Seal Team- Lost and Alone

Chapter 36

The next morning Jason takes Mickey to breakfast before going go carting. "Dad, does Ryan call you Puppy?" Mikey smiles.
"Ha! Actually he does. I'm not sure why, but when me and Sonny went with Josh to the police station to pick up him and TJ...."
"Police station!!,"
"Uh, that's a long story.  But he started calling" me that there, and hasn't stopped."
"Dad, it's really cute.  He lights up when he calls you that, ya know?"
"No one else is allowed to call me it, but Ryan, and I don't want any one making fun of it either.  To him that's who I am.  He may never call me daddy," Jason looks sad, "so if that's his special name for me.....  I don't want anyone besides you and your sister calling me dad, and I don't want anyone else calling me Puppy."

"I get it dad. I don't want anyone else calling you that. I think that's his way of calling you daddy."

Thy spent the rest of the day riding go carts. And having a really good time. They got home and Mikey had abou 30 minutes to get ready to leave."
"I'm glad you came home Mike. I hope I see more of you. I know you probably had a party this weekend, and I appreciate you making a huge effort for Ryan. I love you" he says, giving his son a big hug.

"I love you too dad, and I wanna get to knew Ryan, so you'll be seeing more of me," he hugs his dad back. He grabs his bag and runs out to the car,"tell Sonny I said bye, and thanks for helping."
Jason closes the door and takes a seat in his recliner. He turns on the tv, and starring back at him is Scooby Doo. "Kid you're bent on having me think about you every second of the day, aren't you,?"

"Ya know first sign of crazy is talkin to yourself," Sonny says walking in the room.  
"Hey man, didn't think I'd see you til later."
"Well, I finished my business, and thought i should catch up on some sleep.  Been burning the candle at both ends." Sonny says.
"Yah, me too.  Oh Mikey said to tell you bye and thanks for all the help.  So what's that about?"
"Well, Mikey asked me help him move his stuff down the hall, so Ryan could have his room across from you. "
"Really?  He wanted to do that?"
"Yep, he actually asked me last night to help him, so we did the big stuff while you were in the garage with Trent and Brock this morning.  I did the rest while you guys were out.."
"Thanks Sonny.  I can't believe he did that.  I told him it was fine, I could move down the hall.  I didn't mind."
"Jace, Mikey really wanted to do it.  He wants Ryan to have a nice room and be close to you.  You raised a good kid there."
"Alanna raised a good kid.  I jumped on the bandwagon."
"You both raised 2 good kids." Sonny replies.

"I'm gonna ride in with you tomorrow, thst ok?"
"That's good Son, I figured no sense taking two cars unless one of us have something to do after."
"I'm gonna crash.  Don't wake me to run, I'm sure we will do it tomorrow on base."
Sonny heads to his room, and Jason heads upstairs.

Monday morning comes to quick and both of them are running late.  They have a meeting with Eric first thing, so they are both rushing around.  "You ready man, Jason asks?"
"Two minutes, I'll meet you in the truck."
Jason goes out and  starts the truck when he gets a phone call. 
"Morning Jason, how are you?"
"Hey Matt, I'm good, how are you?"
"I'm good.  The reason for my call is I wanted you to know I've heard back from the agency. Their response is that they will take it under advisement and will make a final decision in the next 30 days."
"Matt, can they do that?"
"Yah, they can.  Now, we have options.  .  We can go along with it, and wait the 30 days for their decision that may or may not be favorable.  If unfavorable it will then   require us to petition the court, and have a judge order it.  That could take 2 months.  So total it would be about 3 months until you could get the test.  Second option, we could counter them with giving them 2 weeks to make a decision while setting a test date in 14 days in the event the decision is favorable.....  If unfavorable, we would still need to petition the court, and wait for a hearing.  The last option is to just go ahead and file a petition in orphans court and prove there is enough evidence for the judge to order a test.  To get a court date will take at least 30 days."
Jason is on the other end rubbing his temples.  Sonny got in the truck about halfway through sitting quietly sensing Jason is talking with his lawyer.
"Now, before you start weighing your options let me add some pros and cons.  Option one keeps you on friendly terms with the agency that could be helpful in the future, but it lengthens this process greatly, with no guarantee things will remain friendly.  Option 2, keeps things friendly, but if after 14 days they still deny the request, we would still need to file a petition and wait for a court date.  Now thr 3rd option gets the ball rolling quickly but sends the message we are pulling out all the stops and are not interested in being friendly and working together.  But with this, if your story gets out,  I mean us not leaking it, that puts you and your job on the hot seat.  The press  will eat this story up, they will look, and dig and find any and everything that had happened and you have done you're entire life.  Now this will not affect Ryan, he will not know what's going on, both your older children will.  And with them being over the age of 18, they are fair game.  If the story gets big enough, they may be pressured  by reporters.  This will probably not happen but I have to tell you, it could happen."
I feel we have one last option I would like you to think about.  It's risky, but I want to put it on the table.  We could go straight to the media with the story.  Sharing with them that the county is denying a paternity test for a child who has spent his entire life in the system.  I have a really good friend who is a reporter,  the pros of this is the public getting the story directly from you, and getting their sympathy, and having them on your side, and putting pressure on everyone involved.  Both the agency and court system will know they are being watched very carefully and will be very cautious in everything try do.  The cons are we're going to piss off a lot of people.  The judge could go either way, but there is a chance they will be pissed also.  Your life will be completely exposed.  The public will definetly want to know about you're other children and how they feel about the situation. 
I'm really sorry Jason, I wish they would have just submitted to the test, but I was prepared for them to put up a fight.