I made up the name of the prison, I hope it doesn't sound too lame. And I am worried that the dialog of the police chiefs is a little English. As in accent wise. So forgive me if its inaccurate for Americans/Canadians, I can only write it as I know how, and that's with an English accent. :D

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

BASED ON TRUE EVENTS.Dance With My Father – Luther Vandross

September 2002
Alex: 14
Jay: 15

With the arrival of September came the start of many things. School was starting up again, and this time, Jay was actually going. It was debatable how long he'd last for, but he was going for the first day. But before school, it was Alex's fourteenth birthday. It had been a very long year, and Alex thought it'd never end, but the morning of her birthday turned out to be not as bad as she'd thought.

When she woke up and stumbled wearily into the living room, Jay was already there, which was embarrassing for Alex, who emerged from bed with her scraggy nightclothes on and her hair totally messed up. Once again, she was wearing Jay's large AC/DC t-shirt that skimmed her knees, matched with a rather attractive pair of lime green bottoms decorated with little frogs.

She tried to sneak back out undetected but the creak of the floor boards caused Jay to spin around and catch her at her worst. "Hello, birthday girl!" He exclaimed jubilantly as Alex cringed at being detected. She turned slowly with a huge fake grin plastered on her face.

"Hi!" She said in a somewhat forced fashion.

"Hello, sweetheart!" Emily gushed proudly. She shot up out of the arm chair and bounded over to Alex to envelope her in a big birthday bear hug.

Alex saw the bruise on her temple covered up with an unnatural amount of foundation. She said she fell. Alex knew that was bullshit.

"Thanks, mom!" Alex gurgled as Emily's grip tightened on her.

Chad was sat in his newly designated chair, positioned handily right in front of the TV. He didn't look up from the screen longer than a few seconds to grunt a birthday greeting.

Jay looked pretty eager for Alex to open her presents. Yes, plural. It looked as if Emily had really pushed the boat out this year. Guilt, most probably.

She took a seat in the middle of the three seater sofa, with her mom on one side and Jay on the other. "Open the ones wrapped in blue first." Emily ordered enthusiastically.

Three little box shaped presents wrapped in dark blue holographic paper were naturally the first ones Alex went for. "These are from me and Chad." Emily added.

Alex smiled gratefully but scoffed dubiously in her head. The three presents were thoughtful, but Alex didn't expect anything more.

"That ones from me." Jay said, tapping a long slender black velvet box proudly.

Alex reached forward and picked it up tentatively. She suddenly had a horrible feeling that she was about to feel extremely honored. She held the box gingerly in both hands and just stared at it in nervous anticipation.

"Open it, then doofus!" Jay nudged her lightly and smiled encouragingly.

Alex took a deep breath and nervously got hold of the clasp and popped the box open. Inside was a thin chain gold bracelet with little a shimmering diamond 'A' charm. Her breath was taken from her as she studied the beautiful piece of jewelery before her. "Wow..." She gasped under her breath as it hit her.

"Do you like it?" Jay asked nervously.

She looked up to him and smiled weakly. "I love it. Where did you-"

"Doesn't matter. Just enjoy it!" Jay shut Alex up with a kiss.

As the morning went on and things settled down, Alex began to think that maybe this day might not be a total wash-out to be forgotten like most other birthdays. Hell, she couldn't even remember her 13th birthday, it was so forgotten.

Her mom had even got in a cake. Admittedly it was from a supermarket bakery and not made by her mom's own fair hand, but the thought was there and that was what counted at the end of the day, right?

Things were going well. Alex would even go as far as to say she was enjoying herself. The phone was ringing in the background, but she barely noticed it over the excited chatter. "That's probably someone ringing to wish you happy birthday, Alex." Emily said as she made her way over to the phone.

"Hello?" Emily broke away from the bottle of Vodka she was nursing to answer the phone.

"Hello, may I please speak with Emily Nunez?" A very formal sounding man was on the other end.

"Ummm, yes, this is she." Emily placed her bottle down and straightened herself out, as if trying to make a good impression to the man, even though he was inside the phone.

"Is it possible to reach Jason Hogart at this address. It's listed as an emergency contact."

"Emergency contact?" Emily asked in confusion. "Who shall I say is calling?"

"My names Police Chief Charles Garrett, from Toronto City Prison."

"Oh... yeah sure, I'll... get him for you." Emily was unsure of what they wanted, but either way, she knew it was bad news. She cupped her hand over the speaker and passed the phone to Jay. "Jay, it's for you."

Jay took the phone, surprised that someone would ring here for him. He wondered for a horrible moment if Sunny had managed to track them down. "Hello?"

"Is that Jason Jackson Hogart?"

"Uh, yeah." Jay answered, cringing at the name he'd tried so hard to disassociate for the past eighteen months.

"Hello, Jason. I'm Police Chief Charles Garrett from Toronto City Prison. I've got Mr. Montgomery from the hospital here with me. We'd like you to come down to the prison to have a little chat."

"A chat about what?" Jay inquired skeptically.

"Well, I can't say much over the phone, but I do need you to come down urgently. I trust you know directions?"

"Yeah." Jay knew them from the multiple times he and his mom had to go down there to bail out his pathetic dad. "So today, then?"

"Yes, that would be best, Mr. Hogart." Jay didn't like being addressed as Mr. Hogart.

"OK. Fine."

- - - - -

"Who was it?" Alex asked immediately.

"I don't know. Jared or something."

"Garrett." Emily corrected him.

"Yeah, whatever his name is, I gotta go down there and 'talk to him'." Jay made a face.

"Do you want me to drive you there?" Emily offered.

Jay looked at her doubtfully, then eyed the vodka she was clutching. "No thanks. I'll walk."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Alex jumped up and followed Jay as he started making his way toward the door.

He considered it for a minute, then changed his mind. "No, it's OK. I'll be back in like half an hour, there's no point."

"OK." Alex agreed reluctantly. "See you when you get back."

"Kiss?" Jay almost demanded as Alex turned to go.

"See ya." She gave him a single peck on the lips and went to sit back down on the couch where she was before.

"Yeah, see ya later." He let himself out, and made his way up town to the prison.

This route was all too familiar, but he never remembered it being so close. As he got nearer, his heart began pounding heavier and quicker. From the little information he was given on the phone, he presumed his dad wanted to see him. He didn't want to see his dad though. As he stood before the twenty story building, at the wrought iron gates, he had second thoughts, wanted to walk the other way. He pressed the button on the intercom and waited as it crackled like a weak radio signal.

"Please state your name and purpose." A tinny voice on the other end finally announced.

"Uh, Jay- Jason Hogart, here to see Mr. Gerrard?" Jay didn't remember being this bad with names.

"You mean Garrett?"

"Yes! Yeah, that's him."

"OK, please come through." Jay didn't notice until that point there was a CCTV camera pointed right at him.

- - - - -

"Hi, Jason?" A short, blonde haired woman dressed in a cream color suit with a cerise pink shirt.

"Yeah." He held out his hand, wanting to appear both charming, and confident.

She smiled warmly and shook his hand firmly. "My name is Bren. Right this way, Mr. Hogart." Jay couldn't help but to notice there was something about the glint in her eye. It was a happy glint, more reluctant and expectant of something.

She led him through to a small room, where two men were waiting, dressed very similarly. As soon as he and Bren entered the room, the two men jumped up and individually shook Jay's hand.

"Sit down, Mr. Hogart."

Jay sat down timidly and looked down at a lump of sickly green-yellow gum stuck in the right angle corner of the desk.

"You'll be wondering, no doubt, why we called you in here."

No shit, dumbass. "Yeah."

"This is very serious."

"Are you gonna arrest me?" Jay jumped to conclusions, using the most words he's said in what seemed like forever.

"No, Mr Hoga-"

"It's Jay, OK?" He interrupted shortly.

"Sorry, Jay. No, you're not under arrest. I contacted Mr. Montgomery here this morning, from the hospital. A body was found this morning in block E, and we need the nearest available next of kin for a formal body identification."

Jay was speechless. His heart was hammering so loud he was deafened. It was rising up from his chest, up his throat and into his mouth. If he opened it to speak, it'd surely come flying out. A formal body identification? That could only mean one thing...

"Now, a simple yes or no will suffice here. We just need confirmation this is the body of a Jackson Reginald Pierce Hogart." Mr. Garrett instructed him as he stood a good two foot away from the currently covered morgue slab. The outline of the concealed body was freaking him out big time, but he couldn't keep his eyes off it. The concaves and contours of the beer belly, huge feet and protruding nose were enough to give it away already.

"This may be a little disturbing, but try to remain calm." The mortuary worker said as he slowly peeled back the white sheet.

Jay's face fell as he stared down at the horrifically mutilated body. The skin of this person was gray in color, and faded like old lawn furniture. The eyes were glued tightly shut and bruises varying from blue to black to yellow to purple formed a ring around the neck. Thin slits of flesh passing themselves off as lips were gray and leathery like the skin.

"Can you identify this body?" The morgue technicians chilling voice made him jump.

Jay looked between the technician and the body and back again a few times. He swallowed hard and struggled to find his voice. "It's him." He faltered, his voice getting caught in his throat.

"This is the body of Jackson Hogart?"

Jay nodded affirmatively.

:( Well that was sad to write. Reviews, please?