We're A Family And You're One Of Us Now!

I know I said in the beginning that the similarities between Reed and Sean were uncanny, and to a point it was true but there were distinct differences that made it easier to tell who was who. For starters, like I mentioned before, Sean was bigger than Reed - possibly a couple inches taller and certainly broader across the chest and thicker in the torso. Sean's hair was darker (he had a few grey hairs that he didn't like having pointed out also) and longer than Reed's. He had a couple scars on his neck and face - a tiny one over his left eye, a couple thin ones down the back of his neck and one along his jaw line; they weren't nothing big or disfiguring but still, they were there none the less. And if that wasn't enough, Sean also had an earring in one ear.

But damn! They both cleaned up really well!

In my defence, I would like to say that I wasn't the only one who thought Sean was looking mighty hot that night, I heard Janie's 'oh my!' as Sean walked back into the room and I swear I even heard Alexis gasp!


Ok, maybe I just thought I heard the last one but hey, it could've happened, she was staring wide eyed up at him!

Some time in between the time Reed and Sean came out of Devon's room and the time I heard Janie say 'oh my!' she appeared at my side. Jokingly, I turned to her and said, "You know how you always said if Reed had a brother...?"

"Oh no you don't!" Devon jumped over the back of the couch and was in front of Janie, trying to lead her away from Sean, in no time flat. He gave me a dirty look and asked me what I was trying to do to him. With a smile, I told him I was just kidding, "Janie likes you, you fool! So don't mess it up!"

Janie let Devon lead her back to the couch, where he immediately pulled her down next to him and started to talk in quiet tones as I couldn't hear what he was saying. It was interesting to actually see Devon acting like he was afraid of competition, it wasn't something I've ever seen him do before. Maybe Janie's relationship with Cary made him see the light, I thought with a grin.

Turning my attention back to Reed and Sean, I asked them if they were ready to go.

"I look ok?" Sean asked me.

I nodded, maybe a little too eagerly. "Yes, you look great!" I turned to say something to Reed but he wasn't looking at me at all. "You won't be the best looking guy in the room," I glanced at Sean. "But coming in second isn't all that bad either."

We headed out to the club not long after this.

I wish I could say that the night went as smoothly as I hoped it would but it didn't. Not much really happened but it was the little things that made some parts a little uncomfortable.

The biggest thing though was the tension between Roger and Lucinda throughout dinner. You could see that they were trying to act like nothing was wrong but it was clear that Roger was still upset that Lucinda kept the news that he had another son out there to herself.

But on the whole, everyone got along really well. Roger, Lucinda and Madeline (Reed's grandmother) all had a million questions for Sean. Where he had been all this time, what his other family was like, why be decided to come looking for them now, etc.

According to Sean, the night that he was born, he was brought to the orphanage in the town that Lucinda had given birth to him. From there he was shipped further south into the States, passing through the hands of a dozen or so people before he made it to the home of 'Mack' and Gertie McKenzie, where he would spend the first part of his life.

Mack and Gertie were unable to have children of their own. "I think in the end that's what tore mom and dad apart," Sean told us. "They divorced when I was ten."

In the next couple years, Sean gained a couple step parents and step sisters. "Tom was a good man, his wife had died about five years before he met my mom; my step sister Rae was about 7 when our parents got married. A year afterwards, my mother became pregnant with my sister, Gina. It would be a couple years after that before my father met and married Lynn, giving me another step sister, Bonnie."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a smile appear on Reed's face as Sean moved from his family into the next years of his life. Later I would find out that Reed was happy that he was Sean's only brother.

Sean went on to tell us that he was 15 when he overheard Tom complaining that he didn't know why Sean had to go visit Mack every summer when he wasn't even Mack's kid in the first place. "Up until then, I didn't know I was adopted. Even when I heard Mack say that, I thought maybe my mom had been with another man. It wasn't until I started to question mom about my real father that I started to realize something was up, her story was never the same."

"When she finally told me that I was adopted, I wasn't really surprised, I knew I wasn't like the rest of my family." Sean took a sip of his water before continuing. "I was really upset for the longest time at..." He looked up at Lucinda and Roger, "You guys, I guess. I couldn't understand how you could have me and not want me."

"I didn't want to give you away!" Lucinda blurted out. "But I wasn't strong enough to keep you." She looked at me and so did Sean. "I wasn't strong like Amber was when she told her parents she was keeping Alexis."

"The situation was different," I stated. "The time was different."

Sean thought about that for a moment but ended up shaking his head, "No, I think you were the only thing that was different." He turned to Reed, "You wanted to give up Alexis?"

"Hell no!" Reed snapped. "I didn't have any say in anything at that point, Amber was already gone and no one would tell me where she was. The only chance I had to reach her was through email, where I told her that I wanted her to come home and we would raise Alexis together."

Sean nodded slowly and then turned his stare to Roger. "What about you? Did you want to get rid of me?"

Roger turned red, "I didn't even know you existed until this week!"

"Really?" Sean raised his brow in Lucinda's direction. "Why was that?" Lucinda gave Sean the short version of hos she got pregnant and the situation with Roger and her. When she finished Sean sat back, visibly upset. "Yet you ended up with him and had Reed? How come you didn't tell him about me then? Why didn't you come looking for me?"

"You don't understand!" Lucinda cried. "You have no idea what it was like at that time! My father relied so much on me marrying into this family! And your father didn't want anyone to know about his infidelity! What was I supposed to do?"

"Tell him!" Sean snapped. "You were supposed to tell him that he had a kid out there! You were supposed to come and find me!"

I was so thankful that we were in the back of the club with very little other tables around us. I never understood why they wanted to meet in public like that and then get into all the details; they had to know that it wouldn't be a warm fuzzy moment.

"You were supposed to come and take me away," Sean said softly as he pushed his chair away from the table. "Excuse me," he mumbled before making his way out the back patio doors of the clubhouse.

There was lots of random chatter floating through the air, mixing with the soft music playing over the clubs sound system but the one table in the back was deadly quiet.

"Some one should go after him," I said after a moment or two but no one seemed to know who should go. "Oh for the love of God," I tossed down my napkin and stood up. "Seriously people! Did you think this was going to be easy?" Shaking my head, I made my way through the crowd and out the doors that Sean disappeared through moments ago.

"What am I doing here Amber?" He asked me when I walked up to him. He took a drag from the cigarette that he held in his hand. "I don't belong here." He blew the smoke from his lips before turning to me. "This," he tugged at the jacket he was wearing and sighed. "This isn't me. I'm a jeans and t-shirt guy, I don't belong in this club and I certainly don't fit in with those people."

"Forget about all that for a moment, tell me why you are here? What made you come all this way to find Lucinda and Roger?"

Sean took another drag before answering me. "Things weren't that great at home, I didn't want to tell them because I don't think they would understand. I never felt like I belonged, my whole life, I felt like I was an outsider in my own family." With a slight shake of his head, he took another drag. "I thought if I found my real family I would finally feel like I belonged but I'm more out of place here than I ever was back home!" He scoffed, "Talk about the irony. I searched for years, went through one lead after another and finally I tracked...Lucinda down. I came here in hopes of finding her."

"How long were you in town?"

"My first night in town, I happened to run into Penny," I made a face and he apologized. "I know she thought I was Reed but I had hoped that she could tell me more but every time I asked her anything, she told me I should know that and laughed it off."

He went on to tell me that the day we met, it wasn't a fluke. "Penny went off the deep end the night that she realized that I wasn't Reed, she started to scream at me for lying to her and asked me if you set her up." Sean frowned, "From the way she talked about you, I was expecting the devil incarnate; she said you were trying to take her job and man."

"What?" I stared at him. "Me? I never did a damn thing to her!"

He nodded, "I know but between you and me, she was seriously crazy!" When I asked him what he meant, he told me that she was taking some sort of pills. "She called them her crazy pills but I don't think she was taking them correctly, if at all."

"I found out where she worked and I decided that I was going to follow you and finally meet the man Penny thought I was." He put out his cigarette and told me how he followed me from work to the mall. "I was waiting for you to finish shopping but you spotted me first."

"But it didn't matter," he stated. "After all the work I've done to get here, I don't think I can stay where I'll never fit in."

"That's crazy!" Reed's voice came from behind us. We both turned to him as he made his way over to me. "How do you know if you'll never fit in if you use tonight as a guide? Do you think that Amber and I do this scene all the time? Do you think that we really fit in here?"

"Yes."

"No," Reed exclaimed. "Amber and I don't belong in this setting or these clothes anymore than you feel you do! We would rather have a BBQ in our backyard, have friends over for beer and bullshit all night than be here!"

"But yet you seem so comfortable here," Sean responded. "You have grown up with all this, you know how to act and I've been waiting for someone to 'show' me which fork I was supposed to eat the damn salad with!"

"You eat the damn salad with whatever fork you want too!" Reed chuckled, "Just don't sit too close to grandma when you do it!"

I gasped, "Is that why you make me sit next to your grandmother all the time?"

Reed nodded, "Yes, the woman loves to tap me on the back of the head when I mess up!"

"You jerk!" I poked him in the ribs before giving him a hug. "You know you are lucky I love you, right?"

"Of course I know," he kissed me softly. "I'm very lucky." Reed turned to look at Sean, "And I would be even luckier if you stuck around for a while, I always wanted a brother and Alexis would love to get to know her uncle."

We ended up heading back into the club with Sean a few minutes later, he told us that he would give it a chance.

Since Tuesday, Reed has told me that Sean was hanging out at the office with his father and he was out to supper with both his parents. From the reports that Reed gives me and the conversations I've had with Sean since Tuesday, I think he will fit in fine. Of course, he'll need us to keep him sane but hey! That's what family is for!