Chapter 13

T he bar was crowded as Tyler slipped through it to get to Justine. They'd been home for a month now, and he'd been busy with work during the day, making him miss her immensely. So much so that he called her earlier to suggest they go out tonight so they wouldn't have to spend time cooking, simply spend the wait for their food together, as well as avoiding any rogue family member that worked up the courage to come by to harass them.

He slipped up behind her, hearing the idiot from school hitting on her, and his arms wrapped around her as he leaned down, dropping a kiss onto her lips pulling a loud ‘what?' from Zack.

"Hey babydoll, sorry I was late," he said pulling a grin from her as he turned a glare Zack's way.

"What the hell? Weren't the two of you just fighting at the reunion?" he questioned, and Justine let out a soft laugh, slipping off the stool to head to a table with him.

"We like to think of it more as verbal foreplay than fighting," Tyler responded sending his eyes even wider. "Now, if you'll excuse us, I'm going to go enjoy dinner with my wife ."

"The fuck?" Zack uttered behind them as they slid over to the waiting hostess.

He pulled out the chair, settling her into it before taking the spot next to her instead of on the opposite side, accepting the menu from the hostess with a nod of thanks. When they were alone, he leaned in, stealing Justine's lips in a longer kiss, that ended with a soft sigh falling from her as he brushed her hair out of her face, smiling at the look in her eyes. "You look happy."

"I am. I'm here, in public, with you without having to act like I don't know or like you. I can sit with you. You can hold me and kiss me, and it won't cause this huge bombshell to drop over all of us. Yes, our families are still being stupid, but I'm with you and so happy. My arm is healed, so no more cast. The doctor confirmed that my kidney's working just fine. And…I had my IUD removed," she added making his breathing tighten as his eyes glazed over a hint.

"You did?" he asked, and she nodded in return. He couldn't resist giving her another kiss that was finally interrupted by a waitress coming to get their order. Justine's eyes barely skimmed the menu, rattling off a quick choice while he went with his normal, his attention barely straying to the girl as he spoke before returning it to Justine, just watching her exist in this moment with him.

While he was eager to get home, have her wrapped around him again, he wanted to linger a bit longer soaking all of this up with her. He pulled her up from her chair gently when they finished their food, taking her into the bar side of the place and out onto the dance floor there. The song might be up-tempo, but he needed her in his arms completely. Her arm slipped around his neck, a huge smile on her lips as they swayed to the beat, his hips brushing against hers with every move, enjoying every second of it.

A slow song came on and he lowered his head down, resting it against hers, his lips pressing soft pecks against her temple as he held her close, getting lost in it until much later in the evening. He stopped at her new car on the way out, making sure she didn't need anything out of it, before taking them home and straight to bed, keeping her there until much later Saturday afternoon.

Justine gave a little wave pulling his attention towards the side of the house, finding the twins heading for her, giving her hugs before they bothered with him, and he chuckled because he'd basically been replaced as their favorite sibling. He didn't mind at all though. Loved that his sisters, well the twins at least, fully accepted Justine in his life. Caroline was being her normal brat self, and he refused to hear anything negative about his girl.

"What are you all doing over here? I thought Dad had banned you from coming to my house now," he said, glad he'd put more burgers and hot dogs on the grill than what they'd need if they were going to stay to eat.

"He doesn't know we're here. We said we were meeting Kylie in town, and we are, just later," Hailey said giving them a grin. "We haven't seen you all in over a week and wanted some quality time with our favorite married couple."

"Seriously, how many times are you going to say married in that tone before you forgive us for not letting you know or come to the wedding?" Tyler asked his sister as he slipped onto the porch swing with Justine.

"Until it doesn't elicit guilt in you most likely," Isabelle answered for her. "So how was dinner last night?"

"Why are you asking about dinner last night for?" he questioned glancing at Justine for help, but she shook her head just as confused as he was about it.

"Because we got like a dozen messages from classmates asking if our big brother was dating someone new already," Isabelle told them.

"And since half of them have crushes on you they hoped that with you and Angela breaking up it'd give them a shot because there was no way you'd start dating and get serious about someone else before we all turn eighteen," Hailey tacked on and the look that crossed Tyler's face made Justine peal with laughter.

"So you only like one girl that looks young, that's good," Isabelle teased him pulling a grumble from his throat.

"We're just teasing," Hailey assured him. "Justine might look younger than she is, but you know the truth and since you were sleeping with her when you both were that age, it's not that big of a deal. It's not like you looked at any of our friends as more than nuisances most of the time, and when you were actually looking at them, it was always obvious you had no interest in any of them."

"Not even Nora and her…ample assets," Isabelle snuck in making Tyler simply grimace again and Justine pressed against his side, brushing a kiss to his lips to calm him.

"Okay girls, you can stop making your brother uncomfortable now," she said, and they calmed down, letting them all enjoy the time together while Tyler finished the food on the grill.

Justine stretched as she stood to make her way into the house to get the rest of the meal and Hailey's eyes narrowed her way a bit.

"What happened there?" Hailey asked her and Justine pulled her shirt down covering the thin remnants of the scar from her donation surgery.

"Just an old accident," she lied, giving Tyler a kiss as he sat the steaming plate of meat onto the table on the covered porch that extended a good twenty feet beyond the house. She came back with the cold items, grinning when the twins went in and grabbed plates and glasses letting her get the rest of the food laid out for them to enjoy.

"Your scar looks like one of mine," Hailey said as they started to eat. "I don't know if Tyler told you, but I had a kidney transplant ten years ago. Your friend Luke mentioned the doctor was running tests to make sure there wasn't any damage to your kidney at the hospital that night. There wasn't any was there?"

"No, I'm fine," she reassured the girl as Tyler's hand slid into hers. "I actually had an appointment in Settle yesterday with my doctor who confirmed the slight bruising I had was gone and everything looks fine."

"You got hit on the other side though," Isabelle said, her brows furling a bit as she and Hailey shared a curious look.

"I did," she agreed trying to diffuse the situation. She didn't know how Hailey would react if the truth came out and the last thing any of them needed right now was that truth coming out. Their families were already at each other's throats, they didn't need any more issues.

"There's something you're not saying," Hailey stated looking between them. "I can handle hearing about someone else's health issues if that's what it's about. I mean, if you were sick or got hurt in the past I won't freak out you know. I just don't recall hearing anything about it, I mean, the scar looks to be pretty old."

"It is, it was nothing big. A minor surgery. No one's said anything about it because it happened after I left here," Justine offered giving her an easy smile. "I just don't like to bore people with health stuff. There's so much else to talk about than things that can depress people."

"Tell me about it. I had to see a therapist after I had the transplant for years because the doctors warned Mom and Dad that it's possible for a recipient to easily become depressed. Now they're trying to make Isabelle see one," Hailey added making her sister groan.

"Like I want to talk to some stranger about being stupid and trusting someone online," Isabelle sighed.

"I understand. Believe me, I put it off for as long as possible not wanting it to feel weird myself," Justine said making her brows lift in surprise and she nodded at the unasked question. "I'm not seeing mine because of what happened with Grimes or getting hurt, but about what happened on my last assignment. I came home to be somewhere that felt safer because I was suffering from PTSD."

"Really?" Isabelle said and she nodded again. "I just don't want to have to go over and over about that day. I mean for the most part, I was just stuck in that stupid cell. I mean yeah, I've had a nightmare or two about being back in that place but it's not making me crazy, you know?"

"I know but a good therapist won't harp on the same thing over and over. They'll let you talk, ask you some questions, maybe prod you a bit to ensure you're not hiding anything about the situation, but if it's really not affecting you, they won't make you go back to it constantly. The most important thing is to make sure that whoever you see makes you feel comfortable. If you're not comfortable there's no way you can try to unpack anything that may be bothering you. So, I'd suggest giving it a shot, but know that you don't have to keep going to someone that makes you feel uneasy."

"I guess I can give it a try," Isabelle said letting them dig into the food, enjoying the time with the girls until they left to head into town.

"Come here, babydoll," Tyler said lifting her onto his lap, his hand holding her head gently, his eyes filling her with pure love at the sweetness coming from them. "Thank you, for convincing Isabelle to give talking to a therapist a shot. For knowing how to get Hailey off the medical stuff…it's so damn hard to not just tell her the truth, but our dad would go berserk if he knew that Hailey's kidney came from you, especially right now."

A gasp sounded from behind them and Justine's breath stopped in her chest as a loud " What?! " followed it.

They both turned, seeing Hailey and Isabelle staring at them, both standing stock still, and Justine cursed spotting the bag on the lounger not far from them.

"Hailey…" Tyler said as they quickly got up from the swing moving towards the girls.

"You just…what the hell? Why wouldn't you just tell me? I mean I get not telling Dad but not telling me ?! What the actual hell Tyler?" Hailey demanded as Isabelle simply continued to stare at them. "I mean, I've been asking for years if I could find the family…wait…Mom and Dad were told the donor had died in an accident. How…if you knew…then how…"

"He didn't know until I came home," Justine said seeing the anger starting to appear on Hailey's face directed his way. She took the girls' hands, guiding them back to the seating area, settling into the chair next to Hailey with a gentle smile her way. There was no way around it now and she admitted the truth to the girls as Tyler's hand rubbed her thigh, trying to calm himself she knew.

"Wait, so you left so no one would find out that you donated the kidney to me? Stayed away so they wouldn't know?" Hailey asked when she finished.

"Mainly yes," she answered. "It would have been too coincidental if I'd come back with a still healing or barely healed surgical site. By then, your entire family knew about the transplant, most of my family knew because there's no better gossip than that of the enemy it always seemed," she added putting a tiny grin on the girls' faces. "You were both so young that if your parents refused to let Tyler see you if we'd come out there wouldn't have been any way around it. And I had no idea what your dad would do if he knew that a piece of a Crawford was inside you. While the doctor was running the tests to see if I was a match, I learnt that the combination of our blood type and HLA markers were really unique and finding another match would be really difficult, take time and I knew he'd never be happy to have to deal with all of that."

"It's just so weird that you were a match but not one of us was. I mean, we learnt in biology last year that a person that was blood type O but Rh positive could have donated the kidney, just not blood. It didn't make sense because Dad always grumbled about no one being a match but I'm pretty sure a couple of the cousins have blood type O too," Isabelle said, and Justine grinned at the look she tossed at the three of them.

"Truth be told, I didn't know much about it then either. The doctor said that no one in the family was a match because they had to be type O and then match up with the necessary HLA markers. If it was strictly based on compatible blood types transplants would be much easier. I'll tell you a secret as well," Justine said making the girls' brows lift curiously, "the doctor asked if part of the reason our dads hated each other so much wasn't because one of them slept with the others' wife."

"No way…eww that's so gross of a thought," Isabelle gasped, and she nodded.

"Especially adding in the fact that Tyler and I were together, but thankfully the tests showed that while Hailey and I might share a blood type and HLA markers in common, there is absolutely no genetic connection between any of us," she assured all of them, and Tyler pulled her onto his lap, nipping at her ear.

"Thank the fuck for that, babydoll."

"Behave honey-bae," she returned, making the girls giggle which was much better than stoic expressions they were wearing. "We didn't want to say anything that might upset you when Tyler first learnt the truth. Didn't know how the two of you would react to us together let alone the news that your transplant came from me."

"Are you kidding me? I already loved you because you kept Isabelle safe, then you just added onto it by loving my brother, making him finally stop being a grumpy ass, but knowing this…I don't even have the words to explain how much it means to me," Hailey said leaning up, giving her hug around Tyler's hold. "I swear if you do anything to upset her…" she added towards Tyler making all of them laugh, and he returned the hug which made Isabelle butt in to get some of it as well.

"You can't tell Dad about this, there's still no telling what he might do if he knew," Tyler warned them as they got ready to leave for the second time, Isabelle's bag with her this time.

"We know. We'll see you later, Sis," Hailey said, giving her a huge grin before sticking her tongue out towards Tyler. "Love you both."

"Love you too brat," Tyler returned, and Justine sank into his hold, relaxing as they drove off. "I'm sorry baby. I should have watched what I said but part of me is glad it's not a secret between us and Hailey anymore."

"I know how you feel. It'll be okay," she said, hoping it wouldn't make everything implode, especially not when things were so up in the air everywhere else.