The rain of the prior day had moved out and the sun shone down on the quiet, peaceful town of Rockport, Maine. Birds sang sweetly, a soft breeze set the spring flowers to dancing, and just off the coast, bright sailboats bobbed cheerfully on the gently rolling waves. The joyful cries of the children, recently freed from school for the summer, echoed up and down the streets on all side of him as Benton Quest walked aimlessly through town. He smiled and returned greetings pleasantly, even stopping to chat once or twice, but his mind seemed disconnected. Life had changed for him in some mysterious way and he was struggling to make sense of it. He stood on one of the high streets above the harbor park and watched two young boys playing an impromptu game of one-on-one soccer. Their endless energy and delighted calls brought back memories of his own sons. It seemed like just yesterday it had been Jonny and Hadji down there. Now both of them were gone.
Time moves on and things change, he thought to himself. That's the way things are supposed to work. He turned away from the view and continued his slow walk. His thoughts returned to the day before and the meeting with his son. When did we reach the point where it took an outside party to be able to find a way for us to talk? he asked himself. He was ashamed when he thought of the things he had said and done over the past several months. Jonny had been right to be angry with him. Benton sighed. And ashamed or not, he still hated the fact that his son was living in Boston with his girlfriend, with no intention of going on to school. It didn't matter that it was Jonny's decision and that it was one he really should honor. He still hated it.
Life moves on, he reminded himself again. My sons have taken the first steps into their new lives. I need to do the same. But how? He began walking slowly again. As he descended the hill, heading for the harbor, he ran into several people he knew. After several light, pleasant conversations, he finally stood alone, not far from Barbara Mason's office again. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he began walking slowly toward his car. How do I start over? he asked himself again. Fumbling in his pocket, he pulled out his car keys. As he did so, a piece of paper fluttered to the ground. Reaching down, he picked it up and opened it. In Barbara's spidery scrawl, were three sets of names and addresses.
Family Medical Center
Augusta, Maine
Merry Ellen Aden, MS, MSW
The Center for Children and Families
Orono, Maine
David Upton, M.D., Ph.D.
United Family Services
Boston, Massachusetts
He gazed at the names for a long time, thinking again about the question of starting over. Then, carefully folding the piece of paper and putting it back in his pocket, he crossed the distance to his car and started for home.
Barbara Mason tossed the copies of Benton Quest's lab results onto the desk in disgust. Damn the man. Why did he have to be so stubborn? Just because the tests she had run didn't turn up anything obviously wrong didn't mean there wasn't a problem. She rose from her desk and began to pace restlessly. Somehow, she had to get him to another doctor . . . one that could figure out what was wrong with him. If only something had shown up in the lab tests she had run. She'd even taken the extra blood sample so that she could expand the range of tests performed. Blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, the metabolic panel, the liver panel, the urinalysis . . . nothing. Everything showed within normal ranges. So naturally, he wouldn't hear of pursuing it any further.
"'I'm just tired' he says," she muttered aloud in agitation. "Tired my ass! Goddamn it, Benton, there's something wrong with you! Why won't you help me find out what it is?" She picked up the sheaf of lab results and stared at them again, willing them to show her something that would explain what was going on, but there was still nothing. She flung them from her in a fit of frustrated anger. "What is WRONG with you?" she snarled to the empty room around her. The door to her office opened suddenly and Kathy stuck her head in the door.
"You call me?"
"No!"
"Oops. Sorry." As the door closed, Barbara sighed and walked over to the window. As she gazed out toward the harbor, she suddenly spotted Benton. He was walking slowly along the sidewalk with no apparent goal in mind. Craning her head, she could just see the back end of his gray Mercedes still parked outside her office. She hadn't realized he'd gone out walking when he left. She watched as Alison Chen, the owner of the local flower shop, stopped him and the two of them stood talking. She saw Benton laugh and Alison grinned back at him cheerfully. Then she waved and moved off.
Barbara's heart ached as she watched him standing there alone. She wanted to go to him so much . . . to hold him and let him know how much she cared . . . to find a way to wipe the sorrow and loneliness out of his eyes. She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead against the window, trying desperately to control the desire to run out, throw her arms around him, and kiss him senseless. Finally, the sound of a car caused Barbara to open her eyes just in time to see the gray Mercedes back out of the parking space and drive away. With a sniff, Barbara turned away from the window and crossed over to pull a tissue from the box on the desk. Estella was right. It was hard loving one of the Quest men.
The main house at the Quest Compound seemed unnaturally quiet. Benton was in Rockport with Barbara Mason and all of the kids were gone.
Pretty much gone for good, Race thought. Times change . . .
He thought about Benton and his violent reaction to the revelation of the extent of Jonny and Jessie's relationship again, and asked himself why he hadn't been as upset by the discovery as his old friend had been. It didn't take him long to find the answer. He loved his daughter fiercely, but she was not the center of his life . . . not anymore. Once he might have reacted the way Benton had, but things had changed for him in the last year. In a miracle he could never have hoped for, Estella Antonia Higuerra Velasquez-Bannon had come back into his life again. There were times when he woke with an irrational fear that her returning to him was nothing more than a dream. At those times, he would roll over and cling to her frantically, truly understanding Benton Quest for the first time in his life. Pity suddenly filled him. He felt so sorry for Benton. All he had left were memories . . .
That fear suddenly caught at him. He wanted to see her . . . now. He spun and went searching for Estella. He needed to hold her and reassure himself that she really was here and his wife again.
He knew she wasn't in the lighthouse . . . he'd just been out there. And he'd come through the kitchen and she wasn't there, either. There was no reason she would be upstairs, and she wasn't in the family room, so he headed for their suite. He found her just coming out of the bathroom.
"There you are!" he said, crossing the room quickly. He caught her in his arms and cuddled her close, laying his cheek against the top of her head.
"Well, here's a greeting," she said, tightening her arms around him. "Did you need me for something?"
"No. . . yes! I just had a sudden need to hold you and reassure myself that you were real."
She leaned back in his arms and looked up at him in astonishment. "Real? What do you mean, real?"
She looked pale and beautiful and incredibly precious to him as she looked up from startled, green eyes. He caressed her cheek with his palm, allowing his fingers to slide into her hair. "I had this sudden fear that I'd been dreaming; that I was about to wake up and find you really hadn't come back to me."
She reached up and caught him by the nape of the neck, drawing his head down until her lips brushed his. "I'm very real and I'll never leave you again," she whispered against his lips. Then she kissed him. The intensity of her response caused him to draw her tightly against him and to respond with ardor. It was quite a bit later that she stirred against his chest and said hesitantly, "Race, I need to talk to you about something."
He lay there lazily, sated and deeply content. "Okay. Shoot."
She propped herself up on an elbow and rested her chin on his chest. "Things have been rough lately, haven't they?"
Race chuckled. "That's putting it mildly."
"There's an awful lot of change going on right now, and that's not very easy . . . particularly for Benton."
"No, he's had a difficult time recently." He frowned. "I hope Barbara's wrong about him having a health problem."
"So am I." She was quiet for a while. Finally, she asked, "How do you think he's going to cope with everything that's happened?"
"He'll be okay. It takes him some time to adjust, but he'll learn. And I really do think he'll come to terms with Jonny and Jessie's decision. It definitely won't be easy, but he's a survivor." He craned his head and looked down at her, suddenly getting the feeling there was something else on her mind. "What's bothering you, Estella? Why the sudden concern about how Benton's doing?"
She stiffened. "I've been concerned all along!"
"I know you have," he said soothingly, "but there's something else bothering you. I can tell. What is it?" She rubbed her cheek against his chest, refusing to look at him. He reached down and caught her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. "What?"
"There's another change coming," she replied hesitantly.
"What change?" he demanded.
She gazed at him for a long time before she answered softly, "I'm pregnant again, Race."
He froze, staring at her. "You're sure?" he whispered.
"Oh, yes. This time there's no question about it."
He caught her against him and rolled over, laying her back on the bed and looking down at her. "We're going to have another baby?" he whispered. "That's why you've been getting sick?"
She nodded. "I'd started to suspect I might be. Then last week, when I didn't start for the second month in a row . . . "
"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.
"Because I was afraid I was wrong again. And I knew how much you wanted this . . ."
He looked at her, disturbed. "I thought you wanted another child, too. Are you having second thoughts, Stel?"
"No!" Her hand drifted to her stomach and caressed it possessively. "Our baby . . ." Her eyes suddenly filled with tears and she reached out and touched his face. "A child, Race . . . our child. Oh, God, I love you so much . . ."
He stroked her stomach with an awestruck look and then held her close again.
"But Race," she finally said, "what about Benton? What's this going to do to him?"
He looked at her. "He'll be happy for us, Stel, I know he will."
"Can we ask him to be the godfather . . . and legal guardian if something should happen to us? Would he be willing to do that, do you think?"
"I think he would be honored."
"And maybe . . . a new interest for him?"
Race looked at her for a long moment and then slowly he began to smile. "Yes, I think maybe a new interest . . ." He hugged her enthusiastically. "New life in the Quest Compound . . . I think he'll be thrilled . . ."
Jonny woke suddenly, disoriented. Where am I? he thought in confusion. He sat up and looked around him. A room, moderate sized . . . blue walls, white lace curtains, blue fleur-de-lis carpet, white, ornate furniture with blue floral tapestry seats and gilt trim. He rubbed his face, trying desperately to remember where he was and how he got here. Suddenly, there was a loud thump from the other room. The sound of Jessie's voice, swearing colorfully, and the muffled barking of a very large dog followed it almost immediately. Then he remembered. Boston . . . they were in Boston. This was their new apartment and in four days, he would start a new job. It was the start of a whole new life for the two of them.
Rising quickly, he found his pants where he had tossed them the night before and pulled them on. Following the sound out into the living room, he found Jessie struggling to right a large box that had obviously fallen over as she tried to wrestle it from the top of a large stack. Just as he opened his mouth to greet her, there was a loud thumping from below his feet and the sound of a raised female voice. To his astonishment, Jessie stomped three times on the floor and yelled, "Shut up, Magnus! Sorry, Mrs. Taylor."
A distant, disembodied voice replied, "That's alright, dear. Don't mind Magnus. He's just saying hello."
Jessie looked up and saw Jonny. "Good morning!" she said cheerfully, as he came up to her.
"Morning," he said, righting the box she had been struggling with. Then he kissed her. "You could have gotten me up, you know, rather than risking your lovely neck trying to move boxes too big for you."
She laughed. "I could have started on another box, but I wanted the one with the camping gear in it."
"The camping gear? What for?"
"The only dishes we own are the ones in our camping gear. You want breakfast, don't you?"
"Well, that sounds great, but do we have any food in the apartment?"
"Yeah, I ran down to the local market after I got up this morning. I figured we'd better have something in the fridge or we'd never be able to stick to unpacking."
"You've been busy," he said, shifting two more boxes to reach the one she wanted. "And who the heck is Mrs. Taylor?"
"Our new downstairs neighbor. I met her at the market. She's really cool . . . she's in her 70's, feisty as all get out, and still manages on her own."
"I take it she must have a dog."
Jessie laughed. "I'll say . . . his name is Magnus, he's a huge, sand-colored Irish wolfhound that weighs in at about 150 pounds. When he starts barking, he literally shakes the walls. Mrs. Taylor says that whenever he starts, we're to stomp on the floor three times and yell, 'Shut up, Magnus' and he'll quiet down." Jessie grinned. "She says he's been trained to do that."
"Well, that's unique. I'll bet this is just one of the many new experiences we have to look forward to as part of apartment living."
"No doubt."
Jonny wandered over and pulled back the curtain to look out the window. He looked out over a quiet, narrow, tree-lined street filled with brick buildings. It disoriented him for some reason and suddenly he missed the view from his bedroom in the Compound.
"Hey," Jessie said softly, laying her hand on his arm. "What's wrong?"
Letting the curtain drop back into place, he turned and smiled down at her. "Nothing," he replied.
Jessie frowned and shook her finger at him. "Not a good way to start our life together, Jonny Quest."
"What?"
"Not being honest. Something is bothering you. I can see it on your face. What is it?"
Jonny rubbed his neck and looked thoughtful. "I don't know . . . I'm just feeling a little strange. Kind of out of place, I guess."
Jessie nodded, her smile fading. "I know. I woke up this morning feeling . . . " She trailed off.
"Homesick."
"Well, yeah." She looked up at him, her eyes sad. "I'm sorry, Jonny."
Putting his arms around her, he drew her against him and cuddled her. "There's no reason to be sorry. I'm homesick, too. I miss Dad and Race and Estella . . . and Hadji and Kefira, too. And I'm worried sick about Dad." He reached out and tipped her head back so she had to look up at him. "But what else could we do, Jess? I couldn't live with what Dad wanted, but you know, he was right. It is his house. He's worked long and hard to provide us with all the things we had. He's earned the right to be able to draw the line if something makes him uncomfortable."
"It was our home, too," Jessie protested.
Jonny nodded. "Yes, it was. But it was there because he worked to see to it that it was. He said it. 'Not in my house.' I know it was said in anger, and if you asked him now, he'd probably tell you that he didn't mean it. But the truth is, he did. And he has the right to feel that way in that house . . . just like we have the right to set limits that we're comfortable with in this one. You know, I think that in the end, it was that realization that made me decide it was time that we got out and made our own way. If he's uncomfortable with us having a physical relationship in his house, he's right to tell us that and ask that we don't do it. Just like we had the right to make the choice to leave his house if we couldn't live with that decision."
"That's the reason you hadn't . . . since March . . ."
Jonny nodded. "Yes. I owed him that much respect, no matter how upset I was with him. And he owed me the respect to allow me to make my own choices . . . which he did. He didn't like it, Jess. He all but begged me not to go. But in the end, he accepted that I had the right to do as I saw fit, and he finally seemed to understand that I really believe this is the right thing for us."
"I do, too."
The two of them looked around at all of the boxes piled in this strange place, feeling uneasy.
"Growing up, Jess. I guess this is part of the process, too."
"Yeah, I guess so." She looked up at him again, seeking reassurance. "We'll be okay, right?"
"Yes, love," he replied, looking around uneasily once again. "I'm sure we'll be fine."
(c) 2000 Debbie Kluge
DISCLAIMER: The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest and all characters, logos, and likenesses therein, are trademarks of and copyrighted by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc., and Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc., a Turner company. No copyright infringement is intended by their use in this story. All other material, copyright 2000 by Deborah A. Kluge. All rights reserved. Characters and stories are in no way affiliated with, approved of or endorsed by Hanna Barbera or Turner Productions. This is created by a fan for other fans out of love and respect for the show, and is strictly a non-profit endeavor.