Autumn In Philadelphia Trilogy

by Mercedes Aria

Book III Saudade: The family returns to Philadelphia for Spring Break. Jon and Shawn finally sit down and explore the reasons for their estrangement with everyone who was there.

37. The Return: Conspiracy of Silence

"In the conspiracy of silence, rumor is king."

-unknown

---

Monday was a mere three hours away and with Monday came the start of another week of school. Julia laid awake in her bed staring up at the ceiling as she was unable to sleep. Thoughts of her parents and older brother keep colliding in her head and she couldn't shut them off. Frustrated, she threw her covers onto the floor and got up. She went to her desk and turn the little purple lamp that sat on its upper right corner on low. The light gleamed off of the two new gold medals and one new silver medal that had been added to her awards rack earlier in the evening. Even though she was the only child other than Shawn who had their own room, she was unnecessarily quiet as she crept to her book bag and took the tablet she used at school out. In spite of being alone, she was still afraid she might get caught as she was breaking two major house rules: 1) no electronics after 10 pm on the night before a school day or on a school night and 2) no electronics usage in a room alone. She wasn't likely to get caught unless her parents decided to check the monthly usage data, but she was still careful. She didn't want her father to find out she was breaking his rules but she desperately needed someone to confide in.

The thought of her father saddened her. He used to be the number one person on her list to talk to. Once she had confided in him she did not need to talk to anyone else, not even her mother, because if her dad could not make things right, then no one could. But he no longer had the time for serious conversations at this time of night or any time really. No doubt he would be on the phone right now talking to someone at the district about something that could wait until morning.

Her brother Shawn had become the stand-in for their father in his absence but that did her no good that night. She was sorely disappointed in him as he'd been acting strangely throughout her competition and didn't even bother to watch the programs she's worked so hard on for the last four months. He claimed he had but when pressed to name the music she skated to, he missed all three times and named the music for three different skaters that were not her. He had also promised to tell her what was going on when they got home, but when they got home Shawn holed up in his room with Cory and Topanga until the Matthews had to leave. Then he said goodnight to everyone and went to bed.

So Julia as she saw it had little choice but to break house rules and call the only person left who understood her and would listen. She opened the Skype app and clicked on the first contact on her list. Barely a minute went by before her screen with filled with the bright, smiling face of a handsome boy about her age.

"Hey, Princess!"

Julia couldn't help but give a quiet, happy sigh, when she saw the face on her tablet screen. DeAndre Brockman was as cute as boys came in her mind; he was easily the best looking guy at their school. His golden brown eyes were striking and they brought him a great amount of attention. And nobody rocked the short dreadlocks and high fade like he did. DeAndre's smile was always on high beam- wherever he went whether inside or outside light seemed to be attracted to him and would then reflect off of him lighting up everything around. This wasn't actual light, of course, but rather his boisterous personality and genuinely kind heart that came through. They had been friends forever, but things had changed in the last year and a dreamy sigh and goofy smile always seem to strike Julia whenever she saw him now.

When she didn't answer right away, DeAndre suppressed a grin. He loved it when she looked at him like that. Gifted with the ability to speak in just about every American English dialect and slang there was, some British, and a little Australian, he loved to use them to tease her about the nickname her father had given her the day she was born.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of this late night chat with her royal highness?" he said with an overly dramatic posh British drawl. He had a hard time not cracking up during the delivery.

Julia began to laugh and quickly covered her mouth lest someone passing by her door heard her. "Oh, Dre," she whispered, her cheeks reddening with embarrassment. "You can be so weird."

DeAndre laughed and flashed her a a rare shy smile. Although, he'd know her for pretty much his whole life and saw her almost every single day, something about her had changed in the last couple of years. What it was he couldn't say, but he found impossible not to stare at her even on Skype. "For real, though, Princess, what's up? It's not like you to break the King's rules. You okay?"

Her expression darkened and her smiled faded. "No, Dre, I'm not."

"Talk to me." Worriedly he twisted one of his locs and leaned forward to get as close as he could through the screen.

"Everything is wrong," was all she could say. Julia found suddenly very hard to put things into words.

Dre's frown deepened. His after school schedule had kept them a part recently, but he knew something unusual was going on in the Turner household. He'd seen Julia ride an emotional roller coaster this school year and it revolved around her father's new job. "Everything okay with your dad?"

She shook her head and looked like she wanted to cry.

"I thought stuff was better with this week with Shawn helping Uncle J out."

"It was."

Dre tapped his fingers on his desk. "So what's the problem?"

Previously, she had told DeAndre a simplified version of what was going, but talking to him about these things were difficult over apps and their schedules kept them from getting together. He was worried about her and the family but they both agreed that as long as Shawn was around they would talk when they could and trust her brother to take care of things for her were DeAndre could not. Initially, Julia felt it was best to keep DeAndre out of it as much as possible in case the app he made for Shawn was found; she didn't want him to get into trouble. But today proved that she could not fully rely on Shawn because his loyalty was first and foremost to her aunt and uncle. Julia needed a Cory and Topanga too. So, whether she should have or not, Julia told DeAndre everything that had been going on, what her and Shawn's plans were, and everything in between.

"Whoa," was all Dre said. This was a lot to digest and he did not like to make comments until he'd had a chance to think things through.

"Things have changed so much, Dre. Daddy's not here anymore," she sighed.

Dre's eyebrows shot up in alarm. "What do you mean he's not there? Is he not showing up to stuff?"

"No, he does," she said mournfully, pulling the tip of a lock of hair through her lips. "But his mind isn't on what we're doing. He's a million miles away and only hears half of what you say to him, if that."

"You still do family night, right?"

"Yeah, but he just goes through the motions. I don't think he even wants to be with us." It pained Julia to think of the way things used to be just two years before. Back then, it was a rare occasion when a night went by that her father didn't check homework after dinner or help with studying. Back then he was more excited for family night than the kids were. Back then she could get his undivided attention at least a few times a months and it would just be the two of them doing something together. Back then her dad would make sure that he sent them all off to Uncle Cory's so that he could have an uninterrupted date night with her mom.

"Jules?" She had been quiet for so long it was beginning to worry DeAndre.

She looked up at him with watery, worried eyes, but did not say anything.

"Hey," Dre said worriedly, leaning so far forward his nose hit the tablet screen. He'd forgotten that he wasn't in the same room with her.

"What was it like right before your dad walked out?" she asked suddenly.

Dre sighed and covered his mouth with his hand, thinking about how to answer her. Julia saw this gesture and it struck her deeply that this was the very same thing her father frequently did. She looked down at her desk as a tear escaped down her cheek.

"Pretty much like it is for you right now except there was a lot fighting and yelling when they were both in the same room together," he admitted. At the look on her face, he quickly added, "But my parents had been having problems for years. Your dad's problem isn't your mom, it's this job."

"He won't leave the stupid job," she paused and bit her lap."This is hopeless isn't it?"

"No, it's not," Dre said adamantly. "Listen to me, Jules. You can't compare what my parents went through to what's going on with yours. There was a whole bunch of bad stuff that happened all at once like my dad losing his job and both my grannies dying. They took their grief and frustration out on each other. That's not what's happening with your parents. They've just hit a rough spot."

Julia gave him a skeptical look.

He tapped the screen to make sure he had her attention. "You know what I'm sayin' is true, Jules. Yeah, Dad walked out. Yeah, they separated. But Dad walked back in, too. They got it together and they didn't divorce. It's not hopeless."

"Yeah, I guess so." She was quiet for a moment then said somberly. "Daddy's got three more years though, Dre. How are we gonna survive three more years of this stupid job?"

"I dunno," he shrugged. "Maybe Uncle J will quit before then."

"He won't."

"I know."

After a few minutes of somber silence, Dre, suddenly remembering something he wanted to tell her, perked up and said, "Hey, congrats on the new gold medals, Princess!"

She grinned. "Thanks, Dre."

"Your new programs looked fire. It's cool they live streamed it to the barn. Glad I could see it."

"Me, too." Julia knew that the rink where DeAndre's team played their away game did not chose to broadcast her competition, but that Dre, with some smooth talking and his expert technical skills, got the stream running. He convinced the rink managers to give the crowd some pre-game entertainment and support the skate clubs as both schools had skaters in the competition. She appreciated this more than she was capable of expressing. "I'm really glad you did all that, Dre. Especially since Shawn didn't see it."

Dre arched an eyebrow in surprise. "I thought he was there."

Julia scowled. "I dunno why he bothered going. All he did was talk to Uncle Cory and Aunt Topanga the whole time. Even when he congratulated me it's like he wasn't really there. Actually, he acted just like Daddy- a million miles away and not paying attention to what's going on right in front of him."

DeAndre felt as though he should have found a way to be there for her, even though he was just fifteen and only had a learner's permit. "I'm sorry, Jules. I should have been there."

Julia gave him a funny look. "And miss your game?"

He shrugged and wiped some imaginary dust off of his desk. "Some things are more important."

Julia smiled at this. It warmed her to know that she was that important to someone still.

"I've got something for you tomorrow," he told her with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"You do?"

"Uh-huh."

She leaned forward with excitement. Dre's gifts were the best. Always a little quirky and always totally her. Other than her parents, there wasn't a single person who knew her as well as he did. "What?"

"You'll find out tomorrow in homeroom," he said with a teasing wink.

"Homeroom?" She push her bottom lip out in a mock pout. "So I'll have a whole two seconds to see what it is?"

"Mr. Howard is back so it's not like we'll be doing anything. You know he won't care as long we sit down and leave him alone."

At the mention of Mr. Howard, Julia's countenance soured. Mr. Howard was their homeroom and English literature teacher and the one who took what should have been her father's job. Mr. Howard was nothing like Jonathan Turner; he was pretty much the opposite. A quiet, reticent man, who although not much older than her dad when he started teaching, did not have the connection to his students nor the classroom management ability that her father had. Although she had nothing personal against Mr. Howard, it was hard for Julia not to be a little bitter that someone else sat at her father's desk. Seeing Mr. Howard every day or his substitute for the past two weeks was a constant reminder of a broken promise.

All throughout junior high, her father promised her that he would be her English literature teacher and principal throughout high school. This promise he repeated multiple times a year from sixth grade to eighth grade. At the beginning of eighth grade, the Abigail Adams High principal announced her retirement and it was a given that her father would take over. All that had to be done was for him to formally accept the offer which he said he planned to do just before the end of the year. But instead, he announced to the family the day before eighth grade graduation that he took the superintendent position for the next five years. No one was expecting this, not even her mother. It was like a bomb had gone off in their living when he told them of his intentions. The proclamation, even two years on, was terribly confusing to her. He had promised both her and her mother that he would not ever take the superintendent's job. It was not a job for someone with a family. They all knew this and that's why her father said he would not do it. There had to be a reason for it, but every which way Julia looked at it, she could only come to one conclusion: she had done something that made him change his mind about being her teacher. She had no idea what she'd done to so put him off of going back to high school, but otherwise the explanation was that her father simply lied to her. Did he break his promise or lie? Was she so awful that he really didn't want to deal with her in high school so he just told her what she wanted to hear and took the superintendent position so he'd have an excuse to get away from her? Or did he, like her mother said, just break his promise for reasons only he knew? Either way it was a horrible weight that had hung over her for the past two years.

"Three more years," she said again. Dre regarded her quizzically. "We'll be done with our first year of college before his contract is up. We'll never have him as a teacher."

"It would've been a lot of fun to all be in high school together. We've heard so many stories about what he was like from Mr. Matthews that I was really lookin' forward to spendin' all of homeroom tradin' chirps with him. Hey, maybe after the superintendent thing is over he'll go to college with us. Didn't one of your brother's teachers do that?" Dre was trying to give her a positive alternative to consider, but his attempt fell flat even to him. Truthfully, he was as disappointed as she was that high school turned out the way it had so far.

Julia didn't appreciate the attempt and gave him a long side-eye. "He said he'd never do that."

"Yeah, well, being superintendent was supposed to be out of the question, too. So never say never. He could do it."

Julia's brow pinched together in a tight frown. "I can't believe he lied to me, Dre."

Dre cringed. He had no idea why her dad had gone back on his promise, but he'd known the man almost his whole life and he had never known him to be dishonest about anything. His mother told him that sometimes things happen that force adults to do things they said they wouldn't because it was necessary. Some of these things would not be understood by kids until they were older and had more life experience. Dre could kind of understand this as his own father had promised since he was three that they would never move from the home he'd grown up in. But after his parents reconciled, his father moved the whole family to a new home saying they all needed a fresh start. At the time, neither he nor his brothers wanted to go and threw some pretty ugly tantrums over it. In the long run it was best for the family. His parents were free of unpleasant memories and happier. As for him, he ended much in the same school district as Julia. The problem Dre had was seeing how Julia's situation could turn out like his. There didn't seem to be one benefit to Uncle J's move to superintendency.

"I know that's what it seems like, Jules," he told her. "I don't think Uncle J lied to you or intentionally broke his promise. I mean, X-Men may be your dad's favorite comic, but he's really more like Superman. Ya know, gotta change into the super suit and save the day when anyone calls for help. My dad say he was put in a bad spot when the Board jumped him. Like they knew he'd never say yes unless the district needed saving. Maybe it's one of those things that adults say we'll understand when we get older and have kids ourselves."

Julia was skeptical. "You believe that?"

"I'm tryin' to," the teen admitted, unable to meet her gaze.

Julia snorted in frustration.

DeAndre couldn't say exactly why her response bothered him so much. Maybe it was just because he didn't want her to go through with her dad what he went through his; he didn't want Uncle J to become a villain to her the way his dad was for him for a while. "C'mon, Jules. Uncle J is a good guy who's just tryin' to do right by everyone. Maybe there is something going on we don't know about."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Dre tried to redirect Julia's thoughts elsewhere. "You think this Dylan kid is stalking you and found out where you guys were going yesterday?"

"IDK," she said mournfully, her thoughts still on her father. "I can't imagine how he'd find anything like that. I haven't posted anything on social, not even privately. I told you at school Friday but he doesn't go to our school so he couldn't have been eavesdropping or anything."

DeAndre mulled this over for a long time. "Let's suss this out and see if we can't find out how he found you guys."

"What do we do?"

"You've got your social locked up right?"

"Right."

"I bet someone doesn't. Check your mom's stuff. See if there are any new friends that you don't recognize. Imma check our mutals to see if there's anything on this Dylan kid." Dre was relieved to be on a subject he excelled in.

Julia skimmed her mother's Facebook friends. At first she saw nothing unusual, then she suddenly stopped and scrolled back up. There was a profile pic she knew- the NYC Ballet's marquee- but she did not know the name: Jovani Boisson.

Dre happened to glance up at that moment and saw the look on her face. "You find something, Princess?"

"IDK," she said, clicking on the profile. "This is kinda weird, Dre."

"What?"

"This Jovani Boisson. He's a new add on Mom's friends list." The profile was new and bare. There was hardly any information on it. "I know the last name. Mom used to dance with an Amaris Boisson at NYCB when she went back to dancing after I was born. I didn't know Amaris had a son."

"Doesn't she?"

"IDK," she said again, flopping against the chair back. "Mom used to get together with her a lot when I was younger. I knew she had a daughter a couple of years older than me. I don't remember a son."

"When was the last time Auntie saw Amaris?"

Julia frowned, deep in thought. "I think Mom saw her at the workshop she was at in Chicago when Shawn showed up. I never got a chance to talk to her about it. I kinda forgot."

"Hmmm," was all Dre said. He was busy typing away on his desktop computer in his search.

Julia also searched her mom's IG account but found nothing unusual. If she had her mother's phone she could to see if there were any requests to follow her that seemed unusual. Although her mother had quite a following, they were mostly dancer and dance accounts with a few friends and family members peppered throughout.

"Uh, Princess?" Dre's voice was muffled as his hand was over his mouth again.

"Yeah?"

"What was the dancer's son's name again?"

"Jovani Boisson."

"I found him."

Julia took her feet off of her desk and sat up straight. "Where?"

"On Riley's page."

"Why would he be on Riley's friends list?" Julia asked in bewilderment. "Her page is private and Aunt Topanga monitors it. How could she get someone on there that is friends with Mom and no one else?"

"IDK," Dre shook his head, hand still over his mouth. "But he's there. And Riley has a post from last month you should check out."

Julia quickly pulled up Riley's Facebook page and scrolled through the recent posts. It wasn't hard to figure out which post Dre was referring to:

Best day ever! I luv luv luv our monthly sleepovers with Uncle Jon and Aunt Audrey! I just luv how every this starts the same: Breakfast at Topanga's, the Carousel in Central Park, then we go off into the great unknown! Can it be this time next month already?

The post was liked by every person from Riley's school, Julia, Dre, and the mysterious Jovani. Also included was a sarcastic little comment from Maya about Riley's over romanticizing a trip to the Park with a bunch of kids in a cold, overpopulated tourist area.

"Whaddya think about this, Dre?"

"I think we've found our mole."

"So what do we do?" Julia made a face as she said this. It felt like that was the only thing she ever said anymore when a plan was coming together. She didn't like feeling out of her league and unable to contribute.

"So," DeAndre drew the word out as he thought about the best way to go about this. "Why don't you friend Jovani and let's see what's up with him."

"Okay," she said as she sent a friend's request. "Request sent."

"Jules, as soon as he accepts put him on your limited list," Dre suddenly felt uncomfortable with exposing her page to someone they knew nothing about. For all he knew, this wasn't Dylan at all but a forty year old dude up to no good. "Like pull the list up and get ready to put him on it. I've got a feeling he's gonna accept ASAP."

Dre was right. Julia barely got into her security settings when a notification told her that her request had been accepted. Quickly, she put Jovani on limited and let out a breath.

"Now what?" she asked, wondering why she felt so panicked about this unknown user.

"Make sure to bring your phone to lunch with you and I'll check out the account."

"Okay."

The kids were quiet. Julia was worried about Jovani/Dylan/whoever he was and so was Dre whose imagination was in overdrive trying to account for every possible scenario they might face going forward with trying to unmask the account.

"Julia." Julia looked up at Dre in surprise. It sounded like his voice came from behind her. She knew Dre was talented, but she didn't know he'd picked up ventriloquism and could do it over WiFi. He also never called her Julia. She gave him a funny look. "Why'd you call me that?"

"I didn't," DeAndre answered. looking a little gray. He pointed over her shoulder, a gave a little wave, and said weakly, "Hi, Uncle J."

Julia could feel her father standing behind her now. She looked up at him guiltily as he leaned over her.

"Goodnight, DeAndre," he said with a frown.

The teen ducked his head and grimaced. "You gonna tell my dad?"

Jon arched an eyebrow and gave him a look of mild disapproval. "I'm gonna tell your dad not take any excuses from you about being too tired for school tomorrow. Don't be late to class."

Dre nodded agreeably. "You got it, Uncle J. 'night, Jules, I'll see you tomorrow."

"'Night, Dre. Thanks."

DeAndre disappeared from the screen and Julia closed out Skype wondering how much trouble she was going to be in.

"Hand it over, kid," Jon said motioning for the tablet.

Julia turned the device off before giving it him. Her father took it, put in her book bag which he then took to his office where it would remain until they left for school in the morning. When he returned, Jon looked displeased but not as upset as she expected.

"You wanna tell me why you're on this after 10 in your room without permission?"

Julia swivel in the chair to face him. He was standing by the window with his arms folded over his chest waiting for her response.

"I needed someone to talk to," she said quietly.

Jon considered this for a moment. "Are you and Shawn not talking?"

"Not this weekend I guess," she shrugged, clearly bothered by this. "He spent all his time with Aunt Topanga and Uncle Cory. He didn't even pay attention to my programs today."

"I see." He leaned against the wall by the window. The moon was shining brightly through her window in spite of the closed curtains. The light made shadows dance across her father's face and gave him the appearance of deep sadness. "Why didn't you come to me?"

Julia paused unsure of how honest she should be. She wanted to tell him everything and have him tell her everything would be okay. But instead she said, "You're usually too busy or too tired to have serious talks anymore."

"Yeah," Jon sighed. "I guess I am."

This admission came as a surprise to Julia. She watched with great curiosity as her father sat down on the window seat and regarded her with an almost sorrowful look. He patted the space beside him, inviting her to sit next to him. Julia didn't have to be asked twice. She jumped out of her chair and let it slam against the desk.

"You've got me now," he said, putting his arm around her. "What's going on that you couldn't wait until tomorrow to talk to DeAndre?"

Julia sighed, knowing she couldn't tell him everything that was bothering her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him close. "I don't know how to explain it."

"Try."

She began with the easiest excuse for breaking the rules. "Shawn ignored me all day today. He was too busy with his friends pay attention to me. When I tried to talk to him, he blew me off in favor of them. Grayson said he didn't have time for him or Jamie either."

"I noticed that, too. Sometimes when those three get together, they forgot that anyone else exists," Jon gave a her a rueful smile. "Bothered you that much, huh?"

"Yeah," she said, puffing a stray curl out of her face. She took a deep breath. What she was about to say might provoke him but it was the truth and he always told her to be honest. "Shawn was being just like you've been ever since you took this job."

Julia braced for an angry reprimand, but, to her astonishment, none came. Jon stared at the carpet for a long while before he spoke. "At least this is the first time in two months that he's done that to you. Better than almost every day for seventeen months and counting."

This admission meant more to her than anything else he could've said. It meant that he was aware of what he was doing and didn't like it.

"I miss you, Daddy."

"I miss you, too, Jules."

The tears that fell down her cheeks surprised her. She didn't even realize that she had been on the verge of crying. She felt her father squeeze her shoulder and pull her into a standing position. He walked her over to the over-sized old recliner that had once been his but now stood in the corner of her room. As she snuggled into his lap, Jon took a throw that Cory's mother had made for her when she was four-years-old and wrapped it around her.

"I'm really hoping things are going to chance for the better at work, Jules."

"How?" she asked. She hoped he'd come up with a plan on his own to get out of the situation with Katherine, but she doubted it. "Shawn has to go back to his job."

"I know." Absently, he started rocking the chair. "But Miss Tompkins has promised that she'll do her job the right way from now on since Shawn showed her what she's supposed to be doing."

"Will she?" Julia had no faith in Miss Tompkins to do anything but cause problems.

"She doesn't really have a choice anymore."

Julia pulled back a ways to she could look him in the eye. "Daddy, how come you've let her get away with not doing anything for so long? You'd never let any of us kids or your students get away with being lazy."

Jon almost laughed at Julia calling his secretary lazy; he'd thought that himself on more than one occasion. "I'm not real big on confrontations with adults and some days it's all I do. The last thing I want to do is to go back to the office and have to deal with my secretary."

"You're her boss, though," she pouted, laying her head back against his shoulder. "Why can't you just make her do the job she was hired to do?"

"It's not that simple."

"Is it because you used to date her?"

Jon stopped breathing for a moment. He didn't expect Julia to bring that up and he didn't want to talk about it. He shifted uncomfortably. His preference was to remain vague about his past dating life if it had to be brought up at all. Actually, he would have preferred that his children assumed there was no one before their mother. "It makes dealing with her more difficult because of that past," he admitted. "But more than that she's not the easiest person to work with and she's changed a lot since I knew her. Nothing I say seems to make a difference to her unless it's glowing praise."

"Will you fire her if she doesn't do her job?"

"It's not that simple, kiddo," he said again. Just talking about the situation at work was beginning to stress him. "Even if I could, it's too late in the school year to break a new person in, especially with backlog I've got on my hands now."

Julia wrinkled her nose. "You wouldn't have to break Shawn in. Hire him."

Jon gave a small laugh. "I wish."

They were quiet for awhile and Julia could feel herself getting drowsy. Since she had no idea, when or if she would get another chance alone with him, she couldn't fall asleep just yet.

"Daddy?"

"Hmmm?"

"Don't you wanna teach anymore?"

"I do," he replied, sadly. "I really miss it. More than I thought I would."

Julia gripped his T-shirt and held tight to the fabric. "So go back," she pleaded. "Just for a couple of years. Dre and I only have two more years of high school left."

"I know, Princess. Believe me, I know exactly how much time you have left in high school down to the minute."

Jon fell silent, lost in his thoughts. Julia fought back tears as he didn't give any indication that he wanted to be her teacher. As the silence grew, Jon absently stroked his daughter's dark hair and rocked back and forth in the recliner. Before long her breathing deepened into long even inhales and exhales. He brushed her hair out of her closed eyes and studied her sleeping face with a deep sorrow. Two more years of high school left; it seemed like just yesterday he was rocking a fussy infant to sleep in that exact chair. Wasn't it just last night that she was eight and firmly insisting that she would only get married if her husband agreed to live in her bedroom because she was never, ever leaving him? In two years she would be seventeen, graduating high school, and headed to college. In three years, she would be eighteen and preparing to declare her major. And four years after that?

She was fifteen but as she slept she looked so much like that little four-year-old that used to climb into bed with him and her mother; the one he would have to carry back to her own bed almost every night. And somehow she also looked like that little six-year-old that would fall asleep in the car and he'd carry inside to her room without her waking up. It was much harder for him to carry her now than it was then, but he still didn't want to wake her. As he started to lay her on her blue satin sheets he was struck by overwhelming depression as he realized that this was the very last time he'd ever carry her to bed. The next time would by someone else, the one who would come after him and replace him in her life. DeAndre? Someone she had yet to meet? Jon stood by her bed still holding her as though she was a toddler. He desperately wished he could freeze time from this point on so that Julia, Grayson, Jamie, and Bella would never grow up; so that Shawn would never leave; so that he would never have to face his wife losing interest in him as he aged. Struggling under this weight, he turned from her bed and began to pace the room with his daughter's arms wrapped around his neck and her nose tucked under his chin. He paced until he couldn't hold her any longer then tucked her into bed and sat by her bedside, worrying over her future and his.

---

Shawn had become so accustomed to waking up early enough to beat Julia to the bathroom and head out to the District office with Jon that he found himself staring at the ceiling at 5:45 am. Then the next thing he knew, Jamie was in his face telling him that breakfast was ready. From the smell of his breath, his little brother must have drank at least half a bottle of maple syrup.

Groggy and a little grumpy, Shawn followed Jamie down to the kitchen where Audrey was setting breakfast out on the table. Grayson was chattering to her between bites of food while Bella pulled her pancake apart, eating one piece then discarding the next. She repeated this over and over until there was a pile of crumbs on her tray. Jamie dropped Shawn's hand and practically jumped over the table to get to the pancake stack before Bella could destroy another one.

Audrey saw him enter the kitchen and gave him a weary smile. She started to say something when Jamie crawled across the table in front of her because Grayson refused to give him the syrup bottle and moved it out of reach. Shawn watched her quickly corral her boys and restore a semblance of order to the breakfast. He smiled wistfully. Audrey had always been able to stand in the middle of chaos and reign it in. She was the family anchor and, when necessary, the jet engine to move everyone along. A deep grief overtook as he watched. He tried not to dwell on the regret but he couldn't help it. He couldn't help but wonder what his life would have been like if he had been her son for the last seventeen years. A deep resentment for his younger self settle over him. If that stupid kid hadn't been so selfish he would have had not only Jon but also Audrey during the last part of high school and college. He would have had Audrey's perspective through his ups and downs with Angela. She could have helped him better understand his former girlfriend and Jon could have helped him understand how to go from playing the field to a stable, permanent relationship. He was convinced that if he hadn't been such a jerk back then, his and Angela's story would have had a very different ending.

Shawn inhaled sharply at the painful thought. Even though he was certain he hadn't made a sound, Audrey was immediately in front of him, gray eyes swimming with concern. "Shawn, what's wrong?"

What's wrong? He stared at her sweet face with wide eyes as he fought back tears. She had no idea how many times when he'd been asked about his mother that she was the one he'd described. After all, she was the only one who ever wanted him. He blinked several times as his vision clouded up. What's wrong? Everything. I made a mess of my life and being here is a reminder every day of my failure. I'm afraid I'll walk out the door one day and come back to find this was all a fever dream and I still have no home. I'm afraid that this is real, that I am being given a second chance, but it will destroyed by a home-wrecking ex-girlfriend of Dad's. I'm afraid of losing everything I've found. I'm afraid you'll find out that Dad doesn't want this baby and it will devastate you and put a crack in your marriage that will spread until something breaks. I'm afraid I'll have to choose between the two of you. And I can't choose.

What's wrong? Everything.

He looked away from her as the tears began to fall. Unable to respond, he just stood there and shook his head. Audrey reached her arms around him and pulled him as closely to her as she could. "I love you, Shawn."

"I love you, too. So much," he choked out, barely able to understand himself.

She kissed his cheek and held onto him for a long while before asking, "What's bothering you?"

0o0o0o0o

"If you're not gonna really commit to this whole thing why am I even here?!"

"Don't you dare go through that window! Get back here now!" Jon stood in the middle of his living room at his wit's end with Shawn's sudden, irrational outburst.

"Don't tell me what to do! You're not my dad!" Shawn fought with the window in his room that refused to budge. Anger flared through him when he saw that Jon had somehow jerry-rigged it not open enough for him to climb out. "I hate it here!" The apartment shook as Shawn slammed the window and bounced on his bed as hard as he could.

"What on earth is going on?" Audrey asked as she closed the door and hung her purse on the coat rack. She had heard their argument long before she made it to the apartment.

Jon turned to her with a look of sheer bewilderment and frustration on his face.

"I don't know! Not five minutes ago Shawn was sittin' on the couch, watchin' TV. I was on the phone with Tess confirming plans for tonight. Everything was fine, it's been fine all day. Soon as I hang up he's in my face yellin' that he can't believe I'm going out again; tellin' me that I'm selfish." He threw his hands up, partly in disgust and partly in defeat. "I haven't been out in three weeks, all my attention has been on him, and he's known about this date for over a week. But now it's a problem? I try to reason with the kid and he's tellin' me if I care so little about the family to kick him out now so he can go live with you. I told him that's not an option and, well, you and everybody else in the buildin' heard the rest."

Audrey cast a worried look towards Shawn's room."Something must have happened."

"I worry he's on something," he said, dropping heavily onto the sofa. He put his hand over his mouth briefly then said. "I've never seen a mood swing so fast."

This concern was a new one and it caught her off-guard. "Oh, Jon, you don't really think Shawn could be on drugs, do you?"

"I don't know. I worry about it," he leaned forward and put his head in his hands. "These kids he used to hang around all the time; they still come by here every once in awhile. They are definitely on somethin'. I'm not sayin' Shawn would seek that stuff out, but I wouldn't put it past those little hoodlums to slip him somethin' to get him hooked."

There was no denying that Shawn did hang with a very rough crowd at times although this was the first time she was hearing about them coming to the apartment. "Look, I'll talk to him tonight to see if I can find out what's going on."

Jon leaned back and put his hand on her knee as she sat next to him."I'd appreciate it, Aud. I can't get through to him and he favors you more anyway."

"He doesn't favor me," she said with a small smile when she saw the put out look on his face. "I'm just not the one trying to discipline him at the moment."

"Feel free take over that department any time."

"If you want me to do that, then you'll have to wait until I'm here before starting any arguments with him," she teased, running her fingers through his hair as rested his head against the back of the couch.

Jon smiled and took her hand. "It's not even six o'clock and I'm already exhausted."

"Poor baby."

"I wish I wasn't goin out tonight."

"Stay home."

He turned his head so he could see her better. "I would, but I feel like if I did that now I'd be givin' in and lettin' Shawn get his way."

"So you're gonna go out to punish him then?" Audrey bit her lip as she tried not to laugh. She found him and the situation endearing but kept it to herself as she didn't think he'd appreciate the sentiment right now. "Who are you punishing exactly? Shawn or yourself?"

"I don't know, Audrey," he chuckled. "It's been what? Nine months now and I still have no idea what I'm doin'." After a moment his countenance soured and he said seriously, "I hate this whole situation."

"What situation?"

Jon put his feet up on the coffee table with a bang. "The situation with George. If he'd just leave me alone we'd be fine. I wouldn't have to go out, Shawn wouldn't randomly yell at me for goin' out and threatenin' to leave. Nothin' I say or do makes George happy; he's convinced I'm up to no good with you. And Shawn, well, as soon as I think he's happy he let's me know he's definitely not. I'm so sick of not being able to make anyone happy."

Audrey was quiet for awhile, lost in thought. It was strange the way Mr. Feeny was going about things. He'd never once said anything to her about Jon one way or the other. On the rare occasion he would ask if she was seeing anyone or encourage her to go out and have fun, but he was never pushy nor insistent about it.

"I'm happy with you," she assured him when she saw him watching her worriedly.

"Hang around," he grunted miserably. "I'm sure I'll do something to get you to not speak to me, too. Gimme a little more time."

"Mr. Feeny is really giving you a hard time, isn't he?" She took her thumb and tried to massage the frown lines from his brow.

"Every Monday he grills me on my weekend. What did I do? Who did I spend it with? If I'm vague he gets pushy wantin' to know details." He shifted his position to get closer to her. "Before you showed up, he didn't seem overly fond of my datin' habits, even implyin' I shouldn't date so much but otherwise left me alone. Now that I've backed off of datin', he's got an issue with that."

"I don't know him very well, but maybe he thinks he's protecting me. I dunno."

"Wanna know what else I'm sick of?" he asked with a scowl. She nodded. "I'm sick of being set up all the time. I mean, I know Cory's mom means well but I really do not wanna go out with any more of her friends. But if I don't, George will find out and then be all over me wantin' to know why. That's happened three time now and I'm convince he put her up to all this matchmaking stuff."

Jon wasn't the only one who wished Mrs. Matthews would stop setting him up. Audrey disliked it more than he did, only she had never voiced this to anyone. "I'm sorry, Jon. I wish I could help you."

The English lit teacher gave her a sidelong look."You could if you really wanted to. This would all go away if you weren't my student teacher. You could reconsider this whole teachin' thing. Change your major and transfer down here. Teachin's not that great, anyway. Kids are okay, but adults and the pay not so much."

Audrey laughed. "It's a little late to change now I think."

He shrugged. "So don't change totally. Switch to elementary education. I always thought you'd make a great kindergarten teacher."

Audrey ran her fingers through his hair again just as Shawn walked into the living room. While he should have been pleased to see this, he wasn't. It just infuriated him even more that Jon was going out with someone else. He dropped the suitcase he was holding loudly onto the floor, making sure they knew he was there.

Jon turned to give him an irritated look over the sofa's back. "Why do you have a suitcase?"

"I'm stayin' with Mom," he announced. Defiantly, he stood with his feet shoulder-width a part and his arms crossed over his chest glaring angrily at his teacher.

"Oh, she's mom but I'm not dad anymore?" Shawn's declaration bothered him immensely and added to his annoyance. "Okay, fine. But you are not stayin' overnight."

"I don't plan on stayin' overnight," the teen shot back. "I'm stayin' for good."

"Oh, no, you're not!" Jon snapped, jumping up from the couch to face Shawn. "You're stayin' at Audrey's until I come and pick you up. I won't be out long enough for you to fall asleep."

"Why bother?" Shawn squared up to Jon with no idea what might happen if he continued to push. He could very well find himself homeless again, but there was something within him spurring him on. "You don't really want me here anyway. I cramp your style too much. If I go then you can date whoever you want, whenever you want, and I won't be in the way! And neither will Mom!"

"Shawn! That's enough!"

This sharp rebuked came from Audrey who never had a sharp rebuke for anyone. Ever. Both Shawn and Jon stared at her in shock and both shut up.

Audrey got up from her seat and walked around the couch to take a place at Jon's side. Her hands were on her hips and asevere, very un-Audrey like look was on her face. "I know you're upset, but you do not have a right to speak to Jon like that. Do you understand me?"

Shawn swallowed back the astonishment that lodged itself in his throat and left him barely able to speak. He stared at the floor and muttered, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me," she said shortly.

"I'm sorry, Jon," he said, a little louder this time.

"Yeah, thanks," Jon said, shifting uncomfortably. He gave Audrey a wary look, wondering if she had a correction for him, too.

"Shawn, go unpack your things," Audrey told him. Her voice was much softer; firm still, but softer. "Bring your school stuff. You and I have some studying to do."

"Yes, ma'am," he said humbly. He picked up the suitcase and took it back to his room, careful not to make any sort of noise that might be construed as having an attitude.

Jon sighed as he watched the boy retreat to his room, then shot Audrey a curious look. "Hey."

"Hmm?"

"Thanks."

She smiled.

"See, I was right though," he said, wagging a finger at her. "You correct him and no back talk, no attitude. He does favor you over me."

Audrey waved her hand in dismissal. "Give it a few more times and the shock of me getting onto him will wear off and he'll treat me the same. It's a teen thing and you know it."

Jon laughed and shook his head. "Suitcase or not, he may never leave your place after tonight."

"I don't have a problem with that."

"Yeah? What am I supposed to do then if he stays with you?"

She thought about this for a moment, then gave him a playful shrug. "That's your problem."

Jon caught her hand and pulled her over to him. With a mischievous gleam in his eyes he said, "Well, Mama, I can see who Shawn gets his attitude from."

She tilted her her chin to look up at him."Oh, really, Mr. Sarcasm?"

Jon grinned and pressed his cheek against her hair. "Did I tell you about Tess?"

Audrey turned her head away so he couldn't see the dejected expression on her face. She hated hearing about his latest date, although she had said nothing to him about it. "Not that I recall."

Jon rested his chin on top of her head. "Okay, well, she..."

"Shawn! "she called suddenly, leaning away from him "Hurry up! We need to go."

Jon was perplexed by her sudden attitude shift. This wasn't like her; normally he told her about the women he was taking out and what they were like, assuming he knew. She'd never pulled away from him before. He had the sinking feeling that now she, too, was unhappy with him. "Hey, what's up?"

Audrey looked liked he'd caught her sneaking back in from a late night. She was now standing a few feet away from him with her arms crossed over her waist."Nothing. I just don't want you to be late to pick up your date."

Shawn trudged into the living room with his book bag in tow. He wasn't necessarily in a good mood but if Jon had to describe it he'd call it a neutral mood that could go either way.

"I'm ready," the boy mumbled, not making eye contact with either of them.

With the way Shawn stood next to Audrey while staying as far away from him as possible, Jon felt like he was dropping his kid off with the ex-wife before meeting up with the girlfriend. Shawn certainly had succeeded in making him feel like he'd broken up the family. It made him feel like scum.

The drive to Audrey's was a quiet one but unlike most of their quiet rides it was not a cozy silence. The silence was a storm cloud ready to burst with all manner of unpleasantness. That cloud hung lowest over Shawn who grew more discontented the closer they got to the little white house.

Jon got out the truck and walked around to the passenger side to open the door for Audrey. He narrowly missed getting hit when Shawn wildly threw the door open to slide out between Audrey's seat and the back to get out. Jon could have sworn the kid did it on purpose.

Shawn pushed opened the white gate with his foot and stood in the open space glaring at his caretaker much the way he had earlier: angry and defiant. Jon leaned back against the truck's door, trying to ignore the teen as his frustration grew.

"I'll be back by 11 at the latest," he told them. Then he looked around Audrey to give Shawn a "don't even think about staying" look.

Shawn marched up behind Audrey. What he was about to say was the equivalent of taking his life into his own hands but there was such an inexplicable swirl of anger, hurt, and fear within him that he said in the snidest, most disrespectful tone possible, "There's an empty apartment now. You gonna pick me up at 11 on what day?"

He saw the look of embarrassment and anger flare on his teacher's face and almost felt bad about it. Almost. Jon clinched his fists into tight balls and ground his teeth together to stop himself from saying something he'd regret while Audrey whipped around to reprimand teenager. Shawn didn't stick around; he ran into the house, slammed the door, and hunkered down in "his" bedroom to await his fate.

Audrey turned back to Jon and gave him an apologetic shrug. "I'll get it sorted out."

"Good luck," he sighed wearily, wishing he could go inside with her, even if it meant dealing with a confrontational teenager. He dug the heel of his boot into the grass of the curb, unsure of how the night had gone so wrong so quickly. As frustrating as Shawn was being, he was confident that this between them would blow over and by morning their relationship would be back to normal. His concern, however, was Audrey. Typically, when he left for a date, she would tease him about it a bit, then tell him to have a good time. She was usually in a cheerful mood. He didn't know if it was Shawn's attitude rubbing off on everyone or something else, but she seemed distant and closed off. She stood in front of him with her arms across her waist, not to ward off the chill in the air, but to put a defined wall between them.

"Everything okay, Aud?" he asked hesitantly.

His voice seemed to startle her. "Yeah, everything's good."

She wouldn't look him in the eye. Everything was not good and he did not know what he'd done to upset her.

"Look, Jon," she said, dropping her arms. She twisted the ring on the middle finger of her right hand- her mother's wedding band. "If your plans change, it's no problem for Shawn to spend the night.

There was a pained, doleful look that flashed across her features, darkening her eyes. The look passed and her expression went blank again. He'd never seen that look before and it concerned him. He reached out to her but she put her arms in front of herself again. With a tight smile, she said, "You're going to be late if you don't leave now."

He didn't understand her statement about Shawn staying the night. He never changed his plans; he always did what he told her he would do. Why would she think tonight would be different? Then Shawn's accusation echoed in his ears.

The apartment was empty...

Realization hit him like a ton of bricks. The apartment was empty tonight and it was empty at his suggestion. He had suggested Audrey's place for that night because they were always at the apartment and he thought Shawn might appreciate a change of scenery as Audrey's place had more room for him to spread out and a yard in a safe neighborhood to mess around in. Unfortunately, both Audrey and Shawn took this suggestion to stay at her place to mean something else entirely.

"I'm not taking Tess back to the apartment."

She looked up at him impassively and he had no idea what she might be thinking.

"What you do is your business, Jon," she shrugged as though she didn't care, but she also turned partially away from him.

He took a step towards her."And I'm not spending the night with her or anyone else."

There was no response to this. He frowned. She was really upset. There was no date that was worth this mess.

"I promise you I won't."

She bit her bottom lip, clearly wanting to believe but she hesitated and that bothered him more than he could say. He knew the root of the problem was there was no defined relationship between them. The talk of being of family and what happened over Christmas they both treated as joke and teased each other about. It was an idea that was fun to play with but that was the extent of it. They had never had a serious discussion about what would actually happen, if anything, once Audrey's student teaching was complete.

"Come on." He gingerly approached her, not wanting to cross any unseen boundaries. She didn't move away so he reached out for her hand. She didn't reach out to him but she didn't resist either. Brushing her hair way from her face, he kissed her cheek then put his forehead against hers. She didn't react or say anything, but she did look up at him with those great gray eyes and he felt a wave of guilt hit him. "I'll be back by 11."

"Okay," was all she said. He left without a goodbye from either her or Shawn.

Shawn watched Jon leave from the window in "his" room before he trudged back into the living room to face Audrey's wrath. The wait was excruciating and he wanted to get it over with. To be honest, he was both curious and a little afraid of how things might turn out as he could not predict her reactions the way he could Jon's.

Audrey had his book bag in the chair at the kitchen table. If she was still upset with him she did not say anything. Actually, she said very little; not much more than one or two words unless it was something specifically related to his school work. This bothered Shawn a great deal as it was so out of character for her and, if she was still mad at him, he wished she'd just yell at him and be done with it. But Audrey did not yell, he learned. She silently stewed in her thoughts until she could fully control her emotions and speak what was on her mind without losing that control. And until she did, the room was ice cold. Shawn shivered; it felt like the air conditioner was on and turned down low in mid-February. As they studied together for his upcoming social studies test on Monday, he realized that although she was unhappy with the way he'd spoken to Jon and halfheartedly apologized before mouthing off again, it was much more than that that was influencing her mood. There was a melancholy about her that seemed to increase as the night when on. He couldn't help but notice that she repeatedly checked the clock several times an hour.

Shawn also learned that just because Audrey doesn't talk doesn't mean she's forgotten about him or that he wasn't still in trouble. After his homework and studying were done, he bounced up ready to drown his sorrow in mindless televisions shows and popcorn with the hope of avoiding any discussions.

"Shawn." The chilly tone in Audrey's voice froze him as he stepped onto the threshold of the living room.

"Yeah?" He peeked over his shoulder to take a fearful glance at her. She was still going over his homework and not looking at him.

"Sit down."

Immediately, he went back to his chair and sat down. He knew he was in serious trouble, but he was determined to do whatever it took to get back into her good graces, even if it meant sacrificing his ego.

"What's going on with you?"

Shawn frowned. He didn't know how to answer, for multiple reasons. One, the question caught him guard; he was expecting to be lectured. Two, he really didn't know himself. He could say he was angry. He could say he was hurt. He could say he was worried. But he couldn't say why.

So he shrugged. She arched an eyebrow and looked unimpressed.

Remembering his vow to make her happy again, he quickly said, "I don't know. I just feel like I'm in Jon's way all the time."

Her countenance softened a bit."Why is that?"

He shrugged again. He laid his arms on the table and put them out straight in front of him, palms down. "I just do."

"Has he said anything to make you feel like this?"

"No."

"Is he not wanting to spend time with you?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.

"No, no," Shawn tipped his head back and shook his hair out of his eyes. "He's been spending a lot of time with me."

Audrey set his homework in a neat pile in the middle of the table and put her pencil away."So why do you feel like you're in his way?"

"Because," he sighed, "the very first time we don't have something planned, instead of hangin' at home he jumps to go out with the first girl who comes along. What would that say to you?"

Shawn saw a strange look pass over her face and she glanced at the clock again.

"Shawn, do you know why he's going out tonight? Why he goes out when he does?"

He did know. It was the same reason he'd dated anyone since Christmas."To get Feeny off his back so he won't snoop around trying to find out what he's really doing after school. Because if Feeny caught us all together it'd cause a lot of problems."

"So you do know the reason." He nodded. She regarded him quietly for a long while, then just as he started to get antsy, said, "So this attitude has nothing to do with Jon, does it?"

Shawn picked at the dry skin around his thumbnail. "No," he admitted. "It's doesn't."

"What is it then?"

The teen shifted uncomfortably and straightened his arms out on the table again. He still couldn't answer why he felt the way he did, so he said the first thing that came to him when those emotions hit."It's Mr. Feeny. He says he doesn't hate me but then he's doing everything he can to make sure I never get a real family."

Audrey stared at him in confusion at the direction the conversation suddenly took. It took her a moment to regroup. "Mr. Feeny doesn't hate you, Shawn. You know that. His concern about what Jon's doing on the weekend has to do with me, not you."

Shawn grumbled incoherently under his breath. Those feelings surged again as he thought about his teacher, Audrey, and his principal. Another worry suddenly pushed it's way to the forefront of his mind; one he'd been trying to bury for the past two weeks.

"It's only February," he said looking at her solemnly.

She frowned. "Yes, it is."

"So why is the PTA havin' a mother/son dance now? That's so stupid. Mother's Day is in May."

"I don't know," she said, taking note of another strange detour. She had a feeling that whatever was really bothering Shawn was about to show itself. "There was a father/daughter dance last month, PTA probably think moms deserve something, too. Is that what's bothering you? The dance?"

"No," he snapped defensively. With a sour scowl, he folded his arms over his chest. "I just think it's stupid. If they wanna do something for the moms why not let them do what they really wanna do- take off and pretend they don't have husbands and kids who need them."

Audrey regarded with the teen with a studious gaze as she was beginning to piece together what was upsetting him."Since it's the school doing this I think it's mandatory to include the students somehow."

The soft tone that he always associated with her was back. He glanced up at her but found it hard to maintain eye contact. He felt like she knew what was wrong and he wished she would just tell him so he could stop trying to figure it out. "Still stupid," he denounced harshly, feeling the anger rise again. "Kindergartners wanna take their mommies to a dance, not high schoolers."

Audrey saw that he was getting agitated again let him go without further questioning, although she did not let him go without a stern lecture about his attitude towards Jon. Shawn was duly ashamed of his behavior by the end of her speech and also very curious as to why she didn't push more like other adults to say exactly what was wrong. He did not ask, though, as he did not want to discuss the matter further. He did appreciate that she recognized this.

And still, Shawn was in an inexplicably grumpy mood and annoyed with Jon for being out in spite of an unending flow of popcorn and TV when the front door opened shortly after 10 pm. Audrey, who was coming out of the kitchen with another bowl of popcorn, was surprised to see Jon walking into the living room and nearly dropped the snack.

"Hey." His face lit up in a wide grin when he saw her.

"Hey," she replied, glancing at the clock. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, great." He leaned further into the living room to see what Shawn was watching. "Why?"

"You're early."

"I'm hungry," he responded, turning back to her and taking a handful of popcorn. "You got anything in the fridge?"

"Yeah, help yourself."

Shawn was now turned around on the couch and kneeling with his arms over the back of the furniture. He was also very surprised that Jon was back so soon. The date must have been really bad.

"How'd it go tonight?" Audrey asked. The teen was glad she did. He was dying to know, but uncertain of how angry Jon was with him still.

"Great," he said cheerfully much to Shawn's surprise and Audrey's dismay as he rummaged around in the refrigerator. "Turns out Tess is a real big sports fan; huge Islanders fan. We went down to Mike's to catch the game and shoot some pool. She's really good. And I need a lot more practice."

Audrey was baffled by this as was Shawn. Jon usually came back from his dates at the time he said he would and then complained about them. But this one was great and he was back already?

Again, Audrey spoke for both of them."If everything went so well why are you back so early?"

Jon licked the mayonnaise off of his thumb and smiled to himself. "I don't think she liked me all that much."

"What!?" Shawn couldn't help but get involved now. He'd never known Jon not to be able to hit it off with a woman before. "Why?"

He shrugged, clearly having forgiven Shawn for earlier. "Apparently, I talked a little too much about two specific things and she got tired of it."

"What in the world did you talk about?" Audrey asked, still standing in the spot where she'd been when he came in.

"All I remember is sports and getting'-to-know-you type stuff. Normal things. I guess she heard it differently." He finished making his sandwich and took it into the living room where he set it on the coffee table, then went back to the kitchen to get a soda.

Shawn looked to Audrey who seemed to be on the verge of letting this go. But curiosity was killing him and Jon's explanation wasn't good enough.

"But why didn't she like you?"

Jon opened his soda and shrugged again. "When I dropped her off, I asked her if she wanted to go out again and she said next time I should just take with my wife and kid with me."

"What does that mean?" Shawn asked, hitting the back of the couch with his palm. He hated how adults spoke in code at important times.

Jon stopped in front of Audrey and regarded her with great affection. Then a puckish smile broke out over his face. "I guess I talked a little too much about the two of you and she got wrong idea." He took a drink of the soda, then said slyly, "Or did she get the right idea?" He leaned closer to Audrey and put an arm around her waist."Four months," he said so quietly Shawn had to stand up on the couch and lean over the back of it in order to hear him. "Then no more student teaching and we don't gotta do this anymore."

A grin of delight flashed across Audrey's face and impulsively she kissed his cheek. With cheeks blazing red, she let her hair fall around her face as she pulled away from him and sat on the couch next to Shawn who bounced onto the cushion with a much lighter attitude. As Jon took a seat next him, he gave his teacher a sideways look and said repentantly, "I'm really sorry about earlier."

"No harm, no foul, kid," Jon shrugged as he picked up the sandwich.

They sat in silence for about ten seconds before Shawn said, "Can we stay the night?"

"Shawn-n-n-n," Jon dragged out his name with a warning entwined in it.

"What about just me? Why can't I stay? You are afraid to stay alone in the apartment at night, aren't you?"

Jon shot him a dirty look then looked up at Audrey and laughed. "Because if Feeny ever found out about me letting you stay here I'm pretty sure I'd get fired."

"So what's the problem with that?"

"You don't see the problem?"

"No," Shawn folded his hands in his lap with great patience. Adults could be so dense sometimes. "Audrey wouldn't be your student teacher if you got fired. Then we'd all be happy."

"Yeah," Jon said exchanging an amused look with Audrey. "Who needs an income anyway?"

---

For the next two days everything was relatively normal for Jon both at school and at home. There had been a few moments of acting out from Shawn, but they were short and not as volatile as before. Audrey told him what she talked to Shawn about when he was out, but could not yet say with certainty what was going on with the teen. However, she did recommend trying to distract him when he started to get upset. That, so far, was working.

That morning had gone exceptionally well. Perhaps too well. Shawn had been in a cooperative mood and had gotten ready for school without any arguing or trying manipulate his way out of class. Cory had stopped by to walk to school with Shawn and the two managed to not only get to school early, but they were in their seats in his classroom before he walked in. That probably should have been a warning that the dam was about to break.

That dam broke with ten minutes left in his fourth period freshman English lit class. In the middle of his explanation of the homework assignment, Jon's classroom door swung open with a sudden burst. There stood Shawn in the doorway with a panicked, stressed look on his face, extremely upset.

"Shawn?" A thousand thoughts ran through the teacher's mind at once as to what could be the problem then one in particular stood out: Chet was back.

"I need to talk to you now." There was a weighty fear attached to each word yet the teen's voice was surprisingly steady.

Jon looked to Audrey for help. She motioned for him to go and stepped up to take over the class.

Out in the hallway, Jon braced himself for the inevitable: either Chet was back or he was gone for good. Prepared for the worst, he took Shawn by the shoulders, inhaled deeply, and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shawn's eyes were wide and distressed. "You're not gonna believe what Minkus did."

Jon stared at him thinking he must have misheard him. Shawn could not have just said Minkus. As in Stuart Minkus? The kid must have said something else that sounded like Minkus. Shminkus, Rinkus, Dinkus...there wasn't a rhyme Jon could come up with that made any sense.

He could not have said Minkus, though. There was no way Shawn left Eli's class to interrupt his class about something Minkus did; they weren't even in the same classes. Jon tried to focus on what Shawn was saying to understand the actual reason for the interruption. Out of Shawn's mouth came a torrent of words, most spoken so fast that they were indecipherable, except for the name Minkus that kept coming up. The best Jon could understand was that two former classmates had some exchange in the hall as Shawn headed back to Eli's class from the bathroom.

Jon frowned. There wasn't much time left before the end of the period. By the time Shawn could make it back to Eli's room the period would be over and the teen might bail on the rest of the day.

"C'mon, Shawn," the teacher sighed. "I can't understand what's goin' on, so go sit in the back of the room until my class is over. We'll talk then."

Shawn nodded and anxiously ran his hands through his hair as he followed Jon. Once in the classroom, Shawn went as far back in the room as he could. It struck both Jon and Audrey as very strange that he opted to sit on the floor in the corner rather than in an empty desk.

After the period was over and everyone was gone, Jon shut the door to the classroom and stood in front of it. "All right, Shawn. What's goin' on?"

Shawn stood to his feet slowly, his shoulders slumped forward, and his eyes downcast. The he looked at Jon and blinked as though the light was hurting his eyes. The next thing the English Lit teacher knew, Shawn rushed at Audrey and threw his arms around her.

Jon locked his classroom door; if Feeny wanted to give him grief about it later he could. He didn't want anyone walking in unannounced right now.

"Shawn," Jon said, putting a leg over a student desk top and leaning against it. "Tell me you didn't interrupt my class because Minkus said somethin' to you."

Shawn looked hurt that Jon didn't see the seriousness in this. "You weren't there. You didn't hear what he said."

"Then tell me."

"I did!" Shawn gave his teacher a dirty look as though Jon had somehow betrayed him. "You weren't listening!"

"Shawn, I couldn't understand you!"

"You never can!" the boy shouted in anger before he buried his face in Audrey's shoulder, fighting not to cry.

Jon held his hands out and motioned that he gave up. He stood up, shoved his hands in his pockets, and paced the room.

Audrey watched Jon for a moment then, wrapped her arms tighter around Shawn's shoulders. "Shawn," she said gently. "You didn't tell me what Minkus said."

Shawn turned his head to that his voice wasn't muffled. "Minkus walked into me when he came outta his classroom. He had his nose in book and was runnin' some errand to the office. He walked into me, but he yelled at me like I tried to beat him up or somethin'."

Audrey squinted. There had to be more to it than that. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know," the teen cried in dismay. Jon stopped pacing for a moment to look at his student who was obviously in pain. Shawn continued, "I was taking the longest way back to Mr. Williams class after I went to the bathroom. I wasn't walkin' down the middle of the hall I was along the wall. Minkus opens his classroom door, hits me, I tell him to watch it, and he yells at me."

At this point, Shawn was in tears: hot tears streaming down his face, full on sobs shaking his shoulders. Jon stared at him dumbfounded at this reaction to something Minkus said. Audrey was equally confused as the confrontation, if you could even call that, seemed very mild.

"Was that all?" she asked.

Shawn rubbed his eyes and nose against the fabric of her shoulder trying to make the tears stop."He had some fliers that he was takin' back to the office. He dropped them when he hit me. I asked him what the were for and he said the mother/son dance. I told him I didn't get one and he snatched the ones I picked up for him and told me that's because I don't have a mom so I don't need one."

Well, at least what Minkus said to upset him now made sense. Jon was still baffled that Minkus of all people could spark this kind of reaction out of Shawn when no one else could. Anyone else would've come face to face with Shawn's temper and fist. How in the world could Minkus send Shawn running to his classroom in tears? As far as he knew, two hadn't spoken to each other since the end of middle school. Aside from the occasional jokes cracked by him and Cory about really smart kids, Minkus was not a name that came up. Jon wasn't sure he could even pick the kid out of a line up because he wasn't sure he'd ever actually met Stuart.

If Shawn's reaction was bad, Audrey's lack of reaction was worse. She was holding him and stroking his hair as you would an inconsolable child, but she said nothing. This filled Jon with dread. If Audrey didn't know what to do to make Shawn stop crying, he was in trouble. He had no experience whatsoever to draw on that might help Shawn.

Finally, Audrey spoke."This isn't about Minkus at all, is it, Shawn?"

Her question caught Jon's attention and he wondered how she came to that conclusion. It certainly seemed like it was about Minkus to him.

Shawn didn't answer. He appeared to be holding his breath. Eventually, he shook his head no into her shoulder and held on tighter.

Audrey caught Jon's gaze and held it. "This is about your mom, isn't it?"

At that, Shawn's sobs began over again, more pained than before.

His mom? Shawn was upset about his mom? It came back to Jon at that moment that it wasn't just Chet who took off on Shawn; Virna dumped him first. He had been so angry with and focused on Chet that he'd simply forgotten that both parents had abandoned their kid. Jon let out a heavy sigh and walked over to sit on his desk next to Audrey and Shawn.

"This did all kinda start up after Ms. Jenkins came to homeroom and announced the mother-son dance a couple of weeks ago," Jon told her.

Audrey wasn't surprised. "When I asked him the other night what was bothering him, he went off on a tangent about how the dance was stupid. I kinda of figured this was going to come out sooner or later." She sighed. "Dads aren't expected to stay, moms are. There's no way her leaving didn't affect him."

"I forgot about her to be honest."

"No wonder," she said. "Was she ever around? Did you ever meet her?"

Jon shook his head. "I think the last time I even heard her name was when Chet said he was takin' off to find her. Shawn's never once mentioned her in all the time he's been with me."

A lot of things were beginning to make sense, especially when it came to Shawn's attachment to Audrey and why he wanted her with them all the time. Shawn's sudden declined interest in dating to stay home had concerned Jon some, but that too made sense now; the teen didn't want a girlfriend as much he wanted a mother. The English Lit teacher felt a bit useless watching Audrey console Shawn. She spoke to him in low, soothing tones, reminding him that none of this was his fault and that he was loved and safe. No wonder he'd been pushing so hard to stay with her. He needed a mother. He needed Audrey. In this situation Jon wasn't sure what he was. He wasn't a father that was certain. A brother then? The fun uncle that was rarely around? Whatever he was, he wasn't what Shawn needed.

Jon sighed heavily. He felt Audrey watching him. He looked at her, saw her affectionate, encouraging smile, and wondered why she was looking at him like that before he realized what he was doing. In his brooding, he'd moved closer to her and was rubbing Shawn's shoulders. Audrey gently rocked back and forth on her heels as Shawn quieted down. The teen was no longer crying, he was just holding on to his teachers.

Audrey brushed the boy's hair out of his face. "Feeling any better?"

Shawn turned his head toward Jon, then answered her, "Some."

"What are you thinking?"

"A lot."

"Tell me one thing."

"I can't go to the dance." Jon watched his face wrinkle up as he fought back tears. "But if I don't then everyone will know Mom left me too. Everyone will know that she didn't want me either."

"I don't think that's true, Shawn," Audrey said quietly.

"Then why didn't she take me with her?" The pain from earlier flooded his face as he fought an internal battle between hurt and anger.

Neither adult had an answer to his question, but Audrey said, "I don't know what your mom's going through, Shawn, but obviously she's dealing with some heavy stuff. She may have thought she was giving you a better chance by leaving you behind."

"With Dad?" Shawn scoffed derisively. Tears began to choke his speech which made him angry. "Dad's so horrible she had to leave him and take everything with her but he's okay for me to stay with? She doesn't want me and you both know it. She didn't even say goodbye. It's like I'm not even her kid."

As angry as Jon was with Chet, Audrey was equally angry with Virna. Had Virna been using drugs and took off in pursuit of them then Audrey could understand leaving her child behind. But was that her excuse? If not or even if it was she still could not excuse leaving a child behind in such a cold way. Especially with a father as unreliable as Chet. She hugged Shawn tightly. There was nothing she could say to alleviate his pain.

The three of them stood there for a long while as Shawn tried to get himself together. The bell had rung for the next period some time ago. Jon had no class; it was supposed to his plan time. He knew he should let Shawn's Algebra teacher know where he was, but it didn't feel right to leave at that moment.

Audrey tapped Shawn's shoulder to get his attention. When he looked at her, she asked, "What if I took you to the dance?"

Shawn lifted his head suddenly and pulled back so he could see her better. His eyes were wide with surprise that she would even think of that. "Would you?"

"Yes," she answered adamantly. "I would."

This idea thrilled Shawn but almost immediately he saw the problem with it. "Everyone knows you're not my mom. It would never work." He put his head back on her shoulder and tightened his grip on Jon's arm feeling as though the whole world was against him.

Jon had known that he needed to do something meaningful for Shawn for quite some time but he struggled to come up with anything until Audrey offered to be "mom" for the dance.

"The dance is Friday," he said slowly, trying to get his thoughts together.

"So?" asked Shawn, sounding miserable.

"So I'm not chaperoning and when I don't chaperon a dance Audrey isn't required to be there."

"So?" asked Audrey.

"So I'm thinkin' we head to Pittsburgh for the weekend."

Shawn gave him a curious look and lifted his head away from Audrey.

"What are we gonna do there?" he asked skeptically.

Jon shrugged. He really had no idea as he'd never been to Pittsburgh before. "I dunno, but I hear there's a lot of family stuff to do."

At the mention of family, Shawn's eyes lit up, but he still wasn't completely convinced that this was a good idea. "Why Pittsburgh?"

Jon looked at Audrey and smile. He looked back at Shawn and said, "No one there knows you aren't our kid. And no Feeny."

Our kid.... A slow smile spread over his face as he began to warm up to the idea. "I could ask Topanga if she knows anywhere fun to go. She's gotta an aunt out there."

Jon nodded, pleased with himself for contributing something helpful. "Sounds like we gotta a plan."

"Better than a dance," Shawn said. He allowed the feeling of hope with idea gave him have a place over the hurt and anger of his parents' abandonment.

"Definitely," Audrey grinned.

Jon gave Shawn a few minutes to get himself ready to go to his next class with along with a note to excuse his absence. As Shawn reached the classroom door, he turned and gave his teachers a shy look and asked hesitantly, "So will this weekend kinda be like Christmas?"

Jon quickly checked to see if any principals were watching through the door's window, then smiled and put his arm around Audrey.

"Just like Christmas."

0o0o0o0o0

Shawn was brought to the present by a peculiar sensation hitting him right at waist-level. He pulled back from Audrey with a funny look on his face and looked down.

"I think the new kid is telling me to back up." He laughed, unsure of what to make of the surreal feeling of an unborn child kicking.

Audrey grinned. "She certainly responds to some people more than others. She's the most active when you and Jon are around."

"Really?" Shawn was pleased by this disclosure. His sister recognized him! Sister? "Wait- she? Did you find out we're having a girl?"

Audrey shook her head and put her hands on her belly. "No, I just have a feeling. This pregnancy so far as been exactly like it was when I was pregnant with Bella and very similar to Julia. We'll see, though."

"I think everyone wants a girl so it'll be 3-on-3." Shawn had never been around pregnant women much and the only real experience he'd had was on a New Year's Eve long ago in a stalled subway car. "Can I go with you to one of your doctor's appointments? I've never seen an actual ultrasound before."

"Of course you can," she smiled, taking a glance at her other children. When she turned back to him, her face was serious. "But Shawn..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't change the subject. What's wrong?"

Of course, she wouldn't let him off of the hook that easily. Shawn heaved a heavy sigh. "The longer I'm here the more aware I am of how much I missed. I'm really having a hard time with that."

"Oh, Shawn." There was a look in Audrey's eye like she'd been through this very conversation more than once. "I know it's much easier to say than do: but you've got to stop dwelling on the past and focus on what in front of you so you don't miss anything else." She gave him a fond pat on the cheek then rolled her eyes. "You are just like Jon!"

Shawn smiled. There was no greater compliment than being told he was like Jon whether it was in strengths or in weaknesses.

"Dad probably hasn't had a chance to talk to you about Spring break yet, has he?"

"No, he hasn't."

"I told him that I really need to go back to Philly, back to where everything started, to maybe let everything go finally."

Audrey was happy to hear that he was ready to move forward and wished her husband would follow his lead. "Jon told me you've kept the apartment all these years."

"Yeah, I've tried to let it go several times, but I just can't." Shawn paused trying to put his thoughts into words that made sense; writing came so much easier to him. But it wasn't possible to take the time to do that now. Then he remembered who he was talking to. If he had trouble with his words, Audrey would be able to piece it together and help him get them out. "I need everyone to be there, though. Not just Dad. I need you and Julia especially. Cory and Topanga already said they'd go. Eric is coming, too."

"Well, I'd love to, Shawn," Audrey told him. She didn't know how that would be possible given her husband's work situation, but she didn't want to disappoint him either. "You know how Jon is about this job."

"He's already promised me he'd go."

Audrey was more than surprised to hear this. She was stunned. "He did?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "And I'm going to hold him to it."

She was quiet for a moment then nodded. "Then we're going to Philly for Spring Break."

Shawn could see her mind immediately start to organize the month ahead to prepare for the trip. "I'm going to need you and Julia to help me get everything ready between now and then. Jon will be working up to the last minute I'm sure and won't be available much."

"Whatever you need, Mama." Shawn picked at his thumbnail. There was one more thing bothering him, but he wasn't sure how to handle the subject without saying more than he should. He looked up to find Audrey watching him intently. "Mom?"

"Hmm?"

"You're not really gonna let this Dylan kid come over next weekend are you?"

"You don't like him, do you?"

Nope and I can't stand his mother. "No."

Audrey nodded toward the kids at the table. "There's too much going on on the weekends for us to properly supervise a kid we don't know. And until I get to know him, he's not coming over."

Shawn frowned as he replayed her words in his head. "How are you going to get to know him if he doesn't come over?"

Audrey gave him a little smirk and shrugged. Shawn grinned when he realized she'd had planned that from the beginning. Topanga was right: Audrey was the shrewdest of them all. And he was very proud of her.

"It'd be different if Julia was really interested him, but she's not," Audrey explained further. "And I don't care for the way we were introduced to him anyway."

Shawn pursed his lips together wondering if he should comment on this. He'd been dying to ask her for her thoughts on Katherine now, but was afraid he'd say something to tip her off that something was wrong.

"It was weird," he said cautiously.

"She isn't the first ex-girlfriend whose turned up hoping to find that Jon was miserable and needed someone to save him." Audrey rolled her eyes in annoyance. "But she is, by far, the pushiest."

"You don't like her?" Shawn tried very hard to keep his tone neutral.

Audrey made a face. "Never did. I never thought she loved Jon. She wanted what she wanted and what she wanted was to get married and have kids. She picked Jon out to fulfill that wish and didn't care what he wanted. No, I never liked her."

Shawn nodded, then his eyes went wide. When he last talked to her about the secretary, she said couldn't recall who she was. "Wait a minute- you do remember her!"

Audrey didn't respond as a sharp shriek from Bella diverted her attention back to the Monday morning chaos at the table. "Shawn, help me get the kids ready. I'm going need you to go with me on the school run."

---

After helping Audrey get the younger kids off to school, Shawn had no choice but focus on his new job. His piece on Jon was going live later in the afternoon and he was anxious about it's reception. He'd sent it to Jon who, naturally, had not had time to look at it. He'd also it sent it the Matthews (both Cory and his parents), Mr. Feeny, and Eric and received positive feedback. Audrey also was able to review it before he submitted it and she was very pleased with it. While all that was a relief to him, he did not know how the general public would receive it. Uncertainty fueled his need to put everything he could into his next piece- that meant time had to be invested. And that in turn left him with almost no time to spend at the District Office. Nothing, however, was going to keep him from being there after school on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays when Dylan would be hanging around.

Shawn spent nearly three hours at the swanky office of NYC Lifestyle, speaking with his new editor who was enthusiastic about his first piece and meeting his colleagues. Shawn felt incredibly out of place. The people his age where almost all settled down with someone. Those who did not have kids, had pets and/or an Instagram lifestyle they babied. The few who were unattached had their careers as priority and were obsessed it seemed with networking and being seen. Shawn had none of these but the people who were in similar life circumstances as he were fresh out of high school or in enrolled in college and deep into pop culture and experimenting with current trends. He struggled to find one bit of common ground with any of his new colleagues. When he thought he had, he quickly learned that many fabricated having difficult upbringings like his because they saw it as cool and edgy, setting them a part from their peers. In truth, most were trust fund babies and the others had very comfortable upbringings. It crossed his mind that these people would have little trouble fitting in with the grandchildren of Jon's parents' friends. He wondered if any of them were. There was not one person there that Shawn felt comfortable around. It also didn't take long to figure out that they all thought he was like them; that his troubled childhood and teen years were all made up and that he was simply a better story teller than they were. When he tried to defend his life, one of the younger Instagram couples immediately pointed out his father's background and where his family (and he) currently lived as proof he was as advantaged as they were. This was depressing as it was frustrating. As soon as he got his assignment for the week, Shawn got out of the office and headed to the nearest coffee shop to start working, eager to rid himself of his self-absorbed colleagues.

Just after lunch, he headed to the District Office. Although it would be a couple of hours before Julia showed up, he figured he could always do some research while he waited. He was disappointed to arrive the Office and find that Jon was out and so was Katherine. The office manager told him they had stepped out over an hour ago for a meeting at one of the elementary schools and did not know when to expect them back. Concerned, Shawn sneaked a peek at DeAndre's app to see if there were any emails or text messages that would give an indication as to where they were, but there was nothing. If a call had come through it came through on the office line and not Jon's personal number.

One of the custodians was in the outer office taking advantage of the fact that Katherine was gone to clean the office. Shawn greeted the man pleasantly. Big E had just finished cleaning Jon's office and held the door open so that Shawn could grab the district laptop he'd been using the previous week. As Shawn exited the office and closed the door behind him he couldn't help but notice that Big E was now in Katherine's area and he was not nearly as careful with her stuff as he was with Jon's. Big E looked up and locked eyes with Shawn just as his vacuum cleaner hit the corner of her desk and knocked over neat, but high stacked pile of Post-it pads.

"Oops," he said sardonically and rolled his eyes.

Shawn snickered. "What'd she leave you to do this time?"

Big E leaned over the large trash bin and pulled out four pages of bulleted notes. "I didn't even read this trash," he growled. "Ninety-nine percent of the stuff on these lists aren't my job; they're for a personal assistant which I ain't. I ain't pickin' up her dry cleanin'. I ain't even pick up my own." This was true- Big E's aunt and uncle owned a dry cleaning business and they dropped of his clothes at his apartment when he had any.

"You've got to be kiddin'." Shawn knew she was audacious with her demands of him but he didn't realize that he wasn't special in that regard.

"I wish I was." Big E made sure not to put Katherine's desk chair back the way she liked and sloppily dusted her desk making sure papers and pens were left askew. "I like your dad, Shawn. But her...she can go."

Shawn gave him a sympathetic nod of understanding. "Totally get it," he responded. "Mind if I take a look at her demands?"

"Sure," Big E tossed him the list. "Burn 'em when you're done. Preferably on her desk."

As Big E left, Shawn began to look over the list then saw that Katherine's computer was on. It had not been on when he came in or so he thought. Apparently, it had been in sleep mode and the vacuum cleaner hitting it woke it up. Topanga's warning was in his ears about a potentially bugged PC, but he couldn't help but take a look. Before he approached the monitor he took one of the spilled Post-it Notes and put it over the webcam. He didn't have to do any snooping. He barely had to touch anything. She'd minimized a bunch of windows but it was easy enough to see what she was looking at without doing anything more than hovering the mouse over each one. More of the same as before, articles about workplace romances, dealing with stepchildren and ex-wives, etc. There was a new search that was more than little disturbing: the Knot Weddings sign up page.

Shawn returned the computer to sleep mode and took the Post-It note off. He'd seen enough to know it was time to talk to Russ.

---

"So I was talkin' to a friend the other day about how the school system works and he was telling me some of the problems." Shawn sat across from Russ, who was at his desk. "One, he said, was that the email system is pretty much abused. Why is that?"

"Who's this friend?" Russ asked, pushing his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose. "Matthews?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"You've been back what a month or two?"

Shawn nodded.

"Yeah, the first school day after you came back Cory came running through here like a crazy person telling everybody he ran into that Shawn was back. I didn't even know who he was talking about until Jon came in amd translated his excitement for us." Russ laughed and tucked a stray piece of blond hair behind his ear. "So about the email system. Yeah, it's abused all right. I'm sure if we really took a look at it there's stuff on there that could get people fired on the spot." He wrinkled his nose and mildly swore. "It'd be nice to see some of these folks get what's coming to them."

"So why not do it?"

"Before you came a long and got the Office Solutions running we only had one way of dealing with that. Someone has to spend time with the primary program and look through every thing it documents. Then sort through everything to determine what should be put on files and what should be deleted. Who's got the time to do it? Occasionally, something will get flagged and the system will notify me. Then I send it to one of my techs who's job it is to do stuff like that. The it gets ignored because because whoever is assigned to it can't be bothered." Russ snorted derisively. "I wouldn't mind firing a few of my useless guys if I could."

Shawn wrinkled his nose. "How many do you have working with you?"

"About twenty."

"How many do you wanna fire?"

"About twenty."

"Oh," Shawn let out a low whistle. "This is pretty much a district-wide problem then, isn't it?"

"At every level, kid," Russ said with a sigh.

Shawn felt a bit peculiar about someone other than Jon calling him kid at his age, even though Russ was just a few years younger than his father.

"Why are you asking about this?"

Shawn tapped his fingertips on the table while swiveling back and forth in the chair. "Cory says things are getting out of hand with a few of the staff at his school. To the point of neglecting their job and leaving their aides to do all the work. They're spending a ton of time on websites and emails that have nothing to do with school, then bragging about it to other staff."

"Tell your dad."

"You've seen how stressed out he is, Russ. I don't wanna add to that if I can help it."

Russ seemed sympathetic to this. "That's why nothing gets done around here, Shawn. Anyone trying to do something worthwhile is so bogged down under miles of work and stress that when the good guys like Matthews see something wrong they try to deal with it and not bother the other good guys like your dad because they know first hand the kind of pressure that they're under. And everyone else knows it and takes full advantage of it. But tell your dad anyway. He doesn't have to do anything but flip the switch."

"Flip the switch?"

Russ grinned. "There's a monitoring feature that can be turn on in the Office Solutions program. It can scan all incoming and outgoing messages and websites accessed from non-academic sources which can be compiled and added to an individual's digital record."

Shawn considered this for a moment. "But if everyone knows it's been turned on then they'll just stop until it's not running anymore."

Russ gave him a displeased look. "You didn't read the internet usage policy did you?"

"Uh," Shawn stammered guilty. He'd given that paper to Topanga without doing anything more than skimming over it. "Not yet, but I will."

"You and everyone else." The man rolled his eyes. "If you people would read what I give you, you'd know that piece of paper every employee is required to sign explicitly states that any and all data exchanged on district owned electronic devices or while connected to the district WiFi on any device can be monitored for non-compliance at any given time without notification."

"Oh," Shawn said, realizing this could come in handy. "I can see why it would an important thing to read."

"I didn't write it to collect autographs," Russ harrumphed. "If Matthews believes that what's going on is that serious then he needs to tell Jon and Jon can give me the go ahead to turn the monitoring feature on."

Shawn nodded. "Thanks a lot, Russ. I'll pass that on."

"Yeah, do. Maybe getting that turned on will have a domino effect and we can rid of some of these bad seeds."

---

"Check it out!"

Shawn was sitting in a chair with his laptop on a corner of Jon's office desk waiting for him to return when Julia walked in, dropped her bag, and flapped a piece of fabric in his face.

"What is it?" he sneezed as the fabric tickled his nose.

"It's the shirt Dre got me for my wins yesterday," she told him, smoothing the over-sized shirt out onto the desk in front of him. "Or did you not know that happened?"

Ignoring the question, Shawn wrinkled his nose as he read the black t-shirt: I figure skate because punching people is frowned upon. He gave a snort of laughter. "Not bad, not bad." He looked up at her with mild disapproval in his eyes. "Why is this Dre kid giving you stuff?"

Julia, who was still upset with him for ignoring her at her competition, tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Because he likes me. As if it's any of your business."

"It is my business, sis."

"How?"

"Do you see Dad around anywhere?" Shawn asked standing up. With great exaggeration he looked around the room and stuck his head into the outer office to look there. "Me neither," he said turning to face her. "So it's my business while he's gone."

"Daddy won't care," she retorted, making a face at him. "Where is he anyway?"

"Dunno. He's been out all afternoon."

"Did you text him?"

"Yeah, but he didn't text me back."

Julia pulled out her phone. "Well, he won't ignore me," she said, flouncing down on her father's plush office chair.

Shawn could tell she was still upset with him for not paying more attention to her yesterday. He's figure out someway to make it up to her eventually.

Fifteen minutes passed and Julia was half-way through her Spanish homework when she picked up her phone again.

Shawn watched her expectantly. "Dad respond?"

She scowled. "No." And she texted him again. Again ten minutes after that. Again in another ten minutes. Julia was hurt and dumbfounded; he never ignored her. Ever.

Jon still hadn't responded to either of his kids' multiple texts and calls when they heard Dylan walk into the outer office. Julia quickly jumped up and hid behind the inner door; she wasn't in the mood to deal with him. Quietly, Shawn slipped around the desk and came up besides Julia. He watched Dylan through the crack in the door. When the boy was distracted by his phone, Shawn quietly shut the door and locked it. Just before he did, he and Julia heard him say into the mobile device: "Mom? Where are you? Call or text me back. No one's here and I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Shawn and Julia exchanged frowns. Did Dylan really not know where his mother was or was he playing a game with them?

Julia motioned Shawn away from the door. They took residence in the far inner corner of the office and Julia proceeded to tell him about her conversation with Dre in the wee hours of the morning. Shawn was concerned about this Jovani Biosson.

"Dre told me to freeze my account for now."

"Huh?"

"He's gonna take it over for a little while. Like I can check my news feed and stuff but otherwise I'm not going to do anything with it. No posting or talking to anyone on it. I told my friends that if they post something that I need to respond to I'm gonna text them for a while."

Shawn frowned. "What's Dre looking for?"

"The mole. He thinks that if I'm quiet it might get Jovani to contact me."

This was absolutely not something he wanted his sister involved in and he fervently shook his head against the idea. "No good. You don't need to be talking to someone we don't know."

"Okay, Gramps," she gave him a sarcastic smile as she rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna be talking to him- Dre is."

"Oh," Shawn felt only a little better about this idea. "Gotcha."

Julia neatly folded her shirt up and put it back into the gold glitter gift bag it had come in. "Do you have Facebook?"

"Yeah," Shawn said, settling back into his chair. "I signed up years ago but never did anything with it."

"Well, get back on and friend me and Dre. He wants you in on our group chat so he can sent you anything he finds like screenshots and stuff. He's pretty certain he knows who's behind it; he's just lookin' for proof."

"Is he thinkin'-?" Shawn jerked his head in the direction of the outer office.

"Yup."

"Okay," Shawn admitted, a bit upset he didn't think of this. "I'm impressed. Dre sounds like a good guy to have on our side." Dre may be good to have around, but he was very troubled by the big, beaming grin that lit Julia's face when he praised her friend. Regardless of what he did at fifteen, he didn't see why his baby sister needed to rush into the boyfriend/girlfriend thing.

It was after 4:30 pm when Jon and Katherine made it back to the office. With Dylan sitting alone at his mother's desk, Jon was hardly surprised to find that his office door locked. He banged on the door but there was no response. Either earbuds were in or the two on the inside thought he was Dylan and were pretending they weren't there. He fished the keys out of his pocket and unlocked his door. Inside, were his son and daughter sitting side by side on the same side of his desk, heads down, and fast asleep with Julia's math homework spread out underneath them. It was the first time all day that anything had made him smile. He couldn't resist taking a picture and sending it to Audrey.

His children, however, were none too pleased to see him when they woke up. He was met with indignation from Julia and quiet disapproval from Shawn.

Julia jumped up from her seat when she saw him, sending her papers flying all over the desk and into Shawn's face. "Where have you been!?"

"I've been in meetings all day, Julia." Jon felt defensiveness creep up his back and set his jaw on edge.

"All day?"

"Yes."

"Every second of the day?"

Her tone was decidedly bratty and caused an unfounded ire to rise within him. "Watch your tone with me! What is your problem?"

Undeterred, Julia folded her arms over her waist and scowl at him, trying very hard not to cry. "My problem is we've been sitting here waiting for you and you couldn't even be bothered to respond to any of our texts."

Jon pursed his lips together when she called him out. He glanced at Shawn, but the younger man was standing at his daughter's side pretending to be engrossed in his phone. "I saw the texts, you were with Shawn, I didn't see any reason to text back when I'd be back here sooner than you would get a text from me."

His tone implied that the conversation was over, but Julia wouldn't accept this. Not after the conversation they'd had last night. She didn't understand why he was acting like this. She knew she wasn't being unreasonable in wanting a text back to know where he was. What if Shawn hadn't been there? Then what? It was the "then what" that bothered her the most. Blinking back stunned tears, she whipped out her phone and pulled up her text messages. With a trembling hand, she held her phone out so her father could see her inbox. She had zoomed in on the time her first text to him was sent nearly three hours before.

There was no way to explain or excuse not responding to either of them. Jon knew he'd messed up and looked to Shawn for help only to find that his son, no longer on his phone, would not make eye contact with him.

"I'm sorry," he said weakly. His shoulders slumped forward and he put a hand to his temple. "I thought Kat would text Dylan and he'd tell you guys."

"Nope," a sour voice behind him snapped. Jon looked over his shoulder to see Katherine's son leaning against the doorway. All of his focus was on Jon. He glared at the superintendent with serious, unspoken accusations. "Mom couldn't be bothered to text or take a call from me."

"I'm sorry," he said again, looking back to Shawn and Julia. "I should have done it. I just..."

Shawn, regardless of his irritation with the situation, felt a sudden compassion for his father who look suddenly very weak and not at all himself. He did not wish to continue this in front of Dylan anyway so he nudged his sister. "C'mon, Jules. Let's clean up your stuff."

As upset as she was, Julia couldn't leave the office without making amends. Jon returned her hug with a weary sigh into her hair. First day without Shawn and everything felt like it was falling apart.

Julia and Shawn took their places in the corner of the outer office to wait for Jon so they could leave. Dylan, surprisingly, did not attempt to interact with them. Instead he sat by his mother and scowled periodically at the superintendent's door.

At a quarter to six, Katherine, who had been in a cheery mood all day, stood up and told Dylan to get his things. Shawn and Julia were more than a little surprised by this move as she never left before Jon did. She always waited to escorted him out. On their way out, Katherine stopped by their table and gave them a triumphant, self-satisfied grin.

"I hope you two had a day as good as mine," she said lightly. To Jon's kids there was something sinister behind the Mary Poppins smile. "But somehow I doubt it."

The woman then reached out to Julia, tucking her hair behind her ear. Repulsed, Julia snarled and recoiled as Katherine patted her cheek in a cool, patronizing manner.

---

Well, it's mid-June isn't? Sorry about the delay. It seems like as soon as I make plans to write more something comes along to make sure I don't. At any rate, this chapter got so long that I felt I needed to break it up. Good news is the second half is already written and just needs to be edited. So this time the wait should only be a week. Hope you're still finding the story enjoyable.