All That We Could Be

Chapter Twenty Six

The week Fallon spent in Brampton included many family dinners. Her aunts and uncles kindly invited her into their homes for large family gatherings, in which Fallon and all her cousins got to spend time together. Fallon couldn’t believe how her relatives had done this for her. Her heart swelled with love for her family.

After the dinners, Fallon usually spent nights talking or watching movies with Maria. Sometimes Sophia had joined them, but more often than not it was just the two of them. Maria had already pestered Fallon for more details on Daniel. There was no stopping Maria, as she had gone on to all the tabloid websites in search of a picture of the two of them, and had found it within minutes. Even Fallon looked at the picture when Maria had found it.

It was the one when Daniel had for the first time come to one of her performances. Fallon remembered it vividly.

Luckily Maria had finally lessened the amount of questions she asked Fallon about Daniel after she saw the picture.

As for any more recent articles on Fallon and William, well as of yet Fallon had only seen two. Both were from William’s perspective, and both were almost exactly the same.

Fallon hadn’t received any outraged calls from Craig, so she presumed that everything was alright. At least she hoped it was.

Fallon had flown to Calgary on the Tuesday of her second week of vacation. The four hour flight had been pleasant. She had arrived at 6pm, to be greeted by her cousin Ava and her husband Ethan.

Ethan was easily Fallon’s favorite brother in law. As soon as Fallon had met him, she had liked him immediately. The two of them got along, and Fallon deemed him perfect for her cousin. This was because both Ava and Ethan sounded the same, as in the words they used, the way they wrote, even some of their interests. The best part was that Ethan shared a similar sense of humor with Fallon. Fallon would send him links to things she had watched that were funny, and Ava would tell her about how he spent the whole time laughing at them.

Ava and Fallon had been close when growing up. Ava had always helped Fallon out when Maria and Sophia felt like excluding her when they were children. Ava was taller than Fallon, had shorter hair, but was also the more responsible one.

It was Fallon’s third day in Calgary, when Fallon and Ava went shopping. Ava wanted to go to the nearby shopping mall. So Fallon agreed to tag along. Fallon had wanted to get some gifts for Cheryl, Christopher, Craig, and Phil. The two of them left. Fallon got to drive.

Ethan had let Fallon and Ava borrow his car. They would drop him off to work in the morning and pick him up when he was done. Ethan had gotten himself a BMW M5 way before he and Ava had even met or gotten married. He liked the car to be a manual. Which was just as good since Fallon was happy driving a manual.

As Ava went to another clothing store, Fallon lagged behind and sat on the bench outside. She was already carrying two of her own gift filled bags as well as three of Ava’s bags.

Fallon was still in shock of Ava’s knowledge. She had just been ambushed about Daniel and William again. It annoyed Fallon that her cousins knew about this, particularly the fact that they hadn’t let it on until now. Also she couldn’t believe that they had been checking up on her through websites.

The scene between the two of them had been quite awkward. Fallon leaned back into the bench and could clearly recall the events of the night before. Ethan had been working late, so Fallon and Ava were sitting on the couch watching television. “So how is life across the pond?” Ava had asked. “It’s alright.” Fallon had said to her in between watching the show. “Yea, so how's your soccer player?” Ava asked a smirk planted on her face. Fallon had been startled at the question. She had turned to face Ava quickly, causing her to crick her neck. “Nothing is going on. Besides he’s not my soccer player.” Fallon had said, with a slight grimace.

“How is that you know about it anyway?” Fallon had asked it had started to bother her that any of her cousins knew about this stuff. “Well did you really I’d let you go all the way to England and not know what’s happening with you?” Ava had retorted. “How much do you all know, and how many of you know it?” Fallon asked wearily. She couldn’t tolerate being asked the same anymore. “Well we just know what the newspapers are saying about you. I think it’s me, Maria, Sophia, and Alex. He found out when we had all been looking at some of the reviews about your last album. Don’t worry the adults don’t know what the papers are saying about you.” Ava reassured. Fallon was aghast. That was one too many people who knew about what the tabloids were saying about her.

“Fallon don’t look so horrified. I mean did you really think we wouldn’t want to know if you were doing well. I love some of your stuff. I’m so proud of you. But now I can see what you mean about the reviewers being tough. PJ totally chewed you out.” Ava said, trying to make Fallon feel better about it.

“Yea, well, at least now I know how much you all have known. Why are you all keeping tabs on me anyway? I’m not interesting.” Fallon had asked. “You’re pretty much my little sister. So I want to know what’s going on. We all do. You’re the youngest from the five of us mini adults. Obviously we want to be able to protect you…not like we actually can but we want to know what’s being said about you.” Ava explained, she sounded motherly.

Fallon had felt a little placated that they had all just wanted to know what was going on with her, even though they called often enough, but still she couldn’t believe that they would read those articles about her.

Ava had gotten the full story out of Fallon about Daniel in the end, just like Maria. Ava had even given the same advice as Maria. Fallon wanted to believe what both Ava and Maria had said to her, but she was too stubborn to actually go through with their advice.

As Ava came out of the store, Fallon got up. They walked to another store within the mall, and Fallon repeated the routine.

The last day of Fallon’s visit came quickly. The amount of stuff she had done was incredible. Ethan had taken two days off work to take both Ava and Fallon to Banff National Park. Fallon had mastered taking professional pictures with a little help from Ethan. They had stayed at the inn near the park.

The two weeks Fallon had spent with her family had been amazing. Even though some of it had been a little uncomfortable, but after all they were family, and if they didn’t know what she was up to then who would.

Fallon had enjoyed herself thoroughly. She was a little sad when Ethan and Ava had taken her to the airport. It was Monday and almost seven in the evening when they had all said their goodbyes. Ava had gotten teary, which in turn had made Fallon slightly teary and more hesitant to go home. In all honesty Fallon wanted to stay with her family a little longer, but she knew that she had to go home and work on the tour and the promotion of the re-release of her album.

Fallon had called Christopher early in the morning to ask if he would be able to pick her up. He had told her that he had been waiting for her to call, and that he was ready.

The flight back home had been a morose one. Fallon missed her cousins as she reflected over the time they spent. It had been joyful. She hoped that she would be home for the winter holidays, at least then she could see her parents and siblings as well as her cousins.

Fallon could see nothing but darkness out of her window. It was hard to make the clouds out. She gave up on looking out of the window and pulled out one of her books, until the plane touched down. It was three in the morning.

As Fallon walked through the terminal in search of Christopher, she heard her name being called. Immediately she knew it wasn’t Christopher who was calling her.

Fallon turned around to see Cheryl and Craig standing a few feet behind her. Okay…this is weird…-She thought. Christopher had clearly told he would be here to pick her up, but he was no where to be seen.

Fallon walked towards the two, she walked slowly and carefully. Something was up. They both looked a little tense. Cheryl greeted Fallon first with a hug. Craig just stood there awkwardly.

“Hey, I didn’t expect any welcome party…how come you both came to get me? Where’s Chris?” Fallon asked with a smile, trying not to sound rude or annoyed.

Cheryl and Craig both exchanged significant glances. Fallon noticed. They hesitated before Craig finally spoke.

“Chris was a little busy so he told us to come get you.” Craig told Fallon. “I called him in the morning he said he would come.” Fallon stated her tone was suspicious.

Both Cheryl and Craig traded looks again. This was not good by any standard, Fallon thought. If they were in on something it usually was bad news.

“Okay what’s going on? I barely get back and we’re already keeping things from each other.” Fallon said, her irritation starting to come out.

Cheryl sighed, Fallon had hit a nerve. Craig shifted uncomfortably. They looked at each other once more, and then Cheryl nodded. Here it comes…- Fallon thought, preparing herself for whatever it was that she was in store for.

“Fallon, Chris couldn’t come because…” Craig trailed off. “Fallon, Chris couldn’t come because he had to take Phil to the hospital.” Cheryl said, as she dropped the unexpected news on Fallon.