Generation 2, Chapter 19 - Calm Before the Storm

Calm Before the Storm

 

The months leading up to the girls wedding were filled with excitement. The girls dragged their Dad out dress shopping and tuxedo fittings. Adam tried to get out of most of the tedious shopping excursions but found he couldn't avoid the tuxedo fitting.  He dragged his protesting son with him. Upon arriving at the bridal store, Heath launched himself into a tantrum refusing the attempts of the assistants to fit him for his tuxedo. Adam watched attempting to smother his giggles and wished he could throw his own tantrum.

"Do something," Doloris demanded by his side "he's embarrassing us."

"Not us, you." Adam stated. She shot him a look that would have shriveled a lesser person. Sighing Adam knelt down beside his son "Heath, honey I know you don't want to be here but the sooner you let these nice people fit you for your tux the sooner we can go."

"No I don't want to," Heath protested louder.

Running his hands through his hair Adam asked "Do you want to be part of your Aunts wedding?" Sniffling Heath nodded crossing his arms. "Then you need to be fitted for a tuxedo. Grandpa and I have been and you watched. It wasn't that bad, was it?"

Heath began to nod his head only to stop mid way, sticking his lip out he shouted "no I don't want to."

Shaking his head in frustration, Adam felt like shrugging and letting him have his way. He sensed that would only upset his sisters so he pressed on "Heath why don't you want to do this?"

Coming close to whisper in his Dad's ear, Heath said "I'm not a monkey."

Adam quickly smothered a smile, choking down a chuckle "of course you not. What gave you that idea?"

Heath turned away, hanging his head "Dean."

 

"The boy from the bus?" Adam asked "the one whose always picking on you?"

Heath nodded his head "he said only monkeys wear tuxedos."

"This is ridiculous," Doloris grunted becoming irritated. "Just make him do this so we can leave."

"You're not helping," Adam glared at her. He knew his son well enough to know he wasn't going to do anything he didn't want to do. The best way to handle this was to get him to reason through his feelings. Turning his attention back to his son he asked "Do you think your Grandpa or me are monkeys?" Heath shook his head no. "But we'll be wearing tuxes."

"That's different," Heath muttered.

"How?" Adam continued pressing him to reason it through.

"I don't know," he mumbled. "I guess there isn't any." Sighing he looked up at his Dad "Alright I'll do it.

"Good," Adam said ruffling his hair.

**********

 

A couple weeks before the wedding everyone gathered for Brian's college graduation. It was the first time Brian introduced them to his girlfriend. "Shannon this is my brother Adam."



Shannon gave him a shy smile shaking his hand, "it's nice to meet you."

"I've heard so much about you," Adam said smiling warmly at her. Shannon looked at Brian a twinkle in her eyes as she said "all nice I hope."

"Nothing but praise," Adam confirmed. "I've never seen him so happy."

"I'm glad," turning to Brian she asked "Brian could you get me something to drink?"

"Sure honey," Brian said kissing her cheek. Turning to Adam he said "remember this girl's taken."

Adam smiled knowing Brian was joking as he replied "pity I always did enjoy a challenge." After Brian left Adam looked at Shannon "what did you want to talk about that you sent Brian away?"

Sighing sadly Shannon said "Brian talks highly of you and I hope you will help me convince him to ... I don't know, not get his hopes up that I'll marry him." She looked at Adam with tears swimming in her eyes "I don't want to hurt him but I can't let him waste his life with me."

Motioning for her to follow him over to a bench so they could talk Adam asked "Do you love him?"

"What?" she asked surprised "of course I do. That's why I don't want to get involved with him."

"It's too late for that, you're already involved," Adam told her. "I know Brian, he'd be more hurt if you shut him out. He knows about your illness and the odds of you staying in remission. He loves you and wants to be with you regardless of how long that might be."

"How could he? He doesn't know what it's like to live in fear of it coming back or how it effects those you love."

"That's where you're wrong," Adam said taking her hand he explained. "Our Dad had cancer and we thought we were going to lose him before it went into remission," he said omitting the cure from the future, sticking to the official story. "He knows what it's like to watch someone he cares about slowly fade away. He's strong enough to risk going through it again because he loves you." Looking straight into her eyes he asked "Do you love him enough to let him?"

Wiping tears from hers she smiled at him "I never thought of it like that. I do love him and I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping him at a distance." Looking up her face brightened as she spotted Brian walking towards them .

"So did you have a nice chat?" Brian asked them.

"Yes we did," Shannon told him, turning to Adam she hugged him. "Thank you," she whispered in his ear.

"Glad I could help," Adam whispered back. He left them to discuss things. It wasn't long afterwards that Adam received a call from Brian announcing his engagement. Adam was somewhat depressed after receiving the news. Somehow he felt jealous of all his siblings, they were all happy, moving on with their lives and here he was living at home, raising his son alone. It wasn't the way he envisioned his life turning out like.

**********

 



The day of the wedding dawned and Adam tried to share in the joy but he felt like a stranger looking in. He sighed feeling weighed down and unsure of himself. He wanted what they had but he couldn't overcome his fear to put himself out there. He looked at his reflection in the mirror wondering when he had become so emotionally stunted, unable to move forwards, always looking behind waiting for the next catastrophe to happen. He wondered when he stopped looking forwards to the future, he no longer felt there was going to be a happy ever after for him. Sighing as he finished dressing, he looked in the mirror one last time before joining the others.

His Dad was there talking to Kanoa Parrott, as he emerged from the room his father excused himself and came up to him "are you ok?" Adam shrugged remaining silent. "I know this is going to be difficult day for you," Peter said putting his hand on Adam's shoulder "but you're doing great."

"How did you know?" Adam marveled at his Dad and how he always knew how he was feeling.

"I was once in your shoes," Peter told him "feeling that happiness and love was for other people not me." Turning to face Adam he continued "I do understand. I'll always remember my mom telling me I would meet someone I could share my life with. At the time I didn't believe her. I felt like one catastrophe was enough."

Adam chuckled at that "yeah I know the feeling. I always seem to be looking over my shoulder, expecting something awful to happen."

"You can't let Windy ruin your future, son. She's not worth it. There's someone out there for you. You just have to be open to it."

"I know," Adam sighed "but how do you overcome the fear of making the same mistake twice."

"Time, give yourself time," Peter said giving him a hug. "Trust me it'll happen."

The wedding was about to begin and Adam found himself standing beside Ethan watching his father walking the girls down the aisle. He smiled, thinking his sisters never looked more beautiful or happy than at this moment.

**********

 

Heath was enjoying his time off from school, playing in the tree house with Grace. One evening while they enjoyed the cool breeze Heath said "Gracie?"

"Yeah," Grace replied waiting for him to continue.

"Do you think the aliens will come back?"

"Probably, why?"

"I don't want them to take my Dad," Heath stopped swiping at a tear that ran down his cheek. "What if they don't bring him back next time?"

"Then you'll live with us and my Dad will become your Dad."

"No I don't want Grandpa to become my dad. I want my own Dad." Heath fell silent unsure how to explain his feelings. He knew Grandpa loved him and would take care of him like he did before but it wasn't the same. He missed his Dad all the time he was gone. He had tried to be brave but at night, alone in his room he would cry himself to sleep. He worried all the time now that something would happen to his Dad and he'd be left alone. His Dad was everything to him. He stared silently into the night until Grace jolted him out of his thoughts.

"Do you miss having a mom?" she asked.

 Heath shrugged "I never had one, so I'm not sure what I'm missing. But I'm sure a mom wouldn't be any better than Grandma Jean."

"Yeah she's the best mom in the whole world," Grace agreed. She fell silent looking at him for awhile before asking "would you want to meet your mom if you had the chance?"

"No," he replied without thinking then added "well maybe just to ask her why. Why she didn't want me, why did she hate my Dad that her new husband hurt him. She's a bad person and I wish she wasn't my mom." He wiped tears away as he added "do you think I'll be a bad person because I come from her?" It was a thought that troubled him often.

"Don't be silly," Grace laughed at him. "Your dad's not a bad person and neither is your Grandpa. You came from both of them too, didn't you?"

Looking at her, thinking over what she told him, he smiled in relief "you're right."

"See you just have trust your Auntie Grace," she said smugly. "Now let's play."

**********

The next morning Heath was in his room playing on his horse, pretending to be a cowboy chasing the bad guys. His Dad came in watching him with a smile on his face. Heath noticed he was still in his pajamas and he asked "Dad did I wake you up?"

"You did," Adam told him leaning against the wall "but it's ok. It gives us a chance to be alone before everyone else gets up." He smothered a yawn, wondering how his son had become such a morning person.

Heath smiled at him getting off his horse. "Dad do you think I could have a real one?"

"A real one what?" Adam asked feeling he had missed a beat.

"A horse, a real horse," Heath said jumping up and grabbing onto Adam's arm. "Please I'll take care of it. You wouldn't have to do anything."

Adam laughed as he flexed his arm. He was definitely stronger, almost back to the way he was before the accident. "Heath you don't know anything about taking care of a horse and neither do I."

"We can learn," Heath persisted turning puppy dog eyes towards his Dad. "Please," he pleaded.

Shaking his head Adam fought himself not to give in. Then he thought of an alternative "how about we get you signed up for riding lessons? Would you like that?"

"On a real horse?" Adam nodded. "Yipee," Heath shouted jumping up and down in excitement. Then running into his fathers arms "you're the best. Thank you."

**********

Later that evening Doloris and Elias came over for supper. Afterwards Doloris whispered in his ear and smiled. Clearing his throat Elias announced "we want you all to be the first to hear that we're expecting twins."

Doloris nodded her head smiling around the table at everyone. "We just found out today. Our house is really going to be crowded."

"If you need help finding ..."

"Dad thank you but it's not necessary," Doloris said cutting him off. "We've been planning an addition to the house for a while. We'll just do it sooner rather than later."

"Plus Corina and Ethan will be moving in. So we'll have plenty of help when the babies arrive."

"How's Ethan doing since he lost his job?" Adam asked.

"A little depressed but excited at a chance to try something new," Elias said.

"Corina has gone back to work as a dispatcher at the police department," Doloris added. "They'll be back on their feet in no time."

"With Ethan out of work we have a built in nanny for when the twins arrive," Elias joked. "Seriously though I hope it doesn't take that long. With both of us home it's getting a bit old."

"How's the novel coming?" Jean asked.

"Not well," Elias shrugged "writers block and too many distractions. It'll get done but I'm not sure it'll be any good."

"It'll be good," Doloris told him.

"I hope you're right. I can't afford too many flops on my resume." Turning to Doloris Elias said "Honey it's getting late and you have the early shift tomorrow. We should be going."

"Thanks for supper," Doloris said to Jean, giving everyone a hug goodnight.

**********

After putting Heath to bed, Adam went outside feeling restless and dissatisfied with how his life was progressing. He couldn't seem to get a grip on things and he felt more and more like his life was stagnating while everyone else was leaving him behind. It was time he made some changes and started working towards his goals again.

His phone began to vibrate, pulling it out he answered it without looking at the caller ID. "Hello" his greeting was answered by silence. He said hello again and still nothing but silence. He was about to disconnect when a familiar voice spoke in his ear. "I want to see my son."

Shaking his head Adam disconnected the call without acknowledging her. His mind racing he wondered how she had gotten his number. He had it changed after the last time she harassed him, shrugging he made a mental note to get a new number in the morning and to tell the police that Windy was contacting him again. Sighing he walked slowly towards the house wondering when the next confrontation would come. So distracted by her call Adam didn't notice the alien ship above him or the light that enveloped him until it was too late. He was gone before he even knew he was in trouble.