Summary: Every Time Connect 3 Goes On Tour, There's Always Something Special About Arizona That Shane Can't Resist.

Disclaimer: I don't own Camp Rock. Trust me, if I did, Shane would have made Mitchie's 'Camp Rock' a long time ago ;) haha...

Arizona

\=/

Chapter Five – Talking It Out

Shane sat in his living room, on his red couch, tapping his foot on the hardwood floor. It had been two days since the whole situation with Mitchie and he hadn't really been himself since. He had a lot on his mind, considering he just found out he has a daughter. He didn't know what to do next. He usually relied on Nate's wisdom in situations like this but now that he was alone, he had to depend on his own judgement. He didn't know if it was appropriate to call her, but it was worth a shot.

He stood up from the couch and went into his bedroom to grab his cellphone. He dialed Mitchie's number, which he had saved from the last time he called. With every ring that rang in his ear, he got more worried that she wouldn't answer.

"Hey, you've reached Mitchie. Obviously I'm not near my cell otherwise I would have answered! Leave a message and I'll get back to you when I can!"

Shane smiled at her answering machine message before getting serious once he heard the beep.

"Oh, um, hey Mitchie it's me, Shane. Look, I just wanted to call to see if we could maybe meet up and talk about what happened a couple days ago? I don't really know the area so if there's some Starbucks around here, maybe we could get coffee or something-" Shane stopped. He realized how stupid he sounded. You don't just call someone to talk about the fact that you have a two year old daughter together. That's the kind of stuff you do in person. "You know what? Forget you ever heard this message. Uh...bye."

Shane hung up his phone and gritted his teeth. Why did this have to be so hard? Why couldn't he just be totally relaxed in tough situations like Jason? Why couldn't he make smart choices like Nate? Instead, he was just dumb Shane.

He sat on the edge of his bed, letting his head fall into his hands. He rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his hair. It was then that an idea popped into his head. Maybe he wasn't so dumb after all.

\=/

Mitchie walked around her daughter's bedroom, picking up toys and other items off of the floor while the little girl jumped on her bed. Ever since Shane realized that Hayley was his, Mitchie couldn't look at Hayley without seeing Shane's face. Although, she always said she was a spitting image of him.

"Mommy," the little girl stopped jumping on her bed and sat on it's edge.

"Yes, Hayley?" Mitchie answered, turning to the little girl.

"I want to see Shane." Mitchie's heart sank. Hayley had been asking for Shane ever since they drove out of Ikea's parking lot. She felt bad denying her the right to see her real father but as far as she was concerned, Mitchie's fiancee Ken was her father...even if he didn't always act like it.

"Honey, I told you Shane is busy and-"

"But daddy is always busy too but I get to see him! I wanna see Shane!" the little girl was yelling now. Mitchie closed her eyes and tried to compose herself. Sometimes, Hayley asking for him was just too much for her to handle.

"Hayley, please don't yell..." She said through gritted teeth.

"I wanna see Shane! I wanna see Shane! I wanna-"

"Hayley!" It was rare that Mitchie yelled at her daughter but she couldn't take it anymore. She felt tears welling up in her eyes. She didn't want Hayley to see her upset so she walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

She ran into her bedroom, also closing it's door behind her, and sat on the edge of her bed, sobbing. She couldn't deal with the guilt she was feeling. Not only was she lying to Hayley by making her believe that Ken was her father but she was also lying to Ken. He believed Hayley was his. He took care of her like she was his own even though at times, Mitchie knew he had his doubts. She also felt guilty for keeping Hayley away from Shane. Mitchie was never too close with her own father so she promised when she had kids, she'd make sure they were close with theirs. Of course, she never planned on having a kid from a famous rockstar.

Without warning, the bedroom door swung open revealing her fiancee standing there, looking at her with an half confused, half annoyed expression. She quickly wiped the streams of tears from her cheeks.

"Why is Hayley in her room pouting and...are you crying?" he asked, walking into the room, throwing his suit jacket across the bed.

"She's probably upset I yelled at her. And I wasn't crying. My contacts were just dry." she lied, standing up, walking into the bathroom.

"Oh. Well, listen, I'm here. If you're not going to work-"

"I'm going to work." Mitchie interrupted him. Seeing as how Ken was a high powered lawyer, Mitchie could never work a day in her life and still get everything she wanted and more but she had to feel like she had some control over her own life. Working at the bar gave her that feeling.

She peered her head out of the bathroom and looked at Ken. "I know you don't like taking off from work but-"

"You're doing a lot of talking when you should be getting ready for work. I didn't leave the office to hear a lecture." he said coldly.

It was times like these Mitchie wondered what happened to the guy she fell in love with. Ken was actually once a sweet guy. He'd take her on all kinds of nice dates and he made her feel special. But the day they moved in together, after he proposed, about four months ago, he changed. He became controlling, he stopped caring about her and Hayley and, worst of all, he had his moments where he'd get a little...rough with her. She wouldn't say she was in an abusive relationship but there were times where he'd lose his temper and she'd end up with a bruise. Fortunately, that didn't happen often so she learned to just shrug it off whenever it did.

Mitchie emerged from the bathroom, a white t-shirt and jeans on, and grabbed her purse from off of the nightstand. Ken, who was changing into more comfortable clothing, looked up at her. She waved bye to him and he just nodded his head and went back to changing. She rolled her eyes as she walked out of their bedroom and into Hayley's room. The little girl was sitting on the edge of her bed, holding one of her stuffed animals.

"Hey honey," Mitchie said kneeling down in front of her. "Are you mad at me?"

The little girl shook her head no, causing her pigtails to flop around. Mitchie smiled and hugged her.

"I'm going to work, okay? If you need anything, you call me or Aunt Caitlyn, alright?" She said before kissing her daughter on the forehead and heading out of her room and to work. The last time she went to work, Shane walked back into her life. She hoped this time she could just serve drinks, drama-free.

\=/

"Stop here," Shane told the cab driver. He pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and handed it to the man. "Thanks for the ride."

Shane exited the cab and stared up at the all to familiar sign. He took a deep breath, adjusted the black beanie on his head, shoved his hands in his pockets and went to walk into the building he was standing in front of.

When he opened the door, the familiar smell of stale beer crept up his nostrils, making him furrow his eyebrows. He looked around the bar. It was more packed than he had ever seen it before. There were guys playing pool, guys messing with the jukebox and guys sitting up at the bar. He stood on his tippy toes, trying to see over the men to see who was serving them. He didn't have to look too hard, he heard a familiar voice repeat someone's order. He knew he had found who he was looking for.

"C'mon Shane, you got this," he muttered to himself, walking closer to the bar. He could perform in front of thousands of screaming fans but talking to one girl made him more nervous than he's ever been in his life.

When he walked up to an empty barstool and sat down, he immediately caught Mitchie's eye. She took one look at him and rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm here as a thirsty customer, that's all." he told her. She looked at him skeptically before walking over to stand directly in front of him.

"Well then, what would you like?" she asked in a semi-sarcastic tone.

"Water would be fine." he said with a half-hearted smile.

"Oh my gosh..." she threw the small towel she had in her hand down on the bar counter. "You don't come to a bar for water, okay? You're lying to me. You came to talk about what happened and I'm not going to discuss my personal life while I'm at work-"

"I'm not leaving until we talk." he said sternly.

Mitchie stared at him with an unamused scowl on her face. Her expression softened as she thought about Hayley. She couldn't just kick Shane out. She owed it to Hayley to at least talk to him. "Give me fifteen minutes to clear the place. Then we can talk."

Shane waited until she turned her back to him to smile to himself. He had done it. He had came in with the coolness Jason would have in situations like this. Now he had fifteen minutes to muster up some Nate-like smartness.

\=/

Fifteen minutes later, the bar was empty, just as Mitchie said. Shane sat in the same barstool watching her wipe down the counter. He had his hands shoved in his jacket pockets, waiting for her to say something.

"Well, aren't you going to speak? You did come here to talk, right?" Mitchie asked him, still wiping the counter.

"I was waiting for you to speak first. You know, I thought you'd might want to explain why you kept the fact that I had a daughter from me?" he asked. She stopped cleaning and looked up at him.

"How was I supposed to tell you? You were somewhere in Europe when I found out I was pregnant. Would your 'people' really have believed me if I told them I needed to talk to you because I was carrying your kid?" Shane's eyes went from her face to the floor. She was right. Contacting him was nearly impossible and his publicist wouldn't have even allowed the boys to perform in Arizona if he found out Shane had a "baby mama" there.

"What about when I came back that night? Why didn't you tell me then? Why did you have me find out for myself?" he asked.

"If I had it my way, you still wouldn't know." she said harshly. She shook her head and spoke again. "Look, its not that I didn't want you to know but I have a life here Shane, you don't. People around here know me. As far as they're concerned, Ken is Hayley's father."

"Ken? Who's Ken?" Shane asked, standing up to face her.

Mitchie cursed herself. It was bad enough he knew the truth about Hayley. She didn't need him freaking out about Ken. "He's my fiancee."

Shane rubbed his face and turned his back to her. He walked over to the jukebox and rested his fists on top of it. He stood there for a few silent seconds before banging his fists into it, not breaking it, thankfully. He angrily walked back to the bar to face Mitchie, who had a frightened expression on her face.

"I don't know what pisses me off more, the fact that you're engaged or the fact that some other man is raising my child." he yelled.

Mitchie didn't know what to say. She didn't know the right words to say to calm him down. Although, she could understand why he was angry. He must have noticed that she was searching for the right words to say because his angry demeanor had calmed and he had reached over and took her hands in his.

"I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you." he said in a hushed tone.

"Really? You could've fooled me..." she said with a dry chuckle.

"I just..." he let go of her hands and started pacing back and forth. "I've missed two years of my daughter's life. For two years I didn't even know she existed. For two years some other man got to experience her first words, her first steps...everything. I'll never be able to get that back."

Mitchie wiped a tear that was working it's way down her face. For the first time, she actually felt guilty for keeping Shane away from Hayley. For the longest time she thought it was the right thing keeping the two of them separated but now she realized it was a huge mistake. She felt like such an idiot.

"I'm sorry Shane. I wish I could give you all of those moments back because God knows Ken doesn't deserve to have them." She said, her voice cracking. "That hour and a half the three of us spent together, you were more of a father to her than Ken has been to her in her whole life. I mean, he can buy her all the toys in the world but with you...I could tell she was genuinely more happy."

A smile crept on Shane's face before he got serious again. "What about you? How does he treat you?"

"Um," Mitchie stared down at her feet. She wasn't about to let Shane know how Ken treated her. She didn't want him to feel like he need to rescue her or anything.

"Mitchie, he treats you good, right?" he asked her again. She looked up at him. When she saw the concern in his eyes, she couldn't stop herself from blabbing out the truth.

"He used to. Now, he's...changed. He's never around. He acts like being around me and Hayley is a chore. He'd spend a whole day at work if he could-"

"Yet you're still with this guy?" Shane interrupted. "No offense but he sounds like a total douche. If I was with you, I'd always be around, I'd never feel like being around you and Hayley is a chore and I'm a musician, I can talk off work whenever I feel like it."

Mitchie playfully shook her head at him. He was doing it again. He was turning on the charm, trying to reel her in. It had worked when they kissed after his concert but she wouldn't let it work this time.

"Look, are you free tomorrow?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, why?"

"Maybe Hayley and I could meet you for ice cream and head to the park or something? She's been asking to see you ever since Ikea."

A huge grin stretched across Shane's face. "I'd love that. How does noon sound?"

"Noon? That's lunchtime. I'm not giving Hayley ice cream for lunch," Mitchie playfully joked.

"Oh, right. Sorry, not used to this parenting thing." Shane said holding up his hands in defense.

"We'll meet you at Sal's Ice Cream Store at three o'clock." she said.

"Good. That sounds good." he said with another grin.

"But Shane, you have to promise me one thing." she walked from behind the bar to stand in front of him. She looked up at him, making sure to look him in the eye, "Please make sure that you don't make Hayley think you're her dad. I'm not ready for her to know, okay?"

Shane nodded reluctantly. He wished the little girl could know. He wanted her to know. He wanted the whole world to know, really. But he had to respect Mitchie's wants. He felt privileged that she was letting him see Hayley again. He would make sure that he made the most out of their 'date' tomorrow.

\=/

OMG, super long chapter right? Yeah, well, I had a lot to say. Haha. I hope you guys will review faster for this chapter! The faster you review (and possibly the more reviews I get), the faster I'll update! So leave me some thought about what you think is gonna happen in the next chapter or what you were thinking during this chapter!

Thanks for reading! :)