you thought that I was gone, guess that you were wrong, cuz I just wrote your new favorite chapter.

((yes, it doesn't rhyme, I am aware, but you get the reference and that's all that matters))

yeah, so hi. I'm so incredibly sorry I haven't updated in forever. first I was on vacation over seas for the summer and then when I came back, I had like no inspiration or motivation whatsoever and I just wasn't in my zone, y'know, so yeah. and then school started and well, yikes. ugh. I hate school.

anyways, I finally pulled myself together and created this little piece of gold. (it's actually not really that golden but well)

also, I have never been in a divorce related situation, so I have no experience of it whatsoever. that being said, if I made errors in this fic regarding divorce, I'm sorry.

oh, and the title is a play on (the saying...i guess?) 'oh, brother!' I thought it was creative haha...no...okay then...

I guess that's all I have to say, so enjoy!

disclaimer: I'm running out of creative ideas on how to do these. help me! but no, I don't know Austin or Ally or Trish or Dez or Lester Dawson or Penny Dawson ((why did she not go back to er maiden name after the divorce?)) or Mimi Moon or Beauty and the Beast. It'd be cool if I did tho.

p.s. this is dedicated to kim and lauren (and everyone else who reads these thingies) for continuously motivating me to update. and for not losing hope in me lol


"Ally? Honey, we need to talk to you about something," Ally's dad says, inviting the young girl to sit next to sit on the couch.

Cautiously, Ally walks across the living room, taking a seat next to her mom. "Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?" she asks worriedly, filing through her brain, evaluating her events from the prior weeks, trying to find what she possibly could've have done wrong.

She came up with nothing. But her nerves didn't relax; just tensed up even more.

"No, no, sweetie. You're not in trouble. We..." her mom trails off, letting out a soft sigh. She looks towards the ground and closes her eyes, taking deep breaths. Lester gently patted her shoulder and gave her a small smile, when she raised her head to look at him. She returns it with a tired smile of her own.

Ally was feeling extremely awkward. And a little worried. But mainly awkward. This was weird.

Taking one last deep sigh, Penny turned to Ally, with a gentle smile.

"i'm going to Africa. For a research expedition."

Ally's face lights up. "No way! You're going to Africa? That's so cool! How long are you gonna be gone for? A month?"

"Actually, sweetie, I'm going to be there for a while. I don't know when I'll be back. I'll come visit often though."

Ally sinks down into the sofa, her face sinking with her. "So you're leaving us? Me and Daddy are going to be alone?"

Penny reaches over and brushes a piece of hair away from Ally's face. "I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I promise I'm going to come and visit and Daddy's going to take really good care of you."

"But aren't we supposed to be one big happy family and live together forever?"

Lester sighs from behind Penny, who has an expression Ally doesn't recognize.

"Honey, we...we..." Lester trails off, heaving another sigh.

"We love you a lot honey. And we care for you deeply and we always will. We want you to remember that?"

"No matter what happens, we will always love you, okay?" Her mom adds.

She looks at her parents, nodding her head slowly.

"Yes, I know that. I love you too."

"Honey, we...we..." Penny breaks off, putting her face in her hands. "God, how to do you tell a six-year-old something like this?" she mumbles into her palms.

Ally looks over at her dad with concerned eyes. "Daddy, what's going on?"

Her dad sighs, sharing a glance with Penny, who gives a slight nod. He turns to the little girl, gathering his breath.

"Ally, sweetheart. You're mother and I are getting a divorce."

Time freezes.

The world crumbles.

Ally's heart stops.

"You're...you're getting divorced?" she asks, her voice cracking and shaky. "But divorces only happen to people who hate each other, right? And you love Mommy and Mommy loves you and we're one big happy family, right? You said we'd always be a happy family and we'll always love each other and you still love each other so you shouldn't be getting a divorce and we're just supposed to be happy family."

Her breaths get quicker, her voice laced with desperation and fear. Her hands are shaking, her heart is racing, her thoughts are swirling. She doesn't know what's happening, she can't control herself. Her eyes start watering.

"You can't get divorced. I need both of you." she says quietly, her voice shattering.

"Oh, sweetheart." Penny pulls Ally into her, as Ally cries. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't you love each other?" Ally asks, her voice blubbering as the tears stream down her face, pulling back slightly to look at her.

"We do," she answers slowly. "But not in the way we used to. We will never hate each other and we'll always be good friends."

"I don't want you to leave. I don't want you to get a divorce. I just want us to be a big happy family." Ally sobs heavily into her mom's shirt.

Penny and Lester look at each other with sad, devastated eyes, their hearts shattering for the innocent daughter who was crying in their arms because of them.


"You're parents are getting a what?"

"A divorce," Ally sighs. "Its when old people break up. Married people I mean. Not old."

"Married people are still old." Trish says.

"But why?" Dez asks. "Is that even allowed?"

Ally looks at the ground sadly. "Yeah, it is allowed. They just don't love each other anymore. They don't get agree with each other's ideas."

"They could just compromise," Dez suggests.

"I don't think they want to," she replies.

"I'm sorry, Ally." Trish hugs her best friend, a thought coming into mind. "Wait, who are you going to live with?"

Before Ally can answer, Dez speaks. "Half of her is gonna live her Daddy and the other half with her Mommy. Duh."

Trish gives him a weirded out look and Ally looks at him, freaked out.

"Uh...no. I'm not going to be cut in half or anything. I'm gonna live with my dad." She sighs, before quietly adding, "My mom's moving to Africa to study gorillas."

"Gorillas? No way! That's amazing!" Dez squeals. "Hey, giraffes live in Africa too, right? Can she get me a giraffe? Oh, or a lion? Oh my gosh, can she get me a lion?!"

Trish rolls her eyes at him. "Shut up, doofus."

He gasps dramatically, pointing an accusing finger at her. "Ooooh, you said a bad word!"

The small Latina rolls her eyes again and averts her attention over to the young brunette. "Are you going to be okay?"

Ally gives her a small smile. "Yeah, Trish. She's going to come visit a ton, so its okay. But I still wish she wasn't going."

Trish smiles sympathetically at her friend, then thinks for a moment.

"Hey where's Austin?"

"He was spending the weekend at his cousin's house. He'll be back tomorrow." Ally says and the three settle into a comfortable silence. Until Dez breaks it.

"So...your mommy can't get me a lion? I'd be okay with just a baby giraffe too."


The next day Austin was back and now they were currently lounging on Austin's bed after school, coloring like usual. It was their thing.

Ally was quiet, listening to Austin ramble about the adventures he had at his cousin's house. Well, she was always quiet, but today she was extra quiet and this concerned the little boy.

Austin paused his story and halted his coloring. He looked up at Ally. "Are you okay? You seem sad."

Ally doesn't look up, still coloring. "I...my mommy's going to Africa. To study gorillas," she says.

Austin sits up properly, looking at her in awe. "Oh my gosh! That is so cool! Oh! Does this mean you're gonna have a gorilla sibling? Oh my gosh, I've always wanted a monkey friend!"

Ally stops coloring and looks up at him with a skeptical look. "Um...monkeys and gorillas aren't the same thing, Austin."

"Uh, yeah they are," he says. " They're both furry and brown and look the same."

She just looks at him, shaking her head. "Ok, but I'm not going to have a gorilla sibling. I don't think we can take care of a gorilla."

"Sure we can!" Austin exclaims. "He can live in your backyard. Oh, we can make him a little tree house! And we can give him baths in our bathtubs! And...and we can take him to the park! And we can-"

"Austin. Austin. Austin!" Ally snaps Austin out of his thoughts. "Do you how big gorillas are? And they're really dangerous too."

He thinks for a moment. "Huh. I guess you're right." He frowns. "Dang it. That would've been so cool though."

Ally smiles. "Yeah." Then her smile falters. "But I don't want her to go."

Austin scoots closer to her. "Why is she going anyways?"

The girl sighs, fidgeting with her hands. "She said it's been her dream since she was little and now's her chance. That's why Mommy and Daddy got divorced. Because they both didn't agree with each other's dreams."

Austin scrunches his eyebrows, squinting his eyes. "What's a dee-vorse?"

"Divorce. It's when married people don't love each other anymore so they break up and aren't married anymore."

"Oh." Austin pauses. "That's so sad. So you're not going to have a mommy anymore?"

"No, my mommy's still going to be my mommy, but...she's just not going to live with us anymore..." she trails off, tears appearing in her eyes.

Austin quickly pulls her into a hug, a few tears wetting his shirt. "Hey, it's gonna be okay. Oh I've got an idea! You can share my mommy! I won't mind. It'll be fun!"

Ally pulls back, giving him a small, grateful smile. "I wouldn't want to steal your mom. She's your mom."

"It's okay. I just want you to be happy."

She replies with a sad smile. "Thanks."

Austin thinks of some other way to comfort her, when his mom comes into the room.

"Hey there kiddos! How are my favorite prince and princess doing?"

Austin jumps off of the bed and runs to his mom, pulling her arm. "Mommy, you have to help Ally. She's sad and I don't know how to make her happy!"

"Aww." Mimi sits down next to Ally, running her fingers through her hair. "I know this is really hard for you."

Ally nods. "I don't want her to leave. I don't want my parents to get divorced. I want things to stay the same," she cries.

Mimi hugs the little girl, comforting her as she cries, as Austin watches sadly from besides them.

"You can be Ally's mommy too, right?" he asks Mimi with pleading eyes.

"Well, I can never replace your mom, but if there's anything you ever want to talk about, you can come to me, okay sweetheart?" she tells Ally with a warm smile.

Ally nods, sniffling and wiping her eyes with her sleeves. "Okay."

"Good. I'll leave you two alone now." Mimi walks out of the room, and Austin replaces her spot on the bed.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asks.

"Yeah." Ally smiles a little. "Let's keep coloring.

Austin grins. " I love coloring!"

"I know."


"I'm gonna miss you so much, Mommy," Ally says, hugging her mom tightly.

"I'm going to miss you too, honey. Take good care of Daddy, okay? Make sure he eats all of his vegetables and does all of his chores," Penny says, brushing the hair out of Ally's eyes.

She giggles. "Okay, Mommy."

Penny stands up and looks at Lester. "Please take good care of Ally," she says, more seriously this time.

Lester nods. "Of course I will. She's my daughter too."

Penny smiles, then looks down at Ally again. "Here, I got you something." She pulls out a brown leather book out of her purse, handing it to her daughter. "This is for you. Write all of your adventures in here, so when I get back, I can read all about them."

"Thank you, Mommy!" Ally hugs her again.

"I'll see you on Christmas, okay?"

Ally and Lester nod and the family shares one last hug, before Penny walks to boarding gate, her suitcase in hand.

They wave to each other, until she's finally out of sight.

Lester looks down at Ally, who's hugging her new journal tightly against her chest.

"Hey, how about we go see a movie?"

She looks up at him, furrowing her eyebrows. "But its not 'Dollar Movie Saturday' today. It's Friday."

Her dad shrugs. "Eh, that's okay. I think they're playing Beauty and the Beast today."

Ally grins. "Okay."

They walk out of the airport. When they settle into the car, Ally pulls out the drawing Austin had given her from that day, and stares at it.

Austin and Ally were standing in a middle of a park, with their moms besides them, holding their hands. Oh, and in the middle of Austin and Ally was a brown blob with eyes labeled 'Ally's gorilla sibling, Bob."

I am not naming a gorilla Bob.

She smiles at the picture and then opens up her journal, sticking it between the cover and the first page.

She'd be okay.


okay. well. this was...something.

I had no idea how to end this and I kinda don't really like how this turned out but meh. And like I said, I have never dealt with divorce suchness in my life, so if the events and details are wrong, I'm sorry. I just used the knowledge I had.

and also, show-wise, I feel like this would be inaccurate - I feel like her parents would get a divorce like when she was a little older, but for the matters of this story, I had to make it happen here. And well it's an AU so...

well I hope you guys liked it!

and I promise I'll try to update more frequently.

thank you guys so much for sticking with me. I love you! =)