Oklahoma (Isaac Hanson)

Chapter Eighteen

I feel like every time I sit down, more of this just pours out.

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"Are you sure that there was nothing else?" Isaac sounded desperate and he didn't care.

"I'm positive. Anything Perrie came here with was sent with her, Laura and I dug everything apart." Grady answered glumly. "Ben is coming over for dinner, we can get him and Evan to shift through some things. Fresh eyes might not hurt."

"Thanks for looking." Isaac replied, readjusting the phone that he held between his ear and shoulder. "I don't think it's really necessary to bother them."

Desperate to know more about Taylor and Amy, without asking Taylor; Isaac had contacted the Burnhams to see if there were any photo albums, scrap books, or anything of the sort that had been sent with Perrie. Giving Isaac the promise of a day or two, Laura had scoured every inch of storage looking for anything that may belong to Perrie. When she had moved to Oklahoma, anything that had arrived with her to the Burnham home was sent to Tulsa.

Upstairs, tucked away in boxes were a few photo albums and a few documents of Perrie's life, all which Isaac had tore through the moment he had arrived home from his day of chaos. In his own search he found no traces of Taylor, except a photo which also had the entire Hanson family. Logically, Isaac knew the best route was to man up and talk with his brother. They weren't on particularly good terms at the moment, but if Isaac went to Taylor and asked for the truth in full then he would get it.

Isaac groaned, going to Taylor wasn't an option. Not yet.

"Look, man, I'm sure Ben won't mind. He may even know where some things are that we could have missed." Grady offered, knowing that his son would do anything to help in the way of his little sister. "Ben and Perrie cleaned the attic back in the spring, they may have put stuff in boxes and we're just missing it."

The idea of Perrie being in the Burnham's home, living life as their daughter seemed so strange to Isaac now. The fact that Perrie led another life, before joining Isaac's family, would always be there.

"If he doesn't mind. I'd feel pretty shitty if he comes to visit and you make him work." Isaac replied with a slight chuckle. He was an eighteen year old boy at one time, as was Grady, they knew what it was like having someone force you to do something you'd rather not.

"Naw, I doubt Ben will mind." Grady cleared his throat. "I assume this doesn't come out to Perrie?"

Isaac sighed. "No." As much as he hated lying to her, this was for the best. Perrie didn't need to go around thinking that her uncle was her father or get some sort of doubt that Isaac was. She didn't need to know all of her mother's indiscretions.

"I understand. Trust me, if he even hints at it to her then his scrawny ass is mine. I'll let you get in a kick, if you want." Grady laughed.

"He's pretty loyal to her, huh?"

"Loyalty means a lot to Ben. He's also pretty protective of Perrie, he's been her protector since he was a little boy." Grady reminisced about the two teenagers that he and his wife had raised. "When Perrie first got here, Ben didn't want her to be scared, he slept on the bedroom floor for three nights before Laura convinced him to sleep in his own bed."

"Sometimes siblings are close that way." Isaac commented with a small shake of his head.

"Ben and Perrie have always been each others best friend, most siblings are like that, but they always knew that other kids would never treat them the same. Foster kids come with a bad stigma, sometimes it's true, but it's not fair to those who are really genuine good kids." Grady went on. "Ben and Perrie are really bright and really good kids. They could do anything, go anywhere, it broke my heart that people would ever treat them unfairly."