Something Of A Challenge {Brooke}

[Vincent Freeman]

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So Vince was intimidated by the big sulky man standing in front of him, who wouldn't be in his place, if not some smart ass punk kid who made himself believe he wasn't scared of anything and anyone? At this rate, though, his being slightly scared gave him a much better chance of lasting here than he would have if he'd behaved in a manner that would definitely not have been respectful. Still, he'd much rather have had to only deal with Brooke's mother at this point, now that would have been a lot more pleasant and a lot less stressful too. After all, her father was a businessman, wasn't he? Couldn't he have been away on a business trip or something? That would have been a lot better in his opinion. But he figured that now at least he was getting this out of the way, and now that he'd met her father he didn't really have much else to worry about. Except his possibly finding out that he'd had sex with his daughter repeatedly, because then he doubted that even his saying she'd ordered him to would save him. He really didn't have plans of his finding out about it any time soon, though. Let him believe his daughter would be a virgin until eighteen or something.

He knew better than to get himself involved in the little father/daughter situation that was going on right now, though he was technically the cause of it, but still, he doubted that anything he could say would be of any use, so he kept his mouth shut, not complaining either once Brooke grabbed onto his hand and nodded to his bag so he'd pick it up, which he quickly did, following her upstairs as she started leading the way to the guest bedroom where he'd be staying. Which was a bit of a bummer, though he'd obviously not expected to sleep in Brooke's bedroom, that would have been completely dumb, but still, he couldn't wait to be able to share closeness with her again. He gave a small smile as he heard her sigh and complain about her dad, putting his bag down on the floor and moving closer to her so he could hug her close to him, kissing the top of her head lightly, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. "He loves you and he cares about you, and I can understand why," he told her softly, his lips pressing to her own in a gentle kiss. "I love you, Brooke. And we're gonna be fine," he added, wanting her to know that nothing her dad could say would affect him.

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[Brian McAllister]

Brian really couldn't stop himself at this point and he didn't think that it was his fault either. His little girl, not even sixteen years old yet, brought a boy home and he didn't want her to get hurt. There wasn't any crime in that. Though apparently his daughter disagreed, watching as she talked back to him before leaving the room without really giving him a chance to say anything. Honestly, why did she have to go through the whole growing up stage now? Couldn't she just... wait until she was old enough to grow up? Though he'd much rather she just not grow up at all. For sure he missed the days when she used to come to him and Isabel when having a nightmare or when she fell down and got hurt. Those were things that were easier to handle, when she still wanted to be around the both of them all the time pretty much and thought that they were two of the coolest people around. Now she was all about her friends and her boarding school and her boyfriend. It was too much to handle and the only thing that he could do was pray that he never had to deal with this with Abby.

Listening to Isabel warn him again he knew that he'd end up on the couch if she got anymore upset and that wasn't something that he wanted to deal with right at this moment either. Instead, he just didn't respond to her whole thing about acting decent. Unfortunately, he did have to admit that he'd noticed how happy Brooke was this summer, he just didn't want to admit that it was because of the boy that was with her. He sighed as Isabel pointed out that she'd be gone again in less than a month, but that was part of the problem. It was so incredibly hard not to father her when he had so little time to do it. "She should have left the boy in Kansas City, it's not fair that he gets to see her practically all year and we get to see her only a few weeks as it is," he told his wife. "And it's hard not to do anything when she's decided to just go and grow up without us. Nothing I say even matters anymore, I've got nothing. And Abby could turn out being the same way! What the hell am I supposed to do?"

[Brooke McAllister]

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Brooke had no clue why her dad had to be so lame about all of this. Didn't he care at all about what made her happy? Cause obviously, being with Vince made her happy and so trying to scare him away didn't exactly make it seem like he was doing that great of a job in caring about what made her happy. It wasn't like he was doing anything more than getting himself in trouble with her mom anyway, so why did he even bother? She swore it was just because he liked to be annoying to her and liked to try and make her life suck. Luckily, she knew that Vince would stick around either way but the idea of him actually having been scared off by her dad wasn't a pleasant one. In fact, she was pretty sure that if he had been scared away she would have hated her dad for... well pretty much forever. Though, if he was scared away so easily it probably wouldn't have spoken much for him in the end either. In fact, it probably would have said that he didn't care enough to stick around if just a few words from her dad - who really wasn't that scary to begin with.

She hugged him back as his arms wrapped around her and he kissed the top of her head lightly. Hearing Vince say that her dad just loved and cared about her made her want to roll her eyes though, because he was going about showing it the entirely wrong way. And the fact that Vince was being understanding of it all spoke no good, probably because it meant that when he had his own kids he'd be likely to act the same exact way whenever he had kids. Well whoever had kids with him should probably be warned of that before hand. She returned the kiss just as gently as he gave it, smiling a little as he told her that he loved her and that they'd be fine. "I love you too," she replied. "And I know that we are, it's just that he frustrates me with treating me like a baby. He should know by now that I'm a big girl and can handle having a boyfriend." Honestly, she was sure that he was dating by the time that he was fifteen. The big fat hypocrite, probably already had sex by her age as well. Not that she planned on bringing that point up because she liked her boyfriend in one piece.

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[Isabel McAllister]

This kind of a situation was a bit more complicated for Isabel. Of course, she found it hard too to see her daughter grow up - or more like, not see her grow up - but at Brooke's age, she'd already been on her own for a few years, independant and trying not to need other people's help. At fifteen she was her own person and she did her best to keep herself out of trouble. Brooke had the luxury of being able to enjoy a comfortable house life, she was brilliant and talented enough to go to a prestidigious art school out of the country, and their situations were definitely as far from one another as they could be, but there was still one thing they shared, and it was that Brooke had that independant strike inside of her. She needed to do things her own way, and having her father looking over her shoulder wasn't necessarily something that went along with that desire to prove she was a grown up. It was painful for her, not being able to see her daughter every day anymore, and she missed her very badly during the school year, but she'd known her daughter wouldn't always stay around, that she'd want more at some point. She just wished it hadn't had to come so soon.

"I know honey, but it's not his fault," she reminded him as he said that it wasn't fair Vincent got to see her practically all year around and they only got a few weeks with her. "But she's always gonna need us Brian," she told him, her cheek moving to rest against his cheek lightly. "Things wouldn't be that different if she were here, she'd still want to do things her own way, she'd still not want to listen to her parents on those subjects, but at the end of the day she's just going through teenagehood honey," she said, moving to wrap her arms around him so that she could hug her husband. "You're supposed to support her, Brian. You're supposed to let her be who she wants to be and help her along the road. You're supposed to respect her choices when you know they're the right ones, and help stear her in the right direction when they aren't. But this, her education, her friends, her boyfriend, those are all good choices," she sighed lightly, resting her head against his shoulder. "She's such a smart girl Brian, we have to be able to have faith that she'll be able to make the right decisions for herself."

[Vincent Freeman]

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Vince knew that this week was not likely to be a piece of cake whenever her dad would be around, but he knew that he'd be able to overlook that, because it was all worth it just so that he could spend more time with his girlfriend. Being away from her was not something he enjoyed in the slightest, and he couldn't wait to be back in school and spending all the time with her that he wanted. Not that he'd always be able to of course, he'd have to share her with Val and her other friends, not to mention school work and other kinds of projects, but for the most part, he'd still be able to at least see her and talk to her every day, go out on dates with her, spend the night with her, kiss her when he wanted to, hold her hand and hug her close, have sex with her. All those little things and the bigger ones too that he wasn't able to do when she was away from him, they were all things he was looking forward to being able to do again on a baily or at least weekly basis. Only a few more weeks to go and it would be a reality rather than something he was yearning for, but in the meantime, this would do just fine.

He kept holding her close to him, enjoying the closeness that he was getting with her at the moment and happy to know that he wouldn't have to let go until she decided she wanted to pull away or they were called down for dinner or something - though even if there hadn't been dinner to go downstairs for, something told him her dad wouldn't want them to stay up here alone for longer than what was strictly necessary. So he did his best to enjoy it while he could, loving the feel of her body close to his own, being able to breathe in her scent, not having to hear her voice through a phone or his computer's speakers... it was all pretty damn great in his opinion. "I'd say you can," he couldn't help but say when she mentioned that she could handle having a boyfriend, unable to keep his mind from drifting in a slightly more guttery corner of his mind, though he moved to press his lips against her own next, giving her a soft kiss and sighing lightly against her lips, pulling away only slightly so he could keep his forehead pressed to her own. "I'm sure things will get better, he just has to get used to the idea."

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