With Jake's mother's address in hand, Troy double checked he had the right place before ringing the door. He waited nervously. This wasn't a pleasant visit at all. He was here to talk to the man who walked out on him and his mother years ago. He was here to talk to the man who cheated on his mother while they were married. He was here to talk to the man who broke his mother's heart and left her alone to raise his son.

He was here to talk to the man who let his problems victimize his son. Troy was happy with his family as it was now, and he loved his step-father like a real father, but he had always wondered how things would be different if his birth father had stuck around.

The door opened as Jake's mother answered it. Troy introduced himself and then he asked to speak to his father. Carl was in ear shot in the kitchen, and stepped out in the hallway. He asked Mrs. Holling, soon to be Mrs. Daniels, if they could speak privately. Of course, knowing her fiancé had a complicated past he needed to sort, Mrs. Holling stepped aside and let the boys speak in the living room.

Troy let out a sigh as he looked at his father. He shook his head, "I just want to make it clear you're not my father. You will never be my father."

"I get what I did was bad," Carl answered and leaned back into the couch. "I wasn't thinking, Troy. The night I left… your mother and I were already having problems…"

"Problems caused by you cheating on her?"

"She didn't know at the time."

"Oh, but it did wonders for the relationship, didn't it? Don't try to blame what you did to me on your marriage. The day you left my mom was also the day you left me. I was just a kid! I thought I had done something."

Carl shook his head, "I'm sorry, Troy…"

"Sorry doesn't begin to cover it. Sorry never will. But I want to know why. Why did you leave? Most parents, when they get divorced, don't just take off to a new city or town or whatever…"

"I was having an affair. It did start a few years before I left your mother. At first it was fun, it was risky, it was dangerous. She was a woman I worked with, so I could keep my lives separated. But then she told me she was pregnant."

Carl looked over at Troy and sighed, "This is going to sound ridiculous, but I couldn't be an absent father. I also couldn't tell your mother what I had done. It would crush her. I tried all I could to provide for you and for her. I managed, but barely. The woman I was with, eventually had enough and forced me to make a decision. If I wanted to stay with her, and with my daughter, I'd have to commit myself completely. She wanted to move out of town and start a life together the right way. Things with your mother were already so bad, I knew it was over, and this woman was offering me what sounded like a good deal. I didn't think about you, Troy, I just knew I had to get away."

"That's the lamest excuse ever. So you chose your daughter over your son?"

"I had to make a choice. At the time, all that processed was that if I didn't make a move to follow the woman I loved – yes, over time, I grew to love her – then I'd lose my daughter. I never thought that by doing so, I would lose my son. When it dawned on me that I had abandoned you, it was too late to turn back. I had already left."

"But you never regretted it enough to try," Troy rolled his eyes. "Face it, if mom hadn't of bumped into you at the store, you'd have never reached out to me. You found out where I lived on the internet. It's not like I've been impossible to track down all these years!"

"Troy…"

"I don't care for your bullshit excuses. You turned out to be the worst father I could have, so I'm glad you stepped aside so a real man could step up. My dad's been taking care of me and mom since the day he met us."

"I'm so sorry."

"This isn't even the reason I'm here. I ran into her. I ran into Rebecca. She's my sister."

"Yes."

"She says I screwed up her family. Obviously something happened between you and her mother if you're dating Jake's mom. So what did you do? Why is my sister so messed up?"

"She's not messed up. She's just a little bit of a handful…"

"She's messed up. You've messed up another kid. What happened?"

"Troy…"

"She's my sister, and unlike you, I not going to let my issues with her father victimize her. What did you do?"

"I never told her mother about you," Carl looked down at the floor. "Her mother and I met at the office, like I said, and I wasn't wearing my ring. She started to flirt with me and I just… I couldn't pass it up. She seemed genuine, and so I doubted she would help me cheat on my wife if she knew. I just… kept up the charade. Then when your mother and I started having problems, I thought I could keep going until the divorce. She backed me into a corner with her insistence on giving me a second chance to be a good father and boyfriend and so I just left. I thought I left everything behind with me, and telling her I was married wasn't necessary. Eventually the divorce went through, I proposed to her, we got married, and that was it. A couple of years ago, she found out. An old friend recognized me and asked about your mother. It turned into a hurricane after that."

"And what, she left?"

"Rebecca had school in the morning. She was already asleep when her mother and I fought, or so, we thought. Her mother, in anger, stormed out of the house. She had no intention of leaving Rebecca behind, she just needed space to breathe and calm down. It was dark; our house wasn't in the best neighbourhood. I got a call that morning telling me her body had been found in a dumpster."

Troy got up. He had heard all he needed to hear. Without saying goodbye, he stormed out of the house. He understood Rebecca's rage a lot more now. He just hoped he would be able to bump into her again. He wanted to help.

-Megaforce-

After leaving the mall, Gia made a trip home, grabbed her gear for Mountain Boarding, and went to the mountains.

She thought she was getting better. She thought she knew better. She thought she was stronger.

But a kid had played her for a fool. A kid had been able to see she was just another idiot and used her. It wasn't the same way Cliff had, but she had still been a sucker. It hurt, that even now that she felt better and stronger about herself, people could still only see her as something they could use. Jake's mother still believed she was nothing more than a slut. Jake's step-father, and Troy's father, apparently, could only talk about her body and encourage Jake to get as much action out of her as he could. She could hear the boys around the neighbourhood or at Ernie's making comments about her, and she saw the way they looked at her. She even saw the way they looked at Jake, with jealousy in their eyes. They wanted to be the one to conquer Gia Moran.

She knew she was just a beginner when it came to Mountain Boarding, but she was tired of the little slope. With Jake, she had gone down the more challenging runs a couple of times. She had taken a few nasty falls, and was still sporting a few scrapes as proof, but the only way to get better was to keep trying. She walked up to the top and looked down at the trail. It seemed easy enough.

"Hey, babe," she heard over her shoulder and turned around to see two boys coming her way. She had seen them on the mountain before. They were regulars, and they were very good at the sport. She had to wonder what they were doing on this hill. While it was challenging, it was still below their skill level.

She wondered, but she wouldn't ask. She strapped on her helmet and put a foot on her board. One guy grabbed her arm.

"You're not here with that kid?"

"My boyfriend's not coming," Gia growled. "Let go, before I make you."

"You know, I love a little bark. If there's trouble in paradise, you can use me all you want to show him what he's missing."

"Hey, don't hog all the fun," the other one nudged his friend. "We can both make the scrawny kid jealous. You know, babe, if I had you…"

"You don't," Gia ripped the first's hand from her arm and placed her second foot on the board. Then with a little hop she started to roll down to the bottom of the hill.

"We'll meet you down there," the two boys said and then suddenly took off, speeding faster than Gia down the trail. When they passed her, they started doing tricks – likely to show off. Gia ignored them, and decided she would turn down a second path that opened up. She wouldn't meet these boys at the bottom. She didn't want to see them again. She knew what they wanted from her. She knew what they saw her as. She didn't want any part of it.

She rolled down the hill, and felt she was doing really well, until she saw a turn come up that was too tight for her skill level. She couldn't stop in time and so dove off her board. It shot off the trail and over a little drop. It was nothing too steep. She knew because she fell over with it.

The mountainside and gravity were not her friends. She rolled over the short drop, hit the ground hard, and then continued to roll until a tree stopped her fall. She let out a cry of pain and grabbed her arm. In the drop, she had landed on it.

-Megaforce-

Troy didn't know Rebecca very well. She was his sister, but until recently he had no idea she existed. All he knew about her was that she and Gia didn't get along, she would be Jake's step-sister, and she was pregnant.

He had bumped into his father in a maternity store, so Troy decided he would try his luck. It was a long-shot, but he couldn't think of anywhere else she would go. He went back to the mall and started to make his way to the baby store.

That was where he saw her. Well, she wasn't quite in the store. She was down the hall beside the store. It was a darker hallway, used only for the public washrooms. It was out of the way of the crowd, and unless it was a real emergency, no one traveled down this hallway. Rebecca was in the hallway, though, with a man twice her size. From a distance, it looked as though they were arguing. Troy walked over, and he could hear the yelling from the man. He was demanding money from her. Troy pulled out his wallet and offered the man a couple of twenties.

"Does that cover it?"

The man didn't say anything. He simply walked off. Rebecca turned to Troy and rolled her eyes.

"You just paid for drugs, you know that, right?"

"Rebecca…"

"The drugs your friend lost."

"You mean the ones you planted on her? Did you really think you would get those back?"

Rebecca scoffed. Troy grabbed her arm.

"I talked to our dad. I know why you're angry."

"You don't. Whatever he said, he's just trying to make himself look good. That's why he's doing all this. He just wants to look good."

"I know what happened to your mother. I'm sorry," Troy looked at his sister. "You have every right to be angry with him. And I understand why you're mad at me."

"Fuck off. We've got the same dad, but that doesn't make us family…"

"Rebecca, please," Troy grabbed her by the arm gently and spun her around so she was facing him, "You're just a kid…"

"Sixteen."

"You're just a kid, you've got a baby on the way, and you're playing around with drugs and alcohol…"

"I'm not playing around with them…"

"Possession is a crime! Not to mention, the guys you're involved with who do use them aren't exactly the most reliable people. I don't think that brute I just paid off wanted to wait a few days for you to scrape up some money."

"What do you want?"

"To help."

"You don't know me."

"You're my sister."

"Screw you."

"Dad hurt us both."

"Because he sucks."

"Rebecca, please. I want to help you."

"What do you really want? I don't owe you anything. I never asked for that money. Besides, I don't need help."

"I can't even tempt you with time away from dad? Come by my place for dinner, at least."

"Oh yeah, so you and your mom can both laugh at how fucked up the other family is. I'm sure it feels real good knowing your dad's life only got worse when he left, and he's screwed up everything and everyone he left you for."

"I hate dad," Troy nodded his head, "but I'm so sorry he let his problems hurt you. Please, Rebecca, I don't want to laugh, I just want to help."

Rebecca looked up at Troy and then sighed. She nodded her head and walked home with him. She didn't want to go back home to her father and his fiancée, and she didn't have enough money to buy something to eat. At the very least, she could get a warm meal out of the other family.