Chapter 42 Derrick
DERRICK
Things went south after Isla’s talk with Finn, but I am proud of her for doing it. Finn will eventually come around, he’s having a fricken baby. Isla knocks on my door, and she looks exhausted when I open it.
“Hey, beautiful,” I greet her with a warm hug, it looks like she could use one.
“You’ve got yourself in a real pickle, haven’t you?
” Isla bursts out crying as soon as I embrace her.
“Come. Let Uncle Derrick sort it all out for you.” I walk her into my living room, where I have some tea brewed for her and her favorite cookies, Tim Tams. “Talk to me.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking by keeping it a secret, Derrick. I just … Mom is pissed. Oscar is upset. Finn wants nothing to do with me. It’s just one giant mess of my own creation.” She cries.
“The whole situation was probably overwhelming, especially living so far away from everyone.” The old saying out of sight out of mind was probably what she was thinking, but she was never going to be able to hide that gorgeous little belly.
“We just found out today that Sebastien got the TV show in LA. So, he’ll be moving here soon,” she murmurs.
“Oh my god. Seriously. Yes! That means you’ll be so much closer to everyone. You’ll have support. You know you can come live with me if you want,” I tell her excitedly.
“Thank you, but it might be time that I have my own place, especially with the baby coming.” She rubs her round belly. I get that. Sienna and Vanessa went crazy in their nesting phase of getting ready for the babies, and Isla is going to be no different.
There’s a knock at my front door. I hope I don’t push Isla into early labor with my meddling, but it’s too late now as I get up and open the door to a pissed off Oscar.
“Behave,” I remind him. Which earns me an angry huff from the Viking. Isla looks freaked out when I bring her brother into the living room. “I thought this would be a safe environment. Sit, Ragnar. And if you upset the pregnant lady, I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”
Oscar rolls his eyes, he may be big, but I am mighty. I could take him on, and for Isla, I would. I excuse myself and head to the kitchen to give them some space.
Derrick: Oscar is here.
Stacey: I warned him that if he didn’t make amends with Isla, he could sleep in the other room.
Derrick: Withholding sex from the Viking. Good one.
Stacey: It drove my point home.
Derrick: You think he and Finn are going to be able to sort their shit out.
Stacey: They are going to have to because they are family. They share that little baby boy in her belly.
Derrick: You think Isla and Finn are going to be able to sort their shit out?
Stacey: I hope so. You’re brave or stupid doing this.
Derrick: It needs to be done, otherwise everyone is going to stay in limbo.
Derrick: Oh shit. I hear crying. Got to go.
Stacey: Good Luck!
I rush back into the living room, thinking World War Three might have erupted, but instead I see a tender reunion between a brother and sister.
“I love you, Oscar. I’m about to start a new phase of my life, and I need you to respect it. Respect my choices,” Isla tells him. Oscar nods and hugs her, and I see he’s just as emotional as she is.
“Damn you, Ragnar, you beautiful beast.” I grin, looking at the happy reunion.
This is what I wanted to achieve today. There’s another knock at my door, and my stomach does somersaults.
I hope the next phase of my interfering works as well as I excuse myself from the living room and head to my front door.
“Hey, Finn,” I greet him.
“You wanted to see me?” Finn says, looking disheveled, lost, and utterly miserable.
“Come in, you look like shit.”
“I feel like shit.”
“Isla does too, except she’s got another life force inside of her sucking her dry,” I state with an arched eyebrow.
“I don’t need a lecture, D, please.” Finn glares at me.
“I can promise you there is no lecture.” I smirk. Not from me anyway. I ask Finn to follow me into my living room.
Isla and Oscar still when they see Finn enter, as does he.
“What are you up to, D?” Finn asks. I motion for him to take a seat, while both Oscar and Isla glare at him. He wisely takes the chair the furthest away from the Vikings.
“Okay. Thank you all for coming here today. I’ll be your interrogator, no sorry, your mediator,” I explain to them all.
“Why is Finn here?” Oscar asks, seemingly confused, guessing he hasn’t put two and two together yet.
Isla has turned pale, and look, I feel bad for ambushing her like I have.
But I really meant it when I said my place is a safe space, and Isla and Finn will never have the balls to tell Oscar their secret.
“I need you not to freak out. All those nice things you just said to me. I need you to mean them,” Isla tells her brother.
“What’s going on?” Oscar looks around at everyone, still not picking up what they are putting down.
“Finn is the father of my baby.” Oh shit. I wasn’t expecting Isla to just drop that bomb as quickly as she did. I’m so proud of her.
“You motherfucker!” Oscar launches himself at Finn, knocking over and breaking one of my lamps.
Oh shit!
Fucking animals. I jump in and try to pull the Viking off his best friend.
“I told you to leave her alone,” Oscar screams at him as a fist meets Finn’s lip.
Ouch.
“Fuck off, man,” Finn screams, blood dripping from his lips as he tries to push Oscar out of his face. “I fucking love her,” Finn confesses, which makes the entire room stop. Oscar is caught off-guard by Finn’s confession, and I’m able to maneuver him away.
“You’re going to pay to fix this shit, you hear me, Eriksen.”
“I told you if you went near her, I’d tell your secret,” Oscar threatens Finn.
“She already knows,” Finn spits back at him.
Oscar turns to Isla.
“I don’t care. I’m honestly more upset that you have tried to keep us apart.”
“I didn’t want him to break your heart,” Oscar explains to her.
“So, you broke it for him.”
Well damn. I can see Isla’s words hitting their target.
“I’ve loved him all my life, Oscar. From the moment we saw each other as kids. There has been no other man in my life that I have loved more than him.”
My heart is breaking for the two of them.
“I thought … I was trying to protect you,” Oscar tells her.
“You pushed us apart. You put so many barriers between us, Oscar. You gave us so much baggage that you destroyed our love.” Tears rush down Isla’s cheeks.
“Finn proposed to me when we were in England, but because I was so sick of being under your control, I chose to run. I left him when my heart wanted to stay. I broke him that night, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fix what I broke. ”
Shit. This is heartbreaking and I’m unable to control my own tears as I look at Isla and Finn. I had no idea how deep this was for the two of them.
“I was so scared to tell you that he was the father that I kept it a secret. That I denied him those months of being a part of my pregnancy,” Isla spits at him.
“Issy,” Oscar says painfully.
“I can’t blame you for everything that has happened between Finn and me over the years, but you were to blame for a lot of my pain.
Finn pushed me away out of loyalty to you.
He was so scared that you would tell his secret to the world that no matter how much he loved me, it wasn’t enough.
He was terrified to hurt his family if his secret came out. ”
Urgh. My heart is being ripped out as I watch this all unfold. Oscar starts pacing.
“I did all this,” he says, thumping his chest. “Fuck!” he screams, and it sounds so full of agony as if he’s just realized how far he has taken his protectiveness, and how much it has cost his sister and best friend.
“Fuck! I did it to protect you. I thought it was the right thing. I …” Oscar is breaking right in front of us.
Isla rushes into his arms as they both break down crying.
“I’m sorry, Issy. I had no idea I was hurting you this much. ”
You can hear the raw honesty and regret in his words. Oscar gets it, and he is devastated. He lets go of Issy and takes a couple of steps toward his best friend. I’m ready to jump in and protect Finn, except it goes an unexpected way.
“I’m sorry, man. I am so damn sorry. I fucked up. I fucked up so much.” Oscar breaks, and pulls Finn into his arms, hugging him. Finn relents, and you can see a lifetime of stress lift off his shoulders as his best friend embraces him. “Do you still love my sister?” Oscar asks him.
“I do … but … we have a lot to discuss,” Finn tells him.
Oscar nods and takes a couple of beats as if rectifying his own mindset, because he claps Finn on the back and says, “You both have my blessing. I should never have stood in the way. I could see it. I could see how much you meant to each other. I just didn’t want anything to fuck it up, but instead, I did. I messed it all up.”
Isla and Finn both look relieved, but I don’t think my little intervention is going to help those two today. However, I’m happy that everything is now out in the open, and that Oscar is not going to stand in their way.
“I know how you can pay me for all this damage, Ragnar. But it requires you to get onto your knees.” I smirk, breaking the awkward silence that falls upon the group.
Oscar roars laughing. “Not my kind of thing, but it is Finn’s.”
Finn stills.
Now it’s my turn to burst out laughing because I can’t believe he just said that. “That escalated quickly, that we can now joke about things.”
“Too soon?” Oscar asks.
I wince. “A little.” And that says a lot coming from me.
“Derrick’s not my type.” Finn smirks.
“Excuse you. I can assure you I’m everyone’s type,” I snap, offended by Finn’s remark. “You, baby girl, couldn’t handle all this.” I spin around.
“I think that’s my cue to leave.” Oscar grins.
He looks over at Isla and Finn, and you can see he is really trying to come to terms with everything.
“Fuck, guys. I … I fucked up. I fucked you guys up. I thought my intentions were good, but in the end, I ended up hurting the two people I care about the most.”
Finn steps up to his best friend and reassures him. “It’s all good, man.”
“No. It’s not. I could see the way you looked at my sister.
But I thought you would treat her like one of your one-night stands.
What I didn’t do was really look at all you had done for her.
That you, too, protected her. That she meant more to you than I could ever have realized.
And through all this, you were still my best friend and still had my back no matter what.
You took my bullshit and threats, and you still didn’t curse me.
Fuck, Finn, you’re a better man than me. ”
“You were trying to be a protective brother,” Finn tells him.
Oscar shakes his head. “No. I was a controlling jerk off.”
“What’s done is done. We need to move on. Please, don’t cut yourself up over it. We can’t change the past, but we can make sure it’s not repeated in the future,” Isla assures her brother.
Oscar kisses Isla on her forehead. “I’ve stuck my nose between the two of you for long enough.
I’ll leave you both to sort out what you need to sort out.
I promise, whatever happens, you have my support.
Finn, you’re family now. No matter what.
” Oscar hugs Finn before saying his goodbyes and leaving.
“Well, it looks like the beast has been tamed. Now we just need to sort the two of you out.” I look between Finn and Isla.
“I think maybe we should sort that out by ourselves,” Finn states.
“I’ll go hide in my bedroom. You won’t even know I’m here,” I tell him, lightening the mood.
“Thank you for all your help, Derrick. I think Finn and I might need to sort this out one-on-one.”
“One-on-one, I get it.”
“Derrick, no!” Isla shouts, which has me laughing, it’s so easy to rile her up.
“Damn pregnancy hormones. I feel ya. Sienna was like a horny teen jumping Evan every second she could. Poor guy, I think she fucked his dick off.”
Finn is stunned, and Isla looks like she wishes the ground would swallow her. You’re welcome, Issy, because now Finn is not going to be able to stop thinking about sex. Now you can bang your problems away.
“Thank you for everything,” Isla says, giving me a hug.
“Any time, babe,” I tell her as Finn comes over and does the same.
I watch as the two of them walk out of my front door, and Finn escorts her to his car.
Everything is going to be okay.
I go and pick up my phone and text Stacey.
Derrick: Oscar punched Finn, but everything is all sorted. They are all happy families.
Stacey: So, I don’t have to relegate Oscar to the sofa.
Derrick: No, you can fuck the Viking all night long. He did well. But he owes me a BJ for breaking my lamp.
Stacey: Noted. I’ll see what I can do.
Derrick: You’re such a good friend.