Chapter 23 - A Wild Flowers Still Grows

They never knew the fallout could be as bad as it was about to get.  When they decided together to do what was best for their family and not speak at Dalton's parole hearing, Jon knew he had to get her and their family as far away from ground zero as he could. 

They hurried home and packed what they needed because they knew that hanging up that phone and not giving into the demand was going to destroy the life that they had.  They know it will never be the same and the road back to normal will be long, winding, bumpy and some of it may even be missing.

He just couldn't get it done in the way that he had it all planned out in his head.  "Are you ready?"  he whispers to Beth as she sits on the ottoman in the living room, her pocket book between her feet.  "I have to grab some things from the studio, but other than that, I'm set.  What do you need yet?"  He stops, standing over her, his posture defeated.  

She looks up at him, eyeliner running down her cheeks, her eyes as puffy as her heart feels heavy.  "I think I am.", was all that she could muster.  Her head drops and she too postures defeated.  "How long this time?"  tears roll from her eyes.

Jon kneels down in front of her, his finger wiping away the tear that's breaking his heart, "I don't know babe.  I really don't know.  A week maybe."  he leans in, his lips linger on her forehead.  "We gotta go."  

Beth leans into his kiss, "I know.  I just don't want to." 

"I don't either, but that video is being released in just a matter of hours." he stands up, sliding his hand down her arm, taking her hand in his.  "Come on, let's go."  he gives her a gentle tug.  

Reluctantly, Beth gets to her feet.  "Is everything locked and the drapes drawn?"  

"Yes.  Lynn will be by on check on the house."  He leads her through the house, pausing at the hallway that leads to the studio.   He wasn't going to leave her alone, even if was only 300 feet and 10 seconds, "Come on, you can help me."

They gather a few things for him, the things he usually has with him on the road.  He tosses it all into his messenger bag, "Anything in here you need?"  he looks around, his hand on the light switch, "You have our phone chargers, right?"

She nods, "I don't need anything." 

They toss their things into the back seat of her Escalade and they are off.  They have to stop at his parents to get the twins, Jake and Romeo and then they are off the the airport.  The jet is waiting for all of them to arrive.  "Did we do the right thing?"  she asks him, taking his hand off the shifter, "I don't have a good feeling about this, Jon."

"We did the right thing." his hand squeezes hers, tightly.  "We did the only thing we could have."  he watches her face and it kills him that her expression didn't change.  He's wondering if he's done enough to protect her, to make her feel safe, after all that she's been through.  

She looks out the passenger window, "I could have said something to the parole board." she softly responds, wanting to vomit on the words that were coming out of her mouth.  "I think we should have done all that we could to keep it from getting out there."

"We're powerless.  You have to know that.  We have no idea who has a copy of it."

"I feel like we could have, maybe should have done more."

"Beth....." he tries to reassure her, his nerves are just as raw as hers are.  He's not only feeling like he's let his family down, but he's literally committed career suicide by doing nothing.  "If we went and spoke at his hearing, what do you think would happen if he got out?"  He shutters to think of the hell that he could have reigned down on them, even just by the mere fact that he was out roaming free, "And there was no guarantee that the video wouldn't get out if we did speak.  So,when you really think about it, getting ahead of it was the best thing we could do."  

Beth looks over at him, "This is going to be bad."

He gives her a solemn look, "I know, but we'll get through it if we face it together."

"It's going to be a nightmare that we won't wake up from.  Our family, our friends Jon. THE KIDS!" she's finally absorbing the stress and seeing the potential damage, "I know we talked to Jess and Steph, but their friends will see it.  As soon as they hear that it's on TMZ's website, their friends will be curious.  Any one that hears that they have video of the attack, everyone is going to want to see it.  EVERYONE!"  she's out of breath and needs air.  She reaches over and put her window down, "Your parents."  her head drops as that breaks her heart.  That is one thing that they don't need to see.

"They will never ever watch it." 

"But what if some of their friends see it?  TMZ is making it sound like it's a sex tape, like Tommy Lee's - it's not a fucking leaked tape, its a video of my horrific and damaging assault."  she buries her face in her hands.  

"I know what it is, but there is nothing we can do, hon, I am so sorry."

She leans over and cries on his shoulder, wiping her tears with a tissue from her bag, "What are people going to say?  What are they going to think?"

"We can't worry about that, really, we can't.  We need to stay positive and think of the family and friends.  No one can see that this has broken us.  We need to appear united on every level at every appearance."

She quickly sits up and looks at him, mouth open in surprise.  "Appearances?"