I am not really this productive. I have been writing this story for almost a year now.

and I would really really like and apreciate some feedback. PLEASE.

Part 9

Phil and Lindsy where just sitting on the couch trying not to act like love struck teenagers, not that it was working, when a car came driving up to the house. And a slightly build young man jumped out.

It seemed Jake had been closer to Phil's place than Josh.

Phil went to open the door, and a few seconds later Jake and Phil entered the living room. Jake saw Lindsy and more or less went ballistic.

With eyes that where shooting daggers at Lindsy he approached her.

"Who are you and why are you here?"

It wasn't so much what he said but the way he said it. Lindsy felt more than a little attacked. So she got up and squared her shoulders. The fact that she was taller than Jake did little to make him calmer. But it never was her intention to let the situation get out of hand.

Only then again, subtlety never had been her strongest point.

"I'm Lindsy, and I'm here for your dad."

"Yeah sure, you just wanted to speak to him."

"Well no, speaking wasn't the main attraction."

And at that Jake jumped at her and shoved her onto the couch, but it was clear he didn't really care where she landed. It also was clear to Lindsy that Jake was even more shocked by his response than she was. Only Phil didn't see that part. He just saw his kid using violence against a woman, and that was enough to make Phil go ballistic.

"Jake, have you gone crazy. Get out, Now."

The worst part was that Phil wasn't screaming but icily calm, not like the blowups she had seen on the show, and Jake didn't even try to cajole his father out of his black mood instead the boy went white like a sheet, turned and left without even looking back.

By the time Jake had slammed the door close Phil was just as white and shaking, looking at the door as if he could make Jake come back by looking at it.

Only Phil wasn't moving, and Jake was leaving.

Lindsy saw only one thing to do.

"Phil go after him, tell him you love him and that nobody can take his place."

Phil turned and looked at her as if she had gone crazy.

"He tried to hurt you."

"No he didn't try to hurt me, he just wanted to hurt somebody and I was available. And it scared him more than me. Jake is scared, terrified that somebody is taking his place in your heart.

I don't know who did it or when, but somebody most likely told him as a kid that you loved a lot of things better than him.

Did you show up at his birthday, school play's, little league games, graduation? Because I understand that that are big things over here, and if you didn't show up and somebody told him that it was because you liked money or your work or your boat better than him it would have had an impact. Bigger if he was younger. And even if his brains know that it isn't true, his feelings are not so sure.

So just tell him you love him and that your girlfriends are the most interchangeable thing in your live. He is blood, I am not."

Phil just stared at her. Then suddenly he started to move to the sliding doors.

"No take the door, and don't get mad at Josh."

Phil did as she said without even thinking, turning to the door. But as he started to open it he also turned around.

"Josh? What does he have to do with it?"

But even as he was saying it he opened the door and there was Josh, bright red and looking guilty, but he was also holding up a set of car key's.

"I took these, so Jake is either in his car or walking."

All Phil could say was thanks as he took the key's, and he made his way past Josh to talk to Jake. He had never realized that his not showing up at Jake's birthday's or other stuff might have had such an impact. The relaxed feeling of the morning gone and both guilt and anger twisting in is gut.

And that left Lindsy with Josh. Or Josh with Lindsy.

Neither of them knew what to do, Lindsy rather apprehensive about a repeat of the little scene with Jake, and Josh just shocked. He had been in a state of emotional shock ever since he woke up to his dad's phone call.

So they just looked at each other, trying to size each other up. It couldn't have lasted for more than a few seconds. But it felt like minutes to Lindsy, until Josh finally said something.

"Did you mean that? About blood and stuff?"

Okay, she knew Josh was a grownup and tough as nails crab fisherman, but at that moment he looked more like a 5 year old who had woken up from a bad dream and needed some reassurance. So it took all her strength to just stay put, because all she wanted to do is go over and give him a cuddle.

"Yeah, I mean that. And even if I didn't mean it, it is the truth."

"You mean……?"

"Yeah, I mean that I am out of here if I said anything bad about the two of you, and that is how it is supposed to be."

Josh visibly relaxed and came into the room.

And Lindsy decided to go and play hostess, as a good girlfriend should. Or something.

"Do you want something to drink or some breakfast? And don't forget to take your shoes off."

And yes Josh would love some breakfast, because he hadn't eaten yet and the emotional rollercoaster ride he had had since waking up had left him starving, their was just one thing he didn't understand.

"Why do you want me to take my shoes off?"

"Well your dad has this thing about shoes in his house."

It only took one look at Josh his face to tell Lindsy that Phil did not have a thing about shoes.

"De vieze smiecht. He doesn't have a thing about shoes, does he?

"Nope not really, why?"

Lindsy was laughing again, she really didn't seem to be able to stop.

"Oh Well they would have been dreadfully in the way going up the stairs anyway."

And that was just way to much information for Josh.

"Shut uhup."

The little catch on the up wasn't helping Lindsy to stop laughing or to take him seriously. But she did understand.

"Yeah, I know, the thought of my parents going at it, EEEIIIIIIIWWWWW. And of course Phil took a vow of celibacy after you where conceived. Only who is Jake's dad in that case?"

And that was enough for Josh. He started laughing too.

"Jake belongs to the milkman, a very temperamental person."

Both still laughing they went into the kitchen, just in time to see Larry's pickup truck leaving with Phil and Jake.

Okay, this was an interesting situation, less then two hours ago Phil was willing to strangle Lindsy for asking to meet his sons and now he left her alone with one of them. She decided it wasn't a test but a sign of trust. Breaking some eggs into the frying pan she tried to make a more serious conversation. And yes she knew that the subject she chose probably wasn't Josh his favourite, but she just had to know.

"So Josh, I understand that the trouble between you and your dad was over a woman. If you don't want to go there just say so, but to keep it from happening again you are allowed to ask anything you want. I will answer and that way you don't have to wriggle your way into my hotel room."

Josh started to feel as if he was in a bad episode of the twilight zone. And he would be the one ending up dead or something. This couldn't be happening. No way.

But she was looking at him as if she expected him to ask a question only everything he wanted to say never made it from his brains to his mouth.

Lindsy watched Josh stumble through some half sentences and decided to take pity on him.

"What if I tell you how I got to know that your dad was out here in the States and looking?"

All Josh could do was nod and manage a croaky.

"Okay."

Lindsy put the fried eggs and some toast on a plate and pushed Josh into the dining area. Parking him in a seat she sat down on the other side of the table and started talking.

"I work for a company that does research on DNA. You know DNA mapping?"

Josh just nodded, he didn't have a clue, but he figured that saying that would only get him stranded in an un understandable explanation. Lindsy noticed but decided to just go on, it wasn't important anyway.

"But the funding is pathetic and getting material isn't easy either. So a Swiss colleague and I did a little brainstorming and decided to start a dating company. Instead of speed dating or brand dating or those endless question list that should leave you with a Shrek like creature with similar interest we decided to use the result of an experiment that showed that there is maximum physical attraction to somebody with a totally different immune system. We started the company HLA dating. My colleague does the PR side and I run the science part behind the scenes.

Just before Christmas I saw my perfect Christmas present on the computer. Your dad. He has a so completely different immune system it is amazing."

She told him how she set Phil up on a date from hell with Marcy from Dallas. And how she had arranged that Marcy would get a most amazing care giver. And how that had worked.

How she didn't even know who P Harris was until she got to LA and saw him on TV, and how she started on her research after that.

And she even told Josh about the little scheme she and Larry had come up with to get Phil's attention again.

Josh forgot to eat, but he slowly lost the Twilight zone feeling, and started to like Lindsy. She seemed like a cool person. He even started to see what his dad saw in her. And that was for the first time in over four or five years. Ever since Deadliest catch had started his dad had come home with the weirdest ladies, before he didn't know because he hadn't been in touch with his dad at the time. But his dad must have had some taste once, because he choose to marry Jake and his mother. Right?