Here's chapter 11 and as always I love all of the reviews, I hope you enjoy the chapter I'll try and update as soon as possible. As usual I own nothing.
Dear chymom, I usually don't respond to reviews directly but I love all of your questions? I hope I can answer as many of them as possible with in the story. I wish I could answer them all now but I don't want to ruin anything in the future.
We were walking through the grocery store when Jane turned to me, "I have somewhere to go tomorrow."
"Umm okay." I frowned, taking the box of cookies Alyssa had thrown in the cart and putting them back on the shelf.
"I'll only be gone a day and half two days at the most." He stated, taking the same box off the shelf and putting it back in the cart, damn him.
"Put the cookies back." I warned, of course he didn't.
"Can I borrow some cash?" He wondered.
"What?" I stopped the cart, and Emily ran into me.
"I'm short on cash." He answered grabbing three different types of cereal.
"Well then why on earth have you been offering to buy everything for me and these kids?" I sighed.
"I have money, I'm just short on cash." He shrugged, as I reached for some pancake mix. "Don't get that, I only make pancakes from scratch." He put the mix back on the shelf.
"Of course you do." I rolled my eyes. "If you need cash why don't you just go to the bank?"
"The money in my bank account isn't really mine to spend." He answered, "Alyssa put that back you already got a box of cookies."
"But I like these cookies too." She argued.
"You get one or the other." He answered, "Do you like these more than the ones in the cart?"
"I like them the same." Alyssa tried.
"One or the other." He shook his head and she put the box back. "You two go pick out some juice boxes.
"Apple." Alyssa pointed to the green boxes.
"Grape." Emily added.
"Or berry." Alyssa looked down the row.
"Strawberry kiwi" Emily continued.
"One each." I gave in, "Which one do you want William?"
"He wants berry." Alyssa announced placing her own apple juice boxes in the cart.
"Nah uh he wants grape." Emily argued putting the strawberry kiwi boxes in the cart.
"Blue." William pointed.
"Blue it is." Jane smiled, I had to make sure I asked him about the money when we got a chance to talk again.
We were in the checkout when I got my chance the kids were distracted with the different types of candy bars. "What do you mean the money in the bank isn't yours to spend?"
"The money in my account has come from four sources and I haven't withdrawn any money from it in nine years, since their deaths." He answered helping me unload the cart.
"What are you talking about?" I sighed, "What four sources."
"I got a large sum from my first career path, I got a bit from selling the house, then there's the life insurance, and lastly the money from work." He answered, before turning to the kids, "One each hurry up we got to pay."
"I understand all of that except the money from work why isn't that yours you earned that." I frowned.
"I didn't join the CBI to make money, I had one purpose." He explained.
"So if you haven't spent any of your paychecks in eight years where have you been getting your money?" I wondered but I think I already knew the answer.
"If I can borrow some money I'll pay you back with a hundred percent interest." He never answered the question he didn't have to.
"Jane I'm not giving you money to gamble." I swiped my card to pay for the groceries.
"It's hardly gambling if I know I'm going to win." He smiled at the cashier, and she blushed. Did I blush like that when he smiled at me, I hoped not.
"You get a hundred dollars, I expect it back plus." I sighed digging out my wallet, "and you will be back Sunday afternoon and if I find out that you got into any trouble you are never touching my money again."
"Deal," He nodded accepting the cash and tucking it into his vest. "As long as you agree to accept seventy five percent of my winnings. To spend on something nice for the kids."
"Seventy-five percent of your winnings, Jane that's to much." I shook my head.
"It's your money." He reminded. "If you don't agree I'll just buy you expensive things with the money."
"Seventy-five percent to be spent on something for the kids." I nodded, I guess that sounded fair enough, I still didn't agree but what harm could it cause, I mean I could spend it on their tuition or their soccer fees.
"Are you going to be okay getting them to bed on your own, and getting them up in the morning." He asked helping the bag boy load our cart back up.
"I have to learn to do it by myself eventually." I reminded, "You're not going to want to live with me forever."
"I will live with you as long as you can put up with me." He returned, reaching for William and Alyssa's hand to cross the parking lot, I made sure I had Emily's hand in mine and then pushed the cart with the other. I wondered if I could get fed up with him completely, he annoyed me to no end sometimes but I think if I had put up with him this long. Who was I kidding of course I didn't want him to leave.
It was hard fitting all of the groceries in the back along with the new crib, the stroller, and the changing table, but somehow we managed. Then by the time we got back to the apartment the kids had gotten tired and cranky, William and Cass had missed their naps and Alyssa and Emily had found something else to fight over.
"Jane make it stop." I let myself fall into a kitchen chair, while Jane started dinner. We had set up the new crib and the changing table, started another load of laundry, and put William and Cass down for a nap and the whole time Emily and Alyssa had argued about anything and everything that came up.
"Oh come on Lisbon it's not that bad." He chuckled.
"Jane." I really wanted to bang my head on the counter.
"Lisbon they're your kids." He reminded.
"I know but you're the one with the silver tongue." I argued.
"I'm making your dinner." He pointed out.
"You're taking my money and spending the night in a casino, can't you do this one thing for me." I begged.
"Girls!" Jane called not turning away from his cooking. A minute later the girls came in with identical frowns. "Teresa is getting a headache, could you please keep your arguing to a minimum."
"What?" Alyssa frowned.
"He wants us to be quiet." Emily mirrored the frown.
"No, he wants to know why you're so grumpy this evening." Jane turned and lifted them each up so they were sitting on the counter next to where he was working.
"We don't want to go to school, we don't want to play soccer." Alyssa pouted.
"We don't want to be here, we want to go home." Emily added, I watched as Jane put down his utensils and pulled a chair over and sat the girls on his lap, I followed his lead and pulled my chair next to his. "We want our mommy and daddy."
"Oh girls." Was all Jane seemed able to say, "I know, I know."
"No you don't know, we want our mommy and daddy." Alyssa started punching into Jane's chest, he just sat there and took it.
"You're right I don't know what its like to lose my parents." He nodded, letting Alyssa take out her frustration. "I never knew my mom."
"And I was only a little bit older than you, when my mom passed away." I cut in, realizing I probably was just as good as Jane in this situation. At the very least I got Alyssa to stop punching Jane.
"You're mommy's dead?" She frowned, as she and her sister turned to face me.
"I was eight." I nodded, "And it made my daddy really sad and I pretty much lost him to."
"But he was still alive." Alyssa argued.
"He hurt me and my brothers." I answered, "Really badly."
"What did you do when you're mommy died?" Emily asked, crawling off of Jane's lap and onto mine.
"I cried, for a very long time, it will hurt for a long time." I admitted, "But you have to know that you can come to Patrick and I because we really do know how you're feeling."
"I don't want to hurt." Alyssa cried into Jane's vest.
"Breathe." Jane rubbed small soothing circles on her back, "breathe, try and remember the good things about your parents and don't ever forget them." He held her close until the tears stopped coming, it was just like in my office two weeks ago when it was me crying into his vest.
"So we have to go to school?" Alyssa sat up.
"Yep." Jane nodded.
"And we don't get to go home." Alyssa sighed.
"Right." Jane nodded, "You two want to help me with dinner?" He offered, wiping the tears away from Alyssa's eyes, and then leaning over to do the same to Emily, and then to my surprise me. How had I not realized I was crying? Or that Emily had teared up in my lap, I felt so guilty.
"I guess so." Emily shrugged, unwrapping her arms from my waist for Jane to lift her and her sister back onto the counter.
"You girls are going to be okay. I promise." Jane kissed them both on the forehead, "You young lady are in charge of mixing these." He turned to Alyssa, "And Miss. Emily will be in charge of combining these."
"Thank you Jane." I breathed, putting the chairs back around the table.
"I didn't do anything." He smiled, "That was all you."
"That's not true at all." I frowned leaning into him.
"Your going to be okay too, I promise." And then he kissed my forehead, when had the roles gotten so reversed I had always considered myself in charge of keeping him as stable as possible, now I needed him around for support.
"I'm going to go move the laundry around." I sighed, pulling myself away.
"Wake up the other two if you let them sleep to long this late they'll never get to bed." He instructed he turned back to the counter and started chopping vegetables. "Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes." He added, as I left the kitchen.
There was something that I wanted to ask him about earlier, why couldn't I think of it now. Oh, the thing about going to school, that seemed so unimportant now. Jane would be going away tomorrow at least this time he told me before he disappeared, what if he didn't come back again? What if all this family and domesticated stuff was killing him on the inside? What would I do if he didn't come back?
And those poor kids what was I supposed to tell them? These questions haunted me through moving the last two loads of laundry around and into waking up William and Cass. When I finally made it back into the kitchen, the table had been set and Jane was in the process of serving the spaghetti, while overseeing that the twins properly put together their sisters bottle. When I saw Jane picking out the ingredients at the store I thought that this was going to be a catastrophe, he would make something very nice that the kids would hate. But this was Jane and despite what everyone else thinks he seems to know what he's doing.
We were halfway through dinner when Jane spoke up, "Guys I'm going to be gone tomorrow and Sunday morning, can you be good for Teresa for a day and a half?"
"Where are you going?" Emily asked with noodles still hanging from her mouth.
"Finish chewing first." He instructed, "Good, I'm going to go to a bank and it's pretty far away so that's why it's going to take so long." Only he would call a casino a bank, well I guess that's how he's been using it for a little under a decade.
"Why?" Alyssa wondered.
"I need to get some more money to spend on you guys." He answered and both the girls grinned. "I'm going to leave pretty early tomorrow so if I'm not here when you wake up don't be sad okay, because I promise I'm coming back as soon as I can."
After we were done eating Jane recruited the twins help in doing dishes while I bathed the younger two. I was getting used to a nightly routine and it had only been a week, we feed them, we bathe them, Jane reads them a story, and then we all go to bed. It was nice, and I didn't know what I was going to do when Jane did leave, I guess we'll see how I handle it tomorrow night and go from there. Maybe Jane didn't have to leave.
"What time are you leaving in the morning?" I wondered as the two of us lie in bed together.
"Early." He shrugged, "I don't know, probably before you wake up."
"Are you still going for a run?" I questioned.
"Yeah." He nodded. "I can drive to the motel to take a shower if you're worried I'll wake you."
"No, shower here you probably won't wake me up if it's as early as you say it will be." I argued, "I thought you were going to have your suits cleaned tomorrow?"
"I can do that when I get back." He answered. "I need money to have the suits cleaned anyway."
"Jane can I talk to you about the school earlier today?" I decided that seemed like a safe conversation.
"Are you still angry that I called the guy on trying to get more money off of you, because that's what he was doing, he didn't just realize we had been on the news when I spoke up." He frowned.
"No, I'm not mad about that, I was wondering, I didn't expect you to.."
"You didn't expect me to be supportive of them going to school?" He questioned, "Why not? Charlie went to school."
"I just figured you hate every other institution, why should schools be any different." I shrugged.
"You know the saying you want what you can't have." He asked rolling on his side to face me, "For the most part that never applied when I was growing up, if I wanted it I was told just to steal it." I just nodded. "I was kind of a dork I liked reading and I like knowing things and the one thing I really wanted was to go to school, but I couldn't really steal an education." He stopped for a minute to watch my reaction before continuing. "When I was around eleven a group of us broke into a school near where the carnival had stopped, most of the older guys just wanted to redecorate the place." He stopped again.
"So to be clear you're confessing to breaking and entering and vandalism." I teased.
"Entering yes, I broke and vandalized nothing." He retorted, "I did however take some things with me, a couple text books, and then a few books from the library."
"You're right you're a dork." I laughed, "I could just see you sitting in a trailer reading textbooks and practicing magic tricks."
"Says the girl in the marching band," He smiled.