Hale's

Chapter 2

Jonathan stared at the pictures spread on the table, flooded by memories of another lifetime.

"Who is it?" Hale asked softly, holding up a picture of the wild, raven haired teen who owned Jonathan's heart.

"It's Rafael Raine..." Jonathan muttered distractedly, taking the picture from her. It showed Hale's mother, Jonathan and Rafael, in a random setting Jonathan couldn't remember at all. There were so many pictures of them, he couldn't even remember where they had all been taken.

"Who's Rafael?" Hale asked after a few moments of silence.

"What?" Jonathan muttered distractedly, looking down at her. She pointed at the countless pictures spread across the table and gave him a curious look.

"Oh um... He was... A friend of mine and your mother's..."

"How come none of these pictures are upstairs?" Judging by Hale's soft, serious tone, she hadn't missed that this was a strange situation.

"Um..." What was he supposed to tell her? How could he possibly explain this to an 11-year-old?

"We met when I first arrived at the boarding school," he said with a soft smile, remembering the day he had first made friends with Rafael Raine. Even though it was so long ago, he remembered it as if it had been yesterday.
"We were in the same dormitory, and we became best friends immediately." Jonathan smiled fondly at the memory of the brash, loud, crazy kid he had fallen in love with at first sight. Of course he didn't mention that part to his daughter because she was way too young for such stories.
Then he remembered that he had been her age at the time. But parents had the silly habit of viewing their children as innocent angels because they had already forgotten what they themselves had been like at that age.

"How come you never told me about him before?" Hale asked curiously.

'Because no child wants to know their parent's dirty little secrets...' He thought drily. "I haven't really thought about him in a long time," he lied. 'At least not since today earlier...'

"Oh." Hale nodded. "So... Mom also knew him?"

Jonathan sighed with a nod, looking over all the pictures; not like he could deny that one.

"You guys were good friends?" Hale asked carefully, obviously having noticed he was feeling a bit off.

"Yes. Friends..." Jonathan nodded heavily, feeling like in a dream.

"Just friends?" Hale asked with a quiet giggle.

"Excuse me?" Jonathan lifted his head to give her a sharp look.

The girl lifted a picture that nearly made Jonathan choke on his spit. It was of him and Rafael kissing.

"That's not what it looks like!" Jonathan defended immediately.

Hale raised an amused eyebrow. "Really?"

"Give me those and go to bed!" He ordered sternly, snatching the pictures away from her.

"So anyway!" Hale continued merrily. "Was he your boyfriend before you got together with mom?"

"No!" Jonathan growled, trying to stack all the pictures together.

"I can totally see why – he's really hot." Hale nodded understandingly.

"Excuse me?" Jonathan squeaked, clearing his throat quickly. "What's wrong with you? You're 11 – stop saying shit like that!"

"You just said 'shit'..." Hale giggled.

Jonathan took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Sorry. What I'm trying to say is that you're 11 – behave like it."

"How did you behave when you were 11?" Hale asked pointedly, crossing her arms.

"I did not call random guys 'hot'!" Somehow Hale came way too much after her mother.

"Uh-huh," Hale said incredulously. "Are you gay?"

"No!" Jonathan stared at her in disbelief. What was happening here?! How had this situation escalated so quickly? "I was married to your mother, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Hale laughed, apparently only now remembering this fact. "Were you gay before you married her?"

"That's not how it works," Jonathan said drily, finally stuffing all the pictures back into their folders.

"How does it work then?" Hale asked confused.

Jonathan paused to look at her; she didn't look upset or angry, just curious. "Um... You either are or you are not gay. You don't go back and forth."

The girl nodded slowly. "So what are you?"

Jonathan debated what to say for a moment. How was he supposed to explain this? She was too young... Alright, so that was just a cheap excuse – she was not too young – but he didn't know how to explain it, and he wasn't sure he wanted his little girl to know... Would she be upset? She didn't seem upset though...

He finally settled for the dumbest answer of all. "It's complicated."

"Was it also complicated when you met Rafael? You know... when you were my age?" She asked slyly, well knowing at what age he had started boarding school.

Jonathan sent her a scorning look. "Yes. And I don't actually want to tell you about this."

"You know... I read in one of your 'child advicey' books that you're always supposed to be honest to your kids," she said wisely.

"I am honest! I just told you I don't want to tell you!" Jonathan crossed his arms defensively; sometimes this child drove him crazy.

"Withholding the truth is also lying!" Hale stated wisely; he had the feeling she was far too entertained by this.

"Not when it comes to child education it isn't," Jonathan countered.

"But you do know that if you don't tell me, I'll just make up my own version of what happened. Do you want to hear my version?" She asked excitedly.

"God no, please spare me," Jonathan muttered. He had heard a few of her psychotic versions of random things over the years, and this really wasn't something he wanted to hear in her version... Maybe he really should tell her... But then he would probably have to pay a shrink for the next ten years... He couldn't afford that.

Oh, why hadn't he paid better attention as to where he had put those pictures?!