Water Ch. 210 - I Could Kick Your Ass

 

"Okay you three, what do you want to do?"  Jon looks at his oldest children, giving them a choice of things to do. "We can go try miniature golf, go take a walk down the shore or maybe we could go visit uncle Matt or uncle Tony?"

 

The words were no sooner out of his mouth and the oldest two quickly shot all three ideas down.  "Billy was going to come over dad." Jesse blurts out, dissatisfied with his dad's suggestions.

 

"I don't want to do anything."  Stephanie adds, hoping she didn't hurt her dads feelings.  "I just want to hang at home."

 

Poor little Jacob had no idea what was going on.  He typically followed the suit of his older siblings, so he just sat there with a sour look on his face.  After all, that's how Stephanie and Jesse looked.  Jon sees the expression and laughs, finding it hard to believe that his kids are getting to the age where it's not cool to hang with dad.  Even if he was a rock star.

 

Beth jumps in, "What do you want to do tonight, babe?"  Patting his hand with hers, giving him a smart ass grin that only means one thing.  "Looks like we're stuck in."  She turns her attention to Jesse, "Do we need to go get Billy, or are his parents bringing him over?"

 

Jesse jumps up out of his chair, amazed that he was getting what he wants, "I don't know, I'll go call him!" And he tries to leave the dining room.

 

"Whoa, whoa young man.  Take your dishes to the kitchen."  Jon reaches up and puts his hand in front of Jesse, stopping him from bolting out of the dining room.

 

"Oh, sorry." Jesse turns around and clears his dishes from the table and heads towards the kitchen, in a hurry to call his buddy.

 

Jon takes the opportunity and asks Stephanie, "Why don't you want to go do anything?  You've been quiet since you guys came back from shopping.  Is everything alright?"  He looks at Stephanie and then glances at Beth.  Beth smiles and winks at him, letting him know that she's okay and she'll tell him later.  She doesn't remind Stephanie that she wanted to go to the cemetery, she figured she had cried enough today.  Unless Stephanie tells him first.

 

"I'm pissed at my mom." Stephanie Rose tells her dad in a matter of fact kind of way.  Jon and Beth are both stunned by the outburst, not the language, but the actual outburst because it was very unlike Stephanie.

 

Jon asks, "Why?  What did I miss?" He looks to Beth and sees that this isn't going to be good.  At this time, Romeo and Jacob are done eating and want down.  Beth takes the cue to take them and wash them up.  They both had food on their hands and faces, cause wet burritos can be messy. 

 

"What did mom do now, Steph?" Jon leans in to be closer to his daughter. 

 

Stephanie knows that she just opened a can of worms that she can put the top back on.  As soon as she tells her dad what her mom said about Rowan and Spencer, he's going to blow a fuse.  She's not scared of it, she just doesn't want to be the cause of it.  "Mom told me that Beth couldn't love the twins because she never heard them cry."  She gets it out and holds her breath.

 

Jon looks at her and shakes his head a little, "Your mom said what?"

 

"That Beth can't love the twins because she never heard them cry."

 

Just then Jesse pops his head around the corner, "Hey Be...........where's Beth?"

 

Jon motions with his head and tells his son, "In the kitchen with the boys."  Jesse pivots on one heel and is off to find Beth to tell her that Billy is getting dropped off and going to spend the night.

 

Jon, back in the dining room with Stephanie can only ask one thing, "When did she say this?"

 

"The last time that we were there." she quietly tells her dad.

 

"Does Beth know?" he asks, already guessing the answer, but he hopes he's wrong.

 

Stephanie nods her head and sees the look of anger come over his face.  "That's why we were gone so long getting groceries.  I broke down on the way there and we talked."

 

"Babe!!!"  Jon yells from his seat at the dining room table.  "Beth, come in here please."

 

"Dad, don't." Stephanie pleads with her dad.  "We already talked."

 

From the hallway, they can here Beth yelling back, "Just a second.  I'll be right there."

 

Jon looks at his daughter, her heart is so pure and she has a genuine naivety about her, how dare Dorothea do this to her. 

 

"How did you respond to your mother when she said that?"

 

"I ignored her."

 

"Did she just let it go?  I know how your mom can be."

 

"She didn't mention it again.  She just kind of acted like she was mad at me." Stephanie can always talk to her dad, but she didn't want to burden him or Beth with it.  She thought she would just let it go and try to figure it out on her own.

 

Jon knows that asking his daughter about his mother wasn't the right thing to do, but Stephanie opened a door that couldn't be closed.  "What were you and mom talking about that made her bring that up?  What was the conversation about?"

 

"I was looking at the funeral announcement that I cut from grandma's paper and she seen it." Stephanie adjusts herself in her chair, trying to feel a little comfort in the bad conversation, "She seen I was crying and asked me why I was crying.  That's what started it."

 

In pops Beth, "What's up?"  And she sees the look on Jon's face.  "What's going on?"  She walks over and stands next to Jon.  He reaches up and puts his hand around her waist, she places a hand on the back of his chair and looks at Stephanie.  "You told him, huh?"

 

Steph looks up at Beth and says, "I had to."

 

"I'm glad you did." Beth tells her, smiling at her, letting her know that she did the right thing.  "Your father needs to know what your mom is saying."

 

"Stephanie, you know that there is no truth to what your mother said, right?  You know that we all loved the girls, even though we never heard them cry?" Jon asks her, with a lump in his throat.

 

"I know dad.  Can we not do this now?" she tries one last time to end the conversation.  A conversation that she never wanted to have with her dad.

 

"I'll stop, but I want you to promise me that if you have questions or something on your mind, you'll come to me or Beth."

 

Stephanie, getting up from her seat, says "I promise dad."  Jon leans over and grabs her hand as she drags it across the table, walking to the door of the dining room.  "Dad......."

 

"I love you Rose!" he tells his baby girl.

 

"I know dad.  I love you too."  And she disappears around the corner.

 

Beth stays put, next to Jon.  She looks down at him and tells him what happened in the car.  "I knew she was going to tell you, I didn't think it would be today though."

 

"I'm pissed."

 

"I was too, but I couldn't let her see that." Beth goes on to tell him the rest of the story, and as she explains how she handled Stephanie she could see Jon's stress about it fade away.  They agreed that it was just another page from the Dorothea book of bullshit and they would keep an eye on Stephanie.

 

Jon pulls Beth down onto his lap and plants one right on her lips.  Beth laughs at him, "What was that for?"

 

"Just because."

 

"Because why?"

 

"Because you have no idea how much I adore you.  The way you treat my kids makes me melt."

 

"I love them Jon."

 

The doorbell rings and they can hear Jesse running to answer it.  Jon pats Beth on the ass, "One of us needs to go talk to Billy's nanny."

 

Beth jumps up, "I'll go." 

 

Jon jumps up behind her, "No, I'll go."  And they race to the door.  Jesse and Billy head off to the game room, on a mission.  Billy yelled Hello as they ran by and away they went.

 

Jon and Beth talked with Billy's nanny, Lisa for a few minutes.  They agreed that Jon would take Billy home early afternoon tomorrow, on his way to Giants Stadium

 

Jon and Beth, hand in hand walked into the family room where Stephanie was chilling with her 2 little brothers.  They were watching cartoons and Stephanie was pretty focused on her handheld game system.

 

Jon takes a seat next to Romeo and Beth sits down next to Jacob.  Jon can see his life before his eyes and he really likes what he sees.  He feels that they are finally at a place where they start to live a life together.  It was a long road to today, but Jon knows that the trip was well worth it.  He has finally come to realize that the love of a good woman and his children were all that he needed, the rest was just a bonus.

 

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The moon hung over the Navesink River and lit up the area almost like it was daytime.  Jon looked at his watch and noticed that it was 9:30.  Bedtime for Romeo and Jacob.  He clapped his hands together really loud and said, "My little men, it's time to brush your teeth and get your pajamas on."  The clapping of his hands scared everyone in the room.  Romeo gets up and jumps on his dad, thinking it might be play time.  Jon holds the little guy while he stands up.  Once he's to his feet, he reaches down for Jacob to take his hand.  Jacob is upright and Jon leads the little guys upstairs to get ready for bed.  It was passed their bedtime, but Jon's thought is maybe they will sleep in a little later?

 

Beth stretches out on the couch and asks Stephanie, "What do you want to do tomorrow?  I gather your dad needs to go to the stadium for something, we should go out and do something while he's busy."

 

Stephanie looks at Beth,  smiles and asks, "Shopping in the city?"  The smile is because Stephanie knows that Beth doesn't like to shop.  It's one of her least favorite things to do.

 

"Oh God, you're killing me."  Beth jokes with the teenage girl.  "What do you want to shop for?"

 

"Clothes."

 

"Are there clothes in NYC that you don't have?" Beth does the laundry, she knows that there isn't room in her closet for much more.  Miss Stephanie has a clothing obsession and she had to have gotten that from her mother.  Jon wore the same pair of pants for days in a row and typically travelled with one bag of his own.  He wasn't a shopper or one that was concerned with clothes.

 

Stephanie perks up in her chair, sitting on the edge, "Have you not seen the new J. Crew catalog?  The winter styles are awesome, and I don't have any of them."

 

"You don't have room for any.  Have you walked into your closet lately?" Beth teases her, knowing she's not been in there in a few days.  Beth put away some jackets that were in the foyer earlier, making mental note that Stephanie needed to weed her clothes out.  It was time to donate and pass it on.

 

"Not in a couple of days." Stephanie tells her, a little deflated thinking that Beth is not going to take her shopping.

 

Rolling off the couch, onto the floor Beth says, "We can go into the city.  I just need to find out what your dad wants to do with the boys.  We might have to take Jesse and Jake with us."

 

Stephanie makes a face that tells Beth that she doesn't like that idea, but if it's what they need to do in order for her to go shopping, she'd tolerate the boys for the afternoon.  "That's fine.  I just want to get some new clothes."

 

Laying in the middle of the living room floor on her back with her arms stretched up over her head, Beth yawns and tells Stephanie, "Dang, I'm sleepy.  I wonder how your dad is doing with the boys.  Think I should go check on him."

 

"I don't hear crying, so that's a good sign."

 

"I know, he just gets so tense when he can't get them to do what he wants.  His patience are pretty thin lately."

 

"Beth, he's fine." Stephanie tries to assure her future step mother that her dad is capable of getting the little ones ready for bed.  "I'm wondering what Jesse and Billy are doing." 

 

"Yeah, I should go check on them, huh?"  Beth says as she gets up off the floor.  "I'm going to check on them and head to bed.  I have to take my medicine before your dad realizes that I'm late on my dose, are you good?  Want me to stay up?"

 

Stephanie shakes her head no and tells Beth, "No, I think I'm going to go read for a little while, I'm tired too." 

 

"Good night, Miss Rose.  Thank you for a heartfelt and wonderful afternoon.  Beth reaches for the young woman and hugs her goodnight.  "I'll see you in the morning, kiddo."

 

"Good night Beth.  Give my dad a kiss for me." She grabs her game and heads upstairs.  Beth watches her walk away, while she smiles because Stephanie is such a great kid. 

 

Beth does a once around the lower level of the house and makes sure that everything is turned off, closed and locked.  At the alarm pad she punches in 83019 and alarms the alarm.  As she turns to head upstairs, she remembers that she needs to check on Jesse and Billy.  She detours to the game room/media room.

 

Walking in, she sees that Jesse is on the ottoman with his back to the big screen TV that was mounted on the wall.  He's telling Billy "Dude, turn that off.  Give me the remote!!"  She stops and waits in the shadow of the doorway.  Jesse lunges for the remote and Billy plays keep away. Beth pays a little closer attention to what was on the TV.  It was her and Jon, in Salt Lake City.