dchtwo

�WHAT?� Michael demanded cupping the phone�s receiver in one hand, effectively putting his father on hold as he met Debbie�s angry stare with his own. There was no response from her though and Michael watched as she all but boiled over with anger mounting, creating a tension so visible she shook. God it would have been hysterical if only he wouldn�t have to deal with whatever her problem happened to be. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned back to the phone � if she wasn�t going to answer, he wasn�t going to play 20 questions either. Whatever her problem was, it wasn�t his problem� YET. With his eyes studiously trained on the counter-top, he heard, rather than saw, her stomp off toward the center island that held the coffee pot, full of fresh-brewed coffee. He really hated the bitter taste of coffee, but he loved the smell, the way it filled the room with it�s warm roasted aroma. �If you�re not gonna be there, and Kia�s not gonna be there, who�s gonna handle the end-of-the-month reports?� It was the 29th, and that was the only reason he would even consider giving up Saturday with his kids to go traipsing down to the city and sit in a stuffy office all day. �HELL NO, not me!� he shouted back at the helpless receiver. �I got Sony bitchin�, and Steve�s on my back to send back the contract�s to be filed�� Mike fumed at the way Sony had been hard-ballin� him lately, he had to fight tooth-and-nail for even a modest amount of control over his product, and now he could feel even that slipping away. He�d make them sorry someday that they had pulled out on him the way they had. Practically abandoning him after all he had done for them in the past. Steve on the other hand had always been there: faithful and true� and often annoying. Still, without Steve�s legal counsel, Mike knew he would never have survived the past 20 or so years in this sea of sharks. Steve certainly wasn�t a criminal defense lawyer, and Mike knew he had hurt his friend and advisor�s feelings when he hadn�t sought his advise back during the dark days� But as an entertainment lawyer, there was none better, and he always surrounded himself with the best. How else could a kid from Midwestern nowhere, who had pathetically little formal education, become one of California�s shrewdest and most powerful businessmen? � By having the brains to get the best people to work for ya, that�s how! He may not be educated, but he wasn�t no fool! Kia, now that was another story� Scatter-brained, absent-minded� loyal, yes, and for that she would have a job for life. Still, Mike wished his loyal secretary were just a bit more organized. And now � what was he going to do for six months? Just Friday morning Kia had dutifully informed Mike, via fax, that she had been instructed to stay in bed. At 45, she was having a baby, and problems� Great. He had made no secret publicly, or privately, that he had wanted more kids, but he really hadn�t expected his mid-night tryst with Kia to provide such a response. And he certainly didn�t think he would loose his secretary to it. He had to find younger women, he chuckled to himself. Debbie had made no bones about the fact that at 38 she was not interested in more kids. Two was enough, thank you very much. A boy, and a girl, what more could he possibly need, she had wanted to know. He had still loved her, but that had put a nasty wedge in their relationship. It hadn�t helped much that during one particularly heated argument on the subject of a larger family, Mike had informed her that as his wife, she had certain� obligations. �Well Hell�s bells� wasn�t every man entitled to an occasional lapse of chauvinism?� Kia�s pregnancy drove the final nail home for his failing marriage, there had been no mercy after that. As far as Debbie was concerned, he was lucky to be seeing his kids at all after that. His mind flipped back to Faith upstairs, she was young, mid to late 20�s he supposed. A smile that could have easily been mistaken for lechery spread across his features. Okay, maybe more than an occasional lapse of chauvinism. Shaking his head, he realized he hadn�t even been listening to the old man complain on the other end of the line. �Okay, okay, you got a headache and you won�t be in� I�ll manage.� Mike hung up leaving no time for a response, tired of hearing Joe complain. Lately he had been staying away from the office a lot, headaches. What about the headache of running Jackson Corporation? The huge conglomerate that comprised his own company MJJ Productions, Janet�s company JDJ Productions, and his, Janet�s, and Joe�s multi-faceted investment deals, all merged into one Incorporation with him, Janet, and Joe as executive officers. Joe was and always had been �chief-executive-officer� for the company, Michael knew someday he would take Joe�s place, after all, Joe was getting �up there�, but Mike sure wasn�t ready to give up his active career just yet for a life completely chained to a chair� he spent enough damn time there already. Now he would most likely be spending his ENTIRE weekend stuck behind a desk wading through expense reports and profit statements. Uggggh. Putting the receiver down, he turned and nearly ran right into Debbie. Her blue eyes driving right through him. How long had she been standing there? �WHAT?� she was striking raw nerves now and he was sure he�d start stomping his feet and shake her until her teeth rattled if she didn�t answer him. Mike watched in astonishment as Debbie simply turned and began to walk away from him, swinging her arm through the air in disgust. �What�s your problem, bitch?� Michael didn�t have time to duck when she spun around, slapping him so hard across the jaw that he felt his teeth slam together.

�Don�t you EVER speak to me that way, especially with the children around. You may be a God out there.� She pointed off into the air �But here with us� your just a man who had better watch what he�s bringing into this house with his kids around!�

Mike knew she wasn�t only referring to Faith, she hadn�t given him a moment�s peace since she had found out about Kia. Faith was just another nail. Not that the lid on the coffin to their marriage could ever be raised� just sealed tighter.

�Be a jerk, if you want to live like that, but don�t you dare teach that child�� she pointed to the other room where Prince and Paris were playing. �to be a creep like you and your brothers, not to mention your old man.�

�Oh come on, baby, I ain�t that bad, huh?� Michael put his arms around her shoulders. She punched his chest but it was weak, she was melting.

�Don�t �baby� me.� She tried to push him away, but he hung on.

�Didn�t I treat you good?� He demanded sweetly. �Didn�t I love you?� he felt his own heart tug. �I still love you, baby.�

She pounded him again, only this time a bit more forcefully. Enough to make him step back and release her from his embrace.

�And boy, don�t think I can�t tell.�

�Don�t play that, sweetie. You threw me away, remember? Not�� He stopped short her angry stare sent an icy chill down his spine.

�Threw you away? You�re the one who seems to like to take out the garbage.�

�That�s enough you two!� Mona pushed her way between the arguing couple. �Those babies don�t need to hear their parents cuttin� each other up now.�

�I wasn�t�� Mike�s protest was cut of by Mona�s continuing sentence.

�Hush, boy! I can still lay my hands on that pancake turner!� she eyed him waiting to see if he�d respond or behave. When she got no rebuttal, she continued. �You can leave now.� She looked at Debbie with an authoritative glance that dared her to object. �And you�� she dug her finger into Mike�s chest. �Go to work! And take �Miss thing� upstairs with you, please.�

�WORK!� Debbie had almost exited the kitchen when she doubled back upon hearing Mona�s comment. Mona�s eyes raised. Surprised that the ex-Mrs. Jackson would dare to return to the conversation after she had been dismissed. �What about the kids? I don�t bring them here for you to go off and leave them to wander about alone.�

�They�re never alone, and maybe Faith��

�Oh no you don�t Mister. Not a chance. You stay here, or they go with me. Got it?� It was a question without question, there would be no debate, in her opinion, it was take it or leave it.

�Never you both mind. Those kids stay with me, Mike see them when he gets home.�

�But�� Debbie protested

�GO!� Mona was prepared to move and force the woman out the door if needs be, but she sure hated to see the kids have to watch as their parents acted younger than they were. Glancing in the direction of the den, she was pleased to see that the two babies were playing with their toys on the floor of the room, not paying any attention to the commotion in the kitchen.

Mike shrugged and headed for the stairs to change. He felt drained; a confrontation with Debbie always did that to him. He heard the door slam at the bottom of the stairs and seconds later, a car pulling out of the drive, fast. �Take a pill. Jeez.� He mumbled as he climbed the last stair and stood before the door to his bedroom. He really didn�t want to turn the knob. He felt like turning back, heading down the stairs, and leaving for the office just the way he was. No one else would be there anyways on Saturday. What did it matter how he looked? But he turned the knob anyway. If he didn�t change, it would be just his luck that Joe would feel better and decide to come into the office after all, and catch him there in jeans and a tee-shirt. Didn�t seem like much of a problem to him, but Joe had always been adamant about dressing for success. �My ass�� he thought to himself as he entered the room. It would be too if Joe caught him, so he�d change. He went to the closet and began to leaf through his collection of shirts, deciding to ignore the form on the bed that appeared to be sleeping.

Maybe alone wouldn�t be such a bad thing after all

Part 2

Michael saw the figure on the bed stir when the light in the closet clicked off. �Shit� he had hoped to make a clean get away. �Hey there�� he smiled at her as she rubbed her eyes and focused her gaze on him. He finished buttoning his shirt and tucked it into the black slacks that hung loosely from his hips. Grabbing a tie from its hook on the wall of the closet, he wrapped it deftly into a neat knot and slid it up to rest against his throat. Watching as the slender young woman slid out from under the covers, her long bare legs, tan from the California sun, gave him pause to re-consider his rush to leave. �You don�t have to get up.� For a second he gave serious thought to joining her. �So, go back to sleep. Maybe tonight we can get some dinner.� Damn, damn, damn� why were these words coming out of his mouth? Why couldn�t he just say, �nice knowing ya, catch ya later, maybe.� And kick her skinny butt out the door?

He looked at her sitting on the edge of the bed. �Man, those legs�� she made him weak. He gave the tie a final tug and nearly choked himself. Hearing her giggle, he turned away to face the mirror on the closet door and re-adjust the tie.

�You look, great. This is for the office?�

�Yeah, gotta be the image of the company.� Trying to remember the rhetoric his father spouted, he said the words, but they sounded hollow.

�You always have to be an image, huh?�

Mike thought about it for a minute, it was true. His whole life had been spent as an image. Never could just kick around, unless he had some sort of disguise on�yeah, that was fun.

�Well, I have to go. Hate to tell you this, sweet thing, but I�ll probably be gone all day. That�s why I thought, maybe dinner.� He bent to put a shoe on.

�Well, wait a minute� I wanna go.� Faith stood quickly, looking for a pair of pants in the drawer by the bed.

�Hey, hey, whoa girl. Not so fast. Believe me, you�d be bored� Just hang loose, �kay? I�ll see you tonight.�

�But Miiiike�.�

�But Faaaith�.� He whined, mimicking her pathetic whimper. He really hated when women whined. �You don�t have to stay.� He said with an indifferent tone. �But, you can�t go with me.� Pausing, as much for effect as to bend to straighten his sock that had bunched at his ankle. �It�s up to you.� Turning to walk out he tried not to look in her direction. To give her any opening to continue the conversation or demand to come along. �Oh please�.� He thought. �please, demand to come. Make it easy for me to kick your butt all the way to the curb.� No such luck. �Damn�. He walked out of the room and headed down the stairs.

SLAMMMMM

He cringed at the sound of the bedroom door closing forcefully enough to shake the house.

Mike glanced out the patio windows at the kids playing by the pool with Mona relined peacefully in a lounge chair watching as they splashed in the wading area at the shallow end. He caught her eye and he motioned to wave good-bye. Great life, he thought, not sure himself which he envied more, the kid�s or the housekeeper.

Before he could lose himself with that thought, he saw the motion of Mona�s hand as she pointed in the direction of the bedroom window, and then forcefully back at him. Mike smiled sweetly back, from his vantage point INSIDE the house and shook his head pointing at her, then he waved. A frown, no that wasn�t it� a scowl, yeah, that was it, a scowl spread across her olive-skinned face and her dark, almost black, eyes gave warning of a coming storm.

OOOOOOhhhhhh, that was a look he�d have to deal with later. As he turned and opened the front door, he chuckled to himself. In that mood, she�d probably take care of Faith for him. Ah well, at least he�d only have one irate female to deal with tonight.

He hurried to reach his car, just in case either of the two women he wished to avoid, decided to come trotting after him. He didn�t want to argue and he definitely didn�t want company. He�d had plenty of both already that morning.

Turning the key, he felt a surge of relief, to be locked away inside the small confines of his little, black spider. He felt the pulse of the engine as it roared to life, the instrument panel flashing, reminding him of an airplane cockpit. Of all the cars he owned, this was his favorite.

Slowly moving down the long curved driveway, he stopped for a second at the entrance to the deserted street. Never an area for much traffic, it seemed particularly deserted for a Saturday morning. Even now, years after the troubled early nineties, there was still usually a somewhat steady onslaught of fans by the gate; sometimes just curiosity seekers, sometimes worse. He truly loved the fans. He often wished he could feel safe enough to get out and talk with them. Occasionally, back before his troubles began, he would actually walk down to the gates, standing securely behind them, and talk to his fans. But lately, he hadn�t felt much like doing that, loving his fans was one thing. Dealing with the curious and the haters, that was another� and it seemed at times, they far outnumbered the fans. He didn�t really bother much to think about the ones that hated him, what really got to him were the curiosity seekers � he hated being a curiosity! GOD if only they really knew� Oh well, there was nobody today, he should be glad, he supposed.

His mind drifted to the things he needed to do when he got to the office. A thought struck him then, that even though Kia almost never worked on a Saturday, it was going to seem strange and empty without her there. Just knowing that she wouldn�t be there, he really liked her. He knew he didn�t love her. He wasn�t sure that she knew that, but he wasn�t worried, he would always treat her well. She had been one of the faithful few who hadn�t tucked their tails between their legs and run the minute the winds turned against him. He loved her for that, yes he did� okay, maybe he did love her, in a certain way. She was pretty, but had a certain lack of maturity that hid her true age. At 45, Mike would have guessed she should have had a little more on the ball than she often appeared to have. She had been so surprised that night three months ago, when he had asked her to stay with him as she had started to clean up, getting ready to leave� He�d been pretty surprised himself. He hadn�t even thought of her that way, in spite of the mini-skirts and tube tops she always wore. He had been particularly vulnerable that night. The explosive fight he had had with Debbie earlier in the day had played with his mind until he thought he would surely break down. He had just wanted company, he told her, as he closed the door behind her when she walked into his office. His mind played out the events of that night like a well-worn video.

Mike pulled up to the space in front of the large brick and stone building that bore his family�s name, and turned the key. As the engine silenced itself, so did his thoughts of Kia�s warm brown legs, and soft black thighs� �WAKE UP!� he scolded himself, even as a smile crossed his face. He climbed out of the car and headed for the front door.

Stanley, the gray-haired old security guard opened the glass door for him and nodded a silent hello, as Mike walked through. �Mornin� Stan, how�s it hangin�?� Mike didn�t expect a response from the old man. He never got one. Mike knew Stanley didn�t care for him much and cared for him even less when he spoke to him like that. It embarrassed the old man. Mike didn�t care though, as long as the old fart did his job, that was all that mattered. He walked briskly through the maze of desks that littered the first floor of Jackson Corporation and made a path for the elevators at the back of the room. Somewhere in the distance he heard a phone ring� not to be answered, it sounded lonely and made him feel even more alone and empty than usual.

Exiting the elevator and the third floor he stepped onlto the gold carpet that covered the waiting area of his suite of offices. To the right was a large glass enclosed conference room, and to the left a sitting area complete with oak coffee table and large over-stuffed gold chairs, there was even a wet-bar behind the chairs that nobody ever used. Straight ahead was Kia�s desk, littered as usual with piles of papers and an old coffee cup that waited to be cleaned on Monday morning� Mike stopped to touch the cup, �gonna have to throw that thing away when she gets back.� Yuk!

Behind her desk were the large oak double doors that was the entrance to his office. It was truly grand looking and he felt a surge of pride even as he stood there at the front of the closed doors. Bending slightly to insert the key that would unlock the doors, he suddenly jumped to feel a hand touch his butt.

�AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!� Turning so quickly he bumped his head on the door, he stood and stared frantically into the crystal blue eyes that were laughing hysterically at him.

�LISA! Damn�� This was too much, two ex�s in one day. If she had a problem, he might have to kill her� Too bad to, she was the only one he really got along with. �You nearly scared me outta my socks, girl!�

Lisa bent down and grabbed his pant leg at the calf, pulled up, and then looked up to him.

�oooohhhh, poor baby. And such cute socks too.�

�I didn�t even hear you come up behind me! What are you doing sneaking up behind me like that?!?�

�Calm down, will you. You look like your gonna have a heart-attack.�

Taking a deep breath he realized she was probably right. He hadn�t noticed until now, but his blood-pressure had to be through the roof, he could feel it� hear it actually. Whenever his pressure got too high, he could hear as well as feel his pulse pounding in his left ear. And there it was, a rhythmical thump, thump, thump. Aggravating as hell.

�Well you didn�t help any, sneaking up behind me like that.� As he walked into the office, he felt her hand on his waist as she followed him, and then it just started pouring out, all the events of that morning just flooded out of him, and she listened. He told her about Faith, about the last three weeks� she didn�t flinch, or even bat an eye. It made him furious to think about him and Lisa, it should have worked between them, they were perfect for each other� They loved each other, sure, but hell, he coulda made babies all across the United States and Eastern Europe and she wouldn�t have cared in the slightest, as long as he didn�t try to chain her up� it would have worked, they had had a great relationship� they only had one problem, and it�s name was Priscilla. Then he told her about Debbie, was it his imagination, or did Lisa tense just a little when he mentioned his second ex-wife�s name? �Now she expects me to live my life alone��

�UmmmHummm� and pining away for her, that�s the way it�s supposed to work, don�t you know that?� She smiled seductively. �Do you spend your time pining away for me?�

�Yes.� He just had, hadn�t he? �I spend my time thinking that if it wasn�t for your loving mother, we�d still be together� How are the kids?�

�They�re fine. They miss you, you know.� Her gaze dropped to the floor, she had never openly admitted her shame to anyone, not him, not her mother� She had let Priscilla take the blame for her leaving� it was easy and Priscilla certainly didn�t mind. In fact, she was downright proud to think that she had finally gotten her daughter to see the light. How could she tell Mike that she had left because it was too painful to be Mrs. Jackson? Too hard to fight the press. To depressing to constantly be bombarded with questions that accused you of harboring a criminal. Accused you of ruining your father�s name. Accused her of endangering her children� it was all so much �bull-shit� and she knew it. She just hadn�t had the strength to stand by him�

Mike watched her as she walked across the room to the floor-to-ceiling windows and looked down on the busy highway below. She was truly breath-taking, the way she moved, like a cat� He could feel anticipation building inside of him with every step she took. He watched as if in a trance as she walked back to him, took him by the tie and led him to the desk. She kissed him and he felt her hands as they unbuttoned his shirt while she slid herself up to sit on his desk.

He leaned over her and they embraced on the tan, oak wood. He looked up over her head at the stack of papers, bound in a green jacket. The end-of-the-month reports Kia must have put there just before she left for the last time� He reached over and gave them a shove, watching as the fell off the corner of the desk and hearing them land on the floor. �Well, at least Joe won�t be able to say he didn�t even touch the reports�. As he moved in and pushed himself onto her, he felt her tense with pleasure, then. Ohhhh the pain� his head felt like it was going to burst. He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the pounding in his head.

�Mike, you okay?� Lisa looked up at him, worried. He was too tense. She had seen him like this before, and the outcome after months of pain-killers, was several weeks in drug re-hab. �Come on.� She pushed him, and he slid off the desk. The air felt cold on his flesh and he could feel the moment fading away. �Oh no you don�t�� she grabbed his open shirt and swung him around until he was prone on the oak wood desk. He had never laid across his desk before. It was a strange feeling laying there, vulmerable and exciting to be laying there, shirt open, pants dangling from his ankles. He drew in a deep breath as he felt her mount him and the warmth of her body surround him. He let the rhythm of her movements relax his body and the sound of her breathing relax his mind and there was peace.