Chapter Six Crime and Punishment

"I can't believe you got in trouble on your first day," Owen groaned as he and Jade walked into the mansion.

"It wasn't my fault," Jade protested.

David had enrolled her at Sterling Elementary School, the local private school. Jade hadn't even been there half a day before getting into a fight. A group of bullies had been picking on a smaller boy with glasses. Jade had felt a huge surge of anger and protectiveness, even though she had never met the boy. So Jade had come up and told the jerks to leave him alone. When they had laughed at her and mocked her, Jade saw red. Unfortunately, they hadn't reached that maturity level where hitting girls was not cool, so they started the try to beat her up. Jade had blocked every punch and kick.

Jade was suddenly overcome with the memories of the many times Charlie and the other people at the lab had tormented her. So she started hitting back. The bullies ended up looking like they'd been through a car wreck. Jade only had a few scratches and bruises. Jade was sent to the headmistress' office, where she had tried to tell her view on what happened. The boy who Jade had been trying to defend, Mikey Fletcher, had supported her side of the story but the headmistress had sent him to class. Jade now had detention for a week and was suspended for the rest of the day. Owen was called and had to come pick her up.

"I was only trying to help," Jade protested.

"By beating them up?" Owen raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't mean it," Jade looked guilty. "They were taunting me and it reminded me of life back at the lab. I. . . I guess I lost myself. I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry."

"I know you had a terrible life," Owen sighed. "Nothing can justify what they did to you. However, you can't take out your anger on living beings. I'm very disappointed in you."

Jade looked like she wanted to cry. "I'll go pack now."

The father stared back at his offspring, confused. "Pack?"

"I let you down," Jade looked like she couldn't stand to hear herself talk. "I failed you, Daddy."

It took a few minutes for Owen to realize what the girl was talking about. Suddenly, it hit him like a ton of bricks. He picked her up.

"Jade," he told her gently. "You're a child. You're supposed to make mistakes every now and then. The important thing is that you learn from your mistakes. You don't have to be perfect to have my love. You could go out and kill dozens of people and I'll still love you. Don't actually go out and do that, mind you. Understand?"

"You'd love me no matter what?" Jade looked shocked and thrilled at the idea.

"No matter what," Owen promised.

Jade hugged her parent with all her might. "I love you, Daddy."

The two remained there, hugging each other, as if frozen in time. Finally, Owen put his daughter back down.

"I'm still going to have to punish you," Owen informed her. "I talked to Mr. Xanatos and e pushed off my week off until next week. Until then, Jade, you're grounded. You will still go to school, but you can't go anywhere else without my permission. You'll help around the house with chores while under punishment. Go to your room until I tell you otherwise."

"Yes, Daddy," Jade nodded and left for her room.

Owen watched her leave, wondering how the Xanatos parents and Goliath made parenting look so easily. Perhaps he should talk to Mr. Xanatos about parenting. No, Alexander was only four months old. He couldn't even crawl yet, let alone get into fights. Gargoyles protected, but they seemed to know when to stop. Or most of them anyway. Angela was Goliath's long-lost daughter. In gargoyle years, she was an adolescent when she started living with her father. Goliath would be the best to ask advice about raising a child.

"Lord, give me strength," he muttered, thinking about the lousy track record he had with the clan.

As always, the Manhattan clan woke with an almighty roar. Goliath was surprised that Jade was not up there to greet them. Instead, Elisa and Owen Burnett were there. Elisa he had expected, but Owen rarely ever came unless he had vitally important to tell them.

"Owen," Lex was looking at the fey-in-disguise strangely. "Hello. Where's Jade."

"I am sorry to report that my daughter is under punishment," Owen replied.

"Punishment?" Hudson questioned.

"She got into a fight at school," Elisa explained. "Beat three kids to a pulp."

"That doesn't sound like Jade," Goliath frowned.

"The kids are a year older than her and twice her height," Owen elaborated. "According to Jade, they were picking on a smaller boy. Jade said that she felt an overwhelming sense of protectiveness and defended the boy. When the bullies started taunting and hitting her, she snapped. She had flashbacks of the last ten years of her life and took out her anger on the bullies."

"Poor girl," Angela said sadly. "She has so much pain in her."

"Still, she does have to learn to control her temper," Owen argued. "I . . . grounded her for a week. She's not to leave the grounds for any reason except for school and she's to help out around the house."

Owen looked mildly nervous. For him that meant that he was really nervous.

"Was I to hard on her?" Owen asked carefully.

"The lass needs plenty of love right now," Hudson mused. "However, she needs to know right from wrong. While her intentions were good, she has to know that she can't under any circumstances, take out her anger on a living being."

"She thought I didn't love her anymore," Owen thought out loud. "She explained what happened, but didn't try to make excuses. She was honest about what she did. I know her well enough to know that she felt guilty about it, but what really bothered her was that I was disappointed in her. She told me she'd go pack."

"Pack?" Brooklyn asked, confused.

"That's exactly what I said," Owen continued. "She said that she had failed me and wasn't worth the time. She was extremely surprised to learn that he'd love her no matter what."

"At the lab, she probably was punished severely if she made even the smallest mistake," Elisa surmised. "If a child is raised in an environment like that, then they don't have a very high opinion of themselves, especially when they mess up. The idea that she doesn't lose someone's love when they mess up is a totally new concept to her."

They all stood in silence for a few minutes, each thinking how it must feel to live under such circumstances.

"Is the prisoner allowed to have visitors?" Lex asked Owen.

Owen gave the small gargoyle one of his rare smiles. "She'd like that a lot, Lexington."

With that, Lex ran down to hang out with the young human.

Jade sat in her room, marveling at the patience her father had with her. She also felt guilty for what happened. Then the phone in her room rang, interrupting her thoughts.

"Hello?" she said into the phone.

"Hi, Jade Goodman, this is Mikey Fletcher," the voice said. "I wanted to thank you for helping me today."

"Hello, Mikey," Jade smiled. "How are you? You're welcome, by the way."

"I'm fine," Mikey replied. "My mom was mad when she found out that you beat up those creeps. Then I explained that you only wanted to help and I told her that your mom had died recently. Sorry about your mom, by the way."

"I'll be okay," Jade assured the young human.

"Grandma, my mom's mom, died when Mom was a teenager," Mikey continued. "She knows what that kind of pain is like. She says it's okay if we become friends. Will you be my friend, Jade?"

"I'd like that," Jade smiled.

"Cool," Mikey sounded very happy. "I don't have to many friends. So . . .how much were you punished?"

"According to Dad, I'm grounded for a week," Jade reported. "And I have to help around the house."

"Ew, harsh," Mikey commented.

"I'll live," Jade shrugged.

"Are you allowed to be on the phone?" Mikey asked.

"Dad didn't say otherwise."

"Cool, I have to go have dinner soon, but I wanted to give you the homework you missed."

"Hold on. Let me get a pen and paper."

As soon as Jade had the aforementioned items, Mikey read off the homework that she had missed. Then they said their good-byes and hung up. Jade was working on her homework when Lex came in.

"Hey, Lex," Jade grinned. "How did you sleep?"

"All right, I guess," Lex sat on Jade's bed. "So, you got in a fight, huh?"

Jade raised an eyebrow at him. "Have you come to lecture me, too?"

"Of course not," Lex assured her. "There's no need for that. I just came to hang out with you. I thought you'd like some company."

Jade grinned at him. "Cool. I heard someone say that today."

Lex grinned back, remembering his first night exploring Manhattan. "So, how do you like Manhattan?"

"It's pretty," Jade replied. "I've seen pictures of the Empire State Building and the Twin towers. At the lab, they had me make replicas, each of them about the size of Goliath."

Lex hesitated, not knowing quite what to say.

"Lex?" Jade asked. "What's it like being part of a family?"

"You're loved and protected," he wasn't sure how to explain it. "In turn, you instinctively feel that you should protect the family as well. And of course, you love them back. Is there something wrong with you and Owen?"

"No," Jade smiled happily. "I just wanted to make sure I was feeling the right things."

"And were you?"

Jade nodded. Then she frowned. "One more thing. You know that spell Dad put on me to change my image."

"Yeah."

"You know that red dress he put on me the first time? What did Uncle David mean by Dad 'going for the theater and forgetting the dog?"

Lex laughed. "There's a play about a red-headed girl in a red dress. The play is kind of like your life in a way. "Anyway, the main character, Annie runs away. Along the way she befriends a dog."

"What happened to her?" Jade asked, interested.

"I've never seen it," Lex replied. "You should ask your dad or one of the humans about it. So, want a rematch in Sega?"

Jade grinned. "You're on."

Three days went by and Jade didn't complain once about her punishment. When she got home at three thirty each day, she'd go into her father's office and do her homework while he was working. Apparently, a week of detention meant that she had to go to the office during recess and do extra work.

Mikey and Jade sat together at lunch every day. Mikey was right. He didn't have to many friends. In fact he didn't have any. Apparently, he had moved to Manhattan from Chicago two years ago and never really had success making new friends on account of him being so small and clumsy. Kids still picked on him at recess, but no one was ever brave enough to get on Jade's bad side. The two had become fast friends. Mikey had invited Jade to spend the night in a week.

"We can play Sega Genesis," Mikey's grey eyes sparkled whenever he mentioned his game systems. "I just got this new game. How good are you?"

"Pretty good," Jade replied modestly.

"I'm gonna beat your butt," Mikey said, grinning.

Jade gave her Mona Lisa smile. "We'll see."

Mikey grabbed something out of his lunch bag. It was two walkie-talkies.

"My dad sells these things," Mikey explained. "He gave me a set for my birthday last year, hoping I'd try harder to make friends. I have about eight of them that are all on the same channel. Now that I actually have one, I'd like you to have a walkie-talkie."

"Thank you," Jade was truly touched.

"So are you walking home today or taking the bus?"

"We're allowed to walk home?"

"Yeah, I do it a lot. Mom doesn't get home from work about an hour after I get home."

"I'll call my dad and see if it's alright."

As it turned out, it was all right with Owen, as long as she came right home. Since Jade was new, Mikey offered to walk her home.

"Muggers usually don't come out until night," Mikey grinned, his pale blonde hair blowing in the wind.

Jade had a sudden mental image of Charlie as a mugger, aiming a gun at someone, and telling him or her, "Gimme all you's got." The thought of the high and mighty Charlie sinking as low as a common mugger was oddly amusing. Jade giggled suddenly.

"What's so funny?" Mikey wondered.

"Nothing," Jade replied. "Well, something, but it's a very long story."

"I never really, um, thanked you for helping me," Mikey said shyly.

"I don't like seeing people picked on," Jade shrugged. "I'm very neurotic that way."

"What does neurotic mean?" Mikey asked, confused.

"It means I have an obsession about helping people," Jade smiled.

The two children began to talk animatedly about their favorite Sega games. They were so into the conversation that they didn't notice the white truck coming toward them. They only really noticed it when a pair of arms snatched Jade and threw her into the truck, which was still moving.

Jade was thrown roughly onto the floor. She groaned and tried do get up but a guy dressed from head to toe in black was sitting on her.

"I didn't need a lift," Jade muttered.

The guy sitting on her took his mask off. Jade gasped. It was Charlie.

"You didn't really think you'd outrun us forever," he asked her condescendingly.

"A girl can hope, can't she?" Jade glared. "How did you find me anyway? Dad made sure I'd be protected by you creeps."

"Wouldn't you like to know," Charlie sneered. "As for your father, I guess this means he's overrated. Big Daddy isn't as powerful as you thought."

Jade gave him a dirty look. Charlie grabbed her by her shirt and yanked her up to a sitting position. A thug behind her whipped off her bookbag. The van stopped when the light turned red. The thug opened the door and threw out her bookbag. Then the van started moving again.

"You won't be needing that anymore," Charlie smirked as a second thug handed him a white handkerchief.

Charlie suddenly shoved the handkerchief in Jade's face. The force threw her backwards. She noticed that there was a funny smell on the handkerchief.

Chloroform. She realized, beginning to panic.

She struggled futilely against the Sweeper.

I want my daddy. Her mind screamed frantically. Daddy. Daddy, help me, please. I need you.

With those last thoughts, Jade slowly sank into unconsciousness.

A/N I own Jade Goodman, Charlie Harrison, Mikey Fletcher, Sterling Elementary School and the thugs. Everyone else belongs to Toon Disney.

A/N To answer another question someone sent me, the protection spell Puck placed on his daughter would protect her from anyone with bad intentions. Hypothetically speaking, Puck could go up to Sevarius and boast that he found Jade and Sevarius will never touch her again. Unfortunately, Puck wasn't aware of the necklace.

A/N Another chapter up. :Does Victory dance: I rule!