"Mimi, is Hope with you? Brianna asked holding the phone tightly in her hand.
"No chica, she's not. Maybe she's with Bethany or Tori." Mimi suggested sitting up on the couch in the loft.
"No, she's not. I just called them. I called everybody I could think of." Brianna cried as Roger came in the door.
"I went to the Life Cafe, the theater, the mall. I can't find her anywhere." he said closing the door.
"Where the hell could she be?" she asked looking up at him.
"I don't know Brie. Who are you on the phone with?" he asked approaching her.
"Mimi. I've called everyone." she said looking up at him.
"I'm coming over chica." Mimi said hanging up the phone before rushing out of the loft.
"Roger, what if she went to Scarsdale?" Brianna asked looking up at him.
"She wouldn't. We told her to stay away from her." he said putting his arms around her.
"But you know how she is." she said wiping her eyes.
"Well Mimi's coming over, she can stay with Tommy. We're going to Scarsdale." he said looking down at her.
"I'm gonna call her." she said rushing into the bedroom to call Mrs. Davis.
"Brie, she's OK." he said looking over at her.
"I hope so." she said turning to him before continuing to her bedroom. "Marie, it's Brianna... she is? Thank God... no, Roger and I will be there as soon as we can... no, it's no trouble, really. We'll be there soon... Um, thanks." she said hanging up the phone. "Roger, she's at your mother's house." Brianna shouted as she left the bedroom.
"How did she get there?" he asked looking up at her.
"How did we get away from there at her age?" she asked going into the closet for her coat.
"Brie, at least she's OK." he said looking over at her.
"Yeah, after I specifically told her not to go anywhere near that woman. What are we gonna do with her Roger? She's becoming impossible." she said looking up at him.
"Brie, she's a good kid. She just used bad judgement this time around." he said looking down at her.
"Roger, this is not bad judgement. She completely disobeyed what we told her to do." she said beginning to cry.
"Brie, she doesn't know why we don't want her near her. All she knows is that she's her grandmother and she wants to know her." Roger said going over to comfort her.
"Marie Davis is not her grandmother. She doesn't understand what we went through." she said looking up at him crying.
"I know Brie. But I don't know how we can make her understand without telling her everything." he said looking down at her.
"She's 16 years old Roger. We can't tell her everything." she said looking up at him.
"Then how are we supposed to make her understand why we don't want her around my mother?" Roger asked looking down at her.
"I don't know, but she can't know everything. She can't handle that. Hell we could barely handle it at her age." she said looking up at him.
"I know Baby, but what are we supposed to do?" he asked caressing her face.
"We go to Scarsdale and being her home. I don't want her with your mother any longer than she already has been." Brianna said as tears streamed down her face.
"OK Brie. Whatever you want." he told her kissing her head before taking her into his arms.
"Mommy, what's wrong?" Tommy asked coming out of his room.
"Nothing sweetie. Why don't you go back in your room? Grandma and grandpa are coming over to watch you. Me and daddy have to go someplace, OK? We'll be back late, so be good for them, OK?" Brianna said leaning down to kiss his head.
"OK mommy. I'll be good. I promise." he said wrapping his arms around her neck to hug her tight.
"I know you will, my good boy. I love you." she smiled looking up at Roger.
"I love you too mommy." he smiled looking up at her.
"Come on Baby, we gotta go." he said looking down at her.
"OK, I have to get cleaned up OK?" she smiled looking down at Tommy.
"OK mommy." he said looking up at her as she stood up to go into the bathroom to wash up.
"Come on buddy, let's make sure your homework is done before grandma and grandpa get here." Roger smiled leaning down to pick Tommy up.
"Daddy, where's Hope?" he asked looking over at him.
"Hope's out. Me and mommy are gonna go pick her up, OK? Everything is gonna be OK. I promise." he said leaning over to kiss his sons head.
"OK daddy." he said wrapping his arms around his neck to hug him.
"God, I hate this damn house. I always did." Brianna said standing outside the Davis house.
"Me too Baby." he said wrapping his arms around her waist pulling her closer to him.
"We'll just go in, get Hope and deal with all of this when we get home." she said looking up at him.
"Brie, I have a feeling it's not gonna be that easy. We do need to talk to her and deal with all of this." Roger said looking down at her.
"Roger, I don't want to spend anymore time in that house then I have to." she said looking up at him.
"I know Baby. Let's go." he said nudging her towards the house.
"Roger, she's in the living room looking through some old pictures of you and Victoria." Mrs. Davis said opening the door to the house.
"How long has she been here?" Roger asked looking down at his mother.
"She got here just before you called." Mrs. Davis said as Brianna rushed into the house.
"Hope Bethany Davis, are you trying to give your father and I heart attacks?" Brianna yelled rushing over to hug her daughter.
"I'm sorry mom. I just wanted to meet my grandmother and you and dad wouldn't let me." Hope said hugging her back.
"Hope, what would possess you to do this without telling us?" Roger asked sitting next to her on the couch.
"You and mom wouldn't let me meet my grandmother and I wanted to." she said looking over at him.
"Well didn't you think there was a reason why we didn't want you to meet her?" Roger asked looking over at her.
"I'm sorry dad. I didn't mean to worry you and mom." she said looking over at him.
"Come on Hope, we need to go home now." Brianna said trying to avoid looking around.
"Mom, I wanna know where you and dad come from. I wanna get to know my grandmother." Hope said looking up at Brianna as she stood up.
"Hope, you don't want to know where me and dad came from. Trust me. We wish we didn't know." Brianna said holding back tears.
"Brianna, why don't you, Roger and Hope stay for dinner? We can all talk." Mrs. Davis said looking over at her.
"No. My husband and I are taking our daughter home." Brianna said looking back at her.
"We have to get back to our son mom. Come on Hope, get your things." Roger said looking down at Hope.
"Dad, talk to me. Why don't you and mom want me to be here and know my grandmother?" Hope asked frustrated with Roger and Brianna's lack of answers.
"Hope, a lot happened here. We're just not sure this is the time or place." Roger said looking over at Hope.
"Guys, tell me. What's going on, please? I'm a big girl now." she said looking up at Brianna.
"Marie, can we talk to our daughter alone, please?" Brianna said looking over at Mrs. Davis.
"Sure sweetie. I'll be in the kitchen." Mrs. Davis said looking over at them before leaving the room.
"Mom, what are you gonna do? Talk about how horrible grandma and grandpa were?" Hope asked getting up off of the couch beginning to pace the living room.
"Hope, they are not your grandparents." Roger said getting up off of the couch.
"Daddy, they're your parents. How come I can know mom's parents but not yours?" Hope asked looking up at him.
"A lot of things happened here Hope. You're too young to understand but we can't let her back into our lives." Brianna said looking over at her putting her hands on her hips.
"Like what? Mom would you just tell me? I think I'm old enough to hear it." Hope asked as Roger and Brianna looked at each other. They hadn't planned on telling Hope any of what happened back when they were her age, but it seemed they had no choice.
"Back when me and daddy were your age you're grandfather used to hit your dad. A lot." Brianna said sitting on the couch as Hope looked down at her.
"You told me that already, mom." Hope said as Roger sat next to her.
"Whenever he used to beat on me, I ran to your mom. It always made me feel better when I was with her. She made me feel safe, which I didn't feel when I was here." he said looking around the living room where he grew up.
"Dad, you guys are telling me everything I already knew. What are you guys not telling me?" she asked looking down at them getting frustrated over them beating around the bush.
"Not everything munchkin." Brianna said looking up at Roger.
"Baby, can I come over?" Roger asked as Brianna answered the phone.
"Roger, what's the matter?" she asked sitting up in her bed.
"My dad. Can I come over, please? I need to see you." he said sniffling in the phone.
"Yeah, of course you can." she said rubbing her eyes.
"I'll be right there. I love you." he told her starting to cry again.
"I love you too Roger." she said jumping out of bed as she hung up the phone. She got out of bed and rushed downstairs. Things had been getting pretty bad between Roger and his parents lately. Especially his dad. His dad had started drinking a lot and using Roger as a punching bag. She watched out the door for Roger to arrive. When she saw him she ran outside. "Oh my God Roger. Come here." she said taking one look at him before wrapping her arms around him. "What happened to you?" she asked leading him into the house.
"My dad came home drunk and I heard him yelling at my mom from my room. So I went down to see what all the yelling was about and he raised his hand to hit her and I ran down to get in the middle and he started whaling on me." he said crying as he sat on the couch.
"Oh my God, Roger. We have to do something. He can't keep doing this to you." she said crying with him.
"I'm OK. Just as long as he doesn't hit my mom or my sister, I can take care of myself." he told her trying to smile.
"Roger, this does not look like you're taking care of yourself." she said crying harder.
"Baby, I'm OK. Really. They're only bruises. They'll go away." he said taking her face in his hands.
"I hate seeing you like this." she said getting up to walk around the room.
"Brie, I'm fine. Really." he told her getting up and wrapping his arms around her.
"I wish I could take care of you. No one would ever hurt you again. I wouldn't let them." she said looking up at him.
"I know Baby." he said holding her tight in his arms.
"Roger, I love you so much." she said as he smiled at her.
"I love you too so much too Brie." he said leaning down to kiss her. She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair. He swept her in closer and their kiss turned from tender to deep and passionate.
"Roger." Brianna whispered before taking his hand and leading him upstairs to her room.
"Brie, we don't have to." he said as she closed the door to her room.
"I want to Roger." she said as she led him over to her bed.
"I love you Brianna." he whispered as they laid down on the bed.
"I know, I love you too Roger." she said beginning to take her pajamas off. As they began to make love, it was the first time for both of them. It was awkward, but beautiful. As they lay in each other's arms they fell asleep.
"Is that the night..." Hope started looking over at them as she sat on the chair.
"Yeah Hope. That was the night." Roger said looking over at her.
"Yeah, and the next morning her husband put him in the hospital." Brianna said getting up from the couch.
"Why did he put you in the hospital daddy?" Hope asked looking over at them.
"He was out all night and to protect me, he didn't tell them where he was. That's when he broke 3 of his ribs and his arm." Brianna said starting to cry as Roger went to her.
"I didn't know daddy. I mean, mom said your dad put you in the hospital, but she didn't tell me the other stuff." she said looking up at them as Roger held Brianna in his arms.
"We didn't want to have to tell you. Hope, you're 16 and we're your parents. You shouldn't have to explain why we want what's best for your. You should just trust that we would never do anything to hurt you." Roger said looking over to her.
"I'm sorry daddy, mom." Hope said going to them.
"Hope, we love you and it was really hard to for us to go through it. We just didn't want you to have to deal with it." Brianna said wiping her face.
"I'm not gonna go through the same thing mom. You and dad would never do that to me, but grandma changed. Why can't we give her another chance? We gave grandma Maggie another chance." Hope said as Roger and Brianna looked at each other.
"We don't know Hope. Can we think about it please? There are a lot of things me and your dad need to talk about." Brianna said looking over at her.
"OK mom. I'm sorry for coming here without you guys knowing." she said looking at Brianna.
"We should get home. Tommy's waiting with Aunt Mimi for us." Roger said looking down at her.
"OK dad. I'm really sorry." she said as he reached out to hug her. "Was it really that hard growing up here?" she asked looking up at him.
"Yeah sweetie, it was. But your mom made it easier." he said looking over at Brianna.