On Wednesday afternoon, JC pulled in to the parking lot of a high school located in Thousand Oaks. He could hear the cheers coming from the field without even exiting his vehicle. He missed the start of McKenzie's meet. He hadn't been sure if he was going to attend or not. McKenzie hadn't talked to him since Saturday. Every message he sent went unanswered. She was reading them, just not answering.

While Rachel wasn't ignoring him (they talked every day), she kept putting off him coming to visit or taking them out to dinner. He had asked every night this week and even for the rest of the week. There had been an excuse each time. He hated the feeling of being shut out. All he wanted was to be there for Rachel and McKenzie. He couldn't do that in West Hollywood. The phone wasn't the same as being there in person.

JC hadn't thought about not attending McKenzie's track meet for very long. Supporting McKenzie was what he needed to do. He knew the week had been rough for her and it was only Wednesday. Rachel had told him she had come home early on Monday and stayed home Tuesday. She had only gone to school today so she could participate in the track meet. JC knew from previous conversations, McKenzie was trying to qualify for the district meets and eventually state.

He grabbed a ball cap from the passenger seat and put it on his head, lowering the bill. It didn't provide much anonymity, but it hoped it would curb a lot of people from coming up to him. After paying the fee at the gate, he made his way to the stands and had the task of trying to find Rachel among the crowd. He stood at the top of the stands and scanned the crowd. There, about six rows up from the bottom, he spotted a group of people. He recognized Briahna and Kloey immediately. In the same row as the kids, were Joey and Melissa. Sitting in the row behind them - Rachel, Lance, and Michael.

"Hey man!" Lance called as he saw JC making his way to them from the end of the row.

"Hey!" Joey called as he looked over his shoulder. "What's up with the incognito look?"

"Apparently nothing since you guys are here," JC said with a chuckled as he slapped Joey's hand and Lance's in hello. He waved hello to Michael and sat down on the bench next to Rachel. "Did I miss her?"

Rachel stared at JC a few seconds longer without speaking, not believing he had shown up. "No," she said, threading her arm through his. "She's getting ready though." She raised her free arm and pointed where McKenzie was stretching. "I like the hat."

JC grinned and fixed the hat on his head after Rachel had grabbed the bill and given it a little shake. It was light blue with McKenzie's school mascot on the front. He had purchased it last week to wear to her track meets. It was the first opportunity he had to wear it.  "I didn't get the shirt memo." Everyone wore a school shirt. It was light blue - the same as his hat - with the large Spartan in the center with the name of the school writing in a circle around the mascot. Even Caleb wore one.

"We'll have to get you one," Melissa said as she leaned down to pick up a toy car Caleb had run off the bench between her feet. He was sitting in between the rows in front of them, turned around to play with his match box cars on the bench. He had no interest on what was going on in front of him. Melissa was just happy he wasn't throwing a fit - yet.

"I didn't know you were coming," Rachel said softly and leaned shoulder to shoulder with him.

"Of course I'd be here," JC answered, deciding not to tell her how he hesitated on the decision. All that mattered was he was there. He reached across his body and patted her hand that held his upper arm from where it was tucked. "Glad I didn't miss any of her events."

"Oh, they are starting!" Melissa reached around and patted Rachel's knee.

"I can see that," Rachel laughed at her friend's enthusiasm and turned her attention to where McKenzie was on the track. She was doing last minute stretches before they were called to the line.

"What event is this?" JC asked as the race started and the girls took off running.

"1600 meter," Rachel told him, not taking her eyes off her daughter. "I have the schedule in my pocket... Come on Kenzi..." she said as she watched McKenzie pass a runner. "That's it," she coached. McKenzie had settled in, keeping pace with the girls in front of her. It was four laps around the track for this race. It was a big mistake burst out of the gate right from the start. Runners who did that usually faded on the final lap.

"Go Kenzi!" Lance yelled as the runners ran in front of the stands. He yelled and cheered loudly when his niece came by along with everyone else in the group.

"Go Ken-e!" Caleb yelled and clapped his hands, mimicking what everyone else was doing.

"If you ever see me out there doing that, you better fall in line behind my ass because you know something's coming," Melissa stated.

"When she first wanted to do track and field, I assumed it was more along the field events. Long jump, high jump, shot put. Then she tells me she's doing hurdles and all I can think is my God, she can fall up the stairs and now she wants to run and jump over things. On purpose! The first time I watched her do the hurdles, I missed it because I had my hands over my face the whole time."

"Did she fall?" JC asked, squeezing her hand.

"She doesn't know. She didn't watch it," Joey looked back at them with a teasing grin.

"No she didn't, but she found out she'd rather run without objects in the way." As she talked, she kept her eyes trained on McKenzie, never losing sight of her. "Now the distances keep getting longer. If it wasn't for volleyball, I wouldn't be surprised if she signed up for cross country."

"Hard to plop a lawn chair down at a start finish line for that." Lance laughed.

"I'll follow her in my car." Rachel said, causing the adults to laugh. "In a couple of years, she'll have decisions to make. I know she wants to do marching band, but she also wants to do volleyball."

"They don't have any of that at Sisters of Saint Joseph's," Joey teased.

"I can't wait for Briahna to bring home the boy you used to be." Lance said with a laugh.

"Used to be?" JC added laughing.

"You guys are funny. It's not gonna be Briahna you have to worry about," Rachel rested her elbow on her knee, her fingers tips at her mouth as McKenzie crossed the line to start the final lap. Her fingers tightened in JC's arm. "While you guys are all worried about Briahna, Kloey's gonna go unnoticed until she brings home Mr. Worst Nightmare."

"The fuck you say." Joey gave Rachel a look over his shoulder.

"Fuck!" Caleb yelled with glee.

"No!" Melissa snapped. She shook her finger at Caleb. "You don't say that." She turned her finger to Joey and wagged it in his face. "You don't say that either!"

"Let's go Kenzi!" Rachel yelled as she watched the runners on the back stretch heading in to turn three. She could see McKenzie picking up the pace. "That's it Baby!" She yelled when McKenzie passed a runner. "Come on, Kenz!"

There were a handful of runners close together as they came through the final turn. The group jumped to their feet yelling loudly for McKenzie.

"Come on Kenzi!" Rachel yelled, clapping her hands together.

"Go McKenzie!" JC yelled, his eyes glued to the teenager. "Come on, come on, come on," he chanted.

"Go go go!" Lance yelled.

"Go Kenzi!" Rachel yelled and then gasped when McKenzie's feet got tangled with another girl's. They both stumbled and went to the ground. The other runners continuing on. "Oh no!" She held her hands to her mouth, watching, waiting for McKenzie to get back up. It took everything she had to stay where she was and not run down to the track. She breathed a sigh of relief when McKenzie pushed back to her feet, but not before pounding the track with a fist. The stands cheered the girls on as they both ran to the finish line completing the race. "Damnit," she sighed as she sat back down.

"Damnit," Caleb happily said as he crashed two of his cars together.

"Sorry Mel." Rachel stared at McKenzie, watching as she first spoke with the girl who had fallen with her, then got swallowed up by her track coach. She wasn't sure what was being said, but she could tell McKenzie didn't want to hear it just by her body language. It broke her heart when she saw McKenzie hastily wiping at her cheeks. "I knew this was a bad idea..."

"She can't hide in her room forever," Melissa stated.

"I know."

"She needs to get back in her routines. That's what's going to help her."

"I know, doesn't make it any easier though."

JC took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. He wished there was something he could do to help not only McKenzie but Rachel as well. He could see how much it was wearing on her. There was nothing he could do. Though he wished he was able to go back in time and send his fist through Matt's face the first time the man had laid his eyes on Rachel. That brought him back to another problem. If he stopped Matt from raping Rachel, there would be no McKenzie. As he stared down at the girl, sitting by herself, her knees drawn up and her head down, he couldn't imagine her as anything other than exactly who she was.

"You think about therapy?" Lance asked, looking at Rachel. "Having her be able to talk to someone."

"Only every moment she's shut up in her room," Rachel said honestly. "But she said she doesn't want to talk to anyone. And she does talk to me. So it's not like she's not talking to anyone...she spoke with Mom yesterday. I just don't know..."

"She just needs time," Joey shifted in his seat, so he could look back at Rachel. "Why don't you let her come over Friday and spent the night. We'll see what trouble we can get in to."

"I don't know," Rachel said. It sounded like a good idea. "She doesn't want to do anything with anyone. Me. JC. Even Lance and Michael. We've all tried."

"Well, ask and see," Melissa said. "And then don't give her the option to say no. I'll just kidnap her on Friday after school."

The rest of the track meet didn't fair well for McKenzie. In the 800 meter run she came in fifth. In the 3200 meter, she was never a contender. Crossing the line well after the winner did. When the final race had been run and the event was over, Rachel left the group to walk where the coaches had gathered the kids for the bus ride back to the school. She signed the necessary paperwork to bring McKenzie home with her.

"It will be okay, McKenzie," Rachel said as they walked away. "This was just an off day for you. The next track meet..."

"I'm not going," McKenzie snapped.

"What?" Rachel asked taken back.

"I said I'm not going to the next track meet. I'm done. I quit."

Rachel watched as McKenzie stalked off in front of her. She closed her eyes and sighed. It was going to be a long night. She followed McKenzie where she had found the group. She watched as Lance pulled her in to a hug. McKenzie never raised her arms to return the embrace.

"You were doing an awesome job in the first race," Lance was saying as Rachel walked up.

"Yeah, you were gonna blow by them all. We could see it." Michael broke in. "Your feet got tangled. It happens."

"Yeah," McKenzie muttered, moving away from her uncle.

"You'll sprint right on by them on Monday," JC said with a smile, referring to her next track meet. It was already on his calendar, as were the others to close out the school year.

"I'm not going."

That brought JC up short. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm quitting."

"You can't quit just because you had a bad day," Lance said.

"Yeah Kenz," JC spoke. "This was just a bad day. You just brush it off."

"Why do you care?" McKenzie glared at JC.

JC blinked, caught off guard at the question. "I care because I know how much you love running and I don't want you to quit because you had one bad day."

"You don't know anything about me." She felt a pain in her chest when she saw a look cross JC's face. She wanted to apologize immediately. But she didn't know how. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know what to do. "I wish you would back off and leave me alone."

"McKenzie!" Rachel scolded her daughter. "Apologize right now."

"No," JC shook his head. "She doesn't have to. I don't want to cause anymore problems. If she doesn't want me to be at her meets, that's okay." There was a strong hand gripping his heart, squeezing it tightly. He thought he had been doing the right thing; reaching out to McKenzie, going to her events to show support. Maybe what he needed to do was step back. Maybe that would allow McKenzie to work through all this. He kissed Rachel on the cheek. "I'll talk to you later."

"But..." Rachel said as she watched him walk away feeling as if her heart had been broken into pieces. She was thankful her sunglasses hid her eyes which were filling with tears. "Get in the car."

McKenzie put her head down and walked to her mom's vehicle. She opened the back seat and tossed her bags across them to the other side before climbing in. She hadn't expected JC to just walk away. She expected him to stay. Like he did on Sunday. He told her he couldn't say away because he loved her. But he just walked away. After finding out who she was - what she came from - did he stop loving her?

*~*

"Hey."

"Hi." Rachel said after JC answered the phone.

"How are you doing? How's Kenzi?" JC stood from the piano bench where he had been playing before Rachel's phone call. He had been hoping she wouldn't call. He didn't know what to say to her. He didn't want to tell her what he knew he should say.

"Shut up in her room from the moment we got home." Rachel pulled the throw blanket tighter around her. She sat in the corner of the couch with her legs tucked beneath her. The TV was on a Friends rerun; the volume muted. "I tried to get her to talk, but she ignored me."

"I'm sorry," JC apologized.

"It's not your fault."

"I shouldn't have shown up today."

"No JC, you should have been there."

"McKenzie did not want me there. She made that quite clear."

"She did want you there." Rachel insisted. "There's just so much going on in her head right now. I know how she feels."

"I wish there was something I could do." JC climbed the stairs to the second level of his house. The second story of his house sat level with the road behind him. The front of his house sat on the hill side. All three levels stared out over the canyon and down to the houses on the lower side, following the winding road down until it reached the busy road of Sunset.

"I know the feeling." Rachel said softly. "Now I know how my mom felt. I feel like I should call and apologize. I was a million times worse though. I was so bad, they came close to kicking me out."

That caused JC to pause. He couldn't imagine Jim and Diane kicking anyone out of their house let alone their child. "No."

"Yeah. Daddy actually told me to get out. He was so hell bent on getting me to marry the person who got me pregnant.... Both he and mom thought it was one of you guys. The town did too. There were so many whispers. There are still whispers about me in town even after all this time."

"I hate that you have to go through that."

"I'm used to it."

"You shouldn't have to be used to it." He felt anger at what she had to endure when she was pregnant. He knew it was a nuance of a small town in the south, but that still didn't mean he couldn't be angry. "Did your parents kick you out? Lance didn't say..."

"No. When Daddy told me to get out... I didn't have anywhere else to go. I told them that and then I realized how true it really was. I was seven months pregnant. I wasn't married. I didn't even have a job. I needed them. A lot more than they needed me. I was still an emotional wreck. Angry. Depressed. Scared. Sad. I just learned not to snap at them. After all it wasn't their fault."

"It wasn't your fault either." JC cut in. "It wasn't your fault." He repeated for emphasis.

"I know that maybe 99% of the time. It's that one percent that I still stumble over. Maybe I always will." She sighed. "I just don't know what to do."

"Maybe you should take her to talk to someone."

"I'm thinking that might be a good idea, especially after today. I keep thinking it will get better, but I don't know. I don't think it is. But it's only been four days. Maybe I'm expecting too much. She is only thirteen. Maybe I'm expecting her to handle it like an adult."

"I'm an adult and there are moments where I'm not handling it very well."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. This is not your fault. Not what happened and not how I'm handling it or how anyone else is handling it. We will all get through this."

"I'm glad you answered," Rachel said after a few moments went by in silence. She wished he was sitting on the couch with her, holding her in his arms, chasing away the chill she had in her body despite the warm California temperatures outside. "I wasn't sure what to think when you walked away earlier. It felt as if you were almost saying goodbye."

The silence on the phone was deafening. Rachel felt like the walls were closing in on her. There was a roaring in her ears. A pit opened up in her stomach and her heart teetering, ready to fall into the abyss. "Oh..." There was a lump in her throat making it hard for her to breath. Tears filled her eyes. She breathed through her mouth trying to hide the sniffles.

"Rachel..."

"Why did you let me babble on like this like everything was okay?" Rachel said quickly talking over him. She clenched her eyes shut and the tears slid free, rolling down her cheeks. "You should have told me..." She tilted the phone away from her mouth as she cupped her hand over it, pushing back the sob that wanted to burst free.

"Rachel please don't..." JC could hear the tears in her voice and he felt like the world's biggest asshole for causing her tears after she had already cried so many in the last week.

"No..." Rachel said into the phone. She coughed to clear her throat. "No it's okay. I understand. I was going to... but Mel said... and I thought... it's okay. I... it's for the best, yeah? I got so much going on... so many issues... you don't need that.  Guess that stupid 19 year old girl had more of the reigns than I thought. This is fine... yeah... I'll be okay. It will be okay... It's better this way. Yeah... Bye JC."

"Wait..." JC said loudly, but it was too late. The phone beeped in his ear. Rachel was gone. "God damnit!" His hand tightened around his phone and it took everything he had not to throw it across the room, smashing it into the wall.