Jonathan, having had a full day himself, left J.J. to hail a taxi to take him to the Gresham Inn where he retired to Jennifer's room. He had flown from LA to Maryland early that morning after picking up Bill in Nevada. Then he had been on the phone off and on all morning with Miss Smythe and Dr. Irvine, as well as the doctor and the physical therapist in Maryland that Dr. Irvine had arranged for J.J. to see the next week. Bill had flown them into Boston from Maryland while he sat and talked with Jennifer's father about his plans.

Too tired to get completely undressed, he took off his shirt and shoes and lay back on the bed hoping to catch a brief nap. Normally, he didn't rest during the day like that, but it hadn't exactly been a normal day, and with Jennifer and J.J. away from him, he hadn't slept that well the night before. He had just begun to doze off when he heard the lock being activated. He was pleasantly surprised to open his eyes and see Jennifer enter the room.

He rolled over and propped himself up on one elbow to ask. ""You back already? I thought you'd be over at the Dean's talking with your father most of the evening."

"No." She answered as she put her purse and her folder with her notes from the presentation on the table. "I ended up not going to see him after all. I went to see Eva, and then I came here instead."

Jonathan sat all the way up. "You didn't go see your father after he specifically sent for you? Taking lessons in absenteeism from your own daughter?"

Reluctantly, she had to smile as she turned toward him. "I guess I didn't see it like that," She admitted. "But I see that I can count on you to point it out to me that way, though."

Crossing the room to go to him, she began unbuttoning the jacket to the navy blue suit she wore. "What are you doing back here?" She asked when she sat down on the side of the bed next to him. "I thought you'd still be with J.J. or with Bill and Pat having dinner."

"Were you hoping I wouldn't be here or something?" He asked as he moved her hands aside to finish the job of unfastening her jacket and then removing it from her arms.

"Of course not." She laughed quietly as she bent down to kiss the tip of his nose. "There's no better place for me to run into you than the bedroom, and after all these years, you know that."

"You know it." He smiled and had to lick his suddenly parched lips as he took in her ample cleavage which peeked out at him over the lacy bra she had worn under the jacket.

"I spoke with J.J." He said. "And it seems that Bill and Pat had plans other than dinner, and those plans didn't include a third party. At least not this particular third party. I don't swing in that direction."

"You'd better not." She responded, playfully pushing him back onto the pillows and taking her jacket from him.

He watched her go to the closet to hang it up, and he could tell that she was tense. He wondered if it was the idea of talking with her father or having to fuss at J.J. that had her upset.

After stepping out of the skirt, she hung it up as well. She came out of the closet and slid down the half slip, tossing it onto the chair before coming back to the bed in her bra and panties to lie down with him. He wrapped her up securely in his arms and felt her relax somewhat as she told him, "I'm so glad you're here in Gresham."

"Were you really surprised?" He asked. "It's hard for us to put one over on you. I didn't even let J.J. in on it this time, even though I've talked with her a couple of times since you left."

I couldn't believe it when I saw Pa walk out onto that stage, and I really couldn't believe seeing you and Bill up in the balcony with that rascal of a daughter of yours. Pa looks so well." She twisted around so that she was facing him and snuggled back down in his arms. "I wasn't looking forward to a weekend without this."

She pressed her face to his chest as he buried his nose in her hair, inhaling the familiar citrus/floral smell of it.

"Me neither." He admitted. "I'm sorry J.J. got herself hurt, but I'm happy to be staying over with you because of it. How's your head?"

"My head?" She asked, craning her neck to look up at him.

"Pat said that you were in pretty bad shape this morning when I called. When you told me last night that you had gotten into the bourbon, I knew this would happen. I don't know why you insist on drinking with Pat. Her gut is lined in cast iron, yours is made of velvet. You can't do it the way that she can, and you know it. Even a little of that stuff does you in."

"It was fun while it was going down, though." She sighed. "I'm okay. In light of all the surprises today, I've pretty much pushed it to the back, I guess."

She could feel his smile in the way that he held her to him.

"What did J.J. have to say about spending her week on the mend at Briarwood?" She asked.

"She was none too pleased, but I let her know that she didn't have a choice. She felt better when I told her that Marnie could go too."

Jennifer moaned. "A whole week with those two. You told me it would just be a weekend when I left home yesterday."

"I could take Marnie back with me when I fly out tomorrow." He said. "But I think she would be better off in Maryland with you and J.J. When I called her mother to ask her about it, I didn't like what she said."

"What was it she said?"

"It seems she's flying out to Texas tonight, and she'll be there a week. She said that Marnie could come home if she wanted to; the help would be there with her, or she could stay with us and go to Maryland. It sounded as if she hadn't even let Marnie know that she was leaving and she wasn't really concerned about her being at home alone for a week. I don't like the idea of Marnie going home and not finding her mother there, and then her being in LA alone like that, without her mother there or us. That's why I'd appreciate it if you'd take her on to Maryland and keep her with you."

Jennifer squirmed in mild dissatisfaction. "When did I get two children, Jonathan? I only gave birth to one, that I recall. It's as if I'm the one who's raising Marnie, and she only goes home to her mother on visits."

"When J.J. went to kindergarten and met Marnie, we picked up a cursing five-year-old. You are the best thing that could have happened to that girl, Jennifer and you know it. Think of what she could be like by now."

"She'd be a cursing, hot-tailed sixteen-year-old, with a trail of young men a mile long." Jennifer answered. "I guess you do have a point."

"Nature has  a way of making sure that the right people end up in the places and positions where they're most needed." He said quietly as he played in her hair.

"So, Jennifer, was that the latest young man that I'm going to have to light a fire under about J.J. Hart?" He asked in reference to Teddy. "When I think that she's only sixteen, and this is only the beginning...Let's see, there's Tommy, Wesley, Deon, Sidney, Chase, Chance, maybe Ollie, now this character."

"Sidney's gay, Jonathan. He doesn't count. Deon, Chance, and Ollie are definitely just friends, and the rest of that first group are at arm's length with J.J for the time being. As far as Teddy's concerned, we're leaving tomorrow. There won't be that much time or reason for you to get the fire lit."

"It won't be over." He answered matter-of-factly. "That's one that's going to continue coast to coast, you mark my words. That boy knows horses and he likes to ride them, just like our daughter. He carried J.J. in his arms up and down flights of stairs- more than once, and she let him get close enough to do it. Then he did the ultimate: he came back and met you, her mother- on his own- in order to get back with her. A guy doesn't do all that, especially voluntarily meet the girl's mother, for no reason. I never, ever went to meet the girl's mother on my own. That one there is gone, I know it. And I also noticed that she had her hair down when I left her. She do that for him? She doesn't even do that for me."

Jennifer said nothing, and he knew not to pursue it any farther. They still didn't see things eye-to-eye on the matter of J.J. and the opposite sex, and so they had come to a cordial impasse, both of them knowing when to let the matter drop.

"Tell me why you didn't go see your father." He said to change the subject. "Did you at least call him to let you know that you weren't coming? You know he's sitting there still waiting for you, if you didn't."

The thought of her elderly father sitting in the window waiting and looking out onto the Quad for her stirred her heart. Moving Jonathan's arms from her, she rolled over to the phone and dialed the Dean's residence, telling whoever it was who answered the phone to inform her father that she had been delayed and would be coming by later that evening instead.

Then she rolled back over to Jonathan. "I can't believe I did that. I should have called him. I guess I'm on overload. Thank you for saying something." She lay her head on his chest once more. "I was really hoping to talk to you first."

"About what?"

"About how wonderful and how horrible you are."

"Oh, now that should be a conversation." He smiled. "Just how is it that I'm horrible?"

"First of all, you have evidently known about J.J. since it happened this morning, but nobody told me about it until way into the afternoon, and not until after you got here. The two of you try to keep things from me all the time, and I don't like it one bit."

"And you and J.J. tell me everything, I take it." He countered.

"Jonathan, the things we don't tell you are things we take care of on our own without worrying you. They're usually girl-things, mother-daughter things."

"So it was a father-daughter thing this time, and we didn't want to worry you. It got handled. At the time, J.J. didn't think you needed to know, so she called her Daddy and her Daddy took care of it long distance."

"Her Daddy." Jennifer huffed. "More like her personal wad of putty."

"And happy to be it." He smiled as he bent to kiss her forehead. "That's my girl, just like you're your Daddy's girl. He was probably pretty pliant in your hands as well."

"I was never able to manipulate my father the way that J.J. does you."

"I bet Stephen would see it differently, but on to the good part. You said that I was wonderful, too. What's that about?"

"It's about pc's, laptops, mainframes, wiring, internet connections, software, etc., etc., all courtesy of Hart Technologies, your personal division of Hart Industries. What can you tell me about that?"

When he didn't say anything, she looked up to see his face. "Well?"

"What's to say?" He answered, shrugging his shoulders. "It needed to be done, so I had it done. That was years ago."

"Who approached you with the idea? How did you even know that it needed doing, all the way out there on the west coast like you are? Was it Pa? And who financed it all?"

He held her closer and kissed her again on the forehead. "It's done, Jennifer. It's not your concern. I take care of Mission Street in the manner that I do because I'm grateful for all that it gave to me as a boy. I'm also grateful to Gresham Hall and to your father for taking such good care of you until fate could put you in the same place as me that day in London. Let's face it, as much as we might not have liked having to be in either of those places, neither of us would likely be who we are if it hadn't been for those two institutions. Your father is a good man. Every time I look at you, I can see that. I don't know that I would have done as well with J.J. if I had been faced with raising her on my own when she was twelve. Do you remember what she was like when she was twelve? Mighty rough little patch, that was. She's only just beginning to get her sanity back."

"Jonathan, you would have been fine. You're a different kind of father than Pa was. You have always been hands-on. You've always been right there for her every day of her life, and the two of you have always had such a strong, positive relationship despite the fact that you let her run all over you. Pa and I had to get to know each other after my mother.....left.....died. It was very different with us. He was like a stranger to me at first. I remember that so vividly now.. that I'm... talking about it." He noticed that her voice had taken on a sound of wonder.

He lifted her from him and rolled over on his side so that they could see each other's faces. Jennifer rarely spoke of her mother, and almost never talked about anything connected to her mother's death. He could hear the difficulty she was having in speaking of it then, but any opening she gave on that subject, he gently took, knowing that at those rare times that she did open up, she was at a point where she needed to talk about it.

"Jennifer, the times were different." He began. "Your parents were traditionalists of the highest order. He went out and worked. She stayed home and raised the child. Their roles were black and white. There wasn't any blending. You and I, we've always done it together. I couldn't have done it any other way, personally. As good as you are with J.J., I need to be right in there, if not for her, then for myself. But all of that aside, you know that your father has always loved you."

"But I spent so many years being angry with him. At times, even though I'm know that I've moved past it, I can still feel it. I felt it when we drove onto the grounds yesterday, and I felt it when I was in my old room with J.J. earlier today. Why didn't he tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me about all the things he'd done? About his relationship with Dean Marchand? I never knew until today that he knew her personally and that they came from the same village in Wales. I never knew until today that Miss Smythe is her sister, well half-sister, but family just the same. She was in the same house with me all those years and I never knew that she knew my father. Were you aware of the things that Pa's done at Gresham? Jonathan, there were no stables before I came here. I assumed the school put them in. But I found out today that Pa had them built. The new dorms for the lower school and the underclassmen, Pa arranged to have them built. He's personally subsidized the upkeep on Waverly and Wimberly Houses. I found out that he even sent for Miss Smythe to come over from Wales, and that he supplements her salary to this day. Why didn't he tell me any of that?"

"Like I told you, he's a traditionalist. You are his child. Granted. you're his full grown child now, but he's still more grown than you and in his mind, he didn't have to tell you any of that. It wasn't your business. He was doing what he wanted to do for whatever reasons he had for doing them,  and it wasn't your concern. Like with me, I have no need to tell J.J. about the computer labs at her school, and I'm not nearly the stiff-neck that your father is about things. I had my reasons for doing what I did, and he had his. Go past his not telling you, Jennifer, and think about what his underlying motivation was for doing them. Think about what your own motivation is for supporting the causes that you support. Why do you take up the time you take with Marnie? And beyond that, consider why you're so interested in J.J.'s friend, Charmaine and her writing."

When her mouth fell open at that latter question, he winked. "I've been watching you with Charmaine; I've seen you looking over her shoulder while she's working with J.J. on an article for the school paper, talking with her about her pieces in progress. I've seen you reading her columns in the school paper when J.J. brings them home. She's talented isn't she? Her grandmother may not be able to send her to that college in Atlanta that she speaks of unless some things fall into place, right?"

Slipping his fingers under her chin and lifting her face to kiss her, he asked afterward. "Are things going to fall into place for that talented little writer, Jennifer? And why would you do that? What's your underlying motivation? Who is the reason why Charmaine is part of your universe? Why haven't you talked about what you've been doing with that? Are you planning to share that with J.J.? What about how you've been working with her cousin, Nikki when she comes by and shows you her poetry she's written?"

With her face turning very red at his making that part of the situation crystal clear for her with those most graphic examples, she whispered, "Touche'."

"But Jonathan," She continued after a moment. "I still don't understand his not telling me about the Dean. And what is it he wants to talk to me about so badly?  He said as much to me after the presentation, and then he sent you to Waverly to get me. You flew over with him. Did he say anything to you about it? Why is he really here? Is it something about her and him?"

As she was speaking, he could feel her agitation. 

"Why is it making you so crazy?" He asked, a little unnerved by her reaction. "Why didn't you just go over there and hear what he had to say?"

"I don't know. I just didn't. Didn't he tell you anything on the plane on the way over?"

"You'll have to speak with your father about that." Jonathan finally answered as he gently rubbed the skin in the middle of her back. He had reached around and unfastened her bra after he finished unpinning her hair from the French roll she had been wearing and pulling it down with his fingers to her shoulders where he preferred it. "But not right now."

"Later." She agreed with a knowing smile when he pulled the lacy garment away from her body to drop it and the hairpins onto the floor behind him, and then took her face in his hands.

He could relax her, she could ease him into sleep, and they would both be ready for the remainder of their Saturday evening.

When Miss Smythe came in to briefly check on Teddy, J.J., and  her ankle, they had finished eating and had cleared the dishes from the table. On her way back out, she took the dish-filled tray with her, letting them know that she would be back shortly to take J.J. upstairs.

"But it's not even dark outside yet." J.J. mumbled irritably. "What a gyp!."

"Feel like some ice cream, J.?" He asked in an attempt to keep her spirits from flagging while they still had time to talk. "I'll go and get some for us if you do."

"None for me," She answered. "I'm stuffed for now. But you can go ahead and get some for you if you want it."

"I can wait. I'm pretty stuffed too. Dinner was great." 

He scooted his chair around so that he was closer to her.

"Yeah, it was pretty good." She agreed. "But then, I'm not ever too picky about what I eat. I hate cauliflower, though. Makes me sick to look at it. Hey Teddy, we've talked about me, but you haven't said much about yourself. Tell me about you, about your folks."

"Well, " He began, sitting back and crossing his legs. "I'm the youngest of four kids. I have three sisters, two are in college and my oldest sister just graduated from college. She's working on Wall Street this summer. She's real smart. Actually, she's my half sister. My mother is my father's second wife and he had the rest of us with her. I was a last minute kid. My dad jokes about it a lot saying that he only got a son because I decided to catch the last train out of baby heaven and slid in at the last minute, just under the wire."

"You too?" J.J. laughed. "I'm an only child, and my parents had been married ten years before they worked up on me. My mother told me that it was three months before she figured out it wasn't the flu. Now I ask you, how clueless is that? She rocked her head, grinned a wide, mischievous grin and held up her hands. "Imagine, if you will, her shock. Here I be!"

They both laughed, and then Teddy picked up his tale again.

"I used to live on our horse farm in Virginia until my parents got divorced three years ago. Now I live here, but in Boston with my father. He's an investment banker, and he and my uncle manage the stables here. That's who carried you upstairs this morning."

"The foreman?"

"-is my uncle. That's why he snatched me all up in my collar this morning for taking you out and letting you get hurt.

"You didn't let me get hurt. I just fell. That guy, he's your uncle? I wondered why he had his hands all over you. I guess family can get away with that sort of thing."

"Yeah, well. He's a pretty good guy so I let him, and I guess I sorta deserved it for not letting him know that I was taking you out this morning."

"I'm sorry about your parents being divorced, Teddy. That must be rough."

"It's not so bad." He admitted. "It's a lot better than listening to them fight all the time. At least now they get along better. I used to have a lot of trouble with my stomach before they got divorced, but since they broke up, it's gone away. My parents now think it was stress, related to the tension in our house. They sent me to Brookfield in the ninth grade and they got divorced and I got better. I decided to live in Boston with my dad because it's closer to school. Usually I go home to Virginia in the summer and spend time with my mother, but this year I got caught doing too much stuff in school and in the dorms. I let my grades slide a little too, so my uncle made me stay here in Gresham with him to get my grade point average back up. I take three classes during the week, and I tend to the horses the rest of the time. Now I'm glad he made me stay this summer since I got to finally meet you, the Mission Street Girl."

She smiled. "Go on with the story, silly."

"Well, I already told you both of my parents used to go to school here, but they weren't in the same class. My father is older than my mother. He and my uncle were in the same graduating class as your mother and your aunt. My uncle says that they used to rule this campus; that there was never a dull moment with the two of them."

Suddenly highly intrigued, "With who?" J.J. inquired as she leaned in toward him for clarification.

"Your mother and your aunt." Teddy explained. "My uncle told me that him and my dad and their friends used to sneak over here all the time just to get with them. He said that they were the prettiest and smartest girls here. They knew everybody on this campus and on the Brookfield campus, and they knew how to party to boot. He said they knew all the hang out spots in town, on campus, everything. He told me that they got in trouble all the time, but they were still able to pull off the books. They were always getting awards and getting on the Dean's nerves at the same time. Even the professors over at Brookfield used to hold your mother and your aunt over the boys' heads, talking about them in class. The professors knew the guys were coming over here to see them, and they would yell at them about how if they, meaning the boys, couldn't goof off and keep their grades up the way your mother and your aunt could, then they needed to just focus on one thing or the other; they said that some people were going to be needed to run the country, some folks would be needed to take care of the country, and some folks would be needed to fill up the prisons that were being built and that they could make their own choices. According to my uncle, they were legendary and a bunch of them made up their minds that they'd risk the prison option if it meant they could hang out with those two."

J.J. leaned back in the chair with a satisfied smile on her face. So, it was hereditary after all, and not just from the paternal side of the family. No wonder her mother anticipated her moves a lot of times. She'd invented some of them. The Duchess certainly had some nerve.

"What about you, J.J.? I know you said that you go to public school. How did that come about? With your parents and your grandfather being who they are, I'm surprised they didn't send you here."

She shook her head. "No way. According to what you just told me about my mother and Aunt Pat, that would just have been history repeating itself if I was here. Think about it, Teddy. What was I doing when you first met me? Playing cards, and that was a friendly game only because I didn't know everybody that well at the time. Normally, I only play for money. If we play tonight, it will definitely be table stakes. What was happening up in that room last night right before we left? A party, that's what. That's how  it is with me, Teddy. I wouldn't act right without constant adult supervision. I need to have my mother in my life on a daily basis right now. She's my check and balance until I get it together and can do it on my own. And where I go, Marnie goes, so we would just be all over the place turning Miss Smythe's hair snow white instead of steel gray with my card parties and Marnie's male entourage. I bet if you look out of that window right now, Marnie is sitting out there in that little dress she left here in, with her legs crossed in the middle of a group of boys." She tapped him and pointed toward the window. "Go look. See for yourself."

He got up and went to the window. "Yep." He confirmed with a smile. "And Josh has a ring side seat."

"She was priming him last night, and she always gets the one she aims for." J.J. nodded even though he was still looking out of the window. "When you see Josh later, tell him to not get too happy. Marnie goes through guys like somebody with a cold goes through tissues. But once they start acting interested, she's finished with them. I think it's the chase that gets her going. Once they're caught, she loses interest."

Teddy returned to his seat. "She's a cutie, but I want to finish hearing about you."

"Where was I? Oh yeah, I used to go to private school, but my father wanted me to be more exposed to all kinds of people, and he wanted me to be challenged more academically, so he sent me to a public school that has a specific criteria for admittance, and all these standards that have to be maintained in order for us to stay in either of the two programs. One is based on academics and the other is based on specific interests or talents. I'm in the academic program, and partially in the Talented program."

"I figured you for a scholar. What's your talent?"

"Music. I play piano and keyboard, but I- this is going to sound weird- but I have an ear for sound. I can't describe it, but I'm into creating and enhancing sounds, you know, like laying tracks, putting the music together, making things sound better, clearer, working in the sound booth... it's hard to tell you, to describe... You'd have to see me do it. I hear things, I guess, differently than most people."

"I know that you're into dee-jaying. Ollie told me that you're really good at it. I think I understand what you're talking about. Doesn't Tommy go there too, to your school, I mean?"

He saw that slight stiffening in her posture occur again at the mention of her friend's name, and he hoped that he hadn't probed too deeply, but he just had to know more.

Narrowing her eyes, she asked warily, "Wesley does an awful lot of talking, doesn't he?"

"Yes he does, and it can be safely said that he can't stand Tommy. Mentioned him a lot after he got back to school in May. He was talking about having gone home for your birthday party, and how he almost got into it with him over you. I listened to him talk and I could see right through him. Ollie told me later that Tommy's really a pretty good guy. I had figured that much out from the way that Wes kept going on about what a low-life he was. I read it between the lines that Tommy probably was going to take him out at the party."

J.J. didn't say anything to that, and when he noticed it, he apologized. "I'm sorry. Look, I talk too much myself. I didn't mean to get into your business. You're just so interesting to me, and it's like I said, I want to know about you and your world from you, not from Wesley."

She softened and reached out to pat his hand.

"It's okay, Teddy. It's not you. I just don't understand Wesley any more. He used to be one of my favorite people, but he's changed so much in a year. I used to really enjoy his company and I would look forward to him coming home for the summer and to him coming over to see me on his breaks, but lately... He's even making Ollie antsy. Wes never really cared for Tommy and me being friends because Tommy doesn't live in Bel Air with us and his mother works for my father's company. He doesn't understand me, and that my friends come from everywhere. I don't limit myself to Bel Air and Beverly Hills and the like. I just like people, and I literally have friends around the world and from all walks of life. But Wesley's animosity toward Tommy, it's one-sided. Tommy doesn't dislike Wesley. He doesn't say a whole lot about it, but he dislikes the way that Wes treats him whenever they're around each other. Tommy just mostly ignores him and hardly ever says anything to him in rebuttal, and I think Wes takes that for humility or fear or something. I don't know what might have happened between them at my party, if indeed anything did happen. If it did, I know that Wesley probably provoked Tommy. And yes, to answer you, Tommy and I go to the same school. He's in the drafting program. He's an artist, but he's heavily into architecture and computer aided drafting. He likes building things and fixing things. He's very talented in that area. You'd like him, Teddy. In fact, you remind me a lot of him. He's very nice, very thoughtful and considerate, and a lot of fun, just like you."

She sat back, closed her eyes, and sighed. "When I eat a lot, I get so sleepy."

He sat watching her, admiring how her dark lashes delicately fanned out  on her rosy freckled cheeks, and he could feel Wesley Singleton's pain. But Wesley might as well face it. J.J. Hart would never be his girl. She was way too much girl for him.

It was also a very good thing for him that J.J. Hart would be leaving Gresham Hall the next day. She was way too much girl for him to have too close around himself every day as well.

"Stephen, Margaret says that was Jennifer on the phone. She's been delayed, and she says that she'll stop in later."

Stephen stubbed out his cigar in the ashtray on the table next to him and sighed. "Well, with Jonathan here, I know what's delayed her." 

He reached out and took Agnes' hand in his where she had come to stand next to his chair. "I declare, Aggie." He said. "I don't know how it is that those two managed to have only that one child. I should think that they would have had a house full with the way they go at it. Now I'm no prude, I know what people do and enjoy when they're in love, but I don't mind telling you, I've been embarrassed more than once on their visits to me. Like rabbits, Aggie, I declare. I often wonder what their poor child might have seen or heard over the years."

Squeezing each other's hands, and sharing a look, they both had to laugh.

"Do you feel like a walk, Aggie? We can go over to Waverly and I can introduce Justine to you myself. I really want you to meet her, and I'd like to check up on her myself anyway. She and I haven't really had a chance to talk in person. I did speak with her briefly by phone while Jennifer was over there with her.  Since she can't come to me, I guess her old grandfather will just have to go to her."

"I think I'd like that, Stephen." Agnes answered, handing him his cane. "Just let me call for my sweater and we can be off."

Madison and Frank rushed into the common room where J.J. and Teddy sat talking. As she passed Teddy, Madison ran her hand quickly through his hair and said, "I thought I'd find you in here with my girl when I hadn't seen you outside all afternoon. She asleep?

She grabbed the remote from the table as Frank went over to the cabinet and swung open the doors to reveal the widescreen television inside.

"So, how many times has Smythe been in here making sure you two aren't doing anything out of the way?" He asked as he recessed the open doors into the cabinet casing.

"What are you two doing?" Teddy asking looking from Madison to Frank and then back to Madison.

"Teddy, you know what time it is." Madison answered, pushing him in the shoulder with one hand, while pointing the remote to the television with the other. "J.J.'s got you slipping."

"I thought with the function going on outside, that we weren't going there today." Teddy reasoned.

J.J., hearing their voices, came back from her near-doze. "What's up?" She asked as she sat up and rubbed her eyes with her fist.

"Nothing, sweetie." Madison answered as she took a seat on the couch and pushed the buttons on the remote to find her desired channel. "It's just time for our program. How's that ankle?"

"I'm okay." J.J. watched the screen whiz through stations until it stopped. "The Cartoon Network??"

"Heck yeah!" said Frank as he took the seat on the opposite end of the couch from Madison. "Inspector Gadget. He's our boy."

J.J. looked to Teddy who shrugged. "It's an addiction." He offered in explanation. "It could be something worse: weed, crack, booze, speed, sex; we're into Inspector Gadget and the Looney Tunes."

"Don't forget the Tex Avery cartoons!" Called Frank. "They're the best!"

Madison chimed in, "Inspector Gadget has his own website, J. I know you're into all that. Check it out some time. It's www.inspectorgadget.net. We have our own discussion group and everything. There's a Tex Avery site too. Flattened cartoon dog right on the opening page, www.texavery.com."

"You won't hear me saying anything against it." J.J. guiltily smiled. "I'm in the closet with it myself. I just LOVE Inspector Gadget and all those old cartoons they used to make before they had to take all the mindless violence, carnage, and mayhem out of them. I just don't talk about it. I sneak and watch them when I'm alone in my room. I wouldn't tell any of my crew at home that I do it. They'd never let me live it down. Inspector Gadget reminds me a little of my father- always coming up with something or some way to get himself out of a jam."

"You'd be surprised, J., at how many people watch cartoons and don't want to admit to it." Teddy said. "Probably some of those same friends you have at home."

She settled back in the chair as the familiar theme music began to play and the show came on. Probably Tommy, she thought to herself. She could just see him sitting there with his big self, hunched over a bowl of cereal watching Bugs Bunny, the Road Runner, or Droopy on the kitchen television or lying across his bed laughing at a good Tex Avery. He could be silly like that at times. She'd have to check into that once she got home, break him down, make him admit...

A few minutes later, they were all joined by Dakota, Josh, and Marnie and Dee who brought J.J. and Teddy ice cream.

"I hate you can't come out and play." Marnie leaned down and whispered in J.J.'s ear. "But I see he came in to play with you. He sure is fine, J. Having a good time? You give him that kiss yet? I got mine." She raised her eyebrows three quick times for emphasis.

J.J. accepted the dish of ice cream, but pushed Marnie away from her, after whispering, "Little slut!" in her ear.

Before too long, there was a roomful of teenagers who had wandered in from the Quad into the common room. They sat on the chairs, the couches, at the table and were strewn on the floor eating ice cream and watching the cartoons on the television, while talking and laughing.

After a while, Teddy moved the ice cream dish from J.J.'s lap. He leaned in after moving her head from resting in her hand to let her finish her nap on his arm.

Bill watched Pat as she sat on the side of the bed drying herself after her shower. He sat admiring the arch of her graceful back and how her short dark hair came to that fetching point at the nape of her long neck. It was amazing to him how good she looked for her age, not to mention how agile she still was. Her intelligence and self-confidence made her even more sensuous to him. He had always been attracted to quick-witted, independent, feisty women, and that one had captivated him from the start with her decidedly New York attitude and that persistently tart tongue.

"So what did Jennifer have to say when you told her about you and me?" He asked.

She turned her head to look back at him. "How do you know we even talked about that?"

"Did you?"

"Yes." She admitted with sly smile as she went back to what she had been doing. "She already knew."

He had to smile himself at that admission. "I kinda figured she did."

"It seems she saw us going out to the guest house on one of those nights that we stayed with her and Jonathan while the Squirt and her friend, Tommy, were missing last spring."

"And she never let on. She's something else, Pat. A real lady. What about J.J.? Had J.J. said anything to her about us being in the guest house while we were supposed to be babysitting her for her birthday?"

"Hell no." Pat laughed. "You greased her sweaty little palm quite adequately. She wouldn't have told that anyway. She's got way too much integrity, and being in the know about something that her mother wasn't in on was right up her alley. She loves secrets."

Pat wrapped herself in the large towel and scooted over to be next to him. "Hey Bill, what's the deal on the Dean and Mr. Edwards? Jennifer and I didn't have a clue that they knew each other outside of their Gresham Hall connection. It sort of blew Jennifer away. Did he say anything?"

Bill shrugged his shoulders. "You know how Stephen is. He's so, you know, so stiff and old school. He wouldn't share too much of it if it was something really personal. I flew us here from his place, and he and Jonathan talked, but I don't know what was said. I had my eyes on the road."

"Jennifer called while you were asleep and said that he had sent for her. He said he wanted to talk with her. Do you think he's got plans with the Dean? They're both single and she's retiring, so they'll both be free to do what they want."

"How the hell much can they do at eighty-whatever, Pat, even if they might want to?"

"I don't know about you." She said, running her fingers through his hair. "But I fully intend to do what I can for as long as I can."

"Not everyone has your stamina, Patricia." He winked. "What if they do get together? How do you think Jennifer will take it? I mean after all, the man has been single for decades."

Pat scratched her own damp  hair. "I can't say, Bill. She's hard to figure out when it comes to that. She's never really talked a lot about her mother, her father getting involved with anyone else, or any of that, not even with me. She's kept that part of her life pretty private. I get the impression that she's rarely discussed any of it with Jonathan and almost nothing with J.J. beyond what J. might have asked her about her grandmother. Jennifer's got some issues with the Dean, but it's probably mostly just old bullshit from when we were kids here in school. The Dean rode her pretty hard. Now I see why, I mean Jennifer was her good friend's kid. But I don't think it's anything on a personal level with Jennifer.  I don't think she ever let herself get to know the Dean as anything beyond a school administrator. I'm probably closer to her than Jennifer. She and I do talk on occasion. Jennifer hasn't been back here in over twenty years. She wouldn't have come this time if I hadn't done some damned fast, hard talking."

"You are the one for that."

"She doesn't spook often or easily, but she was mighty nervous when we left the auditorium this afternoon. Of course some of that had to do with finding out that J.J. had been hurt."

"Jennifer will work it out, whatever it is." Bill concluded, reaching out for Pat who came to him to lie her head on his shoulder. "I'm glad I came. It'll give us a chance to talk."

"To talk?"

"Don't play stupid. You know what I'm saying. What are we going to do about us? I don't want to be without you any more. Whenever I'm with you, I don't want to leave. It gets worse and it gets harder to do every time."

Pat, feeling her anxiety rising, closed her eyes. "I don't want to be without you either, but I don't want to leave New York and my business. I'm not ready to give that up yet. I know that I can't have it all, but all is what I want."

"Well, I'll tell you, I can gladly turn McDowell over to Peter." Bill speculated, sounding as if he was working things out in his head. "He's been ready to take it on, and I'm tired as hell of business every day anyway. I've been good and tired for a while now- just been going through the motions. It's all about computers these days, and even though I know a lot more than I used to, it's just not my thing. That's Peter's world. I know that you love the city, but I really don't think I can live in Manhattan."

"No Bill, Manhattan is definitely not you."

"Then we have some logistics problems to work out." He said. "Because whatever happens, I'm not living the rest of my life without you in it."

She couldn't picture big Bill McDowell being comfortable in an apartment, no matter how many rooms it had or how spacious they were. He liked the outdoors and being able to tramp about in fields and woods. She enjoyed that too, but she definitely wouldn't make it way out in the sticks of rural Nevada every day.

There had to be some happy medium.

She lay silently in Bill's arms wondering why the love of one good man had always been such a difficult thing to fit into her life.

Walking slowly along the paved sidewalk that connected the houses on the Quad, Dean Marchand and Stephen Edwards took pleasure in watching the young people and the alumni enjoying the social event still in progress. The boys had come down from Brookfield to meet  with the younger girls in attendance. This being the class of '62, the youngest girls were in their mid to late teens, and they were fewer in number, creating a feeding frenzy of sorts among the boys. The elderly couple strolling together with the aid of their walking canes were amused by the antics of the some of the boys who were earnestly competing against each other on the grass for the attentions of the visiting girls.

A soccer ball rolled across their path, abruptly stopping them, and a youth dressed in a Brookfield soccer uniform ran to retrieve it.

"Good evening, Dean Marchand." He said politely with a nod of his head after stopping the ball with his feet.

"Good evening, Peter." She answered before he kicked it and ran back off.

"You're a wonder." Stephen marveled as they resumed their walk.

"What makes you say that?" She asked, looking up at the considerably taller man.

"You always did know the students names on both campuses. I remember that from when I used to visit here to see Jennifer. You could always call them by name."

She chuckled. "It's an old deeply-ingrained habit, Stephen. I'm good at associations. I commit faces to memory and associate them with their  names right away. I don't ever forget a face. And then too, I must get to know the boys. There are only certain ones who make it a habit to come here regularly enough for me to get to know them, and know them I do."

"Yes, that you did." It was his turn to chuckle. "You knew that one who was in the loft with Patricia that time that you sent for me to come."

"Your Jennifer nearly burned the whole stable down. I think both of them having to come down from that loft to help stomp out the fire from that cigarette was that was the only thing that preserved Patricia's purity that night."

"His name was Theodore, was it not?" Stephen recalled.

The Dean thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, that was Theodore that night! Now that, I didn't remember. Fancy you recalling it after all this time."

"That was the one time that I came close to putting my hands on Jennifer." Said Stephen. "She was absolutely incorrigible, and she and Patricia were completely loyal to one another."

"Patricia had quite a few admirers in those days." The Dean recalled. "It was Theodore Baxter, to whom I've become rather close since that time. He ended up escorting Patricia to her senior prom, and I remember Jennifer went with that boy from London, who was here on loan to Brookfield's vocal music program. Nigel- something. I didn't know him all that well. She wouldn't go with any of the regular Brookfield boys who I knew."

"Armbrister." Stephen filled in. "Nigel Armbrister was his name. I met his parents in London after he came back home and Jennifer started at Vassar."

" You have a sound memory too, Stephen. You know, it's that same Theodore who manages the financial affairs associated with the stables now. His brother runs the stables, and Theodore's son presently attends Brookfield. I believe the boy is in the class ahead of your Justine. He'll be a senior next term, in the fall."

She decided not to mention that Justine and Teddy had already met, especially in light of his recollection of Teddy's father's dalliance with Patricia. She didn't know if he was aware of the circumstances surrounding his granddaughter's injury, and she certainly wasn't going to be the one to reveal them to him.

"Justine will be a junior." Stephen said taking the Dean's arm as she stepped up onto the walkway leading up to Waverly House. "She's a National Honor Society officer at her school, and she's first in her class, you know. Just like her mother."

The Dean could hear the pride in his voice. She was impressed that as far removed as Stephen was from Justine logistically, as well as in terms of her rearing, he was cognizant of her school activities and her ranking. Education had been his priority as a schoolboy himself. It had been of utmost importance to him as father to Jennifer, sometimes even more so than her behavior, and apparently it was just as important to him in his role as grandfather to Justine. His intelligence and love for learning had certainly been passed down to the generations who followed him.

He stepped up behind her, and continued to talk as they approached the house.

"So this Teddy is a year ahead of her. He'll graduate at the end of the next term. Time goes by so quickly. I remember as clearly as if it were yesterday when I was coming here to this same house for Jennifer. However, most of the times it would be under far less pleasant circumstances."

"Did they give her pain medicine or something at the infirmary?" Madison asked as she stood before J.J.'s wheelchair watching her sleep, her head propped up on Teddy's arm. "Hey Marnie, is this typical? She's out like a light."

Marnie got up from her seat next to Josh on the couch and came over.

"She doesn't take too much medicine," Marnie answered. "So I doubt that she took anything at the pharmacy for an ankle injury. She just sleeps hard. Once she's out, she's out. She's been through a lot today too. I mean, you have to consider, she went riding without permission, fell, busted up her ankle, had to go for ex-rays, snuck out with Teddy, got caught in the balcony by her father up there while she was dressed in a nightgown and surrounded by a bunch of boys, most likely she got her ass chewed out by her mother- I haven't had a chance to go there with her yet to confirm it; that's a helluva day for one girl, even  for J. She's probably just whipped. We should take her up so she can be comfortable."

By this time, Dee and Dakota had come over as well.

"With the wheelchair, we can get her up on the elevator without having to wake her up." Dakota suggested while she adjusted the quilt over J.J.'s foot.

"You're gonna need somebody to get her up out of the chair once you get her to the room." Whispered Teddy, continuing to let J.J. sleep on his arm. "Sleeping like this, she's going to be dead weight trying to lift her."

"Think we should go get Miss Smythe?" Dakota asked.

"We don't need her." Dee asserted. "We can do this by ourselves. You've been being her hero all day, Teddy. No need in you stopping now. Let's go."

A few minutes later, the five ambulatory teenagers pressed themselves into the elevator escorting the one in the wheelchair, still sleeping soundly, to her room.

Dean Marchand saw no reason for stopping to let anyone know that they had arrived, after all, she was the Dean and could go anywhere she liked on campus. She and Stephen entered the foyer of Waverly House and upon hearing the youthful voices emanating from the common room, she and Stephen stopped there first to see if Justine was there. They found a roomful of teens eating ice cream and watching television. Upon seeing her in the doorway some waved and others called out their greetings. A couple of the boys looked surprised to see her, but that wasn't out of the ordinary. She recognized them as two of the regulars, and they'd had previous dealings with her over their frequent visits to Waverly.

"Boys in Waverly House?" Stephen asked as they turned away. "I thought this was a girls' only prep school."

"The times have changed some, Stephen." The Dean answered. "We allow the boys to come over during the day during the summer sessions and on special occasions such as this. I know most of them anyway, and they are only allowed as far as the common room here, and they have to be out of the house entirely by eight P.M. Belinda keeps a pretty tight rein on things here. We've never had any problems."

"I don't know how comfortable I would have been with that arrangement in Jennifer's time." Stephen said skeptically. "Or how I would feel about it if Justine were in attendance. Young people sometimes have a way of making their own arrangements despite how diligent we try to be."

They walked to the elevator, still not having seen Miss Smythe, but nodding to the one of the housekeepers who was dusting in the front hall.

"We're going up to Number One, Sarah." The Dean advised the woman. "Please let Miss Smythe know that Mr. Edwards and I are here and that we're going up to see his granddaughter."

The housekeeper nodded in acknowledgment.

"Get her arm out of that other sleeve." Marnie instructed Madison as she began to pull J.J.'s robe off after untying it and making sure that she was decent under it.

Madison removed J.J.'s other arm from the garment. "This girl sleeps like the dead." She remarked as she pushed J.J's limp body into a more upright position. "You sure she's not unconscious?"

Marnie stood back looking down on her sleeping friend.  "Nah, that's just how she is when she's tired." She reached around to gather J.J.'s hair in both hands, then she twisted it over one shoulder to get it out of the way. "When we were little," She remarked as she worked with the braid, "She had this tree house in her back yard, and she would fall asleep up there and make her folks have to come find her. If I was over to their house visiting, I would leave her up there, and I could tell them where she was. But if I wasn't, like I had gone home or something, they were on their own until it occurred to them that might be where she was. J. could never hear them calling her if she was completely under."

Both girls straightened J.J.'s gown, making sure that it was pulled it all the way down over her legs.

"You can come over here now." Marnie called to Teddy who had been sent to the other side of the room until they had J.J. together. "She's ready."

He came over and bent over J.J., getting into position to lift her from the wheelchair.

"And don't be trying to cop any cheap feels either." Marnie warned. "I've got my eyes on you. Watch your hands around her butt."

Teddy shook his head and smiled. "You girls always think somebody's on the make. I don't have to even get near her fanny."  He said. "Not all us guys are perverts. And anyway, a sleeping girl is not my style. I like a little more fight, a bit more challenge when I'm trying to cop a feel."

Madison popped him lightly on the arm. "Just pick the girl up and get it over with so we can get you out of here before we all get caught. The scandal would kill our mothers, what with their old friends being here this weekend and all."

Dee pulled the covers back on the bed.

Teddy bent down and gently lifted J.J. from the chair. Marnie wheeled it out of the way, and he placed her on the bed. She winced just a little in her sleep as Dee adjusted the pillows she had arranged to put under her injured ankle to keep it elevated.

"I think somebody's coming." Dakota whispered anxiously from her spot near the closed door where she had been on sentry duty. "Get Teddy out of here!"

Madison snatched him by the arm and started pulling him toward the bathroom.

He pulled back. "Hold on! Hold on!" He cried in a hushed voice.

He turned and went back over to the bed. Then he bent down and kissed J.J. quickly on the cheek before Madison could snatch him by the arm again. "Come on, you idiot!" She scolded him. "You're going to get caught!"

"She owed me that!" He explained as she punched him in the arm before pushing him toward the bathroom. "And I'm getting tired of you physically abusing me, Maddy! You've been beating on me ever since we came up here."

"I am going to kick your ass all the way if you get us caught!" She warned as she pushed him into the bathroom and closed the door on him.

Marnie, standing over J.J., making sure that her covers were straight, noticed with mild satisfaction that J.J. softly smiled in her sleep when Teddy kissed her.

Dee and Madison were a blur of activity behind her as a knock sounded at the door.

"Miss Hart was down here." Miss Smythe remarked, tapping her chin with slight confusion upon being told that the Dean and her guest had taken the elevator to the second floor in search of Mr. Edwards' granddaughter. "She was in the common room with that Brookfield boy."

She had been informed of the Dean's arrival once she returned inside after seeing to the caterers for whom she was responsible, on the rear grounds of Waverly House. Leaving the housekeeper in the front hall, she went to go check the Common Room for herself. It was time for Justine to go upstairs to rest anyway.

Once she got there, however, rather than finding the two teens she had left sitting there, she instead discovered several more had taken their place, and that none of them were any of the ones she expected. With the sudden thought that there was only one place anyone could have taken Justine dressed in the manner that she was, who would be needed to get her there, and who else was on their way up there, she raced for the staircase.

After knocking a the door of #1, Stephen Edwards and the Dean were escorted inside by the girl who normally occupied the suite.

"Good evening, Denise." The Dean said in greeting to Dee. "I'd like for you to meet Mr. Edwards, this is Justine's grandfather. Is she here with you?"

"It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Edwards." Dee said as she politely offered her hand to the elderly gentleman standing slightly behind the Dean. "Yes Ma'am, J.J- Justine's here, but she's asleep. Please come in."

Inside the room, the adults found soft music playing and three girls sitting on the floor around a Monopoly game which they appeared to be quietly playing.

They introduced themselves, and Stephen greeted them all, stopping at Marnie.

"Little Marnie, I haven't seen you in ages." He remarked. "Not since you were a very small girl. However, I hear of you all the time from Jennifer and Justine. I feel like you might as well be my grandchild too. I guess I'll have the company of both my granddaughters next week since you'll be coming to stay with me at Briarwood with Justine and her mother."

Marnie's immediate thought was, "Nobody told me anything about that." as dread filled her heart at the idea of an entire week with Jennifer Hart's father. That was like being with the Duchess for a week to the second power. But she managed to politely answer, "I suppose you will, Sir. It's good to see you again." while shaking his hand and fighting the strong desire to wake J.J. the hell up and find out what in the world he was talking about.

Stephen and the Dean walked over to J.J.'s bed where she was still deeply asleep.

"She's just like her mother, Stephen." The Dean whispered in an effort to not wake her as she looked down on the sleeping girl, while at the same time greatly admiring her pretty features.

"Not with her eyes open." Stephen countered. "And not when she's in movement. You'll have to see her when she's awake. She sleeps very soundly, so it will be a while before she comes to again."

Just then, the door to the room opened and Miss Smythe hurried in with a distressed look on her face. She quickly assessed the situation, noticing that the girls inside seemed to have everything under control, almost too much so, and that J.J. was there, asleep, and in the bed. Then she relaxed.

"I just came up to check on the girls." She explained with a small nervous laugh. "I just wanted to make sure that Miss Hart was comfortable."

"She's fine." Stephen said. "Thank you for taking such good care of her. I'm sorry she's been such a bother to you with her going off and getting hurt as she did. I'm sure that her mother has reprimanded her soundly for having done that. Jennifer doesn't tolerate any nonsense from her."

"Thank you, Mr. Edwards. But she's really been no trouble. And it's just so amazing how much she resembles her mother."

The Dean looked up at Stephen and her expression conveyed her satisfaction at having been seconded on J.J.'s resemblance to her mother. Stephen silently shook his head in disagreement.

All the time she was talking, in the back of Miss Smythe's mind, she was wondering what those girls had done with that boy. She was sure he had to have been the one to lift that girl from that wheelchair and into that bed. J.J. Hart was as tall or perhaps even a bit taller than the other girls in that room and she would have been much to unwieldy for them to handle, even as a group.

"We'd better go and leave these children to themselves." The Dean advised. "I guess our meeting, Justine's and mine, will have to wait until breakfast in the morning. I'll be taking breakfast here, so we'll all be together then."

When the door closed behind the adults, the remaining young occupants of the room went limp as noodles with relief.

"Damn, that was close." Marnie quietly exclaimed. "My heart is really getting a workout this weekend fooling around with J.J. and her people. That was her mother's father."

"I thought so," Dee remarked. "Both of them had me feeling the same degree of fear factor."

"That's the ticket!" Marnie suddenly exclaimed, pointing at Dee. "Fear factor. That's exactly what J.J.'s mother brings out in me. I never could put it into words, but that's it exactly. Nobody in the world can do it to me like she does. I guess you didn't flunk Lit class, did you?"

Dee grinned. "Nope, I can read, write, and I can draw. Just can't count, and science sucks big time. Hey Marnie, did you notice Mrs. Hart's suit when she was up here? Harve' Benard?"

Marnie smiled broadly. "Okay, so now you see why we call J.J.'s mother the Duchess. She's sharp like that all the time, head to toe, even when she's just chillin' out. You're alright with me, girl." She gave Dee a high five. "Can recognize who strikes fear in the hearts of men and knows a good suit by designer when you see one. You've got your priorities straight as far as I can see. The hell with math and science. They do suck. 

"I second all of that that." Dakota added, high-fiving both Dee and Marnie. "You do not need math and science to know who designed what and if it looks good or not."

Madison got up and went to the bathroom door to let Teddy know that the coast was clear.

But the bathroom was empty and after checking the other bedroom, she discovered that he was no where to be found.

-Continue on to Saturday Night-

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