TITLE: The Light At The End Of A Dark Dawn:  Chapter Five
AUTHOR: Cindy Wylie (RkieFan1960@AOL.com) 
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The song 'Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me' was written by Jim Weatherly and is sung by Gladys Knight And The Pips.

CHAPTER FIVE: Some Good News At Last (February 1991)

SUMMARY: The Danko's problems increase with Michelle, while Mary Kathryn and Savannah discover her secret and Jill delivers shocking, but welcome news to her husband.

'I've had my share of life's ups and downs,
But fate's been kind, the downs have been few
I guess you could say that I've been lucky
Oh, I guess you could say that it's all because of you
If anyone should ever write my life story,
For whatever reason there might be
You'll be there between each line of pain and glory,
'Cause you're the best thing that ever happened to me
There have been times when times were hard,
But always somehow I made it, I made it through
'Cause for every moment that I spent hurting,
There was a moment that I spent just loving you
If anyone should ever write my life story,
For whatever reason there might be
You'll be there between each line of pain and glory,
'Cause you're the best thing that ever happened to me
You're the best thing that ever happened to me
I know, you're the best thing that ever happened to me'
 

It was a chilly February afternoon, a few days before Valentine's Day. Jill was sitting at her desk writing reports when her phone rang.

"Administration, Mrs. Danko," Jill answered wearily.

"Mrs. Danko, this is Mrs. Hill," a woman's voice responded over the phone..

"Yes, Mrs. Hill. Is something wrong?" Jill sighed in resignation, wondering what the principal from Michelle's high school wanted.

"I was hoping that's what you could tell me. Is Michelle sick today?"

"No, ma'am. She should be in school," Jill answered with a heavy heart.

"Well, I'm afraid she isn't and there was no answer when I called your house to check on her. This is the second time this week," Mrs. Hill informed Jill.

"I see. I assure you, Mrs. Hill, that my husband and I will deal with this and it won't happen again," Jill vowed as she hung up the phone and tried to think.

Michelle's behavior had been increasingly erratic over the past month. She'd been spending more time at the library, but judging by her grades, Jill and Mike both doubted she was doing any studying. She'd been hostile to everybody and had taking to locking herself in her bedroom after dishes were done, which was driving Mike nuts. With shaking hands, Jill picked up the phone and called Mike, dreading having to tell him that on top of all of her behavior problems, now Michelle had taken up skipping school as a new hobby.

"Seventeenth precinct, Detective Danko," Mike's weary voice came over the phone.

"Mike, it's me. I just got a call from the high school. Michelle wasn't in class this morning," Jill informed him.

"Why does that bit of information not surprise me? I've been a cop for twenty years and can't keep tabs on my own 15-year-old daughter!" Mike shouted.

"Mike, please let me deal with this," Jill pleaded with a wince. "I've been there, remember?"

"Great, Jill! That's just what I need, my daughter running off with some older guy!" He shouted once again.

"I didn't say she was going to run off with some Cleve Andrews clone, just that I remember what it was like to be 15-years-old and confused about things," Jill told him, trying to sooth him.

"Well, she's going to be confused when I take a strap after her and lock her in her bedroom until she's 21! Oh, wait! I forgot! She'd probably enjoy the being locked in her bedroom part!" He continued to rage.

"Mike?" She interjected quietly.

"What?" He grumbled.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too. Good luck," he said, hanging up the phone. "Terry, I have to go. Something’s going on at home," he announced suddenly, getting up and leaving the room before Terry had a chance to say anything.
 
 

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Jill came home that afternoon to a quiet house. She went upstairs and put her purse away before going across the hall to her oldest daughter's bedroom. Opening the door, she crept into the teenager's inner sanctum, feeling like kicking herself as she prepared to do what she swore she'd never do. Jill walked over to Michelle's dresser and began sliding open the drawers, not certain what it was she was looking for, but afraid of what she was going to find. She was busily searching when Michelle walked into the room.

"Why are you going through my things?" The young girl demanded belligerently.

Jill turned around, looking hard at a girl she no longer recognized. Her eyes had hardness around the edges that hadn't been there a month before.

"I asked you a question. Why are you invading my privacy?" Michelle demanded once again, folding her arms in front of her chest defiantly.

"I don't know, Michelle. Maybe because I was looking for drugs," Jill replied in a cold voice.

"You think I'm doing drugs?" Michelle exclaimed in amazement and fury.

"Mrs. Hill called this morning. You remember her, don't you? Your principal. Maybe you'd like to explain where you were all day because you sure as hell weren't in school," Jill demanded.

"I was at the library. I had an English paper due so I decided to work on it. You remember English, don't you? It's one of the courses Mike punished me over for having a lousy grade," the girl hissed.

"Michelle, if you've been spending so much time at the library, how come we aren't seeing it in your grades?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I'm not a genius like the wonderful little girls," Michelle sneered as she looked at her feet.
 
 

"I promised Mrs. Hill that you wouldn't be skipping any more classes. You're probably going to have detention when you go back to school. You can do your studying there. Oh, I also told Jen that you'd help Eric with his reading," Jill informed her.

"Are you serious?!" Michelle exclaimed in disbelief. "He's a little monster! I can't stand him! What is with this family? Everybody's so community oriented! Were Savannah and I just another pet project to you?"

"Michelle!" Mike's voice boomed from the doorway.

Jill ran past him to their bedroom, feeling suddenly violently ill.

Mike closed the door before pointing to her bed. Michelle walked over and threw herself down on it, looking up at him with a look of hatred.

"She was going through my things," Michelle pointed out.

"Number one, that is your mother. I never want to hear you refer to her as 'she' again. What is going on with you? Why are you skipping school?" He demanded as she rolled her eyes. "Stop rolling your eyes at me!"

"I told her...I told MOM that I had an English paper that's due next week. I wanted to work on it. It's easier to work at the library during the day before all of the students get in there after classes," she explained in a surly voice.

"I'm going to ask you a question and I want an honest answer. Are you using drugs? I mean, pot, anything?"

"I'm around cops all of the time," she reminded him bitterly. "Do you really think I'd be stupid enough to be smoking grass and think I wouldn't get caught? I really think the chemo is starting to affect your mind."

"You don't have the first clue as to what anybody in this family is going through as long as everybody caters to what poor little Michelle is feeling!" Mike snapped. "I'm fighting for my life here, Michelle! But you don't seem to care about that, as long as you get your way. I'm tired of dealing with it! You're 15 years old! Almost a woman! Its time you started taking on some responsibility and acting like one!" Mike yelled as he heard a knock on the door. "What?"

"Daddy, it's me," Mary Kate whispered, cautiously opening the door. "Mom's really sick."

"Okay, sweetie. Tell her I'll be right there," Mike assured her, going over to the door. "I want you to stay in here the rest of the night," he told Michelle as he closed the door behind him.

Savannah was in the bathroom with Jill, holding a cold cloth to the back of her neck when Mike walked in.

"Okay, Nurse Savannah, I can take over from here," Mike smiled, kneeling on the floor between Jill and Savannah.

"I don't want to be a nurse, daddy. Remember?" Savannah reminded him. "Put this on the back of her neck," she instructed him, handing him the washcloth.

"Yes, doctor," Mike replied as Savannah followed Mary Kate from the room.

"Mike, I can't do this. She's going to tear us apart," Jill said, dissolving into tears as Mike pulled her close.

"No, she isn't. Come on; let's get you into bed. You're just stressed out," he whispered, helping her to her feet and guiding her to bed. He helped her under the covers and lay there beside her as she continued to cry in his arms.

Jill must've fallen asleep, because the next thing she felt was the bed dip as Mike crawled into bed later that night. She snuggled up against him sleepily as he drew her closer to him.

"Has she been fighting with Thomas lately?" Jill mumbled.

"I don't know. Let's not talk about it now. Go back to sleep," he whispered, kissing her on the forehead as sleep quickly reclaimed her.

The next afternoon, Mike spotted Thomas playing basketball with Willie and a couple of neighborhood boys. He parked the Bronco and walked over.

"Hey, Mike!" Thomas called cheerfully.

"Thomas, I was wondering if I could ask you something. Have you and Michelle had a fight?" Mike asked.

"She won't even give me the time of day. Makes it kind of hard to have a fight when someone won't even talk to you," Thomas remarked, throwing the ball to one of his buddies.

"I see. Do you know if she's set her sights on another boy...maybe someone in her class?"

"I don't think so. I haven't seen her with anybody. Maybe that gaggle of friends she hangs with could tell you something," Thomas suggested.

"Yeah, maybe. Thanks, Thomas," Mike sighed, going back toward the house.

Unlike her parents, Michelle's sisters knew exactly where everything was hidden. They sneaked into Michelle's bedroom and pulled her diary out from underneath her mattress. Savannah sat on the edge of Michelle's bed and picked the lock with a bobby pin.

"You're taking your life into your hands by reading this, you know?" Mary Kate warned her sister.

"Reading what? No wonder she's failing English. Nothing in here is spelled right," Savannah pointed out, showing the book to her older sister.

"This is some kind of code. That way we can't read it. I wonder who this 'R' is she keeps writing about," Mary Kate wondered as they heard the door close downstairs. "Put it up, quick!"

They closed the book and relocked it before shoving it back under the mattress and quickly leaving the room.

"I think it was just daddy," Mary Kate breathed as Savannah held her hand to her chest, waiting for her heart to stop pounding.

"I have an idea," Savannah said, pulling Mary Kate into her room and closing the door. "We can get Thomas to help us spy on Michelle."

"Thomas isn't going to help us spy on Michelle!" Mary Kate told her sister in disgust.

"He will if we pay him! Money talks," Savannah assured Mary Kate.

"You're forgetting one very important thing, genius! WE don't have any money," Mary Kate informed her.

"I have ten bucks that I was saving for a rainy day," Savannah told her.

"He can make more than that by mowing our grass," Mary Kate pointed out.

"Yeah, but not for doing nothing more than driving us around to spy on Michelle. Come on, let's go ask him," Savannah opened the door and motioned for Mary Kate to follow her.

A few minutes later...

"You want me to what?" Thomas asked, horrified.

"Help us spy on Michelle. You can be the wheel man," Savannah told the young man.

"Why would I want to spy on Michelle?" Thomas wanted to know.

"Come on, Thomas. We used to talk about being spies all of the time, remember?" Mary Kate reminded him.

"Yeah, when I was 10!" Thomas exploded.

"She's seeing someone whose name begins with the letter 'R.' We read it in her diary," Mary Kate told him.

"Then you'd better explain what you guys are doing going through her things," Thomas admonished them.

"She's making my mom and dad cry. We hear them a lot late at night," Savannah told him.

"I can't believe I'm letting you guys sucker me into this. Be outside the middle school tomorrow afternoon and we'll check out the library," he reluctantly agreed as both girls grinned.

The girls were at the kitchen table doing their homework when Jill got home. She walked into the kitchen, relieved that things were quiet for once. "Hey, how would you guys like Chinese food for dinner? I want to have a quiet dinner with daddy out at the gazebo," Jill told the three girls.

"Can I order?" Mary Kate begged.

"Sure, sweetie. Tell daddy I'm in the shower," Jill told them as she headed up the stairs.

Mary Kate nodded, jumped to her feet and eagerly grabbed the menu.

When Mike walked into the house a few minutes later, Mary Kate was on the phone ordering Chinese food with the other two girls crowded around her, shouting out what they wanted her to order.

"I didn't know we were having takeout," Mike told them.

"WE aren't. Mom said shewants to have dinner with you at the gazebo for Valentine's Day," Savannah told her father.

"Where's your mom?" Mike asked.

"In the shower," Savannah replied.

Mike could hear the shower running when he stepped into their bedroom. He walked into the bathroom and stood leaning against the counter with a towel in his hand waiting for the water to shut off.

Jill was pleasantly surprised when she slid the shower door back and found Mike standing there with the bath towel in his hand. She stepped into the towel gratefully as he wrapped it around her and pulled her close to him. "Hi," she breathed, kissing him.

"I was just told that we were going out to the gazebo for dinner while our daughters are ordering everything on Mr. Wong's takeout menu. What's the occasion?" He asked, nuzzling her neck.

"I have something to tell you," she informed him.

" Jill, I'm starving," he complained.

She started massaging his neck. "You remember that trip to the sperm bank that you made in October?"

"Remember? I don't think I'm ever going to forget that experience," he blushed

"Well, my third trip to the doctor was the charm. I'm pregnant, Mike," she choked out as he stared at her in shock. "Say something, please?"

"It's not that I'm not happy. I think I'm just in shock. I know the doctors say I'm responding well to treatment, but one part of me is still scared to death of dying and leaving you with one very out of control teenager and a newborn baby," he admitted honestly.

"Mike, this is what I want more than anything in this world," she whispered, pulling him close to her. "I want this one last chance to give you a son. I know there's only a fifty per cent chance of that happening, but I feel so different this time," she assured him.

"So when's this miracle baby supposed to arrive?"

"Late October or early November. It's going to be great, Mike," she cried as tears began falling down her face.
 
 

The next afternoon, Thomas picked up Mary Kate and Savannah in the old Triumph that had been given to him on his 16th birthday. They drove to the public library and parked down the street, waiting for Michelle to exit.

"This is so stupid!" Thomas repeated for the thousandth time.

"It won't be if we catch her with 'R.' Aren't you just the least bit curious to know who this mystery man is?" Mary Kate demanded.

"Shut up, 'cause here she comes now!" Savannah hissed as she spotted Michelle coming down the sidewalk.

They all watched as a few minutes later, an older man came running out of the library to join her. They watched as they walked toward the parking lot toward a strange car. Thomas put the car in gear and drove slowly down the street as the car pulled out of the parking lot.

"Damn! I can't see the license plate number!" He exclaimed in frustration, banging on the steering wheel.

"Maybe this'll help," Mary Kate offered, putting a pair of binoculars to her eyes as the other two kids stared.

"Mary Kathryn, you're a little too good at this spy stuff," Thomas admonished.

"Just get a little closer," Mary Kate stated with a grin. "Do you have anything to write with?"

"There's probably something in the glove box," he pointed as Mary Kate opened the glove box and the contents spilled out.

"God, Thomas! I'm surprised you don't have a nest of mice in here! Have you ever thought of cleaning your car once in a while?" Mary Kate complained, finding a sheet of paper and a pen.

"Are you kidding?! That's what I have a younger brother and sister for," Thomas answered as the two girls rolled their eyes.

"Savannah, start writing when I tell you to," Mary Kate ordered, handing the paper and pen to her sister. "Thomas, get closer!"

"If I get too close she's gonna recognize the car! Next time we go on a spy mission, we'll borrow your dad's car," Thomas grumbled.

"Like that's ever going to happen! ABK-273! Have you got that, Savannah?" Mary Kate demanded.

"Got it!" Savannah shouted, handing the pen back to Mary Kate.

"So, what're you guys going to do now?" Thomas asked the two girls.

"Man, for someone with a brother and sister, you sure don't know much," Mary Kate told him.

"Look, we have to tell your dad about this," Thomas insisted.

"No, we don't either! We've been told not to upset him," Mary Kate informed him. "We'll talk to Michelle and make her tell daddy."
 
 

Michelle was lying on her bed writing in her diary when her two younger sisters barged in and sat on her bed.

"Don't you guys believe in knocking?" Michelle angrily demanded.

"We saw you come out of the library, Michelle," Mary Kate began innocently.

"What're you going to do?" Michelle wanted to know, eyes widening in horror.

"What do you think we're going to do? I'm sure mommy and daddy would just love to know about the older guy we saw you with. Savannah and I just have a few demands that'll ensure our silence," Mary Kate stated, producing a sheet of paper. "Doing all of our chores for the next month is a good start."

"That's blackmail!" Michelle shrieked.

"Shut up!" Savannah hissed. "Mom's across the hall! Our chores or we go to dad or worse, yet, one of the other guys."

"Okay, but for two weeks," Michelle tried to bargain.

"A month or we squeal like pigs," Savannah threatened.

"All right, already," Michelle sighed.

"That means all of our chores, Michelle. Clean our rooms, wash dishes, vacuuming, everything," Mary Kate added.

"Okay, just get out of my room," Michelle ordered, falling back onto her bed.

Once they were out of the room, Michelle walked across the hall to her parent's bedroom and softly knocked on the door. When there was no answer, she quietly opened the door and crept inside. She walked over to the phone and quietly picked it up, listening to make sure no one was on the phone downstairs. She quickly dialed the number she'd memorized.

"Hello?" A man's voice answered on the other end.

"Roman, it's Michelle. We're going to have to find a new place to meet. My sisters saw me with you at the library today. They're threatening to go to my parents," Michelle told him.

"Okay. Let me work on something tonight. Call me tomorrow when you get out of school," he ordered her.

"Okay," she whispered, quickly hanging up.

Roman smiled as he hung up the phone. It was time for the games to begin.
 

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