"Johnny, your mother and I have been talking, and as much as we love Becca at our home, we can't keep up with her," started Johnny's father, leading the young woman with a steady hand through the doorway and down the stairs, "besides- Becca, two steps down honey- having a teenager in the house, even one who's her age..."
Johnny himself shook his head incredulously, disbelieving that his father was here, in his house, since the thirty-something man had moved to Summerland, "Pop, I—"
"I don't take up much room, Uncle John," put in Becca, silently counting the steps towards the couch and sitting down, thankful she remembered something from her visits every other summer, "Just give me my old room, and everything will be fine."
"It's not that simple, Beck. I mean, we've got the kids now—"
Mr. Durant took a seat beside his granddaughter and inquired, "That reminds me, who did that young man belong to? And you said 'kids', plural?"
The younger man followed his father's example and sat down next to him, "They're Ava's."
"Ava's married? If she's married, then why—"
Leave it to his old man to rub salt in a still gaping wound. At the end of summer, two weeks ago, Johnny had told Ava he still loved her, but it was obvious from her reaction later on how much she really seemed to like the new guy she was dating: Mr. "I'm-So-Smart-I-Have-a-Doctorate-in-Education" himself: Dr. Simon O'Keefe. His mind had screamed with jealousy at the very notion of her dating that guy, and not him, but what was he going to do? The guy had practically proposed marriage to her already, and he was left in the dust... "No, Ava's, she's... not married. Not yet anyway..."
"Then where did that young man come from?"
"Her sister," replied Becca, surprising her uncle with how blunt she was, "I remember when I was around eight and I stayed here for a month. Ava's sister with her husband visited for a week here, and they brought a boy my age and a girl a couple years younger than me."
"You remembered that?" asked Johnny.
"Yeah, how could I forget?" she snickered, "I dumped applesauce in the boy's hair when he wouldn't let me play basketball with his father."
Mr. Durant smiled, "I'm not surprised..."
Johnny all out laughed, recalling the incident himself, now that he remembered it, "That was before Susannah and Jay decided to move in... Anyway, that boy you dumped applesauce on? That's Bradin, and the girl is Nikki. They have a little brother now, Derrick, who's about eight, and they all live here..."
This seemed to pique her curiosity, "Why? What happened to their parents?"
Pain crept into his heart and sadness immediately covered his jovial smile, "Their parents were in a flood accident on their Kansas farm, and they didn't make it... Ava's got custody of them until they reach eighteen."
The news struck both the visitors and silence filled the conversation before Becca broke it, "I'm sorry... I know what that's like... more than anyone does..." Her fist clenched into a fist, "My mom's dead, and who gives a crap about my father... as far as I'm concerned," she looked indirectly towards her uncle, which all of a sudden reminded him she couldn't see, "you're more like my father than anyone else, Uncle Johnny."
Her grandfather patted her knee, "That's my girl... Johnny, you need to take her, just for a couple months, if you could fit her into this house... Your mother and I, we just can't keep up with her, and we're having the kitchen remodeled as well... One of these days, I half expect your mother and I to come home and find Becca, bleeding on the floor because she tripped over—"
"Thank you for pretending that I can't hear you," quipped the young lady, grinning, "I love it when you pretend I'm not here."
Johnny laughed, and leaned over to clamp a hand around one of hers, "Becca, since when did you get so brutally honest?"
"Since I woke up from a car accident, and realized I can't see the same way anymore."
He shook his head, trying not to remember, "Yeah, well, I have to talk to Ava, Susannah and Jay about this... as well as the kids. I mean, I don't know..."
"JOHNNY!" The voice of the youngest Westerly screamed into the house, and Derrick and Martha barreled into the room, paying no attention to the visitors until they were right in front of them, "We need you to fix a—" Derrick stopped, and looked at the older man, "Hey, you look like Johnny."
Mr. Durant laughed at his innocent question, "I'm Johnny's father. And who might you be?"
"I'm Derrick Westerly, and I'm eight. This is Martha!" He gestured wit his hand to his playmate before asking, "Is Johnny in trouble or something?"
Lord he was so cute sounding, very much like... well, how she was... Becca smiled widely, and tapped her glasses, "No he's not. We're just trying to figure out if I can stay here." Absently, she put her hand out, elbow bent, so she wouldn't hit anyone, "I'm Becca, Becca Durant."
"Durant? Are you related to Mr. Durant?" asked Martha.
"Yeah, he's my uncle."
"But you don't look like him!"
"That's because my sister was adopted," replied Johnny, standing up and grabbing his favorite little guy, hoisting him up in a fireman's carry, "And we used to do this kind of stuff all the time when we were kids!!!"
"AHHHHHHH!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!" screamed Derrick with laughter, hanging upside down with his brown hair swaying left and right, "AHHHHHH!!!!! Mr. Durant! Mr. Durant! Help me! help me!"
Laughing, Becca stood up as well, waving a hand back and forth to find him, "I'll help you, Derrick!"
He looked at her hand moving back and forth with curious eyes, "HEY! HEY! I'm over here! I'm right here! Help!!!!!"
"Whoa, hold on a sec, I can't find you! I can't see!"
Mr. Durant watched the commotion as Martha took Becca's seat, grinning at the older man, "Is Becca going to stay here?"
He shrugged, trying to repress his smiles with the military training he all but threw out the window when his little girl died, "I don't know. I hope so. I have a feeling she's going to shake things up while she's here... It'd be good for her too... Maybe," he looked at the three standing people, Becca trying to wrestle Derrick away from Johnny and set him down, "I have a feeling she's going to fit in nicely here..."
A/N: Yes, I decided to write some more on this today, so you guys get a bonus chapter today...
Durant is spelled right: I checked on TV TOME and that's what it was. And Grullo-cowgirl, thank you for the correction on Derek's name: There's several ways to write that and I didn't know which one to use lol
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE who reviewed! You guys really made my day!!!!!! I promise, I'll try and update this thing every week, on the weekends, when I can! Next weekend will be special cuz I have 3 days (It's Labor Day weekend) so I might just write another couple chapters then! Also, I need to set up a whole bunch of relationships here with these couple of chapters, leaving the Bradin/Becca one for last because that's the one that will take awhile to establish (I already have bits and pieces on a couple chapters lol). Also, when I said in the last fic chapter that Bradin, Nikki and Derrick didn't know of Becca, I meant in the personal way. Bradin and Nikki only met Becca once, during that little get together when Bradin/Becca were eight, something that will come back in a flashback, I'm hoping, later. You guys will love it! lol
Anyway, I've got to be going. See ya everyone! Thanks for reviewing everything!