It Started in a Cabin

--- Chapter Five

Once the kids went upstairs Steve went back into the living room and sat down, putting his beer on the coffee table as he flicked the TV to Discovery Channel. He had been surprised to catch Scarlett and Chris kissing already. Somehow Steve felt like he and Lisa may have just gotten themselves into something that they had no idea how to control.

He knew Chris was a good kid, and he could see that he had already smoothed out some of his daughter's rough edges. For all that he'd told Lisa that they should just roll with it, it still kind of freaked him out that Chris and Scarlett had somehow fallen in love. The whole situation was just so surreal. He knew Lisa was right too, putting a stop to their relationship now would only push the kids together that much harder and cause no end of hell and mayhem in the household. Steve shook his head and sighed, he had hoped that Scar and Chris would get along, he just hadn't expected this to happen.

"Hey," Lisa said as she sat down beside him, pulling his arm around her.

"Hey yourself."

"Where are the kids?" She asked.

"They're up in Scar's room," Steve said. "She mentioned something about her new dresses she bought today."

Lisa chuckled, "Ah, yes I think Chris will like what she picked out. She cleans up pretty nicely."

"Yeah, the few times I managed to get her into a dress when she was growing up she always looked great. You know I've already caught them kissing."

"Give them a couple of days Steve, this is all new to them too. How are you feeling about it?" she asked.

"A bit weird, but I like Chris, he's a good kid and I don't think he'd do anything to hurt Scarlett. I think I'll be okay with it after a bit. How about you?"

"A bit weird too, but I only have to worry about Chris, you're the one with the daughter." she replied with a grin.

"Hey she's your daughter too lady. Married, remember?"

Lisa had a sudden thought and began to giggle.

"What's so funny?" Steve asked with a smile.

"I was just thinking that if they get married and have kids we'll be double-grandparents!" she laughed.

"Oh God, that's all that I need to be thinking about now! Should I maybe learn how to play duelling banjos sweetie?" Steve said as he joined in her laughter.

"It might not be a bad idea just in case."

---

That week Scarlett was scheduled for her surgery. She cried the whole way to the hospital despite Chris' attempts to calm her fears. He knew she hated anything to do with needles and doctors in general, but whatever he said just seemed to upset her even more.

"Scar we checked everything we could about your surgery on the net before today. You don't have to worry sis, they'll either knock you out or give you a spinal right? Either way you won't feel a thing."

"I know Chris," she sniffled. "I-it just freaks me out. They're going to cut up my knee and jab things into it and who knows what could go wrong? What if it comes out worse than it is now?"

"Sis the doctor does this all the time, I'm sure she knows what she's doing. I'll be waiting right outside when you come out okay?"

"But I don't want them sticking things into my knee!" she wailed.

Chris was getting frustrated, he knew his sister was scared but he also knew she was a lot tougher than she was acting right then. "Scarlett stop it! Doctor Haines said that we needed to do this or your knee would just keep getting worse. You toughed it out when we had to walk from the car to the cabin and I'm pretty sure that hurt like hell, but you weren't blubbering like a baby like you are now. You were tough and strong through the whole thing. I know you can do this, then when it's done we just have to do the rehab and you'll be okay."

Chris' tirade shocked Scarlett out of her self pity, she wiped her eyes and nose with a tissue and took a deep breath. "O-okay Chris, I'm sorry for being a baby. I promise to be brave, but you owe me."

"I owe you?" Chris asked as he glanced at her.

Scarlett smiled as she wiped her eyes again, "Yeah, you owe me. I'll stop crying and acting like a suck, but you have to take me out to dinner and dancing when I'm better. I haven't really been able to dance since the last time I wracked up my knee, plus it'll give me an excuse to wear my green dress for you again."

Chris laughed as they pulled into the parking garage, "Okay I'll take you dancing, but don't blame me if I stomp your toes!"

After Scarlett was processed Chris sat with her until they were ready to take her to the operating room. He walked with her when they took her down, holding her hand the whole way. Chris could see she was still scared but she was trying her best not to show it. Just before they wheeled her in he leaned over and gave her a soft kiss.

"I'll be right here when you come out okay? I love you."

"I love you too boy-scout," Scarlett grinned through her tears.

After she got wheeled in Chris went and waited outside the recovery room until they brought her back up. Scarlett was out like a light when she got brought to recovery so he asked how everything had gone, and if he could wait with her until she woke up. The nurse said he could so he followed them in and sat beside her, holding her hand and stroking her hair.

Scarlett slowly drifted back into consciousness, she opened her eyes and when she could get them to focus she was looking into Chris' chocolate brown eyes.

"Hi," she said groggily.

"Hey beautiful," Chris said with a smile. "How ya feeling?"

"Stoned. Now I know why I never tried drugs. How did it go?"

Chris gently rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand, "The nurse said that it went really well and with luck I can take you dancing in time for Christmas."

"Cool," Scarlett said with a smile. "I'm going to make you keep that promise you know."

Chris smiled too, "I know."

Once she was cleared to go Scarlett got wheeled to the exit while Chris ran to pull up the car. He helped her in then they went to get her prescription for painkillers and headed home. Chris got her settled on the couch with her leg propped up and the baby monitor at her side. He clipped the remote to his belt and bowed to her.

"I am at your disposal milady." He said with a grin.

"Keep that shit up and I'll make sure you're the one who gets up with the kids in the middle of the night mister." Scarlett laughed.

"If it kept you happy I'd do it gorgeous."

Now Scarlett grinned, "You're just full of compliments today aren't you boy-scout? Beautiful earlier, now I'm gorgeous. If I didn't know any better I'd say you were nosing around for something."

"I'm not looking for a darn thing, except for maybe a kiss."

"That can be arranged, why don't you come here?"

Chris moved to where his sister was sitting and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him in for a long, slow kiss.

"Wow!"

"Yeah, wow." Chris said.

"It's a good thing my Dad wasn't around to see that one. I think I'd be short one step-brother if he had." Scarlett quipped.

"No kidding!" He laughed.

--- Chapter Six

Their budding romance progressed slowly, neither of them wanting a repeat of their first misstep with Steve. They would cuddle, hug or give each other kisses on the cheek in front of their folks but never anything more. Even when they were alone they took things slow, not wanting to push one another into an uncomfortable situation.

Unfortunately for Chris and Scarlett an uncomfortable situation reared its ugly head in the form of his best friend Jason showing up one Saturday.

"Hey Jase! How's it going bud?" Chris said when he answered the door.

"Good man, where the hell have you been? If I didn't see you on COD I'd think you were avoiding me."

"I've been kinda busy taking care of my step-sister, she fucked up her knee when we got into a car accident a few weeks ago."

"Yeah my mom told me that, you went off the road or something eh?" Jason replied.

Chris laughed as he let his friend in, "If you can call rolling down an embankment four or five times 'or something' then yeah I guess we did."

"You're okay though right?" Jason asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just had my head knocked around a bit. Scarlett just had surgery last week to fix up her knee."

"Scarlett? Like ScarlettShriek the chick you've been teaming with on COD lately? She's fucking epic man!"

"Tell me about it!" Chris chuckled.

"Hey I saw you at the mall the other day with a smoking redhead. I was going to come over and say hi, but you two were kinda busy. Where've you been hiding her Chris?" Jason said with a grin.

Chris cringed inside. He knew his sister was upstairs taking a shower and he hoped to god that she wouldn't come down until after he could get rid of his friend. "We just met a bit ago it's nothing serious yet."

Jason laughed at what Chris said, "Nothing serious? It sure didn't look like nothing serious to me dude!"

"Okay maybe it's a bit serious bud. We're just trying to be low key right now."

Just then Scarlett came down the stairs, still drying her hair. "Hey bro who was at the door?" She asked.

"Shit!" Chris muttered to himself as Jason turned to see who had spoken.

Jason's jaw dropped then he burst out laughing, "You've got to be fucking kidding me Chris! You were making out at the mall with your step-sister? That's fucking unbelievable dude!"

Scarlett turned to Chris with a deer-in-the-headlights look, "Chris?"

"It's okay sis, Jason's cool," Chris said as he gave his friend a hard look. "You're cool right?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm cool." Jason said as he continued to snicker.

"Jason I'm serious man, you can't tell anyone about us."

"Don't worry Chris, I won't say a word. I gotta ask though, do your parents know?"

Chris could see that Scarlett had somewhat regained her composure from her initial surprise. She walked over to him and took his hand in hers and looked Jason in the eye. "Yes they do. They're kinda weirded out by it but they're accepting it."

Jason smiled at Scarlett, even though she was dressed in scrubbies he still thought she looked hot. "So you're the infamous ScarlettShriek. You've handed me my ass so many times on COD I should almost hate you."

Scarlett grinned back at him, "Chris told me your handle was Waarrlokk92, right?"

"Yeah that's me," Jason said.

"Your problem is you're predictable Jason, you have your favourite spots and you stick to them. Quit being such a camper," Scarlett said with a disarming smile.

"Fuck! No wonder you smoke me all the time," he chuckled.

The three of them sat and talked for a bit, with Scarlett and Chris giving Jason a brief history of what had happened between them. Jason thought it was bloody strange, but figured it was their business not his. He promised them again that he wouldn't tell anyone about them, then said that he had to leave to get his girlfriend because she was dragging him out shopping.

"It was nice meeting you Scarlett, now I finally know who keeps kicking my ass." Jason said.

"Nice meeting you too Jason. Maybe you should join our side from now on, you might last longer." Scarlett joked.

"Just one more question before I split guys, you don't have to answer if you don't want to Scarlett, but is that your real hair colour?"

Scarlett blushed and grinned up at Chris before answering, "Yup, one hundred percent real."

Jason looked at Chris and gave an evil chuckle, "You are so fucked dude."

"I know Jase," Chris laughed.

Once Jason was gone Scarlett turned to Chris and he could see she was worried just by the look in her eyes. "Can you really trust him Chris?"

"Scar we can trust Jason. He said he won't tell anyone and he won't okay?"

"Yeah well this sure seems to be going to fucking hell right now boy-scout."

"I'm sorry Scarlett. I didn't know Jason was going to come over or that he saw us the other day. I'm sure we weren't quite as bad as he was saying, but maybe we just need to be more careful when we're out." Chris said soothingly.

"Fine, we'll be more careful! We have to be careful here because we don't want to freak out our Mom and Dad, I get that I really do. But even when they're not around we tiptoe around like we're in a mine field just in case they come home. When can we just be us Chris? This is fucking bullshit!" Scarlett fumed.

"You think I'm happy with this Scar? I get the whole home rules thing too you know. Every time we go out I'm always worried that I'm going to do or say something stupid. Something that will ruin it for us! What I really want is for people to see us together and think I must be the luckiest guy in the world to have a girl like you with me." Chris replied.

"I wish I'd checked the fucking GPS before we left your stupid camp! At least then I could have hated you like I wanted to and none of this would've ever happened."

"Yeah well you didn't, and now we're in this fucked up relationship that isn't one because people will think we're freaks," Chris snapped.

"Well if you're so worried about people thinking you're a freak stop worrying because I'm done!" Scarlett yelled at him as she stormed off to her room.

"Scar, I didn't mean it like that!" Chris called after her.

"Fuck you Chris!" She screamed as she slammed her door.

Scarlett threw herself onto her bed as she started to cry. She punched her pillow several times then hugged it to her chest. What Chris said had hurt her, he made her feel like it was her fault everything had gone wrong. It was just as much his fault as hers as far as she was concerned. If he hadn't been so goddamned nice to her, and taken care of her when she was hurt she wouldn't have fallen in love with him. It wasn't fair! Why did everything in her life get so fucked up?

Chris followed her upstairs and could hear Scarlett crying through her door. His heart was aching, he hadn't meant to say things the way he did. It broke Chris' heart hearing her cry and knowing it was his fault that she was. He knocked on her door and he heard her stop crying for a second.

"Scar...Scarlett I'm sorry. Can we talk? Please?" he said softly.

"Fuck off!" She yelled back through the door.

Chris turned and went into his room, slumping into his computer chair as he held his head in his hands. He swiped at his eyes as his own tears began to flow. Chris had no idea how to fix what he had done, what he had said to Scarlett was so far from what he had been trying to say. Over the past few weeks Scarlett had become the center of his life. Everything he did, everything he wanted to do was to make her happy. Then his brain shut down and his mouth shot off with the first stupid thing that came out, and now he had hurt the girl that he loved. Chris got up and flopped down onto his bed, wiping his eyes again.

---

When Lisa and Steve got home the house was silent. They looked at each other, surprised because Chris and Scarlett were usually hanging out in the living room playing Xbox or watching TV together. Lisa checked upstairs and saw that both of the kids' doors were closed and went back down to Steve.

"Uh oh." She said quietly to him.

"Oh shit. Their first fight?" he asked.

"Yeah I think so. They were fine this morning when we left, I wonder what happened?"

"I doubt we'll find out today. Let's just give them their space for now, they'll cool down and let us know what happened when they're ready." Steve said.

"Steve I can't even imagine the amount of pressure this relationship is putting on them. Having to sneak around and hide how they really feel? God knows I know I couldn't handle it."

"Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should have put our foot down as soon as we knew what was happening. But I know that I'm wrong when I say that because those kids really do love each other. It's not their fault we got married Lisa." Steve said as he hugged her.

"I know honey, in the whole scheme of things does the fact that we're married really matter? They should be allowed to be happy together." Lisa replied.

That evening Steve and Lisa ate alone, Scarlett and Chris came down separately and got their food and returned to their rooms. Their parents could feel the tension in the house like a palpable, living beast. Things would have been so much easier if it had just been a sibling quarrel, but this was a lovers fight between their children which made it that much worse.

The next day wasn't much better. Chris and Scarlett stayed in their rooms and only came out for food or drinks, avoiding being in the same room with each other. Both Steve and Lisa were on edge because of what was going on between the kids. Their moods were getting worse through the day and they even started being snappish with each other. By four in the afternoon Steve had had enough after Lisa had snapped at him again for something minor. He went to the bottom of the stairs and bellowed up to the kids that they needed to get downstairs immediately.

When they came down Steve and Lisa were sitting on the couch, he pointed to the love seat and said "Sit."

Scarlett and Chris sat together but their body language made it quite evident that they didn't want to be there. They sat as far apart as possible and were leaning away from each other, neither one looking at the other.

Lisa looked at the kids and her heart just broke. She could see that they were unhappy and hurting, and she just wanted to hug them both to her. "Okay guys, what happened?"

Neither of them said anything for a minute then Chris sighed, "Jason came over yesterday. Scarlett was upstairs taking a shower. He said he saw me at the mall making out with a hot redhead the other day. I knew we'd been busted and I was hoping Scar would take her time upstairs and I could get rid of him quick. Unfortunately she came down and he saw her. He started laughing and she freaked out."

"I didn't freak out!" Scarlett snapped at him.

"Okay you didn't freak out, but you were scared."

"Fine I was scared. I didn't know what was going on, all I knew was that there was this strange guy talking with Chris about what I thought was our private life!"

"Anyhow I convinced him not to tell anyone about us. We all talked for a bit and I thought everything was fine after Jason left. Then Scarlett started bitching about us never really being able to have real time together, how we always had to sneak around and hide like criminals."

"You were bitching too Chris! Whining about how you wished everyone would think you were the luckiest guy in the world!" She said angrily.

"Well at least I never said I hated you!" Chris said as he glared at Scarlett.

"No you just said I was a freak, asshole!" Scarlett shot back with tears in her eyes.

"Alright enough you two!" Steve said sharply.

Both kids shut up and stared daggers at each other. Lisa squeezed Steve's knee, letting him know that she wanted to take the lead.

"Scarlett? Did you say you hated Chris sweetie?"

"No. I didn't. I said I wished I could hate him. I wanted to hate him the whole drive to that stupid camp, but everything got fucked up."

Lisa nodded, "Yes everything did get fucked up didn't it? You realized that Chris wasn't the person you hoped he would be didn't you?"

"No he wasn't," Scarlet said as she wiped her nose. "He was too damned nice, too caring, too everything."

"Okay now your turn Chris." Lisa said to her son. "Please tell me you didn't call this beautiful girl beside you a freak."

"I didn't call her a freak Mom!" Chris said defensively. "We were arguing, and I got confused, and it came out all wrong. I just hate that people will judge us just because you and Steve are married."

Lisa nodded then looked at her step-daughter, "So you don't hate Chris then?"

Scarlett started to cry again, "No! I can't hate him, I love him!"

"How do you feel about Scarlett, Chris?"

"I love Scar too Mom," Chris said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.