Tortured Souls

Disclaimer: I do not own Good Luck Charlie

A/N:

Chapter 3 (Educating Gabe)

"I can't believe you're actually doing this," Gabe complained. He was walking in front of PJ, Teddy, and Ivy. Next to him was Jo, holding his hand. Teddy had her hands on his shoulders and was leading him towards the assembly. "You and PJ didn't have to go when you were my age." Teddy closed her eyes and PJ lightly smacked Gabe upside the head, causing him to throw his hands up to his head. "Ow! What was that for?" Jo shook her head at him.

"Leave them alone," she scolded. "They're your siblings, so you know better, right? Besides, this is for our own good I think…" Teddy liked this girl, she was smart. She looked appreciatively at Jo while the girl looked up to her with a subtle smile. "How's Charlie doing, anyway?"

"She's doing just fine, Jo." Of course Jo knew about what happened, but she'd been accepting of it. At first she was a bit freaked, but she got over it rather quickly. With her, she wasn't going to let it influence her relationship with Gabe, who hadn't done anything bad at all. He needed someone strong like her in his life, considering how this whole thing affected him too. He had to worry about becoming a laughingstock, and having two siblings have sex with one another didn't do his mental psyche any wonders. He still loved them as they loved him, let there be no mistake of that.

"Good. What about Mr. and Mrs. Duncan? I know you guys don't talk to them a lot…"

"There's not much to say about them." Of course, PJ hated Bob's guts now, more than ever. The man kept a bottle of vodka, and some whiskey bottles, all stashed away in various areas. Amy constantly turned her nose up at the family, which was just like her own mother did. "Mom's turning into Grandma Petunia, to be honest. As for Dad…his health sure isn't going to be getting any better."

PJ scoffed and folded his arms over, narrowing his eyes. "Let his health fail. He's just a pushover." Teddy rolled her eyes and glanced towards the auditorium in front of them. "He does everything mom says and can't even stand up for himself. He serves no purpose as a human being or a father."

"He's doing the best he can," Gabe commented. Gabe bowed his head and lifted his shoulders. "Mom's just kind of the boss of the house." Hell, before they left to bring Gabe here, they got into a massive argument with Amy over the whole thing. Of course, Teddy won out, but the frustrating memory was not doing her any favors.

"You are not taking Gabe to that assembly!" Amy shouted as she stomped her foot on the ground. Teddy rolled her eyes and looked over to PJ for help, but he only shook his head. This wasn't his fight to get involved in. Teddy raised her voice up and threw a finger against Amy's chest.

"What is your problem? He needs to know!"

"No he doesn't! He doesn't need to know about sex until he's married at least." Amy walked past her and turned to Bob, who was sitting lazily on the couch. Bob's eyes were dull and his face blank, as though he were tuning everything out. "Bob get off your lazy ass and help me out here. Explain to her why she cannot take Gabe to this assembly. I won't allow it!"

"Oh my god, Mom…You didn't want me going, you didn't want PJ going, and look what happened! We turned to older kids who influenced us to experiment, and look how that turned out. If Gabe doesn't know-"

"Then he won't have sex before the time is right!" Amy spun around, her hair swirling about her shoulders and face like fire. Teddy froze as the woman's eyes burned into her. "Anything that involves sex can influence someone into having sex before marriage, so I won't allow him to know. You guys only knew what it was because you asked some older punks who told you screwing each other was good!"

Her mother's words rattled her and threw her into shock. Silence drifted into the air and Gabe's head poked around the corner, his eyes wide and frightened. Amy threw her hands up and stormed out of the room. Bob looked over and sighed. Bob moved up from the couch and started to follow her, stopping in front of Teddy and giving her an apologetic look. "It's not her fault really. It's her mother, she put that fear of god in her when she was young…The woman believed any knowledge of sex opens the door to it. I mean that's not the only problem, but…"

"Bob! Get in here!"

Bob closed his eyes and lifted his eyebrows up. His shoulders fell. "Coming honey."

She was certain someone just stabbed her with a hot knife. Teddy put her hand to her aching chest and let the tears fall along her face. Once Bob left the room, she looked to the stairs to see Charlie bouncing down them. She smiled sadly and hurried over, scooping up the young child. Charlie looked up, meeting her eyes, and in an instant stopped the pained pounding of her heart. The cares of the world could fade away as long as this little girl was with her.

"You okay?" PJ asked as he and Gabe moved towards her. She looked up at them and lifted he shoulders. "So what's going to happen?"

"We're still taking Gabe to that assembly. I don't care what mom has to say about it."

"Sounds good to me."

She wasn't going to be like her mother, she swore it. When Charlie grew up, she would know what sex was, and she would know the consequences. "I'm getting tired of pretending Charlie's that woman's child…to be honest…"

"Whether or not she knows is up to you," Ivy responded. "You may not want to tell Charlie, and she may not understand now, but it's better to tell children when they're younger than to wait until they're older. If they're young, they can grow up accustomed to the knowledge, if they're teenagers when they find out, they'll probably hate you." She shuddered at the statement, it was hard imagining Charlie ever hating her. She saw Ivy's point, though, but didn't know when or if the time would ever be right.

"Telling her that PJ and I are…I don't know…"

Jo glanced back over her shoulder, inputting her opinion on the matter. "At least tell her that you're her mother. She's at a young age, so now is probably the time she actually needs to know who her real mom is. The 'who's my dad' thing can come later, but not too late…you know?"

"Yeah, I guess." Jo had a point, there was no denying that, but it still scared her. She didn't want to cause Charlie any major mental problems, and early confusion would likely be a probable cause for mental problems.

"My dad's a psychologist, and he always says that communication from an early age helps in child development. Be honest with Charlie at a young age and continue to be honest, that way she'd understand. You know, answer questions and whatnot, don't hold back on the truth. You really can't afford to do that."

"Not in a situation like this," Ivy agreed. "If she grows up understanding what incest is, and understanding that you're her mother, she stands a better chance of being stable when she's older." Teddy bowed her head in thought, questioning and considering the words. She wasn't completely sure how she felt about it, but she did have to admit, they were making a world of sense to her.

"Maybe."

When they entered the auditorium, they moved to the center rows and sat about three rows from the stage. She was indeed nervous, but at the same time, she already knew what they might say. On the stage was a woman in business casual, her brown hair fell in curls onto her padded shoulders and framed her chestnut brown eyes. "Good morning, my name is Eileen. I'm here to talk to you about sex." Teddy leaned back and glanced over to Gabe and Jo, who were watching earnestly. Ah yes, this was what she was missing her own classes for, but it was important enough. "Now I imagine children your age, you love movies and films, correct? We will be watching a film towards the end called 'The Miracle of Life'."

She snapped her head towards the woman and raised an eyebrow, she never heard of this film before. Was it yet another thing kept from her by her mother? She glanced over to PJ, he was to her right, with Gabe and Jo in between the two of them. Ivy was on her left. For the moment, she wanted so desperately to sit next to him, but quickly chastised herself and looked away.

"I've actually seen this a year ago," PJ muttered. "Skyler took me onto Youtube and showed me this 'film'."

"Any spoilers?" Gabe asked, he had a sense of urgency in his voice. PJ smirked at him and leaned his head back.

"No spoilers, but let's just see if this sex education will really make you want to have sex."

"Oh god. I'm going to have nightmares, aren't I?"

"Maybe." PJ chuckled evilly causing Teddy to roll her eyes at him. "Anyway, Emmett was going to join us, but before he got a chance, one of the teachers pulled him away for something."

Teddy nodded and folded her hands into her lap. "Well at least he was making an effort." She had to admit, Emmett was still a good friend to them. Mostly, to PJ, but he definitely wasn't crushing on her anymore. "It's a good thing."

"Yeah I don't know what I'd do if he turned on me. Skyler's all I got left just about. If I didn't have her to fall back on, who knows where I'd be…anyway, let's focus on the speaker." They agreed and returned their attention to Eileen, who was still talking.

"Now I'm sure you all expect a boring lecture, so we're going to try and make this a little more fun," Eileen said with a smile. "I'm not here to try and fill you with horror stories about how bad sex is, or how wrong it is, I'm only here to tell you that while it can be fun and very enjoyable, with the right person…" Eileen chuckled softly and lifted up a hand. "Married for ten years, and it gets better every night. However, one must be responsible when it comes to sex, you can't just go out at random and have sex with whomever, whenever, because then there's this little line called a 'bond' that gets smeared so badly that the meaning and impact that sex is supposed to have on your life will be gone completely. It is meant to be between two people who love each other tremendously and want to share their lives with each other. When it's with the right person, the impact felt will only increase…"

As time went on, the woman indeed cracked jokes that got the audience laughing at times, and even became so serious that a single hairpin could create a shockwave of sound. Teddy practically slept through it all, considering she'd heard and knew already about this bond, she'd had enough talks with Ivy to know what sex was and what it was supposed to be, but that line had already been smeared for her. It didn't have to be for Gabe, or even Charlie. When she was older, of course.

As they were leaving the auditorium after having seen the film, Gabe had a bit of an erratic step. His eyes were wide and he was making occasional gagging noises. "Question time," he started. PJ laughed lightly and Teddy glanced over with concern. "Mom and Grandma think knowledge of sex influences it to happen…how is that supposed to make me want to have sex? It makes me want to avoid it like the freaking plague!"

Jo took his hand and leaned over, kissing his cheek. "That's good. I mean, the point was to understand that sex is supposed to be a special thing, and I'm willing to wait for the right person and the right time. As for the film, yeah that was kind of scary, but…I guess they have to show it."

"Now if only we had that opportunity," PJ remarked. His lips turned to a sneer and his eyes narrowed. "Mom and Dad won't be happy if they find out we brought Gabe here." Teddy groaned and threw her hand up, brandishing it.

"Like I care. I think we did the right thing, and if Mom doesn't like it, she can stuff it. Frankly, I don't want to hear about them anymore today. I have a headache, I need to head back to school, and then when I get home, I'm going straight to bed."

Well what do you think?