CHAPTER 03 PART 07

' Can We Pretend That Airplanes In The Night Sky Are Shooting Stars? I Could Really Use A Wish Right Now.. continued'

He sat on the couch in his apartment, still thinking about the drama filled day he'd had. Something deep down inside of him kept insisting there was more to this than met the eye.. Sure Connie had written AJ's name in her blood before dying, that'd been why Sonny went after him, but in this town?

If it walked like a duck, talked like a duck, chances were, when it was all said and done, it wasn't a duck, it was a penguin. Something made no sense to him. AJ had been too damn drunk to walk into the mansion on his own steam earlier, so how the hell would he managed to have gotten all the way across town and 'shoot' Connie like everyone thought, without someone to help him.

His mother, though.. She'd quickly dispelled any doubts he might have about AJ's being innocent or guilty. She'd tried her damndest to make her son believe his father could kill someone, which left him wondering.. If AJ did do this, and AJ's blood ran through his veins, then how soon until he snapped, hurt someone because they crossed him?

The door to the apartment opened and Emerald called out, "Mike? You okay?" as she came in, cut on the lights. He'd been sitting in this exact spot since he'd come home from the police station where he'd been recounting the hours AJ had been with him.

"Yeah, just thinking, Em."

"Mike, are you still dwellin on that?"

"Yeah.. Something about it doesn't make sense." he said as she sat down on the table in front of him so they were face to face and asked, "Okay, so walk me through what they said happened and I'll try and help."

"You don't need the stress."

"But you need someone to talk to, Mike."

"I'm alright.. Just thinking."

"Ughh, seriously? You make me tell you everything, and you wanna do this? Fine then. I'm gonna eat, watch the football game." Emerald said as Michael managed a slight smile and then said "That was weird.."

"What?"

"We sort of had a gender swap moment."

"Ha. We did." Emerald said as she licked her lips, thinking about how close she'd been to actually kissing him earlier. And how she'd talked to her dad about it, and much to her chagrin, his boss, Mack, overheard the entire thing and quickly told her that she came here to start over and take her life back.

If she felt something, both men apparently thought she should act on it. Mack also pointed out the same thing that her father did, Michael hadn't taken after either of his fathers, he really hadn't ever set out to hurt anyone. He'd made his mistakes, but he tended for the most part now to keep his nose clean.

Didn't help matters much when her father started fussing about her having a kid but no man in her life. Which she argued back that she'd had only a dad, and she'd been alright.

Michael stared at her for a few moments and then said quietly, "Earlier.. Thanks." as he leaned in a little, brushed some of her hair out of her eye and smiled a little. 'Whoa, easy there, Michael.. What if she's just being your friend? Just because she kissed your cheek, man, really?'

'She's leaning in too, crap... Do I let it happen or...'

Emerald sighed as she said quietly, " Michael.."

"Yeah?"

"I did that earlier because I wanted to." Emerald admitted as she looked at him, bit her lower lip, wondering what would happen now that she'd admitted that, her in some ways instantly kicking herself for saying it. What if he didn't feel the same way?

"Really?" he asked, shocked as he looked at her a little, studying her intently. He didn't want to rush this, not by any means, but he didn't want to take it too slowly either.

Before any talk could go any farther, his cell phone rang and he looked at her, sighing, grumbling a little as he mouthed, "I have to take this.. But I wanna talk about this later." as he stepped outside and Dante told him that AJ was in booking now, they were about to question him.

He'd done it for Michael's sake, giving him a chance to find a lawyer for AJ, even though for the moment, it seemed like they had a clear cut case. Too bad Michael didn't agree this time around, huh?

Something about the whole thing just felt damn off, really. Like someone who knew what they were doing was setting him up.

Michael thought about something, a confrontation he'd had with Kiki's mom earlier today, and something about the way she acted had him wondering if maybe she hadn't done more than simply pour his father drinks last night..

He finished the call and then remembered that the number of his father's lawyer was in his father's home office, at the mansion.

The last place he honestly wanted to go right now. He gritted his teeth and walked inside, grabbing his keys quietly.

"You alright?" Emerald asked, wondering if he'd already started to change his mind about even talking about her admitting she'd wanted to do more than kiss his cheek earlier. She sighed and then asked, "Want me to go too?"

"I have to go to my dad's mansion.. Not really looking forward to it, because.."

"Tracy, right?"

"Exactly. She's still in full on gloat mode. Or she'll be pissed because whoever did this, whether it be my dad or someone else, they stole her gun from the safe to do it."

"Okay, gimme a minute, I'm gonna throw on some jeans. There's no way you're gonna go by yourself."

"You really don't have to go, Em."

"Mike.. I'm your friend, I'm not gonna make you do this by yourself." Emerald insisted. He knew she wouldn't back down, so he shrugged and said "I warned you." as he let her go and get dressed.

While he sat waiting, he honestly tried to figure out how their conversation about earlier, and what she admitted just now, what he felt too, was going to do.

"Okay, let's go. On the way, you can tell me why you think AJ's being set up." Emerald said as she grabbed a hoodie, pulled it down over her head over her Randy Orton t shirt.

"Alice will love you."

"What? Do I needa change?"

"Nah.. Alice used to be a female wrestler."

"Really? No shit? Awesome!" Emerald said as Michael laughed, helped her down into the passenger seat of his car, laughing a little at the slight difficulty she was having now, this early on. What really shocked him was trying to picture her in a few months, getting into his car, bigger than she was right now.. He smiled a little and then pretended to pout when she frogged his upper arm and said "Hey.. Not funny, Mr."

"It kind of was, ba, err, Em." Michael quickly corrected as he looked at her, smiled.

Her hand found his on the console and she said quietly, "It's okay." as she messed with the radio, finding some song, humming along to it. The drive was mostly silence, trying to figure out what she was going to say, or anticipate what he was going to say when she finally got it all off her chest, once and for all.

Because she was that sick of holding back.

"Well.. Here we are."

"Wow.. that's a damn big house." Emerald said as she let out a low whistle. She already knew Monica pretty well, because she worked at the hospital, so she wasn't worried about that.. Tracy, however..

Michael knocked on the door right as Dante was coming out, Tracy fuming about her missing gun.

"Who's she?" Tracy asked as she gave Emerald a once over, sort of rolling her eyes.

"This is Emerald.." Michael said as Tracy shrugged and then said calmly, "Guessing you're here for the number for your no good father's lawyer."

"Pretty much." Michael said as Emerald studied the woman and kept quiet. She had a lot she wanted to say, yeah, but she was just meeting the woman, so for right now, she was just gonna sit back and keep quiet.

They stepped inside and Monica walked out, worried, upset and rushing around. "Have they let you talk to your father, Michael?"

"No, grandma, they haven't. They took my statement and then I had to go so they could book him." Michael said as Monica sighed and nodded then said with a slight smile, "I see you bought Emerald with you.. I'm sorry this isn't a better night."

"Believe me, It's fine." Emerald said as she stood awkwardly, waiting on Michael to find the phone number he needed. Now that she was seeing how far out of town the mansion was, and she knew Michael had to get up and come help AJ last night, because he'd called at least 15 times.. She was kind of wondering herself if there weren't more to the whole thing than met the eye herself.

Leaning into Michael she whispered, "And you said that chick Ava was the one givin him drinks?"

"Yeah."

"Thought so." Emerald muttered as Monica came back into the room and then said "Stay and eat something?"

Michael had been about to decline, thinking the stress of this was enough on her alone, any more time here might be really really pushing him, but Emerald smiled and said casually, "Sure."

"I'll go get Alice to fix something." Monica said as she smiled and then said "You should come over more often, Michael."

He looked at her and then mouthed, "You sure you want to stay and eat?"

"Why not? She needs you here, Mike.. Look at her." Emerald mouthed back as Monica came back out from the kitchen and said "Alice is making something. So, Emerald.. Are you enjoying work at the hospital?"

"Yes ma'am. I actually am considering finishing school, maybe interning to be a nurse?"

Monica smiled and gave Michael an approving look. She didn't really care what Carly or AJ, Tracy thought.. She liked the girl, honestly.

Tracy glared as she watched the girl Michael obviously bought with him sitting across the table. She spoke up and asked with a smirk, "So, Emerald.. Where is the father of your baby?"

"For all I care, guy's in hell." Emerald wasted no time in replying, as she smirked right back and then said casually, "People raise kids alone all the time. My dad did, I'm okay, I like to think."

"Well, I hardly know you, so."

"Exactly." Emerald said quietly as Monica managed another smile as Michael tried not to laugh. They finished eating quietly, and left to go back home, the drive again being silent..

How would their talk go?