State Of Grace

Chapter 35 - Never Grow Up

After her visitation with Greg and his son, Gracie didn't tell anyone that she'd met her biological brother a few times before. She wanted to tell her family but didn't want to risk getting Jasper in trouble if they somehow passed the information onto Greg. She wanted to tell Sarah, but they weren't on speaking terms. Most of all, she wanted to tell Rachel, but she didn't want to dump even more baggage on the girl who'd become so quick to turn to anger when she was upset.

Since the incident on their phone call, Gracie had been extra careful not to upset Rachel in any way, and so far it seemed to be working; Rachel returned to her usual, loving self again. Now she just had to focus on what was happening with Greg and Jasper.

The following Saturday, Marco drove Gracie to her birth father's house for another court-ordered visitation. The judge had ordered her to get to know her brother one-on-one for an afternoon, and then Greg would take them out for dinner.

Marco had noticed how quiet Gracie had been lately, "Are you okay?" He asked, hoping to get her to open up to him. "Danny said that you and Sarah had some kind of fight, you wanna talk about it?"

She hadn't asked Danny not to tell anyone about their argument, but she'd hoped he'd have the tact to keep it to himself. All of the Tucker kids were similar that way, they shared their thoughts and feelings constantly. Gracie liked it at first, but now it just added to her increasing feelings of guilt.

"I'm fine," she answered bluntly, worried if she showed too much emotion she'd break down and confess everything to him. It was getting harder and harder to keep it all inside, especially now that Sarah knew about Rachel.

"Okay, well if you change your mind I'm here," he smiled.

"I know," she replied.

"Look, I know these visitations stress you out, but your brother isn't the bad guy here, try to focus on getting to know him and forget about your dad."

She shuddered, "Birth Dad."

"Right," he pulled into Greg's driveway and marveled at the house that towered in front of them, "Wow, if you don't wanna live here, maybe I will," he joked.

Gracie wasn't laughing, she got out of the car and slammed the door shut without saying goodbye. She knew he was joking, but it didn't change the fact that she was likely to be forced into living with her birth father and he was making light of it. She was jealous of Marco and her other siblings just for being adopted already.

Greg opened the front door and ushered Gracie inside, being polite as usual, but Gracie had a feeling it was all an act.

"I'm so glad you'll be able to spend some time with your brother, I think the two of you will have a lot to talk about," he smiled excitedly, but still something was off about Greg.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting to know him," she smiled back, remembering what Marco said.

She didn't have anything against Jasper, but she was still a little mad at him for pretending not to know who she was. She just wanted to know why he was lying to his dad about group therapy. She hadn't seen him since the last visitation but Gracie had been thinking a lot about Jasper, and she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"I have some phone calls to make, so I'll be in my office," Greg said as he brought Gracie through the house to the living room where Jasper was watching TV, he smiled nervously. "Jasper, behave."

"Thanks," Gracie said, and Greg left. She walked around the ginormous couch and sat down next to her long-lost brother.

"Hi."

"Hi," Gracie planned to be friendly, but when she saw him she couldn't manage to force a smile.

"I'm sorry," he shifted awkwardly in his seat as his eyes became glassy, "For lying, and everything," he shook his head to try and stifle his tears but one escaped before he caught it with his sleeve.