Always There

The look on Adrienne's face when she picked Billie Joe and Olivia up from the San Francisco International Airport was a little hard to pin down. She had known for a week about Olivia and him being the father. She wasn't too accepting about it, demanding an answer of how he could be sure. First she assumed that he had had an affair while they were married and he was just telling her the truth now. But when he explained Olivia was conceived before he and Adi had even gotten back together and that he didn't know about Olivia until this month, the response wasn't as great either.

After several hours of talking, arguing, bickering and such, Adrienne caved and agreed to have Olivia join them for Thanksgiving to meet her newfound stepdaughter.

The moment Billie Joe's wife looked down at Olivia and took in the sight of the twelve-year-old, the expression on her face said everything. Adrienne knew this was his daughter. She'd be insane to try and deny it. If Billie Joe were to dress in drag and then shrink in size, that was what Olivia looked like for the most part.

The preteen shook Adrienne's hand politely, not sure how to address her newfound stepmother. And the ride to their house was a little awkward. Everyone tried to initiate some sort of conversation only for each attempt to end up dead in the water, so to speak.

When they finally arrived home, Joey and Jakob ran outside and gave Billie Joe a big hug, making up from the couple of weeks they hadn't seen their dad. Then came the introductions; introducing sister to brothers. To Billie Joe's relief, they were really cool about having a sister.

Getting Olivia settled in brought a smile to Billie Joe's face was slightly bittersweet for Adrienne. It's not that she wasn't happy for this little girl to finally know who her father was and to have him in her life, nor was she unhappy that Billie Joe had another extension of himself that clearly made his heart swell. Perhaps it was jealousy, or envy. Here, his former love had given him what they'd wanted for years. A daughter. She knew and understood this ex-girlfriend, Maria, was married to someone else and living cross-country, and she should have no worries, but...

...why was it that she did feel it a bit in the back of her mind?

* * *

That night, they all ordered Chinese take-out and ate on the living room floor on a blanket as if they were having a picnic indoors. When they were stuffed to the gut and slouching back against the couch for support, Joey disappeared for a few moments only to return with his Monopoly board game for all of them to play. Adrienne grabbed up the thimble, Olivia took the dog, Joey took the car, Jakob took the battleship and Billie Joe claimed the top hat.

The game probably would've last until after New Years if Adrienne didn't announce that it was time for the boys to go to bed. Grumbling, the oldest Armstrong boy packed up the game and carted it off to his room, followed by his brother. Both boys scampered off to their bedrooms upstairs to get into their pajamas and brush their teeth while awaiting their parents to tuck them in.

Olivia, however, hung back in uncertainty. Billie Joe nodded for his wife to go up ahead without him; that he'd be up in a minute. He placed his hand on his daughter's head and ruffled her hair a little.

"What's wrong?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "I'm kinda used to the nighttime routine my mom and me do. I get ready and then she comes in and tells me a story." Blushing, she bit her lip. "I still like to have stories told to me even though I'll be a teenager next year."

A teenager. Shit. That word made Billie Joe feel old.

"Well, you know...I can tell you a story later."

"Later?" she scrunched her nose like him.

"Well, the boys are ten and under. So, they're bedtime on Holidays is by ten...like now. But you're responsible. And twelve. I think you can stay up until midnight. And at midnight, I'll tell you a story. D'you like 'Goodnight Moon'?"

"Oh, I didn't mean storybook stories."

"Okay, well, I don't know how great my imagination is to make up a--"

"No, no...nothing made up either," she cut him off.

Placing his hands on his narrow hips, it was Billie Joe's turn to scrunch his nose in confusion. "Then what else is there?"

"My mom always tells me something about when she was young. Like my age or when she was in high school. Sometimes she even tells me stories about you."

"Really? Billie Joe questioned with a smirk.

"Yeah."

"Good things, I hope."

"Always. She always told me you were a really nice man who loved her and bought her a pretty bracelet with fake diamonds on Christmas when she knew you couldn't really afford it," Olivia snickered.

"Heh," Billie Joe laughed. "That thing's probably long gone by now."

"Oh, no. She still has it," the girl informed with a nod of her head. "She wears it at Christmas and Mitch always complains that she shouldn't be wearing cheap jewelry on the holidays. But she says its price doesn't matter."

A calm feeling fell over Billie Joe as he heard his daughter ramble on about the tennis bracelet he had bought for Maria almost thirteen years prior. Smirking, he told Olivia he'd be back and to pop in a movie or something. Upstairs, he said goodnight to his sons, each of whom seemed to express their feelings about having Olivia as their big sister. Joey said he liked her a lot but was kinda bummed he wasn't the oldest anymore, but Adrienne reiterated that he was the oldest boy, and her oldest altogether, a response that irked Billie Joe a little. Jakob was more content about Olivia because he was already the youngest and he said that maybe she would help him beat up Joey.

Smiling, Billie Joe finally walked out of both boys' rooms and headed back downstairs with Adrienne. Despite his suggestion about the movie, Olivia just sat on the couch waiting.

"I didn't wanna touch anything in case I did something wrong and broke your stuff," she admitted shyly.

"Well, if you did I'd just buy something newer and better and bigger and more expensive and blame the DVD player for breaking on its own."

Olivia laughed. "I just feel a little weird helping myself to your stuff."

"She's new here, Billie. She feels like a guest..." Adrienne offered, giving the girl a small smile.

"Well, don't feel like a guest. You helped yourself to my fridge and TV in New York. There's no excuse why you can't do it here in California." Billie Joe walked over to the stack of DVDs and held up 'Austin Powers in Goldmember,' unaware of Adrienne's faint frown. "How's this?" he asked, turning around and looking between his wife and daughter.

Olivia nodded, but Adrienne shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. I'm not gonna watch it anyway. I was thinking of making some brownies or something to bring over to Tre and Claudia's tomorrow."

"Oh, okay," Billie Joe replied with a nod. Stepping around his coffee table, he plopped down beside Olivia on the couch, leaving Adrienne to stare at the back of their heads from where she stood in the doorway, arms folded across her chest.

With an inaudible sigh, she left walked into the kitchen without a word.