Truth be Told is one of my favorite movies, I just love the way that Shane supports Oliver through his dad coming back and the relationship between Oliver and Joe.

The characters belong to the amazingly talented Martha Williamson.

Oliver drove from Shane's house to Washington Park and sat on the bench facing the playground. He held his father's address in his hand and he was planning to drive out there and talk to him, but he needed some time to clear his head first.

His ordered world and what he had believed about his past, about who he was had all been shaken up. He had been angry at his father for so long, it was hard to admit to himself how wrong he had been about so many things.

He looked at the slide and the memory of the day his dad had referred to came even more clearly. He had sat at the top of the slide and he just could not seem to do it, he was too embarrassed to climb down and too scared to slide down so he had just sat there. His mom had been so mad at him, but his dad had just sat right down on the ground and said "take your time Ollie, I'm not going anywhere." Somehow seeing his dad sitting there, waiting patiently for him, gave him the courage he needed and he had finally pushed off and slid down.

His dad had been like that, he often seemed to know exactly what Oliver needed. They were so different from each other, but his dad had still understood him. They had their arguments and difficulties, but Oliver had always known how much his dad loved him. He had always encouraged him, given him good advice and been someone he could turn to when things got tough.

Now, with this new revelation that he was not even Joe's biological son, and the knowledge of what his father had endured living with his mother, the enormity of that love had become clear to him. He deeply regretted shutting his dad our of his life for 15 years. He had been alone and missed out on so much love because of his own stubborn pride.

He could not blame his dad for his mom leaving anymore, but with that realization came the added pain that his mom had left him and had not even cared enough about him to keep sending postcards. He tried to take comfort in his dad's words that "she just wasn't cut out to be a mother" but it was hard not to feel like he was easy to leave, especially after Holly had done the same thing to him.

Shane's statement that "she had no plans to leave, if it mattered," rang in his thoughts. She always seemed to know what he needed to hear. Could he trust her to stay in his life? She had certainly stood by him through the last few days.

First, she had pushed him to talk about what had happened with his parents and just verbalizing the painful things that he had gone through with someone that he knew could understand how it felt when a parent left had helped. When she looked at him with those blue eyes full of sympathy and understanding he felt so much less alone than he had in a long time.

He had been frustrated when she had practically forced him to call his dad, but he grudgingly admitted to himself that she had been right. She had once more pushed him to do the hard thing and face something that he had just pushed down and not dealt with. She had helped him deal with his anger and unforgiveness with both Holly and his dad and in both situations, once he actually faced the scary, he had found peace.

She had been so caring and supportive at the park when she had come to tell him that his father had died. When she asked if he needed anything, he had told her to go back to work, but as she was walking away he had almost called out to her to come back. He wanted nothing more than to have her by his side, comforting him, but he had been alone for so long that asking someone else for help did not come easily and he could not quite manage to get the words past his lips.

Later, he did ask her to come to the lawyer's office with him when he found out about Harvey Schmidtz being the father that had died. It was nice not to have to do it alone and her steady presence by his side had made a difficult situation just a little bit easier.

Then there was last night in the DLO. As he had stood looking at his grandfather's Dark of Night award and feeling the crushing weight of the reality that he was not really an O'Toole, he had sensed her presence. She had stayed..for him, so he would not have to be alone. Somehow she knew exactly what to say to him, got to the heart of what he was struggling with. She reminded him that his identity was in God and not in being an O'Toole and told him to remember what it felt like when he thought his dad had died and then she had hugged him.

Standing there with her arms around him, he felt like he was home. In that moment, all the fear and doubt had fled and he just felt peace. It felt...right. He finally understood what it felt like to have a woman truly care about him. Holly had only been concerned about herself, he had never really felt cared for by her.

This morning when he had woken up still feeling upset because he thought his dad had left, he felt a strong urge to call Shane. He did not quite have that kind of courage to reach out to her, so he did the next best thing and went to work on her porch swing.

She had seen how upset he was and got him to talk, and once again she had understood his heart. He had felt so connected to her after she had declared that she had no plans to leave that he had almost gotten past his reserve and hugged her, maybe he would have even kissed her. It was something he had longed to do ever since they danced in the DLO. Then the phone had rang and the moment was lost.

He was not quite ready to make the leap into starting a relationship with Shane so soon after his divorce, but he had grown to trust her more in the last few days. Trust did not come easily for him with all that had happened with his mom, his dad and then Holly. He still felt reluctant to open himself up to anyone else and risk getting his heart broken again, but he had opened up to Shane more in the last few days than he had with anyone in a very long time, and she had been his rock, standing by his side through it all.

He can still picture her saying, "I'm sorry Oliver" with such sympathy and caring in her eyes and telling him she wanted to put her arms around him and tell him everything would be okay. He had never had a woman in his life to do that – his mom had never offered that kind of support either. Could she be the kind of woman that would stay with him if he took the leap, or would she just end up leaving him too?

He got up off the bench and made his way back to his car. It was time to go and talk to his dad. He felt hopeful, glad that he had the chance to make things right and to have his dad once more in his life. It was so nice to feel like he wasn't alone anymore. He would have his dad, and Norman and Rita… and Shane.