Carrying on the Torch

Disclaimer: I don't own Good Luck Charlie

A/N:

Chapter 36 (Devastating Pride)

January 14th came around quickly, the Christmas vacation at Aunt Diane's was spectacular. It was kind of sad when it was over, but still the memories were enough to keep things going until they all saw each other again. Each month, the family would visit each other and do something together, no matter what it was. It reminded her more of the value of family, and in turn, reminded her of what she wanted to do for Mason's family. She had almost forgotten over the holidays, but only almost.

She was sitting in the pews of a Baptist church that Emmett's parents attended. Her plan was to hopefully get them to see what kind of person Emmett had become, and why they ought to go back. After all, Mason's birthday was coming up. He was born on the 16th, and would be fifteen years old, surely they didn't want to miss that. Though, if they missed any other birthday, why would they care about missing another?

Though, what was important, was not falling asleep right now. The service wasn't boring, quite the opposite actually, but she'd waken up too early and gone to bed too damn late. The exhaustion was truly overbearing, but she fought it off for good reason. As a reminder, she was seated directly behind both of Emmett's parents.

Emmett's father, Lance, looked like an older version of Emmett himself. Stern, straight faced, a grey goatee with some brown, and stunning brown eyes that burned through whatever they looked at. His hair was extremely short and completely grey, unsurprisingly. His mother, June, had a pleasant smile on her face and her cheekbones were high, meeting with her soft blue eyes. Her hair was up in a silver bun, the round bun being on the back of her head. Judging by their expressions, Charlotte had to guess that the impossible to get along with gene ran through the men in the family. Mason must have received his genes from his mother, because he did not give off the 'possible asshole' signal that both his uncle and grandfather gave off. Or, maybe, she was looking too into appearances. Lance may be extremely friendly.

She rolled her eyes at the thought and shook her head. Who was she kidding? Lance disowned Emmett without so much of a handshake and a goodbye. Friendliness probably didn't run in his veins.

After the service, she followed them home. They walked, so it was easy, but for her she felt really uncomfortable. She didn't like feeling like she was stalking them, which was exactly what she was doing, but she didn't think they would actually talk to her at the church or on the way. Not only did following them make her feel uncomfortable, she was certain the backpack she had made her look suspicious.

While following them, she'd discovered many things. For instance, in a surprising astonishment, Lance had just turned sixty-six on January 12th. They enjoyed country music, Tex Bowers was Lance's favorite country-western artist. This pleased Charlotte greatly because it made her task a bit easier, she'd been planning on using Tex as an example of Emmett's success. Then, she discovered that June had recently suffered a mild stroke. It was disheartening to hear, and the couple was coping with it, hence their talking about it to each other. June seemed like she wanted to get in touch with her son, and Lance, unsurprisingly, was too proud to let that happen.

After they went inside their house, Charlotte sat outside for a while, just pondering the stupidity of Lance's pride. She furrowed her brow and slowly shook her head. "He disowns his son, doesn't attend his son's wedding, doesn't spend time with his grandchildren, and then when his wife has a stroke, he's still too haughty to bother with going to see his son? Seriously?" How nice, she was now certain without a doubt that Lance and Emmett were related! Hopefully Lance wasn't as difficult to talk to at the same time. "All because Mr. Heglin didn't go through with being a real estate agent…he's more successful than his own father is!"

She couldn't take the frustration any longer, screw the consequences of meddling, she was just tired of grudges affecting everyone but the person the grudge was against! "Mr. Heglin's got a grudge on PJ, his dad's got a grudge on him, and everyone else gets hurt because of it…" She pushed herself to her feet and walked to the front door, knocking gently on the maple brown door. After a minute, it was June who opened and smiled at her. "Hello, is there something I can help you with?"

"I need to talk to you. You don't know who I am, but it's important that I talk to you. Not just important, urgent." A look of concern flashed through June's eyes and she stared, possibly wondering if she should let Charlotte in. "I know Mason. Mason Heglin. He and I are dating." One hell of an opener, but at least June didn't seem like the type to turn her away. "I know his Uncle, and what I have to say pertains to him."

"It does?" June put her hand to her lips, curving her palm outwards and looking back over her shoulder. "Is he okay?" She looked back and lifted her eyebrows. She needed to get in the house first, she didn't want to give the woman a heart attack, but she also didn't want to risk having that door slammed in her face.

"Is it all right if I come in?"

"Yes, yes, we just got home for church a little while ago. Lance is checking his stocks right now. Would you like to talk to him too?"

"I'll need to do that." She walked inside and took her backpack off with a heavy sigh. The house didn't look anything like the Heglin household, it was a simple home with a small living room. Rather, it looked just like the inside of the home that Mason's aunt lived in when she was younger. She gathered this from pictures Mason showed her.

"Have a seat while I go get him. He should be in his study…" She nodded and took a seat, opening her backpack. Inside were a few CDs and proof of Emmett's success, copies given by Mason. Note, Mason had absolutely no idea she was there. She told him she wanted to do something like this, but she never told him about actually going through with it. Dee and Regina had wished her luck, wanted to come help, but she told them this was something she wanted to do on her own.

What was she even going to open with? Where was she going with all this? Family. That was the key, the key to everything. She looked up just in time to meet the eyes of Mason's grandfather. The frown lines around his lips were deep and curved, his eyes seemed to invade her soul, searching her. Fear was beginning to rise up, but she had to fight it down. She couldn't be afraid, she couldn't be nervous. Stand your ground. She swallowed hard as the man's deep, foreboding voice questioned her. "Who are you? June says you're here about Emmett and Mason?"

"Yes sir." She nearly stammered her way through her response, but luckily caught herself. If he detected fear, it was all over. "I'm here because I know them, I know how their being shut out is affecting them…and it affects everyone." Lance folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow. His expression didn't waver one bit, he looked like the only thing keeping him from throwing her out of the house was June. "Does your Mr. Heglin really mean nothing to you, sir?"

"What gave you the idea he meant nothing?" Charlotte raised an eyebrow and watched him walk over to the brown recliner nearby. He turned it to face her and sat down in it, then held his fingers together in front of his chest. June stood beside him.

"You disowned him…because he didn't go into the real estate business."

"Only because he chose to be a failure." Lance shifted in his seat and closed his eyes as June put her hand to his shoulder. "Real Estate has nothing to do with that. If you are here to convince me to go running back to him, I'm sorry, but that will not happen. He walked out of my house when he was younger, claiming that if I couldn't 'accept' him for what he wanted to be, then he wasn't coming back. I told him if he walked out that door, he wasn't my son any longer. Simple as that."

"Simple as…" Her jaw fell and her stomach started to twist painfully.

"Let him come and apologize for his mistake first."

"God you and Mr. Heglin really are alike. Don't you think he's too proud to do that?" June chuckled and Charlotte moved her eyes to the elder woman. "Even she agrees with me!"

"Pride? I imagine he doesn't have much reason to be prideful. He went into a career field that doesn't produce anything."

"Is that what you think?" She reached into her backpack and pulled out a CD of Tex Bowers. She tossed it over to him and he gazed down at it when it landed into his lap. "Tex Bowers, can you tell me where he started? What recording company helped make him into what he is?" Lance moved his eyes up and curved the corner of his lips into a sarcastic smirk.

"E.H. Kings, I don't even have to look. What is your point?"

"E.H. Emmett Heglin." Lance's eyebrows rose and June started to gasp. Charlotte dug into the backpack and pulled out a copy of a list of people that Emmett had worked with. Lance took the list once she offered it to him and huffed. "See, he's become a successful recording artist and choreographer, he's literally raking in the dough, if you will. The guy has more money than even you probably do."

"I see…" He lowered the paper and frowned at her. "Of course, he never lets us in on the success. I suppose it should not matter, he's walked out on us ten years ago." She stared in disbelief, the news of Emmett's success didn't even faze this man. He still looked ready to throw her out. "Forgive me, I fail to see why all of this is important to you."

"Because…I lost my entire family twelve years ago. I know what it's like to lose family, and it hurts. Have you even talked to him about the loss of your other son? His brother?"

"This is not about Jacob." His voice was staring to rise, she had no trouble detecting when she'd entered upon a topic that was off limits to discussion.

"No? I agree, this isn't about him, this is about Emmett. Mason. Tyler." June put her hand to her chest and looked to Lance. Lance gripped the edges of the armrest and narrowed his eyes. After a second of confusion, it dawned upon her, did this man not know who Tyler was? Her lips parted, but nothing came out besides shocked air. "You don't know who Tyler is?"

"No…We know Mason is Jacob's son, we have no idea who this Tyler is. Should we?" June put her hands over her mouth, and looked down to Lance.

"Lance, what if Emmett's had a child?" Lance gave her an odd look and waved his hand in the air, dismissing her. "What if he's had a child and you've been too proud to even…I just had a stroke, I could have died, without knowing about another grandchild!"

"June dear, please, Emmett wouldn't have a child without telling us. Besides, this is Emmett we're talking about-"

"Exactly," Charlotte responded with a calm silence. It was the point, wasn't it? She knew Mr. Heglin enough to know he wouldn't have called them. Lance and June looked over at her and all nervousness fled her body, she knew she had the control now. Surprisingly it was Tyler that bought it, and just when she thought it would be Tex. "Emmett is rich, very rich, more rich than he would have been if he'd gone into real estate." Lance grimaced and June slowly turned her eyes. "Yes I know it hurts, but it's the truth. Of course he'd be too proud to rub it in your face. He's probably to proud to even let in on anything in his life, you're the one who shut him out, and because of that, it affects Mason…and it affects Tyler…"

"Dare I ask who this Tyler is, at the risk of feeling-"

"Feeling like a chump?" Her tone came out more bitter than she would have liked, but did it matter? She was angrier now than she'd been five minutes ago. She was angry that Emmett hadn't informed his parents about Ivy or Tyler, and she was aggravated that his father hadn't seemed to care to keep in touch over all this time. Who was at fault? Was there any point in posting blame? Did it matter? "No matter who is to blame, it all comes down to the same outcome. There is an seven-year old child, son of Emmett Heglin and Ivy Wentz, who has never met his grandparents. Why? Because his father and his grandfather are too damn proud to put away some age old grudge…it's not just shameful, it's sad."

She stared at the two as Lance bowed his head. It was hard to say what he must be thinking in that moment, but she was a bit too irritated to stay there any longer. Thinking on the heinous injustice that had been done was too much to bear. It wasn't Emmett she felt bad for, not even Mason. When it all came down to it, she felt the most for Tyler. June put her hand to her chest and closed her eyes, talking quietly. "I remember Ivy…she and Emmett had dated once before, broke up, and I think they started meeting up again after…after the Duncans had the accident."

"Yeah, that's what happened." She stood up and emptied the contents of her backpack out onto the couch. The elders watched curiously as she pulled the backpack onto her shoulder. "I'm not staying here anymore. Everything here is proof of Mr. Heglin's status, and even some stuff regarding his family, Mason helped compile it all." She started for the front door, stopping only to look back over her shoulder. June and Lance were staring silently at the material on the couch. "Feel free to go through it. Mason's birthday is on the sixteenth, in case you're wondering."

When they didn't give a response, she left the house. Once out, she took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. The air outside was a lot calmer, less likely to be damaging to her as the air inside that house. Just sitting under that man's glare was frightening! She swallowed hard and started walking. It didn't feel like she'd said all that she could have said, but she hoped that she'd gotten through to them. Once she brought up Tyler, it had just become too rough to continue. Someone had to bring it up, though, and neither father or son were going to do it.

Well that was a bit tense now wasn't it. So what did you think?