Water Ch. 185 - I Laid Down In Her Garden

"Why do you have to be so mean to me all the time, Jon?" Dorothea snaps at Jon.  

Since the deaths threat that caused Beth to leave, Jon has had very little contact with his soon to be ex wife. For a couple of reasons. One, she was getting to the point that he could hardly stand her and two, he forgives but never forgets. He feels that if he were to be friendly to her, above anything regarding their children - that Mayans her think that they're friends and that she can do what she wants. He's decided that the only relationship that he wants with her is one that only involves the kids.

"What else do you want, Dorothea?" Jon asks, as he lays his head on Beth's back and whispers Make her go away.  

"Shhh, I can't hear this." Beth replies, wanting him to be quiet so she can hear their movie.

Jumping down Jon's throat, Dot asks him, "Have you seen your video yet Jon?" Hoping that he hasn't, so she can make fun of him. Sadly, he squashed that idea.

"We're watching it right now. Will that be all!?!?" He's getting upset now, as he's trying to watch himself make love to Beth and the constant annoyance in his ear is pissing him off.  A few moments later, "Goodbye Dorothea.", and he presses end. He's done, had enough of her. 

Setting his phone down, he asked Beth, "Please back that up a little. I noticed something in the corner." Pointing to the lower right hand corner of the video.  Beth backs it up to the point where Dorothea had called. Pressing play, Jon wraps his arms around he waist and squeezes her tight.  Watching over her shoulder, Jon sees what looks like a foot in the corner of the video.  It's there for a brief second, but that tells Jon and Beth that someone was watching them, as they were being taped. 

 

"You know, I never look and see what's behind the curtains." he says to Beth, with a sinking feeling in his gut.  "Those are up before I even get to town, usually."

 

"So, that looked like there was someone in the dressing room with us.  Jon, who could that be?" Beth starts to feel a little bit of panic and feeling like she had been violated.  They both felt that way, but Jon was feeling a little more pissed off that he was violated. 

 

"I will find out.  I can tell you that."  And he focuses his attention back on the video.  They finished watching the porn that they had inadvertently made and sit there in silence for a few moments.  "I'll hand this over to my investigator buddy tomorrow and we'll find out who it is, too bad we can't get it off the world wide web though."

 

"It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  We look like a couple very much in love that have great sex.  I half expected it to be dubbed and edited all to hell." she gives Jon her crooked smile and kisses the tip of his nose.  What was Dot's deal?" she inquires, not really wanting to know what she wanted, it's never good anymore.  She turned out to be so needy and so unbearable at times, her heart really went out to Jon for having to deal with her. 

 

"I think she wanted to tell me about the tape, thinking I hadn't seen it already." he pauses, "I am getting so sick of her, so sick of her bullshit.  I think she wanted to gloat or make fun at me." Positioning himself better in the chair with Beth on his lap, he adds, "I will never understand her."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"She can't let go, for one thing and she is always telling me that I never loved her because I do things with you that I didn't do with her.  Like we planned this video."

 

"She loves you, Jon."

 

"I know."

 

"What do you want to do now?  I'm going to see how many reporters are still out side."  Beth jumps up and he grabs her quickly.

 

"Whoa.  Why are you going out front?"

 

"I just want to see how many are left."

 

"Why?"

 

Beth looks at him and puts her hands on her hips, 'Because I want to, Jon."  Stepping back, he lets her go and gets up and follows her.  They walk to the front window and look out.  There are still vans as far as they eye can see.  News van antenna's up and beaming a dead story back to the stations.  They all are waiting to get the FIRST word from the Bon Jovi/Adams camp.  All waiting on pins and needles, but respecting the privacy of Jon and his family. 

 

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The investigation into the video us well underway and the investigator has a good idea who is behind it.  He's confident that he knows who it is, but he waits to tell Jon, because he wants to be 100% sure, before Jon cracks some skulls.

 

Jon and Beth are having lunch in the New Jersey house, chit chatting and having some playful banter.  The topic of conversation lands upon the girls and their passing.  Jon looks at the love of his life and asks her, "Do you want to go see them today?"

 

He takes Beth's breath away.  She looks at him and the tears start to burn her eyes.  "I would love too."

 

"When?"

 

Beth is quite for a minute, thinking to herself, I knew this day was coming.  You can do it Beth.

 

"How about just before dark?  With the vultures outside, we need to be sneaky about it.  I don't want them following us and approaching us at the cemetery." 

 

"Then at dusk it is.  What do you want to do until then?"

 

Jon's cell phone rings.  They both jump as the sound startles them.  They both look at it.  It says HARPO

 

Picking it up, Jon winks at Beth and says, "This will be good."

 

Answering the phone, he says, "What took you so long to call?  I've already had messages from Sawyer and Couric.  You are slacking."

 

Beth had no idea who Harpo is.  She's never heard the name, so she wasn't understanding what was going to be good.  She watches Jon have his conversation.  She can tell that he likes the person on the other end and he enjoys talking to them. He laughs and jokes and Beth is clueless.  A few minutes later, he says, "Goodbye." and hangs up his cell phone.

 

"Who was that?" Beth asks, hating being in the dark about anything.

 

"You don't know who that was?"

 

"No, I've never heard you mention the name Harpo, who is it?"

 

Jon laughs at her, in a playful way.  "Harpo backwards is Oprah.  That was Oprah."

 

"No, shit?"

 

"Yep.  Oprah Winfrey."

 

"Wow.  What did she want?"

 

"The first interview about the tape." he tells her, with a big smile on his face.  He's feeling good about something and Beth can see that.

 

"What did you tell her?"

 

"I told her I would do it at the price she mentioned.  She will pay us one million dollars if we grant her the first interview."  telling Beth that, he waited for an angry response. 

 

"I thought we weren't going to address the issue, publicly?"

 

"We have too.  Or they will never go away."

 

"I don't like that Jon.  Our story isn't for sale.  Our privacy is priceless." she explains to him and he can see that she feels quite passionate about that. 

 

"We need to address it, and we need to do it with a professional - one like Oprah.  She will tell our story and it will be aired our way."

 

"I still don't like the idea.  Do I have to do it?" she questions, hoping that she can get out of an interview with Oprah Winfrey.  One of her favorite talk show hosts.  She respected Oprah and she trusted Jon's judgement.

 

"No, you don't HAVE too, but it would be nice if we did it together."

 

"I'm not a fan of being in the public eye, you know that.  I have had more than my share, since I've met you."

 

"You don't have to babe.  I know how you feel about it, but I think we need to address it so we can put it behind us and move on." he takes her left hand and kisses her fingers.  "I still need to get you something for that ring finger, don't I?"

 

"When does Oprah want to talk to you?"

 

Moving in close to her so he can kiss her, he puts his hand on the back of her neck and pulls her to him.  Kissing her, he softly tells her, "We're flying to Chicago tomorrow morning."

 

"Oh, so soon?"

 

"The sooner the better.  Let's get it over with.  Plus, we can donate the money to the March of Dimes or any charity that you choose."

 

"The March of Dimes is good.  Do you want me to go to Chicago with you?"

 

"If you don't go, I don't go."

 

She laughs at him, "Ok, I guess we're going to Chicago tomorrow."

 

"I'll call Chris and set it up.  I'll call Pete too." he's making a mental list of who he needs to call and what he needs to do.  These are the days that he wishes that Dawn was around 24/7, but as the years go, the less Dawn wants to do for Jon and the band. 

 

"Should we invite your parents to go to the cemetery with us?" she asks Jon.  shocking him pretty good. 

 

Looking at her, with even more amazement in his eyes, he replies, "My mom would love that, but it's up to you.  It's our first time there since we buried them, so I"m leaving it up to you."

 

"What do you want to do, Jon.  It's your first time too. Do you want me to call her or no?"

 

There is a comfortable silence between them.  They can sit in a room together for hours and not say a word, but their love says so much.

 

"I'd like it to be just us, do you mind?" he asks her.  He can see a slight relief in her face when he asks her that. 

 

"No, not at all.  Just us is great." she smiles at him. 

 

She gets up from the table and clears their lunch mess.  Beth had whipped a quick little spinach quiche for them, with a side of fresh fruit. Nothing fancy, just something filling.  The two of them had eaten so poorly lately, she decided it was time to get them, all of them back into shape.  Jon liked quiche, he wasnt' a big fan of fresh spinach - but he ate it.  As she's loading the dishwasher, Jon asks her, "What do you want to do now?  I figure we'll duck out of here about 7:00 to get to the cemetery before dark."  Looking at his watch, he adds, "That gives us about 3.5 hours."

 

With a wicked little school girl smile on her face, she responds, "Wanna go make another tape?"

 

Laughing at her, he gets up from the table and walks toward her.  She meets him and they embrace.  "You're absolutely beautiful, do you know that?"

 

With her arms around his neck and his hands on her waist, she says, "Yeah, you tell me all the time.  But thank you.  You're kinda hot yourself." And he tries to tickle her, knowing that she isn't ticklish.  When she doesn't squirm from being tickled, he decided to pick her up and carry her out of the kitchen.

 

"Let's go take a bath, a hot relaxing bath.  We can put some Coltrane on and just relax."

 

With her lips on his, she moans, "Mmmm, sounds great."

 

 

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He can feel that she's getting tense, the closer they get to the cemetery.  Taking her hand and putting it between his legs, he asks her, "Are you okay?"

 

She looks at him and with the courage that she finds, she tells him, "Yeah.  I'm okay.  How are you?"

 

"I'm worried about you babe.  Are you sure you're okay?"

 

Resting her head on his shoulder, feeling the exact same pain that she is, she assures him that she's fine.  "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine.  You know that."

 

"I can still worry."

 

"I know, and you will.  I'm fine though, really." hoping that she can convince herself of what she's telling him, "How does one feel as they are on their way to visit there babies at a cemetery?"

 

Squeezing her hand and wishing he could take it all away, his only response is, "The way you're feeling is the exact way you SHOULD be feeling."

 

As fast as she can get it out of her mouth, she quick fires, "Cheated?  I feel cheated."

 

"I know you do.  I know."

 

Walking to the grave of their babies, they are hand in hand until Jon feels the need to put his arm around her.  When he does, that was the okay for her to cry.  Or the timing just worked out that way, because as soon as she was wrapped in his arm, the tears started to roll.  He squeezes her tighter, "I'm right here.  We'll do this together."  And they walk closer and closer.  Once they crested the small hill that was between them and the graveside, Beth could see that there were still wreaths and arrangements still being delivered to the grave.  As they got closer, she could see several stuffed animals, cards and small tokens of condolences and that breaks her heart - just a little bit more.

 

Beth was always a loner, until she met Jon.  She still kind of is, but his fans are accepting of her and have been a surprisingly supportive.  There were times when the fans could be a little overwhelming, but Beth understands their need to feel like they are part of Jon's life.  And she gets that. 

 

"Look at all of that." she tells him.  He knows what she's talking about and he's thinking the same thing.  "These people don't even know us and look at what they do.  It's pretty amazing."

 

"Many have the deepest of hearts and the best of intentions."

 

"They do.  All of these teddy bears; we need to take them to a shelter or someplace where they can do some good."

 

"And there is the Beth that I know and love."

 

She gives him a funny look, she has no idea what the hell he is talking about.  And he sees that.

 

"We are here to see our daughters and grieve, and you're thinking of others. That's my Beth, the Beth I fell in love in with."

 

"There's no point in letting them go to waste, they could help a child that is scared or alone.  Maybe hurt."

 

"Okay.  We can work something out." 

 

She kneels down and picks up a picture of her and Jon sitting on the beach.  Someone wrote on it, the words, They are waiting for you, in this heaven.  Picture after picture, card after card, Beth is amaze at the outpouring of condolences of his fans - their friends.  Beth read many and took them all.  She had decided that she would write to the ones that left information, and some were being put into her Book of Dreams.  A book of her life with Jon, all of the good and all of the bad.  One day they will have a child together and Beth wants it to have all of their history - again, good and bad.

 

Jon sits down next to her.  She's looking at all of the tokens that have been left and he can see that she is going to cry again, and he didn't care.  He placed his hand on her leg, letting her know that he was there and said, "Do you need a minute alone?  What do you want me to do?"  he feels helpless.

 

"No, no.  I want you here.  You don;t have to do anything, just being here is enough.  What do you need me to do for you?"

 

He smiles at her, "I'm good.  I'm with 3 of my 4 girls, I'm good."

 

With a slight eye roll, she says, "How do you really feel, Jon.  You never talk about it.  We never talk about it."

 

"I'm a shell of a man over it, still.  I don't know how to feel, or what to say.  I ache for you, I ache for myself and then we are always thrown another curve ball that always hit us in the head.  We can't win and happiness doesn't belong to us."  he looks down at the grass that at his feet, and starts to pull it, one blade at a time.  "How do we recover from this?"

 

"One day at a time, and together." she takes his hand and tucks it between her legs, while still holding it.  She's chilled and she wants whatever warmth that she can get from him.  "We will get through this together, Jon." she turns to face him, "I think you're right about going to Chicago tomorrow.  We need to take care of this nonsense, so we can start on the road to healing, the road to recover." 

 

"Are you going to go?" he asks, a little excited because he didn't want to make the trip to Chicago alone, but he would have.  He wanted/needed her at his side, but he didn't want to lay that on her.  He would have gone alone and dealt with it, if she really didn't want to go.

 

"I'll go.  We do need to show the world that we are together and we are going to come out the other side of this better people."

 

The sun has set and dusk is upon them.  Jon can now feel the chill in the air.  He knows that old man winter is knocking on the door and that soon he will have to hit the road and start his tour.  "Are you ready to go babe?  You're cold."

 

With a look of content on her face, she turns to him and says, "Yep, let's go."  And her pep surprises Jon.  He thought he was going to have to drag her out of the cemetery, he was certain that she wouldn't want to leave them again.

 

"Are you sure?"

 

"They aren't here Jon.  They're in heaven, waiting for us on  our favorite beach."  She stands up and starts to pick up the stuffed animals.  "Will you help me pick these up?  I'll have Maria take them to the Middletown Fire Department."

 

The two of them pick up all the stuffed animals that were left for Rowan and Spencer, as well as all the cards, letters and pictures.  With all of the stuff in the car, they head for home and pack for the trip to Chicago. 

 

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"Jon, what do you want to tell your fans and the world about the sex tape that has been all over the Internet, of you and Beth Adams?"

 

With the Jon Bon Jovi smile on his face, the one that melts the hearts of women all over the world, his first response is always his most honest.  So, his gut response is always his best, even though they discussed what would be said.  Beth is backstage, with her heart in her throat thinking 'oh God, how is he going to answer that?'

 

Looking to his left, "I want to tell my fans and the world that Beth and I have sex.  What more is there to say?" he responds to Oprah's question honestly - leaving even the talk show host speechless.

 

(see picture above.  I can see something like that coming out of his mouth, with that look on his face)