Chapter Fourteen

Dillon walked though the park with Malcolm and Frankie. His son was the studious one, like Georgie had always been. And Frankie, well, she was wild. A real mix of her Aunt Maxie's recklessness, her uncle Ned's musical abilities, and her Nan, which is what the kids called Tracy, sassy mouthed wit all combined in a six year old's body.

He said to her now, "Little Miss, didn't I tell you that I never wanted to see you wearing those mismatched flip flop things to school again?"

She pushed out her lip and said, "They are not things, daddy. They're shoes. And I love them. They're unique, like me."

"Hmm." Dillon said "We'll revisit the reasons why you need to wear the school issued Mary Janes another time. Right now I need to have a talk with you and Mac."

Dillon turned to call to his son and saw him crouched on the ground with a magnifying glass studying bugs.

"Mac, come over here and have a seat."

When the kids were sitting across from him at the picnic table Dillon said, "You both know Ms. Lulu Spencer, the blonde lady who visited our home over the last month?"

The kids nodded.

"Well, she knew Daddy back when I was in high school and college. She also knew your mom. Well, back then Lulu and I we...hmm, dated."

"I though you married mom while she was in high school?" Mac asked

"I did. But we divorced after a few months. And that year I was spending a lot of time hanging out with Lulu. And one day she told me she was going to have a baby. But she moved away before he was born. His name is Clark and he lives in New York City now." Dillon took breath and said, "He is your brother."

"I have another brother?' cried Frankie excitedly "That is so cool!"

But Mac looked at him warily. He said slowly "Why didn't you tell us before?"

"I didn't know."Dillon admitted "Lulu just told me recently. Plus, Clark was going through an illness. I wanted to wait for him to get better before I told you about him."

Frankie asked, "Is he going to visit us? Can we go see him?"

"We have to wait for him to call us." Dillon said

"So do you love him?" Mac asked. In the question Dillon could hear that his son really meant, Do you love him more than us?

"I love all my children equally. It wouldn't be fair to love him less because none of us knew about him until now, would it?"

Mac said, looking down, "I guess not."

"All right, kids, let's go get some ice cream."

"Yay!" yelled Frankie

Mac trudged behind them put of the park. Dillon stopped, waited for Mac to catch up and then ruffled his hair. Mac gave him a small smile.

Clark sat in his dorm room trying to concentrate on his textbook. But his eyes kept floating to his shelf of movies and landing on the titles directed by Dillon Quatermaine.

I wanted to be like him for so long, Clark thought, and now I find out the guy is my biological father. What am I supposed to do with that?

His eyes drifted back to his psychology book but the words all ran together.

Port Charles, Port Charles, the name repeated several times in his mind

That was where Lulu and Dillon grew up. And they both wanted him to come see it and them.

My life is here, Clark thought But my family, the word seemed strange to even think in relation to them, is there.

He picked up the phone and called the train station.

Later that night, Lulu was in her hotel room when there was a knock on the door.

When she opened the door, Dillon said, "I told them."

"You told your kids about Clark? How did they take it?"

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Dillon walked past her and said, "I'm not bugging you , am I? I wanted to talk about this and you're the first person I thought of. But if you're busy..."

Lulu smiled, "Too busy for my old buddy Dillon Q? Of course not."

He sat down in a chair and she sat on the edge of the bed.

She asked, "Were they upset?"

"Mac was confused and leery of the whole thing. Frankie surprised me though. She loves the idea."

"That's good to hear. I just realized we didn't even tell Clark about them."

"He might know already, if he follows my career."

"Right, why didn't I think of that? You're famous. People snoop through your garbage to see what cereal you eat and stuff." She joked "Should I even be here with you? Will the tabloids say we are having a torrid affair?"

"Very funny, Lu. I think the press gave up on me. They think I went nuts and became a hermit in upstate New York."

"If you moved back to California you could hang out with me."

"I'm not moving back. The kids need the stability of being close to their family here. Do you really love it out there?"

"I liked it. But I'm starting to think that was mainly because I knew I was closer to Clark. Now that he's here it's hard for me to go back there."

Dillon's eyes went tender and he whispered, "So don't."