The Key


"This is where she lives?" Punk asked, approaching the house which JC had led he and AJ up to the next morning. Keala was at school and Frankie was with Colette for the morning. They thought it was best to leave Anna and Dean out of this trip since it easily could have been a waste of time, and they didn't want them to get their hopes up for something.

"Yeah, this is it." JC nodded, walking down the pathway and knocking on the door whilst AJ and Punk stood behind waiting.

Soon enough, the door swung open with an older woman standing, looking on as she recognised JC and raised her eyebrows. She hadn't saw him since the night he was released from prison at the cemetery. And it only took her one glance to the right to notice that one of her grandsons was also with her.

"Jack." Kelly tilted her head, "W-What… what are you doing here?" She asked him.

"Mind if we come in?" JC asked her.

"No, not at all." Kelly said, opening up the door wider and letting the three of them in, closing the door behind her and following them into the living room, "This wasn't a face I thought I'd see again." She admitted truthfully.

"Because you thought I would have OD'd or went back to prison?" JC asked her.

"Well." Kelly shrugged as JC just nodded, "I can't think for the life of me why you would come here."

"Well first… this is Phil, your grandson. Just incase you… shed a general thought about him or his brother." JC said as Punk just looked across at her.

"Hi, son." Kelly nodded to him.

"And his wife, April." JC nodded as Kelly nodded to AJ who just stood beside Punk closely.

"And what about the other one? The one who looks more like Vanessa? The second one?" She asked.

"He has a name." JC shook his head, "Dean."

"I knew his name." Kelly said, "Where is he?"

"Well, this is what it's about actually." JC nodded, "We're having a little custody problem. You remember Vanessa's best friend from high school? Jean?" He asked her.

"Of course I do. They were inseparable." Kelly smiled, "Like sisters. But like most, Vanessa pushed people away." She nodded.

"No. People left her because of me." JC said, "That's not important right now anyway." JC shook his head, "They had a nasty fall out, Jean has been bitter ever since, she's took my granddaughter away on full custody and she's getting away with it because she's rich and we're not." He shrugged, "I'm under the impression that Vanessa knew a lot about Jean but… she's quite obviously not here, so I thought we could come to you and see if… if Vanessa ever told you anything? Particularly about Jean and her family, her family business?" JC asked.

"Since when did you believe me and my daughter even spoke to each other?" Kelly asked, "She never spoke to anyone about anything." She shook her head.

"So she said nothing about… about Jean or anything about the family business?" JC asked.

"No. She didn't." Kelly said, "She was like a closed book, that girl." She shook her head, pausing for a second as JC just sighed and nodded.

"Ok, well it was worth a try." JC shrugged to Punk who just nodded.

"Wait." Kelly said as they turned around, "Wait here." She told them, rushing off out of the living room, heading upstairs as JC glanced to Punk. They heard ladders being moved around upstairs, so JC walked out to the bottom of the stairs.

"Need a hand?" JC cringed, she was an older woman, he didn't want her to fall and break a hip.

"I'm fine." Kelly assured, climbing back down from the atic holding a box, "It should be in here." She nodded to herself, walking back downstairs, "Here, take this." She said, handing the heavy box to JC.

"What is it?" JC asked, walking back into the living room with it as AJ and Punk watched.

"Well when Vanessa died, the boys moved out of the house, I cleared some things from it, most of it was Vanessa's. There wasn't a lot worth keeping but the things I thought were I stored in a box and sat them upstairs. Along with my other dead daughter's things." Kelly shook her head as JC sighed.

"Can we go through this?" JC asked her politely.

"When did you become so polite?" Kelly wondered, "And… is there really no red in your eye? Are you off the drugs?" She asked, examining him as Punk smiled a little.

"Yes ma'am." JC nodded.

"Ironic you get off them when she dies." Kelly rolled her eyes, "Go on, look through it. There should be a diary in there." She told them as Punk walked over with AJ.

They went through the box where it was mostly just photographs, sentimental things, a few gifts, some letters, he even found both his sons scan pictures which brought a lot back. It was things he wasn't surprised that Vanessa had kept.

"There. There it is." Kelly nodded as she watched them rummage through.

"I remember this." JC admitted, picking up the worn away diary, "She… she would lock it away in a drawer. No one got to see it." He nodded.

"Could be something about Jean in there." Kelly nodded to him, "Have a look."

"I…" JC looked at the diary, "She wouldn't want us looking through this." JC nodded.

"If it meant getting her granddaughter back?" Kelly raised a brow, placing her hands on her bony hips, "She'd do anything for her sons, so open it." She told him as JC just nodded.

"Hopefully she dated it so it narrows it down." JC nodded, opening up the diary, skimming through it to around the dates which he remembered they started dating, reading little parts here and there which made him laugh and smile.

"Anything?" Punk wondered, watching as his father looked over the diary, "Why would she write about something like that in there?" Punk asked, watching his father skim the pages, slowly walking over to the couch and taking a seat as he stayed focused on the one page.

"What is it?" AJ asked, noticing JC had gone a funny colour, double blinking a few times, trying to make sense of what he was reading. He would never doubt Vanessa and what she ever had to say, and so he knew what was in this book was the truth.

"Her… her parents killed mine." JC said quietly as Punk turned to AJ and made a face.

"What?" Punk shook his head with confusion.

"When it was going public. They killed my parents in the case of anything negative reflecting on the company." He said, "Jean… Jean told Vanessa." JC shook his head.

"Mom would have told you that… surely." Punk said.

"Well she didn't." JC said, "Her… her company killed my parents." He looked up at AJ and Punk whilst Kelly took a seat on the couch beside him.

"This is… this is crazy." AJ shook her head, "I was thinking illegal investments, fraud maybe even… not murder." Her voice squeaked, "Why your parents?" She asked.

"I don't know." JC said, "It sees here that Jean said they had to cancel out any people or things that reflected badly on the company for when they went public. My parents were obviously caught up in it and they just… killed them." JC shook his head.

"But… what has that got to do with Jean?" Punk asked, "If it was her parents?" He said.

"Well she obviously stuck by it, kept the secret, followed in their footsteps, and then told Vanessa. She probably thought that would make Vanessa stay away from me." JC said.

"This should be taken to the police." Kelly said.

"No. No one is doing anything." JC made clear. He wasn't hysterically upset and heartbroken, mainly because he didn't really know his parents, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt that they had actually been killed, and it further explained why Jean had always been so cold towards him.

"This is the threat we needed." AJ nodded as JC nodded in agreement with her.

"Wait… wait a minute." Punk said, "You didn't know a thing about this?" He asked JC.

"No." JC said, "I… they died when I was a baby. I was told they were bad people. Drug addicts and alcoholics. Maybe they were still, but no one told me they were murdered." He said, "And your mother never told me about this either. Says here she didn't want it to hurt me and she didn't want to betray a friend's trust." He looked down at the diary.

"I didn't think it'd be this bad." Punk admitted truthfully.

"Now we have something to hold against her now. This was clearly the type of thing she didn't want us to know. Now we can tell her to sign the custody over… or we… we go to the cops." She said.

"Yeah, she's done for now." JC nodded, "Do you mind if I take this?" He turned to Kelly.

"Oh, keep it. It just sits up there gathering dust anyway." Kelly said, "I'm glad it… served some sort of purpose. Trust Vanessa to leave behind something so key." She nodded, "I hope it works out for you all." She nodded.


After they got home to Punk and AJ's house, Dean and Anna came around where they explained what they had found out and how it could help them tremendously. It gave them more hope than ever, and Dean thanked his mother in a quiet corner for still helping them out even when she wasn't with them.

"So we just… we call her and we tell her we know this and if she doesn't sign over full custody then… then she's done for?" Anna asked. She was finding it a little hard to comprehend that the family business her mother was always so proud of, was actually dark and shady with a lot of secrets under the surface which had torn apart families and hurt people. She didn't regard herself as part of that family anymore. This was her family.

"I'll do everyone one better." JC stood up, "I'll go to New York and I'll look her in the eye and tell her." JC nodded, "This… in a way this has had nothing to do with any of you, maybe a little, but she's still scared of her past, that's what is going on here, and she thinks that if she can lure Anna back with her and Skyler, then we're out of her life for good." JC said, "But that's not what's gonna happen." He nodded.

"Is it really a good idea if you go see her?" Dean asked.

"I'm not gonna beat her." JC scoffed, "I just wanna talk. We've never got a chance to talk properly." He said, "I can get a quick flight out, be back by tonight with the custody signed over. Skyler should be with you both tomorrow if it works out." JC nodded as Dean took a deep breath with relief and nodded, wrapping an arm around Anna.

"As long as you be careful." Punk said, "If it's what you want to do." He nodded.

"Yeah." JC nodded, "I even got some reading material for the flight." He waved the diary in his hand as Punk and Dean smiled a little, "It's gonna work out now, I promise." He nodded.

He couldn't wait to look Jean in the eye and see her face when she found out that he knew.