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.
-(-)-
AznIntegra- Thank you! Yes, Dani and Adam are going to be very surprised when they see each other at college. That's part of Dean's plan, which will be explained soon enough. Their reactions to each other are going to be typical with something shocking tucked in there... Maybe... I'm not sure yet. But whatever happens, it should be entertaining. Now that Dean knows that Julie is in Chicago, he's going to be his own sweet self with dashes of Bash Brother. You're right, he is going to be pissed when he finds out what Marianne did to Julie. He loves her and will do anything for her... So can you really blame him for wanting to protect the women that he loves? I think not!
TheHollister- ZOMG? I've never heard of that one before. I know what OMG is, but not ZOMG... I wonder what the Z stands for? Oh well, I'm glad that you like everything. Craziness is super fun to write. College should be coming around soon enough and I hope it lives up to your expectations. Thanks so much!
-(-)-
-Chicago, Illinois-
Caleb gulped silently as he walked up behind his older sister, who was leaning against the edge of the roof of The Rink, staring into the setting sun. It had been over 24 hours since Dani had gone off on their parents and he was hoping that she wouldn't do that to him, "Can I join you?" He asked.
"No." Dani replied, bitterly, "Go away."
"I'll take that as a yes." Caleb said, walking over to her, "How are you?"
"Shut up." Dani snapped.
"Dan." Caleb replied fearfully, "Please don't say that. I know that you're mad at me, but I thought that mom and dad should know that you were out at 4 in the morning. I mean, I didn't know what you were doing. If I knew that you had been picking up Julie, then I wouldn't have mentioned it…"
"Then why the hell didn't you ask me first?" She asked, "You should have asked me what I doing before going straight to mom and dad. I had nothing to hide and now you've caused mom and dad to not trust me. On top of that, they hated Dave enough as it is; now it's going to be impossible for them to accept him."
"You don't even like him." Caleb mumbled, "He's a pawn."
"What?" Dani asked.
"Nothing." Caleb replied quickly, "Julie asked me to tell you if I found you that she wanted to spend some girl time with you before she and Dean go out. They're going out in about an hour and a half, so I figured I should tell you ASAP."
"Sure." Dani said, "See you later." With that she raced off, leaving her little brother to feel really bad about himself. Caleb knew that Dani wasn't attracted to Dave, he was a convenience and something that would make her feel less lonely. Dave was the first person that Dani had dated after Adam and Caleb could tell that she still loved him to death and that he was her perfect man that no one would be able to match up with, she just didn't want to be alone.
As Caleb remained on the roof of The Rink, Dani ran quickly back home and found Julie in her room, pulling on a pair of form-fitting dark wash jeans and a baby blue tank top, "Hi Jules."
"Hi Dan." Julie replied, looking at herself in the mirror, "What do you think?"
"Very Julie." Dani replied, "You look great."
"Thanks." Julie said, "I have a question, though."
"I have an answer."
Julie chuckled and pointed in top of the bookshelf on the opposite wall of Dani's room, "Does that tiara mean that you were voted Prom Queen?" Dani sighed, but nodded, "I can honestly see that. You love almost everybody and they love you back. I'm guessing that Keoni won Prom King."
"That would be correct." Dani said, "He asked me a couple of weeks before hand because he knew that I didn't want to go but he also knew that I was nominated. I gave him hell the entire night before the winners were announced and then I had him take me home after we won."
"Why didn't you want to go?"
"Just didn't." Dani replied quickly. Julie raised her eyebrows but didn't press the matter. She could tell that it would just upset Dani and given that she was already angry with almost everybody Julie wasn't going to piss her off anymore.
"So." Julie said, trying to think of something to change the subject with, "Um…"
"Thanks for the sympathy subject change, Jules." Dani said, "I'm guessing Dean saw your bruise." Julie nodded, "Did you tell him what happened?"
"A few hours ago." Julie admitted.
"So, what happened?"
Julie sighed, "I got into an argument with Marianne and she got pissed and finally snapped. She punched me and I retaliated by slapping her out of her Manolo Blahinks. I tried to tell my dad what happened, but he yelled at me to not lie about Marianne because she was such a wonderful person."
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Dani asked.
Julie sighed, "That's what Dean said. He told me that he was going to get a plane ticket to Maine and rip my father a new one."
"Isn't he adorable when he gets protective?" Dani asked.
"As long as he doesn't do it all the time." Julie replied, "Marianne is good at playing the business man's wife. You know, the kind that stand around and smile at the parties and just nod instead of actually involving themselves in conversation." Dani nodded, "Kermit said that she did the same when she was with his father, Patrick."
"I swear, if anyone tried to make me do that, I would shoot them." Julie nodded as Dani checked her watch, "You and Dean have to go soon if you are going to get to dinner in time to go to a movie afterwards. Dean is taking you to a movie, right? That's what I remember." Julie smiled and nodded, "Thank God you and Dean figured it out. Piper and I were getting really frustrated with the two of you."
"Gee, thanks, Dan." Julie replied.
"No problem." Dani said, "But you'd better scoot. We wouldn't want Dean to wait long, would we?" Julie rolled her eyes, but turned nonetheless, "I'll see you when you get back and then we can continue on with this meaningless banter. Now, you must go make my brother all giggly and weird."
Julie chuckled, "Giggly and weird? Okay, then."
"What?" Dani asked, "He gets like that around you. It's the same reaction that he gives when someone mentions the word 'tapioca'."
"Tapioca?" Julie asked.
"Say it to Dean and see what happens."
"Yes, ma'am." Julie replied, saluting.
"Now, go." Dani said, causing Julie to salute again before she walked out of the room, leaving Dani alone, "What a strange life I live." She said to herself as she flopped on her bed and pulled open the top drawer in her bedside table. Carefully, Dani looked around in it and pulled out what she was looking for, a picture of herself and Adam standing in the large window of a very tall building, "Hi, Adam." She said, "Mom and Dad got mad at me because they thought I was with Dave at 4 in the morning. You wouldn't like him, but I don't know if that's a bad thing… Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that I will never forget you, even if I am with someone else, and I don't want to. You'll always be the first man I ever loved and I won't hide that." She leaned over and kissed the picture before placing it back in the bedside table.
"Dani! Dinner's ready!" Alyssa's voice called up the private staircase to Dani's room.
"Be right there." Dani called back, standing and looking over her shoulder at the bedside table one more time before she walked out and closed the door behind her.
-(-)-
-Minneapolis, Minnesota-
The sunset was beautiful and Charlie felt that it couldn't fit the past few days any better. He smiled as he stared into it and pulled the Coke bottle that he was drinking out of to his lips, "Charlie!" Two voices called, causing Charlie to turn.
"Hey Banksie, Jesse." Charlie replied.
"We went over to your place and your mom and Myrka said that you were out." Jesse said, "What are you doing?"
"Just thinking." Charlie replied.
"Why?" Adam asked.
Charlie chuckled; all of the Ducks were going to find out eventually, both his mother and Gordon were going to insist that all of them are there, "Bombay finally asked my mom to marry him."
Jesse and Adam looked at each other for a moment and smiled, "It's about time." Jesse said, Adam nodding in agreement, "I mean, how long have they danced around each other?"
"Ever since the D-5 Ducks." Adam answered, even though he knew that there wasn't any reason to answer.
"Ha." Charlie replied, jokingly, "You should have seen Anne, Deirdre, and Kennedy when they found out." He shook his head, "They flipped and Nick was almost as bad. They love us and have no problem showing it in extremely loud ways."
"Who's the oldest in that family?" Jesse asked, "I forgot."
"Same here." Adam added.
"Nick is the oldest, then it's Deirdre, then Coach, then Kennedy." Charlie replied.
"So now that they are getting married, is he going to be Coach, Gordon, or dad?" Adam asked.
"I don't know." Charlie said, "I know that Myrka and Julian have already taken to calling mom 'mom', but I don't know about what I'm going to call him. I'll worry about it later." Sighing, Charlie halfway changed the subject, "When they get everything situated, they'll send you an invitation. I know that it's going to be in the summer and outdoors because that's what mom always wanted, but never got."
"Cool." Jesse said, "Breathable fabric is a must." Adam and Charlie stared at him for a moment, "Sorry. My Aunt Dee came over a few days ago and I haven't gotten her fashion input out of my head yet."
"Okay…" Charlie and Adam replied.
"So, where's Terry?" Charlie asked.
Adam and Jesse sighed, "He's trying to find the right way to woo Piper." Jesse said, "She's all he talks about. I swear I'm going to call Julie and beg her to come here and kick his ass. Thank God Piper is going with her parents and grandmother to Chicago soon, or I think I would shoot myself."
"At least we are going to Boston soon." Charlie said, "Then you can get away from him."
"Point." Jesse replied.
"What do you think the girls are going to be like in Boston?" Charlie asked, "I mean, none of us have a girlfriend, so we're free agents."
"How did you know that I broke up with Annette?" Adam asked.
Charlie sighed, "Because you weren't going out with her because you liked her, you went out with her just to go out with her. It's the same thing that you've been doing for the past two years. You get with a girl that's basically a life-sized doll with just about the same IQ and then after a couple of months, three at the most, you break it off." Adam shrugged, "Dude, stop trying to forget Dani, it doesn't work that way. You don't forget the first girl you ever love."
It was clear that Adam didn't want to get into this subject, "Look, you know that if I don't forget about her then moving is not going to happen."
"Yeah, it will." Jesse said, irritably, "You just have to give it time. But you decided that the hard way wasn't the right way so you just started running after the Bimbo Express. Dude…"
"You guys have been wanting to say this for two years, haven't you?" Adam asked, getting sincerely pissed off.
Charlie sighed angrily, "Yeah, we have. But you're lucky it's us and not Portman that's trying to get this through your thick head." Adam stopped suddenly and looked slightly confused, "Man, he knew that Dani was the one that broke it off, but when he found out what kind of girls you started getting with, he was about ready to pummel you."
"Pummel me?" Adam asked, "Why?"
"Because he thinks that if he wanted Dani with anyone, he wanted to know that they wouldn't hurt her." Jesse said, "He knew that you would never to something like that to her so when he found out that you were getting with girls just to get with them, he figured that it was because of Dani and he didn't like that. I actually think I saw his bright red face from across the city."
"Whatever." Adam said, though somewhat unconvincingly, "I have to go call Jamie to make sure that he asked Mr. Li if it was okay for us to stay at his penthouse while we are in Boston."
"I thought you were going to call him a week ago." Charlie said, an eyebrow raised.
"I was busy." Adam replied, "I'll see you guys later." With that, he left at top speed, his best friends shaking their heads as they watched his retreating back.
"He just hates getting called on it." Jesse said, "He knows it's true."
"Uh-huh." Charlie agreed, nodding his head and taking anther drink.