Chapter 103 - You Wanna Give Up

"Ya know,"  Jon starts to lay into the kids, "I'm not doing this to be an asshole or embarrass you in front of your friends and the other kids at school."

"Then don't do it."  Jesse pleads with his father, "You know the kids are going to have a field day with it dad."

"Yeah, and it all is gonna start because we're Bongiovi's."  Stephanie mocks the family name, only jumping in to support Jesse.  "Add this to it and we'll be laughing stocks at school, dad."

Beth sat there watching them try to convince Jon that he is breaking some cardinal rule by having them followed by armed men, and on a few levels she could relate with what they are saying, as she isn't happy about the shadows that she's going to have, but she can't let this go on any longer.  "You two need to stop with this.  There is one way around this and I don't think that either of you want to do it."

"Which is?" Jesse snaps.

"Go to school on line from right here." Beth replies, with her own level of sarcasm, as she's  irritated with what they are having to do.

"That's stupid!"  Stephanie exclaims, with her face buried in her phone.  "Where is the fun in that?  That's a real dumb idea Beth."

Jon wasn't going to let the banter of online school go back and forth.  He has made up his mind and there is nothing that anyone could say to change his mind, "How much fun was it when we lost your your sisters?  Did you have fun at their funerals and dealing with all the stuff that lead up to and followed that?"  Beth can hear that he's getting upset and she can see that the kids never even thought through the consequences of what could happen if they were unguarded.  They didn't let the thought process trickle down that far.  As she watched the sadness wash over Stephanie's face, she can see that they need to keep the whole conversation real, there would be no candy coating and no best case scenario.

Scooting to the edge of her seat, next to Jon on the couch she starts in on them, "They will stop at nothing to hurt us, and by us, I mean all of us."

"They don't want to hurt us dad."  Jesse repeats, "It's Beth they want to hurt."

Beth heard that for the last time, "Jesse, don't you think that hurting one of you wouldn't hurt me?  They would hurt you if they could."

"My mom wouldn't let that happen." he snaps back, unable and unwilling to hide his frustration and his anger.  

"Your MOM?"  Jon barks at him, jumping to his feet.  As he stands over Jesse, with his Italian anger unharnessed he continues, "Your mother is one of the biggest reasons that we are in this never ending nightmare."

"Bullshit!" blurts the young man in a genuine defense of his mother.  "All of this is happening because you cheated on mom."  The young man bounces to his feet, causing his father to flinch a little.  "You dad, YOU are the reason.  It's not mom, it's you and your inability to stay true to anything that you have."

"Jesse."  Beth whispers, "please sit back down."

"No Beth, I'm not going to sit here and listen to my dad bash my mom and I'm not going to sit here and let my DAD ruin my college years by having some scary ass high school drop out follow me around campus."  he starts to walk away, and his father grabs his arm.

"Sit back down.  You aren't going anywhere until we work this out and you accept that you will have that scary guy following you at school or you don't go back." he releases his hold on Jesse and the young man stands there, glaring at his father.  Jon takes a deep breath and steps back, giving Jesse room to breathe, "Where is all of this anger coming from?"

"From you and the bullshit you two have pulled on mom.  The way you two drove mom to almost kill herself.  The way that you flaunted your new beautiful children in front of her and the way that you treated us like second rate children."

"Watch your mouth Jess."  Jon firmly tells his son, "you can't take back the things that you say."

"I don't want to.  You need to hear what we have to say!" Jesse starts to get a little louder with is dad, blocking out the fact that Beth and Stephanie are sitting there in total shock.  "we have been quiet for too long, dad."

"Oh really?"  Jon asks, stepping into Jesse, "What do you have to tell us Jesse that you have kept from us all this time?" Jon gets louder himself, not able to hide his anger, "You're a grown up now Jess, start talking like one."  Jon stares at Jesse, the veins in his temples pulsating with his accelerated heart beat, his blood boiling.  "What do you have to say son?"

"Jon."  Beth interupts the men, not wanting what's going on to really happen.  "Now is not the time for all of this."

"Stay out of it babe."  Jon snaps at Beth, shocking her, pissing her off.

"Don't ever talk to me like that."  she blurts back, "This is not the time for this."  She stands up and walks into Jon, "There are men walking allover our home, they twins and the boys are just in the kitchen.  You two can do this later, or take it outside with security."

"Beth."  Jesse steps in, "You need to stay out of it.  This is between me and my dad, and it's about my mother."

Beth turns and faces Jesse, giving him her undivided attention, but not in the way that he had hoped, "Young man, this is about THIS family and nothing else."

"It's about my mom." he replied.

"No it's not.  It's about this family, this family's safety and what they could do to anyone of us.  It's not about your mother."  Beth can hardly contain her emotion this time.  She's angry, she's scared and now she's crying.  "this is about how we have to change our lives again and the thought that something could happen to one of you is almost too much to live with."  She takes a moment to catch her breath, looking up to Jon.  Jon then focuses his attention to Stephanie.

With a little hesitation, Jon asks Stephanie and asks, "How do you feel Rose?  Do you think that we are in here to bash your mother?  Do you think we're doing this to ruin your life?"

"No dad." his oldest daughter replies, "I think it's all ridiculous and I'm not happy about it.  There has to be an alternative."

As soon as she got the words out of her mouth, Beth was at the ready with her reply, "I gave you the alternative Stephanie, you can go to school right here.  Those are your only choices and you both better decide right now.  WE are NOT dragging this out any longer and we aren't taking up anymore of anyone's time trying to explain this to the two of you.  We are the parents and as long as we pay for the education, at the top notch schools that you picked, WE will decide what's best for both of you.  For all of you.  And we gave you the choices of away at school, with security or you can go to school right here.  BUT while you're here, you will have security.  End of discussion!"

"Beth........" Stephanie blurts.  To be followed by Jesse.

"Dad....."

"That's it, you heard her."  Jon jumps to Beth's defense, not that she needed one.  "make your decisions.  Away with security - or right here."  he starts to walk toward the hallway, with Beth right behind him.  He stops before leaving the room and looks back at his kids, his pride and joy and adds, "This isn't Beth's fault in anyway, but you can blame your mother for bringing these people back into our lives."