Double Trouble: 54; Adele & Johnny, Julia & Noah
by Cariad
 

Double Trouble
~Fifty Four~

“Let me go!” Holly hissed at Jonathan. He had not released her since they had emerged from the limousine. While Holly wanted to follow her sister into the ICU, Jonathan had other plans. He had a firm grip on her elbow and pulled her away from Julia and Gwen.

“We’re going to see this mystery woman that has something to do with my past and has a grievance against my family.”

Holly tried to jerk away. “I didn’t say anything like that. She just hates your family. That’s all.”

Jonathan chuckled. “But it had to do with what I said in the conservatory, and that was all about my past.”

“I…” Holly protested, but could not come up with a reply. “Let me go! Are you afraid I’ll run away?”

He laughed again. “I KNOW you’ll run away,” he mused. “What floor?” he asked as they reached the elevators.

“Five,” she spat sullenly.

Jonathan pushed the button and waited as they rode up in the elevator alone. “You know what people often do in elevators,” he said in a husky whisper in her ear.

“That’s sick!” Holly said, the disgust clearly written on her face. She could barely think of touching the walls of the elevator. Jonathan was laughing at her. She made another mental mark against him. How had she ever thought he was remotely human?

He was still laughing as they left the elevator. Holly smothered her anger and led him towards Adele’s room. She toyed with the idea of turning around, but she also knew that Jonathan would never allow them to turn back. She had never seen him driven like this before. She had seen him intense and she had seen him with bored indifference. She had even seen him with feigned interest, but she had never seen the optimistic single-minded drive he now held. A part of her was scared if she dared to turn back.

“Adele?” she asked, opening the door. The sound of machines echoed back. “Adele?” she asked again.

A figure moved on the bed. “Is that Julie or is that Panty-wad?” she asked in a surly voice.

Holly bit her bottom lip. Why was she doing this? The old woman hated her. “I think we got off on the wrong foot,” Holly ventured.

“It’s Panty-wad,” Adele grumbled. “Go away!”

“I brought someone who owes you a debt.”

Adele lifted her torso off the bed. “I told you to go away,” she declared in a tone that brooked no opposition.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. I’ve brought Jonathan Hotchkiss to visit with you.”

“Get that daughter-stealing bastard out of here!” Adele snapped, but then looked closer at the other visitor. “That’s not Jonathan Hotchkiss,” she declared. “He’s far too young. I may be old and dying, but I am not stupid!”

“But you see…” Holly started, her voice pleading.

Jonathan interrupted and stepped closer to the bed. “My father is also Jonathan Hotchkiss,” he said. “I am named for him.”

“Do you know what kind of man your father is?” the sick woman demanded. Holly faded into the background as she watched Jonathan’s face turn into a polite mask.

“Yes, ma’am, I do,” he replied conversationally, pulling a chair next to the bed. “And may I inquire of this grievance you have against my family and my father?”

“Is that what Panty-wad told you it was?” Adele growled.

“Are you referring to my fiancée?” Jonathan asked, his tone still polite. Holly made her way to the window where a chrysanthemum stood next to a doll with balloons tied to its waist. The balloons had sagged and puckered.

“She always act like she’s got a bug up her butt?”

Holly winced. Did she act that way? She didn’t think so.

“Not all the time,” Jonathan said with a smile in his voice. “But she can get that way quite often.”

Adele chuckled. Holly realized how deadly Jonathan’s charm really was. He had the sour old woman eating out of his palm despite Adele’s resentment of the Hotchkisses.

“So what do you know of the sins of my father?” Jonathan asked, holding Adele’s hand like a dear friend. Holly turned to stare out the window. She couldn’t watch.

“To put it bluntly, young man,” Adele huffed. “YOUR father had an adulterous affair with MY daughter, got her pregnant and then abandoned her in a cabin in the woods. Do you know about that, sonny?”

Holly could not see Jonathan’s reaction. Curiosity drove her over the edge. She had to peak. If she hadn’t already observed the tenseness in his shoulders and neck, she would not have realized they were gone.

“My father is dying now too, ma’am,” Jonathan said softly. “Was your daughter a waitress?” Holly heard the faintest hint of desperation in his voice.

“Why do you ask,” Adele answered with her own question. “How many women has your father despoiled and stolen from their families.”

“Only one that I know of,” Jonathan confessed. “I don’t know her name. He never told me. But he did tell me he once planned to divorce my mother and marry a young waitress he had fallen in love with. He bought her a cabin, and he had even filed the initial divorce papers.” Holly did not know who to watch, Jonathan as he lied to the old woman or Adele as she soaked up the lie with the promise of her daughter’s redemption. “It was my mother you should direct your anger towards, ma’am, and she is already dead.”

Adele coughed in her hospital bed. “Do you…” she started, but her voice cracked. “Do you know what came of my Lizzy?”

“She died in childbirth,” Jonathan said, his voice low.

“And… and the baby?” Adele asked, her voice faint.

Jonathan was silent for a long time. “He died too.” Jonathan said, looking at a spot on the sheet.

Adele slumped back in the bed. Jonathan had the chance to provide the woman with hope, but he ripped it away. Did he have no heart?

“That’s not true,” Holly whispered, her own voice choking on anger.

“He was claimed as a Hotckiss, though,” Jonathan continued.

“What was his name?” Adele asked, tears streaming down her old eyes.

“Quincy,” Jonathan lied. “Quincy Jonathan Hotchkiss.”

Holly wanted to scream and pound on Jonathan to get him to tell the invalid the truth.

Adele hiccuped with tears a moment. “It’s a good thing…” she said between hiccups, “that the boy didn’t survive… what with a name like Quincy!”

Holly felt her eyes bug out of her head. Adele had just lost the memory of her daughter and a possible grandchild, and she was making jokes?

Adele’s eyes hardened. “It’s also a good thing that the baby didn’t survive. I wouldn’t want the harlot that was Jonathan’s wife to have anything to do with my grandson! She would have sold him off for adoption.”

Holly finally found her voice. “She would raise him as her own,” she said, casting a glare at Jonathan. He should have been up front with Adele.

“Would she?” Adele asked, casting an appraising glance at Jonathan. “Yes, that bitch would,” she finally concluded. “Go on, Mr. Hotchkiss,” she said in a dismissive voice. “I’m tired and want to sleep.”

Jonathan looked stung for a brief moment, but recovered his composure. “As you wish ma’am,” he said formally and extended a hand to Holly.

“In a minute,” Holly replied. As she passed Adele’s bed, she darted in close to the woman’s ear. “He’s lying,” Holly whispered. “The baby didn’t die. His name…”

“Holly!” Jonathan barked from the doorway.

Adele appeared not to hear, but she was smiling as she began her nap.
 

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Julia forced in tears. She would not cry. She would not let Noah turn her into a mushy pile of unset jell-o. He would wait for her? Of all the boys and men she had known through her years at Weymouth-Hampsted, and all the promises of undying love they had given, no one had ever told her he would wait for her. “Don’t say that, Noah,” she whispered, still in the crook of his arm, unwilling to give up the support of his body.
“It’s the truth, Juliet,” Noah said back. “I would wait years for you.”

Julia thought about her family. “I can’t hold you to that.”

“You have no choice in the matter,” Noah declared.

“You’ll be waiting forever.”

Noah lifted her chin. “Smile for me, Juliet,” he encouraged, teasing the corners of her mouth until she complied. When she felt her lips turn up into a happy smile and her tears turn to tears of joy as she looked in his very blue eyes, she watched them close and his mouth descend. Her own eyelids fluttered shut as she met him halfway. The kiss was tender and filled with sweet longing. It erased the terrible problems Julia knew were facing them. If it were anyone but Noah, she would gladly have stolen the kiss and left his heart in pieces when she moved on to a new conquest. But this was Noah, and it was Noah’s sweet kiss of oblivion which drew pulses of longing through her veins with each beat of her heart. As his lips drew away from hers, she still felt the echo and the desire.

“I don’t think you’ll keep me waiting forever,” he said with a hint of smile on his lips.

“Not if I have a choice,” Julia agreed immediately.

“I’ll write you when I’m at school.”

Julia could not hide the bark of bitter sarcastic laughter. “You may write, but I sincerely doubt I’ll receive them. I wouldn’t put it past my father to open them or just plain burn them without opening them!”

Noah sighed. “I think your sister’s Jonathan Hotchkiss also goes to Harvard,” he said slowly. “Perhaps he wouldn’t mind allowing me to use his mailing labels.”

“How well do you know him?” Julia demanded.

“We’ve gotten to be rather good friends over the break,” Noah replied quickly. “I’ll have to talk to him about it when he comes back with your sister. Yes, I think it will work if it’s from Jonathan and to Holly.”

Julia still had the feeling that Noah wasn’t telling the entire truth, but she had to admit that the possibility of them knowing each other before they all ran into one another in the hardware store was slim to none. “But Holly will burn them unopened if the letters come from Johnny! I can guarantee that!”

Noah kissed her forehead. “Not if you let her know what’s going on. Tell her it’s an intrigue. Don’t you Cranes love intrigue?”

Julia looked up at him. “Where did you learn that word?” she asked. “No one uses it in everyday language!”

Noah sighed again. “That’s what I get for reading the classics,” he said under his breath.

“You promise to write me?” She asked, feeling rather special.

“Not every day. Unless you have e-mail?”

Julia thought for a minute. “I do have e-mail, but I think real letters would be so cool. I’ll send you some too. Or I’ll send Johnny some,” she amended. “Personally, I think Hollis and Johnny are going to have a very good correspondence!”

Noah laughed. “They’ll send love letters?”

“That’s good!” Julia answered, laughing herself. “The thing is, Holly will probably jump at the chance to do it too just so it looks like she’s honoring her bargain with Jonathan.” Julia said ‘Jonathan’ in a tone mocking her sister’s formality.

“Hey!” Reese called over, making Julia and Noah realize that there were other people around them in the hospital. “What’s so funny!”

Julia couldn’t help but start laughing again.

“I never did get a chance to talk to Holly after the funeral,” Reese observed. “She hasn’t said anything to me since New Year’s. Do you think she still wants astronomy lessons?”

Julia stopped her giggles. She met Kay’s eyes, and knew Kay was thinking the same thing she was.

“Reese,” Kay said, pulling on his arm. “I think you need to give her some time.”

“Time for what?” Reese asked.

“I think you know what,” Julia replied, her mind drifting from contentment with Noah to the hurt her sister faced on their eighteenth birthday.

“No, what?” Reese asked again. If Julia had been thinking of anything other than how he had hurt her sister, she would have seen his honest confusion.

Julia took a deep breath and opened her mouth to tell her exactly what was the ‘what’ she was referring to, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“This isn’t your fight,” Noah said softly. To Reese, Noah added, “I think when Holly gets back, you should apologize.”

“For WHAT?” Reese demanded.

Kay rolled her eyes. “For a straight ‘A’ student, your really dense sometimes, Reese.”

“But you love me, don’t you, Kay?” Reese asked, his adoration of Kay showing in every fiber of his body.

“Only when you’re not being an idiot,” Kay replied smoothly.
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