Chapter 88 - I Held Her All Night Long

Jon and Beth are laying on the blanket looking up at the beautiful blue sky when they hear, "Daddy, come swimming with me."  Romeo is standing over them, dripping water on them.

Jon raises his head, "okay, okay - is the water warm?"

"It is.  Come on dad, come on Beth."  he says with excitement.  Jon and Beth sit up and look to one another.

Beth smiles at Jon as she stands up removing her sarong, "Last one in is a rotten egg."  And she runs off toward the water, with Romeo right behind her.  Jon ends up being the rotten egg because he stops at the waters edge and sits with his babies.

He doesn't even make it into the water, he gets so lost in sandcastle building with the twins, his mind goes no where else.  He would, from time to time, look up and see the other kids playing with Beth.  Between jumping off the floating dock and going up and down the swirly slide, the kids and Beth are having a great day.

Jon, on the beach with Pete and the twins, takes a long drawn out deep breath and asks Pete, "What do you think Pete?"

"About?" she has no idea where this random question came from, and even less of an idea of what he's referring to. "Fill me in."

"The whole dead fiance coming back to life and being connected to Dot and Dalton?"

"I think it's all going to go very badly, Jon.  I think that this is something that Dorothea has been working on and planning - the timing could not have been worse."

"Do you think I have anything to worry about?" he quietly asks her, caressing the face of his baby girl.  He face is covered in sand, daddy brushes it off, "Do you think this will come between me and Beth?"

"You mean more than it has?"

He nods his head yes.

She shakes her head no, "You don't have anything to worry about.  You're finally married and you have everything you could possibly hope for, what is there to worry about?"

"He was dead to her and now he's back.  There has to be some unresolved issues there, don't you think?"

Pete reaches over and helps Spencer dig his hole, "She has so much more now Jon, I don't think that it will even enter her mind.  And as the outsider looking in, that woman has been through much worse than losing a fiance, so no - you have nothing to worry about."

"I hope you're right" 

"Think about it Jon." she scoops out more sand and packs it on top of Brianna's little foot.  Brianna watches her with wide eyed wonderment, but doesn't like it.  She jumps up and makes her way into the safety of her daddy's arms.  "She loves you, loves the family that you created - this guy is ancient history to her, and I think you know that."

"I'm not so sure, Pete."  Jon holds his daughter in his arms, kissing the side of her head.  Her blonde little curls are sticking to the side of her face, along with a bunch of sand.  "This never should have happened, and now we need to learn how to deal with it."

Pete stops digging, giving Jon all of her attention; commanding all of his.  "Look at it this way; if that guy even held a candle to you, do you think that she would have let them arrest him.  Do you think she would have shown up here, if she had any feelings for him what so ever?"

"I do.  Her children were here." he admits, slightly lowering his head, hating the thoughts that he's thinking, but he needs to be honest about the whole situation.  And not just with himself, with everyone involved.  "I can't help but wonder what's going to happen when we go back."

"The only thing that will happen is what the two of you LET happen, and that, " Pete points to Beth in the lake, hoisting Romeo on her shoulder to play chicken with Jake and Jesse, "Is not a woman that wants anything to change.  Look at the smile on her face, Jon.  She is truly happy, for the first time since I met her."

"You think so, Pete?" 

"I do, Jon.  I really do."

"She does look happy." he looks out at his wife and children.  Seeing the smile on her face makes his heart smile and Pete could see it on his face.

"She is happy.  She loves where you guys are at in life, even with all the bumps in the road." Pete assures him, "There is no place she would rather be."

There is nothing that Jon wants to say to that.  What could he say?  He sits there with his trusted nanny and friend and watches his toddlers play in the sand, without a care in the world.  

He loves the sound of the screams and the laughter coming from the water. Everyone is happy and they are finally a family, like they should always have been.

The honeymoon had to come to an end, sadly, no one wanted it too.  The kids had no desire to go to back to school, but the new year starts in just a few days and they need to get prepared.  

Jon has scheduled some time to write with the guys and Beth wants to just be normal, but they have to get home first to deal with Dorothea and Dalton.

"Okay kids, come on - let's go. The car has been waiting."  Jon yells through the suite, "And that means the plane is waiting too."

They all scurry around, making sure that they have everything that they brought and everything that they bought.  The bell hops were eagerly waiting at the door to assist them with their luggage.

The clan is loaded and in the car, headed to the airport.  Jon had worked out a night flight so that when they return to the states, it will be morning.  He hopes that they all sleep, he wanted to cuddle with Beth and spend the last hours that they had together alone - before they arrived in the states and had to deal with the fallout, the press; good and bad regarding Brian, Dorothea and Dalton.

Once they reached cruising altitude and were able to move freely about the cabin, Beth got the twins ready for bed and laid with them until they dozed off.  They had a great vacation and were beat.  The older kids found whatever device that they wanted to lose themselves in and steeled in for the long flight.  Pete did the same, but she relaxed in the pod, surrounded by warm blankets with head phones on.  She knows that Jon and Beth need the time alone, the private quiet time, to put together a plan of action and a course of action.

They finally settled into the larger bed, Jon holding her close, gently caressing her hair.  "Are you ready?"  His lips rest on her forehead.  "You know we are flying into a shit storm when we land."

Beth looks up at him and tells him, "After the last two weeks we had, as a family with no bullshit from the outside world, I am ready for whatever shit storm is waiting for us.  I am more than ready."

"Are you sure?" he has to ask.

She smiles and kisses his cheek.  "I am more than ready.  We just had the best time that we have ever been allowed to have.  We are married, we have our beautiful family and our health - I can handle whatever that bitch throws at us."

"But what about Brian?" he hates to ask , but he has to know.  "How do you feel about that?  Him showing up at our wedding, years after you thought he had died."

"I feel many things about that, about him; but the greatest feeling is anger.  He never should have come back."

"Oh, I'm sure that Dorothea was very convincing and pushed him into doing it."

"Without a doubt."

"Do you want to see him at all?"

"Absolutely not.  There is no reason to see him." she states and he doesn't question it.

He rolls over on his back, with one hand behind his hand, he needs to know, "Don't you want know why he came back?  How he hooked up with Dot and what their plan is?"

"Nope.  I don't care.  We just need to put a plan in place to keep him away from the kids and if she has some master plan, maybe we need to keep the kids away from her too."