AN: Hi Everyone! This one wasn't out as quickly as I'd hoped, but it's here now. The delay was probably due to my recent obsession with the Lauren and Bo relationship from Lost Girl a.k.a Doccubus. Oh yes, that's how I roll, :P. I know I said the next chapter would be the one in Alex's POV, but it worked out better with this chapter, and if everything goes as planned for the next chapter some of it should be in Alex's POV, but we need to see what happened to Marissa while Alex was… going through some stuff. What kind of stuff you ask? Read and find out. Read and Review, as always two reviews before I consider writing the next chapter. If you guys do well with the reviews part three of this chapter should be out in a week or so, depending on if I get caught up in the hotness of the Doccubus; until then people, I bid you farewell.

P.S. I thought it was shocking how many different reactions the last chapter caused. Some people were confused and angry at Alex and others thought Marissa deserved a taste of her own medicine and liked it.

"Summer? Hey, it's… Alex. Can you come to The Baitshop and pick up Marissa, please? She's sitting in the middle of the parking lot next to her car, and I don't think it'd be a great idea for her to be driving right now. No, I can't drive her… because I just… can't. I'm working Summer. Please, just come take her home. Thank you. Alright, you too Summer, bye."

I let my phone fall onto the bar and drop my head in my hands. Everything seemed to be falling down around me, and I couldn't stop to pick everything back up again. It never occurred to me that those three important words coming from that bombshell's lips would make me feel even worse. But they did, they made me feel a lot worse.

"Alex, I love you!" I had actually felt like I was floating right after she'd said it. Like nothing could touch me as long as… as long as she meant it. I was happy until I came back into the room, looked at her and realized that she hadn't meant to say it. The look on her face said it all, and her hands trying to cover her mouth before she said something were the exclamation point. The clear indication was that she panicked and didn't want me to walk away.

She could have meant it. She could have put her entire being into those three words, but it wouldn't have made a difference. She said it, and maybe she even felt it, but she didn't want to. Marissa didn't want to say it, and she didn't want to love me. And that's why I didn't jump into her arms and pronounce my undying devotion. Because no matter how much she felt for me, no matter how much love we'd shared, nothing, and I mean nothing, would ever really work between us if these feelings were against our will.

Kris didn't dare look at me after Marissa ran out of the club. You could say the tension was running high when the last person I expected to see next walked through the doors.

"Kelly! Slacking on the job again? I should fire you!" Nat's cheerful but powerful voice rings threw my ears and I turn around. He was never in Newport, like… ever. Something big must be going on for him to be here. I wonder what that is... oh yeah.

"If you're cheap ass would front to pay for a couple more employees I wouldn't have to catch up on sleep at work."

"Touché. Hey Kris, always nice to see you."

"Ditto." My old friend says from her seat.

He looks around at the club for a moment, taking in what he hasn't seen since opening night. "I like what you've done with the place. But, um… are you aware of a very depressed looking teenager sitting in the middle of the parking lot next to a very nice car?"

"I'm perfectly aware Nat, thanks for reminding me though." I say sarcastically.

"Why is she loitering?"

Before I can answer the large man's question, Kris so kindly says, "Because Alex broke her heart."

And it was on like a light switch. "Shut the fuck up Kris! Do you really think I need that right now?" All the anger I had been feeling these past couple of months started pouring out of me, and it was all directed at the one friend I've been able to count on since day one.

"What'd you do this time, Alex?"

"She didn't say it back. The 'L-word' I mean."

"Do you have a death wish, Kris? Because if not you better shut that god-damned mouth of yours before I have to kick your ass back to LA-LA land."

"You haven't been able to kick my ass since the seventh grade, Blondie." She was having fun with this, pulling my strings, and any other day I would have been up for that challenge, but today, was NOT a good day to push my buttons. Nat saw this, luckily, and saved that friendship from implosion.

"Whoa, cool down Alex. Kris, maybe you should go somewhere… anywhere else right now. I need to speak with Alex alone for a while." She took the hint and got lost.

He sat next to me and looked me over with those large brown eyes of his. The silence was pressing and I was afraid of facing my thoughts, so I needed the silence to be subdued. "Why are you here?"

"You know why I'm here, Alex."

"I've got it handled Nat, there's nothing to worry about."

"It's more serious than you think. The inspector was here the other night because someone wanted to find something on the club, something that could get me out of the deed and get ownership."

"Why would they do that?"

"Why is the Pope Catholic? It's what he does."

"You know this guy?"

"He goes by the name of…" He looks at the document he was holding, "Braiden Anderson Daily." Mr. BAD… I should have known.

I shake my head at irony. Of course Julie Cooper's new love interest would be trying to take the club; it was so against what I would ever want, it obviously had to happen.

"Do you know the guy?"

"Yeah, I've met him once or twice. I worked his party. He's a real douche bag. What do you mean it's what he does?"

"Nothing yet, it's all just speculation, weird goings on. His empire all branches from what used to be part of other people's palaces. His standing with the Wounded Warrior Foundation was all inherited, and his business affairs seem to all be falsified. He takes interest in something, the owner of that something refuses to give in, and a few months later the something's owner is missing, in jail, or a tragic accident occurs. And suddenly he stumbles on ownership. So either he is the luckiest son of a bitch on the face of this planet, or there is some serious illegal activity going on."

"That's terrible."

"Especially if they could peg me for inducing the serving of minors."

"What are you planning to do?"

"I need you to look into this, see if you can find any proof. I know you have your ways of finding things out, Alex. This might be the only way we can cover our asses here, more importantly cover my ass because of one of your stupid friends."

"I'll see what I can do." If he had known my stupid friend was the 'very depressed looking teenager' sitting outside, he probably would have slapped her upside the head right then and there.

"I knew I could count on you." I expected him to leave then, but he stayed. He just kept looking at me, like he was trying to examine my feelings or whatever, read me. "That's not the only reason I'm in Southern California, Kelly."

"Let me guess, you met a girl online, and you're down here to meet her for the very first time."

"Hilarious Alex, very funny, I can't believe you went there. You know Karissa left me heart broken."

I laugh at him. "She was like twelve and it was all a prank."

"Exactly, why I was heartbroken you bitch!" He shook it off, although I swear I saw a tiny tear run down his cheek. "But that's not why I'm here."

"Why then?"

"You really don't know?"

"If I knew why would I be asking?"

"Alex, you're dad's dead. I'm here for his funeral tomorrow."

"You knew, didn't you?" I ask my friend as soon as I walk into the office. It was so impossible for her not to know. After all, everyone has to hear before me. "That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"Alex, I'm so sorry, I didn't know how to tell you and-"

"Don't. I understand, really, I do. No one thought it would be at all important to inform me that my own father is dead, yeah, I definitely get it."

"Alex, it's not like that and you know it."

"Why didn't you say anything? You've been around for how long now? A month? And you've been acting like nothing's changed at all."

"What was I supposed to say? 'Hey Alex, by the way, the dad that threw you out of the house is dead. Congratulations'? How would you have approached that?"

"That would have been a whole hell of a lot better than not telling me at all, Kris!"

I sat next to her and sighed. After a long pause she looked at me worried. "Are you upset?"

"I… don't know." I didn't know what to feel. Should I be angry, upset, or distraught? It all felt oddly unreal. Like when you're dreaming and the place you're in looks familiar but everything is in the wrong position and the layout is all messed up. The anger and hatred I'd felt for that man no longer had a place, it was just there… empty space and unused emotions. "Do you know how he died?"

"He… was shot." Ha! Figures that'd be the way that bastard went. Everything he did always had to be extravagant.

"They catch the guy?"

"Yep."

"Huh… maybe I should send him a gift basket."

"You're dad pissed off a lot of people in his time Alex, but the majority of the population adores him."

"He was the fucking District Attorney, Kris, there is no way more people loved him than hated him."

"Either way, some people are actually sad that he's gone."

"Should I be sad? I mean, he kind of ruined my life, told me I'd never amount to anything in this lifetime and condemned me to hell in the next life."

"Well, most normal people would be… but you're not exactly normal so…" I shoved her playfully.

"You were invited to the funeral tomorrow, huh?"

"I really don't want to lie to you Alex."

"Son of a bitch! So not only was I not notified that he was dead in the first place, probably left out of the will, but I wasn't even on the guest list for the god-damned funeral? W-T-F?"

"I was… I was gonna sneak you in as my plus one."

"No fuck that… I'm not going."

"Isn't that what you're family wants?"

"Good point, I'm crashing that shit. Check to see if he's really dead, dance on the grave, hell yes, that's sounds like an excellent plan!"

"Your mom's gonna kill you."

"Whatever, last thing they said to me was that the next time we'd see each other, something fatal would have to occur. Looks like their prediction came true, only backwards 'cuz fate can't touch this." I motion to my body with a smirk.

"I hear you brothers AND your sister are gonna be there."

"Yeah? Fuck them too. Loyalty my ass, there was no sibling bond there at all."

"Remember that time you talked me into helping you lock your sister in that old dog cage sitting in your back yard? And then I told her there were a bunch of pincher bugs in it and you rolled her back and forth across the lawn?"

I crack up at the fond memory. Her laugh soon joins mine as we relive the moment together. I had completely forgotten about doing that until she said something about it. "She screamed her head off and it was hilarious! Hahahahahaha!"

She chuckles and grins at me. "Oh lord, we are so going to hell."

"She deserved it damn it! I don't remember what she did but I know it deserved something like that. They all did." The office falls silent as the weight of everything hit me. My father was never going to get a chance to apologize, even if he wanted to. I was never going to get his acceptance.

Kris studies me for a long time but I refuse to meet her gaze. I would break under the pressure, and I couldn't take that right now… at least not with the present company. "Are you going tomorrow?"

I think about her question for a moment. I wouldn't be wanted there, I wasn't even invited. But I felt obligated to say goodbye to the hope of ever becoming a family again. I knew it was messed up that I didn't feel the need to pay my respects to the man that raised me, even if he wasn't my real father. My mom was a horror; what can I say? I may not have known who my real dad was, I'll take that to my grave, but I knew it wasn't him. "I don't know."

"You don't have to go through this alone, Alex. I'll be there for you if you need me to be." She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly.

"I know." She'd be there if I needed it, but she wasn't the one I wanted there with me, by my side, forever. She'd never be the one I wanted or really needed in my life.

"You don't have to be strong all the time Al. It's okay to break."

"Not in my reality Kris. In my reality, there are people that depend on me. People that need me to be strong so I can be there to catch them when they break."

"If you're always so focused on catching others; who's making sure there's someone there to catch you?" The rhetorical question needed an answer, but I needed it more than she did. I needed to find my way out from under this plastic town, just in case my hunches were correct. I needed to clear my head. I needed to catch my breath before my world falls down.