Listen To Your Heart

By Jiberty Fan

Chapter 8

Author's Notes: If I owned "Degrassi" I would've let J.T. become a recurring character and the same would've gone for Liberty. I own nothing here including "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." Thank you to those who've read and reviewed this story as well as my other stories. This story's title comes from the song "Listen To Your Heart" by Roxette since the "Degrassi" writers like using actual songs and pop culture references for their episode titles. The DHT version of "Listen To Your Heart" is a cover of Roxette's original hit song. Since this fanfic is another rewrite of "Rock This Town", it will have some similarities to my other fanfics, but, there will be differences as you read on. As a writer, I am more concerned with the quality of my writing or someone else's than I am with the length or quantity of what's being written and so my hope is that this idea will be taken into consideration when this story is being read. This is an AU of the events before and after "Rock This Town." The character's thoughts are in Italics. Thank you and best of luck to you, Ryan Cooley. You are missed. I have started a C2 for J.T. and Liberty fanfics on please feel free to check it out. Please read and review.

Liberty's alarm clock rung loudly and it interrupted what had turned into a peaceful sleep for both J.T. and Liberty.

That damn alarm clock just interrupted the most peaceful sleep that I've had in months. J.T. didn't mention his thoughts to Liberty, but, he sighed loudly.

"Do we have to go to school today? Can't I be Ferris Bueller for a day?"

"Not today, J.T." Liberty hated to see J.T. disappointed and gave him a good morning kiss.

"I don't like confrontations, Libby."

"You could've fooled me during that student council meeting, J.T."

"I wasn't mad at you; it was just that the whole nursery proposal made me think about our son." J.T.'s voice fades to a whisper and Liberty barely hears the last part of J.T.'s thoughts.

"You've always called him "the baby" before; you've never called him our son before."

"He is our son. I never knew what to say to you even after I knew you were having a hard time after we gave our son up for adoption and it was because, I knew that there was nothing I could say that would make it all better."

Liberty looks into J.T.'s eyes and grabs his hands. "You need to go, okay? It won't be that bad."

"Okay Liberty. Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"No cat fights with Mia, okay?"

"I didn't know you had such little faith in me, J.T."

"Oh, I have faith in you Liberty, more than you know. Besides you already won, you got exactly what you wanted."

"I did get what I wanted and I wanted to make sure that I got what I wanted." Liberty gives J.T. a big, satisfied smile.

"You're like a cat that marks their territory and is fiercely protective."

"Exactly, sweetheart, you're catching on quickly." Liberty gives him another kiss.

"It's all very sweet, but, seriously no cat fights with Mia, okay?"

"Okay, J.T. Now you seriously have to go…Mia's waiting." There was no hint of jealously in Liberty's voice.

J.T. was a little surprised. "How do you know she's waiting for me?"

"Well, I didn't think you would break up with her in front of the entire Degrassi student body."

"Well, what if I already did that at your birthday party?"

"That was a pretty public kiss, huh? If anyone asks you could just say you were drunk."

"I wasn't drunk, but, I felt dizzy after I kissed you." J.T. leans in to kiss Liberty again, but, she won't let him.

"What Liberty?"

"I promise that you can make this up to me...later. Mia is waiting and you don't want a big scene do you?"

"I don't care, Liberty."

"I know that, but, I care."

"Well, in that case, yes, I do care."

Liberty gives J.T. a kiss and sends him on his way.

J.T. is in a bit of a rush to get to Degrassi for the first time in his life, but, he remembers Liberty's calming influence on him and that she wouldn't want to rush and hurt himself all over something trivial and he hated to disappoint her.

J.T. felt like the trip to Degrassi was taking forever, but, then again maybe it was all because of what he was about to do.

It's not right to be with some girl if they can't make you happy. I learned that the hard way.

J.T. enters Degrassi and he is relieved to see that many people aren't there and that it's still early. The clock on his cell phone said 7:20 A.M.

J.T. sees Mia at her locker with her back turned to him as he walks over to her.

"Hey, Mia."

"Hey, J.T. I thought that you would never get here. You weren't kidding about not being a morning person. Your text said that you needed to talk. It sounded kind of urgent." The look on J.T.'s face was unreadable, but, Mia did notice that he didn't laugh at her attempt at humor.

"What's wrong?"

"It's us, you and I, Mia."

"I don't get it, you seemed so happy with Bella and me."

"It's not you or Bella, you're a beautiful girl and Bella is a great little girl, but, you deserve a guy who's going to give you all of the love and attention that you deserve but, I can't be that guy. I can't ever be that guy and I'm sorry."

"I always felt like the outsider who was desperately trying to break down all of these walls… like no matter what I said or did that you just wouldn't ever let me in and that your heart and mind were…elsewhere and that I could never have your heart and your full attention. I feel like the joke is on me, like everyone knew that I could never have your heart, everyone that is but me."

"You're not mad, Mia?" J.T. is very surprised and his face reflects his surprise.

"I don't even feel like I know the first thing about you outside of the fact that you're great with kids and that I built you up to be someone that you aren't. Your heart wouldn't let me in because, it belonged to someone else but, I didn't believe it. You're a great guy, J.T. and you're so lucky to have someone who really loves you, the real J.T. Yorke, the guy who I never really got to know." With that Mia Jones walked away from J.T. with no fanfare or dramatic scene that he had prepared himself for. Everything was now how J.T. wanted it to be.

J.T. heads towards his locker and is surprised to see Liberty waiting for him with what looked like a present.

Liberty didn't feel the need to ask J.T. if he had broken up with Mia or not because it showed on his face and in his eyes that there was now nothing holding him back and Liberty didn't miss the look of disappointment on Mia's face that she tried to no avail to hide.

"What's this, Liberty?"

"It's just something that I wanted you to have, something that I thought that you needed. It isn't much, but…just open it."

J.T. obeys Liberty's request and he sees the picture of their son that was taken right after he was born and taken away from them.

"I have a copy of that picture, too. When I look at the picture, it does hurt sometimes to know that our son is out in the world and not with us, but, it also comforts me to know that our son has two sets of parents who love him and that we can write to him, so, I worry less." J.T. treated the picture of his son like gold and even though he knew his locker was a mess just like his room J.T. wanted to put that picture up now.

"Here's some tape, J.T. All you had to do was ask for some, silly."

"Thanks for the picture. You made it hurt less…not having our son with us. It hurt to talk about it even with you. I couldn't imagine talking about our son in group counseling in front of a group of people and I couldn't talk to Toby about this either. I felt so alone."

"You're not alone now, J.T., I promise."

"You're not alone either, Liberty."

The Degrassi halls have started to fill with students and the school day is about to begin.

The warning bell rings and for the second time that day J.T. is not happy to hear the sound of a bell.

Liberty notices J.T.'s frown.

"Lunch isn't that far away, I'll see you then, okay?"

"Okay, Liberty."

J.T. smiles at Liberty.

"There's that J.T. Yorke smile that I've been waiting to see." Liberty smiles back at J.T. as they head off for another day at Degrassi.

The End Of Chapter 8. To Be Continued…