July 11, 2005 Cleveland, Ohio

Tina knew something was up as soon as she walked into her parent's house. Her first indication was the music she could hear playing loudly from the living room. She immediately recognized the sounds of Backstreet's Millenium album and couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Her stomach fluttered lightly thinking about whether or not she would find Nick in the living room, singing and dancing along with a soundtrack of his own voice. Instead she found the room empty except for Zoey who was laying stomach down on the couch, tightly clutching Jerome in her arms.

"What are you doing baby?" she asked, moving to her daughter's side. She crouched down next to the brown leather sofa and brushed back Zoey's hair lovingly.

"Listening to Daddy," the girl whispered and the sadness in her voice broke Tina's heart.

"Okay," she said uneasily, kissing the girl's temple quickly before heading towards the kitchen to find her parents. Something had clearly happened for Zoey to be so upset, and she could only assume it had something to do with picking the kids up from Nick.

Her second indication that something was not right was walking in on both her parents sitting at the kitchen table in the middle of a heated conversation. Her father looked upset, and Tina looked between the two of them curiously before announcing her presence in the room.

"What's going on?" she asked, feeling the tension in the room.

Her father took a deep breath, "We need to talk to you."

"Did something happen? Are the kids okay? Zoey was acting so weird--"

"They're fine," he was quick to assure her, "this is about Nick."

"Is he okay? Did something happen?" Tina asked for a second time, her eyes flitting back and forth between her parents. She was somewhat reassured when her mother rolled her eyes, it was at least an indication that it was nothing too serious.

Her father shook his head quickly, "he's fine," he told her, "I just need to ask you something. I just need you to tell me for sure that you're completely done with this relationship."

Tina was confused, to say the least. She couldn't figure out why her father would be asking her that. Nick had obviously spilled the beans about the fact that they had seen each other that weekend, but she didn't know whether he knew all the details of their visit. She had done a lot of soul searching, thinking about whether or not her relationship was Nick was truly over and the short answer was no. She was forever linked to him because of the two children they shared, and she didn't lie in her note when she told him she'd always love him, but she didn't know if she was in love with him anymore, or even if she ever was.

"She doesn't love him!" Lynn exclaimed when no answer had come from Tina, "they're better apart!"

"That's not true," Tina interrupted, holding her hand up to silence her mother, "I do love him; he's the father of my children. I don't need you to tell me how I feel. That's partly what got us into this mess in the first place."

Lynn let out a frustrated huff and Tina could swear her father was holding back a grin. Clearing his throat he addressed only her, "I don't think that there's no hope left for you two working things out. I think you need to actually give it a good try."

"We did try...or, at least, I tried," Tina sighed, "I don't know why this is even an issue. There are millions of families that have one mother, one father, two mothers or two fathers and even families that have two parents that aren't together anymore. I don't know what makes this situation any different from those other families. People with children break up every day, it's normal."

"Nothing about your relationship was normal!" her father exclaimed, standing up from the table. He pulled Tina to the kitchen island and onto a tall bar stool, taking a seat next to her so they were facing one another, "Normal people date for a while before they're in a relationship, before they have children or even think about getting married. They have years to get to know each other, what they like and dislike and then they have years to grow apart. You went away for a week and came back pregnant. You had to get a hold of this boy you barely knew and tell him then go back to school the next day. Immediately, right from the start, there was this huge chasm between you and it was Parker. You never got to get to know one another, to date, or be 'normal' because your lives were consumed by the fact that things were never going to be the same."

Tina wiped tears away from her eyes and nodded though she found it incredibly difficult to hear her life actually told in words that way. It was a hard truth to acknowledge and just reminded her of the fact that she had so many dreams for her life that had never come to fruition.

Her father took her hands in his before continuing, "I'm not going to try and defend Nick because we all know that he made a lot of mistakes. I've taken some time to try and see things from his perspective though and I can see where things went wrong. I can see how he was consumed by jealousy. I don't know how I would feel if I had missed all of your milestones as a baby but I imagine that if I had I would have been jealous of your mother too. Then I realized that he just crumbled under the pressure. All that stuff happening with his friend at the same time Zoey was born, then he's got you telling him that you'll leave if he doesn't marry you. You demanded a commitment from him yet your way of showing him commitment was to threaten him? It was a mess. Nick made mistakes but so did you and so did we."

"What mistakes did we make?" Lynn interrupted, crossing her arms across her chest defensively.

"We should have left well enough alone," he told her honestly, not breaking his gaze away from Tina, "We never should have gotten involved. It was wrong of your mother to convince you to leave. You need to make sure before you walk away forever that this is what you really want because we're not going to play the middle man anymore. We're not going to take his phone calls, or pick the kids up so that you don't have to see him. You have to see him, you have to act like an adult and deal with him like an adult but I know you can't because you're afraid you'll tell him the truth; that you love him."

"He hurt me so bad!" Tina cried, lowering her head. Her father's hand dropped hers and she immediately felt it on her hair, petting her soothingly.

"I know," her Dad admitted, "but you were kids. You're adults now, it's time to put yourself second and put your children first. If you don't do this now you never will and you'll spend the rest of your life wondering if things could have worked out and so will your kids."

"I hate that I'm always the one making the decisions," Tina admitted with a sigh, looking up into her father's eyes. He seemed so genuine, so honest that she knew above all that he was right. Everyone deserved a second chance and Nick was no different. It wasn't just a second chance for them to be together but also a second chance for him to do right by Parker and Zoey. She knew that things had to change though, they couldn't just fall back into a relationship again. She had thought all along that she knew everything there was about him, but it had become apparent that she really didn't. She needed to learn about his childhood, his upbringing and all the things that brought him to where he was when she met him. It was impossible to understand where he was coming from without knowing where he came from. Above all though he needed to earn her trust back and it would be up to him to figure out how to do that.

"Get used to it," Lynn piped up and they both looked over at her. The older woman let out a heavy sigh, "Adults have to make decisions. As much as it pains me to say this, your father is right. I don't want you to go through life with regrets and I can't take another day of watching those children pine for their father."

"What should I do?" Tina asked, looking between the two of them for advice.

Lynn stood up and picked up Tina's purse from where she'd dropped it on the floor, handing it to her, "Nick might not have left yet, you could catch him before he goes to the airport. If not, enjoy your trip to California."