lets talk about it

"Oh! My God! I can't do this!" Macy fretted, but Chandler was glad to have her alone even if they were in the band hall after everyone left.

He was putting the tuba away. Marching band might have been over, but there were still a lot competition happening in jazz band.

"I dunno why you ever went home. You, could be with me, and forget about what's his name." He knew it had to be about Gage. It was always about Gage. She never had time to listen to his problems, anymore.

"No. Its my parents. Having, my dad's son around..will make things worse. They barely get along as it is. I'm just waiting for World War Three. I hate their screaming." She told him she wanted to have her own place. She needed to get away before it happened.

"Don't talk like that. You're gonna be OK." Chandler sighed as if he'd have to be her cheerleader. That Gage would always be an ass, in Chandler's book.

"I know my half-brother hates me. He won't say anything to me." She pouted more.

"Well, its going nowhere with Henry. I don't get it. I thought..we had..like this MOMENT, you know." He plopped on the bench next to her and rested his chin on his propped knees. "Now they want me to come with them to this LBGT mixer. God, are they for real? I mean, I can't be around Leo. I just can't."

He looked over at Macy. He doubted she was listening. She wasn't.

"Come on, lets go have ice cream." He nudged her. He knew her true weakness. Waffles and ice cream with chocolate syrup on top. "I got a whole bucket at home waiting for us."

She leaned in on his shoulder.

"I've missed you." He promised.

It was truly a small world. Honestly, Aidan was the last person Scott ever expected to see at work. Even more exciting, his long time college roommate was a father.

"Well, let me check him out." Scott was pretty much on his own at the health clinic.

"Easton, looked so flushed. I ..I didn't know." Aidan seemed a tad nervous, alone with the infant who was in the shopping basket in his carrier. Aidan rolled right into the exam room. There was no waiting. Most everyone had their flu shot by now.

"I'm just a nurse practitioner, but we can get him checked out and see if its an ear infection." Scott went through the protocol of what he generally did. He took the baby's stats. Then he went to the medical computer to see if he could get the baby in for an appointment at the children's hospital.

Luckily, it was barely a fever.

"So... you, never called." Scott wondered what had happened to Aidan. Granted, he'd met Aidan his freshman year while Aidan was finishing up, but Scott always thought the best of Aidan. "I thought you, moved to L.A?" That was the last he'd heard.

"I moved back." Aidan slyly grinned. "Got remarried."

"Oh." Scott felt a little bad that he didn't know. "Well, people still ask me how my big brother's doing." Scott reminded him.

Aidan only grinned as he shook his head. He told him he got that too. Maybe Scott was just a brother from another mother. Aidan now kidded.

"We..we should do something..some time." Aidan then suggested.

"Yeah, right." Scott shrugged. "You, look pretty busy." Scott smirked.

"Well..what about you, did..did you ever get married?" Aidan looked at him blankly.

"No." Scott simply put it. "And.. don't think about fixing me up." Scott looked at him point blank. He remembered match maker Aidan.

"I wouldn't dare." Aidan smiled as Scott wished they could talk longer, but that girl was back from the night before.

Essie turned her head away when she saw the doctor talking to Aidan, Carson's cousin. Maybe he wouldn't remember her. She'd act like she was interested in a pamphlet of some sort. As it was, she'd ditched her cell and she didn't go home.

"You're back?" The doctor looked at her as if they might be old friends and he understood why she told him nothing, like last night. "I thought, you might still be at the battered women's shelter." He'd dropped her off at the shelter around ten. At least, he'd made sure she'd had a place to sleep. "Did you talk to anyone?"

She swelled a frown.

"How can I help you..if..if you tell me..nothing" Scott sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, but I hope you find someone who..who you feel comfortable enough to talk too."

Her nose started to water. She was losing control for no reason, or so she swore to herself. This was no time to get rattled. She did her best to stay poised.

"Remember..when..when..you asked me last night ..if..if I needed to take a pregnancy test?" She sniffed.

He grabbed a box of tissue for her.

"I don't have the baby, anymore." She shook her head.

"OK." He sat next to her on the bench then. "When did this happen?"

"I dunno." She cleared her throat. "A few days ago." She cringed to think of the blood in her bed. But it had only been blood. She'd worked so fierce to make sure her mother would never know.

"And..how..do you feel now?" He went on to say.

She shook her head. She was tired. So tired, but she didn't want to think about being tired. Perhaps it was just the guilt that would not let go of her.

"I think we should go back to the shelter. They can run tests there. You, need to tell them everything." He looked as if he could cry with her. Going to the emergency room was out of the question. She didn't want her parents to know.

"But I'm not like them." She made it sound like a promise.

"Listen, you have to take care of you. There's nothing to be afraid of." He promised.

Essie's face tensed. Her throat felt so raw. All she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and never wake up. She didn't want to think about something dead. Actually, still inside her.