CHAPTER 66

A/N: Wow, it's been a long time. I've been busy with a lot of last minute school things, and haven't really had the time or the interest in updating this fic. I've considered discontinuing it, but that's really up to you guys (the reviewers) and based on how much feedback I get after I post this chapter. I'm not trying to make this sound like a guilt trip, but in the two months that I've been gone, the category has been taken over by a lot of new authors, so I'd understand the reasoning behind the lack of interest in this fic.

I am probably going to start a new Roger/Mimi fic sometime within the next week or so. It will be different and relatively short—possibly a maximum twenty chapters, depending on how into it I am.

Well with that said, enjoy! Not too many chapters left. As a reminder:

Jackie and Mark have been divorced for twelve years. Jackie has custody of seventeen-year-old Hannah, and they reside in Sydney, Australia. Mark has custody of nineteen-year-old Luke (who lives in Liverpool, England) and thirteen year old Nicole.

Roger has been estranged from Jaylynn since she was six years old. He is currently battling end-stage AIDS and has about six months left to live.

Maureen, Harvey, and their daughter Audrey (who is sixteen) live in Los Angeles, California.

March 20th, 2017

In the handful of days Jaylynn had been in New York City, she hadn't managed to have a civilized conversation with Roger once. Even though now she knew everything about her past that there was to know, she still felt a lot of betrayal and resentment towards him that no amount of talking could ever resolve.

Luke was leaving in two days to head back to Liverpool with his soccer team and wouldn't be back in Manhattan to visit until mid June. Jaylynn had spent most of her time with him, much to her boyfriend Chris' dislike. Luke figured that the reasoning behind Jaylynn clinging to him was because Luke sadly knew Roger more than Jaylynn did. Luke had grown up with Uncle Roger over the years, and Jaylynn just…hadn't.

Jackie and Nicole returned to Sydney, much to Mark's distaste. Nicole had protested, saying she wanted to stay in Manhattan to learn more about Jaylynn, but Jackie had refused, taking her back to Australia for three weeks so Nicole could see her mother's parents and her older sister, Hannah.

Mark had taken Roger to his doctor's appointment, and like expected, Roger was getting progressively worse with not much the doctor's could do to help him.

"So…like this?"

Luke came up behind Jaylynn and moved her foot into a better position. "More like that. Now go. Kick it."

Jaylynn faked a sense of concentration and kicked the ball. It missed the goal completely and from the awkward position, she tipped over and lost her balance, laughing as she landed on the ground. "I told you I suck. I think I just better stick with dance and gymnastics."

Luke laid down in the grass next to her on his back, throwing a spare soccer ball up into the air and catching it. "You really do suck. I think my little sister is better than you are."

"Oh excuse me, not everyone can be a hot shot soccer superstar like yourself, Luke Cohen."

"Nah, they can only wish. Come on. Let's do it again." Luke hovered over her and grabbed her hands, pulling Jaylynn to her feet.

"You can do it again. I think I'll just…watch." She took off in a jog away from the field and Luke dropped the ball, jogging after her. They pretended to mock chase each other around the park, not spotting Mark and Roger heading towards the soccer field.

"What do you think of that?" Mark asked, grinning at Roger as they headed slowly towards the field. They had been out walking around, partly because Mark insisted, and the other part because Roger thought it was nice enough out.

"Think of what? Like that or like that?" Roger laughed, only pausing once to cough.

"Let's not go any farther than that, okay? I really don't want to think about my son having a better sex life than I do right now."

"I don't even have a sex life at the current moment so that's gotta boost your self esteem some how."

"Actually," Mark laughed. "Yeah, it does. The great Roger Davis has no one to bed for once. Shocking."

"Hey, at least I don't have to use Viagra." Roger moved out of the way slightly, just in case Mark was about to hit him on the shoulder.

"I don't use Viagra," Mark responded through gritted teeth.

"You're forty-five years old."

"So? You're forty-six, old man," Mark joked. "Can we change the topic?"

"Sure. So at what age are you planning on using Viagra?" Roger laughed, eyeing how mad Mark was getting. "Okay, okay. Next topic."

"When did we get so old?"

"What do you mean?"

Mark kicked at the soccer ball that Jaylynn had kicked out of bounds minutes beforehand. "Just yesterday you threw me that surprise fortieth birthday party. All my kids were still under eighteen. Now Luke's heading towards twenty, Hannah just turned seventeen last month, and Nicole's fourteen in May."

"Yeah, fourteen going on thirty-five," Roger joked. "She can't wait until she's eighteen. Remember when Luke wanted his first tattoo? How old was he?"

"Almost fifteen."

"And when did he get it?"

"Fifteen," Mark grumbled. "But I had no say in that. I was outnumbered."

"Yeah, and then after one there were how many more?"

Mark laughed. "Two more that I know of."

"Hey Luke! How many tattoos do you have now?" Roger called out. Luke and Jaylynn looked up, and Luke sent a soccer ball flying in Mark's direction.

"Four!"

"What?" Mark shouted. "I thought you had two!"

Luke jogged over to his dad and uncle, carrying Jaylynn on his back. "Yeah, I have four. The three I got here, and the one I got done in England."

"And where are all of these tattoos?" Mark questioned in a fatherly tone.

"One on each bicep, another one my ankle, and one underneath my right shoulder. Why?"

"Just…don't get any more."

"Okay Dad," Luke laughed. "Jaylynn and I are going to get something to eat. You guys want to come with?"

"Nah, you two go," Roger said. "Mark and I are just talking about how old we are."

Jaylynn laughed and smiled. "Mark looks older."

"Hey!"

"Only a true offspring of a Davis would say that," Roger smiled proudly. "Hey Jaylynn, when you get back I want to show you something, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Jaylynn agreed. She squealed as Luke picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder upside down. "See you guys later!"

About forty minutes and one stop back at the loft later, Jaylynn and Luke were sitting in a small pizza place near Central Park. Both had gotten their slices of pizza, although Luke had long since been finished with his two slices and Jaylynn was still eating her first.

"So what's England like?"

Luke shrugged and started playing with the saltshaker. "Not that much different from here. People are more polite. Rains more than it does here, but not all the time. People drive on a different side of the road…"

Jaylynn smacked his arm and laughed. "Thanks for telling me everything I already knew. I was kind of thinking about going there soon."

Luke's face lit up and he smiled. "You should. You could stay at my flat. It would be great. I'd get to show you around."

"So now, besides soccer extraordinaire, you're my tour guide too?"

"Sure," he grinned. "So what's up with you and your boyfriend, Chris?"

"Oh…" Jaylynn looked down and started playing with her napkin. "We broke up."

"Why? If you don't mind me asking, or anything."

"No, it's fine. Um, I guess we were just different in a lot of ways. He wanted to have fun all the time, and I kind of needed to be alone sometimes. Plus, it didn't help any that he proposed and I turned him down."

"Whoa, he asked you to marry him? How old is he?"

"My age."

"He's nineteen?"

"Just turned twenty, yea."

"And he wants to get married?"

"I guess." All this talk about Chris was starting to make her uncomfortable. "We dated for about a year and a half. What about you? Have anyone waiting in England?"

Luke shook his head. "I've dated there, but never anything serious."

"Oh. So when are you leaving?"

"Tomorrow night. When are you leaving?"

"Whenever I get this thing solved with Roger." Jaylynn sipped her soda. "When are you coming back to Manhattan?"

"Probably sometime in June. Maybe. I might go to Australia instead. See my mom and sister."

"Yeah."

"It's not as bad as you think, you know. Talking to Roger. He probably doesn't know how he's supposed to talk to you either," Luke added. "He's missed a whole chunk of your life. Not intentionally. He really loved your mom a lot."

"Yeah. Everyone says I look like her."

Luke nodded. "From the pictures I've seen, yeah, you do. Your hair is a lot lighter and you have Roger's skin tone, but you have her eyes. You're tiny, just like her. I think that's why it's so hard for Roger to talk to you. It's almost like talking to Mimi herself. She's been gone for seventeen years and that's something you never really get over."

"Did the doctors say…how much time he has left?" Jaylynn questioned, twirling a piece of hair around her finger.

"Three months. Six months. A year, maybe. They don't know. They say that he shouldn't have lived this long, that he should have been dead years ago. It's sort of a miracle, I guess."

"Yeah." She looked out the window on the busy New York street. "I know what you mean."

It wasn't until later that night, after Jaylynn had showered and disappeared into the guest bedroom that she found a strange box sitting on the bed. It was cardboard, and had her name scrawled on it in very feminine handwriting.

Carefully, she lifted the box into her lap and picked up the white envelope lying next to it. It read:

Jaylynn Angela,

In this box are letters and pictures of you, your mother, and myself in happier times, seventeen years ago. Also, there are pictures from before you were born and some things that your mother wanted you to have. I should have given this to you a long time ago, but maybe it was better to understand. I hope that from sorting through this box you'll understand a little more of the reasoning behind why I wasn't around when you were growing up. Still, I understand if you don't want to talk to me. I probably wouldn't want to talk to me, either, because I know how much of a stubborn, self-centered pain in the ass I can be.

If you want, can we go out to breakfast in the morning? I think we need to talk before it's too late.

Love,

Roger

Jaylynn set Roger's letter aside and grabbed a stack of rubber-banded envelopes out of the box. There must have been about ten or twelve of them—and they were all addressed to her.

But they weren't from Roger.

They were from Mimi.

Reviews would be awesome! Only a few more chapters to go!