~*~ Chapter 14 ~*~

Scott was sitting at a desk in the police station, looking over the contents of the folder that Alexis had given him. "I can't believe that Serena is mixed up with these kids" he whispered to himself as Mac approached.

"Scott, what do you want to do with these boys? Are we pressing charges or what?" Mac asked.

Scott ran his fingers through his hair trying to determine the next course of action. "Let's try to work with this information that they have given us. Release them on bond when their parents arrive. In the meantime, I want this Slimy Pete character picked up."

"You got it..." Mac finished as he walked away. Scott remained sitting at the desk looking through the folder, his anger mounting higher and higher with each new piece of information that he read.

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Rhonda and Janelle turned around suddenly, when they heard the phone drop to the counter. "Serena, are you okay?" Rhonda asked.

"Huh..."

"Serena, what's wrong? Was that your father?" Rhonda asked.

Serena was trying hard not to reveal the panic that had overtaken her body. "Ah...no...That was my friend, Becky. I turned and the phone cord got caught on the corner of the counter" she lied.

"Hey...Serena, you like you could use a rest. I'm going to the firehouse to see if a package from my brother arrived. Why don't you come with me?" Janelle offered.

"Actually, you go on ahead." Serena said turning to Rhonda. "Rhonda? Can you take me to Dad's office? I want to talk to him."

"Sure, honey..." Rhonda replied. "Come on, let's go tell your sister and Chris goodnight; okay?" As Rhonda and Serena retreated towards Karen's room, Janelle watched them with envy before leaving the hospital.

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Serena entered the police station with Rhonda closely behind her. She spotted Scott in a heated discussion with about their latest arrest. She walked up behind and touch him gently on the arm "Dad? I can I talk to you?" she asked.

Scott turned around and glared at her for a second. "Serena, what are you doing here?"

"Rhonda brought me..." she began only to be cut off by Scott.

"What did you bring her here for, Rhonda?" He said with a raised voice shooting her a glare.

"She wanted to talk to you, Scott. She asked me if I could bring her here for a minute before I took her home." Rhonda shot back in defense.

"Okay, fine. What do you want to talk about?" He said taking her arm and pulling her off to a side desk. Rhonda stood by the reception desk while she waited for Serena engaging with small conversation with Mac.

"Dad..." Serena started with fear in her voice not quite knowing how to start "I'm...um...I don't know how to tell you this..."

"Why don't you just spit it out, Serena?" he said as his voice got louder. "Why don't you tell me just how many joints you and Jessie smoked the night you almost killed your sister?" He shouted getting the attention of everyone in the station, including Rhonda.

Serena's heart sank and tears filled her eyes as she listened to her father's accusations. "Dad...I didn't..."

"Oh...you didn't smoke any...is that what you're going to tell me Serena? I guess you're going to tell me that the marijuana that we found in Jessie's car was planted there, too, right?" he shouted.

"Dad...I didn't smoke it..." she yelled back at him with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Jessie did...she had just started to smoke it when Karen called on the intercom. I asked her not too...but she did anyway...I asked her if she was okay to drive and she said yes."

"Serena, that doesn't matter...her judgment, was impaired after just one puff. It didn't sink into your brain that you should've told Karen what was going on?"

Serena stepped back from her enraged father. This was the worst tongue lashing that he had ever given her, and it didn't look like he was letting up any.

"Where in blue blazes do you think your going little girl. Do you know who is held up in the back?"

Serena simply nodded, to afraid to make words at the moment, so Scott made them for her.

"That's right, your good buddies Todd and Seth. I supposed the drugs they were buying were for you, and Jessie?" Scott's voice echoed through the station, everyone inside pretended like they couldn't hear what was going on, yet kept a watchful eye on Scott as Serena moved behind Rhonda in an attempt to shield herself from her father's wrath.

"Rhonda, get her the hell out of here. I'll deal with her when I get home." Scott turned his attention back to Serena, "Your lucky I don't toss YOU back there, and make it a Trio of jail birds." Scott walked away leaving Serena crying in the middle of the police station. Mac quickly followed him as Rhonda tried to console Serena. "Come on Serena, he's going to be here a while. What do you say we go get some ice cream soda's?"

"Don't you think you were a little hard on her?" Mac asked Scott as he followed him through the station.

"I'm just trying to save her the same heartache these things caused her sister. I wasn't there to save Karen and I won't watch another one of my daughters go through that pain...I would have never really thrown my own daughter with those to idiots, but putting a little fear of the law into her won't hurt her any."

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Rhonda and Serena sat down at a booth at Kelly's and order two ice cream sodas. Serena stared out of the window as she twirled her straw in her drink. Rhonda knew that Serena needed to talk to someone, but she didn't know how to get her to open up. "You know, Karen used to work here." She finally said to Serena getting her attention. "She was a little older than you are now when she started. This is where she met Jagger. Come to think of it, this is where she married Jagger too; And where I dropped the bomb on her about your father."

"What made you finally decide to tell Dad and Karen the truth?" Serena asked hoping to hear a story about her sister.

"I've been waiting a long time for someone to ask me that question. The question that I normally get is 'how come you never told me?' And to be honest, I don't have a good answer for either question. I think deep down, I never told your father because I didn't want him to hate me."

Serena sat there for a couple of minutes in silence before turning back to the window. "Dad hates me..." she finally confessed.

"I don't believe that..."

"Why not? You saw how he treated me"

"I think it is more like he is scared. You and Karen are just like him. And he doesn't want to see you go through the same struggles that Karen went through. He'll come around you'll see."

"But I'm not Karen..."

"I know Serena...but as a parent, he is trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what?"

"From anything that could possibly hurt you. Look at it from his point of view. It kills him to think about the life that Karen had; and to know that he wasn't there for her when she needed him makes it worse. So with you, he is going to over-compensate....I know what you're thinking, and it doesn't make a difference that he didn't know...he feels like he has to be superman for his children."

Serena listened intently to what Rhonda was saying. Rhonda knew Scott better than she ever let on to anyone. Not knowing what to say, Serena just put her head down.

"Come on...let's go home." Rhonda said leaving some money on the table for the sodas.

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"Here you go, Scott." Mac said escorting what looked like a homeless man into the police station.

"Put him in the interrogation room." Scott replied following them into the room. "So slimy Pete...You have something that you want to tell me? Where are you getting the drugs to sell to these kids?"

"I don't know what you're talking about..."slimy Pete responded.

"That figures...It doesn't matter to you that there is a young girl lying in a hospital bed and her little baby is fighting for her life because these boys got drugs from you..." Scott yelled.

"Scott, can I talk to you a minute, outside?" Mac asked trying get Scott to calm down.

The two men walked out of the room before Mac showed his concern. "Scott, you are too close to this...if you keep going off on him like that, we are going to get nowhere."

"Mac, this man sold those kids drugs that nearly killed my daughter."

"I know Scott, that's the problem. You are looking for justice right here and now, but he is just the dealer to the kids, we need to find the source. Why don't you let me and my guys handle it. As soon as we get the information we need, we'll pass it to you." Mac informed him.

"Fine." Scott said as he left.

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As Rhonda and Serena pulled into the driveway of the firehouse, Rhonda had thought that she saw someone walking around the side of the house. Serena noticed Rhonda looking intently at something, but she couldn't see anything. "What are you looking at Rhonda?" she asked.

"Oh nothing...I just thought I saw something. It's not important." Rhonda said, although she knew who it was that she saw walking. "Do you want me to stick around until your father gets home?" she asked.

"No that's okay...Janelle is here. He won't do anything with witnesses around." She said with a small chuckle.

"Okay...have a good night...I'll probably see you tomorrow." Rhonda said as she watched Serena enter the house. She sat in the driveway a minute to see if she could see the person again. She got out of the car to follow the same path around the house only to find nothing. She made her way back to her car when she noticed the shine of headlights pulling into the driveway.