Love 'Till You Hate (3/5)
TITLE: Love 'Till You Hate (3/5)
FANDOM: Brothers & Sisters
SUMMARY: When Rebecca decided to visit her father David, she couldn't foresee the change she would be swept up in. Justin's step back, her extended stay with her father, and the reappearance of an ex-girlfriend, all of which tears a fabric once thought unbreakable--her bond with Justin.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS: Justin/Rebecca
GENRE: Angst/Romance
RATING: T
NOTE: Blah. That's how I feel, but I quit putting it off & finally edited this chapter to my liking. Added some stuff, so now it's a tad longer. Anywho, Enjoy.
PART(S): 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5
Jaws dropped when they saw her sitting at the dinner table, laughing and talking with their mother.
Kitty and Robert were there first, and when they first arrived their son ran up to greet his grandmother. Kitty exclaimed and went up to Rebecca and embraces her, and soon enough was questioning her, asking her what she had been doing, why she lost contact, why she was back--and if she was staying.
She could only answer a few of those questions, and she retained the same answers when Kevin went in, asking the same things, but threatening her.
“If you ever leave again, we are hunting you down and moving you into this house just so mom can keep an eye on you 24/7.”
Rebecca laughed, missing the variety of personalities, and the laughter of this family. One by one they trickled in, from Kevin and Scotty to Tommy and Julia. There was, however, the noticeable lack of presence of Sarah.
“So, is Sarah coming?” Rebecca asked after awhile.
“Maybe, she had to tie up some things at the company,” Tommy explained.
“Had to or was too neurotic to leave it for the next day?” Kevin remarked.
Tommy rolled his eyes as a few others chuckled, as Kevin’s comment was the more likely truth.
That topic settled quickly, and around the table everyone threw their questions out to Rebecca, some which she was more than comfortable with answering and others that she would rather leave alone. There were the all the obvious ones they all had, but amidst those were ones that made her uneasy--why was she gone so long? Why didn’t she call? Why did it take her so long to return? Why did she choose to return now?
That last one was made courtesy of Robert, who after listening to the answers she decided to answer, could not make sense of her latest decision. She only smiled embarrassingly, and admitted that she had no real answer, but that a definite reason was that she had to return sooner or later and she couldn’t put it off any longer. The answer sufficed for the moment.
When everyone had asked their questions, and when Nora had told them to stop interrogating her, they turned to complain about Justin’s lateness. Actually, Darrin, Kitty’s son, mentioned Justin first.
“Where’s uncle Justin? I’m hungry?” he had looked up at his grandma with big wide, brown eyes.
The Walkers looked at each other nervously at the mention of his name and eyed Rebecca wearily.
“What?” she glanced at each of them, shrugging.
“Will you be fine with Justin here?” Scotty who still was the same nice, compassionate guy leaned over the table, and asked her in a whisper so Darrin wouldn‘t hear.
“Of course,” Rebecca said immediately,” there’s nothing not to be fine with.”
But when they still looked at her, non-convinced, she sighed and said,” Look, whatever happened, happened. Both of us knew this was a possibility when we were…you know, so it won’t be weird.”
“What won’t be weird?” the curious three-year old asked, looking between the adults.
“Uh, nothing, nothing,” Kitty shrugged and smiled sweetly at him.
And although none of them were completely sure of Rebecca’s statement, they knew pursuing it would be pointless, so they decided to complain about Justin not being on time.
“Whoa, thanks for the bashing.”
Those were the first words she heard from him in over a year and some months, and she felt her throat close up when he spoke them. Everybody looked up at him simultaneously, with eyes of irritation--except hers.
His brothers and sisters began chastising him for being late, but she found herself staring at the arm interloped around his, and she knew everything was not going to be fine. She drew her eyes up to look at his own, and wondered how long it would take until he noticed her. Apparently he could feel her eyes on him, because within seconds, they were turned to hers and his grin fell.
The rest of the table continued their commotion, with a few even greeting Tyler, his girlfriend.
He stared at her for what felt like several minutes, his eyes dilated as they shifted right and left, and felt as though he was digging through her, extracting her, pulling her apart with that one look.
“Rebecca,” he finally spoke, acknowledged that she was sitting at the Walker table.
“Justin,” she breathed after he did.
Everyone quieted down, and they looked between Rebecca and Justin (a few even waiting for some all out brawl to happen).
“You’re Rebecca?” the woman beside him asked, with a smile and curious gaze.
With an obviously fake smile, Rebecca whispered ‘yes’ whilst tearing her eyes away from him.
Tyler slipped her arm from Justin’s and walked to Rebecca.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Tyler,” she then nodded to Justin,” Justin’s girlfriend.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Tyler,” she responded and shook the hand Tyler extended.
“Nora’s told me so much about you--so has Kitty. The way those two talk you up had me nervous for a second!” she laughed.
Rebecca chuckled nervously, but she couldn’t help feeling that she was missing something--or rather that Tyler was missing something.
Kitty, who sat next to Rebecca, leaned over and whispered, “she knows everything, except the fact that you and Justin dated.”
This only angered Rebecca, angered her because he had decided to pretend with his girlfriend that he shared nothing with Rebecca. Angered her because this meant that when he fell back his addiction, he had not told Tyler about his girlfriend. Angered her because she knew one of the steps to sobriety was honesty. Where the hell was the honesty?
But she couldn’t let her anger show, so she pushed aside these feelings and tried to the best of her ability to remain curt throughout dinner to Tyler, who kept talking to her.
Through this, she kept wondering how Justin lied to Tyler, just how he could be with someone for nine months when he wasn’t being completely honest. Or did he just think his relationship with her was too meaningless to even mention?
The whole dinner went by in a whirl, as every once in awhile she could feel his gaze on her, could feel him staring at her, especially when she spoke to Tyler who appeared clueless. Even through the whirlwind, however, it couldn’t end quickly enough.
It seemed as though no disaster on a grand scale was going to occur, which was a relief, but then the doorbell rang.
Nora jumped to get it, and from the dining room they could hear her squeal ‘Sarah!’ soon followed by Nora exclaiming ‘Cooper! Paige!’ which sent immediate alarms off to everyone. Without notice, Justin jumped up from the table and practically sprinted to the door.
Rebecca ran a hand through her hair and she stared at her food, feeling as though something bad was on the cusp of happening.
--
“Sarah--what are Paige and Cooper doing here?” Justin asked when he reached them.
“Well, hell to you too brother. I have had a tiring, but good day, how about you?”
He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.
“Rebecca’s here,” he muttered, explaining to her.
“Really?” she smirked and placed her hands on her hips.
But Justin was not amused and he gave her a pointed look so as to communicate to her why this was not a good situation, but added to the message by actually speaking the words--”And Tyler’s here.”
“Oh,” Sarah’s face fell and then she looked at him in shock after looking around the room,” oh!”
Justin looked around as well, as both realized that their mom and Sarah’s kids had already left them speaking. They rushed into the kitchen immediately.
They were, however, a second too late as they only made it in time to see Paige jabbing Cooper as he exclaimed to Rebecca,” No, you and Uncle Justin weren’t just friends--you were dating!”
“Cooper!” both his sister and his mom hissed.
“What?” he raised his arms,” Mom says it’s never a good thing to lie!”
“We need to talk, mister,” they heard Paige whisper as she tugged her brother off to the living room, and without having to be asked, Darrin followed his cousins.
As the three children walked away, the room was silent, as all family members averted their eyes from Tyler, Rebecca hid her face in her hands, Justin stared at Tyler, and Tyler was left with her mouth agape.
And as soon as the children were in the living room, the words came spilling out of everyone.
“You dated her?” Tyler said in disbelief as she met Justin’s eyes.
“Maybe we should leave you two alone,” Nora stood from her seat.
“No, no, don’t let me intrude this family reunion,” she spit out and lifted herself from the chair.
“Tyler, wait!” Justin began walking towards her, but she moved around him and walked right past him.
“Tyler!”
She stopped in the entrance to the kitchen, glanced quickly at Rebecca, and eyed him.
“Not tonight Justin. Not tonight.”
Those were her last words, and within seconds they could hear the door slam and the Walkers were left among there own--with Rebecca.
“This is all your fault!” he directed at Rebecca.
She looked at him as her chest heaved, and opened her mouth to speak, when Nora intruded.
“No, it’s not. I didn’t tell you all that she was coming to dinner.”
“That’s very true,” Sarah nodded.
“Oh, well that’s mature, Sarah,” Kitty contorted her face.
“Yeah, especially considering that you were the one who brought the kids who knew about Rebecca,” Tommy stood from his seat and walked away into the kitchen, to avoid the brawl, but Sarah followed pursuit.
“They’re just kids, and Joe got sick…!” they could hear her protest as she trailed him.
“I’m going to go check on the kids,” Julia, Tommy’s wife, said in an effort to exit the room.
“Oh this is not going to end well,” Scotty murmured as he sunk into his chair.
“You’re telling me,” Kevin scoffed as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
“You’re just going to sit there?” Nora called on him.
“What am I supposed to do?! Settle this?”
Nora raised an eyebrow at him, so as to say yes, which left him undignified.
“This isn’t even my problem!” he stood up hastily, signaling Scotty to follow him--he knew better than to involve himself in a Walker battle.
When they left, and when the fighting shouts between Tommy and Sarah could no longer be heard, Nora, Justin, and Rebecca remained in the dining room, with the two young adults refusing to make eye contact. The anger and frustrations were written clearly across their faces, with Justin pacing and Rebecca tapping her foot impatiently.
“Okay, okay, we all know nothing is going to be resolved tonight,” Kitty said softly, to not disturb the quiet air filled with so much tension too much.
“Justin, you should head off to your old room,” she said, in a tone that sounded more like demand than a suggestion.
He didn’t fight it, and simply nodded to her before he headed off. Then Kitty turned to Rebecca, and she placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Do you think you can drive home?”
Rebecca looked up at her and nodded as she swiped at the droplets of water that had begun forming when Justin looked at her so bitterly as Tyler left.
“Yeah, yeah.”
But Nora would not have that, and in a firm voice said,” You’re not thinking clearly, it’s dark, and it’s late. You should stay here.”
There was no question as to whether this was her motherly advice or her motherly command.
“You can stay in the same bedroom as before--aside from some tidying up, it remains the same and you still have some clothes left here, so there’s no reason why you can‘t stay. Understood?”
Rebecca sighed and bit her lip--”okay.”
As Rebecca answered Nora, she thought that at least, during this whole ugly mess , she had managed to avoid a lone moment with Justin the entire night.
FANDOM: Brothers & Sisters
SUMMARY: When Rebecca decided to visit her father David, she couldn't foresee the change she would be swept up in. Justin's step back, her extended stay with her father, and the reappearance of an ex-girlfriend, all of which tears a fabric once thought unbreakable--her bond with Justin.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS: Justin/Rebecca
GENRE: Angst/Romance
RATING: T
NOTE: Blah. That's how I feel, but I quit putting it off & finally edited this chapter to my liking. Added some stuff, so now it's a tad longer. Anywho, Enjoy.
PART(S): 1 l 2 l 3 l 4 l 5
Jaws dropped when they saw her sitting at the dinner table, laughing and talking with their mother.
Kitty and Robert were there first, and when they first arrived their son ran up to greet his grandmother. Kitty exclaimed and went up to Rebecca and embraces her, and soon enough was questioning her, asking her what she had been doing, why she lost contact, why she was back--and if she was staying.
She could only answer a few of those questions, and she retained the same answers when Kevin went in, asking the same things, but threatening her.
“If you ever leave again, we are hunting you down and moving you into this house just so mom can keep an eye on you 24/7.”
Rebecca laughed, missing the variety of personalities, and the laughter of this family. One by one they trickled in, from Kevin and Scotty to Tommy and Julia. There was, however, the noticeable lack of presence of Sarah.
“So, is Sarah coming?” Rebecca asked after awhile.
“Maybe, she had to tie up some things at the company,” Tommy explained.
“Had to or was too neurotic to leave it for the next day?” Kevin remarked.
Tommy rolled his eyes as a few others chuckled, as Kevin’s comment was the more likely truth.
That topic settled quickly, and around the table everyone threw their questions out to Rebecca, some which she was more than comfortable with answering and others that she would rather leave alone. There were the all the obvious ones they all had, but amidst those were ones that made her uneasy--why was she gone so long? Why didn’t she call? Why did it take her so long to return? Why did she choose to return now?
That last one was made courtesy of Robert, who after listening to the answers she decided to answer, could not make sense of her latest decision. She only smiled embarrassingly, and admitted that she had no real answer, but that a definite reason was that she had to return sooner or later and she couldn’t put it off any longer. The answer sufficed for the moment.
When everyone had asked their questions, and when Nora had told them to stop interrogating her, they turned to complain about Justin’s lateness. Actually, Darrin, Kitty’s son, mentioned Justin first.
“Where’s uncle Justin? I’m hungry?” he had looked up at his grandma with big wide, brown eyes.
The Walkers looked at each other nervously at the mention of his name and eyed Rebecca wearily.
“What?” she glanced at each of them, shrugging.
“Will you be fine with Justin here?” Scotty who still was the same nice, compassionate guy leaned over the table, and asked her in a whisper so Darrin wouldn‘t hear.
“Of course,” Rebecca said immediately,” there’s nothing not to be fine with.”
But when they still looked at her, non-convinced, she sighed and said,” Look, whatever happened, happened. Both of us knew this was a possibility when we were…you know, so it won’t be weird.”
“What won’t be weird?” the curious three-year old asked, looking between the adults.
“Uh, nothing, nothing,” Kitty shrugged and smiled sweetly at him.
And although none of them were completely sure of Rebecca’s statement, they knew pursuing it would be pointless, so they decided to complain about Justin not being on time.
“Whoa, thanks for the bashing.”
Those were the first words she heard from him in over a year and some months, and she felt her throat close up when he spoke them. Everybody looked up at him simultaneously, with eyes of irritation--except hers.
His brothers and sisters began chastising him for being late, but she found herself staring at the arm interloped around his, and she knew everything was not going to be fine. She drew her eyes up to look at his own, and wondered how long it would take until he noticed her. Apparently he could feel her eyes on him, because within seconds, they were turned to hers and his grin fell.
The rest of the table continued their commotion, with a few even greeting Tyler, his girlfriend.
He stared at her for what felt like several minutes, his eyes dilated as they shifted right and left, and felt as though he was digging through her, extracting her, pulling her apart with that one look.
“Rebecca,” he finally spoke, acknowledged that she was sitting at the Walker table.
“Justin,” she breathed after he did.
Everyone quieted down, and they looked between Rebecca and Justin (a few even waiting for some all out brawl to happen).
“You’re Rebecca?” the woman beside him asked, with a smile and curious gaze.
With an obviously fake smile, Rebecca whispered ‘yes’ whilst tearing her eyes away from him.
Tyler slipped her arm from Justin’s and walked to Rebecca.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Tyler,” she then nodded to Justin,” Justin’s girlfriend.”
“It’s nice to meet you too, Tyler,” she responded and shook the hand Tyler extended.
“Nora’s told me so much about you--so has Kitty. The way those two talk you up had me nervous for a second!” she laughed.
Rebecca chuckled nervously, but she couldn’t help feeling that she was missing something--or rather that Tyler was missing something.
Kitty, who sat next to Rebecca, leaned over and whispered, “she knows everything, except the fact that you and Justin dated.”
This only angered Rebecca, angered her because he had decided to pretend with his girlfriend that he shared nothing with Rebecca. Angered her because this meant that when he fell back his addiction, he had not told Tyler about his girlfriend. Angered her because she knew one of the steps to sobriety was honesty. Where the hell was the honesty?
But she couldn’t let her anger show, so she pushed aside these feelings and tried to the best of her ability to remain curt throughout dinner to Tyler, who kept talking to her.
Through this, she kept wondering how Justin lied to Tyler, just how he could be with someone for nine months when he wasn’t being completely honest. Or did he just think his relationship with her was too meaningless to even mention?
The whole dinner went by in a whirl, as every once in awhile she could feel his gaze on her, could feel him staring at her, especially when she spoke to Tyler who appeared clueless. Even through the whirlwind, however, it couldn’t end quickly enough.
It seemed as though no disaster on a grand scale was going to occur, which was a relief, but then the doorbell rang.
Nora jumped to get it, and from the dining room they could hear her squeal ‘Sarah!’ soon followed by Nora exclaiming ‘Cooper! Paige!’ which sent immediate alarms off to everyone. Without notice, Justin jumped up from the table and practically sprinted to the door.
Rebecca ran a hand through her hair and she stared at her food, feeling as though something bad was on the cusp of happening.
--
“Sarah--what are Paige and Cooper doing here?” Justin asked when he reached them.
“Well, hell to you too brother. I have had a tiring, but good day, how about you?”
He rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.
“Rebecca’s here,” he muttered, explaining to her.
“Really?” she smirked and placed her hands on her hips.
But Justin was not amused and he gave her a pointed look so as to communicate to her why this was not a good situation, but added to the message by actually speaking the words--”And Tyler’s here.”
“Oh,” Sarah’s face fell and then she looked at him in shock after looking around the room,” oh!”
Justin looked around as well, as both realized that their mom and Sarah’s kids had already left them speaking. They rushed into the kitchen immediately.
They were, however, a second too late as they only made it in time to see Paige jabbing Cooper as he exclaimed to Rebecca,” No, you and Uncle Justin weren’t just friends--you were dating!”
“Cooper!” both his sister and his mom hissed.
“What?” he raised his arms,” Mom says it’s never a good thing to lie!”
“We need to talk, mister,” they heard Paige whisper as she tugged her brother off to the living room, and without having to be asked, Darrin followed his cousins.
As the three children walked away, the room was silent, as all family members averted their eyes from Tyler, Rebecca hid her face in her hands, Justin stared at Tyler, and Tyler was left with her mouth agape.
And as soon as the children were in the living room, the words came spilling out of everyone.
“You dated her?” Tyler said in disbelief as she met Justin’s eyes.
“Maybe we should leave you two alone,” Nora stood from her seat.
“No, no, don’t let me intrude this family reunion,” she spit out and lifted herself from the chair.
“Tyler, wait!” Justin began walking towards her, but she moved around him and walked right past him.
“Tyler!”
She stopped in the entrance to the kitchen, glanced quickly at Rebecca, and eyed him.
“Not tonight Justin. Not tonight.”
Those were her last words, and within seconds they could hear the door slam and the Walkers were left among there own--with Rebecca.
“This is all your fault!” he directed at Rebecca.
She looked at him as her chest heaved, and opened her mouth to speak, when Nora intruded.
“No, it’s not. I didn’t tell you all that she was coming to dinner.”
“That’s very true,” Sarah nodded.
“Oh, well that’s mature, Sarah,” Kitty contorted her face.
“Yeah, especially considering that you were the one who brought the kids who knew about Rebecca,” Tommy stood from his seat and walked away into the kitchen, to avoid the brawl, but Sarah followed pursuit.
“They’re just kids, and Joe got sick…!” they could hear her protest as she trailed him.
“I’m going to go check on the kids,” Julia, Tommy’s wife, said in an effort to exit the room.
“Oh this is not going to end well,” Scotty murmured as he sunk into his chair.
“You’re telling me,” Kevin scoffed as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
“You’re just going to sit there?” Nora called on him.
“What am I supposed to do?! Settle this?”
Nora raised an eyebrow at him, so as to say yes, which left him undignified.
“This isn’t even my problem!” he stood up hastily, signaling Scotty to follow him--he knew better than to involve himself in a Walker battle.
When they left, and when the fighting shouts between Tommy and Sarah could no longer be heard, Nora, Justin, and Rebecca remained in the dining room, with the two young adults refusing to make eye contact. The anger and frustrations were written clearly across their faces, with Justin pacing and Rebecca tapping her foot impatiently.
“Okay, okay, we all know nothing is going to be resolved tonight,” Kitty said softly, to not disturb the quiet air filled with so much tension too much.
“Justin, you should head off to your old room,” she said, in a tone that sounded more like demand than a suggestion.
He didn’t fight it, and simply nodded to her before he headed off. Then Kitty turned to Rebecca, and she placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Do you think you can drive home?”
Rebecca looked up at her and nodded as she swiped at the droplets of water that had begun forming when Justin looked at her so bitterly as Tyler left.
“Yeah, yeah.”
But Nora would not have that, and in a firm voice said,” You’re not thinking clearly, it’s dark, and it’s late. You should stay here.”
There was no question as to whether this was her motherly advice or her motherly command.
“You can stay in the same bedroom as before--aside from some tidying up, it remains the same and you still have some clothes left here, so there’s no reason why you can‘t stay. Understood?”
Rebecca sighed and bit her lip--”okay.”
As Rebecca answered Nora, she thought that at least, during this whole ugly mess , she had managed to avoid a lone moment with Justin the entire night.