Please Review
Abigail breathed a sigh of relief as she exited her Aunt Kayla's office and dialed a number. "Hey, Aunt Maggie, it's me. How are things in England? No, you don't need to cancel your plans with Mel, I just wanted to thank you for making sure Julie remembered to bring up my reinstatement to the board while you were gone. Aunt Kayla wants me at the next meeting when they talk about it."
"Pssst," JJ popped his head around the corner and beckoned to his sister. "Abs."
"What? No, Aunt Maggie, not you, I've got to go. Someone's trying to get my attention." Abigail waited until the call disconnected before whipping her head around to face JJ. "What are you doing here?" she hissed.
"I need a favor," JJ looked at the phone in her hand. "Another favor. I gave the uniform following me the slip."
"Obviously." Abigail felt herself being pulled ahead by the wrist. "Do I at least get to know where I'm going?"
"Just stay out here and keep watch while I see Paige."
Abigail's face softened. "JJ…"
"You think somebody else is going to give me a straight answer about how she's doing? I've already tried asking. Ten minutes, Abs, please?"
"Ten minutes," said Abigail softly.
"Detective Brady, thanks for meeting me." A slim black woman in uniform shook hands with Hope.
Hope shrugged. "JJ wasn't too happy about a shadow. Sometimes he needs a good talking—where is JJ, Officer Price?"
"It looks like he ran off."
"You know, I really shouldn't be so surprised that JJ would pull something like this. That woman in the hospital…they were close, together, actually."
"He must've really cared for her,"
"I don't think he ever stopped."
I'm sorry, Paige. For what happened…for everything that happened…" JJ swiped furiously at his eyes. "I know you thought what I was doing was stupid and dangerous, but I really was doing it to protect the people I care about. My mom. My sister. You."
"Right," Eve's voice dripped with sarcasm. "You cared about my daughter so damn much that you landed her in this bed!"
"You're blaming me for this?" cried JJ, standing up.
"You're the only degenerate I see in this room," Eve replied. "I've been with enough of them over the years to know something like this would happen eventually. I warned Paige over and over again, but she wouldn't hear it."
"That's because nothing would've happened if you hadn't blown my cover with Kyle Southern!" JJ shot back.
"Why don't you run off and find your stoner friends? You may even convince that girl you've crawled back to that you need some of her old-fashioned comforts. I've seen her sniffing around again, bless her desperate little heart."
"Hey!" JJ wasn't sure where his Aunt Kayla had come from so suddenly but it was lucky she was standing in between them or he might have done something he would regret later. "That's enough!"
"Tell that to your interloping nephew," Eve muttered, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.
"Let's go, JJ," Hope called from the doorway.
JJ didn't move.
"Go home, baby," Kayla whispered a sympathetic note in her voice. "I promise I'll let you know if anything changes."
"I'm not going anywhere with Hope," JJ snapped. "The Salem PD wasted a guard on me when they should have been protecting Paige. You want to blame somebody, Eve, blame them."
