dchsixteen

Mike spent the entire trip to the hospital gearing up for a confrontation with his mother over a subject that was still unknown to him. He barely noticed when the car pulled up behind him on the expressway, he didn't notice it trailing him for several miles, he didn't even notice when the lights came on, he did take notice when the siren blasted a signal for him to pull over to the side though...

"Blasted!!!"

Rolling down the window and fishing through his pockets all at the same time, Mike produced the thin white laminated card that bore his resemblance and personal information. He handed it to the waiting officer through the window and began to open the car door.

"Stay in the car." The officer demanded as he shoved on the door to keep it closed. "And keep your hands where I can see them." After several seconds the figure outside the car bent to peer into the cars interior. "You need to watch your speed, Mr. Jackson. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ticket you. You were going 80 miles per hour, sir, were you aware of that?" The officer waited for a response, still bent over at the window of the little black car, getting only a nod in response. "You were aware of it?" He didn't try to mask the astonishment in his voice, rarely did people admit to knowing they were speeding, even if they did.

"I mean, NO." Mike shouted in sudden realization that he had just admitted to breaking the law intentionally. "I'm sorry officer, I do admit that I was distracted. I promise, I'll do better." Mike tried to look sufficiently pathetic and pleaded with his eyes.

As the officer pulled away, Mike felt his mood darken even further� what a night. Pushing his way back into traffic, ignoring the angry sounds of honking from passing cars that actually did have the right-of-way, he continued on ticket in hand� damn, couldn�t cut a guy a break?

Mike sat in the parking lot for a full fifteen minutes, both to gather up his emotions and put them away, this would be no time for a tearful bout of sympathy, whatever his mother had been mad about, she was too mad to sympathise� he�d seen that anger at work before, just never on him, it was usually directed at Jermaine, or Randy�. The wicked one, and the impetuous one, never the golden one� hahahaha, and the others were just to benign to ever get into too much trouble, not outside of the family anyway. A resigned scowl crossed his face, she never got this way with any of the girls when they pulled something outta their hats that was totally off the wall or just plain nasty� what�s with that? Seemed abit like reverse sexism. Well, damn, for the first time in his life, he could have probably counted on having Joe on his side, but fat lotta good that would do now� but it was a certainty in their house, that if Kate was mad at one of them, Joe would stick up for the accused� if Joe were irate and taking it out on one of them� it was Kate to the rescue, what an odd twist, usually Kate was behind him 100 percent� hell and now when he needed Joe, the old man was useless to defend him� phooey. As his mind reeled on with crazy speed, trying to get a grip on a situation that he had no clue as to what to expect in� his eyes scanned the surrounding landscape for reporters, hordes of fans, anything that would pose a threat to his walking into the hospital safely. Nothing� radar off this morning� hummmmm. Well, that was a good thing, a fight with any of them would be more than his psyche could handle at the moment.

Slamming the door behind him he strode confidently toward the large glass door of the building when out of the corner of his eyes he caught a glimpse of figures hurrying towards him� damn, damn, damn�. RUN. Mike pounded the pavement as fast as he could and made it to the doors and past the hospital security just as the cameras began to flash outside of the building. Not only were the radars working this morning, they had really improved upon their stealth capabilities� One of the security guards eyed Mike and then the realization hit just who he was looking at, and he began to stammer something about helping, but Mike just brushed him off and demanded that they keep the area free of reporters. Both guards looked at each other with a look of amazement as Mike rushed by and headed for the elevators� what nerve, but they took their places watching the doors for any signs of intrusion.

Mike burst through the door that led to Joe�s room� and was about to begin shouting when he saw him� Brandon� standing right next to his mother� well� that might explain the anger.

�What the hell are you doing here?� Mike demanded, bruskly grabbing the boy by the arm and pulling him away from his mother�s side. �Do you know your mother�s sick with worry about you? How did you get here? How did you find out about this?� His shouting had woke some of the napping family members who were scattered about in various chairs about the room and who now sat up sleepily to watch the show as it unfolded. Kate charged over and moved between Mike and Brandon�

�Don�t you scold that boy like that! You have a lot of explaining to do boy� so start NOW.�

�What exactly do you want me to explain?� Mike asked in his sweetest sugar coated voice, with a condescending lilt that he hoped she would catch, then again, perhaps that might not be a good thing. Kate didn�t usually tolerate such an attitude, and a sharp slap to the head would surely follow if she did catch it.

�You might wanna explain to me why you denied me the pleasure of having knowing I had this grand-child! You might wanna explain to me why you LIED to me! You might wanna explain to me��

�I might not too�� Mike cut her off, and swung around, grabbing Brandon and heading for the door with the boy in tow.

�Michael Joseph Jackson, don�t you dare leave this room like this. Come back here now and take this like a man. You can�t keep running away from every problem that pops up. I have a right to be angry, you had no right to do what you did. Because of what you said, I hurt this child and his mother very much.�

�Leave the man alone Kate.�

Every one in the room turned to look in startled amazement at the man on the bed who had mumbled the words of defense.

Well, Mike thought, looks like the system still works, even now, even for him, even in Joe�s condition� he wasn�t gonna let a good fight get away from him. He had to fight the urge to laugh at the crazyiness of it all. As Mike walked towards the bed to see his father, Brandon shook himself free and started towards the door. Mike wheeled around and grabbed him again�

�Oh no you don�t, you�re not running off again. You�re staying right here until I can deliver you back to you mother safely.�

�Get your hands off of me. Why should I listen to YOU? You�re not my FATHER�. Right?� Wrestling away again, Brandon back stepped quickly toward the door, but Katherine blocked his way.

�Don�t leave. Please, and well� Your father�s right.� Her eyes glared up at Mike. �You can�t run off again, your mom needs to know you�re okay. Stay here with us and Mike can call your mom, and we can talk�� she glared again at Mike who just shrugged and turned away, back to his own father lying on the bed. �I promise, no more fighting, okay?� She pulled Brandon closer to her and hugged him, still not believing how much like Mike he looked and felt� it was like holding on to a piece of the past.

Mike bent down over the bedside and whispered in his father�s ear. The old man�s lips turned up in a smile and he patted the thin shoulders above him, and for the first time ever, Mike felt a bond string up like iron between them, and he felt the swat of a magazine hit him from behind.

�What was that for?� he turned to look, expecting to see Kate standing there, but instead looking straight into the eyes of his past.