Part Five
Naturally the program ran nationwide that evening. It showed the girls being interviewed and their answers inter spaced with the interview the Titan boys had sat for earlier that morning (with credit and thanks given to the Today show for the footage). It showed the girls agreeing to testing and then being herded into a limo and on to a lab, all wearing maternity tops. It hit You Tube five seconds later and scored over a million hits by breakfast with the title 'Titan's Baby Mamas Interview'
The public reaction was fast and furious.
"How dare that big shot reporter browbeat those poor girls into going to some doctor they don't even know and on on television, no less!"
"Well, it's not right. Those girls, they looked like babies themselves to me and here they'll about to have babies; it's just not right and that's all I have to say about it."
"Boys, they want one thing from a girl and as soon as they get it they move on to the next, I don't care if they're famous or not, they're all the same."
"If any one of those kids, the boys or the girls were mine I'd have them locked in their rooms until they were forty!"
"Great role models, oh yeah."
"Famous is as famous does. These kids think they can get away with anything just because they're famous—they should be ashamed of themselves."
"If you ask me, those girls were asking for it and that's all there is to it—did you see how they were dressed?"
"Like I care?"
At the Wayne breakfast table the conversation was trying for normal. "Pass the eggs, please." A bite of food. "Dick, see what kind of mood you sense in school today regarding the interview. I'm suspecting that the Titans may benefit from some backlash if the girls are seen as opportunistic."
"Okay."
Bruce looked up. "Just 'okay'?"
"What else do you want me to say? It's a waiting game until the results come back, right?"
"Only if there's a chance that you've been lying to me about what really happened on the beach last summer."
"I'm not."
"...But the others may be?"
"I know what they told me and I know what I believe. We'll see, that's all."
Bruce declined to comment further.
Walking the halls of East Hampton High School, the four girls were the topic of the day again; they were the topic of the week and not just with the other students. Parents called, demanding to know what was being done to make sure that they didn't become unofficial role models for impressionable kids. Reporters camped out just off school property, causing the local police to set up barricades and maintain a presence. A memo was sent to the entire faculty and staff requesting that no one speak to the press.
The Tuesday morning PTA meeting was a sounding board about the lack of morals of today's young people and what could be done about it—and just who seduced whom? Should the girls be taken to task for throwing themselves at celebrities or should some kind of lawsuit be appropriate against the Titan boys for corrupting the morals of child—even though they were all minors themselves. Could statuary rape charges be pending?
And should the girls be allowed to stay in school? What kind of message would that be sending to the younger students to have them parading around with their bellies and later pushing strollers?
'Absolutely not! I won't have Jessica being subjected to this kind of thing, not to mention that our kids are being forced to go to a school which has become a virtual armed camp—this is impossible!"
"Have you all seen the circus the place has become?"
"I saw three students being interviewed by Katie Couric and she was asking if there was a concerted plan for the girls to all become pregnant at the same time like that other school—where was that? You know the one, fifteen or twenty girls all decided to have babies at the same time. I was appalled!"
"I think we need to support these girls, no matter what the results of those tests are—they're going to need help and..."
"You would say that! I won't have my son sitting in a classroom with them, I've looked into St. Joe's and Jason will be moving as soon as the arrangements are made."
"Changing schools won't help, Mary—they all have the same problems."
"Back on the immediate problem, please. Should the Board allow the girls to continue to take classes when their presence is this disruptive?"
"The media will die down in a few weeks."
"Not if those Titan boys are the fathers, it won't."
"Sue is right. If those kids are the fathers then it will just get worse."
"So maybe we should wait and see what the results are. Does that sound reasonable? The tests are supposed to be back in a few days; what if we reconvene next Tuesday and decide then?"
Murmurs and reluctant nods. "All right. If we can move on, the next order of business is the car wash for the senior class...ladies, please."
* * *
A couple of days later Robin wasn't sure he was doing the right thing which is why he didn't tell Batman that the case he was working on wasn't in Chelsea like he'd said. Instead he drove out to Montauk, to Melanie's house and rang the bell. A man, presumably her father, answered and opened the door when he saw who was there. He seemed both embarrassed and angry, speaking without preamble.
"I'll call her."
"Thank you." He stood in the entrance hall while the man went upstairs, a minute or two later Melanie came down, looking nervous and apprehensive but detirmined. And she was starting to show. "Could we go somewhere to talk?"
"You put one hand on her and I'll know."
"Daddy, it's okay. We'll just be out back."
Seated on two separate chairs a few feet apart on the back patio, Melanie waited for Robin to start.
"You knew that none of you would be able to get away with this; why even try?"
She sniffed a little but it seemed more from the chill than from anything else. "I don't know."
"Sure you do; were you afraid to tell your boyfriends or did something happen you didn't want people to know?"
"Like we were raped or at some big party or something like that? No, just, y'know, just being stupid and, y'know..."
"Why me, why my friends?"
"You seemed—nice. I don't know, I guess we thought that none of you would fight it."
Robin stared at her for a moment; she was serious. Incredible. "The test results should be ready tomorrow; we're not going to make any announcements, are you?"
"Like we have any choice." It seemed like reality was starting to sink in a little. "The reporters are already calling and asking what time the press conference will be."
"But, you didn't really answer, why me and my friends?"
"Because you were here, going to a few parties and hanging around town about the same time and a lot of people saw you, it seemed like it might be a good idea." She mumbled a bit. "Okay, maybe it wasn't but we were all scared, okay?" There was a pause then, "It's really going to hit the fan, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"I don't guess you'd be willing to say anything, would you? I mean like maybe you understand or forgive us?"
"No."
She squirmed a little in her chair then came back at him with real anger. "You'll just like go on and in a few weeks this will be yesterday's news for you, right? Besides, I'm guessing that you guys all must have some serious money behind you and even if you don't, you'd be able to get it if you had to. It wouldn't have been a big deal to people like you, you'd just sign a check every month and that would be all you'd have to do."
"Are you serious? 'You think we have money behind us and so you all decided to dump this on us? This was just about child support?" Christ.
"Not just that—you don't know what it's like to be..."
"To be what? Broke? Unloved? Lonely? Caught in a mistake? Everyone..."
"Not people like you and all the richies who come out here for weekends, you have no idea. They all show up in their designer clothes and their fancy cars and..."
"Don't even try that. I'm not going to feel sorry for you and neither are my friends. You and the other girls lied, did everything you could think of to trap us, blackmail us and make us look like crap to our families and the public. You gave interviews saying what we were like in bed and generally totally tried to screw us over. Did any of us even meet any of you last summer?"
She was defeated and she knew it, her voice losing all it's anger and now quiet. "I saw you on the beach a couple of times, you looked nice." She sounded almost wistful.
Robin didn't say anything, just gave her a look that said it all; she and her friends were bitches and he wasn't going to lift a finger to help them when the test results were announced in the morning. He got up and walked through the house and out to his bike, not saying anything to Melanie's parents who were watching from the family room window and probably listening to ever word as well. Back at the Manor he went directly down to the cave, working out on the bars for three solid hours until his arms ached and trembled then refused to support him any longer.
* * *
'The results we've all been waiting for with bated breath are finally in and...The Titan boys are all in the clear, each and every one of the young ladies are admitting that the entire episode was all a story to make sure that their not yet born babies will be taken care of while they took us all for a ride. There hasn't been any official statement from Titan's Tower but I think it's a safe bet that they're breathing easier this evening. Matt, back to you.
Maggie, are there any signs that there may be charges filed against the girls or any kind of official repercussions?
There haven't been any announcements or statements but I suspect that we may not have heard the end of this quite yet.
How far along are the girls now, do we know?
I'm told that they're all between four and a half and five months at this point. We also don't know yet of East Hampton high School will allow them to continue attending classes.
It sounds like you're right about this not being the end of this story. Thank you and now, a check of the weather...'
"So that's it?" Wally looked over to Robin, seated on the far end of the couch.
"That's it."
"No apology?"
"'Doesn't look like it."
"What about a lawsuit for defamation of character, false accusations, slander, libel and whatever else we can come up with? This was serious bullshit y'know."
"Let it go, Roy. It's over."
"Bullshit—it's been filed, it's on the Internet, it will never be over, Junior. This will be biting us all in our collective asses for frigging ever."
Robin gave him a steady and slightly apathetic look. "We've been through crap before and will be again. It is what it is."
* * *
Four months later new mother Melanie took a break from diapers and formula to open her mail. The letter from the high priced law firm in Gotham told her that after due consideration no charges will be filed against her or the other three young ladies so long as they all agreed to maintain a media silence on the matter so far as it pertained to any of the four Titan boys.
She signed her copy of the agreement, placed it in the enclosed stamped envelope and reached for a clean diaper.
3/6/10