*JR*

Sweet Dreams

JR blinked, opening his eyes after becoming aware of the movement that took place in the room. He felt his wife's arm being slung around his chest, holding on somewhat desperately. He heard quiet steps and then springs squeaking under some weight. Was this some other weird game? Swapping sleeping places?

This had been a stupid kiddie party. But what else did he expect from Bianca the innocent and Jamie the manboy, blinded by his naive romantic beliefs. Of course Babe, always easy to excite, had been eager to join the ride of stupidity, and Lena had been lost to Bianca for a long time now. Only Maggie had seemed unamazed from time to time, making him feel sympathy towards her.

God knows how Jamie had managed to sack her. But maybe now Jamie would stay away from his wife.

Babe's grasp on him tightened making him feel constrained. Couldn't she have stayed on the couch with Bianca? He was just here to entertain her thought that they would try to mend things. But he would not invest anything into this until the results of the paternity test were back from that lab. Everything depended on that and then as soon as the baby was born things had to be set in motion.

He just wasn't sure what they were yet.

He sighed and tried to relax in the arms that held him. After a long moment of struggle he finally let go and fell asleep.

"Hmm..." He floated somehow, surrounded by warmth, calming rosy red walls enclosing him.

He would love to stay here forever.

"I love you," a soft-spoken voice swayed around him.

"Mom?"

"JR, I have to go."

No, what did she mean she had to...

He fell into blackness, the warmth slipping away.

He crashed to the ground, coldness shaking his body.

Faceless people walked the streets, touching him when they passed him, pulling at him when he didn't respond.

"No, go away," He bellowed, trying to push a way through them when a cluster formed around him.

They all wanted something, but he had nothing to give. The streets they walked were not his. The grey skyscrapers that surrounded them were not his. He had nothing.

It was all owned by the great Adam Chandler.

He shoved his way through the mass and began to run away from the people, to something that called for him, cried for him.

He saw a crib standing in the middle of an empty street and walked stunned to it, not believing his eyes.

As he reached the crib and picked the little crying baby up a content calmness settled in him.

"This is your baby," Babe appeared suddenly behind him.

"No, she's a whore you know that can never be yours. She just wants our money," his father spoke, walking out from a small alleyway, having watched him the whole time.

"Babe," his brother ran to her and then looked at him, "JR, this could be my baby."

Jamie. This hurt.

More men came from everywhere claiming it to be theirs.

No.

They would take it away from him. The first thing that really was his. The first thing he purely loved after his mother passing away. They were trying to take it away from him.

Everyone became quiet as Babe pulled a test from her purse and stepped up to him.

"I love you JR, I know this is your baby. I'm sure this is your baby."

He took the test. It said it was his.

He was the father.

A pleased smile stretched over his lips.

He was the father of this child.

Babe glanced at the test, seeing the result she wrapped her arms around him in a happy squeal.

He stood there unmoving, Babe hanging around his neck.

She must have had doubts.

What else would she do to him? Would she leave him once the baby was there? Was his father right? He had been right the first time. She could leave him and take the baby away.

No. It would be his and his alone. No one would take this away from him.

Now he just had to come up with a way to get rid of Babe.

Ironically Babe's voice echoed through his head then, "You never know – "

A flash of himself putting a pill into her glass flickered up in front of his eyes.

" – who's gonna poison you." he finished the sentence, filling the glass with water.

A devilish grin overcame his face and while he still dozed he freed himself from the arm that clung to him.