A/N: would someone please stop Roderick from taking over this story! I need to get back to John...

Part 24

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"Why am I a bastard?" Roderick wondered with some amusement, chuckling fondly.

"Because you aren't supposed to be nice enough for me to like you," Donna complained. "You should stay horrible and creepy."

"What's a man to do?" he smirked, gaining the small smile from her he was hoping for. "You make me a better man."

She winced as though in pain. "You mean you are too cheesy for your own good; you'll be bursting into a Disney song soon. Just get in the house!"

"Don't you mean 'cottage'?" he couldn't resist correcting. "I promised I'd be good," he added when she inevitably glared at him. As it was, he didn't need to see her exasperated expression as they got out of the car and made their way to Jocasta's front door.

"Jocasta, I've got Roderick with me," Donna called out in apology as she let them both in. She would have said more when Jocasta stood up in shock but the phone in her hand rang. "It's John!" she squealed with excitement. "I've got to take this, sorry," she threw over her shoulder as she raced up the wooden flight of stairs.

"Hang on, I'm almost there," she gasped down the phone as she ran across the landing.

There was the loud sound of a bedroom door being shut and she momentarily sighed with relief.

"Okay, I'm back, and in my room away from prying ears. I'll try to start this again," she said into the microphone, hoping against hope that he was still on the other end. "Hello John."

Standing patiently in a field, John could only wait to find out what was going on. "Hello Donna." His bewilderment was all too evident. "You booked a row so I suppose we need to talk."

"Before you go any further, I want you to know that I'm sorry for being a moody cow earlier. I'd had Martha go all Secret Squirrel on me, and then Roderick really riled me by making me take a call from Daisy. All she did was whinge at me as though it was my fault," she hurriedly told him. "Look, it's none of my business if you've been engaged. You could have been married to King Kong for all the difference it'd make to me; although it would explain your current interest… But that's another matter. The fact is I took it out on you, and I'm sorry."

There was merely the background sound of windy weather for a few seconds, and then came John's pained and gentle voice. "Shame; I had got myself ready for a full-blown argument. The thing is, I didn't bring it up because it hurts to go through that again. I assume Martha told you something about it, but I want to explain about the engagement."

"You don't have to," Donna insisted. "It can wait."

John rested his bottom against a low dry stone wall, trying to turn his body away from the raw cold winds. "If I don't do this now I might never say it. I loved her; for her beauty, charm and liveliness. We had this massive fall out because I told her I found her stifling at times. Rose went off in a huff, and when she came back she told me she was pregnant. What else was I supposed to do?" He heard the sympathetic intake of breath, and carried on. "I thought I was doing the right thing by proposing, had even looked forward to being a father."

"What went wrong?" Donna softly enquired.

He gave a wry laugh. "Jack told me I was an idiot, and Ricky said that she was lying and he'd find out the truth. Well, he did something alright!" Tears of remembrance froze on his cheeks. "I went to our…her flat, and I found them, Donna. They'd obviously been in bed together, and she tried telling me the pregnancy had been a false alarm, that Ricky had seduced her, that she didn't know what she wanted anymore."

"Oh John!"

"I couldn't look at her, or at him, so I left. I went straight to Martha's and stayed there for a while. Then Dad got ill soon after and I had to come home, so it was a blessing really that it hadn't worked," he sadly commented. "So there you have it."

"I'm glad you could tell me," Donna slowly spoke, gulping down her tears for him. "None of it was your fault. As for Roderick…" No, it best that she kept schtum about him for the moment, so she left the thought hanging. "Is there any chance we can meet up tonight? I ought to tell you that Roderick is here. I've left him downstairs with Jocasta."

"Is that wise?" he wondered.

"I dunno, but they need closure with each other, and it seemed an ideal opportunity," she defended herself. "Then again, I might end up bashing him after the little trick he pulled on me. You never know."

"What little trick?"

"I'll tell you later when I see you. Please say I will," she begged.

A sheep let out a plaintive cry near him.

"I'll see what I can do but I have to go," he ended the call by saying; leaving her standing bereft holding onto her phone for comfort.

"My mouth needs a warning sticker on it," she scolded herself.

With a deep sigh, she made her way to the bathroom to wash the tears from her face.

"Sit yourself down, Peterson," Jocasta welcomed Roderick properly into her home by indicating towards a chair. "Can I get you anything to drink?"

"Please call me Roderick, or Roddy," he answered as sweetly as he could and sat himself down. Trying to ignore the slam of a door from upstairs, he ventured, "I'd love a whiskey if you've got one."

"Of course," she allowed, and bustled about to find a suitable crystal tumbler before pouring out a rather generous serving of a single malt. "There you go." She handed over the glass, taking care to avoid contact with his fingers.

"Thanks." It's peaty golden goodness hit his palate before adding warmth to his stomach. "Ooh, that's good." It also added to the faint blur around the edges of his vision. Perhaps he should have eaten something since pushing away his breakfast that morning.

"Did you have a pleasant time at Martha's?" Jocasta politely inquired. The truth was, she didn't know quite what to say to him after all this time. He was a fully grown man who seemed to have a quiet threatening quality whereas in her memories he had remained a lad with boyish enthusiasm.

"As pleasant as could be expected," he enigmatically replied, and took another sip of his drink, rolling the glass carefully around in his hand as he examined the play of light upon its contents. "No doubt Donna is showing John all the warmth he deserves at this very moment."

"Do you not care for John?" Jocasta pondered, since his tone was ambiguous.

"Care?" he repeated, holding her gaze intently. "I would do anything within my power to ensure his happiness. But I assume that is not the reason why I have been allowed to sit here."

"What are you implying?!" she indignantly protested. "I assure you that I have no agenda."

"Evidently not," he agreed, taking a gulp and then setting his drink down in order to lean towards her. "But Donna does, if I am reading this correctly. She always did have this need to fix things and mend people. It is one of her finer qualities."

"And who exactly is she mending here?" Jocasta wanted to know.

"You," he said with a sniff, and sat back against the cushions of his seat triumphantly. "Me; the both of us. That elusive thing called closure," he added with a sneer.

"I have nothing I need to say to you," she stated.

He nodded as he took another sip. "As do I you. It was an unfortunate incident that we were punished for, and then life moved on. Assuming, of course, that you were equally punished."

"I was sent away from my home, to somewhere I could not be a bad influence and have such dangerous ideas," she retorted. "I have you to thank for meeting my husband."

His head was hung low so she couldn't see his expression, but his tone was regretful. "Then some good came of it."

"Did you find love, Pe-Roderick?" she asked.

"I've come close," he admitted, raising his head, "but I'm too selfish to allow that."

He drained his glass, so Jocasta jumped up to replenish it. Anything else they might have said was halted by the appearance of Donna as she slowly made her way down the staircase. "You two are quiet," she commented as she entered the lounge properly, and then she noticed Roderick taking a large swig of whiskey. "How many of those have you had today?"

"Enough," he cheerily informed her; and then did a rare thing. He smiled a huge genuinely warm smile in her direction. "Perhaps too many, but I wasn't counting. I only have dinner back at the hotel to look forward to with the whinging lights of my life." He lifted a hand to wave her over, and patted the empty seat beside him. "Come and sit down for a moment," he slurred. "Take the weight off those lovely legs of yours."

"Yes, well," Jocasta blustered as Donna sat herself down cautiously at the furthest possible point away from Roderick. "How did your phone call to John go? You look a little upset."

"To be honest, I am," she reluctantly supplied, and glanced towards Roderick who was still smiling. "Talking of honesty, isn't there something you wanted to say, Roderick?"

"Roddy. I told you before, you can call me Roddy," he declared, slapping playfully at her knee. "What was it you wanted me to say?"

"A little something about true love," she hinted, indicating her head towards Jocasta.

"Ah, love," he pondered. "What you have with John is true love, unlike that filly he was enamoured with at one time. But I soon dealt with that," he turned his head to tell Jocasta.

"What do you mean?" Donna inevitably asked before she could stop the words on her tongue. "What did you do?"

Roderick giggled like a naughty schoolboy. "Well, I suspected her of conning John. It wouldn't be the first time a fake pregnancy had been used to catch a decent man. So I tested her."

"That's terrible," Donna gasped. "So why did you go after her?"

"Bed her, you mean?" he prodded, with a proud gleam in his eyes. "Seemed perfectly logical to me, since John wouldn't believe me when I honestly tried to tell him that she'd flirted with me on several occasions, and she wasn't exactly unattractive."

"I think you've said enough," Jocasta warned him, and tried to take away his glass; but he fought off her good intentions.

"No, Donna has to hear this," he drunkenly argued. "I offered to pay her to lie to John about her pregnancy because I seriously doubted it was his. It was all too convenient, if you ask me. Would you believe she took the money? I still can't get over that."

"That child might have been his!" Donna spat at him. "You had no right to do that!"

He merely waved his index finger at her in answer. "True, it could have been. That is why I returned months later to see. And guess what! No baby. If there had been I'd have taken John there myself, but she claimed she'd got her dates wrong. I saved him a shotgun wedding all right!"

"It doesn't mean you were in the right, Roddy!" Donna loudly complained. "You manipulated them. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you had blackmailed Jack at some point in the past too."

His countenance turned to thunder. "Why are you dragging Jack into this?"

Oooh, she had hit a nerve. Could she gain a different type of confession out of him? "Perhaps I was wondering why you were rather… what's the word I want here… generous towards him earlier compared to how you were with Martha."

"Nothing to tell," Roderick mumbled into his glass.

"Depends how it felt on the other end of that kiss," she pressed, feeling as though she had him on the run now. "Do you actually have feelings for him?"

"I might have helped to sway matters in his favour," Roderick allowed, suddenly going coy.

"Then that means the rumour about you and Finch was true," Jocasta suddenly proclaimed.