"Me an' Mike, we both had this phase just after high school where we had to get the fuck outta Tulsa for a little while. Somethin' like we reached a crossroads in our lives. We talked about it for awhile before we graduated an' we decided that Mike would leave first—if we left at the same time, we figured it might kill Dad. So the day after graduation, Mike lit out for Houston. I think he made it all the way to New Mexico for a little while. I got no idea what he did when he was gone—he never told me an' I think it's somethin' he wants to forget—but come September, he came back lookin' a little pale but pretty normal besides that. An' the next day, I left. Dad knew as soon as he saw Mikey's truck comin' up that drive that I was gone, an' I knew he hated Mikey leavin', but he didn't tell me not to go or anythin'. He just told me to come back alive.
"Mikey went south. I went north. In two weeks, I drove from Tulsa to Sioux Falls. I thought about seein' Canada for a bit, but I didn't have my passport on me, so I knew that wouldn't pan out. I met Eve there in Sioux Falls. She... fuck, I still don't really know what happened. We were complete opposites—me from Oklahoma, raised a proper Southern gentleman, really into the whole rodeo thing, an' her from South Dakota, raised by a single mom whose idea a' proper parentin' was settin' a kid in front of a TV for hours... She hated rodeos an' country music an' the whole culture. She wore a lotta leather an' played drums in a rock band an' got into bar fights, even at nineteen, twenty. Never met anyone like her around here. She'd met plenty like me, though. She liked that I wasn't from South Dakota, though, which was about the only thing I had goin' for me. I guess it was enough for her, though, 'cause we started datin'. I told her all about my life down here an' about the ranch an' everythin', an' I met her mom an' stepdad—I hated them, by the way. They were complete assholes. An' considerin' they were part a' the whole white-trash thing, I'm not surprised she hated them an' the whole country culture. Anyway, I liked her well enough—at least, I didn't hate her—but the relationship wasn't goin' anywhere, so by the time December rolled around, I was homesick for my dad an' my brother, so I broke it off with her an' was back home by our birthday, an' for the next fifteen months, I figured that was it.
"Then one day, this red Honda comes peelin' up our drive. It took me a minute to recognize Eve's car, but sure as shit, those were South Dakota plates an' I knew it was her. I told Dad an' Mikey that it was a girl I'd met in South Dakota but I didn't tell them the whole story, not at the time, an' then I went out to find out what the hell she was doin' here. I mean, she'd always talked about gettin' out of South Dakota, so I figured maybe that was all it was, her just tryin' to get away from home. I'd told her I lived on a ranch in Oklahoma, after all. She'd probably just Googled for directions. So I went down to where she'd parked an' she got outta the car an' said, 'There's a surprise for you in the back seat.'" Lu fell silent for a moment, closing his eyes, lost in the memory. "I had no idea what to expect, but somehow... a kid never occurred to me. But when I opened that door, there she was in that little car seat a' hers, barely seven months old, an' I just knew she was mine. She looked like me—she had my hair. It was a more blond back then. The time fit, too—sixteen months before, I'd been in South Dakota with Eve, an' I guess three or four weeks before I left, she got pregnant.
"It was... I don't know, a little bit terrifyin' to see her, but even more so to actually hold her. I guess that sounds weird, but if you got kids yourself, you'd understand." Nick paused for a second. "Do you?"
"Do I what?"
"Have kids?"
"Oh." Something about his gaze nearly made Balthazar squirm. "No," he said, feeling somehow that Nick would be disappointed to hear that. But Balthazar was a lifetime supporter of the Trojan company—he didn't need kids, not ever.
"Well, then, I guess you'll have to take my word for it. So Eve's talkin' about how the baby's name is June Rose an' she's seven months old an' she came down as soon as she scraped together enough money for the trip an' she didn't wanna live with her parents anymore an' she didn't wanna raise June by herself anymore, an' by the time I get June outta the car seat an' into my arms, Dad an' Mikey were there an' they just... I think they could tell, too. It was pretty obvious she was mine. Mikey was completely speechless, but Dad just looks from me to the baby to Eve an' says, 'Come on in for dinner.'
"I can't really describe what went through my head that night. I was scared, sure, but I hadn't intentionally run out on them—I hadn't changed my number after I left Sioux Falls, either, so I knew Eve hadn't tried to call me an' tell me she was pregnant. An' I wanted to be in June's life, so I was hopin' Eve would stay so I could be a real dad. I even told her I'd stop competin' if she stayed, so long as I got to be in my daughter's life. In April, I asked her to marry me, an' she said yes.
"I got this day in May permanently etched in my memory. I remember her sayin' she needed to go into town to get some more formula an' diapers, an' since we were runnin' low, I didn't think anythin' of it. I asked her if she wanted me to go with her an' she said no, she just wanted to spend some time outta the house by herself. So she left. Around dinner time, Dad came in an' asked where Eve was, an' I realized it'd been about six or seven hours since I saw her last, so I thought maybe she'd come in without announcin' it an' just went to take a nap or somethin', so I gathered up June to go wake her up.
"Eve wasn't in there. The ring I gave her was on the bed. There was a note under it, but all it said was I can't do this. The drawers she'd kept her clothes in were empty, her half a' the closet... Like that, she was gone." Lu was quiet again. Balthazar wondered what he was remembering now. Twenty-year-old Lu had had his daughter in his arms when he found out his girlfriend was gone—had he cried? Had he looked at his daughter and said, "Well, looks like it's just you an' me now"? Had he held her tight and promised he'd never leave her? Maybe June had cried for her momma for days or weeks afterward before she forgot Eve ever existed and her world had shrunk to Daddy and Uncle Mikey and Granddad.
"Dad, he'd tolerated her because she was June's mom an' was supposed to have been my wife. He never liked her much—I think he kinda resented her for not tellin' me she was pregnant an' just showin' up outta the blue with a seven-month-old strapped in the back a' her car. But he tolerated her. But after I came back down the stairs an' told him an' Mikey that Eve was gone an' we'd probably never see her again, Dad just shook his head an' said, 'That's the best news I've heard in a long time.' I hated him for that for awhile until I realized he was right. She would always get upset about little things, things that I didn't think twice about. She was never very affectionate—June was startin' to crawl right before Eve left, an' once she was movin' around on her own, she would follow me around until I picked her up, which I invariably did. She knew Eve would pick her up only to pass her off to someone else. Hell, Mikey held her more than Eve ever did, at least while she was livin' with us. By the time June's first birthday rolled around in August, we'd all realized we were better off without her."
"Have you spoken to her since then?"
Lu shook his head. "Nothin'. Not a phone call, email, letter, postcard. Nothin'. Not that I can blame her, either—if I were her, I would think my family hated her. Mikey still hasn't forgiven her. I forgave her the day I changed June's last name to Cohen, though. That part was a pain in the ass because she'd been born in South Dakota an' we had to get a lawyer to find her so she could sign off that I was June's father an' her sole legal guardian, but we managed. Never actually spoke to her ourselves, which I think she wanted anyway."
"It must have been hard, raising her by yourself."
"It hasn't been easy, but I think it woulda been a lot more difficult if Eve were still around. Like I said, we're better off without her."
Balthazar had to admit, he certainly saw Lu in a different light now that he knew the story. As he settled back in his own chair, acutely aware of Castiel's inquisitive eyes on both him and Lu, any further, article-related questions were driven from his mind. He was too absorbed in the silence that had fallen at the conclusion of Lu's story, his head spinning as he struggled to digest it all.
Lu didn't seem too eager to break the silence, either. For a long time, the three of them sat there without a word.
A week later, just as Balthazar had fallen into the routine of the ranch, the whole family packed up to begin their exodus to Dallas. It took a full two days to prepare entirely, two days of rigging trucks and trailers, two days of packing and sorting and re-packing. On Thursday, June was kept home from school to pack her own small suitcase, and by noon that same day, the entire household was on the road.
Balthazar finally understood that day why the Cohen family had so many people working for them. With all the trucks they had to bring, they needed every licensed driver they could get. He counted himself lucky that neither he nor Castiel was pressed into service to drive. They did, however, get called on to help pack up the trucks and vans. He never realized how big of a deal it would be to haul thirteen people and four horses to another state, but once he was in the thick of it, the chaos was nearly overwhelming.
Three of the horses were dropped off at a neighbor's ranch an hour or so away to be taken care of for the week they'd be gone. The other four—Seraph, Steel, Jo's Blaze, and June's Thunder—came with them for the competitions. Seraph and Blaze rode in one trailer, driven in alternation by Michael and Rachel (with Inias asleep between them), and Steel and Thunder (who were, appropriately, father and daughter) rode in another driven by Sam and Dean. After Lu and Anna had dropped off their trailers and trucks, they rode with Chuck, Ellen, Jo, June, Balthazar, and Castiel in the large Econoline van along with most of the luggage and everything else they'd need for the week. They rotated drivers as often as they could, with the rearmost seat designated as a makeshift bed for the driver who'd just been relieved. Everyone else seemed to be in rather high spirits. Even Balthazar found himself infected by the air of anticipation that had settled over the entire group. The radio was tuned to one of the many country stations in the area and every time the song changed, someone yelled excitedly, "Turn it up!" even if it was already at a nearly deafening volume, and invariably, at least three people sang along. Balthazar was pretty sure he heard more Alan Jackson songs in those twelve hours than he ever had before in his entire life.
Chuck and Ellen drove the van most often, with Jo or Anna taking over at a gas stop when Chuck and Ellen both said they were too tired to drive for awhile. Nick and June had the first bench seat behind the driver, and whenever June wasn't fast asleep and drooling on her dad's shoulder, she was chattering excitedly about the races and seeing her dad and uncle compete and how Jo was going to win her rounds for sure. Balthazar either sat in the next row with Castiel or, when Castiel was in another vehicle, stretched out to try to get a nap (which failed miserably), letting the talking in the van lull him into a light doze. He sometimes tried to write, but with Anna and Jo in the row behind his, he kept thinking they were looking over his shoulder as he wrote, and he hated that feeling.
Every time they stopped at one of the rest stops along the highway, Castiel got out and switched vehicles. He took a dozen or so pictures in the van, and Balthazar guessed he wanted to try to capture all of the excitement—although he was pretty sure Castiel had ulterior motives for riding in the Winchesters' truck. By now, though, Balthazar was beyond caring. He was too busy focusing on not flirting with Nick, a task that was much easier said than done. It didn't help that Balthazar could swear that Nick was flirting with him. It seemed that every other sentence out of Nick's mouth could easily be construed as a flirtation, and Balthazar wondered if it was deliberate. He thought it must be, but no one else reacted, so maybe it was unintentional, an accepted part of his personality.
It was almost a relief when they made it to Dallas after midnight—even though Balthazar hated that he enjoyed Lu's presence, it was nice to check into their hotel and unload the van (Rachel and Dean dropping off Michael, Inias, and Sam so they could drive to the rodeo site and stable the horses up in the barn on the grounds). Even though he'd slept a little in the van, as soon as he was in his room, he dropped his duffel bag on the floor, stripped out of the clothes he traveled in, fell into bed, and was asleep within moments.
This is more than Lu has opened up to someone in a long time.
Also Michael coming back pale from his teenage excursion is because while he was gone, he got hooked on heroin. He spent the last two or three weeks before coming home getting clean, and he never told his family or even Rachel about what happened. It may come up later or it may not. Haven't decided.