A/N: This chapter didn't take so long to get up, I was inspired. Got nothing to say.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. To the new reviewer pixievix and to ravenforever as well- you sure you figured it out? - And lots of love to TheNextPoliticalDynasty, xXxSarahxXx, and PeachestheFirst, who I'm going to start calling momo-chan (momo means peaches in japanese) because I want to.
Put your hands together ladies and gents for...Chapter 8! Enjoy.
Chapter 8: Family Matters
When TJ arrived home he wasn't sure what to tell his parents. Spinelli wasn't with him and he'd been gone most of the day. His brain was too emotionally exhausted to think up an excuse. He could barely muster a smile when he walked in the door and called out to whoever was in the house. But when no answer returned, he sighed with relief. He found a note posted on the refrigerator from his mother. She'd gone shopping. TJ figured his father was still at work, either that or went shopping with his mother. So TJ went upstairs to change for dinner at the Spinellis' house. He wanted to look nice; he didn't know Spinelli's parents that well. He'd only met them a few times. And even then, Spinelli was always in a rush to push him out of the house and leave her parents behind. To keep up the secret of TJ and her relationship, most likely.
TJ went to his old room first, shifting through the luggage for his nice shirt and dress pants. He considered wearing a tie, but decided he didn't want to be too overdressed. Then he slipped into the bathroom to clean up. He turned the shower on, adjusting the heat, and removed his clothes, stepping beneath the falling water. He rested his forehead against the tile, closing his eyes and letting the water beat down against his skin. It had been a long day. There came a sound from outside of the shower. Shuffling in the bathroom and the sound of the door closing. TJ, suddenly aware, opened his eyes, turning the water off and pulling the shower curtain back.
"Hello?" he called tentatively. There was a bang from outside of the bathroom. TJ grabbed the nearest towel and stepped out of the shower, making his way out the door, alert. "Mom?" he called. No answer. "Dad?" Still, no answer. "Spinelli?" More shuffling. He followed the sounds quietly, finally coming to a stop in front of the door to his room. Had he closed it? He reached his hand forward, all commotion in the room halting. His fingers wrapped about the handle and...
The front door opened with a loud creak, and closed with a careful thwack, as though someone were trying to enter stealthily. TJ snapped his hand away from his room's door and made his way to the stairs, glancing down. It was Spinelli, her hair falling about her face as she focused on her feet, climbing the stairs. She was favoring her right foot, gently touching her back with a soft hand in circular motions. There were scrapes along her left arm and shoulder and dried blood on her hand. She stopped halfway up the stairs, noticing TJ at the top, dripping wet, a towel wrapped about his waist.
"Hey," she finally managed to whisper, avoiding meeting his eyes.
"What happened?" he demanded, eyeing her with concern and uncertainty. Was she mad at him?
"I don't know what you mean."
"You look like shit, Spinelli."
"Gee thanks, Teej, you don't look half-bad yourself," she sneered, continuing with her steady and painful climb. TJ stopped her when she reached the top, touching his hand lightly to her hip, causing her to grimace slightly.
"What happened," he whispered now, softly.
"I tripped off the curb," she lied, concentrating on the well-carpeted floor beneath her feet. TJ could always tell when she tried to lie to him. She wasn't very good at it, "You know. I was mad, stomping off, and slipped trying to cross the street."
"I'm the klutz in this relationship, remember?" TJ said, touching her sore hand lightly, focusing his gaze on the split knuckle, and tracing the red around the deep cut with his thumb. This lie was important to her. He decided not to call her on it. "I'm sorry, Spinelli. I shouldn't have put you in that position. I just...I just thought that...I wanted to make things better."
"That's not good enough, Teej," Spinelli muttered, "I know you want us all to be friends again. But you can't make things better with soda and ice cream at Kelso's, it doesn't work like that anymore."
"It's not that I want us to be friends again, I know that that's probably impossible given everything that's happened between all of us. I just want...I want us to stop hating each other so...so vehemently, or at the very least try and understand why we do," TJ explained, "But I wouldn't have even attempted it if I thought I'd lose you in the process." Spinelli smiled slightly.
"You won't lose me, Teej," she said, finally entwining her fingers with his own, taking his hand, "You're kind of stuck with me," she grinned at him, "Does that scare you?"
"In a good way, yeah," TJ said, leaning forward and brushing his lips against her own."Now go get dressed, stud," Spinelli commanded him against his lips. He nodded, kissing her again, before pulling away and making his way back to the bathroom, holding her hand as long as he could before he absolutely had to let go.
Spinelli made her way into TJ's old room to start getting ready for dinner herself. TJ had only just pulled his pants on when he heard her cry out. It only took him moments to rush to his room, throwing the door open. Spinelli was on the ground; all her luggage was torn open, her clothes strewn about the room. A pricey black garment, a particular dress TJ thought Spinelli looked stunning in, was slashed to shreds. The picture sitting on his dresser of him and her was damaged; Spinelli's face ripped out and torn into unrecognizable pieces and the glass was cracked.
"How did this happen?" she questioned angrily, holding the tattered black cloth in her hands, there were red stains on it, but from what, TJ couldn't determine.
"I don't know. I was just in here...ten, fifteen minutes ago," TJ answered, shrugging as he took in the destruction about him, "I thought I heard something...someone maybe, in here before you came home." He glanced at the window; it was open. Did Spinelli open it in the morning? She was too paranoid to sleep with it open. Was it open when he came in? "Maybe an animal climbed in. A raccoon maybe, they come around here some times."
"You think an animal did this?" Spinelli questioned, doubtful and exasperated. She sighed, pulling herself up and going about the room, picking up her scattered clothes. TJ moved to help her. She picked up the picture, showing it to him. "You think an animal did this?"
"I don't know, Spin. Why would someone break in here to mess with your things?" he asked her, throwing the clothes at her luggage. "I'm tired, Spinelli, and I don't know." Spinelli touched the dresser top and let her hand float to her neck.
"Shit," she muttered.
"What now?"
"The necklace you gave me for Christmas..." she fell to her knees, brushing her hands on the floor, under the dresser, the bed, frantically searching, "I took it off, to take a shower. I must have forgot to put it back on...unless..." She stopped, looking out the window, "When I fell...maybe it came off then."
"What necklace...?" TJ asked, thinking back to the recent Christmases that had past.
"You gave it to me in middle school, our first Christmas as a couple," she reminded him absently, rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"You still had that?" he said, lowering his eyes. He'd saved his allowance for weeks, even before they'd started dating, and still couldn't afford the necklace he really wanted to give her. He'd had to settle for a cheap tiny stone imbedded in pewter. She was upset about losing that?
"I always wear it," she told him, locking her eyes with his, "Because you gave it to me. I may not be girlish, but I still treasure everything you give to me. I still remember when you gave it to me too, you were so nervous."
"That's 'cause I didn't think you'd like it. It wasn't what I'd wanted to give you," he mumbled, running his hand through his hair, "You deserved better."
"I got the best, Teej," she told him, pulling herself up and scanning the room again. "I guess it's gone," she sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. She continued with cleaning up her clothes, TJ watching, unsure what to say. Had she really kept everything he gave her? When Spinelli finished picking up the clothes, she stood, staring down miserably at the ruined dress.
"I saved up my tips for three months to buy this dress," she said forlornly, gathering the shreds into a bundle and throwing them in the garbage can next to TJ's old desk.
"Did you speak to your parents?" TJ asked, attempting to change the subject.
"No. I talked to Joey. He said he'd arrange the dinner." TJ paled.
"Did you tell him I was coming?"
"No," she smiled at him wryly, "I thought it would be a pleasant surprise of your own."
"Thanks," TJ drawled, brushing Spinelli's hair behind her ear and kissing her forehead.
"We should finish getting dressed if we're going to be there on time," she told him, trying to break their solemn mood. TJ nodded, reluctantly leaving again to the bathroom to finish dressing.
-0-0-0-0-
There they stood. Spinelli and TJ. In front of the lawn, with the tacky plastic pink flamingos and garden gnomes. In front of the house, painted olive green and dirt brown. In front of the house, with the mailbox shaped like a red barn, with a cow shaped flag. In front of the house Spinelli had been born and raised in. TJ took Spinelli's hand, as much for his own comfort as hers and tugged her towards the door. He raised his hand, knocking lightly. When no one answered, Spinelli pulled her hand from TJ's and pounded the door.
"Dad's probably watching wrestling," she explained, "There was a match on tonight. No one can hear anything the way he turns up the television. The doorbell's probably still broken too."
"I'm coming...I'm coming..." a gruff voice shouted from the house as the door swung open. The man standing before them was short, slightly taller than Spinelli who stood before him; her fists still up but paused from beating on the door. He was wearing a yellow hat and white boxers with red hearts dabbled across them. He was still wearing socks, pulled up well past his ankles, and a t-shirt reading "LET'S GET IT ON!!!", his wrestling shirt. His mouth hung open. Spinelli lowered her arms to her sides.
"Hey, daddy," Spinelli greeted, grinning sheepishly and trying to block the view from TJ who simply gaped at the man standing in the doorway.
"Flo, get in here!" the man yelled into the house.
"Coming," came the reply as a woman, slightly taller than the man, made her way into the living room. She was wearing a tank top and stretchy cotton high waters. Black-rimmed glasses, oval shaped framed her eyes and she walked with a feminine sway, stopping when the young woman standing on her doorstep became visible. "Pookie?" the woman said, her bottom lip trembling as she stepped closer to the door, tears springing to her eyes. "Pookie!" she cried, pushing her way past her husband and tossing her arms around Spinelli, smothering her with kisses and sobbing all the while. Bob stepped forward as well, grabbing his daughter and wife in a tight embrace. Suddenly, he noticed TJ and backed away, flushed, realizing how he was dressed.
"Maybe...maybe I should go change," he said, making his way out of the room. A young man in his early thirties dressed in jeans, a black button down shirt, and a frilly pink apron with white letters that said "Dinner's done when I say it is!" stepped from the kitchen. He had dark hair cut close to his scalp, dark eyes, and fuzzy remnants of a beard.
"Mom, let her breath," the young man told the woman smothering Spinelli, chuckling.
"Oh...right," Flo laughed, letting her daughter go and wiping tears from her eyes, "I'm sorry, Ashley, I just...I just haven't seen you in so long." Spinelli nodded stiffly, rigid and wide-eyed, staring cautiously at her mother, afraid to move and covered with red lipstick smudges.
"Hey, Joey," Spinelli greeted the young man.
"Is that little Theodore Dettwieler back there?" Flo asked.
"Yes, ma'am," TJ spoke up shyly; hoping Flo didn't hug him as well.
"You brought him with you?" Joey demanded and TJ gulped. Joey made to advance on Spinelli's cowering boyfriend, but stopped when he realized his mother and baby sister were watching, "Oh well, dinner's almost ready, you're right on time, brat," Joey told his sister, shooting TJ a scathing look as the two made their ways into the house. Flo gave her son a confused glance as her husband made his way down the stairs wearing pants.
"You knew about this?" Flo questioned. She threw her arms around her son then, "Oh Joseph! I can't believe you! How you kept it a secret..."
"So that's why you wanted to make dinner," Bob laughed.
"Yeah, I'll go set the table," Joey said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly and disappearing back into the kitchen.
-0-0-0-0-
For the first time in five years, Spinelli sat at the family table, a blue plastic fold out table, cheap and crappy. And yet, it was her family table. She'd shared so many meals over that table, so many discussions. She touched a dent in the corner of the table where she'd busted her head wrestling with her older brother Vitto when she was six. Beneath the tablecloth she could see the crayon markings of a picture she'd drawn on the tabletop when she was seven that her mother hadn't the heart to wash off. There was a dent on the tabletop as well, that her father had put there when he'd learned of Joey landing himself in jail, again, when Spinelli was nine. So many memories. A smile crept across her face as she saw the metal leg in the back that had been broken, though shoddily repaired now with duct tape, when she first kissed TJ and he'd tripped over his own bag and landed on the table. That was quite the difficult one to explain.
"So, Ashley, what have you been up to?" Flo asked. Joey had made spaghetti, Spinelli's favorite and the family specialty.
"I've been going to school in New York," Spinelli answered, biting into a forkful of tomato sauce slathered pasta.
"How are you paying for that?" Bob questioned, almost certain that he hadn't been billed recently by any bigwig school in New York.
"She's in on full scholarship," TJ answered, making to slip a proud arm over Spinelli's shoulders but stopping when he met Joey's death glare, "She's a really talented artist," he continued quietly, pulling his arm back and resting it in his lap.
"An art school," Flo squealed.
"I always knew my little girl had talent," Bob chuckled, slapping his arm over Spinelli's shoulders, where TJ had thought his arm should be, and kissing the top of Spinelli's head, causing her to fluster.
"Dad," she hissed.
"Anything else...I mean...anyone?" Flo pressed.
"Mom, I don't think Ashley wants to talk about that," Joey interrupted. The last thing he wanted was his parents finding out he'd failed in keeping the pervert boy-next-door from snaking his sister into a sinful relationship, leaving in New York, sharing a bed.
"Nonsense, I'm her mother," Flo laughed, "Well, Ashley?" Spinelli glanced at TJ who was smiling at her encouragingly, motioning for her to tell them the truth. She sighed, looking away from TJ remorsefully.
"No...no one," Spinelli mumbled. TJ frowned at the plate in front of him. Was she ashamed of him?
"See mom, there's no one," Joey said, smiling exultantly.
"Well, if that's the case, there's a young man that moved in down the street. He's a pre-med student," Flo exclaimed, clapping her hands together, "And he's quite attractive."
"That's great, mom," Spinelli mumbled, glancing at TJ from the corner of her eye. He was pushing the spaghetti on his plate around with his fork.
"He's about a year older than you, but that's nothing really. His name is Weiss Roper," Flo went on, "I'll introduce you two while you're in town. Maybe tomorrow, he doesn't work I don't think...you can wear a lovely dress. I always thought pink looked good on you." There was a scraping sound as TJ pushed his chair back.
"I have to use the restroom," he explained, walking from the kitchen.
"Teej..." Spinelli called after him. He paused, looking back at her.
"Oh," Flo called her daughter's attention back, "There's also a young man working at the grocery mart, he's studying to be a physicist..."
"I'll go make sure he finds the restroom," Joey excused himself from the table. TJ felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end as the well-built man grabbed his collar and spun him around so that they stood face-to-face.
"Hey...Joey..." TJ gulped, grimacing.
"I ain't gonna hit you," somehow that didn't seem reassuring, "You screwing my sister?"
"I would think that...well...she's an adult...so...I think that...well..."
"Are you screwing my sister," Joey demanded.
"On occasion...sometimes we...well, we don't refer to it as screwing...but..." TJ stuttered. Joey raised his fist, wagging it in TJ's face.
"I trusted you to make sure no little bastard, son-of-a-bitch, scumbag touch my sister, and you turn out to be that very little bastard, son-of-a-bitch, scumbag," Joey spat, "At least my parents don't know, the news would kill them. They trust you, like I did, and I don't want them to find out exactly what kind of conniving little shit my sister is running around with. This could wreck her reputation, you know that?"
"I wouldn't do anything to hurt Spinelli," TJ whimpered. Joey gave TJ one last look over before letting him go.
"Doesn't matter. You're obviously not important enough for my sweet baby sister to tell our parents about," Joey shrugged, "And I've met Weiss. I like him. I think he'd be good for my sister." With that said, he disappeared into the kitchen again. TJ sighed. Maybe Joey was right. Maybe he wasn't important enough for Spinelli to tell her parents about.
-0-0-0-0-
TJ couldn't help but slam the door behind him as they made their way into the Dettwieler residence. He stormed up the staircase to his old room leaving Spinelli standing at the front door and ignoring his mother who called after him, "What's wrong?" Spinelli rubbed her face furiously before moving forward to trudge up the stairs after TJ.
Spinelli went to open the door but it was locked. She knocked hesitantly.
"Go away!"
"You can't lock me out, Teej, all my stuff is in there," Spinelli screamed through the door. There was fumbling at the knob and the door swung open.
"Fine," TJ snapped. He'd already torn his shirt off and changed into a white t-shirt and his hair was a mess. He grabbed her luggage, flinging one at her smaller bags out of the door, which she caught with ease while he dragged the rest from the room. "Now they're not." He went to shut the door again but Spinelli stopped it.
"Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Spinelli cried.
"I don't know...try it."
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Nope, didn't work. But it was a nice try," TJ shouted.
"Then, at least let me explain!"
"What's there to explain, Spinelli? They were right there, you were all set up. All you had to do was tell them the truth. But you blew it. So, say 'hi' to Weiss tomorrow, or is it the lawyer, or the soon-to-be physicist, or the struggling actor, or the off-key singer? You know what, I don't care who it is! And since we're not a couple, than there's no reason we should be sleeping under the same roof, so...so...so I'll help you take your things over to your parents' house. You can tell them you changed your mind and would rather stay with them than in a...what was it? A motel?" TJ screamed. He took a deep breath and sighed, unable to meet Spinelli's eyes, fuming.
"Fine," she whispered. No angry comment. No insult. No comeback. No Madame Fist. Just the sad sound of weary defeat. TJ hated himself. "I can't think of an excuse. It's just...my parents aren't as simple as yours are. I couldn't tell them."
"Are you...are you... are you ashamed of me?" TJ questioned, afraid to look at her.
"What? Why would you say that, Teej?" Spinelli asked, "I'm not ashamed of you. I'm just...my parents...I'm afraid of what they'd say. My parents are old fashioned...if they knew that we were..."
"I know. They'd die of shock. Your brother had the decency to fill me in," TJ snapped, "It'll be easier like this Spinelli. I'm not important enough to tell your parents about...I guess maybe you should find someone who is."
"Teej..."
The phone began ringing in the background and the two fell silent. It only got to the second ring before one of TJ's parents picked up the phone. There was the sound of someone climbing the stairs and Mrs. Dettwieler appeared before them.
"That was Gretchen, TJ, she wanted me to tell you that she needs you to come to Kelso's," Mrs. Dettwieler announced, looking between the two of them, "What are you two shouting about?"
"It's nothing, mom," TJ told her, "Thanks."
"I'm glad you and Gretchen have made amends," she said, smiling at him, and glancing warily at Spinelli before retreating downstairs again.
"Humph...Gretchen," Spinelli snorted, picking up her bag, she looked indignantly at TJ, "Kiddy stuff?" she asked with mock pleasantness.
"No," TJ said, eyes on the ground, "It's about that brown envelope that you got. Mikey, Gus, and Gretch each got one too. Gretchen probably found something out about them. You should come."
"The brown envelope...with that message...?" Spinelli asked. TJ nodded.
"Will you come?""Yeah...let's go."
END A/N: So whadya think? I'll try and update soon, I know you're all in suspense as to what Gretchen discovered about the letters...and trust me...it's a doozy. Okay, maybe I'm biased, because it's my fic, but oh well. Please review.
And please excuse and grammatical and typing errors.
Thanks for reading. NOW GO REVIEW! I don't want to start threatening people.