A/N: I know I promised this last week, but we got the news that our landlord was putting our house on the market and have been busy looking for houses the past few days, in between blackouts brought on by both storms and the unusually high heat in the area. I apologize for the delay and hope you enjoy this chapter. No ships, sorry- I promise, there will be Brucas, Naley, and Jeyton goodness in the next chapter, along with Keith paying a visit to the unconscious Dan… Enjoy! -Jess
Disclaimer: Don't I wish…
Chapter Nine
Knowing that he couldn't rationalize ignoring Dan's fainting spell and walking out of the house and away from the monster that was his father, Lucas grudgingly walked over to the large man who was now sprawled on the floor, taking up enough of the small entryway to make walking out the front door impossible without stepping over him.
Dan's reaction was a little unorthodox in Lucas's opinion, but maybe the surprise of Keith having a child no one knew about had given him another heart attack. And while Lucas certainly had his share of problems with Dan, and then some, he didn't want to see the man die- which was a vast improvement over two years ago, when he had briefly hoped that Dan would, believing tat he had caused their family more than enough pain and suffering over the years.
He still thought Dan was bad news, but Lucas had seen what Dan's heart attack had done to the people he was supposed to love and didn't care to see that again.
As Lucas crouched down beside him, a wide-eyed Fin looking on and wondering if it was going to be necessary to call 911, Dan's eyes flew open, colliding almost instantly with his niece's. Wondering for the umpteenth time how he could have taken his brother's life the way he had, Dan let his gaze wander over the young woman now on bended knee beside his son- yet another person in this life he had failed.
What startled him most was that he could see Keith in her eyes- those whiskey0colored eyes that had always known better than Santa Claus if you'd been bad or good. It wasn't just that her eyes reminded him of Keith, though- it was as though they held a picture of her father and it was staring Dan right in the eyes. He could see his brother, standing there with his mouth set in a grim line and an eyebrow arched- not accusing, exactly, just questioning, wanting to known why Dan had done all of the things he had. And even Dan didn't have the answer.
Was it always going to be like this? Every time he saw Finn, was he going to see Keith? And would that be such a bad thing, to have this extension of his older brother around all the time? Dan didn't think it would be too bad, actually. Though it had taken Keith's death to realize it, ironically enough, he had always loved his brother- and, for whatever reason, Keith had always loved him and tried to help him. It would soothe the ache he had caused his own soul, the one that had been created by losing Keith forever, to have his brother's daughter around.
And if Keith really was watching over his family from the Great Beyond, Dan prayed his brother knew how badly he wished he could change things, and how he was trying his best to make amends. He wanted to be the person Keith had always known he could be- wanted to see Keith's reflection in Finn's eyes, a proud smile on his face. Maybe he was delusional, maybe was certifiable, or maybe it was just a case of a guilty conscience, but the thought that his brother could see them all and knew how much he had been loved in life and would still be loved long after his death- it made all the difference in the world to Dan and was really the only thing that made him want to wake up in the mornings. He had to make things right with Karen, Lucas, Nathan, Deb… and now Finn. Because making things right with them was the only way he was ever going to make things right with Keith now.
0o0o0o0
"Are you alright?" Finn questioned her uncle- the man that had turned his back on Karen and Lucas years ago and perpetuated her mother's fear that Keith would do the same to her.
Given what Lucas had told her at the café, along with what she already knew about him, she had expected to hate Dan Scott on sight. Something told her that, for all of his faults, her father had loved his misguided younger brother and, though Finn wasn't certain she'd go so far as to claim she loved her uncle, she did feel sorry for him at the very least.
And, at the moment, she was a little irritated by the look he was giving her. She could appreciate the fact that her existence had startled him- had her parentage surprised everyone she'd met thus far? But did the man really have to stare at her as though she'd grown a second head and he expected her to sprout a third any second? Really!
Not willing to risk incurring his mother's or his brother's wrath, Lucas dug his cell phone from his pocket and dialed 911, just in case Dan was in need of medical attention. With as hard as he'd hit the floor, Lucas wouldn't rule out the possibility of a head injury, however minor, in addition to the very real possibility of a second heart attack, either.
If Finn, who didn't know about the first heart attack as far as Lucas knew, thought her cousin was over-reacting to what was, in all probability, just a one-time fainting spell brought on by what was quite possibly the shock of a lifetime for Dan, she didn't say so. Instead, she busied herself by going to the kitchen and getting Dan a cold glass of water. Lucas kept his father from rising to even a sitting position until she came back with the glass and then reluctantly allowed Dan to sit up and drink the proffered beverage, still fearful something may be wrong.
His fears weren't unjustified and that quickly became apparent to the teens as, when he sat up, Dan's eyes widened and he clutched his chest before collapsing back onto the floor, his eyes rolling back inside his head as he passed out again.
Finn and Lucas watched in terror as Dan experienced what both were certain was a heart attack, and Finn reached to check his pulse almost immediately to reassure herself that her uncle's heart was in fact still beating, half-expecting not to find one. She breathed a sigh of relief, though, when she felt the admittedly faint but slightly reassuring rhythm beneath her shaking fingers.
What a day this was turning out to be…
