BEFORE I START THIS:

HUGE TW ( TRIGGER WARNING) Semi graphic description of an abusive situation. Stalkerish behavior implied here on the part of Veronica's ex, Ben. If you are in a situation like this.. Please get away. I hope that this chapter doesn't offend anyone and I did my best to make it as realistic as possible.

Okay, so to drag out Johnny ( and Veronica ) discovering who her mother is, decided that Spinelli is doing a total background check as well as other things just so Johnny knows what he's dealing with. And the how/why of Anthony getting away with what he did in keeping mother and daughter apart is somewhat explained here.

Also, trying to make things go slowly with Veronica and Michael. For now, they're both staying with Kristina at a townhouse by the pier that Kristina is renting. I know this makes things totally AU, but.. *shrugs* gotta have moments for Michael and Veronica to bump into each other and have that glorious awkward sexual tension of two people who are obviously attracted to each other, now don't we?

THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW!


Johnny raised a brow as Spinelli explained what he'd found. "So this entire time, she's been right under everybody's damn nose? And my father knew? And paid these people money to ignore my sister's pleas to at least see her own child?" Johnny felt his stomach clenching and he swung, hitting the tabletop with enough force to make scotch splash over the rim of his drinking glass and land on the tabletop and the papers sitting in front of him currently.

"That's not the most disturbing part, Arrogant Mob Don."

"Really, Spin, you can call me John or Johnny." Johnny shook his head, he'd never get used to the way Spinelli's mind worked, but.. In a matter of days, he'd found out more than Johnny ever would have been able to on his own. Johnny took another long sip of the alcohol sitting in front of him and then said quietly, "Go ahead then.. What else?"

"When your niece expressed a desire to find her birth mother, they were paid to keep your niece from trying to find her.. If my records are accurate then.. Vixenella was residing in Port Charles again and living right here, under this roof, when your niece's queries were made. And she, well, the lawyer asking on her behalf, rather, was told by your father, Johnny… That Claudia wanted nothing to do with her."

"That son of a bitch." Johnny grumbled, thinking that just when he thought he couldn't hate his father more, he now found a reason to, a new level to the hatred he felt for the man. "So basically, if you do find her, she's going to think her mother wanted nothin to do with her."

"The Jackyll has already found out who she is.. Her name is Veronica Keaton. She is close friends with the daughter of Mr. Sir and currently, she is staying with her."

"Somethin tells me I'm not gonna like what you're about to tell me."

"There are concerns about the Vixenella's prodigeny… and her safety currently." Spinelli slid out the latest information he'd found on the lost daughter of Claudia Zaccara and Johnny took the papers, the photos and looked through them quietly before swearing for a few seconds straight. "So this prick, this Ben.. He's still breathin air?"

"He is."

"He's on borrowed time." Johnny grabbed for his phone, intending to call in at least two of his better 'guys' to go and find this Ben kid, bring him to the compound. Spinelli stopped him and said quietly, "If the Jackyll might make a suggestion?"

"Go for it, Spin.. Trust you one hell of a lot more than anybody else here." Johnny waited, listening as Spinelli explained that for the moment, let him keep investigating, to maybe attempt approaching her when he found out more and found a way to do so.. He pointed out that if Johnny went in guns blazing right now, given what the girl had been told, it could frighten her or make her angry, make her go back to the situation she'd only just gotten out of.

"You have a point.. And I'm curious about what her life was like, I'm probably gonna hate myself for saying dig around more, I want to know everything I'm dealing with before I approach her, but go ahead, Spinelli." Johnny replied after he'd thought it over for a few long and hard minutes.

Given that he knew his father kept her adoptive parents on the payroll now, he was sort of concerned about what Spinelli's continued investigation was going to turn up.

;-; CONTINUED ;-;

"They let him out… Someone actually bonded him out of PCPD.." Veronica's face was draining of all color as she walked into the parking lot of the elementary school she taught kindergarten at. Her throat was closing up, she could feel another panic attack and a wave of anxiety rushing over her.

She bit her lip as she turned, started back into the school building, every intention to stay there until Ben was gone.. Deep down she knew he'd stand out there, waiting.. That sooner or later, she'd have to get out of the school because they locked it down tighter than Fort Knox at night.

"Get a fucking grip, Veronica Dominica Keaton." she commanded herself mentally as she leaned against the double doors just inside the school building, watching that parking lot like a hawk. Ben hadn't budged, he stood there, leaned on that shitty muscle car of his, arms crossed, bottle of Jim Beam in his left hand.

He took a sip, glaring at the elementary school.

The phone she held in her hands buzzed. It was Ben's number. Veronica bit down on her lower lip, hands shaking, heart about to beat right out of her chest in complete fear. She took a few deep breaths and tried to get together some kind of game plan that didn't include her looking pathetic or having to face Ben again just a week after what he'd done the night he was trying to strangle her to death and she'd been forced to make a stand.

The phone buzzed again and this time when she looked, it was Michael's cell number. She stepped away from the door, back into her classroom and started lowering the blinds. Michael could tell something was wrong, her voice sounded like it had when he'd run into her at the gym that afternoon a week ago.

"Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine.. Just.. Running late." Veronica answered, dropping the phone when she heard knocking on her classroom window. She sent a text to the principal, if Mrs. Morris was still in her office, she could call 911 and they'd have to arrest Ben again.

"Are you sure?" Michael asked as she picked the phone back up, breathless. He was already grabbing the keys to his convertible and he didn't even realize it until he'd done it. "You don't sound okay. Are you still at the school? I'm coming to you."

"Michael, no!" Veronica spoke abruptly, the knocking on the window got louder and Ben started to yell drunkenly, his words slightly muffled through the closed window.

The glass shattered just as Veronica got a text back from Mrs. Morris saying that she'd just called 911 and asked for Detective Falconeri. Michael was hearing all this and he felt the anger that he hadn't felt in a really, really long time as it came rushing to the surface, taking over. "Is Ben there?"

"Michael, just.. The principal is calling your brother.. I'll be okay.. I just have to stay out of his.." Veronica looked up just in time to see Ben trying to climb through the window he'd just busted with a brick.

"You better run bitch." Ben crooned, stumbling towards her, she could tell by the way he moved slowly, - kind of like a zombie from a shitty horror movie, that he'd probably been on a week and a half long drinking binge and if he got a hold of her, he was going to kill her.. Or hurt her badly enough she'd wish she was dead.

She shoved desks out between them, knocking him down and she broke for the door, bolting out of the classroom just as she heard sirens in the parking lot. Michael pulled to a stop beside his brother's car and Dante told him calmly, "Stay outta this, Mike."

"I just came in case she was shaken up. I want to get my hands on him believe me, but.. If I did it right now.." Michael admitted quietly as Dante and Nathan went into the building, coming out minutes later with a drunk and struggling Ben.

Veronica walked out behind them, shaken up, trying to get her heart down out of her throat. Michael walked up to her and put his arm around her carefully as he asked quietly, "He didn't.."

"Oh no, no.. I shoved desks between me and him and I got my ass out of there as fast as I could." Veronica answered in a shaky voice as Michael told her quietly, "You can lock up your car.. Come back to Kristina's with me."

"Michael, I'll be…" Veronica started to protest but Michael said quietly, "You're my friend, okay? I'm not going to just let you drive home when he's got you shaken up like this." as Veronica thought about fighting him but decided not to.

They were going to the same place anyway, he was staying at Kristina's right now with her and Kristina while he tried to look for his own apartment, he'd moved out of the Quartermaine mansion, he was trying to be his own person for once and not the person everyone else expected him to be..

"Thank you.. But you didn't have to drive here." Veronica muttered quietly, this feeling of having people to actually depend on being a foreign one for her.. She wasn't used to it, because the only absolutely certain thing she'd known in her whole life was that pretty much everyone left.. When they weren't using her, of course.. Her birth mother, her birth mother's entire family wanted nothing to do with her, her adoptive parents only adopted her as some sort of cash cow they could milk whenever they chose and wouldn't at least tell her how the hell her birth mother's family had so much money that they could afford the bribes the two had pulled over the years.. Ben only wanted her because she was a warm body and someone he could control when he chose.. The way Veronica saw things, nearly everyone had some kind of angle, something they stood to gain for their actions.

She felt it deep down that Michael wasn't and that he didn't, but she also felt like maybe he was doing this because she was best friends with his half sister or felt it was the decent thing to do..

But for now, given that she was scared to death and coming down from a rather intense anxiety attack from the whole episode, she wasn't going to question it or push it away because she also knew that he felt comfortable to her, safer somehow..

"I wasn't going to leave you here by yourself." Michael explained as he worked on getting himself calm again because for a few minutes there, when he'd heard the glass breaking in the window, he'd freaked out. The thought of something happening to her just sort of scared the living hell out of her. They'd been reconnecting as friends and deep down, Michael knew it now, the old feelings, the crush he'd had on her during their school years.. It was coming back to some degree but now wasn't the right time for either of them.

But he was determined to wait; to continue being her friend until the timing was better for them both.

He helped her into his convertible and they drove back to the townhouse that they'd been sharing with Kristina for the better part of a week now. The ride was quiet and Michael could tell she was still freaking out a little. He reached out, turning down the radio as he said quietly, "Do you want to stop and get pizza or something?"

"If you want to."

Michael gave a nod and pulled into the parking lot of the Pizza Shack as they went past, helping her out of the car, walking close by her into the little building as he asked, "Did Dante say anything about going down to the station?"

"Nathan took my statement while Dante was putting the cuffs on Ben. Said it'd make it easier and that I was shaken up enough already." Veronica answered quietly as she bit her lower lip, her eyes finding Michael's. He'd rested his hand across her lower back, she'd flinched a little, he'd moved it, she was mentally kicking herself.

All he was doing was trying to comfort her. Was she ever going to be okay again?