Author's Note: Hola! Many of you noticed that a certain two people were missing from the last chapter (one more blatant than the other). Here is reason #1 as to why that was...#2 is coming up soon.
This is actually one of the first chapters I ever wrote of this story, because I could just see it plainly when I closed my eyes. I honestly wish I could see it play out on screen because I know that Michael and Mick would be phenomenal. I hope you agree and of course...enjoy!
~JP

True North
By Jaclyn Parker

"Anger is short-lived madness."
-Horace
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Jack stood on the doorstep to the house and reached for the doorknob. Hesitating he ran a hand over his weary face and stepped back to lean on one of the porch railings.

Even though little Emma was getting stronger every day, there had still been no change in Carly's condition. A renowned colleague of Lee's had finally flown in a couple days ago to give his opinion on her coma but, in the end, he hadn't been able to come up with any new answers.

Jack had come by Milltown to grab a shower and a change of clothes before heading over to the farm to see the kids. It was getting harder and harder to look them in the eye and repeatedly tell them that they just had to be patient. While he believed that Carly would come back to them, even he was getting frustrated with the lack of progress.

Hearing a constant thud from the area by the garage, Jack frowned and went to investigate. He paused as he watched Parker continuously slap a hockey puck into a net in front of the garage door and then retrieve it to do it over again.

After about six more times, Parker missed the shot and the puck went wide, disappearing into the rose bushes on the side of the garage. The teenager froze and then let out a yell.

"Dammit!" Parker cried and slammed the end of his hockey stick on the ground. The lifting it again, he repeated the motion. "Goddammit!"

He kept hitting the ground with the stick until Jack saw that it was starting to splinter and he rushed forward before Parker got hurt. Grabbing the hockey stick he also took hold of one of Parker's arms. The boy lashed out and whipped his arm away, nearly stumbling backwards with the force of his movement.

"Get the hell off of me!" Parker said angrily and Jack felt his heart twist in his chest at the look in his son's eyes.

"Parker, everything is gonna be fine…" Jack started to say but Parker cut him off.

"Bullshit!" Parker bit out, his eyes blazing. "I'm not a kid, Jack, so don't lie to me like one! Mom's been in a coma long enough for even Lee to worry and Emmy just turned a month old and she isn't even allowed to come home yet!"

Ignoring the fact that Parker had just called him by his first name, Jack looked on in silence as the teen continued his tirade and began to pace back and forth on the driveway.

"I try to be strong because I know that J.J. is worried shitless even though he won't admit it and Sage…hell, if you can get Sage to sit still long enough she just starts crying! And what about Emmy? She doesn't even know what one of Mom's hugs feels like or the smell of Mom's hair when she leans over to kiss you goodnight! I mean, I go in and I touch Emmy's hand and I hold her and feed her but Mom…Mom can't do any of that! Maybe she never will, because all Mom does is lie there with those damn machines beeping all the time!"

Parker stopped and turned to look at Jack.

"And you all tell me to talk to her so I do. I do…every goddamn time I see her! I tell her about how nervous I am to study for the SATs and about how Mattie and I are already talking about junior prom even though it's over eight months away. I talk to her about how you and Holden said I can have my own horse this fall and how it would be really cool to go snowboarding during winter break up at my friend Kyle's house in Colorado. But I don't even know if she can hear me and if she can hear me, you know what's funny? It's apparently not making a goddamn bit of difference because she still won't…wake…up!"

Parker grabbed his hockey stick back and pointed it at Jack. "So don't stand there, Jack, and lie to me that everything is going to be fucking fine!"

Parker looked at the splintering hockey stick and with a fierce cry hurled it at the garage door, not even flinching as it shattered apart. Jack watched in silence and then took a deep breath.

"Do you feel better now?" Jack asked and the angry tone of his own voice made Parker turn to him in surprise.

Jack glared at his son and waved his arm out towards the two halves of the sports equipment lying on the asphalt.

"Did breaking that make you feel any better? Or yelling and cursing at me? I hope it did, Parker, I really do. But now I'm going to tell you something, okay?"

Parker opened his mouth and then closed it again, getting the feeling that it was a rhetoric question.

"Do you think you are the only one who is angry right now? The only one who is hurting or scared?" Jack asked, his chest tightening.

"J.J. walks around the house like a zombie and barely speaks or eats. So, yeah, I think that's his way of communicating that he's worried. Sage cries because she can't stop having nightmares to the point that she has to fall asleep with a night light on, something she hasn't done in almost three years."

Jack waved his hand upward, his own voice starting to escalate in volume as he continued.

"Lily and Holden are at the hospital every day to make sure that when I spend some time with Emmy or your mom, neither one is left alone. Your Aunt Emma even sits with them, when she isn't running around trying to keep you guys occupied so you don't get too worried or scared. Molly is trying to help Henry keep Metro a float and won't even discuss her engagement because she can't begin to think about your mom not being at her wedding. Lee, who is working 18 hour days as it is, is calling in every favor he knows in the medical community to try and find something, anything, to help your mom get better. God, even Janet and Craig Montgomery helped set up a donation fund to help pay your mom and baby sister's medical bills for as long as they need to be there."

Parker listened to Jack and tilted his head, noting that Jack had left one very important person off of his list. "And you?"

"Me?"

Jack looked him in the eye and sighed, a sound of weariness that echoed in his core.

"Parker, I am more terrified than I think I have ever been in my entire life. Your mom…she is the other half of my soul. There is no other way to put it." Jack looked up at the sky, gathering his strength and then looked back at Parker. "Other than you kids, the only reason I am still breathing right now is the fact that I know that she is coming back to us. And I know it because there is no other option."

Parker searched Jack's face for a minute and then looked away.

"Ishouldhavetoldyou." He said, mumbling so fast and low that Jack almost didn't hear him.

"What?" Jack asked and Parker's anguished eyes shot to Jack's face.

"I should have told you! I should have told you about Emmy when I first found out, before Mom went to California. If I did then maybe…maybe…" Parker trailed off and Jack moved forward to grab his son's arms.

"This is not your fault, do you hear me? Your mom and I made some major mistakes and we're going to fix them as soon as she wakes up. We're gonna be a family, just like we should have been all along, I swear to you. But everything that has kept us apart and the way things turned out right now, that is entirely on us." Jack said firmly and when Parker wouldn't meet his gaze, Jack shook him slightly. "None of this is your fault!"

Parker just shook his head and looked away again. Jack grabbed the back of Parker's head and turned it so that he could place his forehead to Parker's and sighed again.

"It's okay, you know? To be scared."

"It's not okay, Dad." Parker said softly and shut his eyes, tears beginning to slide freely down his cheeks. "Absolutely nothing about this is okay!"

"I know, Buddy. I know." Jack said and hugged Parker to him hard. After a moment Parker's arms wrapped around his father and he held on just as tightly.

"I just want her to wake up, you know? Because I can't…" Parker said and his voice broke as he let go of all the guilt and the fear that had been building inside of him. The faces of his biological father and his half sister flashed before him and he shuddered. "I can't lose my mom too."

Jack knew there were a million things he still needed to do that day, but they all melted away as he held his shaking teenaged son. Soon Jack found his own tears falling to land in Parker's dark brown hair.

And in the dying afternoon light, two people who thought that they needed to always be strong for everyone else, finally realized that true strength was learning to lean on the ones you loved the most when times were toughest.