patgilmoregirl: Sorry if it seems like forever between my updates, I don't mean for it to be so long in between them, usually life happens and I don't get around to writing as much as I want to. I'll try to make the court scenes good, I'm not an expert on the legal system but hopefully you'll like it. I'm pretty sure you'll like how it turns out. Thanks again for your review.
mcmiller: Thanks for the review and here's your update. We'll see what happens to Tim soon, keep reading to find out.
jeytonlover: Don't worry, I won't quit updating despite not getting a lot of updates, I was just frustrated with that fact when I wrote that. You're right, I haven't seen another story like this on here, which I kinda like, I'm allowed to take the story how I want without being really compared to how others write their stories. Thanks again for the update.
Ali-Chan1: Yeah, I like their interaction too and hope to have some more in the near future. Thanks for the review.
iftheyonlyknewthetruth: Thanks for the review. Yeah, even though Tim has grown up a bit and is now a police officer I had to show that he's still the same Tim from high school who doesn't always say the right thing at the right time.
deelovely: As I said above, I love the Jake and Jenny interaction and I'm glad others are liking it too. We saw how Jake was with Jenny when she was a baby so it's interesting for me to write things with the two of them. Thanks again for the review and I hope you enjoy this update.
boredomimagines23: I gotta say when I got your review it motivated me to really start writing this update. Your review came a few days after all the other ones and I hadn't been expecting another review so to get another one and have it say what you said made me happy. I'm glad you love this story as much as you do. Thanks again and hope you love this update as much as you have loved the rest of the story.
treehillgirl323: Thanks so much for the review. I got it while writing this chapter and it helped me get through this chapter, parts of which were hard to write for me, so thanks for that.
I won't do that for all my chapters but I thought I would this time.
As always, don't own anything really, but wish I did. If I did though this story wouldn't actually be happening. Nikki would never have gotten her hands on Jenny if I had my say.
Now on with the story:
"WHAT!"
Tim just sat down and buried his head realizing the gravity of what had just happened. "Did I really do that? I didn't mean to."
Everybody came rushing over to us, everyone with a question, all asking at the same time.
"You knew the truth?"
"Jenny? As in 'Jenny'?"
"How could you keep this from us?"
"How did you know?"
"You, the man who I thought I could trust to help me when it came to Nikki and Jenny, how could you?"
"Wait, who else know?"
It was horrible, all these questions were directed toward Whitey and Tim, all these accusations and placing of blame on them, but it's really my fault. I'm the one who asked for the secret to be kept.
"QUIET!"
And with that it all went silent, so silent that you could hear a pin drop and then the voice continued.
"Stop yelling, it's not anyone's fault. Why can't you guys just talk like normal people? In school we learned that if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Actually I learned that from 'Bambi' but please stop."
It was amazing; the voice of reason that stopped the accusations that all the adults were yelling came from an eight year old. An eight year old who was now crying. Without saying anything or looking at anybody I walked over to my little sister and wrapped my arm around and slowly rocked her and rubbed her back until her cries became whimpers. Even after she had quieted down I just sat there, willing myself not to look at any of the adults who it would seem were just watching us, for fear that if I looked at them I would see the look of hurt in them. Hurt from not knowing, hurt from knowing but realizing that people they trusted had purposely left them in the dark, and hurt over being the people who had withheld the truth from those who they loved.
After what seemed like an eternity, but in reality had probably only been about ten minutes, another voice broke through the silence.
"Is it true?"
I finally found my voice and the courage to look at them all, "Yes."
"But how, I mean after all these years, how…"
"It's a long story and it would seem that even Peyton and I don't know the whole story," said my dad in a somber voice, "Jenny can tell it if she wants but…"
"I want to." It was time for them to know the whole story. As hard as it would be to tell I knew that they needed to know so they would be able to understand. "Maybe…" I looked at the younger children who were in the room, the adults seemed to understand.
Brooke and Haley brought their children into the office area at Tric so the kids could watch a movie while the adults listened to what I had to say. My dad and Peyton decided that Anna should hear the story about what happened, not sure that I want my sister to hear every part but I agree, she should know. Once everybody was sitting I started.
"Okay, so most of you know about the first year of my life, probably better than I do, so I'll skip that part since I don't remember much. Some of my first memories are of living in old run down houses. We never stayed in one place for too long. I never understood why at the time, but now I realize that it was because at the time Dad was still looking for us and my mother couldn't allow us to be found. We lived all over; I couldn't even begin to tell you where we lived those first few years. If I were to say anywhere it would be in the piece of junk she called a vehicle driving to the next place. When I was about six we ended up in Venice, California. I figured it would be another short stop along the way to who knows where. But my mother surprised me. She got a job there, enrolled me in school and we set down roots. Something I never remembered having before. Life was good for a while. We actually lived what would be considered a normal life for about a year or so. At that point she had enough money to move us out of the apartment we were living in and into a house. Then life took a turn for the worst. The house was nice enough and I got a decent sized room instead of sharing one with my mother. It was the neighborhood. Before we moved people would ask my mother where exactly we were moving to and when she told them they would try and talk her out of it. She didn't exactly know why, the neighborhood looked nice enough, but it had its secrets. Drugs were a real problem in that area. Shortly after we moved in my mother met this guy, Jorge. Seemed nice enough at first but he was a drug dealer and got my mother hooked. She got so hooked that she lost her jobs a few months after. Jorge helped keep us a float for a while but he didn't stay. After he left her my mother had to find ways to pay for her habit, the house and me. With no job it was rough. For a while there she just went from drug dealer to drug dealer pretty much selling herself to them in exchange for her next fix. Still that didn't take care of the bills and me. The house got pretty run down and I ended up resorting to stealing from trash cans to eat. You know those kids in school who you would eat lunch with who wouldn't actually have food and would say they're not hungry, but you would see them eyeing your food? That was me. I had friends who would give me part of their lunch too. But through the years it seemed I would have less and less friends. Their parents would find out who my mother was, and trust me everybody seemed to know who my mother was, except for the police, somehow she stayed off their radar, and they would tell their kids not to hang out with me. Or if they did allow their kids to be around me it was out of pity. And oh, there was pity, I would walk down the street and everybody would look at me with pity and the minute I walked past them they would start whispering about me."
I paused for a moment when I felt someone come and sit next to next to me and lay their head on my lap. I looked down at Anna, not sure she understood everything I was saying, but she seemed to understand that what I was telling was not good. I looked up to see all the adult in the room crying, softly but they were crying. It broke my heart that I was the one making them cry.
"Anyways, after a while my mother got sick of depending on men to get her fix. She made a decision that would forever alter my life. You see the last guy my mother depended on was named Johnny. Anyways, Johnny was this big drug dealer who saw potential in my mother. He saw how drawn she was to drugs, any drugs and knew he could use that to his advantage. He agreed to help her break into selling drugs if she gave him a percentage of the profits, which she readily agreed to. I mean what else was she going to do, she needed the money and to have drugs readily available, of course she was going to agree. Johnny died a few year after that, drug overdose of course, but by then my mother had a pretty good grasp on how to make the most profit so she really didn't need him. Also during this time and after his death she had a lot of male friends who liked to stay over at our house, which by this point had become a place to also manufacture drugs, thanks to one of her 'friends' who decided that they could make more if they didn't have to buy the merchandise from someone else. It was no longer a home; I didn't feel safe there, except in my room which I had a deadbolt on. That was the only drug free area there. That was where I drew, read, did whatever I wanted to do without fear of what was going on out there. And I had good reason to fear what was out there. Out there was where…"
I couldn't go on, I couldn't tell them that. It had been two months but it still hurt to think about. It was just one more thing I was ashamed of. And I couldn't reveal that, who knew what they thought of me after what I've revealed so far.
"Sorry, I'm sorry. Can we not talk about this anymore tonight?" By now I was crying and could barely speak through the tears.
"Don't cry Jenny, I love you."
"And I love you too Anna."
"We all love you Jenny."
My dad and Peyton walked over towards Anna and me. My dad hugged me so tight I wasn't sure I would be able to breathe and whispered, "That was very brave of you to tell us all that. I love you and am so very proud of you."
"Thanks Daddy."
Next Peyton hugged me and whispered in my ear, "I love you and am so proud of you. If you ever want to talk about what you couldn't talk about tonight, know that I'm always here for you and I'm a good listener."
The meal that night started and looked like it was going to continue to be eaten in complete silence until there was a tapping of a glass.
"I would like to propose a toast. To Jenny, welcome home."
Everybody else raised their glasses and repeated the welcome home sentiment.
"I would like to propose a toast too. I think my beautiful wife summed up what we are thinking, although I would like to point that was the shortest toast I have heard her ever say, usually she goes on and on and on and…"
"LUCAS EUGENE SCOTT, I do not." Everybody laughed at that. "Okay, maybe I do." Everybody laughed some more.
"Okay, back to my toast. I'm not usually good at these so bear with me. Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always. A promise. Like a reward for persisting through life so long alone. The belief in one another. A decision, to ignore or simply rise above the pain of the past. The celebration, of the chance taken, and the challenge that lies ahead. For together we will always be stronger than alone. Like a team, braced against the tempest's of the world. And love will always be the guiding force in our lives. For tonight is mere formality only an announcement to the world for feelings and wishes long held. So I guess to sum…"
"Lucas."
"Yes Brooke."
"These toasts are supposed to be heart felt and all and you go and give her a used toast. I know you said you weren't good at these but couldn't you come up with a new toast?"
Everybody looked at Brooke oddly; it seemed no one seemed to know what she was talking about. When has that toast been given before?
"And when did I supposedly give this toast?"
"At Keith and Jules, I mean Emily's, almost wedding. Okay so you didn't actually give it but you did write it for them."
"I forgot you snooped and read it. Guess I'm caught."
"I don't snoop."
"Yes, you do," said pretty much everyone at the table. Brooke pouted for a minute but then seemingly agreed with everyone.
"You wrote that for me and Jules?"
"Yeah, pretty much, it wasn't word for word what I was going to say."
"It was really nice. I'm actually glad you didn't get a chance to say it all those years ago. It would have been wasted on something that did not deserve such nice words to be said about it."
I was confused but figured I could find out what they were talking about later.
"Okay, my turn and since it seems that my brother can reuse toasts, I'm going to reuse one that was once said to me, with a Nathan twist of course. You can find the good in everybody, if you just give them a chance. The benefit of the doubt. Although I'm not sure we should give Nikki that chance or the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes, people disappoint you, but we all make our mistake so never stop loving each other and being there for one another in confusing times. Sometimes they surprise you, and trust me Jenny, you sure surprised us tonight. But you never really get to know them until you listen for what's in their hearts and hope they let you into theirs. And Jenny, I hope that you can let all of us into your heart cuz we all love you so much and missed you when you were gone."
With that one toast Nathan seemingly had all the females in the room like putty in his hand. Lucas seemed to notice this fact too cuz all of a sudden he piped up, "Hey, I wrote that toast, don't give Nathan all the credit."
"And we love you too Broody, but how often does Nathan say something that sweet to anybody?"
"Haley!"
"What?"
"I can be sweet."
"Sweet talker is more like it; you seemingly switch it on when you want something. But I love you, don't you dare forget that."
"Love you too, always and forever." Then they kissed but were soon interrupted by Brooke clearing her throat.
"Children in the room."
"Oh, like you haven't done worse."
"K, I concede on that point. But just for the record Lucas is my Broody, and no one else's."
"Whatever you say Tigger," Haley said sticking her tongue out at Brooke.
"Ok, before these toasts turn all of us into children as it seemingly turned Haley and Brooke into, how about we call it a night?"
"Yeah, it's getting late for our kids too."
With that everybody left. My dad and Peyton made sure Tim and Whitey knew before they left that they understood why they kept the secret and weren't mad at them.
Later that night when I was in bed I saw Peyton walk by my room and I asked if she could come into my room.
"Hey Jenny, weird night, right?"
"Yeah, but I know you all love me."
"Yes, we're here for you no matter what."
"I got a question for you."
"You know you can ask me whatever."
"Is it alright if I call you mom?"
Spoilers:
What will Peyton say?
Trial Begins
Okay, so I need some input, I need a character to be the judge in the custody case. There's a reason why Lucas can't be the judge for it. It can be any character from One Tree Hill that hasn't appeared in the story yet. I have an idea of who but I want to leave it up to you guys.
I'm going out of the country at the end of the week for a week so it may be a bit before I update again, just so you know. If I get a bunch of reviews, like at least ten, within the next few days I may try to get another chapter up before I leave.
Now please review.