Author's Notes: Had several questions in reviews for the last chapter about what AO3 was. Sorry for not putting in a better explanation. AO3 stands for archiveofourown. Another archive website that allows for a much broader content rating wise. There is now a link for it on my profile page.

Glad people liked the extended ending for the last chapter. The next chapter will have another edited chapter but this one is the same in both places. I liked the way this chapter came together and I hope you do as well.

Disclaimer: The show Flashpoint and its characters were created by Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern and belong to them and its respective networks. I am making no money off this story and it is for entertainment purposes only. However, this particular story is my creation and should not be used without my express written permission.

Growing Up Too Fast

Chapter 25

"I think this is the first time we've been alone since the day after my surgery." Jack Callaghan commented as he tried without success to get his bed adjusted to the position he really wanted. "You haven't been hiding behind your brothers and that fellow of yours to avoid talking to me, have you?"

Jules rolled her eyes as she grabbed an extra pillow from the closet and motioned her father to lean forward as she placed it behind his back and pushed him back against it. He smiled as he realized it was the comfortable position he was looking for. Jules pulled the stand holding his supper tray in front of him; the whole reason he'd been adjusting the bed in the first place. She sat down on the bed with the tray between her and her father as he removed the warming lid from the plate. He wrinkled his nose at the bland looking piece of baked fish, the mixture of peas and carrots, and barely there dinner roll that waited there for him. He looked away from the unappetizing dinner to look at his youngest.

"So, have you been?"

"No, Dad. It's just been the way our schedules have worked out that I've been getting here to visit about the same time as James and Peter. No great conspiracy going on except that we're all worried about you and want to visit after work. A little thing like a major heart attack and a double bypass surgery a week ago tends to bring trait out in us. Are you going to eat that or do I have to force feed you?"

He wagged his finger at her in warning. "Watch it, Julianna. I may not be at the top of my game right now but I can still take you over my knee. I think they saved my life just to slowly kill me with the food. I'll make you a deal, you run out and pick me up a big thick juicy cheeseburger and a large helping of fries and I promise you I'll eat every bite. Hell, you do that and I'll even promise to eat that stupid cup of jell-o for dessert."

Jules smiled, glad to see that her father was well down the road to recovery compared to what he'd been just a week earlier. "I think greasy cheeseburgers and fries are off your menu for a while. I know its not the fish and chips you're more accustomed to eating but it can't be that bad."

He raised his eyebrow and picked up his fork. He used the side of the utensil to break off a small bite of the fish before he speared it with the tines of the works and held it out to Jules insisting she try it. She took the bite and immediately wondered if there was a way to keep from having to actually swallow it. Instead, she forced it down and took a long drink from his water pitcher. "Okay, seriously? I've heard of chefs getting their arms bumped while cooking and adding too much seasoning but did they even put any in that fish?"

He shook his head. "Apparently certain really good seasonings aren't on the heart healthy diet. They give me that substitute in a little packet but it doesn't really help."

Jules frowned and reached for her cell phone and chose a number from her most recent contacts. She waited as it rang twice and then a voice picked up. "James? Jules. Mark get off okay?" Now that Jack was doing so much better Mark had decided it was safe to return home. James had volunteered to drive him to the airport. Ridge had left two days ago, unable to take off any more time from his own job. "Great, you think you can run an errand on your way back to the hospital?" She shot her father a quick wink as her eldest brother answered in the affirmative. "Awesome. Dad needs something to eat that has flavor but won't undo all the hard work the doctor's have done putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Doesn't that take-out place we've eaten from a few times have a heart-healthy menu?" She listened for a few minutes, thanked him and ended the call. "James will call once he knows what they offer to see what you want."

Jack frowned, "Told you what I want. I want a cheeseburger and fries, stubborn daughter of mine."

"Well, I want to have you around for many more years, stubborn father of mine. So, we're going to go with what the doctor recommends, got it?" Jules indicated the tray between them. "You want to snack on any of that until James gets here? I know the 'stupid cup of jell-o' isn't a favorite but that angle food cake doesn't look too bad."

Jack shook his head and pushed the stand out of the way. "I'll wait. You do realize I'm going to be released from this hellhole in a few days and it's going to be a lot harder for you to bully me into eating rabbit food or whatever else is on that idiotic list that doctor gave you."

Jules leaned forward and planted a kiss on her father's cheek. "Yeah, well, don't underestimate my ability to bully. I have my ways. Your idea of cooking is bellying up to the counter of a restaurant. I'm a cop and if I have to, I'll post your picture in every restaurant in the surrounding area and make sure they don't allow you to order anything that's not on that idiotic list. Don't think I won't do it either."

"Cheeky little brat." Her father groused good-naturedly. "Back to the fact that this is the first time we've been alone. We need to talk."

She'd known this was a good possibility after a round of text messages that afternoon had shown that she was going to be the only stopping by for the early evening. Ridge was back in the Hat, Mark was flying out with James dropping him off at the airport before heading to the hospital, and Peter was tied up at his office working to finish a big proposal he'd been putting off to the last minute by spending so much time at the hospital. Even Sam had plans for the night, finally setting up a dinner meeting with the General since their work schedule had been so crazy lately to set up something for lunch. Had this been earlier in the week, the thought of her father saying they needed to talk would have sent her into a tailspin of emotion. Now, a full week into her pledge to herself that she was going to stop being Johnny Dawson's victim, she could hear those words with only a slight fluttering of her heart.

"Johnny's trying to cause trouble. I guess I'm not surprised. Not like I expected anything better from the little chicken shit. I swear if I wasn't stuck in this damn hospital bed, I'd teach him a lesson or two."

Jules frowned. She'd expected the conversation to revolve around Johnny's past misdeeds, not current ones. After he'd shown up in at the hospital the day before her father's surgery, he hadn't tried to make any other contact. Sarge hadn't been able to swing a restraining order; there wasn't enough proof that one was needed to warrant a judge issuing one. Instead, Greg had been keeping a close check on Johnny when it came to work. Johnny hadn't made any further attempts to see her or harass her and as far as they knew hadn't come close to the floor SRU was housed on since being moved to the night shift. "Has he been here? Spike set it up with hospital security to ensure he wasn't supposed to be able to come inside."

Jack shook his head. "He hasn't been here, the fact that he's still alive should attest to that. No, the trouble he's trying has been a little more long distance. I got Peter to go by my place to check on things, yesterday. While he was there, he picked up my charger for the cell. Damn thing's been dead since I got in this room. I know the paramedics were a little preoccupied trying to save my life but you'd think someone would have thought to turn it off so the battery wouldn't drain." Jules sat back patiently until he finished his venting and continued with the story. "Anyway, the phone charged back up over night and I saw that I had several calls from Bard."

Bard Jenkins had worked with her father until the Callaghan patriarch had left the Hat to move to Toronto. The two men had remained close friends in the years that have followed and had even made a few deep sea fishing trips together to enjoy their retirement.

"How's he doing?" Jules asked. She liked Bard, had appreciated in ways she couldn't have voiced with how gentle he'd treated her in the weeks that had followed her mother's death.

"Worried. He was calling me because he'd gotten a call from the prosecutor. It happens from time to time even though he's retired if something comes up from one of his old cases, usually the cold cases but sometimes a question comes up about a closed one as well."

Suddenly Jules knew where the conversation was going. "Let me guess, Johnny is trying to change his story about what happened the night he killed Mom."

Jack nodded, watching her carefully. "Yeah, he is. Prosecutors get calls all the time from convicted murders trying to finagle a way out of the conviction. Usually the prosecutor takes the information, compares it to the evidence in the case file, and as it usually proves fruitless, dismisses the call as a desperate attempt. This prosecutor is new and gung-ho and probably dug a little more into the case than a more seasoned prosecutor would. "

Jules slipped off the bed and moved to the couch so she could stare blindly out of the window. "I guess the accusation that involves the person chosen as Lawperson of the Year raises some attention. Especially when the accusation alleges that at sixteen she seduced her uncle into killing her mother."

Her words were said so dispassionately that it scared Jack more than if she'd gotten upset. Jack threw back the covers and raised the top of the bed while lowering the foot so that he could easier swing his legs over the side and stand. He moved to the couch and sat down next to this daughter. Worry was evident in the lines around his eyes. "Jules, how did you know what he's saying?"

She turned her head so that she was looking at her father. "It wasn't much of a stretch. After all, it's the same story he told you, isn't it?"

Jack nodded. He'd never wanted to tell her the full extent of the conversation he'd had with Johnny Dawson the day of his heart attack. "I didn't believe him, Jules. Hell, no one who knew you would. You might have given me more than a few of these gray hairs during your teenage years, especially at the height of your rebellious faze, but even at your worst I couldn't see you using your body in the way he was suggesting. It never occurred to me that what he was suggesting was anything but another attempt on his part to cause pain, especially to you."

Hearing her father's unwavering support meant everything to Jules. Still, she couldn't dismiss all of her concerns outright. She puffed up her cheeks with frustrated air and blew it out, as if it could dismiss all the bad feelings with it. "So should I start making plans to have to stay with Ridge in the Hat in order to answer to charges?"

Jack shook his head. "Originally, it sounded like the prosecutor was planning to do just that. But I told you no one who knew you would believe it. Bard told him there was no way it happened the way Johnny claimed it did. He told the prosecutor that if he'd seen how traumatized you'd been when the police arrived that night he would know you had nothing to do with it. Bard said eventually the prosecutor agreed to let the matter drop, the case was closed and it would do no good to dredge up bad memories based only on a claim by a desperate convicted murderer. The only reason why Bard even called to tell me about it was because he's afraid that Johnny might try something worse. The only reason I'm telling you about it now is that I'm worried about it as well."

Jules's cell phone rang and she glanced down at the caller ID. "James," she explained as she flipped the phone open. "Hey." She listened and then covered the mouthpiece. "Grilled chicken or baked fish?"

"Grilled cheeseburger." Jack tried once more to get his way but Jules just continued to stare at him waiting for a real answer. He sighed. "Chicken I guess. Although I'd prefer that breaded and fried or at least bar-b-qued. Maybe buffalo wings."

Jules rolled her eyes and moved her hand away from the receiver. "Go with the chicken. See you soon." She closed the phone again. "You are incorrigible."

"You're a hard ass but I love you anyway."

Jules shifted so that she leaning against him, his arms wrapped around her. 'Dad, I'm sorry for all those gray hairs I gave you."

He shrugged. "I'd have had them anyway eventually. Besides you didn't cause them all. Your brothers contributed their fair share as well. I'm just sorry I didn't see your acting out back then as a cry for help. I mean I knew it was but just not the way I was thinking. Maybe if I had, things would have been easier for you. Couldn't have been easy growing up with that kind of secret eating away at you, not having another female around that you could talk to. Maybe if Barbara had lived you would have eventually confided in her."

Jules chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "We'll never know thanks to me."

His brow furrowed, Jack shook his head. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Barbara committed suicide, how would that be thanks to you?"

One of the things Jules had come to realize in the last couple of weeks was that it was better to speak out her fears rather than try to keep it bottled up inside. Some things she still found too difficult to open up about but she was at least trying. "I was so ugly to her about how close the two of you were getting. It's my fault she killed herself."

Jack snorted derisively. "Someone's got a mighty high opinion of herself. Is that what you really think? Have you blamed yourself for her death all these years? You couldn't be further from the truth. Yeah, your words upset her but she understood where you coming from. It upset her because we'd given you the idea that something romantic was building between us when it wasn't. She was just a good friend; someone I could confide in when I was missing your mama so much. She suggested that we shouldn't see each other so much, even if it was innocent, if it upset you so much."

Jules shook her head. "But then why?"

"You remember how sick Beth's grandmother was a couple of years before your mom died?

Jules nodded. She couldn't remember what the diagnosis was but she remembered how caring for the older woman had been extremely difficult for both Barbara and Beth. She also remembered Barbara commenting once that as much as it hurt to lose her mother, her death was in some ways a blessing as it enable the woman to escape the pain and misery her life had become. She remembered going to the funeral with her parents and overhearing Barbara tell her mother that she'd rather have a fast painless death rather than put Beth through having to take care of her the way they'd had to take care of her mother.

"Was Barbara sick?"

Jack nodded. "She got the diagnosis the day before she killed herself. I'm sure she didn't expect Beth to follow so quickly in her footsteps. She was just trying to spare herself and her daughter the pain and misery of a long, protracted illness. But no, Jules, you weren't to blame, not in the slightest."

Once again Jules was starting to see that fears that had weighed her down for some many years could be based on false believes and feelings that she'd convinced herself were true.

The hospital door opened and James stepped inside carrying a large bag from the take-out restaurant. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Not if you brought me food." Jack assured him. Jules eyed the three containers in the bag James carried in.

"How much food did you get?"

James shrugged. "I had a feeling you probably hadn't eaten so I picked us both up a meal as well."

Jack frowned. "If either of you is eating something better than me, I will take it from you and don't think I'm not strong enough to do so."

- FP - FP - FP -

After eating their suppers, all of which were the grilled chicken plates, the three Callaghans sat around the hospital room. There was a game on the TV and they thought the nurses were going to come in and complain about the noise level. All of the Callaghans were vocal in their support of their teams but when, as was the case with this game, they were divided in their support, they could get obnoxiously loud. Since the team Jules and Jack supported was playing very well, much better than the other team whom James supported., they were enjoying rubbing in their victory to James. He took it good naturedly though, grateful to know that his father was recovering and happy to see his sister looking relaxed and unbothered by recent events.

Before the game was over however, it became obvious that Jack was getting over tired. James and Jules said goodnight and left the hospital room. Once in the elevator, which Jules only took because she couldn't convince her brother to take the stairs, James looked at his sister. "Are you putting on an Oscar worthy performance or you really doing okay?"

Jules leaned against the wall of the elevator. "All my problems haven't disappeared if that's what your asking. But I'm not putting on some sort of brave face either. I won't lie, Johnny's release from prison and the things that happened directly after threw me for a loop. I lost my footing and I was spiraling into some sort of dark place and becoming someone I didn't like. But Sam's been amazing and knowing I have you and the rest of the family on my side helped. I feel like I'm back on solid ground and maybe even starting to regain some of what I lost before. "

James reached out and tweaked her nose as the door opened. "I'm glad. Come on, I'll walk you to your car."

Jules snorted. "Seriously? Whatever. I'm the cop remember? I should be walking you to your car."

"That'll be the day." James protested. "Come on, Jules, let me be the big brother and walk you to your car."

Jules stopped just inside the hospital door. "Where are you parked?"

"South lot."

Jules shook her head. "I'm in the north lot and there's no reason for you to go so far out of your way to walk me to mine when I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my self. Seriously, I'll be fine."

It wouldn't be the first time that Rock met Hard Place when it came to a test of stubborn wills between Jules and James. It was never a sure bet who was going to win whatever war they locked horns over. But this was one battle Jules was determined to win. She would have taken offense at the notion she needed someone to walk her across a well-lit parking lot to her car as if she were helpless even if she wasn't a cop trained to protect herself and others. After a stare down that threatened to last for forever, James finally shrugged. "Fine, suit yourself."

To show there were no hard feelings, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Love you, Squirt, even if you are the most hard-headed person I've ever seen."

She grinned back up at him. "Hadn't been looking in the mirror lately, huh?"

He swatted her ass as she walked out of the hospital. She laughed as she made her way away from the building. Her keys were in her hand but as she walked across the parking lot, her thoughts were several miles away. She was looking forward to getting home. She was sure it had been a difficult evening for Sam; it was never easy for him to spend extended time with the General. She wanted to be able to spend some quality time with the man that she loved, be able to return some of the attention he'd given her by listening to his night.

She'd be lying if she said she wasn't also hoping they could spend a little time in the spare bedroom before retiring to their own bed. They'd only made two attempts to work past her insecurities in the week since she'd first asked him to help her. The first had obviously not ended well, her crying out their code word as his mouth had closed around her nipple. Their second attempt still had Sam concentrating on helping her enjoy attention being paid to her breasts. While she was starting to find pleasure in his hands touching her, she'd still tensed up when he'd moved from touching to kissing the small mounds. She hadn't called out the code word but Sam had still brought their time to a close saying he'd rather not push her to the point of being uncomfortable. She'd tried to protest but he'd silenced her with a kiss, telling her not to worry.

To prove his point, he'd stood and undressed before helping her out of the rest of her clothes. They'd made love in that bed, Sam not pressing any attentions on her that she'd hadn't always demonstrated comfort with. But somehow it had felt different, better than it ever had before. Almost as if some weight was being lifted off her. Afterward, he'd carried her to their bed where they had fallen asleep in each other's arms.

Jules felt flushed just thinking about it now as she put her key in the driver's side of the jeep. From the time she'd finally allowed a guy to take her across that final sexual step, sex was something she could enjoy in the moment so long as it was on her terms but not really something she thought about outside of the bedroom. Sam had been the first guy to really awaken a desire in her she hadn't known existed inside her. But that was still nothing compared to how she was starting to feel now that he was helping to take down the barriers preventing her from truly finding the woman she could have been all along if it hadn't been for Johnny Dawson.

Before she could get into her jeep, a figure emerged from the shadows, sauntering closer without seemingly a care in the world. She couldn't help the sudden flash of fear as he stepped into the light.

"Hey there, Little JAC. How's your daddy doing?"

- FP -

Author's Note 2: I know, I know, cruel place to stop but I promise to get the next chapter out as quickly as I can.