WARNING: This is a slighty darker tale dealing, somewhat graphically in places, with current teenage sexual issues. If you are offended by such material, please do not continue to read. Marie

J.J. Hart was on her fifth lap around the track. She had a rhythm going and her stride felt long and strong. Counting in her head as she always did when running, she had tuned out everything around her as she breezed easily past the others running on the track with her. Breathing evenly, she reveled in the precision movement of her body as it worked in tune with her mind. The sun was shining, the air was dry and cool. This was really turning into one good workout. Her hope was for a very good season this school year.

Halfway through that fifth lap, a voice broke her concentration, "Hey J.J.! Wait up!"

It was Phylicia Diaz aka Philly, her teammate and a good friend, so nicknamed because of her long thin racer's legs. J.J. slowed to drop back and run abreast of her.

"You are one hard somebody to catch." Philly puffed, happy that J.J. had slowed her pace. "I'm quick but, as much as it pains me to admit it, you are much quicker."

"By design." grinned J.J. "What's up?"

"I've got something to tell you, and I'm only telling you this for two reasons. One, because I know that you can keep a secret. Nobody knows about this outside of a select few and we know who we are. We all thought that we needed to let you in on it. Two, it involves Tommy and I know that you two are good friends. That's the main reason that we thought that you should know."

"You're right." J.J. answered, looking to Philly as they dropped down into a trot. "If it involves Tommy, then it involves me. I would've been really upset to find out later that you all left me on the outside of it. So go."
 

Jonathan Hart was at his desk looking over legal documents for that merger in the works in D.C. He was going to have to fly out next weekend. He hated when his work spilled over into the end of the week and into his time with his wife and daughter, but this would have to be taken care of by him personally.

Maybe J.J. would want to fly up with him on that Friday after school was out. That would allow her mother some time to herself for a couple of days and give J.J. some flight time toward her license requirements. It immediately floated into his head, as it always did when the subject arose, that Jennifer was going to have both their heads on a stick when she found out about J.J.'s flying. He had been teaching her since she was twelve and now, at fifteen, she was quite good. He pushed the thought of Jennifer's reaction to the back of his mind which was where he tried to keep it most of the time.

He jotted down a note to himself to call and arrange for Jennifer to go to that spa that she had been talking about. She could spend an entire two days being pampered without worrying about having to get back home to the two of them. After he completed his business in the capitol, he and J.J. could go on to Maryland to visit with her grandfather, Stephen Edwards and that racehorse of hers that he was boarding on his estate in Hillhaven. They would be back in LA on Sunday night, and J.J. would be in school the first thing on Monday morning, as he knew that Jennifer would adamantly insist upon her being. When it came to J.J.'s education, Jennifer did not play around.

"Mr. Hart, Mrs. Steele would like to see you for a few minutes if you have the time." Came his secretary’s voice over the intercom.

"Sure" He answered.

He always had time for Brenda Steele. She was a senior executive accountant  for Hart Industries. Her son was Tommy Steele, a good friend of J.J.’s and a boy to whom he had taken a great liking. She was raising him on her own, and as far as he was concerned, she had done an excellent job with her son. Over the six years that Tommy and J.J. had known each other, Tommy had become almost like a son to him.

Brenda Steele entered the office looking highly distressed. He stood to greet her. "Come on in. Have a seat." He walked around the desk to take her hand and usher her to the chair on the other side of the desk. He took the one next to hers on the same side.

"What’s the matter?" He asked. "You look troubled."

"I am, Mr. Hart. I really am. I hate to bother you with this. It’s a personal matter really, but I just don’t know who else I can turn to with this."

He could see that she looked as if she wanted to cry. Brenda, a total professional, was efficient and businesslike in the completion of her duties. She rarely became ruffled about anything. In fact, she was known as 'The Voice of Reason' down in Accounting and complex problems were usually directed to her for solutions.

Genuinely unnerved by her obvious upset, he handed her a tissue from the box on his desk. "What seems to be the problem?" He asked.

"It’s Tommy." She said. "Last night I got that call that every mother of a teenage son hopes that she never gets. The mother of a girl at his school called our house. She says that her daughter is pregnant and that the girl claims that Tommy is the father."

She dabbed at her eyes as Jonathan rubbed at his brow. That was a call that a substitute father did not want to hear about his almost-son. Immediately, his concern was for Tommy’s good name and the validity of his alleged culpability.

"What has Tommy said about all of this?" He asked.

"I haven’t said anything to him about it yet, Mr. Hart. Lately, Tommy has been sticking pretty close to home. After that incident at the ball last June with Mrs. Hart getting hurt, I've noticed that the only girl he’s really spent any time with was your J.J., and to be honest with you, I kind of get nervous about the two of them of them at times. But, they have always been good friends. Mr. Hart, I would never have expected anything like this out of him. I’ve talked with him about abstinence and about protecting himself. He told me that you had talked with him about those things also. To my knowledge, he hasn’t been dating anyone seriously. He’s a good boy, Mr. Hart. You’ve helped see to that." She began to cry softly into the tissue. "He’s only sixteen."

Jonathan reached out to console her, but he was hurting and confused himself. He needed to get to Tommy or to J.J. and find out first hand what was actually going on at that school.

"Brenda." He said more calmly than he actually felt. "Let me get with Tommy and talk to him. I’ll come over to the house this evening. Don’t say anything to him about my coming. I’ll get to the bottom of this and then whatever the outcome, we’ll take it from there."

Brenda Steele slowly rose from her chair. As always, she felt indebted to her boss, and so grateful that the powers that be had sent him into her and her son’s lives. If anyone could make the light shine at the end of this dark tunnel, it would be Jonathan Hart.

"Mr. Hart, I’ll have him there. And…and I can’t thank you enough for all that you do for Tommy, for all that you’ve done for both of us." She turned back to face him and Jonathan could see the anger and hurt in her eyes. "I cannot believe that this boy has screwed up his life like this."

Jonathan rose also. He took her hands in his.

"Don’t condemn him yet. We don’t have all the facts. I believe in Tommy; I always have."

He walked her to the door and saw her out.

His mind was beginning to race in the way that it did when it was shifting into formulating a plan of action. He went over to his couch and sank down on it deep in thought and despair. With all the methods readily available to these kids to keep this from happening, from all the information these kids got on protecting themselves, how were these things still occurring with such regularity? And to such young kids, to such good kids…Tommy was going to get torn a new one as soon as he got to their house if he didn't have a good explanation...

From the table in front of him a picture of J.J. on horseback smiled back at him. Her mother had taken it last month at the ranch. She looked so much like her mother- increasingly so of late, and in more areas than just her face.

He didn't consider himself a particularly religious man, but he did know how to pray when he felt the need to do so. He closed his eyes and sent up a small one for his own precious girl's safe deliverance to womanhood without having to be faced with this type of pitfall in her life. Right behind that first prayer, he sent another of thanks for Jennifer. She had been firmly instilling strong values in J.J. from the start, and he was certain that they were being called into play daily as she was growing older and becoming so attractive. He had often chided Jennifer about being so candid and straightforward with J.J. about the biology behind sex, love, and boys, but maybe she was on the right track all along. Even though J.J. was occasionally mischievous, this was the one area in which they had never had a moment’s trouble with her.
 
 

Having parked farther up the street than usual, Jennifer Hart checked the rear view mirror as she sat waiting for her daughter to come out of the school building. Two other girls stood talking, not too far from her car . She recognized them as two of J.J.'s friends, Charmaine and Philly. Remembering a call that she needed to make, she reached for the handset just as one of the girls said to the other: "They say that Tommy was screwing her last spring, but I didn’t know that they were still getting together."

"Yeah," the other girl said. "It seems strange that she wouldn’t have said anything to us about being with him. She tells about everybody else that she’s been sleeping with."

"But J.J.-"

"Shhh! Wait!" The other girl cut her off. "I think this is J.J’s mother’s car." She stepped back and peeked at the front plate. "Yep, '2 Harts'; and that's her mother. Let’s go down there."

The two girls moved on, both cutting their eyes to the inside of the car as they walked away. Jennifer continued to pretend to be on the phone, looking in the other direction as she had been from the time that the mention of Tommy having sex with someone came from the first girl’s mouth.

Who in the world was Tommy having sex with? Obviously it was somebody who had been telling about everybody else with whom they had been. But J.J.-  J.J. did what?

She and J.J., she always thought, had an open line of communication in this area. J.J. would surely have told her if she was having sex. Wouldn't she? Why wouldn’t J.J. tell her if she was having sex? What in the world was she using for birth control if she was having sex? Kate, their doctor, wouldn’t put her on the pill at fifteen without letting her mother know. Those girls couldn’t have been talking about J.J… But then J.J. and Tommy had been very, very chummy of late…

Little Miss Hart had some fast explaining to do when she brought her hips to that car.

J.J. finally came out of the building. She was walking with, of all people, Tommy Steele. Jennifer thought that if she were to look down, she would have been able to see her own heart beating through her blouse; her breathing was coming so fast and her heart was pumping just that hard. Instead, she was watching the two teenagers in the rearview mirror. They stopped at the end of the walkway to talk briefly.

Two very handsome children they were getting to be indeed, she observed. J.J. was becoming tall, willowy, and more feminine in her overall carriage. All of that auburn hair was still kept pulled up into that perpetual lush ponytail. Tommy was getting to be more muscular and rugged-looking. Jennifer couldn’t help but notice his resemblance to her old friend, Tom, a  handsome actor who played a private investigator in a popular detective series some years ago. Tommy and her actor friend both had deep dimples, dark features and hazel colored eyes.

Tommy and J.J. both preferred jeans and boots, although J.J. was beginning to lean toward a more tailored look with hers. They both gave the appearance of being athletic people who spent most of their time outdoors, which was actually true of both of them. It was a constant struggle trying to get J.J. to understand that the sun was not a friend to her fair, freckled skin. She had never told J.J. of her own past skin troubles related to sun exposure. Aside from not wanting to frighten her child, she had been rather afraid for herself. The condition first appeared when J.J. was twelve, which wasn't a good time psychologically for her to have health problems; she had lost her own mother at twelve. Fortunately, it had been caught in time, and now she was much more careful, and more aware of what J.J. needed to do to protect herself from the same problems.

She and Tommy appeared to be very concerned about something and before parting they each squeezed the hand of the other for a brief moment before walking away. Jennifer had witnessed them complete that single simple gesture on a few occasions of late.

J.J. came to the car and slid in greeting her mother quietly. She leaned over and delivered her customary kiss to the cheek, but said nothing past the first "Hello." Jennifer understood that she was shut out for the time being; the girl was like her father in that. They both went into themselves when there was something weighing heavily on their minds.

She would allow Justine Jennifer Hart the quiet ride home, but before the evening was out, some little body was going to be telling her something.
 
 

When the knock came to her door, J.J. was lying across her bed with Third curled up next to her as she read her assigned chapter for Art History class. She got up to answer it, and upon opening the door, she found her mother standing there. She stood back and watched as 'The Duchess' entered, silently crossed the room and took a seat in the chair by the window. When she gestured to the hassock, J.J. realized that she was being paid a royal visit and her mind immediately went to work attempting to figure out what she could have done to merit this visit from on high.

To her knowledge, she had been being very, very good of late. With her schoolwork, and other activities, she really hadn't had the time to be anything else. Aside from the fresh harvest in the hip pocket of her jeans gathered from the lunchtime poker game, there wasn't anything else that she could think of that would merit her mother being there in an official capacity.

As she crossed the room to take her seat on the hassock, the dog jumped down and crawled underneath the bed.

"He must know something is up." J.J. thought to herself. Under normal circumstances, Third would try to get into her mother’s lap whenever she sat down anywhere.

"What is going on with you?" Was the immediate question asked of her when she was seated and at attention.

J.J. was honestly confused. "I don’t know what you mean."

"I mean why were you so quiet in the car coming home?" Her mother's voice was calm, but deliberate. "Why didn’t you have anything to say at dinner tonight? You are never this quiet with me unless you’re in trouble."

Relieved at not being called on the carpet for any specific transgression, J.J. exhaled and answered, "I just have some things on my mind, that’s all. It’s not anything bad about me or anything like that."

"Then what is it?"

Now that was unusual. Why was her mother pressing her like that? Confrontational was not her style at all. Normally she waited for her to initiate a discussion when she sensed trouble.

"It’s nothing, Mom. I can handle it."

Her mother continued to watch her face intently. J.J. knew that there was something more behind this. She waited for the other shoe to fall. 

It did.

"If you were having sex, J.J., would you tell me?"

The only thing that kept J.J. from falling backward onto the floor as if she had been shot in the chest was the fact that she was balanced on the hassock by straddling it with her feet firmly planted on either side. Her mother’s face said that she was not playing and that something had spooked her into asking that question. Without giving her response a thought, the words spilled candidly from J.J.’s mouth.

"I wouldn’t be screwing anybody unless I was on the pill, and I can’t get the pill from Doctor Kendall without your consent. So yeah, I would have to tell you, wouldn’t I? I’m not doing that Free Clinic thing. I want somebody to give me some kind of warranty on mine."

"So you’re not having sex?"

"Of course not, Mom! I’m always here at home, somewhere with you or Daddy, or at school. When do I have time to have sex? Or a life, for that matter?" It wasn't the nature of the conversation that was a surprise; it was just the fact that her mother thought that she would do that without talking to her first. "What brought this on?"

Jennifer, relieved, had to laugh at J.J.’s shocked and terrified little face. She sat back in the chair.

"I’m sorry, Cherie. I just overhead an interesting conversation outside of your school today while I was waiting for you, your name came up, and I guess that I rushed to conclusions. I should have known better."

J.J. relaxed and had to smile; she loved her mother's laugh. "Yes, you should have." 

Jennifer sat forward again to ask, "But now that I'm here, can you share with your worrywart mother what is bothering you?"

J.J. was relieved, but highly amused at the same time. So, there was something that could take her unflappable mother through changes; her daughter having unprotected sex. Considering the story that she had gotten earlier in the day from Philly, she didn’t blame her.

"I promised that I wouldn’t say anything right now, Mom, but it is deep. As soon as I can, I’ll tell you about it. I will say  this to you, though: I just can’t believe the lengths that some people will go to. "

Jennifer patted J.J.’s cheek and stood. "I'm sorry if I scared you; I just worry about you. Don’t let the problem get too heavy, J.J. Okay?"

"No need to worry about me in that area, Mama. I'm not ready. About the problem, I’ll try not to let it get too heavy, but this one started out being not too light."
 
 
 

Jonathan was late getting home and Jennifer had been waiting downstairs for him. He had called earlier to say that he had to make a stop on his way home, but at the time he had not elaborated upon what he had to do.

When he came through the door, she was seated on the couch in the great room. He came in setting his briefcase down and loosening his tie.

"Good evening, Darling." She said to him, noticing the tired, strained expression on his face.

He sat down next to her and removed the tie and his suit jacket, which he draped across the side chair. He kissed her and then leaned back into the cushions, laying his head back and sighing deeply.

"What’s wrong?" She asked.

"Have you talked to J.J. today?" He asked. "She say anything about Tommy?"

"I talked to her, but not about Tommy. But, she did have something on her mind that she said that she couldn’t talk to me about. She said that she made a promise that she wouldn’t talk about it. As usual, she said that she thought that she could handle it. Is something wrong with Tommy?"

"If it’s what it seems to be, no. All of his body parts are in proper working order. It’s his life that’s a mess."

"You’re talking in circles, Jonathan. What’s wrong with Tommy?"

"J.J. didn’t say anything to you?" He asked again.

"No. I told you, she said that she couldn’t and I didn’t press her. You know how she is."

"Damn." He said shaking his head. "She was going to be my next step. Some girl at their school says that Tommy has gotten her pregnant. I went by the house to talk to him when I left work tonight and he’s shut down too. He admitted to sleeping with her, but that was as far as he would go. I get the feeling that there’s something more to this story, and that he’s not telling it all. I was hoping that J.J. could shed some light on it, and I could try to start putting some of the pieces together. I need to make sense of some of this."

"Poor Brenda." Sighed Jennifer. "She’s worked so hard raising that boy by herself. I know she’s got to be a mess behind this."

"I get the feeling it's not his baby, Jennifer."

"Then why doesn’t he just say so if it isn’t. Why would he take the blame if he didn’t do it? And if he admits to sleeping with her, how can you be so sure that it isn’t his baby? You're very close to this, Jonathan. Don't take sides because he's your boy. Maybe you just don't want to believe it."

"Jennifer, I’ve known that kid since he was eleven years old. He’s been in my hip pocket for all of that time. I‘ve talked to him over and over about girls and about being responsible. I just can’t believe that he would slip up like that."

She was watching him as he spoke and she knew that his pain for that boy was genuine. In the years that Tommy had been in their lives and in and out of their home, she knew that Jonathan had grown very attached to him, and in turn Tommy adored Jonathan. They had formed a very close bond and she enjoyed watching their interactions, although she remained largely out of that picture. She was fond of Tommy, but that was their world. Hers held one child, Justine Hart. That one alone was hers. He rubbed at his eyes and she could see his hurt in them.

"Jonathan, these are children doing grown-up things." She explained. "We live in a rough world for kids to be trying to grow up in. They see the sexual images everywhere, they're being told to do it in the music they listen to, the television programs that they watch; the temptation is everywhere and kids this age are impulsive. They're doing adult things, but their brains are not functioning like adult brains. They do what the moment calls for whether the time is right or not, and yes, sometimes that gets them in trouble."

He reached out and stroked her hair thinking of how smart she was, about everything, it seemed. It was no wonder that J.J. was such a scholar.

"Where’s my kid?" He asked.

"Upstairs with her homework." She answered. "She was bothered about something when I was talking with her, and now that you've told me this, that was probably what it was about. Right before she came to the car when I picked her up from school, I saw her talking with Tommy."

"Jennifer, I know that I’ve given you a hard way to go at times about J.J. and your "talks". I take it all back. Keep talking. This thing with Tommy is getting me. I don’t know if I could take it if the girl in this situation with Tommy was J.J. We both know that as close as the two of them are, it could very well be."

"Jonathan, you can't worry yourself like that about J.J. She will have sex when she's ready. Not a minute before. She has her own mind, and she says that she's no where near ready for that. When she does decide to do it, there won’t be anything that you or I will be able to do to change that. The only comfort that I take is that I have tried to do all that I can to let her know her options and how to take care of herself."

"Do you think if I went up there and asked her about Tommy, she would say anything to me about it?" He asked. He already knew the answer, but he needed to hear it aloud. It came as he thought that it would:

"Not if she promised Tommy that she wouldn’t."

"Well," He said pulling himself up and then holding his hand out to her. "I think that we’re going to have to go up and try to convince our daughter that there are times that some promises might need to be broken."

Jennifer followed not saying anything, but hoping that Jonathan wasn’t going to turn the Hart obstinacy into a full-fledged hostile stand-off. J.J. Hart was genetically stubborn: a gene from each parent.
 

"Daddy, I am not going to tell you what he told me; I don’t care how many times you ask me. He trusts me to keep it to myself for now."

J.J. sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed as her parents sat on either side. She held her hands in her lap and stared down at them as she spoke. Jennifer could sense that she was nervous, but resolute in her decision. She could also sense that Jonathan was becoming angry with his child.

"I’m sorry. I just can’t discuss it with you two right now."

Jonathan got up from the bed and paced the length of the bedroom with his hands in his pockets before turning back to face his brick wall of a child on the bed.

"J.J., Tommy’s reputation is on the line. A good name takes a lifetime to achieve, and just a moment to lose. Let me ask you something. Do you think that he could be the father of this baby? A blood test will tell it anyway, so what’s the problem with just giving me your opinion of the situation now?"

Silent for a moment, J.J. finally looked up first to her mother and then turned to her father, as if she were assessing them. Then she spoke directly to him.

"Daddy, if I say anything, one of you will read into it. You’re both smart like that. I know it, and you two know what you're doing, so I’m leaving that alone. I told Tommy that I wouldn’t discuss it and I won’t- not even with you and my mother."

"J.J." Jennifer said quietly, attempting to get her to see reason. "Some promises aren’t healthy to keep."

"But they’re still promises, Mom." 

J.J. looked into her eyes with Jonathan's directness. It was such a disturbing stare that it was almost physically painful to witness, and she had to look away from her to Jonathan. 

He stood at the end of the bed and she could see the redness moving from his neck into his face as he ran a hand through his hair. She quickly got up from the bed going to him.

"Don’t." she whispered to him just as he was about to explode. "She’ll back up even more. Come on." She tugged gently at his arm.

He knew that she was right. He would get absolutely nowhere with J.J. if he lost his temper. Swallowing his words,  he moved toward the door with his wife. He stopped before leaving and turned to J.J. still seated on the bed looking down again at her hands in her lap .

"I hope that you and Tommy know what you’re doing. I’m willing to help, but I can’t do anything if I don’t have anything to go on."

"I know it, Daddy." She answered softly.

J.J. crept out of her room into the dark hallway. She took the rear loft stairs down to the first floor and went through the great room and the foyer to the front door. She was glad that she left her skates on the bench outside. That cubby door under the front stairs had a bad squeak and was sure to wake one of them in that master bedroom.

Taking the lock off so that she could get back in, she eased the front door open and then closed it just as gently behind her. It took her just seconds to strap the skates on and to stick the gate remote down into one of her socks before pushing off and gliding silently, swiftly for the front gate holding the tail of her long white nightgown in her hand.
 
 

Jennifer watched from her window as the lithe figure in white moved silently down the driveway into the night. She had still been lying awake on Jonathan’s chest when she saw the indicator on the phone console suddenly light up for J.J.’s line. On a hunch, she had gingerly lifted herself from his sleeping form, gone to the bedroom door and cracked it just enough to see J.J. slip out of her room to take the back hall. She could hear her stealthy descent on the back stairs. 

Moving through the dark first floor like a cat, J.J. had not looked up to see her as she stood at the second floor railing looking down on her, watching her leave.

Peering behind her at the glowing red digital numbers on Jonathan’s alarm clock, Jennifer calculated the amount of time it should take for her daughter to get down to that gate, meet her guest, and make it back to this end of the estate. That electronic wizard, she knew, had disarmed the motion detectors on the alarm system before leaving out. Jonathan shared entirely too much with her. J.J. took what he showed her electronically and ran wild with it. 

A minute longer than it should take, and she was getting into the car and going down there herself. She prayed that Jonathan remained snoring softly over there long enough for that little imp to make it back in time.

He rolled over, her heart pushed its way into her throat, but he did not wake. Fortunately, he had rolled over to the other side rather than over to hers where he surely would have come to upon realizing that she was no longer in bed with him.

"I am going to wring her neck." Jennifer silently vowed, turning back to the window.

Shortly the white nightgown and another larger, darker figure could be seen walking quickly back toward the house. They veered off the main driveway and headed toward the guesthouse.

Once again, Jennifer’s heart speeded up. Placing her hand protectively to her chest, she thought to herself, "I’m going to have a massive coronary right here, right now. This girl going to kill me before I can even get the opportunity to kill her."

But then the lone figure in white appeared again, this time running like lightning back toward the main house. Jennifer tiptoed across the floor, left her room, and slipped across the hall into J.J.’s dark bedroom.
 
 
 

J.J. slowly retraced her movements up the same stairs to the second floor and around from the loft into the hall. She eased down to her room. Slowly opening the door, she peered down to the other side of the hall to her parents’ closed bedroom doors and smiled with relief. Pushing up her door behind her, she leaned into it with her back trying to catch her breath. When it was coming more like normal, she slid into the bed and pulled up the covers. As she settled in, she suddenly realized that there was something heavy on top of the comforter keeping her from scrunching it up around her body the way that she liked it. About that same time she recognized a faint, but intimately familiar expensive floral scent on the air.

With "I am so freaking dead." playing through her mind, she reached behind her for the lamp cord.

The soft light illuminated the room, and turning back to her original position, she came face to face with her mother, lying propped up on one elbow on the pillows on the other side of the bed.

She pressed her face into her own pillows.
 

After a couple of moments of allowing her to stew, Jennifer tapped J.J.’s back. "You might want to begin explaining right about now." She advised. "Start with who’s in the guest house."

"Can I go and pee first?"

"Be my guest." Her mother graciously allowed, one eyebrow raised. "I'll wait."

J.J. returned from the bathroom shortly and got back into the bed to face her mother who was still lying there in the same position.

"It’s Tommy." She began. "His mother let him go to Deon's to pick up something and she told him to be back by a certain time. He missed his curfew. Mrs. Steele is so mad at him about everything that she wouldn’t let him back in the house because of it. He didn’t have anywhere else to go. He was going to just sleep on their front porch, but it gets cold at night. I told him to come here and I would put him up in the guest house."

"Why didn’t you just come and  tell us that?"

J.J. raised her lowered head to look at her mother. She must not be too angry; her eyes had not changed colors.

"He didn’t want to come at first. He called me and he just called to talk. He told me what happened with his mother and I told him to come here. He was scared that you would find out and be mad. He’s scared of you."

"As he should be at this time of the night." interjected Jennifer.

 "I talked him into it. I didn't tell you because I didn’t want to wake you guys up, and….and I was afraid that you would say "no" too in light of everything else. If I didn't ask you, you couldn't say "no". Tommy needed somebody and somewhere to go, Mom."

"Where is the motorcycle?"

"We left it down by the bridge so that the motor wouldn’t wake you and Daddy up. Although, I can see now that it didn’t work- not in your case anyway."

From her position over her, Jennifer could see down the front of J.J.'s nightgown. The sight was distracting. She reached out and pulled up on it.

"Why were you out there in your nightgown? Why didn’t you at least put your robe on- not that that’s an issue- you shouldn’t have been out there period. But you don’t go around boys in your nightgown, J.J."

"That terry cloth robe would have messed with my aerodynamics and besides, it was just Tommy, Mom."

"He’s still a boy, J.J."

"Not that kind of a boy. We’re just friends."

Jennifer looked over at the girl who was now looking at her with slightly confused eyes. It was unbelievable. She was such an innocent; it was frightening. "You don’t have a clue, do you?"

"About what? It was just Tommy."

"About you." Jennifer yanked the covers from J.J.’s body. Her uncovered legs were long, smooth, and shapely. "And all of this." She gestured toward J.J.’s entire length with her free hand.

"You cannot be doing the things that you do with that face and that body! You’re not a baby any more. Tommy doesn't see you like he did when you were ten. J.J., at twelve he was kissing you!" 

Jennifer dropped her head in frustration. "What the hell am I going to do with you?"

"Love me?" J.J. suggested. Then she asked tentatively, "Are you going to punish me?"

Jennifer got up from the bed. As technically savvy as J.J. was, she really had no real awareness of or concern about  her sexual impact on the boys. In J.J.’s opinion, their carnal impulses were their problem and she had nothing to do with setting them off. As far as she was concerned, if she wasn’t intentionally sending out signals, there was nothing to be read by the opposite sex into anything that she did. It unnerved her that her daughter was shaping up to be completely uninhibited when it came to her body.

And she had such a good heart. It was so extremely fortunate that the girl was nobody's dope.

Jennifer could only run her hands through her own hair as she moved around the bed. She stopped at the door before opening it to leave, pointing a finger at J.J. who was lying in the bed, still watching her with some trepidation. She delivered her final instructions:

"Set that clock, and get up early. Call out there, do not go out there, and have him out of that guesthouse before your father leaves for work. If you two get caught by Jonathan Hart, I have no knowledge of any of this. In fact, I won't even know either of you."

"You’re the best, Mama." J.J. smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Jennifer answered as she left the room, waving her hand. "Whatever."

J.J. set the clock as instructed, and turned off the light. 

Before drifting off, she calculated that she must have lost at least three years off her life in those last thirty minutes of fooling around trying to save Tommy's skin. She went to sleep thinking of how much she loved her fascinating and sometimes frightening mother- the mother she could never determine from which direction she was going to come in a situation. This one had been no exception.
 
 

Marnie Benson was digging feverishly in her cluttered locker for her history notebook. The bell rang, and she cursed it. She was getting nervous about being late as she was already working on a two-day detention for her lack of promptness to her classes. Cursing about not being able to find that notebook, she was tapped on the shoulder from behind.

"Just a second." She said without looking back. "I gotta find this damned book. The word is that bitch, Ms. Calvin,  is doing a notebook check  in history today, and she's not giving me a zero. That cow doesn't like me and she's looking for a reason. I did my work and it's in here somewhere. I just gotta find it. Hold on."

She was tapped again.

"What, dammit?"

Annoyed, she started to look back, but her eyes first went to the floor where she spotted the narrow olive green Prada pump slightly behind her red Nine West mule. There was only one foot like that one.

Her shoulders slumped forward and she leaned into the locker in despair and embarrassment. Finally turning around, her face beet red, she sheepishly greeted her tapper,.

 "Hey, Mrs. Hart. I'm so sorry about that. I didn't know that it was you."

"That much was apparent, Marnie. You've always had a mouth like a loading dock foreman. Where is J.J.?"

"She should be in her class."

Marnie was startled as Mrs. Hart suddenly placed one hand against the locker just above her left shoulder and leaned in close pinning her, face to face,  back against the open door. Marnie, much shorter than her friend's mother, felt like a freshman being hemmed up by a senior in the restroom on Freshman Friday.

Looking her in the eye, the woman warned, "Don't play with me, Marnie; I know where she should be. Her counselor tipped me off about her skipping. You know that I know her schedule. I've already been to the room and she's not there. You also know that I've done my research; she's missed her first class and now her second. Where is she?"

Marnie knew that it was over. The Duchess was serious; her brown eyes had gone grayish, which meant that the Good Ship J.J. was listing and sinking fast. Hating to do so, but considering her own immediate need for self-preservation, Marnie quickly ratted her out, "She's across the street at the coffee house with Tommy. They said that they had to talk. Really, Mrs. Hart," She pleaded. "J. never skips class. Tommy was having some kind of a problem and she just went to help him out with it."

"She needs to help herself out at this point." Jennifer said standing upright again, giving the impression that she was starting to walk off.

Marnie turned back into the locker and slowly reached up to the top shelf. Just as she grasped the item she sought, to pull it out, a hand reached in, covering hers.

"You don't want to do that." Said the voice behind her. "Just close the locker door and go to class."

"I'm going to get a zero, Mrs. Hart, if I don't have my notebook." She said without turning around. The hand still rested on top of hers which was resting on her cell phone.

"Take the zero, Marnie. It will be a much more pleasant experience than the one that you'll have if I find out that you're attempting to contact your friend to let her know that her mother is looking for her. Let the phone go and take yourself to class."

"Yes Ma'am."

Marnie closed the locker door and quickly made her way down the hall, praying all the while for the soon-to-be dearly departed soul of her best friend, J.J. Hart.
 

"Why don't you just tell your mother and my father what happened?" J.J. asked Tommy who was seated across from her in the booth. He sat with his back against the wall, one booted foot on the seat cushion. "Daddy said that he wants to help, but he can't if you won't talk to him."

"I wanted to tell your Dad everything last night, and I almost did. He scared the crap out of me showing up at the house like that."

"How do you think I felt when I got back last night after I let you in the guesthouse? I get in the bed thinking that I'd made out like a bandit only to find my mother in my bed waiting for me."

"I wish I coulda seen that." Tommy grinned, that image momentarily lifting him out of his funk. "Talk about your Kodak moment!"

"That wasn't funny, Tommy! You know that my bladder is weak from fooling with my mother all these years. And getting back to the point, if you-"

"I will, J., but-"

Both were startled into silence by the abrupt appearance of J.J.'s mother looming over the booth. They stared up at her, their faces reflecting the sudden sheer  panic they felt.

"Go to school, Tommy." Jennifer directed, her focus on her daughter.

Without a word, Tommy slid from the booth, pulled out his backpack and headed for the door.

"How much is the bill?"

"About six dollars, but she hasn't brought it yet." J.J. answered, her voice quivering.

Jennifer turned and went to the counter where she asked the cashier, "Who's the manager here?"

"He's not in yet, Ma'am." The woman answered.

Sliding her business card across the counter along with a ten dollar bill, Jennifer informed her, "The money is to cover the bill for that booth right there." 

She pointed to where J.J. sat petrified. "Give the change to charity. And tell the manager to call me at that number ASAP. Make sure to let him know that he should call me before I call him back. I want someone to tell me why kids are allowed to be here during the day when it's obvious that they should be across the street in school."

She turned back to face the booth where two blue eyes fearfully peered over the seat at her. 

She crooked her finger at them. "Right now." she commanded.
 

"Mom."

"Hush."

They weren't going home; they seemed to be headed toward downtown. 

That was all that J.J. could tell as her mother drove in stony silence through the streets of Los Angeles.

"Mom, please listen."

"Hush, I said."

They drove a while longer. After a bit, J.J. came to the realization that they had to be headed for the Jonathan Hart Towers and her father's office.

"Mom, wait! I'll tell you, but I won't tell Daddy."

"Oh, now you want to enter into negotiations?" Jennifer asked, not taking her eyes from the road or her foot from the accelerator. "Now that your life is passing before your eyes and you can see the white light ahead beckoning to you, you want to cooperate?"

"I know that I'm up the creek with no paddle, Mom, but I'll talk to you about it. I couldn't talk to Daddy about this. Please don't take me to him."

They pulled into the front of the Towers where Jennifer stopped the car, rather than heading into the parking structure. She turned to look at J.J. whose whole being seemed to be pleading with her to listen.

"Talk." She demanded finally. "Talk fast. Tell me why I shouldn't just deliver you and your AWOL fanny up to that top floor and leave you with your close-to-the-edge father. You are going to let Tommy Steele get you killed."

"Tommy is covering for Milini."

"Why?"

"I think that she got raped by somebody."

Jennifer started the car and headed for home.

"Do you remember that day that I had the early dismissal and you forgot to come for me?"

They were in J.J.'s room. Jennifer was in the chair and J.J. was on the floor in front of her sitting cross-legged at her feet.

"Yes. I remember." Jennifer answered. "That was they day that instead of calling to remind me to come for you, you and Tommy chose to hang out all over town together while the other kids went up to that girl's house in the hills to party."

J.J. nodded. "Well, while they were up there, Milini left from there with another boy who she really didn't know. He was some older boy and he doesn't go to our school. She had met him at the mall a couple of days before that, and she called him before they left school to tell him where they were going to be. He came to the house and met her there, and they took off together. This was before all the trouble with the police breaking up the party. Charmaine said that Milini came back a while later and when she did, her clothes and hair were messed up, like she had been fighting or something. She was all upset and stuff. Everybody was mostly in the back at the pool, but Charmaine, Philly, Britt, and Tish were in the house listening to CD's. She came in through the front and went into the hall bathroom. She wouldn't tell them what happened to her."

Wringing her hands nervously, J.J.'s  voice dropped to almost in a whisper.

"They say that she was all bloody down there. Philly and Charmaine said that they didn't go in the bathroom with Brittany and Tish to help her so they didn't actually see it. They just stood outside the bathroom door to keep watch. They said that Brittany and Tish went in, helped her get cleaned up, and that they saw... They saw the blood on her underwear and on the towels when they brought them out. They washed and dried her clothes while she stayed in Brittany's room crying. Charmaine and Philly kind of kept watch so that nobody else came around to find out about it. The girls have kept it all real quiet so not that many people know that anything actually happened. Marnie was up there at the party and as nosy as she is, she doesn't even know about it. That happened back in May and I only found out yesterday because Philly told me. She only told me because she wanted me to know that Milini was involving Tommy. It's been a secret up until now because it turns out that she's pregnant."

J.J. watched as her mother sank slowly back into the chair and closed her eyes. She was in what J.J. termed her scary beautiful mode. With her eyes closed, she couldn't read her, and she was left to wonder what was on her mind; what was she thinking about all that she had revealed to her? J.J. sat scrutinizing her until finally her eyes opened again, and she leaned down extending the open palms of her hands to her. 

"Come here." She said.

J.J. leaned forward and was relieved when her mother placed her hands on both sides of her face and kissed her forehead. "I love you." She whispered to her.

The story had frightened her. After hearing that, Jennifer was so glad that J.J. had opted out of that trip to the hills and spent her free day in the manner that she did: an early lunch and a movie with Tommy, and reading aloud to him on the school lawn while he sketched her picture. She had stayed in that area until her father came to pick her up at the usual time. Jonathan had been completely unaware that she had been out and about all day. He rarely took a thing beyond what J.J. told him, which had been the case on that day when he arrived to the school to find her sitting there on the wall all alone. She told him that school had gotten out early and that she had just waited around until the regular time to keep from inconveniencing them. He didn't ask for any details of how she had spent her time and, of course, she didn't provide any. 

Exhaling, she released J.J.'s face and sat back in the chair folding her arms to ask, "So, if Tommy was with you on that day, how does he fit into this picture with Milini?"

J.J. sighed. "According to Philly, Milini is claiming to be about three or four months pregnant, which would just about coincide with the time that all of that happened. But Tommy was having sex with her around that time too. I got all over him about it when I found out. She talks about all the guys that she's been with and I was worried about Tommy catching something or getting her pregnant. I got it out of him that he wasn't using a condom with her. He assumed that since she was having sex she was on the pill. I fussed at him about that. We've talked since then and he told me that he hasn't had sex with anybody since the day that he and I talked out on our tennis court about him being with Milini. That was back in late May or early June. I believe him."

Jennifer leaned forward again. "You give Tommy advice on his sex life?" She asked, her eyes wide with surprise. "He has a sex life?"

"He's sixteen-year-old boy, Mom and yes, we talk about everything." J.J. answered casually. "We're friends."

Jennifer sat back again, this time in in disbelief.

"J.J., I think that I might have been too old when I had you." She sighed. "Things have just changed too much."

"You were just right when you had me, Mom. You always tell me that things happen when they're supposed to happen to whom they're supposed to happen. Besides, nobody else could be J.J. Hart's mother, you and I both know that."

Jennifer was caught off guard and had to smile at that truism. A lesser woman in her place wouldn't have lasted as long.

"So why is Tommy so quick and eager to take the blame?"

"I'm not sure, but from what I gather, Milini doesn't even know the guy's real name. He had some kind of nickname. Mom, she is such a tramp. She has a book that she rates the guys that she sleeps with in. The rating system goes like this: She lists the name and then she puts stars next to their names; something like 4 stars for the bomb, you know, like excellent, 3 for good or satisfying, 2 for-"

Jennifer held up her hand to cut her off. "Okay, okay I get it. Go on." 

She didn't even want to know the names or descriptions of the categories for the last two ratings.

"Tommy told me that he felt bad for her because he contributed to her getting the bad reputation that she has by sleeping with her for fun like he did. I told him that according to her, he wasn't the only one and she made her choice to do it with him. He told me that she asked him to say that he was the father just until the heat dies down. He can't be sure that he isn't and she's afraid that her father is going to kill her. There's something more to it, but you came in the coffee shop before he could tell me. 

Milini's father is Joel Scott of Scott and Hammonds Commercial Realty. You've probably heard of him or seen his advertisements in Daddy's trade magazines. He's always trying to push his weight around up at the school. When Milini didn't make head cheerleader that time, he was all over the sponsors and the coaches like his making noise was going to make a difference. Whenever he come to the school for something, he's usually performing like that. Mil gets embarrassed by it a lot."

"I've met him." Jennifer mused aloud.

It was at a parent-teacher's conference and he was loudly berating one of the teachers to the other parents because of his daughter's poor geography grade.

J.J. continued. "This is speculation on my part, but I think that she didn't want anybody to know that she doesn't even know the guy. I hate that Tommy agreed to help her, but that's what he did. I think that she's just using him because he's so nice. She's always wanted him to be her boyfriend, and he just happens to be nice looking to boot. I also think that she asked him because he doesn't have a father to go up against her father."

"But her parents really think that he's the father. Tommy's mother is all upset. Your father is sick about it."

"I told Tommy all of that. I think he realizes the repercussions now. But, he's a just guy, Mom. He wasn't thinking about all of that at the time. He was just trying to help Milini out of a bad jam that she got herself into. He's always nice like that."

"J.J., baby, if he was having unprotected sex with her, he could be the father."

J.J. leaned forward, placing her arms on top of her mother's knees.

"I understand that. But just the same, Mom, she was around the school bragging about all the sex she was having with all these different guys. On top of that she has started harassing me because she thinks that Tommy likes me. She wanted Tommy for herself and she thought that if she gave it up to him, he would be her boyfriend, but it didn't happen like that. He just got it and kept going. Now look at the mess that she's in. 

He told me that he's given up sex for awhile. He said that he didn't want a reputation for being a hound, and then when he met someone that he really liked and that he really wanted to be with, she wouldn't want him because of his bad name.

The very next day after the incident with Milini, and with everybody getting hauled down to the police station, Milini and I got into it in the locker room because I overheard her accuse me of giving Tommy blow jobs while they were getting arrested. I didn't call her the slut that I wanted to call her. I know a couple of the boys that she gave blow jobs to under the bleachers on the field. I hear that she even did one guy on the last seat of the school bus on the way home one day.

 I just told her that I had more to offer in mind and in body than her, but that I didn't have to give Tommy or any boy anything to keep their attention. I tried to be a lady about it, but then she swung on me. I ducked and she missed me. I really did want to slug her one so badly, but I didn't. Her towel fell off and her boobs made me laugh. Mom, she didn't have anything at all. Compared to me...well."

She gestured to her own bosom which she was pushing out. Jennifer suppressed a smile at her daughter's smugness. Recalling the night before, she had to reluctantly admit to herself that J.J. did have an impressive set for a one so young.

"I just walked away from her, Mom. They told me that after I went out, she sat down on the bench and started crying. I felt kind of bad about laughing at her after they told me that. When we were arguing, I didn't know about what had happened to her. I didn't mean to make her cry. You've always told me that I tend to have an acid tongue, but she just made me so mad that I didn't take time to think about what I was saying. 

I hope Tommy isn't the father, and I'm sorry that she's jammed up like that,  but she was asking for something bad to happen to her sleeping around like that and trying to be so grown."

The entire time that she was talking, Jennifer was watching her daughter's face as she casually weaved her tale complete with all the graphic details and terminology. She completely understood why J.J. did not want to talk with her father about any of this. She would never have opened up to him this much. It would have embarrassed both of them to no end.

 While she was grateful that J.J. obviously felt comfortable enough and trusted her enough to relate it all to her, the informational overload was overwhelming. It was frightening to hear first hand what kids were being faced with on a daily basis when their parents put them on the school bus or dropped them off at the door of the school. That place was supposed to be a safe haven, but her research as a writer had told her that what happened in schools was a reflection of what was going on in society. 

And she was still not quite sure why Tommy would agree to do what he had done without first being sure that he actually was the guilty party. The story just did not seem quite finished. What happened to that girl to make her bleed like that if she was so sexually active already?

The things that these children were being exposed to, including her own....

"Mom?" J.J.'s voice brought her back from her own thoughts.

"Yes."

"This is off the subject, but does my being such good friends with Tommy ever bother you?"

Jennifer hesitated, just a second. "Not really. Not right now. I just want you to be mindful of the fact that he is a boy and you aren't. I just think that you overlook that sometimes."

"Tommy and I have been friends it seems like forever." J.J. took her hand and fingered her mother's wedding ring as she spoke. "I think that if you had met Daddy when you were little, like how we met, you would probably understand better. I bet that you two would have been the kind of friends that we are. You would have talked to Daddy about anything and not have worried about what you had on when you were around him. You would have trusted him because you were friends, like me and Tommy, like you and Daddy do now."

In her mind, Jennifer thought:  "That is exactly why I have my eye on this thing with you and Tommy." She smoothed the stray hair back from J.J.'s forehead. "And exactly why you need to stay dressed around him."

"Maybe so." Was what she said aloud to her daughter. "Just no more nightgowns outside the bedroom without a robe, okay?"

"Okay. Am I getting punished this time?"

"You should be." Jennifer said, pushing J.J.'s arms down from her knees and getting up from the chair. "You frustrate me so. You do the wrong things for all the right reasons." 

What good would it do if she did punish her? If the situation involved Tommy, none.

"J.J., don't skip class. Put your robe on over your nightgown whenever you come out of this room and you're not dressed. Don't sneak people on the grounds in the middle of the night, and..."

"Yes Ma'am?"

Jennifer stopped walking across the room and looked back to the redhead still sitting on the floor watching her.

"Don't ever stop being my sweet girl."

"I won't." J.J. said, smiling sincerely, "Listening to you has made me smart, and knowing that I'll have to deal with you keeps me strong when temptations try to get to me. I won't ever let you down."
 

"She told you all of that?" Jonathan asked, incredulous at the story and its content. "Did you ground her for skipping class?"

He was not aware of their overnight guest, and she was not about to let him in on that. J.J. and Tommy had managed to pull that off without getting caught, and as far as she was concerned that was good enough for her. Jonathan would never understand that one. Thinking back on it, she wasn't altogether sure that she understood her own reaction to it herself. There was something about Tommy and J.J. that she couldn't quite put her finger on yet, but those two were very interesting.

They were sitting outside on the patio and could see J.J. way out on the rear grounds as she and Third played with a ball.

"No. I started to, but then I thought about it; what good would that have done? Punishments are supposed to correct a behavior. Presented with  the same set of circumstances, she'd do the exact same thing. She knows that she can skip a class or two and not miss a beat. Of course, I won't have her doing it on a regular basis, but the thing of it is, she wouldn't skip on a regular basis. She's self-motivated. How do you punish somebody like that? She and Tommy are really good friends and there's no stopping that. She's has very strong convictions and she's going to act upon them when she thinks that she needs to. You have to admit yourself, Jonathan, she comes by that honestly."

He rubbed his brow. "So what do I do about Tommy? Brenda is not doing well. She's doing her job, but I could tell that she was stressed out. I sent her home early today. I told her that I would handle it. I guess that I'll have to step all the way in tomorrow."

"J.J. gave me the impression, during our talk, that Tommy's having second thoughts. I have the feeling that I might have interrupted a breakthrough this morning at the coffee shop. She said something else interesting that came to me later."

"Yeah? What was that?"

"This girl's father is Joel Scott. You know, Scott and Hammonds Realty, that big commercial real estate firm."

"And?"

"I met him at the school once. He doesn't give a very good first impression. Seems like the type that likes to throw his weight around.  J.J. said that she thinks that this girl asked Tommy to do this for her because he's nice and because he doesn't have a father to go up against her father."

"We'll just see about that." Jonathan said nodding his head in that meaningful way that Jennifer recognized in both her husband and her daughter. Watching the faraway look in his eyes, Jennifer knew that Jonathan's hands were the best possible place in which a fatherless boy in trouble could find himself.
 

J.J. was in the locker room stretching her hamstrings preparing to do a few laps on the track. Everyone else had gone out ahead of her. She had purposely arrived behind everyone else in order to have a few minutes of quiet time to herself. She hadn't had a chance to talk with Tommy all day. At the beginning of the day he and his mother were in meeting with the school counselor. Later, they had missed each other twice during hall passing. Then, at lunch time their friend, Deon said that Tommy had gotten called out of class via the intercom with the instructions that he should report to the main office ready for dismissal. She wondered what that was all about. Talk was starting to leak out about Milini being pregnant. It wouldn't be long before Tommy's name got linked to the mess. It was getting her down. She really felt the need to connect with him and to see how he was doing.

Leaning into the bank of lockers, she continued warming up her leg muscles. The door to the locker room squeaked open and slammed shut. Footsteps came in her direction and she was soon face to face with Milini Scott who did an immediate about-face upon seeing her there.

Taking the time to finish her last long stretch, J.J. picked up her towel and went around to the other side of the lockers where Milini's locker was located. The other girl was seated on the bench, pulling her things from her gym locker and putting them into a gym bag. J.J. crossed her arms and stood observing her.

Her back to her and without looking up, Milini asked, "What do you want, J.J.?"

"I want you to tell me why you're doing this to Tommy."

"I'm not doing anything to Tommy. And what business is it of yours if I was doing something to or with Tommy?"

"Anything that involves a friend of mine involves me. Why are you dragging him into your mess?"

"Leave me alone, J.J. You're just mad because now he's going to be connected to me forever."

J.J. struggled to control her rising anger. She knew that she had to remain rational and calm even though she wanted to scream at her. She tried hard to control the tone of her voice.

"Why are you so hung up on me and Tommy? We're just friends, that's all. If he wanted to be with you, he would be with you. I'm not keeping him from you. He must not want you. Do you think that making like he did this to you is going to make him want you? I know that he's not the one and you know it too."

Milini turned angrily to face her. "You don't know anything! I slept with him. It's his baby. You can't have everything, J.J."

"Everything like what, Milini? What do I have that you don't have? You're smart, you're pretty, your dad has money, you're popular. What?" J.J. was incredulous, confused, and angry. "I really don't understand what you have against me."

"Look." Milini said with a weariness in her voice that J.J. could clearly hear. "I don't feel well. Just shut up and go away, J.J. Leave me alone. I have a lot on my mind."

J.J. threw her towel over her shoulder. "I am going to leave you alone for now, Milini. But I'm not through with this. I know your business and what you're doing isn't right. You need to tell the truth about it and stop living in la-la land. What really happened is going to come to the light. It needs to be handled. Maybe if you did that, you would have a few less things on your mind, or should I say, your conscience."

With that said, she stalked angrily out of the locker room to go the track, so she didn't see Milini break completely down into gut-wrenching tears on the bench.

Jonathan drove silently with Tommy in the passenger seat next to him. He could tell that the boy was frightened. Why wouldn't he be? He had spent the morning in the school counselor's office with his mother after Joel Scott had called the school to report Tommy and his alleged involvement in the girl's pregnancy. Then, after his mother left, he had come that afternoon and whisked him out of school without warning or explanation.

Finally, looking over to him, Jonathan asked directly. "One time, Tommy, is this your baby?"

Silent for a moment, Tommy finally sighed and answered. "I'm not sure, Mr. Hart. I did have unprotected sex with her a couple of times. I've heard a lot of things about her that say that it could be somebody else's. But all I know for sure is I did sleep with her like that, sir, so it could be mine."

Jonathan felt sick and angry at the same time. "Unprotected? Didn't you hear anything that I told you? Your mother said that she talked with you too. Didn't you hear any of that?"

Tommy said nothing. There wasn't anything to say.

"Why should I trust you around J.J., Tommy? You spend time with my daughter. Maybe I shouldn't allow that if you're so careless and out of control."

At those words, Tommy sprung forward straining against the seatbelt. "No! It wasn't like I raped Milini. She wanted it and I wanted it, so we did it. J.J. isn't like that. That would never happen with J.J. It isn't like that with us. J.J. was the one who got all over me about having sex with Milini and she's the reason why I haven't done it with anybody since then. She got me to see how wrong it was to do that the way that I was going about it. Please, Mr. Hart, I don't want you to think that you can't trust me with J.J. I couldn't stand that."

"Then you need to start talking to me. We're on our way to see this girl's father and I'm going to need all the information that I can get."
 

"So, I understand that you cursed out Jennifer Hart yesterday." J.J. chuckled as she and Marnie sat on the bench together in the locker room.

J.J. was getting dressed after her shower and Marnie, who had come to watch her practice on the track, was seated on the bench waiting for her. They were the last two left in the locker room.

"J.J., it was so scary. She hemmed my ass up against that locker like she was going to take my lunch money from me. Her eyes were all gray-looking. She wasn't mad about me cussing at her as much as she was that I tried to play it cagey about where you were. I should have known that she already had it put together. Then she caught me trying to get to the cell phone to give you the heads up. I just had to go on and take that zero for the notebook from that fat cow, Ms. Calvin. I think it gave her a buzz when she was writing it in her book. I don't know how I'm ever going to face The Duchess in the car in a few minutes."

"She'll be okay. Don't worry about it." J.J. said picturing her mother purposely catching Marnie's eye in the rear view mirror making her squirm and turn red on the ride home. "She's probably still laughing at your embarrassment."

 "I got detention too for the next two Saturdays for being late to class so many times. That bitch Calvin turned me in on top of the giving me the damned zero. I hope her Slim-Fast goes bad on her and gives her the runs." Marnie continued. "So how long are you on lockdown for skipping?"

"She didn't put me on lockdown." J.J. answered, brushing her damp hair back up into the ponytail. "She let me off the hook."

"What!" Marnie's mouth flew open. "You skipped two classes in one day, got caught sitting up in the coffee house with Tommy's cute behind, and The Duchess didn't skin you alive?"

"There were extenuating circumstances." J.J. answered, stuffing her track clothes into her gym bag. "She took them into consideration."

Marnie stood and gathered her books. She never used a backpack or gym bag. A thing like that would interfere with her stylish flow.

"What extenuating circumstances would get you off the hook with your mother after she caught you skipping school? That's got to be the ultimate sin with her, like a sacrilege or something. What was so important about going over there with Tommy anyway? You never did tell me."

Before J.J. could answer, a low moan came from the area of the restrooms. The girls looked at each other.

"Did you hear that?" Marnie asked.

J.J. nodded.

It came again and J.J. dropped her bag to run in that direction. Marnie set her books down and followed a few steps behind.

Inside, the stall doors were open, all except for the one on the very end. Running down to it, J.J. pushed against the door. It was locked from the inside.

"Who's in there!" She called.

Marnie stood behind her watching, and peering down, she said, "Those are Milini Scott's Gucci loafers."

J.J. dropped to the floor and put her head inside the stall under the door. "Marnie!" She cried. "Go outside. Yell for Coach and tell my mother to call for an ambulance and that then she needs to come in here!  Hurry!"

"Hart, don't think that you're going to scare me into backing off. This boy has  messed over with wrong man's daughter and he's got to pay. I've already called the school and let the people in charge know."

Jonathan closely scrutinized the angry, stout man on the other side of the desk as he ranted and slammed his hand down onto the top of it for emphasis. "If you think that you can come in here with your money and your power and try to buy me off, you can forget it. This punk needs to get a job and get ready to take care of this kid he made."

Tommy sat resisting the urge to hang his head. He had been warned before going in about letting Mr. Scott see him sweat or look beaten. He straightened his spine and lifted his chin. He looked directly at Joel Scott just as Mr. Hart was doing.

"First of all," Jonathan began. "It hasn't been positively established that Tommy here is the father of the child-"

"What are you trying to say?" Scott cut him off. "That my little girl sleeps around? That she would lie about something like that?"

"I'm saying that it hasn't been positively established that Tommy is the father of the child." Jonathan repeated. "I think that before any threats are made or demands are put in place about what he should do, that needs to be established as fact."

"I don't know what would make my daughter want to lay down with street trash like this anyway. What's your interest in this Hart? This isn't your kid. You have a daughter. Why aren't you protecting her from scum like this? Are we raising our girls to be defiled by the likes of this?" He gestured toward Tommy dressed in his leather riding jacket, jeans, and riding boots.

Tommy, sitting silently, resisted the urge to speak out on his own behalf. He could see Mr. Hart's hand, which had been resting in his lap, curl slowly into a fist, as his voice remained eerily calm. He was glad to have him there with him, and glad that he was doing the talking. That was one man whose style he greatly admired. He had learned so much from him, and he hated that he was there with him in this situation. He had, after all, been supplied with his first box of condoms by Mr. Hart who told him to make sure that he had them on "when it started raining." He hated having let him down.

"First of all, this young man is not street trash, a punk, or scum." Jonathan leaned forward in the chair, trying to control his rising anger. "For all practical purposes, Mr. Scott he's mine, and if I ever hear you refer to him by anything other than his name again, it won't be my money or my power that you'll have to worry about, it will then just be a matter between you and me. In this situation, you can consider me his father because I am the one with whom you will be dealing. I don't know what you are raising your daughter to be, but I'm raising mine to be a decent- and honest- person. This young man, I trust totally. I trust him with my daughter's life."

Joel Scott could see for the first time that he might be outmatched in terms of rage. He had heard of Jonathan Hart of course, but this was his first personal encounter with the man. It was clear that Hart was just as concerned about the reputation of that boy seated next to him as he was about Milini's. 

Jonathan's eyes had gone to sapphire and his voice was stone cold as he leaned in closer to demand, "Establish paternity. If the child turns out to be his, he will do the right things by it. If it isn't his child, then I will be sitting right next to him watching you apologize to him for jumping the gun. I was going to allow him to explain his case to you, but in light of the way that things have gone in this meeting, I think that he and I will just take our leave. Let's go, Tommy."

Jonathan got up and walked from the room with Tommy following closely. As they closed the door behind them, the phone could be heard ringing on Joel Scott's desk.
 

They rode in silence for a bit before Tommy asked, "Do you think less of me for this, Mr. Hart?"

"No Tommy." Jonathan answered immediately. "Everybody makes mistakes, some impact your life more than others. You just have to make sure that you learn from the mistakes that you make." Jonathan placed his hand on Tommy shoulder. "Tommy," He said, "The only difference in you and me is that I have money. I came from the same place as you- no, I was worse. I didn't have anything or anybody until I met my friend Max, who I told you about. You have your mother and you have me. Between the two of us, nobody is going to railroad you."

"Did you mean what you said about trusting me enough to trust me with J.J.'s life?"

Jonathan looked over at the boy watching at him with questioning, troubled eyes. "Yeah, Tommy. I meant every word of it."

Tommy leaned back on the seat and exhaled. If that was so, then he could deal with everything else.
 

Jennifer looked down at J.J. leaning against her shoulder. Her shirt,  jeans, and shoes were stained with dried blood; her face was pale, and she hadn't said a word since she had gotten off the ambulance. Marnie leaned against J.J. They were all seated in the emergency waiting room of the hospital waiting for word on Milini Scott or for one of her parents to arrive. Coach Rogers sat quietly across from all of them.

"J.J." Jennifer called softly. "Are you alright?"

"No, Mom. But I will be. Don't worry about me."

Jennifer suspected that she was going into a delayed reaction just short of shock. The doctors had wanted to see and treat J.J. also, but she had refused to go to the back telling the attending physician that she wasn't hurt and that she could handle it. He had ended up giving Jennifer a prescription for something to help J.J. sleep later.

"Damn." Marnie whispered to herself recalling everything that had happened.

"You girls did good." The coach said. "It was lucky that you two were in there. I might have been outside another ten or fifteen minutes and even then I wouldn't have come into the girls' locker room. Who knows how long it would have been before the lady custodian came in to check."

"J.J. did it all." Said Marnie. "She got the towels, helped her down to the floor and....everything else.  I just went and got you guys. J. was in there with her all that time."

Jennifer felt J.J.'s body shudder. Looking down at her, she saw that she had closed her eyes as she continued to lean heavily into her. Marnie put her arm around J.J.'s back and rubbed it. Jennifer reached to cup J.J.'s face in her hand and held her close.
 

Jennifer and Marnie had rushed into the locker room right before the coach. They arrived to find Milini stretched out on the restroom floor outside of the stall, her head resting on J.J.'s jacket and her bottom half swathed in blood stained towels.  J.J. was inside the bloody stall on her knees next to the toilet staring down at something in the bowl.  She looked up just as Jennifer stepped into the stall looking for her.

"It's a baby." J.J. whispered to her. "A real baby. It's so tiny. I have to try to get it out, Mom."

"Just wait." Jennifer had said to her, grabbing her by the wrist, stopping her from reaching inside the bowl. "An ambulance is coming. There's nothing anyone can do for it now."
 

Jonathan and Jennifer lay together silently in the dark.

Apart during that eventful evening, it had felt as if they were two islands floating in a vast ocean of confusion. The girl's distraught parents had arrived at the hospital, the father making a nasty scene in the waiting room when he arrived and saw Jonathan and Tommy there. Jennifer had reached them by phone just as he and Tommy were coming out of a restaurant where they had been talking over an early dinner. Once Milini's parents were there, Jennifer insisted upon taking the girls home.

She had seen to Marnie getting home and had spoken with her mother. She helped J.J. get cleaned up, and got her over into the bed. J.J. turned down the offer of something to eat and for once she put her homework to the side saying that she would try to get up early to get it done. As far as Jennifer was concerned, school was out for J.J. for the next day. She would call and let her counselor know that she wouldn't be there and that she would come later for her work. The girl definitely needed some down time after all that she had been through. Occasionally there really were more important things.

Refusing to take the medicine sent by the emergency room doctor to assist her in getting to sleep, J.J. sent her on her way. She thanked her for being there and asked her to please just leave her to herself; she felt that she could get to sleep on her own.

Now together in their own bed, in their own world, they held each other closely. For each of them, it felt like holding on to life and sanity. It had been an extremely trying day and evening, both frightening and draining. A sixteen-year-old girl had experienced a horrific miscarriage in a school locker room and their fifteen-year-old daughter had been the one to witness it. It seemed that the only comfort to be found was in the arms of the other. They hadn't said a word to each other from the time that they entered the bedroom over an hour before.

Jonathan finally asked, "How was she?"

J.J. was in bed by the time he got back after taking Tommy home and speaking with Brenda Steele about what had happened with the girl and the baby. He had been too tired and unnerved by it all to even peek in on his child. He was confident that she had been in good hands with her mother. Jennifer would never have left her if she wasn't as well as could be expected.

"She's confused." Jennifer answered. "She's angry and silent."

"Not a word?"

"Not one, about any of it, since she spoke with the ambulance attendants and the triage nurse in emergency."

"Will you try to talk with her? She can't sit on all of that, Jennifer. She's seen and been through too much."

"She'll come to me when she's ready."

"They did the tests. I don't like using my pull, but I did it this time. It wasn't Tommy's baby. When Scott found that out, he started in on his daughter. About her being a tramp. And then he got on her mother for not keeping a closer eye on her. It was so ugly, Jennifer. I'm so glad that you had the girls out of there by that time. He didn't even seem to want to deal with how sick his daughter is. I got Tommy back to his house and I told him that if he ever put himself in that position again, I'd beat his ass myself."

"Jonathan!"

"I meant every word of it and he knew it. He's too good a boy. He owes it to his mother to do better than that."

"Well, he owes it to you too, Darling. You've put a lot of time and patience into helping with him."

"I'm just paying my dues." He kissed Jennifer's forehead. "I owe somebody big. For Max coming into my life, for sending you to me, and for our daughter. Working with Tommy is just my way of giving some of it back."

"I know that you love that boy, Jonathan. It's okay to say it."

"Yeah, I guess I do." He admitted.

There was a knock at the door. Startled, they both sat up and Jonathan switched on the light. It could only be J.J., but she never came to them in the night.

"Come on." He called.

She entered, barefoot and wrapped in the huge white terry cloth robe that her mother told her to put on whenever she left her room. The dog followed closely behind. She came across the room and sat on the side of the bed next to her father while Third went around to Jennifer's side. She looked at him with his eyes. He could see and feel her pain.

"I tried but I couldn't get to sleep. I don't know why... I kept seeing... Daddy, why?"

He pulled her over onto him and she lay her head on his chest. He wrapped her closely in his arms. It had been a long time since he had occasion to hold her like that. As Jennifer looked on at them she realized that was probably what she really needed most just then; not sleeping pills, not to talk: she needed to feel her father's arms about her. Her thoughts drifted to Milini Scott and her father as she watched Jonathan with J.J.

He kept her like that until she was finally able to sleep. Then he carried her back to her bed. He pulled the covers over her, and as he stood watching her, he sent up another one of those small prayers for her safe and speedy passage from all of this.
 

Mrs. Scott met with Jennifer and J.J. in the sitting room after the maid had them to wait there for her. Milini was home from the hospital and J.J. had asked if they could go by and see her. She still had not initiated a discussion about what had happened, and Jennifer had resisted asking her anything. She immediately called and made the arrangements for their visit when J.J. approached her about going.

After greeting them both, and thanking J.J. again for helping Milini that day, Mrs. Scott asked her if she wanted to go up and see Milini while she and her mother talked. J.J. had brought her a bouquet of flowers, so following Mrs. Scott's directions she went up the stairs to Milini's bedroom.

Knocking at the door, she went in when Milini answered.

Both girls looked at each other uneasily at first. J.J. went to where Milini sat in a chair next to the window and handed her the flowers that she had brought to her. 

"Hey Mil." she said simply.

"Hey J."

There was an awkward silence and then they both began, "Look-" and had to giggle nervously.

"You first, J.J." Milini said. "You're company."

"I just wanted to come by and say that I'm sorry for everything that happened. I know that we don't always get along, but I really am sorry."

Milini looked down at her lap and at the wildflowers she held there. 

"Thanks J.J. I need to hear that. I've made a real mess. My father isn't speaking to me. I think he hates me. He wasn't too crazy about me to start with because I'm not a boy. My parents are fighting tooth and nail." 

She held the flowers to her nose. 

"What actually happened to me is a lot worse than you know. I'm sorry about the thing with Tommy. I guess you know that they did the tests and found out that it really wasn't his. He's just such a nice guy, but I guess nice guys are out for somebody like me now. Once everybody finds out..."

J.J. thought that she could feel tears welling in her eyes, but she willed them back. Nobody got to see her cry in public. 

"Don't say that Mil, it might feel like it now, but it's really not the end of the world."

"It sure feels like it. Is your mother downstairs, J.J.?"

"You know that she is. You know first hand that she doesn't let me too far out of her eyesight."

Milini had often teased J.J. about not being able to hang out freely on the weekends. She was always traveling or involved in some activity at school, or with her many social obligations. Her parents or their housekeeper dropped her off or picked her up from school daily, unlike everyone else who either rode the bus or were free to catch a ride with anyone going in their direction. The Harts attended most of the school functions in which J.J. was involved and her father rarely missed a track meet. J.J. had always taken Milini's taunting in stride. She appreciated that her parents were so attentive, although she occasionally found it a bit restrictive to her adventurous nature.

"Don't knock it, J.J. Be glad that your folks care so much about where you are and what you're doing. I know that I rode you a lot about that, but it's kept you out of bad trouble so far. I think that's why I give you such a hard time. Your parents spend so much time with you. You know for sure that they love you. Everybody seems to love you."

"I'm sure that not everybody likes me. Some just tolerate me because they're too scared to do otherwise."

Both girls had to smile at that. Milini did know that J.J. Hart could be intimidating at times, even though she didn't think it was on purpose. She just came on strong and didn't back up from anything.

"All the guys like you and you're just a sophomore." She said looking to J.J. standing next to her. "And you don't even do anything to get them to like you. They just do."

There wasn't anything to say to that. J.J. only knew that she enjoyed being with the guys and they liked being with her. She didn't have an explanation for it. That was just how it had always been. She had always liked doing or was interested in what guys did or enjoyed, and they liked that about her. As long as they didn't invade her personal space, it was all fine.

J.J. sat down on the arm of Milini's chair.

"Milini, my mother has this thing that she says. She tells me that things happen to the people that they're supposed to happen to, when they're supposed to happen, and in the way that they're supposed to happen. I don't know what really went on with you and I don't think that I want to know; that's your business. But she says that everything happens for a reason. Try to think of it all like that and see what you can get out of it, even if it's really bad. That's what I do when awful things happen to me that I can't understand. I try to figure out what I can learn from it once I get past the bad feelings."

"See J.J., that's what I'm talking about. You're younger than me, but you always seem to have it together. You're always so calm and seem so sure of yourself. You have it all. You're so smart, you're cute, you're fun, people like you." Milini lowered her voice and said, " I just wanted a piece of J.J.'s world. I thought that if the boys liked me then I could have some of that."

"You have your own world, Mil. Everybody does. I have my problems too. I just have a whole lot of help dealing with them. That much is lucky about my life. The being smart thing; I work really hard in school; I like it. Cute- that's in the eye of the beholder and it's mostly genetic; we don't have a lot of control over that. I do like to have fun and I like for the people around me to have fun. And the guys, they aren't that high on my list right now. They are just for hanging out with and having fun with. That includes Tommy. I'm too scared to do more with them right now."

"I wish I had been." Milini said wistfully, looking out of the window.

J.J. felt so bad for her. But what was done, was done. They both needed to get past this moment. She placed her hand on her shoulder.

I guess I just came here to say that I want to go back to being friends. I don't want to fight anymore, Mil."

"My mother said that you saw the baby." Milini whispered, looking up at J.J.'s face.

J.J. was silent. She didn't want to talk about that. She hadn't spoken of it to anyone. Milini turned back toward the window when she saw that there was not going to be a response. "He took me there and they hurt me, J.J. They didn't have to do that to me. I haven't told anybody about it, not even my mother. The doctors say that I might never have another baby-ever."

"They?" J.J. asked, trying to look around to Milini's face. She could see a lone tear slide silently down her cheek. The meaning behind that one word shook her to her core. She felt sick.

She slid her arm around Milini's neck and Milini reached up for J.J.'s hand. 

They sat like that until both their mothers came up for them.
 

Jonathan located J.J. out in the gazebo. The days had gone by and he had to fly out the following evening. With all that had transpired, it dawned on him that he had not spoken with her about flying with him to D.C. He had made all of the other arrangements, even contacting Stephen Edwards to let him know that they were coming; but he had neglected to ask J.J. if she even wanted to go. He knew that she would, and since she could pack a suitcase as fast and as efficiently as her mother, it being last minute would not be a problem for J.J. Hart. 

If he said "Let's", she said, "Go."

He was more concerned because she had been so very quiet since her visit with Milini that day, and she hadn't said anything to Jennifer about any of it. Although it pained him and made him extremely uncomfortable to delve into this area with her, he felt that it would be detrimental for her to hold it inside. Jennifer refused to push her. He refused to let her hold on to it any longer.

When he found her, she was sitting on the locked swing, very still, with Third in her lap absently rubbing his ears.

"Daddy!" She was surprised to see him out there. This quiet area, where the wildflowers grew, was usually where her mother roamed and where she sometimes came to write.

"I was looking for you." He sat down next to her. "Just wanted to know if you'd like to fly with me this weekend."

"You know I'm game for flying any time. Where are we going?"

"I've got business in Washington and then I thought that we could go on to Maryland afterward and see your grandfather."

"And Triple J?" She loved that horse. When he stretched it out over those fields with her standing in the stirrups, it felt like soaring the skies in Valentine.

"You know it." He smiled.

"When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow afternoon as soon as you get out of school. We'll stay the entire weekend and come back on Sunday night."

"Cool. Is my mother going with us?"

"Nope. It'll be just you and me. She's going to the spa. You can get some flight time in.

"She's going to kill us both when she finds out, Daddy."

"Yeah, I know. But think of how much fun we will have had and how much you will have learned before we go."

She nodded. They both grinned mischievously.

"J.J." He said. "Tell me what's on your mind. I know that you normally go to your mother, but she tells me that you haven't said one word to her about all of what happened. That's quite a bit for you to keep to yourself, don't you think?"

She held Third closer to her as if she were trying to cover her heart with his body. "What's to say? It's done. It's over."

"Is it over in your mind?"

She looked at him, knowing that he knew that it was not. "No." She answered softly. "I think about it all the time."

"Will you talk to me about it?"

She sighed heavily before speaking.

"What's there to say? The boys won again, Daddy. They always win. What is there to say about that? That's just how it is and how it will always be."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that boys get to do whatever they want. Girls are always expected to live by another set of rules and a higher set of standards. It isn't fair, but that's just how it is."

"You sound kind of bitter, J.J." He put his arm on the back of the swing and around her.

"Not bitter, Daddy. But it does make me disgusted, and it makes me so angry. Milini said to me that "they" hurt her. It think she meant that she went off with that boy and ended up getting raped by more than one person. I didn't want her to tell me that was what they did  to her, but Philly told me that Milini was hurt when she got back that house. Those guys had their fun, but she's the one left with the pain and the trauma and the dead baby. It was like she was just nothing. 

She's too ashamed to come back to school and she doesn't even know who to blame for hurting her. She told me that she might not ever be able to have kids when she wants to. People at school are talking about it and blaming her saying that she shouldn't have gone with that boy. They're all saying that she should have known better than to be going around talking about who she was doing; that guys were going to know that she was easy. I agree that she should have handled herself better, but nobody ever says that about the boys. Nobody is talking about the dogs that did that to her. It's like it was expected of them to act that way because she put herself out there. Daddy, it's okay for a boy to have sex and brag and talk about it, but a girl gets labeled a slut if she does it- or even if somebody makes her do it."

She turned to face him. It hurt him to see the pain and confusion in her eyes. J.J. didn't open up to him like that most times. This was not the type of conversation in which they normally engaged.

"I even did that, Daddy. I condemned Milini right off the bat. She was bragging about having sex and talking about it, but guys do that all the time. When they do it, they're kings. When girls do it, we call them tramps. I put Milini down for it, but I accepted it as being okay for Tommy without a thought. He wasn't going around bragging about it, but I didn't think of him as being loose like I did with Mil. Tommy and Milini did it together. Why did I only make her the tramp? Then I thought that it was alright for her to be like that if she would just be quieter about it. But why should she have to be? Guys aren't."

She looked up at him in that direct manner that they shared. It was as if she was seeking the answers somewhere on his face.

"Daddy, why is it like that? If a boy wants to sleep around, somebody just gives him a box of condoms and tells him to go ahead and have a good time. But who is he going to have a good time with? He goes and he has fun with the girl who becomes a slut because she's doing the same thing that the boy is doing. If it weren't for  girls, who are the boys and the condoms going to have 'fun' with?"

She looked away from him and went back to rubbing the dog's ears. "Maybe I'm not making sense, but I just don't understand why things are the way that they are. It's seems so unfair. It makes me mad and it scares me, Daddy. I don't think I'll ever have a boyfriend or fall in love. It's just too much trouble."

He felt a strong twinge of guilt. Everything that she said was true, especially for him. It was as if she were speaking to what he had done. He had been the one to give Tommy his first box of condoms, fully expecting that at fifteen he would be having sex sometime in the near future if he hadn't already done so at that time. J.J. was fifteen now and the thought of her even going on a date gave him the willies. He had as much as given Tommy license to have sex, but he would kill that same boy, as fond as he was of him, for making a sexual move on J.J. 

He fully expected that Tommy now, at age sixteen, would be having sex, but it would kill him to know that J.J. might be doing the same thing when she was sixteen. What messages were being sent by he, himself, to those two kids? His anger with Tommy in this situation had been for getting caught, not because he was out there having recreational sex.

He had even gotten angry with Jennifer on several occasions in the past for teaching J.J. so much about sex. It was the most serious of the few sore points between them. Jennifer told her everything, no holds barred, no silly euphemisms; Jennifer told her the raw truth. His teenaged daughter knew about oral sex, rape, date rape drugs, being promiscuous and its repercussions, birth control methods; and she had learned it all from her mother. J.J. was comfortably conversant on all of those topics and it made him more than a little uneasy.  

But on each occasion that he approached her with his misgivings, Jennifer had nearly bitten his head off. She was adamant that her daughter was not going to be in the dark about the things that may alter her life. She had let him know in no uncertain terms that she alone was her mother and that she was responsible for making sure that J.J. did not grow up ignorant. Her responses to his questioning her judgment in that area bordered on vicious. Those had been the few times that another, more frightening side of his wife, had reared its head. Jennifer might not be generally maternal, but she was fiercely so when it came to that child. Her reactions made him wonder about his wife and the baggage that she might be carrying from her own adolescence, of which she rarely spoke without prompting.

Now he had to admit that Jennifer had a point. For all of her knowledge, and despite her attractiveness to the opposite sex, J.J. he was positive was still a child and would remain so for a while to come. She seemed in no hurry to get close to the boys or to have them too close to her. He didn't like what she said about being afraid to fall in love. He made a mental note to himself to speak with Jennifer about that comment.

Jennifer said that these were children doing adult things, and that was exactly what he had more or less given Tommy permission to do with other people's daughters. The thoughts and the guilt were running so fast through his mind that he felt slightly dizzy and very overwhelmed by all of it.

J.J. had turned away from him again and he watched his daughter as she stared off out onto the grounds, closely holding that dog, her profile so much like Jennifer's. Also like her mother, J.J. had a sharp mind. The two of them were always reading, watching, evaluating, thinking, reevaluating, and making those around them think too. There had been plenty of times in their lives together that Jennifer had been the cause of him rethinking what he had initially taken as a solid, justifiable position. Now his daughter, seated next to him, was doing the same thing.

"I won't pretend to have the answers to your questions." He finally managed to say. "In fact, you've just raised some new ones for me. I only know, J.J., that this is how things have been going for centuries. It isn't right, but that's just how it is. But, you  know sweetheart, I've always tried and I know that you do too, to see obstacles and bad things that happen to me as opportunities to improve myself. I think that all of us that have been involved in this thing can take that much away from all of this. I can hear that you've reflected on some of your former positions about some things. I think that I need to adjust a few of my perceptions too."

He pulled her in close to him. "But getting beyond all of this, you do know one thing don't you?"

"What's that?" She asked looking at him.

"That I love you. Right?"

"All the time, Daddy." She smiled. "Me too."

"Then come on. Let's go get packed."
 

"I just still want to know why the hell I was left out of the loop." Marnie demanded as she dealt the cards. "Nobody told me a damn thing and quite frankly, I'm offended. I gotta wait till stuff hits the fan to find out what's up."

"Are you still talking about that? I told you, I didn't know myself until the last minute." J.J. answered. "And you can't hold water much less a closely guarded secret. Now are you going to play or what?"

Tommy, quiet as usual, sorted the cards in his hand and then lay them down in front of him on the lunch table.

"Gin." He declared.

"Shit!" Exclaimed Marnie, tossing hers across the table in disgust. "Even the cards are holding out on me."

Money quickly exchanged hands under the table as the bell rang. Everyone there gathered their things to leave.

"I've got a bone to pick with you J.J. Hart. I'm not through with this." Marnie said to her friend. "You and I will be talking later. Your ass will be gone all weekend with your father, so we need to take care of this today. Meet me at the lockers after last period. I thought we were girls." She huffed off.

"Whatever." smirked J.J. standing and beginning to sweep up the cards. Only Tommy remained seated at the table. "Aren't you going to be late?" She asked him.

"I don't see you in any hurry." He countered.

"My class is right next door and I have two more tardies to use before I have to worry about detention." J.J. responded. "Besides Mr. Cason likes me. I fixed his computer when it crashed the last time. He didn't have to wait for a work order to be put in and for a school technician to come. He's my little friend now. He never knows when he's going to need me again, so he lets me slide on some stuff."

Tommy reached out and placed his hand on top of hers, stopping her from continuing to gather the cards. She looked down at him wondering what he wanted.

"Thanks, J.J." He said looking up at her from his seat on the bench.

"For what?"

"For being a good friend. You got on me last spring and you made me think about how reckless I was being. This last thing made me see how bad it could be and how many people really do care about me. It could have been much worse for me. It's so bad for Milini. I wish there was still some way that I could help her."

"You tried, Tommy. I respect you for that. I heard my father say that he respects you too. You were ready to accept your responsibility. Not many guys would have put themselves out there like that before knowing the facts. Some of them won't do it even after they know the facts. Just keep being her friend. Don't lead girls on if you don't mean it."

"Let's go to class." He said. "No sense in you using up a perfectly good tardy for a class that's right next door."

Mr. Hart trusted him with J.J. He was not going to let him, or her, down.

When she came around the table, they each reached for the hand of the other, laced fingers, and squeezed tightly.
 
 
 

Jennifer watched from the door as Jonathan and J.J. loaded the car for their ride to the airport. They looked so stylish in their matching black leather jackets, black jeans and boots. She totally enjoyed watching them together. Jonathan loved his child; she was his pride and joy. J.J., in turn adored her father and relished being in his company. From the very beginning, there had always been an easy rapport between the two of them. J.J. even moved like her father: tall, shoulders square, and totally self-assured. As she was getting older, J.J. turned more to her for things, but still there was that strong bond between them- that Hart-felt need for adventure and excitement. 

She wondered how long it was going to be before one or both of them finally broke down and told her about J.J. flying that plane. They had been at it for three years now and so far neither of them had cracked. As far as they knew, she was totally in the dark. She smiled to herself thinking that both of them just ought to know better. They never could put anything over on her, and something that big was a lost cause from the start.

"Well darling," Jonathan said closing the trunk, turning to her as she stood just outside of the front door. "We're going to get out of here. I filed the plan for six-thirty and we'll just make it."

He came to her and held her close. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too. I'll be thinking of you while I'm relaxing in that whirlpool."

He found her eyes and raised an eyebrow. "You do that." He said meaningfully pulling her at the waist so that she was even tighter against him. She could feel him against her lower belly and blushed, looking past him to see where J.J. was and if she was watching. Then he kissed her. 

He came away grinning with satisfaction when she involuntarily moaned  into the kiss and he saw her red face as she peeked around him for J.J.

Releasing her, highly amused, he went to get into the car.

J.J finished putting her book bag in the back seat and adjusted the headphones to her CD player. She then turned to her mother. She was not going to look that way until her father had moved away from her. Those two were a trip and too old for all of that carrying on.

Not having wanted to talk about the incident, she hadn't allowed herself to get too close to her mother in the ensuing days. It had been her intention to just wave and leave to go on this trip, but at that last moment, she knew that she needed to go to her. How could she just leave without going to her?

Standing before her, her hands stuffed down in her jacket pockets, she said simply, "Have fun at the spa, Mom, and enjoy your J.J.-less weekend. No stress."

"Is that all I get?" Jennifer asked tilting her head slightly, questioningly and placing her hands on her hips. "How do you know that I don't enjoy the stress?"

With those words and the look on her face, J.J. lost her reserve and it felt as if the weight of the previous days flowed from all over her and into her arms as she finally wound them about her mother and she melted into her. As she did, she could feel the hurt and confusion being pulled from her tense body. She wished that she could stay there forever, where it was safe, and where she didn't have to ever grow up. 

But that plane, those skies, and life were waiting for her.

"This is what I'm talking about, Justine." Her mother whispered in her ear. "When it gets too heavy, bring it to me. I can handle what you cannot." The Duchess smiled her beautiful smile and smoothed her hair watching her with her wonderful eyes. "Now you go and you have a good time with your father and Pa and that horse." 

"I love you, Mama. Have a good weekend. I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you, too." Jennifer smiled. "And when you get back to home to me, J.J., you just keep on being my sweet girl."

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