I do no own Dirty Dancing.

Chapter Forty Six

POV Jake

The Truth

The breakfast table had been eerily silent until Max spoke. We didn't usually talk much, but this was even less than the norm. It was as if the whole table had been waiting for this conversation. "You know how you feel when you see a patient, and... well, you think he's all right. Then you look at the X-rays, and it's nothing like you thought?" Max asked

"What happened, Max?" I ask in concern. Max didn't worry easily, so whatever had him vexed this morning must have been big.

"It's exactly what it's like when you find out one of your staff's a thief," My friend answered, shaking his head.

Before I can wonder too much, Neil explained, "Moe Pressman's wallet was stolen when he was playing Pinochle last night," Really? Interesting. The theif would need to be able to get close enough to take it, and get away without suspicion. He would also need to know Moe, to get that close to him. "It was in his jacket, hanging on the back of his chair. He had it at 1:30, and when he checked again at quarter to 4:00, it was missing,"

"Vivian thinks she remembers this dance kid, Johnny, walking by," Max said. I feel a twinge of familiarity at the name. I realize that Johnny was the Dancer who Baby had helped. Well, I wouldn't put it past him to steal a wallet if given the chance. Especially after how he'd treated Penny. "So, we ask him. 'Do you have an alibi for last night?' He says he was alone in his room, reading,"

Really? Alone, reading? That was a horrible alibi. That was the oldest excuse in the book. The only thing it proved was that Johnny didn't want you to know where he really was. Neil laughed coldly at the thought of Johnny reading. "There are no books in Johnny's room," He laughed. Neil seemed to think the very idea was absurd. Who was I to argue?

"Look, there's been a mistake," Baby says, suddenly seeming very invested in this. She did know the Dancer, I suppose. But that was no reason to assume he was innocent. They weren't very close friends, or anything. All there was was a fleeting attraction, that I hoped would go away in time. "I know that Johnny didn't do it,"

"There've been similar thefts at the Sheldrake, and it's happened here before," Neil told her. "Three other wallets,"

"Well, I know he didn't do it!"

"Stay out of it, Baby," Neil spat. I couldn't understand my Daughter's desire to prove this man innocent. This did not affect her in any way, she barely knew Johnny. It wouldn't hurt for one man to be locked up.

"Wait, don't put those tables together! Come on," Max stood up from our table and hurried over to the next. He was always ready to socialize, Max. Baby moved from her own seat next to Neil, to the vacant one next to me.

"Daddy, I need your help," She begged. Her voice was full of a painful desperation that did not belong there. Not for someone she barely knew. I had never heard her use this tone before, and it made me wonder why she was using it. "I know Johnny didn't take Moe's wallet," Baby insisted. "I know."

"Oh, how do you know?"

Baby froze. "I can't tell you," She answered. I looked away. She was lying to me again. Trust was a two way road. If she couldn't trust me with this, I would never be able to trust her. "But just please, trust me, Daddy!"

"I'm sorry, Baby, I can't,"

"This danish is pure protein," Max said behind me.

Baby looked to him before he could get out another word. "Oh, Mr. Kellerman, look. Uh... maybe Johnny didn't do it. Anyone could've taken it," Baby suggested. "Maybe it was... um... you- you know, it could've been that- that little old couple, the Schumacher's. I saw her with a couple of wallets,"

"Sylvia and Sydney?"

"Baby, you don't go around accusing innocent people!" I scold her. I had raised my Daughter better than that.

"Yeah, but I saw them!" Baby insisted, voice gone high. "I even saw them at the Sheldrake! Didn't you say something was stolen at the Sheldrake?" She asked Neil. What was the Sheldrake, and why had Baby been there?

"Mhmm," Neil answered.

"I've got an eye witness, and the kid has no alibi." Max said in satisfaction. "Come on, Neil. You'll learn what it's like to fire an employee,"

"No! Mr.- Mr. Kellerman, wait a minute," Baby stopped them. Her voice was soft. Not desperate, but painful. "I know Johnny didn't take the wallet. I know he didn't take it, because he was in his room all night," Oh no. Please tell me she wasn't in there for the reason I thought she was. Please. I dread her next words, but they come anyway. "And the reason I know... is because I was with him,"

Baby looked to me, awaiting my response. I stare down at my plate, unable to look at her. She had lied to me a lot since coming here. But I could be certain that this was true. This was painfully true. She wouldn't lie about having an affair. My Daughter had her innocence stolen by a Dancer.

"Is this true, Baby?" Max asked. I do not need to ask. I knew all too well that it was true.

Softly, my Daughter answered. "We were in his room all night long. He didn't leave my side even once. Ask him,"

This is too much. It is too much, to know what my Daughter had been sneaking off to. To know that she had just ruined her reputation. Wordlessly, I stand and leave the table.

I needed to be alone right now.

I hear Baby's foot steps on the wood floor of the gazebo behind me. I didn't need to see to know it was her. Who else would come looking for me? Her feet stopped next to me.

"I told you I was telling the truth, Daddy," Her voice said. "I'm sorry I lied to you. But you lied, too. You told me everyone was alike, and deserved a fair break. But you meant everyone who was like you," She said. "You told me you wanted me to change the world, make it better. But you meant by becoming a Lawyer, or an Economist, and marrying someone from Harvard,"

"I'm not proud of myself," Baby continued. "But I'm in this family, too, and you can't keep giving me the silent treatment. There are a lot of things about me that aren't what you thought. But if you love me, you have to love all the things about me. And I love you," She sobbed. "And I'm sorry I let you down. I'm so sorry, Daddy. But you let me down, too." Tears running down her face, my Daughter walked away. I didn't know where she was going to go, but I had a hunch that she didn't either.

Baby's words sting. They hurt more than a cut. More than a slap to the face. They sting, because I know they are true. I know she is right. What she had said was exactly what I'd wanted for her. I'd never wanted her to go into the Peace Corps. I'd wanted a secure job, and a well off marriage for Baby. But she didn't want that. And as much as I hated it, I couldn't tell her what to do anymore.

This had made it painfully clear that Baby was going to do what she wanted. Right now, it seemed she wanted the Dancer. I knew Baby must have strong feelings for him. She would never sleep with someone she didn't really care about. She would never have revealed Johnny's alibi if she didn't care enough to want to protect him.

And worse still, the Dancer had not revealed that Baby was with him in order to save his own skin. He'd left it to her. Even when his job was on the line, he had undoubtedly been trying to protect Baby. And as much as I wanted to believe that Johnny had no feelings for Baby, this was raring evidence to the contrary.

Yeh, I know. Two versions of the same chapter, three if you count the one I put in The Way I Feel With You. Well, you guys will just have to deal with it, because there's going to be like three different versions of the last dance in this story alone, each from a different perspective. I would hve done this as just one POV, but Jake's perspective was just necessary in general, and Lisa's was necessary with her character line that I set her on in this, which is why this part became two chapters.