Water Ch. 154 - Baby, Are You Okay?

"Hey." she says to him, when he answers his phone.  "Am I the only one in New York, right now?"

 

"What do you mean?" he asks her, having no idea what the hell she's talking about.

 

She sighs, "I'm at our house, and you're not here."

 

"Nope, I'm home in Jersey.  I thought we agreed that we would do it another time, since you didn't know your schedule." he tells her, matter of fact.

 

"Ok, I must have misunderstood.  I assumed you'd be here either way.  I'm sorry." she's quite embarrassed, and feeling a little vulnerable.

 

"I didn't think that you were able to.  I made other plans babe.  I'm sorry." he tells her, feeling a little bit of vindication.  She flew off the handle and left him, with just a goodbye.  No explanation or anything.

 

Her heart breaks a little bit, but he's right.  She left it pretty unclear, and now here she was in their house, with high hopes and he's in New Jersey.  "Okay, I won't keep you then.  Have a great weekend, Jon."

 

"Wait Beth, what are you going to do?" he questions her.  Tapping his finger on his desktop, feeling a tad of anger.  "Why didn't you call me and let me know?  I would have been there."

 

"Jon, I assumed you would do what I just did.  I thought you would come here on the off chance that I was able to make it." she pauses, wanting to take back what she had just said. 

 

Clearing his throat, he tells her, "Beth, I can't live life on a whim anymore.  It got to be too much."

 

"This was your idea."

 

"I know it was, but I wouldn't have gone up there and hoped you showed up.  I can't do that." he knows that his words stung and he hated to call what they had a whim, but he was being honest.  He can't live life without a definite and running upstate with no knowledge of what she was going to do didn't make sense to him.  "Are you going to stay up there?  I can come up sometime tomorrow afternoon.  That's the best I can do." 

 

The line goes quiet.  Beth is sitting in a chair in the living room, holding one of the flowers she put into her centerpiece.  Rolling it back and forth between her fingers, she doesn't know what to say.  She doesn't want to stay at the house by herself, she wanted to sleep in his arms and have him close to her.  She missed him so much.  She's thinking to herself that she could go home and see him another time?  Or she could wait for him to come to the house the next day.  "I'll be here."  Is all she can say.  She doesn't want to miss the opportunity to see him.  Who knows when he'll have time after this weekend.

 

She can hear his smile, when he says, "I'll see you tomorrow.  I'm sorry honey.  I can't cancel what I have going tonight, otherwise I'd be in the bird and on my way."

 

"That's okay.  I'll see you tomorrow." she says, softly in to the phone.  He can hear that she's not happy, he can hear that she's shocked. 

 

He says what he says every time they get off the phone, "Until next time."  The line goes dead.  He sets his phone down and instantly feels like shit.  He just lied to her, out of spite.  He could go there now, he could have been there at 8:00, but she couldn't give him a straight answer, so he did what was best for him and his heart.  With his head in his hands, he feels defeated.

 

Beth hangs up her end and sits there, not sure how she should be feeling.  The love of her life just blew her off and has other plans, with someone else.  What is he doing tonight?  Accepting that she's alone for the night, she heads into the kitchen and puts all the food and stuff away.  She picks at a breast while she does it, she's been hungry for hours.  The mango gave the chicken such a sweet flavor, Jon would have loved it, had he been there. 

 

With the kitchen clean, she turns off all the lights and makes sure all the doors are locked.  As she walks through the dark house, she looks out and sees lights on all throughout the neighbor hood.  This place looks like a great place to raise a family.  She stops and watches a couple walk by with a dog.  They are hand in hand and appear to be playful, like Jon and Beth used to be.  Beth feels some jealousy and quickly asks the couple from afar, "Did his ex-wife threaten to kill you?"  And she takes herself up stairs.

 

With her book in her hand, she goes out onto the small deck that is off the master bedroom.  She sat down and realized that it's too dark to read, she chuckles at herself, and just sits there.  She was sad, she was very sad - but now she was looking forward to seeing him tomorrow.  That gave her time to do some cleaning, that the cleaners missed, before he gets there.  She noticed that the guest bathroom needed some help and so did the laundry room.  She also thought that she would run to the farmer's market and get a few things from there in the morning.  So many things on her mind now.  She needed to turn it off.  The thought that kept surfacing was that Jon is going to be with Dorothea tonight.

 

Dragging herself to bed, she climbed in and flipped on the TV.  She laid in bed and watched reruns of Melrose Place, finding humor in the fact that she knew Heather Locklear.  The television show kept her so engrossed that she fell asleep less than halfway into the episode that she started to watch. 

 

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He's still sitting at his desk, hating that she is so close and he's being a butthead.  He can't take it anymore.  Shaking his head he calls and makes arrangements for the chopper to pick him up and run him upstate.  It might take an hour.  But before he leaves, he calls Dorothea's house and tells Stephanie that he's going to see Beth.  Stephanie was so happy to hear that.  "Will you tell her hi for me, dad?"

 

"I will.  I just wanted to let you know I was leaving town.  How is everything going over there?" Jon asks, not wanting all the details, he just wanted to know if everything was okay.

 

"Everything is good dad.  Go!  I love you."

 

He laughs at her, "I love you too."  And they hang up.

 

Jon always has a bag at the ready.  Grabbing it from his closet, he looks around and makes sure that there isn't anything else that he might need, and he spots her glasses and some hair accessories that are on her bedside table.  Thinking she may need that stuff, he grabs it and puts it in his bag.  Walking to his bedside table, he grabs his wallet, cell phone, keys and his cash.  He's ready and out the door.  He meets the pilot at the helipad and he's off.  Thinking to himself, This is a whim Jon, what are you doing?  His heart quickly tells his mind to shut up.  He loves her and he would love to see her right now.  He's missed her, like nothing he's ever felt before.  This was it, this is his last whim.  He needs to see her. 

 

The helicopter ride up to Queensbury was pretty quick.  Jon was thankful for that, but he didn't plan for ground transportation for when he landed.  He could have called Beth to pick him up at the helipad, but that would ruin his surprise.  Walking into the airport, where no one knew he was, he thought that maybe there would be a taxi?  And he found that to be a big NO.  No such thing in Queensbury.  The airport was so small, they weren't even open at night, really.  No ticket agents and no kiosks were open, just a terminal for people to stay out of the elements while they wait for whatever they are waiting for.  Jon looks around and sees a TSA employee and inquires about transportation into town.  Once the TSA knew who he was talking to, he offered to give Jon a ride.  The house wasn't far, but Jon didn't want to walk it.  It's almost dark.

 

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Unlocking the door and creeping into the house, he tries to remember where everything is.  The time they spent there wasn't long.  He couldn't even remember where the furniture was.  Running his hand along the wall, feeling for a light switch - his eyes adjust to the lack of light and he's able to move about the house without bumping into anything.  He finds the light switch in the kitchen and flips it on.  He sees the flowers on the counter and he smiles.  With his bag in hand, he makes his way up the stairs and walks into their bedroom. 

She's laying on her back, with both arms above her head.  The blankets just barely cover her legs, she is a sight for sore eyes and she is sound asleep.  He stands in the doorway and just takes her in.  The TV glows just enough, he can see it; he can see her baby bump.