Chapter 42

"Jesse we're going for a ride. There's been something I've wanted to take care of since I got back and today's the day."

Jess looked over at the alarm clock that read 6:00 am. "Can it wait a few more hours?"

"No but you can sleep on the way there. Please Jess I can't do this without you."

"Yeah yeah. Let's go." He pulled off his covers and slipped into his jeans. They walked quietly through the house trying not to wake a member of the team. "Since your car is blocked in are we taking my car?"

"Nope. We're taking my bike." She walked over to the bike and handed Jess her spare helmet. He shrugged his shoulders and slipped the helmet onto his head. Sky started the engine and waited for Jess to climb on before taking off with a jolt. The streets were empty allowing them to reach speeds in excess of 100mph. Jess held tightly to Sky's hips as she weaved through the city streets. They arrived at a small truck rental store. Sky killed the engine and slipped off the bike. "Jess you got your license with you?"

"Yes. You want me to drive the truck?"

"Uh huh. I still don't have a valid driver's license. In all actuality I am still a missing person."

Jess looked at her stunned, "What? I thought you took care of that. You've been back for almost a year and you haven't gone to the police to straighten it out?"

"Never found the time and now my fake New York license is expired. I promise that I'll go to the police station when we get to where we're going. Got to go there anyway."

Jess shook his head at her, "Sometimes I wonder about you. Where are we going?"

"To tie up some loose ends and do a good deed for a change."

"That's not a where."

"I know but I'll tell you when we get closer. I'm afraid if I say it out loud I won't go through with it."

"Alright then. What size truck do you need?" He walked into the office and rented the medium size truck Sky had picked out. She figured it would be big enough for everything she needed to move. Jess followed her out of the lot and onto the highway. With the roads being empty it didn't take long to arrive at their destination. Sky pulled the bike up into the driveway. She pulled the keys out of her pocket, keys she had taken from Leon room. He had replaced the door and frame she had broken on her last visit to this house. Sky walked into the kitchen and paused to look around at all her mother's things still sitting on the shelves. She could almost see her mother standing at the sink washing dishes. Shaking herself from the vision she grabbed the keys to the garage and headed back outside. "Hey can you give me a hand with the ladder?"

Jess nodded his head and helped her open the garage door. They retrieved the ladder and placed it against the house extended to the second floor. "Jess take a crowbar and remove the boards on the first floor. I'll work on the second. We won't be able to work in the house until we can vent it. The place is way too dusty and dark."

"Sure thing Sky. Just one question. Is this the house?"

"Yes. This is the house I grew up in. That's Leon's old house across the street."

"Ok one more question. Why are we doing this alone? Wouldn't it have been easier with the team?"

"No. I couldn't ask either Vince or Leon to come here. Not fair to bring up all those memories for them. Dom, Mia, and Letty need to open the garage and store. So that leaves just us."

Jess took that as the best answer he would get from her and went to work on removing the boards from the first floor windows. He didn't understand what they were doing there and wanted to call Leon, but feared it would only make matters worse. Sky was determined to take care of this on her own so he needed to support her.

Breaking loose the boards brought Sky to tears. She wiped them as they formed in her eyes not wanting to let this get the best of her. The house needed to be emptied. There was no other way to put the memory of that night to rest. Time stood still in the house since that night. For her to accept what happened to her mom the house needed to be open once again, to have the breeze blow through. She worked furiously on the windows and had the second floor completed within an hour. Dropping to the ground her feet carried her quickly into the house to the second floor. Light greeted her. She flung open every window and let the air in.

After a few minutes she headed back down the stairs to open the windows on the first floor. Once light flooded the room she saw her dad's chair clearly. She pulled it in the backyard through the kitchen. She remembered the ax that hung in the garage near where the ladder had been. The ax felt good in her hands. She had only one purpose, to destroy the chair. With a scream she struck the first blow splitting the back of the chair. She pulled the ax high above her head and let it fall again into the chair. Jesse hearing her screams came running around the house. He found her pulverizing the chair. His arms encircled her. The ax dropped from her hands as she collapsed. Her chest heaving with each quick breath. "Let me call someone Sky." Jesse pleaded with her.

"No. Need to get this done on my own."

"What are we doing here?" Jess looked down at her with concern in his eyes fearing she would slip away from him mentally at any moment.

"I'm giving the house away. I have to clean it out by three today so the cleaning service and painters can come in."

The thought she would just give the house away was beyond what he could comprehend, "What?"

"My mom would have wanted it this way. Everything I don't want is being donated to a women's crisis center. The house is going to a woman and her two daughters. The woman's husband nearly beat her to death. The center helped her get away, but she needs a permanent home and a fresh start. I'm going to have the house furnished and handed over to her tomorrow."

"Sky this is your house though. Are you sure you want to just give it away?"

"This hasn't been my house since my mom died. It doesn't mean anything to me anymore. I have everything I need back in L.A."

"If you are sure then I guess we should get packing. Where do you want to start?"

"The second floor."

Jesse took Sky's hand in his and walked with her up to the second floor. He asked her which room she would like to begin in and she pointed to hers. They setup a large box and labeled it donations. Jesse stripped her bed putting the bedding into the box neatly while Sky emptied her clothes out of the closet including her dance costumes.

"Someone was a good dancer from all these trophies." He said holding one in his hand that read first place.

All she could do was laugh, "Good. I don't know about that. To be honest I hated dancing. It was a deal with my mother that got me into all those competitions. I was always a tomboy, not girly at all. My mother made a deal with me. She said if I enrolled in dance class she wouldn't force me to be ladylike any other time."

"But look at all these trophies. You couldn't have been too bad."

"I won them for her. It made her happy, but I guess you're right. I wasn't too bad. Leon used to tease me about the dancing though and made me hate dancing. Typical boy. I got him back though. I made him rehearse with me a lot."

"Did you make him wear tight?" Jess thought he could use it to blackmail him later.

"Nah. But I think my mom had a very incriminating tape of him. Have to look for it."

The trophies were wrapped carefully and put in a box labeled to go to the truck. Out of the room Sky took only her photos, the trophies, the beach bag from her 16th birthday, and the presents left under her bed from that same birthday. The rest went to the donation box or the trash. They moved to her parents' bedroom where most of the things went to the donations with the exception of her mother's cedar chest and photos.

By the time they finished packing the house sadly most of boxes were for donation. A large part of her life fit into the back of a medium size rental truck. They sat on the porch waiting for the men from the center to come and pick up the things she didn't want anymore. "See that window up there Jess, the one directly across from mine? That was Leon's room."

"He could see directly into your room? Didn't you worry that he was watching you when you changed?"

"Never thought about that. That's kind of creepy. Anyways when my dad would mess me up pretty bad I used to climb down the trestle, cross the street and climb into Leon's window. He always left it unlocked for me."

"How did you get up to his window? I can't see anywhere to climb."

"Oh simple. I'd climb up the porch support and jump."

"That's at least a five foot jump. Did you ever not make it?"

"Yeah once, I broke my leg on impact. Couldn't make the jump for six weeks."

"You still jumped after that?"

"Yes. I'd have done anything to get to him. It was the only place I felt safe. I'd crawl in the window and he'd lift the covers to let me in the bed. For that short span of time I could feel safe. He'd never let anything happen to me."

"Explains a lot."

"What'd ya mean?"

"You know he looked for you all the time. I think he wanted to find you so he could protect you. What changed between you guys?"

"Not sure. Time changes people I guess. He doesn't trust me that's for sure. If I had come back for him sooner maybe things would have been different."

The crisis center truck pulled into the driveway followed by a red sedan. A woman approached Sky and put her hand out, "Hello I'm Ms. Shaw. We spoke on the phone."

She took her hand and shook it, "Yes Ms. Shaw. Nice to finally meet you in person."

"Thank you. Now are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"I am positive. Here are the keys. A cleaning team will be here in an hour to clean up the boards and the house. The painters are scheduled to arrive two hours later. Furniture and appliances will be delivered tomorrow morning. The family should be able to move in by tomorrow afternoon. There will also be gift certificates left to allow the family to personalize the home and buy clothing, food, and essentials."

"Do you still want to remain anonymous? I think that Mrs. Perez and her girls would like to thank you."

"If they really need to know, tell them the donation was made in memory of Maria Flores Thomas. No need for them to feel like they owe me anything. I just want them to be happy and safe."

"If that's what you would like. I want to thank you for everything you are doing for the Perez family and the center."

"If you ever need anything let me know. I am more than happy to help in anyway I can. Good luck Ms. Shaw." Sky and Jesse walked over to the truck and she kissed his lightly on the cheek. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. Now get on your bike and let's head back to L.A."

"One more stop Jesse. I have to run into the police station and deliver something."

Sky walked in apprehensive of how the officers might act. She walked to the counter, "I am here to deliver my father's uniforms, badge, and service weapon."

The officer behind the counter looked her up and down, "Name?"

"Mine or my father's?"

"Both."

"My name is Skylar Elizabeth Thomas. My father's name was James."

The officer sat up straight and picked up the phone on her desk, "Sargent, I need to see you at the front desk immediatly."

Her father's old partner came out to greet her, "Well look who we have here. See you found your way home. I can take you off the list of missing person."

"That's why I'm here. Can you remove me from the list so I can get my driver's license?"

"Sure thing get to it right now. It is nice to see you again Sky. I did worry about you."

"I'm fine now. I just came to drop off my father's things. The house is being occupied tomorrow."

The highway was much more congested on the ride back home. It took them twice as long to return. To her amazement Leon was still asleep in her bed. Sky whispered to Jess to be quiet bringing in her things. No matter how much noise they made accidentally Leon didn't budge from his position.

When Jess got her back into the hallway he had to ask, "What's he doing in your bed?"

"It's not what it looks like. I found him passed out in the basement hallway. His girl for the night had locked him out so I brought him up here."

"Oh."

"Come on let's take the truck back."

Leon woke up to find himself in unusual surroundings. The room was clean and smelled sweet like clean laundry. It took a moment for him to realize it was Sky's room. He lifted the covers to see what he was wearing. He noticed that the boxers were not his and way too big. Try as he could the events of the night escaped him. Time to get out of the room before anyone else saw him there. He moved so fast around the bed that he stubbed his toe on a cedar chest. While cursing loudly he tried to remember if he had seen it before. No time for that. He hobbled out of the room and down to the basement. When he opened his own door he couldn't believe what he was seeing. The room was cleaner than the day he moved into it. No clothes or used condoms littered the floor. Nothing could explain the transformation his room had. He threw on some clean clothes from out of his drawer and decided to find someone with answers.

Most of the cars were missing from the house except Jesse and Sky's car, but her bike was missing. He hopped in his car and headed towards the garage. On the way he spotted something that caused him to swerve his car across two lanes and into a parking lot, the tattoo man from Sky's New York picture. He flung open his door and was on top of the guy beating the hell out of him in a flash. A woman came from behind Leon and started beating him over the head with a very heavy purse. After about 10 hits to the head he released his grip on the guy. "Look lady I don't hit women, but if you hit me with that damn purse one more time I'm gonna knock your ass out."

"Like hell you are." The bloodied man spit while trying to get to his feet. "What the hell do you want? Take my money or car, but leave her out of it."

Leon for a moment thought he just attacked an innocent man. "I don't want you damn money. Your name is Razor right?"

"That's what I go by why?"

"Then you deserved that beating. Why the fuck did you take her to that place if you knew what kind of guy Simon was?" Leon turned to go. "I should've killed you."

"Look man I don't know what the hell you're talking about?"

"Do you need me to jog your memory?" Leon grabbed Raz by the shirt and pounded his fist into his face. "Why'd you let him hurt Sky?"

Raz put his hands up, "Stop I had no choice. I had no choice man. He had a gun to her head and was going to pull the trigger. He'd have killed her if I moved towards her. Don't you think it killed me to watch him rape her?" The word "rape" echoed over and over in Leon's head. She hadn't told him that. She had only told him about the beating. He was left in shock. He allowed Raz to pull away. "I didn't want her to die."

The woman with Raz spoke up, "By the look on you face you didn't know what really happened. I'm sure Sky didn't expect you to ever run into us here. She had her reasons for not telling you. Maybe she feared you'd have this kind of reaction."

Raz wiped the blood from his face, "Look," Raz paused and waited for Leon to give his name. "Leon, I don't know how much she told you. Probably left a few things out so that she didn't hurt you. She always tried to protect the ones she loved. She went back into Simon's business to get me and Takara out."

Leon looked over at the woman, "Does she know you're here? Sky only said that Razor was here."

Takara shook her head, "I saw her a couple of days ago. I've been living down in San Diego. Raz thought it would be the best place for me and our baby." She rubbed her hand across her barely swollen abdomen. "I came up here this weekend to get him. He's moving down there with me. We already told her goodbye. Just stopped here to get supplies for the drive."

Raz got up off the ground and sat inside of his car cleaning up his face. When he finished he shook Leon's had and said there were no hard feeling. He would've done the same thing if he had been in Leon's position. Leon watched them drive away and headed to the gym. He needed to deal with what he knew through the punching bag.

Sky lay in bed unable to sleep. After hours of staring at the ceiling, she decided to get out of bed and get something to drink. The living room was so dark she could barely make out the path to the kitchen. As she reached the TV a voice startled her. "What are you doing up at this hour?" Leon said from the couch.