Title: There's Always a Reason

Series: Breakthrough

Author: Alan Hitchen

Email: darkmere2000@yahoo.co.uk

Archive: http://www.realmoftheshadow.com/alan.htm

Disclaimer: Popular is the property of Touchstone Television.

Pairing: Sam/Nicole

Rating: PG-13

Information: Follows on from Overrated.

Summary: Brooke puts her idea into action.

The more Brooke thought of it the more Nicole reminded her of Rapunzel; the beautiful baby taken from her mother by a witch and kept in a doorless tower in the woods. As she approached the Julian mansion she could almost see Nicole's long golden plaits dangling from the window, and the handsome Prince Sam climbing up them to rescue her. But that was just a fairytale and Judy Julian was far more formidable than any fictional witch.

"Brooke McQueen to see Mrs Julian," she announced herself to Ellis at the door.

"If you'd like to come this way," the butler replied. Then took her to see the mistress of the house in her study.

"Brooke! How nice to see you again!"

The force of Judy's false bonhomie took Brooke by surprise, she almost turned to look for the TV cameras.

"And you," Brooke responded politely. "As you probably know my father is getting remarried and I came to invite you and Nicole to the wedding."

"Oh, that is so kind, but I'm afraid I'm otherwise engaged and Nicole, as you must know, is not..."

"Yes, I know," Brooke interrupted. "Can I be frank with you?"

"If you must," replied Judy. The smile had gone and already there was a touch of frost in the voice. Brooke took a breath to steady herself, then began her speech.

"My mother is a lesbian. That's why she left my father. She couldn't go on living a lie, so she left. My father couldn't tell me the truth so I got the idea it was my fault, and that was the root cause of my eating disorder, my blighted relationships, my general unhappiness."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but what..."

"I haven't finished yet," Brooke continued with determination. "Now that I know the facts I've been able come to terms with it and make peace with myself. Now I think you need to make peace with Nicole. You're her mother, she loves you, and she desperately needs you to love her back. I know this isn't an easy thing to ask, but she needs this, she needs you. She also needs Sam. Okay, Sam is a girl, but she's also a good person who loves your daughter very much. She doesn't want to cause a scandal or embarrass you in any way. So, please, can't you reconsider your position?"

Judy scarcely paused for thought let alone to reconsider the matter.

"Have you quite finished? Then Ellis will show you out."

And with those unfeeling words she terminated the interview and Brooke's hope for a breakthrough.

...

"I didn't expect to see you here again," said Harrison, regarding his fiancee with an unfriendly glare.

"Ah know." Removing her dark glasses, Mary Cherry revealed her light-brown eyes, reddened by recent tears. "Can ah come in?" she asked hopefully.

Harrison shrugged and stepped aside to let her enter. He shut the door and led her through to the kitchen. Propping herself up at the breakfast bar she removed her silk headscarf and sable jacket as Harrison set about making coffee for them both.

"So, where have you been?" he asked in a unexpectedly light tone. "When I phoned I was told you were in isolation with a touch of the Ebola virus. By the way, your maid sounds just like you putting on a bad Mexican accent."

"That was me," she admitted with a wry smile.

"No kidding?" Harrison replied dryly, setting down two steaming mugs on the counter. He then asked the question that she had been dreading. "Why?"

"Ah was embarrassed."

"Embarrassed? You? What about me? I was the one who got left behind. I was the one who went to school and got laughed at all day long."

"Ah'm sorry, Joe, really ah am."

"So you should be! And it's Harrison! Not Joe, not Larry, Harrison! And I say again, why? What was it for?"

"Because I wanted them all to see you lahk ah do."

"And how is that?"

She blushed and breathed "Wonderful" at him.

"Oh," he replied, flattered by the compliment.

"Ah'm not that stupid," she went on. "Ah know ah'm not your first choice, or second, or third. But you're my first and I wanted everyone to know."

"Know what? 'Hey, look everyone, and especially mom, Harrison's mine!'."

"Kinda. Ah really thought they'd lahk you like that, and with that music, but ah guess ah was wrong."

"So what now?" he asked.

"Ah don't know," she whispered and looked away from Harrison, steeling herself for the inevitable moment of rejection.

"Look, I guess I'm partly to blame as well. I could have said no. But I didn't." He reached across to take her hand in his. "So, what say we start again. As friends, and take it from there?"

She was at first thrilled, this was better than she had hoped, but then downhearted again. "Can't we still be engaged?" she pleaded, gazing lovingly at her ring.

He sighed. Why was he doing this? He knew she wouldn't change. But now that he knew he was "wonderful", perhaps that didn't matter so much. "Okay," he conceded, then added firmly, "but it's going to be a long engagement. No snap weddings to upstage mom, got that?"

Mary Cherry smiled. "Ah got that."

Harrison followed suit. "Good."

... 

"I did my best but it was no good." Brooke frowned. "That woman is colder than ice. I'll bet if I threw a bucket of water at her it'd freeze before it even touched her." She glanced at Sam still staring listlessly at her laptop, watching the screensaver's animated antics fill the screen with colour. "Are you listening?"

"I heard." Sam turned her head and gave Brooke a weak smile. "Thanks. At least you tried."

"I'm sorry, Sam. I thought she would... well, anyway, it's given me another idea. I'm going to invite Mom to the wedding."

"Your mom? Kelly?"

"Yes. I didn't tell you, but that weekend I spent over at Mary Cherry's. We went to San Francisco and I met her."

"You did?" Suddenly animated, Sam span her chair around to face Brooke. "What happened?"

"I found out the truth. You're not going to believe this, but she's gay too."

"That's why she left, because she's a lesbian? But I thought... oh... a cover story, huh?"

"Yes."

"And? How did it go?"

"It didn't go like I'd hoped it would. I got angry with her, then came the shouting and the tears... But now I've had time to take it in and discuss it with Dr Muller... I need to forgive her. I need her to know it's okay now."

"But what about Mike? He's not going to be okay with it is he?"

"Probably... not. I didn't think about that. I can't just spring this on him, can I?"

"You can still tell her though."

"Yes, but I wanted to do it in person, you know?"

"After the wedding then?"

"I suppose it'll have to be. Then after the honeymoon I can break it to Dad."

"Sounds like a plan," said Sam, before sighing, "Which is more than I have."

...

"You asked to see me?"

"Yes, Nicole. Sit down, please. Your friend, Brooke McQueen, came to see me the other day."

"I know. She told me. You threw her out."

"Yes." Judy took off her glasses and threw them on the desk, her blue-grey eyes revealing nothing of her thoughts. "I threw her out. You probably think I don't love you, that I think only of myself and my political ambitions. After all, I've given you no reason to think otherwise. There is a reason for this, maybe not a good one, but there is a reason. You see, my parents..."

Before she could go on, Nicole suddenly intervened.

"They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to but they do. They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you. -- But they were fucked up in their turn by fools in old-style hats and coats, who half the time were soppy-stern and half at one another's throats. -- Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself."

She paused and gave the startled Judy an empty smile. "It's a poem by Philip Larkin. Is that what you were going to say?"

"Pretty much, yes. I'm sorry, Nicole, it's not that I don't love you, it's that I can't love you. I can't love anyone. I don't know how to. If my pitiful excuse for a marriage taught me anything it was that. But Brooke got me thinking, got me to look at what I've been doing to you since your Nana died. Repeating all the mistakes of the past, trying to turn you into a clone of myself. I can't go on doing this, hurting you this way."

Judy stopped, replaced her glasses, then added, "You love this girl, Sam?"

"Yes," Nicole choked. "And she loves me." Her eyes bright with tears, she continued, "That's the best thing, Mom. She loves me back."

"I know I should be saying something supportive and comforting at this point," said Judy. "But as we both know that isn't going to happen I'll just ask you. Nicole, do you know the meaning of 'discreet'?"

...

Sam came downstairs to find Jane in the kitchen and Mike doing paperwork, Brooke was watching television. "What's this garbage?" Sam asked as she crashed onto the sofa next to her.

"Jake 2.0," Brooke answered. "You've perked up," she observed.

"Yeah, well, I can't stay moping in my room forever can I? Hey, doesn't that guy look just like Harrison?"

"Joe 2.0, you mean," quipped Brooke.

Sam laughed for the first time in what felt like ages. "Oh, is that what Mary Cherry's been doing away from school, creating another disco disaster?" The doorbell rang. "Speak of the devil, that's probably her come to fill me in on Harrison's next incarnation. I'll get it," she added for the benefit of the 'rents and headed for the door.

She didn't come back.

By the next ad break she still hadn't returned so Brooke went to see what was keeping her at the door. No-one was there. Sam, and the mystery caller, had gone.