A Beacon of Hope
Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N:
Chapter 52 (Meeting the Parents)
"So you're telling me I actually have to go in?" Jason parked the car in the parking lot of the dojo and turned to Trina beside him. Tori poked her head in between the two while Trina glanced with a smirk at her boyfriend. "I mean yeah I've been here a million times, but uh, let me think about the reason you just gave me about why both of them wanted me to be here."
"Well mom's your former sensei and dad's a possibly former bike gang leader. Not to mention mom was in this same gang." Jason deadpanned as Trina pushed open the door. "But yes, you have to be here. I'd prefer it actually, I'm too nervous to go in there just on my own and still be sensible enough to be there for Tori."
"I'll be in there with you two." He hung his arm over the steering wheel and turned his head to the dojo. "I just hope I'm coming out in one piece. I may be a black belt, but Sensei Ortiz can still kick my ass."
"She was the one that made you scrub the camp bathrooms with a toothbrush, Jason. I think if anyone were to kick your ass, it would be Dad. Different form of punishment for potentially knocking up his daughter. Before they get the chance to establish a real familial connection."
"Dear god." Jason rolled his eyes and pushed his door open. "I never thought when I got a girlfriend that I'd be meeting the parents not only so soon, but having already met one. I must really love you." He flashed a smirk and Trina smiled back at him.
"And I love you. Thanks for being here for us, Jason." She leaned over the hood of the car and looked into his charming gaze and held her smile as the strong wind blew her hair back. "I'd come around and kiss you, but I can't be sure either one of our parents wouldn't jump out of the trees behind you."
"If that's your attempt to scare me." He raised an eyebrow and glanced casually over his shoulder. "It might be working just a little bit."
Tori walked past them, rolling her eyes and flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Let's go inside you two. I'm tired of waiting." The girl actually fell asleep on the car ride, mostly due to feeling like a nap would pass the time more quickly. Trina felt a nervous leap in her stomach and reached over the hood, taking Jason's hand.
He kissed her hand and his warm eyes soothed the anxiety growing within her. Even though she'd met both parents, this still felt like she was seeing them for the first time. "It'll be okay Trina. I'm here for you both."
"I appreciate it."
Tori twisted around and waved in the air. "I'm going to go without you. I mean it. There will be plenty of time for boyfriend-girlfriend stuff later!" She chuckled nervously and pulled away from the car, heeding her little sister's call.
As they entered the dojo, they saw a table to the right which Jason commented hadn't been there before. To the left, Alexis and Clint were moving some boxes and furniture around to set the dojo up for a class the next day. "Did you just call me old again?" Clint muttered once they set the mannequin down. "I told you, I am not old."
"You're the one that thought you threw out your back just five minutes ago. I'm just surprised you didn't throw out your back during the make up sex." Trina's eyebrows shot up and Jason moved his hand up over his mouth. Tori's eyelids fell halfway and she looked over to her sister.
"I think I can see where you get your drive from, Trina." It wasn't as though she and Jason had sex that often, but yes it was great when they did. She liked it a little rough too, but she wasn't going to tell Tori that.
"They didn't see us come in, I guess." She was more surprised to see Clint had shorter hair, which was now spiked at a backwards angle. It looked almost like he had silver flames on his head. The beard went well with the hairstyle too. "And Dad, showing that you can look cool while becoming a senior citizen."
Clint flinched and Alexis threw her head towards the trio. Her eyes widened and Clint deadpanned. "I'm hardly fifty, and didn't they up the age of senior citizen to sixty?"
Alexis walked forward after flashing a smug grin at Clint. "That's still fifty-five."
"And you are trailing right behind me in age, Alexis."
"I'm still limber and flexible." Alexis turned her gaze onto Jason and curled her right lip. "And I still kick ass." Trina whistled as Tori watched the man shrink under the older couple's studious gaze.
Clint walked up to her and swept his finger over his chin while shaking his head. "So this is Jason? One of your students, Alexis?"
"Formerly. He moved closer to Los Angeles to go to college, so he doesn't drive out here." Jason raised an eyebrow as the older man started to circle him like a shark in water.
"Looks strong. You say he's a black-belt, but I think he could use a little more of a workout." He stopped behind Jason and lowered his hand. "Do you like motorcycles, son?"
"He owns one," Trina replied much to Jason's horror. Clint furrowed his brow while Tori rolled her eyes.
"Good one sis."
"I don't drive it much," Jason replied quickly, "It's nice to look at. I might pull it out when I want to see the sights. You know, the hills and curvy roads." Trina bowed her head. Tori leaned into Jason, whispering to him.
"Not helping yourself."
Clint let out a gruff sound and pulled up on his belt. "We're talking land?" Alexis snapped her fingers and Jason snapped his back into an upright position while facing Alexis.
"Jason, my sister-in-law is outside with the squad, watching the dojo. Go say hello to her, can't miss her since she's probably the only woman out there and is taller than everyone else. After introducing yourself to Denise, tell her I have instructions that she is to also see to your safety as you run forty laps around the perimeter." Trina's jaw dropped and Jason slouched. Clint scratched his chin and leaned into Alexis.
"I still wish you would have let me call my nephew. It would be fun to see how fast the boy runs with a bike on his heels."
"Calling your nephew would be too much of a risk, Clinton. But I agree, that would be fun to watch." Alexis focused on Jason and swept her hand in the air, motioning him to leave. "Now go on before I make you run more laps."
"Yes, we'll talk to you after we talk to the girls."
"Yes sir, and ma'am." Jason looked to the concerned look Trina was giving him and smiled. "Don't worry, the lap around the perimeter is pretty short. It's the warm-up run before we started class, usually fifty laps and we're done in thirty minutes." Trina put her hand to her chest and exhaled as he hurried out the door.
"I guess I don't have to question why you just scared my boyfriend."
Alexis crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Menopause has already happened with me, so I don't have to worry about having any more kids if I do have sex." Clint chuckled and Alexis shut her eyes. Trina stifled a laugh and waited as her mother took a deep breath and continued on. "You are eighteen, and we just met you. I'd like to get to know my daughters before I have any grandchildren."
Tori squinted her eyes at Clint and tilted her head to the right. "You do look better without those tattoos." Alexis jerked her head back and turned to Clint.
"You wore those tattoos in our children's presence?"
Clint rolled his eyes and poked his finger upwards. "Oh it was one time!" He mumbled something about having been with his buddies and needing to look tough around them. Trina laughed and Alexis shook her head. "Besides you and I both do have tattoos-just not where anyone's going to see. Except for me." He wagged his eyebrows and Alexis's face turned a deep shade of red.
Trina grinned at the thought of the two having real tattoos, though she was curious what they were. "You've got a tattoo, mom?" Alexis unfolded her arms and sighed heavily. "What is it, and where?"
"It's a flower, and you don't need to know where." Trina grinned. Alexis swept her fingers across her forehead. "I was young, had a boyfriend, and was making a statement-but that's beside the point!"
"Kind of like how I was…somehow conceived on the back of Dad's motorcycle?"
"Wh-yes." The woman lowered her hand and shot a look at Clint. "We were writing on paper since your father doesn't own a computer. Your father decided to write that down and I didn't want to start a new letter all over again because I was already going through the emotions."
"I was trying to lighten things up a little." Clint led them to the table that was set up and waited for everyone to sit down. "Anyway, we wanted to see you two, and to discuss some things."
"We're going to be a family again?" Tori blurted the question out and the room grew silent. Her shoulders sank as Alexis and Clint smiled. "Sorry, I know that's presumptuous of me, I just…I really don't know what to say."
"We're hopeful of change," Trina said as she hugged her sister with one arm. "I've looked after Tori all my life, so I know what she wants more than anything is to have a full and stable family. I want that too, but, I know things aren't that easy."
"We're working on things," Alexis replied. Her eyes were misty and her hands were folded over on the table. "Clint and I have really been making up for lost time, trying to be there for each other so we can be here for you. He told me some things that I didn't know, and I don't know how much you girls know either."
"About Gemma?"
"Yes."
"I know more than Tori does, but not everything." Trina's brow furrowed as her eyes drifted towards the window of the dojo. "You said your sister-in-law was outside? Apparently we've met a lot of our relatives who are your family members, but not many on dad's side."
"I don't have many," Clint replied. "The ones that you've met are just about all the relatives I have." He put his hand to his chest and chuckled dryly. "My half-brother was much older than I was, by the way. John and I didn't meet until the 1970s, when I was just a boy." He moved his hand up over his mouth and turned his eyes towards the table. Alexis pat his shoulder and the girls listened eagerly, curious to their father's story.
"I learned we shared the same father, both of our mothers were drug addicts at the time, so since I was just a teenager, I left with my older brother and his best friend Clay. Joined the bike gang with them, met that woman-his wife Gemma. Of course Jackson was born a year later."
"When did you and mom meet?"
"In the eighties. I got along with her family, but she didn't want to hang around them too much." Trina's eyebrows shot up and Alexis lifted her hands while nodding.
"I was the rebellious sister, I'll admit it. My parents had a lot of kids and strict rules. I wanted to break out, and I did. Met your father, joined that bike gang, the rest is history. Except of course for when we got married, had Trina, and your father wanted to be on good terms with my family." She poked her thumb over to Clint and laughed. "So he was the one that urged me to reconnect the first time!"
"Guilty as charged." Clint lowered his hand and leaned sideways. "You do have other cousins on my side, but I don't know that you'll meet them. Even I don't know them that much."
Tori furrowed her brow and looked to Trina, waiting for her to respond. When she didn't, she turned to Clint and shrugged. "Why? Who are they?"
"John had an affair. Seems like everyone but me was out having an affair with someone. Gemma was sleeping around with Clay-which everyone knew, by the way. John was sleeping around with some girl named Maureen. He had a girl by Maureen, but I don't know where they are and haven't heard from them."
"Oh…So Jax is the only one that we know?"
"Yes. John and Gemma had one other child, but he passed away." Clint turned to Alexis and motioned towards her. "As for Alexis, she comes from a wealthy family. You can kind of picture how that went over."
Tori's eyes lit up and her shoulders peaked with her voice. "Romeo and Juliet?" Alexis blushed and Clint laughed. "Well, I mean, aside from the fact that you're both still alive and well…I mean, I don't know!"
"Something like that. Her family sounds scarier than they actually are. It just took your mother thirty years to see that." Alexis's blush deepened and she quickly cleared her throat.
"We all make mistakes and errors in judgment," she defended, "Like I said, I was the rebel. Black sheep of the family-and of course I still am. They constantly remind me that I'm still making snap judgments about them and that it's okay to go to them before acting on impulse."
The woman paused to wipe away a stray tear. Looking at the girls, her eyebrows moved inwards and her lips fell into a frown. "Maybe if Clint and I had gone to them first, we would never be where we are now. We were just too proud-too stupid to do that. I've spent every waking minute of my life…regretting that. When Clinton came to me, or well, when Lane brought us together to talk and he told me about Gemma-about everything. God I felt so stupid."
"So did I." Clint took a deep breath as Trina and Tori bowed their heads. "It's so simple to say 'it's in the past', and while it is, it doesn't change that the biggest mistake of our lives has put the two most important people in our lives where you are now." Trina closed her eyes and felt a sharp pain in her chest.
"At least we can work towards being together now, right?" She had to hold that hope, or at least show it so that even Tori could feel comfortable. "I guess if you say our Aunt is outside-Aunt Denise…that means you're working with your family?"
"Yes. A long time coming, but they're doing everything they can to help us make things right." Clint leaned back in his seat and glanced at the window. "Ricky is a powerful attorney, and Denise is one of the Deputy Chiefs. She's on the verge of finding a petty crime that they can use to lock Gemma away while investigating whether or not she had anything to do with John's death. With Gemma on the loose, it's dangerous for us to be together, or even to be with you two…and that's why she's outside right now."
"Why is it dangerous?"
"Because that woman knows at least I have made contact with you." Clint narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "She is the reason that your mother had to give you up. For your safety. Even after the fact, Gemma was the one to tell me she'd hunt down all three of you, and likely would do that even more if she knew we made contact."
Her heart stopped and fear started to grab ahold of her. This was too much for her to bear, knowing that even when they were so close, that woman still posed a threat to their family. "The murder happened years ago, why the hell does she still care?"
He closed his eyes and curled a finger over his upper lip. "Because your mother and I knew she was responsible." Alexis closed her eyes and Clint held his breath as the tension in the air grew thick. "She threatened your lives if we went to the police, started drugging me and…I believe you know what happened from there. Then one night she was going to kill you, all three of you, even said if she could find you together she'd finish the job…that's why I did what I did, that's why I sent you all away. She destroyed my family-she won."
"She doesn't have to win," Tori replied with a shaky breath. Clint smiled sadly as Tori reached over and put her hand to his wrist. "We can all be together. Right? Just because she separated us once, it doesn't mean she can do it again."
"She's made attempts to find you, all of you, over the years. Just knowing that we still know that she was responsible for John makes her that determined to make sure we don't talk…" He pointed to the window and a heavy sigh fell from his lips. "Your aunt outside is now proof that we've talked, and that makes Gemma all the more dangerous."
"I don't know if she knows where we live. Jax knows where we live, but only because you gave permission and he made sure to be discreet."
Alexis pulled her head up and looked at Clint with concern. "I still don't trust that." He pulled back the corner of his lip and Alexis circled her hand in the air. "I trust Jackson, but no matter how careful he is, I don't trust Gemma to find a way to have him followed. Even if it's slipping a camera in his car or on his bike or something. Just by his visiting his cousins, he could be putting the girls at risk, Clint. He might not even know!"
"Right. You're right." Trina tensed and watched Tori's face drop. He looked to them and his lips pressed together for a moment. "But we can't keep living in fear of that woman. Still, Denise doesn't think we should all be together right now while there's still the risk of that woman knowing where we are or coming after us."
"She did say to wait until Christmas at least," Alexis added, "But I read that last letter of yours…I knew we needed to see you. I needed to see my girls." Alexis reached out, taking Tori's and Trina's hands into hers. They made eye contact with the woman's teary gaze and remained quiet as she spoke. "I promise you. We are going to do everything we can to be a family. To be with you."
Trina smiled and squeezed her mother's hand. "Dad's right though. It is dangerous. I don't want anything to happen to Tori, but I don't want anything to happen to you two either." She didn't want to say it out loud, but if it was safer that they remain apart for a time, then it might be better that way.
"No, we will find a way. I promise you. We will be a family again."
"You three." Clint folded his arms and lowered his eyebrows while thinning his lips. "You have always been the most important people in my life, that never stopped and it never changed." Alexis wiped away a tear and bowed her head. "I won't let anything happen to you. Even if it kills me, I'll make sure that woman won't lay a finger on any one of you."
"Don't say it like that." Alexis took a deep breath and tilted her head to the right. "I just got you back too, Clint. I don't want to lose you…Hard as it is for me to admit that, I don't."
"You think I'm afraid of that woman?"
"She controlled you once, Clinton."
"She won't get near me again. She did enough to my family once, I'd fight for you if I had to, and I think you're well aware of that."
Tori pulled her hands back into her lap and lifted her eyes to them. "Can we get together Christmas day?" Clint smiled at her and Alexis's eyebrows curled up in the middle as she reached out on the table.
"Oh sweetie. Yes, we will be together. I wouldn't have it any other way."
"Just us?" Tori's lip tucked inwards and she took a deep breath. "I know we have all these relatives-mom's side-but it sounds like it would be overwhelming."
Clint pointed to Alexis and chuckled once. "Your mother is one of seven kids." Tori's eyes widened and Clint nodded. "I agree with you. I think the first step, the four of us should spend some time together. You will have ample time to meet your uncles, aunts, cousins-though I think that's already been happening behind our backs."
"Yep." Trina was nonchalant, though only because she'd been exhausted by all the meetings with the relatives that had been happening. "That would be overwhelming though. I think just the four of us…starting over and getting to know each other would be best right now. I mean, god knows when an entire family gets together there's bound to be some tensions eventually, so meeting everybody at once is just too much."
"Agreed." It was the start of something great, she could feel it. She was still nervous about it, but that came with territory. In the back of her mind, Trina was trying to figure out who to thank for this whole thing finally happening. Whether it was Lane, or Alexis's family, or Alexis and Clint themselves, she didn't care. She was happy that there was a sign of change in the air.
So much discussed in this chapter, so many things to happen, but it does seem relief is underway. Now if only something can be done about Gemma, they can be a family without fear of someone trying to keep them apart.
