Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

Arizona

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Chapter Twenty-Two – Superman

A wave of nervousness flowed through Shane as his finger pressed the doorbell to his parents' house. He had called every once in a while to check in a little but since Thanksgiving, he hadn't really 'talked' to his parents. With everything that was going with Mitchie and the craziness of the whole Ken situation, what Shane really needed right now was some parental advice.

"Shane!" The front door swung open and Shane found himself engulfed in his mother's arms. He smiled to himself as he gave her a huge hug back.

"Mom," He greeted as she let him go, holding him at arms-length to get a good look at him.

"It's been way too long since I've seen you." She looked past him out into the driveway at his car. "Are Mitchie and Hayley with you?"

Shane shook his head. "No, it's just me. I needed to talk to you so…"

"Say no more," Shane's mom stepped aside and allowed Shane to come in. He looked out into the living room and didn't see any signs of his dad, which made him take a sigh of relief. He didn't want his dad's usual negative responses making the bad situations he was going through worse.

"So what's going on, Shane?"

Shane watched as his mom pulled out two chairs at the kitchen table and sat in one. Remembering how they used to do the exact same thing whenever he needed to talk, even before he got famous, brought a smile to his face. He sat down and ran his hands over his face.

"Well since you last saw me, I proposed to Mitchie and she said yes, Mitchie's ex-fiancé showed up and slapped a custody case on us, we had some difficult times after that so we kinda broke up and she stayed in a hotel for a while but now she's back at home and we're back together…I think." Shane managed to say all in one breath.

"I-I…Mitchie was engaged before?" Shane smiled at his wide-eyed, confused looking mother.

"I guess I should probably explain," Shane took a deep breath before continuing. "When Mitchie told you how we met, that was the G-rated version. The real story is, I basically hooked up with her that night, knocked her up without knowing I did and when we passed through on the last tour, I met up with her and turns out she had a fiancé named Ken and he treated Mitchie so bad, Mom. Like, he was hitting her and stuff. So I snapped and ended up punching the guy and leaving town with Mitchie and Hayley and now he's back and wants custody of Hayley."

Shane's mom slowly nodded trying to take in all the information her son just told her. When she opened her mouth to speak, nothing came out and she ended up just nodding again.

"This is generally the part where you say something, Mom." Shane playfully reminded her.

"I don't know what to say, honey. In the span of five minutes you've told me that you're engaged, your fiancée was previously engaged and her ex is trying to take your daughter, my granddaughter, away. What exactly do you say to that?" She asked dumbfounded.

Shane shrugged his shoulders. "Just tell me everything is going to be alright? Cause Mom, I'm scared. I'm so, so scared. You know when I'm around Mitchie I have to put on this brave face so she can feel assured about things but…what if we lose Hayley? Our relationship is already walking a fragile line. That'd pretty much just be the end of us if that were to happen."

Shane's mom smiled sweetly as she leaned forward and gently placed her lips on his forehead, giving him a small kiss.

"Everything is going to be alright. You and Mitchie are wonderful parents. If that judge doesn't see that and makes the wrong decision, well I'll just have to go in there and straighten things out myself." She said jokingly.

The two of them turned their attention toward the front door upon hearing it open. Shane stood up seeing his dad walk through the door. The elder Gray man took a look at his son before nodding politely in his direction.

"Chris," Shane's mom called out just as he was about to head upstairs. "Shane has some exciting news."

Shane's dad sighed and trudged over to Shane and stood in front of him.

"Um, Mitchie and I are getting married." Shane said with a slight wince just imaging what was going through his dad's head.

"Congrats, kid." His dad said slapping him on the shoulder. "Let me know the date and I'll show up."

"Dad, wait," Shane called out to his father who was turning to leave. He turned back to face Shane, a bored expression on his face

"Look I know what I did, leave the tour, that wasn't the most responsible thing I could have done and you might think it was downright selfish of me but you never once cared to see where I was coming from when I did it. The music, the band, they're important to me but Mitchie's the love of my life, Dad. It's taken a lot for me to realize that but I finally feel confident enough to say it. When the love of your life is hurting, you're going to try to do everything to help take that pain away and that's all I was doing. Mitchie and Hayley weren't safe in Phoenix and I wanted to protect them. No, I needed to protect them. I would've never forgiven myself if I'd left them just to continue some tour. Did it hurt to lose the profits we lost from canceling the tour? Yeah, probably, but I can guarantee it would have hurt me a whole hell of a lot more to lose two people I love dearly."

"Why are you saying all this Shane?"

"Because, Dad, you raised me to be a man and I'm trying to handle all the crap I'm going through like a man but…right now I just need my Dad."

Shane felt lightness once he finished his sentence. He had wanted to say that for so long, it felt good to finally get it all out.

"I'm sorry but I can't help you with the marriage thing," Shane's dad said matter-of-factly. Shane cringed at his dad's words. "Not at least until we help you with the psycho who's trying to take your kid away."

A smile grew on Shane's face. It was nice to have his dad helping him. For the first time, Shane truly felt Ken wouldn't win. He felt like everything was under his control.

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Shane and his dad sat in Shane's car parked outside of a local Marriott. After an hour or so of discussion, his dad had convinced him this was a good plan of action to take.

"Are you sure this is where he's staying?" Shane's dad asked.

"Yeah, I found a piece of paper with this address on it on the nightstand by Mitchie's side of the bed. He must have given it to her when they met up." Shane answered as he bit down on his fingernails. He hadn't done that in years. That was just proof of just how uneasy he was about this.

"Well no sense in sitting here. Go in there and handle your business, bud." Shane's dad gave him a encouraging slap on the back. "Do it for your family."

Shane sighed and nodded. He stepped out of the car and walked into the hotel. He was actually really glad Ken gave Mitchie so much information. Not only did he know the hotel but he also knew his room number. He'd think Ken would be a little more discrete since there was always a chance of Shane finding it, which actually happened.

After an elevator ride up to the 4th floor, Shane knocked on the door with the gold number '141' on it. After a few seconds, the door opened and there stood Ken. He looked Shane up and down, a smug smirk on his face.

"Oh hello Shane. To what do I owe this displeasure?"

"I'm here to talk about this whole custody thing." Shane said choosing not to respond to Ken's snide comment.

Ken stood at the door, obviously with no intent to let Shane inside, with a curious expression.

"Go ahead and talk," He instructed.

"Listen, this is just stupid. I'm not sure what your reason for doing this is, if you really want to care for Hayley or if you're just trying to get Mitchie back or whatever but this has to end."

"What makes you think I'm going to drop this just because you asked me to? Your little pop star charm may have worked on Mitchie but its not going to work on me. I'm not just going to do whatever you say because you're Shane Gray."

"You know, you're right. I can't make you do anything but I had to try. All I wanted you to know is if you really love Mitchie like you say you do, you wouldn't be doing this because this whole situation, this custody crap, it's just hurting her. You don't hurt the ones you love."

When Ken said nothing, Shane took this opportunity to speak again.

"I think there's no such thing as bad people, just good people who make bad choices. And it's never too late to start correcting those bad choices."

Shane knew his words were probably falling on deaf ears but it really didn't matter. He had to at least try to get through to Ken. If Ken still wanted to take them to court, he could live with that. But he couldn't live with not knowing if he could have done something to avoid that.

Now, though, everything was out of Shane's hands. Ken was going to do whatever he wanted, no matter what Shane said.

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Hayley sat at the kitchen table scowling at the pile of peas on her plate, her tiny arms folded over her chest. Mitchie, who was sitting in the chair next to her, couldn't help but smile.

"You're not leaving this table until you eat your peas, young lady." Mitchie said trying to sound as stern as possible even though she really didn't have a mean bone in her body when it came to Hayley.

In the midst of the 'peas-war' with Hayley and Mitchie, Shane came walking through the door, a huge smile on his face.

"Daddy!" Hayley exclaimed jumping out of the chair and running over to hug Shane.

"Shane, can you please get your daughter to eat her peas?" Mitchie asked walking over to him. She stopped in her tracks seeing the older man walking in behind Shane. Never did she think she'd see Shane's dad in her presence, let alone with a smile on his face.

"Hey there, Mitchie." Shane's dad greeted her with a small wave. She politely waved back before giving Shane the 'we-need-to-talk' look.

Shane ignored the look Mitchie was giving him and instead walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her and embraced her in a huge hug.

"Say you love me," Shane instructed putting her back down on her own two feet.

"What?" Mitchie asked completely overwhelmed. She didn't understand why Shane's dad was in their living room and why Shane was so happy.

"Tell me you love me and that I'm the most awesome fiancé ever in the history of fiancés."

"Um, Shane," Shane's dad interjected their conversation. "Take her in another room and talk. I'll watch the kid."

Shane nodded and grabbed Mitchie's hand and quickly dragged her into their bedroom.

"Shane!" Mitchie held her hands up in front of her, stopping Shane from once again hugging her. "What the heck is going on? Why is your dad here and why are you so excited?"

"My dad's here because he wants you to give him a second chance. He wants to prove he isn't some horrible person who hates you. And I'm so excited because your wonderful husband-to-be went to talk to your former husband-to-be–"

"Wait you talked to Ken?" She interrupted.

"Yes and I told him to drop the custody case." He stated proudly. "And after I talked to him a bit, he agreed to drop it!"

Mitchie slowly sat on their bed. She was doing her best to take all this information in. It was as if she had entered the Twilight Zone. First the man who she was 100% sure despised her now wanted to show her that he actually doesn't hate her and now Ken, probably the most vengeful person she had ever known was now agreeing to drop the custody case he had filed just to get revenge on her for leaving him?

"Shane," She called his name breathlessly. "You really are my knight in shining armor. Just when I think you can't do anything to show me how amazing you are, you go and do something like this."

Seeing how she was starting to tear up, Shane sat next to Mitchie, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She rested her head on his shoulder and the two sat in silence before Shane spoke up.

"Mitchie, I'm not half as amazing as you are. You are probably the strongest, most intelligent person I know." Shane complimented. "Plus you're really hot and that's just, like, an added bonus."

Mitchie playfully slapped his chest before standing up from the bed and walking to stand in front of him.

"So where do we go from here?" She asked.

Shane shrugged his shoulders. "I did kind of promise you a trip to Hawaii so let's say we have dinner with my dad tonight and tomorrow we'll get ready to take off to Hawaii. We'll even take Hayley. I know I said it'd be just the two of us but I'm in the 'family-vacation' mood."

Mitchie smiled and nodded, silently agreeing with Shane's suggestion. Her mom had always told her that when it came to finding the man she loved, if he didn't make her feel like a princess then he obviously wasn't her prince charming. Not only did Shane make her feel like a princess, but he kind of made her feel like Lois Lane and that could only mean that he was her Superman. Shane was much more than just her fiancé or her knight in shining armor or even her prince charming. Shane was her Superman. And with her Superman by her side, Mitchie felt nearly invincible.

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