Chapter Seven- Out with it

Grace sat in the kitchen by herself, staring off into space. She had broken the promise she had made, she had spilled the beans about Jane. But not to her husband, that would have been too easy. No she had to say it in front of the girl herself! That was fun, trying to cover everything up so she wouldn't realize what they were talking about.

"What were you doing at Amy's?" Ricky asked as soon as he stepped into the kitchen and Grace jumped.

"What?"

"I saw your car Grace…"

She shrugged. "I was talking to Amy; it's not a crime honey," she smiled. "And how did you see my car? Tell me you weren't doing something dumb and following me around town."

He shook his head. "I was coming back from the gym and I have to drive through their neighborhood. All you did was talk to Amy?"

She looked down at the coffee cup and he tensed up. "You talked to her," he said softly.

"She overheard me talking to her parents about how you wanted to meet her," she started to explain. "She confronted us about it but Amy said that you used to be a really good friend to her in school so that's why you wanted to meet her so bad."

"She bought that?" he asked incredulously.

"I don't think so," Grace frowned.

He sighed. " This was not how I wanted her finding out…"

"I'm pretty sure Ben didn't want her to find out at all if it makes you feel better," she spoke up.

"No it doesn't Grace. Not really," he said pointedly and she blushed.

"She is not that dumb Amy, you know she saw through that!"

"We don't know what she heard Ben!" Amy yelled right back. "Besides, I highly doubt that she'll go running up to Ricky. She's smarter than that at least."

"Are you ready for this? I mean if she did know what was said," Ben asked softly after a minute.

His wife sighed. "I don't really have a choice do I? You?"

He shook his head. "She's my daughter Amy. I'm not ready to lose her yet."

She sat down and put her arms around him. "Ben, I'm sure she's not going to disown you or run away. She's not that type of girl. She knows who her father is," she said as she tapped his chest and he smiled a little bit.

"He's not going to get her," he said with determination and she shook her head in agreement.

"Never," she promised.

Her parents best friend? Did they really expect her to buy that?! Obviously this guy had some connection to her and no one wanted her to find out about it. And what was that Grace was saying about her being his child?? Things were just getting way too weird now.

"Thank God," she sighed as she got into Greg's car that night.

"Rough day?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I don't even know how to describe it," she laughed a little bit.

"What's up?"

Again she shook her head. "Just…family stuff," she said wryly. "Now what are we doing?" she asked changing the subject.

"Well I was thinking we could go to Tuesdays and then maybe a movie?" he asked and she forced a smile.

"…Sure."

"Or we could also go play laser tag and black light mini golf."

She laughed. "Is there really a question to that? I am going to own you at laser tag!"

He scoffed. "Umm excuse you but I have been the reigning champ for the last seven games."

"Seven games? That is such an odd number. That's like having 2.5 children," she remarked.

"Well maybe one of the kids is a midget," he bounced back.

"That appears to be the only explanation," she agreed with a smile.

Ok so the kid was a little weird at first but he was really sweet and he made her laugh and he seemed to get her. In fact she was starting to forget about how he was related to Hailey Bush at all.

"One more time," she grinned as she poked him.

He rolled his eyes. "I got beat by a chick at my own game."

"Gets better every time," she sang as she skipped ahead.

"It was a fluke!!" he insisted and she laughed.

"Really? So those last seven times you played, were they with five year olds? Because seriously, that was sad. You hit the wall more than you hit me," she teased.

"Well where did you learn to shoot anyway?" he huffed.

"It's a toy Greg. You don't learn. Now come on," she said as she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the indoor golf course.

"Now, at each hole, when we get one in, we need to reveal something about ourselves," she announced sounding rather pleased with herself.

"I feel like I'm at camp," he muttered and she gave him a look.

"Yeah but at camp we can't do fun stuff."

He arched an eyebrow. "Oh really? Like what?"

She smirked. " Like this," she said as she leaned in close to his face, his breath caught and he leaned forward as well, just to have her move away at the last second.

"You are cold," he grumbled. "And that, for the record, is not fun stuff."

"For you," she retorted.

He won the first hole and looked at her expectantly. "Oh Mastermind? I believe you owe me something."

"Ok. Ummm…I've never broken a bone," she said after a minute.

"Four times. Twice in my arm, once my leg and once my finger."

"God who the hell do you fight with?" she joked.

"My dad," he said simply and she grew quiet.

"Wow, Greg. I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

He shrugged. "No it's ok. He doesn't live with us anymore and I never see him so it's whatever."

"What? Just like that?"

"Why not?"

She stared at him. "Because you can't just shrug that stuff off! Did you tell anyone?"

"I'm telling you now aren't I? And anyway, I did; that's why he's in jail. And not everyone needs to know about my business, I don't need to tell anyone I don't want to."

She paused as she looked at him. "And you wanted to tell me?" she asked quietly.

"I just did, didn't I?" he breathed in her ear as he walked past her to the next hole.

Amy looked up as her daughter shut the door later that evening. "How was it?" she smiled.

"I really like him Mom," Janie grinned. "And he's so much nicer and funnier than Riley ever was."

Amy smiled. She had never liked her daughters previous boyfriend, but of course never told her that. She thought he was conniving and only wanted her for one thing. Plus he would make rude jokes around her and more often than not, Amy found Janie moping around the house on a weekend night because Riley had forgotten they had plans and went out with his buddies instead.

"Can we talk?"

Amy shook her head to clear the thoughts of Riley and nodded.

"What happened earlier tonight?" Janie asked bluntly.

"What do you mean?"

"You really think I buy that whole thing about this guy Ricky being an old friend of yours? I'm sixteen Mom, I'm not that dumb."

"It's really complicated Jane…"

She snorted. "Do you even watch 'One Tree Hill' Mom? If I can follow that I'm pretty sure I can keep up. Besides, this involves me."

Amy closed her eyes, unsure of how to word this. "You know how old I was when I had you right?"

"Yeah, you were my age. You and Dad started dating when you were like thirteen or something weird like that."

"No we didn't. We started dating when I was fifteen," Amy said slowly.

"Mom you skank! You met Dad and just jumped into bed with him!" she joked and swatted her mother on the arm.

"No… He knew about you when we started dating though."

"Knew about me? What?"

She took a deep breath but Janie beat her to it. "Dad's…not Dad is he?" she whispered and Amy shook her head as tears spilled over her eyes.

"What happened?" she asked softly, stunned as she put those pieces together.

Amy sagged at the counter and Ben entered the room. "Mom met this kid Ricky at school and they went to band camp together. They came back and you were there," he said.

"Wait- so you shacked up with this kid at camp and I was the outcome of that?" she asked in disbelief and a twinge of hurt crept into her voice as well.

"It was never like that," Amy quickly said. "At least for me and you father it wasn't," she said as Ben squeezed her hand.

"Who is my father?" she whispered.

Amy shook her head. "I haven't let him contact you. He walked away from me after that trip and he walked away from you."

"What? No he didn't Mom. He walked away from you, not me," she snapped.

"Jane-" Ben started and she turned on him.

"So did you start dating her because you wanted to play house or something? Pretend that I was all yours for all these years?" she asked bitterly and started to cry as Ben looked like he was slapped in the face.

"You are mine," he said fiercely. "You are my daughter Janie. I don't care if Ricky donated part of him to you, you will always be my daughter. I raised you since you were born and I will never, ever turn my back on you."

"You lied to me for my whole life!" she cried out as she stood up.

"Jane we did it to protect-"

"Protect me from what? Some guy that didn't want me? Big fucking deal!" she spat out as she ran upstairs leaving Amy crying at the kitchen table and Ben standing next to her, looking like he had just taken the beating of a lifetime.

"I need to talk to you," Janie said and the man looked up from his computer and his mouth dropped.

"Jane…"

She walked in and shut the door. "What happened with you and my Mom?"

He froze. "What are you talking about?"

"Listen…" she paused while trying to debate what to call him. "Ricky, I know that you're my father ok?" she said softly and he closed his eyes and exhaled loudly.

"Wow, that was quick. They actually told you that?"

"I heard it from your wife, she promised them she wouldn't tell you something," she said as she sat down. "So you and Mom?"

"It was hard Jane; we were sixteen at the time when your mother found that she was pregnant," he said after a minute.

She paused. "Why did you run away?" she whispered, not looking at him and he felt his heart break into a million pieces.

"I wasn't ready for all that Janie. I was sixteen and my biggest concern was if Adrian was mad at me that day or not. I couldn't handle a baby on top of all that."

"Did she ever ask you for help?"

He grew silent. He could think of multitudes of times where Amy had phoned him, pleading with him to be a part of this with her and every time he said no.

"She…did," he finally said. "I was very selfish at the time Jane. I know it's no excuse but believe me when I realized that you were real and your mom came back to school, I tried to talk to her but she wouldn't give me the time of day. It's not that I didn't want you…"

"Are you selfish now?"

"Slightly less so," he smiled slightly.

"Are you still scared of me?" she asked looking down at her lap.

"No," he said firmly and she looked up. "I found out who you were the day Adrian saw you running out of school with some boy and ever since then I've been trying to get your parents to agree to let me meet you."

"You mean my mom. Ben," she said emphasizing his name, "Isn't my parent."

"You better believe he is Janie. He raised you, he took care of you, he loves you with all his heart. Why do you think he was trying to chase me away? He didn't want you to find out that you weren't his Jane," he said softly.

"But I'm not."

"No, you're not," he agreed. "But he would die for you and that's what fathers should do for their kids."

"Would you?" she asked and he paused.

"I…I would yes," he stumbled and she sighed as she got up and left the room without saying a goodbye.

"You did a good thing Ricky," Adrian said softly as she came in.

"What did you do, put an ear to the wall?" he asked sarcastically.

"You didn't close the door all the way," she pointed out. "Anyone could have heard you. And I never thought that I'd say this, especially to you, but you're not that bad Underwood. I never would have expected those words to come out of your mouth today."

"Trust me, I'm just as surprised," he groaned. "I hate the thought of Ben being her father."

"I know you do. But what you told her, is what she needed to hear. Who knows, maybe you have grown up," she said as she got up from the chair.

"Ya think?" he rolled his eyes.

"Hello…" Nadine waved a hand in front of her best friends face. "Earth to Jane!"

"What?" she raised her eyes to her friends face as she swatted at the hand that was shaking.

"What is wrong with you? You've been on a different planet all day," she complained.

Janie sighed. "It's just been…difficult at home lately."

"Am I going to be getting more depth than that? Come on…" she trailed off as Janie's face lit up. She whipped around to see Greg walking towards her with a smile on his face and she rolled her eyes. "Well you don't waste any time do you?"

"Weren't you the one that was telling me to break up with him?" she questioned as she popped a fry in her mouth.

"That does not translate to rebounding to the next guy Janie! No offense," she said as Greg sat beside her.

"None taken," he shrugged.

Janie slit her eyes at her friend. "So you wanted me to dump the guy that was cheating on me and then cry over him for who knows how long? No, I don't think so. Besides, he treated me like shit anyway. He always left me home when we made plans because he just conveniently forgot about them and we both know he wanted in these," she said pointing to her pants.

"Do I get to answer that?" Greg asked wiggling his eyebrows and she slapped his arm lightly.

"No."

"Damn."

"Just…be careful ok?" Nadine said scrunching up her face.

"Stillll sitting here," Greg commented and she rolled her eyes.

All the sudden Julie appeared out of nowhere and plopped down next to Nadine. "Well hello cute new boy," she said grinning at Greg and he laughed at her.

"Taken," Janie said without thinking and she grabbed his hand and then blushed when she realized that they had only gone on one date and they hadn't even thought about giving themselves a title yet.

"Well I say he's a trade up," Julie commented and he nodded.

"Thanks, so do I," he joked, not letting go of her hand.

"And Janie, what's up with your dad? He's all mopey today, he's usually like super happy and shit."

"Yeah…apparently he's…not my dad," she said after a second and all three pairs of eyes flew to meet hers.

"Wait, I don't get it," Julie commented.

"Ben isn't my dad," she repeated. "They lied to me my entire life. Apparently the new counselor guy is actually my father."

"Wait, the new dreamboat!?" Nadine's mouth dropped open.

"You're disgusting you know that? Can't you settle for guys that won't get put in prison for looking at you?"

"Well that is just no fun my dear," she grinned.

"So…what's gonna happen?" Greg spoke up and she shrugged.

"I don't know."

"What do you want to happen?"

"I don't know," she repeated shaking her head.

*~*~*

"So what do we do now?" Ben asked quietly and Ricky looked up in surprise for the second time that day as a member of the Boykewich family sat across from him.

"I wish I could answer that," he said truthfully.

"If you hurt her in any way Ricky, I swear to God-"

"I know. Give me some credit here," he joked. "I'm not that dumb. As much as I hate to admit it, you are her dad. I'm quite aware of the wrath that could bring."

"Good," he replied as he leaned back.

"So…what's going to happen?" Ricky asked this time.

Ben just shook his head. "I have no fucking clue," he said softly.