The weeks after thanksgiving flew by for Jax and Brenda.  Their
friendship grew stronger each day without any real backslides. Their
illnesses and concern during the other’s illness created a sort of bond
between them that was unbreakable, they truly became best friends.  The very
best friends.  The TV rarely went on , as outside phone calls and internet
time got shorter, as they shared more time together discussing their lives
and their hopes and dreams.
    The battles were still there, especially over the bedroom, while Brenda
did get it thanksgiving night since Jax knew although she was feeling better,
she wasn’t completely better yet, most of the other nights the room went to
whoever could get in there first and stay there without leaving, or being
caught leaving.
    Within those few weeks, Jax and Brenda learned more about the other then
even their closest friends knew, yet their relationship stayed strictly
platonic.  Neither of them even thought of the other in a romantic sense.
Their friendship only grew stronger over the days.
    When Brenda wasn’t with Jax, she spent her time planing his Christmas
surprise, and when Jax wasn’t with Brenda he spent his time planning her
Christmas surprise.  They spent the rest of their time shopping online and
through catalogues for all their loved ones Christmas gifts.
    Jax and Brenda convinced their sponsors to give them Christmas
decorations so that they could make the house as spirited inside as the
sponsors made it outside.
    To their friends and family, Jax and Brenda looked like two people
falling in love, but to them they were simply best friends, that’s it, end of
story.

    All of the spectators of the contest, including the sponsors, were
shocked that the contest lasted that long and seemed to be going strong.  All
the wagers had already been loss except for two.  Two people who knew the
contestants very well, out bid everyone for how long the contest would last
and who would win, those two people were Ned Ashton and Jerry Jacks.  They
both knew the stubbornness of one of the contestants and each of them were
counting on that stubbornness to win them the bet, but from what appeared to
be the case, it looked like no one would leave because Jax and Brenda just
might never leave that house, that is unless one of them died first.

    Jax had long ago found a way to work from the house.  He used the phone,
internet and Fax much as he did before the contest to conduct most of his
business.  He sent Jerry in his place to meetings.  His business ran
smoothly.  Brenda on the other hand just recently began using the fax machine
and phone to communicate with her business partner Lois and she reluctantly
agreed to let Lucy do a photo shoot of her while she was in the house.
    Lucy said that the idea just hit her, but in reality unless she wanted to
go without a Christmas campaign with her top and favorite model, she really
had no other choice but to do her, “looking through a window campaign.”  The
first thing Lucy did during one of her visits was look at the decorations and
immediately write down some changes that she wanted made.  What Brenda and
Jax thought were a nice display of Christmas Joy, Lucy saw as tacky and not
good enough.  She flew in new decorations with instructions of where
everything could go.
    Since technically photographers weren’t visitors as long as they didn’t
speak to Jax or Brenda, Lucy had some of her prized photographers outside of
the house taking pictures as Jax and Brenda redecorated to Lucy’s standards.
The shots were meant as test shots to give the photographers an idea of how
much light they had what angles looked good, but what Lucy saw was something
that she never expected.
    As Lucy sat down and looked through the pictures for the eleventh time,
she realized that she had been right all along, there wasn’t a bad picture in
the bunch.  Every picture looked like a young couple in love, a perfect image
for her campaign.  Lucy didn’t waste a second before calling Brenda.

J: “Hello!”
L: “Jax I must talk to Brenda, now!”
J: “Okay Lucy, I’ll get her.”

    Jax put the phone on hold anticipating Brenda’s comment, then shouted to
Bren.

J: “It’s Lucy, again.”
B: “What does she want now.”

    Brenda truly wasn’t being inpatient with Lucy but this was about the
hundredth call from Lucy within the span of six days.  Everytime Lucy had a
new idea, she called up Brenda, half of the time Lucy decided against the
idea before she even got the first sentence of it out. Thus far she managed
to stop and void each and every idea before she could finish explaining it to
Brenda, so not only was Brenda given a lot of different ideas, but she wasn’t
given a single complete idea yet.
    Brenda sighed before picking up the phone.

J: “She must have another one of her wonderful ideas.”
B: “Hi Lucy, did you come up with a new campaign idea?”
L: “Did I ever, you’re going to love it Brenda.”
B: “Are you sure you want to tell me, because you know”
L: “None of the other ones were what I was looking for, but this one, this
one is perfect Brenda, just perfect.”
B: “What is it this time?”
L: “You’re going to convince that gorgeous man of yours to be in the shoot
with you.”
B: “Lucy who are you talking about?”
L: “Jax, Jax of course, that wonderful, gorgeous Mr. Jacks.”

    Brenda glanced over to look at Jax and give him a motion saying that Lucy
was crazy, but she saw that he was gone, probably because he was as sick of
Lucy calling as she was.

B: “He’s just a friend Lucy, nothing more.”
L: “Well that friend of yours is the ticket to this campaign’s success. We
got the test shots back Brenda,”
B: “What test shots Lucy?”
L: “The one’s we took when the two of you were redecorating the house,
there’s not a bad one in the bunch, not one.  The two of you look like the
picture of happiness and holiday joy.”

    Lucy didn’t bother adding her last line of, “and true love,” because she
knew that Brenda would just deny it,

B: “I don’t know how he will feel about being a model, I mean he doesn’t
even like for his parents to take his picture.”
L: “We can do it like the last ones, he doesn’t even have to know we’re
there.”
B: “I won’t trick him Lucy.  We get his permission or you come up with
another idea.”
L: “Great then you’ll get his permission, thanks Brenda, ta.”
B: “Lucy wait.”

    Brenda’s last words were a waste since Lucy hung up with her ta.  Brenda
sat there trying to figure out how to ask Jax to be in a model shoot with
her.  She knew that he didn’t like pictures, and even worse that Lucy was
driving him as insane as she was Brenda, and that he had already stated that
he would never work for someone as crazy as her, and here Brenda was trying
to figure out how to ask him to work for someone he said he would never work
for, doing something he had no desire to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Although it was Brenda’s night to choose dinner, and her turn to choose
what she wanted to see on TV, she let Jax do the choosing.  She was extremely
nice to him  all night, being very careful to avoid any type of argument or
disagreement.  When she got up to go to bed, and headed straight to the other
room, the room that was always choosen by default, Jax knew that something
was defiantly wrong.

J: “Brenda, what’s going on with you tonight? You’ve been acting strange
ever since you got off the phone with Lucy, did she give you bad news?  Is
there something you want to talk about?”
B: “I’m just tired that’s all.”
J: “Brenda what did Lucy say to you?”
B: “What did Lucy say?”
J: “That was the question.”
B: “She just told me about a campaign idea she has.”
J: “Again, did she finish the idea this time?”
B: “Yes, and I think it’s one of her better ones.”
J: “What aren’t you telling me?”
B: “Nothing, it’s just that Lucy had some test shots taken and they, well
they turned out”
J: “Don’t tell me she wants us to redecorate again, because she can take
those decorations and cram them”
B: “No, the test shots turned out great Jax, that’s just it.  They turned
out so great that Lucy wants more of them.”

    Brenda covered her mouth and mumbled the next part so that Jax would be
sure not to hear it.

B: “With both of us.”
J: “What did you say Brenda?”
B: “I think I was pretty clear.”
J: “I know that you weren’t, what are you trying not to tell me?”
B: “Promise not to say no?”
J: “I can’t do that until after I hear what you have to say.”
B: “She wants both of us in the pictures for the campaign, she said the
pictures turned out great, the best they’ve ever came out in a test shoot.”

    Brenda expected a horrid look on Jax’s face but instead she got a huge
smile.

J: “That wasn’t so hard, all you have to do is tell her no way.”
B: “But Jax, I promised to do this shoot, and you know how hard it is for
Lucy to come up with a shoot idea that we both like.”

    Jax’s smile quickly turned into a loud roar of melodic laughter.

J: “You think that you can give me that sad little face of yours and tell me
how much this shoot means to you and I’ll just give in like that?”
B: “Well I was hoping that maybe we could make some kind of deal.”
J: “I don’t know what  you could possibly offer me that  would be worth
having my picture taken and working for that crazy lady you call your boss.”
B: “Come on, Lucy’s not that bad.”
J: “Okay, so what will I get out of this?”
B: “Something you’ve wanted since the day we met.”
J: “And that would be?”
B: “My room, I’ll let you have it, for a limited time, one month with no
arguments from me.”
J: “Let’s see, one month of having my room, for a photo shoot.  I’ll have to
think about this and get back to you.”
 
Battle of Determination 7

    Hours of pure agony went by for Brenda as she waited for Jax to give her
his answer, finally she couldn’t take it anymore so she went up to him,
ripped his lap top off his lap and starred him straight in his vibrant eyes.

B: “I can’t take this any longer, you’ve had plenty of time.  So is it a
deal?”
J: “I’m not sure.”
B: “What do you mean you’re not true?  I’ve stayed quiet like you asked, and
out of your way so you would have time to think about it.  You’ve had plenty
of time, I want an answer out of you.  And I want it now!”
J: “That was quite a little tantrum you threw there but there’s still a
problem that we have to solve before I can give you my answer”
B: “And what would that be?”
J: “We have to decide what I get out of this.”
B: “I already told you.”
J: “No, you made a suggestion, one that I do not agree with, if you want me
in this photo shoot you have to make me a better offer.  Then we can
negotiate from there.”
B: “Okay if you don’t want the room, you can have something else.”
J: “No, I want the room and something else.”
B: “What exactly do you want?”
J: “The room for a year; you do all the chores; I get to watch whatever I
want whenever I want; I choose our meals and if I want, you cook them;  you
will treat me with respect and basically do whatever I ask of you.”
B: “No way!”

    Brenda quickly got up and started pacing back and forth in pure
frustration.

B: “If that’s what you want I’ll call Lucy right now and tell her to come up
with a new idea.”

    Brenda tried to conjure up tears to gain Jax’s sympathy but her body
betrayed her, so she choose to go with the pouting sad look instead.

B: “She’ll probably fire me but that’s really none of your concern, is it?”

    Brenda expected at least a little sympathy from Jax, but instead she was
greeted with a huge smile, a loud roar of laughter, and a lively round of
applause.

J: “Have you ever thought of becoming an actress because that performance
could at least get you nominated for an Emmy.”
B: “What do you want from me Jax?”
J: “I told you, and you told me what you want, now it’s time to negotiate.”
B: “Negotiate?”
J: “Yes, your sad little act didn’t work on me, though I can’t blame you for
trying since I’m sure that same act got you your way with many weak hearted
males.  Your original offer was laughable.”
B: “Generous!”
J: “No laughable, and you must have thought the same about my counter offer,
now we can negotiate until we reach terms that are mutually acceptable to
both of us.  Now if you don’t want to negotiate you can always call Lucy and
tell her the deal’s off but I think that it would be more beneficial to
negotiate, at least for an hour.”
B: “An Hour?”
J: “Yes, negotiations can take a lot of time so sit down and get comfortable
so we can begin.”
B: “I think I’ll stand!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The negotiations went on for hours, clear to the early mourning,  Brenda
thought Jax wanted too much, and Jax was convinced that Brenda was offering
too little, in the end they made an agreement that although neither of them
were completely happy about, was livable for both of them.

J:: “So it’s a deal, I’ll do your model shoot for one day, and if needed for
a second day and in exchange, I will get the bedroom for six months without
arguments; you’ll tell me an embarrassing story about yourself every night
before I go to sleep and you’ll be nice to me and stop arguing with me no
matter what I say or do, for a period of three months; and  since my ego has
felt a bit neglected since coming here, you will pay me at least one
complement, no make that one sincere complement everyday for three months”
B; “It’s a deal.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Lucy went to work right away making all the arrangements before Jax could
change his mind, she managed to organize the shoot within two days, and thus
set the photoshoot for early the next morning.  Lucy kept sending packages
and packages of “Christmas clothes” for Jax and Brenda to wear for the
shoot. Lucy decided to take a few posed shots but she decided to do the
majority of the pictures as action shots while Jax and Brenda were simply
enjoying themselves.  Lucy also arranged to have herself on a speaker home
(one which she also had flown in, so that if necessary, she could tell Jax
and Brenda what they needed to do to make perfect pictures, although she
wasn’t sure if she would need to since their test shots came out so perfect.
    There’s two things about the shoot that Lucy didn’t tell Brenda or Jax.
The first was the slogan of the campaign: Looking Through a Window at True
Love.  Lucy started out avoiding all questions about the slogan then she did
what she considered as a compromise and told them part of the slogan, without
mentioning the last part.  Lucy simply said that the slogan was, Looking
through a window, she conveniently left off, at true love.   The other thing
Lucy did was make a deal with the sponsors of the contest to allow herself
more time and contact with Brenda during the shoot.  She mislead the sponsors
into believing that she had discussed all the details with Brenda and that
Brenda agreed with the deal, but the truth was that Brenda had no idea that
Lucy was making deals with anyone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The shoot started out fairly normal, Lucy told Jax and Brenda where to go
and relayed the photographers orders as they posed for pictures.  Jax was
fine for about five minutes but the he started fidgeting around so Lucy
decided to go on to the next part and finish the posed pictures portion later
on.  That part Jax didn’t mind so much except for the constant clothes
changing.
    The “active part” of the shoot started out with Brenda and Jax sitting
around eating a Christmas meal of ham, turkey and all the trimmings.  Lucy
insisted that they have pictures of them eating their meal, but since neither
of them were very hungry considering it was early in the morning, they put
the food in the kitchen and found other things to do.  They lit a fire and
sat around enjoying it and their company for awhile before Lucy yelled out,
through the speaker phone, for them to open their gifts.  Brenda  almost went
into a full blown panic since the presents she had ordered for Jax weren’t
opened yet, but then something caught her eye, as well as Jax’s.  Right next
to their slot to the outside world, was presents that Lucy had dropped in.
She instructed them to put them under the tree then hand them to each other
and open them.
    For variety Lucy put all kinds of presents in, some that they would like,
some that they would be delighted with, some that they didn’t care for, and
some that they would absolutely hate.  Lucy wanted to make sure to get al
kinds of reaction shots.  And that she did, since Jax and Brenda both thought
that the gifts were just props that they would return to Lucy once the shoot
was over, they were very honest with their reactions to each gift, what they
didn’t know was that Lucy was trying out some of her Christmas gift ideas on
them,  She wasn’t sure if the gifts were good ideas (although some of the
gifts were things that she would never think to give away but she put them in
purely as gag gifts so that she could get “bad gift reaction shots”) so she
tried them out on her “models” to see what she should exchange and what she
should get more of.
    The shoot went on all day, by eight Jax and Brenda were getting exhausted
and very hungry (the appetizers Lucy served them at lunch, since Lucy didn’t
think an actual lunch would look good for a Christmas shoot, didn’t satisfy
them very much, and Lucy refused to let them snack on anything but candy and
Christmas cookies while they were doing the shoot, which was nonstop all
day).  Brenda and Jax finally decided that they worked long enough so they
went into the kitchen (where they thought they would be out of the cameras
view), warmed up some food, from their breakfast feast, then sat down to
enjoy their meal.

B: Thank you for being so patient today, I know how difficult it can be
working for Lucy.”
J: “That woman is truly something else.  She talks more then anyone I know,
but she doesn’t seem to say much that’s meaningful.”
B: “Jaaaaaaax.”
J: “What?  She jabbers on and on when she could make her point in one or two
sentences, then she goes off on tangents that don’t seem related to much at
all.”
B: “That’s Lucy, she may be a bit loony at times, but she really is a nice
person.”
J: “I know she’s a nice person, but how can you stand to work for her?”
B: “She has a really good heart, she just happens to be in one of her, “we
have to get this done now,” moods.”
J: “So you’re shoots aren’t always this rushed?”
 B: “No, not at all in fact this shoot is like none other.”
J: “How’s that?”
B: “Well for starters I always work alone, it’s usually just me, Lucy,
Lucy’s assistant, and the photographers, and anyone who I invited along.
Some one else always does my make up and hair, and there are only one kind of
pictures, posed ones.”
J: “You just sit there like this morning.”
B: “Pretty much, the photographers tells me where to move, and gives me
situations to pretend I’m in so he can get reactions out of me that he wants.”
J: “Do you like the shoots better?”
B: “Not really, no.  Today didn’t feel like a shoot at all.  I had fun.
Except for Lucy’s suggestions and denial of real food, it didn’t feel like I
was working at all.”
J: “Will Lucy be angry that you quit the shoot?”
B: “We didn’t quit the shoot, we’re just taking a break.”
J: “We have to go back out there?”
B: “Yes.”
J: “Can’t we finish tomorrow?”
B: “ No, if we continue tomorrow, Lucy will make us work all day, this way we
work a few more hours then the shoots over.”
J: “Okay, a few more hours but then I’m going to bed.”
B: “Are you done eating?”
J: “Yes, I’m stuffed, what about you?”
B: “I couldn’t eat another bite.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Brenda and Jax came back to find Lucy standing at the window giving them
a disapproving look.  They both turned to her and yelled, “what we were
hungry.”
    Lucy instructed them to change into their sleep clothing so that she
could get some final shots of the end of the day.  As Brenda waited for Jax
to return, she turned on the stereo and began playing Christmas music, at
Lucy’s suggestion she began jokingly dancing to it.  Jax didn’t skip a beat
when he walked in, he went right next to Brenda and bean dancing right next
to her.  When Jingle Bell Rock came on, they joined hands and began dancing
like two excited little children, in reality they were simply trying to keep
themselves from falling asleep after their fulfilling dinner.
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Jax and Brenda both almost fell to the floor when they saw pies and
whipped cream cans being slid into their house, the last thing they wanted
was more food.  Brenda and Jax both groaned when Lucy instructed them that it
was dessert time.  Neither of them wanted to go near the pies but when Lucy
promised that the pies would be the last part of the shoot, then they would
call it a night.  Jax and Brenda reluctantly brought the pies over to a table
and cut slices then took the cans of whipped cream, and began to squirt.  As
the whipped cream was coming out of Brenda’s can she looked away from her
pie, which accidentally squirted the contents of her can onto Jax’s face.
When Jax turned to yell at her, his can slipped as well, squirting Brenda
back, instead of yells coming out of his mouth, only laughter escaped as he
and Brenda began to laugh simultaneously.  Brenda tried to pretend like she
wasn’t enjoying herself, but the laughter escaping from her whipped creamed
lips, gave away her true feelings.

B: “You think you’re funny don’t you?”
J: “Me?  You’re the one who threw whipped cream on me first?”
B: “Accidentally, my hand slipped that’s all.”
J: “Well my hands slipped too.”

    During their conversation, whipped cream and pie flew back and forth the
whole time.

B: “Well I may have started this accidentally but I’m going to continue it
willfully.”
J: “You won’t be the only one.”
B: “Oh yeah, you couldn’t hit me if you tried?”
J: “You’ll see, you on the other hand, will probably get more on the floor
then on me.”

    With that Brenda and Jax proceed to show each other just how good their
aim was as they landed shot after shot, only missing a few ducked shots.  By
the time their food fight was over, pie and whipped cream was all over the
place, but mostly on Jax and Brenda.  Their visible body parts as well as
their clothes were completely covered with food.  The absolute worst victim
was their hair, which was completely covered with pie and whipped cream.
    Instead of seeing looks of disgust on Lucy and the photographers faces,
Jax and Brenda were pleasantly surprised to see huge smiles on their faces,
and laughter flowing from their lips.
    With the priceless food fight pictures, Lucy was ready to go (not that
she could have gotten many more pictures with Jax and Brenda covered in
food).      Once Lucy and crew were gone, Brenda and Jax both raced to the
bathroom for the one thing they both wanted, a shower.

B: “Oh no, I’m taking my shower now.”
J: “So am I.”
B: “What?  Come on be a gentleman for once in your life.  It is your fault
that I have all of this on me anyway.”
J: “My fault, you started it!”
B: “I may have started it, accidentally, but you finished it.”
J: “I didn’t finish it by myself.  Since we both got ourselves into this
together, why don’t we compromise together.”
B: “What possible compromise is there?”
J: “We can take a shower together.”
B: “Together!  No way!”
J: “Hear me out.”
B: “There’s absolutely nothing to hear, I am not taking a shower with my
best friend.”

    Once the words came out of Brenda’s mouth she felt a bit embarrassed, she
had thought of Jax as her best friend for quite some time now, but she had
never actually told Jax that he was her best friend.  Jax didn’t skip a beat
in trying to ease the tension that was building.

J: “Your best friend isn’t asking you to take off your clothes in front of
him.”
B: “You’re not, but you said.”
J: “That we could take a shower together, in our bathing suits.  The ones
that Lucy gave us, what kind of person gives bathing suits in the winter
anyway?”
B: “I guess that wouldn’t be so bad.”
J: “Best friends can take a shower together in their swim suits can’t they?”
B: “I’ll change first.”
J: “Oh, no you don’t.  I’m not letting you in there by yourself so you can
lock the door on me.”
B: “Would I do that to you?”

B&J: “Yes!”

B: “Well how do I know that you won’t lock the door on me?”
J: “How about this, I’ll change in the bathroom, with the door unlocked.
You change out here, then when you’re ready knock on the door and I’ll tell
you if I’m dressed yet.”
B: “Okay.”
J: “Hurry, my hair can’t handle this much longer.”
B: “I’ll be as quick as I can.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Brenda and Jax both hurried and changed into their swimsuits.  When
Brenda knocked, Jax was ready with the water running, he let Brenda test the
temperature before entering, and then held his hand out and said “ladies
first.”
Brenda and Jax first concentrated on getting the food out of their hair and
off their bodies, then just as they threw food earlier that night, they began
throwing water at eachother.  They truly looked like two little kids playing
in the water without a care in the world.  Their water fight went on for
about ten minutes until Brenda decided to be the one to leave, “I’ll let you
finish your shower now.”
 
J: “Thanks!  I had fun today.”
B: ”So did I.”

    Brenda lightly hugged Jax before exiting the shower.  For the first time
the hug between them felt a bit strange but both of them shrugged it off as
simply being because they were in a bit awkward situation.
    Brenda quietly closed the shower door and began to walk out, but then she
thought of one more thing she wanted to say.  Without turning around she
started to say Jax’s name, but all she got out was, “Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”
before she tuned around and couldn’t help but notice that Jax had dropped his
swimsuit, allowing his manhood to swing freely.  Jax on the other hand didn’t
seem to notice, or at least not mind, being seen like that, in fact he didn’t
even seem to notice when his manhood began to show what looked like a
definite interest in his best friend.  Jax simply turned towards the shower
door, providing an even better view of his amazing manhood, stuck his head
out and acted perfectly normal.

J: “What is it Brenda?”
B: “I just, um, I just wanted to know if, I mean I just wanted you to let me
know when you’re done in here.”
J: “No problem.”

    Jax radiated with beauty as he smiled at Brenda, just before returning to
his shower.
    Without noticing, Brenda took an unusually cold shower once Jax finished
his.  Since they were both exhausted, Jax bypassed Brenda’s embarrassing
story for the night and went straight to sleep while she showered. Jax never
even noticed that a certain part of his anatomy was definitely interested in
his best friend, he simply went to sleep thinking about what a fun time he
had with his best friend that day.
    Brenda walked into Jax’s room, only to discover that he was fast asleep.
She went to the other room, brushed her hair, put it up in a bun and then
laid down to sleep.  Instead of going to a land of dreams Brenda found
herself thinking about her best friend, and the sight she saw right before
she left him to finish his shower.  In her head, she kept repeating to
herself, I’m not falling for Jax, I’m not falling for Jax, I’m not falling
for Jax.”  Between “I’m not falling for Jax’s she listed as many reasons as
she could think of why she wasn’t falling for him, and couldn’t fall for
him, but the majority of her night was spent repeating to herself that she
wasn’t falling for her best friend, in a desperate attempt to make it true.
Battle of Determination 8

    Christmas morning was absolutely beautiful in Port Charles, especially
since neither Jax nor Brenda had to go out in the breath takingly beautiful
snow. Jax was the first up in the morning, he woke to a quiet house for the
first time in his life. For a moment he felt a sadness from deep within his
heart.  For Jax Christmas had always been full of sounds, the sounds of his
family, but he knew that this Christmas would be different because the best
he could do was talk to them on the phone, and that was only if the storm
didn’t knock out the phone lines.  After a minute or two of sadness, Jax
quickly turned his mind and heart to the positive,
    Jax had a lot to be thankful for this year, not only was he getting the
unbelievable chance to win the house of his dreams, but he also had a new
best friend, one who he had there with him to brighten up his holidays.  Jax
quickly thought back to what Brenda had said the previous night when she came
in to tell Jax another embarrassing story.  Jax had asked Brenda what her
most embarrassing Christmas moment had been, Brenda shocked him by saying
that every year was embarrassing.  After Brenda finished telling Jax about a
typical Christmas in which she woke early to put the gifts she bought or made
under the tree only to discover that the gifts for her were pretty much
nonexistent, and how she would silently sit at the top of the stairs crying
her eyes out as she watched her father shower her sister with gifts, but most
importantly with love as she was made to fell like she didn’t exist.
    Then Jax saw the sparkle come full force back into her eyes when she
described what she always wished her Christmas could be like.  Jax knew that
he couldn’t make her father give his love to her (especially since he was
dead) but he realized that he could make most of her Christmas dreams come
true.
    Jax quickly moved around the house, as quietly as he could, making sure
that everything was picture perfect for Brenda.  By the time Jax woke Brenda
the joyous sound of Christmas songs felt the house.  Jax crept into Brenda’s
room and rubbed the teddy bear (he chose a bear stuffed animal because Brenda
had always wanted one when she was little) he got her, against her nose, so
the first thing se felt was the furry bear against her skin. Brenda
immediately reached out, grabbed and then hugged the teddy bear.  Within
seconds, she grabbed a hold of Jax as well, joining him into her embrace with
the bear.

B: “Thank you Jax, I love him!”
J: “I thought you would  I um figured that all little girls should get a
teddy bear if that’s what they want.  Even if they’re not such a little girl
anymore.”
B: “I can tell that this is going to be the best Christmas ever.”
J: “But you’re not even out of bed yet.”
B: “That just means that the day can only get better.”
J: “Well are you going to stay here all day or are you going to go see what
Santa brought you?”
B: “I’m too old for Santa?”
J: “Impossible, you can never be too old for Santa.”

    For a moment Brenda thought perhaps Jax was right, especially when his
eyes twinkled at the child like, excited look, that came to her face when she
said, “let’s go,”  then took his hand and pulled him into the room where the
Christmas tree was set up.  Jax and Brenda were both surprised to see that
two stockings were felt, one for Jax and one for Brenda. Each knew about the
stocking for the other since they each snuck in there in the middle of the
night to place the felt stocking there, but neither had any idea until that
moment that the other did the same.

    Brenda and Jax were both like little children as they dug through their
stockings to see what their own personal Santa gave them.  Aside from each of
their favorite candies, each had magazines and other small items which the
other knew they were sorely missing being able to go and buy when ever they
felt like it.
    Christmas morning was great, Jax and Brenda shared stories from previous
Christmas’ (though most of Brenda’s were of recent years since her childhood
years were not very joyous).  Gifts were all over the place by the time all
the gifts were open, but to Jax the greatest gift was the huge smile on his
best friends face as she finally got every gift that he could find that she
wanted as a child but never got, plus several gifts that she never would have
thought to want, but loved anyway.  Brenda too found great joy in watching
Jax open all the gifts from her, but her favorite gifts to watch him open
were the ones that his parents sent and had her put under the tree, along
with the gift from Jerry.  Though Brenda was focused on her best friend, she
also enjoyed every second of feeling like she had always dreamt she would
feel on Christmas, completely happy.
    Though Brenda enjoyed all of Christmas, the part she looked the most
forward to was dinner, and the surprise she knew Jax would love. The only
thing that brought her a twinge of sadness was knowing that there was
absolutely no hope that she would see Julia that day.  Though she rarely saw
or talked to her sister, she had hoped that her sister would stop by (even if
it was just to make her public image better for business reasons) to see her
on Christmas.  A few days prior all her hopes for that were dashed when she
found out what Lucy’s deal was with the sponsors, the deal that Lucy
convinced them that Brenda agreed with.  For the privilege of doing the photo
shoot with Jax, Brenda had to give up her visitation for a month and since
Jax’s visitation was still gone, there was absolutely no hope that she would
see Julia, and in her mind, she knew that Julia would never call her either.
    Since Jax was never really a holiday cooker, and Brenda admittedly
couldn’t cook a decent meal if her life depended on it, the sponsors agreed
to have the meal of their choice delivered to them.  Jax knew exactly what
Brenda would want (a home cook meal made with lots of love) so he suggested,
no demanded that they get food from Kelly’s rather then one of the fancier
restaurants that the sponsors wanted to get their food from (since those
meals were free for them).
    So dinner was perfect, turkey and all the trimmings from Kelly’s, the
only thing missing as Jax and Brenda sat down to eat was family, but if
either Jax or Brenda could help it, that wouldn’t be missing for long either.
    Jax pulled out his cell phone before either had anything on their plate.
For the first time that day Jax was greeted with an unpleased stare from
Brenda.

J: “I just want to hear my families voice, I’ll be quick, I promise.  Then
we can dig into this delicious meal.”
B: ”Can you wait to call them? There’s something I want you to see first.”
J: “What could possibly be more important then talking to my family today.”
B: “I don’t know, maybe this. . . “

    Jax looked at Brenda with confusion as she turned on what appeared to be
a normal television  and looked like her world had just been destroyed when
all she got was fuzz, little did she know that the device was actually
working perfectly but the trouble maker on the other side was playing a
little joke on her.

J: “You want me to wait to call my family so I can see something on TV
that’s not even working?”
B: “It’s not a TV Jax. It’s a connection or at least it was supposed to be,
I had it delivered.  It was supposed to make your Christmas better but now,
now, , , I can’t believe it’s not working it was supposed to”

    Before Brenda could finish, a laughter that Jax would recognize anywhere
came through the screen as well as a very familiar voice.

Jer: “Noooooo!  What are you thinking?  You’re going to ruin his surprise”
J: “How is Jerry’s voice coming through. . .”
B: “It’s supposed to connect you with them so that you can hear and see them
and they can see and talk to you but”

    Once again before Brenda could finish her sentence she was interrupted by
Jerry.

Jer; “I can’t believe my brother is friends with someone who gives up this
easily.  For bloody sakes you can hear me can’t you, that must mean this
thing is working. Can’t you take a joke?”

    Brenda’s anger at what she perceived as a rude attitude towards her from
Jerry, soon turned to a look of relief and delight as she saw Jax’s face
light up at the sight of his family appearing on the screen.  A familiar
playful slap passed from Lady Jane to Jerry as she reprimanded her eldest son.

LJ: “You will never learn will you.  The poor dear worked her little tusch
off so we could spend time with our Jax and how do you repay her?  By
tricking her into believing that the equipment doesn’t work.  I’m sorry
Brenda dear, my son here hasn’t learned to appreciate the kindness of
friendship, especially from beautiful woman like you.”
J: “Hi mum,  It’s great to see you.”
LJ: “It’s always great to see you son, but you need a hair cut.”
B: “I would be happy to help you out there.”
J: “I think I’ll wait until this house is mine.”
B: “You mean mine.”
JJ: “Well son I see you finally met your match.  That girl’s as stubborn as
you.”

    Brenda and Jax respond to Jax’s father in unison, leaving the Jacks clan
laughing their heads off.

J&B: “I am not stubborn!”

    Just then Brenda was stunned, as Jax was reminded of his surprise to
Brenda,

Jul: “I must agree with John, Brenda you can be quite stubborn.”
B: “How would you know?  You haven’t seen or talked to me in I don’t know
how long.”
Jul: “I didn’t here you banging on my door or knocking my phone off the hook
either.”
J: “It’s great to see you again Julia but I didn’t ask you to go there so
you could fight with Brenda.”
B: “You asked her to go there!  How did you know what I was going to do?”

    Jax stood there not answering for a moment as he contemplated pretending
like he knew and then revealing the truth, but then he realized that it was
best to tell the truth from the start.

J: “I didn’t know. I asked Julia to go to my house in Alaska for two reasons
really.  The main reason is so when I called and gave you the phone so my
family could wish you a merry Christmas, you could talk to Julia as well.”
B: “What was the other reason?”
J: “I knew that you  couldn’t be with her this year, and I couldn’t bare the
thought of your only relative being all alone for the holidays.”
B: “But if I weren’t here she still wouldn’t spend the holidays with me.”
J: “Maybe not, but now she can.”
Jul: “Bren aren’t you even a little happy to see me?”
B: “I am but you don’t have to sacrifice your Christmas to be with me you
know that don’t you?”
Jul: “I know that Bren, and I’m not sacrificing my Christmas, I was planning
to see you but you can’t have visitors and Jerry is a good friend of mine.”

    At the sight of Jax practically falling over laughing, Brenda turned to
him to see what was so funny.

J: “I’m sorry Bren., it’s just that Jerry and friendship have never been
used when it comes to describing his relationship with a woman.”
Jer: “And you have a lot of beautiful female friends?”
J: “My best friend just happens to be a very beautiful woman.”
Jer: “Who?”
B: “Me of course.”

    Jerry looked in Brenda’s direction with a look that said dream on, but
Jax didn’t waist a second confirming the truth.

J: “It’s true Jer, Brenda is my best friend.”
Jer: “Yeah until you get her into bed.”

    Brenda and Jax both acted like they didn’t hear what Jerry said.

J: “What did you say?”
Jer: “Forget it.”
B: “Hey, I thought we were going to eat dinner.”
LJ: “We are dear.  I swear sometimes these men of mine don’t have any common
sense leaving a little thing like you starving.”
B: “It’s okay really.”
LJ: “NO it’s not, my boys owe you an apology for keeping you waiting so
long.”
B: “That’s really not necessary.’
LJ: “Boys!”
J: “I’m sorry Brenda.  I’m sorry that my brother’s such a jerk.”
Jer: “I’m sorry that you’re stuck in a house with Jax, I know how difficult
he can be to live with.”
JJ: “I’m starving.”
LJ: “Lets eat.”

    As Brenda and Jax were about to take their first bites of food, Lady
Jane’s voice stopped them cold in their tracks.

LJ: “No you don’t.  Not until”
J: ”The blessing”
B: “What blessing?”
JJ: “Mother is not a religious woman in the traditional sense, however every
Christmas, as we sit down to eat our meal, and enjoy the company of our loved
ones we say a blessing thanking our creator for providing us with the love
and fortune that we have.”
B: “Do I need to close my eyes or anything?”
LJ: “No.  All you have to do my dear is take Jax’s hands as the rest of us
join hands.”
J: “Mum has us keep our eyes open so we can see all the people we’re
grateful for.”
Jer; “Brace yourself for the fortune story.”
B: “What fortune story?”

    Jax whispered to Brenda that every year John retells the story about how
he met Lady Jane and gained his first fortune, then he had Jerry and got
another fortune, then when Jax was born, he and Jane were blessed with yet
another fortune, then when they struck it rich, their fortune got even
bigger, and with each new person they come to grow and love they become even
more fortunate, but their most fortunate day will be when they hold their
grand children in their arms.
As John said the blessing, Brenda had to hold back her giggles of laughter as
John told the story exactly as Jax said he would.

    Throughout dinner, the Jacks parents told stories about little Jerry and
Jax when they were children.  Every once in awhile Jerry or Jax would add a
story in, or part of a story.  Julia also shared a few memories, but
throughout the dinner, Brenda stayed quiet.  Not only was she remembering
some of her bad Christmas’ past but she was also appreciating the fact that
thanks to the electronic equipment she was finally spending Christmas with a
real family, as well as her sister, and for the first time in her life, she
felt completely satisfied on Christmas, unlike the other Christmas’ where all
she felt was alone, sad, and a little bitter that Julia was showered with
attention while she was ignored.

    After dinner everyone sang carols and other holiday songs, between
stories and jokes.  A good time was had by all, but as time grew on everyone
knew that their time was coming to an end. Near midnight, everyone said their
good byes, before turning off the equipment.  As Brenda was preparing to go
off to bed, Jax gently took her arm and pulled her back towards him.

J: “Thank you for tonight Brenda, I’ll never forget it.”
B: “I didn’t do anything as special like say buying me everything I ever
wanted for Christmas and giving me a real Christmas.”
J: “You did a  lot, you let me spend time with my family”
B: “And you brought Julia, if you hadn’t asked, she never would have spent
the day with me, and your family kept us from fighting too much.”
J: ”So you had a good time?”
B: “The best time, I had the best time today.”
J: “Was something wrong during dinner?”
B: “No, why would you even ask that?”
J: ”You looked sad Bren, a sparkle went out of your eyes for a bit, did I do
something wrong?”
B: “No. Jax you made today perfect it’s just that I started remembering what
Christmas was like when I was little, I would have given anything to spend a
holiday with a family like yours, you know?”
J: ”I’m sorry that “
B: “No, don’t be sorry, not today.  Today was something I always dreamed of,
I wouldn’t have changed a thing,  Thank you for everything.”
J: ”Thank you for everything you did, I was dreading Christmas, but today
turned out to be one of the best ones ever.”
B: “I better head up to bed before I fall asleep down here.”
J: “Good night, I’ll see you in the morning.”
B: “I’ll be up in a few minutes to tell you your story.”
J:” I think you had enough memories during dinner today, we can skip the
story tonight, okay?”
B: “Okay.”

    While Brenda said okay a part of her was actually very sad that she
wouldn’t get to tell Jax a story and watch the joy on his face as he learned
more about his best friend.  Brenda got up and headed to bed, then turned to
Jax, who was also on his way up.  Brenda and Jax embraced in a short hug as
they each wished each other a merry Christmas for the final time that night.
Battle of Determination 9

    Despite the fact that Jax and Brenda’s friendship grew stronger every
day, the desire to fight was just as strong as ever but because of their
agreement, Brenda had to hold back all of her comments that would lead to
another battle of their wills.  There was also the pleasant feeling still
left in their hearts from the lovely Christmas they had the previous day.
    Since Brenda and Jax were up late, after a long Christmas day, they both
slept in extra late, so when they each woke up, neither realized that it was
nearly noon. Once they were both showered and dressed they went around the
house taking down all of the  Christmas decorations that they spent so much
time, and had so much fun, putting up.  Once every thing was down and
dedecorated, Brenda and Jax collapsed onto the couch.

B: “Do you know where I would be right now if I weren’t in this contest?”
J: “Where?”
B: “Shopping.”
J: “For what?  What are you one of those cheap people who waits until after
Christmas to buy Christmas gifts for the people you don’t see until after
Christmas.”
B: “Noooooooooooooooooooo.”
J: “Then who do you shop for?”
B: “Me of course.  All the stores have their big after Christmas sales, I’ve
gone ever since I was old enough to tell my nanny to take me.”
J: “You go out and shop for yourself?”
B: “Yes, I buy myself presents.”
J: “Speaking of presents, I found something while we were cleaning?”
B: “Something for me?”
J: “Something for both of us, from Lucy.”
B: “Lucy gave us a present?”
J: “A big one too.”
B: “Where is it?”
 

    As Brenda sat bouncing excitedly on the couch, Jax left and returned with
a big wrapped  box.  Once Jax returned with the box, Brenda tried to grab it
out of his hands but he pulled it out of her reach before she could get a
firm grasp on it.

J: “You have to read the card first.”
B: “But we already know it’s from Lucy, to us, what more do we need to know?”
J: “Brenda!”
B: “Okay, give me the card.”

    Brenda quickly ripped open the envelope holding the card, and let out one
of her famous awe’s as she read the inside.

J: “Well what does it say?”
B: “To my two favorite, best models, from Lucy and Sigmund.”
J: “Sigmund?”
B: “Her duck!”
J: “She signs cards from ducks?”
B: “Just one duck, Sigmund.”
J: “And  you don’t see anything strange about that?”
B:” No, not at all.  So what did we get?”

    As soon as Jax was seated next to Brenda, she grabbed part of the box and
began ripping the paper off right along with Jax.  It took several boxes
before they got to the actual gift.

J: “This is a nice photo album.”
B: “Open it up.”
J: “What for?”
B: “She probably put pictures in it.”
J: “Why would she do that?”
B: “Because she’s Lucy..”

    Sure enough when they opened up the album they saw that not only were
there a few pictures but almost half of the album was fool with pictures from
their shoot, in a section labeled “first shoot.   To Jax’s surprise, but not
Brenda’s, Lucy labeled other sections for future shoots.

J: “You know that I only agreed to one shoot, didn’t you tell Lucy?”
B: “Of course I did but she’s Lucy, she hears what she wants to hear.”
J: “How do you put up with her?”
B: “She might be a bit, wacky at times but she has a good heart, she did get
this for us didn’t she.  Lets just forget about her obvious attempt to guilt
us into another shoot, and look at the pictures.”
J: “Okay, but I’m not doing another shoot.”

    Jax and Brenda had a fabulous time looking at all the pictures from their
shoot and recalling exactly what was going on while that particular picture
was taken.  Later in their picture viewing, both Jax and Brenda discovered
that Lucy had in fact taken pictures of them before she even brought up the
idea to Brenda.

J: “I can’t believe that lady.  No one gave her permission to take these
pictures.”
B: “Jax. Calm down, I’m sure she didn’t mean”
J: “I don’t care what she meant, I care what she did and she violated us.”
B: “I’m sure she meant well.”
J: “Will you stop making excuses for her. She was wrong.”
B: “So what, are you going to hate her now?”
J: “No I don’t hate her but I hate what she did and no matter how many
excuses you make for her, I will always hate what she did.”
B: But she’s my boss and you’re my best friend, I can’t have you hating each
other.”
J: “You don’t listen do you Brenda?  I said that I don’t hate her, I just
hate what she did.”
B: “See, I don’t understand that.”
J: “Understand what?”
B: “How you can hate something that much that she did but still like her.”
J: “I haven’t decided if I like her yet, but I know there has to be
something good about her if you like her, and she does seem to have a good
heart.”
B: “You’re amazing, do you know that?  I don’t think I can ever do that, and
I don’t know how you can either.”
J: “So what did you think, if you did something to make me angry I wouldn’t
be your friend anymore?”
B: “I know I can do something to make you angry without you turning against
me, I mean I do stuff to bother you almost everyday.”
J: “No.”
B: “Come on Jax, you know it’s true.”
J: “Okay, maybe, but in a good way.”
B: “Oh there’s a good way to make you mad and annoy you?”
J: “Yeah.  Did you think you were a special exception to this imaginary
hatred?”
B: “No but, I can’t explain it.”
J: “Just know that no matter what happens, I will always be your friend,
you’re the best friend I ever had.”
B: “And your the best I’ve ever had.”
J: “But I still hate what Lucy did.  What I don’t understand is why you’re
not angry.”
B: “There’s nothing to be angry about, it was just Lucy being Lucy.”
J: “So that makes it okay to you for her to do whatever she wants just
because she’s Lucy?”
B: “I wish we never even opened this present.”
J: “Why’s that?”
B: “Because all you’ve been doing since we opened it is complain about Lucy.”
J: “And all you’ve been doing is making excuses.”
B: “If it bothers you so much, then maybe we shouldn’t talk for awhile.”

    As soon as the angry words slipped out of Brenda’s mouth, and she saw Jax
shake his head in agreement to her, she knew that she had made a huge mistake
and despite the conversation she had just had with her best friend, she
thought that she had lost his friendship forever.  Brenda wanted to take back
everything she said, especially that she didn’t want to talk to him.  As
usual Brenda’s determination to not back down, over powered her very strong
desire to apologize to Jax and tell him how sorry she was. It also didn’t
help that she was trying to convince herself that she didn’t have as many
feelings for him as she really did.
    Jax was just as determined as Brenda not to give in first, but he saw
their silent treatment of eachother as exactly what it was, a disagreement
between friends that would blow over eventually without even putting a
microscopic dent in their friendship.  Unlike Brenda, Jax knew that their
friendship was strong enough to out last a simple argument.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The hours of silence were completely torturous for Brenda.  Each hour
seemed like an eternity,  And each of those many eternity’s gave Brenda too
much time to think about her friendship with Jax, and her perceived loss of
that friendship. Finally Brenda sat down on the opposite end of the couch as
Jax, and unconsciously began rubbing her neck and shoulders.  After a few
minutes of trying to ease the pain in her shoulders and neck, Brenda found
that tears were flowing out of her eyes without her being able to control
them.  She tried to turn her face away so that Jax wouldn’t see how sad he
made her, but Jax did see.  Jax had no way of knowing the real reason for her
tears, he simply thought they were flowing because of a plain she had in her
neck and shoulders, he had no way of knowing how wrong he was.

J: “You know you don’t have to sit there in pain?”

    Brenda didn’t even here what Jax said in her shock over him actually
breaking the silence after hours of agony.

B: “You’re talking to me again?”
J: “I’m not the one who thought we should quit talking.”
B: “I didn’t think we should quit talking, I just said”
J: “That we should quit talking for awhile.”
B: “I wasn’t trying to ruin our friendship, I just.  Well I just didn’t want
to argue about Lucy anymore.”
J: “Who said anything about ruining our friendship?”
B: “But you didn’t talk to me and you were so angry.  More angry then usual.”
J: “Just because I get angry with you doesn’t mean that you’re not still my
best friend.”
B: “I am?”
J: “Of course you are.  One argument doesn’t change anything, you should
know that by now.”
B: “But this one was so bad, you were so angry.”
J: “And I’m sure you’ll make me angrier in the future, you have a gift for
doing that Brenda.”
B: “But you said I’m your best friend.”
J: “You are and you’re also very stubborn”
B: :”Not stubborn, determined”
J: “And so am I, so we’re going to make each other angry and get on each
other’s nerves every once in awhile but that doesn’t change everything that
we’ve been through together and the fact that you are the best friend I’ve
ever had.”
B: “You’re my best friend too.”
J: “Then will you do something for your best friend?“
B: “What?”
J: “Stop over reacting just because we have a disagreement or I disagree with
anyone for that matter.  One moment doesn’t make a relationship”
B: “But it can break one.”
J: ”Not for me, I don’t judge based on one action.”
B: “But everyone else does.”
J: “Not me, not ever.  And not someone worth caring about.”
B: “I’ve lost a lot of people from one wrong action.”
J: “If someone leaves because of one wrong moment, or action, they’re not
really worth having in you life in the first place.  I still mean what I said
earlier.”
B: “About what?”
J: “You don’t have to sit there and suffer.  If you’re sore or hurt I can
help.”
B: “What?”
J: “Your neck and shoulders, they obviously hurt, You’ve been rubbing them.
I know how to give great massages if you need one.”
B: “Oh you do?”
J: “Yeah, I went through training so if you just move over here.”
B: “It’s okay, I’m not that sore.”
J: “I think I should warn you now.  The one thing that will make me turn my
back on someone is dishonesty.  I don’t like to be lied to Brenda.”
B: “I’m not”
J: “Don’t say lying because I’ve seen you rubbing where you’re sore.”
B: “I was going to say in that much pain.”
J: “But you’ve been crying.”

    Brenda almost said that the tears weren’t from the tenseness and soreness
in her shoulders and neck but because she thought she messed up their
friendship, but instead she settled for another truth.

B: “Well I cry easily.”
J: “I don’t like seeing anyone cry, especially my best friend.”
B: “”I’ll be fine.”
J: “I know you will, but you’ll be better if you let me ease the pain away.”
B: “Okay, but just for a minute.”
J: “Okay, just until you say to stop.”

    Brenda silently slid over towards Jax.  Once Jax began his massage,
Brenda had to remind herself even more then usual that she wasn’t falling for
Jax, and that he was just her best friend, but for the first time, not even a
small part of her believed that for even a minute.
Battle of Determination 10

    A few days prior to Valentines day, life in the contest zone wasn’t
exactly ideal.  Several days prior the heater that warmed the entire house
decided that it no longer wanted to be the source of heat in the house.
After much convincing, Jax decided to look at the heater to see if, along
with instructions from a heater repair man, he could see what was wrong.
Unfortunately all Jax discovered was that  a very hard to find piece of the
heater blew out.  The only hope of fixing it was a small piece that would
probably take weeks to locate and several more weeks to ship.
    So as Valentines day approaches, Brenda and Jax are stuck in a house with
only a fire made out of logs small enough to slip through their opening to
the outside world .  To make matters worse, the rain outside hadn’t stopped
pounding and roaring for several days, making the temperature inside the
house drop even more.
    This day in particular, Brenda is sadder than usual, for several reasons
really.  Not only has she not been able to have physical contact with any of
her other friends for longer then she cared to think about, but Valentines
day was fast approaching and not only did she not have anyone to enjoy
Valentines day with, but ever since Jax gave her that massage to ease her
pain over a month ago, she knew that the one person who she truly wanted to
spend Valentines day with was right there in the house with her.  Normally
that would be good but in this situation it was horrible for Brenda.  Once
she finally stopped denying that Jax, her best friend, was the one whose arms
she wanted wrapped around her on Valentines day, she had to face the fact
that  Jax didn’t feel the same way.  She knew that he probably wouldn’t mind
spending Valentines day with her, but just like on New Years eve, while they
would both probably enjoy the day, their hopes for the day would be
completely different.
    As Brenda sat quietly on the couch, in the dark with only the fire to
shed glimmers of light, she couldn’t help but remember the moments leading up
to the start of the new year.  Not that she and Jax had much of a choice, but
they “decided “ to spend it together.  It hadn’t been long since Brenda
finally stopped denying that her feelings for Jax were stronger then she
cared to admit, so that day was the first holiday where she knew that she
wanted to spend the day with Jax as his date and not just his friend.  As the
minutes before the new year got smaller, and smaller, Brenda hoped that the
excitement of the new year would cause Jax to share a celebratory kiss with
her.  So as the minutes turned into seconds, Brenda’s excitement grew and
grew until finally it was 1999.  Brenda closed her eyes as she saw Jax come
towards her.  Instead of the anticipated kiss, she got a friendly hug, along
with a joyous, “Happy new year Bren”.
    As Brenda sat on the couch, she decided not to let her heart get set up
for another let down.  She decided that no matter what, she wouldn’t let her
heart wish for a kiss this Valentines day.
    Brenda’s other reason for being sad was Lucy, well really what Lucy
wanted, no demanded.  Her star models, models as in Jax and Brenda, in a
Valentines day and post Valentines day campaign for Deception.  After Jax
found out what Lucy did before the Christmas campaign, Brenda tried not to
even mention Lucy’s name around Jax..
    As teas began pouring from Brenda’s eyes, she thought about how much this
campaign would mean to Lucy, and how much fun she had with the last photo
shoot with Jax, but she also couldn’t help thinking about Jax saying that he
wouldn’t be in another photo shoot again, and saying how much he despised
what Lucy did to them.  Between the cold air in the house and the tears
falling from Brenda’s eyes (despite her efforts to pull them back),
unbenownst to  Brenda her body shakes somewhat violently, which isn’t
unnoticed by Jax when he walks in the room, after switching the light on.

J: “Bren, what’s wrong?”

    Brenda’s worries prevent her from hearing or even seeing Jax as he kneels
next to her.

J: “Bren, do you need more blankets or a bigger fire, maybe some chocolate
and marshmallows that you love so much.”

    It’s not until Jax places his hand on top of Brenda’s that she realizes
he’s right there beside her.

J: “Bren are you okay?”
B: “Yeah.”
J: “What were you thinking about?”
B: “Nothing really.”
J: “Nothing doesn’t make you cry and shake.  Do you need more blankets or”
B: “No, I’m fine, really.”
J: “Bren, there’s something wrong, I can see it but if you feel like you
can’t discuss it  with me that’s fine, I’ll leave you alone.”

    Jax went to retrieve his hand, as he stood and turned to walk away but
Brenda made sure to stop him.

B: “Please don't go Jax.”
J: “Why?  So I can stay here while you refuse to talk to me?”
B: “I wasn’t refusing, it’s just that it’s not a big deal.”
J: “You’re crying Brenda, that is a big deal to me,  I hate seeing you cry.”
B: “I was just a little sad, that’s all.”
J: “You sure?”
B: “And a little scarred.”
J: “Why don’t you tell me about it, and let me decide.”
B: “Okay but first can you get me some hot”
J: “Chocolate”

    Brenda quickly shook her head yes.

B: “And”
J: “Those little marshmallows you love so much.”
B: “Thanks Jax.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    It only took Jax a few minutes to prepare two cups of hot chocolate since
the reason why he went looking for Brenda was to ask her if she wanted some.
It’s not that he had a strong desire for a drink, but he knew that Brenda had
been a bit sad in recent days and he wanted to cheer her up.  Jax figured
that her sadness had to do with Valentines day but his reasoning was much
different then the actual reason for her sadness.  Jax simply thought that
Brenda was sad that she couldn’t spend the day with someone special, he had
no idea that he was the only someone special that Brenda wanted to share that
day with.
    Once Jax gave Brenda her cup of cocoa and slid on the seat next to her
Jax glanced over at Bren so he could see the child like pleasure that came to
her face everytime she took the first sip out of a cup of cocoa.

J: “You feel better now?”
B: “A little. Jax I meant what I said it wasn’t really a big deal.”
J: “How about this, I’ll tell you what I think is wrong and you tell me if
I’m way off.”
B: “Okay.”
J: “Valentines day  is coming and you’re stuck here, with me.  It probably
wasn’t so bad for the other holidays, but Valentines day is different, I’m
sure you weren’t expecting to spend it with your friend.”
B: “My best friend.”
J: “Yeah, but still only a friend.”
B: “Is that how you feel?  Would you rather spend the day with someone else?”
J: “No, that’s not what I was saying.   Valentines has never meant that much
to me, maybe because I never had anyone special to share it with, but I
understand that you might not want to spend that day with me.”
B: “You’re wrong Jax.  I’m not sad that I’ll be with my best friend, it’s
just that with Valentines day coming, I feel a little lonely.  All the
commercials and other advertisements are advertising things for couples, and
well I’m not part of a couple.”
J: “Bren, there’s just one thing I don’t understand.”
B: “What’s that?”
J: “What are you a little scarred about.”

    Before Bren had a chance to even open her mouth to give Jax an answer, he
realized exactly why.

J: “Don’t answer that, you can call Lucy right now and tell her that I am
NOT going to be in some Valentines day campaign.  Especially since I know how
sad they make you.”
B: “Jax, it’ll only be a few shots and I did promise Lucy”
J: “That you would do more shoots, not that I would be a part of them.  I’ll
watch but that’s all..  I WILL NOT WORK FOR THAT LADY AGAIN.”

    In Jax’s anger over Lucy convincing Brenda to convince him to be in this
campaign, Jax didn’t realize that he was raising his voice when he let out
the last part of his comment, but Brenda did.  Although Brenda thought she
let out all the tears she had inside, she soon realized that there were a few
more willing and able to escape her eyes at the raising of Jax’s voice.  Jax
noticed as well.

B: “Okay, I won’t ask again.”
J: “Bren, please don't cry.”
B: “Don’t you think if I could stop, I would?”

    The truth was that although Brenda had once tried to use tears as a way
of weakening Jax, and making him give into her, she truly didn’t want to cry
this time.  Brenda knew that not only was she crying because Jax raised his
voice, and although she wasn’t sure if he was aware of it, he yelled at her,
but also because she wanted Jax in the Valentines day campaign with her just
about more then anything, only she would never let Jax know that.

J: “I’m so sorry Bren, I didn’t mean to make you cry.  Please stop, I’ll do
anything.  I’ll even be in that stupid campaign.”

    Tears still poured down Brenda’s face as she responded to Jax.

B: “You will?”

    Jax tried to say, no.  That he would never work for Lucy again, but for
some unknown reason to him, he was willing to do anything to make Brenda stop
crying, even be in a photo shoot led by someone he swore he would never work
for again.  Jax didn’t know what had changed from prior to the last photo
shoot to now, but he knew that he could no longer stand there and watch while
Brenda was sad. He wasn’t sure if it was because this time her tears were
real or if it was because she meant more to him, but the one thing he knew
was that his mouth was saying  things that he couldn’t stop, and didn’t know
if he wanted to stop.

J: “Yes, but there will be rules, rules that Lucy must follow.”
B: “I can handle rules.”
J: “Good because there will be plenty, for starters no pictures can be taken
unless we are aware that they are being taken , and no kissing.”
B: “Is that it?”
J: “No, there’s more, I just haven’t thought of all of them yet.”
B: “Is there anything I have to do for you?”
J: “No, you’re perfect how you are.”
B: “You’re sure you don’t want more embarrassing stories, or compliments or”
J: “Nope.  You don’t have to do anything special for me.  Being my best
friend is plenty.”
B: “Thanks.”
J: “For what?”
B: “Making me feel better.”
J: “But I didn’t do anything.”
B: “Yes you did, you did a lot.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The always prepared Lucy was willing to show up the second Brenda called
her and gave her okay, but Brenda insisted that she wait until the next day
to come by, and that she follow all of Jax’s rules, all three pages of them.
Of course Lucy being Lucy agreed, knowing. or at least thinking that it
wouldn’t hurt to bend a few of the rules.
    The rain didn’t stop the following day, not even for Lucy and her crew of
many.  The first thing out of Lucy’s mouth was a small fit when Brenda
informed her that they were ready.

L: “No, no, no that’s not what I sent for you to wear.  I had all these
really sexy clothes, and now, now, ech.  Look at you, this is all wrong, I
can’t have my best models covered”
B: “It’s this or nothing Lucy.”
L: “That might be a bit risky but I think we can do it.  It’ll be like one
of those old romantic paintings I saw when I was,”
B: “Lucy”
L: “ now where was I?  Greece, Rome, Paris, Italy,”
B: “Lucy”
L: “ where was I, we can model you two so that all the crucial parts are
covered.  That’s it, you’re brilliant Brenda,”
B: “Lucy!”
L: “ it’ll be sexy and everyone will want to buy our products.”
B: “Lucy, you’re not listening.”
L: “Yes, I am. I love your idea.”
B: “It’s not my idea, it’s not what I was suggesting.  Lucy we are not
taking off our clothes, that’s not the offer.”
J: “If you’ll refer to side B of page two of the rules, you’ll see that we
have the right to refuse any outfit and substitute it with another.”
L :” That is not a substitute, that’s that’s”
J: “All you’re going to get.”
B: “Lucy you really couldn’t expect us to wear those outfits could you?  We
have no heat and it’s freezing in here, you had to know that boxer shorts and
little negligée’s wouldn’t work, I mean we would have goose bumps all over
us.”
L: “We can cover them up.”
J: “Come on Bren, if she’s going to disregard our health, the deals off.”
L: “Okay, I’ll try it your way but I don’t like it.”

        To Lucy’s amazement, Jax and Brenda did manage to order a bunch of
outfits and pajamas in red and/or white, that while covering them, were still
somewhat fashionable after seeing Lucy’s ideas of clothes which were pretty
much boxers for Jax, and the smallest possible things she could find for
Brenda.  The only outfit that Jax and Brenda didn’t completely disregard was
one of the sets of evening wear.  Lucy managed to pick a long, very elegant
red evening dress for Brenda, and a black tux for Jax, with a red vest, and
red rose pinned on the coat to go with the red rose for Brenda’s hair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    To Lucy’s surprise, not only were the outfits Jax and Brenda picked, a
lot better then she feared, but Jax and Brenda seemed more relaxed in the
shoot together, especially since according to Jax’s rules, only posed
pictures were allowed.  During the last shoot Lucy concentrated on the
unposed pictures because those were the one’s where Jax and Brenda truly
looked like they were in love but with the new rules, those pictures that
made so much money for Lucy, were no longer allowed, and instead the posed
one’s, which while still looked nice, also looked like two models posing for
a camera, were all she had this time, unless she broke the rules.
    The first few hours were quite remarkable.  Brenda and Jax graciously
posed for the camera for periods of twenty minutes at a time, followed by ten
minute breaks.  Though Lucy saw many tempting photo opportunities during
their down time, she resisted temptation and waited until their required ten
minute break was over before she allowed photos to be taken again.
    Just like during the previous shoot, Jax and Brenda had a wonderful time,
and it showed in the photos, or at least Lucy hoped that it would show in the
photos.   Lucy’s only wish was that she could get one picture, just one,
where Brenda and Jax looked at each other the way they did during their
breaks when they thought no one was looking, instead Lucy got what she
thought was her worst nightmare,  It all began during one of the breaks.
    Brenda, had gone to the kitchen to get a quick bite to eat while Jax
called his brother.  Jerry spent several minutes teasing Jax about how close
he and Brenda had become until finally Jax was ready to set his big brother
straight, unfortunately Brenda was standing at the door way, about to enter
the room and offer Jax a snack, when Jax’s conversation stopped her cold in
her tracks.

J:: “She’s not my girlfriend.  She’s my best friend, that’s all Jerry.
That’s all she will ever be.”

    Brenda was about to walk back to the kitchen when she heard Jax add another
comment.

J: “Of course I don’t want to kiss her. Why would I want to kiss my best
friend?”

    Once those words swam into Brenda’s ears she ran back into the kitchen
and tried to make them keep swimming out, but instead they stayed in her head
for the next few segments of their shoot to Lucy’s dismay.
    Instead of getting beautiful, sexy pictures of two people who cared very
deeply about each other, Lucy got pictures of Brenda either looking away from
Jax, or looking as if she wanted to cry every time she did manage to look at
him.  Finally after several agonizing shoots, Jax took Brenda aside to talk
to her.  Jax gently guided Brenda out of the camera’s view simply by taking
her by her hand walking out of view. Once they were out of every one’s sight
but their own, Jax looked Bren straight in her sad eyes.

J: “Did I do something to upset you?”

    Brenda silently shook her head no.

J: “Is it the shoot, because if it is we can stop now. Lucy will understand,
I’ll  make her understand.  We can finish the shoot tomorrow or the day after
that, whenever you feel better.”
B: “I feel fine.”
J: ”That’s why you look like you’re going to cry any second now?”
B: “I’ll be fine.”
J: “Okay but you know you can tell me anything don’t you?  You’re not sick
or anything are you?”
B: “No, it’s just this whole Valentines campaign is getting to me..”
J: ”Maybe I can get Lucy to change the theme.”
B: “For her Valentines day campaign, I don’t think so.”
J: “So maybe we can’t change the theme, but we can make the best out of it.”

    Before walking away, Jax held out his arms to offer Brenda a comforting
hug.  Unfortunately for Brenda the close proximity to Jax was overwhelming to
her.  As soon as Jax stepped away, Brenda turned her head so no one could see
her, while she let the tears drip down her face.

    Although Brenda hoped Jax wouldn’t notice she had been crying, he did,
only he didn’t say anything. Instead he hit a button on the stereo causing
the room to fill with music, extended his hand to Brenda, and offered her an
invitation she couldn’t resist.

J: “Dance with me.”
B: “Now.”

    Jax’s smile answered Brenda’s question for him.

    Jax was delighted when the first signs of a smile appeared across
Brenda’s face as they danced to the fast paced music.  Not long after their
dance began, Jax managed to get Brenda to laugh by acting like he was about
to fall, while obviously being in zero danger of actually falling.  Finally
when Brenda’s laughter, along with Jax’s felt the entire room, and filtered
through the window, that Lucy managed to open a bit, Lucy decided to
interrupt her “happy couple”.

L: “Okay, now that you two are in a good mood, what do you say we take some
pictures.”
B: “We’re busy.”
J: “You’re also on the clock.”
B: “Do you enjoy interrupting our fun?”
L: “No, but I want to capture these gorgeous smiles for our campaign.  Come
on you two, it’s back to work.”

    To Lucy’s delight she got several roles of gorgeous pictures before her
ultimate nightmare happened during one of the breaks.
    Once Jax asked Brenda to dance, that loving look returned between them,
providing perfect pictures.  Lucy and her crew also noticed that not only had
the loving look returned, but along with it came an extra sparkle that made
their pictures even more irresistible.  Lucy could tell that both Jax and
Brenda were falling for the other so she decided to give them a few little
pushes, which ended up back firing on her.
    Lucy couldn’t help but notice how concerned and giving Jax got when
Brenda was sad or hurting, so she decided to use that part of him for her own
benefit.  Lucy’s plan was to insist that Brenda where certain shoes for each
part of the shoot, she pointed out that that was the least Brenda could do
considering the fact that she refused to wear almost every outfit that Lucy
carefully picked out.  Lucy, being Lucy and wanting her way, purposely choose
very high hills which were certain to hurt Brenda’s feet, if not her legs as
well.  Her plan was for Jax to notice that she was in pain, and help ease the
pain in her muscles.
    At first Lucy was delighted by the results of her little plan.  When Jax
saw Brenda rubbing her legs in obvious pain, he offered to ease the pain
which she reluctantly agreed to.  At first the massages were simply a
friendly gesture on Jax’s part but then Lucy noticed that Jax and Brenda were
looking at each other more and more, until finally  Brenda’s legs remained on
top of Jax’s after he finished easing her aches for the time being.  Lucy
couldn’t help but smile as Jax began lightly tickling Brenda until she was
forced to ask him to stop between giggles.

J: “Why?”
B: “Because if you don’t I’ll”
J: :You’ll what.”

    Brenda’s hands answered for her as she began returning Jax’s tickle.
Jax could barely get out his words as his laughter roared throughout the
house.

J: “You’re in trouble now.”
B: “Oh yeah.”
J: “Oh Yeah.”

    By this time the laughter had stopped, while Brenda and Jax looked
longingly into the other’s eye.  Just as Jax slowly leaned towards Brenda,
and Brenda leaned towards Jax, a flash burst through the window interrupting
the two friends.
    Instead of immediate anger towards Lucy and her crew, Brenda saw a bit of
regret in Jax’s eyes, the only problem was that she wasn’t sure what he was
regretting, the fact that their almost kiss got interrupted before it began,
or the fact that they almost kissed.  Jax looked at Brenda sadly before
getting up.

J: “I’m sorry Brenda, I’m so sorry.”

    Brenda didn’t get to respond to Jax’s apology because In less time then
it took for her to open her mouth, he was at the window screaming at Lucy.

J: ”THAT’S IT!  THIS SHOOT IS OVER!”
J: “Jax I swear I didn’t tell them too, I told them no pictures were allowed
during the breaks, they knew that.  I guess they just couldn’t resist such a
perfect picture.”
J: “Well that perfect picture just cost you this shoot.”
B: “Jax, please don’t go.”

    Brenda turned to Lucy before going after Jax.

B: “Don’t leave yet. I’ll talk to him, and if he doesn’t agree to come
back, I’ll finish the shoot by myself.  Just give me ten more minutes.”
L: “You can have as long as you want.  Brenda, I’m sorry.   Tell Jax I’m
sorry too.’
B: “I will.”

    Brenda didn’t waste a second longer before speeding after Jax. She knew
exactly where to find him, in the bedroom.

    Brenda quietly sat beside Jax on the bed and gently placed her hand on
his shoulder.

B: “I’m sorry about what happened down there.  I never would have asked you
to be in the shoot if I knew they were going to take pictures when you didn’t
want them to.  You know that don’t you?”

    Jax quietly shook his head yes.   As he slowly turned his face towards
Brenda, she could see that he had been crying, but she decided not to say
anything about it.

J: “I’m sorry about what happened down there.  I didn’t plan on, I mean I
wasn’t expecting to, it just sorda happened.  I don’t want you to think that
I’m trying to change things between us because I’m not.  I love what we have
now, I love having you as a best friend, I wasn’t trying to ruin that I guess
I just got a little carried away with, well with everything.”
B: “You have nothing to be sorry for Jax.  We’re both a little lonely, and
nothing happened.  So there’s no reason to be sorry since nothing happened,
okay?”

    Jax  instinctively pulled Brenda into a hug.

J: “Okay.”

    Brenda waited until they finished their hug before she spoke again.

B: “I don’t suppose you would be willing to finish the shoot with me.”
J: “No, absolutely not.”
B: “Okay, I won’t push, but I’m going to finish it, that is unless you mind
terribly.”
J: “I’ll be there cheering you on from the sides.”
B: “Thank you.’
J: “For what?”
B: “Being so great.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Jax took delight in watching Lucy’s face light up as he walked back in
the room holding Brenda’s hand, and then fall flat on the floor when Brenda
informed Lucy that the rest of the shoot would be her solo.

L: “That’s okay, we can get some great shots of you, and combine them with
the other shots.”
J: “I don’t’ want any of the shots with me used.”
L: “Brenda talk to him.”
B: “I have.  I promised him that you wouldn’t take any pictures unless he
gave his  okay and you did. I’m not going to waste my breath telling him to
trust you again.”
L : “But Brenda”
B: “Forget it Lucy.  This is the second time you hurt him. The first time I
was willing to overlook it but not this time.  Now if you want pictures of
me, you can take them, but that’s all I can give you.”
L: “Do I have a choice?”
B: “Yes, you can end the shoot right now and find someone else.”
L: “You know no one can replace you.”
B: “Then promise me you will only take pictures of me when I’m alone.”

    Unbeknownst to Brenda, Lucy made sure to cross her fingers before
responding.

L: “I promise.”

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Brenda agreed to do longer segments of the shoot before taking breaks so
that they could finish quickly.  Somehow Lucy managed to complain about how
Jax and Brenda not matching bothered her eyes enough that Jax agreed to
change outfits along with Brenda, but refused to let Lucy or any of her crew
snap pictures of him.
    Lucy couldn’t help but notice that although Jax wasn’t in the pictures
with Brenda, that extra glow that lit up Brenda from head to toe when Jax was
around, shined through in each photo, especially after one of the many breaks
where Brenda and Jax sat around joking with each other.
    It wasn’t until the final outfit change when Jax and Brenda came out in
the evening attire provided by Lucy that Lucy couldn’t resist breaking her
promise during one of the breaks.  By that time, it was getting late, so
Brenda took an extra long break so she and Jax could eat dinner.  Lucy knew
that they only had to get through one or two more segments and then they
would be done but there was something inside her that wouldn’t let the
perfect pictures she saw before her eyes go by without being forever frozen
in time.
    While the diner pictures were more then Lucy could have hoped for from
any other models, she couldn’t resist getting pictures when they sat on the
couch, and Brenda rested her head on Jax’s shoulder.  Brenda’s original
intent was to keep from falling asleep against the soft couch, but once Jax
put his arm around her, her eyes closed, pulling her to sleep.  Soon after
Jax saw that Brenda drifted off, he too drifted off, but not for long.
    Luckily for Lucy, by the time Jax awoke, all the cameras were put away
and her crew was heading back to their cars.  Lucy let Jax know that they
were leaving, and asked him to thank Brenda for finishing the shoot for her.
As Lucy added one last apology to Jax, Jax questioned her not wanting any
pictures of Brenda in her “magnificent” evening gown.  Lucy simply said that
she had caused enough problems for Brenda, and felt that she should be able
to enjoy her sleep.  Jax was too tired to question Lucy’s defeat, so he
returned her good-bye just before closing his eyes and drifting back to sleep.
end chapter 10