Second Chances

It Was a Strange Thing

Life was a strange thing, you're born, you grow up, you're expected to know exactly who you are and what you want to do with your life by eighteen, have a degree, get a stable job, get married, have kids, buy a house, grow old, retire, and die.

Johnny Faust never had the opportunity for normalcy.

He was raised by a single mom who used to be in a band, and never knew who his father was, he had a perfect girlfriend that he could easily see himself settling down with, and he did try to do the college thing, but dropped out the second the rest of his band decided to move to Los Angeles and never looked back.

The singer made a few mistakes along the way... ok, a lot of mistakes. He cheated on Gretchen, he got hooked on heroin, he sorta made a deal with the devil, and he almost went to prison... twice.

Gretchen had tried to make things work when they got back together, but no matter what, she wasn't cut out for LA or being in the public eye, she definitely tried for him, and for their relationship, but even if he didn't fuck up, she wouldn't have made it in that town for much longer.

They broke up right before the band ended their unofficial hiatus, and it destroyed Johnny for a while, he couldn't function so he threw himself back into work. That was when another mistake from his past came back, but it had a different outcome than his usual mistakes.

A daughter.

What had happened between himself and that eighteen year old girl, and the things that inevitably occurred afterwards was something that he had felt so much guilt for, and when he walked out of the Roxy and saw her standing across the street, a little baby in her arms. It felt like someone took a sledgehammer to his chest.

He wanted to pretend that it wasn't real, that it didn't happen, but the moment he walked into Elias' house and saw Faith sitting there in her mother's lap, he knew he couldn't walk away.

"Is she always this good?" Johnny found himself asking, smiling at the little girl who grinned right back.

"I think she just likes you." Vivian whispered, catching Johnny's eye as he looked at her from where he had crouched down in front of her chair.

Everything changed that day, and that was the only fuck up in Johnny's life that he was grateful happened. He wasn't happy about the other things or how it happened, but he would never regret his daughter.

The first few months had been understandably awkward, and uncomfortable for Johnny and Vivian as they grew used to the whole co-parenting thing. The singer had insisted that she, and their daughter move in so she could start school and have a place to stay for free.

The younger woman had refused to let Johnny help her pay for veterinary school at first, but after he assured that she could pay rent while she lived with him when she got a job, and pay him back for the tuition(he wasn't actually going to let her do that once she finished school, but she didn't need to know that)she relented.

They eventually fell into a semi-comfortable rhythm, Johnny was off tour for a few months, so he watched Faith at home or took her with him to the studio, or anything like that while Vivian was at school or work, and when Johnny eventually went back on the road, Janis had been a huge help watching Faith for them.

Vivian finished school and became a vet tech, getting a job at a veterinary clinic in downtown Los Angeles, and found a nice apartment in her price range that wasn't far from Johnny's home.

It was a rocky road from the start, and eventually TMZ did find out, but thankfully he got word about it before they could release anything so he did what any other celebrity in the twenty-first century would do.