Holding on to the Rooftops- Tying up all the Loose Ends

Scott smiled for the first time in a long while as he watched Shelby take a big bite into her hamburger. Shelby looked up and noticed he was staring.

"What?" she asked him, watching him carefully.

"Oh, nothing. I just think it is amazing how much you closely resemble a pig when you're eating."

Shelby glared at him, and then threw her napkin at him. "I, ME, I eat like a pig? Puh-lease, the only person here who eats like a pig is you."

"Hey, I never said you ATE like a pig, I just said you looked like one when you DID eat. There is a difference," he shot back, feeling his shoulders begin to loosen up. He had been so worried Shelby wouldn't want him, and that he would be stuck out in the world all alone until Landon found him. While he was running it had felt like the whole world had turned its back on him. But he was wrong; Shelby cared about him. And Sophie. And Peter. Shelby had told him about how everyone missed him and how they all wished he would come back. Scott realized now that everything would be okay; he had Peter and Sophie on his side, they would protect him. And even if everything went wrong, he would still have Shelby, and she was the only person Scott cared about.

"Whatever, I'm going to let you slide, on a count of you look like Hell," Shelby said smiling brightly at him.

"Well thanks for the vote of confidence Shelby, it is greatly appreciated."

"Hey, no problem," Shelby responded and then she looked don at her watch. "Crap, problem."

"What is it?" Scott asked, oblivious to things as unimportant as time.

"I've been here for over an hour."

"Yeah, and? I've been away for over a MONTH," he said trying to play the sympathy card, without much success. "Come on Shel, Sophie gave you her permission to be here with you, I'm sure she expected you to stay more than ten minutes," he pleaded.

"He's right Shelby, I did," a familiar female voice said from behind him. Shelby looked over Scott's shoulder, her eyes bulging, and Scott turned around to see Sophie.

"Sophie," Scott practically squealed out as he stood up and gave her a huge hug.

"Scott," she said returning to sentiment, she then pulled away to get a look at him, and Scott saw from over her shoulders the man he had come to know as his hero. "Peter and I are both very happy you're back, but before we can give you your bed back, we need to know what happened. If you ran away, we can't take you in without first notifying the police. We both love you Scott, and we know it is going to be hard for you, but the truth will set you free."

Scott looked down at his shoes, knowing that if he ever wanted to come back to Horizon he would have to talk about everything that had happened the past month, and for once, he didn't mind. For once he was more than willing to tell what had been happening to him. "I know," he replied, returning his gaze back to Sophie, and then to Shelby. "But, can we at least finish our meal first?"

Peter smiled at him, "you sure haven't changed, have you? Still think about food. But, to answer your question, yes you can, I think Sophie and I will be joining you," he finished, sitting down, and Sophie following suite. So there they sat, like a family. They talked about all sorts of things, like the weather, the food, caffeine, music, etc., etc., until Peter finally stood up. "Well, I think we should go."

Scott nodded, grabbed his bag, and Shelby's hand, and they all walked out together, and into the car. Scott could feel a warmness surrounding him. Despite how he complained, or how Shelby complained, he knew that they both loved Horizon. They both felt safe here, and loved. Horizon was a part of Scott's life, and always would be, so would Shelby.

"So, are the rumors true?" Juliette asked Daisy as she put her tray on the table.

Daisy sat down and leveled her with a glare. "Oh, so now we're talking to me so little Miss Priss can get in her daily regimen of gossip," Daisy quipped.

Juliette's eyes widened. "So then it is true!"

"So then what's true?"

"That Scott's here! That he's coming back!" Shelby practically shouted.

Daisy looked at Juliette, thinking she must have lost her mind. "What ARE you talking about? Scott is living with Elaine in Hell…"

"Not from what I hear," David said as he sat down to the table.

"Yeah, me neither," Auggie said. "Rumor has it that Shelby ran off to meet him and Rusty's and that Sophie and Peter just left to pick them up."

"Well Auggie," Daisy said, trying to recover from the news. "I never would have guessed you for the rumor type."

"Whatever Daisy, don't go getting all pissed off at us because you don't know jack shit about your only friend," David said glaring at her.

"What is your problem?" Daisy practically screamed.

"Daisy, calm down," someone said.

"NO, no, I am sick of this, really, I am, and I am not going to put up with it anymore. I like you David, a lot, and no one blames you for running Ezra off. Ezra left because he wanted to, it was no one's fault. And you two," she said turning to Auggie and Juliette. "I had to listen to you both moan and complain and bitch for a MONTH, and what do I get for it? Nothing! That's right. I swear, two seconds before you guys got back together you were talking about how much you HATED each other, and then you guys get back together, and it is like nothing happened between you! I mean, honestly. I have been working my ass off, trying to bring some freakin' group unity to us all, and everyone hates me now. Well you know what? Fine, the next time any of you have a problem I'll be sure to let you deal with it yourself. I'm serious, none of you better come asking me for help ever again." Daisy didn't realize she had stood up, but when she did she sat down as quickly as possible, and refused to meet anyone's gaze, she knew she didn't mean it, but it felt good to let some steam off.

"Ah, but gee, then where would I get my daily dose of sarcasm," a familiar female voice from behind her asked. Daisy looked up and realized that her fellow cohorts were all gawking at something, or someone, behind her. Daisy quickly turned around to see Shelby and Scott standing next to Peter and Sophie, and all of them were smiling at her.

"Shelby," she said getting out of her chair. "And Scott?"

"Well gee Daisy, I didn't think it was possible, but you seem to have become even more bitter than when I left you," Scott said with a laugh as he went to hug Daisy. Daisy hugged him back, but when he pulled back her face was still in awe. "What's up man?" he asked Auggie and extended his hand across the table.

"What's up meat?" he asked returning to gesture.

Juliette let out one of her infamous high-pitched squeals. "Oh Scott, we all missed you so, so much!" Juliette continued to squeal and giggle as she gave him a big hug. Scott laughed when he saw Shelby glare at Juliette.

Scott nodded at David, who just nodded back at him, but Scott could see that he was also happy to see him. "So," Scott said as he grabbed Shelby's hand. "What have y'all been up to?"

Everyone laughed, and then all these stories starting coming at once, and Scott sat back and listened to them all, smiling. For once, Scott was actually happy to be sitting here listening to everyone whine and complain. As a matter of fact, he hoped it would never end, but not five minutes later was Peter clearing his throat.

"Everyone, I know you are all happy Scott's back, but there are a few things we have to settle before Scott can rejoin us. So just hang tight, it will only take a few minutes." Scott looked up at Peter and knew there was no arguing; this had to be done, and the sooner the better. Scott grabbed Shelby's hand and began to pull her with himself. "Scott, I'm sorry, but Shelby can't come."

"Peter," he said whispering. "I need her with me. Please," Scott pleaded with Peter. Peter looked at him and nodded.

"Fine then. I need to talk to Shelby about something anyway," he said and then turned to the rest of the Cliffhangers. "Where's Aubrey?"

Daisy snuck a quick look at Shelby, which confused Scott greatly. "Well, when Shelby left to talk on the phone, he said he was going to finish her chores for her…"

Scott was confused, he looked over to Shelby for confirmation, but her eyes were excruciatingly wide, to the point it scared him. Peter shook his head. "That kid," he mumbled under his breath. "Okay, well when he gets back relay the message that we will be having group in at 1." And with that he walked out of the room, Daisy's outburst forgotten, and everyone staring after him.

Shelby squeezed Scott's hand as they crossed the threshold of Peter's office. There was a camera set up in his office, and a man Shelby had never seen before sitting behind it.

"What's this?" Scott asked Peter as both he and Shelby spotted the man's CPS badge. Shelby could see his temper was going to flare up if the situation wasn't rectified.

"Mr. Brinkston, could you please give us a minute?" Peter asked the man calmly. The man nodded his head and walked out of the office, shutting the door behind him.

"You called CPS on me?" Scott asked, his nostrils flaring. Shelby squeezed his hand again, trying to keep him calm.

"No Scott, I didn't. Look, he was here for a girl earlier. I don't know what happened, but just in case you have something you need to report to CPS, I want them to be here, so you can put this whole thing behind you as quickly as possible."

Shelby could see Scott starting to relax. "Well, I will need them, but I want to tell you what happened first, I… I need to wrap my head around it for a minute."

"That's fine Scott," Peter said in a warm tone. "Sophie, can you please go stall? Or get a kid to?" Sophie smiled and motioned for Peter to look out the door window. The CPS man was talking to one of the female counselors, and they were headed in the direction of the cafeteria. "Well, never mind then. Now Scott, tell me what happened. But only when you're ready."

Shelby nudged Scott on to the couch, and they sat down together in unison. She turned to look at him. "It's okay Scott," she told him smoothly. "Just tell Peter what you told me."

Scott nodded, and then turned to Peter, grasping Shelby's hand tightly. "So Elaine came to get me right. Well, at first I thought she would be the problem. That Landon, her fiancé, would go off on some business trip, and she would, you know… But that wasn't it at all. Elaine even apologized, and I started to hate her less. One day, I asked her why she had brought me to live with her. She told me she felt so bad about what she had done, something about becoming a different person, I don't know, maybe she found God or something… Anyway, and she said that Landon, that he said he wasn't going to spend money for me to be off at some school, and that was why. Well, the first week was fine, I mean, nothing really bad happened. But then, once Elaine had started going back to work, Landon came home, and I was on the phone with Shelby, and he made me hang up. We got into this fight, like a verbal fight you know… and he started making all these rules and regulations. Like dinner, and how you had to be there at a certain time, and… I was a few minutes late to dinner, and that is when all the real trouble started. We got in to an argument, and he ended up hitting me. Elaine, she tried to stop him, but he beat her too. It was like that constantly… Elaine would try to calm him down, but he would just get madder, and madder. Pretty soon it was happening every day…" Scott trailed off, and his voice began to crack as Shelby saw a silent tear trickle down his cheek. "Then this morning, he got mad at me because I didn't wake up early enough…. The night before I had gotten all my belongings together and stuffed them a bag that I hid in the closet. When, when he started yelling, I knew I couldn't take it anymore. Before he could hit me, I got in one good punch, then I grabbed my bag and ran, it was the only thing I knew I could do…"

Once he had stopped, Shelby wrapped her arms tightly around Scott, and started rocking him back and forth slowly as sobs erupted from him. Shelby looked over at Sophie, and saw that she was wiping tears away, as was Peter. "Scott, I want you to know I am proud of you. I know you never turned to drugs during this hard time, and I know that you tried to do the right thing. You're a good kid Scott, and I know that we are going to be able to get a judge to grant us custody of you."

Scott looked up, and Shelby could see relief in his eyes. He gave Shelby a hug, and then stood up. "I have something that might be able to help my 'cause.'" Scott pulled his shirt up slowly, and Shelby could see big, violent purpling bruises all around his stomach and back. Silent tears sprung to her eyes; she knew she wouldn't be able to comprehend his pain, and it killed her. He turned to Shelby. "The only thing that kept me going was you, and I don't know how I could ever thank you."

Now big, watermelon tears formed in Shelby's eyes. Scott wrapped his arms tightly around her, and she was lost for the moment. Set off a drift. "I love you so much," I whispered softly in his ear.

"I love you more," he whispered back, just as quietly. Finally, Shelby pulled back, and looked at Scott, smiling.

"Not that I am not happy to see you guys back again, but Scott, the CPS agent cannot stay here forever. Oh, and Shelby, don't worry about your shuns. We'll just say it was hormones or something…" Peter said trailing off.

"Thanks Peter," Shelby said with a laugh, as the CPS man walked through the door.

"Are we ready?" The CPS guys asked.

"Yeah," Scott said confidently. "I am."

"I'm so happy you're here to stay," Shelby told Scott as they sat together on the docks.

"Mmm," Scott murmured, his mind was busy thinking, thinking about that Aubrey kid. "Shelby?"

"What?"

"What's the deal with Aubrey, or whatever?"

Scott could feel Shelby tensing up. "I don't know, I never got around to asking him."

Scott was starting to get antsy, did something happen between Shelby and him? "No, I mean what's the deal with the two of you?"

Shelby's whole body tightened up. "It's… look Scott, I don't want to lie to you, so I am just going to tell you the truth. When you were gone, I thought I was becoming interested in Aubrey. Nothing happened between the two of us or anything, it was just thoughts. But those thoughts were wrong. I was just feeling empty because you were gone, and I wanted to fill that emptiness. Now that you're back I can see that. I love YOU Scott, you are the one guy in this world that means everything to me, and I would never be able to breath without you. I love you Scott."

"Shelby, I'll never leave you again, I love you too much." Scott smiled; for once Shelby was being completely honest with him, and she loved him. Him.

Author's Note: Hey faithful readers, what's up? Well, I am quite aware that this chapter is kind of long, but I just thought it should all be tied up in this chapter. I am seriously considering writing a sequel to this story, and if you think that is a good idea, then please review and tell me. It won't be like Scott going back to live with Elaine or anything, it will just like continue to go with flow and stuff, well, it is hard to explain, but anyway. Well, we have been through some bumpy times, and some times when we never thought this would get finished, but together we made it to the end. Thanks for all that you have given me.

Signing Off,

mR.peRSonALiTY