When Jotaro and Layla returned to the house, everyone was waiting for them in the living room around the kotatsu. They appeared to be playing cards, possibly poker. The candy and cookies piled in the middle of the table must be their currency. Considering the way Joseph's eyebrows connected over his nose to form one V shaped unibrow and his deepening frown as he pored over his cards, he was losing.

"Hi, kids! Where have you two been?" Holly inquired, giving them a big smile as she tossed a chocolate bar on the pile.

"Yeah, you two wasted the reservation I made for you," Joseph muttered irritably, shifting his cards around as if that would miraculously improve his hand.

"We had a very nice dinner, thank you very much. Excellant seafood. Beachside no doubt. It was the best," Layla said, sitting down beside Grandma Suzi. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, dear," the woman assured her. Her blue eyes connected with Layla's brown ones. "Is everything okay?"

"Just fine," she lied but hoped it sounded sincere.

"I call," Suzi announced, laying down her cards. "Royal flush."

"Holy shit," Joseph muttered, throwing his cards like a sore loser. "You're cheating."

Layla started coughing. Joseph glared at her.

"I most certainly am not. I just have a better poker face than you," Suzi retorted, scooping the pile of sweet treats toward her.

"Here, Layla, drink this," Holly said, handing her a glass of water that was sitting on the table as she continued to cough. "My goodness. Are you catching a cold?"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jotaro asked, sitting down beside her.

"Nothing," she wheezed. She cleared her throat and drank more water.

I just have a little bullshit stuck in my throat, her inner voice helpfully supplied with a healthy dose of sarcasm as she cast a withering glance at Joseph.

The phone rang before anyone else could ask another question about her sudden attack of coughing.

"I'll get it," Holly announced in song, jumping to her feet to pick up the phone on the table in the corner. "Hello...You would like to speak to who?"

Everyone stared at Holly when her eyes landed on Layla and the smile faded from her face.

"Layla? Whom may I tell her is calling?" she asked looking quite displeased which was highly unusual for her. "Just a minute, please."

Holly turned, forcing a smile to her lips. Taking advantage of the extra long cord attached to the phone, covering the mouthpiece with her hand, she brought the phone to Layla.

"It's a Dr. Clapton from the Speedwagon Hospital New York Branch for you," she said, giving her the phone.

Layla could feel everyone's eyes on her as she to the phone. Her fingers were cold against her cheek as she gripped the receiver.

"Oh, my god," Joseph exhaled.

"Who's Dr. Clapton?" Holly asked in a loud stage whisper.

"Layla's father," her mother answered her. "Did he sound angry?"

"Furious."

"Oh, dear," murmured Suzi, her eyes shifting to Layla who paced the floor.

"What is the meaning of this job transfer request?" her father yelled at her crossly.

"Daddy, can we talk about this another time? It's really late here and - "

"Well, it's nine AM here and this just landed on my desk," he interrupted her crossly. "Seven minutes after nine to be exact."

"I need to talk you about this but not - "

"I need you to return to the home at once," Dr. Clapton ordered her. "Your job there in Japan is done. Holly Kujo has recovered and your services are no longer needed. I allowed you to stay to humor Joseph Joestar but enough is enough."

"Daddy, please," she begged to stop his tirade.

"Don't Daddy me, little girl," he snapped at her. "I already had reservations about your home visits to the Joestars. When that man requested you be flown to Japan with the team of doctors to take care of his ailing daughter I agreed because it was all in the line of duty."

Layla glanced at Joseph. His questioning green eyes met hers, and she looked away. Although she was still furious with him, she could not help but feel protective of him when her father referred to him as that man in such a derisive and caustic tone.

Her father never cared much for Joseph Joestar and never attempted to hide it from her. Although her father believe it improved the quality of healthcare to have dedicated nurses and doctors to tend to a certain number of specific patients, he was not happy when she was enlisted by the Joestar's doctor to be their nurse. He wanted to switch her to a different hospital entirely when her present boss had her start making home visits in addition to taking care of them at their regular check ups and any procedures they received at the hospital.

"This is just too much, Layla. I won't allow it. I won't agree to this job transfer," he barked into the phone.

Layla could hear scratching in the background as if he was already marking the paper with DENIED in bold black letters scratched angrily with his pen.

"But, Sir, please - "

"I have booked you a ticket on the first flight home. It leaves tomorrow morning at 7. I expect you to be on that plane." It was no request. He was ordering her to come home.

Layla glanced at Jotaro. But his birthday was still a week away. She wanted to be here to celebrate with him and everyone. If she left, there was no way in hell her father would allow her anywhere near an airport to come back.

"But, Sir, I just need one more - "

"No. You are coming home now. If you aren't on that plane, you are fired. Don't bother coming home at all for that matter," he added, hanging up the phone without saying good-bye.

Layla visibly flinched when the call disconnected. She pulled back the receiver and stared at it in disbelief. She had seen her father angry before but never like this - never directed at her anyway. It both hurt and frightened her.

"Layla? What is it?" Jotaro asked, taking the phone from her to hang it up. He cupped her face in his hands and tilted her he chin up so she would have to look at him. "What did he say?"

"I have to leave. I have a 7AM flight tomorrow," she stated robotically, still reeling in disbelief from the entire conversation.

"We'll see about that," Joseph grumbled, standing up to walk over to the phone.

"No, Mr. Joestar, please don't," she begged,

Layla did not see the questioning glances exchanged between Suzi and Holly. They did not understand why she referred to him so formally. What happened to the affectionate moniker of Grandpa Joe? It had been a strange day and that sounded like an awful exchange with her father. They chalked it up to her being tired and her feelings her being hurt by her father.

"But I can talk to him...make him change his mind," Joseph argued. "Just let me - "

"No!" she yelled when he picked up the receiver. "You've done enough. Trust me. Don't call him. He's angry because of the job transfer request. He said if I don't get on that flight he will fire me."

"Don't worry about a job. You will still work for us," Joseph said even though she was shaking her head as tears fell from her eyes. "You can fly back with us when we...Layla, what is it?"

"I can't," she replied, her voice warbling from the emotion clogging her throat. "If I don't go back, he will disown me."

"What?!" they all exclaimed incredulously.

"But you have a family," Suzi Q. said, standing up to go to her. "You have us."

"That's very sweet, but..." She sobbed, taking Suzi's hands in hers. "But he's the man who took me in when no one else wanted me. He raised me and gave me the best of everything. I owe him so much. He's the only family I had until now and..." She glanced at Joseph. "There are a few things I'm already confused and upset about. I can't ignore this and hope it goes away." Her eyes moved back to Holly's. "I have to go back. I have to talk to him about this matter. I have some important decisions to make."

"I understand, dear," Suzi responded, squeezing her hands. "You do what you have to do. We will be here for you if you need us."

"Thank you," she said, giving the woman a hug. "Uhm, I think I need to go to bed. It's going to be a long day tomorrow."

"Sleep well," Suzi said, patting her cheek.

Layla gave Holly hug on her way to the door. She stopped in front of Joseph who stared down without attempting to hug her. She smiled up at him sadly. When he opened his mouth, she spoke first.

"I'm sorry," she apologized although she wasn't sure for what.

"Me too," he whispered, giving her a smile filled with regret and opening the door for her.

Jotaro followed her out.

"You don't have to come with me," she said without turning around.

"I know," he replied.

"Suit yourself," she sighed, going into her room.

Layla pulled her suitcase out of the closet and began throwing in her clothes, hangers and all. She knelt on the floor beside it to tuck in all of the sleeves of shirts and legs of pants hanging over the edges. Opening the bag containing her yarn, she picked up the scarf she had knitted for Jotaro. She held it in her hands, running her shaking fingers along the soft fabric as if petting an animal.

"This was supposed to be your birthday present," she murmured as if talking to herself.

"Then give it to me now," Jotaro said, kneeling beside her.

Raising up on her knees, Layla flung the scarf over his head and wound it around his neck. His neck was so thick, or maybe the scarf was simply too short, it only went around once with one tail hanging down his back and other down his chest.

"I should have made it longer," she mumbled, fiddling with it to adjust it.

"It's fine," he assured her, grabbing her flitting hands.

Layla glimpsed up at him sheepishly, embarrassed by her handmade gift and subpar knitting skills.

"It will be enough to keep me warm," he said, cupping her jaw with one of his hands. He tilted her face upwards so she would have to look at him. Her eyes were shiny with tears. "Every time I wear it, I'll think of you."

"Oh, my god," she gasped, pushing forward to press her face into the scarf. "You can be so kind and romantic when you aren't even trying. I need you to an asshole right now. Say something stupid and mean so I can walk away from you without it hurting so much."

"Sorry," he apologized, enclosing her shaking shoulders with his brawny arms. "I can't do that."

Layla tried to hold back the sob but her body shook in his arms as her breathing hitched.

"I'll see you soon. I will be flying to New York after graduation," he said, embracing her.

"Really?" she whispered and hiccupped wiping away the tears with the back of her hand.

"I'll tell the old man to give me a plane ticket for a graduation present so I can come see you."

"Oh, Jotaro," she laughed, leaning back to look at his face. "How long do think this will last? This...thing between us."

"I don't know," he said, cradling her head and pulling it to his chest. "When you say it like that, you make it sound like a bad thing."

"I don't think it's a bad thing, but..." She rested her hand on his belly, feeling it rise and fall lightly with each of his breaths. The words were so bitter in her mouth it made her nauseated. "As much as I want it, I don't see a future for us."

His abdomen contracted, the muscles hardening under her palm as he sucked it in though she did not hear his sharp inhale.

"Do you see one for the two of us?" Layla inquired.

"I try not to think about the future too much," he said, hugging her to his chest.

That was a lie and they both knew it. He was already planning on attending Tokyo University. He decided on his major. Relationships, especially a girlfriend, a wife, a child, were the part of his future he did not think about. He just didn't see having a family of his own as part of his life. It pricked his heart a little yet gave him a sense of comfort to know she was smart enough to know that.

"I don't expect anything more than the here and now. Graduation is only a month away," he reminded her.

Layla sat up, her eyes meeting his. "A lot can change in a month."

"You're right." His fingertips drifted across her cheek and across her head. He began pulling out the bobby pins to take her hair down. "Then how about tonight? Will you be mine tonight?"

"I'll be yours as long as I can," she whispered, pressing her lips to his for a kiss.

They scooted over to the futon in an awkward walk on their knees. Jotaro lay down on his back and Layla straddled his wide body while gazing down at him. His eyes shifted back and forth between hers as she reached down to grab the bottom of her sweater. His hands rested on her waist.

"I could love you, you know?" Jotaro said, gliding his hands up her back to unhook her bra.

"I know," she whispered, sliding off her bra and tossing it behind her.

He sat up, and she took of his hat, throwing it on top of her discarded sweater. Her fingers ran through his hair as he placed kisses on her chest over her heart.

"I could love you too. And it scares the hell out of me," she whispered, kissing his forehead.

"At we we can agree on that," he mumbled against her skin, cupping her shoulder blades with his hands. His lips grazed the curve of her breast, gliding over her silky skin.

Do you regret it? Any of it?, she wanted to ask as his lips enclosed her nipple. Some questions should not be asked because the honest answer would hurt too much. The answer would not be forthcoming anyway because his lips and tongue were otherwise occupied with something far more pleasurable than talking.

Jotaro easily lifted her small body from his lap, rolling forward onto his knees. He lay her on her back while he remained between her legs. His big fingers clumsily unbuttoned the button on her jeans. Why the hell was he so nervous when he was not supposed to care?

Layla's hands moved to his waist, unbuckling one belt, then the other as he fumbled with her zipper. She never understood why he wore two belts but never asked either. The only things she questioned were things she was confident in knowing like when the doctors were about to make a lethal mistake and harm their patient.

They eventually removed each others clothing, neither one of them in a hurry. They wanted to make the night last. They wanted this, whatever this is, to last as long as possible.

Jotaro made love to her slowly, each movement carefully measured to bring her pleasure. He wanted to imprint his smell, his touch, his voice upon her brain so she would never forget this moment - never forget him. He feared, like Kakyoin, Layla would forever hold a piece of his heart but they were never meant to be a permanent part of his life no matter how much he wanted otherwise.

After their satisfying and simultaneous orgasm, Layla snuggled up close to him like she always did. She would miss this. She would miss him.

"Do you regret it?" Jotaro asked her.

Shit!, she screamed internally. Her finger traced the outer ring of the brown areola of his nipple.

"No," she whispered, teasing the nipple with her fingernail to make it constrict into stiff little nub. "I don't regret it all, but..."

"But," he groaned, putting his arm around her shoulders. "But it should never have happened," he murmured, understanding her feelings because he felt the same way.

"Why does life have to be so damn complicated?" she asked, stroking her fingertips across his broad chest until goosebumps raised across his skin.

Although the question was purely rhetorical, he answered anyway. "I don't know. That always seems to be the Joestar way."

Jotaro gazed down at her. Her face was still pink, flushed from their lovemaking and the subsequent climax. Her eyes were soft and vacant, sparkling in the dim lamplight as her mind wandered a thousand miles away - or years into the future.

Layla wanted to follow her heart, but her heart had a tendency to lead her into trouble. It brought her here after all to her present predicament with this man.

"Don't forget we have a very important date a year from now," he reminded her, tilting her chin up with his forefinger under it.

"I'll tell you when and where," she promised.

~\'/~

Layla never went to sleep. All night long, she stayed snuggled up to his side, counting every breath and listening to every beat of his heart. She inhaled his scent, touched his skin and hair, wanting to remember the little things, the important things, about him.

Before the sun was up, she got up and dressed, leaving Jotaro asleep in her bed. He had school today. He already knew she was leaving so there was no reason to wake him.

No one saw her off to the airport. She did not want them to because she could not bear the sad good-bye. She called a taxi and waited outside of the gate by the street.

Life, love, and everything in between is ALWAYS complicated with the Joestar family, and this is exactly the kind of complication she was trying to avoid.

Selfishly, Layla genuinely did not regret a damn thing she experienced with Jotaro from the sweet poignant words to the gentle kisses to the mind blowing sex and even the arguments - she wouldn't change any of it. She only wish it could have lasted longer. A lifetime would have been nice. But some things just aren't meant to be.

She should have told him no when he grabbed her wrist. She could have made him let her go yet she didn't - because she didn't want to. She wanted it just as much as him that night. He left her wanting more of him: his touch, his voice, his emotions - his heart - just more of everything... like an addict. Dumbass. She should have known better.

Layla inhaled a shaky breath, willing herself not to cry. She had cried enough. The only person she could blame was herself. Her father had warned her about them. She had broken her oath so many times to never become so deeply entwined with the Joestar family she could not separate her feelings from them. Like a glutton for punishment, she kept getting deeper and deeper. And now those feelings, the love she developed for Jotaro, threatened to strangle her.

The first time this boundary was breeched was when she spent so much time with Joseph and Suzi she began to see them as her adopted grandparents and not just her patients. Another line had been crossed when she came to Japan to help take care of their daughter. Holly became like an aunt, or a much older sister, a person whom she dearly loved.

And then, Jotaro happened. That was a whole new emotional trap waiting for her. Worst part is she willingly fell headlong into it. Not that being in a long term relationship with him was ever an option. She never wanted to be a Joestar girlfriend or wife and definitely not a mistress.

"Oh, my god," she moaned, feeling sick at her stomach when she recalled Joseph's confession.

Which brought her to another reason she had no business getting so involved with Jotaro. She certainly did not want to have a Joestar child. Those children seemed doomed to die unnatural deaths or at the very least wind up in deadly peril and almost die.

Joestars also had frighteningly short life spans ending in tragic deaths. The founding patriarch, Jonathan Joestar was murdered by Dio at the age of twenty. George Joestar miraculously made it to the age of thirty one when he was murdered by a minion of Dio's.

Holly almost died at forty-six when, once again, Dio happened to the Joestar family in the form of unleashing the power of the Stands which Holly's body could not bear. Layla had watched Suzi worry and fret, tenaciously steadfast in her optimism and unshakable faith in her husband that he would save their daughter.

Layla didn't think she could be that strong while watching her child barely cling to life day after day. After Joseph's admission of his hidden betrayal, she also didn't think she could put all of her faith so blindly into a Joestar man again, not even Jotaro.

Joseph was the only exception to the Joestar early death rule, although the women who loved him thought he was dead at nineteen. She can't imagine what his grandmother and mother went through believing he was dead, mourning and even burying an empty casket. But here he is, very much alive and kicking, at sixty eight despite Dio's best efforts and damn near success at killing him.

However, Joseph's very real yet blessedly temporary death has forever scarred his grandson who witnessed the entire event. Joseph Joestar, the poor, foolish man, has unwittingly left his loved ones with deep emotional scars. Some are yet to be revealed.

"Stupid, stupid man," Layla mumbled, receiving a quick glance in the rearview mirror from the driver.

"We're here, ma'am," he announced, pulling up to the curb. The man appeared relieved and happy to leave her at the airplane terminal.

Although Dio was no longer a threat, the Stands were still out there, unleashed upon the world. She doubted they would stop coming after Joestar descendants including Joseph himself.

"But you have a family. You have us." Suzi Q. had told her with such sweet sincerity it brought tears to her eyes now as she handed the skycap her suitcases.

A loud and long sigh of aggravation escaped her. Their present bodyguard, Rosas, who also acted as their butler, was getting old. He would need a helping hand protecting that old fool who employed him. Besides, she would miss Grandma Suzi. She would talk her father into letting her take that job for Suzi's sake. As much he hated Joseph, her father adored Suzi Q. How could he not? That woman is a ray of sunshine in human form.

Once in the air, Layla took the bottle of sleeping pills out of her purse. After popping a pill and washing it down with champagne, she pushed back her seat and raised the foot of the recliner like chair to lay as flat as possible for a long sleep. At least her father had provided a first class ticket. She slipped on her sleep mask and prepared to dream a pretty dream for the next twelve hours.