Hello everyone! I finally have a new installment to this series. I hope to actually get back on to this on a regular basis now. I also hope to have a follow up chapter to this within a week as originally this was one very long chapter, so I split it.

Layla: I'm glad you know.

ArtisticAngel6: I know, it's been to long, but sometimes real life and other things get in the way. I hope you enjoy.

Guest: Thanks.

darck ben: Dusty knows how to make an entrance and I'm working as fast as I can on the other stuff. Finally got back into the grove after about a month in the slumps of writing.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Tori is clearly suffering from survivor's guilt, but as you saw Dusty's response, he's not going to share it with her and make him feel like he did something wrong. Beck crossed a line with him when it came to Heather and is lucky he's in one piece. He doesn't have the restraints as Freddie does when it comes to Beck.

Challenge King: They are a dysfunctional family and as the title of the piece indicates, it's an important question to ask in defining who truly is part of one's family. Freddie coming to terms with the fact that he does have blood family out there and in the picture will of course be a major part of the plot.

mkpunk: And as Supernatural has shown a few episodes back, has no problem trying to eat you.

Setting aside the incident with Heather, does Beck really deserve that treatment? Does he really? Just think about it.

Heather and Dusty's interaction… you have a girl that has no real idea of why her guy would dump her out of the blue after just over a year being together and you have a guy that is still very much in love with said girl. They'll story will play out in the background as a reflection of the Jedi relationship. Dusty and Nate's interaction is only the opening move and is put on notice.

Dusty may have exaggerated with the stubbed toe, but really most of the time he's around, it's not to be their friend. Freddie and Jade are his friends, Cat is the girl that got away, Trina is the one he respects for speaking her mind and the others are at best friends of friends. Cat gets a free pass with him to a point as shown back during prom in 'We Love Each Other' where he told her she just can't jerk Robbie around.

Trying not to spoil too much in this chapter, but Dusty was just being petty with the blame game with Tori. If you read my other story, 'A Daughter's Salvation', you'll know that he was literally in the middle of something and not only was that interrupted, but her comment smacked to him as being ungrateful with practically dropping everything he was doing to come help.

Tori has the emotional support of others and [spoiler for this and next chapter] so she should be alright mentally in the future.

A Benson and a Vega, I've certainly written those before, but that would be an interesting twist if Jon is interested.

Thanks and I hope you like the chapter.

Twilight Warrior 627: Could life be anything but complicated for this group? Money and fame do not solve problems and actually bring a whole new mess of problems with them. With permission, I borrowed a form of the character Nate, he and Dusty are cut from quite similar clothes, but the differences are minor enough that could actually snowball into bigger things. Dusty has saw an ugly side of humanity and with the way real life events have turned out over the last couple of months since this update, it's gotten worst.

Additional author note, as Twilight Warrior 627 pointed out in his review with Dusty, I have incorporated some real life events going on around the world into Dusty's subplot and over the last couple of months since my last update, things have deteriorated worst with a number of acts such as the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the Coptic Christian beheadings, and the mass murders of Christians and Muslims including crucifixions and raping of children by ISIS. Due to the time this story takes place and that this is a fictional story where people like to escape what's going on, there won't be any direct references to those events.

Rating: T, Language

Chapter 13

Tori and Trina Vega Residence
Hollywood Hills
Los Angeles, CA

"Wow… that went well," Freddie dryly commented with a lazy roll of his eyes.

Jade glanced to her fiancé and raised her pierced eyebrow, her lips closing tight to a thin line to give him a disapproving look of the unnecessary stating of the obvious.

As with the others, Beck remained stunned for several seconds before shaking his head and uttering, "Still a self-righteous prick."

Sam snorted out with a smirk, "That can swat you like a fly."

The long haired actor turned an angry look towards the former Seattle girl.

The blonde lazily shrugged a shoulder. "I'm just saying. You're lucky he decided not to really hurt you." She mockingly grinned as she finished, "Aren't you glad you took my advice and made nice with Heather?"

Beck nearly bit his tongue as he clenched his jaw tightly shut while staring at the last addition of their group through Cat. He could see at least a glimpse of why she had been such a pain to Freddie over the years.

Tori silently stewed, Dusty's words were like salt in the wound of her own guilt as her haphazard way of redirecting it towards him for giving her something she felt she didn't deserve backfired. Despite his sometimes abrasive exterior and almost alien way of thinking in comparison to the group, underneath she knew he was a caring individual, but he clearly wasn't going to take any mess off of her.

Sam, being the surprise voice of reason, took a step towards Tori and commented, "Tori, don't let it bother you. You're going through chizz, he's going through chizz and it just kind of blew up in your faces. It'll be fine."

The brunette singer contemplated the surprisingly insightful words of the onetime troublemaker. Apparently she had some insight into Dusty's psyche and Tori wasn't going to disregard it.

Freddie voiced his skepticism in a near dismissive tone, "You would know that how?"

The blonde directed a dark glare to her former punching bag, one that could no longer cause him any real fear. She was about to sourly answer, but Jade directed an incredulous look to Sam and challenged, "Why would you have any sympathy for him?"

The blonde hair she-demon looked to the girl that she still partially blamed for turning her and Carly's lives upside down and answered in a patient tone, "We're in the same boat."

Beck jumped back into the conversation, "To borrow a phrase from Cat, 'what's that supposed to mean?'"

Cat raised an eyebrow, feeling vaguely offended by the reference.

The blonde passed a quick glance to the handsome actor and answered, "It means we're in a very similar situation and I can… appreciate the situation he's in."

The rest of them looked curiously and some outright dumbfounded at her statement.

Jade rolled her eyes and muttered loud enough for all of them to hear, "Sam being sympathetic… I think Hell just froze over."

Sam turned a near murderous gaze to the pale skin singer and hissed, "Jank you."

Jade opened up her arms with her palms out and stated, "Anytime you want a rematch bitch."

Tori spoke up in an impatient voice, "Enough. Dusty's right, I should have paid attention more to my driving then none of this would have happened."

Trina was quick to defend her sister, "He is not right. He's just being petty in being interrupted with whatever he was doing."

She hated having to agree with Beck, but she was more concerned about her sister's wellbeing.

Beck rolled his eyes and muttered in disgust, "Yes, we wouldn't want to interrupt his killing spree."

Sam voiced her disagreement with a sarcastic tone that turned stern halfway through her statement, "Yeah, it's so tragic that they're dead and he does have a point that you seemed to call him whenever you need him."

Jade couldn't help but recall that the sentiment was voiced about a year and a half ago from Dusty's sister Mary that they really weren't his friends, but just using him as if he was at their beck-in-call.

The former heartthrob of Hollywood Arts snapped, "This was a genuine emergency. Tori only had scraps and bruises, but you never know if they missed anything in their examination and that little girl was probably going to die."

Sam let out a mix between a sigh and a groan, "I'm not saying it wasn't, but she didn't have to make it sound like he did something wrong for her. I probably would have gotten offend too."

Jade and Freddie looked to her with shared confused expressions. Something must have happened before Dusty left to change the usual antagonistic feelings he and Sam shared for one another for the blonde to readily defend him.

The argument was cut off from going any further when the door opened and Marcus partially stepped inside straddling the threshold. "Miss Vega, I'm sorry to bother you, but Jonathan and Amanda Benson are out here and I wasn't sure if you wanted to see them."

Beck frowned at hearing of the arrival.

Trina wasn't that please either while Jade remained neutral and Freddie's expression turned into a mask for his conflicted feelings.

Tori waved Marcus to step in further, feeling grateful for the distraction of her feelings and stated, "Absolutely, they can come inside."

The bodyguard stepped aside and allowed the Benson siblings to enter the home.

Jon hesitantly smiled to Tori and the brunette awkwardly smiled in return to his greeting, "Hey Tori. We wanted to see if the news was true."

Tori graciously commented, "I'm fine. Thank you for checking on me. I do appreciate it."

Jon supportively smiled. "You're welcome."

The brunette popstar returned the smile.

The younger man named Benson held his gaze on the lovely singer then turned his attention to Beck and the pair traded guarded glances.

Any posturing or potential standoff was interrupted when Amanda walked up to Freddie and pulled him into a tight hug. He was slightly taken aback then eventually wrapped his arms around her back to return the hug.

The rest of the group looked mildly stunned at the girl that looked like Cat's reaction.

The dark redhead was the first to pull away from the hug. She brightly smiled and whispered with a voice filled with tribulation yet hopefulness, "Hi."

Freddie tried to look past the resemblance to Cat and see this was a different person and that she was for the most part a stranger. "Hello."

Tori's expression was just as stunned as the others and questioned with a raised eyebrow, "Have I missed something?"

Jon tightly smiled and tried to come off in a casual tone, "I guess you hadn't heard."

"Heard what?"

Everyone else in the room quickly exchanged various looks with one another, unsure who should fill Tori in on the surprise news. Freddie was the first to speak, "It turns out that Jon and Amanda are… they're my half-siblings."

Jon was quick to dispute with a raised finger, "That's only on your word…"

Freddie guardedly looked to the younger man, ready to challenge the denial, but Amanda was quicker, "Jon, Freddie's our brother."

The younger male Benson shook his head and countered, "That's not what dad says."

"He may say it, but Freddie clearly favors dad. You both share the same smile and you favor one another."

Tori's eyes were on the brink of popping out of their sockets as she muttered, "You're what?"

Freddie continued with a soft sigh, "Apparently so. After my dad left my mom he remarried and had children."

Jon was quick to defend his father, "You mean after your mother had an affair behind my father's back and got pregnant with another man's child—your father. My father had every right to leave her and start over."

Freddie stared coldly at his younger brother, ready to verbally tear him a new one for saying such a thing about his mother, but Amanda took a step between her believed siblings and raised a hand up to both of them.

"Stop right now. There shouldn't be any argument right now. We should be happy that Tori is alright and that we found our brother."

Her older brother turned an annoyed expression to his sister and countered, "I'm not admitting that he's our brother without some proof."

The dark redhead barely kept her temper in check though she answered with a sharp enough tongue, "Fine, but you shouldn't be hostile about his mother."

Jon shook his head, still not believing his sister's reaction to the news and willing to accept it as fact simply on Freddie's word. "So you're going to take some woman you've never meet's side over dad's?"

"I don't care about sides. I just care that we know that we have a brother and we found him. Family is the most important thing and he's standing right there," she countered by pointing at Freddie.

Jonathan held his tongue, not seeing a point in continuing their argument.

Amanda apologized to Tori, "I'm sorry. As you can see, we're still having our disagreement and didn't mean to bring it here. We just wanted to check on you."

"It's okay. Trina and I have had our share of surprising family news."

Trina crossed her arms under her chest and frowned, sarcastically replying, "Yeah and it tore ours apart."

The divorce of Tori and Trina's parents was well known news to anyone that had even a passing interest to Tori's career.

Amanda's face formed a sour expression, hoping things wouldn't go that far in regards to her family.

Seeing the lull, Tori passed a glance to everyone in the room as she spoke with a thankful expression, "Thank you for being here and checking on me, but I'd like to be alone and relax." She pointed out to her friends that did have class today, "You know you could still make your classes today."

The blonde of the group readily agreed, "She's right Cat. There's no point in you having to miss class." She looked to Amanda and pointed out, "Besides, it's creepy to see another one of you."

"I'm not exactly thrilled to see you wearing one of my friend's face either," the girl from Manhattan remarked without a hint of concern with Sam's reputation.

Cat reluctantly complied, "Okay, but I'll be back after class."

The brunette actress seeing that she won that victory, turned to Jade and put on her puppy dog expression before the fellow musician could mount an argument, something that years ago would have just infuriated the musician.

Jade huffed out, "Fine. I'll head to class. I guess someone has to keep track of what you're going to miss."

Freddie wasn't going to argue with his friend. If she needed some alone time to process her thoughts and feelings then he wasn't going to deny her such a thing. He darted his eyes back and forth between his younger half-siblings and hesitantly suggested, "You want to go out to lunch before my class and… talk?"

Jon quickly nixed the idea. "Sorry, but I have classes for the rest of the day."

Amanda threw a withering look to her older brother, before happily accepting her older brother's offer, "I would love to have lunch with you and catch up."

He looked to Jade, but she raised a hand. "You go ahead and catch up. I'll get a ride from one of them. Besides, I need to make a stop before I head to class."

He stepped to her and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Okay, love you."

"Love you too."

Freddie motioned for the door for Amanda then led his half-sister out the door.

Jon guardedly watched his sister exit with guy that could possibly be their shared brother. He turned his attention to Tori and stated, "I'm glad you're alright and I'll see you later."

"Later. Thank you."

The pair shared a smile, much to Beck's annoyance, before Jon made his way out the door, leaving her and the rest.

As soon as the door was shut, Tori looked to the rest and stated in a tired voice, "I think I'll head upstairs and take a nap."

Once she was up the stairs, Beck shook his head and muttered, "More Bensons…"

The dirty blonde sighed in agreement, "I feel you… but then again, the new one's cute."

"Which one?" he joked without thinking.

Sam grinned. "Both."

The television actor bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose while Cat giggled at understanding that Sam thought she was cute.

Hale Residence
Los Angeles, CA

Jade did get a ride, but not back home for her own car, but from Trina and after less than a half-hour of driving, the vehicle was pulling her vehicle alongside the modest two-story home to allow Jade to step out onto the sidewalk. Jade undid her seatbelt and opened the passenger side door to exit when the elder Vega sister asked with mild concern, "You sure about this?"

Jade turned her head back sharply to the comedic actress, flinging some hair over her shoulder, and asked with a knotted brow, "About what?"

"Seeing him right now? Did you not see how pissed he was when he left?"

Jade pointed out in just as a sharp tongue, "Perhaps Tori shouldn't have been so ungrateful?"

Trina gave her a scathing look and barely kept her anger in check when countering, "Tori's just feeling guilty about what happened. He shouldn't have snapped at her and said it was her fault. He's just going to make her feel worst about it and keep blaming herself."

"I think you're right that it was probably out of line for him to say that, but if she wants to irrationally blame herself, there is nothing you or I can do about it. He clearly doesn't have the patience for it and I'd like to know why and know what is going on with him."

Trina sighed, seeing there was no point in arguing with the former gank in her eyes.

Jade stepped out of the car and headed up the pathway to the front door.

Trina leaned over to the passenger side and called out from the down window, "You don't even know if he's home."

The pale skinned musician stopped and looked over her shoulder to see Trina's partially obscured face. "Maybe not, but I can always get him back here," the dark haired teenager remarked with a smirk. She continued on her way and knocked on the door and hoped that someone would answer.

Trina shook her head then pulled away from the curb to head off for her own business.

Jade patiently waited for several seconds before Dusty opened the door and cracked a smile at the singer. "Hey."

She returned the smile as she looked over him a second, double checking to see if he was physically alright. His damaged jacket was off and the shirt underneath looked fine, easing her concerns about his physical wellbeing. "Hi, may I come in?"

"Yeah," he lazily answered and opened the door wider to let her inside.

Jade glanced around, not having been in the house in a while and actually hadn't visit on many occasions.

Once Dusty shut the door behind him, Jade turned to face him and asked, "I'm not interrupting or anything?"

"No, I was just taking a look at my portfolio and making a few calls to make sure some of my projects are still on track since I've been… gone."

"You sound like one of those hedge fund managers."

The handsome teenager originally from Carolina joked, "Well some of us haven't had a multi-platinum album and worldwide tours, so we have to make our fortunate in other ways. Curing cancer isn't easy or cheap…"

She nodded and politely smiled. His idea of eliminating disease and other ailments to basically relieve humanity of that form of suffering seemed like a pie in the sky dream, but when you're practically a god, it may not be absurd as it sounded and it sure was a noble one. She took a quick breath and happily carried on, "I thought you were catching up with your dad."

"Dad's at work, but I gave him a call to let him know I'm back and I won't be… fluttering away before he gets back."

"He's not mad at you?"

Dusty put a grin back into place and laughed it off, "A little, but as long as I bring him pie and Asian porn, he'll be fine in the end."

Jade slightly dipped her chin and raised an eyebrow.

He raised his hands to his shoulders with his palms up and answered with a shrug, "My dad is one of simple tastes and needs."

"You have an odd family…"

"Yeah, one side monster hunters, the other side angels; odd seems to be an understatement."

Jade closed her eyes and shook her head. "Right, but you were gone for weeks… I doubt your dad was just cool with you taking off."

"My dad understands better than anyone the… circumstances of my life due to my… different nature than the rest of you and we've never been all touch-feely with our emotions like that."

"You make it sound like my relationship with my dad…"

Dusty smirked with the playful jive, "Which one?"

Jade grinned, glad to see the guy she remembered. "Still the smartass."

"Better than being a dumb one and I do have a point."

"Maybe, but wouldn't you know which one really is my father?"

"Yes I do."

"Are you going to tell me?"

Dusty barely held back a chuckle, "And why would I want to spoil that fun?"

Jade shook her head and licked her bottom lip.

The former Northridge student motioned further into the house and asked, "Do you want anything? It may be a little early, but have you had lunch?"

"No, I hadn't grabbed anything."

The pair walked to the kitchen and Dusty headed for the refrigerator, pausing only long enough to ask over his shoulder, "Care for a good old fashion sandwich?"

"Thanks, that's fine."

He threw a look over his shoulder and asked, "Do you take mayo?"

"Yeah, sure."

He joked while having his head in the refrigerator, "Good, you look like you could put on a little fat."

Jade's jaw dropped at jibe.

He looked over his shoulder and grinned. "Hey, you slimmed up a little since the last time I saw you."

She slightly frowned and crossed her arms over her chest while taking a seat at the small circular kitchen table. "Okay, I lost a few pounds during the tour. I'm working on it."

He laughed while grabbing a jar of mayo and brought it to the counter then pulled out a loaf of bread from a cabinet. He tore a paper towel off the roll and laid some bread out then began spreading some mayonnaise on the slice of bread then on another one. He turned to the refrigerator and asked, "We have ham or chicken, which do you prefer?"

"I'll take ham."

"You are so much easier to feed than…" He trailed off when he realized the name he was about to say. He focused on getting out some sliced sandwich ham. He called out again, "Care for lettuce, tomato?"

"I'll take it if you have it."

He grabbed the listed items then brought them back to the counter to finish making her sandwich after grabbing a knife from the drawer. He grabbed a plate from the cabinet above him to place the sandwich before bringing it to his guest. He returned to the refrigerator and looked inside while calling out over his shoulder, "What would you like to drink? We have various soft drinks, water, tea… beer?"

"I'll take some water."

Dusty grabbed a bottle of water and grabbed a glass from the cabinet. He unscrewed the cap and poured the water in the glass before bringing it to her.

Jade grinned as she accepted the glass. "Fancy."

Dusty took a seat cattycorner to the rock star and relaxed back in the chair.

She asked with a raised eyebrow, "Are you going to get anything to eat?"

"Oh? I forgot."

"Forgetting to eat?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't have to eat. I never feel hungry, so I forget…" He looked off to nowhere and muttered, "I miss feeling hungry."

Jade allowed a sympathetic to form on her face, but she knew he wouldn't want pity. She put a pleasant smile, one she used for out and about so her fans wouldn't think she was just scrawling girl. She softly asked, "Where have you been?"

Dusty shrugged his shoulder, expecting the question to be asked again at some point. "Oh, I've been around. I've been here, I've been there. I thought the news coverage would have tipped you off."

Jade tightly smiled, unsure if she really wanted to go into too much detail though she had asked about his whereabouts. "I don't watch the news, but I did hear about your 'exploits'. 'The boy with the black wings'?"

Dusty smirked at the name. "It's an interesting nickname, however inaccurate it is. I'm not a boy and my wings are not black."

"Yeah, but you didn't come out of it unscathed," she pointed out verbally and literally with a motion to his shoulder.

"That had nothing to do with sending those damn savages to Hell. I got it from… stopping the end of the world."

Jade raised her pierce eyebrow.

Dusty reassuring smiled. "I'm not exaggerating, but don't worry about it. I took care of it. Everything is alright. There won't be any fire and brimstone coming down from the sky or the oceans boiling away. I threw out the script."

The teenager with the blue hair extensions slightly nodded her head and asked, "Are you okay though?"

Dusty studied her eyes and for a moment, Jade thought he could be taking a peek inside her. He cautiously stated, "If you're asking if I'm psychologically okay with having to end people's lives, then yes. I put some blood thirsty savages down like the rabid dogs that they were and I'm perfectly fine with that."

"That doesn't bother you at all?"

"The only thing that bothers me is that I haven't killed more of them to save more innocent women and children—Christian and Muslim—they would slaughter, you know, in-between the torching of churches, the gang rapes and genital mutilations. Some of the things that I glimpsed of what they were planning… talk about some evil sons-of-bitches… Hopefully things will turn around in Egypt with the military taking over. They're not saints by any means, but they're at least are starting to kill the bad guys. There are enough there that don't want to be dragged back to the seventh century."

Jade's stomach turned at the unfortunately true point he was making. She retorted, "I'm not judging you for that."

Dusty snorted out a laugh, "I hope not because I would hate to think how you could look at your grandfather and your future stepfather because I know they've done worse than me."

The dark haired teenager gave him a quick, narrowing gaze.

"What? Our country has asked them to do lots of things they shouldn't have had to do. My grandpa was in Vietnam the same as yours."

Jade glanced at her sandwich. "We forget sometimes how easy we have it."

"Yeah, especially with a couple of million dollars sitting in the bank."

Jade cocked her pierced eyebrow and gave him a look that summed up, 'Are you kidding?'

Dusty raised his hands and laughed, "Hey, I'm not the one that wants to take half your money out of envy and say that you didn't deserve it. I'll leave that to all your bleeding heart liberal Hollywood buddies, their sycophants and Occupy Wallstreeters saying you didn't deserve your money you greedy one-percenter."

Jade sighed before taking a bite from her sandwich. She chewed the morsel and took a swig from her water to wash it down before asking, "So now that you saved the world, are you going to stay or will you be 'fluttering away' anytime soon?"

He glanced away to the wall to his right and lazily answered, "I have no immediate plans, unless I have to run any quick errands on the East Coast or things heat back up over there and I have to make a few more chard examples of them."

"Good… we missed you… some more than others."

Dusty placed a hand over his heart and teased, "Ah… I didn't know you cared that much."

"I wasn't talking about me."

One glance into Jade's eyes and Dusty could see who she meant. His smile left his face and glanced to the table. He was not one to simply deny reality or pretend they weren't having another conversation. "She has friends and she now has someone to keep her company…"

"He's not you though."

"So much the better."

Jade frustratingly snapped, "What the chizz is going on between you two?"

Dusty shook his head. "I'm not talking about it with you."

"So you want me to think that you're just some janking gank that would for no reason break her heart? That's what I got from her."

"If the alternative is for you or anyone else to assign any kind of blame towards her for the end of the relationship and think there is something wrong with her, then yes, that is exactly how you may think of me."

"Why in the Hell do you want to play martyr?"

Dusty dryly countered, "I'm not, that's usually your boyfriend's job. I'm just telling the truth."

"So, you're reduced to lashing out at people? It would explain why you were pretty harsh to Tori back there."

"That's quite ironic coming from you to say anything about being harsh to Tori and my description with Freddie is accurate: he'll choose right over common sense and his relationships with people. You'd think after all the times that he risked losing you he would have learned something from it."

"Yes it is ironic for me to be saying such a thing, but that doesn't make it any less true," Jade sourly answered his first point, while pointedly ignoring what she considered Freddie's greatest strength and weakness.

Dusty snorted out dismissively, "Then she needs to grow up a little and get out of that protective bubble she's in with being a multi-millionaire international popstar and see how harsh the rest of the world is. She's lived a pretty charmed life—at other people's expense including yours for the longest time—so she's long overdue in being able to take the blunt truth."

"It wasn't true though. It was the traffic light malfunction. That was you just taking a cheap shot."

He crookedly smiled, "There are plenty of other people that I could have spent my time healing and I frankly didn't want to hear her ungrateful mouth due to her own guilt. I was busy. I was helping someone that really needed help. If I bruised her delicate feelings then let her go write a song about it and make a few more million dollars. She can Swift me for all I care."

The blue eyed singer studied him for several seconds as if judging him.

Dusty sighed and glanced to the ceiling. "Fine. I can see the survivor's guilt she's feeling, but I'm not carrying it. If she wants to feel guilt about the other thing, that's her problem and the thing about the car accident, she can easily afford therapy for, not try to shift some on me for helping her. As I said, I'm not carrying it. I won't bare her cross. Mine is big enough as it is."

"What other thing?"

Dusty shook his head. "Not my place to tell you. I have never shared what I pick up from any of you with the others unless I think you're suicidal and I'm not starting now."

"But she is feeling guilty about something?"

"And heartbroken, but I won't go any further than that. I'm guessing you would have already picked up on it. It's not like she can really hide her feelings for long."

Jade closed her eyes and shook her head. "That's what I was afraid of. Trina started noticing it too and we think it's starting to impair her judgment."

"So you know what's going on?"

"Yeah."

"How is it starting to impair her judgment?"

"She might be showing interest in another guy."

The teenager from the South laughed, "So she's finally realized she could do better than Pretty Boy? That's what's bothering her? So who's the lucky fellow?"

Jade scowled, showing her annoyance with him making a joke out of the situation.

Dusty broke into a bigger grin and pointed out, "Oh come on, who would have thought that relationship would have lasted this long without him falling right back into his old habits that broke you two up?"

Jade rushed to the aid of her ex and stated, "Beck's has changed since high school—"

The former webmaster's jovial disposition switched to a cold tone, "Then why did I need to almost break him in half this morning?"

"He was upset and taking it out on the wrong person… just like you."

"She verbally shot at me, I shot back. I don't see how that's comparable."

Jade saw she was just going around in circles with him and decided to just take another bite out of her sandwich.

Dusty pushed on, "So who's the guy?"

The dark haired singer finished chewing then answered, "He's a guy that Tori and I met between classes. His class is just before our music composition class and… he's the one that got in Beck's way with Heather."

"Oh? So, she still has her good taste in guys?"

Jade gave him a quick squint of her eyes then continued, "There's something else about him too… it turns out that he might be Freddie's half-brother."

Dusty paused, not sure if he had heard the name correctly then spoke, "Wait, it's just not a name? He and Freddie are related?" He let out another laugh, "Wow, that would explain why she would be interested in him."

Jade slightly turned her head and squinted.

"Oh come on, a Benson? That shouldn't be surprising. If you weren't in the picture or if you were with someone else, you know it would be Tori and Freddie—Heaven, it is them in another universe that you know is real; if he had a brother—which may just have turned out to be true—it only makes sense. I'm surprised that Trina hasn't taken a run at him."

"This isn't funny. She's looking at other guys. Whatever is going on between her and Beck, it's bad enough that she's looking elsewhere."

Dusty threw up his hands with a shrug. "If she's looking to move on for whatever reasons, isn't that her business? The others didn't interfere when you and Beck broke up."

"It is, but I don't want her to cheat on Beck behind his back. That's wrong. Trina and I would like to find out what's going on to make her want to do such a thing and maybe find a way to help them before she does something that will break them up."

"I'll grant you that. It would be wrong if she did such a thing and as her friend, it would make sense that you would want to help, but at the end of the day, it is her decision."

"I know," she answered with a regret filled voice.

Silence fell between them and Jade continued with a few more bites of her sandwich.

Dusty picked up, "What else has been going on since I've been gone? How's Ian doing?"

"He's been doing fine. He's still enjoying school. He loves being babysat by Cat and Sam."

"That makes sense. He likes Cat and Sammy… well, when she's not being a bitch can be a lot of fun in that childish way. Why do you think she was so popular on iCarly?"

"As long as he's happy, I can put up with Sam."

"Spoken like a true mother."

Jade cocked her eyebrow.

He innocently asked, but his expression showed the complete opposite, "What?"

Jade sighed to his court jester routine.

Dusty nodded his head to the side, satisfied that she got his point and asked, "How are you doing? You just came off a tour."

"I'm fine. I'm back and enjoying the rest. I'm taking a screenwriters class and an advance music class. I'm thinking about writing a screenplay or get a few guest spots on some shows or maybe a minor movie role. I still want an acting career."

"I do wonder how you could fail a music class when you're a multi-platinum selling artist."

"Wonder that too, but I don't care about that. I just hope that I can learn something new."

"Good reason, but is there anything else? You sure everything is going alright with you?"

"No, nothing I can think of. I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Jade gave him a curious expression, being her turn to be surprised with the question. "Why?"

He shrugged a shoulder. "Because… there's something bothering you."

"I'm just worried about everyone. Tori just got into a car accident, that little girl nearly died, Freddie found out that he now has a brother and sister, you and Heather are broken up and Ian's mom is starting to give me a hard time spending so much time with Ian. I have a lot things to be concerned about."

"No, it goes beyond. Something is bothering you about you."

Jade sternly warned, "Don't look."

"I'm not 'looking'. I don't look unless I have to. I'm just sensing it from you in your general disposition. I can't help with that any more than you can help seeing someone's hair color."

The starlet accepted his explanation and tried to brush him off. "I'm fine. I'm home. "

The former webmaster raised an eyebrow, clearly expressing that he didn't believe her. "Okay."

"What?"

"It's your choice to share."

"Just like it's yours that you dodged me pretty good with the real story between you and Heather?"

Dusty relaxed back in his seat. "That's not open for discussion. We broke up and she's moving on… with someone not good enough for her, but that's her choice."

"Why? Is that jealous talking?"

"No, he's old fashion like me, but too old fashion. He buys into Victorian sensibilities a little too much for my taste."

"So you looked at him?"

"I took a little deeper cursory glance, but not a full blown look. I know he likes her, but Tori really turns him on too."

Jade flicked up an eyebrow, shocked with the news. "He what?"

"Yeah. She's hot and does have that girl-next-door quality that he's attracted to."

"You're just going to stand by and watch that happen?"

"Watch what happen? The guy has a snowball's chance with her with everything else going on. It's nothing but celebrity infatuation and a pretty face. Pfftt, I still hold my celebrity crush on Carly."

"Did you forget that Heather is a celebrity and he's had no problems getting all friendly with her?"

Dusty rolled his eyes and muttered in disgust, "Point… oh well, I guess I'll just have to break his legs then if he breaks her heart."

"Like you broke her heart?"

The teenager originally from Carolina braced his forearms on the table and leaned forward to meet Jade's gaze. "Him dealing with broken legs is far less painful than what I endured when I did break her heart."

Jade could see the anger, hurt and self-loathing in her friend's eyes. "Dusty… Freddie and I can't believe you would just do that to Heather. You guys are great together. Anyone that took a few seconds to watch you two knew that you loved each other. I'm probably breaking her confidence in saying this, but… she thought you were ready to ask her to marry you."

Dusty took a deep breath and answered in a quiet tone, not meeting her eyes, "I know the damage I done… I heard her prayers after I left. They were quite… vicious."

"Then why? Why would you do that to her? Did you stop loving her?"

The handsome Southern teenager bit his tongue hard, threatening to draw blood. He answered in a gruff voice, "No."

"You still love her. I see it in your eyes. You love her, but we're just supposed to believe that? That you're that kind of… I don't even know how to describe that kind of person."

"You believe whatever you want to believe as long as it isn't blaming Heather for anything."

Jade studied her friend for several seconds and an idea popped into her head, not one she enjoyed contemplating. "Does it have anything to do with Sam?"

Dusty's self-reflection turned into confusion. "What?"

"What's going on between you and Sam?"

"What about me and Sammy?"

"After you left, she was quick to defend you even in our last dinner get together. She said that you and her were in the same boat. Is there something going on between you two?"

Dusty frowned, clearly not liking what Jade was telling him. "Hardly."

"You two can barely stand being in the same room, so what did she mean by that?"

"I can only imagine that it may have something to do with our… 'unique' backgrounds, biologically speaking."

Jade studied his face and realized that he wasn't being entirely forthcoming. "Now you're hiding something."

"I'm always hiding something. I've been doing that with you the first time you and I really met with me by sitting across from your table at the Asphalt Café and I told you that you don't tell me where I can sit."

Jade took a deep breath then slowly let it out, slightly slumping in her seat. "You know you can talk to me and Freddie. After everything we've been through, you know you don't have to keep everything bottled inside."

Dusty eyed Jade, contemplating her words, debating whether he should discuss what was churning in his head and heart. "Jade, I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, but… it's my burden to bear and I don't want to trouble anyone else with it."

Jade flicked an eyebrow and jumped at the opening, "So something is going on?"

Dusty lulled his head to the side and half-grinned. "I broke a sweet girl's heart who has done nothing to deserve such treatment, so yeah, something is going on."

"I'll figure out what's really going on because I will not think you're that way. I won't believe it."

"I do appreciate the vote of confidence… the faith, but you shouldn't dig too deeply."

"Why?"

He laughed, "It's just rude."

Jade didn't know how to respond. She had been probably the rudest person at Hollywood Arts during her time there, but she couldn't be rude to him. He was her friend and besides, he had no trouble being rude back.

They sat in silence for the rest of Jade's lunch that included bringing her some pie for dessert. Once she finished her last bite of pie, Jade glance at a wall clock and noticed the time. She reached into her jacket pocket to pull out her phone. She glanced at her PearPhone and pulled up an app as she commented, "I have class in a bit and I need to going. Now to find a taxi…"

Dusty waved off her idea, "I'll give you a lift."

The former mean girl looked up from her phone and hesitantly remarked, "I don't know if I just want to pop in."

The handsome Southern teenager thumbed in the direction of the garage and remarked, "I was thinking more along the line of taking my car."

He got up from his seat and picked up the dirty dishes and took them to the sink. "I'll be right back." He headed to the stairs and up them, presumably to his room.

Jade patiently waited in her seat, but after a few minutes she grew concerned that he hadn't returned. She got up from her seat and headed up the staircase. She hadn't been here often, but recalled the direction of his room, which was easy to spot with the door open.

The musician stopped at the entrance of Dusty's bedroom and saw that he was just standing in front of his book/display case with several pictures, books and display cases that she remembered that included an old Patterson Colt, staring at it with a pensive face.

She followed his eyes to see that he was focused on a picture of him and Heather together. In the picture, he was standing behind her and resting his chin on her shoulder while his arms protectively wrapped over her stomach. They looked quite happy in the picture.

Jade softly uttered, "Are you okay?"

He turned and looked Jade in the eyes, freezing for a moment as if he was fooled with her appearance. He quickly looked away from the doppelganger of her ex-girlfriend and answered in a somber tone. "I'm fine. It's just… other than dropping my stuff off and grabbing my laptop, I didn't really pay attention to my room. It's the first time I've been in here in weeks."

The lovely singer darted her eyes to the floor for a moment and answered with a hesitant voice, "Right."

He turned away from the case and towards his made bed where Jade saw an elaborated engraved silver colored Colt .45 and tapered silver blade as long as a bowie knife resting on it. He picked up the handgun and slipped the magazine resting beside it into the grip of the pistol then slid it back inside and pulled the slide back. He switched the safety on then slipped it into his concealed holster at the small of his back hidden by the end of his shirt.

Jade gave a curious look to the son of a blue collar worker.

Dusty caught her look and returned with one of his own. "What? You get to have heavily armed bodyguards when you want, but I can't carry for my own protection?"

"No, I'm just a little surprised that you would need it."

He grinned and answered with a carefree voice, "Sometimes the flashy stuff is going overboard when a good old blessed round will do the trick."

The Southern teenager picked up his jacket that was resting on the bed and slipped it on, causing him to still stick out like a sore thumb with the slash in the right shoulder and bloodstain on it. He picked up the blade and slipped it underneath the left flap of the front of the jacket where it disappeared from sight.

Dusty motioned towards the door to allow her to exit then followed her out. They reached the first floor then he led them to the kitchen. He glanced over the key rack and found the set of keys he was searching. He grinned when he picked up the set of keys then headed for the garage.

He let her inside first and saw that there were two vehicles in the garage, one being his cherry red classic Mustang that he owned in high school and the other vehicle had a tarp over it. He walked to the car under the tarp and pulled it back to reveal the black '67 Chevy Impala. He smiled at the sight.

"Oh, I have missed you." He finished pulling the tarp away and bundled it with a few folds before setting it in the back of the garage. He walked back to the passenger side and glanced to Jade and began, "Your chariot awa…" He cut himself off and formed a guarded expression at seeing Jade.

Jade slightly tilted her head to the side and wondered if he had made another mistaking in seeing Heather in her. She couldn't recall him ever making such a mistake before his hesitation back up in his room and seeing it as a sign of how deep his emotional troubles ran. She smiled her thanks as he opened the door for her.

He walked around the front of the vehicle as the dark haired musician entered the vehicle. He slipped inside the driver's seat and pulled the door shut. He slipped the key into the ignition then cranked the car.

The Impala roared to life and he smiled to his passenger. The smile made Jade feel a little better about the emotional wellbeing of her friend. He tapped the garage door opener remote clipped to the sun visor and the door started rolling up.

The classic car eased out into the driveway and Dusty kept the vehicle in place until the garage door behind them fully closed. Once it did, a big grin formed on the Southern teenager and floored the gas, peeling away from the driveway and pulled onto the traffic free road.

Author's note: Don't worry, I hope for you to read soon of Freddie and Amanda's tentative steps of trying to form a family relationship. I also have a few more surprises in the mix, so stay tuned.