SOUNDTRACK: "Auld Lang Syne" - Lea Michele

Jared looked up from his guitar as Shannon knocked on the sliding glass door. He jumped slightly and glared at him for scaring him.

"What the hell?" Jared asked, walking over and opening the door.

"Happy New Year to you, too," Shannon remarked.

"It's New Year's Eve. You've got six hours still," Jared sighed, closing the door after his brother. "Why didn't you use the side door?" he asked.

"I didn't have my key," Shannon explained.

"Ring the doorbell, you turd," Jared remarked. "Kate would've let you in."

"I did. Four times. Are you sure she's here?" Shannon asked.

"She should be. It's not like she snuck out," Jared replied. "Why are you here?"

"It's New Years Eve," Shannon said in a leading manner. Jared gave him a blank stare. "Jay, what have we always done on New Years Eve ever since we moved to L.A.?" he asked.

Jared's mind finally grasped the memory. "Ring in the New Year from the Hills, overlooking the city," he said.

Though things were tense between the two of them and they hadn't been speaking much, Shannon still intended on continuing their time-honored tradition. The first year they had been in Los Angeles, Jared had only gotten a couple modeling gigs and TV spots and they were really struggling for money. Shannon was working construction jobs and doing pretty well with it, too, but they still barely made rent each month. They had been invited to a party up in the Hills and Jared was convinced it was going to be his big break; that he'd impress this casting director and get the part and everything would change for them.

But it hadn't. The casting director had only invited Jared to tell him that he didn't get the role. Jared had been crushed and spent most of the evening sulking and depressed. Too drunk to drive, they ended up walking through the Hills down toward the city. Jared had wandered off of the road and onto a little trail and Shannon had to follow him to make sure he didn't walk right off a cliff. As if out of nowhere, an opening appeared and they both stopped dead in their tracks. The entire city was laid out in front of them and it had been breathtaking. So breathtaking that both of them could clearly remember it even though they had been considerably drunk that evening.

As they watched the fireworks explode in the black sky, Jared realized how small he was in the grand scheme of things and how everything would work itself out. One rejection wasn't the end of the world and there would be other roles and projects. And each year since, they had returned to that spot to ring in the new year. Sure, there had been times when they'd been touring or Jared had been on location and couldn't come back. But when they could, regardless of being mad at each other or even if they were speaking, they always returned back to their little overlook for New Years Eve.

"I thought you'd be with Anastasia at a party or something," Jared remarked.

Shannon shrugged. "We're taking a bit of a break at the moment," he said simply. "I guess she's working tonight. Big tips."

Jared nodded. "Well, I can't just leave Kate here by herself," he said. "She'll have to come."

"Doesn't that kid have a social life or something?" Shannon asked. "When we were her age, we were hardly home."

"Yeah, well to be honest, I'm glad she's home and not doing the things we were doing at her age," Jared said. He walked over to the bar in the lower level lounge. "Do you want something to drink?"

Shannon shook his head and they stood in awkward silence for a few seconds. "Mom and Joe seem to be having fun on their trip," Shannon started, searching for a common, neutral topic. "She called me earlier to wish me a happy new year."

"They're enjoying Spain?" Jared asked, walking back over to his brother with a bottle of water. "That's good. I'm glad they went." He sat down and picked up his guitar.

"I heard your Christmas was a little rocky," Shannon said, sitting on the arm of the sofa.

Jared shrugged, knowing his brother wanted nothing more than to point out his hypocrisy. "Kate told you, huh?"

Shannon shook his head. "Jamie."

"I'm gonna kill him," Jared muttered.

"Look, Kate isn't an idiot, Jay," Shannon started. "She's sixteen. She knows people have sex."

Jared sighed. "It's just...it feels weird, you know? It's weird to think that the girl I might be with was literally Kate's age a few years ago. I guess I'm just trying to to keep the two separate because at least then it's easier to lie to myself," he admitted.

"I get it," Shannon said. "It's starting affect me, too. And I'm not even her dad. I don't even have to live with her."

Jared ran his hand through his hair. "I know it's just stupid, but I literally cannot look at a woman anymore without imagining her at Kate's age."

"You seemed to have no issue with Irina, according to Jamie," Shannon smirked.

Jared scoffed and shook his head. "Kate actually asked me what it was about Russians with us." Shannon burst into laughter and they sat in a more comfortable silence. "Are you on the way out of the band, Shan?" Jared asked after a second.

Shannon's face fell slightly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you skipped the last leg of the tour. You've got a new business going. You don't seem particularly interested in music anymore. Are you on your way out of the band?" Jared asked. "Are you gonna leave?"

Shannon inhaled sharply. "I - I don't know, man." He took a deep breath. "Ever since the This is War tour, I've felt like touring is work. Like it's not fun anymore," he started. "And Love, Lust, Faith, and Dreams kind of hammered that in, too. Especially since we were trying to balance your schedule with Dallas Buyers Club. I didn't want music to ever become work for me. But it has. And I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jared asked.

"I don't know."

"Well, I think we have a right to know. Tomo and I are serious about this band. With the next album, we're gonna blow up - I can feel it. Suicide Squad is gonna get me more attention than the Oscar did. I've been talking to a few people about other films that I'm interested in. We're gonna have a lot more attention on us," Jared told him. "So I need to know if you're serious about all of this."

Shannon sighed but didn't answer. Kate appeared on the stairs. "Shannon?"

"Yeah, I'm here," he said.

"When did you get here?" she asked. "I didn't hear you come in."

"A couple minutes ago," Jared said. "He said he rang the doorbell four times. You've gotta stop playing your music so loudly or you're gonna go deaf."

"I didn't even have anything on," she countered. "I told you three times the doorbell doesn't work."

"Oh," Jared replied sheepishly. "Well, anyways, we've got something to talk to you about. Sit," he ordered, pointing to the sofa next to him.

Kate obeyed. "You're not getting divorced are you?" she asked in mock fear.

Jared glared at her as Shannon laughed. "Every year on New Year's Eve, Shannon and I have this tradition. We go to a specific overlook and watch the fireworks, ringing in the new year together, just the two of us." He looked at his brother over her head. "Well this year, we wanted to bring you along and start the tradition with you, if that's okay with you."

She looked between the men. "So you two are talking again?"

"We never really stop talking, Kate," Shannon said. "It's just the offensiveness of what we say to each other that changes."

She smiled. "Okay then. When are we leaving?" she asked.

Four hours later, they were sitting on a scratchy old blanket from the back of Jared's truck at an overlook high up in the Hills. They were farther up than the one Kate and Jared had gone to. Shannon had brought several snacks and was currently halfway through a bag of Cheetos, which Jared looked at disapprovingly.

"Come on, Jay. It's the New Year. Celebrate a little," he said, licking orange dust off of his fingertips. Jared sighed, rolled his eyes, and reached into the bag, putting several pieces into his mouth. "There you go. Un-clench baby brother."

"Kate, did you, Ryan, and your mom do anything for New Years?" Jared asked, licking his own fingers.

"They usually went to a party. It was always filled with Ryan's co-workers," Kate replied. "They were always boring and I was usually the only kid there. My mom hated them. She always got really drunk and they'd end up having really loud sex later. It was kind of disturbing."

Both men burst into laughter. Kate picked at the grass peeking out from under the edge of the blanket. "He hasn't reached out to me at all since he left," she said quietly. "I really thought he would."

Jared sighed and scooted closer to her. "I know he was important to you, but maybe you should just let him go, you know?"

She nodded and sighed, knowing he was right. Ryan had made it abundantly clear that he wasn't interested in her and there was no point in continuing to wait around for him to care. "Do you remember a lot about your birth father?"

At the topic change, both men stiffened, but it was Jared who spoke. "I don't. He left before I could really remember him. But Shannon has more memories of him than I do."

Ordinarily, Jared would have ignored the question. But this wasn't a prying interviewer that he could flirt with to get out of the question. It was Kate. And she had a right to know where she came from.

Shannon cleared his throat and put the bag of Cheetos down. "He wasn't a particularly nice man," he said, wiping his hands on his jeans. "He and Mom fought a lot. Literally the only memories I have of him involve them screaming at each other. We went and saw him once after Mom remarried. He killed himself a couple weeks afterwards. I never really knew how to take that, to be honest."

"What about your step-dad?"

Jared flinched at the mention. Sure, he had adopted Leto's last name (at his mother's insistence), but he had taken a lot more with him, too.

"We took his last name because our mom thought it would make him pick up the belt a lot less," Jared replied without looking at her. "And it did - initially. But after we left for Haiti, things got rough. They fought a lot and - and when we came back, he disappeared. Not a word to any of us. Mom was heartbroken." He swallowed and a brisk wind blew through the trees. "She got divorce papers in the mail a couple months later. Two years later, we found out he had an entire family in a different state. The guy was a real piece of work."

Kate sighed and looked down at her hands. Sure Ryan had been an asshole, but at least he was never abusive. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Hey - it's not your fault. It happened. It's in the past. Shannon and I both got over it," Jared insisted. "End of story."

She shrugged. "Yeah."

"So Kate, why aren't you at any New Year's Eve parties?" Shannon asked, nudging her toe with his.

"I wasn't invited to any," she said. "And the last party I went to wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be."

She and Shannon shared a look that Jared was oblivious to. "What about guys? You dating anyone?"

"She better not be," Jared said, perking up.

He hadn't given the idea of Kate dating anyone much thought. So far, he was still trying to wrap his mind around adjusting his dating life since becoming a dad. He didn't have the energy to worry about hers, too.

"Oh, come on," Shannon countered with a laugh. "She's sixteen. She can date. Hell, by the time you were that age, you had lost your virginity and had a different girl every month!"

Kate blinked at the image of Young Jared bouncing around with different women. It wasn't very much different from his current activities, really. Jared didn't respond and continued looking out across the city. They sat in relative silence for a while before Shannon stood up.

"Where are you going?" Jared asked.

"Gotta take a leak," he muttered.

Kate cringed and rolled her eyes. "Just don't walk off the hillside," she called after him.

"He'll be fine. The only time you have to worry about him doing something stupid is when he's alone and/or drunk," Jared answered.

Kate watched as he pulled a bottle of champagne from the canvas bag Shannon had brought from the car. He poured three glasses and handed one to her.

"Just this once. For midnight," he explained.

He popped the cork, letting a little of the foam drop onto the ground before pouring some of the golden liquid into each glass. By the time he was done, Shannon returned looking much more comfortable. Jared handed him a glass and took the other one in his hand. The sound of fireworks crackled through the air and Jared looked at his phone.

"Midnight. Happy new year," he said, clinking his glass with theirs.

"Happy new year," Shannon smiled, taking a long sip from his and crossing his arms.

"Happy new year, Gremlin," Jared said, embracing Kate.

"Happy new year, Dad," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the explosions lighting up the sky.

But Jared heard it and he hugged her extra tight.