A.N.: Yes, I know. I promised I would finish In Repair before starting anything else, but I can't help myself. It's hard being an NJ fan these days, so, you know, I have to torture myself with more impossible pairings. Let me know what you think by pressing that little button at the bottom! Oh, and thanks to my GH beta, thedarkangel22, for reading through this and spotting all the mistakes I didn't know were there. Thanks!

All anger is not sinful, because some degree of it, and on some occasions, is inevitable. But it becomes sinful and contradicts the rule of Scripture when it is conceived upon slight and inadequate provocation, and when it continues long. - Wilson Mizner

"Just follow my lead. Play along," Kristina whispered to Johnny as she grabbed his hand.

Instantly, her eyes went to her father's face and she could see how much it bothered him to see them together. She could barely register the words they were saying, and they sounded like they were coming from someone else. It was like an out-of-body experience, instead of standing next to Johnny it was like she stood six feet away looking at him, Sonny and herself. But even though it didn't feel like she was there, she must still have been saying all the right things because her father looked pissed. She wondered for a second how he had managed to be such a successful crime boss if his every emotion was on display for the world to see. Then she remembered Jason, the Borg, and she marvelled at the balance between her father and his business partner. Jason was everything her father wasn't, and vice versa.

Johnny put his arm around her and it brought her back to the present. She felt a tinge of surprise when Johnny said that 17 was the legal age of consent in the state of New York, but then remembered that she had read the same thing somewhere. She had to admit she was surprised at how great Johnny was acting. He was doing and saying all the right things to make her father angry, and if they had planned the scene out, it couldn't have been better. It was like his reluctance had completely vanished and she was once again proud of herself for coming up with this plan.

"This isn't over," Sonny said as he walked away. She saw him take his phone out of his pocket and then Johnny and she separated.

"Did you see that?" Kristina said with a huge smile.

"Yeah, he was pretty angry."

"No, not him, me! When you put your arm around me, I didn't even flinch!"

Johnny shook his head and smiled. "Well, I guess we killed two birds with one stone, then."

Kristina laughed, truly happy for the first time in forever. "This was perfect. Thank you for playing along."

"I still don't know if this is right," Johnny started after a few seconds of pondering, "and I still feel like I'm taking advantage of you. But it's your life and I won't make decisions for you."

Kristina closed her eyes, grateful. "Thank you; you have no idea how nice it is to hear that." She gave him a smile and walked slowly toward him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her body to his in a hug. He was so tall and strong that he should have scared her away, but as he hugged her back she realized she had never felt safer. She had never seen Johnny lose his temper and she knew he had no sexual feelings for her. There were no reasons to fear him.

"I have to go face the wrath of my family now," Kristina continued after she pulled away from Johnny. "This was fun, we should do it again sometime."

Kristina was amazed at how many people were butting in on her and Johnny's pretend relationship. Her mom and dad had decided to ground her and confiscate her car and her credit card, Sam was hypocritical enough to tell her that dating a guy from the mob was a dangerous thing to do, Ethan was convinced someone was going to get killed, Molly of course found the whole thing romantic, and Olivia ended up breaking up with Johnny. Kristina could tell that it was hard on him, but he was mostly hurt that she hadn't even given him the benefit of the doubt.

Even though in private Johnny continued to doubt their plan, when they were around other people he still acted as though they were dating and defended their relationship to everyone who accused him of using her. He had to admit though, it was starting to get to him. Everyone was handling it wrong because if he really had been in love with Kristina it would have only made him want to keep seeing her even more. She had been through a lot more than some people go through in a lifetime yet everyone still treated her like she was a child.

Johnny was brought out of his reverie by a knock on the door. He wasn't surprised to find Kristina on the other side, even though they weren't supposed to see each other that day.

"I won't stay long," she started as she walked in, "but I'm about to be thrown to the wolves and I thought I'd come here to gather up some courage."

Johnny shook his head at her dramatic flair. "What are you talking about?"

Kristina sat down on the couch and Johnny brought her a bottle of water like he always did whenever she showed up at his place. "Mom has decided to put together a family dinner. So I'm going to have to sit at the dinner table for two hours and listen to my father and everyone else tell me in a condescending manner that dating you is dangerous."

"I'm sorry," Johnny said with a smile. He was amused at the picture forming in his head of the dysfunctional family sitting down to have a meal together. Kristina leaned back on the couch, suddenly looking weary and Johnny felt bad for making light of her problems. He had tried to have sit-down dinners with his father and Claudia enough times in his life to know how painful they could be.

"You know," Kristina said in a pensive voice, "I really wish I could put all my anger for my dad away in a little box and forget about it and move on. But every time I think about him it all boils to the surface and I can't help it, it all comes out."

"Maybe you just need to give it time," Johnny said softly.

"Since you're so much older than me," she said in a teasing tone with a small smile on her lips, her eyes twinkling, "you can tell me, does it every go away?"

Johnny had to admit defeat. "No, at least for me it hasn't. I'm still angry at my father and I probably always will be. Some things you just can't repair. It doesn't mean it's too late for your relationship with Sonny. My dad's crazy, but maybe if you keep trying you'll be able to reason with your dad."

Kristina shook her head. "No, I don't think so. It's not even about reason; we just have two completely different sets of values."

He couldn't think of anything to answer to that so he let the silence speak for him for a while.

Eventually, Kristina sighed her got up, picking up her bag. "I should get going," she declared reluctantly.

Johnny walked over to the door, grabbing his keys. "I have to head out too, I'll drive you back," he offered.

They walked out to the elevator. "You know," Johnny said as they got in, "I'm surprised you didn't ask me to go to dinner with you."

Kristina laughed. "I have to admit, I did think about it, but you don't need to be there for my dad to be upset. Plus, I would never subject you to a family dinner like that, even if we were dating for real."

Johnny smiled. It was so easy being with Kristina sometimes that if it weren't for her age he knew he would date her without a single thought to who her father was. "Maybe what you need is to keep the conversation to a neutral subject. If you make endless small talk maybe it won't be so bad."

They walked out of the elevator and into the underground garage. As they approached his car Johnny put an arm around Kristina, hugging her to his side, hoping to give her some of the courage she had come to him for.

Kristina stopped walking as they arrived to the car and turned to look at Johnny. "Thanks. You're a good friend."

Johnny smiled at her and clicked on the remote button to open the doors.

And that's when everything blew up.