No Idea

Having Stacy go off on Ashlee, Travis cringed. This was his fault…he’d been the one to instigate disobeying their parents. He had known they’d be upset but…in all reality, he had not thought it would be quite this bad. As Ashlee stormed out, he wanted to go after her, but resisted. He knew good and well he was next.

Seeing Stacy leave, Eric sighed. He’d never seen her so mad, nor had he ever felt this way about Ashlee either. If this was part of being a father, he wasn’t so sure if he was cut out for it. Following Stacy’s route outside, he sidled past Travis, pausing beside him for just a moment. This was just as much Ashlee’s fault, but he blamed Travis for being so stupid and irresponsible. “I’ll leave you to your dad, but if you ever pull a stunt like this again with Ashlee, you’ll have me to deal with.” Heading out the door, he found Stacy and eased down next to her, staying quiet for a few moments. He was angry, she was angry, Ashlee was angry. How had this even happened?

He reached over and set a hand on Stacy’s leg. “I support you in this, ya know. I’d kind of like to talk to Ashlee myself, unless you’d rather I not interfere.” He did want to talk to the girl. Just being mad at her and chiding her wasn’t enough. He needed to tell her how he really felt to get it off his chest and help her realize just where he was coming from. He wasn’t her enemy, but this was something that couldn’t happen again.

Back inside, Lane’s glare rested on his son. “Alright, so we heard Ashlee’s side of the story. What do you have to say for yourself?”

Travis swallowed hard. He glanced at Angel. Why was she here? The look in her eye made him feel about two inches tall. “It’s…just like she said. We just wanted to do lunch and we felt like everyone was overreacting. Nothing happened and–”

“But it could have!” Lane interrupted. “Do you have any idea the risk you took? We said no for a reason! And I haven’t even hit on the fact that you took my truck without permission! What were you thinking?!”

“It’s not fair to keep us cooped up here!” Travis’ voice rose to match his father’s tone. “We have lives too, ya know! I agreed to stay, but I can’t stay here forever just because you think I might get nabbed again!”

“So you’ll just willingly go out with a target on your back?” Lane shook his head. “I thought you were smarter than that!”

“This has nothing to do with being smart!”

“It has everything to do with it! You think you know so much. You think you know better. Who is it that has faced the Agency almost all their life, huh? You’re supposed to respect us enough to listen when we say something isn’t safe!”

“But we’re fine!” Travis scowled. “Nothing happened, no one was hurt, we just went and enjoyed a little time to ourselves.”

“Which, by the way, seems to be a bit too frequent all of a sudden,” Lane reprimanded. “I get you like the girl, but you need to put on the brakes before you get yourself in any more hot water. I cannot believe you just went off like that!” He shook his head. “Why?! Why defy us like that?!”

“Because I don’t want to be afraid!” Travis’ words suddenly caught in his throat as reality hit him hard. He hadn’t even realized exactly why he’d done all this until just now, and it made him sick to his stomach. “I’ve never been more scared in my life as when they took me.” His voice had lowered several notches. “And I never want to be that afraid again. I refuse to let them intimidate me.”

Lane growled and ran a hand over his face. “I get it, okay? We all get it. We’ve all been scared. But you’ve got to learn when and how to defy something like this! And rebelling against me and Ashlee’s mom is no way to go about it!”

“So hiding here the rest of my life is the solution?”

“I’m not upset with you for wanting to defy the Agency! I’m upset with you for purposely defying me, stealing my truck and putting Ashlee in danger!”

“Fine then. Do whatever you want. I wish I never would have stayed here.” Travis crossed his arms and turned his back on both of them to glare out the window.

Lane looked to his sister and threw up his hands. He had no idea how to get through to his son.