I Can't, I Won't

Summary: Sequel to Life's Full of Little Surprises. She was the girl that he couldn't forget, he was the man she didn't want to forget. He fell for her on a bus, she fell for him in the rain. After two years apart, they are brought back together. But are they willing to let themselves fall in love again?

Disclaimer- I own nothing but my OC's. It is very sad, but true.

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Thank you to everyone who reviewed the final chapter of Life's Full of Little Surprises. I am glad that so many people enjoyed that story so much and I hope that this one is a great follow up to it. Please tell me what you think and be honest. Thanks! I love you all!

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-Bangor, Maine-

18 year old Julie Gaffney quickly packed as many clothes as she could. In just a month she was suppose to be going to UCLA for college with her boyfriend of two years, Dean Portman. However, Julie changed her mind when, yet again, her bitchy stepmother had started yelling at her about her life choices. Marianne had said that Julie needed to stay in Maine and stay away from 'that terrible excuse for a boy' who was 'going to ruin her life'. Who the hell did Marianne think she was? She didn't know Dean. Given her predicament, Julie decided to go to Chicago to see her Grams and visit the Portman's before she went to California. She loved that family more then anything. When she and Dean first started dating, they welcomed her with open arms.

Pulling out her cellphone, Julie dialed her Grandfather's number, "George Gaffney."

"Grandpa, I have a favor to ask." Julie said, her voice breaking.

"Julie?" George asked, "What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Nothing, Grandpa." Julie replied, looking at her bruising eye in the mirror. Marianne had never hit her before, but Julie's constant backtalk must have made her snap, "I can't stay in Maine any longer, so I'm going to Chicago. Can you please send all of my things to California in about a month?"

George sighed, knowing that something must be wrong. He also knew that if he asked, she would deny it, "Julie, I'll bring it there myself."

"Thanks Grandpa." Julie replied, "Sniffing. I'll see you then."

"Goodbye, Julie." George said, "Say hello to Catherine, your sister, and your mother for me. And don't forget to remind Dean that as long as he his dating my granddaughter he is not allowed to do a strip tease anywhere."

"I will Grandpa." Julie said, chuckling, "Bye."

"Goodbye, Julie." George replied.

The both hung up and Julie looked at her eye. Dean, his entire family, and hers were going to ask about what happened. She wasn't sure that she really was going to want to answer them. Sighing, Julie pulled her suitcase off of the floor. When she looked up, Julie jumped, "Oh, God."

"Julie." Kermit said, "I never expected my mom to do something like this."

"Of course you didn't." Julie replied, "She's never done anything like this before."

Kermit sighed, "Do you want me to take you to the airport?"

"Sure, but my flight doesn't leave until late." Julie replied, "But, then again, you do have to take me to Regan's before I can leave." Kermit raised his eyebrows, "Jonah has to give me my tattoo." Kermit's jaw dropped, "What?"

"You're getting a tattoo."

"Um-hum." Julie replied, "A Sphinx. You get it, right? 'Cat-lady', Sphinx." Kermit nodded, "Regan didn't tell you?"

"No."

"Oh." Julie replied, "Okay. Well, lets go."

Kermit sighed, "You're going to get me killed one of these days, Julie." Julie chuckled as Kermit picked up her suitcase, "How are you getting all of your other things to California?"

"Grandpa."

"Oh." Kermit replied, "Is he going or just sending everything?"

"He's going." Julie replied.

"Then I'm going to go with him." Kermit said, "Come on, we need to get you out of here before Mom or Richard decide that you can't leave. Even though I know that neither of them know that you are going."

"You're damn right." Julie replied.

-(-)-

-Edina, Minnesota-

It was almost over. No more Ducks. In about a month, every Duck was going to a different part of the country and they might not see each other again for a really long time, if ever. Then what would become of them? Adam Banks sat on his bed, looking at a scrapbook of his years as a Duck that he started making when he joined the Ducks. Even he was amazed at how much had changed. They had lost players and gained players and been the worst and the best. However, one thing remained the same. They always ended up back together. This time, on the other hand, was going to be the exception. At least, that's what it felt like.

Adam flipped the page and looked at the last picture. It was of the Ducks holding their third straight state championship trophy. That picture had only been taken in March, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Looking over the faces, Adam sighed. Julie and Dean were going to UCLA and Kenny and Russ were headed to UC Berkeley. Fulton had done a complete 180 and confused everyone when he applied to Columbia University and he had gotten in! Even though he hadn't known it at the time, Tammy had applied to The Fashion Institute of Technology and she was accepted there; the two of them were going to be in New York together. Goldberg, Dwayne, and Luis were all going back to their roots; Goldberg at Penn State University, Dwayne at Texas A&M University, and Luis at (where else?) the University of Miami. Guy and Connie were both accepted to Union College, and given that they couldn't bear to part, they were both going there. Averman, surprisingly the only Duck to stay in Minnesota, was going to the University of Minnesota. As for himself and Charlie, they were going to Boston College with Jesse. Charlie and Jesse had always planned to stay in Minnesota, but that had changed.

"Adam!" A voice called through his bedroom door.

"What?" Adam called back.

"Can we come in?"

Adam sighed and put the scrapbook away, "Sure, Monica." He replied.

Monica walked in followed by Ana and Becky. Adam knew that he would never cease to be amazed by Becky. After years of being told that she would never walk again, she proved all of the doctors wrong and told them, "Doctor's don't know anything." Well, she hadn't said it to their faces, but they got the idea. Everyone knew that that attitude must have come from a certain Chicago born Figure Skating Olympic Gold Medalist that they all knew and loved. Now, Becky was walking as if she had never been in an accident.

"Hi, Adam."

"Hi. Monica." Adam replied, raising his eyebrows, "What do you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"Monica Edith..."

Monica sighed at the usage of her middle name, "Fine, fine. Becky brought a DVD of pictures from her uncle's wedding and we were hoping that we could get you to help us find a way to watch it on the T.V. downstairs. Please?"

Adam sighed, "Fine." He stood from his bed, but was knocked backwards and almost on the bed as three bodies collided with his, "Okay, let me go, now." The three 12-year-olds obediently obeyed and ran down the stairs into the living room, "Oh Boy." He mumbled as he walked out of his room and down the stairs into the living room, "Hi, Mom, Dad, Coach." Adam said as he entered the living room.

"Hi, Adam." The three replied as Adam took the DVD from his sister and started fiddling with the DVD player.

As Adam worked on helping his sister, he could hear sniffling in the background, "Mom, please don't start that again."

Corrine sighed, "Well, what else do you expect me to do? You're my youngest son and you're going so far away." Corrine started sobbing almost uncontrollably. Adam really wished she wouldn't, particularly because his coach was in the room. Not only that, but Monica was trying, rather unsuccessfully, to stop herself from laughing.

"Oh, be quiet, squirt." Adam said, "She's going to do the same thing with you some day." Monica got quiet and scowled, "Here we are."

"Thanks, Adam." Monica said, "Want to watch with us?"

Adam shrugged, he didn't really have anything better to do. But, even though that was the case, why did she want him to look at pictures of Becky's uncle's wedding? "Sure, why not."

"Cool." Monica replied. Across the room, Philip Banks shuttered and both of his children could practically feel it, "What is wrong with the word 'cool'?" Monica asked, "It's an adjective."

"Monica Edith." Philip warned.

Sighing, Monica looked over to her brother, "Okay, press play." Adam raised his eyebrows, but did so anyways.

Becky looked behind her, directly at her dad, "Daddy, I know that you are going to bring this up, so I'm reminding you. By order of the maiden of honor, you aren't allowed to bring up Uncle Eric's and Joey's age difference."

Ted chuckled uncomfortably, "How could I forget, Rebekah? I was scolded by a 17-year-old in front of about 150 people."

"She wasn't scolding you, Daddy." Becky replied, "If anything, it was suppose to embarrass Uncle Eric a little, not you. She was just talking about how stubborn Uncle Eric and Joey were. So relax a little." Ted rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Oh, this one's my favorite." She said, staring at the picture on the screen. There were four women on four steps. On the bottom was none other then Tammy, one step above her was Gia Le Bon, above her was a very pretty brunette who was obviously very tall, and on top was Joey.

"Who's the young lady on the third step?" Philip asked.

Becky, Monica, and Ana raised their eyebrows and turned around to stare at Philip as if he was crazy; although, Adam wanted to ask the same question, "That's Dani, daddy. She was the maiden of honor." Monica replied, "Please don't tell me that you forgot about Dani."

Philip gulped, "Of course I didn't." He said, "But she looks so tall."

Becky chuckled, "She is. She grew a lot. I think she said that she was 6 feet even... Yeah, that was it. Dani said that she had a inhuman growth spurt, or something along those lines. She's very candid about her height nowadays." Adam stared at the picture. Now that he looked at it, he couldn't believe that he didn't know Dani when he saw her. She was still as beautiful as ever and she had the same mischievous spark in her eye that Adam was pretty sure was a Portman family trait.

Over the past two years, it seemed to Adam that his social role and Dean's had flopped. Dean had become the epitome of a perfect boyfriend. He was sweet, caring, brought Julie random gifts for no real reason, rubbed her shoulders when she was stressed, never touched another girl in any inappropriate way, and he was chivalrous to no end. Adam, however, knew that he became a playboy. He didn't date any one girl for longer then two months, he flopped to different girls quite often, and he never really had any physical attraction or any attraction of any kind to the girls that he dated, they were for one thing only... To help him forget about Dani. All of the girls that he had dated were spoiled, rich, fake in almost every sense of the word, insincere, dull, and practically brain dead. He wanted to date he exact opposite of Dani to make him forget about her, but it didn't really help, it just made him miss her and love ever aspect of her even more then he did. Adam knew that it was wrong, but he could help it.

Sighing, Adam stood up and threw the remote on the couch, "I'm going to see Annette." With that, he hastily made his way out of the house.

"I take it Dani is still a touchy subject with him." Ana said.

"Yup." Monica replied, "He's still reeling from being dumped. He's so stupid!"

"Monica!" Philip and Corrine warned.

Monica sighed, "He should have hopped on a train to Chicago right after she left and begged her to talk to him. He should have asked her what he did wrong to make her dump him and then he should have begged her forgiveness. It'd be better then it is now. What's with his weekly Annette's?" Monica looked around the room for an answer and was quite pleasantly surprised when neither of her parents had one for her. Both of them had loved Dani and what she had done for their son. The only answer they could think of to Monica's question was one that they weren't going to tell her.

Adam sat outside of the house that was owned by his girlfriend of two months, Annette Pryce. She the same kind of girl that he had dated for the past to years, but worse. Her parents were good people who tried raise her right, but she didn't agree with that plan so she got emancipated when she was 16. Sighing, Adam got out of his car and knocked on the door, "Annette?" He called. Knocking, Adam found it odd that he didn't get an answer, "That's weird." Adam mumbled to himself.

Sighing, Adam twisted the knob to see if it was unlocked. Surprisingly, it was. Annette never left the door unlocked unless she was home. Raising his eyebrows, Adam walked in and closed the door behind him. Everything seemed in order and there wasn't any sign that someone had broken in, "Annette?" Adam asked again. Checking the whole bottom floor, Adam didn't find her, so he made his way upstairs.

The first room that he came to was Annette's bedroom. When he got there, Adam heard moaning and was taken aback, but tried not to jump to conclusions. Holding his breath, Adam gripped the knob, turned it, and threw it open. He hadn't meant to, but that's the way that it ended up happening. Looking in the room, Adam shook his head and chuckled, "Adam." Annette said, holding her blankets over her chest.

"Annette." Adam replied calmly, "McGill." He could tell that the calmness that he was exuding was probably more scary to Annette and McGill then if he would have screamed and broken something, "Why am I not surprised? Oh well, I was planning on doing this some time closer to when I left, but Annette, we're over."

Annette gaped and pulled her blanket full off the bed as she stomped over to him while McGill covered himself with the sheet, "You can't do that." Annette said, "I am always the dumper, not the dumped."

"There's a first time for everything, babe." Adam replied, causing Annette to gape even more, "I heard from a friend he had nothing." He shot at McGill, "Don't worry, I won't let the door hit me on the way out."

-(-)-

-Chicago, Illinois-

Like any other self respecting and sane person at 3:45 in the morning, Dani Portman was asleep, rolling over as the clock switched to 3:46. After a few moments, Dani shot up when her cellphone woke her from her sleep, "What in the world?" She asked herself as she laid back down and reached for her phone. Opening it, Dani put it to her ear, "Who in the world are you? It's 3:45 in the morning."

"Dani."

Dani yawned, "Julie?" She asked, "What the hell?"

"I have a favor to ask of you." Julie replied.

"Julie, it's 3:45 in the morning. I am exhausted." Dani said, "What is so important that you couldn't wait until later?"

Julie sighed, "Dani, I'm at O'Hare right now and I was kind of hoping that you could pick me up. My Grams is in Edina visiting my mom, Piper, and Adriaan. They're coming back here in a few days, but I don't really want to wait here at O'Hare or call a cab. I hate cabs."

Dani rolled her eyes, "Why didn't you call Dean? Or my parents?"

"I want it to be a surprise." Julie replied candidly.

Yawning again, Dani said, "Fine, I will be at O'Hare in a few minutes. Be waiting outside for me. Remember that if you were not dating my brother and if I did not love, I would kill you."

"I know." Julie replied.

"I'll see you in a few." Dani said as she hung up her phone, "Ay-yi-yi." Dani mumbled as she got out of bed and rummaged through her dresser. She pulled out a pair of loose plaid pants and pulled them over her silky short pajama shorts, but didn't bother to cover her silky pajama camisole. After dressing, Dani reached into her bedside table and pulled out her keys and her wallet. She picked up her cellphone again and started out the door.

When Dani got to her car, she shook her head, "Oh, Julie, why must you do this to me?" She yawned again and turned on the car, "I hope mom and dad don't see this and get the wrong idea." Dani couldn't help but say. For the past four months she had been dating a man named Dave and none of her family approved of him. But then again, what else was new?

As Dani drove along, she thought. Julie was suppose to meet Dean in about a month before they went to UCLA together, so what was she doing in Chicago so much earlier? Did she get into a fight with her stepmother? That seemed like the only logical explanation. When she arrived at O'Hare, Dani immediately saw Julie and drove over to her, "Hi, Dani!" Julie said as Dani stepped out.

"What the hell happened to you?" Dani asked, studying Julie's blackened eye.

"It's nothing." Julie lied as the placed her bags in Dani's trunk, "I just got into a little scuffle."

"Little scuffle?" Dani asked, "With what? A pro-wrestler?"

Julie shook her head, "It's not a big deal." Dani rolled her eyes, she knew that there was more to the story that, "But I want to show you something." She pulled up her shirt so that Dani could see her shoulder blade.

"What happened there?" Dani asked looking at what looked like padding or a very large band-aid or something.

"Peel it back a little." Julie replied.

"Okay." Dani said as she did so, "Holy shit! That's awesome."

"Isn't it?" Julie asked, "You remember that I told you about Kermit, right?" Dani nodded, "And his girlfriend, Regan?" Dani nodded again, "Well, Regan has a cousin named Jonah and he had been very accomplished at tattooing since he was 16, I think. So I wanted to get one and I went to him."

Dani chuckled, "A Sphinx. I get it. Cat-lady, a cat body with a women's head. I get it."

"You got it quicker then Kermit." Julie joked, "Now let's go to your place and get to sleep."

"Thank God." Dani said as they two got into the car. As soon as Julie closed the door and buckled herself in, Dani started off. She really wanted to get home and to sleep. The two drove in silence, Julie sifting around several times because the tattoo was getting a little bit painful, "Hurts doesn't it?"

"Yeah." Julie replied.

Dani chuckled, "You should have seen Dean after he got his. He was reduced to being a little girl for the first couple of days if you touched it."

"Dean has a tattoo?"

Dani nodded, "He does." She said, "Finally."

"Now he doesn't have to use a sharpie." Julie joked.

"This would be correct." Dani said as the two pulled into the driveway. What they didn't know was that Caleb was looking out of his bedroom window when Dani got out and his mind jumped to conclusions. He closed his curtains before he could see Julie get out with her. Someone was in trouble.