I'm having an awful, very bad, self loathing kind of day, but the one thing that always seems to turn it around is writing...no matter how shitty life gets, I can always vent through my writing and make a pretend world where imperfections rarely exist...

Okay temporary rant aside, thanks so much for the continued support with this story...I write as a form of entertainment, but like I said it also helps me vent, it's the one thing that is mine that no one else can take and I really appreciate all the reviews and feedback I get, especially from those of you that have commented and said I'm a good writer; I thank you for that because it means a lot :)

This chapter sets up Thanksgiving with Gabby's family and the overall reveal to Adam...a few unsuspected twists and turns come in this chapter though and you'll see again just why Adam and Gabby have such a close, unbreakable bond and why Punk is worried he's going to be the person to break that...enjoy...

Leading up to Thanksgiving, Gabby continued to travel with Punk while working on her professional portfolio. Though it was rough at first, Gabby was getting more story opportunities that she couldn't turn down, especially once they started to focus on actual news. However, with every good thing usually comes a bad and she'd had to sacrifice traveling with Punk to base herself in Chicago more. Even though she hated spending time away from Punk, she had to focus on her career and he understood; he'd climbed from the bottom rung of the ladder and he knew how important it was for Gabby to succeed on her own. After a two week stint on the road, the longest Gabby and Punk had been away from each other for a while, he was happy to be heading home. Gabby was leaving Wednesday evening to head to North Carolina to spend the holiday with her family and she planned on telling Adam about their relationship; there were a few things Punk wanted to talk to Gabby about before she left; a few things that he'd found himself thinking over the past few days.

Punk got home just before nine and was surprised to smell something amazing coming from the kitchen. Gabby wasn't much of a cook, even though she tried, so to smell something good coming from the kitchen he expected something was up. Dropping his bag by the stairs, he slipped off his jacket before walking into the kitchen; Gabby had heard him come in the door and greeted him with a kiss.

"What are you making?"

"Dinner…"

"Obviously, it smells amazing and I don't see any take out containers. Who are you and what have you done with my Gabby? She can't cook anything but eggs, pancakes and macaroni and cheese." Gabby smirked, she should've been offended, but he was right; domestic diva was not on her résumé!

"Well while you've been traveling across the country, I have been taking a cooking class. It started out as something small for an article I was writing, but once I learned a few things I discovered I kind of like this cooking thing and it's really not that hard."

"Nope, I've been telling you that for months, but don't listen to the guy in the kitchen cooking, he doesn't know anything."

"You're pushing it mister! Anyway I figured you'd like a home cooked meal seeing I'm sure you've been living off of that horrible catering food, juice and your secret IHOP visits with Kofi, so I made sautéed chicken with sweet potatoes and pears."

"If it tastes as good as it smells then I'm in…I thought I smelled chocolate though."

"Your nose did not lie; I'm making double chocolate fudge cake for dessert." Punk nodded as she turned back to the stove top doing a final once over to make sure everything was made to perfection. Punk walked up behind her wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I go away for two weeks and come home to a woman that likes to cook and even sprung for dessert. You could've made things easier and offered yourself for dessert; I wouldn't have turned it down." Gabby let out a sigh as he kissed her neck before getting her focus back and finishing dinner.

Forty minutes later Punk sighed; his stomach felt fuller then it had in weeks and he knew he'd pay for it with double cardio tomorrow, but for now he was content. Gabby got up to clear the table, but Punk stopped her figuring the gentleman thing to do was to clean up seeing she had cooked all day. Gabby smiled getting up from the table and heading into the living room where she kicked off her shoes and stretched out on the couch. Punk joined her a few minutes later and she smiled again as he started rubbing her feet, but she could tell by the look on his face that he was distracted by something. Seeing there was only one way to find out, she started her interrogation.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing…what makes you think I'm thinking about anything?" Gabby sat up taking Punk's hand in hers, which got his attention.

"Because I know that look…I know you better then you think I do; now I'm going to ask you again and I expect a different answer. What are you thinking about?" Punk took a deep breath before staring at their hands intertwined focusing on her freshly manicured nails.

"Are you sure about telling Adam…I mean are you sure about telling him yourself? I just feel like this is something that we should both talk to him about, maybe he'll take it better if I'm there with you." Gabby took a few minutes to let what he said sink in before responding.

"I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it's a good idea. At this point I haven't even talked to my brother in over a month because he's obviously too busy to return my calls, so I have no idea what's going on in his life. I don't know how he's going to react to us…"

"Which is precisely the reason why I should be there; what if he goes off the deep end and completely loses it?"

"No…no…Adam has been incredibly angry and disappointed with me before, but I promise you he's never gone that route and he never will; my mom would have his head because she raised him to be better then that, not to be like my dad." Gabby regretted her words as soon as she said them because she knew Punk was going to ask.

"What do you mean like your dad? I thought you didn't remember a lot about him…" Gabby was quiet again, but she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes as she bit her lip.

"I don't remember a lot, or at least I didn't. When the whole Max thing happened, I found myself having nightmares constantly, a lot of the time you didn't even know about it. They started out just being about Max, but at one point they were about my dad. I guess they were repressed memories, it's not like I had a lot of them, but he used to beat on my mom and my brother a lot; I only remember him hitting me one time and Adam went after him and ended up with his arm broken. After everything that happened, having all these nightmares, things finally made sense to me…"

"What do you mean?"

Gabby wiped the tears from her cheeks and managed to smile. "You and Adam are the only two men in my life that have ever stood up for me. Every guy I dated was just like my dad; they talked down to me and never listened to anything. They were domineering and disrespectful assholes, yet it never failed, every time I broke up with one, I ended up with another. You're the first guy that I've been with that actually listens to me and cares about what I think, you respect me and that means a lot, probably more then you'll ever know." Punk was quiet for a minute as he let her words sink in. The only two men that treated her the way she deserved to be treated were him and Adam. With Gabby telling Adam about their relationship, he just hoped it wouldn't put Gabby in the position where she had to choose because that was the last thing he wanted. He needed her in his life and she needed both of them. Not wanting to ruin the evening, he decided to change the topic.

"What time is your flight tomorrow?"

"Well tomorrow morning I have to do some things around the office, but I'll be out by 10 and I'm yours until 5; my flight leaves at 7."

"So then we don't have a lot of time unless you change your mind and let me come with you…"

"Nice try! We've got time and it's not like I'm leaving forever, I'll be back. Besides you need to spend Thanksgiving with your family, they don't see you enough."

"As much as you're right about not seeing them enough, I'm still not really looking forward to a holiday dinner without you; I'm sure there will be plenty of questions."

"You'll be fine…we will both manage to survive."

"Easy for you to say, but remember your family doesn't know about me yet!"