Chapter 8: You Never Saw Me

Heath drops by Shasta's house early on Saturday.

Marvin had the same idea an is already there.

"You were right, you know," Shasta tells him, "Things have totally changed now that I'm an adult."

"Got tired of feeling chained to a kid in high in school?" Heath asks, and Shasta nods.

"I felt so bad telling him I wanted to break it off," she says,  "But, it was just too weird, you know? Every conversation with him revolved on what was going on in school. It just felt wrong."

Marvin had felt quite the opposite; he waited for his high school boyfriend and never even considered breaking it off. Now that Brad has graduated, the two of them are married and are adopting a little girl.

"That's quite a big decision, adopting a child," Heath says, "You're awfully young..."

"No younger than you were when you had Elliot," Marvin pints out.

"True enough," Heath laughs, "At least you're better prepared than I was. I was such a mess."

"If it weren't for you...well, who knows where I'd be," Marvin says. "Thanks for everything."

Bianca's father has passed on.

No stranger to mourning, Heath consoles her as best as he can, inviting her to spend the night with him.

Early the next morning, Bianca checks on the stove, worried it might have been left on all night.

As he gets breakfast going, Elliot tries not to ogle his father's topless girlfriend in the kitchen.

"Baby," Heath says, coming downstairs to find Bianca wandering around less than half-dressed, "I have two teenage boys here. You really should get dressed before you leave my room."

Elliot is totally not staring at Bianca's ass.

Heath gets Bianca back upstairs and into some clothes. And then thinks about getting her out of her clothes again.

With her father's recent death, Bianca has been thinking about her parents, their loving marriage, and happy family. When she chose music as her career, she was aiming for a different lifestyle altogether. But sometimes, and much more of late, she's been thinking about how alone she really is. Her siblings all have families of their own, and when her mother follows her father into the graveyard, she'll have no one. 

"We've been together awhile now," she says in a small voice, glancing at the photos he keeps of himself and Elliot's mother like some kind of shrine, worried she'll never have a ral place in Heath's life, "Do you think...I mean, how do you feel about me? About us?"

"I love you, Bianca," Heath answers. He's always regretted not saying that to Ashlynn before it was too  late, being afraid of the commitment those words implied. It's not a mistake he plans to repeat, "And I'm serious about us. You're the only woman in my life, you know that."

Bianca  smiles at his word, and doesn't bring up the other woman in the pictures behind him. How do you compete with a ghost?

Farrell got a strange email asking him to be at Doug's Hangout on Sunday afternoon. So of course he showed up. How else would he find out who sent the email?

A blonde woman in braids sits beside him as he has a drink.

"I'm Mei-zhen," she says barely opening her lips and not looking at him at all, as though she's talking to herself.

"Beautiful Pearl," he translates her name. Farrell has been studying Chinese in his free time, or sometimes during class when it gets too boring. "You're my mother," he deduces.

Pearl's eyes widen beneath her sunglasses. She should have expected this, she tells herself, he is her son after all. "Keep your voice down. Try not to look at me," she says.

"Did you escape from prison?" Farrell asks.

"There's more than one kind of prison," she says, "I'm afraid I will never be truly free. I tried to give you the freedom I can never have."

"Explain," Farrell says, the one word being all that needs to be said.

"It's better for you that I don't. I came here only to give you this one warning, stay below the radar. I know you're brilliant, a genius, it's what you were bred for. Your school will push you towards a career in science. But, if you value your freedom, you'll stay away from any kind of research that will make you known in the scientific community. Above all, stay away from MorcuCorp. They're looking for me, and they're looking for you."

"What do you mean I was 'bred'?" Farrell asks, "You and my father met by chance, and I was the accidental result of that meeting."

Pearl turns away, "You better go," she says, not answering his question, "I won't be able to contact you again. You never saw me."

Wrinkles. Heath is getting older.

"You're still the sexiest man alive," Bianca assures him when he asks her if she still wants to date a man so much older than her.

"What are you reading?" Elliot asks.

"The Warlock of Palladia," Farrell answers, not looking up from his book, and ignoring as much as he can of his brother's idle breakfast chatter.

"Dude, you a worse at this than my sister!" Elliot taunts Brian as they play some ball after school.

Just the mention of Shasta makes Brian all emotional, and Elliot regrets his ill-chosen words.

"Have you talked to her?" Brian asks, "Do you think you could? Tell her I still love her?"

Elliot sighs, "I don't think Shasta wants relationship advice from her kid brother," he points out. "She's not dating anyone, as far as I know, so maybe when you graduate, you can ask her out..."

Elliot escapes Brian's heartbroken pleas for help to go home for dinner, finding Farrell seated in the same spot he was in this morning, glued to his book like he'd never left.

"Can you help me out with my homework?" he asks, "This geometry stuff is kicking my ass."

"I'm almost finished, just a couple of pages more."

"Yeah? Is it that good? What's it about?"

"I wouldn't want to give you any spoilers."

Elliot laughs, "It's not like I'm going to actually read it."

"Then you probably don't really care what it's about," Farrell observes.

"That's true," Elliot admits, "I was just making small talk."

As son as Farrell is done with his book, he helps his older brother with his geometry. Elliot will never understand how Farrell can know so much about a subject he hasn't even had a class in yet, but he doesn't really care, either, as long as he can get the help he needs.

Marvin experiences the embarrassment of running into his father while coming out of the photobooth after a little woohoo with his new husband. Having been there and done that quite literally, Heath is completely unfazed.

As father and son hug in greeting, Brad tears up he evidence of what went on in the photobooth.

Marvin and Heath catch up on each other's lives, while Brad thinks about having another go in the photobooth.

Heath leaves the newlyweds to each other and goes to set up the stage for his gig.