Deja Vu

by

Aimee
(aimeed@earthlink.net)

For over twenty years now, they'd been the best of friends, partners in all sorts of enterprises, known to all their friends and family as a matched set. They were both rich, attractive, well educated, and unattached. They were the perfect couple: a lovely blonde with a keen sense of business and the handsome black-haired dynamo who guided her from her first efforts and was guided by her innate skill at navigating the corporate web as they built their futures side by side. So why, after all this time, hadn't anything happened between them?

"So what's the story with you and Jonah?" Eve Sheffield asked, perching herself on Morgan's desk.

Morgan Victoria Babcock Niles shook her head and slammed her textbook shut. "Nothing. Not one damn thing. I parade around here in slinky evening gowns, flirt with him constantly, and still not so much as a kiss. You'd think after I helped him get into Stanford by convincing Max to make a huge contribution to the new athletic center . . . " Pensively, she twisted a gold fountain pen in her long, slender fingers. "What do I have to do to get his attention?"

"Try clucking, it worked for your mother," suggested her father, appearing in the door with a pot of tea and a tray of scones. "Here, I brought you a little study snack. How are you doing?"

"Fine. I'm pretty sure I'll pass the bar with no problem."

"She tests off the charts already," Eve protested, rolling her eyes. "Her ACT's set new records for our school, her SAT's set new records for the state of California, and her LSAT's showed higher numbers than Grandma Sylvia's scale!"

Niles watched as his daughter dabbed cream on a blueberry scone and nibbled halfheartedly at it. "Well, if it isn't the bar exam, it must be a boy. Who is he, and has he done anything I'd need to buy a shotgun about?"

"Doesn't she wish," said Eve. "Ow! Morgan, get your hands off my -- ow!"

"So, who is he?" prompted Niles. "Dish, or I'll get Fran to figure it out. You can keep secrets from your father, but Fran's an even bigger yenta than I am."

"Not since you bought that new bread machine," teased Morgan. Niles glared sourly. "Anyhow, it doesn't matter. He's so not interested."

"That's crazy. You're a beautiful, wealthy, educated woman," Niles announced, irrationally offended that anyone could overlook his daughter. If she wanted him, then he had no business not wanting her. Of course, the little bastard better not touch her, but he'd damn well better notice her if she wanted him to.

"There you have it," Eve interjected with a toss of her dark curls. "I knew we shouldn't have gone to college. Now we'll never get married."

Morgan groaned and reached for another scone. Niles yanked the tray away. "Not one more crumb until you tell me who it is."

Just then, the door opened and a handsome, twenty-something young man in a three-piece suit entered. He ran his fingers through his curly black hair and said, "Morgan, Eve, want to go for a burger? Oh, Niles, scones and tea. Terrific." Jonah snagged a scone and disposed of half of it in one bite. "I'm okay with a picnic in Morgan's room."

"You're not the only one," Eve said snidely. "Yeow! Morgan, watch where you're sticking that stapler."

Niles's eyes grew wide as he stared from his unhappy daughter to the Sheffield twins. "Oh, my god," he gasped. He swallowed hastily and said, "I've gotta go find your mother. I, uh, promised her a scone before you three gluttons got them all." On the way out, he bent over Eve and whispered, "Don't you dare leave them alone. Ever. Or I'll tell your father about the Chippendales video hidden under your sweaters."

"Brighton warned me about you," Eve grimaced.

Niles smiled smugly at her and left the three children alone.

"Wonder what's up with him," Jonah said blankly.

"I can't imagine," Morgan replied in a low, husky voice, crossing her legs so that the slit in her long skirt fell back almost to her thighs. She tucked a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear and cast him a come-hither smile.

"C.C.! C.C.! You are never gonna believe -- oh, hi, Fran!" Niles skidded to a halt.

C.C. and Fran jumped guiltily apart as Niles burst into the siting room. "Hi, sweetheart," C.C. greeted him, reaching up to twine her arms around his neck and steal a kiss. "We were just talking about, um about -- "

"Chocolate," Fran said instantly. "That's why we look so guilty. We were just thinking of breaking our diets. It has nothing to do with Morgan and -- " C.C. clapped a hand over Fran's mouth.

"Jonah?" supplied Niles.

C.C. winced. "How long have you known?"

"Please," he said, wounded. "My daughter tells me everything."

"Eve blabbed," said C.C. "She better hope Morgan doesn't blab about the Chippendales video."

"She's twenty-six," said Fran. "Eve can sit at home at night watching men she'll never meet who aren't Jewish anyway doing things her father better never find out she knows about if she wants to." Fran paused to consider what she'd just said. "But how could she not be married?" she wailed.

C.C. put her arms around Fran and said soothingly, "Don't worry, Frannie, I'm sure Eve will be married by the same age you were." She gave a light, evil laugh.

"Thanks a lot. Meanwhile -- "

"Meanwhile," said Niles, "Doesn't this strike you as at all odd? I mean, am I the only one having déjà vu?"

"What do you mean?" C.C. asked blankly.

"I mean, Morgan looks just like you. She's all business, just like you. She's a smart-mouthed little hellion, just like you." Niles sighed. "God, I'm so proud of her. Well anyway, Jonah looks just like Maxwell. He's got that British reserve, just like Maxwell. And he's oblivious to his blonde sidekick, just . . . like . . . Maxwell."

C.C. and Fran looked at each other in dismay. "They're doomed," groaned C.C.

"They'll never get married," sobbed Fran.

C.C. sighed. "Perhaps I'd better have a talk with her. I'd hate to see her waste as many years as I did, chasing after the wrong man."

"But that would give her nearly a hundred more years of celibacy," pointed out Niles. "I say the suffering will be good for her."

C.C. got up in his face. "Listen, Butler Boy. I want my child married and I won't have some damn servant who just happened to donate the sperm twenty-five years ago getting in my way."

Niles wrapped his arms around her. "I just love it when you take charge," he teased.

"So what's on your mind?" Morgan asked, feeling the beautician's fingers massage all the tension out of her face as the mud mask was applied.

"Sweetie, how do I say this tactfully?"

"You, tactful?" Morgan laughed.

"You're right," C.C. said. "Forget about Jonah. Sheffields and Babcocks just don't mix." C.C. fanned herself as she bent over the steamer. "Trust me, I tried."

Morgan was silent for a moment. "So it's true," she said in surprise. "You were in love with Max."

"I used to think so. Now I don't know if that was really love. If I was ever in love with him, it wasn't anything like what I feel for your father. That's what I want for you, darling, not endless years spent pining after a man who may never come through for you."

"But Jonah and I are not you and Max! And I do love him."

"I'm sure you do. And if the day ever comes when Jonah loves you as well, I'll be thrilled. I'll throw you the most magnificent wedding the world has ever seen. But if that day never comes, well, that love isn't going to get you very far."

"Just give me time," insisted Morgan. "I have to try."

C.C. sat up and reached for her daughter's hand. "Honey, I like Jonah, and if I could beat that silly little bastard into loving you, I would. Since I can't, bonne chance and don't you dare let your father know what you're up to."

Jonah dropped into the chair across from his father's desk. "Hey, Dad."

"Hello, son. How's the law practice?" Maxwell flipped off his eyeglasses and watched the younger replica of himself fiddle with a letter opener.

"Just fine."

"So what's wrong? You look troubled."

Jonah replaced the letter opener. "Dad, how do you tell a girl you l -- lo -- like her?"

"That depends on the girl. If it's your mother, you blurt it out on a crashing plane, take it back, and enjoy the chase for a couple more years." Max grinned at the memory.

"What if it's someone a little less -- forthcoming -- than Mother? Somebody kind of conservative, so you can't really tell if she cares, and you think she might, but you don't know, because you think she's looking at you and she brings you snacks when you're working and rubs your shoulders but never, ever just says it straight out, just laughs at you with those big blue eyes and tucks her hair behind her ear and goes back to whatever she was doing before, and you can't figure her out?"

Max frowned. "Just who is this elusive blue-eyed shoulder-rubber? I can't imagine why, but the whole scenario sounds familiar. Have you been writing to Drew Barrymore's daughter again?"

"No, Dad, this is real. This is it. And she's totally oblivious."

Max was outraged. It was a personal affront to the family name. "That's ridiculous. What woman could be oblivious to a Sheffield?"

Just then, Morgan walked in swinging a briefcase.

Max smiled his welcome. "C.C.! How did that meeting -- oh, Morgan, I'm sorry, but you look just like your mother did at your age."

Morgan smiled. "Thank you. I just brought you these papers from Mother. She called to say the meeting is running long but they're practically throwing money at her. I just wish my father was home to say something really catty about that." Her bright smile took all of the sting out of her words.

Jonah was always amused by Morgan's easy, teasing relationship with both her parents. Her first words had been the insults Niles and C.C. used to use when they wanted to express their love but couldn't, and she'd only grown more like them every day since then. Niles and C.C. were insanely proud of their child, especially now that she was turning her agile mind and way with words to a career in corporate law, just as Jonah was.

Morgan smiled at Jonah. "Hey, guess what? Rumor has it I might get an offer from your firm. I wonder how that happened?"

"Your bad luck. It's a good thing you thrive on stress."

Morgan rubbed his shoulders lightly. She knew Max would think nothing of it, because she and Jonah had been raised practically as brother and sister, but Fran said that a backrub was a great way of getting a guy's attention. "Speaking of stress, I'm due at a review session in half an hour. See you later. Jonah, if you hate it that much, I'll be glad to grab your job and kick your butt right out as soon as I pass the bar." She laughed, fixing her eyes on him, and tucked her hair behind her ear. "Bye, Max." Father and son watched her leave, her long legs in the business-like skirt swaggering slightly. "Good-bye, Morgan," Max said thoughtfully. Then he turned to Jonah.

"Morgan?" he said in disbelief. What was it about the Babcock women that they had the power to create chaos everywhere they went? And couldn't keep their hands off of Sheffields?

The four parents held a pow-wow that night around the kitchen table.

C.C. was the first to speak. "At last," she said dreamily. "A Babcock is going to marry a Sheffield. I always knew it was meant to be."

Max and Fran smiled at each other, then at C.C. and Niles. "We can't think of a better match for our son than the daughter of our two dearest friends," Max said fondly.

"Well I think she belongs in a convent where your damn son can't get his horny little hands on her," Niles said stubbornly.

C.C. and Fran turned to him. "Shut up!" they said in unison.

Niles led a weeping C.C. to a table on the lawn. A couple of hundred guests had gathered to celebrate Morgan's graduation from law school and passing of the bar exam, but C.C., normally the perfect hostess as a Babcock should be, had broken down into sentimental tears.

"She's just a baby," sniffed C.C.. "How can she be ready for this?"

"Because she's so much like you, strong, brilliant, and she scares the crap out of all lesser beings." Niles nevertheless felt a sentimental pang for the golden-haired innocent who used to make dough "pies" in the kitchen with him and get chocolatey fingers all over her mother's paperwork. Morgan was much like C.C., but a C.C. who had been raised with love and care, not shoved off on servants all her life. Not only Niles and C.C. but Max and Fran had made her part of a happy, noisy, caring family, and that had made all the difference.

But it hadn't saved her from falling in love. C.C. could see in her daughter's eyes the same lonely frustration that she'd seen in the mirror so many years ago when Maxwell fell in love with his nanny. It was so frustrating to watch her fall into the same trap C.C. had.

But now, Morgan was shining and happy, eating barbecued hot wings with Eve, Jonah, and the older three Sheffield children, who'd flown in for the occasion: Maggie, happily married to Michael; Brighton, a noted film director; and Gracie, a prominent therapist. She was also being enthusiastically embraced by her idolized older cousin Fifi Babcock, now prima ballerina in a San Francisco ballet company.

C.C. squinted slightly in the sunlight. What was happening? Eve was handing envelopes to Morgan and Jonah. Jonah gasped as he read his, and shot his sister a look. C.C. focussed on Morgan, who had suddenly turned pale. Jonah laid a hand on her arm, and Morgan turned and fled. Jonah followed.

C.C. rose. "Come on, Niles." Some yards away, she saw Fran running to follow.

"I saved these to give you both on your graduation days," said Eve, "but I thought instead I might give them to you at the same time, at Morgan's party. They're just old letters you wrote to me when you were away at college, but I thought they'd make a nice memento of the day." Eve gave the envelopes to her brother and best friend.

Jonah opened his. To his surprise, not his own writing but Morgan's familiar elegant copperplate script met his eye. He was about to put it back in the envelope and give it to Morgan when his own name jumped out at him.

Morgan slit open the letter. She was surprised to find Jonah's looping, untidy scrawl and not her own writing. She was even more surprised to see that the letter was about her.

Eve smiled when she saw the startled reactions on their faces. "I'll just leave you two alone, shall I?"

Morgan looked up into Jonah's shocked face. He loved her. Did this mean Eve had revealed her secret as well? Confused and at a loss for words for once in her life, she turned and fled. But somehow, she knew he was right behind her.

C.C., Niles, Fran, Max, and Eve knelt behind the bushes watching the two figures on the terrace. "Ugh!" whispered C.C.. "I'm getting all dirty."

"What's the matter, sweetheart? It's not like it's the first time we've been behind the bushes," her husband replied.

"Shut up, Viagra breath. I think your daughter's getting engaged."

That shut him up.

Jonah took Morgan's hand. "Do you love me?"

"Y-yes," she said shyly. "Do you love me?"

"I have for years."

Jonah bent his head and touched his lips to hers. She threw her arms around him and kissed him back passionately. A few feet away, C.C. physically held Niles down to keep him from interrupting the scene.

Jonah pulled back. "Morgan, will you marry me?"

Morgan looked startled. "Jonah, we've only known about all this for thirty seconds. Don't you think we should wait and see how things develop?"

Jonah glared. "What's the matter, Morgan? I thought you loved me."

"I do, and I want to be with you. But no, Jonah, I'm not ready to marry you. I'm not saying never, I'm just saying not now."

"Oh, my God!" Fran whispered to Niles. "My psychic was right, C.C. and Max did have an affair! There's the genetic proof she's a Sheffield-- she's not ready to commit!"

C.C. beat her palm against her head in frustration. "Well I think Niles fathered the twins. It would be just like his brat to leap into marriage without so much as dinner out. Who does Jonah think he is, that my daughter should just follow him down the aisle like a dog? Shut up, Niles!"

Up on the terrace, Jonah sighed. "I guess it's enough for now that we love each other. So, umm, do you want to have dinner sometime?"

C.C. muffled her laughter in her sleeve. Niles groaned.

"Okay, but it better be good. I'm thinking Spago." At this characteristic Morganism, Jonah laughed. She protested, "Hey, I may be easy, but I ain't cheap!"

Jonah took her arm. He looked down at her with those gorgeous dark eyes and said hopefully, "Since when are you easy?"

Morgan tilted her head. "Actually, I'm not. Wow. I'm just a big old challenge all around."

"You better be," Niles muttered. C.C. elbowed him hard as the new lovers left the terrace and took a path to the gardens. They disappeared into a maze.

"Oy," said Fran. "This is gonna take forever."

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