Author's Note: It may be a while before the next chapter of this or Sweet Revenge is out but I do plan on finishing the stories so don't worry.
Chapter Forty-One – Taking a Closer Look
Philip and Shawn were housed in his corporate office in one of their monthly security briefings. The sole purpose for these meetings was for Philip to remain abreast of all the happenings within Titan so that surprises were in frequent. As par their usual meetings this one was brief as well leaving Philip and Shawn to talk of other things.
"I heard Jarod was grounded again. So what did he do this time?"
"How did you hear about that?" Philip asked but at Shawn's raised brow, he guessed, "Serena." Shawn nodded. "So this weekend I brought The Ring home for the kids to watch. I had all of them watching the movie with me except for Jessie because clearly four is a little too young for a horror movie like that."
"Clearly," Shawn mimicked, outright smirking when Philip sent him a look.
"We all watched the movie. Jarod and the girls liked it but it completely scared Dominic. I managed to calm him down after a bit, watching some cartoons then we all went to bed, me assuming that no one would have any trouble sleeping. Fast forward to Saturday morning, Chloe and I are sleeping in bed when we hear this blood-curtailing scream come from Dominic's room. Chloe and I get up to see what's wrong we see Rocky and Rena laughing themselves silly outside of Dominic's room. So we go inside and there's Jarod practically rolling on the floor laughing between Ana and Dominic. Ana's hair was dripping wet and pulled over her face and she's wearing some old floor length nightgown."
"What did she do?" Shawn asked still not clear on what had happened.
"You've seen The Ring, right?" Shawn nodded. "So then you know the villain in the movie, this little girl, comes out of the television in a long white nightgown her dark hair pulled in front of her face with water following her out of the TV. Anyway, Jarod woke Ana up early that morning and convinced her to make herself look like the girl in the movie to scare Dominic. So naturally she and the other girls, your daughter included helped her fix herself up. Then Jarod snuck in Dominic's room and took the remote for TV and turned it on from the floor. Dominic's not that deep of a sleeper so naturally when TV popped on he woke up to Ana walking toward him like the girl from the movie with her hair dripping as she crawled onto the edge of his bed Dominic screamed."
"Ah, so how long is he in for?" Shawn asked knowing that naturally the children would be punished. It wasn't all that uncommon for one of the twins or Jarod to be grounded every once in a while.
Philip smiled slightly. "Not as long as you think since my darling wife felt that it was more my fault than any of the kids so Ana has been put on restriction for a week and Jarod, since he was the ringleader, for two weeks."
"And what about you?"
"Me," Philip scoffed. "I'm an adult." Shawn raised a questioning brow. "Fine, if you must know Chloe has decided that I may need a little refresher in the appropriate movies for children so she signed me up for some extra parenting classes after Lamaze. You know one of those wonderful parenting classes that take parents through steps on how to care for your children from deciding the right time potty train to when your child should be able to watch certain programs. She even called the instructor to tell I'll be coming so that can be the extra special helper. It is going to be the worst three weeks of my life." Smirking he ran his hand through his hair. As he recalled something Chloe had mentioned to him a couple days earlier. "By the way, a little birdie told me that there's going to be an addition to the Brady household is there any truth to that rumor?"
"I don't know where you get your information but the answer would be a big no. With two toddlers in the house already we're not looking for another addition to the Brady brood. Besides, Belle and I don't want soccer team like you and Chloe. She's only just returned to work. Having a fourth child at this point is way beyond the scope, Belle is definitely not pregnant unless you know something I don't know." Shawn questioned suspiciously.
"Geez Brady, sometimes you're even more dense than I give you credit for. I wasn't talking about Belle. I mean three babies in three years is even a little much for me. Actually, I was talking about JT."
"JT?" Shawn replied.
"What about JT?" Brady asked as he reentered Philip's office from the conference room. He had stepped out to take a private phone call from one of their, his and Shawn's, clients.
"Nothing. I was just asking your brother in law if he was moving JT into his household. A little birdie told me he might be interested in doing that."
"Whoa, wait a minute I never said that JT was moving in with me." Shawn protested.
"Why not?" Brady asked as he pocketed his cell phone before he resumed his seat in the chair next to Shawn.
Shawn rose from his seat. "Look, Brady I'm having this conversation with you again. I've had it with both you and Belle one too many times and nothing has changed — I still don't think JT should move in with Belle and I because we aren't his parents. He belongs at home, we can't substitute that."
"Shawn relax. There really isn't any reason to get so uptight about this. Even then I don't think that Belle is looking at this as away to take your parents place. From my understanding, which is rather limited, all you would be doing is taking in your brother until both he and his parents can reach a sort of stress free solution."
"Philip's right. The only thing that you and Belle would be doing is really keeping an eye on JT. It's not like our parents were signing over guardianship of him to you. Honestly, I don't see the harm in you taking him in for a couple of months. Besides, its not like you're going to replace your parents in his eyes. You'll still be his older brother, albeit he would be living in your house instead or your parents' or mines." Brady finished as his plea for Shawn to agree about taking JT in Philip's phone rang once as his secretary picked it up.
The intercom buzzed, Philip picked it up. "Yes, Stacy."
"There's a phone call for Mr. Brady on line one sir, they say it's urgent."
"Transfer it through," putting the phone on the hook he waited for the call to come through. "Shawn it's for you." He pressed a button and picked up the phone on the first ring.
Shawn took the phone, listened for a few minutes. "I'm on my way." He said then hung up the phone. "I have to go JT is in trouble."
Brady rose from his seat prepared to go as well. "Is it serious?'
Shawn waved him back into his seat. "I don't know but he called me from Vice Principal Helmsey's office so I would think so. As soon as I find out anything I'll call and let you know. I'm hoping it's not that bad." Shawn grabbed his packet of info off the desk and turned to leave.
Philip watched him leave in silence. "Well that's interesting."
"What is?"
"Shawn is so concerned about taking his parents place with JT yet he doesn't realize that he's pretty much already done that. The moment JT calls for help he goes running no questions asked."
"Brilliant observation now when do you think he'll notice it."
"Knowing Shawn it could very well be a while."
~*~*~*~*~*@*~*~*~*~*~
Jarod was in the den watching as Dominic and Ariana played a game on Nintendo Playstation. Although technically Ana and Jarod weren't allowed to play the game because of their punishments, neither of their parents were around so it was fair game. Chloe was upstairs resting after her water aerobics class and Philip was currently still at work. So they wouldn't get caught.
As he watched them battle each other his mind drifted to what he'd heard about that operagirl website. At this point the story seemed to ridiculous to believe, it just didn't seem possible. But, Brian had sworn it was true even gone as far to say it was in the newspaper. He seemed so sure that Jarod had to check it out for himself just be sure. Learning from the last time, he figured he should check out the fact on this operagirl website with his siblings since the last time he'd taken someone else's word for gospel it turned out to be nothing once he'd talked to Dominic about it so maybe that was the case this time.
"Hey have either of you heard about site called operagirl.net?"
Dominic frowned as he pressed another combination of buttons to move his guy forward and attack Ana's man. "That's not exactly my kind of site. I mean I like opera but I've never heard of any site like that. What's on it?"
Instead of answering his younger brother's question he awaited Ariana's response. "What about you Ana have you ever heard of this site before?"
"Um nope. And unlike Dommy I'm not into opera at all." She paused as she knocked Dominic's man out. "Oh you're so going to die. I've got you now. But, anyway why are you so interested in some opera site. Is it some girl's site that you're crushin' on?"
"No," Jarod scoffed as he turned his attention to intently watch the game. "Some guys at school told me about the site. They told me that it had some pretty awesome graphics and that I should check them out." He lied convincingly.
"What are you doing?" Jessica asked as she entered the den wearing her fuzzy Snoopy slippers with her jeans and Snoopy sweatshirt. It had been wear your favorite cartoon character that day in her class. Her black hair was pulled into pigtails that bounced as she walked into the room, climbing onto the couch next to Jarod. "I thought you weren't allowed to play games this week Ana."
"Well since Momma's sleeping and Daddy's —,"
"Right behind you." Philip said from the doorway of the den Ana jumped up dropping the controller as she turned to see her father standing in the doorway. "Ariana, I do believe that your mother and I told you that you cannot play any games this week since you are on restriction."
"But—,"
"No buts you know the rules. And Jarod what do you have to say for yourself. You're the oldest and yet you sat there and let your sister go against her restriction." Philip said crossing his arms over his chest as he pierced his older son with a questioning gaze.
"It was only one game Dad and she didn't even win you should cut her some slack." Adding a plea for his sister's case.
"Interesting … Dominic anything you'd like to add?"
After winning the game he turned back to his father. "Yeah if you're going to extend Ana's restriction you should definitely extend Jarod's too, he was going to play winner."
"Is that right?" Philip turning his gaze to Jarod who was shooting death glares at Dominic who simply smiled with his dimples showing.
Philip chuckled. "You know I like that idea so Ana we'll extend your restriction to two weeks and add a half of a week onto Jarod's. "Okay now that that's settled I'm going to wake your Mom and then we'll go out to dinner so guys try not to kill your brother while I'm gone." Philip turned to leave.
"Wait for me Daddy," Jessie asked as she climbed off the couch and ran after her father. When she caught up with him he lifted her up into his arms.
"So how did Snoopy go over today you in class?" He started as he took her off down the hallway. The second Philip was completely out of earshot Ana and Jarod started after their brother.
"You are so going to get it, rat boy." Jarod called out as he threw a pillow at his younger brother. Operagirl.net and everything about it was forgotten for the moment, anyway.
The next day Jarod went over to his grandmother's after school alone. He was going to find out once and for all if there ever was an operagirl.net website. Neither he nor Conrad had found any such site on the web but Conrad was going to spend some time at the library looking for newspaper articles about it. So one way or the other they would know for sure if Brian and Ted had been telling them the truth after all.
"Jarod I understand you wanted to ask me some questions about your Mom for your project again, right?" Nancy asked settling down in her chair across from him in the elegantly redecorated living room. That had been her most recent remodeling project.
"Not really Grandma. I just heard about something and I wanted to see if the information I heard was right or if I'm missing something. It's not about my project though," he warned lightly before getting on to the point. "I wonder if you could tell me about operagirl.net." He bit his lip waiting in hesitation for her to respond.
Nancy was surprised and the shock was clear on her face. Slowing placing her cup onto a coaster on her intable she tried to think about the best way to respond. "Why don't you ask your parents sweetie, I'm quite sure that they would be able to answer your question much better than I can—,"
"I did," he interrupted her.
Again his grandmother was taken back, "They told you about it?"
She asked to which he nodded. "Well if you heard the story from them what exactly do you want to hear about it from me. They have first hand knowledge of it, I'm sure your mother has already told you how horrifying it was for her to have those pictures posted on a website for all the world to see. Especially, when she had to go through it all alone at the dance."
"I-I know that I was hoping to get another perspective about the whole thing. But, it was hard for Mom and Dad to talk about it. One of the things I was wondering is how could Aunt Mimi do something like that to Mom. They're such good friends now I just don't understand why she would do anything like that."
"Well, it was a different time back then Jarod. Mimi and Chloe weren't as close as they are now. They really only tolerated each other mostly. But things change and now they're good friends. Your mother forgave Mimi for what happened a while ago. It's really all water under the bridge now. I think you'll find that they rarely have any troubles now. Trust me its just one of those funny things that happens when the worst enemies can become the best of friends."
Jarod nodded. "How did you think Dad handled things back then?"
"Honestly Jarod, your father was a different person back then. He was a very insecure young man and when he ran out on your mother I was very surprised and a little more than angry. I'm sure he's told you what was going on then so you can under why he reacted the way he did. But, for me I just couldn't understand how he could believe she would pose nude online for money. I … well let's just say that if I could have thought any worse of your father he would have been like some little slug or other lower life form. I don't have to tell you if took him a very long to get back into my good graces again."
Finally, Jarod had his answer his father believed his mother would pose nude for money. He supposedly loved her but her couldn't wait to believe the worst of her. There was no way he could look at his father the same way now. Not after this revelation.
Please tell me what you think.