"Mom." Melissa sighed, fiddling with the denim shirt as she looked up at her father. "She was never really happy, was she?"

Evan sighed as he flipped his turn signal on, checked his rear-view mirror and merged into the next lane on the Las Angeles highway, already knowing that the long way home was a necessity. He watched the sun peeking out from behind the clouds bleed into shades of orange and yellow, streaks of orange-gold cutting across a slate gray sky. No. Sandy had never really been happy, except for when Melissa was born. It had only gotten worse when she lost her best friends. Johnny and Cindy had been there for Sandy even before he had.

"No," Evan sighed, resting his wrist on the top of the steering wheel. His other arm was positioned on the arm rest on the door. "Mel, the only time she was ever happy was when you were born. Nobody ever really knew what was going on with her. She just was never happy and it didn't matter what you did to try and make her happy it never worked. I eventually gave up."

"Even psychiatrists couldn't figure out what was wrong?" Melissa asked him softly, pulling her knees up to her chest, letting her heels teeter on the edge of the seat.

"I never sought out professional help. At first, I blamed it on postpartum depression. Until I realized that she was at her happiest when she was with you." Evan told her, "She was never happy. With me. With our marriage. It didn't help that I worked odd hours when we first got married."

"What were you doing?" Melissa asked him, squinting against the harsh sunlight streaming in the car window.

"FBI. I untied the legal knots involved with what the FBI does. I was on call all the time. I had to go wherever I was called." Evan told her, "But when Sandy found out she was pregnant, I went to work at a law firm. Stable hours. I wasn't being flown to different states. I wasn't staying in cities for days at a time."

"How did I not know any of this?" Melissa questioned, looking out at the passing scenery before looking back at her father.

"We never told you. Never thought we'd need to until now. I never thought I'd be divorcing her. I love Sandy but now that I know what she's been doing behind my back I can't do it anymore." Evan sighed as he slid his wrist down and flicked on the turn signal again and merging into the turn lane, leaving his turn signal on as he turned onto their street. "A lot of what happened between me and your mom was something that spiraled when she started drinking. When she was pregnant, the first few months fought constantly. We hid it from you for years because you had Jackson and we didn't want to drag you into our messy marriage. We pretended to be happy but in truth she was never happy. Then I found an empty wine bottle in the closet. A bottle of wine I had bought the day before. I knew something was going on."

"What happened from there?" Melissa asked him.

"It spiraled. I worked more. Told her that if she didn't quit drinking, I'd pack up and leave, take you with me. Despite the way she treated you, Mel, you were the only reason she didn't drink herself to death." Evan told her as he pulled into the driveway of their house. "Her cheating was one of the things we both pretended I didn't know about."

"How many more times did she cheat?" Melissa asked him, unbuckling her seatbelt.

"Three. That I know of at least. Once with Nathan's father, Christopher. Again with one of the lawyers at my firm. And then she cheated with my secretary's husband. This was the fourth time she's cheated." Evan told his father. "She really lowered her standards."

"Why do you say that?"

"Christopher McHugh is a high-powered attorney in the state of California. Elliot Wiggs is a divorce lawyer at my firm, irony was not lost on me with that one. My secretary Janie's husband Lee makes good money in the oil industry. Works on the big off-shore oil rigs." Evan explained as they got out of the SUV. "Then with Julio Perez, a blue-collar pool boy. I don't even want to think about how many times her friends Jack, Morgan and Jose had a hand in her infidelity."

"I can't believe she-"

"Melissa, your mother was a lot of things you didn't know about." Evan shoved the key into the lock and unlocked the door before pushing it open. The gun-shot like noise as it ricocheted off the wall made Melissa jump. "She's more than what meets the eye. Sandy never liked that I was a lawyer. I wasn't the high-powered attorney that Christopher McHugh was. I couldn't give her the lifestyle that Christopher could give his wife, Diana. Do you remember Diana?"

"Yea." Melissa nodded, grabbing the pitcher of iced tea from the sub-zero fridge. "Sweet woman. Her son, however, is one of the biggest snobs at Hartwell High."

Diana McHugh was a woman of class and elegance and she handled herself with a grace that was unmatched and a sweetness that made everyone feel safe and welcome in her presence. Evan and Melissa had always liked Diana because she always welcomed them and was always a sweetheart, no matter the situation. Nathaniel McHugh, their son, however was more snobby than his attorney father. His family had money, he knew about it and he flaunted it.

"You were young so you probably wouldn't remember it, but Sandy's affair with Christopher caused a big legal mess because of him and Diana always being in the news. So when she got in a big legal mess and needed out, she confessed what she had done and asked her lawyer husband to bail her out of trouble." Evan told his daughter.

"Why are you telling me all of this Dad?" Melissa asked her father, handing him a glass of tea.

"Because I'm divorcing your mother. In order to keep you with me, I have to prove her an unfit mother." Evan told her.

"I think Jack Daniels, Captain Morgan and Jose Cuervo can take care of that one for you and unless I'm mistaken, Julio, can account for every bottle of alcohol consumed." Melissa snorted sarcastically.

"Yea I bet Julio can account for a lot of things but one thing that this case is really going to ride on is you." Evan told her taking a sip of his iced tea.

"Me? Why?" Melissa asked him, raising her eyebrows in confusion as they walked into the living room and collapsed on the couch.

"Look kiddo, it's going to be my word against hers in that courtroom. You're the dealbreaker here. You're sixteen. You are considered old enough to decide who you want to live with." Evan told her softly, setting his glass on the coffee table.

"I'm not living with her." Melissa told him, tears welling in her eyes again.

"I know that, kiddo. You know that. Jackson even knows that. But the Judge, he's not going to know that. It doesn't matter what I tell him. If Jackson could testify, it wouldn't matter what he said. What matters is what you tell them." Evan told her, reaching over to brush her hair. "If you want to stay with your dear ole' Dad, you're going to have to tell that Judge what you saw today. You're going to have relive today all over again when it comes time."

"You said if Jackson could testify, why can't he? He knows about as much as we do?" Melissa asked him, leaning her against the back of the couch.

"Jackson knows you. He's biased toward you, kiddo. If that judge found out that he wasn't a neutral fourth party in all of this, if that judge were to find out that Jackson's best friends with the plaintiff's kid, he'd be all over us in a split second and losing you would become a definite possibility." Evan explained, "Plus, judges tend to have a prejudice against foster kids. They don't take 'em seriously, don't really care what a foster kid has to say. He wouldn't take Jackson seriously."

Melissa just nodded as she looked down at the couch. "Yea,"

"Mentioning Jackson, you looked pretty ticked when you two finished talking today, what happened?" Evan asked her calmly.

"He said that if I keep running when things get tough, I'll never learn to deal with anything." Melissa told him, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "Told me that if I wanted to learn to deal with life, I had to stay home and deal with it on my own. That he'd be there when I wanted to talk but he couldn't keep dealing with it for me."

"He's got a pretty good point, Melissa." Evan pointed out, looking over at her. "You don't deal with things, Ellie. You run from them. I can't say that I didn't do it when I was your age. I still do it but eventually you've got to stop running, you've got to deal with whatever life throws at you. Sometimes it's hard and it hurts a lot more than you expect it too but you can handle it."

"Even when I didn't have him close to me anymore, I ran to him. I ran to him a lot more than I should have really." Melissa admitted quietly.

"Even if you can't run to him all the time, you still need him. Jackson's probably the most stable person in your life right now." Evan told her softly, "Ellie, if you stay mad at everybody who hurts you then you'll be mad at the world. Life sometimes can suck. Okay so it's almost always going to suck but you've got to hold your head up and conquer that pain."

"I'm gonna go..do..something." Melissa mumbled as she grabbed her glass and jogged toward the stairs.

Evan nodded as he watched her run up the stairs, away from the conversation. That's all she did when she couldn't handle things was run. It was all she seemed to be capable of. He wondered if maybe Jackson was right about Melissa needing a grief counselor. Deciding that maybe a grief counselor could get through to her, he made his way into his office and grabbed his phone, dialing a number.

"Hello, yes this is Evan Wu. I'm calling to see about scheduling an appointment for my daughter, Melissa Wu. October twenty-third nineteen-ninety-one..."

So he takes Jackson's advice. Okay so it wasn't really advice, it was just a suggestion that he made. Anyway, next up, Jackson works on repairing his relationship with Melissa! Leave me some love, Dolls :)

Love you,

RobertDowneyJrLove