It's All Relative
A Sequel to Relatively Speaking
Chapter 1
Assault on the Heart
Jeannie crushed the papers in her hands as she sank down on the bottom step leading to the second floor. Her eyes were wide and dazed as she handed them to her friend.
Helen quickly scanned the first page. "What the…? My God!" Jeannie buried her face in her hands, too shocked even to cry.
Helen led Jeannie into the front room and made her sit on the sofa then brought her a cup of hot tea. While she drank it, the older woman made dinner for Madison and took it up to her room. She came back to sit beside Jeannie, an arm around her shoulders. "I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Jeannie shook her head and squeezed Helen's hand. "Thanks, but no. I'll just have to deal with this myself."
"Can your brother help?"
"Maybe. I'll give him a call as soon as I can talk without screaming…or crying." As soon as she said it the tears began to trickle down her face.
"What about your friend? That handsome American that visits sometimes?"
The mention of John Sheppard finally broke through her malaise. "No! Definitely not! This isn't his problem." She pushed off the sofa as if she had a definite destination in mind then stood there as if she'd forgotten what it was. "I-I…I just…I guess I should call someone, an attorney."
Helen took Jeannie by the hand and led her to the stairs. "It's too late to worry about it tonight. Go upstairs and take a bath while I get Madison ready for bed."
"Okay." Jeannie pulled herself wearily up the stairs and into her room. Uncharacteristically, she left her clothes in a pile on the bedroom floor then went into the bathroom to start the water in the tub. She made it as hot as she could stand it then added some lavender bath oil. When it was full enough, she shut the water off and lowered herself into the tub. Closing her eyes, she let the lavender do its job of easing her mind and body. Down the hall she could hear Madison and Helen's voices. Madison knocked on the door a few minutes later to say good night.
Jeannie was about to doze off when Helen knocked on the door. "Jeannie, hun, I've made you something to eat. It's here in your room. If you need anything else, give me a call."
"Thanks, Helen." She listened to her friend's footsteps retreat and the front door close then blessed silence settled over her. When her hands were all pruny and the water almost cold, she got out, dried off and slipped into her pj's. She didn't feel like eating but did anyway because she knew it wouldn't do any good if she got sick. The vegetable soup tasted like sawdust and the bowl of Jell-O was warm. She brushed her teeth then climbed into bed and lay awake looking at the ceiling for a long time before finally dropping off.
The Next Morning
Jeannie rolled over, looked at the clock and dragged herself slowly out of bed. She'd forgotten to set the alarm and had missed her class at university. She gave her counselor a call to explain the situation and hung up the phone with a promise to keep her posted as to when she'd be returning to classes. Meanwhile, she could keep up by getting the class schedule online as well as communicate with her professors and classmates.
Helen had taken Madison to school just as she did every morning so that was one less thing she had to worry about. That was both good and bad because now all she could think about was how things had gone so incredibly wrong in her life in the last year then went completely to hell last night.
Jeannie dressed and went downstairs where she heated water for tea while giving Rodney a call, especially glad that Atlantis was still in San Francisco Bay. Not ten minutes later, he arrived. He swept her into his arms and hugged her tight. It was the last straw and she began to cry on his shoulder, her hands gripping the back of his shirt.
"How could he do this to me, to his daughter?"
"I don't know but we'll get to the bottom of it." He eased her away from him and they sat side by side on the sofa. "Let me see." She snatched tissues from the box on the end table then handed him the stack of papers she'd received the night before. Rodney read them as he paced in front of the entertainment center. "This is a crock! He won't get away with it."
"So we stop him."
"Yeah." The physicist stopped pacing. "Okay, let's start with exactly what you told him about…things."
"Oh, well, he knows about Atlantis, that it's now here on Earth, the SGC…"
Kaleb Miller checked in with the front desk at the doctor's office then sat down to wait until he was called. He picked up a business magazine and began thumbing through it, more to keep his mind off things than because he was interested. When he came to an article on Sheppard Industries CEO David Sheppard he paused. I wonder if he's related to that Colonel from Atlantis that Jeannie couldn't say enough about.
One of the photos accompanying the article was of Patrick Sheppard, his wife and two sons beside an in-ground pool outside of a sprawling Plantation-style home. The caption read Sheppard Industries founder, Patrick Sheppard, his wife, Caroline, sons John (9, left) and David (6, right) at their palatial home in Huntington Beach, CA, 1976. It gave him the answer he was looking for. The older boy had the same dark unruly hair, an impudent glint in his eyes and he was the right age.
With a snort, Kaleb tossed the publication aside and sat forward with his elbows on his knees, hands clasped between them. He looked down at his left hand. The indention from his wedding ring still remained though the pale circle was almost gone.
He thought about the enthusiasm with which his now ex-wife had spoken of the things she'd seen and the places she'd been since making up with her brother. It made him angry all over again and he took a deep calming breath. He rubbed his fingers over the inside of his left forearm as he'd done many times before but still couldn't feel anything. The x-rays confirmed that the transponder his brother-in-law insisted that he, Jeannie and Madison be implanted with after the kidnapping was still in place. Kaleb had never liked the idea that the government was able to track him and his family but understood the need for it.
The nurse called his name and he followed her into a room where he would be prepped to have the device removed. If he could've done the same for Madison he would have but Jeannie was given sole custody with joint guardianship and they would both have to agree to the procedure. Knowing that Jeannie would never give her consent, he didn't even bring it up the last time they'd attended a parenting session.
He pulled his shirt off over his head and put on the hospital gown provided. When the nurse returned he had pulled a photo from his wallet and was sitting there staring at it. In it he had his arms around Jeannie and a grinning four year old Madison. It had been taken just two weeks before Jeannie's brother had forced his way back into their lives. With a heavy sigh, he slid the photo back into place, tossed the wallet on the table with the magazines and lay down to stare up at the ceiling.
Rodney's face fell as his sister enumerated the confidential information she'd given to Kaleb. Finally he waved a hand in the air to stop her recitation. "That not keeping secrets thing must have seemed like a really good idea in the beginning." Rodney paced back and forth flicking the papers in his hand with a finger. It annoyed Jeannie so she took them from him and tossed them on the table then poked a finger at him.
"Actually, it was a great idea."
"Yeah, and look how incredibly well it's worked out." He indicated the papers on the table then paced to the other side of the room when he saw the skin around her eyes crinkle, a signal that she was ticked off.
"I was married to him! We shared everything because we loved each other."
"Obviously." Rodney suddenly realized something. "Where is she by the way?"
"At school. She's already on edge with everything that's happened. I can't imagine what this'll do to her."
"Madison seems fine. I mean, she's a little down sometimes, but…"
Jeannie took a heated step forward and he backed up to stay out of her reach, just in case. "Meredith! My daughter loves her dad. The divorce nearly tore her apart." Once again tears welled up in her eyes making the blue of her irises glitter but Rodney did see it.
"See? That's my point!" Rodney was frustrated because she didn't seem to get that it had been her own actions that had brought the situation about.
"I can't survive without her, Mer."
"Well, if you'd kept your mouth shut…" He was getting red in the face.
She wanted to shout and scream until he understood but knew it was futile. There had to be something else that would penetrate his self-righteousness. Softening her voice, she asked, "Do you and Jennifer keep secrets from each other?"
He was taken aback by her response. "That's different. In our positions, keeping secrets can be fatal."
"No, it's the same thing. Only when you lie to your spouse…it's the marriage that dies."
Rodney bit back what he was going to say next. Jeannie had just blown his argument out of the water with one sentence. She was standing with arms crossed, hair a mess and still radiating exasperation. He crossed the room and enfolded her in his arms. "Sorry. You're right."
Hearing her brother say that was all it took for the tears to start again. She let them come for a while then sniffled a few times, grabbed a handful of his T-shirt, wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
Rodney looked down at the mess on his shirt, his arms relaxing. "Oh, thanks. Thanks a bunch." He held his shirt away from his body while Jeannie stepped back and gave him a soggy laugh.
"Sorry." She went upstairs and came back with a folded T-shirt.
He took it from her and held it up in front of him. "I'm not sure I wanna wear something that used to be your ex-husband's."
Jeannie gave him a bright smile for the first time since he'd arrived. "It's not Kaleb's." She went into the kitchen while he took off the dirty shirt, dropped it to the floor and pulled on the clean one though it was a little tight. Rodney had just pulled the black T-shirt down to his waist and was adjusting the sleeves, thinking it fit better than he thought it would, when Jeannie's voice echoed out from the kitchen. "It's John's. He left it here about a month ago."
Had Jeannie been in the room with him, she'd now be rolling on the floor laughing at her brother's comically horrified expression. His eyes were wide and filled with revulsion and disgust, his mouth open. He'd gotten the shirt up to his chest to remove it but realized he hadn't anything else to wear until the shirt with Jeannie's snot on it was washed. "Oh, I'm definitely gonna need a shower after this." He shuddered, picked up the discarded gray shirt and carried it out to the laundry room.
Jennifer peered into the eyepiece of her microscope then made notations on the data pad to her right. She changed slides and almost jumped when she heard someone behind her.
"Sorry, Doc." John was in workout gear and holding a towel against the inside of his right forearm.
"'S'okay. Um, should I even ask?" She gestured and he followed her to an exam table.
"Probably not." He hopped up and lay down while she got out a disposable wound care kit then washed her hands and pulled on gloves.
Jennifer worked in silence until she tied off the last stitch and covered the area with a sterile bandage. "All done. You know the drill."
"Thanks." John followed her back to her workstation. "Say, uh, where's that husband of yours? I haven't seen him all day."
She slanted her eyes at him then back to the microscope. "So you don't know?"
"Know what?" He didn't know why but her tone made him just a little antsy.
"Jeannie was served papers last night. Kaleb wants to have her parental rights revoked with only limited supervised access to her daughter. He's…John?" She looked around but the Air Force Colonel was gone. "John?"
Rodney helped his sister carry their lunch dishes to the kitchen then excused himself. Jeannie was just a little concerned that he had something up his sleeve because he'd finished everything on his plate and hadn't once complained about the vegetarian cuisine. She heard him climb the stairs as she went out to the laundry room to start a load of clothes. When she came back inside her name was being called but not by her brother.
"Jeannie!" John came into the kitchen and, after a brief hesitation, swept her close. "Why didn't you call me?"
"Because it's not your problem." Her hands came up to push him gently away. "I can handle this. Don't worry about me." She went to the sink and leaned against the counter while John leaned on the center island. The expression that she used to find unreadable told her a great deal now that she knew what to look for. He was angry. Some of that anger was directed at her but the greater part, she knew, was aimed at her ex-husband.
"But I do. Worry, that is. Um, where's Rodney?"
"He went upstairs. I-" Jeannie broke off when they heard a car start up. When they reached the front door, Rodney had backed out of the driveway and was pulling away from the house at a high rate of speed. Jeannie and John shared a concerned glance. "Oh, he's gonna do something stupid, isn't he?"
John sighed heavily. This wasn't the first time he'd seen his friend jump off the deep end without checking the depth of the water first. "Pretty much."
TBC
