Chapter 51: Family
"How was your day?" Joss greeted John cheerfully as he walked in the front door, taking the bag of delicious-smelling takeout from his arms. He gave her a quick kiss and then leaned over to toe off his shoes.
"No more stressful than usual," he said as he shrugged out of his light jacket and hung it on the coat tree, then perched his motorcycle helmet on top of the tree. "Same old, same old. How have you been?"
"Well, since I didn't have to go to work today, I took the kids out shopping. Lia needed some things that Sam forgot to pack from her Uncle and Aunt's, and I wanted to get her just a couple of loose dresses until her back feels better. It's summer, anyway, she needed something lighter and looser than her jeans." John could well imagine how hard it would have been to get jeans on after what he'd seen her back look like. "We also had a chance to talk to her parents. The short story is that they didn't give permission for Avi and Savita to marry her off, but I'll talk to you about it later." She turned and smiled as Taylor came bouncing into the kitchen.
"Ooh, that smells good. Have we had this before? It smells familiar."
"I thought Lia might not have had Italian food in a while, so I stopped at the ristorante that we took the two of you out to eat that one night and bought the same things we had that night." John told him.
"It has been a while since I had Italian food. Uncle Avi and Aunt Savi usually make Indian food. I like it, I just…I miss my Dad's cooking sometimes." Lia followed Taylor into the kitchen slightly more decorously, but her smile was no less bright when she looked at John. "Thank you."
He smiled. "You're welcome."
"Go ahead and get changed while we set the table. And, John, if you're up to it…Taylor asked if we could pull out the old Monopoly board tonight. Lia's never played it and Taylor wants to introduce her to the game."
John nearly hesitated, but it had been a while since they'd had family time together after dinner. Usually Taylor disappeared back into his room to work on whatever computer program Harold had given him that week, and Joss either went to work, or he did, or they went to sit on the couch and watch TV. A game night suddenly sounded good, especially as he knew Lia hadn't had much of a family life with her Aunt and Uncle. "Let me take a quick shower and change."
"Yes!" Taylor cheered. "Thanks, John! Oh Lia, you're gonna love this…" he vanished back down the hall to his room.
"Wanna help me set the table?" Joss asked Lia cheerfully, and Lia nodded with a shy smile. "Okay, plates and cups are in the cupboard over the sink there, silverware in the drawer next to the stove. Doesn't have to be really fancy, four plates, cups, fork and knife next to each plate." As Lia headed for the kitchen, Joss followed John down the hall to her—their—bedroom.
"So you got hold of Lia's parents?" John asked as he stripped off his shirt.
"Yeah, we did," Joss closed the bedroom door and came over to him. "It was exactly what we thought—they hadn't given their permission to Avi to marry Lia off. They said they wouldn't approve of Lia being married until she completed college." She caught John's wrist as he started to strip off his undershirt, and inspected his raw, bruised knuckles. "That looks ugly. Come here, let me clean that up."
He followed her to the half-bath, watched as Joss dampened a washcloth, then followed her back out of the bathroom and sat next to her on the edge of the bed as she carefully started to wipe dirt and grime from the bruised edges of the scrapes on his knuckles. "So who'd you punch out this time?"
"Couple of punks hired by a businessman to harass his ex-wife. He hired these two thugs and told them to make it appear they were hired by a rival firm to the tech corporation she works for, so she would think her job was hazardous and she would sign over custody of their son to their father." He watched her in silence as she finished one hand and started on the other. "You know, Joss, as much as I used to think I wanted kids, I'm glad now that I didn't have any. I…can't imagine being separated from them. I can't imagine how Paul was able to watch you walk away with Taylor."
"But if you find the right person, the one you can't imagine spending the rest of your life without, things change, John," she said quietly.
"But you married Paul, intending to spend the rest of your life with him. I remember what you told me, back when we first met and you started helping us with our cases. 'Sometimes you fall so in love with who someone was that you can't bring yourself to love who they've become', do you remember telling me that?"
"I fell in love with who Paul was. I couldn't make my peace with who he'd become. And he was hurting Taylor." She reached into her nightdrawer for a tube of antibiotic ointment, squeezed some onto a fingertip, and carefully started dabbing it on John's knuckles. "In retrospect, that may be what Paul thought too. I was a different person when I left the service than I was when I went in. I had a lot more guts. More confidence. I was more independent, didn't really need him. Paul…I've seen the girlfriends he's had since I left and he seems to like the type that need him, depend on him, women who are like I was before I went into the Army. Who I'd become wasn't who I'd been, and he was in love with who I'd been. He didn't understand that, and I think that's where a lot of the friction came from—he wanted someone who needed him, and I didn't need him. Not like that, not anymore."
John thought about Brandy, and Harold's assessment of her. The kind of woman who looked up to and wanted that dominant alpha male personality, who didn't have an independent streak of her own the way Joss did. I wonder, if I'd met Joss before she went into the service, would I love her as much as I do now? Or would he have found Joss much like Jessica, wanting the strong dominant male but afraid of the darker side in him?
And Joss…what attracted him to her was her independence, her inner strength, her…guts. He remembered sitting in a diner when her number had first come up, talking to Eddie Kovacs. Eddie had said something about having big guns, and Joss had responded back, very clearly and with unmistakable intent, 'As angry as you are, I got a feeling they ain't that big, Eddie." And it was that balls-and-sass attitude, so much a part of her, her style—yes, that was what Joss Carter had become, and that was what drew him to her. He realized that he too had changed while in the service, and mostly that showed in his change from wanting a woman who needed him and needed his dominant strength, to wanting a woman who could push back at him when he was wrong, support him when he was right, and provide a equal counterpart to his own strength.
But he could see how that combination would have been puzzling, irritating, and challenging to Paul Carter's personality—and Carter would have responded to that challenge by becoming physically aggressive. But that strength was what had enabled Joss to save herself and her son, instead of becoming a victim like Jessica had. It was a strength that Joss had somehow managed to pass onto her son, and maybe that was part of why Carter hadn't been able to bond with his own son—because his son's strength was a challenge to his own. Although, to John's knowledge, Carter had never hit Taylor, or even tried to.
And that was still incomprehensible to John. "I'm just still glad I never had kids."
Joss finished cleaning his hands in silence; he wondered at this uncharacteristic quietness, but he was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to intrude on hers. Finally she wrapped his fists with a thin roll of gauze, then tucked away the first-aid supplies. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. I'll help Lia lay out the food." She pointed to the second tall dresser against the left wall of her room. "I reorganized in here today. I put all my clothes in the other dresser so you can have that tall one. I didn't unpack, however, I think you'd rather do that. Don't take too long, or the food will get cold." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss before she left the room.
Since he didn't want to take a shower and undo the work Joss had just done on his knuckles (the first-aid cream she'd put on them, though it had stung at first, now had numbed the scrapes and he barely even felt them.) He healed quickly, and his hands would be fine tomorrow, but for tonight…he grabbed the two cardboard boxes that held his clothes, quickly sorted and stowed them in the dresser Joss had designated as his, then chose another short-sleeved shirt and headed for the kitchen.
Taylor was still in his room, and John paused in the doorway watching Joss and Lia. Joss was giving the young girl instructions on how to set a table, correcting mistakes gently and cheerfully; she was a good mother, and he wondered again how Paul Carter had managed to let her walk away with Taylor. He would never have been able to do that. Yes, with his life, his job the way it was, it was better that he'd never had a child.
They were halfway through their meal when there was a knock on the door. Joss put her fork down, looking puzzled, and went to the door—taking the sensible precaution of looking through the peephole in the door first.
And then she turned to them. "It's Sandhu," she ground out tersely. "Probably came here looking for Lia."
John was instantly on alert, half-rising from his chair, but Joss waved him down. "Don't get up. I got this." She looked at Lia. "Lia, I'm not gonna be like every other person in your life and think I know what's best for you. You're old enough to make up your own mind. Do you want to talk to him?"
"I don't," Lia was so terrified her voice came out in a whisper. "I don't want to talk to him. I don't ever want to see him again!"
"Then you don't have to." Joss turned the tumbler on the lock quickly, yanked the door open, and stepped out onto the porch, then slammed the door behind her so fast that Sandhu, outside, wouldn't have been able to see anything inside the house. John rose from his place at the table, followed closely by Taylor, and they both strode to the front door, putting themselves between Lia in the kitchen and the front door—just in case Sandhu tried to force his way in. And from where they stood, they could hear what was said on the front porch.
Sandhu, sounding belligerent. "I would like to see my wife."
Joss (and John could just see her folding her arms and getting that stubborn, I'm-not-budging look on her face.) "Well, she doesn't want to see you."
Sandhu. "She is my wife. She will do as I say. What she wants is irrelevant."
Joss (and now John could hear the 'danger' tone creeping into her voice.) "Let me tell you something. We are not in India, where your wife has to submit to you. You are in America, and the law says that Lia doesn't have to listen to you, or obey you blindly."
"But as her husband, I have some say in what she can or can't do. If you try to take me to court, I can say I don't want my wife to testify against me, and she can't say anything because she is my wife."
"I got news for you, Sandhu," and Joss was no longer bothering to be polite. "Spousal privilege doesn't apply in cases of domestic abuse—which is what this is." It sounded like Sandhu was about to try and say something, but Joss cut him off. "No, you listen to me. Lia is not your wife. I don't care what that piece of paper says. And while I realize that beating your wife and children is acceptable in India, it is not acceptable here and that is grounds for a court case. I don't care what your rules and customs are over there—they do not apply here."
"If we were in India I could take you out and beat you for your insolence," And John took a step toward the door, fury rising, only to be stopped by Taylor's hand on his arm. He looked at Taylor, and the boy had a finger on his lips, signaling for quiet. "You should have more respect. I'm a Sergeant in the US Army!"
Joss's voice went flat, hard; she was pissed now. "Then as a member of the US Army, you should know that servicemembers keep their rank after retirement. I'm Warrant Officer Jocelyn Carter, US Army Human Intelligence Analyst. Got a Purple Heart in Iraq, so if you're going to go throwing your rank around, then I outrank you, Sergeant Sandhu, and you had better fix your tone!"
Silence; John could well imagine the man's befuddlement. Beside him, Taylor was laughing so hard John thought he was going to fall over, though he was doing so silently. His laughter was relaxing Lia slightly; she wasn't as tense as she crossed the kitchen to stand beside Taylor.
Joss went on. "Lia made it clear that she doesn't want to see or speak to you. I'm going to honor her wishes. If you have anything you wish to communicate, you'll have to do so through the lawyers. Now, since you don't have the wits to know where you aren't welcome, I will be talking to the judge about a restraining order against you. You will not come to my door looking for Lia again. Now, get off my property."
A short pause, then Joss spoke again. "I'm not going to tell you again. You are trespassing on my property. I'm an officer in the NYPD, I can arrest you for trespassing if you'd like. Then you'll have to explain this to your commanding officer." Her voice took on a faintly malicious tone. "I wonder if your commanding officer knows you've assaulted your wife? The UCMJ covers domestic violence, punishable by jail time and a dishonorable discharge. Oh, wait, since your 'wife' was also an underage girl married to you unwillingly…that really won't be good for you, won't it."
"No, it certainly isn't going to be good for you," came a new voice, and John opened the front door—just in time to see Cam Arlington close the door of a battered old Jeep parked by the curb in front of the house. "I strongly recommend that you leave. If you don't…well, even if Joss is reluctant to get physical with you, I certainly am under no such handicap."
"Sergeant Sandhu, let me introduce you to Corporal Cameron Arlington and Specialist Charlie Ironknife," Joss said sweetly as Sandhu backpedaled off the front step, clearly taken aback by the sudden appearance of these reinforcements. "I believe you're pretty handily outnumbered and a strategic retreat may be in order."
Without another word, Sandhu fled.
Cam and Charlie watched Sandhu's car vanish at the end of the block as John joined Joss out on the step. "I believe he may have gotten the message. But Joss, I'd still recommend calling Alex and asking for a restraining order."
"Absolutely. I'm calling her immediately." Joss had her phone out and was already dialing; now she stepped off the top step and took a couple discreet strides out on the lawn as she put the phone to her ear.
John turned to Cam. "Wasn't expecting to see you, this is a bit of a surprise."
"Charlie and I came down to Staten Island to pick up Auggie for our annual summer camp. Normally Allie comes down from West Point to pick Auggie Abernathy up, then takes him back to West Point to wait with Allie and Dash's daughter Marissa Faireborn until I come pick them up, but this year Marissa's going to Europe with a group of her friends. So I came to pick Auggie up myself, and I decided to stop in and see if Taylor wanted to get out of the city for the summer. He can ride up with Auggie, and spend the summer with Auggie, Erin, and Evan—the O'Hara twins are coming in from the West Coast. Shana and Terence are actually flying east with them this year, they said they missed everyone and wanted to see us." She looked at the empty lawn. "I've heard a little bit about what's going on from Liv, but I had no idea this much was going on."
Joss rejoined them on the step. "Okay, I called Alex. She's going to file for an ex parte order—an emergency restraining order—on Lia's behalf." She looked past John as Taylor and Lia came out on the porch. "So Lia, you don't have to see him again if you don't want to."
"I don't," Lia shuddered.
"Then that's settled. Come on, let's go in and I'll fill Cam and Charlie in on what's been going on."
