They had returned to San Diego on the 23rd and JJ had convinced Jake to stay over the holidays, but now he noticed Jake's growing agitation over the possibility that Emily might find out that he was back in town. Jake even kept his phone turned off just in case. Sure enough, on the morning of the 27th when JJ was on duty and Nora was out shopping with her kids, the phone in JJ's house rang. Jake recognized Emily's cell phone number on the caller ID. He ignored the call and decided to leave for Denver the next morning.
At half past six the phone rang again. Before anyone could head him off, Tyler who was sitting at the kitchen counter having a sandwich, had picked up the phone lying on the counter right next to him. "Hello this is Tyler?"
"Hi Tyler, this is Emily. Is your uncle Jake there?"
Tyler held the phone away from him and shouted. "Uncle Jake, phone."
Jake sitting in the lounge with JJ, closed his eyes and covered his face with his hands. He inhaled sharply then dropped his hands again. "I can't talk to her."
JJ was already walking towards his son and took the phone from him. He made sure that the video pickup was switched off.
"Hello?"
"Hello, JJ this is Emily. I saw Jake's truck in your driveway. Can I please talk to him?"
"No, sorry Emily, he doesn't want to talk to you and he doesn't want to see you neither."
"What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I just said."
"That's so not Jake. What's going on JJ?"
"Nothing is going on. He's just decided that he's had enough of your games. He's about to leave anyway."
"I'm coming over."
"No Emily. He won't be here when you get here."
"Don't lie to me JJ. His truck is parked in your driveway now. I'm on the other side of the road."
"Go away Emily. Just leave it. This won't have a happy ending."
"I'm not leaving until he comes outside and talks to me." She put the phone down.
JJ looked at Jake, exasperated. "Jake I'm really sorry about this, but she is across the road. She says she won't leave unless you talk to her."
Nora came into the room with Chloe on her arm. JJ turned to her "Please take Tyler upstairs and stay there with him. This could turn a bit ugly.
"Sure—come on Tyler. Let's go play with your Christmas presents." She took Tyler by the hand and went upstairs.
"I don't want to see her. Just go and lock the door, please. Otherwise she may be standing in the middle of the lounge any second now."
"Good call." JJ walked to the front door and locked it.
Jake was furious. "Okay. Call her. Tell her I'll talk to her on the phone if she promises to leave straight away and not make a scene."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." A look of grim determination had appeared on Jake's face.
"Okay." JJ dialed. "Emily—he says he will talk to you if you promise to leave and not make a scene."
"Tell him to come outside and talk to me for two minutes and I promise I will go."
"No, he's not coming out. He'll talk to you on the phone. Take it or leave it or I'm calling the cops"
After a moment's silence she conceded. "Okay."
JJ handed the phone to Jake.
"Emily." His voice was cold.
"Jake. I just want to know if you're okay."
"I'm fine."
"Something is wrong Jake, I know it. Your story doesn't add up. Your unit is still deployed and you are back here in San Diego with a disabled sticker on your truck. What happened, Jake?"
Jake closed his eyes. "I will be fine."
"Jake." Pleading.
"I don't want to talk about it. Do you understand?" The edge in his voice had become more pronounced.
"Jake I am so sorry. I was wrong to leave you. Please can we meet?"
"No, you were right. And for once in your life actually stick with a decision you made. I'll get a restraining order against you if you don't. Now leave!" Jake put as much vehemence into his voice as he could muster, then he put the phone down. He was shaking.
JJ walked to the kitchen window and looked across the road. Emily was sitting forward with her head resting against the top of the steering wheel. Then she sat up, started the engine and pulled off the curb.
Early the next day Jake left for Denver. He had been worried that Emily might be staking out the house so he had sent JJ out to scan the area, but she wasn't there. Before he got into his truck though, Jake pulled off the sticker that had given him away.
Emily's hands were shaking while she was looking for her dad's number on her cell phone. She hadn't been able to sleep for the second night in a row. Jake's anger and refusal to let her in the evening before had rattled her deeply. Sure she had walked out on him; and she had done it twice before, but it had always been a ploy, a way for her to make Jake want her more and to assure herself of his devotion and loyalty. This time it had gone badly wrong however. Instead of being able to get in touch with Jake after a couple of weeks of letting him stew, he had been deployed and was out of reach. She had found out that he had been sent to Venezuela, but that was all she got.
In November she had heard a rumor that Jake had been badly injured and that he was in a hospital somewhere on the East Coast, but however hard she tried, she wasn't able to find out any more details. She had called Walter Reed, but they had stonewalled her. She had sent an email to JJ, but he hadn't responded. She had also written a number of emails to Jake directly, none of them answered and her most recent emails had bounced straight away, indicating that his mail account was over the limit. It seemed like he hadn't checked his email in weeks.
She had fretted and cried and realized that she was no longer in control of their relationship. In the beginning of December she had begun sessions with a psychologist. The counselor had started to help Emily come to terms with the fact that it had been her decision to walk out on Jake. She had made Emily understand that though it may have been a game for her, it hadn't been a game for Jake; that she had really hurt him emotionally and that if the rumors held true and he was indeed physically hurt as well, he might not be able to forgive her for what she'd done. It had been a profound realization for Emily that the brashness that Jake had sometime displayed was not a sign of strength, but instead a carefully constructed shell, hiding his vulnerability from her. She had just started to come to terms with the possibility that Jake would never come back to her, but only just.
It had come as a complete shock when she had seen Jake's truck in JJ's driveway, driving past his house on the way to her friend Corinne on Boxing Day. The bright blue disabled sticker on the back of the black truck next to the Marine Corps crest had jumped out at her and confirmed her worst fears. The whole day she had been distracted and fidgety and eventually she had left Corinne earlier than she had originally planned. The truck had still been there when she drove past again later that afternoon and the whole night she had lain awake trying to make up her mind what to do.
The next day she had tried to call. At JJ's house nobody had answered the phone. She had tried Jake's cell phone multiple times, but every time it went straight to the unavailable message and wouldn't accept any voice mails neither.
"Hello Emily." Her dad finally answered the phone.
"Dad." Her voice was shaky. "Jake is back and he's hurt and he won't talk to me."
"Hmm. And what do you expect me to do about that?"
"Nothing. I don't expect you to do nothing, but can I come over and talk to you?"
"Sure. I'm out right now, but I'll be back home at noon. I'll expect you then."
"Thank you Dad, see you then."
Emily's relationship with her father Franklin was not without problems. He had been openly critical of her relationship with Jake; not of Jake, her dad was a retired Marine Colonel himself, but of his daughter, of her egoistic behavior and attitude towards it. She hadn't told him yet about her visits to the psychologist. She hadn't told him yet that she'd come around to see his point, that she was even ashamed of her spoiled brat behavior. Today she would come clean. She had asked her father if he could find out what had happened to Jake and she was pretty sure he knew, but he had refused to share the information. She hoped that he might give her some news today.
She got into her car and set out towards her dad's apartment in Laguna Beach. She would be early, but she was restless and wanted to get out of the house. Her dad had given her the entry code to his place. She would wait for him there. As expected he wasn't back yet when she arrived. She got a diet coke out of the fridge and settled down on the sofa to wait. Just after twelve Franklin walked through the door.
"Hi Emily."
She got up from the sofa and hugged him. "Hi Dad."
She walked back to the lounge suite and sat down on the sofa again. Her Dad sat down on the armchair next to it.
"So what do you want to talk about?"
She leaned towards him. "Dad, I was wrong. It was wrong what I did to Jake. I realize that now. I have been seeing a psychologist and she's helped me realize what I did. Dad, I'm sorry." The words just burst out of her like floodgates opening.
"I'm glad Emily. I've been trying to tell you that for a long time."
"Yes, I know." She cowered for a moment as if weighed down by her father's words. Then she sat up again. "Dad, I spoke to Jake yesterday, he's at JJ's house. He says he's fine, but he's got a disabled sticker on his truck and he won't tell me what happened. He said he's going to get a restraining order against me if I don't leave him alone."
Franklin noted that her tone of voice was different. It no longer had the accusatory quality to it she used to employ when listing Jake's supposed transgressions to justify her latest actions. Instead she sounded rather dejected. To Franklin it was a sign of hope that his daughter's change of heart was real.
Emily paused, waiting for a comment, but Franklin didn't say anything. "What must I do, Dad?"
"Leave him alone."
"But I love him Dad, whatever happened I want him back."
"Emily do you want my honest opinion?"
"Yes, that's why I came here."
"There is only one way you can possibly achieve that."
"How?"
"You have to learn to respect him. You have to respect his wishes. You have to show him that you take him serious. That whatever you do, you do for him and not for yourself."
"So you're saying I shouldn't try to contact him again." Her eyes started to brim.
"Not for a while. I think that is your only option at this point in time."
"How long a while do you think?"
"Until you have a good reason to contact him again."
"And what reason could that be?" She was still on the verge of tears.
"His birthday, maybe."
"But Dad, that's eight months from now!"
"And when you eventually do contact him, you can't push him. He will only come back to you if he wants to, not if you are trying to badger him into it."
"But Dad, why so long?"
"Emily, Jake has got other problems to deal with at the moment. You need to give him time."
"So you did find out what happened to him?"
He nodded. "Yes, and I think you should carry on seeing your therapist so that when the time comes you are really sure of what you want and you understand what will be best for both of you."
"Dad, what's wrong with Jake?"
"Emily—Jake is paralyzed from the waist down."
Emily burst into tears.