I'm sorry. Really, I am. School started, and you know the drill...

Uh, this chapter is basically getting closure on Naomi's mom. I didn't want it to end with her as the 'villain' so I did this. Like, soap opera mode. Damn right.

So... this chapter took me a really long time to write. Obviously.

-- The last time I took advice from a friend on a story, I was seriously unhappy with the results and swore never to do it again. But... that was nearly a year ago, and a friend of mine, (A different one, thank God) has requested I use this method of getting closure on Naomi's mom. And it's called, 'Ripping Off Another Story' and I've done it as blatantly as I could without doing it too blatantly. If you can guess it, I will... acknowledge your genius in the next chapter... and loff you forever for knowing it.

"Mom, I'm-" I was about to tell her I was going out, which I was, and I wouldn't have let her stop me, but something was amiss.

"Naomi."

"Mom?" I asked cautiously,"What's going on?"

"I need to tell you something."

I realized that she must have been waiting for me since I busted in the door with Adam's reply to my apology letter.

"Okay, Mom, but seriously... you're creeping me out."

"I'm sorry, Nay. Well, firstly, I'll tell you - your father and I have talked it over, and we've decided that, strong though your voice is, you're born a soprano, or an alto, or baritone, and you were born a soprano. It's physicality -"

"Yes, Mom," I interrupted, "I know that."

"Well, we've decided that you'd do better with a somewhat out of practice soprano range, then if you forced yourself into a mezzo-soprano."

"Oh... alright. I suppose that's safer."

"Right... darling, I know you're growing up, and making choices of your own. You probably think I'm utterly mad for pushing you into opera, because I've never been an opera singer, I couldn't possibly know the strain, correct?"

"Uh... yeah."

"Well, sweetie... I may not have been as good as you, but I was a mezzo-soprano at an opera in Nevada. I've never really told you this, you see, because your father and I thought it best. Well, your father and I were dating for a year or two, on and off. We'd have alot of fights over things... we were young, honey, you understand that?"

"How old?"

"I was twenty, he was twenty three."

"Okay, older than me. Go on."

"Alright. Well, one of those things we fought over was another singer. He was the lead tenor - he was always teasing me, and we'd flirt around. But it was an opera company, that's the way things were in opera companies in the forties. Why he'd target me, the girl who was too shy to take more than one solo, I don't know."

"Go, Mom," I smirked, raising an eyebrow, "Get the attention of the lead tenor. Right on."

She laughed shortly.

"Your father didn't think so. He'd accuse me of cheating on him, and we'd fight it out. Eventually, this singer - Bryan, his name was - got arrested for punching a man in the street. Another guy from the company. Your father was sure that I'd never have feelings for a criminal, so he decided that Bryan's attentions were completely unwanted. He proposed to me, for two reasons - A, he loved me and wanted to marry me for all the proper reasons, and B, he figured Bryan wouldn't go after a married woman. He didn't tell me, however, that Bryan was sick, and didn't have long to live. I guess he wanted to divert my attention for just long enough... for Bryan to be gone."

"Wow. Drama," I commented, trying to sound light, but... seriously. No one is cool about hearing this stuff about their parents. Parents are the strong ones. They have no issues, and they always have the answers. They're our rocks, no matter how much we pretend we hate them.

"I loved your Dad too, honey, never think that I didn't. That I don't. I do, and I did. But Bryan... there was a pull around him, you know? Even if he was careless, reckless, dangerous, and ill."

"What did he look like?"

"He... he had curly blonde hair, and these eyes..."

Paranoia, who was my constant companion since the acid bummer, stepped in.

"Cool. So, keep telling the story."

"I heard through the grapevine that the reason Bryan punched this guy was that he insulted me. Bryan actually got arrested defending me. Well, I was flattered, but a little scared of him. I felt, though, that I owed him to tell him I was getting married face to face, and not just have him see the picture in the paper or something. When I told your father... well, needless to say he wasn't pleased."

Hal Sterling looked up from his work to see his fiance coming in the door. She was the same as always - crystal blue eyes set in a thin, pretty face framed by whispy black hair. She had the same semi-confident stride... as though she were trying so hard to walk with purpose, but she was being held back. The one thing, however, was the purpose with which she regarded him.

She leaned her tiny frame against the wall, looking at him coolly.

"I'm going back," she said simply, "It's not fair. He deserves to know."

"Going back? What? Why?" Hal was on his feet, staring down his tiny girlfriend.

"For God's sake, Hal, he got jailed defending me! He's sick, he might not even be around in a few years! I told all my other friends I was getting married, I'm going to tell Bryan!"

"Julie, listen to yourself! It's not safe, he's... he's dangerous! He might not be mentally secure, we don't know!"

"You... you bastard! How could you say that? I've known him ever since I came here! I think my judgement is good enough!"

"Obviously not, otherwise I wouldn't have to be marrying you to protect you from him!"

A silence fell between the two of them, and Julie began to back towards the door, her little blue eyes filling with tears.

"Alright, Hal," she whispered ferociously, "I guess I see where you're coming from. I'm going back to him anyway. But it's not just to tell him about the wedding. It's also to tell him about the Christmas opera we're putting on next week."

"Julie... Julie, we're not putting on a Christmas opera next week. For God's sakes, it's July!"

"Really? Then I guess nothing's going on that I can tell him about."

For a few minutes, after watching the petite singer march away, Hal sat in a stunned silence.

Oh Lord, he thought, miserably, She just broke off our engagement...

"I broke off the engagement, and went back to Bryan. He was surprised to see me, I think, but he didn't waste any time. Someone had told him that Hal and I were engaged. I found him in his little flat beside the theatre, and the second I walked in the door, he was on his feet, and he said..."

She stopped, and looked up at me suddenly.

"Yeah?" I urged her on, sort of wondering where this was going, but more or less using it as an excuse to put off going to see Soda. What? I was nervous!

"... he just said, 'Julie, I love you,' and I started crying. It was heartbreaking, you know, how he said it. He was shaky, and coughing... I knew he was ill, but not that ill."

"...Oh."

"I realize you don't like hearing this about your parents, but there's a point to it. Something I should have told you long ago... but with what you're facing with Sodapop and Star and Sandy and Marie, you need to remember this, alright?"

"Yeah, Mom. So... what happened?"

"Your father, bless him, almost let me go. He had it in his head that I loved Bryan, and almost gave up."

"Did you love Bryan?"

She ignored me and continued on, "He came after me a week later. Well, he went to the theatre, and they tried to hold him off as long as they could. I think they would have succeeded, too, if I hadn't called the theatre."

"Why'd you call?"

She looked away, pulling her bottom lip under her top teeth.

"Bryan... Bryan died. He had Myocarditis, but he never told me. It was so apparent in that last day with him that it wasn't going to be long at all...

"Your father came to get me, and I went with him easily. One of the prop managers at the theatre threatened to cut your father up if he left me, but he didn't have to worry.

"Julie, are you alright?"

"Bryan's gone."

"I know, Julie, you told me already-"

"Hal, you asked if I was alright. Well, should I be?"

"I... I don't know. Are you?"

"Yeah... I am. I think he's okay now. I mean, he's dead, but... he's in a better place. He's not sick anymore... you could have told me he was sick when you found out, Hal... and he would have wanted me to go with you."

"Julie... honey... I think he would have wanted you to go with him."

"Well, yes, of course, but he knew he was dying, and so he'd want me to go with you, if you can forgive me. He knows that you'll take care of me, and that's what he wanted... he knew I needed it. Hal, I think I'll always need someone to take care of me... I'll never be quite strong enough to make it on my own."

"You need to go see your parents, Julie, they've been worried sick."

"Do you know, though," she said, her voice wavering, "For some reason, I can accept that he's gone to a better place, and that we aren't meant to see each other in this life... but it's the little things I can't believe are gone. Like his voice, I can't believe we'll never hear him sing again, or hear his sarcasm, or hold up a rehersal for him because he was late. I'll never get to laugh at him again because of his eyes..."

"Bloody eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life," Hal commented.

"So," I joked, "Does Dad have dreams about Bryan's eyes haunting him every night?"

"Yes," she replied calmly, "He does. Bryan's eyes are everywhere for him."

"So... what happened?"

"I went to see Dad. Your Dad and I were married a few months later. When I said that I'd always need someone to care for me, I didn't realize how badly I did, because as soon as I was pregnant, I became really weak. I needed an operation, or the two of us would have died."

"Wow." I muttered.

"So, your father was beside himself at the thought of his six month old child being born already, since premature babies didn't always survive. The shock of his life came... when the doctor was talking to him."

"Yeah?"

"The doctor told him... I was eight months pregnant."

"Okay, Mom, please tell me that the whole point of this story wasn't just to give me a talk about not sleeping around before I'm married!"

"Honey, that's not-"

"Okay, I'd rather not know what you and Dad did in your spare time!"

"Or what we didn't do!" She snapped.

"Oh God, Mom, too much informa- what?" The wheels in my head turned slowly... How did I manage to come about unexpectedly... Oh, great, I'm an accident... but that's impossible. She was pregnant two months before they got married, but they never even did anything... two months before? What had she said? "Your Dad and I were married a few months later." A few months after... she was with Bryan... My head snapped up.

"Oh my God, Mom!"

"Honey!"

"What the hell? How? You! Bryan! Dad! Holy... Glory, what the hell?"

"Think about what your father did!"

"I know what Dad did!" I snapped, "Mom, how can you tell a seventeen year old that! Maybe you could've brought me up knowing it, or you could have told me when I'm alot older! But now? I'm going to love Marie like my own child, I won't be... haunted by Sandy's eyes!"

"Oh?"

"No, I won't! I'll never think of her!"

"What about when you look at Marie?"

I was silent. Marie had Sandy's eyes, that was for sure...

"It's been me? Bryan's eyes are haunting him... because of me?"

"Every dream he has, honey... you know what I said."

"Mom, I have to go. I'll see you later."

I bounded outside to clear my head from the frightening revelation, and to finally face up to what I'd been avoiding.

"Hey, is Soda home?" I asked, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

"Yeah, he's in the kitchen," Pony said, "Soda! Get out here!"

I could've sworn something out of the ordinary was occuring in my stomach.

"Hey, Naomi," his eyes lit up as soon as he saw me standing at the door, and I felt my stomach fall a couple of stories...what I really wanted was to run home and hide under my bed.

"Hey, Soda. Could I talk to you?"

"Yeah, sure." He stepped outside into the snow in his sock feet.

"I was thinking... well... I don't even know how to start this. I guess... my mom was telling me a story today. She was engaged to my Dad, but she sorta... had feelings for this other guy. She and Dad had a fight, and... well, I'll make the damn thing short. She had a bloody affair, and the guy died, and here I am." I spat the last part out more bitterly than I had intended, "The point is, she waited for Dad to forgive her before she could go on. I felt like I played Adam on, and I had to make sure he forgave me before I could move on in good conscience. Well... he's forgiven me."

"...And?"

"And so I'm moving on."

"To what?"

"To... hey, you're putting me on!"

He laughed, and nearly fell off of the railing where he was sitting.

"Okay, listen to me. In the hospital, I decided to see how far you'd go with your little game. Well, I'm done watching you play it because, frankly, it's getting boring for me."

"So... you're going to pack your bags and move to Idaho?" He asked, smirking and raising an eybrow.

"Yeah," I grinned, leaning my forehead against his, "And I'll be damned if you're not coming in my suitcase."

"Sounds good to me," he commented, bringing his mouth down to meet mine.

And for once, I wasn't scared that someone would see us, because we were actually together.

Finally.