"Sweetheart, I was blind and stupid back then. I believed in the wrong people until," He answered curtly as he opted to clasp his both arms around her upper back until she interrupted him, pushing them away, fiercely glaring at him. "The devil inside her violated me and it came out, you were absolutely right about everything!" Timothy concluded with a bittersweet smile that might soothe the angered former nun though the situation aggravated as well.

"Do not sweetheart me!" She huffed, turned her back by packing the last belongings and items in her suitcase which she might need, focused on her baggage. "I can't believe who's standing in front of me. You are the same selfish, stubborn and ambitious heartbreaker who I know from Briarcliff. How dare ya?" Jude couldn't suppress a raised voice, escaping her trembling like piano keys dry lips. 

"Jude, it wasn't my fault why I wasn't home for a few hours." Timothy was fed up with her bullheadedness as her adrenaline glinted, consuming it. Ellie, Tristan and Agnes watched the infuriating dramatic conflict between their parents as they were beyond heartbroken of the pugnacious scene they witnessed right away. "Once I realized my stupidity after I was violated by the devil and I played in the wrong team against you, therefore here I come by devoting my whole heart to get you out of the misery and creating together this marvelous family. I am not the man who was a priest. I am myself. A family man. A mere man with his own needs."

"You are nothing. I am leaving now." The older woman snapped at her husband by closing the leather suitcase, finishing up with its packing process by ushering her children to come with her without blandly questioning her why they are leaving.

Then she momentarily grabbed her suitcase as the twins and Agnes escorted their mother, while Timothy was after them without giving up and letting them to run away like they don't exist.

"Jude, you are everything for me! Do not do this to me!" His plea was disregarded by her, feeling her gradual gnawing remorse, she opted to mute and yield to oblivion his voice that echoed in the desert. He walked after them as soon as she fled the bedroom with the children and descended the wooden stairs.

"Go away!" The blonde yelled exasperated without turning her back as she aimed to the front door as an exit and leaving the mansion's area at last.

All of a sudden, the former holy man felt peculiarly, rather obnoxiously powerless to stop his wife as his attempts to persuade her to stay and explain to her particularly failed.

On one hand, the love of his life hurted him to bones and broke his heart once he saw her in the direct moment when she was preparing her luggage to flee with the children somewhere he doesn't know at all. An unidentified mystery for him yet. On other hand, conflicting thoughts of her flooded his mingled, frozen mind. What he thought as first thing was actually she won't return ever again and there's somewhat chance to divorce him and let him see their little rays of sunshine once a week. Then another thought resurfaced as an iceberg inside his hazy, profound mind, convincing him she needs time to relax and liberate herself from the abrupt bombshell and hopefully her return is going to be sooner or later.

Afterwards he mildly sped up towards the middle-aged woman and the children, opting to grab one of their attention as well. As he yielded a jog Ellie's shoulder, she turned to him as Timothy couldn't be more delighted and content with earning his oldest child's attention as their eyes met, developing a platonic intense eye contact. She offered him a sweet, symapthetic smile as she didn't assist her mother and siblings, due to the fact, the young brunette wanted to be with her father, despite Jude's immediate disapproval.

"Daddy!" The eldest twin said timidly as he crouched down to her and pulled her in a short, warm embrace by throwing his arms around her.

"Ellie, please don't leave me!" The former man of the cloth whispered softly as they were beyond lost in the hug that won't last for a long time and keep its blazing flame inside their hearts. "I will miss you terribly with Tris, Agnes and your mum."

"I hope we return one day. I don't want to leave you," As the little girl was in the middle of her utterance, suddenly Jude noted Ellie hasn't followed her, consequently returning back inside the mansion by cautioning Tristan to look after his younger sister not until she's back.

"Ellie, what are you," Jude dragged Ellie by her wrist, incapable of releasing her as Timothy watched his wife and their children walking away like ghosts that left its haunted place. "Let's get out of here." She exclaimed seconds before slamming the door as Timothy's eyelids were pooled with severe dew as wry, glacial tears betrayed to tumble down his face.

He has almost never cried in his life unlike some times when he just needed it as the former man of the cloth abided way too strong. And subsequently he needed time to experience a temporary sorrow. His heart was already cracked on thousands of miniature pieces as if a hammer whacked his chest.

"Why my rare bird flied away?" Timothy whispered as he struggled to utter as he stood up.

"Mommy, why is this? I wanted to say goodbye to Daddy!" Ellie evoked mildly irritated, pouting her baby pinkish lips.

"Mommy and Daddy need some time to solve something which isn't your fault at all, sweetheart!" The blonde abided composed by explaining it in simple way to the young girl. "Your father deserves nothing for now."

"But I hate it to see him alone and upset." Ellie complained by huffing as her hazel orbs were focused on the dark path, sunk in shadows. "He deserves love."

Then the former sister of the church released a raspy, sarcastic chuckle as soon as they left the mansion's yard.

"Don't worry, honey! We need some time to decide some stuff and figure out what's the best for us." Jude replied reassuringly.

"If we are leaving now, where we are going?" Tristan inquired.

"Frank!"

"Why not auntie Val?" Ellie enquired rhetorically.

"Because her house isn't big enough for more people." The former holy woman carried on. "Frank is a hope for every one of us."

"He's nice but isn't his house big enough for us, is it?"

"It's, Tris."

***

"Oh, hi Judy and cuties! What brought you there?" Frank tried to bring some merry mood though his failure by welcoming warmly his old friend and her children.

"Hi uncle!" The children answered in unison.

"Hi Frank! I am just upset and I am not into the jokes." She lowered her head suddenly, glancing at the ground by pursing her lips for a while that formed a grotesque frown. "I am so sorry."

"Aww, Judy! It's okay. You mustn't apologize for such petty things. The children can enter." He maneuvered the twins and Agnes to enter inside as he stepped aside, letting them to move on until the last child has already established inside. "I am your friend for years and I have always been there for you." He said in low voice as he clasped his strong, muscular arms around her shoulders, whereas she left the suitcase on the ground by throwing her arms around him, pulling him in a tight and warm hug.

"Frank, you have always been polite, loyal and helpful even when the least I needed it." She confessed shortly after breaking off the hug as her vaguely puffy, reddish eyes met his winter blue eyes, filled with platonic affection and doubtless concern, her petite, frail hands pawing his shoulders.

***

Two hours have passed since Jude left the mansion where she was rescued from Briarcliff's sinister madness, thanks to Timothy.

The former man of the cloth couldn't be more downhearted after the happened a handful of hours ago, taking its place in front of his eyes.

He had no motivation to go to sleep, nor doing something else which he and his rare bird to do with immense pleasure. His absence of appetite invaded him. His heavy eyelids that built its severe ounce barely blinked.

As Timothy was all alone, his two story mansion sunk in numbing hush, bashing him relentlessly. He felt defeated. He was mightless to persuade Jude to stay with him. His yet pulsating heart, enveloped in ashes of melancholy after Jude's hot-tempered demeanor concluded him by blazing the fragments of his shattered heart, he felt nothing but a sheer heartache in the limbo.

The holy man has always forgiven Jude, handled her mood swings and when she struggled emotionally, nonetheless, once he contemplated her how she was packing her paraphernalia, Timothy's heart instantly cracked on trillions of pieces not until she informed him she leaves with the children and thanks to the conflict as thry confronted one another, subsequently the pieces of his broken heart were actually scorched to edges.

Timothy was sitting on the right armchair by reclining, watching polaroid photos from their wedding upto nowadays. He was mesmerized by the way she looked on the polaroid vintage photos, admiring her ethereal grace as a wry, subtle smile spread across his lips, pouring down bittersweet tears as he grieved over her and the children's sore absence. His index finger softly tipped her face on the photograph where she was pregnant in the yard as his hand trembled, when he recalled her wrath was cooking and brewing inside her as her glaring face haunted him for 2 straight hours.

At least, what molted his fragile heart was when he said goodbye to Ellie as she was his last hope and last source for arrant happiness as an ill-defined smile crawled on his pale, fresh complexion as soon as the thought of Ellie popped up in his mind, besides contemplating the photograph with him and Jude together back in 1965, when she carried in her bump the twins and at first they thought their first child is going to be just a girl. 

"You are so beautiful, rara avis. Why are you doing this to me?" He questioned in low, forlorn voice.

***

After Jude unpacked partly her belongings with her children's ones as she had a separate bedroom, while the twins and Agnes had their own room to sleep and play in the same time as it used to be Dorothea's bedroom when she was a young girl, Frank and his guests had a dinner and she explained to him about the complicated situation between her and Timothy.

Moreover the security guard permitted his old friend to stay at his home for how she's pleased and solves the family problem with Timothy.

When Jude told Frank about earlier today, he would scarcely believe it was actually the authorities' fault for ruining Agnes Jude's birthday by calling urgently the former monsignor to come in the police station and enquired him over not only Briarcliff, but also other questionable topics. Frank was actually neutral.

As the children were already put to sleep warm and cozily, Jude was laying on the large bed on the second floor in her independent bedroom, eyeing blankly the ceiling, pouting her plump, rosy-coloured lips as she grasped the velvet blanket that blanketed her body which was clothed in nothing than a rosewood négligé.

The former sister of the church didn't know what she felt anymore or rather, what conflicting emotions and feelings collided. They resembled an unborn child's incessant, violent kicks in her belly.

First and foremost, the blonde was undeniably distressed all over the happened and cogitated about her behaviour and words then. Behaviour and words which were far from cultural. She felt somewhat remorses for what she has done to him, as a resulf of her blunt rage she demonstrated when it wasn't necessary at all. Howsoever, the middle-aged woman cannot blame him for that he needed to go in the police station when they needed him the most. At last but not least, she was still livid and let her rage command her body as if it wasn't hers any longer.

All of a sudden, a door tap snapped her of her thoughts as she yelled plainly. "Yes?"

In the meanwhile, the former cop entered in the room by closing the door behind him.

"Hi again!" She replied softly.

"Hi, Jude. Are ya still grumpy over the happened?" The middle-aged man asked concerned by sitting on the edge of her bed. His warm sapphire blue eyes were arrowed at her beautiful face, admiring its natural beauty.

"How do you think, Frank? Am I actually?" She replied with a handful of rhetorical questions as her elbow propped her chin, averting her eyes from the ceiling by shifting them to his sapphire ones. "Indeed, I am." She nodded her head in humble manner.

"Judy, do not let your remorses and anger eating you slowly. They are like scars on your heart." He advised wisely by placing his smooth, large hand on top of her petite one. "Please, don't allow it! You are a strong woman." The security guard resumed his utterance in low voice as the thumb of his hand managed to knead the back of her hand.

"That's what I am trying, Frank. It's the worst birthday that my daughter have ever had for her 3 years anniversary. It's just unbelievable."

"No matter how moody or distressed you are, you have my support even when we have disagreements as well." He pecked a kiss on her hand by lifting it up to his soft lips as she relished the kiss on her creamy knuckles by Frank's lips, despite it wasn't the same without Timothy. What she hankered for was Timothy's sensual caresses, loving and cute cuddles and sultry kisses. Little did she acknowledge how much she missed him though her searing ire that had control over her body, mind and conscience.

"Frank, it's not about that. I can't really blame him for that. I know how petty and dumb it was, but I couldn't help once he disappeared from home and went in the police station exceedingly to ask him serious questions." She added, sighing coldly. "We just need some time."

"It's okay. Give yourselves some time and you will be bloody happy woman with him again."

***

A several days later
28th of May, 1970

The days passed like a summer breeze.

The both married partners could no longer stand the isolation from each other that tormented them yet. Not only it affected them sorely painful, further, it was gradually destroying them.

She terribly missed his gentle and rough caresses that contacted her mossy, vanilla skin. His lustful, intoxicating kisses as his lips sealed hers with a luscious, endless kiss, feeling like a heavenly paradise. Her heart was aching and bleeding from her actions which she felt a guilty conscience 2 weeks ago. She hasn't had sex with him for almost 3 weeks. What the blonde was feeling was emptiness in the vacuum unless the love of her life breaks this curse.

The days as they progressed, hell was for her.

Valerie and some of Jude's inner circle friends were already informed about the morbid 3rd birthday of the youngest Howard. The majority of them assured her to apologize him and the both former pious members of the church haven't spoken to each other for 2 weeks after the happened.

As Jude was sitting on the wooden crawling chair in the living room as Agnes was safely laying in her arms, fell asleep as the currently playing music on the gramophone in the background was still oblivious for the unconscious bodies, Frank was teaching the twins how to bake sweets in the kitchen.

What the middle-aged man adored about the twins was their ability to learn quickly as they studiously followed each instruction gingerly, without distrscting themselves so far.

"Ellie and Tris, are ya watching how the circle shaped dough should be kneaded, correct?" They were sitting on the kitchen table as they were equiped with aprons, protecting their garments from being stained accidentally.

"Yes!" They joyfully shouted all at one, inspecting in scrutiny way the older man how he was kneading the circle shaped doughs with his dexterious fingers as thry were seating alongside one another.

Ellie and Tristan commenced kneading the dough as they were utterly focused, giggling inwardly as they loved to be taught in the cooking and couldn't be more intrigued to learn them in ease. In the interim, Frank observed by the way they kneaded the dough without averting his stare. What mesmerized him was they pugged it perfectly without being criticized. At least, they were kindergarteners and they had a lot of time behind themselves until they are adults and it would be shame then if they didn't have any clue what to cook as a meal. 

"Hey, you kiddos!" Frank evoked in mocking manner as he loved to demonstrate his childish side in front of his friends and children, besides people whom we can trust whether fully or somewhat. "You are doing a great job!" They stopped paralyzed as initially they thought they weren't doing it properly as he applauded them for kneading the dough how it should be. "Why you stare at me like wounded hares?"

"I don't know. Probably it's because we are novices in this." Tristan stammered.

"Oh, baby boy! Everything is fine. You are just young and curious. It's okay to make mistakes and be unsure whether you are doing the right thing or not exactly." The former police officer swatted faintly in amiable way his shoulder, convincing him everything is okay. 

All of a sudden, they were interrupted as somebody rang on the door as the former sister of the church came to her senses with Agnes at last, opening her eyes reluctantly as she was wondering, who terminated her afternoon nap. 

"Étrangère au paradis. Et je sais qu'en chemin. Le danger dans un paradis. C'est de rencontrer un ange." The French song on the gramophone disk played yet in the living room background as Frank bought it a long time ago to have it as a piece of memory since his French wife passed away. 

When Jude and Agnes opened their eyelids, the scintilatting sun rays were even blinding her when their eyes were shut tightly.

"Wait a second, sweethearts!" Frank peppered their foreheads with gentle kisses as he walked away from the kitchen by walking up to the front door, unlocking it until the door opened after the another click. 

Timothy stood beside the front door, holding something behind his back as he wanted to surprise his wife, come to see her and discuss along the issue they encountered no longer than 2 weeks. 

"Hi Frank!" Timothy greeted affably his old friend as he offered a benevolent smile to the older man.

"Oh hi, Tim! What brings ya here, fella?" 

"I came for Jude and our children to see them," He blushed lightly when he thought of his wife and her haunting grimaced face as its grotesque frown swelteringly contrasted. "I hope you don't mind at all."

"I don't mind for sure, Tim! It wasn't your fault this happened."

Meanwhile Jude got from the rocking chair as she strolled up to the gramophone, removing its needle that was pinned in the wee hole as the French song halted to play in the background, sailing in the room. 

"May I come on?"

"Definitely!" Frank stepped aside by letting the former man of the cloth to step up inside his two story house as he heard cooing, coming from the living room as it gave him a hint, who was actually there. "You can find her in the living room."

"Alright! Thank you for guiding me, Frank!" Timothy walked up to the living room by pushing the double doors as he beheld his wife and youngest child in her arms as he concealed behind his spine a special bouquet with flowers from the flowerbed of his mansion. "Jude?"

"T-Timothy, what are you," As she was about to keep on with her exclaimation, he mildly sped up to her as he threw his arms around her upper back as she couldn't help but embrace him back. "I missed you horribly so so much! You don't have any idea what I did to myself."

"It's okay, sweetie!" After they broke off the hug, Timothy bended his head as he planted a kiss on Agnes's rotund cheeks as she giggled content, her big hazel eyes darted up to him, watching him in awe. "It's the cops' fault they ruined our little angel's birthday."

"Yeah, I really cannot blame you." Jude was beyond dumbfound when Timothy showed the bouquet with flowers from his mansion's flowerbeds, handing it to her as she handed him immediately Agnes to spend some time with her. "Oh my god! Darling, that's so magnificent. I am speechless."

"I truly believe you like them."

"I just don't like them. I love them!" She snuggled the bouquet towards her ribs as she leaned her face against the dazzling flowers, sniffling its alluring fragrance, inhaling quietly as she closed her honey brown eyes. "They are stunning. I couldn't believe your return will bring me a smile."

Then the both adults couldn't oppress a gleeful chuckle, escaping their lips as Agnes was chattering. "Daddy?" 

"I am so happy you love them. I have chosen your favorite flowers or something that's eye-catching and simple." The younger man winked gamely at his wife as his content smile blossomed on his lips. "My little angel, how are you?" He pinched lightly Agnes's button nose as she sniggered.

"I am happy, Daddy. And you?"

"I am either." Then he shifted his warm, loving chocolate brown eyes to Jude as she suddenly opened her hazel eyes as their eyes met, locking up one another's stares. "Jude, I am owing you an apology for the happened two weeks ago."

"No, no! Timothy do not blame yourself. It wasn't your fault, of course." She forgave him instantly as he couldn't suppress the smugness that fulfilled his heart. "I should directly apologize you for being mad at you when you were gone for a few hours in the police station." Then their faces approached she captured his lips in a kiss until they broke off the kiss, slightly withdrawing their faces as they took their time to admire each other's enchanting facial traits.

"I am so glad you forgave me. You don't deserve to be angry and I hate to see you anger enveloping your heart and emotions. I love you very much, rare bird!"

"I love you much more, sweetie!"

To be continued...