76. Broken Pieces

Andy's Tale, 5

Danny was stone faced as he rang the doorbell on his parents' home, a notebook clutched in his right hand. Jazz was beside him, and Andy was between them, the child clinging to his father as his aunt rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder. The wait was shorter than Danny had expected, but when his mother opened the door he only said, "I need to talk to you, Mom. And Dad, too."

He refused to say a word more until they were ensconced in the kitchen, Jazz at the doorway and his mother at the kitchen table as his father thundered his way up the stairs. But once his father was there, Danny drew in a breath and stared at his mother, who was looking questioningly at Andy and watching Danny very carefully. Danny knew that she would suspect; Andy's eyes weren't easily mistaken.

"This is Andy," he said quietly. "He's my son." Then Danny's eyes narrowed on his father, and he held the notebook out. "But you already knew that, didn't you, Dad?"

Danny didn't turn for more than a second to press a kiss to Andy's bright gold hair and then let him go to Jazz. They'd already discussed it, when Danny had been adamant about confronting his father. She would take the boy to the Op Center and show him the nifty ghost things there. And they'd hope like hell that it was far enough that Andy wouldn't hear Daddy losing his temper.

His mom was quiet for a moment, and then she turned to her husband. "Jack, is this true?"

"It's true," Danny said bitterly as he dropped the notebook in front of his mother. The page it was on was incriminating enough, but Danny had read through all three of the notebooks that had been packed in the boxes of Andy's toys that had been delivered the day before. Misplaced, he was sure, but he was grateful for the oversight, because it gave him the answer he'd wanted for more than a month.

How he'd had a child and not known it.

"You paid her off. You paid her off to leave town and never tell me. And then you lied to me, Dad. For six years." Danny tried to keep his voice down, his tone even, even to the point of feeling like his jaw was going to break from how hard he was clenching it.

"You were doing so well in school, Danny," Jack said, and Danny and Maddie could only stare. "You'd just graduated, you were going to college, you'd just started dating Sam. I was only trying to protect you."

"You were trying to protect me?" Contempt dripped from his voice, and Danny narrowed his eyes at his father. "Star died. And that's on your head. Because if I'd known, I would have done the right thing and helped her, been there for her and Andy. And maybe she wouldn't have gotten sick like she did."

Jack said nothing for a moment. "Sam would have left you."

The hurt stabbed through Danny's heart suddenly, making him gasp against the sudden pain of it as his eyes watered. "She would have left me?" he asked, his voice breaking. It had only been two days since he'd found Sam's key, and the emotions were still angry and red and raw. "She did leave me, Dad. She left," and his voice rose with each word. "She left. She fucking left."

Jack didn't say anything, didn't even try to meet Danny's angry, broken blue gaze. He was smart enough not to look to his wife, who was torn between glaring at her husband and gaping at her son.

"And you know what, Dad? I'm leaving too. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm ashamed of you." Danny paused and glanced at his mother. "Jazz is leaving the day after tomorrow. We wanted to know if you wanted to come to dinner before she did." Another glance, back at his father, and then a soft, "Just you."

Danny didn't wait for an answer as he turned on his heel and stalked up the stairs to collect his son.

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Inspired from a drabble written by Me The Anon One. Chapter 6, Keeping Secrets, of her 100 Drabble Challenge. With her permission I've taken the single drabble and made into something else.