan, so I’m sure she never told anyone what I could do, partly because she was ashamed, but also so that people wouldn’t think she was the reason I’d gone off the rails.”

“I’m so sorry you went through that.” River grabbed a boxed Barbie Doll and measured the paper to wrap it in. “I’ve always thought what you could do was amazing, and will feel the same way if Brooke or Delta have the same talents as you do. How would I know if she did?”

“Lot’s of kids can see spirits when they’re little. It’s something they lose as they get older because parents tell them what they’re seeing is just their imagination and isn’t real. Most people don’t stop to consider that imaginary friends can be real. I knew Everly would have gifts when our surrogate was pregnant with her. Same for Ezra, who so far hasn’t shown any sign of those talents. Hearing you say that Brooke could hear her sister speak to her piqued my attention.”

“Do you think it’s possible for Delta to somehow communicate with Brookie?” River asked.

“I do,” Ten agreed. “If you want, I can ask one of my spirit guides to speak to Brooke and then we’ll know if your daughter can her my friend.”

“I’ll talk to Barb about it. I’m not sure how she would feel about our daughter having psychic abilities.”

“Just keep one thing in mind,” Ten said. “If you daughter is actually gifted, these abilities won’t go away, they’ll only get stronger over time and could cause trouble for her if she doesn’t understand what’s happening to her or if you and Barb tell her what she’s seeing and feeling isn’t real.”

“I never thought about it that way.”

“I might not like the things Everly can see or some of the spirits she communicates with, but I know that if I stop trusting her or if ignore what she’s telling, she’ll stop talking about what she’s experiencing. I’d much rather know that she spoke to Jillian Marsh’s spirit and help her process it, rather than letting my six year old deal with what she saw alone.”

“Did she see that poor woman’s murder?” Rive asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Ten nodded. “Unfortunately, it’s not the first murder she’s seem and it won’t be the last.” He hated that for his daughter. Everly never seemed to be upset by her lot in life. Maybe that would come when she was older. Ten was always amazed by her acceptance of her gifts and her desire to use them to help other people. Not every child could handle the things Everly saw. It was just one more thing that made his daughter so special.

“Have you heard from Dad lately?” River asked.

Ten shook his head. “No and Everly hasn’t mentioned seeing him either. To be honest, I think he checks in on her, but won’t let himself be seen.”

“Why?”

“I think he’s struggling with us knowing about you. Part of me thinks he assumed we’d all treat you like he did. Us welcoming you into our family has thrown him for a loop. I told him I didn’t want to see or speak to him again until he was ready to accept you as his son.”

“I don’t want you to lose your relationship with David because of me,” River said. His eyes were damp with unshed tears.

“I do,” Ten said without hesitation. “You’re my brother. My family. I lost forty years with you and I wasn’t going to lose one second more for any reason. If David were still alive, I would have said the same thing to his face. I don’t want him in my life if he doesn’t accept you in his.” Ten sighed. “Remember, I’ve been through this before with him.”

“You mean when he kicked you out of the house when you came out?”

“Exactly. I didn’t speak to my father for twenty years after he put me on that Greyhound Bus out of town. If he hadn’t come to me the night he died, asking me to take care of my mother, I never would have reached out to his spirit. To be honest, I didn’t want to reach out to my mother either. She was complicit in running me out of town and not contacting me for two decades.”

“How did you end up fixing your relationship with her?”

“It was thanks to Ronan. When I told him what happened to my father, he insisted we get on a plane to Kansas. I didn’t want to go, but Ronan talked me into it. Kaye was awful to us when we showed up at her house, but Ronan wouldn’t take any of her bullshit. He made sure she was eating and helped plan David’s funeral. Later, when Fitzgibbon came out to help, he brought his adopted teenage son and spending time with Greeley was what changed Kaye’s attitude. He made it clear that my mother had a choice, stay in Kansas alone, or join our family in Salem. The last thing I told her before Ronan and I flew back home was about Everly. I left the decision of what to do next in her lap and she made the right decision.”

“Do you think David would have done the same if he’d lived?” River asked.

“I think so,” Ten said. “I knew David was spending time with her when she was a baby. I think he would have overcome his religious bias at some point like my mother did, but I wouldn’t have allowed him in her life if he was still spouting his bullshit about me being a child of Satan because I was psychic and gay.”

“Everly’s lucky you understand her so well.”

“I would understand my daughter even if I didn’t.” Ten grinned at his brother.

“What?” River asked, sounding confused.

“If I didn’t have my gifts, but Everly did, I would have gone out and bought every book about psychic phenomenon that I could get my hands on. I would have become a subject matter expert and would have gone out and found people who could help her master her talents and who could help her deal with the emotional toll those gifts take on her.” Ten laughed. “I would do the same thing if Everly decided she wanted to play volleyball or softball.” Ten prayed his daughter wouldn’t be interested in sports or cheering, but if she was, he’d be by her side, rain or shine, through every practice and every game.

“That’s a good point. Brooke is interested in gymnastics. We were thinking of getting her into a tumbling program. It might be fun to check out the studio and see if we like what we see.”

“I love that idea. If you want me to come along, I’d love to help.”

“Are you sure about that?” River asked. “Everly wants to do everything Brooke does. You might end up having to learn balance beam routines.”

“God help me.” Ten laughed at the thought. “Hell, I trip over thin air walking thought my kitchen, never mind on a narrow piece of wood, three feet off the ground. Of course that would mean that Wolf and Aurora would want to give it a go too.” He couldn’t help thinking a program like that would be good for the girls’ self-esteem.

“Do you want to try to reach out to David while you’re here with me?” River asked softly.

Ten couldn’t help thinking his brother sounded like a little boy, which in a way, Ten supposed he was. A little boy who’d grown up without his father’s love and pride. All River wanted was a bit of what he’d missed out on thanks to David’s selfishness. “I’ll reach out to him, but let me tell you this, if his attitude toward you hasn’t changed, I’m not bringing him here to meet your or your family.”

River opened his mouth, looking as if he were about to challenge Tennyson. “Okay. If he’s going to be hateful or hurtful, I don’t want him around my girls.” River was silent for a few seconds. “I can’t tell you how much it means to have you here for Christmas, Ten. I feel like the luckiest man alive to have all of my favorite people here to celebrate with.”

“I feel the same way. I’m hoping we’ll see a lot more of each other in the year to come.” Ten didn’t want to say it out loud, but he wanted to come back down for the kids’ February and April vacations and also wanted to invite River’s family to come to Massachusetts for the month of July. Maybe they could spend some time down the Cape or up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The sky was the limit for as far as Tennyson was concerned when it came to building a relationship with his brother.

Family was everything to Ten and he’d risk being added to the naughty list if it meant keeping River safe from his father’s poisonous attitude.