Rebound: A 2nd Chance

Chapter 278 - A Happy Birthday

His lips began to tremble as his hands were shaking at his sides "H-Henry?" He slowly stepped forward until he was right in front of Jason's dad.

His hand slowly raised as he reached out toward him. After putting his hand on Henry's shoulder he shuddered as the realization that this was all real dawned on him.

He pulled Henry into a tight hug. Years of not knowing how his brother was doing or even if he was still alive released themselves as he silently embraced him.

No words were spoken and no tears were shed but Henry could feel from the strength of his brother's hug that there were years of emotions contained within it.

Not knowing what to say he just hugged his brother back while patting him on the shoulder. What nobody else knew was that he himself was feeling a rush of different emotions himself.

Sadness, relief, and happiness. All of these emotions swelled up from within him as he embraced his brother after so many years.

Seeing how strongly his brother reacted to seeing him after all these years he knew that his absence had hurt him greatly.

However he was also happy and relieved after seeing that his brother didn't seem to hold those years against him as the two of them hugged each other.

After few minutes David finally took a step back as he held Henry by the shoulders. He smiled "Look at you man, you're getting old."

Jason's dad laughed "You're one to talk. You already look like you have a few gray hairs on your head. And one of your kids is already in college."

David smiled "Good to see that your comebacks are still as fast as ever." He shook his head "I still can't believe it. It's really you. I didn't think that I would ever see you again."

Henry chuckled "Well, as nice as it is talking to you what do you say we let your family in first? They've just been standing outside for a bit now."

David shook his head in embarrassment before turning to his wife and kids behind him "Sorry about that."

Lily shook her head as she chuckled "That's alright Henry. I'm sure your kids were expecting that kind of reaction this when they planned all this."

Leslie and Nate silently looked to the side as they avoided their parents' gaze. Henry said hello to all of them as he welcomed them inside.

Jason and Shania were sitting on the couch in the living room while Naomi stood a few feet behind Henry.

David smiled brightly as he saw Naomi's face. He quickly walked toward her and hugged her from the side.

"Oh my god Naomi! Unlike my brother you've hardly aged a bit! You look the same as when we were back in high school."

Naomi laughed as she patted David on the shoulder "Thanks Dave. And you still look like the same guy that used to cry back when the three of us used to watch old Disney movies."

Lily smiled as she walked up to Naomi after having introduced herself to Henry "You're right about that. I remember back when we were dating he never wanted to watch any sad movies together.

It wasn't until a year had passed that he finally told me why. He was afraid that he would scare me off if I saw him crying because of a movie."

The four adults all spoke with each other for a few minutes as they caught up and talked about what had happened in their lives during the time that they had been apart.

Dave then noticed Jason and Shania sitting on the couch silently as he smiled at the both of them "I'm assuming that's your son Henry?

He looks just like the two of you. He has Henry's nose and eyebrows but thankfully he got the rest from Naomi.

I bet he's a real hit with the ladies at school." He then looked at shifted his sight to Shania "Is this his girlfriend?"

Henry smiled "Actually those are both my kids." After he had said that David and Lily both fell silent as they didn't know what to say.

David couldn't help but shift his gaze from Naomi to Shania and then back again. Seeing their reactions Naomi couldn't help but bust out laughing.

"Hahaha! Why'd you have to scare our guest so bad Henry? Did you see their faces? They were petrified. They had no idea how to respond hahaha."

Naomi wiped the tear from the corner of her eye before explaining "Technically Henry isn't wrong. The both of us see Shania as practically one of our kids.

Because of some circumstances she's living with us currently. But Jason's our only biological kid." Henry smiled as he looked at Shania.

"But just because she doesn't have our blood doesn't mean that we love her any less." David smiled as he glanced at Leslie and Nate "I understand a hundred percent. Blood don't equal love."

He looked at the two of them with loving eyes "That's what I've always told them. Just because you didn't come from me that doesn't mean that you aren't now a part of me."

Nate was nervous as he stood behind his sister 'I knew that this would probably come up during their reunion.

I just hope that Jaya doesn't hate me for hiding this from him. I was just too afraid to tell him. I had finally found someone other than Leslie and mom and dad that I could actually call family.'

Jason's dad held his hand up "Before you get into that how about we eat first? I just finished cooking up some hamburger steaks with some mushroom gravy on the side. Plus some fried eggs if anyone wants some."

After hearing him say that all of them agreed to catch up with each other some more over some food.

The good food helped to relax everybody and made it easier to get comfortable with each other. After a while the topic of David's kids came up.

David had a bright smile on his face as he told the story of how he had met Lily. She was a Nurse at the hospital where he was doing his residency.

Back then he was a wet behind the ears med school graduate who was still learning the ropes while Lily was the charge nurse on the unit that he was doing his residency.

He told his brother and his wife how he had fallen in love with Lily as soon as he had seen her. Something about her alluring smile and adventurous live life energy was intoxicating to him.

He had lived his life with the sole purpose of making his parents happy. Even the fact that he became a doctor was for that very reason.

And when Henry had left New York with Naomi satisfying his parents expectations became the only thing that drove him in life.

But Lily taught him how to live life for himself and that his own happiness should be just as important as trying to live up to his parents expectations.

He even learned to love his job as a doctor thanks to Lily. He learned how to find purpose in the work that he was doing to help others beyond just the fact that it was what his parents wanted.

And finally the truth about Leslie and Nate came out. Lily was ten years older than Davide and she had two children from her previous relationship.

Their mom had left their biological father after no longer being able to put up with his cheating and unfaithfulness. 

When everyone in the family found out about David's intentions of marrying Lily they all berated and judged him.

They told him that he was simply falling for her plan to use him for his money and that he was a fool for being willing to raise another man's kids.

And his parents were the most outspoken amongst the family as they directly told him that if he were to go ahead with his plans to marry Lily that they would take him off of their will.

David looked up and smiled at his brother "I guess being stubborn is just something that runs in our blood Henry.

I'll be honest. It wasn't until that day where mom and dad told me about how much they disagreed with me marrying Lily that I finally understood what you had to go through.

I finally understood just how much you loved Naomi and your not yet born child. Because just as much as I was in love with Lily I loved Leslie and Nate the same.

Through the years that me and Lily spent dating Leslie and Nate became just as important in my life as her.

And I couldn't imagine abandoning the three of them simply because that was what our parents wanted."

Lily smiled softly as she reached out and held her husbands hand under the table. The mood in the room was complicated as no one knew what to say next after just having heard such a sad yet touching story.

Jason looked around the table before saying "That was a great story uncle. Good enough to be made into a movie."

He then drank some water before continuing "Do you guys have plans for tomorrow? Because if you don't then you guys can come watch my game. Only if you want to of course.

Hey dad, can we get the cake out now? I heard mom say that you picked up a ice-cream cake for my birthday." 

Everyone started laughing after hearing Jason say that. His dad went into the kitchen and came back out with a ice-cream cake that had a skull and a basketball drawn on the top with colored frosting.

They all sang happy birthday for Jason as he smiled looking around the table 'This feels nice. I thought that as long as I had mom and dad that that was all that mattered.

But I guess I was wrong. Having so many people around you that you feel that you can trust is really nice.'

After they were done singing Jason blew out the candles while making the wish in his mind 'I want to win at Nationals with the team.'