Author’s note: At the end of this chapter, a minor character from And So It Goes... surfaces. If you want to refresh your memory as to who the character is, you might want to read chapters 23 & 24 of ASIG, it’s not necessary, but it might help.
Chapter 26
September 30, 2001
“Stasia, I swear to you, I’m going to be fine. I just needed to get away from...everything.” She had been reassuring her friend over and over for the past two weeks, but the truth was different. Lyn wasn’t fine at all.
“Lyn, I wish you’d let us take care of you.” Stasia sighed, “We’re your friends, we should be helping you right now.”
“Letting me take this time away is a huge help.” Leaning against the window frame, she was looking out at a view unlike any other in the world, one that was slowly helping her feel whole again.
Stasia was quiet for a second, “I know what he did was...inexcusable, but he’s asked me where you are at least a hundred times. I can’t begin to explain why he would...do this...but Lyn, he’s worried about you.”
“I...I...just can’t deal with him, and honestly, I don’t want to. My BEST FRIEND violated my trust and broke my heart, WITH BRENNA! What type of explanation could either one of them possibly have?”
“I know. I’m so sorry.” She smirked, “This is why you won’t tell me where you are huh? I’m too much of a softy. I’d blab.”
“But I love you.” Lyn laughed, “So, has anything else happened?”
“Well, Justin is still refusing to speak to JC. JC went to Justin’s to try to talk and Justin had changed all of the security codes, so JC sat outside of Justin’s gate. When he refused to leave, Justin called security and made them remove JC.”
Lyn couldn’t help but smirk, “He may be overreacting a bit.”
“And I think Blarney is going to fifty pounds by the time you get home. Justin is spoiling her rotten. She sleeps in his bed with him and she has even started swimming in the pool with him. He takes her everywhere, I saw her at McDonald’s with him yesterday.”
“I’m glad, I knew he’d take good care of her...I miss the little bugger.” Lyn glanced at her watch, “Oh...before I forget, I e-mailed all of the contracts to the venues, I returned all of the phone calls regarding Angela’s release party, I proofed the CD cover for Ryan’s single and I set up Lance’s appointment with BMG. AND, I’ll be back in time for the hearing in Orlando.”
“You don’t have to attend the Pre-trial Conference. The Judge is just going to set the deadlines for filing motions and responses and the date the trial will start. The Judge will also try to get us to settle out of Court.”
“Ahh...it all sounds very...”
“Boring? Yeah, it is.” Stasia laughed, “So don’t worry, you don’t need to be back to Mississippi until the thirtieth of October. You’ll have to be here to get ready for Europe. I’ve already started moving room assignments around.”
“Thanks. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have you to organize my life.”
“You’d be fine. You’re strong.”
“I don’t know how in the hell my life turned into a Jerry Springer storyline.” Lyn’s forehead leaned against the windowpane.
“Trust me, I know the feeling. I think they air the ‘My Sister Kissed My Boyfriend’ show the day after the ‘My Long Lost Father Stalked, And Tried To Kill Me’ show.”
“We’re a lucky pair aren’t we?”
“Yeah. Really lucky.” Stasia rolled her eyes.
“Stasia, I’m going to get going. I have a few things I want to do before I grab something to eat.”
“Alright, take care of yourself and call if you need ANYTHING! I love you Lyn!”
“I love you too.” Lyn hit ‘end’ and smirked.
Shaking her head, she hit speed dial and waited for Justin to pick up, “Hello?”
“Hey B.B.. I heard a rumor you have some new security codes.”
“Heard about that huh?” Justin huffed, “Asshole shows up at my house like I’m going to tell him where you are. Idiot.”
“You guys have been friends a long time Justin. Be careful, no matter what, you have to work with him.”
“I can go solo.”
“Funny.”
“Are you ok L.S.? I never asked how your flight was.”
“It was fine...long, but fine.”
“Did you get the stuff I sent, the clothes you wanted and stuff? Cat helped me pack it up for you. She wants to know where you are.”
“You are the only person in the world who knows where I am, please don’t tell them, I need to be alone for a while...I can’t deal with my sisters right now.”
“I know. I won’t say a word.”
“Thanks. I haven’t really said thanks for everything you did that night...”
“Nothing to thank me for. You’re one of my best friends.”
“Well, thanks just the same. Did you get the check I sent for the ticket?”
“I got it and ripped it up.”
“JUSTIN!”
“Don’t ‘JUSTIN’ me! We’ll discuss it when you get home and we have time.”
“Thanks.”
“Stop saying ‘thanks’ or I’m going to hang up on you.”
“You’re a brat.”
“That is one of the many reasons you love me.”
“I know...I know.” She laughed. “I don’t have to be back until October...or so Stasia says.”
“When do you think you’ll WANT to come home?”
“I just don’t know. We’ll see...now that I know I have some time to sort my head out, I feel a little better.”
“If you want me to come stay with you for a while I will.”
“Thanks B.B., but the last thing I need is the press stumbling across us here. That would be just GREAT! They don’t know that JC and I...aren’t together. The prss would immediately think you and I were cheating in JC together.”
“I could sneak away from them...”
“I’m fine.”
“Alright...for now, but I’m going to keep asking.”
“Thanks.”
“One too many ‘thanks’ out of you, I’m going to hang up now.” He teased.
“I have to go grab something to eat anyway. I’ll call again soon.”
“Love you L.S.”
“Love you too. Bye!”
She hit ‘end’ and tossed the phone on the bed. Digging through a dresser drawer, she pulled out a big wool sweater and pulled it over her head. Raking her fingers through her hair she shoved some cash in her pocket along with her keys. Bouncing down the stairs, she flipped on a few lights on her way out the door.
It was dusk, her favorite time to walk, and think. Her boots made a satisfying sound on the gravel drive, she knew the land stretching out around her like the back of her hand. She walked along, looking out at the sun setting in front of her, wondering when things had started to go so horribly wrong in her life. The wind was picking up and she shoved her hands deeper into her pockets.
Somewhere along the way, everything in her life had started to go wrong. Maybe the beginning was Brenna’s birth...or dating Reagan...or deciding to go into teaching...or meeting JC. She felt sickest thinking about him. She had grown to love and trust him with everything. He knew how she felt about Bren, and he kissed her. It wouldn’t have surprised her if Bren had kissed him, that was the type of thing she did, but JC...JC wasn’t like that. And she had seen it, HE had kissed Bren.
She came to a stop at a long rock wall, climbing up onto the top of it, she sat down letting the wind blow her hair back off of her face. The air smelled different here, it was a little damp but it was pure and untainted. She wasn’t sure how she was going to handle being in Europe on the same tour as JC again, she wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to look at him again.
She had gone through so many thoughts about how it had happened. First she thought maybe he had been drunk, but that wasn’t it. He hadn’t even had two whole drinks all night. He had danced with each of her sisters, Ma, Stasia, Dani and Kelly. He had laughed with the guys and talked with her Grandparents, he didn’t have time to get drunk.
She considered the possibility that he was trying to make Bren feel better about something, because she had been obviously upset towards the end of the night. But a kiss on the cheek was very different from the kiss she had witnessed.
Sadly, the only conclusion that truly made any sense was the one where JC kissed Brenna because he wanted to. And that was the conclusion that made her stomach flip and bile rise up in her throat.
JC’s friendship was the one thing she had always been able to count on. She trusted him with her deepest, darkest secrets and fears. He had always done the same. When the road had gotten to be too much, or Chris had pushed the wrong button again, Lyn was the person he had always turned to. When he need someone to hug him and tell him that everything would seem better in the morning, Lyn had done that.
She wanted to be angry and enraged, that way she could scream and yell and get all of these feelings out of her system, but she didn’t feel angry, or hurt or sad or anything else. For the first time in her life, Lyn felt completely empty and completely alone.
Stasia, Justin and Cat were there for her. Lance had called, he had such hurt and concern in his voice. He couldn’t understand what had happened, he couldn’t understand why it had happened and he wanted to help in any way that he could, but none of them could make her feel whole again.
She had not thought about her relationship with JC at all since the first day they had kissed. That was the only time she had even considered that everything was going to change. After that day, she had just fallen into it. She had just been with him.
Every part of her loved him, she had always loved him and now that was gone. She had built so much of her life around him, without knowing she was doing it. She hadn’t told him at the time but along with Lis being born, Orlando being JC’s home base had been the other deciding factor in her going back there after she graduated from college. She was going to have to start over, without JC in her life.
Lance turned off his engine and pinched the bridge of his nose. Taking a deep breath, he climbed out of his car and walked up the dimly lit path to JC’s front door. None of them had seen him since Justin had security drag him away from his gate. Lance, Chris and Joey had decided that someone needed to check on him. Joey and Chris had decided is should be Lance.
Using his key he let himself in and turned on a light in the living room. “JC?” There was no answer, but Lance could hear noises from the back of the house. There were empty carry out containers littering the counter in the kitchen. He stopped long enough to push them all off into the trash can. He ran his hand through his hair and moved into the study. JC wasn’t there, but there were notebooks and scraps of paper spread out all over the floor. JC must be worse off then Lance had thought. His normally meticulously clean house was a disaster. The tv was on the Weather Channel, and a man was droning on about the weather in the central plains.
Taking the back staircase he made his way to JC’s bedroom, where he found his friend sitting at his desk with more paper spread out around him. As he got closer he realized that these papers were all pictures of Lyn. There were pictures of Lyn alone, Lyn with her sisters, Lyn with all of the guys and there were hundreds of pictures of Lyn with JC at various points in their friendship and relationship. JC’s head was down with his cheek resting on the desk top. He appeared to be asleep. Lance bent down to pick up the pictures on the floor and was shocked to hear JC’s voice, “Leave them alone.”
“I thought you were asleep.” Lance was still squatting next to JC’s chair, his forearms resting on his thighs.
“I’m not. I haven’t slept in days...weeks...I don’t know.” He turned to face Lance and he was as big a mess as the rest of the house. His hair was matted on one side and standing on end on the other side of his head. His white t-shirt was stained and his dark beard was starting to fill in.
Lance stood up and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed facing his friend, “JC, I’m trying so hard to wrap my mind around this whole thing. I’m trying to understand what happened, and I just can’t. I thought you guys were perfect. I just can’t understand what happened.”
“Maybe you should stop trying.” JC stood up.
“I want to help you man, but I really don’t know what you need.”
JC laughed a cold, hard laugh that actually gave Lance chills, “You want to help? Help me go back in time a year and stop all of this before it started.”
“A year ago? You regret dating her...is that what you’re saying? WHAT are you talking about?”
“Nothing. I don’t regret a second with Lyn, how could you even think that?” He shook his head slowly, “ Forget it. Has Stasia talked to Lyn?”
Lance nodded slowly, “We both have.”
“Why didn’t she go back to Orlando? She was supposed to go to Orlando.”
“What in the hell are you talking about? She didn’t want to go to Orlando. She wanted to go AWAY. I think you need some sleep.”
“What time is it?”
Lance looked at his watch, “8:30.”
“I have to get back to work.” JC walked out of the room, leaving Lance to stare at the spot where he had been standing.
Lance went back down to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee, while it was brewing he cleaned the kitchen. When it was ready, he poured two cups and went into the study. Holding a cup in front of JC he said, “Drink this.”
“Thanks.” JC took the cup and sipped the steaming liquid. He was sitting on his knees in the middle of the floor, with paper fanning out around him.
Lance squatted down and looked at the papers in front of JC, “What is all of this?”
JC spoke without looking up, “This is how I’m going to get them.”
“Who?” Lance was a little frightened.
“Powers and Reagan.”
“What are you talking about? What IS this?”
“Their garbage.”
Lance looked at him as if he were insane, “JC, WHY in the HELL would you have their garbage? Let’s clean this up and get you into bed.” He started to reach for some of the paper.
“LEAVE IT ALONE! I NEED THIS!”
“JC, you are going through people’s GARBAGE! How did you get it? Why is it in your study?”
“I took it, how else would I get it?” He was very matter of fact.
“You are really freaking me out here. How about you tell me what’s going on from the beginning.”
“I can’t.”
“Why can’t you? This is not a good way to get over her.”
“I’m not getting over anyone. As soon as I get them, she can come back and we’ll be ok.”
“JC! She left to get away from YOU! She is hiding FROM YOU! YOU KISSED HER SISTER!”
JC looked up at him, “Shit. She is hiding from me isn’t she?”
“OF COURSE SHE IS!”
“She needs to go to Orlando Lance...TELL HER THAT!”
“We told her she doesn’t have to come back until the end of October...and then she’s going straight to Mississippi...she’s not going to be in Orlando for anything...not for a while.”
JC sat back on his heels, “This isn’t working.”
“WHAT ISN’T WORKING?”
“I need to talk to her.”
“Good luck. You broke her heart, you aren’t exactly on the top of her list right now.” Lance said honestly.
“Where is she?” Tipperary ran up and licked his face. He gently set the puppy down next to him.
“I don’t know.”
“YOU HAVE TO KNOW! WHERE IS SHE?”
“I swear to God JC, I DON’T KNOW.”
“Stasia has to know.” JC jumped to his feet.
“She doesn’t. Lyn knows that she’d cave in and tell you.”
“SOMEONE has to know where she went Lance...”
“Yeah...someone dose...but if I were you, I’d stay away from him.”
“What’s his new code Lance?”
“I can’t JC...you can’t ask me to do this.”
“FINE! Then I’m going to go drive through his gate.” JC stormed out of the room grabbing a jacket off of the back of the couch on his way by and Lance ran after him.
“STOP JC!” Lance grabbed his shoulder, “I’ll take you over there, maybe he won’t kill you if I’m there.”
Lance pulled into Justin’s driveway and said a quick prayer to himself. JC got out of the car and stalked up Justin’s front steps. He pounded on the door and waited.
When Justin opened the door and saw JC standing there, he tried to slam the door, but JC pushed back against it, forcing his way into Justin’s entrance hall. “GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!”
“WHERE IS SHE?”
“GET OUT! What the hell were you thinking Lance?” Justin glared at both of them.
“He’s freaking out Justin. He was going to drive THROUGH your gate.” Lance’s eyes were wide, “What was I SUPPOSED to do?”
“He couldn’t drive through it with a tank you idiot!”
“This isn’t MY fault!” Lance pointed out.
“NO! It’s HIS!” Justin pushed JC in the chest.
“Push all you want. I’m not leaving until you tell me where she is.” JC stood his ground.
“I’m not telling you a damn thing!” Justin shoved him again.
“WHERE IS SHE!” JC pushed him back, causing Justin to bump into a table.
“FUCK YOU!” Justin moved away from the table.
“GUYS! STOP IT!” Lance tried to step between them.
“Justin I NEED to talk to her. I need to explain. She doesn’t know the truth.”
“She knows enough! She knows you cheated on her, with her own sister. She knows that she trusted you and you broke her heart. She knows you’re a bastard who doesn’t deserve her. I love her, I’m not about to tell you where she is.”
“You love her? YOU love her? Who in the hell do you think you are? She is my LIFE! I breathe, because she is on this earth to make it worth while! You don’t know what it means to love her you fool!”
“I’M NOT TELLING YOU WHERE SHE IS!” Justin pushed him hard, causing him to take two steps back Lance grabbed JC’s arm to steady him, but JC yanked his arm away violently.
“DAMN IT JUSTIN!” JC lunged at him.
Justin was ready for him and punched him square in the jaw, splitting his lip open. JC growled and swung back, connecting with Justin’s eye. They were both bleeding and Lance was dumbfounded. The two fo them were quickly in a pile on the floor rolling and grunting as they pounded one another. Lance stood over them, trying to pull them apart. “GUYS! STOP! PLEASE!” He grabbed at JC’s arm and Justin’s shirt. “STOP IT! YOU’RE BEST FRIENDS!” They knocked him over and his head made a horrible thud when it hit the marble floor. He didn’t move.
Justin stopped pounding on JC’s chest, “Lance?”
When he didn’t move, JC sat up, “LANCE!”
Justin panicked, “JC, his head is bleeding!”
“SHIT! CALL 911!”
Justin ran to the phone and JC pressed hard against the cut on the back of Lance’s head. JC looked down at his friend, “Come on Lance. Wake up!”
It didn’t take long for the ambulance to race up in front of the house. Justin and JC sat in the back of the ambulance with Lance, not speaking.
When they got to the Emergency Room, JC went into the exam room with Lance, Justin went to call Stasia.
In less than ten minutes, Stasia came bursting through the door into the ER, “Where is he?”
“Exam Room 2. They won’t let us back.” Justin answered as he looked up at her, his left eye swollen and cut. JC sat three chairs down, his lip was starting to scab over and it was puffy. He had an ice pack up to his cheek. Both of them had torn shirts and there was a big rip in JC’s pants. Stasia winced at the sight of blood on JC’s pants and shirt.
“Oh yeah? Watch me!” She walked straight through the security doors and into Lance’s room. He was laying on his side, getting stitches in the back of his head. She walked around to lean down in front of him, “What happened?”
“I was trying to break up their fight, and I fell.” He tried to shrug, but the nurse placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him.
“This is out of control!” She caressed his cheek, “Are you ok?” She squatted down to look deeply into his eyes.
He covered her hand with his and smiled weakly, “I’m fine, six stitches. I have a headache, but I’ll live.”
“Well, that’s more than I can say for those two idiots sitting out in the lobby.”
“Millie, Darlin’...please don’t get yourself arrested. They needed to hash it out, I think it was good for them to pound on each other.”
She shook her head, “Oh I’m sure that’s what you thought. That exactly why you tried to pull them apart. You just lay still and let them finish stitching you up. I’m going to...talk to your doctor.”
“Liar.”
She kissed him and smirked, “Oh, I’ll talk to him too.”
When she walked into the lobby both men knew they were in trouble. JC stood up, shoving his hands deep into his pockets, “Is he awake?”
“Sit down.” She pointed at him and he instantly obeyed, “If you two are going to act like children, FINE! I’ll treat you that way. I honestly don’t care if you rip each other limb from limb, but when Lance get’s hurt in the interim, I care...A LOT!”
“We didn’t mean...” Justin started.
“You sure as hell better not have meant to do this! Listen to me, and listen well, because this is the one and only time I will ever say this. I love both of you, more than you will ever know, but right now, I am completely ashamed to even KNOW you! JC, you have LOST YOUR MIND! And Justin, you could have been the bigger person here. This is upsetting, and I never thought I’d see the day that any of you would draw blood from any of the others. This isn’t the way any of us work, we are a family and as a family, we get through everything TOGETHER! You THINK about all of this, if y’all can’t rely on each other, who CAN you rely on? I don’t want to LOOK at either one of you right now...just go home.”
“Stasia...”
“Leave Justin.”
“We need a ride.” He looked down at the floor.
“I don’t believe you.” She threw her hands in the air, “Call Joey!”
JC was horrified when they started to walk out and they realized there were photographers outside. “How did they get here?”
“I have no clue.” Justin spoke to him for the first time since they left his house.
“We have to think fast...we have to explain Lance getting stitches and you and I being all beaten.” JC ran his hand through his hair as they walked back into the lobby.
“We were wrestling and rolled down a flight of stairs?”
“Um...no. How about moving a piece of furniture up the stairs and it slipped, we all got hurt trying to stop it and getting in it’s way.”
“Yeah.” Justin looked at the ground, “YOU go tell Lance and Stasia.”
“Crap.”
JC was walking into the exam room when he heard Stasia’s phone ring, “Hello...Lyn, I’m going to have to call you back, I’m at the hospital and I have to turn my phone off...Lance is getting stitches...he was breaking up a fight between JC and Justin...he’s got a headache, but he’ll be fine...yeah, JC will be fine too, he’s got a fat lip and it looks like he might get a black eye...I’ll call you back later.”
JC walked the rest of the way into the room, “Umm...guys...”
“I thought I told you to go home.” Stasia glared at him, her eyes were black and flashing.
“We were trying to, and noticed there are reporters outside. We came up with a story to tell them.”
Lance cringed as the nurse put more antiseptic on his cut, “Reporters?”
“I have no clue how they found out...”
Stasia rolled her eyes, “They monitor the emergency frequency, every reporter in the state KNOWS Justin’s address. An ambulance being called to his house is instantly an entertainment news story.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, ‘OH’.” She rolled her eyes again.
“So we’re gonna tell them that you and I were helping Justin move a piece of furniture up the stairs and it slipped and we all fell down the stairs.”
“What were we moving?” Lance asked as he sat up.
“I don’t know.”
“A couch.” Justin said from behind JC, “For my guest room.”
“OK.” JC nodded.
Stasia sighed, “We better put on a good show. Can you guys keep from killing one another long enough to talk to the reporters and for me to drive all of you home?”
Justin ran his hand over the back of his head, “We’ll be fine.”
JC looked at him sincerely, “Will we? Will we really be fine?”
Sighing, Justin locked eyes with him, “Yeah. I’m in the middle here JC. I love you both. You’re my brother man, you know that. But Lyn...I have to protect her, she’s like a little sister...I have to.”
“Why did it take almost killing Lance? We ARE brothers. It shouldn’t take one of us getting hurt to make us remember that.”
Stasia rolled her eyes again, “Nice love fest guys. Just remember the next time Lance bleeds because you two are stupid, I will kill you both! I am deadly serious.”
They both nodded.
They waited for Lance to be discharged and made their way out into the parking lot, there were two reporters waiting, “What happened to you three?”
“We thought we could move a couch up a flight of stairs without any help.” Justin smirked.
“Yeah, but I think we’re gonna have to stick to singing. We sure aren’t movers.” JC grinned.
“Lance, what’s with the bandage on your head?” The second reporter asked him.
“I tried to catch the couch as it was sliding back...I hit the floor and cut my head.”
Stasia rolled her eyes, “Three guys fighting one couch, and the couch won! Now I want to get these three home, it’s been a long night.” She ushered the guys to her truck and drove off.
Lance was sitting on the couch channel surfing when JC walked in, “How’s you’re head?”
“Ehh...I’m fine. I’ve got a pretty hard head. And now, Millie and I have something else in common.”
“I’m really sorry man. I never meant for you to get hurt.”
Lance leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, “JC, I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to help...without getting my head split open again.”
“Yeah, let’s avoid that.” JC sighed, “I screwed up.”
Lance laughed, “I noticed.”
“Will you trust me long enough to wait until I get Lyn back? Then I’ll explain everything...to everyone.”
Lance nodded slowly, “What can I do to help?”
“I don’t suppose you want to get Justin to tell you where she is.” JC grinned pitifully.
“He’s not going to crack.”
“When Stasia went to Michigan, how did you know to go there?”
Lance looked out the window, “I knew she would go home.” He still hated thinking about the night he walked into his dressing room to find that Stasia had disappeared.
“But Lyn didn’t go home.”
“Maybe that’s not true. Maybe she went where she feels at home. She could be anywhere. Hell, for all we know, she is sitting in her apartment right now, refusing to let anyone in.”
“She isn’t in her apartment. Cat has been going there, I’ve been there. I have a key. She isn’t home. Home has always been near me...with me.”
“But this time, she needed to be away from you. You were the problem.”
“Could she be at your place in Michigan?”
“No. I don’t think so, she would have had to get the keys from one of us, and she didn’t.”
“I have to get her back. I have to fix this.”
“I’ll help anyway I can, but I can’t tell you where she is.”
“But HOW did you find her...Stasia, I mean? You didn’t even call there before we all left. You just said that’s where she was, and you were right.”
“I don’t know. I just KNOW her...I loved her so much, I just KNEW suddenly. I was sitting on the bus when it hit me like a ton of bricks. I saw her A Separate Peace sitting on the table, and I KNEW.”
“So you just knew. WHEN am I going to know?”
Lance shrugged and looked his friend in the eye, “I don’t know that either.”
JC drove home thinking about their conversation. Maybe he didn’t love Lyn enough, maybe that’s why he didn’t know where she was. If he loved her as much as he claimed to love her, if he loved her the way Lance loved Stasia, he would already have Lyn back with him by now. He had failed her in every way possible. He hadn’t told her about Johnny. He had tried to take matters into his own hands without thinking things through. He had done exactly the wrong thing. Now, he couldn’t figure out where she had gone, because he was the biggest failure of a boyfriend ever.
He was greeted at his door by Tipperary. He bent down to pick her up and held her tightly to her chest, “Hey sweetie.” He kissed the top of her head. “I have been ignoring you haven’t I? I’m so sorry.” He cuddled her, “When I go to Europe, I’m going to miss Tipperary!” He held her out in front of his face, “Going to miss Tipperary...” He starred at her and his jaw dropped, “YOU ARE THE BEST DOG EVER!” He kissed her soundly on the nose and charged up the stairs with her still in his arms.
His brakes squealed as he pulled into Lance and Stasia’s driveway. He didn’t bother to turn off the engine, bounding up to the front door and pounding on it. Stasia opened it, and cocked her head as JC dumped Tipperary into her arms, “Will you guys watch her for me?”
“Um...sure. Where are you going?” She shifted the dog in her arms.
“To bring Lyn back!” He ran back to his car and was gone before she could ask anything else.
October 9, 2001
Coming over the hill toward the house, he knew he was right. This is where Lyn was. The taxi had left him at the end on the long driveway and he slowly walked to the house. There were lights on in several of the windows, so she had to be there. Everyone else who knew about the house was in Orlando. The lights were on because Lyn was there, he knew that he was right.
Standing in front of the door, he suddenly felt nervous for the first time since he had figured out where she was. He hadn’t seen her in almost three weeks, and he knew she wasn’t going to be happy to see him. He looked around, being afraid to ring the bell. He set his bag down and took a deep breath. He pulled the knob for the bell and began playing with the hem of his sweater.
The sound of Lyn’s laughter drifted through the closed door. JC looked down at his shoes, when the door opened Lyn was giggling, “Did you forget something again GandDa?”
JC raised his eyes to meet hers, “Sweetpea...”
Lyn’s eyes turned hard and cold, “How did you find me?”
“I know you...I know your heart. Tipperary is your favorite place on earth.”
“I’m sorry you came all the way to Ireland for nothing.” Lyn turned to walk away.
“Please listen to me. Nothing happened with me and Bren...it’s not at all what you think.”
“I SAW what happened with Brenna. JC, LEAVE!”
“Lyn, I’m staying until you listen. I have so much to tell you. I made a mistake...but NOT the mistake you THINK I made.”
Lyn shrugged, “Suit yourself. You can sleep in the barn. I don’t care.” She turned and shut the door.
JC sighed, he was going to have to take another approach. He was going to need help, and no one was there to help him. He started back down the driveway and then it hit him, she couldn’t avoid listening to him if he had someone she cared about on his side. He actually ran down the long drive, the gravel crunching under his shoes and spraying out behind him. He ran a quarter of a mile down the road and came to a sliding stop in front of an old, stone, two-story house. Walking up to the green door, he knocked before he could change his mind.
When the door opened he did his best to smile at the old man standing at the door studying JC’s face for a moment and then smirked, “Joshua?”
“Yeah, it’s me Mr. McLachlan.” JC nodded.
Lyn’s grandfather raised an eyebrow, “Young people have been turnin’ up on my doorstep a lot these last few weeks.”
“Mr. McLachlan, I have no where else to go, and no one to turn to...I need help. I need your help.”
Four hours later, JC was sitting in front of a crackling fire. He had told Lyn’s grandfather everything. He didn’t leave out a single detail, and when he heard the words coming out of his own mouth, he was even more ashamed. JC took a sip of his tea and sighed, “So now I’m here to bring her back.”
Mr. McLachlan gave JC a crooked smile, “You have gotten yourself into quite a bind son.”
“I know.” JC nodded, “She saw me kiss Brenna...which is what I wanted her to see...but that’s because I didn’t think the whole thing through.”
“That isn’t your biggest problem Joshua.” He placed another log on the fire and watched it for a moment.
“It isn’t?”
“I’m going to tell you about my wife, Kellen.” He reached for a picture on the table next to him. The first thing that struck JC was the fact that she look exactly like Lyn.
“I loved her from the moment I laid eyes on her. She had such a remarkable beauty, it made my head spin. I knew I didn’t deserve to be in the same room with her, let alone love her.”
“How did you meet?” JC asked, leaning forward, he knew very well that none of the McLachlans told a story without it having an important lesson in it. And he knew that trait came straight from the man sitting in front of him now.
“She sat four seats up and two to the left of me in mathematics in grade eight.” He smiled broadly at the memory, “She had a fire in her like none I had ever seen. We became the best of friends, because I didn’t deserve to be in love with her.”
“I’m sure that wasn’t true.”
“Sadly, that is the God’s honest truth. It wasn’t until I lost her that I knew that even if I didn’t deserve her, I was going to spend the rest of my life TRYING to deserve her.”
“You lost her?”
“I was twenty-two and got involved with a...political group.” He raised an eyebrow and smirked, “I didn’t tell Kellen about it, because I was afraid she would get hurt and that she would worry.” He shook his head slowly, “So off I went, doing my duty, or so I thought. Not LYING to Kellen, but not telling her the WHOLE truth either. A mission came up and I had to appear to be romantic with another woman, who had information we needed badly for our cause. Kellen saw me with her and told me to jump off of a cliff. At first I thought, ‘well this is best for now, because I can finish the mission and then tell her what had happened, and then we will live happily ever after.’”
“So what happened?”
“I finished my mission, and went to claim Kellen’s hand...which she immediately used to slap my face.”
“Why? You were trying to keep her out of the mess you were involved in.”
“The thing I didn’t realize with Kellen, and that YOU didn’t realize with my Allyn is, we didn’t trust them with the truth. We hid the truth, and whether our intentions were pure or not, we violated their trust. Joshua, THAT is your problem. You have awoken a rage in Allyn, unlike any you have ever seen before. If you think these men who are stealing from your friend are bad, just WAIT until Allyn hears the entire story.”
“She won’t listen to me TO hear it. She won’t see me. How did you get Kellen to listen?”
“I followed her, I slept on her parent’s porch, I pestered her until she couldn’t stand it any longer and tried to scream at me, then I took her to the bluff overlooking the sheep fields and held her down until she heard the whole story.” He laughed, “It took hours for her to stop screaming at me.”
JC ran his hands over his face, “She is going to kill me.”
“She’s going to try.”
JC stood up, “What if she doesn’t forgive me?”
Mr. McLachlan laughed, “Joshua, she doesn’t have a choice. YOU are the ring turner.”
JC squinted for a moment and then smiled, nodding his head, “On the bluff overlooking the sheep fields?”
“That’s right son.”
It hadn’t dawned on him how cold it got in Ireland at night, especially when you were trying to sleep on a stone step across a doorway. He sat up, stretched his arms above his head and leaned back against the front door. He sat there thinking about how he was going to explain everything to Lyn. She was going to be furious. He fell backward into the entrance hall when Lyn pulled the door open. He looked up at her from the floor, “Good morning.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped over him. She walked down a path to the barn and JC followed her. She ignored him and began to saddle one of her grandfather’s horses. She knew JC HATED riding and that he wasn’t very good. But he watched her closely and saddled the horse in the stall next to Lyn’s. She simply shook her head at him and lead her horse to the mounting block. She was quickly in the saddle and trotting down the drive.
JC hoisted himself into the saddle and nudged his horse with his heal. They took off at a lightening pace. Not only did he catch up with her, he flew past her. She smirked and watched as the horse took off down the gravel road, with JC clutching it’s mane, the saddle and the reigns all at the same time.
JC knew if he didn’t slow down, she would turn in another direction and he wouldn’t see her for hours, so he yanked on the horse’s mane, turning it around. They ran back at Lyn and then began running large circles around her. She simply shook her head and trotted up her grandfather’s drive. She dismounted and tied the horse to the fence.
She walked into her grandfather’s house, “GRANDDA!”
He came down the stairs, “Good morning love.” He kissed the top of her head.
“Ready for our ride?”
“I don’t feel quite up to it this morning. Who about breakfast with an old man instead?”
“I’d love to. I can ride later.” She slipped her arm through his.
“I’ll have Hilda set it up on the patio, it’s a beautiful morning.”
“Sounds wonderful.” They walked together out the back door. After a few minutes, JC’s head popped around the side of the house. Lyn groaned and turned her back to him.
“Allyn. It’s that your friend Joshua?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Just ignore him GrandDa.” She huffed.
“Allyn...he is standing in my bushes, he’s difficult to ignore. Let me call him over.”
“Do what you like.” Lyn shrugged.
“Joshua, stop tromping my plants and come say hello to me.”
JC walked around the corner with his hands deep in his pockets, “Good morning Mr. McLachlan.”
“Are you two going to tell me why Joshua is tromping through the bushes rather than coming through the front door with you?”
JC sat down at the table and said, “Because she isn’t speaking to me.”
“Excuse me?”
“Allyn isn’t speaking to me.”
“Allyn, is this true? Why on earth would you stop speaking to Joshua.” GrandDa leaned back in his chair.
“Because I never want to see him again.”
“Why?”
JC looked down at his hands, “Because I did something stupid, but NOT what she THINKS I did.” Lyn slouched down in her chair, rolling her eyes.
“I see.” GrandDa nodded.
“Lyn saw...me kissing Brenna. But she doesn’t know why.”
Lyn stood up and looked down at him, “And she doesn’t want to know now.”
“Allyn, sit down and hear the boy out.”
“GrandDa!”
“Allyn, I am much older than you, and have much more experience. I happen to know for a fact that a man doesn’t confess to kissing his girlfriend’s sister, in front of her grandfather, if there isn’t a story to tell.”
Lyn sat down hard, crossing her arms, “I don’t believe this.”
“Joshua, what are you trying to tell her?”
“Sweetpea...”
“DON’T call me that! DON’T you dare try to endear yourself to me!”
“I’m sorry. But the thing is, you saw me kiss Bren, but what you don’t realize is that is wasn’t a real kiss. We made it look like it was, because the two of us are stupid. We THOUGHT we were doing the right thing. We THOUGHT we were protecting you.”
“BY MAKING OUT?”
“There was no making out. Truth be told, there was barely contact. I need to explain what happened from beginning to end, and then you’ll see that while YES we made a HUGE mistake, and YES you have a right to be angry, you should at least be angry at me for the right reasons. You should be angry because I didn’t tell you what was going on from the very beginning, when I found out from Johnny, NOT because I PRETENDED to kiss your sister.”
“Johnny?” Lyn’s face twisted in confusion.
“This all starts with Johnny. He made a mistake, and then I made the same mistake.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Apparently this whole nightmare started six months ago, when Alvin Powers called Johnny and said that if Johnny didn’t pay him off, he would expose our relationship.”
“What relationship?”
“That is exactly what Johnny said. He told Powers that there was no relationship, and that the fans and the press knew that you were my best friend. After that, Powers was quiet...but he wasn’t quiet because he’d given up, he was quiet because he was coming up with a more sick and twisted plan and he was getting help. He has had it out for you from day one, and we didn’t know why until you went to that deposition and found about his connection with Reagan. That connection is more dangerous than we ever thought it could be. We thought that Reagan’s big threat was the fact that you had cared about him.”
Lyn rolled her eyes, “Hardly.”
“Lyn, he is more sick and twisted then we knew.”
“I doubt that.”
“After he fired you, Powers contacted Johnny again, this time he said he had pictures he was going to release if Johnny didn’t pay him off. He sent copies of the pictures and they were doctored. This was all at the same time I was going on TRL telling the world about you and I. So now Johnny was sitting there with pictures of you and Reagan kissing with dates on them that were AFTER we were together publicly.”
“Why didn’t he tell us?”
“Because at that point he was dumb enough to believe that if he paid Powers, he’d go away. So he did. Johnny thought that by paying him off, Powers would give you your job back and we’d be happy, you could still teach and no one would ever have to know about it. Then...you filed the lawsuit and Powers went nuts. That was the last thing that he was expecting. He demanded more money...A LOT more money, the only way Johnny could think to get the money was to liquidate his interest in Free Lance, the only way he could do THAT without any of us asking questions was to become the jerk that we all started to hate. So Stasia bought him out and he turned over the money Powers asked for. Now Powers wants more, and his threat is worse. If you don’t go back to Orlando, drop the suit and go back to work for him, at a pay cut...he’ll release a video he claims to have.”
Lyn felt the bile surge up in her throat, “What video?”
JC looked down at his feet and he whispered, “Reagan made a video.”
She covered her face with both hands, “No.” she shook her head slowly and her grandfather cover her hand with his.
“When I was in LA, I overheard Johnny on the phone fighting with Powers. That’s when I found out about all of this. Johnny is going to pay him again, and we sent the pictures to a specialist to prove that the dates have been altered, but it’s going to take time, and we have to get our hands on that video.”
“After Dev’s wedding I found Bren sobbing, she said that all of you girls were close except for her and that she understood why and that you all had a right to hate her. She said she wanted to change and wanted to be a part of that feeling. I couldn’t tell Stasia all of this because she would have gone nuts and tried to kill everyone. I couldn’t tell the guys because they would have tried to kill everyone. I couldn’t tell you...or so I thought, because I thought you’d be devastated. So I confided in Bren. That’s when you came out...and we thought if you were angry enough with me, you would go back to Orlando, and that would keep Powers quiet long enough to get the dirt on him that we need to bring him and Reagan down.”
Lyn stood up and walked to the edge of the patio, “You have never lied to me before. You have never hidden anything from me before...but now...I can’t.” She whispered.
“You can’t what?” his stomach began to clench.
“I can’t trust you.”
Nothing could have prepared him for that. He felt as if all of the air had suddenly been sucked out of his lungs, “I love you.” It was the only thing he could think to say.
She shook her head and wiped at the tears rolling steadily down her cheeks, “And I love you, but that isn’t enough. I DON’T TRUST YOU!” She slowly walked back to the table and stared down at him, “I don’t care if you kissed her or not, I don’t care if you thought you were protecting me or not. You made decisions, about MY LIFE without even considering telling me about it. You didn’t even think about the fact that, whether or not I’d be devastated, it was MY RIGHT TO KNOW!”
“I thought I was doing the right thing.” He turned frightened eyes up to her.
“THAT is what frightens ME the most.” She shook her head, “GrandDa, I’m not going to stay for breakfast. I’m sorry, I need to be alone.”
The men watched as she walked back through the house, JC started to stand up and Mr. McLachlan grabbed his arm, “Let her go.”
“If I let her go now, I’ll never get her back!” JC looked down at him.
“If you chase her now, you’ll never get her back. Let her go. She has a lot to think about right now.”
JC fell back into his chair and clutched the sides of his head, “I hate myself for this.”
“You didn’t know any better son. Ignorance is an ugly thing...you’ve learned, you won’t make the same mistake again.”
JC smirked, “No, I don’t think I will.”
“Dude! SLOW DOWN!” Joey clutched the door handle as Chris took a corner at a frightening rate of speed.
“Slow is for sissies. Hold on tighter if you’re scared.” He whipped into a parking space, stopping a centimeter away from the car in front of him.
“I hate you.” Joey glared at him as they got out of the car.
“Yeah, yeah...doesn’t everyone.” Chris shrugged.
“So why are we here?” Joey asked as they walked into bookstore.
“I need a cookbook.”
“WHAT are YOU going to do with a cookbook?” Joey looked at him skeptically.
“It’s a....special...cookbook.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Just come on.” Chris rolled his eyes.
It took Chris half an hour to track down the book he was looking for, because he refused to ask the saleswoman where it was because she was older than his grandmother. He was wandering around looking for Joey, when he hadn’t found him in the comic book section or the magazine aisle, he went straight for ‘Sexual Aids’, where he found him. “What are you doing?”
Joey smirked, “Research.” He turned his head to the side, then turned the book he was looking at upside down.
“You need to learn to be subtle.” Chris held up his book, Recipes For Lovers...Foods of Seduction.
“You think you’re going to feed Dani in bed?”
“JUST SHUT UP! If you are going to be this stupid, just don’t talk.”
“Excuse me.” A soft female voice startled both of them. Chris clutched his book to his chest and Joey slammed his shut, putting it behind his back. “Chris? Joey?”
They both turned around and Chris began to speak, “Um...yeah...we...” it was at that moment he recognized the woman standing only four steps away from them. Chris turned red immediately and growled, “Get away from us, NOW!”
“I understand your anger Chris, but I need to talk to you, it’s important.”
“You understand my anger? You can’t begin to understand how much I want to KILL YOU!”
The woman took a step back, “I CAN understand that, but I had to talk to you. Do you think I WANT to be standing here?”
“I don’t know what you want...but I know I want to get out of here.”
Chris started to walk away and stopped when he heard Joey ask, “What do you want Amanda?”
“You remember my name?”
“You helped someone try to kill our friend, We’ll never forget your name, Amanda Cooper, or your face. Did you enjoy watching Stasia crumple to the ground? Did you enjoy watching her bleed?” Chris glared at her with cold eyes, “What do you want?”
“I didn’t realize he was going to try to kill her. NO! I didn’t enjoy watching her fall or bleed. I didn’t enjoy watching you run with her in your arms Chris, but I had some...mental issues at the time, but that’s all beside the point right now. I’m here to try to help you in some small way. I want to make all of that up to Stasia, and I know how much she cares...you all care about Lyn, so I want to tell you.”
“What about Lyn? How can you help us?”
“I tried to write a letter to Stasia telling her all of this, but it was returned unopened...then I got a letter from the FBI warning me to stay away from her.” She pulled two envelopes out of her purse and handed them to Joey.
Chris smirked, “Mary Grant.” Joey nodded.
“Listen, I have learned my lesson. I don’t think I’m going to marry Lance anymore, I don’t think he’s going to leave her for me, I don’t want to be part of your lives, I just want to tell you what I know. Then you can do whatever you want with that information.”
“What information?” Joey shifted his weight.
“After the whole thing which Stasia, I had some...legal problems, obviously. So my dad hired an attorney, he helped me get out of some trouble and after everything was taken care of, we started dating.”
Chris rolled his eyes, “Classy...dating your lawyer.”
“Yeah I know. Listen, I had a lot of issues, and he took advantage of me. Which is WHY I want to help. He is out to get your friend Lyn, and he will...he hates her.”
Joey looked at Chris and then at Amanda, “You’re talking about Reagan aren’t you?”
“Yeah.” She nodded
“OH GOD!” Chris shouted, and then ducked down behind a stack of books when several people in the store looked in their direction, “You dated Reagan?”
“Yeah. The thing is, his life is completely consumed with destroying Lyn McLachlan and JC. He’s nuts. He wanted to call me Lyn when we were...”
“DON’T finish that!” Joey held up his hands.
“So how can you help us?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know exactly what he’s doing, but he and his dad...well stepfather, are up to something. I’ve overheard bits and pieces of their conversations and I know they are trying to destroy Lyn and JC. Reagan keeps a bunch of stuff in a safe in his office at home. I saw him put a huge envelope in there and it said, ‘Lyn’ on it. I have no doubt that it’s something bad, because when I asked him about it, he screamed at me and hit me for watching him open the safe.”
“He hit you?” Joey raised an eyebrow.
Amanda turned and raised the back of her shirt exposing a bruise in the middle of her back, “Yeah. He hits...I don’t know if he hit her, but I wouldn’t doubt it.”
Joey and Chris locked eyes, “So what are you going to do?” Chris turned back to her.
“I owe it to Stasia to help her friend. I’m going to get my hands on that envelope.”
“So why are you telling US all of this?” Joey squinted at her.
“Because once I get my hands on the stuff I’m going to need to get it to someone who can do something with it.”
“Ever thought about giving it to THE POLICE?” Chris stared at her.
“SURE! Like I can go into a police station and say, ‘I’m reformed and want to help get this guy I’m breaking up with, here’s some stuff I stole from his safe.’ I don’t think I’d last very long, not to mention Reagan has friends who are cops.”
Chris stared at her for several seconds, “Talk to us when you have some proof.”
“I will. I really want to help.”
“We’ll see.” He turned to Joey, “Let’s get out of here.”
