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"Here Comes Another Paper Cut"
Part Two: It's only your shadow

Arriving too late
And leaving too soon

Two hours later Morgan heard a knock at the door and jumped up, flinging her door open and charging down the steps. She opened it and grinned.

"Uncle Joe!" she exclaimed, lunging forward to hug him.

"Hey beautiful. How are things?" he asked, hugging her tightly. Morgan stepped back and shrugged.

"Well, Dad just got home and him and Mom are already fighting...so I guess things are pretty normal," she replied. Joe frowned. He was upset to hear that Destiny and Patrick were having problems again. The last time almost tore their marriage apart and it hurt everyone, especially their young children.

"Where is Patrick?" Joe asked. Morgan pointed up the stairs as Connor came down them, talking on his cell phone and waved at Joe before retreating to the den.

"Hey kid," Joe said, climbing the stairs. He got to the landing and heard a faint bass thump coming from the room in the back and knew where he could find Patrick. He got to the door and pushed it open, the music getting louder.

"Hey Patrick!" Joe yelled over the music. Patrick turned his head and nodded, pulling the volume down. "Hey man, how was your trip?" Joe asked. Patrick shrugged.

"I don't know, I spent two weeks with this girl and I just don't feel like I believe in her enough to be her producer, you know?" he said. Joe nodded.

"But she's really hot, so not all is lost," he replied. Patrick laughed and shook his head.

"Yeah, too bad I'm a very married man." Joe laughed.

"Hey, that's never stopped some people before."

"Dude, i could never cheat on Destiny ever. Even though sometimes I think she deserves it."

"Oh, wow. That shit happened over 15 years ago, i love that you still hold that against her. It's awesome." Patrick sighed, kind of annoyed.

"I don't hold it against her still, I just think about the past sometimes and it bugs me. What if our children found out about what Destiny did to me back then? It would upset Morgan a lot, I know it. Especially since we can't seem to agree on what's best for her. I can just see the two of them getting into it and then Morgan calling her mother a slut or something. Ugh," Patrick said. Joe shrugged. He had a son of his own, but he was about eight years younger then Morgan, so he didn't really know what to say about raising a teenager yet.

"Man, what are the chances Morgan would even find out about that? I just don't like hearing that you guys are fighting again, I thought the counseling had helped," Joe replied. Patrick removed his headphones from around his neck and shut his board off.

"It did for a whole, but I mean, the techniques get old and meaningless after so long. Morgan was eight when we first when for help, things have changed. The only thing we fight about now is this record deal thing. I want her to see her dream, Destiny wants her to lead a normal life, and I don't know. Maybe she is too young," Patrick added. Joe shrugged.

"But I know you, you'd never let Morgan hear you agree with Destiny, that's probable a huge part of the problem right there, you never want to upset Morgan," Joe added. Patrick nodded.

"I hate when she's mad at me, but then it's unfair of me when I let Destiny take all of the blame and Connor, god. I don't know anything about my own son. What kind of father does that? I love him, but I can't seem to find that common ground with him. He's too much like Destiny for his own good though, before I went on my trip, he was in detention for fighting. He's only eleven!" Patrick sighed.

"Really? What was he fighting about?" Joe asked. Patrick shrugged.

"I never bothered to find out," he replied, melancholy...

Morgan exhaled slowly as she passed the joint back to her Uncle Joe. They were both sitting in her backyard in the pavilion over looking the pool with their backs to the house, smoking a small joint together. Morgan would never say it out loud, but she had a huge crush on Joe. It never bothered her that he was divorced or that he had a six year old son, she just knew Joe was hot and a lot more fun than all of the boys her age.

"So, your dad told me Connor was fighting a couple weeks ago, do you know why?" Joe asked, passing the roach to Morgan for her to finish. She giggled.

"Some asshole eighth grader told him that I get on my knees for anyone who asked nicely, boy or girl. So he kicked the kid's ass for me. I love my little brother," she said, still laughing, stubbing out the roach in an ashtray. Joe laughed with her.

"Well do you?" he said, seriously. Morgan whipped her head around and stared at him until he started to laugh, causing her to laugh as well. "Does Destiny know about that?" he asked.

"yeah, but she just yelled at him and told him their were other ways to defend me other than fighting. She just hates when I'm happy," Morgan replied. Joe shook his head.

"Now you know that's not true. Besides, your mom doesn't have much room to talk. She was a scrapped back in the day." Morgan turned to look at her house where she could see her mom through the kitchen window, then turned back to look at Joe.

"What do you mean?" she asked him. Joe smiled and cleared his throat, leaning in closer to her.

"Well, I never told you this okay," Morgan nodded, "but I can recall a few times when she beat up a girl for talking to your dad. She even got herself kicked out of a club once for a full on brawl with one of his ex-girlfriends." Morgan grinned widely. She never thought her Mom was actually cool on a former life.

"Wow, She really loved my dad, huh? I wonder what happened," she said, Joe stood up and Morgan followed as they both began to walk back towards the house.

"Your parents still love each other; they just disagree sometimes like any couple does. They are two of the strongest willed people I know, so don't worry about it," Joe replied, opening the back door, letting Morgan inside first. Morgan smiled as she caught Destiny's eye, then turned back to Joe.

"Thanks for the talk...and stuff, Uncle Joe," she said. He smiled and pulled her into a hug.

"Anytime, kiddo. Love you," he said. She smiled.

"Love you too. Mom, I think I'm going to go to bed," Morgan said heading into the kitchen to grab water and a bog of pretzels.

"Okay, night honey. Don't forget to remind me about dance class being tomorrow, I keep forgetting the day switched," she said.

"Yes, mother. Goodnight," she said, turning and heading up the stairs.

"Night, Mo!" Joe yelled as she waved to him. He sat down across from Destiny at the breakfast bar, watching her clean the sink.

"Joseph Mark Trohman, I know what you're doing with my daughter out there and I want you to stop," she said, turning and grinning at him.

"Eh, what's the big deal? The shit is legal now," he said.

"Yeah, but she's only fourteen. At least wait until she's sixteen," she said. Joe laughed as Patrick came down the stairs.

"Can someone tell me why my daughter smells like pot?" he asked. Destiny and joe grinned at each other.

"Hey, Uncle Joe is only looking at for her. At least she is supervised when she smokes with me," he replied, "Besides; it was just a tiny joint."

"Dude, stop corrupting my children," Patrick replied as he sat down beside Joe.

"Joe, do you want a beer or something?" Destiny asked.

"No, I better head out. I get James for the weekend, so I need sleep." Joe's son James was hell on wheels most of the time but Joe always tried to make the most of their time together.

"Well, bring him over tomorrow, you know Connor loves entertaining him and teaching him bad habits," Patrick replied.

"Yeah, I probably will. I just don't want to deal with his mother," he sighed," Well, I'll see you guys later," he said, leaving...

A few hours later, Patrick finally got too tired to try and make this girl he was reluctantly producing to sound better and shut down his equipment, headed for bed.

He got to the bedroom to see Destiny laying above the covers watching TV. He sighed sadly, wondering when all of the spark disappeared from their once exciting marriage. He changed into sleep clothes and crawled into the bed beside her, his back to her.

Destiny looked over at her husband and sighed sadly, wishing he would start randomly kissing her neck and slid his hand between her legs like he used to. She realized they weren't twenty anymore, but they weren't dead, either. She wanted that thing back that they used to have. Even Patrick being away for two weeks didn't cause them to miss each other like they used to. She recalled crying herself to sleep some nights when Patrick was out on the Honda Civic Tour and when he toured Europe after that. When they first had Morgan it didn't change much between them, but after Connor was born things got worse. She kind of blamed having a second child for the deterioration of their marriage, and the fact they pushed it under the rug for nearly four years before it all came to a head with a huge screaming match and Patrick head packed his bags and left for over a month. It seemed from then on Morgan really clung to Patrick and pushed farther away from Destiny, Connor was still too young to understand what had happened. To save their already fragile relationship they sought professional help and found their communication skills were severely lacking. They picked up the pieces and got relatively back on the right track until a few months ago when Patrick announced he was helping to get Morgan a recording contract. Destiny had a huge problem with it mostly due to how the Fall out Boy break-up effected Patrick's friendship with Pete. Who knew what the business would do to their young daughter?

"Dest?" Patrick asked quietly. She stopped her thought and shut off the TV before turning to him. He rolled over and looked in her eyes.

"I love you," he said softly. Destiny smiled weakly before climbing under the covers and crawling over to him, settling herself on his chest, taking a deep breath.

"I love you, too," she replied.

"I've been thinking and maybe your right. Maybe I should wait until Mo is a little older to get her into this."

"She's not going to be happy to hear you sat that," Destiny replied.

"Well, she'll just have to get over it" he said. Destiny smiled, pushed her body up slightly to kiss him...

********
I'm watching you disappear
But you were never here