AN: I just wanted to clarify a word I sometimes use here particularly when Shawn speaks and that is chirp. If you aren't familiar with hockey slang you may see "Shawn chirped..." and think of it as a high-pitch, sing-song way of speaking. However, I use it in the hockey sense and a chirp in hockey means trash talking an opposing player.
He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Sure, we'll be over Saturday.
What about Audrey?
She doesn't need to know. I'll just tell her I have to work.
Shawn landed squarely on his tailbone the next morning when his phone finally succeeded in throwing him off of the top of the bunk. He felt like he was going to vomit, not from the fall, but from the message his phone delivered that caused the fall. The offending device lay partially under the lower the bed, quiet and harmless. Pulling his knees slowly up to his chest Shawn hung his head, his chin resting against his chest with his arms limply over his knees. The nauseated feeling slowly passed and he slid his feet away from him. The moment he reached for the phone the wave slammed into him again almost sending him under the bed. He forced himself to pick up the phone and the unlock it. His hands, cold and clammy, shook as he opened DeAndre's app and checked Jon's messages again.
He waited.
And waited.
As the app discreetly synced to the other phone, Shawn noticed that there were no current messages and the the timestamp it retrieved the last message was 7:38pm the night before. But he was sure the time of Jon's response to Katherine was some time early this morning. It didn't make sense.
When the app was finally done syncing, it produced a myriad of emails and texts from various principals and one from Eli. There nothing from Katherine. Shawn frowned deeply confused. The messages he saw were vivid and clear and he knew he had not deleted them. He tried to no avail to force the app to sync again and again but it gave him nothing but a few additional emails. Suddenly, worried that Jon may deleted the texts, Shawn had the app scan for recently deleted texts. It did as it was told and produced a long list of deleted messages. There was nothing from the day before. The texts that Shawn had so clearly seen; the ones that had thrown him from the bed were no where to be found.
Could DeAndre's app have malfunctioned?
Suddenly the phone began to buzz, silently letting Shawn know that Jon had an incoming call. It was Katherine. Her name sent chills down his spine and he felt sick again. Just below her name the app flashed an option to listen to the call without being detected.
At this time of the morning, Jon would no doubt be in the kitchen going through his morning routine, but it was too early for Julia to be out of the bathroom and to be in with him. Shawn engaged himself in a furious argument over whether or not he should use the listen in feature the app provided.
The app stopped flashing indicating that call had been picked up.
Shawn's heart began to race as he was in limbo about what to do. He knew it wasn't right to eavesdrop on the call; but then even having the app itself was worse than that. As the time the length of the call began to climb, Shawn stopped thinking and hit the green listen button on the screen.
"Why are you calling about this?" Jon was more than a little exasperated. He sounded very annoyed. Shawn could hear the clinking of the coffee mugs as his father no doubt was trying to carry out his routine in spite of the call.
"You didn't respond to my text last night," she replied. "I wasn't sure you got it."
"So you couldn't wait until I got into the office today? This isn't important, Kat."
"It is to Dylan!" she insisted with all the passion of a mother trying to please her son.
"I haven't talked to Audrey about this," the superintendent snapped. "I'm not talking about it with you until I do. I'll see you in half an hour."
The call ended without so much as a goodbye. This left Shawn incredibly confused. Those text messages that he had so clearly seen and could still see he must have dreamed up. Yet they were so real! But then so were the nightmares that Julia had woken him up in the middle of the night about. They were so real to her that she was convinced their father was leaving all of them for his secretary. So very real that they left her shaking and scared long after she understood them to be nothing more than dreams.
Shawn felt like he was going to vomit again, this time from relief that came with knowing the texts were false images.
If there was any doubt in Shawn's mind about the sincerity of the conversation he'd listened in on, it was was eradicated by Jon's altered mood that followed them into the office. The superintendent had not been his usual talkative self on the way to work and he was even more tight lipped when they entered the office. Shawn busied himself with filming, however he wasn't focused on his camera but rather on his father and his interactions with his secretary. It turned out there was nothing to be bothered about. As Jon approached Katherine's desk he did not say anything to her nor did he even look at her. He went straight to his office and gave the door a strong shut behind him,
Katherine looked up at Shawn's camera and frowned.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked. There was hint of worry in her voice.
Shawn knew he had to be very careful about what he said. "He got a call this morning," he shrugged. "Been like this ever since." He casually walked around the office and swung the camera around in time to catch the very guilty look that flashed across the secretary's face for a brief moment.
Thursday ended up being very similar to Wednesday as Shawn continued to do Katherine's job of meeting with people while Jon was in an unending series of meetings in the conference room. When he wasn't networking, Shawn spent all of his time working on the Office Solutions program. On one of his trips to the Board Members' office, Shawn ran into two of the younger members who had been stuck with picking Katherine's slack. Joel and Amirah were more than happy to have someone to vent their frustrations to and Shawn was more than happy to listen. As they talked, the conversation came around to the software program that Shawn was working on and they both lit up as he told them about it. As it turned out, both were very tech savvy and were desperate to get something like this setup but neither knew it existed; their inquiries had led to dead ends and not even Jon knew had answers to. Everyone was so overstretched in their workload that this was one of those things that fell through the cracks. As for the tech director, he was a difficult person to get a hold of as he also had more work than he could handle and that was why he had not told them about it. Joel and Amirah offered to help Shawn get everything uploaded to the program which would lift a great load of responsibilities off of their shoulders.
The three sat up a small office just off of the main conference room; Joel and Amirah would still need to attend some meetings, but when they weren't, they were helping Shawn. With two extra people, Shawn could see that they would easily be able to get the program ready to go on Monday, if not sooner. Shawn was so occupied with the Office Solutions program that he did not see Katherine slip by him during a break in the meetings. In the main conference room, Jon was the only one left in the room as he was on a call. As he hung up, she closed the door behind her.
The secretary looked at her boss expectantly, but she got nothing more than a blank stare from him. His mind was elsewhere, naturally. Even back when they were dating she had trouble getting and holding his attention. That did not stop her then, however, and she wasn't going to let it deter her now.
"Jon, can we talk?"
He looked less than thrilled with the idea. His mind was preoccupied with school matters and he could tell by the tone of her voice that she was not.
"What is it?"
"I just wanted to talk about this morning."
Jon rolled his eyes. Some things never changed and Katherine's persistent pushing on something she wanted was one of those things. "Why is this such a big deal that you can't even give me a couple of days to make a decision?"
"This is really important to my son," she replied.
"I understand that. But what he wants isn't more important than my daughter being ready to and wanting to date. This isn't something her mother and I take lightly. I will not be rushed into this."
Katherine bit her lip. By now she knew that if she kept pushing the same way all the time, he'd get angry and stop talking to her, so she tried a different approach. "Dylan isn't the most social kid; he struggles to make friends. He's never really talked about anyone he's wanted to be friends with or anyone he's wanted hang out with. The first time he saw Julia he couldn't stop talking about her. So I brought him with me here because I really want to encourage the interest before it passes. I just thought if maybe he gets to know her, he can get to know some of her friends and it will help him meet more people."
Encourage the interest in someone else's kid, Jon thought bemusedly.
"Dylan never saw Julia before Wednesday," the superintendent countered. There was something in what she said that didn't ring true. "How could it be that big of a deal to him already?"
"Well, she is a beautiful girl," she remarked with admiration. She leaned forward across the desk with a small smile directed towards the man on the other side.
"I know," Jon agreed, sitting back in his chair. "She looks just like her mother."
A strange look passed over Katherine's features. She frowned briefly, then smiled again. "I'm not saying they should date if you don't feel the time is right. I just want them to get to know each other. Chaperoned, if it makes you feel better. Like I said in the text, you and Julia could come over this weekend. We can work on school stuff while they get to know each other."
"It's been really busy at home with games, practices, and competitions. I don't know if I'll have a chance to talk to Audrey about it before Saturday. I'm not even sure what's going on this weekend."
"Do you have be at every practice and game? Most father's aren't," she said this last past with a very bitter edge. "Couldn't you miss just one and come over?"
Jon studied her intently for a moment. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something else going on here and for whatever reason, she refused to just come out with it. "Why does it have to be this weekend?"
"Because he's with me," she said, losing a little bit of the control in her voice. She looked pained "The next two weekends he'll be at his father's. With the fun parent. Then I'll spend the next two weeks listening to how great his father is and much better it is with him than me. It just needs to be this weekend."
Jon nodded having forgotten that she, just like almost everyone else he knew, was divorced. In the few times she'd spoken of her ex-husband she'd had nothing kind to say about him. "I understand that, Kat. But it doesn't change the fact that I haven't talked to Audrey about this."
The former teacher's eyes narrowed and her jaw tensed. "Is that really necessary?"
Folding his hands in front of him, Jon regarded her with a curious gaze. There was something wrong but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. He didn't want to judge her too harshly, as he realized that it must be extremely hard to co-parent with an ex spouse and perhaps she'd forgotten that not everything had to be a battle when it came to making decisions about children. Or maybe she'd never had that kind of relationship with her ex-husband. The more he thought about it the more he realized that he knew almost nothing about the person she was now and what her life had been like since they both worked at John Adams High.
"Julia is her daughter, too," he said quietly. "I can't leave her out of this."
"You're her father," she snapped. "You can make that decision. Michael makes decisions about the boys all the time without talking to me. I have to deal with it. So can Audrey. It won't hurt her."
His expression didn't change as he could hear in her voice a stressed, almost frantic strain. This was something he'd often heard in the voices of his former students when there was something wrong in their lives that went far beyond whatever had landed them in his office when he was a principal. "Yeah, I can make that decision."
"Good." Katherine sat back and folded her arms across her waist.
Jon felt almost sorry for her as he leaned forward and gently said, "My decision is to talk to my wife about anything that affects our daughter."
Katherine couldn't help it as a repressed jealousy flared and she let out a contemptuous snort. "Is that really your decision or do you have to do that? Audrey will make you miserable if you don't run everything by her, won't she?"
He raised his eyebrows in surprise at her harshness, but said nothing. Although, he didn't like what she was saying he knew it was a symptom of a much deeper issue.
"Does she control everything you do?" she went on, almost in tears. "Is that why you're always so tired and stressed out with this job? If she does this to you about work I hate to think what she does to you at home!" It was quite obvious that she instantly regretted the words that flew out of her mouth with such anger. She looked mortified.
Jon put his hand over his mouth as he watched her get upset over something he didn't understand.
Her issue with Audrey made no sense as she had not seen nor interacted with his wife since 1996. And he had not spoken to her about his marriage or his home life in any way for her to logically come to such a conclusion. He frowned behind his hand, wondering what was going on in her life that she would want such a distraction from that she would single out his wife and make up nonsense about her. Again, this was something he'd seen many times in troubled former students. He regarded her for a long moment then said, "This isn't about Audrey, Kat. What's really bothering you?"
The unexpected softness in his voice and kindness in his eyes caused her to panic, as she was afraid he might be able to read her mind. "Nothing," she said jumping up and making a hasty retreat. "Nothing at all."
It was a working lunch for both Shawn and Jon. Although they were side by side through it with the two younger board members nearby, both men were so engrossed with what they were doing that they didn't really talk until after 3pm when Shawn suddenly realized the program was finished.
"We're done!" He announced proudly. Amirah and Joel grinned their approval.
"Great," Jon smiled though slightly confused. "What are we done with?"
"The Office Solutions program. It's ready go. I can set it up for you whenever you want to me to."
Jon was impressed. "Please, do it now."
Shawn traded places with his father and got to work on installing it. As he was working, Amirah stepped out of the office to take a phone call. She had news when she returned. "Russ is going to push the program out, starting with Board Members, tonight. Everyone in the district should have it by Monday."
Shawn was relieved to hear the installation throughout the district would be remote; he hated to think how much time that eat up if done any other way.
"That's great!" Jon looked as though a weight had been lifted from him. "This is going to make things so much easier."
Joel and Amirah nodded their agreement. Both of the young Board Member were very pleased that Shawn had taken the initiative to get this going; it would benefit them greatly.
"Listen," Jon told the three of them, "You know the everyone is going to need to be trained on this."
"Trained on what?" Katherine entered Jon's office and wedge herself between to the Board Members. Amirah, in particular, didn't appreciate being pushed to the side without so much as an "excuse me".
"Shawn," Jon told her beaming with pride, "finished the Office Solutions program with Joel and Amirah. It's going to be up and running by Monday."
Katherine frowned at the younger man for a moment then brightened up and said, "Good for you, Shawn."
Shawn gave her a tight smile in return.
"Shawn should do the training," Joel said abruptly. "We do actually time tomorrow for it."
Jon motioned for Shawn to let him have his seat back. "I'll send out a memo and have building principals attend, too. Then they can train their own staff."
Shawn shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with the idea of having to be the center of attention on something that wasn't even his field. He looked to the young Board Members for help, but they'd already abandoned him to do the training on his own.
Julia came in earlier than usual and skipped into her father's office without so much as acknowledging the woman sitting outside of it. When Jon questioned her on her early arrival, she shrugged and explained that it made no sense that bus riders were dismissed so far ahead of everyone else. Since the school day was over when they left anyway she decided to leave with them. When questioned by school staff, she argued that she was neither walking home nor a car pickup and therefore should be able to leave sooner as it took her longer to get where she was going. The staff didn't know how to handle this and she was gone before the principal could make it down to the dismissal area. Jon wasn't thrilled with this of course, but he didn't disagree with her reasoning. However, as superintendent he had to take the side of district policy and lightly reprimanded her while Shawn high-fived her for walking out early. Julia told her father to expect a call from the school if they hadn't already called home.
With Shawn's help on emails, Jon once again was able to relax for a few minutes before the afternoon meetings began. As he watched his eldest daughter trade insults with his oldest son, Jon couldn't enjoy the moment as he was worried about her thoughts on dating. Although Julia had never brought up the subject, it didn't mean she didn't want to; it just meant she hadn't brought it up. Sometimes it was took a significant amount of pulling and pushing to get her to talk about things that were bothering her or that were less than pleasant but important things to deal with; she was very much like him in this way. Jon wrinkled his nose as he once again wondered if she'd inherited any positive traits from him or if she just received all of his bad ones.
He knew it was unlikely that Julia had talked to her mother about dating as that was not something Audrey would forget to mention to him. As it seemed that Katherine was going to try to force this matter, he figured that now was as good a time as any to talk to Julia about dating before he talked to his wife.
"Shawn, close and lock the door would you?"
Shawn and Julia looked up at him in surprise. Julia shot her brother a worried look. He glanced at her with a frown before wordlessly doing what he was asked to do.
Jon tapped a pen rapidly against the papers in front of him and took a deep breath. "Jules, I wanna talk to you about something."
Julia looked at Shawn with wide-eyed panic, afraid that somehow their father stumbled upon what they were doing. Shawn gave her a barely perceptible shrug.
"Yeah, Daddy?" Calling him Daddy always melted him so she made sure to add it in here. Just in case they were in trouble.
"Julia, you're fifteen now," Jon struggled to ask the question as he feared the answer. "Are you wantin' to date?"
This was clearly not even close to what Julia thought he wanted to talk to her about and her face reflected this. She thought she might die right there from relief. After that feeling passed, she sat up and reran what her father asked her in head. This lead to confusion; she had no idea why he'd be asking this all of a sudden. "Uh, not really."
"You can tell me if you do, Jules," he said earnestly. He dropped the pen and folded his hands in front of him. With a sigh, he said, "You know, Shawn was dating at your age."
She looked at Shawn as though he was somehow responsible for this conversation. Then she gave him a wicked little half-smile. "I love Shawn, Daddy, don't get me wrong, But I don't wanna be him. Especially in that area. Uncle Cory's told me the stories."
"Hey!" Shawn yelped indignantly. "What's that supposed to mean?"
At the same time, Jon sank down in his chair covering his mouth with his hand. "Thank God," he muttered in relief.
Julia caught the look on her father's face and quickly reassured him. "I really don't wanna date," she paused a moment as a thought came to her. "But..."
Jon looked ill. "But what?"
"Well," she looked to Shawn, silently trying to tell him to get ready to back her up. "You know my school always has a Spring Fling."
"Yeah?"
"And I was kinda hoping I could with someone if I get asked to it."
"Who?" This came at her from two directions as she suddenly had Shawn's undivided attention too.
Julia rolled her eyes, embarrassed by the entire situation. "You know who, Daddy."
"Oh," Jon said with a relieved smile. "Yeah. I know."
"I don't," Shawn said shifting his chair to give her a hard look. Then something Jon said earlier in the week cam back to him. "Wait, is this the hockey player?"
Julia gave him a suspicious look, wondering how he knew. "Maybe."
"Ha," Shawn grinned, sitting back. He'd been dying to give her a hard time about this. "How very Cutting Edge of you."
Julia stuck her tongue out him and his lame joke. "Shut up. He's a good guy."
"Yeah, right. I haven't met him to be able to say so.
She gave him a funny look. For several moments, they engaged in a silent talk, Julia clearly indicating that he had indeed met the hockey player.
"He is a good guy," Jon told Shawn, wondering what was going on between them. "We've known DeAndre and his family for a long time."
Shawn was shocked for a moment, then everything began to make sense. "Oh, DeAndre. I have met him." He shot Julia an unhappy look. She could have at least told him about DeAndre instead of making him think the teen was some random kid she knew who was good at coding.
"Yeah, DeAndre's really smart too," Jon added. "Wicked business sense. I just hope he continues to use those powers for good!"
Julia and Shawn exchanged guilty looks.
"Anyway, I'll talk to Mom about you going with him to the Spring Fling. Now about Dylan.."
Julia's face, which had been very animated when DeAndre was brought up, suddenly went flat. "What about him? I don't wanna date him."
Jon looked relieved. "Look, his mom says he doesn't have many friends and has trouble making them."
"What are you sayin'?" Julia's eyes narrowed. She didn't like the tone her father's voice had taken.
"Be nice to him when he's here, okay?" Jon could tell by the look on her face that he was asking a lot of her. "Maybe you, along with Shawn, could help him out in that area."
"Fine."
The superintendent looked at his son. "I don't want her alone with him, though."
"Neither do I," Shawn said strongly.
"Neither do I," Julia echoed. The men looked at her and she shrugged.
"Help him out socially if you can," Jon told Shawn. "But it's friends only. I'm countin' on you to help me out here when I can't be around."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Shawn said adamantly. He had no intention of letting Miss Tompkins poison another member of his family.
Audrey had another rough night and to help her out Shawn offered to either take the family out to eat or get take out. Neither Jon nor Audrey felt like going anywhere so Shawn headed out to pick up the food. When he saw Grayson forlornly hanging around the door of the house watching him get ready to leave with large, sad eyes, Shawn realized he hadn't seen much of the boy since his time was largely occupied by work and Julia.
He grabbed Grayson's coat from the hall closet and held it out to his brother. "Hey, G. Wanna go with me?"
Grayson's entire being jolted from weary and depressed to bright and energized in a heartbeat. He was so excited he grabbed his coat and ran down to the garage without any shoes on. Laughing, Shawn grabbed a pair of Puma's he thought were Grayson's and headed down stairs.
The brothers ended up at John's on Bleeker Street. Grayson chattered on to Shawn about his day but Shawn struggled to focus on what he was saying as they approached the eating place. When his older brother's attention started to drift, Grayson almost immediately saw it. He, much like Auggie, was quick to pick up on the subtleties of what went on around him, particularly when it involved people.
"What're you thinkin' about, Shawn?" he asked, taking the man's hand.
Shawn smiled with a far away look in his eyes. "Ah, this is just a place I come to every time I'm in the City."
"Why here?"
Shawn's smile dimmed a bit. "This is Mom and Dad's place. When Mom first came to Philly, she and Dad really connected when they started talking about the City. This was the place they both always came to when they were growing up. They were often here at the same time and didn't even know it."
"I know," Grayson said thoughtfully. "Is that why you always come here?"
"Uh-huh. When I was in 10th grade we took a class trip here and Mom, Dad, and I had Uncle Eli and Uncle Cory cover for us while we snuck out to see a Broadway show and have dinner. This is where we came to eat."
Shawn frowned as that memory suddenly hit him in vivid colors. For years he had tried and tried to recall the place where they had eaten at the night without success. It was only now, as he talked to his little brother, that he realized that he'd been coming to it for years.
0o0o0o
"So what happened last night?" Shawn demanded for the umpteenth time, tugging on Jon's jacket shoulder.
"Hands off the leather, huh?" Jon hissed irritably. His eyes darted around the hotel hallway they were in as though he expected someone to jump out from around the corner and catch them. "And I told you nothing happened."
Shawn snorted loudly, causing Jon to jump slightly.
"Would you be quiet!?" he snapped.
The teen couldn't hold back his amusement and chuckled at a normal volume. "You're really nervous about this sneakin' out aren't you?"
"I am not," his teacher growled, inching down the hallway.
"Are too."
"Am not!"
Shawn smirked. "I'm beginning to think those stories Eli told about you when you were my age were just stories he made up to make you look good. No way you ever snuck around. Ever. You're too nervous."
Jon straightened up and glared at the boy. "Get in the elevator, Hunter."
The doors were barely open enough to get through, but Shawn turned to the side and skipped through. Settling his back against the elevator wall, he folded his arms across his stomach and grinned broadly at his English teacher. Jonathan waited until the doors were opened enough to be able to walk through without any contortion. He shot his student a dirty look and turned his back on him.
"I'm just outta practice," he muttered, jamming the button for the ground floor with his thumb.
"Right," said Shawn with a roll of his eyes. He took a step forward and put his chin on Jon's shoulder. "What happened last night?"
"Shawn!" That kid had his number when it came to Audrey and he hated that he could get under his skin like that. The English teacher stopped for a moment to compose himself then sighed. "Nothing. I wish I could tell you something happened but nothing did."
"So what was the point of last night?"
"To ask her to go with us tonight."
"That's it? You went through all that to arrange a romantic rooftop meeting and dodging Miss Tompkins just to ask Audrey to go out with us tonight?" Shawn couldn't fathom that. "No kiss, no will you be my girlfriend? You wasted last night?"
"Hunter..." Jon said with a sharp warning edge to the name.
"I knew I shoulda gone with you!" Shawn declared, stepping back and throwing up his hands in disgust.
The elevator chimed that it had arrived at their destination. Jon blocked Shawn from exiting before he had a chance to check out the area they would be stepping into. Shawn ducked under Jon's arm and headed out anyway, leaving his teacher behind to mutter rude things under his breath.
Walking down the hall of the Library Hotel, they encountered no one. That was a little strange. Given that it was just about an hour before the dinnertime rush there should have been more people wandering around. That there weren't made Jon even more anxious.
And he was nervous. To be sneaking out of a hotel and putting his responsibilities onto someone else to meet a girl when he was fifteen was very different than sneaking out of a hotel and putting his responsibilities onto someone else to meet a girl when he was thirty-three. And that girl was his student teacher. And he was taking his student with him.
What am I doing? He wondered in dismay.
Jon didn't have a chance to ponder this as Shawn hit his arm with the back of his hand several times. Pointing down the to reading area of the lobby, he gleefully chirped, "Ha! That's why no one is around. Miss Tompkins is here. She cleared 'em all out!"
Horrified at this thought, Jon followed the boy's finger to where he was pointing. Sure enough, there was his on again, off again girlfriend walking towards them with a her nose buried in a book. Quickly, he started to walk backwards away from her and toward the elevator but Shawn wasn't going with him- he was still laughing at his own joke. Jon reached out and grabbed the back of the teen's jacket and pulled him along until they were safely behind the closed doors of the elevator.
"I don't see why we couldn't just walk by her," Shawn grumbled, shaking out his jacket from Jon's grip.
"Of course, you don't," Jon scowled, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets. "You wouldn't have had to explain what we were doing and where we were goin' to her."
"So what do we do now?"
"Wait for her to go back to her room I guess."
Shawn frowned. "How are we gonna know that?"
"I dunno. I guess we could see this place has a back exit."
"It doesn't," the teen said confidently. "I checked."
"When?"
"Soon as we got here," he admitted and then quickly realized his error. He gave his teacher a sheepish look. "Oh, you didn't know."
"No, I didn't."
"Sorry."
"Yeah, right." Jon checked his watch. "Audrey will be on her way to meet us by now. I can't call her to let her know what's going on. And there's no tellin' where Kat will be or for how long."
"There's always the fire escape," Shawn reminded him as though it was a common route to take.
"I am not usin' the fire escape."
As Shawn began to argue, a older voice trilled out of nowhere, "Sneaking out to meet a girl, are you?"
In sync, Shawn and Jon turned slowly to look to their left. A man, a several years older and several inches shorter than Mr. Feeny, grinned at them with a wizened smile. He had been standing next to them the whole time and neither had seen him.
Shawn returned the man's smile and put his arm around Jon's shoulder. "Yeah, my mom."
Jon gave him a withering look, clearly unhappy with the ease at which the boy could lie.
Shawn caught the look, leaned closer, and whispered, "What? You wanna tell him the truth?"
Jon pressed his lips into a thin, frustrated line knowing he couldn't explain what was really going on. He turned to the older man and said, "Yeah, his mom. It's, uh, complicated."
The man's eyes twinkled in amusement. "Trying to avoid someone at the same time?"
"Yeah," Shawn cut Jon off from answering. "His witch of an ex-girlfriend!"
"Shawn!"
"Well, that is true."
The man gave a deep laugh as the elevator came to a stop and the door opened. "Follow me, boys. I can help."
Without question, Shawn followed the man to his room. Because Shawn was following a stranger, Jon had no choice but to follow the teen. He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets again, grumbling to himself. He hoped this guy wasn't a serial killer.
A few minutes later, Jon found himself doing something he hadn't done since he was a teenager: he was climbing down a fire escape to meet a girl.
Greenwich Village or the Village as the locals called it, was on the lower westside of Manhattan between 14th street to the north and Houston Street to the south. Bleecker Street, where Jon and Audrey spent much of their youth, spanned several blocks lined with restaurants, cafes, nightclubs, and shopping. More than anything Bleecker Street was known for it's legendary music scene: Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, and many others had performed in the smoky venues along the street.
The food scene on in the area also had a rich history. Johns Pizza was a part of that history and was established in 1929 by Italian immigrant Giovanni "John" Sasso from Naples. John's was originally on Sullivan Street but after losing the lease on Sullivan Street, Sasso moved to 278 Bleecker Street. The earmark of John's was the coal fired brick ovens baked its crispy pizzas. There was a comfortable, familiar old-school atmosphere with its original wooden booths that customers traditionally wrote on. Shawn was thrilled to have a chance to do this without fear of repercussion; he'd been practicing on the desks in detention for years.
The black and white art deco floors were worn by time. The ceilings were made of tin and the faded murals spoke of an era Shawn knew nothing about. There was something so cozy welcoming about the place and the fondness with which the regulars spoke of it that he couldn't wait to become a part of it's continuum. John's was clearly a family place and he never felt completely comfortable in such settings, usually because he was with someone else's family. However, being at this pizzeria that was entrenched with history of the two people with him, Shawn discovered that he felt fully at ease.
The line at the restaurant was long, but it didn't bother Shawn as he enjoyed taking in the views of Bleeker Street and listening to Jon's stories. Once they were inside, Audrey excused herself to go to the restroom. As Jon began to tell Shawn another story, he was interrupted by a smoky, low voice calling his name.
"Hey, Jonny! Jonathan Turner! Is that you?"
Jon's face lit up when he turned and saw an old friend from his teen years approach them. "Angelo? No way, man!" He reached out to take the hand of the man who approached them. "How are you? It's been years!"
Judging on first impressions, the average person would have crossed to the other side of the street if they were to see Angelo coming towards them. He was about Jon's height, but the girth of his muscles gave him a squat look. He was heavily tattooed and pierced with a bald head and blue eyes that blazed out from under a heavy dark brow. His skin was deeply tanned and had the aged look of someone who lived in the sun. By Shawn's estimate this guy had to be at least ten to fifteen years older that Jon; no way they could be the same age.
"I'm good, Jonny," Angelo grinned. Shawn caught a glimpse of gold capped teeth as the man smiled. "Been a rough few years. But I got myself straightened out. Been clean now going on four years."
"Good for you, man! I'm glad to hear that."
Angelo gave Jon's shoulder a playful punch. "Been while since you've been around the old haunts though."
"Yeah, well," Jon shrugged. "I'm a teacher in Philly now."
"No kiddin'?" the tattooed man gave a low whistle. "From the heights to the streets to the classroom. Phew, bet you miss the streets!"
Jon laughed at this. "Nah, man, teachin' ain't that bad."
Shawn listened with great curiosity to this conversation. He had no idea exactly what Angelo was referring to because Jon rarely ever talked about his life before he ended up in Philadelphia. What exactly did Angelo mean by the streets? The teen made a mental note to ask his teacher about this later.
Angelo saw Shawn and gave him a nod. "I see you got married and had a kid, too?"
It took Jon a moment to figure out what his friend was talking about. But before he could answer, Audrey rejoined them. Angelo did a double-take when he saw her.
"Audrey?" The man's jaw went slack as the student teacher walked up to the group.
"Angelo!" she greeted him with a kiss on the cheek much to Jon's surprise and dismay.
Angelo turned to Jon with wide eyes. He looked mystified. "You married Audrey?" He looked at Shawn. "And had a kid with her?" He squinted at the teen then asked, "How old are you, kid?"
Shawn glanced at Audrey. "Fifteen."
The man looked bewildered and shook his head. "Oh, man, somethin's not right."
"Somethin's not been right with you since '79," Jon laughed, then explained, "He's my kid, but not my kid. Shawn's my student. He's been stayin' with me while his parents are goin' through some things.
"Gotcha," Angelo nodded, looking relieved. "But," he pointed to Audrey. "How'd you and baby girl get together?"
Baby girl? Jon was almost as confused as Angelo had been and he was uncomfortable with the term of endearment his friend used. "She's my student teacher. How do you know her?"
Audrey answered this. "My dad was real good friends with the Sartori's. His mom and sister used to baby-sit me."
"What?" It was Jon's turn to be dumbfounded.
"Yeah," Angelo put an arm around Audrey. "And we knew her old man real well."
"I didn't." Jon frowned. He couldn't help but feel a little jealous that his friend knew Audrey so well. And that he had his arm around her.
"Yeah," the man insisted. "You did. Her pops used to work the Back Fence at night and Venus Records during the day when it was over on West 8th Street."
The English teacher stared at the two of them in disbelief. "No way," he mumbled under his breath. To Audrey he asked, "Your dad is Richie A?"
She smiled and nodded.
"I do know your dad," he said still stunned by this revelation. "Like I know your dad. He bailed me outta trouble so many times. I'd sneak outta of the penthouse on Central Park South and come loiter around here waiting' for trouble to find me. Richie bailed me out with the cops more than once. Pretended to be my dad twice to give me an alibi, then turned around and chewed me out for whatever it was I'd done. He had me scrubbing bathroom floors with a toothbrush after a drunk threw up in there for punishment once." He laughed at the memory. "Your dad was always on the look out for me and offered me odd jobs to keep me away from guys like Angelo. I did whatever he wanted me to do. I mean what kid wouldn't have wanted to brag about workin' at Venus, especially back then? And knowin' that my dad would have a meltdown if he knew I was workin' a record joint in the Village made it even betta."
Audrey's eyes shone with delight. "So while Angelo's mom was watchin' me, my dad was watchin' you?"
"I guess so," Jon said, shaking his head, realizing that while he was fifteen at the time, Audrey was still in diapers at a year old, and it would be another four years before Shawn was born. "I annoyed that man so much hangin' around his shop. But he was always so cool about it."
"Until he caught us sneakin' into the Back Fence," Angelo reminded him with a smirk.
Jon's grin was sheepish. "Yeah, we shoulda gone over to St. Mark's instead. So many bars there that wouldn't card a fifteen year old and his idiot friends. But we chose the Back Fence 'cause we wanted to see Dylan play live. We weren't there five minutes before your dad busted us." He shook his head. "Man, I can't believe your dad is Richie A."
Audrey gave Angelo's hand a squeeze then left him for Jon. She wrapped her arms around the English teacher's waist and looked up at him as her eyes clouded up. "You should come with me to the hospice to see him while we're here."
Jon frowned. "I doubt he'd remember me."
"No, he would," she insisted. "He doesn't remember the seasons or meaning of holidays anymore but he remembers people."
"I'm real sorry to hear about your dad," Angelo said somberly. "But knowing your mom, I can understand why losing her was such a blow. Shame he never recovered."
"You should come, too, Angelo."
"You tell me when and where, baby girl, I'll be there."
The group said goodbye to Angelo then stood quietly together as the line began to move again. Jon's mind was reeling trying to process this new information. In all the stories Audrey had told him about her father he never once connected him to the guy who had managed Venus. He always thought he was just one of the employees who worked part time there; those guys he couldn't remember much about as he was too busy following at Richie's heels. It boggled his mind to think that in a place as large as New York City he'd managed to end up overseeing the education of the daughter of a man who made a such impact on him and in Philadelphia of all places. He couldn't comprehend what the odds of that might be. They had to be astronomical.
Shawn found all this new connection between Jon and Audrey fascinating and it further supported his belief that they were destined to be together. Discreetly, he snapped photos with his disposable Kodak camera, trying to also capture in his head all of these stories. He hoped to put them and the pictures together somehow. There was something else that was beginning to happen, Shawn noticed with great delight. Now that Jon and Audrey were not only back home, but away from anything to do with John Adams High, he could also see evidence of his belief that Audrey was as smitten with Jon as he was with her. The way she looked at him, the way she held onto him; Shawn hoped he was able to capture those moments on film the way he saw them happen. Of course, he wouldn't know if he had until the film was developed.
While they were standing there, Jon was recognized again by someone he hadn't seen in years. The lined moved more and again someone who knew Jon came up to them. This happened again and again. Then people who knew Audrey also appeared, until it seemed as though there was a huge family reunion going on inside of John's. Shawn would have felt very left out except that every single person assumed that he was their son. Even Audrey's friends assumed this and were, of course, very confused. Audrey would just shrug, give him a wink, and tell them, "he's mine" in a way that left no room for argument. Jon, who seemed a little overwhelmed by these turn of events, only smiled and nodded. He'd given up trying to explain anything.
"Why does everyone think we're a family?" Shawn finally asked his teacher. He wasn't bothered by this at all. He was just curious about what made people think he was with his parents rather than siblings or cousins or aunt and uncle.
Jon shrugged. "I dunno. Must be the vibe we're givin' off."
When they were finally seated, Audrey slid into the booth first and Jon started to go to the other side of the table, but Shawn intervened in time to hip check his teacher into the seat causing him to almost fall onto Audrey. Jon glared daggers at him, but Audrey smile at Shawn and mouthed thank you.
While they waited on their order Audrey and Shawn chatted back and forth, but Jon was quiet, lost in thought. After a while Audrey nudged him and gave him a concerned smile.
"You okay?"
"No, I'm not," he replied, staring at something behind Shawn's head.
"What's wrong?"
"We've met before," he said slowly. "Before this year. And I am not okay about it."
Audrey frowned. "What are you talkin' about, Jon? We've never met before."
"Oh, yes, we have. You were just too young to remember." He dropped his head into his hands. "Richie brought his baby girl into the shop all the time. A little redhead with gray eyes, so unless you gotta twin sister somewhere..."
"No." Audrey sat back against the seat with wide eyes. "That was me."
"Yeah," Jon said, lifting his head up again with a strange look on his face. "And that was your mom who'd come in to pick you up. I knew those pictures you showed me of her looked familiar. Lizzy..." his voice trailed off and he stared into the distance again. "Oh, man. This is crazy! Last time I saw you, you were about seven. I left home for good at 21 and stopped by Venus to tell your dad goodbye and to thank him. You were behind the counter with him and insisted on..."
"Taking a Polaroid of you and Daddy," she finished as a look of wonderment fell over her features. " Daddy taught me to use a Polaroid camera when I was 5 because he had a wall of photos of the people who came into the shop." Turning so she could face Jon, she put a hand on his shoulder and said softly. "You used to wear a leather jacket that looked a lot like Shawn's. Your hair was shorter but really curly." Jon nodded as she spoke confirming what she was saying. "I wrote Daddy & J on the Polaroid."
Jon tapped his fingertips on the table. "Everyone on the streets called me Jonny so that's what your dad refused to call me. He called me J."
"Jon, Daddy kept that picture pinned on the wall of the store until he quit after Mom died. I still have all the pictures that were on that wall, so you're in there, too."
Shawn's smile grew as he listened to them talk. He couldn't really explain the feeling that came over him as they discovered why their connection to one another was so strong. Instead of feeling left out, he felt as though it was this connection that made him being there with them in that moment possible. By Jon's own admission, he'd never felt deeply connected to any woman he'd dated, but Audrey, with whom it was out of the question to date, he'd always said was different. Very different. Shawn had been around Jon's dates and even the ones that stayed around for a little while, left him feeling that he'd rather be anywhere but where they were. It was only with Audrey that they were a family, whole and complete. Now he knew why.
"This is going to make a great story for you guys to tell my kids someday," Shawn told them with a dreamy look in his eyes.
Jon and Audrey exchanged confused looks.
"Your kids?" Jon asked.
"Yeah, they're gonna love the story about how their grandparents met."
Audrey ducked her head letting her hair fall around her shoulders to hide the deep blush that colored her cheeks. Jon just stared at him. The kid's audacity to state such a thing out loud with Audrey right there was astounding. And embarrassing.
"Eat your pie, Hunter," he said through clenched teeth.
Shawn laughed and took a sip of his soda. As he chewed on his straw, he thought about them three of them: he and Jon were estranged their parents seemingly for good and Audrey was about to lose the parent she had left. All three of them were basically alone and yet had managed to find each other. This was not a coincidence Shawn knew, but proof that there was a greater Plan coming together. A seed of hope that had been planted when Audrey arrived, now took root and for the first time he began to believe that he'd found his real family.
0o0o0o
Jamie was in a particularly foul mood after dinner as he was extremely jealous that Grayson had gotten to go with Shawn to John's while he was stuck at home with his sisters. He let everyone who said anything to him know it. Bella was of similar disposition; not because she hadn't gone with them but because, in her view, Shawn was hers and no one had asked her permission to borrow him. The upstairs family room was loud and rowdy and with the youngest kids throwing tantrums, the middle kids yelling at them to stop, and the oldest kid trying to referee the other four. Jon watched this scene for a few minutes, then laughed to himself before turning away and heading downstairs.
For the first time in months Jon did not bring much work home with him. Shawn had convinced him to let any calls that weren't an emergency go to his voicemail once he was home and deal with the next school day. Now he wasn't sure what to do. The kitchen was quiet, but he could hear the noise of the television coming from the living room. He entered the room and saw Audrey curled up on the L-shaped part of the sectional looking uneasy. She kept shifting her position every few minutes and finally gave up being comfortable. As much as he wanted to go in and spend time with her- it had been so long since they'd had time together- he hesitated. And he felt guilty for the hesitation as it was directly tied to the reason she was so uncomfortable: the baby.
Jon bit back a sigh and forced himself to enter the room. He walked up behind her and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. Audrey turned her head and looked up at him with troubled gray eyes.
"Hey," he said quietly.
"Hey," she replied and pursed her lips together in a thin line. "Are you gonna stay?"
"Yeah," he said and watched a held breathe escape from her. Her shoulders slumped slightly with relief. Jon frowned. "I thought I'd rub your shoulders."
Audrey shook her head. "Come, sit."
The look in her eyes began to bother him. It was like she was afraid he would say no and leave. Jon walked around the couch and as he did, Audrey got up, wanting him to sit where she had been. Once he settled into place she sat on his lap and immediately undid his tie and discarded it, then unbuttoned the first several buttons of his shirt. He smiled at this. Ever since they'd gotten together she would do this and often untucked his shirt as well as soon as he got home from school. She could never explain to him why she did this; she just always did it.
Audrey snuggled against him with her head against his chest. Jon ran one hand through her hair and with the other rubbed her back. They sat there for a long time in silence while the TV droned on. Audrey was so quiet he thought she'd fallen asleep, but when he saw she was still awake he knew something was very wrong.
"You okay, babe?"
She titled her head back and regarded him seriously for a moment, then buried her face against him. "Baby," was all she said.
That was all Jon needed to hear to know that the baby had nothing to do with her silence. He rested his chin on the top of her head, trying to find the words to say, but he couldn't quite find them so he said, "I talked to Julia today."
"What about?"
"Boys."
"Did DeAndre ask her out?"
Jon inhaled deeply. "Not yet, but she is hoping he'll ask her to the Spring Fling."
"That's not surprising," she said, sitting up so she could better talk to him. "They've had a crush on each other for a long time."
The superintendent was disappointed in her tone. She didn't seem bothered by the prospect of their daughter dating. "You okay with this?"
"Her going to a school dance with DeAndre? Yeah, I'm fine that. He's a good kid." She saw the conflicted look on his face and was a little surprised by it. She thought he'd always really liked the boy. "Aren't you?"
"I'm fine with the dance and DeAndre." The scowl on his face deepened. "But that's all I'm fine with."
Audrey took his hand in hers and played with his wedding ring, sliding it up and down on his finger and twisting it. "Is there something else going on?"
Jon sighed debating on how much to tell her about this new development with Dylan. He didn't want to worry her unnecessarily. "Kat insisted on bringing her oldest son to the office after school because of Julia. She wants them to get know each other. It's pretty obvious that Dylan is very interested in her. He was practically drooling over her. I'd thought I have to get a mop to clean up after the kid."
"Is she interested him?"
"No, no. She's still all about DeAndre. It's just... What if Dylan asks her out? What if DeAndre wants to date? I don't want her to date right now; she's too young."
Audrey couldn't help but smile even though it was clear that the situation was unnerving to him. She put her arm around his neck and tangled her fingers in his hair. "If I recall correctly Shawn was dating at fifteen."
Jon groaned. He knew she was going to bring that up. "That wasn't my call," he said defensively. "Shawn was dating before he came to me. I couldn't just change that. He'd been through enough changes. Banning him from girls really would have put me at odds with him."
"Who said anything about banning him from girls?" Audrey chuckled. "We let Julia and DeAndre spend time together in groups and supervised at the house. You could have done with him, but you didn't."
"There is no way I could have done that successfully, Audrey. Shawn was too set in his ways for me to change that."
"Oh, please," she said, rolling her eyes. "You didn't do it because what Shawn was doing is what you were doing at fifteen." With the fingers that were playing with his hair, she turned his head so he couldn't avoid looking at her. She leaned her forehead against his. "Actually, it was what you were doing at thirty-three."
He wanted to stay upset about Julia dating but the look on her face pulled a smile out of him. "Not the same thing."
"Oh, no?"
"No, and by the way, the dating thing with Shawn did get scaled way back," Jon reminded her. "I did do that. He was only going out once every couple of weeks until," he paused a moment as he recalled the reason for the change, "until you got sent back."
"Jon, the only reason that happened is because instead of going out with his own date on nights when you were going out is because he wanted to stay with me. I suggested it the first time and he agreed. You weren't even involved in that."
Jon laughed. "Well, I let him stay didn't I? And I arranged for him to stay with you every time after that. I should get a little credit!"
His wife joined his laughter and snuggled against him again. "Audrey, it's not the same thing. Besides, Shawn had experience with the world in general that Julia doesn't have."
"And how is she going to get experience if we keep her home at all the time?"
"She is not home all the time. She has skating, extra-curricular activities, school," he pointed out. "Besides, why does she need this kind of experience? You didn't have any. Things seemed to work okay for you. Unless there's somethin' you've never told me about."
Audrey shook her head, both at his logic and his attitude with the subject matter. "You know there's not. But I had plenty of life experience before we met even though I didn't date. And in my case, what was the point of dating? I was smart enough to know when I'd found the right one not to waste time on anyone else in spite of everyone around me telling me to go have fun and that I was too young to get married."
Jon started to frown again wondering who didn't want her to marry him. "I'm glad you didn't listen to them," he said sulkily. He closed his eyes. "I'd still rather her be like you than me."
"Maybe she'll be somewhere in between. Or maybe she and DeAndre will grow up together and get married. We've seen that happen before."
Cory and Topanga came to mind immediately. Jon nodded, considering the possibility. "Maybe. That'd be okay."
"Just okay?" Audrey felt a great compassion towards her husband. She knew that Julia growing up was hard on him, but she didn't realize how much he was actually resisting it. "You really don't want her dating, do you?"
"I'm not ready for it. I dunno." He leaned his head back against the top of the couch. "I guess I'll never be."
"You're such a dad," she said affectionately, running her hand over his chest.
"And then I have to go through it again with Bella. Please," he gave her a pleading look. "No more girls, Audrey. I don't think I can handle it."
"I'll do what I can," she said, amused. She was quiet for a while then said, "What if we say yes if DeAndre asks her to the dance and then just take everything else as it comes?"
Jon considered this for a long time then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I think I can do that. But what about Dylan? I mean, I don't think she's gonna change her mind about him, but I need somethin' to tell Kat. She said she'd be fine if they're just friends because he needs the social help. But I get the feelin' that she wants more. I know Dylan does."
Audrey thought about this. That it was Katherine's son who was in question bothered her for a reason she couldn't explain. She wasn't sure who it was she was actually uncomfortable with: Dylan or his mother. "She's not interested in him, so let's give her an out. No dating him. She can blame us. If she's willing to be friends, then fine."
Jon closed his eyes in relief. "I completely agree."
When he didn't say anything else, Audrey, wanting very much for the conversation to continue, ran her finger through his hair again and asked, "How are things going with Shawn? You seem much happier this week than I've seen you in long time."
Jon shifted his position and pulled her a little closer. "Yeah, I am. I mean, Shawn's been a huge help. He's helped me get through a ton of emails and paperwork. He's cleaned up a bunch of loose ends, including getting that Office Solutions program up and running. He's inspired Kat to do her job which is nothin' short of a miracle."
Audrey was surprised by this. "Has that been an issue? You haven't said anything about it before."
"Yeah, it's been a big issue. I guess I haven't said anything because I didn't see the point," he shrugged, looking annoyed. "Nothin' I said to her changed anything. I didn't see what complainin' about it to you would do."
"You were afraid I'd show up at the office and make a scene, weren't you?"
Jon laughed and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "No, I was afraid you'd show up and she'd make a scene. I can't figure her out, Aud, and honestly I didn't care until Shawn showed up. I kinda just thought she was really self-absorbed and not a very good secretary. But she was upset today about her kid not having any friends and wanted Julia to help him out. Some of the stuff she said, the way she reacted: I don't think her life's turned out the way she wanted. Sounds like the divorce was pretty bad. Maybe that's why she's been the way she's been."
Audrey was silent for a moment then said, "Why do you think she'd been doing her job since Shawn's been there?"
"Competition," he replied confidently. "She doesn't want him to do the clerical stuff like he did on Monday and make her look bad so she's been making sure she gets it done first. I mean Shawn's still doing the other half of her job for the Board but it's a big improvement. I'm just worried it'll end tomorrow and then on Monday I won't have her or Shawn to help me." He kissed her cheek then admitted, "I know you need him around but I kinda hate to give him back to you."
Audrey patted his hand, but she was looking forward to getting Shawn back. Still she said, "If he wants to, could he stay on as a volunteer? Seems like everyone in the District is really happy with the work he's been doing. I ran into the O'Dells at the store today and Mitchell just gushed about him and how he hopes they can find a position for him."
"I hadn't thought about that. I'll talk to Shawn and see if he'd have time with his work schedule. Maybe we could share him." That idea was a great consolation to Jon and he hoped Shawn liked what he was doing enough this week to keep doing it.
"I'm really happy he's back," she sighed, leaning back against him again. "It feels like our family is finally whole again. And once this one gets here, it'll be complete."
Jon didn't respond to this and Audrey felt him tense. Immediately, she began to worry. "Jon, is everything all right?"
"Yeah," he replied, carefully to avoid looking directly at her. He pulled her hair away from her face and kissed her again. "Why?"
"I don't know." Concern marred her features as her husband continued to kiss her. "It just seems like every time I mention the baby, you pull away."
"I just have a lot on my mind is all."
Audrey wasn't at all convinced. "You've been like this the whole pregnancy though. You've never been this uninterested before."
"I'm not uninterested, Audrey," Jon said a little too strongly, pulling away from her slightly. He still wouldn't make eye contact. "It's just that the closer the due date gets, the closer the end of the school year gets. It's a lot happening all at once. If every week was like this week it would be different, but I have no guarantee that anything will actually change once Shawn isn't there full-time." At the look on her face, he sighed. "It's just this job. I didn't realize how the job would affect everything else. I didn't know how bad it would be."
"I hope that's all."
"Of course, it is."
Audrey's worry deepened into fear as a thought suddenly struck her. "You do want this baby, don't you?"
He kissed her for a long time, then finally looked her in the eyes. "It's what we agreed on, isn't it?" For the first time since they started talking, Jon put his hand on her stomach and gave her a small smile. Then he moved his hand to her face and kissed her again. He was trying to distract her she knew. She let him. If she didn't, fear would overtake her and she would end up in tears. For the first time in a very long time Audrey was worried about her marriage.
Shawn spent the majority of Friday by Jon's side making sure that any new information, forms, or notes that came in were directly uploaded to the Office Solutions Program. When Jon didn't need him, he was pouring of the software program to make he knew every detail of it as he was very nervous about this upcoming presentation.
Katherine was in petulant mood and seemed very worried about something but Shawn had no time to be bothered by her near- constant criticisms about what he could and should be doing better. He was almost positive she had at one point criticized his posture and breathing in one go. But he was too engrossed in his work to confirm that was what she was upset about and Jon shooed her out of his office.
Lunch was a working on as Shawn gave Jon a practice presentation that his father repeatedly assured him was well thought out and easy to understand. It made Shawn feel better for about five minutes before he went back to worrying that he'd forgotten something important and wouldn't find out what it was until he presenting it to all the principals in the district.
One o'clock came much quicker that Shawn wanted and he headed to the meeting in the conference room to setup the presentation alongside Jon. Joel and Amirah came in early to offer him encouragement but not help. As faculty and principals filtered into the conference room and chatted among themselves, Shawn fiddled with the SmartBoard projector for the hundredth time to make sure it was working when Jon suddenly walked into him. Shawn turned and saw that his father was trying to get away from a short, plump man who rapidly spitting words at him with an unhappy frown. Jon grabbed him and turned him into the man's path so that he was between the two of them. From behind Shawn, Jon grimaced at the man who still talking.
"Hey," Jon said abruptly while giving Shawn a put-out look. "Hey, Yancy. I want you to meet someone."
The man grumpily stopped in mid-sentence and stared at Shawn with wide eyes that quickly narrowed into a scrutinizing glare. He clearly didn't think the younger man was worth interrupting his monologue.
Yancy... Shawn frowned. He recognized the name as he'd heard it several times from Jon and Cory but he couldn't place who the man was.
"This is my oldest, Shawn," the superintendent introduced him. "He's been workin' with me this week. Shawn, this is Stuart Yancy. He used to be the principal at Cory's school."
"Oh, yeah!' Shawn exclaimed. This was the guy Cory always complained about. "What do you do now?"
"I'm the assistant principle at Greenwich Middle School," Yancy pouted unhappily with a roll of his eyes as though the job was beneath him. He gave Shawn a solemn look then his countenance lightened and he said a bit more pleasantly. "So Shawn, where does your mom work? Is she at a hospital or a doctor's office?"
When Shawn was preparing for possible questions that might arise during the meeting, this was not one that occurred to him. "Um, I'm sorry, what?"
"Well, I know you're mom's a nurse, but I wasn't sure where she worked."
Shawn stared at the older man for a long moment, then turned to Jon in bewilderment. "Mom's a what?"
Jon rolled his eyes and put his hands on his waist. "His mom isn't a nurse."
"But I thought," Yancy was confused for a moment. "Ooooh, oh, I see. He's your son from a previous...relationship? Oh, I didn't realize that. Your current wife is the nurse, then."
Jon looked insulted. "No," he said irritably. "All my kids have the same mom."
The former principal frowned. "But you said you had a motorcycle accident and married your nurse."
Shawn started to laugh. For the first time, that joke was actually funny. He would never admit it to Cory, though as he was afraid he'd have to hear it again.
Jon didn't think it was funny, however. "It was a joke, Yancy, between me and Matthews. I didn't marry the nurse from the accident. I was already married to my student teacher."
Yancy stared at him as though the superintendent had just admitted to a murder. "You did what?"
"I married my student teacher."
Yancy looked from Jon to Shawn and back again as though he didn't know what to believe. Then frustrations poured over his face as he realized they were playing a prank on him. "You did not. Stop being ridiculous!"
"He did actually," Shawn told him.
"No, he didn't."
Jon and Shawn exchanged confused looks. "Pretty sure I did," Jon replied slowly.
"Jonathan," Yancy snapped in exasperation. "I know everyone loves your laid-back, funny guy image but I wish you'd be serious just once. It's not becoming of a man in your position..." Yancy turned and wandered off muttering to himself about how he could do a better job.
"Becoming?" Jon asked sardonically with an arched eyebrow. "Who says that anymore?"
Shawn shook his head. "You have some weird people working for you, Dad."
"Tell me about it."
The presentation came and went so fast Shawn didn't have time to dwell on what could go wrong. It surprised him that once he got started, it wasn't that hard to speak to the educators in the room. Many had a basic working knowledge of programs like Microsoft Office and the like and once Shawn showed them the basics they were able to help their older and their not-so-tech-savvy colleagues while Shawn answered questions. All though there were a few issues with the SmartBoard that led to a lot of joking- apparently there were always issues with the SmartBoard- Shawn was happy with the way things turned out. As the principals started to drifted out and back to their schools the stopped to talk to Jon and everyone of them noted their impression of Shawn was very high. Several principals spoke to Shawn directly trying to entice him to come to their schools and work the on-site tech office for them. While he of course declined these offers, he was very please to have received them in the first place.
Nearly everyone was gone except for Yancy who stood in a corner with Katherine speaking to her quietly and occasionally throwing an unreadable look in Shawn's direction and the Regional Director of Education, an older, distinguished looking gentleman, who was talking to Jon. The Director looked up and smiled at Shawn.
"I'm telling you Jon, we could use your son," the man said, raising his voice so Shawn could hear him. "The District absolutely needs to find a position for him, create one if necessary. But Shawn would be a tremendous benefit to us."
"I agree," Jon said with pride, "But I'm not sure that's what he wants. He does have a job already."
"I'm a photographer," Shawn said told the Director. "I actually work for NYC Lifestyle."
"That's too bad. This district could certainly use a PR man." The Direction paused, looking down at the floor. After a while, he looked up the younger man and smiled. "If the District presented a proposal to you, Shawn, would you at least consider it?"
Shawn thought about this for a moment. He was overwhelmed by the response his presentation had received, not to mention the job offers. This was certainly not a career path he'd ever considered before. Finally, he nodded and said, "If it would mean working with my dad, I would consider it."
The Director looked pleased. "I'll be in touch then."
Katherine was strangely silent and seemed to be avoiding Shawn after his successful presentation. Her lack of engagement concerned Shawn more than a little as he worried that after he was no longer at the office everyday, she would restart her campaign against his family. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do if she chose not to do anything. As hard as it was, he had to wait for her to make her move.
There were no meetings scheduled until later that afternoon and Shawn took advantage of that. He ordered a late lunch from Waverly's Diner and took it into Jon's office as soon as it arrived. There was something about food and Jon's office that immediately brought Katherine in whether she was invited or not. Since it was his last day and he had something important to talk to his father about, he was no mood to engage in any niceties with her. With Jon as a witness to their interactions there wasn't any need to anyway. So not only had he not ordered anything for her, he closed the doors of the office on her as she tried to follow him in.
Jon looked up when he heard the door lock. He said nothing as he watched Shawn unpack the food and take a seat across from him.
"So you finally dropped the act, huh?" he asked with an amused smile.
"I did what?"
Jon laughed and pointed a pen at the door. "It's like I've been watching some bizarre play all week with you two being so overly nice to each other."
Shawn smiled, but internally he cringed and realized that the superintendent was actually picking up what was going on even when it seems otherwise. "That obvious, huh?"
"To me," the older man shrugged. "I know you can't stand her."
"The feeling is definitely mutual."
"Yeah, it is, unfortunately."
"You know," he said sorting out the food order. "She's never forgiven me for ruining things for her."
"You were fifteen. What could you have done?"
"She blames me for breaking up her relationship with you," Shawn replied, surprised he didn't know this. "And she clearly holds a grudge."
"Well, her blame is misplaced then."
"Yeah? Who's to blame?"
Jon put his hands behind his head and leaned back in chair far enough to put a foot on his desk. "Audrey. Like anyone had a chance once she showed up," he laughed with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.
Shawn shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Took you forever to admit that. I thought I was gonna have to sit you down and spell everything out for you."
Jon's grin grew, then he said more seriously, "Nah, I think Kat's issue with you is that you took my time. And she thought you took more than necessary, like you were intentionally trying to keep me from her."
"I absolutely was," Shawn said, quite proud of it, too. "I did everything I could to break your dates with her and stop you from having any contact."
Jon shook his head. "Like eating funky three-week-old coleslaw?"
"Yes. I was a good son," he grinned. "I made sure no one interfered with my parents gettin' together."
Jon laughed and took a bite of the roast beef sandwich Shawn brought him. "We had some good times back then didn't we?"
"Yeah, we did." Shawn paused and watched Jon for a moment. This comment was the perfect segway into what he wanted to talk to Jon about. "When's spring break this year?"
"April 5th is Easter. I think it starts March 30th. I'll have to double check. Why?"
"Since I've been back I've been thinkin' a lot about, you know, that time with you and Mom."
Jon nodded, curious about where this was leading.
"I've still got your old place in Philly," Shawn took a deep breath before he went on, "but if I'm gonna stay here, then I need to let that go."
Jon sat back in his chair. "That makes sense. What's the hesitation in lettin' it go?"
"I think I need to go back and say good-bye."
The superintendent tilted his head to the side as he put his sandwich down to focus on what Shawn was really trying to say. "What's stoppin' you?"
Although, what he was about to say was something that had been brewing in the back of his mind for quite some time, it was not something Shawn had talked to either Cory or Julia about. He probably should have, but he didn't want to let this opportunity pass.
"There was a lot of stuff that wasn't resolved when I left there before."
Jon could hear the unasked request in his son's voice. "Whaddya need, Shawn?"
"I need you and Mom to be there. And Julia."
"Okay," he said quietly, still not sure where Shawn was going with this. "Why Julia?"
Shawn found it hard to put into words why he needed Julia there more than the others. It made sense when he went over it in his head, but he was sure he could explain it out loud correctly. "Everything started in that place you, me, Mom. I know Julia wasn't born in Philly, but somehow it feels like she's a part of it, too. She was a continuation of that time, I guess."
Jon studied Shawn with great affection, then told him, "Julia was born in Philly."
"She was?" It both surprised him and it didn't. From the first time they met, Shawn associated her with Philadelphia. He just couldn't explain why he did.
Jon nodded. "We had moved to the City already but about two months before she was born, Audrey and I kinda panicked about being alone without family with a new baby. We got a call from the Matthews one day lettin' us know that you guys were headed to college and that Cory and Topanga were getting married, we started talking, and... Cory didn't tell you any of this?"
Shawn shook his head. "No."
"We stayed with Alan and Amy until about a month after Julia was born."
This did surprise Shawn. Very much. "You did?"
"Yeah, you guys were all off doing your own thing," the older man looked pained. "So they asked us if we wanted to come home and stay with them for awhile. Only Morgan and Josh were still at home, so they had room."
"So that's why you and Mom are so close with them. That's why Julia grew up with Josh and Riley."
"Yeah," Jon said morosely. "They stepped in when we didn't have anyone else."
Shawn tapped his fingers slowly against the table top, deep in thought. "We were coming back to the Matthews place sometimes until we all moved here. How did I miss you guys?"
"You weren't back very often. I dunno. Easy to do I guess." Jon looked down, unable to meet Shawn's gaze. "I, uh, also asked Alan and Amy not to say anything to you. I didn't want to upset you or anything."
A sick feeling washed over him. Dad must've thought I hated him back then, Shawn thought in dismay. He frowned. "Will you be able to take the full two weeks off?"
Jon nodded firmly. "Yeah, I will."
"I really need everyone back there," Shawn said quietly. "There are too many loose ends, to many things left unresolved. I need to go back and shut all those doors for good."
Jon looked at Shawn and it wasn't the first time he saw himself in his son. "Yeah, I think I need that too."
Julia stormed into the district building even earlier than the day before. But this time she wasn't exploiting any school rules because everyone had been dismissed for some teacher in-service meeting. She had gone home initially to pick up her skate bag then headed over to her father's office. On the way over, she ran into Dylan Masterson and could not get rid of him no matter how hard she tried.
He kept trying to prove himself to be a gentleman by insisting on carrying her bags. It wasn't that she minded having help with the bags, both of which were very heavy; it was just the way he went about it was so annoying that she just wanted him as far away from her as possible.
"I don't need your help, Dylan," she snapped, hoisting the skate bag onto her shoulder and dragging her school bag up to the District's doors.
"Yes, Julia." He planted himself in front of the only door that opened to the public and he was blocked the box to buzz them in. Clearly, he was unaware of where they were since he didn't bother to buzz it. That help he could have given without protest from her, but instead he just stared at her.
"Will you move outta the way if you aren't going to buzz us in?!"
"Yes, Julia."
She glared at him and the look he was giving her. "Stop saying 'yes, Julia'".
"Yes, Julia."
Still he wouldn't move. She stamped her foot trying to get some sort of reaction out of him. "Get a life!"
"Yes, Julia."
With a frustrated growl, Julia ducked around him and rang the buzzer. After confirming to the front office who they were, she ran as fast she could into the main office narrowly missing running over Shawn's toes with her school bag as he held the door to the superintendent's office open for her. When he saw Dylan close on her heels, he quickly started to close the door. Safely inside her father's office, Julia dropped her gear and helped Shawn pull the door shut moments before Dylan reached the entryway.
"Ah, you guys," Jon said disapprovingly, pointing at the door. "I thought you were going to try to be nice to the kid."
"Today is not the day," she grumbled, flopping down in a nearby chair. "He's already been super annoying. I can't handle more of that right now."
Jon raised his eyebrows but said nothing else about Dylan. "How was school?"
"Pointless."
Jon gave her an annoyed look.
"Well, it was," she said defensively. "It was early dismissal. Teachers checked out before the students did. I had one teacher bother to teach today and he made up for all rest of my teachers." She pulled out a full folder and open it up above her father's desk letting the papers spill out everywhere. "And it had to be math. It couldn't have been any other subject. It had to be math."
Jon made a face as he picked a sheet of her homework. "Thanks for reminding me why I chose to go into English lit. Get this stuff off of my desk, would ya."
As Julia cleaned up her mess, she asked, "How was your day, Daddy?"
"Really good. Your brother here was the big hit of the day. His presentation went so well that Regional Director wants to hire to him. He wants him so bad he's willing to create a position for him."
"No kiddin'?" Julia nodded her admiration. "Nice, Shawn."
"Thanks," he said modestly. He gave Julia a look then said, "Honestly, I'd take Miss Tompkins' job. I'd get to work with Dad and I'm way better at her job than she is."
Julia snickered and Jon pretended to disapprove, but he ended up laughing too. "I'd hire you on the spot if I could, Shawn. I really would. You've made all the difference this week."
"So why don't you?" Julia asked.
"Can't. Union rules. But next year..."
Shawn arched an eyebrow. "So Union rules say you can sit around, do nothing, be annoying, and still get paid? Man, I woulda gone into education if I'd known that!"
"Haha," Jon said, still smiling. "It's not quite like that; it's just really hard to get someone fired before their contract is up."
"Too bad," Shawn and Julia said together, looking as though they were about to give a eulogy at a funeral.
"Anyway," Jon went on, ignoring the looks they were exchanging with one another. "I have decided to make some changes around here thanks to Shawn."
"Oh, yeah?" Shawn hopeful that it would be changes that would help them all out, especially at home. "Like what?"
"Like Katherine is going to do her job whether she likes it or not. She's going to be doing what you've been doing this week."
Shawn looked to Julia who was staring at him with wide panicked-stricken eyes. That was not even close to what they wanted to hear. It was just the opposite.
Trying to maintain his cool, Shawn said as nonchalantly as possible. "Do you think she'll actually do it?"
"She'll have to," Jon said matter-a-factly. "I need her help and she needs to do her job."
This was bad, Julia knew. She could tell from the look on Shawn's face how bad it was. Based on what Shawn said about his schedule that week she knew this meant Miss Tompkins was going to be spending even more time with their father.
"Yeah," Shawn said slowly, his mind racing to come up with something to stop this. "I guess she should."
Julia looked aghast, then angry. Why was he so causal about this?
"You know," Jon said, ignoring their reactions. "Because things have been going so smoothly this week I've actually had time to talk to your mom for more than two minutes."
Shawn and Julia exchanged looks again.
"Shawn, did you really like this week workin' here?"
"Yeah, I did," he answered honestly.
"Well, Audrey suggested that if you really wanna continue doing some work here, you could volunteer. Don't feel like you have to-"
"No, no," Shawn cut in, silently thanking his mother for the idea; he wouldn't have thought of that himself. "That'd be great. I'd love to."
Jon look both relieved and please. "Great. Oh and Jules, I also talked to Mom about you."
"Oh," she said casually, twisting her hair around her finger. She tried to remember if she'd done anything worth discussing.
"If Dylan asks you out on a date, the answer is no."
"Oh, thank God!" she yelped a too loudly. She clapped her hands over her mouth, embarrassed by the outburst.
Jon struggled not to laugh. "Yes, to DeAndre askin' you to the dance."
"Yes!"
"Anything else, we'll see."
Julia was practically dancing with joy- no to Dylan, yes to DeAndre! She almost forgot why they'd been upset earlier. Then Katherine reminded her by interrupting them with a buzz of the intercom to let Jon know that his 3:00 appointment was waiting on him. Shawn and Julia exited his office and set up camp in a corner of the main office. Julia sat closest to the wall with Shawn on the other side of her to prevent Dylan from getting close.
"This is bad isn't it Shawn?" Her voice was low and worried.
"Yeah, I think it is."
"What do we do?"
Shawn chewed on his bottom lip. "Mom set me up with a great excuse to be here. So I'll find a way to manage my job and be here as much as possible."
"What else?"
"We get together with Cory tonight and regroup," he said, pulling out his phone to text his best friend. "We just gotta make it to March 30th that's all."
"What's March 30th?"
"Spring break. I'll tell you and Cory why that's important tonight."
Shawn suddenly fell silent as he watched Katherine walk over to them.
"How are you two doing?" she asked, her voice dripping with faux sweetness.
The siblings exchanged suspicious looks.
"Fine," they said together.
"Good." She leaned over and gently pushed a stray curl out of Julia's eyes. "I can't wait to see you this weekend."
"What?" Color drained from her face and she felt sick. Her dad said no to dating. Why would she see Miss Tompkins this weekend?
While she gave the girl a warm, friendly smile that smile became distinctly cold and unfriendly when she turned her attention to Shawn. With menacing sugariness, she said, "I owe you a huge thank you, Shawn. Because of you I'll be seeing a lot more of Jonny."
As the smoke cleared from her first strike, Shawn and Julia sat there with grim expressions, each plotting their own take down of this woman.
In a corner of the office, having been forgotten by everyone including his mother, Dylan watched and did a little plotting of his own.