Stay: Chapter 34

Stay: Chapter 34: Modern advances in technology let both Jon and Beth know when the gate to the driveway has been activated.  In unison their phones alerted ...

Stay: Chapter 33

Stay: Chapter 33: Healing truly comes from within and the sooner that Jon and Beth let that happen, the sooner that their lives can get better.  Neither of t...

Chapter 33

Healing truly comes from within and the sooner that Jon and Beth let that happen, the sooner that their lives can get better.  Neither of them want to admit that there are issues still, or elephants as Beth likes to call them.  The trauma and the heartache that they faced alone and together was enough to break even the strongest of couples, but they seem to manage to hang onto one another.

They spent a few days at home with the family before either of them started back into the daily grind of running a large household, several businesses and managing one of the biggest rock bands in the world.  

Sunday's are the best day of the week.  For the Bongiovi clan, that meant lazy breakfast and a day without a schedule.   Jon and Beth are on the back patio having coffee when Beth's cell phone rings.  That's not alarming as her phone rings quite a bit, but the name on the caller I.D puzzled her.  As she picks it up she says to Jon, "Why is Dot calling me?"  She gives him a look.  "She knows better than to call me."

"Gimme it." he demands, with his hand held out and the look of an angry lion on his face.  "I'll take care of it."

Beth hands him the ringing cell phone and sits back to observe.

Jon swipes right, phone to his ear, "This better be good."

Jon hears, "Dad?"  Beth watches the disgruntled look melt off of his face.

"What's up Rose?"  the surprised dad questions.  "What are you doing at your mothers?"

"Dad, something has happened."  the young lady starts to say,  "But everyone is okay."

John sits straight up in his favorite Adirondack chair, alarming Beth.  "Are you hurt?"  The frantic dad brain kicks in.  "Is Jesse hurt?"

"Dad, calm down, everyone is okay."  Stephanie can picture her dad, the brow wrinkled.

"I'm calm, what happened?"  his fingers go through his hair, he reaches for his phone to see if there was something that he had missed on his.  Nothing.  

Stephanie spent the weekend with her mother, after Dorothea made her feel guilty for staying away.  She didn't really want to go, but Dot had a way of twisting the kids and their feelings.  "Mom and I went to Macy's this morning and when we came back, someone had broken into the house.  Jesse isn't here, he's with Todd."

"Everyone is okay?"  he frantically asks, "How's your mother?"

"Dad, we're fine, they just trashed the house.  Mom wants to know if she can stay in the guest house."

"Here?"  His jaw drops.  "This guest house?"  He looks at Beth, a little crooked.  Beth is now starting to get concerned.

"Yeah dad.  She says she won't feel safe in a hotel."  He can hear that even though she thinks it's a terrible idea, he also knows that she's now worried about her mom.  "I'll stay back there with her if that will make you feel better."  His martyr daughter, throwing herself on the sword for her self absorbed mother, begging her over entitled father to show compassion.  

"Steph, you know that's not a good idea."  his butt slides to the edge of his chair, "None of that is a good idea."

"She's my mom!"  Stephanie is about to get upset.  She's looking at her mother, seeing her as almost helpless.  

Ever since the divorce and the final split, Dorothea has made it a point to try to get the world to feel sorry for her, starting with her own kids.  Through the milestones that come in life, Dorothea is stuck back at being married to Jon Bon Jovi.  The man that she's convinced she made.  Without her, he would have/be nothing.  If she could just get the rest of the world to believe that.  Even she forgets that there was another woman in the mix, way back in the day. The mix that was thrown together and made the best rock band ever.  

Jon doesn't like the way that the conversation feels and he knows that he's just seconds away from being Stephanie's hero or her worst enemy and he needs to decide, in a split second, who he can handle being mad at him.  Beth or Stephanie.  

He decides.

"Bring her here.  I'll talk to Beth and work this out."  with every word his heart races and his head drops.  "Make sure everything is locked up tight.  I'll send someone over there to take care of the mess."  He knows he's in a lot of trouble.

"Thanks dad."  the phone goes dead. 

Jon tosses Beth's phone onto the table.  As soon as it landed, "Why is she coming here, Jon?"   He doesn't have the opportunity to respond.  "JON, why is she coming here?  She's not coming here Jon."  Beth stands, stepping into his personal space, looking him in the eye.  "What happened?  Did she break a fucking nail?"  Beth steps passed him, "What did you just do?"

After a long and deep cleansing breath, "Her house was broken into and she doesn't feel safe."

"So the solution to that is to bring her here?"  Beth barks at him, feeling her blood pressure rise.  

Jon knows when to fight and when to wait.  With the history that the two of them share, he knows what she's going to do next, so he waits for his timing to be right.  He knows that after she blows up she'll head into the house and grab the cigarettes that she thinks are hidden.  She'll come back out onto the patio and smoke a cigarette before she mumbles one word to him.  He takes his place back in his favorite chair, in his favorite place with his favorite person.  He waits.  He's tempted to join her, the urge to smoke is quite powerful in moments like this for him.  For her too, but he's able to control his urge.  He loves the way her Marlboro Light smells.  He watches her smoke her cigarette and even though he can see that she's pissed, ready to blow a gasket and ready to kill him, he can't help but think that she's super sexy smoking that cigarette.  

When she has had enough, she tosses the cigarette into a potted plant and then takes a gulp of her orange juice.  She needed those seven minutes to calm her nerves, talk herself out of killing him.  Calmly she asks him, "Why is she coming here?"  she can't make eye contact with him.  She knows what she'll see if she does.  She knows that she'll see his compassion and his forever forgiving soul, and she doesn't need to see that right now.

Jon leans forward and places a hand on her knee.  Quietly he states, "Her house was broken into and she doesn't feel safe there."

"Send the cops." Beth is quick to fire back.

"Then we have the press to deal with." Jon reminds her.

"So." Beth could care less.  She has taken on the press before and she's not afraid to do it again.  "There is no reason for her to come here."  She starts to pace a little, "No reason at all."

"Beth!" he snaps shooting her a pretty deep version of the stink eye, but she doesn't stop.

"She doesn't need to fucking come here Jon.  She can go to a hotel, she can go to hell for all I care." she's on the verge of screaming at him.  She's not sure why, but she went full on bitch in a hurry.  "She has a family that she can stay with."  Beth forgets that Dorothea's family pretty much wrote her off when she got involved with Dalton and his crew.  Dot had burned all bridges, with pretty much everyone she ever knew.  She learned quickly where her allies stood, as she tried to topple Jon and his crew.

"You know she has no one now."  he tries to sternly remind her.

Beth turns on a heel, pointing to him, "RIGHT THERE, correct, she has no one - including us!"  She's louder now.  Loud enough that she was startled by Brianna when she popped out onto the patio.

"Mommy" was all that Beth needed to compose herself.  She walks over and picks up her baby girl, kissing all over her face.  Brianna laughs and tries to get away, "Mommy, stop."  Beth continues to kiss her, laughing.

"How did you sleep, princess?"  she asks the young girl, as she sits her in a patio chair.  "Did you sleep good?'  The controlled Beth asks,

"Yep." the little one tells her mom as she sees her daddy.  She smiles from ear to ear when she makes eye contact with her daddy.  Jon walks over and picks her up, tossing her up over his head.

Kissing her, he tells her "Good Morning."

"Are you hungry, Bri?"  Beth asks her, tucking away her cigarettes and lighter.  "Do you want some pancakes?"

Chapter 35

The day ended up being quite peaceful.  The guest house is far enough away from the main house and it's on the other side of the garage, so it can't even be seen from the main house.  Jon and Beth, with all the kids except Jesse spent the day playing games and just chilling out. 

As it got towards evening, Jon whispers to Beth, leaning over to her on the couch, "I'm going to head to the studio a bit, do you mind?"  He kisses the side of her face, "Unless you want to go with me?"

Beth looks at him and thinks for a second, "What do you plan on doing there?  Are you going to be a long time?"  She wonders, only because if she went, she doesn't want to be stuck there all night.  "If it's a quick in and out, I'll go."  She melts onto him, kissing her favorite feature of his, his chin.  She continues, "But if you plan on staying for a while and need time there, I'll stay home."

"I can do either.  If you want to go, let's go."  his arms go around her and he holds her tightly.  "I can do in and out or I can stay there all night, but if you want to get out and go with me - let's do that."

Her tension leaves her body as he holds her, she loves how soothing his voice can be.  "Do you know what Pete is doing?  Is she back from church?"

"I haven't seen her, but Steph is here.  She can watch her brothers and her sister."

"Don't assume that Jon."  Beth nudges him with her elbow.  "She may have plans."

Reaching passed her to get to his cell phone, "I'll text her." he plays with her.

"Jon, seriously."  Beth smirks at him, "Get up and go ask her."

"A text will work, watch this."

Jon taps out a quick text to his daughter and then sets the phone on the back of the couch.  He settles back into his position of the loving husband and cuddles with his wife.  The little ones are watching a movie, kicked back on their bean bags, bowls of popcorn resting on their bellies.  The other two are  assumed in the game room doing what boys do when there is no schedule in place.  From the outside looking in, there isn't anything wrong in Beth's world - other than the ex wife just a few hundred feet away.


The run into the city was a pleasant one, as pleasant as N.Y.C. can be at 8 pm.  On their drive the two of them made good use of the free time and just talked.  Beth's hand on top of Jon's on the gear shift.  She's sitting sideways in her seat and can't help but soak up every detail of the face that's next to her.  The face of the man that she's loved so hard, the face of the man that's hard to love.  Loving him is expensive and she's seeing that.

"Why is Dorothea in our guest house?"  her tone flat, but alive enough for him to know that that question needs to be answered, honestly.

He looks over to her, "How do you want me to answer that?"

"Honestly."

With his eyes on the road, Beth can see his grimace, she feels his hand twitch under hers.  "I reacted to the tone in Stephanie's voice."  Was all he said.

Beth processed that for a moment and didn't like that it was just so blunt.  "She's panicked for far less and the end result has never been as strong as the solution to this problem."  She wiggles a little in her seat, but never loses contact with her husbands hand.  "Don't you think that this is a bit much, even for us?"  Her tone showing no empathy.  She's has never been empathetic when it comes to Dorothea.  Even from the very beginning.  Sure, the two women attempted to form some type of a relationship in the best interest of the children, but it never worked.  Neither woman was able to see the other for what they were worth.  "We've never stooped to this level of vulnerability, Jon.  Do you really think that this is a good idea?"

"What's the worst that can happen?  She has no one and she is the mother of my children."

"Now she's your house guest!"

"And....?" he asks a question that doesn't even need to be answered.

She takes her hand away from his in response to what he just said.  "And?  And?"  He can hear that she's getting upset.  "And what the hell, let's just invite our biggest ever problem into our safe space!  And.........fuck you, Jon."  She just reached her maximum capacity for the stuff that she tolerates and never should.  "You invited trouble into our house."

"I think you're over reacting."  He tries to place his hand on her leg and she quickly pushes him away.

"I think you are over reacting to her bullshit situation.  She can go to the Four Season, she can go to a homeless shelter for all I care.  She is NOT staying Jon."

Jon is mildly regretting asking her to come along for the ride.  He did not want to spend their evening doing now what they are doing.  Fighting.  "Did you want to come with me to give me a bunch of shit because of Dot?"  His anger level rising along with hers.

"Are you kidding me?  This is the 2nd to last thing that I want to do." she admits and that makes her angrier.  "Fighting about Dot, about her being at our home, it shouldn't even be happening.  She shouldn't be at our house, Jon.  Our HOME!"  

They hadn't quite made it to Interstate 95 on the Garden State Parkway when Jon decided he wasn't taking her attitude and this fight into the city.  It would be a waste of time and they would get nothing accomplished that way.  Jon takes the exit to get onto Highway 9 and finds a place to park.  He settles with the Walmart parking lot.  He slams the car into PARK and turns to her in his seat.  Upset.  "Look, what's done is done.  She's there for a couple of days.  We can do what you fear would happen, or we can just get through these couple of days and move on."  He made it sound like she had options, but she didn't.  "I'm sorry that I did this.  I'm sorry that you're mad at me but that doesn't change the fact that it happened.  Dorothea is at our house for a couple of days.  We can fight, like she's hoping we will or we can show her that we are strong enough to handle this."

"But I'm not!!!!" she admits with eyes burning from the tears that have started to well in her eyes. "Here we are AGAIN, fighting about something that shouldn't even be a THING in our lives.  We should not still be fighting about your ex-wife."    She has to look away, she can't let him see her fall weak again.  Her mind is in overdrive and her blood pressure matches, in her mind she thinks that this has to be yet another bad dream.  Another time that she wishes she could wake up from.

"We shouldn't be arguing about her, you're right.  So let's stop this shit right now and accept she's there for a couple of days."

"I can't do it." she mouses, opening the glove compartment searching for tissues.  "I thought I could, but I can't and I shouldn't have to."  She wipes away the tears, "We shouldn't."  Her gaze fixes upon some seagulls flying over trash in the parking lot, he thoughts she gets lost in. 

"What do you want me to do?" he quietly asks her, knowing the answer to his own question.  "Do you want me to send her packing?" He's certain that she is going to say yes, but instead, she says nothing.

Chapter 34

Modern advances in technology let both Jon and Beth know when the gate to the driveway has been activated.  In unison their phones alerted them to it.  Beth snatches her phone off the table and dismisses the alert, glaring at Jon.  She lost.  She hates that she lost.  What she hates even more is now she has to at least be civil to Dorothea while she was on the property, as long as her children were there.  Beth would never do anything to hurt or upset the kids on purpose.  Her will is about to be tested.  

Together, Jon and Beth walk out to the covered driveway, the little ones are in the back yard with Pete.  As the black car stops before them Jon mumbles, "Be nice."

Beth mumbles back, "Fuck off."  

Jon shoots her another look.  Him and his looks!

The car door opens and out pops a chipper Stephanie, "Hi dad, Hi Mom."  She says to Jon and Beth.  Beth winks at her, not sure if the Hi Mom was intentional or if it was just a dig at her mom, but she didn't care.  She knows where she stands with Stephanie and that's all that matters.

"Where's Jesse?"  Jon asks his grown daughter as she be-bops passed them.

"Todd's.  He said he'll get a car later to come home, he wasn't ready."  Steph gives her dad the only details that she has and disappears into the house. 

Dorothea emerges from the car, looking a little worse for wear.  "Jon, Beth."  she manages to get her signature hello out.  "Thanks for having me."  she says quite off handish, sounding like she was deserving of their generosity.  "I hope it doesn't cause an issue between you two."  she doesn't make eye contact with either of them, flattening her dress over her thighs.  "Are the boys here?"

Jon looks to Beth, Beth to Jon.  "They are, but why don't I take you out to the guesthouse and you can get settled in before they know you're here."  Beth suggests, adamantly to her husband's former wife.  

"Yeah yeah, sure."  Dot condescends.  "Whatever you say."

The driver hands her the things that she brought with her in her rush to get away from the city.  "Dorothea, you are here against my wishes, please don't make me the bad guy and send you packing."  Jon is quick to say, to avoid a confrontation with her and his wife.  

"Jon, I appreciate you allowing me into your home."  she smiles sarcastically, "well your guest home."

"Don't make us regret it any more than we already do."  Beth gently adds, through her teeth.

Jon leads the way, Dot right behind him, "There is no reason for you to be in my house.  Do not go into the house for anything."

"We're changing the codes."  Beth states as a matter of fact, having this idea right at this second.

"I mean it Dorothea.  Don't go in the house.  You have all that you need out here, however, if there is something that you need, there are many cars in the garage, feel free to take yourself to the store."  Jon enters the code on the guesthouse key-less door handle 1.9.8.3., saying the numbers out loud.  "Don't take my car or Beth's."

Beth is a little taken back by that.  She doesn't even try to hide her disgust or even her unwillingness to go along with this chapter, "How long do you intend to stay?"  Her arms fall hard at her side, "This is only for a couple of days.  You're only here long enough to have your place fixed and new security put in."  Her arms go up along with her anger, "THIS is only for a couple of days!"  
Dot can see that Beth is at wit's end, but she refuses to care.  One part of Dorothea is happy that she's creating trouble for Jon and his wife, because she is no longer his wife.  "This wasn't my idea, this is all on Stephanie."  Dot instantly snaps, "This was all her."

"Then why are you here?  Could you not have come up with anything better?  I'll be more than happy to put you up at the Four Seasons."  Beth cat calls right back, "At MY EXPENSE!  I mean after all, you have no source of income other than alimony."

"Beth."  Jon says to her, as if she were a child.  As fast as he says her name, their eyes lock and she can see that she just crossed an imaginary line.  "Why don't you go in the house.  I'll be there in a minute."

"I'll stay."  she's firm in her response to his order.  With an attitude she didn't even know she possessed, she responds, "Let's get her all situated and then we will go in the house."  Beth rips open a closet door.  "There are clean linens in here."

Jon watches what's happening in his guest house and is having a hard time figuring out how they got to this point in his life.  His wife and ex wife were under the same roof again, he is very uncomfortable with the situation.  

Chapter 32 - Feels Something Like Healing Time

Beth rolls over and yawns, the sunshine  blinding her sleepy eyes.  Gently she reaches over and feels that her husband is not there.  She slowly sits herself up, eyes gazing the room, "Jon?" she mumbles with a yawn.  She can't hear him doing anything.  The villa is dead quiet.  When she hears nothing back, "Jon."  she tries again as she rises from the bed.  She rubs her eyes as she patters to the bathroom.  She glances around the room, but can't see a note. 

After using the bathroom and brushing her teeth, she makes her way to the kitchen area and pops in a coffee pod.  As her cup brews, she wanders back into the bedroom and finds her phone.  She only had 13 text messages and 4 missed calls.  She swipes up to see who she missed.  Several texts from the kids, just saying hi and asking when they woulld be home.  The missed phone calls were from numbers not stored in her phone. She writes them off as spam.  The most recent text that she received was from Jon.

I went for a run.  Let me know when you're up and we can head into town. Love you!

She drops her phone on the bed, off to get her coffee she thinks, 'Why is he running without me?"  Beth, unconsumed by her thoughts grabs the newpaper off the kitchen counter and takes it out on the lanai with her. There isn't any better way to start your day than with a newspaper, sunshine and fresh coffee. 

She's deep into the society pages of Honolulu when Jon appears, scaring the shit out of her.  When her brain registers who it is she smiles, "Hi gorgeous."  she says to him with a smile on her face.

Jon bends over and kisses her, "You're the gorgeous one.  How'd you sleep?  He asks, taking his running ball cap and tshirt off.  "When I left, you were sawing logs."

She continues to smile at him, "I slept better than the dead, I think.  How did you sleep?  Why are you up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep."  He says to her as he heads into the suite.  "I can only watch you sleep for so long."  He picks on her.  He heads inside and grabs a bottle of water from the fridge, "What do you want to do today?"

She takes a sip of her morning heaven, "I don't care.  When are we going home?" 

Jon takes a seat next to her on the lanai and chugs his  bottle of water.  Once he's done he exhales loudly, "I was thinking today,   What do you think about that?"  He shoots her a wink. 

At first Beth is a little stunned.  When she gives it a quick thought she decides that that might not be a bad idea.  "Are you serious?"  she questions with a smile.  "I think I like that idea.  I woke to several texts from the kids, I think they miss us."

"Then home we go.  I'll call and have the plane ready.  When do you want to leave?"

She leans over, wipes sweat beads from his furrowed brow and says, "You are the best husband."

They spent what was left of their last morning packing and saying goodbye to their newest slice of heaven.  They were prepared for the very long flight home.

Chapter 31 - Not Just Another Grain of Sand

"Babe, I think you did great, even when you lost your cool."  Jon assures her, sliding his hand down her back.

Beth takes a big gulp of the water he had just handed her, and after she swallowed hard she replied, "I cracked."

"You acted as you should have.  Her questions were tough and we knew they would be.'

"But why did she have to ask about the dream that you had about me dying?  How does she even know about it?"

He moves in closer to her, slides his arm around her to try to push, direct, her toward the car, "I told her.  She is our friend, Beth."

"But did she have to know about Brianna wanting to kiss me in my casket?"  Jon can feel Beth slightly tremble, he can feel that she's tense.  "Why did she go there?"

"It's her job."  His hand on her as she slides into the seat of their car.  "She did what I paid her to do."  Beth looks up at him, remembering they did ask for that.  They wanted all of their dirty laundry aired.

"She came at me like I had done something wrong."  she gets out of her mouth as the car door closes.  She watches her husband walk around the front of the car.  She inhales deeply, looking passed Jon to Savannah and her crew tearing down and taking apart their equipment.

Once the car is in drive and they start to exit the cemetary, Jon states, "She wasn't targeting you, you know that."  He doesn't believe his own words, but he knows that she needed to hear that.  He needs, rather, they need to put the past where it belongs.

When they arrived back home, Beth could see Jon was exhausted.  As they walked into the house, she grabs his hand, "Why don't you go lie down, I'll make dinner." She smiles as he looks over at her, "Let me take care of you, for once."

He pulls her close and kisses the side of her head,  "I'm okay, why don't we make dinner then after that, let's go for a bike ride.  We can take the littles."

Walking into the house leaning on her husband she admits, "A bike ride would be real nice."  Her memories go back to the better days of their life when things were so much easier and activites were abundant.   They were so active as a couple, as a family, but under the Dalton cloud she never really thought about how stifled they really were.  "We haven't done that in a long time."

Once through the mud room and into the rear of the kitchen, they paused and heard silence.  Jon looked to Beth, with a hint of question, "Do you hear that?"   

Beth walks over to the side of the refrigerator where they have a community chalk board.  "Well, it looks like they're all at grandma's and they're going to spend the night." The grin on her face growing.  

Jon pulls his wallet out of one back pocket and his phone out of the other and leans on the counter. "Hhmm, what should we do?"  His grin just as big as hers.

Her head is still on the bike ride, "Well, considering the day we just had why don't we go on a bike ride?  We can go into town and get a bite to eat."  She winks at her husband, "Come on, let's get changed."  She reaches across the counter for his hand.  Hesitantly he takes her hand and together they change their clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Beth trips, trying to tie her tennis shoe she catches Jon looking at his Ipad with a scowl on his face.  She doesn't say anything to him at first, not wanting to get into his business, but she can see his body language change.  "What's that all about?"  She plops down on the bench in her shoe closet.  "That wasn't a good look."

He turns to face her, "It's an email from Paul."

"About?" she questions him, tieing the other shoe.  

"Tentative tour dates." he tosses the Ipad on the bed, "I told him that we weren't ready for me to go back on the road."

"Who isn't?"  she stands up and reaches over for a sweat jacket, "Go."

He laughs at that, "Go?"  

She walks up to him, "If you're ready to go back out, go."  Her lips land on his cheek, "When does he want you to leave?"

"The first date is May 1st."  He waits for her reply.

Beth pauses, "Um, that's my birthday."

Jon laughs at that.  "Do you still want me to go?"

They take their bike ride into town and have a bite at Barnacle Bills with a couple of beers.  They try to keep the conversation light, but it never works out that way.  With a gulp of her last beer, Beth asks, "How long of a leg are you planning?"

He shruggs his shoulders.  "No idea, but it can't be that long.  The album is almost 2 years old now."

"Then why go?" she inquires.  "It's not needed to support you guys or even the manufacturing costs."

"It's a contract thing, you know the drill."

"I know you also have the best lawyers in the industry that can get you out of it."

He stands, indicating that he was ready to leave, as the bill has already been paid, "That's not me, you KNOW that."  He then winks at her.  "Let's get home.  I'd like to enjoy this evening with my wife."

Beth smiles as she stands to leave with him, "You want to get home to watch the evening news."   Not willing to admit that she wanted to see it too.

Savannah had told them that a 90 second snippet would air within NBC'S nightly news, alluding to the rest of the story being aired during the Today show the next morning.  

"Don't you?" He asks, taking her hand and leading her to their bicycles.  "I know she'll do what we set her out to do.  She's great at her job."

Beth admits, "I do want to see it, but I'm a little skeptical.  I hope she spins it in our favor and makes Dalton, Brian and Dorothea looks like total assholes."

"She will."

They enjoyed their evening bike ride home and once they returned home, quickly they showered and found comfort in their shared bed, munching on a fruit and cheese tray, with a bottle of 1928 Rosé.