JR opened his eyes to the sound of Nancy Sinatra's rendition of "Bang, Bang (My Baby shot me down)" blasting from his radio alarm clock. The sight that greeted him sent him flying from his bed in shock. Marissa was lying on the pillow beside him – dead. Her skin grey, her eyes wide and glassy, her mouth hanging open, blood streaming from the hole in her forehead.
"Jesus!" JR swore, trying to get a hold of himself.
Dead Marissa suddenly woke up and rolled onto her side. Propping herself up on one elbow she gave him a wicked grin.
"Not nice is it?" she said. "I just thought I would remind you what you've done."
JR felt his heart rate begin the settle and the shock turned into familiar rage.
"Only I didn't kill you." he retorted, "You're out of the coma now! You might not know who the hell you are, but you are certainly not dead!"
"Well lucky for you," said Marissa, "The amnesia part that is. And as for your other point, the only reason I'm not dead is because you were so drunk you couldn't shoot straight."
"I'm not talking to you!" JR said, finally awake enough to remember that he wasn't speaking to this figment of his imagination.
"Well I'm not done with you!" said Marissa, climbing from the bed. "I need to know what you are planning to do about AJ."
"AJ has nothing to do with you!" JR replied before he could stop himself.
"You can't pretend that everything is okay now that he's home because it's not. That boy is sad and that boy is lonely. He misses his mother."
JR smirked; she couldn't blame him for that.
"Well his mother wants nothing to do with him."
"Well what will you do when she does?"
JR snorted in disgust but made an effort to blank her words as he made his way to the bathroom. Only Marissa still followed him, and was still talking as he stepped into the shower.
"What about Bianca? Are you just going to pretend that you haven't noticed AJ drawing pictures for her every day, or that Winifred has taken to smuggling them out of the house. You won't let him see Scott… You won't let him leave the grounds… This is no place for a child, he needs friends, he needs people his own age, he needs love…"
"I love him!" cried JR, almost shouting the words.
"Then why don't you want him to be happy?" Marissa asked in a quiet voice as if it was the simplest question in the world.
JR glared at her and then stormed out of the shower.
"Just leave me the hell alone!"
…
