Title: Heart Break
Summary: Chet Hunter, Shawn & Jack's father, comes in to town to see his sons. Promising to stay but quickly dashing the hopes of his boys, Chet comes face to face with death, but will even that be enough to make him change his ways?
Notes: Set when Shawn & Jack's Dad, Chet, died and the following aftermath. This is just getting a little deeper into what was going through their minds before and after it happened.
His life was a mess, a self-made mess.
College was supposed to be the start of something new and exciting and for some reason when he had got accepted to Pennbrook and decided to attend, he thought it would be the turning point, that life would get better.
Yet here he was, drowning in his own misery. He'd separated himself from Angela, someone who he still cared for more than anyone he ever had before romantically, constantly felt like the odd man out when he was with his friends, could barely find common ground to build a relationship with Jack and as he was the only family he had around at the moment, it was the last hope he had of feeling any attachment to another human being who cared about him.
Cory was trying. As always, he tried to make his best friend feel like everything was alright. At one point, his words had been enough. They hadn't been enough for a long time now and no matter how hard he tried to hold on to Shawn, he felt the grip he held on him was loosening all the time. But he knew they weren't kids any more. He could only do so much now. At one point, when he'd lived at home, his own parents would have intervened and given Shawn some stability. Or maybe Mr Feeny would have given words of wisdom across the fence. At college, Shawn was just another student, there were thousands others. There was no teacher looking out for him here, no Mr Turner, no parents to see him looking down when he got home. There was Shawn and Cory, living together and Cory torn to be with Topanga. Because he loved her. He wanted to be with her. And she knew his conflict.
They had come to the student union before classes started for coffee, Cory hoped to break Shawn from his bad mood, although he doubted he could. Shawn seemed to be getting into a bigger hole and Cory had no clue how to get him out. Coffee wasn't likely to do the trick, and a surge of hope spiked in Cory when he saw Jack. Maybe he'd be able to help Shawn. Maybe at the very least, he'd convince Shawn to go to class.
The idea of Jack helping came to a screeching halt as soon as Shawn got defensive about Jack offering to buy them coffee. Cory often wondered why money came between Jack and Shawn so much because Shawn never seemed to have any desire for it. He didn't want nice things for himself, he didn't long to have a big beautiful home, Shawn's wants and needs were very basic, yet whenever he and Jack were together, Shawn turned everything around onto Jack as an accusation of his wealth. Maybe it was because Jack didn't know Shawn well enough. Cory never offered to buy Shawn coffee because he knew him well enough to know that he'd take it the wrong way. In fact, the only time he'd ever bought Shawn a coffee, or paid for lunch is if Shawn had done it beforehand. If Cory were paying back the favour, it was different. It had to be an equal friendship, and that was fine. It worked for them all their lives.
Shawn heard the sound of Topanga calling for Cory and watched his best friend leave, but before they knew it their attention was being drawn to the pool table.
It didn't strike Shawn immediately how odd it was that his father was there at the university, he assumed looking for him and Jack, yet he had stopped that search to play pool and win some money. It was a thought that came back to him later, that nagged and gnawed at him as many of his father's bad ways did. But for now, Shawn was just happy to see his Father. He watched as he and Jack shared a slightly awkward hug, a reminder of how the two barely knew one another, and wondered if his Dad was on another scam some place else. Shawn could live with that. If his Dad came out and said it, he was fine, but he didn't. He told them he was sticking around, and Shawn decided that for now, he'd let it go.
A friendly game of pool later, which Shawn won for once, and the idea of Chet staying started to come up again, this time with Jack questioning Chet. Shawn saw that look of hope on the guys face. He didn't know his real father. Almost as soon as Jack moved to Pittsburg and Chet forced Shawn & Jack, he took off. He left two boys with nothing in common together. Shawn sometimes wondered if he even cared about them at all. When Chet went to get himself a Pennbrook sweatshirt and Jack vocalised his feelings about getting to know his father, Shawn couldn't hold back any more, he had to say something. They didn't get a chance to discuss it much before Chet wanted a tour of the place and then it was off to dinner. And of course, Jack spoilt that by insisting on paying. Jack had a thing about paying for things it seemed, and unlike his son, Chet didn't refuse the offer.
Things started to go bad from there. Back at Jack's apartment, after a quick introduction to Rachel, Chet carried on with the 'sticking around' routine. Shawn watched as Chet continued to fuel the lies he made, Jack kept believing them and Shawn own inner rage boiled. It came to ahead when Eric returned.
Eric, like Cory and the rest of the Matthew's, knew the kind of man Chet Hunter was. He wasn't the type to stick around. Shawn was certain he only stayed in Pittsburg for so long as to not disrupt Shawn's education and most likely that was on Verna's insistence. Eric's first question Chet was just that, 'When are you leaving?' and Jack's reaffirmation that Chet was there to stay drove Shawn to say something to his wayward father.
Oblivious to the others in the room, Shawn made perhaps the clearest indication to Chet he ever had that he needed him to be there for him. Chet stared wordlessly. Maybe he saw it then, the truth in his boys words and the trouble that lurked in those eyes. Rachel however felt the need to end the tension with cake. Eric seemed just as keen to help Rachel put an end to all the bad feelings, but maybe that was just his eagerness to help Rachel. Either way, Shawn cared little about whether anyone else felt uncomfortable because he was sick of how he felt everyday. He knew he couldn't live like this any more. Something had to change, that something had to be had Dad.
A phone-call from a friend of Chet's called Tommy helped fuel Shawn's doubt of his Dad's plans to stay. Chet stalled, saving face in front of Jack and the others who didn't want to hear him and Shawn row. But Shawn was like a dog with a bone now, and he wasn't going to let it go. A maybe wasn't going to be good enough for his boy any more, Chet realised and that was all he was willing to give. Because the offer was too good to turn down. And there was no excuse the could come up with to make it seem right. He told Shawn he was going to turn it down, that he wanted to keep his options open but Shawn didn't want to hear that.
And then he realised to his horror that he was exactly like his Father. At least, to Shawn's own mind. Maybe Cory would have disputed that Shawn was nothing like Chet, he was just a little bit mixed up right now. He lost Angela, just like Chet had lost Verna and Shawn hurt the people who he cared about, just like Chet hurt him. But he wasn't the only victim. Jack was right there, in the same room and Shawn knew that although they never talked much about anything really personal or deep, that Jack hurt too. And Jack's Mom was hurt by Chet as well. But the worse thing was, Jack still stood up for Chet, tried to calm Shawn down. It didn't really surprise Shawn, Jack was nothing if not a peace-keeper. Chet took the opportunity to change the subject and turned back to Rachel's cake, and while Shawn stayed quiet, Chet felt his gaze burning into him. He angrily declared he'd call Tommy back and turn down the job, to make Shawn happy, but really, he wanted the gesture to be enough for Shawn. He wanted him to be reasonable and feel that his dad's offer to stay was a show of love in itself and Chet dared to believe that at some point that would happen.
However, he never got a chance to see that plan through as the next thing he knew was a crushing pain in his chest.