Sorry for not updating but life *cough* school *cough* got in the way. I'm super sorry but I hope you all like this chapter.

Stepping Up and Baby Steps

"Kiss it Scarlett." Micah said pointing to the sea cucumber. Scarlett's face scrunched up in disgust, there was no way she was kissing that thing. "Come on, it can't be worse then kissing that boy at the taffy store. Plus it'll bring you good luck."

"Kid's right." The two of them turned around at the sound of Austin's voice. Instead of his normal work attire he was wearing a business suit complete with a skinny tie and dress shoes. For the first time since Scarlett had known Austin his hair was combed. He cleaned up nicely. "About both, the good luck and that it's better than kissing Salty Lips Sean."

"Sean was nice, a terrible kisser but nice." Scarlett said feeling the need to defend the first boy that dated the real her. "So what's with the monkey suit?"

"Board meeting." Austin said taking his jacket off and rolling the sleeves of his shirt up. He reached into the pool and picked up the sea cucumber. "Though I much rather be here, those meetings are so boring."

"Get used to it Mr. Moon because once you finish school this place is yours." Scarlett said stepping back as Austin held the sea cucumber out to her. "Does Ally know everything you inherit once you turn eighteen?"

Austin shook his head and brought the sea creature in his hands up to his lips. To his amusement Scarlett gagged. Gently he set the sea cucumber back in the pool and washed his hands at the sink. There wasn't a good enough reason why he hadn't told Ally that his family practically owned half of the businesses in Grover Beach.

"I'm not ready to be Mr. Moon just yet." Austin said rolling his sleeves down and grabbing his jacket. He checked his watch, he was going to be late for his meeting but since they couldn't start without the boss he was okay. "I have to get going. Have a fun afternoon guys."

With his signature two-fingered wave he walked out of the room. Scarlett and Micah followed their tour guide to the next stop on their tour of the aquarium. Even though she didn't quite agree with Austin keeping such a big secret from Ally, Scarlett decided that she wouldn't say anything to her stepsister and made Micah promise not to either.

"I told Paige that I couldn't do this." Indie cried setting the spoon down on the table. She had mashed bananas all over her shirtfront and in her hair. "I wasn't meant to care for children. Kaiden, please just eat the bananas. They're yummy."

Ally decided to step in before both Indie and Kaiden started to cry. She dipped the spoon into the jar of baby food and brought it up to Kaiden's mouth. With her funny faces and noises she succeeded in giving Kaiden his first spoonful of dinner. Ally finished feeding him without incident while Indie cleaned up the kitchen.

"I thought I could do it. I wanted to do it." Indie whispered. Ally looked up at her friend, brows arched questioningly. "I knew that it was going to be hard but I thought I could go to school and raise the baby."

"Did you try?" Ally asked.

Indie shook her head. She looked past Ally at the baby boy she'd given birth to. "His best chance wasn't with me. Paige can't have kids of her own and I trusted no one else to give my son what I couldn't. It's hard watching my sister raise my baby as her own but as I watch her, an adult, go through the struggles of being a first time parent I can't believe I thought I could do it."

"Oh Indie." Ally said getting up from her chair and wrapping her arms around her friend. Ally couldn't imagine how Indie must feel, she'd never given up such a big piece of herself the way Indie had. "You gave him everything and gave yourself a chance."

"My mom says that though her words aren't as kind as yours but the meaning is the same." Indie said.

An idea for a song popped into Ally's head. Before she lost it she broke their hug and sprinted into the living room for her bag. Taking out her songbook and a pen she began to scribble down the lyrics that just kept coming to her. Indie led Kaiden into the room, encouraging him as he took the wobbly steps forward.

"I've never seen you run so fast." Indie teased. "Those must be some good lyrics. Are they about Austin?"

"Nope." Ally said popping the 'p.' "It's a song for you and about you."

"What?" Indie said.

"Come here and help me." Ally said.

"I think Indie should sing it." Kelsey said as they went over the new song Ally had given them. Austin agreed with her, the song was too personal for any of them to sing it and Indie had a lovely voice. "Its too personal for me to sing."

"Ally will you sing the other song you wrote if I sing this one?" Indie asked.

Ally's face fell and the color drained from her cheeks. Austin worried that she'd have a panic attack but to his surprise Ally nodded. She looked from Scarlett to Kelsey and Austin had a feeling that the girls were planning something. He looked over at Dez for some insight but his best friend looked as clueless as he felt.

Slipping his arms around Ally's waist he asked, "You okay with this?"

"I don't want to be afraid anymore." She answered confidently. He saw the confidence in her brown doe eyes when she turned around to face him. "Its time I conquered my stage fright."

"I'll help you in anyway I can." Austin said pressing his lips to her forehead.

"We'll all help." Troy said setting the guitar down.

"Thanks guys." Ally said.

Ally's plan to stand up to Cassidy didn't involve learning to fight, though a class in self defense may not be such a bad idea, it involved conquering her biggest fear. She felt that if she could do that there wasn't anything she couldn't do.

"Hey can I talk to you for a sec?" Austin asked dragging her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah sure." She said searching his face for a sign that their conversation could be bad. She found no such sign either she was bad at reading facial expressions or Austin was good at hiding his emotions. "What's up?"

"Cassidy's a bitch and she's going to do everything imaginable to get us to break up. She's going to say things about me that may or may not be true. I don't know exactly what she'll come up with so I'm going to tell you everything about me. It's not going to pleasant and I just hope that after this is over you won't change the way you look at me." He said looking down at her, pleading with her to accept even the darkest parts of him.

"When I fell in love with you I knew you had a past but its something that I can overlook because I love you Austin." Ally said hoping that she eased some of his worry.

"I love you too." He said. "So first thing's first, I own the aquarium and half of the businesses in Grover Beach. Well technically I don't own them yet but I will when I turn eighteen."

Ally's jaw dropped. She knew Austin's family was rich but she didn't know why. He owned the aquarium, it explained why they tolerated some of his choices. That was just the beginning of the conversation, she knew so many things about him but at the same time she knew so little. He was going to tell her everything and after that revelation she was a little nervous.

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