When Cal got home that evening, Lewis was hovering at the end of the short hall that lead to the larger hall that lead down to the rest of the house. He had probably seen Cal pull up to the house through his bedroom window in the front of the house, which made Cal instantly think that his son had been waiting for him. "Hi Lew," Cal greeted.

"Hey Dad," Lewis answered. He followed his father to the kitchen. Cal tossed his keys to the breakfast bar. The house was quiet.

"Where is everyone?" Cal asked him.

"Mum's probably still at work," Lewis responded making two 'S' hands and tapping the right on top of his left. "And Owen's upstairs in his room."

"Right," Cal nodded, putting his case down to lean against the breakfast bar as well. "So what's up then?"

Lewis gave a flash of a surprise expression before he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and kind of twisted at the hip back and forth a bit. He raised his gaze to his father though, looked him in the eye and brought his hands back out of his pockets so he could sign while he talked. "I wanted to say thanks for being so cool about the... pregnancy thing," he lowered his voice and his eyes darted to the doors.

Cal took him by the arm and indicated they should go and sit. That way they would be further away from sudden prying ears that might accidentally on purpose overhear a still very sensitive subject halfway down the stairs. Owen didn't really need to know about any of this just yet. Once they were seated Cal told Lewis not to worry about it too much. "It worked out in the end," he added. The blood test has been negative. It was just a scare. A hell of scare, but still, just a false alarm. "Not to say that we wouldn't have worked it out had Hollie actually been pregnant," Cal also lowered his voice, like the word was sacred and he made the sign briefly before letting his hands drop again.

"Right," Lewis nodded his agreement. "But I just mean. You were pretty cool about it and I really didn't know what to do." He gave a shrug.

"That's what friends are for," Cal responded because it was the right thing to say, and because it was true. Like Gillian said, Lewis was an adult now. Just about. And so their relationship had to merge from parent/son to friends-ish. At least friends on some level. When Lewis went off to college in a few months, the only thing that was going to keep him in touch with them was a level of friendship. He had to want to continue talking to his parents. Michigan was a long way away. And Cal remembered Emily being away in Boston. He had no idea what she'd been up to. He'd had no idea about her future husband until they were practically engaged. He didn't want it to be like that a second time around. Lewis was probably the easiest of his kids to get along with. It was Owen he really had to start nurturing along. But he was digressing.

"Look we've all been in that kind of situation," Cal went on, trying to ease the situation more but before he could add anything else Lewis looked over at him sharply.

"With Zoe?"

Cal had to do a mental double take. But of course, Lewis knew he was the result of IVF so definitely not a scare and Owen had resulted in an actual kid so that wasn't a false alarm either and so that didn't count as a 'scare' either. Lewis was naively assuming Cal was talking about the relationship before his mother: Zoe.

"But you had Emily right?" Lewis went on.

"Right yeah of course."

Lewis nodded and seemed to accept this, like his father was probably talking about another time they had thought Zoe was pregnant and it turned out she wasn't. He looked up at his father suddenly. "Are you still going to make me tell Mum?"

"Yes," Cal answered quickly.

Lewis gave a wince. "Even though nothing happened?" He made a 'zero' with his right hand.

"Yes," Cal repeated. "Because it's about good communication." He made 'C' hands and moved them alternately towards and away from his mouth. "She's your mutha."

Lewis's face became glum. "I suppose."

"There she is now," Cal indicated the kitchen doors. Lewis looked over sharply and a few moments later Gillian appeared. She had groceries in her hands. Cal got up and Lewis followed, to help her unload. They put the food away themselves, talking about their days and then before Gillian could disappear Cal asked if he could talk to her. She looked a little surprised but agreed. Cal turned to his son. "And that means you can get lost." He hiked a thumb at the door.

"Thanks a lot," Lewis grumped and scuffed out of the room.

Gillian gave Cal a slightly bemused expression. "So that means it's a serious conversation?"

"Yeah actually. I have somethin' I should tell you."

Gillian's face lost its amusement and she walked by him to go and sit on the couches where Cal had been with Lewis a moment ago. "Did something happen?" Gillian started and her eyes drifted over her husband's face, and to the door, where their teenage son had disappeared a moment ago.

"No nothin'... recent. When I was fifteen, I got a girl pregnant," Cal blurted.

Gillian's face went to shock. "Oh my god, are you going to tell me you have some long lost love child?" She asked quickly.

"No," Cal corrected. "Well actually," he mused. That was a possibility. How was he meant to know? Only mother's were sure of their children.

"Cal!"

"No it's not like that. She told me she was pregnant and then nine months late-a, hello, there was no baby."

Gillian gave him a glare and Cal suppressed a little sigh. She was right though, he needed to start the story from the beginning.

"I was fifteen and, you know," he gave a kind of wave of his hand. "There was a girl in my French class. And we..."

Gillian gave a nod.

"Right and so then, it was just that one time and a few weeks late-a she told me she was pregnant."

Gillian watched him for a moment. "You're completely shit at telling a story. And then what happened? What did you say?"

"I might have called her a bitch slag and suggested half a dozen otha boys could be the fartha and then pretty much bailed. She didn't talk to me afta that."

"I'm not surprised," Gillian responded dryly.

"Yeah," Cal gave an 'I'm not surprised' expression. "I dunno what happened afta that. Maybe she wasn't pregnant afta all or she could have got rid of it for all I know. Maybe she lost it," he added softly. "Point is, gave me a right fright and I handled it pretty shit and I just rememba-ed bout it cos of Lewis," Cal lowered his voice. "And we share stuff right?" His ton became urgent, his expression earnest and he realised he was looking for her approval. That he had done the right thing in telling her.

"Right," Gillian agreed. She reached for his hands and slipped her fingers around his, squeezing. "I'm glad you told me."

"Even though it's an awful story," Cal gave a slight wince. "I handled it really badly." Like he had told Lewis and Owen, there were some things from his past that he was not proud of.

"Well you were young."

"Dumb, and full of..." Cal went to finish.

"And either way, you didn't shirk out of your responsibilities entirely did you?"

"Didn't come to that luv."

"Luckily for you."

"Do you think less of me?"

"Hard to tell at this point," Gillian mused.

Cal wasn't actually sure she was kidding. If he were in her sexy black pumps he might be thinking twice about himself. It was a pretty shitty thing to do to the girl, pregnant or not. Most of his behaviour back then certainly left something to be desired, which was why he was sometimes so fearful his boys would turn out like him. That was why he tried so hard to make them into good men.

"I was kidding!" Gillian added with widened eyes. "It was a really long time ago and I have a hard time reconciling that boy with this man," she gestured to him as she spoke softly and sincerely

"Hm," Cal noted.

"I'm glad you told me though because I'm glad to know things about you."

Cal gave a nod.

"I can't imagine what it was like for you back then. I know you had a really hard time after your Mom died."

Oh she got it. She so got it. Cal felt relieved again.

Gillian leaned forward for a quick kiss. "What are you going to make me for dinner?'