Authors Note: Hey, an update again? I'm kinda on a mini roll here lol anyway I'm determined to get this and Officially Tied finished asap. Again sorry for not updating this in nearly a year, wow I suck. But I'm going to try and update twice a week one for this and one for Officially Tied too, will get this story finished before OT though.

Thank you to Izout, Chailyn Kamaria, CastleRockGirl, sturmfrei, WithLoveForever.

Hope you enjoy, let me know in a review.

Chapter 4

"John? Is that you?" She stood behind the screen door, eyes wide at the sight of her grown up son standing right before her. He gave her a nod as a response, his grin broke slightly as he looked straight at her, there was a long pause before she spoke again, she took a heavy breath before pushing the screen door open. "Come in." She uncertainly invited him inside.

He ran his left hand through his hair as he stepped inside his boots hitting the clean beige carpet, he could sense that it unsettled her, after all who liked mud on their carpets, if it wasn't such an awkward situation he would have laughed.

She led him into the living room and he took a look around, family portraits hung on the wall and of course not one of them featured him, or Andrew for that matter. The sight of her house was a whole different world to what he grew up in, he should have felt proud that she had gotten out, away from that toxic monster she used to call her husband, but he wasn't, not even a single part of him felt pride. He had told himself for nine years that he didn't feel anything, that she was dead to him but it was all a lie.

She placed a small blanket on the family couch and motioned for him to sit, "Take a seat," She told him, and that's when he felt it, anger. Who did she think she was? It was obvious that she thought of him as dirt.

He gave her a blank stare as he looked back down at the blanket, before deciding he deserved better, he sat himself on the single couch facing her. This was the man-of-the-house chair and he was sure it would get his authority across.

She quickly realized what she had done. "Sorry," She coughed. "I don't like anyone sitting on the couch without a blanket. I have a thing about dirt." She tried to give him a light hearted smile.

"Well in that case," He scoffed, stretching his legs out and placing them on the coffee table in front of him. "I'll make myself at home."

She looked at his boots with fear, as she sat herself down on the couch making sure she was sitting on the blanket.

Ace leaned over a little, "Don't worry, I'm clean. It's not as if you'll need a tetanus or anything." He told her as if he were whispering, but in his usual style he was heard loud and clear.

She gulped slightly as she felt her legs shake. "Can I get you something to drink?" She offered.

"A beer will do." He leaned back in the chair both of his arms laying on both arm rests as if he were at home. Alcohol would be the only thing he would accept off of her.

"I'm sorry but we don't drink alcohol in this house." He would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. "Ginger-beer is the closet thing we have to beer."

"Well then I'd rather gulp down air." He gave her a nasty smile. "But don't worry I always bring my own." He pulled out a small whiskey flask and presented it to her.

She coughed again, the tension between them building. "What are you doing here, John?" She asked, closing her eyes for a moment as if she were thinking of a painful memory.

He decided to be as blunt as possible, "I want answers." He placed the flask on the table and took a cigarette that sat from behind his ear and placed it between his lips, after he took out a match from his front pocket he leaned a little forward and flicked the match on the wooden coffee table, the match struck in a click of a finger and he took small puffs to light the cigarette. One look at his mothers face and he spoke with the cigarette still in his mouth, his words grumbled, "I guess there's no cigarettes in this house either."

"Well, no," She sighed. "But go ahead."

"C'mon, Ma," He spat viciously, "I seem to remember you smoking a carton a day. And don't think I didn't notice the empty vodka bottles hidden underneath the floorboards in the bathroom," He pointed at her with his cigarette, a little bit of ash fell from the tip and he knew that would shake her up even more, a grin erupted from his face. "Because let's face it, the only liquor Daddy Junior could drink was whiskey."

She blinked back tears, not because of the reminder of her past sins, the drinking, the smoking, the abusive husband, but because of who she was looking at, and the man he had become. And it was all her fault. Oh how different his life would have been if she had taken him with her, and didn't he know it.

"You said you want answers," She sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"Why did you leave?" He asked bluntly, but that wasn't the question he wanted to ask, but he had pride and he wasn't going to come across as a pussy if he asked her why she left him.

"You know why, John." She shook her head in protest. "I don't think I need to tell you." A single strand of blonde hair fell from her up-do and she tucked it behind her ear.

"I think you owe it to me, after all you did leave in such a hurry you didn't even shut the front door on your way out." His blue eyes looking into her brown eyes. That was the only thing he didn't get from her, her eyes, ever since he was young he had been told how much he looked like his mother, apart from his eyes, he had Junior's cold blue eyes. And Andrew? Well the resemblance to him and Ace was uncanny, you could tell they were brothers almost straight away, but some used to say that if you mixed Junior and Valerie's faces together out would pop Andrew Merrill. It was no surprise that Andrew was the favored child between the Merrill family, all Ace had was the blue eyes and that would never be good enough, he couldn't even roll his tongue like the rest of them.

"The day I left your father," She took a sip out of the glass of water that sat on the table. "Was the day he put a knife to my throat and threatened to kill me." A tear fell from her left eye as she remembered, she chuckled slightly. "I mean he always told me he was going to kill me, maybe once or twice a week, but this time he meant it, and I can still remember the darkness in his eyes, the way he looked at me." She wiped the tear off with a crisp clean tissue. "He told me to leave, to get out of Oregon and if I took either you or Andrew with me he would find me."

Ace stared at her, this was not the story his father had told him. "Get used to it, Johnny, she got sick of this house and everyone in it." His fathers words rang through his ears.

"Your Grandmother always used to tell me I fell in love too quickly, that I rushed it all with Junior, and that there was someone better out there for me, real love. My mother was always right, you know?" Ace rolled his eyes at her words, he hadn't driven all the way over here for her to talk to him about true love, as far as he was concerned love didn't exist. "But I didn't ask for it to happen, I didn't mean for it to get that far."

He sat up slightly, he had no clue what she was talking about. "What are you talking about?"

"Your father? He-" She hesitated slightly. "He didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" He spat, the cigarette that he held between his fingers burned to his finger tips and burnt him slightly he quickly flicked it away, her eyes widened at the site of the ash on the floor, but he couldn't care less about her precious carpet. He spoke loudly this time and included a curse word. "What the fuck didn't he tell me?"

"Maybe it's best if you didn't know." Valerie got up from her seat, almost instantly Ace was standing up, as she made her way across the room he followed her, she tried to turn her back to him, but he reached out and grabbed her, she jumped slightly.

He might have held most of the population of Castle Rock's kids arms tightly, but not his mothers, there was a certain softness in his touch. "Tell me?"

"Eleven years ago I was a mess. Like you said, I drank a bottle of vodka nearly every other day, and it made me paranoid. I thought your father was having an affair. God, I must have asked him fifteen times a day,"

"I can remember your arguments."

She gave him a sympathetic smile. "And Junior, being the way he is decided he would go along with it, told me he was seeing a married woman down in Motton."

"Sylvie." Her name rolled out of his tongue, surprising himself and Valerie.

"Except there was no Sylvie, she didn't exist." She watched as his facial expression turned into a confused frown. "Your father never touched another woman when he was with me."

"Then why did you leave?" Ace grunted. "You just let me blame him for all these years? Thinking he was porking some slut." She flinched at his cold words.

"Just because he didn't have an affair didn't make him a good person, John. You should know that, you saw the bruises, the cuts, after all you had them yourself. The beatings, the hatred." She shivered at the thought of Junior Merrill's touch. "You don't understand how he made me feel, I was terrified of him, the smallest thing could set him off, he was controlling, he had to know who I was with and where I was. He pushed me away." She wavered a little before deciding it was best if she just told her son the truth after all these years. "So I fell in love with another man,"

Ace let go of his grip of his mother as he looked at her, he was at loss for words.

"And we had an affair, do you remember a man named David Grant?" She asked him.

"The plumber?" He squinted as he remembered, his mouth formed an 'O' when he realized that David Grant was no plumber. Ace let out a laugh.

"We fell in love, and I got pregnant, and we both wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, your father didn't take the news very well and that's when he put the knife at my throat, so I left, for the sake of my babies." Her eyes alerted him to a photo of two smiling young girls both in matching outfits and pigtails the photo was enough to make Ace want to vomit. "Twins, your sisters, they'll be nine next week."

"No offence but I really don't give a fuck. After all these years thinking Junior was the bad guy it turns out you're the whore." He felt a stinging feeling on his cheek and he realized she had slapped him. "You're going to regret that." He spat.

"Or what, John? I'm your mother remember," She glared at him. "I see Junior's making sure you know all the tricks of his trade. You're just like him"

"I'm nothing like him," He told her as he felt his heart start racing and a certain urge to punch a wall.

"Oh! But you are! You come into my house and threaten me? Just like the way Andrew came in here, all you Merrill's are the same and I'm glad I got out. So how much money are you wanting, John?" This was another quirk he had inherited from his mother the ability to go from nice to nasty in under thirty seconds.

"Unlike Andrew, I don't want your money. Maybe I just wanted to see you," He paused for a second before adding. "Maybe I missed you, and maybe you missed me too." He wanted to shoot himself as soon as the words spilled out, but he had to let it out. "But now I know what a cold-hearted bitch you are, I guess I'm more like you then Junior, huh?" He glared at her before stepping away. "I'll just let myself out." He walked to the front door opened it and then pushed through the screen door, knowing fully well that this would be the last time he ever stepped foot in this place and that was the last time he would ever see his mother.

As he was lighting up another cigarette he heard her call his name, deciding that this was the last time he ever see her face he turned to face her.

She caught up to him quickly. "I know you're angry, but I didn't mean it when I said you were just like him, you might have his eyes, John, but when I look into yours I don't see that darkness."

Man, that was intense for me. I wrote this in one sitting so forgive me for any typos/grammar. Review to let me know what you think, reviews also make me update faster. hint hint. What did you think of Mother Merrill? Does her situation sound a little like Rebecca's or what? Maybe Rebecca and Ace will have a different outcome though. So this story is going to feature more of Ace's father too, as well as other cobra situations.