- Anything and Everything: Demons -

"DJ and Alyssa got to stay home alone when they were my age," Rachel Long practically whined to her father as he leaned against the kitchen counter and took a sip out of a glass of water. She'd been doing this for the past twenty minutes for some odd reason. It was probably a bad reason.

Jake Long smiled down at his fifteen year old daughter, unlike his other children, Rachel's personality and her way of thinking was based more from him then it was from Rose and that's probably why they got along so well with each other. Turning around, he set the glass on the kitchen counter and smirked at his third child, "Well dear, DJ could do my income taxes at thirteen and as far as Alyssa goes …when she was your age… I only had her, so I was foolish. But they were both mature enough to stay home, honey, you are not. I'm sorry, but that's the god honest truth about all of it."

"So! I don't plan on getting pregnant before I'm 20, or I'm not freakishly smart, does that make me immature?" Rachel continued to pester her father.

"What's wrong with getting pregnant before your 20?" Rose Long asked from the kitchen entrance, she held a look of mock distaste for her daughter.

Rachel turned back her mother, "Well nothing – I suppose if you live in an African Country, but in our culture it's kind of frowned upon. But you two are getting off my point, why can't I stay home alone."

"Because I caught you and your little punk ass boyfriend taking sips of Vodka out of my liquor cabinet," Rose said, walking over to the fridge, "That's why we don't let you stay home alone. That's why I don't even trust you to babysit your brothers and sister unless DJ or Alyssa are with you and that's why I'll be damned if I let you stay home. Now if you want other reasons baby doll, I'd be happy to give them."

Putting her hands on her hips, Rachel scowled and turned around to face her father who was still wearing his smirk of triumph, "Kids can divorce their parents for things like this, now I may not know a damn thing about Income Tax, but I know the law."

"Yeah," Jake said, ignoring the fact that the phone just rang when he saw his wife get out of her chair at the kitchen table and go to pick it up, "Then how come you never follow it? Look, it's not that I don't think your mature, you obviously are, but I just can't trust you, ever since that little incident with the Vodka that your Mom mentioned."

Rachel sighed, "Alright – well, we can I start proving myself?"

"It's a gradual thing and it's not something like a chore. You have to do it with the smaller things, be nice to your siblings, help them with their homework and don't screw with them. Don't sneak out, don't drink," Jake sighed and shrugged against the counter with a smirk, "It is things like that, oh, and you'll have to dump that Jordan kid."

She narrowed her eyes, "Sure, I think I'll pass."

"Rachel," Rose said from behind them, she had something of stunned look on her face and the paleness of her face only proved that she was indeed stunned, "Can you leave us alone for a minute?"

"Sure," Rachel nodded, feeling frightened by her mother's sudden demeanor, it wasn't something that she saw often, "What's going on?"

Rose sighed, "We'll tell you later, can you leave us alone?"

She nodded quickly and left the room at her mothers tone, however, she wasn't one to submit to her mother so easily. Rachel stopped and leaned against the wall that led into the kitchen. She had eavesdropped many times from this position, and it wouldn't fail her today, "What is it?"

"That was your sister," Rose seemed so blanched that her speech itself seemed lifeless, "She got a phone call from your father's home health worker, and they've been in contact for years without us knowing. He's dead honey."

Then there was nothing but silence coming from kitchen, the only noise that she could hear, even with her dragon hearing, was the sound of her father's slow footsteps. She heard him pick up the phone, "Haley …I-I'm here."

"Haley," Jake sighed and hung up the phone, he had just gotten off the phone with the funeral home, it was like he was burying his mother all over again and it wasn't in a good place, "Can't you go and get drunk or something?"

He was willing to overlook the fact that Haley had been in contact with their father for the past few years, but he wasn't going to look too kindly on her acting like a basket case while he arranged the funeral. Jake didn't even like the man. In fact, he loathed his father. He hadn't even seen the man in nearly thirty years and he could care less that he was dead. Jake just couldn't help but feel obligated to make sure that his father was in the ground. However, if Haley expected him to get all weepy, she was insane.

"Forgive me for grieving my father," Haley hissed at her brother and blew her nose into a handkerchief. When she had received the call from her father's nurse last night, she had broken down and started to cry, more bawl.

"Oh," Jake scoffed, "What are you grieving about Haley? When he left our mother for what her relatives were? Or where he left us and didn't care about his kids."

"In case you don't remember, he tried to reach out to us, besides you don't know what when on in his mind then or even in the last years of his life You didn't even know him at all. Are you that bitter about it?" Haley sneered.

"Correction, he tried to reach out to you and even then he turned you away, you were so upset by the fact that he turned you away, that mom blamed herself and then you ran off to China," Jake screamed at his sister, all of this had been building up in him for years and with his father's death, Haley was truly the only other person who was witness to those years, "The man was a Son of a Bitch and I'm glad he's dead."

Haley looked up and sneered, "You are so selfish. I only got to talk to my father once a year for the last few years of his life because you made him feel so unwelcome that he wouldn't have even dreamed to come back around the family. He was your father too Jake, do you realize that? Just because you had to hate him meant that I had to hate him too?"

"You do remember the day he walked out, don't you?" Jake replied.

"I do, but I forgave him for that, he had just learned that his children were giant magical reptiles, you were just being selfish about the whole damn thing Jake, and now Daddy is dead," Haley reasoned quietly.

"I'M SELFISH? I'M SELFISH? I'M ABOUT TO SHELL OUT FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS TO PUT A MAN THAT I HATED IN A HOLE, I'M EVEN DOING SOMETHING I PROMISED MY MOTHER THAT I WOULDN'T DO, I TOLD HER THAT I WOULDN'T LET THAT MAN BE BURIED IN THE SAME GRAVEYARD AS SHE WOULD BE," Jake yelled at his sister who in turn sneered at him with her nose up, "WE HAVE BEEN HERE FOR THE WHOLE DAY, I'VE BEEN ON THE PHONE WITH THE MORGUE, THE FUNERAL HOME AND THE CEMETERY AND SHELLING OUT BUNDLE AFTER BUNDLE TO MAKE SURE THAT THE SON OF BITCH IS BURIED. HAVE YOU NOTICED WHO'S BEEN MAKING ALL THE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THIS FUNERAL, HAVE YOU NOTICED AT ALL THAT IT WASN'T YOU?"

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU DON'T CARE, I LOVED HIM!" Haley shouted back.

There was an awkward silence that passed between brother and sister as the sound of someone clearing their throats came from behind them. Both Haley and Jake turned to see Rose and Alyssa looking worriedly at the both of them. Jake sighed and looked back to his wife and daughter one more time, before turning back to his sister and charging to the kitchen table where she sat. He picked up a stack of papers and he made sure to have his checkbook onto of the stack of papers, "Fine, here's the number for the funeral home, the graveyard, the morgue, there's my checkbook, you just right out any amount that your selfless highness needs, I'll sign them later. The list of people you need to call and let know that Dad is dead. I'm selfish, and I wash my hands of the whole damn thing!"

"Fine!" Haley shouted at her brother as he turned and stomped out.

Jake looked back at her, "Fine!"

Stopping at his wife and daughter, he sighed, "I'm going to go get a drink."

"I'll go with him and make sure he's okay," Rose sighed and turned to follow him, "You stay here and help your Aunt."

Alyssa nodded, she wasn't too fond of her grandfather either, but from the impassioned loud bitch fest that she had just witnessed between her Aunt and Dad, she'd be willing to let that slide. After all, she couldn't imagine how helpless she'd feel if her father had died. Alyssa sighed and walked over to the kitchen table. She put her hand on her Aunt's shoulders and began to rub them, "What can I do to help you?"

Haley sniffled and smiled before she rubbed her hands, "Can you get on the phone with the funeral home and secure a coffin?"

"Sure," Alyssa nodded.

"You know I always knew that I had Daddy Issues," Jake sighed and took a deep sip of the beer he head, "But I never thought that they were so bad that I'd practically rip my baby sisters head off just because she didn't. I just can't understand why the hell she insists on defending the man."

Rose nodded and took a sip of her own beer, "I don't know all the details, you've never told me the whole story. But from what I can't ascertain from it, he left you, your mother and Haley after what."

Sighing, Jake sighed and took another sip of the beer before leaning closer to his wife and speaking to her in a hushed whisper, "My Mother didn't just all of the sudden decide to tell him, he stumbled on me, in my Dragon form and was knocked into something of a catatonic state. She felt it was best to tell him then. Once she told him the whole truth, he asked Haley and me to show him. Then he left and told us that he didn't want to see us ever again. It took him a few weeks to even try and contact us. He asked for Haley, and when she went to where he was staying, she came back less than an hour later and she was completely wrecked. She cried for three days because he said she was 'scary'. That's why I am so fucking amazed that she wants to mourn him. I don't blame my father for my mother's death. He is responsible for breaking up my family."

"You put your family back together," Rose said quietly, leaning her head on his shoulder, "Your father stopped being a member of your family when he left you, your sister and your mother. You became the man in your family and you kept your family together. But don't be so foolish as to believe that Haley feels the same way about your father as you do about him. She's handling it differently, and if she were right here I'd tell her the same thing. Point is, your father basically wrecked you two emotionally for the rest of your lives and now that he's dead, you can't handle it."

Jake nodded and took another sip, "I don't know how to handle it, or if I CAN!"

Getting up from the barstool, Rose sighed and walked behind her hands and tied her arms around him, "I know, but I'll take it with you."

They had made up, for the most part, they still had their disagreements about their father and what he had done in their lives, but Jake and Haley had reached a point where they could commonly agree to handle the arrangements. For all intents and purposes, everything was handled. Haley had done everything, and now Jake was feeling guilty. When he returned to the apartment he had made that clear. He had hugged his sister tightly and told her that he wasn't going to let her go through it alone, despite his own feelings about his father.

"I suppose your right," Haley said with a sigh as they pulled out of the parking garage on the way to the funeral home, for the burial it would only be she, Jake and a few of their father's retirement home friends, "I suppose that's what I had to tell myself to get through the nightmares of having my own father call my scary, I had to tell myself that my father loved me and that I loved my father, when he clearly did not. You were right to blame him for everything, I suppose. Do you blame him for everything that went down before the family seemed to break apart?"

Jake, who was driving, shook his head, "Not for everything, I mean sure, I could blame him for everything if I wanted to, but it'd be a big lie, out of the anger of seeing mom waste away for those last few years. But my life was really hectic back then, if I needed to blame something on what my life was like back then, then I really needed to blame myself, it was my choices that had brought me there. Not his, I had sex with Rose and had Alyssa without the direction of my father. I can bitch about money, stress, kids, but in the end it was my fault and his part was limitedat best."

"Mom's death really hurt you didn't it?" Haley asked, in an almost naïve like voice.

He scoffed and looked over to her for a moment, "She was your mother too."

"I know, but I had my own problems with mom and you were the only one to see her and grandpa in the last years of their lives," Haley had an epiphany at that single moment, she stared at her silent as the grave brother, "That's it isn't it? I mean we had each other when Mom and Dad broke up and that made you angrier, but you of then and you of now are totally different people. When we even bring up our childhood, or our parents or even grandpa, you seem to get almost hollow, like your blocking something out."

Jake sighed, but kept his concentration on the road, "What do you want me to say Haley? That seeing my parents split up after the small mistake of having Dad accidently walk up on the roof to see me in my dragon form didn't make me bitter? How about having my baby sister drop out of High School and run off to China of all places? That didn't really affect me as much as the affect it had on mom affected me. Or the one that really added sadness and loneliness on top of all the anger, hurt and bitterness, the fact that the mother of my child had to leave for fear of her life. And having to watch my mother slowly smoke herself to death was the icing, so forgive me if I'm a little bitter about all of it Haley."

"When you put it that way-…" Haley began, but she was cut off my Jake.

"Keep in mind that I was raising a kid during these years and during the latter half of all of that family crap," Jake contained on, "Those were the years that I planned on breezing through without any stress or worry, but no, I had to take care of a screaming baby in one hand, help my cancer stricken mother with the other and be the American Dragon on the side all in my twenties and late teens. So yes, I am fucking bitter and messed up."

"Do you regret it?" Haley asked quietly.

"Regret it? What the hell do you mean by regret it?" Jake sneered at his own memories.

"Do you regret having to take care of Alyssa while doing everything else?" Haley clarified.

"No," Jake shook his head, "Lyss was all I had left after Mom died. I didn't even go and see Grandpa because of it. I wouldn't trade those years in with her for anything and I wouldn't change the fact that Rose is the mother of my children for anything. I'm just trying to clarify that I'm stupid to blame Dad for those years when two thirds of the stress and the anger was foisted upon me by myself and I shouldn't blame him for that shit."

"You might have had less pressure on you if you would have had both Dad and Mom on your side," Haley said with something of a disgusted tone directed to herself, "I know "I would have helped you, I guess you're right, we all have a part in the way the family turned out. So I'll stop talking about it."

"You're probably right Haley," Jake sighed, "But there's no reason in crying over spilt milk, the past is the past and we have to live with it. I got myself through it, I got my only kid at the time through it so I consider that a raging success. Let's just drop it and say goodbye to the man."

Jake sighed and leaned his arm over his sister's shoulder, he never pictured this moment, ever and now that it was finally here, he didn't know what to expect from it all. Maybe he expected it to be a dream, that he would wake up suddenly and he'd be seventeen again, and his family would be together. His mom would be alive and his father wouldn't have been so alienated from his family. However, that was a horrible thought in retrospect because in that case he would have never had Alyssa or Rose for that matter. Not that they were connected, but if he wanted to go back to when he was sixteen, all of that could have been undone.

"I'm afraid that we're going to need to identify the body," The funeral director said solemnly, "Then we can proceed to the graveyard, who will want to do that?"

"I'll do it," Haley said before Jake could say anything.

"No," Jake said, his voice was quiet and hollow, "I need to do this."

"Just one quick look and I'll lower it," The Funeral Director said to Jake and when he nodded, the man walked to the casket and genteelly lifted the lid. When he did, Jake's breath caught in his throat. Yes, that was his father, most definitely, but that body was by no means the father he remembered. That was due to the time that they hadn't seen each other, Jake reasoned, that was it. That was why his father looked like a gray, defeated old man sitting in a fancy pine box.

He sighed and nodded and after the man lowered the casket lid, Jake turned to the man as he approached the door, "Do you think I can have a minute alone?"

"Of course," He smiled sadly, "Take your time."

Jake smiled and turned back to the casket and he sagged in relief as soon as the man had shut the door, "What do you want me to say? That I regret everything that went down between us? That I was a horrible child, and Haley was only worthy of your love because she was the only one to make an effort? You won't get me to say it. I do wish things had gone differently Dad, yes, but you walked out on us and I'm still very angry with you over that, thirty years later. There was a time that I would have hoped that you got the deepest pit in hell for the things that you subjected the family too after you left, but I realize now that I unfairly attacked you in those cases and I hope you find the happiness you apparently never had."

Looking down at the surface of the coffin, Jake folded his arms over his chest and scowled, "I have to put this behind me now, I did it when Mom died and if I'm going to happy for the rest of my life I need to make peace with this from you. It would have been better to do this when you were actually alive, but it seems that you only saw fit to contact Haley. You know what, I might have actually picked up the phone and come and visited you, just to give you a piece of my mind, and the fact that you had to promise my sister never to tell me, just pisses me off."

"You are a bastard, you are a son of a bitch," Jake said one last time, looking down to the floor and scowling, "But you're my father, as much as I hate it, I have to have some stupid shred of love for you. So here it is Dad, I forgive you, I forgive you for the situation you left your wife, daughter and son in and I forgive you for every hurt feeling that I had afterword. I'm not forgiving you because I regret the way I acted ,no, I'm forgiving you for me and for my personal health. So wherever you go, wherever you are, you are off the hook."

Jake sighed and turned back to the door, but before he pulled on the knob, he stopped and not turning around to the coffin, he said in a quiet voice, "Thank you for your …humor and you're ability to make everything a joke in the good days, no matter how lame the joke was, goodbye Dad."

Authors Note: Well what did you think? Bad news, my bronchitis is back, good news, I managed to get three weeks off of work to stay home and rest and get better, so we'll be seeing at lost more of each other. I'd like your feedback.