CHAPTER 4

Lisbon, Portugal

THIS IS US TOUR

All the adults stood waiting for the kids in the lobby. Arie was sitting off to the side reading when the Lanie and Ellie came off the elevator with Scott and Gabe.

"Alaina, where's Jesse?" Nick asked rolling his eyes. The boy had gotten his sense of time from him for sure.

"How should I know?" She replied honest but not rude.

"He was on his computer when we left the room." Gabe explained. Why was it parents assumed that because you are the missing child’s sibling you know where they were? Gabe didn’t get it.

"Lanie go up and tell him its past time to go." Howie said looking at his watch. Now that Kevin was gone Howie took it upon himself to make sure they were on time and sticking to the schedule.

Lanie opened her mouth to say something but Ellie cut her off, "Just do it. The faster you go get him the faster we eat." She was starving.

Lanie rolled her eyes and took off back upstairs.

"Why didn't you guys wait and make sure he was coming?" Ellie asked Scott.

"I'm not his Dad." Scott shook his head.

"Thank God, It'd be really creepy." Gabe added making both Ellie and Scott laugh a bit.

Upstairs Lanie reached Jesse's door and knocked on it.

"Who is it?" She heard him yell.

"It's me. We gotta go." She replied.

Quickly the door opened and Jesse walked off back toward his laptop.

"Jesse, come on." She huffed.

"I'm shutting it down." He said as she walked into the room.

Impatiently she tapped her foot.

"Hey Lanie, can I ask you something?" Jesse asked her. He was sitting on the edge of the chair with his legs spread apart.

She could tell by his tone of voice that something was bothering him.

"Yeah, sure." She nodded sitting on the edge of a bed.

"Do you ever think about your Dad?" He asked looking down to floor just between his feet.

"What do you mean? Of course I do. In fact I'm thinking about how pissed he's gonna be for us taking so long."

"No, not Nick. Your real Dad." Jesse leaned over and placed his elbows on his knees.

"Oh... uh... no. I mean not even my Mom knows who he is." She wasn't sure why Jesse was asking but she could tell it seemed important to him.

"Well, what about BJ?" He still did not look at her.

"Not really. Jesse, why?" She now had to know.

"I dunno. I mean don't you ever..." He patted his right fist into his left palm. "...wanna get to know her?"

"She wanted her drugs more than me. I know all I need to know." She seemed a bit upset now.

Jesse looked to her, "But don't you wanna know, like, where you came from?"

"I came from a druggie. There's nothing else I need to know."

"But isn't it true that time can change people? I mean maybe she didn't want you then but maybe she's changed and wants you now."

Lanie opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by Nick's voice, "Why are you two just sitting here? We have to go. Alaina I told you to go get him not come up here and sit down."

"Dad, it isn't her fault. I was turning my laptop off and asked her to wait on me." Jesse jumped in. It wasn't the entire truth but it was good enough.

"Well it's off now so get moving." Nick said and pointed into the hallway.

Jesse said nothing; he just nodded and left the room.

"You too," Nick told Lanie as she stood.

As she began to pass by him she stopped and turned to him. She briefly looked into his eyes deeply then hugged him. She then pulled away and began to leave.

"What was that for?" Nick asked feeling rather confused.

"For wanting me when my Mom didn't." She softly stopped and told him.

Nick took a deep breath and nodded. It wasn't something they often talked about. Nick had loved Alaina and had been a father figure for her from the Moment BJ had her. When his Dad called and said BJ was put in jail on drug related charges and Lanie needed a home he had not hesitated in agreeing to take her. She was only four and didn't really understand what was going on but when he was awarded full custody a year later she had become old enough to know that her Mom had done something wrong and she was going to live with Nick from now on. Then when she got a little older she found out about the drugs but from the Moment Nick had custody of her she made sure to tell him how thankful she was. The biggest way was when she started calling him Daddy. It was an honor in his eyes.

Lanie just looked at Nick as they stood awkwardly in the hall.

Nick nodded again. He wanted to say something but was unsure of what to say so he pulled her into another hug as he kissed her forehead and said, "I love you Alaina Quinn."

"I love you too, Daddy." She smiled.

He pulled away and coughed a bit to clear the lump in his through and led her toward the elevator where Jesse had already gone down.

"You still have to write lines." He told her lightening the mood.

"I know." She rolled her eyes.

When they got back down, Jesse shook his head, "And here I thought everyone was waiting on me."

"Whatever." Lanie said ignoring his comment. For some reason what he said about getting in touch with BJ was staying on her mind.

"Okay so what are we doing for dinner? Eating here? Eating out? We split up?" Gabe asked his parents.

"We should eat as a group; we never do that anymore..." AJ suggested.

"I'm okay for that." Arie smiled.

"You don't get an opinion." Gabe said.

"Why? I am a teenager now. You said when I was teenager you weren't gonna shoot down my every word."

"Well I lied now shut up."

Arie was too tired to argue so she just nodded. All she wanted was to be accepted by the older kids, she was always picked on and made fun of for being as smart as she was but it wasn't her fault that she liked facts and numbers and all things logical. It was just who she was.

"Geez, even I'm not that mean to my sister." Jesse mumbled

Scott sighed, he was getting a headache.

Gabe shrugged, "It's different when it's your real sister." regretting the words the Moment he said them.

Everyone fell silent. Jesse looked very angry while Alaina looked hurt.

“Gabriel!” Howie snapped hard.

"I-I'm sorry...I didn't mean for that...I didn't mean it. I'm really sorry." Gabe tried to make up.

Alaina looked briefly to Nick then back to Gabe and simply nodded.

Jesse sighed knowing his only real option was to let it go. Besides he knew Gabe would never intentionally hurt Alaina. He nodded and shrugged, "I was just saying that, there's teasing your sister, there's being mean, and then there's just too mean."

Scott was sick of this. He couldn’t take any more of this brother sister talk. He knew one way to end this conversation, "At least you two have sisters!" He almost shouted it. Everyone looked to him and he coughed a bit.

"Uh, so, we eat as a group." Brian said as Leighanne rubbed his back gently. Slowly everyone turned back to a normal conversation.

"Yeah let's go to that place up the street. It looks nice." Leigh said as everyone slowly began to walk outside.

"Jesse?" Alaina stopped him. She looked him in the eyes as he stopped.

"Blood don't matter. You know that." Jesse knew what she was getting at. He gave her a small smile.

Alaina smiled too and nodded.

"Come on, let's eat." He said placing a hand on her shoulder and playfully pushing her toward the door.

"Are they always like this?" Ellie whispered to Scott as they waited for the van to pull up and get them.

"Jesse and Lanie, not so much anymore. However, Gabe and Arabella? All the fuckin' time." He rolled his eyes.

"Scott don't let your parents here you say that... even if it is true." AJ whispered so only Scott and Ellie could here.

They both smiled a bit and got into the van as everyone else followed.

Dinner went fine. The guys discussed a song Brian was working on and needed help with. The women talked about Leighanne's new additions to Wylee. The kids talked about lots of different things. They discussed how cool their Dad's thought they were... with the exception of Ellie. Everyone agreed her Dad really was cool. They took turns telling stories about scary or funny things that had happened on tour and listened to Ellie talk about some of the awesome people she had gotten to meet through her Mom. Arie occasionally would try to add something but for the most part kept her nose in a book she had brought along.

When they got back to the hotel the adults agreed it was time for the kids to be in their rooms due to their early day the next day.

"So, you have to write that 100 times by tomorrow morning?" Ellie said looking at the paper Lanie had started to write on.

"Yeah, it’s so lame but the saddest part is he thinks this punishment is something cooler that your Dad would do." She almost laughed.

"I wouldn't know. I don't get to see my Dad enough to know how he would handle punishing me." She said.

"Can I ask why? I mean, I know Jesse has talked about you before. He doesn't remember much about you but he knows you used to occasionally be at rehearsals. He said then it kinda suddenly stopped." Lanie turned to her.

"My Mom said its cause he had more of an interest in drinking then me but Dad says its cause she was selfish and wanted me all for herself. So all I know for sure is that she was granted full custody when I was really little. I think I was like two or three."

Lanie nodded as she wrote more.

"What about you? Why did your Dad not have you when you were little but he does now?" Ellie asked.

"Nick's not actually my Dad. He's my Uncle. My Mom is his sister." Lanie explained.

"So then that's why Gabe made the comment about it being different when it's your real sister to Jesse?" Ellie turned and lay on the bed she had been sitting on. She rested up on her elbows and kicked her feet casually.

"Yeah, he's actually my cousin, but we don't see it like that. He's always been like a brother to me just how Nick has always been like a Dad. When they took me away from my Mom Nick fought for rights to me and won. I was four... maybe five. Over the years they've just become better than the real thing." Lanie smiled thinking about how lucky she had gotten.

For a Moment Ellie stared at her. She had a very pretty smile.

"Something on my teeth?" Lanie worried and began rubbing them.

Ellie laughed, "No, I just like your smile."

"Oh..." She replied blushing. She now felt dumb.

Ellie just laughed at her making Lanie laugh too.

Meanwhile in the boy’s room Jesse once again sat on his laptop while Gabe flipped through the paper view movies.

"Don’t!" Scott warned from where he was laying listening to his iPod.

"What?" Gabe turned to him taken back a bit.

"That porno you're getting ready to rent will show up on the bill." Scott rolled his eyes at Gabe's stupidity. If he was going to be bad he really needed to learn to be good at not getting caught.

"Oh shit, uh thanks." Gabe said and began looking for another movie.

"Yeah, you owe me so warn me if a rent comes in while I smoke." Scott said pulling a pack of cigarettes out of a pair of shoes. He couldn’t see the door from his bed and knew Gabe was able to.

"Jesse." He called to him.

Without saying a word Jesse reached into his pocket and tossed Scott a lighter.

"Thanks." He said catching it and using it to light up.

"Yeah, just remember I had nothing to do with it once Uncle Jay realizes it's missing." Jesse told him.

"You know that shits gonna kill you right?" Gabe asked from a crossed the room.

"Thanks for the tip, Arie." Scott teased.

"Hey!" Gabe yelled tossing a pillow at him making Scott laugh a bit.

They looked to Jesse and saw he still looked deeply involved in his laptop.

"Yo Jester, what are you doing? Gabe asked looking over at Jesse.

Jesse quickly closed what he was doing, "Nothing really, just facebooking and tweeting and...stuff. Nothing too interesting."

"I bet you were looking' up porn." Gabe teased.

Jesse rolled his eyes, "If I do look up porn, it wouldn't be with two other guys in the same room."

"Ha, yeah cause you’re not like Gabe here." Scott teased.

Gabe shook his head, "I was gonna do us all a favor! Those chicks are hot..." He shrugged.

Scott just shook his head and took another drag from his cigarette.

"Let me guess, I'm gonna have to cover for you a lot on this tour huh?" Jesse asked shutting down his laptop for the night.

"Dude, you don't mind right?" Gabe looked worried.

Scott smiled and took another drag.

"Nah, I just better not get busted for helping you get laid." Jesse said. He had worked hard the last year and a half to get on good terms with his Dad. He had done a lot of changing and hoped things would stay that way, at least till he was eighteen.