A Shifting Tide

"I'm so sorry for ditching you," Sage Pierce apologized with glistening eyes. "You can follow me around whenever you want. I swear!"

Whitney smiled awkwardly as her family friend gripped both of her shoulders firmly. Four years younger than Sage, Whitney had looked up to her in awe while growing up. That led the young blonde to want to tag along with the older dark-haired girl because Sage seemed like her cool cousin. Initially, the Pierce daughter loved having Whitney around, but by her early teens, she found the grade-schooler's butting in annoying. Now, the guilt from those teenage years seemed to consume Sage as she'd asked Chastity to switch seats with her.

"And don't you ever go near the lake again in the winter!"

"It's alright. I'm fine," Whitney insisted. "No, I really am fine."

"I'll be the judge of that," Willow said from across the table. "I think that's why I will spend more time in Honey Hollow, watching over you."

Wanting to scream, Whitney held it in as her mother rambled on about the lack of supervision under her father's care. That didn't sit well with another individual at the table, and it wasn't Harvey.

"Whitney is always under supervision while at home. Myself, Valeria, and Bud keep a constant eye on her whereabouts and safety," Frida responded. Her voice held a sharp edge to it.

"I'm talking about my daughter's family, not the help."

"The help?" Frida repeated with the unmistakable hint of fury in her tone.

Tamsin's focus swung over to her boss. She managed to catch Graham swiftly place his hand over his longtime friend's arm.

"Willow, don't start this now," Harvey said, a split second before his brother. "Frida is family, and you know that."

"Yes, yes, very well," the blonde blew off her husband's point. "I just meant that people who care about Whitney should--"

"Care?! Let me tell you about a few things, you uppity bitch!" Frida roared in tone, and how she jumped up from her seat.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Graham sounded. Grabbing the chef around the waist, he managed to pull her back down to a sitting position.

Next to the feisty woman, Chastity squeaked in alarm. The bubbly blonde still recalled how the former Mrs. Diamond had acted the other day. Nor did she forget some of the unrepeatable words that Willow called her.

"Mother, behave!" Whitney hissed.

"Still, acting like a bitch, huh?" Fred needled his friend's ex-wife.

"Don't make it worse," Larry told his friend.

Although Fred should be sitting with Finn and his wife's family, no one trusted him to behave. So he'd found himself seated between Larry and Willow at the Diamond/Pierce table. So far, his **** intake had been kept at zero.

"Still a fuckup, Fredrick?" Willow challenged.

"I said to behave, Mother, or else," Whitney threatened.

"Or else what?"

"Or you get sent to the kids' table."

"There is no kids' table," Willow scoffed.

"There is an open seat at the cheerleader table," Whitney revealed. "And I'm sure that my friends and the Babybees would love to keep you occupied with strings of questions."

"Good one, kid," Fred praised, winking.

"Pumpkin, please don't," Harvey said from his daughter's other side. He also shot a glare at one of his oldest friends. "You either."

"Fine, Dad. Let's talk about something else. Something important," Whitney responded, finally able to steer the conversation back to the topic she wanted to discuss. "What are we going to do about Mr. Stratton?"

"You will do nothing but stay out of that," Willow ordered. "It's none of your business as a high school senior."

"None of my business? Lacey's one of my best friends. Or did you forget about that, Mother?"

"Okay, okay, that's enough, pumpkin," Harvey said soothingly as he patted his daughter's arm. "We know you have concerns, but your mother is also right. You need to worry about your health. Rest, not stress, is the key. So let us handle Clive's problem, alright?"

"I want to know what you've already found out," Whitney declared after mumbling a few choice words under her breath.

"Pumpkin, we agreed not to discuss this at the table in public," her father said, motioning toward Graham and Dalton.

"You're in no position to make demands, young--"

"Don't you talk to her like that," Frida growled, interrupting Willow.

"Don't worry, Mother. I plan to take your advice," Whitney chirped. That caused the hair to stand up on the napes of several people's necks. "As you brilliantly pointed out, I am a high school senior. That means I'm eighteen and eligible to vote in this spring's election. Most of my classmates will be too. So I'm considering a get-out-the-vote campaign targeting the Fighting Bees."

"That's a wonderful idea. More youngsters need to be passionate about their elected--"

"Gawd, Larry, don't be so gullible," Willow interrupted. "My daughter clearly has one of her schemes in mind."

"Cynical much?" Fred questioned after seeing Larry's crestfallen face.

"Don't worry, Uncle Larry. I do want to get involved. Lacey's dad is a great guy," Whitney stated. "I bet most of the cheer squad will want to help...except those damn juniors," she muttered at the end. Then, raising her voice again, she gestured across the table. "Chastity, you're fantastic with people and names. Want to give me a hand?"

Whatever response Whitney expected from the receptionist, startled and frightened wasn't it. The blonde queen bee quickly caught the way the bubbly blonde's eyes flickered toward her father, uncle, and surrogate uncle.

"Do you know something that I don't, Chas?"

The loud eep confirmed the teen's question.

"Chastity has been sworn to secrecy on this matter, for now, Whitney," Dalton revealed.

The cheer captain reacted with a horrified gasp while slapping her hand over her chest. She also added a hurt face to go along with pleading eyes.

"Even from me, Chastity?"

"Don't badger her, pumpkin," Harvey ordered, seeing Chastity's lips quiver.

"Remember what you swore," Dalton directed toward his company's receptionist.

The honey blonde nodded by zipping her lips.

"Oh, that's fucking great. Now you people have turned Chastity against me," Whitney complained. "Don't think that will stop me."

"Look, we can't tell you everything, but your grandfather may be involved."

"Graham!" Dalton exclaimed.

"Seriously?!" Harvey questioned in exasperation.

Everyone else at the table sat up a bit straighter at the revelation. Fred and Larry glanced at each other with worry, while Willow frowned at the possibility. Chastity tried her hardest to appear as if she knew nothing while Tamsin slyly pulled out a tiny notebook and pen.

"Hey, we needed to give her some kernel of information," Graham defended himself. "If not, we all know she'll just go off digging around and make matters worse."

"Why?"

"No offense, peanut," Graham said, using Whitney's first nickname, the one he'd given her. "You tend to make situations more complicated."

"No, I meant, why do you suspect Grandfather?"

"I got this," Harvey told his brother. "This is where Chastity came into the picture. She saw Tomohiro Tenno leaving the hotel earlier. Do you remember him?"

"Tommy? Hell yeah, I do. I used to play pranks on him all the time, but he'd never crack a smile," Whitney recalled, grinning. "So he worked for Grandpa; what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that Tenno was our dad's fixer. He made problems go away by any means. And I do mean by any means," Graham explained.

"We could tell you plenty of stories about--" Dalton began before Larry cut him off.

"I recall that one time back in sophomore year at Honey Hollow High. It was an unusually warm day for late September, making it the perfect Saturday night for the seniors to throw a house party. Which, of course, meant that Harvey and Fred felt required to be there."

Fred rolled his eyes at Harvey over the way Larry retold the events from their lives.

"Mr. Diamond had other things in mind for his eldest son. It was around 10:45 that night--I recall checking my watch--that a large man with presence entered through the Penfold's front door. His intimidating manner quieted the first several intoxicated partygoers, who had made jokes about attending the party at his age."

"Boston Burnett practically shit his pants when Tenno glared at him," Fred recalled, laughing.

"Didn't Jack Foscue cum--I mean, never mind," Dalton said, catching himself.

"Oh, Jack definitely busted his nut early when Tenno stormed into the bedroom with him and...Grace Doubleday," Fred continued, taking a moment to recall the name.

"Dalton, I can't believe you told them!" Imogen hissed at her husband. The current Grace Tuppence was one of Imogen's oldest friends.

"I didn't tell anyone," Dalton denied. "Grace ran out of the room with it on her face. Uh, you kids didn't hear that part."

"Harumph!" Larry sounded. "As I was retelling, Tomohiro Tenno marched into Sterling Penfold's party to find Harvey. But, knowing his employer's son, he marched straight off for the bedrooms."

"Oh, Dad," Whitney groaned, slapping her hand to her forehead. She knew where this story likely went.

"After checking several rooms, such as the previously mentioned, Mr. Tenno came to the master bedroom, which was locked. Some partygoers claim that he broke the door down or lifted it off its hinges, but Mr. Tenno, in truth, picked the door's lock."

"Who were you with, Harv? One of the Fallon girls?" Willow questioned sarcastically.

"I hadn't even really met Bev yet," Harvey pointed out.

"Oh, no, my boy was taking his shot at one of the Hughes sisters," Fred supplied. "Damn, Elyse was fucking hot too. Shit, she still is!"

"Yes, Harvey, a sophomore, was in the master bedroom with Elyse Hughes, a senior," Larry continued.

"We were only making out. I swear!" Harvey insisted. "Damn, Tommy dragged me out of the bedroom and the house. And I never got another shot at Elyse. Hell, I had visions of getting her and Ella Rae together."

"Man, Ella Rae was a sophomore in college. You had no shot at her," Dalton chuckled.

"Wouldn't have been his first coed back then," Fred boasted proudly.

"Unfortunately, in the scuffle between Harvey and Mr. Tenno, some damage occurred to the Penfold home," Larry added.

"Your pops kicked a hole in the wall," Fred told Whitney.

"I was trying to get down. Tommy carried me on his shoulder from the bedroom to his car," Harvey clarified.

"Sterling fucking banned us from his parties for the rest of the school year. And this was in September," Fred pointed out.

"At least Shelly never held a grudge like her brother," Harvey remarked.

"High school and college would've sucked," Fred commented before launching his own story. "Naw, you kids don't understand. Tenno? That dude was like the Terminator. He couldn't be stopped. There was one weekend right before we started our junior year of high school. Remember that night, Harv?"

"Sure. It was the weekend before I officially met Bev," Harvey recalled wistfully. Only later did he realize, after that meeting, that he'd met the eldest Fallon daughter as a little kid.

Willow sounded her own harumph.

"I don't know how or who put the idea into Old Hannibal's head--"

"It was you, Fred," Larry stated.

"No, it wasn't. But whatever, all that mattered was that Hannibal thought that Harv was off to fu--hook up with Paris Burnett. Who was in college and three years older than us, Dalton."

"Uh, yeah, I know, Fred. Paris was in the same graduating class with me at Zurbrugg."

"Well, Tenno couldn't be stopped that night. We hid out, we changed cars, we even changed clothes--"

"You changed clothes because the beer can exploded all over you," Larry clarified.

"Do you mind? Thank you! As I was saying, Tenno couldn't be stopped. Fuck, we could've put a bullet in him, and he'd have been like Jason or Michael Myers and kept on coming."

"I assume that Dad must have freaked out when SOMEONE," Harvey said, glaring at Fred, "Bragged to him that I was going to hook up with a Wynwick, which I wasn't. I had my eyes on...well, uh, that doesn't matter."

Whitney narrowed her eyes at the way her dad glanced at her. Hmm, I bet the woman was somebody's mom that I know.

"Yes, Tommy could be frightening," Dalton remarked, coming to Harvey's aid. "I kept one eye open for him at all times after we made our move on Hannibal. Pretty sure I had more than one nightmare about him killing me."

"Oh, Tenno totally wanted to, I bet. Dude could've squeezed the life out of you with a bear hug, Dalton," Fred commented, his face showing the awe he felt.

"Yes, there were always rumors about the people that Mr. Tenno may have eliminated for Mr. Diamond. I find the vast majority of those stories to be ludicrous. However, a few..."

Larry trailed off as Sage began to cry.

"How can you joke about this?!" she exclaimed.

Then, breaking into a sobbing fit, Sage exploded from her chair. Whitney watched in shock as her family friend fled from their table. Having an inkling that this might happen, Imogen rose from her seat to follow her daughter. Still, Whitney's athleticism won as she rapidly passed the older woman, reaching the hallway first.

With all eyes at his table turning toward him, Dalton sighed with a grimace. He rose from his seat, using his napkin to wipe his hands and mouth. Then, with a gesture at Harvey and Graham, he spoke.

"I guess you two had better come with me."

---

Harvey and Graham glanced at each other with confused and concerned faces as Dalton swiped the keycard. The man they viewed as an older brother remained tight-lipped as they rode the elevator to the top floor of the Witzler Hotel. Nor did Dalton say a word as he led them to his corner Penthouse Suite. So they entered the luxurious hotel suite wordlessly, only to be met with sobbing sounds.

Sage sat on the sofa with her mother holding her while Whitney watched in growing terror. The teen didn't know what caused her former idol's despair, but she knew it had to be awful.

Moving to sit on his daughter's other side, Dalton motioned for the Diamond brothers to have a seat on the opposite sofa. Before finally speaking, he gave Sage a comforting hug.

"I didn't want to do this tonight. I would've preferred that this conversation wait until after New Year's Eve and the ball," Dalton began, turning to check on his daughter. "Unfortunately, with Whitney's accident, Sage has had difficulty with all she's learned."

"Did something happen on your vacation?" Graham inquired.

"Our trip wasn't about skiing. That's what we told Sage, even after she complained about missing Becky and Brian's engagement party. No, the trip was planned to break the news to her." Dalton paused to gather his strength. "I have cancer."

"What kind?" Whitney blurted out.

"When are you starting treatment?" Harvey questioned, his mind already thinking of doctors and hospitals worldwide.

"Can it be treated?' Graham asked, quieter than the rest.

"Always the most observant, Grammy," Dalton acknowledged with a sad smile and the childhood nickname.

"What?" Harvey sounded, looking between the two men.

"My cancer is inoperable. The doctors give me six months to live. Maybe slightly more, maybe slightly less."

"What?! No!" Whitney shrieked.

"How? What about surgery? Chemo?" Harvey rattled off.

"If I hadn't been a damn fool, then yes, they could've tried those options last year," Dalton admitted, turning toward his wife as Imogen began to match her daughter's cries. "I should've listened to you, I know. And I regret that every second since."

"This is the reason for your fatigue, isn't it?" Graham queried.

"It is and was. I assumed that running DC and the hotel had stretched me thin, so I ignored the signs. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I went to the doctor. However, the cancer has spread. It's everywhere."

"There must be a way; there must!" Harvey insisted, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"I've explored every option. Even the experimental treatments that offer a long shot of a chance."

"But a long shot is still a shot," Harvey pointed out, grasping for any sliver of hope.

"Not enough to be worth it. I still feel mostly okay and want to spend the remaining time with my family and friends while I get my affairs in order. I don't want them spent withering away for months in a bed from the experimental treatment," Dalton explained.

"You can't d-die. We need you, I need you," Harvey proclaimed before dropping his head down to sob.

"I know, Harv, I know," Dalton replied. Then, taking a long pause to compose his emotions, he added, "I won't be around to bail you out any longer, little brother. You'll need to do that yourself."

Harvey's sobs rang louder as he slid to the floor while holding his head in his hands. He'd nearly lost his daughter, and now he would lose one of the other most important people in his life. The one who was always there to get him out of trouble or protect him.

"No! No, you can't die. Y-You promised to train me to be CEO someday," Whitney declared, tears streaming down her face. "I need you. You promised!"

"I know, pumpkin, I know. And we're going to start, I promise. I'll just have to do my mentoring before you begin college," Dalton responded. "Does that sound alright?"

"No!" Whitney shrieked, then rushed over to hug the man she considered a role model. "Yes!"

As upset as his brother and niece, Graham struggled to keep a clear head. It helped to analyze the issues at hand and how they might be connected.

"This is what you almost told us downstairs before Clive was ambushed, wasn't it? And this is why you think Dad might be making his move."

"Yes, Hannibal might have discovered that I was sick," Dalton confirmed. "However, The Stinging Truth and the attacks on Dunkley began before my diagnosis."

"So it's just not Dad. Other enemies are in play," Graham stated, not speculated.