Modern Family

Covering the Bases

He never thought he'd feel betrayed by a bag of gummy worms.

All he wanted was some sweet, chewy goodness to help in his creative process during that morning's songwriting session, and somehow, he'd ended up in a situation which put him completely out of his element.

He chose the drug store over the supermarket, partly because it fell on his way to Austin's house anyway and partly because he knew they didn't sell candy in such large quantities, which meant his self-control wouldn't be quite as tested. Once inside, he wound his way through the aisles to the row of candy at the back and selected enough bags of gummy worms to tide him over for the morning before picking out Austin's favorite chocolate sweets as well because Jace had a feeling he was going to end up being late and perhaps the presence of candy would lessen the bassist's glares in the lead singer's direction.

It was while he was on his way towards the cash register that everything went wrong.

Out of habit, his eyes scanned quickly down every aisle as he walked to the front of the store, not sure what exactly he was looking for, but looking nonetheless. Most of the time, he didn't see anyone he recognized, but he liked to keep an eye out for the off chance that he ran into an old friend. They spent so much time away from home that it was always nice to coincidentally bump into someone he hadn't seen for a while.

Of course, the person he spotted this time wasn't exactly an old friend, it was Connor, Savannah's...friend that was a boy.

Jace actually had no problem whatsoever with Connor, but that didn't mean the lead vocalist was quite ready to accept the fact that his baby girl had a boyfriend. When Savannah had first told him the news, blushing and wide eyed and excited when she sashayed through the front door after dance, he had smiled as convincingly as possible and told her that he was happy for her.

Things hadn't worked out with Toby, the first boy Savannah had ever told her father about, because he decided that he wanted to focus on his swimming in hopes of getting a scholarship to a university, a decision Savannah completely respected, so they'd ended up staying friends. Jace would be lying if he said he hadn't been a little ecstatic that he no longer had to worry about his daughter's love life, but the relief was short lived, because about three weeks after her sixteenth birthday, she dropped the news about Connor, the boy she sat behind in history class.

Over time, he truly had grown to like Connor. The sixteen year old debate team captain had spent many an evening in the Russo house, having dinner with Savannah and Jace before getting some quality couch time with Savannah, under the watchful eye of Jace, of course, who would make it a point to walk by the room every ten minutes or so to ensure they weren't doing anything he didn't approve of.

So when Jace saw Connor in the drug store, his first instinct was to turn the corners of his lips upwards into a smile and greet the teenager warmly, but that was until Jace noticed exactly which aisle the boy was standing in. His eyes slowly widened in horror as he watched Connor select a box of condoms from the shelf and turn away from Jace to go pay for them at the register.

Frozen and unsure of what to do, Jace stood in the central aisle of the store, his lips parted in shock and his eyes bugging out until Connor successfully paid for his items and stepped outside. In his mind, Jace had ripped the box from the boy's hands and told him firmly to get out of the store, but in reality, he had just watched it happen and now Savannah's boyfriend was on his way to do something that Jace didn't want to think about.

The only solace he got from not reacting to the situation was that Savannah was spending the night at the house of a friend from her ballet classes, going straight there as soon as her daily lesson was completed, which was the reason Austin had invited the boys over to hang out, which would undoubtedly turn into an impromptu jam session after his kids were safely tucked away in bed.