Chapter 5

Aftershock

Ted turned and walked back towards the party. He was glad for the chill in the air because, without it, he thought he might spontaneously combust. As he neared the front door, he saw that his father was standing on the veranda, waiting for him.

"Ted, are you OK?"

"Of course, Dad. Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason, Son. I was just a little worried. Elena can be...confusing sometimes."

Ted had another moment of unreality as his father's words sunk in. He wasn't sure, but he was really afraid that his dad might know what had just happened and that was a thought he didn't think he could handle right now.

"If you need to talk about anything Son, you know I'm always here, right?"

"Yeah Dad, I know that but I'm fine, really. I just want to get back in, dance with Mom, and then I'm hoping this night will be over. OK?"

Christian smiled and put his arm around his son's shoulders. He could feel Ted shivering and decided to chalk that up to the cold, rather than the shocked exhilaration of an Elena encounter. He considered Ana's long-ago words, "What would you do if that were your son?" as they re-entered the ballroom and Ted went to Ana for their dance. As he watched them circle the room, he realized that he was glad that Elena had moved to the East Coast so he would not actually have to take any kind of action against her. She was gone again, hopefully for at least another decade, and Ted was safe from her. It appeared that he had had some sort of shock from the encounter but there hadn't been any opportunity for Elena to really make a move so Christian suspected that whatever had happened would simply be something for Ted to ponder on his own. Probably in the dark of the night, if he knew Elena, and he did. He knew, in spite of Ana's and his mother's views, that not everything that he had taken away from his own time with Elena was negative and he believed that the aftershock of this brief interlude would be the same for Ted.

The song ended and Christian went to his wife and son. The evening was over and the Greys went out to meet Sawyer with their car for the long trip home. Ana curled up against Christian in the back seat and went to sleep, exhausted from the encounter with her mortal enemy, not to mention the late hour. Ted rode in the front passenger seat but Christian saw that he did not sleep but gazed out the window, lost in thought. When they reached the house and Sawyer opened his door, the door lights shone up and Christian could see the reflection of Ted's face into his window. He had a far-away look but he was smiling and Christian was satisfied.

That's all. Like I said, just a quick interlude. I didn't have any interest in letting Elena get her grubby mitts into Ted but I thought she would find it fun to toy with all of the people she thought had wronged her. I also think that Christian, in his eternal state of denial, would think that a short encounter with Elena, always in public, wouldn't be that big a deal for his son, who has to be infinitely more stable than Christian was at that age.

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