Chapter 18

Shay Apartment
Saturday, September 2011

"Your mother and I knew fairly early on that we loved each other like that," Shay continued with a smile. He then shrugged a shoulder, "I think she knew before I did, but at that time… I was in a fairly bad place in my life and was blind to a lot of things. It took a little bit of time, but your mother had a way of allowing me to see that there were things in the world to care about… that it wasn't all meaningless and pointless. She was someone that made me feel…"

Shay looked off to nowhere in particular musing in thought.

"What?"

He smiled and shook his head before replying, "She made me feel complete and life made sense again and I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her."

She just blinked at him and stared.

"I had that same reaction when I realized that," he pointed at her.

Carly found her voice a few moments later in asking, "So, you and mom waited until… you know."

"Yes we did and… the experience was very special…"

Carly nodded. "Thanks dad." She then hugged him.

He closed his eyes and hugged her back. "You're welcome. I just wish your mom was here to have had this talk with you, but I hope I did alright."

She looked up at him still holding on. "You did great dad."

"Good, because I'm not ready to be a granddad by you," Shay replied with a chuckle.

Carly blushed and immediately ducked her head down. That just allowed Shay to kiss the top of her head. "Thanks kiddo."

As Shay was leaving the bedroom, Sam was on the other side of the threshold waiting. "I guess you are ready for your girl talk with her?"

"That's one way to put it," she replied in a short tone as she walked past and shut the door behind her.

"Okay… I'm just going to let those two handle it," he spoke out loud to no one. He then made his way back down stares to finally get some breakfast.

"I want deets," Sam demanded.

"Oh, now you want to know," she replied with a smile and a roll of her eyes.

She didn't have an amused look on her face. "Carls this isn't funny, you spent the night together in your room. Alone."

The amused look on the brunette's face was quickly replaced with one of hurt. "Okay yes, Freddie spent the night."

Sam sighed. "Did you two… you know…"

"No," she replied more hurt than offended by the question.

Sam shook her head. "I don't want you to get hurt kiddo."

"You think Freddie would hurt me?"

"Not intentionally, but it's not his actions I'm really concerned about. The last time you were 'in love' with him," she air quoted in love. "You were really into him and more than any guy I ever saw you with, including Griffin before the whole pee-wee babies thing. I don't want you to over compensate and do something you might regret, because of how it ended last time."

"I'm not compensating for anything," she snapped at the blonde. "I care about Freddie and it is real this time and if I want to be intimate with him then I'll be intimate. I don't need your permission or approval."

"I'm not saying you do. I just want you to be careful. You don't have to do anything to keep him. He's not going to break up with you. This is Freddie we're talking about: the kid that has loved you since he met you."

Carly looked down at her feet. "I know that, but he broke up with me anyway the last time."

"I'm the one who broke you two up," Sam spoke calmly.

"What?" Carly asked in disbelief.

Sam let out a calming breath and asked, "Do you really think he would have come up with foreign bacon up all on his own?"

"You're the one that put that in his head?" Carly asked not believing that it could be true.

"Yes I did and I was right," the blonde replied without a hint of regret in her voice.

"How can you say that?" Carly shouted as a look a fury formed on her face.

The look in Carly's eyes actually caused a tremor of fear to run through Sam, but she pushed that aside and continued, "Because you let him break up with you. If you were in love with him, you wouldn't have bought that line and let him go. Tell me I'm wrong."

Carly sucked in a breath and blinked.

Sam pressed on, "I'm used to being the bad one and if I have to be the bad one to protect you I will and I'll sleep like a baby that same night."

"Wetting yourself and crying all night?"

"What?" Sam looked at her with a perplexed look.

Carly let out a breath and shook her head. "Nothing, just a joke my dad told me."

Sam let out a tired breath. "Look kiddo, I can be bad and a jerk just because without a second thought, but if I have to do that to look out for you, well… I think that is a good reason. You didn't love him like that and he did and if it wasn't stopped then you two would have just gotten hurt in the end."

Carly looked down at the floor as she asked, "What about now?"

In a quiet voice, Sam replied, "Now you like him that way and he loves you. If you two get hurt in the end… it will have nothing to do with not being honest with one another." Sam smirked and finished, "If you two break up, it will have nothing to do with mama."

Carly snorted out a laugh and shook her head. The brunette took a few steps to close the distance and pulled Sam into a hug. The brunette then whispered, "Thanks big sis for looking out for me."

Sam patted her back. "You're welcome kiddo."

Carly pulled back and smile. "Now, do you want to hear deets or not?"

Sam rolled her eyes, "Fine, let me hear the deets about your date."

Carly and Sam came back down stairs; her father greeted her with a smile, "Hey."

She caught her father's hesitant look. "What?"

He looked back to Spencer then shared his look between his children. "There is something I need to talk to you two about."

Carly and Spencer looked to each other in concern. Spencer started off, "What is it dad?"

He took a deep breath and began, "I got a letter last night from General O'Neill."

"Are you leaving?" Carly asked with dread in her voice.

"Not right now, my leave hasn't been revoked, but you know how I talked about weighing some career options and opportunities that may have been coming my way when I first got here?"

"Yeah," Spencer asked in concern.

"One of them cam through." He picked up the letter off of the table and handed Carly the letter. She hesitantly took it and started reading it out loud. "To: Colonel Steven Shay, USAF, it is my pleasure to inform you that you have been nominated by the President to the rank of Brigadier General for Senatorial confirmation—" Carly stopped reading and looked up at her father. "Oh my God," she whispered then cheered, "Oh my God!"

"It's a staff position with General O'Neill in DC, so no more service tours overseas. I'll live in DC or Virginia, but I could visit a lot more often and most likely be home for all the major holidays. I still have to go through the conformation hearing, but I don't think it will be that much trouble. I'm not exactly controversial nor is the position."

"This is great!" Carly shouted then hugged her father.

He patted her back. "I'm glad you approve."

Dorfman Residence
Saturday, May 1980

It was approaching around ten in the morning as Mister Dorfman carried his tool box and walked with Steven out to the back porch to see a black, 1974 Ford Truck sitting out in the backyard. "There she is," the older man commented with a smile on his face. The outward appearance was quite nice with the silver chrome polished and a nice waxed paint job.

The two approached the vehicle and Dorfman sat his tool box in front of the truck. He went around and popped the hood allowing Steven start glancing over the engine. Steven pulled a wrench out of the tool box and started checking connections and bolts.

Taylor wearing an orange bandana with a sketchpad took a seat on the back porch wooden deckchair. She flipped it open and with a pencil started sketching Steven looking under the hood of the truck. A few minutes later, Barry took a seat beside her and watched his sister sketch Steven working on the truck.

"So you really like him?"

"Yes," she replied quietly as she sketched quickly with her eyes darting back and forth from the scene in front of her and her sketchpad.

"Is he your boyfriend now?"

"Yes."

The lighter brunette started hesitantly, "He seems…"

Taylor stopped her sketching and looked to her little brother. "What?"

"A contradiction."

Taylor frowned for a moment in thought then smiled brightly. "Yes he is, but he's my contradiction."

"You do this often?" Dorfman asked as he watched the young man finish his inspection.

"Just the usual maintenance on my motorcycle and my dad's car when he needs it," Steven replied double checking the tightness of a bolt.

"I noticed it in the driveway. I pulled it into the garage last night,"

"Thanks," the teenager answered as he made sure the bolt was tight.

"So when did you get it?"

Steven moved on to another part of the engine to inspect. "Late last year, had some money saved up, some money my mom left me and paid for the rest doing some odd mechanical jobs at a few automotive places. It was easier to get my hands into places that other mechanics couldn't."

"So you worked for what you have?"

"In a manner of speaking," he replied as he checked the connections to the battery.

"This after your mother died?"

Steven stopped what he was doing and answered hesitantly, "Yes."

"Car accident I read."

He turned around from out under the hood. "Yes, no one's fault; not even the other driver's. Sometimes shit just happens."

"So there was no one to blame? Nowhere to direct the anger?"

Steven snorted out dismissively, "Telling God to go fuck Himself doesn't count?"

Dorfman snorted out a breath and he shook his head. "I suppose it does."

Steven snorted out a disgusted breath and turned back to finish his inspection of the engine.

After a few minutes, the retired officer asked, "So what do you think?"

Steven wiped off his hands with an old rag from and looked up from the engine to the war veteran. "I think there is nothing wrong with the blasted thing just looking at it, so why am I out here?"

Dorfman smirked and shrugged his shoulders with his hands in his pockets. "Wanted to see how you were with my own eyes. I was vetting you so to speak. Taylor's told me plenty about you and I had you checked out. You could have just lied and told me something was wrong with it and then offered to fix it cheaper than taking it to a professional, but you didn't. You were honest with me."

"So I passed your little test?" he asked quite annoyed at playing the possible fool.

"Yes."

"Good, because I can waste my time quite effectively on my own," he replied as he started putting the tools away.

"But do you want to? Are you just wasting your time with my daughter?"

Steven took a sharp intake of breath. He blinked and slowly let out the breath before standing back up to look at him. "No, I'm not."

Dorfman nodded and look to the ground for a moment before meeting Steven's eyes again. "You got a lot of potential kid. You may not think it, but there is still something there worth salvaging. Losers don't pick fights with people just for the hell of it unless there is something in it for them."

Steven cocked his head to the side and asked, "Maybe it was my way of just getting your daughter's trust and get inside her panties?"

Dorfman laughed heartedly. When he caught his breath after about a half a minute later he answered, "No, my daughter's too nice and good to see the real evil in people, but I'm not so nice and good and I've seen a lot of evil in my time. I looked into to your eyes boy and I didn't see it there, just some broken kid."

"I don't need fixing, not by you and not by her. I'm not one of her projects."

"You don't really think that's what she's trying to do is it?"

Steven didn't even take a moment before shaking his head no.

"You still have your self dignity, but not the vice of pride. You can admit your faults. That's a good thing."

"Still testing me?" the long haired teenager asked with a slight annoyance in his voice.

"It's not my judgment you should be worrying about and not even my daughter's to a certain extend… or to the extent that she can judge people."

"Than whose judgment should I be concerned with?"

"Your own."

Steven blinked and took a step back. He then looked to the ground and slightly shook his head.

Dorfman grinned. "Just something to think about son."

Steven lifted his eyes up just enough to spare a glance at the older man.

Author's Note: So you get three chapters today. Thanks for reading and see you on Monday.