"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
― Mark Twain
Shawn desperately needed a distraction. Jon was immersed in looking over potential new curriculum for the following school year and was not available for any kind of conversation. The younger man glanced at the clock. It was after 2:30 and Julia had yet to make an appearance. Shawn checked his messages several times to make sure he hadn't missed anything from her. It concerned him that she was late considering what had happened the day before. He excused himself with the intent of giving Julia a call. Jon didn't so much as look up.
A call, it turned out was unnecessary. When he entered the outer office he saw his sister standing in front of the mysterious Peter Max poster. She was staring at it with a perplexed look on her face. Shawn stood beside her and watched her look at the unusual work of art. "Hey, sis. What are you doin'?"
"Does this look different to you?" Julia cocked her head to the side and frowned.
"Huh?" He avoided looking at the poster in all honesty. There was just something about it that bothered him greatly. But for Julia, he turned his attention to it, stared a moment, blinked, and then frowned. There was something different about it but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. They continued to stared at it growing more disturbed by the moment.
"Is it the color?" Julia asked. Her dark curls toppled over her shoulder as she tipped her head the other way.
Shawn squinted at the picture. "I don't think so."
"Maybe the lines around the drawings are thicker? Bolder?"
"Maybe." The writer took several steps back and studied it again. There was something off about it. "I just can't quite remember what it looked like before."
Julia whipped out her phone and googled the artist. "Here it is."
Shawn flicked through the image search result and his frown deepened. "These are all variations of the original. Probably due to the difference in printers and paper used. But none of them look exactly like this one."
"So weird."
"Yeah."
As he and Julia headed to Jon's office, the photographer in him screamed to turn around and take a photograph of the poster. It made no sense, but Shawn couldn't ignore his instincts. They had, after all, gotten him this far. When they left the office for home nearly three hours later, the poster in the outer office looked like just another variation of the images on Google. It looked exactly the way it had looked when it was first brought to the office.
Shawn exchanged a perplexed looked with his sister, but with Jon waiting at the door for him and Katherine bringing up the rear, he could not take a picture of the poster without an explanation. And an explanation he did not have.
The next afternoon Jon had a series of meeting but they were, thankfully, all at the District Office, so Shawn and Julia settled into their corner and started working. While Julia did her homework, Shawn put the finishing touches on his first and last Hidden New York article. After submitting it, he leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and stretched. As he brought his arms back down to his side, he managed to hit the top of Julia's head with his elbow.
"Ow!" she cried, giving him a dirty look. Dramatically, she rubbed the top of her head and pretended to be in great pain.
Shawn rolled his eyes. "There is no way that hurt you."
"Who are you to tell me what hurts me and what doesn't?" Julia sniffed as she summoned up faux tears.
"Your brother and there is no way that hurt."
Julia tipped her back and put a hand to her head. "I think I might have a concussion."
"You do not." Her brother reached over and flicked her in the temple with his finger.
She jerked to the side. "I think I'm gonna puke."
Shawn was making a face at his sister's dramatics when a clumsy rush of wind blew by them. Startled, Shawn sat up to see Dylan scurry past them to grab the trash can by his mother's desk and rush back to them nearly tripping over his own feet as he did.
"Here, Julia," Dylan spoke so fast he fell over his words and awkwardly shoved the trash can at her. "If you need to throw up. I'll take care of you." He shot Shawn a dirty look.
Shawn shot back one of his own, leaned forward, and snarled.
"Dylan," Julia push the trash can away from her and gave it a disgusted look. "I don't need that. I'm fine."
"Oh," he blushed. "I'm glad. I thought he really hurt you."
Julia looked irritated. "He barely touched me. I was just givin' him a hard time."
Dylan didn't believe this and continued to flit anxiously around her much to Julia's annoyance. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes," she hissed testily. "Dylan, I'm fine. Don't you ever joke around with your brother? Or," she shot Miss Tompkins a contemptuous look, "aren't you allowed to do that?"
"Oh, I am," he said shaking his head like a enthusiastic puppy dog, completely oblivious to the look she gave his mother. "I just didn't know girls did that too."
Julia was about to say something that would no doubt be very rude when Shawn gave her a hard jab in the arm that she most definitely felt. She nearly snapped at him when she caught the look he was giving her- it was her turn to help their parents out. Unfortunately for her, that meant becoming friends with Dylan.
"Yeah, well, we do. I just verbally harass Shawn. I don't wanna embarrass him by beating him up in public." With that she flashed the man next to her a sassy grin and flipped her hair over her shoulder. Shawn mimicked her in return.
Dylan looked at Shawn, shifted uncomfortably in his chair, then pretended to focus on his homework. Shawn watched him for a moment before he stood up and headed for the door. Julia jumped up to follow him.
She nearly walked into the back of him when he abruptly stopped walking. He turned around. "What are you doing?"
"Where are you going?"
"To the hall," he told her. He signaled for her to go back to Dylan and she refused.
"I don't wanna be in there with them alone."
Shawn groaned. "You gotta talk to him sometime. And I need to let Katy know Maya can stay with us this weekend. I won't be five minutes."
Sulkily, Julia trudged back in her seat with Dylan watching her all the way. The moment she sat down, the boy leaned forward as though very interested in what she was working on.
"What?" She struggled not to sound annoyed.
He shrugged and blushed. "I thought we might be working on the same thing and could study together."
In her group of friends, Julia was the honest-to-a-fault one who would call her friends out when they said things that made no sense. She saw no reason to hold back on someone who was not a friend.
"We can't study together," she told him bluntly. What she really wanted him to do was jump in a lake. "We don't have the same classes because we don't go to the same school."
"Well," he faltered. "We might be studying something that's the same like social studies or something."
"Dylan," Julia turned to look at him directly in the eyes for the first time that day, "no offense, but I'm a straight A student and I intend to keep it that way. No one helps me study except my dad. Not even my mom and she's a teacher, too."
Though disappointed he wasn't offended. She was talking to him and that's all he cared about. He was able to engage her in small talk until Shawn came back. Dylan watched him warily, then forged ahead talking to Julia while under the older man's hawkish glare. Eventually the conversation, which was mostly one sided, as Julia did not ask many questions about Dylan, turned to after school activities with Dylan wanting to know what she did for fun.
Julia tapped her pencil against her nose and shrugged. "I like being with my family, actually. My little brothers are a pains in the butt but I love taking care of my baby sister. And Shawn's a lot of fun."
"Is that all?" The teen found this hard to understand as spending time with his family had not been enjoyable since the divorce.
"I like to play hockey with my Dad." Under her breath she added: "Not that he has time to play anymore."
"Your dad plays hockey?" This was the first interesting thing he'd heard about the superintendent. He also found this very hard to believe.
"Yeah." Julia was proud of her father in general, but she was specifically proud of his skills on ice, and loved it when people said they knew who she inherited her ability from when they saw him skate.
She then gave Dylan a sly side glance, curious if he knew anything about the sport at all. She told him, "Daddy knows a bunch of the pros on the Rangers and Islanders and plays in one of the men's league at my home rink when he can. He's got a mean clapper. Everyone says so. He goes top shelf at least once in almost every game and I've seen him let loose a few Howizters, too. Put him in a barn burner and he'll show you what a dangler he is. He's a real beaut." She waited expectantly to see if he understood anything she'd said. Her hockey knowledge rivaled her figure skating knowledge and she was just a bit smug about it.
Dylan was not versed in hockey slang and he wasn't interested in the superintendent or his hockey skills. "That's cool that hockey's your thing. I love hockey: the speed, the skill, the fights!"
Julia raised an eyebrow in an expression that remind Shawn of Jon. She then closed one eye and regarded the boy next to her skeptically. Dylan did not look like he'd ever stepped foot on the ice. He did not look like he knew what offsides meant nor knew the rules of the game. She wrinkled her nose. "It's not my thing. It's just something I like to mess around with. My brother Grayson plays and it makes him mad my shot is better than his. My thing is figure skating."
"Ha," Dylan laughed rudely in disbelief. "That's kinda prissy and weak compared to hockey. Ballet on ice. No real skill there."
Julia stared at him with her mouth slightly open as he'd just insulted her and her mother in one go. Shawn put his hand over his mouth trying not to laugh. To say the kid was socially inept was an understatement.
"It is not," the girl hissed, very offended. "It takes a lot of strength, control, and power, grace and precision. Besides, I train harder than you do for whatever it is that you do. I'll bet you a month's allowance I'm stronger than you too!"
"Yeah, well," said Dylan whose things were video games and anything that didn't involve being outdoors or cold or breaking a sweat. "I think it's dumb."
Dylan had done such a good job of putting his foot in his mouth that there was no getting it out. Julia was done talking to him. Shawn shook is his head in disbelief that the kid was so bad at talking to girls. When he was much younger than Dylan, he knew better than to insult whatever the girl was interested in no matter how stupid he thought it was if he wanted her to go out with him. It was the very first thing he ever learned about girls.
After dinner Shawn sat in the family room with Jamie and Bella waiting for the rest of the family to come up to start Family Night with a movie. As he sat on the couch bouncing Bella on his knee, he scrolled through his burner phone looking at Deandre's app. The messages and texts from Katherine he found particularly troubling. There was not one single correspondence from her that was not strictly professional. After all the messages trying to lure Jon over to her place the week before there was absolutely nothing like that this week. Her behavior through the week indicated that she was most definitely up to something but the texts, emails, and calls did not reflect this. Perhaps it was because Dylan was at his father's this weekend or she was playing a new game. Shawn could not find rhyme or reason for it.
Bella leaned forward suddenly and made a grab for Shawn's phone. Quickly, he snatched it out of her reach and pocketed it. Because he refused to share with her, Bella had no more use for him and struggled to break out of his grip. She dropped to the floor on her knees, pushed herself up, and toddled over to Jamie to bother him.
Shawn took the moment to get his actual phone out and text Cory. Unfortunately, his best friend was out on a date. He mulled over what to do for a moment, then decided to group text the two, not overly concerned about Topanga's opinion on his intrusion into their evening.
TLM: Shawn, really? Now?
TLM. Shawn really needed to change how he had Topanga listed in his contacts. Originally he put her in as Topanga Lawrence Matthews, but that was too long. Then he put her in as Pangers and it stayed that way until until Topanga saw it and made him change it. So initials it was. However, now that he'd been home surrounded by younger siblings for a couple of months all he could think of when he saw those initials was The Little Mermaid.
SH: I don't want to forget to tell you guys what Russ told me.
CM: What is it?
SH: All Dad has to do is say the word and Russ will turn on the internet monitoring. No one will be told.
TLM: How is that legal?
SH: Did you read the internet usage policy?
TLM: No. I haven't had time.
SH: Russ says the policy is this can happen at any time without warning. And everyone in the district must sign it.
CM: Okay, now we need a reason for Jon to turn it on. And I can help with that.
SH: Good. My assignment was changed at work. I'm covering Dad from now on.
CM: How'd you manage that?
SH: You didn't read my blog did you?
CM:I did!
TLM: I haven't had time. Sorry.
SH: It went viral. My editor wants a weekly series with Dad from now on.
CM: That's perfect!
TLM: Too perfect. Congrats, Shawn.
SH: Thanks.
TLM: Shawn?
SH:Yeah?
TLM: I love you, but I do not want to hear from you anymore tonight unless someone is dying.
SH: lol I got some other stuff to talk to you guys about so we'll talk tomorrow. Have fun, kids. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!
It was Bella's turn to choose the movie for the night and no one was overly thrilled about this. Jon held her up to the bookshelves by the television set in the family room that housed the DVD collection. One movie case was turned around backwards so that its title was hidden.
"Cats!" the little girl cried loudly in dismay. She adamantly turned down every movie her father offered her.
"Here's cats," he said holding out Oliver and Company to her. She shoved it away and doubled down in her cry. "CATS!"
"Bella," Jamie whined. "No one wants to watch Aristocats again! That's all we've watched with you for the last month! I hate that movie."
"CATS!"
"She's saying Cats," Julia said with her hands over her ears. "So put on CATS."
"No way," Jon said giving his oldest daughter a severe look. "I do not want that on repeat in this house. Ever. That's the worst musical ever. It makes no sense."
Audrey winced at the sound Bella's demands. "Oh, just put on Oliver and Company. She'll calm eventually."
Jon looked at the movie in his hand, then at his daughter, then at Shawn. "Here," he said.
Shawn was expecting to be handed the movie but was instead handed his sister. Bella gave him a hard look, folded her little arms over her chest, and mournfully wailed, "Cats!"
"Aw, c'mon that's not fair," he complained to her as she pushed out her bottom lip. "Don't do that to me,".
Turning back to Jon, he asked, "Is this why you gave her to me?".
"Yep." Jon put the DVD into the player. "The only way we don't watch that movie again is if I don't see that face."
Shawn gave the girl a knowing look. "You know exactly what you're doin, don't you?" he asked her as he sat down on the couch.
Bella nestled her cheek against his and held a tight grip on his sweater's collar. "Cats," she whimpered.
"Oh, look! There's a cat." Shawn pointed as Oliver appeared on screen. From that point on Bella was enamored with the movie and sat quietly on Shawn's lap.
Shortly after the movie began, the trilling of a phone's ringtone overwhelmed the movie's sound. Shawn thought this was odd; his burner phone wasn't going off. Everyone turned to look at Jon.
"What?" he said defensively. The phone had awoken him from a half-sleep state. "It's not me."
No one looked convinced until Audrey said with some surprise. "It's me. And..." She looked a little confused. "it's Eli."
"Eli?" Her husband was fully awake now. "Why's he callin' you?"
"I don't know." She got up and left the room leaving Jon looking annoyed.
Audrey stood just outside of the family room door to take the call. "Eli?"
"Hey, Aud." The man on the other end sounded nervous. "What's up?"
"It's Friday night."
"Oh, right. Family night. I forgot about that. Nice that you guys still do that."
"Yeah it is." She wrapped an arm around her belly, trying to find a comfortable position to stand in. What's going on?"
"I was gonna call Jon like you said I should."
"You didn't, though," she said with a smile.
Eli gave strained laugh. "No, I kind of chickened out."
"Eli..."
"I know, I know. I'm being ridiculous. But I don't know his schedule anymore. Is Jon even available to talk?"
Audrey had sensed someone behind her the moment she walked into the hallway. "He's right behind me." She turned and just as she thought, her husband was standing in the doorway. "Eli wants to talk to you," she said.
Jon, looking apprehensive, took her phone from her, and said into the receiver, "Hey, man. It's been awhile."
Audrey smiled, thankful that Eli had the courage to call. "If he wants to get together say yes." Jon nodded and Audrey patted his backside as she returned to the family room.
Back in the room, Audrey settled down on the couch where Jon had been sitting. Absently, she picked up Jon's phone, glanced at the notifications, then curled up against the arm of the couch and closed her eyes. Shawn regarded her curiously then returned his attention to the television. After awhile, his burner phone began to buzz as Jon's phone rang and he froze for a moment. Using Bella, who was still on his lap, to shield the phone from Audrey's view he pulled out the burner phone. Just as he dreaded, Katherine was calling.
There was nothing he could do about it, though. Audrey was already picking the phone and looking at the caller ID. She frowned and suddenly the vibration in Shawn's hand stopped as she hung up on the secretary. Shawn wasn't sure what to do. Katherine was likely to leave a message; a message he couldn't check until later, possibly not until after Jon got it. However, Audrey didn't put down Jon's phone. Instead, she unlocked it and began to look at something on it that Shawn couldn't see.
Shawn bit his lip in worry. Jon and Audrey had what he considered to be a peculiar relationship at least when compared to others he knew about. Everyone he knew, married or otherwise, would have been appalled at the idea of sharing their password to their phone or other technology with their significant other. Even Cory and Topanga didn't share this information with each other unless necessary. During his week working at the District Office, Jon told him that before he was superintendent, he used to trade phones with Audrey to avoid unnecessary after hour calls from staff and parents. He said he often took her phone with him to the gym or rink when he needed a phone but not the bother that came with his. Audrey acted as his temporary secretary and would filter his calls and texts in order of importance and, in rare cases, would answer ones that could not wait. But that was back when his workload was much lighter and they had fewer kids. One thing that had not changed, Shawn knew, was that they could unlock each other's phones with a fingerprint. That Audrey was doing this now made him very curious as to what she was looking at.
There was no voice message left. Audrey frowned. She opened the call log and came very close to deleting Katherine's missed call notification. Tempting as it was, she decided not to as that would be stooping to Katherine's level of deceit. She was just about to set the phone back down on the end table when the text message notification went off. She frowned and checked the notification: Katherine.
Audrey's eyes narrowed as she opened the message. She bit back a growl.
Jon, I'd really like to make plans for the kids to get together at my place next weekend.
Audrey grounded her teeth together lightly as she recalled their previous encounter and what she told the woman.
It's like I didn't even speak at the Park.
She'd barely finished reading when another text came in. And another one.
I think they'd really hit it off they could get some time alone together.
They could go to the Museum of Illusions. It's right around the corner. You and I can work on reports for the upcoming meeting while they're gone.
Audrey wasn't the only one reading the texts. Shawn felt sick as he watched Audrey read Katherine's messages. He could see her growing more and more upset. But he was stuck. Now that she was aware of the call and messages he couldn't just delete them without raising suspicion. Shawn put his phone away and sat back feeling empty and hollow. Bella laid her head on his chest and looked up at him with worried eyes as though she knew he was upset.
Jon returned to the family room nearly an hour later in a cheerful mood. Audrey smiled and moved over for him to take his seat back. He sat down and pulled her onto his lap.
"How'd it go with Eli?" she asked putting an arm around his shoulders and kissing his cheek.
"Good. Real good." He looked genuinely happy and less stressed than he had been before Eli's call.
"I'm glad." Audrey rubbed the back of his neck while she mulled over whether or not to bring up the texts. Finally, she couldn't stay quiet any longer. "Jon?"
"Hmmm?"
"Katherine called while you were on the phone."
"Oh?" he asked leaning his head back against her fingertips. "What'd she want?"
"I didn't answer."
Jon grumbled something under his breath. "I'll talk to her Monday. It's probably nothing."
Audrey rubbed his neck for a few more minutes before saying, "She also texted you several times after."
He grimaced. "Yeah?"
"She wants Julia to go over to her place for a date with her kid. She even has a place picked out for them go- the Museum of Illusion."
Jon sat up looking agitated. The stress that had left him after repairing his friendship with Eli was back again. "That again? I thought we said no to Julia dating him."
"We did." Audrey was quiet for a moment. Her husband tensed up again and a scowl was etched deeply into his features. "She wants you to come over and work on reports with her while the kids are out."
He was staring at the movie but not seeing it. He set his jaw angle. "She's brought that up before, too."
"Oh?"
Audrey did not look very happy to hear this and Jon mentally kicked himself for not telling her sooner. He'd messed up yet again with text messages. "Yeah," he sighed, hoping his explanation would be enough. "I didn't tell you because I have no plans to go over there."
This was a confirmation of Audrey's suspicions about the other woman's motives and she was very displeased. If Katherine thought for a moment she was going to upend her marriage in any way then the woman was as stupid as she arrogant. But that had nothing to do with Jon, so she said affably, "Why doesn't she come here to work on reports if it has to be done outside of school. She could bring Dylan with her."
"No!" It wasn't often that Audrey had horrible ideas, but this was one of the worst. He scowled deeper at the animated movie. "I wanna keep my home life and work life separate. Unless it's you or Shawn or Julia. That's different. Dylan, whatever. He can come over, I guess."
Audrey smiled in amusement and nuzzled his neck. "Good. I didn't want her over here either."
Jon relaxed some and tried to forget about his secretary. But there was something in her demeanor that bothered him. "Hey, you okay?"
"I'm fine," she sighed tiredly.
He nodded then raised an eyebrow. "Hormones, huh?"
"Oh, shut up!" she laughed and buried her face against his chest. That was Jon's go-to reason for anything she did or said or any mood she was in that he couldn't explain.
Unfortunately, there was something that she said that they were both going to have to deal with. As much as he didn't want to discuss Kat anymore, he had to discuss one thing with Audrey before his secretary had the chance to bring it up and try to force him into a decision without her. "Hey," he said, sounding very sorry about he was going to say. "If Julia can't come over to her place, Kat is gonna want Dylan over here next weekend since somebody in this room said he could come over."
"I'm too busy for that," she said with shrug as she settled back against him and turned her attention to the TV. "Do you have time to supervise?"
Jon pushed at his bottom lip and shook his head. "No, I don't actually."
"What? You got something going on I don't know about?" she teased.
Jon smiled. "Yeah, and it's your fault, too. Eli and I are gonna get together Saturday night. I told him I'd double check with you, but I didn't think the kids had anything going on."
"No." Audrey was relieved to hear that the men were getting together; she thought it'd do both of them a world of good. "Morning practice for Grayson and Julia, but that's all."
They sat in silence for a while as the movie droned on. Jon's mind couldn't rest and it kept coming back to his wife. Usually, on nights like these, even with a kid's movie playing, he couldn't keep his thoughts off of her.
"Hey," he said softly. He gently ran his finger down the length of her face.
Audrey looked up at him. "Huh?"
"I love you."
She smiled dreamily. Whenever the ex-girlfriends showed up or women hit on her husband and Audrey was tempted to give into to jealousy, she reminded herself that she was the only one he'd ever said those three little words to and she was the one he chose to marry. "I love you, too, Jonny."
Shawn watched the couple closely and sighed quietly as it didn't seem the texts caused any issues but he was still worried. He tried to put Katherine and her messages out of his mind but a boring movie didn't help any. Eventually, the movie ended and Jon took Bella up to bed. When he returned, Balderdash was set up and by the end of the game Shawn had forgotten all about Katherine.
It wasn't until he was his way up to bed that his phone went off. Assuming it was Cory, Shawn opened his inbox and was surprised to see a message from an unfamiliar number. When he opened the text a brick of ice dropped into his stomach.
Hi Shawnie. It's Kat. I had such a great week with Jon, just the two of us. I cannot wait until Monday to start it all again. Lots of meetings. Won't be in the office much. Just thought I'd let you know.
Shawn froze with his hand on the knob of his bedroom door. Shawnie? Who does she think she is? Only Cory calls me that!
What was this all about? Was she really so stupid as to send him something this incriminating? Or was this the next step in her twisted game? There were so many questions, but not a single answer.
The words of her text began to blur together as fury clouded his vision. So he did the only thing he could think of to do. It might be unwise move on his part and one that Topanga would not likely approve but the woman had contacted him. So he sent a reply:
I can't wait. Next week's going to be great. From now on it'll just be the three of us.
Several minutes passed before there was a response.
What are you talking about!?
Didn't Dad tell you? My boss wants me to do a weekly series on him. Great, isn't it?
There were no more text messages that night.
Up next: Back alley, or rather, back office meetings are taking place. And someone is being setup to take a very big fall.
I always appreciate feedback and constructive criticism is welcome to; I want to make sure as many as possible are enjoying this story. But I get that a lot of people aren't comfortable commenting. So to everyone who is reading but not commenting, thank you. To those who bookmarked/subscribed/followed/favorited AiP, thank you. To those who have commented, THANK YOU. I appreciate every one of you. Hope to see you on the next chapter. :)