Disclaimer: I still don't own it. So quit asking already.

A/N: This gets a little graphic, when Jessica talks about her past.

Chapter10: Dark nights; Deep Secrets

The plane landed in Texas just after four and by time Jessica and Danny had rented a car and got on the road Jordan was asking about food.

"When are we going to eat?"

"I am sure my parents have some type of dinner plans."

"How long before we get to the house?"

"About twenty minutes."

They headed down I-183 to pick up I-35W south. As they reached Burleson, a small town south of Fort Worth they exited and headed towards the country. Jessica whipped around the curves of the road quite smoothly. She turned down a small road.

"Is this even a road?" Danny asked

"No. It is the private drive. And this is the house I grew up in."

Danny just gasped as they pulled into the circular drive. The house was huge. It was white with large columns in the front and the porch seems to go all the way around the house. It was three stories and off to the right was a five car garage.

"You lived here?"

"Yeah…" Jessica said meekly, she was starting to get embarrassed. "Why?"

"It is phenomenal."

"Wait till I show you the inside and the grounds."

"The grounds…ok now I know I was poor growing up."

"Shut up." Jessica just laughed. Danny helped her get the bags out of the car. As they were walking up the steps towards the front door Lisa opened the door. Jordan ran up and hugged her.

"Hey Jordan. How was your trip?"

"It was long and I am hungry."

"Well dinner will be ready in about thirty minutes. But I am sure we can find you something to snack on."

"Mom, she can wait like the rest of us." Jessica hugged her mom.

"Yes, well I am grandma, and this is my house. Grandkids get special treatment."

"Hi, Mrs. Johnston."

"Danny, I told you to call me Lisa."

"Sorry," Danny said as she hugged him.

"Mom, where should I put our bags?"

"You have your old room and Jordan can have Cade's."

"What about Danny?"

"Jessica, I wasn't born yesterday. I figured he would be with you."

Jessica blushed and nodded. "Ok. Danny come on and we can put the bags up while Mom spoils Jordan."

Danny just followed Jessica into the house. It was a large great room with several doors through out the room. There was a large stair case at the back of the room. It went up and then two smaller sets of stairs came off either side of the main stair case. Jessica was about half way up the stairs when she noticed that Danny was no longer right behind her. She looked over her shoulder to find him awe struck in the middle of the great room.

"Danny."

"Yeah. Sorry, this place is amazing."

"Let's put our bags up then I will give you the grand tour."

"Ok. I am afraid I am going to get lost."

"It would be hard to do in here."

Jessica led Danny to the small stair case on the right. As they past each door had a number on it. And they were all closed.

"What is with the numbers?"

"My dad did that when we were younger so he could just tell people 'go to the right and it is door 7.'" Jessica grinned.

"Ok. That is when you know there are a lot of rooms in this place."

"There are eleven bedrooms, living room, computer room, kitchen, two dining rooms, game room, play room, theater, and my dad's office. Oh yeah, and ten bathrooms. Two of those are only half baths though."

"Yeah, still overwhelmed here."

"Come on. This is our room. Jordan is right next door. The bathroom separates the rooms."

Jessica opened the door to reveal a modest room. It had a queen size bed with a stereo mounted on one wall and a TV mounted on the other. A book case was in the room. It was littered with books and photo albums. It was the only thing in the room that said anything about the owner. Jessica showed him the closet, which had a built in vanity and dresser. It also had a shoe rack and another door which lead to the bathroom. Danny had mentioned that his parent's master bathroom was the size of Jessica's bathroom. Jessica tried to make him feel better by telling him that she had shared it with her brother. It didn't help.

After Danny prepared himself to see the rest of the house Jessica led him on the grand tour.

"We will start up stairs first"

"There is another floor?"

"Yes. Did you think the stairs were for show?"

"I'm not sure I noticed the stairs."

They headed up the stairs and came to a door. Jessica stopped before opening it. "Just so you know we can't stay up here all night. We do have to go eat."

Danny looked at her a little confused until she opened the door. The door revealed a large play room, but not one for little kids. It had video games, Pac Man, Asteroid, Mortal Kombat, and pinball machines. It also had three pool tables. There were two doors to the left.

"That door goes to the game room. It has I think four card tables and floor to ceiling shelves with board games. The other door is the little kid toys. Mom added that once she started having grandchildren. The door over there to the right is a theater. It seats thirty I think."

"I am in heaven."

Jessica just laughed. "Yeah, I was a pretty lucky kid I guess."

"You guess. Your life must have been so easy."

"Why, because my dad had money? That didn't make bad things not happen."

"That's not what I meant Jess."

Jessica set there for a second before answering, "I know. People just assume because you have money that you don't have problems."

"I never assumed that. It just must have been nice to have a cool place to hang out and not get into trouble."

"Yeah, it was."

Just then a bell went off. "What was that?"

"Dinner is ready. Are you?"

Danny took a deep breath, "Now or never."

They walked down the stairs and into the dinning area. Jessica hugged a young man that looked just like her mom. Jessica introduced Danny to everyone sitting at the table. "Danny this is my brother Cade and his wife Katie. And this is Scott and his wife Jennifer. And that is Stephanie and her husband Daniel. And that is Shawn with his wife Sara."

"Nice ta meet you all." Danny was starting to feel a little self conscious of his accent.

Scott got up from the table and walked up to Danny to shake his hand. "Nice firm shake, not too bad for a Yankee."

"Scott."

"What Jess, afraid your boyfriend can't handle your brothers."

"No, I am more afraid my brothers can't handle him."

"Oh so it is like that is it. Now you are protecting us from the boyfriend and not us protecting you. So you think you are all grown up?"

"Scott I am almost 30. And let's not forget I am older that Cade over there."

"Yes, but you are a girl."

"Oh whatever."

"You two sit down and behave." Jake piped in.

Both grinned and sat. Dinner went off with good conversation, but as soon as dinner was over the real games began.

"So Danny do you play pool?" Scott got up from the table first.

"A little."

"How about a game?"

"Good. Little sister, come cheer for me."

"Get real; I am cheering for the one who is going to win, Danny."

"Oh that sounds like betting words." Cade got up from the table at that point, "My bag's on Scott."

"I have a bag on Danny."

"Aw how sweet she stands by her man, even when he is going to lose."

Danny leaned over and whispered into Jessica's ear, "Bag?"

Jessica just grinned, "The loser buys the winner a bag of their favorite candy. Mom wouldn't let us bet money when we were kids, so we found other things."

"OK. I will do my best." He winked at Jessica.

The game did not take long. Scott broke and knocked two solids in before missing. Danny cleared the table. Scott just stood there. Jessica started jumping.

"Yes. He wins! Told ya. I bet on winners."

Scott started chasing Jessica around the room. And everyone was laughing. Several hours later everyone was sitting in the theater watching a movie. Lisa had made popcorn, and Cade had gone to get Jessica a large bag of M&M so she could have them with hers. Jordan didn't make it through the whole movie. Jessica took her down to bed. By time she got back the movie was over and everyone was heading out. Her other siblings were coming in the next day. Jessica set down beside Danny on the couch.

"Hey, you holding up ok?"

"Yeah, they're great. I don't think they are as bad as they want me to think they are."

"They are just initiating you."

"So am I passing?"

"I think so. Cade and Scott will be the worse. They feel like they have to protect me. Scott was the one who saved me."

"Saved you from what?"

Jessica took a deep breath. "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Jess, I love you and I know that you are damaged and have skeletons, but so am I."

Jessica set there for what seemed like an eternity. Danny had never said those words to her, "You love me?"

"Yes, I do."

"I love you, too."

"Will you please let me in, Jess?"

"Ok," Jessica took another deep breath. "My mom married her high school sweetheart. She had four kids. But her husband became abusive. They didn't have a lot of money and things were really bad. He had put her in the hospital several times and she wouldn't press charges. She finally had to get a job. So she started working for this man. He was so nice to her and he offered to pay for her divorce if she would leave her husband. So she did. But not before having one more night together. It wasn't going to work. The divorce was final on Friday and on Monday she found out she was pregnant with me."

"Wow." I wouldn't of thought her mom would stay in a relationship like that. She seems so strong.

"Yeah, but the divorce papers listed each child's name instead of 'all child born through this marriage.' So unknown to my mom, my dad still had rights to me. Well, she married the man she worked for, and he had two small boys of his own. I was 2 when they married. Well everything was perfect, until I was 8. My biological father showed up on our door step. He had heard of me and the life my mom now had. He wanted to screw with her. So he fought for custody of me and won. The lawyer made it out that my mom had hid me from him. Which wasn't true. They set it up that I would spend every weekend with him for 6 months and then I would transition into his custody full time."

"I can't imagine waking up one day and being told my dad wasn't really my dad."

"Yeah, well that was the easy part. After about a month he started beating me. Then by time I was there full time he was molesting me."

"And no one stopped him?" Danny swallowed the lump in his throat that was constricting his breathing. His heart was aching with what Jessica had told him.

Jessica continued on with the story in a calm manner. "They didn't know. I wouldn't tell anyone. He threatened to kill me. But it didn't stop with him. He started selling me to his friends. They could do what ever to me. I went home one weekend and when I wouldn't come out of my room my brother Scott came in. He pretty much forced me to tell him what was going on. My mom says the light in my eyes had died and all that was there was darkness. They pressed charges and he went to trial. He was found guilty, but on the night before sentencing he put a bullet through his head. I was almost 11. I slowly died. I started eating and sleeping all the time. I tried to kill myself. That is when my parents sent me to a special school. I was gone over a year. When I came back I was a new person. I was shy, but could be outgoing. I was very cautious. I would scan every room I walked into. I never did anything dangerous. I got better as I got older, but Cade and Scott thought it was their jobs to protect me. They never really stopped."

How can she be so calm? Danny felt consumed by a rage that threatened to overwhelm him. "Good thing that son of a bitch killed himself. I can't believe someone could do that to a child, especially thier own child." His words were said with the force of his suppress rage behind them.

Jessica put a calming hand on his arm. "Danny, calm down. It is over, I dealt with this a long time ago. I have come to peace with what happened."

Danny's fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were turning white. "I can't even imagine what was brought back to the surface over the past few months after everything that happened to you and Jordan. Errr. I want to hit something. I want to hurt them for hurting you."

"I know. But it is alright. Now you see why my brothers are so protective?" Jessica smiled. His words touched her. That was when she knew that he really meant a lot to her. She couldn't imagine telling this story to someone else.

"I am glad you brothers took care of you. That is what brothers should do. They should protect their siblings. I should know, my brother protected me; I just didn't know it till years later after he was nearly beat to death for trying to protect me again."

"Danny, I had no idea. What happened?"

"He used to hang with the gang, Tanglewood. One night him and I were going to head to Atlantic city with some of the guys. We stopped at Giants stadium. The leader, Sonny Sassone was beating this kid up. Louie saw where he was head and yelled at him, called me all kinds of names and then made me leave. I found out a couple of months ago that Sonny had killed the kid and buried his body in Giants stadium. Like I said Jess, everyone is damaged and has skeletons. We just have to love each other in spite of those things."

"I love you. I am so glad you are in my life."

"Me too. Let's go to bed. I think I am going to need all the rest I can get before meeting the rest of the family." They headed off to bed.