TITLE: Picking Up The Pieces
AUTHOR: Cindy Wylie (RkieFan1960@AOL.com).
WRITTEN: July 2003

SETTING: 2001, long after the series has ended.

ARCHIVE: At www.angelfire.com/tv2/rookies_fanfiction.  Otherwise not without the author's permission.

AUTHORS NOTE: It's time for another long story. This one has been in my head for a while and it's been itching to get out. Fans of my other stories might not be too crazy about this one, but it's something I felt like I had to do. I want to thank Bridget for beta reading for me, as always. But, I have to give a big thanks to CTL for listening to my ideas and letting me know what would work and what wouldn't work. BTW, CTL is going to be writing the even-numbered chapters of this story.

Lastly, I want to dedicate this story to the firemen, the police officers, the victims of the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77, United Airlines Flight 175 and United Airlines Flight 93.
 

CHAPTER ONE: San Antonio, Texas, Spring 2001

It was a warm March afternoon. Jill Danko was sitting in traffic on the freeway on her way to pick her granddaughter up at school. Traffic in San Antonio was almost as bad as the traffic in L.A. had been. Road construction made everything a logistical nightmare. Jill grabbed her cell phone from her purse and called her house to give the housekeeper some last minute instructions. "Rosie, It's Mrs. Danko. I'm on my way to pick Shelby up at school. I should be home in about half an hour. Is Michael there?" She asked as she slowly inched forward in traffic.

"One minute, Mrs. Jill. Miguel, telephone!" Rosie called in her thick Hispanic accent.

"Hello?" Came the rushed and breathless voice of Jill's nine-year-old son.

"Is your homework done?" Jill asked, knowing full well the answer to that question.

"Kind of," Michael hedged.

"Michael, get off of that computer and do your homework! Now!" Jill ordered. "I'll be home in a little while."

She finally was able to exit the freeway a short time later and was soon pulling into the parking lot of the Montessori school she'd enrolled Shelby in the previous fall. She'd searched for months for a school that would fit the little girl's needs. The small school, less than five miles from their home was perfect. There were only five children in the class and the teacher was fluent in sign language.

Jill couldn't help thinking of how ironic it was that Savannah, who'd been made mute due to childhood abuse, had given birth to a child who'd been born profoundly deaf which, all things considered, was the least of her problems.

Her eyes misted over when she walked into the classroom and saw Shelby, who's long blonde hair and light brown eyes were so much like her mother's. Shelby ran over when she spotted Jill, who scooped her up and gave her a huge hug. "How was she today?" Jill asked Miss Smalley, Shelby's teacher, as she ruffled Shelby's hair gently.

"She had an 'okay' day. She does seem a little tired, though," Miss Smalley observed.

"Yeah, we're seeing the cardiologist on Friday. Well, we'd better get home before Michael runs rough shod over Rosie," Jill sighed as Miss Smalley laughed. "We'll see you tomorrow."

Michael was playing basketball with a neighborhood boy when his mom's Isuzu Trooper pulled up into the driveway of their Olmos Park home. "Your mom's home with your little sister," the other boy noted.

"I've told you. She's not my sister! She's my niece!" Michael shouted in fury as he threw the ball at the other boy.

"But if your mom adopted her, doesn't that make her your sister?" The other boy challenged.

Michael's face turned beet red. "My dad doesn't claim her as his daughter, so why should I claim her as my sister? I heard him tell a friend that the only reason he pays child support on her is because the judge makes him."

"Man, your parent's divorce sound like it was uglier than my parent's was, and that was really bad," the other boy commented.

"I'd better get home before she starts raising hell. I'll see you at school tomorrow," Michael said as he dropped the ball and headed toward home.

Rosie Hernandez, Jill's housekeeper, was fussing over Shelby while Jill flipped through the mail. "Did Michael finish his homework?" Jill asked.

"He said he did, Mrs. Jill. Before I forget, Mr. Danko called twice. He wants you to call him when you get home," Rosie informed Jill.

"Did he leave a number?" Jill asked in a tight voice as she clenched her teeth.

"He said to call him on his cell phone. Do you want dinner now or after you call him?" Rosie asked anxiously as she tugged on her hair nervously.

"After I talk to him. If I call him before I eat, he'll just give me indigestion," Jill remarked as the housekeeper looked at her blankly as Michael burst into the house. "Michael, I'm going to go call your father. I'll let you talk to him after I finish."

"He wants me to come to L.A. for spring break," Michael informed her.

"Was that your idea or his?" She asked in a sharp voice as she folded her arms across her chest and stared at him.

"I don't know. I mentioned in an instant message that I got out of school for spring break next week," he answered innocently, looking at Jill with cool eyes.

"Yeah, and I bet you conveniently forgot that I was taking you and Shelby to the coast next week, too, didn't you?" She remarked as she rolled her eyes. She sighed and headed upstairs to her bedroom. She called over her shoulder, "Rosie, go ahead and give the kids their dinner!"

"Yes, Mrs. Jill," Rosie dutifully replied.

Jill sat down on her bed and hit Mike's speed dial number on her bedside phone. She just hoped they weren't going to get into a screaming argument this time. Mike's phone rang several times before he picked it up.

"Hello," his voice came across the line, a voice that brought back so many happier memories...but that was then and this was definitely now.

"Hi, Rosie said you called," Jill said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, I did. I can't believe you leave our son with that woman, Jill! She can't even speak English!" He shouted into the phone.

"Mike, I'm sure you didn't call just to bitch about my housekeeper. What's going on?" She asked in a cold voice.

"Michael was telling me that he's out of school for spring break next week. I was wondering if you could put him on a plane this weekend. I'd like to see him," he wheedled.

Jill smiled a bitter smile and shook her head in disbelief. "You're a piece of work, do you know that? The visitation agreement calls for you to see Michael at Christmas and six weeks during the summer. I get the other holidays, Mike! That's the least you can do for me after what you did."

"Damn it, Jill! When are you going to stop throwing that in my face? I wasn't driving the car that night!" He exclaimed in disgust.

"No, your 16-year-old pregnant daughter was!" She screamed back, so full of rage that she didn't care that Michael and Rosie were downstairs.

"Speaking of which, I'd also like to see Shelby," he brought up.

"If you recall, your name isn't anywhere on the adoption papers. You'll see that baby when hell freezes over!" Jill retorted in an icy voice.

"I didn't adopt her, but she's still my granddaughter," Mike reminded her as he tried not to lose his temper.

"Michael wanted to talk to you. Do not bring up spring break," Jill warned as she went to the top of the stairs and summoned Michael to the phone.

Jill was downstairs trying unsuccessfully to get Shelby to eat something when Michael came charging down the stairs angrily. "Why did you tell dad I couldn't go to L.A. for spring break?" He demanded.

Jill stared at her dark haired, dark-eyed son as if she didn't recognize him. She wondered when the sweet, adorable little boy she'd once known and loved had been replaced by a Stepford child. "Michael, you're going to see your dad in May when you get out of school. Speaking of school, I want you to march in there and finish your homework. I'm not telling you again."

"Dad said that if he has time he might fly out here next week. If he does, are you going to let me see him?" He asked belligerently.

"Michael, I'm never going to stop you from seeing your dad," Jill sighed. "I know that's what it seems like I'm doing, but it's not. If he flies out here next week you can see him for dinner. But that's next week. Right now we need to worry about this week. Go do your homework," she once again ordered.

"I thought you were taking the children to South Padre Island next week," Rosie reminded her.

"That was my plan, but obviously my ex-husband wants to throw a fly in the ointment. I'm going to go bathe her and get her ready for bed," Jill told the housekeeper as she lifted Shelby from her high chair and took her upstairs.

Jill sat on the toilet and watched the little girl splash in the tub, thinking to herself that it wasn't supposed to be this way. The job of raising this little girl should've fallen to her mother. It had been Savannah's intention to put the baby up for adoption. At least that had been her intention until the father intervened.

It was still hard for Jill to believe that sweet, sensitive Savannah was dead. And all because her father had the mistaken notion that every child born needed two parents. It didn't matter that the father was a no-good drunk who was several years older than their daughter. No, as far as Mike was concerned a drunken father was better than no father at all. Jill had been under the impression that Savannah had stopped seeing Troy, the father of her unborn child. No one had told her otherwise. Not Savannah, Michelle, Mary Kathryn or even their good friends. And Jill found out too late that they had all known.

Her sisters and one of their friends had tried to get her to stop seeing him before he destroyed her life, but their warnings went unheeded.

Jill had been working the night of the accident. Michelle had been in her dorm room at the University of Southern California-Los Angeles and Mary Kathryn had been in school in New York. Mike had invited Troy over for dinner, where he commenced to have too much to drink. When 16-year-old Savannah offered to drive him home, Mike agreed. From what the highway patrol was able to ascertain later was that Savannah and Troy had gotten into an argument during the drive. Troy had tried to grab the wheel, causing the inexperienced Savannah to lose control of the car and crash it into a telephone pole. She'd been seven and a half months pregnant at the time. The baby was delivered by emergency C-section after reaching the hospital but the doctors declared Savannah brain dead. She had her on life support for three days before Mike and Jill reached the painful decision to remove her. Troy survived but he suffered irreversible brain damage.

Shelby weighed a little more than three pounds when she was born. They were told soon after her birth that she had a severe heart defect that would require surgery before she reached school age. Then, to add insult to injury, they found out when she was four months old that she was deaf. Mike had wanted to go along with Savannah's original wish to put the baby up for adoption. He said it was too much of a reminder to adopt her. Jill wanted to keep her for exactly that reason. She'd tried to reason with Mike that Shelby was the only piece of Savannah that they were ever going to have. That was before their relationship turned to hatred and name-calling.

Shelby came home when she was almost two months old. From the beginning Mike flatly refused to have anything to do with her. He wouldn't even look at her unless he was forced to. This behavior was so unlike him that it made Jill sick to her stomach. Then she found out that Mike had known Savannah was seeing Troy and the anger set in. The arguments started soon after that, with the last straw being when Jill basically told Mike that she blamed him for Savannah's death.

Jill forced herself out of her reverie to look at the little girl in the bathtub. She looked so like Savannah that it almost broke Jill's heart. She lifted her out of the tub and wrapped a bath towel around her and rubbed her briskly.

Shelby shrugged her hands out of the towel and began to sign. "Is my mama an angel?" She signed.

"Yes, your mama's an angel and she's always watching over you," Jill assured her with tear filled eyes.

"Tell me about my name," the little girl signed.

"I tell you this story every night," Jill reminded her.

"Why is my name Shelby?" She signed again.

"Because your mama's favorite movie was 'Steel Magnolias' and her favorite character in that movie was named 'Shelby.' She told me and your aunties that if she ever had a little girl her name would be 'Shelby,'" Jill told the little girl.

"What if I had been a boy?" She wanted to know.

"Your name still would've been Shelby. Come on, let's get your nightie on and we'll go tell Michael good-night," Jill told her as she slipped her nightgown over her head.

Michael was downstairs on the computer when Jill came down with Shelby, who walked over to stand beside him. "Who are you talking to?" She signed.

"Michelle," he answered.

'Part of the Danko contingency who won't talk to me,' she thought to herself unhappily. "Shelby came down to say good-night," Jill told her son.

"'Night," he muttered unenthusiastically.

Jill rolled her eyes and took the little girl upstairs to the room right next to hers. After settling her in for the night, she picked up the monitor from her bedside table and brought it downstairs. "What's your sister up to these days?" Jill asked, setting the monitor on the coffee table.

"She says her and Thomas might be getting married soon. She said Eric's on the JV team at school and he's taller than Willie," he read.

As she listened to what her son was reading, she thought of the old James Taylor song, 'Her Town, Too.'

'Some of them his friends
Some of them her friends,
Some of them understand.'

The bitterness between Mike and Jill and finally the divorce had splintered their friendships badly. Willie and Michelle had stuck beside Mike like glue while Mary Kathryn, Terry, Eddie Ryker and of course, Trap, had taken Jill's side. "Ask her if I'll be invited to the wedding?" Jill asked, half jokingly.

Michael turned to the computer keyboard and began typing. "She says of course, you're the mother of the bride. But she says first she has to find time in her surgical schedule to squeeze a wedding in," he told Jill.

"Yeah, well, her busy surgical schedule will be worth it when she's making more money than God," Jill muttered. "It's time to sign off the computer, Michael."

"Why? It's early," he whined.

"I need to see your homework. Tell Michelle good night," she instructed firmly.

Michael reluctantly did as he was told. Michael was a good student, just not a very serious one. As with his sisters, he was extremely bright, he just didn't care to apply himself. Mike blamed Jill, while Jill thought it was the consequences of the divorce and then the move from California to Texas. Michael had been eight years old at the time. Jill had made the move to San Antonio after applying to several different hospitals around the country. University Hospital was a Level One trauma center and they had offered Jill a very lucrative package when they hired her. She was making far more money as a lead nurse in the trauma unit here than she'd been making as an administrator in L.A. Combined with Mike's alimony and child support, she was able to support Michael and Shelby comfortably.

Sitting at the kitchen table with Michael, she looked over his homework while he sat with his head pillowed on his arms. "So, where's your dad staying this month?" Jill asked.

"I think he's at the lake house. Can we go visit Mary Kate in New York this summer? She promised she'd take me sightseeing in Manhattan," he reminded Jill.

"Mary Kathryn has a full concert schedule. I don't think she has any free time until after the first of the year. Maybe we can go after you get back from your dad's at Christmas," she promised him.

"Do you think Michelle and Thomas are going to have kids?" Michael suddenly asked.

"That's entirely up to them, but I doubt it. Michelle said a long time ago she didn't want any kids," Jill told her son.

"Why not? She likes me," Michael reasoned.

"Michael, daddy and I told you a long time ago about Michelle and Savannah's birth parents. They weren't very nice people. Michelle just decided she didn't want any kids. That's why they have all of the pets," she smiled as Michael grinned back.

Michelle and Thomas lived in a small house in North Hollywood with an assortment of cats, dogs, birds and fish. Jill had teased her, telling her that her entire salary would have to go to feed her animals.

"I know, but at least they'll never scream at me or call me ugly names," Michelle had countered back. It was her way of telling Jill she didn't approve of the way she treated Mike.

"Go put your books away and get in the tub," Jill ordered Michael as she handed him his homework.

Jill went upstairs a short time later to check on Shelby and tuck Michael in.

"Mom, I told dad that you were taking us to the coast next week so he said he wouldn't fly out until after we got back," Michael told her as she tucked his covers in.

"Okay, I'll call him as soon as we get back. Go to sleep," she told him as she got up to leave the room.

"Mom, if he comes to town can we go out to dinner? As a family, I mean?" He begged.

Jill closed her eyes and took a breath. "Michael, I love your daddy. I'll always love him, but we can't go to dinner together. It wouldn't be right or fair. Go to sleep now," she repeated as she turned out the light and pulled the door partially closed.

Jill was deep in thought as she made her way downstairs. She wasn't lying when she'd told Michael that she'd always love Mike. She'd always love him, but she'd never forgive him for destroying their lives.
 

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