A Season in Purgatory
Chapter 57

The best laid plans...

The Café was a cacophony of sound as the dinner rush moved toward the door. Karen smiled vaguely at Haley who was at the register with a customer. She moved back into the kitchen, taking a moment to lean against a wall. Sighing, she forced back the tears that she'd been fighting all night. She'd finally gotten to a point where life wasn't an every day struggle. While she and Lucas weren't rich, they could at least afford a few non-necessities like cable television. And now all of that was threatened by a curious lack of reality on her part. Stifling the tears, she took a deep breath to calm her stomach and attempted to regain her composure in order to close up.

Dan walked slowly into the Café, a bit unsure of his welcome in Karen's place of business. He's not seen or spoken to Karen in nearly 3 weeks. He wasn't sure if they were fighting or just going through a period of adjustment. Avoidance had crept back into their relationship and he found it easier to make excuses than to push through yet another problem. In his more cynical moments, Dan realized that he could handle just about any challenge with Karen, but the added strain of Lucas made even routine issues more difficult. The distance between them was so artificial, like neither of them could figure out why things were so tense. Not knowing how to ease the tension, they had reverted back to their old pattern of silence and avoidance. And that made Dan very sad. He'd grown used to eating with Karen and his sons every Monday night. Now he was back to picking up frozen lasagnas from the grocery store for him and Nathan. There seemed to be an unfillable void in his life when Karen wasn't around.

Haley turned toward the door and smiled as she saw her boyfriend's father hovering in the threshold. "Hey Mr. Scott," she greeted, noticing the scalded puppy look on his face. His unease explained Karen's moodiness the past few weeks, she thought. "Are you here to eat or talk to Karen?"

"I guess I'm here to talk to Karen," he quietly said, so unlike the indomitable man she'd grown to know. Haley felt sorry for everyone involved in the Scott family mess. She understood Luke's anger at his parents, but she realized that Dan and Karen seemed to be happier when they were near each other. Her energies were better spent supporting Nathan, as he seemed to be left out of the daily strife surrounding his father and brother.

Haley tossed her apron on the counter, having wiped down the counters and reconciled the evening's receipts. "Can you tell Karen that I'm heading out?" she asked. She normally would stay and linger over the clean up to discuss the day with Karen. Given the state of her boss's emotions and the look on Dan's face, the best thing for her to do was leave and give them some privacy.

Dan nodded at her appreciatively and headed back toward the Café's kitchen. He hesitated in the doorway, not seeing Karen in the small kitchen area. Hearing a sound from the bathroom, he rushed over toward the small room.

Karen leaned back against the wall of the bathroom, momentarily worn out from the latest round of nausea. The past few weeks had been a nightmare for her, both physically and emotionally. It was as if the past was rearing its ugly head and mocking her present success. Hearing a noise, she glanced up and saw a concerned Dan in the doorway.

Kneeling down, Dan reached over and brushed his hand against her forehead. "Are you alright?" he asked, instinctively knowing that things weren't all right and hadn't been for several weeks.

Shoving him away, Karen instead focused on stilling her shaking hands. "No, I'm not okay. And I won't be for a while." Her words echo those spoken 16 years before in a high school gymnasium. Dan's eyes grew wider as he comprehended what she was really saying. Shocked, he could only stare at her.

He finally found his voice. "Are you saying that you're pregnant?" His question was simple, his words echoing the past. She let herself be pulled to her feet and quickly moved out into the relative sanctuary of the kitchen.

"I took a test last week," she admitting, having the grace not to look him in the eye. The results of the test still shocked her. The shock stemmed from a combination of being pregnant sixteen years after her first child along with the state of the baby's conception.

Dan took a step backward. "You've known that you were pregnant with my baby for a week and you're just now telling me?" There was an accusatorial tone to his words and even worst thoughts to accompany it. "Were you going to tell me?"

She winced at his tone for a moment before responding. "Yeah, 'cause it worked out so well the last time I told you." Some pains could be healed by time and kind gestures but other wounds never went away.

Leaning against the wall, Dan considered her words. "I'm sorry. I have no right to be so judgmental." They stood there a moment in awkward silence before she turned away, tears streaking down her face. Walking up behind her, Dan hesitated a moment before putting his arms around her shoulders, folding her into his embrace. They remained there, frozen in time, her tears dropping on his hands. Dan's mind raced at the implications of his impending fatherhood. He sucked at being a parent. He was horrible at putting anyone's needs above his own. And he had two emotionally wounded sons to show for his past parenting efforts. Why would any reasonable power that be give him another chance, so late in life after so many failures?

Her sniffling finally broke the silence, prompting Dan to attempt some kind of comfort. "It's going to be okay, Kar. We'll figure things out." He wanted her to know that they were in this together, for better or worse. Unlike the past, the idea of being a parent didn't seem unpleasant. If anything, he was more prepared to handle a baby now than when he was a kid.

She finally pushed away from him, fighting the panic that had been her constant companion for nearly 3 weeks. "It won't be okay," she firmly stated with only a slight sign of hysteria in her voice. "Lucas is going to go ballistic when I tell him."

He considered her words and realized she was probably right. Lucas couldn't stand the idea of Dan coming to the Café for dinner. He was afraid that the boy would spontaneously combust if he found out there was another tangible tie between his parents. "What are you going to tell him?" Dan asked out of curiosity. "Will you tell him that you are having a baby? Or that we're having a baby?"

Karen looked into his blue eyes and shook her head in confusion. "He'll know you're the father, Dan. It's not like I'm sleeping with anyone else." She forced herself to breathe, knowing that all their lives were going to change. Her fear about Luke's reaction clouded nearly all thoughts from her mind, including any semblance of joy.

"Are you going to let me be part of the baby's life?" Dan asked, almost fearing her answer. He'd put himself out there 16 years before and gotten nothing but hatred in return.

Watching Lucas and Dan over the past months had convinced Karen that she'd made horrible decisions in the past. She'd divided father and son and the results nearly destroyed all of them. She wasn't going to repeat history by cutting Dan out of his baby's life. "You can be as involved as you want to be," she vaguely replied, not wanting to beg him to be part of her baby's life yet again. She'd done that with Lucas and she couldn't bear to plead with Dan to be a father again.

Dan stared at her with an appraising eye. Two could play this game, he thought. "I want joint custody." He didn't want to spend another 16 years regretting his decisions. He could barely sleep at night worrying about Lucas and Nathan and he didn't need another failure chasing his peace away.

She slowly nodded, watching as a giant smile broke out over Dan's face. "We're having a baby," he exclaimed, reaching out to grab her hand. For some reason, for the first time in four babies, Dan finally understood the normal happiness that came with such news. He wasn't a kid anymore, but a grown man with enough resources to take care of a child.

Karen smiled at his reaction, taking comfort in the fact that someone was happy. Every time she let herself relax about the future, thoughts about Lucas generally colored her thoughts. Then she thought about how difficult her pregnancy with Luke had been and started freaking out again. That was 16 years ago and she could only fear how difficult this pregnancy would be. She looked up at Dan and those thoughts melted away. "I hope this one is less difficult," she confessed, fearing the wrath of both their sons.

Haley stretched out on the leather couch, snuggling back into Nathan's large, warm body. The wind made the branches of the elm tree outside tap lightly against the windows, giving a slightly eerie feeling to the Scott's media room. She'd rushed out of the Café so that she could spend a couple of hours with Nathan before going home. Despite the warm, hard body behind her and the flat screen TV in front of her, she remained fixated on the growing wind outside.

"I've got a bad feeling that something wicked this way comes," she cryptically said. Nathan stared down at her a moment, running a finger over her pert nose for a second, before returning his attention to the game. "I think the Knicks are definitely in trouble, but I don't think it's anything dire, Hales."

She sighed at him, knowing that everything revolved around sports this time of year. "I wasn't talking about the game, silly," she said, hitting his chest with her small hand. She always found some way to make contact with him. "I meant that something big is getting ready to hit the fan." Haley couldn't explain her sixth sense. Perhaps growing up in the drama of so many siblings had made her prescient to other people's feelings and behavior. And what people's behavior did when feelings were involved. Karen was an emotional wreck, spontaneously crying and then cleaning the Café from head to toe. Lucas was making everyone's life hell. It seemed like they'd reached a nexus of events, where things were going to collide or resolve. Problem was, Haley couldn't tell if they would get peace or more conflict from such an occurrence.

Nathan finally tuned out the game and focused on Haley's words. "In what way?" She was so much more in tune with things around them, he thought. It was one of the things he really liked about Haley. She tended to pay more attention to the people around her than she did about how her hair looked or what clothes she wore. There was a great deal of substance to her and he was lucky that she gave him the time of day. Where he'd used to fill his free time with mindless girls and sex, he was now content to hold Haley's hand and listen to her talk about her life and her thoughts about anything.

Haley sat up and looked back outside the window. "I thought it was just the fall gloom and doom, you know. The falling leaves and the rustling of the wind around the house," she explained. "But then I realized that it's more than that. It's like change is coming and it's not called winter."

Nathan leaned over and nuzzled her neck, letting his lips get acquainted to her soft skin. "What is our trouble called?" he huskily asked her, as he leaned her back into the soft leather of the couch. She had the softest skin of any female he'd ever touched and the feel of it always drove him crazy with hormonal thoughts.

Haley fought the tingling in her toes for a moment and freed her lips long enough to say. "I think it's Dan and Karen and whatever they've been fighting about the past few weeks. And I think it's huge."

Nathan sat up, his lusty intentions gone. "What is up with those two? We've not gone to the Monday night dinners at the Café for weeks and we're back to eating frozen lasagnas again. That means that something's going on with Karen and Dan."

Haley lowered her eyes at that comment. "I think there's a lot going on between those two and that maybe it's getting more serious." Karen was alternately upset with Dan and yet seemed to miss him deeply when he failed to drop by the Café for coffee. When Haley saw Dan at the Scott house, he seemed sad and lonely, like he was missing his better half. Haley just wanted to shove them together and tell them to go be happy, but that would mean an angry Lucas would be left behind. And no one knew how to handle him. She'd always relied on Karen and Keith to calm him down in the past. And now he was barely speaking to Karen and Keith seemed preoccupied with his wife and future baby.

Nathan sat up and turned to face where Haley sat on the couch. "You think they are getting serious? I mean, I understand random sex and all that. But do you think Dad has long term plans with Karen?" While Nathan was okay with his dad doing Luke's mom, the notion that they were in a real relationship was a bit daunting.

He looked down at Haley and shook his head. "What do I do if they get together and form a family?" He asked Haley, for once, deadly serious. "What if my dad marries Karen and realizes that he doesn't need me?" That had been his worst fear after his mother died, that his dad would remarry and have a new family with someone else. Unlike Lucas, he didn't have an uncle he could go live with.

"Nathan, you don't just get rid of a child because you get together with another person," she said, knowing enough about Dan to understand that he loved Nathan even as he drove him relentlessly on the court. It worried Haley that Nathan saw himself as a disposable product and not as an important part of his father's life.

Haley smiled at his insecurities. She was convinced that she was the only that got to see the vulnerable side of Nathan's personality. Haley grabbed his hand and pulled him down on top of her on the couch. "Nate, you are indispensable to your father. He loves you and he needs you in his life. There is no way you can be replaced with other children. It's going to be okay," she promised, hoping the brewing storm was less destructive than it felt. Thanksgiving was just around the corner and Haley could only hope it would be a festive holiday and not a recipe for disaster.

Lucas threw Brooke's car into park and hesitated a moment before looking over at the very quiet brunette in the passenger seat. "Brooke, I need to know why you needed a deadbolt lock installed on your bedroom door at 2 in the morning." He'd gotten a panicked call from his girlfriend in the middle of the night about her lock. Grudgingly, he'd sneaked out of his house and gone to the 24 hour mega center and bought her a stronger lock. After stealthily installing the damn thing, Brooke had then insisted they forgo sleep and go get breakfast. He wasn't sure why they spent 4 hours in a coffee shop before school, but Lucas was so tired that he could barely run plays at practice. Now he had Whitey on his ass as well as his mother, who wanted to know why he wasn't at home this morning when she left for work.

Sighing, Brooke forced herself to focus on her boyfriend's concern. She was exhausted after several nights of fighting her stepfather out of her room. The deadbolt was a last chance to give her some kind of peace of mind while she was sleeping. "I just need some extra security while I'm asleep," she assuaged, hoping that she didn't sound as frightened as she actually was. The last thing she wanted to tell Lucas was that her fears weren't limited to her step-brother. What kind of freak lived with so many perverts in one house, she wondered.

He pulled her keys out of the ignition and handed them to her. "So you are afraid to sleep at home, even when your stepbrother is away at school and after I installed an industrial strength lock that only you have keys to?" The doubt in his voice caused Brooke great concern. She didn't want to lie to Lucas, but how could she tell him what was going on? She loved him and couldn't risk losing him because of her screwed up family.

She lowered her eyes but grasped his arm firmly. "I just need to get some sleep and then I can go home tomorrow night and take care of things," she said, with a hint of mystery in her words. She wasn't sure how she was going to take care of Trey, but it was past time for a confrontation. She couldn't take much more of this.

Realizing he wasn't going to get anymore information from her tonight, he grabbed her pink backpack from the floor board and got out of the car. The plan was for him to sneak Brooke into his bedroom, go out into the living room enough to placate his mother, and spend a relaxing night asleep. Brooke tiptoed gingerly behind him as they made their way across the porch, carefully avoiding the squeaky boards from past experience.

Once inside, Brooke dropped her backpack and gently warmed her hands over the room's small radiator. Lucas watched her in concern for a moment, before taking off his shoes and getting ready for bed. Hearing the back door slam, both their eyes turned toward the hallway, where they heard footsteps heading for the living room.

Brooke's eyes widened as Dan's voice floated down the hallway. Luke was actually disappointed. After two missed Monday night dinners, he was convinced that Dan had finally taken a hike. Motioning Brooke behind the door, Lucas quietly opened the door so he could eavesdrop. It's not like anyone told him anything these days. The only way he could get any information was from skulking and eavesdropping.

His mother's voice floated down the hall. "I don't think we should do it now," Karen emphatically stated. He could hear Dan restlessly pacing the hardwoods of the living room. He ventured out further down the hall, taking advantage of the house's floor plan to stay out of sight. Luke's concern was building with every sentence. Something big was definitely up.

Dan finally stopped pacing and turned toward where Karen sat folded into the corner of her worn couch. "Karen, nothing good will come from keeping this from Lucas," he stressed, knowing that the boy was much too smart to lie to. "We have to tell him the truth."

Lucas stepped into the room, anxiety clearly written on his face. "What's going on?"

Ducking. I hope that most of the hate mail will not be directed my way. I know I'm taking a lot of time to write this, but the devil is in the details. Or is that Dan? All replies are appreciated, even if you want me to kill off Karen. Hey, that could be the name of the sequel.