Chapter Four- Answers

"Is it true?"

Riley looked up to see Janie's eyes boring holes into his head. "Uhh…is what true babe?" he licked his lips nervously.

"You and Hailey Bush," she spat at him. "Don't pull that innocent crap with me Riley, the whole school knows!"

He sighed. "Janie," he said putting his hands on her shoulders. "It was a long time ago ok? Like when we first started dating long time ago."

Her stance faltered a little bit. "Really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you about this," he said softly as he kissed her lips.

"You promise it was that long ago?" she whispered and he smiled.

"Yes. I would never do anything to hurt you babe."

She nodded slowly. "Ok."

"I'll see you at lunch yeah?" he hugged her as she started to walk to her first class and she nodded.

"Jesus that was close," he said under his breath as he stuck his head back inside his locker.

"You're scum you know that right?"

"Who the-" Riley pulled his head out to see Greg, Hailey's brother standing there.

"What do you care?"

"Well one, you're using my sister. I have an issue with that. Two, you're fucking around on your girlfriend."

"And what's your interest in my girlfriend?" he sneered.

"Nothing. Yet," he grinned as he walked away.

"What does that mean?" he called after the boy but Greg just ignored him and kept walking.

"Oh my God have you seen the new counselor?" Nadine sighed as she flopped down at the lunch table.

"Yes!!" Julie squealed and Janie just looked at them both.

"What?"

"You are so out of the loop. His name is Ricky Underwood and he just started like yesterday. Can you say dreamy?"

"I'm sorry, did you really just call someone dreamy?" Janie raised an eyebrow. "The fifties called and they'd like their slang back."

Her friend shot her a dirty look. "Oh trust me you will so feel the same once you see him. So what happened with you and Riley this morning?"

Janie shrugged self-consciously and pushed her food around on her plate.

"Janie! You said you were going to talk to him!" Julie narrowed her eyes at her.

"I did! He admitted to it and said it was like when we first started dating. That was like ages ago, I can't hold that against him now."

"Oh yes you can," both of her friends said in unison.

"I can't believe you believed that," Julie muttered.

"Janie, every guy is going to say that," Nadine said to her like she was speaking to a child.

"Guys! He said it wasn't true and I believe him. That's enough for me," she said firmly.

Nadine rolled her eyes as Julie got up from the table. "Well as much fun as this was, I'm now late for class."

"I can not believe that he is working there! At the school where our daughter goes!!" Ben seethed as he paced back and forth in the living room.

"Honey, calm down," Amy said softly as she guided him to the couch.

"What are you so calm about?" he turned to her. "The other night you were convinced that he was going to whisk our daughter away and that would be the end."

She sighed. " Well maybe you're right. I'm sure he's not there to seek out Janie. He can't be that same kid he used to be when we knew him right? He's probably just trying to do his job, just like everyone else."

Ben's mouth dropped open.

"What?" she asked as she crossed her arms.

"When the hell did you start to defend Ricky Underwood?" Ben asked in disbelief.

"I'm not defending him! I'm just saying that maybe you were right and we should give him the benefit of the doubt. He probably doesn't even remember what I told him her name was, much less if it's a boy or a girl you know?"

"Amy-"

"Ben," she said putting her hands in his. "Let's just see how things go ok? We can't have our guards up all the time; it's exhausting and it's too hard to do around the kids."

"So what, we just tell Janie that she was adopted? That I'm not her real father?" Ben took his hands from his wives and crossed his arms.

"That's not what I'm saying! All I'm saying is that we give Ricky a chance and see what he does, if he does anything."

"I don't like this Amy…" Ben glowered.

"I know. But thanks for doing it anyway," she said as she kissed him.

"Hi…"

"Is there a reason you're camping out beside my car?"

The women ducked her head. "Can we go out? To catch up and all that?"

Adrian sighed. She had missed her old friend and she didn't have that many girlfriends at all, that hadn't changed.

"I promise Ricky has no idea that I'm here," Grace held up her fingers in a mock Girl Scout salute and Adrian snorted.

"Grace I don't really care if he knows or not. I have enough faith in you to think that he doesn't pull your puppet strings."

"You have faith in me?" she asked in a small voice.

"A very tiny amount, yes," the brunette rolled her eyes and sighed. "Now get in."

"Where are we going?" Grace smiled.

"Does it matter?"

"I think it's nice that you and Ben are such good friends now," Grace smiled as she bit into her chicken.

"We're friends because we work together."

"Oh. I thought Janie said she knew you her whole life…"

"She has. I thought Amy was stupid for keeping the baby and for getting married at eighteen but in a small way being around Janie was like being around Ricky," she admitted slowly. "I didn't exactly get over Ricky for a while Grace. Janie was his child so if I was around her, I was around him."

"You really liked him that much? I had no idea," Grace said as she hung her head.

"Don't play that card Grace Bowmann. You knew that I liked him, I told you that when you decided to ask for my permission to date him, remember that? I told you no for a reason."

"I didn't know-"

"You thought I said no because he wasn't good enough for you or something?" Adrian cocked her head to the side, a smile playing at her lips.

"No! I just thought that you didn't want me with him because you knew he would try something and you…you didn't want anything to happen."

Adrian laughed. "Why would you have thought that?"

"Because we were friends Adrian!" Grace's voice rose a little. "Or at least I thought we were. You were my only real friend I had for a while. After I started dating Ricky and you disappeared, well all I had was Ricky really."

"How sad for you."

Grace sighed. "Adrian, all I wanted was to catch up today. It's been so long and I've missed you so much but if it's going to be like this then I'll just go home."

"Fine. Bye."

Grace looked at her old friend sadly and gathered her coat and purse and started walking to the door.

"Grace!" Adrian called to her. "I was kidding, come back."

She turned to look at her with a look. "I'm sorry ok? That was mean, I'll admit it," she rolled her eyes.

"Adrian-"

"You were my only real friend too you know," Adrian said suddenly. "Ricky was like my stability. If I needed a guy to fu…have a good time with, he was always there. He knew what was going on in my life with my family and then you wanted to take that away from me. I figured what kind of friend would want to do that?" She raised her eyes to Grace's and her friend saw the truth in the statement. There was no veil clouding Adrian's eyes, no sarcasm, no hardness. There was a vulnerability there that Grace hadn't seen in years.

"I didn't realize that," she said softly.

"I know."

"How is your dad?" Grace asked tentatively.

Adrian shrugged. "I kept in contact with him for a little bit because I had to but when I turned twenty one, I told him to get out. He couldn't keep trying to have an input in my life when he had walked away so long ago, so I told him where he could put his ideas."

Grace's cell phone chose that moment to go off and both girls jumped a little bit as the noise startled them.

"Hi. I'm with Adrian. No I'm not kidding," she laughed. "Yes I'll be home soon. Love you," she smiled as she hung up the phone.

"Who knows Grace, maybe you were the one that was able to fix him," Adrian said softly as she looked down at the table.

"Did you and Adrian play nice today?" Ricky asked amused as he stroked his wife's hair in bed that night.

"Yes," she rolled her eyes. "I think we're going to be okay you know?"

"That's good." He paused for a minute. "I think I'm going to talk to Amy."

"Amy?"

"Yeah. I mean we have a daughter somewhere out there and I'm assuming that she still lives with her."

"Ricky are you sure about that?" Grace looked up at him.

"It's my daughter Grace," he said in a matter of fact fashion.

She sighed. "She probably doesn't know anything about you honey. It's been what, sixteen years?"

"You think that dweeb adopted my baby?" his face hardened.

"I think that Ben became the father that Amy wouldn't let you be," she replied simply. "They got married when they were eighteen you know."

"So?"

"So I'm telling you that she thinks Ben is her father. Do you really want to tell her differently?"

"Grace-"

"Think about it; she's sixteen and has a good life and now you're going to suddenly appear and claim to be her father? How do you think she'll take that?"

He sighed. He knew that Grace had a point but at the same time, that was his daughter somewhere out there and he couldn't just ignore that fact.

"Why now?" she asked softly.

"What?"

"Why are you asking about her now? Adrian asked me that today and I had no answer for her…"

"Adrian knows?"

"She's not dumb Ricky. She's been friends with Amy and Ben since she was born."

"Adrian is not friends with them. She could put up with them…but not the Adrian I remember."

Grace sighed. "You know, we could have a baby," she said hesitantly.

"No we can't," he said automatically and she sighed.

Five years ago, after trying numerous times to get pregnant and failing, they went to her doctor and asked if there was something wrong. It turned out that for years Grace had a series of benign growths within her uterus that caused infertility. The growths were removed of course, but the infertility remained.

Ricky slammed his fist on the table. "Give me a better answer than that Grace!" he demanded and tears streamed freely from her eyes.

"There must be a reason for this condition Ricky!! If God wanted me to have children then this wouldn't have happened," she said miserably. "I must have a different purpose in life."

"What about my purpose? What if I want kids Grace? What then huh? What am I supposed to do?"

"We can adopt," she said firmly as if she was trying to make herself feel better and he scoffed at the idea.

"We can adopt a child that belongs to someone else? Yeah, that will be fun when they get older and realize that they don't act or look a thing like us. Good one."

"Well you think of something then!" she yelled at him. "It's not my fault that this happened Ricky so just stop it! You think I did this on purpose? You think that I don't want my own children?? Of course I do!!"

He smiled an ugly smile. "Well, look who found a backbone in the trash today," he said as he got up and left the room, leaving his wife behind him staring after him with her jaw open.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled in her ear the next morning.

She lay still in the bed and pretended to be asleep because she knew that if she moved, the moment could very well be ruined.

"I know it's not your fault Grace, I just…I just wanted kids so bad you know? I know we can adopt but I don't want that. It was hard enough fathering one child already and not be allowed to be a father," he said softly. "Breakfast is downstairs when you're ready," he said softly as he kissed her head and left the room.

She sighed as she rolled over. She completely forgot about the daughter that was somewhere in the world with Amy Jerguns. That was why he was so against adoption, because he was a father that wasn't allowed to see his child, he had to give her up against his will.

"Do you ever think about looking for her?" Grace asked from behind as she entered the room.

"I figured if Amy told me to fuck off when the girl was four months old, there's no chance she'd talk to me now," he shrugged. "It'd be a lost cause," he said with a sad note in his voice.

"You've changed a lot you know that?" Grace asked as she wrapped her arms around him.

"How so?" he leaned back into her embrace.

She paused to think about it. "Well for one, you're such a huge jerk to people anymore," she grinned. "And you really grew up you know? You take responsibility for your actions now and just the fact that we're fighting about having kids…it says a lot," she laughed. "I wish that Amy could see you now. I bet she'd let you be the father that you can be," she murmured.

"Yeah well, no use beating that dead horse," he sighed and turned around. "But God I love you."

She smiled at him as he kissed her forehead. "And I'm sorry for being a douchebag about the baby thing, it wasn't fair."

"No it wasn't," she agreed.

"Are you ok?"

She shrugged. "I will be. Like I said last night, obviously I just have a different purpose in this life."

He sighed and shook his head. "I wish I could believe in things like you do, it must be nice."

"It is," she smiled at him.

"What about a surrogate?" she asked him.

"You'd let me fuck someone else?" he rose an eyebrow. "I mean not that I would…"

"No. It's a medical procedure silly. They can put your sperm in someone else's body and they can deliver the baby."

"Huh."

"Is that a good or bad huh?"

He shrugged. "Just huh."

"Why do believe him?"

Janie shut her locker to find herself face to face with that guy she couldn't stop looking at in the cafeteria; the same guy that couldn't stop looking at her actually.

"What?" she whispered, caught off guard.

"Your fuck of a boyfriend. Why do you believe him?"

"Who are you?"

"Does it matter?"

"Uhh, yeah it does. What do you even know about Riley?"

He cocked his head to the side. "That he's screwing around with my sister," he smirked. "So like I originally asked, why do you believe him?"

Janie's eyes went big and she tried to keep her breathing under control. "Look, I don't know who your sister is or anything, but I think that you, and everyone else, just needs to keep their nose out of our business. You guys don't know anything about us!" she said as she shut her locker.

"Come with me," he said as she held out his hand.

"No!" she looked at him like he was nuts.

He sighed. "My name is Greg; I believe you, and everyone else, knows my sister Hailey?"

"You're Hailey Bush's brother?"

"Why does that shock everyone?" he rolled his eyes.

"Because you're the complete opposite of her!"

"Yeah well some of my family still has their morals, not many of us though," he smirked. "So are you coming with me?"

"Where…where are we going?" she asked hesitantly.

"Somewhere of interest to you, I promise," he said mysteriously as he held out his hand again.

She looked around quickly to see if Nadine or Julie was around to give her crap for talking to this guy and then nodded. "Sure…"

"Good; I've been wanting to do this for a while," he replied as he started walking ahead of her.

"Janie?"

The girl looked up as she walked across the parking lot to lock eyes with Adrian and a guy that was next to her.

"Don't tell Dad," she said as she got into the car.

"Don't get knocked up," Adrian called back and Janie whipped around to stare at her. "Just kidding! Be back by the end of the day so he doesn't notice," she finished and Janie smiled as Greg drove away.

"Who was that?"

Adrian turned to Ricky and shrugged. "A student. Hello, we're at a school."

"Adrian," he said in a strained voice and she kept her eyes on the ground.

"What?" she asked quietly.

"Is that…is that my daughter?"

"I can't answer that," she said as she started to walk away.

He caught her arm and whirled her around to look him in the face. "Adrian."

She bit her lip and looked at the man that used to once hold her heart and shook her head. "I'm sorry Ricky, but I can't answer you."