Chapter Seven: Father Figure
It's been a couple of days since Spencer overheard that phone conversation with Melissa and her mother, well that one side conversation. She heard Melissa say, 'that spencer secret', which meant there's something her mother and sister are hiding from her. She also heard that Michaela's baby daddy could be either Melissa's husband, Ian or her very own father. So, Spencer could have a half-sibling, she doesn't know what to do with this information she learned, is this a group thing to discuss? She's been sitting on this for two days; it was now Friday, and she had to go with Emily to Noel's house tonight while he was on his date with Aria to figure out if he was A. Her head was starting to hurt from all this information she had received recently, and she doesn't know how to act. She's laying in her bed, black clothes on, waiting for Aria to text that she was with Noel, so she can meet up with Emily. What was the Spencer secret?
After having dinner with Ezra, Michaela has been enjoying every moment with him. She's even planning on telling him about Shay, she doesn't know how he's going to react, but she needs to tell him, because they are a packaged deal. All her past boyfriends in LA loved Shay, she was the cutest thing ever. The few that were casual didn't meet Shay, they just met Chaela's bed. The serious ones, there was three of them, her first relationship in LA, was her costar on One Beautiful World, Ross Butler, they dated for two years while they were on the show together. He played her adopted half brother, Nico Hampton, who she finds out that he was dead the whole time. They had fun together and he loved Shay. The relationship just wasn't meant to be, just as friends. The next guy was Adam Brody, they dated for a short period of time, he met Shay, their problem was he was ready to settle down and have kids, she wasn't, but she had a friend who was also looking for the same thing he was. She introduced him to her best friend, Leighton, and they've been together ever since. She loves that she helped write a love story. Her last failed LA romance was her favorite and most recent, she briefly dated Daniel Sharman for a while. They even moved in together, he was close to proposing to her, but she realized she needed to find something. She broke up with him because things were getting serious, and for her to get really serious she needed to find out about Shay's paternity. Its been haunting her for years.
Michaela's been slowly putting her classroom together for the past two days, Principal Newman even offered another job until that one became more of a permanent position. The school was in need of a guidance counselor, and Michaela had the credentials, in between acting and raising Shay, with the lovely help of her nanny Manuela, she earned a degree in child psychology for a good backup. Newman just casually brought it up the other day, when she was talking about how Alison DiLaurentis went missing and was found dead, she just casually brought up that little fact. Newman jumped on and asked her to take that job as well and Michaela was happy about it. She always knew one day she would use the degree, but she hated that fact that it took her ex boyfriends little sister to go missing for her to use it locally. Jason. She hasn't seen him since she's been back, she doesn't even know if he's in town, the last thing she heard about him was that he was looking for his sister's murderer. Her heart breaks for the DiLaurentis family, she knew them, she cared for them.
One of the days Michaela was decorating her classroom, after Newman gave her the title of counselor, Spencer dropped in the classroom which would also be her office temporarily. "Hey, Michaela," Spencer says as she walks in on her stacking manuscripts for some plays in little cubies on the wall. "Need any help?" she asks walking closer. "I'm fine, hey, Spencer, want to talk?" she asks her, trying to get a feel on the conversation. "Yeah, but not as a counselor," she tells her, as she walks to sit down on a couch Michaela set up by her desk. Both ladies walk that way and sit down to be a little more comfortable. "Let's talk." Spencer takes a deep breath and looks at Michaela, "I can't look at you the same," she begins to say, as Michaela gets confused. "I overheard Melissa on the phone with my mother last night, she said that Shay could be Ian's or my dads," Spencer wants to know what's going on, she believes she has the right to know. Michaela doesn't know if she should tell her everything. "Spencer, there's more to that story," she takes a second. "To both stories but yes, Ian and your father, and two more people unfortunately are in still in the running for Shay's paternity," Spencer knew Michaela had a secret, but she wasn't expecting a mama mia type of shock. "I don't want to go into much details but let's just say, it was my senior year, my parents were fighting a lot and I needed a father figure and I took it in the wrong way," she begins to tell her faintly about the affair with Peter. "I needed him more than he needed me, he wanted to escape but our relationship had an expiration date," she finishes off the Peter explanation. Spencer calmly took in the information and wants to know if she knows anything about the 'Spencer secret' Melissa mentioned.
She doesn't know how to casually bring that up. "Thanks, I needed to hear that," she tells her. "You and Melissa were close, is this what separated you?" she ask curiously, Michaela needs to be honest with Spencer, but not completely, she wasn't ready to open to anyone else about the Ian situation, she still hasn't told her mother. She takes a moment. "Ian's responsible for that," she says, not going into more details just keeping it as vague as possible. "It's because of him," she tries to not get so emotional. "What happened?" Spencer tries to get her to go into more, but she can see that she doesn't. "I don't want to talk about that," she tells her and changes the subject. "So, how are you doing in your classes?" she angers Spencer a little. "I'm not a damn child, I need to know, they aren't telling me anything. She mentioned the spencer secret, please tell me you know what that means?" she looks at Michaela pleading with her eyes to tell her. Michaela knows this secret, but it wasn't hers to tell. It was Veronicas, but maybe she could lead Spencer to getting the truth she deserves. She remembers that she has to bring Shay to get swabbed after school today to help find out who her biological father is, she decides to invite Spencer. "What are you doing after school today?" she says to change the subject but also to help her find out. "I have to bring Shay to get some DNA taken, why don't you join me?" she invites her, and Spencer agrees to go, she likes talking to Michaela.
Aria has been feeling giddy ever since she's been flirting with Noel, she loved texting him, but she doesn't know how to feel completely because she was dating Ezra. She's a little distracted while walking to her locker and opening it, Emily walks by her and starts complaining. "What if someone sees us? I can't go to jail," she tells her, she hates this feeling. "You'll be with Spencer, blame her," Aria says after grabbing a book, and closing her locker. "Look, we just need you to find evidence if Noel is A, or not," Aria says, so she can know if she can continue this relationship or not. Noel walks up next to Aria, derailing the conversation to something different. "Hey, you ready for this test? I think you got this, you did really good last night," he says, being supportive. Aria's praying that he's not the one who is also trying to make her life a living hell. She needs to have a stabile relationship she can depend on. "Thanks," she tells him, as he looks at Emily. "So, Em, what's up with your love life?" he questions her, she smirks and walks away. "Please be nice," Aria says. "Was I not?" he asks, just as the bell rings and Aria starts walking to her next class, Noel walks with her. "Just try to be a little nicer, to all my friends," she tells him. "We've been through a lot," she adds as they stop in front of her next class. "I'll be nicer, for you," he says and kisses her cheek, she walks in the room and he walks to his next class.
After school, Spencer drove with Michaela to pick up Shay from school, she looked so cute with her hair in a cute little updo and they drove to the hospital. Spencer, Michaela, and Shay are sitting in a room waiting for the doctor that Veronica set this appointment up with, Michaela also has something else planned. Wren Kingston walks into the room and Michaela takes a deep breath and doesn't exhale. "Mama, breathe," Shay tells her, and she does. "Hi, Miss Marin," he looks at Michaela, then at Spencer. "Spencer," he acknowledges her presence. "You must be Ashland," he leans down, talking to her. "You can call me Shay," she tells him. "Gotcha," he says and looks at Michaela, "I'm Doctor Kingston, I'll be doing the test today, with the help of Nurse Hunter," he says just as a nurse walks into the room with a bunch of supplies. Wren looks over the chart and then looks at Michaela. "Miss Marin, I need to talk to you in private for a second," he says, she looks at Spencer. "Would you mind taking over for a second?" Michaela asks Spencer, who nods her head and agrees. Wren then leads her out of the room, closing the door leaving Spencer, Shay, and the nurse alone. When they are out of the room, he looks at her. "Do you think she'll do it?" Michaela asks in a whisper, keeping an eye on the window looking into the room. She's leaning against the wall on the opposite side but keeping an eye on the window. "I just need you to send her the results, use Shay's DNA, or whatever you have to do" she says watching Spencer swab the inside of her mouth showing Shay how easy it is to do it. Spencer places the swab on the tray and watches as Shay let's the nurse do it for her. "So, either way we could know," Wren makes a point. Michaela is a little confused. "If Spencer is your sister, or her sister," they look at both girls high fiving. "Good job," she hears Spencer tell her. "So, Spencer doesn't know?" he asks, Michaela doesn't know what to say. "No idea," Michaela says, Veronica doesn't know about what she just did but its time she knows the truth. "But it's time that she does," she adds. "Veronica doesn't know. The Hastings hate me already," he tells her, she stands up and looks at him. "I don't care about the Hastings, they were supposed to protect me, and they didn't do a damn thing," she gets a fire in her. "You know if she gets mad enough, she can get me fired," he says, Michaela looks at him, he gives her a look and she backs down. "The truth is going to be revealed, one way or another," she tells him, just as the girls walk out of the room, Michaela sees the nurse picking up spencer's swab and bagging it. "She nailed it," Spencer tells her, then looks at her daughter proudly. "I'm so proud of you," she tells Shay.
Spencer decided to go the Marin's to visit Hanna, Michaela said that she wouldn't mind bringing her home afterwards, so they headed to the house. When they got inside, Shay took her shoes off and dropped her bag by the front door, she saw Hanna laying on the couch. "Aunt Hanna, what are we watching today?" she says excited to see her, and runs up to her, Hanna sits up and takes in the warmth of her niece. "Hey, pretty girl," she says. "I was just browsing; you want to join?" she asks. "Hey, Spencer," she says acknowledging her friend. "Hey," Spencer begins to say. "Why don't the three of us look for a movie to watch?" she asks, joining them on the couch. "Nothing, boring, please," Shay tells them. Michaela walks past them, "I'm going to see what we have for dinner," she walks behind Hanna and kisses her sister's head. "How was your day? Are you ready to go to school yet?" she asks concerned about her sister. Hanna turns around, watching her sister walk off but listening. "I'm ready to be in my heels again," she tells her, making Shay laugh a little. After going through everything, she notices there wasn't much to cook in enough time, so she walks in front of them. "How about I order us take out?" she begins to ask, "Your joining us, right, Spencer," she adds, and Spencer agrees. "Yeah, I'll stay for dinner," she agrees while getting comfortable. "Alright, does Chinese sound good? I can see if mom wants to get it on her way home," she suggests, and everyone agrees including Shay. "I want the pasta stuff, mama," Shay says, while pulling out her phone to call her mother first.
After dinner, Spencer helped pick up their mess while Michaela did the dishes, Hanna and Ashley helped Shay with homework she had. Instead of watching a movie, Spencer and Hanna played dolls with Shay before it was time for bed. "Ok, sweetie, bedtime," Michaela said when she noticed it was getting close. "But mom, I like playing with Aunt Hanna and Aunt Spencer," she says, complaining a little. "Maybe if you ask nicely, Spencer can come over another day and play with you again," Shay gets excited when she hears that and smiles really big at Spencer. "Please," she kind of begs her. "That sounds like a plan," Spencer can't say no to Shay, and tells her. "I can't wait to play with you again," she says, standing up and picking up her few toys. Michaela looks at her mother, sitting at the table sipping on coffee. "I need to tell you guys something, just let me put her to sleep first," Michaela says and walks by Shay, hugging Hanna tightly. "I'm not even tired," Shay says, "Good night," Hanna tells her. Shay moves to Spencer, "Good night, Aunt Spencer," she hugs her, while yawning. "Grandma," she says while running to Ashley and hugging and kissing her good night. "Have sweet dreams," Ashley kisses her forehead.
Michaela brought Shay upstairs, she brushed her teeth and used the bathroom, then she went to the spare bed in Hanna's room where she was sleeping and laid with her, read her, her favorite bed time story and then Michaela kissed her forehead as she watched her daughter slowly fall asleep. "I love you, mommy," Shay tells her, as her eyelids droop. "I love you, too, sweetie," she says as she watches her. "I can't wait to meet my dad," she adds as Michaela gets out of the bed and walks to the bedroom door. She turns off the light and Shay is knocked out asleep. "Me either," she says, as she shuts the door but leaving a small gap open.
When she got downstairs Michaela sees the three women sitting around the table. Hanna in her wheelchair with her leg propped up, she walked to the empty spot and sat down at the table. She doesn't know how to start off this confession. Hanna was the only one who doesn't know about the affair with Peter Hastings, but she wasn't confessing to that. She needed to tell them about the incident with Ian and Garrett, because Michaela was done being the victim. She took a deep breath. "What's this about, sweetie," Ashley tries to comfort her daughter before she even begins. "Breathe," Spencer tells her. Michaela exhales, realizing that Shay usually tells her that. "Mama, I should have told you this when it happened, but I was scared and I went to the wrong people," she begins to say and keeps herself calm. "There was a party my senior year, at Ian's house, I went with Jason. When I got there, I had a drink, Garett handed it to me. I went to go look for Melissa, her and Ian had just broken up again for like the millionth time and she was just bitching about him. I felt weird, I didn't know it at the time but there was something in my drink. Ian gave me another one, again, it was drugged. I just felt tired and dizzy, I just wanted to lay down. Ian…" she stops for a second, getting emotional and then continues. "And Garett brought me up to Ian's bedroom," she starts crying. "I barely remember what happened next, only that they raped me, and I woke up in the middle of the night with my underwear around my ankles." Ashley is pissed, she looks at her daughter. "Why didn't you tell me this? I am your mother, we could've done something," she grabs Michaela's hands that's laying on the table. Spencer's crying a little. "One of them could be her father," she says. Hanna is speechless. "Along with Peter and Jason," Michaela adds, and looks back at her mother. "I was scared and didn't know where to go," she continues. "I went to the Hastings for help, I asked for their help and Veronica basically called me a lying whore," she starts drying her tears and gets a little angry. "Neither one of them did anything, so Ian and Garett are walking around like free men," she says, feeling better by telling her mother what happened. "I'm glad you had the courage to tell us," Hanna says reaching out to her sister, "but I need to know about this Peter thing," she adds, and she tells her a wrapped-up version. "I had an affair with Peter Hastings," she tells her. "So, there's four possible baby daddies?" she says to make sure she fully understood what her sister admitted.
After her confession, she was consoled by the three of them for a little while and then Spencer was ready to get home, so Michaela drove to the Hastings house and walked her to the house. When she walked in, Spencer notices her mom in the kitchen by the counter drinking a glass of wine. "How was dinner at the Marin's," Veronica ask, as Michaela walks in and shuts the door behind her. Spencer doesn't want to talk to her mother after she learned what happened. "It was fine," she says with barely any emotion. "I have some homework," she adds and walks up to her room. Michaela walks up to the counter. "Where's Peter?" she asks out of curiosity; Veronica takes a sip of her wine and answers. "Working late," she says, and wants to pretend to be nice to Michaela for the time being. She wanted to talk to Veronica anyway, she needed to tell her about the paternity test. She walked close to the counter, looking at her. "I know you hate me," she begins to say, "but you might hate me more when I tell you I told my mom, Spencer and Hanna about what happened that night," she tells Veronica who gets mad. "Why would you tell Spencer?" Michaela stands up for herself with Veronica. "She happened to be there, but she should know who her parents let in this house. I told my mother and Hanna, so they wouldn't be surprised if one of them happened to be Shay's father," Michaela informs her and Veronica still upset but kind of understands and then needs to ask something and doesn't know what Michaela will say. "What if Peter is her father? What are you going to do with that?" It took Michaela a second to answer, because she knew there was a 25% chance that Peter is Shay's father. "I would hope he would want a relationship with her," she begins to say. "If he did, maybe eventually you guys can take her every other weekend," she says. Veronica takes a sip of her wine and is trying to be more adult about this whole situation. "I guess we could do that, she is just a child," she agrees. "Have you told Jason anything?" Veronica asks, making Michaela worry about that a little. She hasn't tried to communicate with him, she doesn't even know if he's back in town. "Is he back in town?" she asks Veronica, who stays calm as Peter walks in the front door with his brief case in hand, he places it by the door. "Michaela, it's good to see you," he says greeting her. "Peter," she says greeting back and decides its time to go, she shouldn't stay much longer but wants to finish telling them about the DNA test. "Dr. Kingston said the results should be mailed to me by Monday, so I'll let you guys know as soon as I get them back," she tells Peter as he walks by Veronica who pours him a glass of wine. "If you are this child's father, would you want to be involved in her life?" Veronica asks him straight out wanting to know how he feels. Peter takes a sip of the wine and looks at his wife and then Michaela. He's been thinking about this, he doesn't want this child to grow up without a father figure and two of the father options are assholes. "I haven't told Veronica this, but I know how you feel about Ian and Garrett, and if for some reason I'm not her father and one of them is," he begins to tell Michaela and isn't regretting the choice he has made. "I wouldn't mind being her father either way," he tells Michaela making her cry. Peter's always been a stand up guy, which is one of the reasons Veronica and Michaela fell in love with him.
Michaela walks by him and hugs him, she didn't know that he would do that, she didn't know what she was going to tell her daughter if one of them was her father and to see that Peter would step up, makes her love him for this. "Thank you," she says as they embrace each other. Veronica looks at them, as Michaela breaks away, stepping back and drying her eyes. "Well, there still is another father option," Veronica says bringing up Jason again. "Last I heard, he was back in town," she says and inhales the rest of her glass of wine. Michaela takes a moment and looks at them. "If it comes to it, I think we can make co parenting work," Peter says, confirming how Michaela feels about it. "I think so," she adds. "I should get going, but thanks again, Peter," she says walking by the door. "Good night, Veronica," she says and then exits their house. Veronica is pissed off. "We never discussed that, that was not your choice to make," she tells him, he looks at her. "I made that choice about Spencer, too," he says throwing that in her face, "I love her like my own," he adds and walks away from the conversation.
Outside in her car, Michaela eyes the DiLaurentis house, she doesn't see any sign of life or a car in the driveway. She wondered if Veronica lied to her to get her out of the house, but she knew she needed to talk to him. She took a deep breath and pulled out her cell phone, scrolled through her contact list and found Jason. She hears a voice inside her head telling her to exhale, she presses his name and places the speaker on her ear. She listened to the ringing and eventually the voicemail came up. "You know who you reached, leave a message I might call you back," Jason's voice echoed through the phone and then a beep. "Hey, Jason, it's Chae," she says. "I heard you were back in town, I'd love to talk to you, so call me back, please," she says and hangs up the phone.