Stepping Stones, Prologue-Chad/Kay
by WillowsAngel
 

Stepping Stones- Prologue

The attractive young women looked around her surroundings and sighed. It wasn’t even 11:30 and the bar was packed. The smoky room was filled with every type of criminal and scum that could be found in Harmony and the surrounding areas. There was a surprising amount of them, enough to keep Jesse’s open 6 nights a week. Marge didn’t I.D. But no Harmony teenager was either brave enough or stupid enough to try. It wasn’t exactly the kind of place that one would think the daughter of the chief of police would be working, and especially not living.

That’s exactly the way I want it. Kay turned back to the bar and took the two bottles that the bartender Richie had slapped down. As she walked to the table she was aware of the looks and the leers. She tried very hard to ignore them, she knew that Marge and Richie would never let anything get too far, but as Marge had said when she was begging for a job. “Honey, with your looks, You’ll pack ‘em in.” At the time she wasn’t sure what Marge had meant, but she was still too grateful for the job and the room to care much.

“Here you go, need anything else?”

“No thanks, honey, but come back later.” Kay had to smile through gritted teeth, that pompous jerk had just called her honey. As she surveyed the room she saw that everyone had drinks and looked like they would survive five minutes without her. She caught Richie’s eye and he nodded.

She headed out the back and took a deep breath. It was amazing what fresh air could do for your head. She leaned against the wall and looked at the moon. It was a full moon, just like when… she wouldn’t think of that right now. She couldn’t, she had to go back into work. So what if her mother had thrown her out and told her that she should never have been born. So what if her brother and sister had said that they never wanted to see or hear from her again. So what if both her father and uncle Hank had been to busy chasing after Crane women to even notice she had left. None of it mattered anymore. They all thought that she was long gone. That was how it was going to stay. She was going to leave, just as soon as she was sure that Simone would be ok. Simone needed someone to keep her sane; it wasn’t every day that you found that your crush was really your brother. That was the only reason, there wasn’t anything else keeping her here. “Damn” It was time to go back to work. At least it wasn’t Hell.
 

“You need me to do anything else, Beth?” Chad looked around the Book Café and hoped to God that Beth had something for him to do. Anything to keep him from going back to that room in the B&B and think about the joke his life had become.

“Nope, you can go home. Thanks for staying; I love having you for an employee. But enough is enough. Go. “ Beth smiled gently as she watched Chad try to keep the despair from his face. She wished she could do something about it. But she knew that it wasn’t her battle to fight. “See you Monday.”

“Thanks, bye.” Chad walked out into the cool night air. Harmony was dead. The full moon gave the whole town a bad horror movie feel. I can’t go back. I’ve got to do something. Even music couldn’t sooth his soul lately. Chad laughed bitterly at that. He didn’t know whether to Thank God for finding his parents or curse him. If he hadn’t found out, he would still with the women he loved and living at the Russell’s. Now he was living in a hotel room all alone with two parents who wouldn’t come near him and siblings who couldn’t stand him. Even Ethan had turned on him. He should have known never to trust Ethan. That boy was too caught up in himself and what he had lost and gone through to see that other people might be hurting. Just stop it Chad; don’t think about it anymore. He turned around to go back to the B&B when he realized that he was standing in front of a seedy little bar. The name Jesse’s was barely discernable through the darkness. Chad just stood there, he had the strongest urge to just go in there and have a drink. His internal struggle sounded a little like a bad stand up routine. What’s stopping you Harris? Whitney wouldn’t like it. Whitney’s not yours anymore, she’s your sister, remember. That statement decided it for him. No one would know who he was and if they did, they wouldn’t care. Besides what good was being the Crane bastard if you couldn’t have a little fun.

As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting he noticed that the other people in the bar were the residents of Harmony that no one acknowledged, the ones that only came out at night. This was the only place in Harmony that had ever reminded him of LA. Unlike the rest of the town, these people didn’t care who you were or what you were doing. He found a both and sat down. His back to the wall, so he could watch everyone else, and make a quick exit if needed. He had seen a waitress when he walked in the door so he decided to wait until she came. He had noticed that she had very nice legs. It seemed that every other guy in the bar had too.

“Kate,”

“Yeah, Richie?”

“There’s a guy in the corner booth, you go take care of him and I’ll take these to Cousin It and his friend there. “

“Thanks Richie.”

Kay walked over towards the booth, amazed at how Richie could tell what those jerks had been up to. She was in front of the booth before she knew it. With the dim lighting and smoke it was hard to tell what this guy looked like. “What can I get you?”

Chad had watched the women walk toward him. He coulkn’t make out her features, but he had no trouble seeing those long, long legs and the slender build. Her long dark hair was an added bonus. He would put money down that the rest of her looked just as good. He was jolted out of his thoughts by her question. Where had he heard that voice before? As the smoke cleared and she stepped closer Chad choked, his long legged looker, was none other than Kay Bennett. I guess I’m not the only one rebelling.