Author's Note: Welcome to Chapter Seventeen! Hope everyone enjoys it! Please feel free to let me know what you think. As Always Read/Enjoy/Review!

Chapter Seventeen: De'ja Vu

" They say you have to study history or else your doomed to repeat it. Well, what happens when history doesn't even give you the chance to study it before coming back to bite you in the ass?"-Anonymous.

XXXX

Three days.

It's been three days of just me and Tyson. Lost in our own world, the only interruptions coming in the form of giving medication when needed, and for two solid hours after he sleeps. Curled onto his side, head pillowed in my lap as the antibiotics course through his body to combat the infection that threatened his well being just a few days ago.

Which is why I find myself now on the couch, book in hand while Tyson's weight has my legs falling asleep. Yet, I feel more at peace like this, then I have in a long time. My fingers find themselves dancing through his hair as I stare at the words on the page. Completely unable to focus on what it is I'm trying to read.

All ready I know I'm in trouble.

Our physical boundaries shot all to hell when I had to help him shower just a few hours ago, and I tried to hide the warring emotions inside of me. The side of me screaming that what I'm doing is wrong, all the while the other side of me telling me that all I'm doing is helping a friend.

Yet, how many people hang out with their friends while their naked?

Granted, the only reason I stayed in the bathroom while he showered was to make sure he didn't pass out.

Still.

I'm married. Married to someone else, and the hardest part of that realization is knowing now more than ever how much of a mistake that is. I let out a sigh, pushing the thought out of my head and before I can pick up where I left off in my book, my cell phone rings.

" Hello," I answer quickly, watching Tyson as I hold my breath, satisfied when he sleeps on, completely undisturbed by the noise, " Evy, slow down, I don't understand what your saying."

XXXX

Evy's POV

I wasn't picking sides in this.

I wasn't. Okay, well technically I picked my side the night I helped Brae sneak out of her hotel room, but really that's neither here nor there. Even if I was just a little pissed off that her quick departure cut our Disneyworld vacation short, it doesn't mean that I'm suddenly jumping ship to the other side.

After all, Brae's my person.

However, as much as my person that she is, doesn't mean that I can't, or shouldn't, be worried about Chase, especially seeing as how he hasn't answered any phone calls since we came back to California.

So in all reality, I'm doing Brae a favor checking on her estranged husband while she's away, busy helping a friend.

A friend. Yeah right.

Tyson and Brae have never, can never, be just friends. There's always something more.

Always.

I shut off the car, staring perplexed by the presence of strange car in the drive way. Parked in Brae's usual spot, and for a second I wonder if one of Chase's brother's bought a new car.

I pass on knocking and let myself in, closing the door behind me.

" Chase," I call out, coming up short when I'm greeted by a teenage boy.

A teenage boy who looks exactly like Chase.

" Hey," he says, his voice carrying his changing adolescence.

" Hi. Uhm, who are you?" I ask, setting my purse down.

" James. Chase's son."

" Excuse me. Did you, did you just say your Chase's son?" I ask, my heart plummeting into my stomach.

" Yep. Hey, are you my step mom?" he asks not lifting his face to look at me, too busy staring at his phone.

" What? No. No. Where is he? Your da-Chase. Where's Chase?" I stammer, wondering what the hell I just walked in on.

" In the office, talking to my Mom."

On wobbly legs, I make my way to the closed door of the office, and debate for just a second.

Knock. Don't knock.

Oh hell, as if that matters anymore. I open the door, and find Chase sitting across from a blonde woman, her eyes red from the tears that stream down her face.

" Evy," Chase says, shooting to his feet quickly.

" Wow. Wow. Chase, does Brae know?" I demand, and the answering silence tells me everything. " Unbelievable."

" I didn't come here to cause trouble. I'm, I'm sorry," the woman says and I hold a hand up to her, making her shut up.

" No. No. I want to know what the hell is going on, and I want to know now."

XXXX

Braelyn's POV

Everything I thought I knew, doesn't matter anymore.

Because nothing, nothing can ever be the same anymore. At all.

I stare at the waves as they crash onto the beach, sand under my toes and I wonder. How one phone call can completely change someone's life.

How? How? How?

I angrily knuckle a tear away, trying to stop the assault of my emotions, but it doesn't help. It doesn't stop. The jumbled confusion, fueled by underlying fury, only complicated by the utter and complete sorrow that threatens to swallow me whole.

I nearly choke out a sob, clapping a hand over my mouth to stop the noise, as if that one movement can just shut it all away.

" Brae?" Tyson's voice drifts from the deck, and I take a quick breath, forcing myself to close my hurt off. Close it down. Save it for when I have the privacy to mourn on my own.

" Hey, morning sunshine," I say walking up the steps of the deck, cursing the fact that my tears have left my voice sounding thick.

" What's wrong?" he asks, catching my arm in his hand as I try to move past him.

" Nothing, why do you think something's wrong?"

" I know you. Brae, you've been crying, what's wrong?"

" Nothing. Just leave it be Tyson," I say, shaking my arm out of his grasp.

" I can't do that."

" Why! Why can't you just let it go?" I demand, storming into the house ahead of him.

" Something happened, Brae, something happened while I was asleep and it must be a pretty bad something to have you so upset. Please, talk to me."

" No," I say, shaking my head at him backing away, " No."

" Why?"

" Because. Because this is your fault. You screwed me up. From the very beginning."

" What?"

" You painted this picture inside of my head of what love was supposed to be, and then you shattered it. You shattered it, so I was forced. I was forced to paint my own picture, to build my own idea of what love is, and I did. I did with Chase. And, and, it was all a lie. It was all a lie."

I don't realize how absurd I sound. Or how Tyson's face fills with confusion and pain as he watches me rave at him like some heartbroken lunatic. Though I am indeed the first, and seriously questioning the latter.

" What was a lie?"

" You know he didn't want children? For days now I have been beating myself up, letting the guilt eat away at me, that I didn't tell him about the baby. That there had been a baby. Telling myself that he has a right to know since he was the father, and then I would tell myself, well he never wanted kids in the first place. He only agreed to it because he knew that it was something that could make or break us. Then to find out, to find out that he has a child. A teenager. Chase has a teenage son, and an ex-wife. How. How did I not know any of this? How?"

" Wait, Chase, Dr. I Can Do No Wrong, Poster Boy of Perfection, has an ex-wife and a teenage son?" he asks, and I choke on tears, shaking my head furiously.

" Yes. Yes he does, and I find out through my best friend. My best friend who went over to check on him, because he wasn't returning anyone's calls or texts, and what does she find there? A teenage boy who looks exactly like Chase, and a woman in tears. How can this be happening to me?" I cry, clutching the counter, trying to anchor myself.

" Baby." The brush of Tyson's fingers on my arms, and the sincerity of that single word breaks me, and I crumble, or would have crumbled to the floor if it wasn't for his arms.

XXXX

I stare at the ceiling of Tyson's bedroom, well aware of the fact that my phone's been ringing non-stop for hours now. The glow lighting up the walls, and I pick it up, finding Chase's name dancing across the screen.

I glance over at Tyson, sound asleep, his hair falling messily in his face, and I carefully slide out from under his arm, picking my phone up.

" Hello," I whisper as I step out onto the deck, sliding the door closed behind me.

" Brae, oh God Brae, I'm sorry."

" Sorry? For what Chase? That you hid the fact that you were married before from me? Or that you have a child after telling me you didn't want any?" I demand, straining to keep my voice down.

" It's a long, complicated story," he breathes into the phone and I roll my eyes.

" Oh yeah, so complicated. How could you do this? How? After all of the shit you gave me for being here for Ty. For making me feel like I was doing something wrong."

" I shouldn't have kept it from you Brae, I know that. I just. I didn't know how to tell you."

" You didn't know how to tell me? Are you fucking kidding me? A simple " by the way Brae, I was married before and have a son," would have done the trick."

" Damn it Brae, it isn't that simple!"

" How is it not? Do you understand, at all, the hell I've been putting myself through, because of you? I've been questioning myself. Questioning every step, every feeling, everything, and you, all this time, knew your secret, and you let me suffer."

" I love you."

" How can you say that? You don't. You don't love me, because if you did, if you did you would have never lied to me. You would have never kept it a secret. You would have trusted me, with this, and you didn't."

" Brae, please."

" No. No, I'm done Chase. I'm done."

" You were always looking for an excuse. A loop hole. Some way of backing away from me," he says, and I'm shocked into silence, " You've been looking for a reason to run back to Tyson from the start."

" Are you serious? Are you fucking serious? I married you Chase! I married you! On a lie. You LIED to me. You hid things from me! And now, you want to try and turn this all around on me, to make me look like the one who made the mistakes! That's fine. If it quiets your conscience, fine. I fly out next Wednesday, do us both a favor don't be home when I get there."

XXXX

I stare at the bottle, and the empty glass in my hand, and contemplate.

Contemplate refilling it, just one more time. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Just one more time. Then again I said that for the glass before this one, and the one before that. Cheers to drowning your sorrows in Vodka at two thirty in the morning.

" Brae?" Tyson's questioning voice fills the kitchen just as I'm pouring the clear liquid again.

" Ty," I parrot back, giggling to myself.

" Your drunk."

" Thank you Captain Obvious," I murmur with a smile, laughing even harder.

" Really, really drunk."

" Do you know, being drunk alone is not nearly as fun as I was anticipating it to be."

" Well, hand me the bottle and I'll try to catch up."

" Nope."

" It is my bottle you know."

" Yes, I know that. But I also know that you can't mix alcohol and your medication too."

" Damn. So what has you drinking by yourself at almost three in the morning?"

" Mmm, well lets see. My marriage is over. My soon to be, scum bag of an ex-husband tried turning everything around to be my fault, and I'm in love with my ex-boyfriend? Did I leave anything out?" I ask, and then I realize what I said. My heart hammers in my chest as the vodka dances gleefully in my head.

" What did you say?"

" Nothing. I didn't say anything."

" You love me. You still love me."

" I, I," I stammer, suddenly finding my mouth dry.

" Brae," he whispers, taking my face between his hands, and as he kisses me I know I can't stop this. Can't stop what I know I've always wanted, and what I know will ultimately destroy me.

Again.