Getting Back Up

As Scott listened to the ringing in his ear, he half wished she wouldn't answer and he could just leave a voicemail. He had no clue what he was going to say. She answered on the third ring.

"Hello?" Rebecca asked with an annoyed tone to her voice.

"Hi Rebecca, this is Scott Hartnell. You may not remember me. We met at Xfinity Live last month when you were out with your friends..." his voice trailed off, not quite sure if she was actually listening to him.

"Uh, hi. I vaguely remember. How did you get my number?" She asked in a snarky tone.

"Um, your friend Tiffany. She's been talking to my teammate Luke since that night. I hope that's not a problem." Scott said apologetically.

"I guess not. Why did you want to get in touch with me?"

"I know this may seem completely random but I was wondering if we could go out to dinner sometime." Scott said as he crossed his fingers, closed his eyes and held his breath.

"Scott, right? I'm not sure why you'd want to take me out, I don't know how much we could really have in common." Rebecca softened her tone a bit, but was still hard with her response.

Scott exhaled and slumped his shoulders. Feeling a bit defeated he responded, "To be honest, I'm not sure how much we have in common either. But I'd like the chance to find out. I'm just looking to have a meal with someone I'd like to get to know."

Rebecca was silent as she contemplated her answer. She looked over at Tyler who was laying on the sofa watching television.

"Look, I'm not like my friends. I have alot going on right now and I don't go out looking to hook up with random guys," she said matter-of-factly.

"Even though you should," Tyler said under his breath.

"I got that," Scott chuckled, "you made that clear at the bar. I'm not like my friends either. I'm just looking for a meal. You need to eat right? So why not let me take you out?"

Rebecca let out an audible sigh. "Fine. One meal."

Scott threw his fist in the air like he had just scored a game winning goal. They confirmed the details of date and said their goodnights.

"Soooo....who you going out with?" Tyler asked.

"Scott Hartnell," Rebecca answered bracing herself for his reaction.

"You're not serious," Tyler smirked as he propped himself up on his elbow to look at his mother at the edge of the room.

"I am serious. But there's something more serious that I need to talk to you about Tyler," Rebecca said. For the last fifteen years she had avoided this conversation with her son. She never lied to Tyler about why his father wasn't around, but she never told him the whole story. She didn't know why Brad had contacted her after all this time, but she had a feeling it wasn't for her. He wanted to see Tyler. And Tyler needed to know the whole story before that could ever happen.

"What could be more serious than you dating a Flyer?? Do you know how huge that is??!! Tyler could not control his excitement at the thought of meeting Scott, of hanging out with Scott, of getting to meet other Flyers.

Tyler already had his mother marrying Scott in his mind when she said, "It's your father."

"What? What are you talking about?" Tyler asked, completely confused by what he just heard.

"The phone call earlier...the one I let go to voicemail...it was your father," Rebecca said as she looked at her son's puzzled expression.

"What does he want?"

"I'm not sure. He didn't say. He just asked that I call him back. But I wanted to talk to you before I called him back." Rebecca took a deep breath and began to tell her son the full story. She told him about how they met in high school when she was his age. She told him about the five years they spent together before he was born. She told him about the night she told Brad she was pregant and how excited he was at the news.

That was the easy part. Now came the difficult part. Describing in detail Brad's jealousy of her guy friends, especially Chris. Jealously that turned into anger and bitterness when a now ex-friend convinced Brad that the baby wasn't his. Explaining how during the course of the pregnancy there were fights, horrible fights, but she couldn't leave. She wanted to work it out for the sake of the baby.

They had been together for almost six years when Tyler was born. Brad held him in his arms and promised he would be the perfect father. All of the fighting, all of their problems, all of it fell away the moment the baby was placed in his arms. Rebecca thought they could finally be happy again. Brad promised her that they would get married.

Three weeks passed before the fighting started again. Brad was never home. He never wanted to stay at home with his son. He accused Rebecca of cheating on him. He accused her of getting pregnant on purpose. And even with all of that, she still loved him. She still wanted to marry him. She tried to convince him that she had never cheated. No matter what she did, it wasn't enough.

He left. He left without looking back. It would have been easy to hate him. But she couldn't hate him, because he gave her Tyler. Sure it was hard being a single mother. But she had the support of her friends and family to help get her through. And she wouldn't change that for anything. But now he's come back.

"I don't believe what I'm hearing. Why have you never told me any of this?" Tyler asked with tears in his eyes.

"I didn't think you needed all the details. I didn't want you to resent your father. Because I don't," Rebecca said as she moved closer to her son.

"I've always resented him mom, he wasn't here. And I never knew why. I thought I had done something to make him leave us," Tyler said, reaching out for his mother's hand.

"Of course you didn't do anything. It was his decision to leave. It was his decision to stay away all these years," she placed her hand in his and covered them with her other hand. "I don't know why he made contact now but I will find out. He may want to meet you. I would understand if you wanted to meet him, it's your decision. Don't feel like you're going to offend me if you want to meet him, you have a right to know your father."

"Yeah well, he didn't want me then...I don't want him now." Tyler said as he hugged his mother.