Author's Note: Okay, I normally would have had this chapter up much earlier but I went back and had to rewrite some of it because...well...simply put, Jack came off as a major jerk. And that's not how I wanted him to appear in this chapter. Still not completely satisfied with it but hey, that's a writer's perogative right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy it as always...and no threats please! LOL I know it's slow torture right now but there is a rhyme and reason to it, I promise! Besides, if you're really good (aka hitting that nice little review button) maybe I'll post the next chapter by the end of the weekend ;)
~JP

True North
By Jaclyn Parker

"You can bend it and twist it... You can misuse and abuse it... But even God cannot change the Truth."
~Michael Levy
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"He hates me."

Molly glanced at Lee and then turned over her shoulder to reach out her hands to the forlorn woman in the backseat who was surrounded by piles of clothing.

"Carly, he does not hate you. Jack could never hate you."

Carly looked up and ignored her cousin's offer of comfort. Instead she just looked back at her, blue eyes shining with unshed tears, and shook her head. "Did you see the look on his face when he saw…?"

She trailed off and looked up at the SUV ceiling, drawing in a deep shuddering breath. "He hasn't looked at me that way since…God, since the whole disaster with Simon."

"Cuz, everything's going to be okay." Molly tried again and this time Carly sent her a scathing look.

"Molly, please don't patronize me. I'm not a child." Carly spit out. Her fear and insecurity was starting to mesh with the self-directed anger that was bubbling to the surface.

"Then stop acting like one."

Both Molly and Carly turned wide surprised eyes to Lee.

"Excuse me?" Carly asked, in shock over his words.

"I said, if you're not a child then stop acting like one. Stop with the pity party and start thinking of a way to get Jack to understand all of this." Lee said, taking one hand off the wheel to wave aimlessly and his eyes flickering to the rearview mirror then back to the highway. "And do it fast because we're only 20 minutes away."

"Lee, do you not get that you are involved in this too?" Carly asked, mimicking him by waving one hand around while the other rested on her stomach. "Jack thinks that this is your baby."

"Then we'll just find a way to calmly tell him the truth that it's not." Lee said and then caught her eye in the rearview mirror again, his face very serious. "And I mean calmly, Carly. I cannot give you a shot this time. You are too far along now and it would be extremely risky for you and the baby."

Carly's other hand now came to lie on top of her stomach as well and as if the baby knew it was the topic of discussion, the little tiny body rolled over. Closing her eyes, Carly absorbed the slightly uncomfortable movement and sighed.

"I promise you, Baby. No matter what happens, I will do whatever I have to, to keep you safe." She whispered. Again the tiny being inside of her rolled and then was still, as if accepting its mother's promise and was finally content.

They fell silent again, each lost in their own individual thoughts. However, this time when Molly reached a hand back, Carly accepted it. They finished the car ride with their hands clasped tightly.

Just as Lee said they pulled into Molly's driveway not more than twenty minutes later. Yet while Molly's SUV was parked there, an eerie quietness surrounded the house.

"I spoke to Lily before we left the hotel and she took the kids to the pier for a nice celebratory dinner and some fun." Molly said, as the slowly got out of the car.

"All of them?" Lee asked, the uncertainty of Lily's ability to handle that many kids in his voice.

"Well, Abigail and Brayden went, plus J.J., Parker and Mattie are old enough to go off on their own for a while in a group. So really she's only watching her kids and Sage." Molly said and then she then looked at Carly and shrugged. "Anyway, this should buy you and Jack at least a couple of hours to work everything out."

Carly arched her eyebrow and Molly raised her hands.

"Okay, well, maybe not everything but enough."

Carly took a deep breath and stepped to the house with Lee and Molly following closely behind. Upon opening the front door, Carly was surprised to find herself facing an empty living room. A large part of her expected Jack to be standing at the doorway, arms crossed and ready to fight.

"Where is he?" Molly asked quietly, her own eyes searching the lower level of the house.

"Drowning himself in beer?" Lee suggested but at the glares both women sent his way, he held up his hands in apology. "Okay…bad joke."

"Jack wouldn't do that." Carly said, shaking her head and thinking about Jack's family's past with alcohol.

"But don't think I wasn't tempted."

At the sound of Jack's voice they all turned to the back door leading to Molly's deck. In their anxiousness they hadn't noticed the lights on and the soft outdoor sounds that were floating into the house through the screened door.

He slid the screen aside and slowly walked in, a beer clutched in his hand. Lifting it in Molly's direction his eyes, however, were locked on Carly.

"Hope you don't mind, Molly. After Lily took the kids out, I kinda helped myself."

"No, I, uh…in fact, I think Lee and I are going to go indulge in one or two in the kitchen. Isn't that right, Lee?" Molly said, her eyes darting back and forth between Carly and Jack.

"Oh, yeah, right, Luv. Nothing like a good cold one to wash down sitting through almost 24 hours of pure fashion madness." Lee quipped and then was practically shoved into the kitchen by an exasperated yet slightly amused Molly.

Carly and Jack stared at each other in silence for a few moments before Jack waved his hand indifferently.

"Do you want to change?"

"Um, no, I'm okay. Thanks." Carly replied, but did remove the scarf she wore around her neck and twisted it in her hands. "Did you eat anything? I think we have left over lasagna from last night."

"No, thank you. I'm not hungry." Jack said, with the same amount of awkward politeness.

The silence fell again, but it only lasted a few moments before Jack let out a sigh. In that one second with that one lone sigh, Carly knew that the forced civility was over.

"You know what the worst part was about seeing you like this?" Jack said and his eyes fell to her stomach again, even though it was the last place he wanted to look. "When I saw you, the first thing that came into my mind was that you were going to have my baby. Not just a baby, but my baby."

A bubble of hope soared into her chest and she couldn't help the smile that graced her face. She opened her mouth to speak but didn't get the chance.

"But I know that's impossible. My God, you're what…five months? I mean, I'm no expert but I remembered back to how you looked with Parker and Sage."

Even at six and a half months, she knew that she was smaller in this pregnancy than she had been before. It had been a point she had brought up to Dr. Adams, Dr. Meyers, and even Lee, but they had all assured her that the baby was growing perfectly fine. Every pregnancy was different and Carly just happened to fall on the smaller scale this time around.

"No, you're no expert, Jack." Carly muttered, her eyes narrowing. "I'm actually…"

However, Jack either hadn't heard her sarcastic comment or chose to ignore her because he kept going right over her words.

"Plus, we were only together that one night and that, to you, was an accident anyway." Jack said, again so intent on his little speech that he didn't see Carly protectively place her hands on her stomach at the word "accident". "You and Lee must have been together much more than that…obviously."

Carly was so blindsided by that snide ending comment that, for a moment, she didn't even have a response. Instead she just looked at him, shell shocked.

Finally she shook her head, feeling the beginnings of anger stirring inside. "Jack, that's not fair. I…"

"Fair?" Jack said and his eyebrow arched. "You're…you're pregnant, have been for what looks like a while now, and I'm the one who's being unfair?"

"If you would just let me explain!" Carly said, frustration entering to mingle with her rising anger. Jack made a very ugly noise in his throat that made Carly wince inside.

"Oh yeah, Carly, that sentence is so much better. But, please be my guest and explain." He bit out and she could feel the tears welling in her eyes at the sudden barely concealed venom in his voice.

"Jack, stop! Just listen to me for one second…" She started to say but when he took a step toward her, something in his eyes made her take a step back. She knew in the deep recesses of her soul that he would never physically hurt her but she couldn't help the instinctual move.

"When were you going to tell me, Carly? And what about the kids? I can't believe you had them covering up your mess." Jack said, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

"It's a baby, Jack. Not a mess." Carly's eyes flashed fire and he could see the anger radiating off of her. "And I was going to tell you…"

She didn't get to finish her sentence as Jack scoffed loudly.

"When? When you were letting me make a fool out of myself as I practically begged you to give our family another chance? Were you and Lee laughing behind closed doors when I left you roses on our bed? How about every time that I told you I loved you and wanted to start again? Were you having a good laugh over me making an ass out of myself?" Jack said his voice rising with every word.

Jack's mind was racing and his mouth was saying things that he normally would have never said aloud. But with his anger and humiliation levels on overload he found he couldn't help himself.

"How long have you known you were pregnant Carly? Did you know at New Years? Or when you went to visit Molly in L.A. during the convention?" Jack used the hand gesture of air quotes when he mentioned the word convention. "Is that why you pushed me away? Because you already had the man you wanted in your life? In your bed?"

Carly didn't consider herself one to easily cry, the past couple of months not withstanding, but the seconds those words left his lips Carly could feel the hot tears sliding down her face. By her sides, her hands itched to slap his face as she had only done twice before in her life.

"Get out." She said, her voice dull even as she felt her heart breaking in half. "Get the hell out of this house."

"Why? Is what I'm saying too close to the truth for you, Carly?" Jack asked, his voice ragged as he felt like his own heart was being ripped out of his chest.

Deep inside, Jack knew he was hurting her and part of him wanted to die right then and there for doing it. But the other part, the part where he wanted to hurt her as badly as he was hurting, was unfortunately winning out.

"Okay, okay! Enough!" Lee said coming in from the kitchen with Molly quick on his heels. They had been unashamedly listening in and silently agreed with a look that they needed to step in before any more damage was done. "Take it easy, both of you. In fact, let's just take a moment and separate to neutral corners."

"You know what?" Jack said, his eyes shooting daggers at all three of them. "I think that's the best idea I've heard all night."

Jack placed his beer bottle on the coffee table and without saying another word stalked towards the back guest bedroom while also pulling out his cell phone. The rest of them stood in stunned silence until a little over five minutes later he returned, pulling his roller board suitcase and with his oversized duffle slung onto his shoulder.

"I think the most neutral place for me to be right now is back in Oakdale. I called a cab and I'm sure there's a flight to Chicago I can get on standby for." Jack said and they all stared at him in surprise.

"Jack, that's not necessary." Molly said, but he just shook his head vehemently.

"Oh trust me, Molly. The way I feel right now, it is very necessary." Jack replied.

"What…what about the kids? What am I supposed to say to them about you just disappearing?" Carly asked, her hands shaking with anger.

"Oh, it's not so much fun when the shoe is on the other foot now is it?" Jack said and Carly's jaw clenched at the slighted reference to her leaving with Simon, but she said nothing. She wasn't about to add that old fight to the list right now and when he saw that she wasn't going to rise to the bait he shook his head.

"You don't have to tell them anything. I'll call Parker from the cab and say there was an emergency back at the department and they needed me. Lily's bringing the kids back with her on Monday so there's no reason for me to stay. I saw…all I needed to see." Jack said, the last part sliding out with absolutely no concealment of his anger.

A sudden weariness descended over Carly as she watched Jack shift his luggage again and she knew she didn't have the strength to keep trying to explain the reality behind this pregnancy. Instinctively she also knew that Jack was so caught up in his own misplaced anger and assumptions that he wouldn't truly listen to her now even if she screamed the truth of the baby's paternity at the top of her lungs.

"Let him go." She said softly, her voice somehow cutting through the tension in the room.

"What? Wait, Carly, are you sure you want…" Molly started to say, but Carly shook her head, her blue eyes focused on man by the front doorway.

"If he wants to go, let him go." Carly reiterated and Jack stilled, his brown eyes locking with her gaze. There was something about the way she was looking at him that made him want to stay and question her motives, but in the end the overwhelming load of information he had learned in the past few hours took control again. As a horn sounded outside, it seemed to release him from the staring contest that the two of them were in.

"Well, there's my ride." Jack said thumbing towards the door. He opened it and was halfway through when he glanced back over his shoulder. The look of disappointment and utter betrayal he gave them all contradicted his next words. "By the way, if I didn't say it already…congratulations."

The door shut behind him and even as the sound of the cab driving off faded into the night, the three adults that were left in the house stood completely still.

"Okay, what the hell just happened?" Molly said, the first one to break the silence, as she looked around at Lee and Carly in confusion. "Am I the only one who feels like they've been hit by a Mac truck?"

Lee shot her a look before turning to Carly. "Are you alright, Luv? Sit down and let me check your pulse."

At his words, Molly seemed to be pulled out of her momentary stupor and quickly made her way to Carly's side as Lee led her to the couch. It seemed now that Jack had gone the reality of the situation and what had just happened was starting to sink in for Carly.

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry." Molly said, grabbing onto her cousin's hand and pressing a kiss her to knuckles. "It's going to be okay."

Her moment of clarity and maturity having come and gone with Jack's walking out the door, all that Carly was left with was an enormous sense of loss. She had imagined telling him about the baby in hundreds of different ways, some of them resulting in a fight but almost always ultimately ending with his arms wrapped around her as he told her how happy he was to get a second chance as a family. She couldn't have dreamt up tonight in her deepest and darkest nightmares.

"I don't think I've ever seen him like that before." Carly said, thinking back to their many fights in the past and coming up short. "It was like he just closed off to me completely. He wasn't even going to listen to what I had to say."

"You're pulse is a little high but nothing I'm too concerned with." Lee said and then closed his hand over hers. "Carly, you know he left here still thinking this was my baby, right?"

"I know. I'll…uh…I'll give him a couple days and then I'll tell him the truth." Carly said slowly. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way to salvage the mess that she had caused by not preparing for this better.

"No." Molly said and both Lee and Carly looked at each other in surprise before looking in her direction. Molly's bright blue eyes were completely focused as she shook her head and repeated her words. "No, I don't think you should."

"Molly, what are you talking about?" Carly said and Molly brushed a lock of Carly's blonde hair behind her ear.

"Listen to me, Cuz. The way Jack is feeling isn't going to go away in a 'couple of days'. He needs time to absorb this and then you can have a sane conversation. Maybe wait a couple of weeks and then you can tell him you got a paternity test done and it was all a mistake. That he is the father." Molly said, shrugging.

"No, I can't do that to him." Carly said, shaking her own head. "When I tell him the truth, it will be the whole truth."

"Okay, then so be it. But for now, you need to give him space. I love Jack, he's family to me. But right now, Carly, we both know that if you told him the truth about the baby being his before he's fully had time to adjust to there being a baby at all…I don't think he'd do the most rational thing." Molly said, trying to put her thoughts into as delicate as a phrase as possible.

It didn't seem to matter because the color drained from Carly's face as she caught on to Molly's meaning.

"You think he'd try and take this baby away from me?"

"I don't know, Sweetie. I don't think so, but…I just don't know." Molly said, trying to back pedal even if that was what exactly what she had meant.

"No." Carly whispered the word as she visibly trembled at the idea.

"Okay, okay. Let's just take this one day at a time." Lee said, feeling Carly's pulse jump and he turned a firm eye to Molly as he spoke. "Normally, Jack is a pretty rational guy but he has had a lot of things thrown at him today. Like Molly said, he just needs a little while to calm down. Then we can all sit down together and tell him the truth about him being a jackass and how he jumped to conclusions like a bloody kangaroo."

Carly's mind was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she could only offer a weak smile at Lee's lame attempt at a joke. The man sighed and leaned forward to press a gentle kiss to her temple.

"Look, Kiddo, you must be exhausted and I don't just mean physically. Not to mention you're in no mood to deal with a bunch of rowdy kids when they come home. Why don't you go to bed early and in the morning, everything won't look as bad." Lee said and Carly nodded.

"Yeah, okay. I'll see you guys in the morning." Carly said stiffly and after a quick kiss to Molly, she disappeared into her bedroom without another word. They all knew that with the emotional upheaval she had been through in the past few hours that Carly would be asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Lee and Molly sat in silence for a few moments before Lee jumped to his feet and started to pace, running a hand through his dark wavy brown hair.

"Maybe…maybe I should have a talk with Jack first, you know? Explain to him the truth about Carly's medical diagnosis and about how I helped talk her into coming out here. Maybe he'd blame me instead of her and then…" Lee trailed off, obviously not having thought anything through but rather just trying to make sense of it all.

"It's a nice thought, Lee, but I don't think Jack would actually listen to you before he started throwing punches." Molly said, a small and sad half smile on her lips.

Lee looked back at her a moment before biting out a rather blush inducing curse and striding out to the back deck. Molly hesitated before following and upon seeing him leaning against the deck railing, silently walked over to stand next to him.

"This whole thing is bloody ridiculous! I can't stand to see what this is doing to her…and to the kids…or even to Jack! Hell, I don't even know the bugger that well but other than that short temper and stubborn streak, both of which I happen to have myself, I happen to think he's a really great guy!" Lee said, his annoyance at the situation apparent in his voice. It was in his posture as well for she could see his muscles clenching and unclenching as he leaned on his forearms on the railing.

Molly placed a soothing hand gently on his lower back, causing him to look at her.

"I know what you mean. I would give anything to turn back the clock and somehow convince her to tell him the day she found out she was pregnant. But she said she needed time and even though I thought she meant a week or two, everything seemed to move so quickly after that. Now, every day, I keep asking myself how in the world this situation could get any more complicated and then wham…it does."

Lee let out a soft ironic chuckle and turned to casually run his hands up and down her arms. Her blue eyes looked up into his face and roamed over his features, searching out and finding an unspoken question. As he soon as he saw the implied answer on her face, Lee wavered only a second before leaning down and brushing his lips across hers. Once, then twice, before settling in a third time for a longer kiss.

Molly sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist, allowing her body to be pulled closer to his as he enfolded his own arms around her. The kiss deepened until finally they broke apart, chests heaving and a deep flush across both sets of cheeks. She looked into his face again and then smiled before leaning her cheek against his firm chest, letting him sway back and forth lightly with her in his arms. This time is was Lee who sighed and his soft accented voice drifted over them and into the night air.

"I think…things just got more complicated."