Silence enveloped Carter and Brooke.

Brooke looked at Carter, her blinking slowly trying to contain her tears in watery eyes. She sighed softly.

"She's the one, isn't she? The one you said you couldn't get" Brooke whispered

Carter nodded, her head tilting down staring at the shadows on the ground. "I never thought… I mean… Brooke look," Carter started, she glanced up into Brooke's eyes "She might like me, but it's not love"

"How do you know Carter? How can you tell the difference, when you can't even tell it about me?" Brooke started rambling "How…"

"What? What do you mean? How can I, what…?" Carter interrupted

Carter was cut short by Joe Mason's panting figure running through the doorway.

"Carter…. huff, Carter your…" Major Mason started

"Dad, calm dow…" Carter interrupted before her eyes glossed over and she grabbed Major mason by the shoulders almost shaking him "is it Rosie? Is she going to be fine? What's happening? Do you have to leave? Can i…"

"Carter you need to calm down" Major Mason chuckled "I was just going to tell you - and don't freak out on me when I do – your uncl..." Major mason stopped and corrected himself "Jack is coming by to see how we're doing. I was going to tell you could just leave and I'd deal with him but…" he nodded at a car rounding the bend and skidding to a stop.

A man in a blue pinstriped, slim-fit suit stepped out of the blue and silver sports car. He pulled out a briefcase with him like it was a habit, but took a second to put it back realizing his mistake.

Rosie came tearing out of her room, frantically looking around, she ran to Carter and hung on to Carter's arm.

"Don't worry Rosie, it's just Carter's uncle, Jack" Major Mason assured Rosie

"He's not my uncle!," the words burned in Carter's throat and came out in a low growl, her built up anger was pouring out with the knives she was throwing at the businessman with her eyes.

Brooke was stunned, too stunned to look at Carter questioningly, and to stunned to react. The man in the suit could not be Carter's uncle. He was one of the richest people in Louisiana. With a couple of mansions each 7 acres of land, quite few malls spread across the US and apparently a lot more in England, the millionaire was always the 'talk' when he came back to town.

No one but the Masons knew why he even came back to this small place. He was charming, but his standards of politeness were not common here. He was witty doing business, but was not very good with people in general.

"Why could you not have told me about this 'visit' earlier?" growled Carter under her breath.

"Well, she just called, not bothering to do it in advance… and she says she has another surprise for us" Major Mason said obviously referring to Carter's mother, rooted to his spot.

Rosie absentmindedly rubbed Carter's arm, calming her steaming friend down.

"Well hello Masons!" said Jack rambling off on how good it was to be back in the US. With a "well aren't we going to go in, it's awfully hot out here" he shrugged past Major Mason and walked into the house.

Major Mason walked behind him, worrying he would find a PPP gadget lying around as Major Mason had just recently come back from a mission and had yet to organize his stuff.

Brooke reached for Carter's hand and Carter and Rosie linked their other hands as they walked into the living room.

Jack had already made himself comfortable, taking up the whole couch, leaving an armchair and a slightly smaller couch. Major Mason shrugged and sat down on one end of the couch, Brooke followed suit dropping her body lazily on the other end. Carter was about to sit down on the armchair, but with one look at Rosie, she pulled Rosie onto the seat whilst taking a seat on the arm of the chair.

Jack had absentmindedly started typing on his phone, ignoring the awkward silence.

When Major Mason cleared his throat with a huff, Jack finally lowered his phone and looked straight at Carter.

"You have grown, niece" he said opening his jacket to slip his phone inside.

"I'm not your niece" was Carter's only reply

"And of course she has grown! Especially seeing you guys don't tend to make an effort to drop by more often" Major mason added

Brooke had perked up, she had no idea what kind of family feud was going on.

"I have news Carter" he said without bothering to acknowledge the impatient look on Carter's face. "but I would prefer to talk to the Masons alone, if you would please." He said directing the last statement at Rosie and Brooke.

Carter stood up immediately "Rosie is more my family than you ever were"

Carter's dad looked up at her to see if she was comment on the person that she had apparently forgotten. He sighed, "and this is Brooke, Carter's girlfriend"

"I'm sorry… did you say girlfriend?" Jack said, suddenly paying very close attention. "Like a romantic relationship?"

"Why do you want to know?" Carter asked, taking a defensive step back into a now standing Rosie, who carefully took Carter into her arms.

"Mason. I would have thought more of you" said Jack now also standing looking straight at Carter's dad "I would have thought you would have stopped this… this, experiment before it became serious. Her mom won't stand for this kind of behavior"

"Well she's not much of a parent now is she then? Parents are meant to love their kids unconditionally" Rosie said stepping out from behind Carter.

"Oh, so now she's a player too!" Jack spit out as he looked Rosie up and down once. "What kind of person have you let her turn herself into Mason?"

"Wait, Mom is homophobic?" Carter said trying to process what was going on

"She is not a player! Especially not with me! Do you know how Cos… PEOPLE would react if they found out she was cheating with me, on me!" Rosie spat out at Jack, almost as angry as he was. As her expression softened she whispered "She's too nice to even think about it."

"What is so important about you? You know what!? I want you to get out of this fight. You have absolutely NO legal say in this whatsoever!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH 'LEGAL' SAY I HAVE IN THIS!" Rosie screamed

"And I would prefer it remain that way Rosalinda, please" Major Mason said grabbing hold of Rosie's hand before things spiraled more out of control.

"I did not sign up for this!" Brooke told Carter

"Carter, your mother is dying and I came to sort out the will. Hear me out and we won't make contact ever again" Jack said ignoring Brooke

Carter's eyes widened and Rosie quickly slipped a hand around Carter's waist, supporting her as Carter lost all control of her body.

"Are you going to break down? Ok, you know what. I have no clue about anything going on here and your mom dying? I cannot deal with THIS! I'm not even a proper girlfriend yet!"