| “A new day together” by Sep *** Honor and love to Travis. *** Part 3 An hour passed and they arrived at the home of John's Aunt, Kathleen. To call it a home was almost an insult. The whole block was consumed with the multiple-wing townhouse and publishing company. John himself now occupied the whole wing to the East, where his family once had lived. The atrium had been restored in several short weeks to all it's greenhouse glory, and as much as she knew John loved it there, it was also a place she secretly loved to be. She supposed it gave her some sense of what his environment had been like deep in the heart of the Congo, though of course, it could never really be the same. When they parked in front of the building and got out, she could tell John was scanning the periphery, wary of anyone tracking him or otherwise ready to spring an unwelcome surprise. It was enough to sadden her that he'd come to be so suspicious. He was a newborn in this world and should be free to explore all the wonders around him without worry. She went around to his side of the car and took his hand, then led him up the steps to the side door reserved for family and employees where Mary greeted them promptly and took Jane's jacket. "Ms. Clayton has been waiting for you. She is in the sitting room, and Mr. Clayton, it is good to see you back home. We were worrying about you!" John's face at once told of his being unaccustomed to being addressed as such, and also a little play of a smile that Jane took to mean there was never a need to worry about him one way or another. Still, he was mannerly enough in his reply. "Thank you, Mary. I don't want you to worry." Then he surprised both of the ladies beside him by leaning over and softly clasping the maid's shoulder. "You are too pretty to worry." It was her turn then to wear a look of surprise before she dissolved into laughter, called him a terrible tease and sent him on his way. Jane couldn't help but to laugh as they stepped into the smaller living room, also known as the sitting room to the still giggling Mary. Kathleen was sitting at her writing desk and stood up when their entrance broke the silence. "Finally. John, I was so scared. I couldn't get Jane on the phone, I didn't know where you were and I thought that the worst had happened to you!" She paused on seeing the look of softness about her Nephew, his calm demeanor as he stood beside Jane. Somehow he seemed… she searched for a word to label what she saw. Tamer? Maybe. Well she was just glad to see him here in the flesh and know for certain that Richard hadn't gotten him. The guards she'd hired were posted outside the house and upstairs in the hallway of each wing. It might cost a small fortune if it became an extended necessity but keeping him out of captivity was worth it. No matter what Richard claimed, that's exactly what it would be for John. Even as it was, that he and Jane had decided to come back and face all their problems, the task at times seemed insurmountable. It had crossed her mind more than once to send the both of them far, far away and risk whatever consequences came to her as a result. "I was with Jane, and I was safe. We were both… safe." He smiled and let Jane past him so she could sit down on the couch. "I am going to get clothes." A turn toward the door they'd come in made Kathleen question his actions. "You're not staying here? You're leaving again?" "Here is no better than there." Was all he said, and then he walked away, leaving the women to face each other. "He's wrong you know. I can protect him here. Guards, now, upstairs and they're armed and instructed to protect him at all costs." She moved to lean against her desk and study Jane who sat on the edge of the aged leather couch with her arms on her knees, upward to her hands, fingers woven together in a bridge that held her chin. Her large eyes seemed far away and then looked at Kathleen with surety. "John will go where he wants, when he wants. You're probably right. Here would probably be better, and I won't deny that. But what are you going to do, insist or demand that he stay here? I don't think you want to do that." She stood up and pulled on the cuffs of her sweater as she paced. Kathleen was a powerful woman and Jane knew that aside from that, she loved John and wanted to know him once more. It was all rather intimidating, but she wasn't saying these things to persuade her to let John go, or let her have him. John was not something to be owned by either of them, but she'd never been one to hold back her plentiful opinions, and in the short time she'd known Kathleen, if anything she felt she was a woman who could respect that quality. "I know he wants to be with me, and that's going to require some rearranging of my life that I never planned or anticipated, but I'll do that for him. It's, it's more than keeping him safe now, more than saving him from your brother or anyone else who wants to use him, exploit him!" She could feel her wrath growing as she realized not for the first time that if his story fell into the wrong hands, if he did, physically, he would be put on display like some sort of side show freak, and that thought caused both a panic and a rage to well up within her. "Jane, I know you care about him, and with everything he is, he cares for you. I'd be blind not to see the love he has for you. Every time he's spoken about you, it's there in his words, his eyes." She took Jane's hands in her own and calmly they sat down facing one another. "I'm not usually one to pry, and you can tell me it's none of my business but, yesterday before I left for work, and the night before, John and I had a talk about, well, physical intimacies and he said he wanted …" "Yes, he wanted, and yes, we did." Jane laughed in mild embarrassment, her head lowering a little. "He came over and I don't know, it just happened, but, I don't regret that it did, and I don't think John regrets it at all." "No, I wouldn't imagine he does." His Aunt sat for a moment, thinking before her next words. "It's a responsibility, you know. He doesn't know all the emotional attachment that comes with such relationships." "I think you're wrong. I think he knows, to an extent. He sees me, I guess as his…" "… His mate. I know." That completed her thought precisely. "But does he have any way to understand all the complications that you and I know can come, that will come?" Jane took Kathleen's hand and as she thought of her response, she felt tears threaten to come into her eyes and fought against them. "No. I'm sure he doesn't, but I promise you, as much as I'd promise him, that I will love him and do everything in my power to protect him and give him everything I can." "You do love him, don't you?" The older woman's large brown eyes also held back moist emotion. "I love him, yes. I haven't even said those words to him because, because I don't even know how much he can understand it the way I mean it, he understands… differently. He…" She threw up her hands in frustration, struggling even now to think of how he did understand, how he could, if he could beyond his instincts. "He can be so… innocent, so childlike and then in the next instant he's… such an incredible… man inside, and I don't want to give him even more to deal with on top of all he already has been through, everything that's to come. Hell, he asked me today why the soap in the shower…" She laughed at the memory of his face then. "Why it had a scent like fruit but did not taste like fruit. How can he understand love? But I'm willing to love him, and show him. What I feel for him is far more than I ever wanted, more than I ever thought I could or would, and I want… no, I need… John and I need your help. I have no intention to take him away from you. I know you love him and want everything for him that I want. We have to work together to help him." With those words she hoped not to sound too desperate but she wasn't lying. She sat down, spent from releasing all her pent up emotions. The basic truth was that John needed his Aunt's help, her clout and pull with those that mattered, her cultured influence and her love for him behind all of that, pulling for him along each step of the hard road to come. "Well, then… " To break the emotion, Kathleen stood with a soft laugh, letting her hand trail from Jane's. "Where do we begin?" "What is it you are beginning?" The deep yet gentle timbre of John's voice moved both of their eyes to him as he entered through the arched doorway. Where did they start, the two women who loved him? There was so much to explain, so much to do for him, with him, and all while struggling to keep the hounds of hell off his trail. It was indeed an overwhelming situation but as they looked him over, each one seeing him in a different light, they knew there was nothing else they'd rather do, and that it was time to put plans into motion. *** "John, I think you should stay, just for a while. Listen to Kathleen, and to me. Okay?" She smiled to reassure him and he took a seat next to her on the couch, folding the little bundle of clothes against his lap. "Did I do something wrong?" "No, no, not at all." His Aunt's posture changed, relaxed some as she sat in the chair across from the two of them. "Jane and I were just having a little talk, that's all. But I do have some things I want to say to you John." As he sat up more attentively, she spoke to him, and Jane could only watch the rapport and hope to learn from it somehow. "I know that things, have, well, changed between you and Jane, and I'm glad for that, I want you to know. Your happiness John, I want that more than anything. I do think though, that you would be better off to stay here with me instead of with Jane, and no, wait, before you say anything, let me tell you why, okay?" He averted his eyes and bit his lip, stuffing all his protests back inside as he listened. "You saw the guard up in the hall, and all those outside. That's one reason. I'm here during the day, downstairs in the offices, just a bit away if anything should happen. Jane… honey, Jane needs to get things sorted out for herself, with her job and she needs to be involved that way, to help as much as she can to sort all of this mess out. Do you understand that?" "I can wait for her to get home. I do not have to be here to wait." He paused and then added in an insulted tone, "And I do not need guards. The men did not take me before without guards and you know that!" Kathleen felt herself sigh a little. The fighter in him was at times hard to argue with, and he had his father's blunt logic whether he knew it or not. "I know, that's true, but listen. There is so much you don't know, John. There is so much work to begin, because… Damn. John, do you remember the night Richard was here, in the atrium, the things he said to you?" "He was wrong. I am something to Jane." That emphasis on the word something as the memory filled him with anger made for a very unhappy expression. "You are, John." Jane smiled and took his hand, nodding to confirm her words. "You are. Just listen, please? " He wanted to lean in close to her, to touch her right then and there and tell her every bit of what moved and shook inside of him, things he couldn't even name, but he simply nodded and turned back toward his Aunt. "I know you are John. Jane… cares for you just like you care for her. I know that. Anyone can see it when you and Jane are together. It's beautiful." That was more than she'd planned to say, not wanting to step on their privacy, and she had to smile when she saw the faintest hint of a blush come into his face. "Really. I'm so happy for you both, and you have to know John, that Jane wants you to be out from under all of this horrible nightmare we've all been dealing with. You remember what Richard said, I know you do. He was trying to hurt you with those words and you didn't let him. But John, the more I think about it, the only way you're ever going to be out from under all of this, the only way you and Jane can be together and not have to worry about him or his power, is to make your own power." Jane let out a sigh and unthinkingly leaned against the broadness of his shoulder. "She's right John. As hard as it might be, that's the only answer." He pulled away just enough to look at her, and then in an unembarrassed display of his affection, his arm went around her back and pulled her closer. Perhaps he sensed her distress, but yet it wasn't really that she was upset, it was just a case of facing the truth that had been a long time coming. "What do you mean, my power?" He seemed to ask both of them at once. "If you stay here John, what I want to do is get you," She laughed, "Get you a lot of things, but starting with a tutor. You need to be able to understand and communicate more than you do now. I've seen your frustration over not knowing the right words, or how to say the things you feel and I'm thinking in some cases, you'd like to be able to tell people just what is going on inside you, right?" His eyes swept to the side over Jane, knowing she couldn't see but knowing too that when it came to her, what his Aunt was saying was not wrong. He thought too that he would like to be able to tell his Uncle Richard words he didn't know, if there even were words for all the hatred he felt. "So you see? We can do that, and you'll be safer here, and John…" She waited until he looked at her. "You do have an entire wing of the house you know. Jane can come whenever she wants and stay as long as she wants. Does that make the whole idea better to you?" He thought about it for a second, keeping himself quiet as Jane sat up and looked at him expectantly. "I can go out if I want? I do not have to stay here all the time?" "John, I don't want anymore broken windows, or doors, or anything for that matter. You can go whenever you want, yes, but until we know where things are heading with Richard, it would be better if you stayed close." "She's right…" Whether Jane wanted him with her or not, she knew everything Kathleen had just said to him was true and for the best. She had so many things to sort out that when she thought of the emotional toll it was going to take, she felt already exhausted. Still, he seemed to understand, and finally he sighed a few times and agreed with them, sounding wonderfully like a child who hadn't gotten his way. "But Jane can stay, right? Here with me, in my room, right, if she wants to stay, if I want her to stay?" "Oh, yes John. Far be it from me to stand in the way of what the two of you are …" She smiled softly, unsure of how to finish that sentence and wishing she had said nothing instead. "Of what the two of you are beginning, together. Now, I'll make some calls, and we'll have a tutor by Monday, I'm sure. You're ready for it, aren't you?" "Yes." He answered, sitting up and sounding most sure of himself. "I want to learn, and I want to show him I am something." No question who he was referring to with that sentence. The venom in his voice said it all. "You are something already, John. We're just going to make it so you can get to him, tell him what you are inside, for real, more than he ever could know. Imagine being able to tell him John, instead of just showing him your anger on the outside. It would be so much better, for you and for everyone. That alone would change everything for your future, but it's going to take work. Now don't you both have better things planned than sitting here all afternoon? Before it gets too cold, maybe the park would be nice, yes?" She looked at him when he stood up and then gave a little roll of her eyes. "And John, we're going to work on the shoe thing too, like it or not. " He made a face as if to say, 'We'll see about that!', and then he gathered up his clothes and sat them aside, not needing them anymore since he'd agreed to remain in residence with her. Jane followed him slowly and then paused in the doorway to turn back. "Thank you." She said, holding loosely to John's hand as he too looked back. "For everything." All Kathleen could do was nod and smile at the sight of them leaving together. Togetherness was a powerful thing, love could withstand so very much and come out the champion over and over again. She only hoped that for her Nephew, returned to this world after so long, that such love would sustain him, fill him and renew him for all that lay in wait, all those who would be determined to make each step he took a challenge. She had faith in him, wonder that he was, beautiful man, discovering a whole new life, and she knew with Jane ferociously by his side, he stood more than a fighting chance. "Go on, have the day together. Forget all of this for a little while. Just… be careful." She watched them go and then set onto the job of pulling some strings and calling in some favors late on a Saturday afternoon. *** Written and Completed 11.24.03 COPYRIGHT @2003 Shannon Peirce All rights reserved. No unauthorized reproduction. 399Comments to: sep@minuo.org |