The Repercussions

Sam reached out to put an arm around Stevie and kissed him on the side of the head. "Bro, I was gonna be there for you if it was a separation, and I'm certainly gonna be there for you now…"

Stevie tilted his head and said, "I'm taking everything very well. The most important thing is the kids and then of course, taking care of her."

Sam leaned towards Mercedes to try to tell her, because she couldn't see the text on the phone, but she nodded her head, "Yeah, Stevie already told me." Sam blinked his eyes and sat back down.

Stevie got up now, "I now have a twin, a wife and he pointed at Tanisha's empty chair, probably near them a mama to go see about, if everybody will excuse me."

Cowboy rushed over to Stevie, "Daddy, can I come see about them, too?"

Stevie squatted down and suggested, "Tell you what? Can you just help Uncle Sammy keep an eye on the kids and then when I bring Mommy back, first thing she'll do is give you a big hug. I'll tell her you need a double sized one, okay?"

"That's a good deal, Daddy. I can agree to that deal," Cowboy said and hugged Stevie. Sam wondered if the kid knew what was going on.

Stevie found Stacie touching Cheri and praying for her while Mama T was at the door, on the phone. "Hey. Jake wants to speak to you." She gave Stevie a sad look - something he wasn't used to seeing from her, ever and she gave him a tight hug as she handed him the phone.

"Hello?"
"How are you?" he wondered.

"I'm just glad that it's out… Did… You know?"

"I knew that she was sick, but I thought that she had an eating disorder!" Jake said. "This… This shit never crossed my mind."

Stevie heard a lot of loud singing in the background and wondered, "What in the world is going on at your Easter dinner?"

"I don't celebrate Easter and Bree and I are at a friends catching the live presentation of Jesus Christ Superstar."

"Wut?"

"It's a stage show. We're in the biz, so… But… Does she not want to talk or is Stacie still…?"

"Stacie's still at it. They're crying and stuff. But, you should get back to your friends."
"You think that I can enjoy the rest of my night, now?" Jake wondered.

"I wish somebody could. I didn't expect for this to happen tonight, but I did tell her that I thought her keeping it a secret was one of the reasons that she wasn't getting better. She exhausts herself trying to style wigs and cover up every blemish with makeup and pretend she isn't sick or hurting and…"

"Yeah… I thought that she was trying to hide signs of an ED. I would have said something, but you were apart and I didn't know for sure."

"If ever you don't know for sure, still say something. Us being apart didn't mean we were apart!"

"Is that why I had to listen to 45 minutes of why you were sleeping with somebody else?" Jake asked.

"I knew she was bothered by that!"

"Uh, yeah. She was fighting cancer and you were smashing."

"We were apart!"

"You JUST said that you weren't."

"I don't have to take this treatment…"

"Yeah, you do. I'm not getting off of this phone until I can talk to both Stacie and Cheri. I know you're not going to be the one to smooth them over."

"Why are you so rude to me? I'm your brother too!" Stevie joked.

.

After everyone was gone except for the Harts, Stacie shook her head and apologized. "I thought that my family could pretend to be functional for a night."

Joe's dad insisted, "They're charming people! Don't be embarrassed of where you come from, especially when you turn out well. Even if we hated them, we'd still love you and that's because you're loveable."

"Sorry about your sister-in-law," Mother Hart said. "She's so young and pretty…"

"I prayed for her, laid hands on her and spoke with her. Most of her pretty is manufactured. She's been wasting away for a year and I didn't even know. What kind of sister am I?"

"Not one who reads minds," Joe answered and rubbed her shoulder.

She nodded her head, "I feel like I've let her and Stevie just fall in between the cracks. Like I'd written them off and now they've been going through this alone. Mama T was surprisingly motherly to me tonight."

"Your mother?" Mrs. Hart asked.

"Well, my stepmother… But, she's usually not like that with me. She's usually just like an older woman that I kinda know."

"She seemed very close to your brother."

"Yeah. She and Stevie were close before she and Daddy got together. Different story with me and Sammy, though."

Mr. Hart now commented, "And he also seemed very off tonight."

Stacie admitted, "I think that my family is under attack!"

Mr. Hart stood up and reached on both sides of him, "Well, then there's only one thing that we can do." They all joined in hands. "Go to the One who can fight all of our battles…"

.

Sam got the children ready for bed and was shocked to find that Mercedes had settled onto the couch again! He went to her and asked, "Do you need anything?" But, she just pointed to the phone that he noticed was against her ear. He waited, thinking it either wouldn't be a long call or that she would ask for a moment to address him. He was wrong about both of those things. He listened for a bit.

"Well, I know one thing - if it came down to that, I'm not the one sleeping in no RV…"

"Who are you talking to?" He asked, a little bit angrily.

"Tina and Quinn!" she snapped right back, then said quietly, "I guess he was still there or whatever. Like, what, I guess I can't have phone calls now either…" He balled his fists up and left the room. He watched the clock for a while, wondering if he should go check again or just go to bed. He didn't want to go to bed another night of this. Now, it had been a full weekend of this. That was a weekend longer than any of their short-lived arguments over the years. He fell asleep trying to remember the last time that they even had an argument before now.

When the alarm sounded, Sam got up and got ready for the day. The kids weren't making noise and when he went into the living room, Mercedes' things were wadded up...Heaven's handiwork. She must have already left with them. It was early for her to be walking them to the church, but also… She couldn't see how dark it was…

He got ready and grabbed his phone off of the charger and saw that she had called him. "It's Matt and Aphasia's anniversary, so Stevie and I have the kids." He listened to it over and over. Stevie and I have the kids? What does that mean? What does that have to do with Matt? What? He'd just have to ask her at the church.

Whenever he got there, Stacie and Joe were already there, setting up. "Y'all seen Babydoll?"

Stacie threw down her stack of folders on the table, "Are you kidding me? I thought you were gonna fix it?"

"I tried! Is she not here?" He asked.

Joe offered, "She mentioned babysitting with Stevie today. Cheri is going to get a day of rest after an exhausting weekend of telling everyone that she cares about that she's dying…"

"She isn't," Stacie interjected.

"And Matt and his wife are celebrating their anniversary…"

Sam asked, "Oh my God! What does that have to do with anything?"

Joe frowned briefly and said, "Because Matt's been at Stevie's but now Stevie is also watching Matt's son for the day."

"What do you mean Matt's been at Stevie's?" Sam wondered.

"I'm not clear on all of the details, but Shane and Rashad had to go to Matt's to help him out with something and afterwards, Matt went to stay at Stevie's."

Stacie commented, "You must have forgotten this. I know that you were told. Your name was mud for how you talked to Mercedes with Matt and Stevie there."

"That feels like it was a long time ago… But, Merce has been hanging out over there pretty much the whole time she's been acting the way she's been acting…"

"What are you thinking? Know what, nevermind. Just stop it. We're gonna have preachers here soon and a full congregation shortly afterwards."

Sam ignored most of her words, "I'm thinking that she's been acting this way because she's over there drinking up Stevie and Matt's Koolaid."

Joe shook his head, "I can't tell you anything about your wife, but that certainly doesn't sound like her, to me. In all of the years I've known her, including the years before she met you, drinking people's koolaid was never her way."

Sam snatched a folder off of the table and Stacie snatched it back, "They've got names on them! Yours is at your chair. You need to go to the prayer corner and pray. You're the one that's acting a way. A crazy way…" She finished setting the table and whispered to Joe, "Can you please keep him cool?"

"I don't understand what's happening," Joe admitted.

"His inner Mary Evans is flaring up," she said and shook her head.

Sam heard that. He was too preoccupied to be insulted. Mary hated not getting her way. She was manipulative, vindictive and honestly rotten. Dwight spent years trying to make her happy, but if she wasn't, she tried to make him regret it. That wasn't what Sam was doing. If anyone was doing that, it was Mercedes!

Honestly - he couldn't disagree with her one time without her throwing a tantrum and purposefully missing important days? Was she trying to teach him a lesson? My thing isn't important to you, so your thing is no longer important to me? Despite the fact that this was annual and she was expected! Sure, she only ever listened in and sometimes they talked about how well it went afterwards, but not hearing those encouraging words for the past few days was hard and hurtful. Sure, there was a nagging inner voice telling him that she was probably feeling something similar to this when he was shooting down her thing, but a louder inner voice told him that as soon as he was done with this, he was going over there and putting an end to this thing that Stevie and Matt were doing to her!

.

Joe led Missionary Monday. Fortunately, they worked closely enough together that Joe could generally take over for Sam at the drop of a hat. So, he led the meeting, preached the sermon and ushered in the month's lesson. Sam thought about the first real conversation that he had with Mercedes. She had directed him to the book of Acts. She'd told him about Saul being blinded, brought to the disciples, taken in and being healed and converting. She'd told him about faith in people changing. If he was a pinch smarter, he would have known that he was looking at his future wife. If he were a pinch more reasonable, he never would have let this rift grow. He left the church practically in tears.

"I say that just to say this, Sam… If there has really been a change in you, I'm just going to follow the Christian example and help nurse you into the man that God has for you to be."

He was especially excited about April's Acts study, because she was the reason that it became one of his favorite portions of the Bible!

"The Christians had no idea that this guy was really changed. They just trusted God to take care of them as they did what was best for him, until he had the chance to prove himself as a child of God." Sam pressed his hand to the small of her back to prompt her to walk, which temporarily silenced her, but she finished her thought, "I am going to trust in God to work in you and in the meantime, do what I can to help you out."

It was the first time he'd comfortably touched her! Casually! It was her first declaration of love, even though it was simply a neighborly, Christian type love and not what they had now. He'd messed up. He knew that now. He sped away from the church and headed to Stevie's.

.

By the time Sam reached Stevie's Aphasia and Matt had finished their anniversary date and were going to be taking the RV to Utah and leaving Mattie with the Evans. So, when his truck pulled into the driveway, the RV was facing the street, and Matt, Aphasia, Stevie and Mercedes were outside of it, talking. Stevie announced, "Sam's here," with a hint of confusion, as he had not been expecting Sam tonight. He was expecting to be Mercedes' ride.

She smiled in Sam's general direction as he walked up. "Hey… You ready to go home?" He asked. He tried to keep it polite. No need to rehash whatever happened the other night.

"Not yet, but if you're already here, I guess that means it's time."

"I really wanted you to be at the church today, at least tonight," he blurted out.

"Sorry," she said, paused then added, "I'll go get the kids."

Stevie waved a hand, "I'll go…"

Aphasia said, "Matt and I are gonna take off…"

Sam asked, "Everything going well?" Aphasia nodded, lying, but she and Sam were no longer that cool, so… "Really? That's great. Happy Anniversary!"

"Thanks," she said.

Matt stared at Sam curiously and wondered, "Did you have something that you wanted to get off of your chest, Evans? Gotta shoot your shot. Might not see me in a while." Sam fought to keep quiet, but did end up blurting, partially because Matt looked amused, partially because it was festering and he'd rather take it out on Matt instead of Mercedes. They were doing bad enough.

"I just think it's funny how my wife starts spending time around you and things get really messed up in my home life."

Matt nodded, "I find that funny as well. It's purely coincidental, I assure you. But, yeah - I see that as humorous."

"Humorous?" Sam repeated.

"You said funny. I paraphrased," Matt said. He knew Sam was being sarcastic, but he also felt like Sam was being a dick.

"It is a good thing that you get to have your anniversary trip and enjoy your night while you weaponize my marriage against me!" Sam fussed.

"What?" Mercedes said, not sure what was happening around her, but they sounded serious. Aphasia stepped in front of Sam and pointed her finger in his face, "You have some nerve, out here trying to tell this black woman that she can't use her voice for her people and get mad at Matt for telling her that she can do whatever she wants to. Has been able to since we got free, Dude."

"Get your finger out of my face," Sam said.

"Or what, Sam? Or what?" Aphasia asked. She had some things pent up towards Sam, herself. Stevie had turned around and tried to pull Mercedes out of the line of the argument and step in between Sam and Matt.

"You let your woman fight your battles?" Sam asked.

"See, that's where you keep messing up, Sam. I don't let her do anything. She's grown. She's making a choice. I'm not getting in her way because she's clearly upset with you and I'm not. I don't care about you, to this day," Matt said.

"You're a punk," Sam said. Matt burst out laughing and looked over at Andrea, who was also laughing.

Aphasia squealed, "You're a punk, you lil' bitch. That's why you don't do nothing for nobody no more. Got you some change, wrote you out a lil' apology and moved on. You don't want your wife to do stuff because you're scared that somebody like your racist killer ass might get to her!"

"I'm not even racist anymore, you cunt…" Matt rushed towards Sam, but Stevie had already turned in Sam's direction and held him away, "WHOA! Don't talk to her like that! What's wrong with you? You're a fuckin' pastor, Man.."

Matt was not a fighter. He never got into fights, but this was his special day and the last time he might see his special lady and he'd be damned if Sam Evans, accessory to his family's murder, his PRESENT family, watching, was going to speak that way to Aphasia. Mercedes was getting too close, and when Stevie moved to try to keep her from them, Sam headbutted Matt and gained on him. Matt… wasn't a fighter. He tried, but Sam advanced on him with fists.

It wasn't until Stevie heard Cheri coming out and ask, "Is that a gun?" that Stevie turned and saw Aphasia hit Sam in the head with her pistol. "Oh my God!" Cheri squealed and Mercedes cried, "What's happening? What's happened?"

Aphasia pointed the gun at Sam as he held his head and cocked it, "Get the fuck away from my husband, or I will fill you up with this in this nice white neighborhood."

Mercedes called out to Sam as Aphasia helped Matt into the RV.

Cheri asked, "Are you letting them take the RV. She just hit your brother in the head with a gun and threatened to kill him!"

"WHAT?" Mercedes screamed and went rushing forward trying to finding Sam's sound. He caught her hand, "Sam? Sam?"

Stevie said, "She wasn't going to kill him, she was just trying to get him off of Matt. Matt can't beat Sam. He was getting his ass kicked."

Cheri reminded him, "Sam is your family."

"I know that…" He went to check on Sam.

Aphasia announced, "We can leave in my car, if you really feel that way, Cheri. But when you put your husband out, he came to our couch, not Sam's. Sam don't give a damn about nobody but Sam, family or not. But, if you don't want me in this RV, I got you, Babygirl."

Cheri sighed and threw her hands up, going back into the house.

Sam's eyes were rolling around. "I think you gave him a concussion!" Stevie fussed.

"He'll live, unlike Matt's family, so… You want me to leave your RV, or not?"

Stevie sighed and snapped, "Just go." She closed the door and went inside. Mercedes was crying. "Don't cry. It's okay. I've got him. We're gonna take him to the hospital, okay?"

.

Stevie called Cheri from the truck and said, "I gotta take Sam to the hospital…"
"I figured. I hope that your wild ghetto friend didn't wake any of the NINE CHILDREN in our house…"

"Cheri… We can talk about it later."
"No. We can talk about it right now! You take a break, they pop up, sleep in, borrow the RV and violently attack your brother and you're fine with all of this?"
"That's not how it happened! Sam was picking a fight. He's been picking them with Mercedes and he was picking one with Matt. Aphasia stepped in and I was trying to keep Mercy from stepping into it when Sam started beating Matt's face off. Did you expect her to try to put him in a headlock? Sam is a BEAST in a fight. Matt is a buttercup."

"And Phai is a banger, I guess. What is she even doing with that? And in our RV? And she's been around our children! I don't want them here anymore. Do what you want, but after they return the RV, they can't be here." He sighed and she hung up.

Stevie slapped Sam in the face and said, "You can't go to sleep Rocky Balboa."

Mercedes was still crying, with her fingers intertwined with Sam's, "Why did you do that, Sam? What were you even thinking?"

He blew out of gust of air and said, "I was thinking about the fact that you didn't even know me, and you were willing to love me, but you know me right now and you're having trouble loving me…"

"I haven't been having any trouble loving you at all!" She fussed. "I was always willing to love you, but when I had no reason to trust you, I chose to. I just wanted you to trust me! What happened tonight was careless and crazy! That woman could have killed you!"

"She wasn't going to," Stevie reiterated.

"I heard her click the thingy on the gun!" Mercedes screeched.

"Yeah, but she's an excellent shot and responsible gun owner. If she wanted to kill him, she would have just shot him. She hit him, then she held it on him to get space between he and Matt… who… IS actually seriously hurt, by the way."

"You said Sam probably has a concussion."

"Yeah. Matt likely has one plus whatever damage Conor McGregor here did."

"I'm almost certain that I broke his nose…" Sam said.

"But I'm the one that needs to work on my temper. I would think that the last person who you would punch in the face would be the person whose family you murdered."

"Stevie…" Mercedes started.

"No. It's the truth. And now, you've brought that shit to my home and into my marriage," Stevie added.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten in a fight with him," Sam said. "I was trying to provoke him. I don't know why I forgot about how terrifying Aphasia is." He started slurring, "You know I one time saw her walk towards a car that was firing an automatic weapon and shoot at them with her handgun? Joe was there! Was crazy! I forgot about that until just now…"

"Sam… You sound weird," Mercedes said.

"We're almost there… Shit…" Stevie said. Sam laughed.

"What? What's going on?"

Stevie sighed, "They're here," he said looking at the RV.

.

Aphasia rolled her eyes when she saw Sam, but Stevie went to the counter to get him checked in and then sat by her. She gave him an attitude, like she was waiting on him to say something smartass to her. "How is he?" Stevie asked.

"How does he look?" She asked back.

Mercedes and Sam sat on the other side of Stevie and Sam said, "I'm sorry…"

"Don't. Even." Aphasia told him. Matt was mumbling a lot of words to himself and Stevie watched in horror. "He's been talking to them nonstop, now."

Stevie got up and went over to Matt and kneeled in front of him."Ruthless. It's me, Stevie. You hear me?" Matt nodded his head. "Can I give you a hug, Man?" Matt sighed and allowed Stevie to give him a hug. Aphasia rubbed Matt's back. "They're not really here, okay? I'm here. Phai is here. Some other people are here, but your family is not here. They're in your heart and your head. They're at rest. Whatever you're seeing - that's not them. Okay?"

Matt whispered, "They seem real."

"They ain't. Hey look…" Stevie cupped Matt's bloodied face and looked into his eyes, "See how you feel my hands and you can tell that's my skin on yours? When I used to see things, I couldn't ever feel that. Whenever I had the chance to try to think about it, I realized… The dead can't reach out and touch you like this. We try to call them back sometimes, when it's real hard to let them go… But they already let go of us when they went to rest." Sam watched Stevie in awe… He knew that his brother had a heart and was a good person, but he had never seen Stevie like this with a friend… and he didn't know Stevie like this. Stevie always seemed so adverse to human contact… To his contact, at least.

"Dre said shut yo hatin' ass up…"

"Ask her what was me and her's secret nickname for Sam," Stevie said.

Matt stared out, "She's drawing a blank."

Stevie shook his head, "No. AC had a memory like a steel trap and she thought up this nickname. That's just not her, Matt." Stevie rubbed Matt's shoulders and Mercedes squeezed Sam's hand. After a while, Stevie went back to his seat and Aphasia whispered, "Way to weaponize Sam's wife, Stevie."

"Please, stop," Stevie begged. "Cheri is banning y'all from the house."

"That's fair," Aphasia said and rubbed Matt's thigh. "But, I will still apologize to her. I would never want to upset your wife and have me and you on bad terms, Who else about to hold my husband and encourage him like that?" Stevie reached for Aphasia's hand and she squeezed his. "He really loves you. Thank you for everything you did this weekend for him. You and Cheri were a godsend. Do you mind if I send that to her?"

"What?"

"Ummm, I taped you. Duh."

"God…"

"Please?" She asked.

"I mean, yeah, sure."

Aphasia texted, "Cheri, I am so sorry about tonight. I promise, I will do whatever I can to make it up to you. In the meantime, thank you so much for helping to make this man a loving human…" She sent the video. Several minutes later, Cheri replied with heart eyes emojis. Aphasia showed Stevie and he blushed, but said, "You're still banned. Trust me." He suddenly turned towards a very quiet Sam to catch him sleeping and slapped him a few times, "No, no!" Sam jumped up and swung and Stevie caught his clumsy but forceful attempt. "You can't go to sleep."

Aphasia winced and said, "Damn, I didn't mean to hit him that hard…"

"You were angry and Matt was hurt. You meant to, you just feel bad now that you see the damage done," Sam said.

"Yeah. I meant to hurt you, but I didn't mean to concuss you, even though you deserved it!" Sam sighed and touched the back of his head. "Do you feel bad for that?" She pointed towards Matt.

Sam nodded, "I feel like the lowest form of scum."

"Good," she said, then finally acknowledged Mercedes, "I'm sorry, Mercedes. How do you feel?"

"Like I have lost my mind, because this night can't be real!"

Sam wrapped an arm around her and the receptionist called for Matt. "See you all," Aphasia said and led him to the back.

"This really happened," Mercedes told herself.

.

Sam was in the church office a few days later when he heard a knock on his door and looked up to see Aphasia. He smiled sadly and held his hand out towards the chair in front of the desk. She sat down and sighed, "So, the police haven't come talk to me, so I guess nobody gave up my name for clocking you with the pistol."

"I have no idea what you're referring to," Sam said. She sighed and bit her lip. "Hey… I was in the wrong. It was self-defense. I wasn't going to try to get you in trouble. How is Matt?"

"Awful," she said and started crying. Sam got up, closed the door and handed her a box of tissues. "When I first met him, he used to see his little sister. You remember?" Sam nodded his head. He remembered, because Matt told him when he confronted him and it was one of his most painful memories. "He got over it. He was free. Sometimes, he has crime scene nightmares, if there's been a publicized death or something. But… lately, he's been seeing her again, since Andrea's death and a few nights ago, he started seeing all of them and Andrea and he started really… tripping. Like… The hospital has chosen to keep him for observation and it doesn't look good. So, when you started going in on him… You, of all people, and me not just being his wife but knowing what he's been through and what he's going through.. Sam, we have got our own shit. And your wife doesn't fit anywhere into it. She brought your shit to the table like everybody else and all they did was lay it down. You don't have any right to even address him, you understand? You never did. The only reason that I got him to talk to you all those years ago was because we wanted the same things. We don't no more. It's fine. I realized when you didn't show up for Andrea that we were done. You never come near Matt again, for any reason."

"Aphasia…"
"You watched his family be murdered. It was always a wonder that he could stomach looking at you, but now… I don't know if it ever was. It was an act. For all I know, you keep them tethered to his psyche, and you attacked him. After only having to pay for seven years for people he will never see again unless he conjures them up in an emotional breakdown, you put your goddamned hands on him!" She was shaking. "So, please. Lose our information. We'll never ask you to show up for anything and if we happen to be in the same place, I'll pretend a restraining order is in place and give you no less than 50 feet."

"Maybe we could all…"

"Goodbye, Sam. Thank you."

He scoffed, "For what? Watching your husband's family die, falsely accusing him or turning my wife against me, or breaking his face while he was in the midst of a mental crisis?"

"Giving me enough to finally let go of you. I don't feel like I owe you anything, anymore. I should have felt like this a long time ago, but I guess I needed this push. What is it you kind of people say? Everything happens for a reason?" She got up, trashed her tissues and left.

Sam sighed leaned back in his chair and looked up at the sky, "I am actually the worst kind of person. We're supposed to grow stronger and better. I just decay. All of my relationships are in trouble…"

"I just saw Aphasia Rutherford!" Joe cheered, coming into Sam's office. "Sadly, she looked upset but she tried to put on a strong smile when she saw me. Is everything alright?"

"She just came to tell me that she wants nothing to do with me, ever again."

"I'm noticing a pattern, Brother." Sam shuddered and Joe offered, "Should I turn the thermostat?"

"No. I was just thinking that you and Stacie are next. Maybe Dad, for good measure."

Joe gave him a sympathetic smile. "Well, the things that you'd have to do to lose any of us, I can't imagine ever happening, so maybe stick a pin in that. Want me to grab you some lunch?"

"No, I am going to go home and see if my wife will allow me kisses today."

"Things getting better?" Joe asked.

Sam wasn't telling anyone how he got his concussion, but did say, "Nothing like an injury to force some forgiveness." Joe chuckled and shook his head, walking away.

.

Before doing much research about the issues, Jane called Jake. "Hey, Broadway! What's up?"

Confused, he replied, "Just leaving rehearsals. Going to get with Bree, have dinner and crash. What's going on?"

"I am on one of my research expeditions about something that Stevie said. It sounded like the slip of the tongue and it's really been messing with me."

"To the point of research? I'll have to call him and warn him that you're looking into him," he chuckled.

"Actually, I think this one is about the brother. Which is weird, because I don't get why Stevie would ever cover up anything for Sam. I mean, they do that whole, 'But I love my brother' trick for the cameras, but we all know that's a performance."

"He… loves him. I mean, he doesn't want him harmed or anything… But, what are you talking about though?" Jake waved at a couple of castmates that were driving away.
"Jesse St. James," Jane said. Jake was silent. "You know it. Whatever it is. You know it. I knew you would Stevie tells you everything."

"Actually, Jane - I'm not sure what you're talking about. It was vague and I was trying to think of what you could possibly mean. What about Jesse St. James?"
"I don't know. Something. Stevie said that he and Andrea thought that somebody found out about St. James, with the way that Sam was avoiding social justice fights… or something similar to that. So, naturally, I wondered what that meant. Mercedes gave this half assed explain away about Jesse and Sam being really close back in the day, but honestly - with the exception of a few photos and some testimony transcripts, I couldn't find much to indicate that. What I did find was this history of sexual abuse and assault that Sam and Jesse participated in, which I don't mind telling you - turned my stomach..."

"Well, that's not really something that we bring up for Christmakkuh, but yeah… That happened and it is awful. But, let's be straight about something… They were in a Nazi family, so… How surprised can we be about terrible reports on their behavioral decisions?" Jake sounded nervous. Jane's mama didn't raise no fool. She wasn't forgiving this up that easily.

"I looked at Stevie after Mercedes' explanation and he had on his iron face."

"God bless the iron face." She could tell that he knew she was on to him.

"When the police are questioning him, yeah. When a curious friend is, it's hella suspicious."

"Why do you want to dig into this?" Jake wondered, not annoyed or angry, but honestly curious..

"Because, I trusted a person with a horrible past to sleep in the same place as my children. I don't think that he should lie to me for any reason."

"Did you explain that to him? I think that if you just talked to him and explained how you feel, that Stevie would talk to you about it and hopefully smooth things over. Unless… Are you trying to shine light upon this and bring it out in the open?"
"Is it something that needs to be out in the open?" She asked.

"I mean… No. I guess, it depends on your justice compass… You have a very honed one, so… I can see why Stevie covered, but I have already said entirely too much and I have tight muscles to tend to. I would advise that you just drop it, but you and me aren't close enough for that so maybe… talk to Phai and if anybody will be willing to talk about it to you, it would be her." Jane was stuck on the phone, blinking in confusion. She had made a note: In on the big secret - Sam, Stevie, Mercedes, Jake! Phai?

When she looked up Aphasia and cross referenced it with Jesse, she definitely found more, but it was honestly heartbreaking to look at. For years, the woman had cried out for justice and had not been believed, had been both ridiculed and attacked for speaking up and spent numerous times in court, and out of court without any more money to try, still trying to receive her justice.

In the past four years that she had known them, personally - Jane found out that Sam, Matt & Phai had come together because of common enemies, but everyone had been either very vague about exactly who they were or how it happened. All that she had was Sam's book and it had been both criticized and denounced by several people who had been there.

Quinn Fabray later wrote another book, where she basically said what she actually did versus what it was rumored that she did, and some of the excerpts included unfavorable things about Sam. She had a "If it is untrue, he can always sue," attitude about it. When The R Word franchise kept pressuring her to recant, she sued them for it and for misrepresentation of her character/likeness. The show changed the Quinn character's name, or rather they only called her "Q" afterwards, among other things. Jane was unsure how that show kept going, especially after they killed off the Mercedes character a couple of seasons ago, or whenever, but she was never the market for it, so she couldn't say for sure.

At any rate, she couldn't help but wonder how Aphasia could possibly fit into this bigger picture of wtf is there to find out about St. James? But, she also didn't want to bother her about it. Stirring up something like that, simply for curiosity is not something that she could comfortably do. She wondered if she could finesse it out of Cheri, though. They hadn't spoken in several days. She hadn't even sent her a Happy Holidays text, as her usual Cheri observation.

After the kids finished telling her and Mason about their day and rushed off to go do some arts and crafts before playing outside, she asked Mason, "Think you could whip up an apology basket for Riri for me?"

"I thought you said that she was wrong. You never apologize when you don't think you're wrong," he said suspiciously. Then he realized, "This isn't an apology basket, it's a manipulation basket. Janey…" He gave her a disapproving look.

"Just think of it as your apology for signing on for my manipulation."

"It's none of our business, Jane. Ever think that maybe it's dangerous to be a part of that family's mess? We've done well to stay out of it, so far."

"This is the first thing that has made me get up and get moving since Dre was killed. I don't know why, but I need this."

"Call Stevie. Talk to him. That is the only contribution that I am making to this. Please."

She gave him a soft smile, "Ok, Mace." She kissed him on the cheek and went to his cabinet to grab some things for the basket, which she left on the counter, by his hands. He just sighed and hoped that Stevie ended whatever this tangent of hers was quickly.