Everything I Do-Chapter 3
"You aren’t going to sleep are you?" Jax asked looking up at Keesha.
She opened her eyes. Their "baby-making" session, or so Jax called it, left her extremely tired. She didn’t know how she was going to make it through their honeymoon. "Jax, I didn’t get much sleep last night, and I don’t think I can stay awake for another minute," she said drowsily.
He lifted his head from her chest and looked her in the eyes. She could see humor there. "I will have you know that my dates do not fall asleep on me. Here we are watching this wonderful movie together," he said gesturing, "and you want to go to sleep."
"I’m sorry, but you should think about that before you wear me out," she smiled and leaned forward to give him a small kiss. But, he had other ideas in mind; he deepened the kiss, and she pleaded, "Jax."
"Well, I have to find a way to keep your attention," he informed her. He kissed her again, "Now, do you really want me to stop." He received his answer in the form of another kiss.
*****
She stood outside the door thinking about the countless times she had stood on that same spot. This was going to be a wonderful night. She thought she would never land in Port Charles, but now she had and now she was here. Taking out her key, she hoped that Jax had not changed the locks. That would be silly; he really had no need to. She was thankful that she had managed to still have it after the accident. This was going to be a surprise for him, a wonderful surprise.
*****
She softly opened the door. Closing her eyes, she could imagine him sleeping peacefully in their bedroom upstairs. She had never ceased in thinking that it was still their bedroom. She lightly placed her suitcase on the floor near the door. Seeing Jax again would be the best thing in the world. She made her way up the stairs and walked to his door. She placed her hand on the knob and opened the door.
*****
She was surprised at what she saw, as was the woman that stood in the room. Brenda saw Keesha tying her robe and standing near the bed. Keesha looked dumbfounded. Brenda turned her head to the sound of Jax’s voice coming from the bathroom.
"Are you going to get the popcorn, or shall I?’ he asked reentering the bedroom. He saw their visitor. "Oh, my God," he said softly staring at Brenda.
She tried to smile, and said, "Well, this was not the homecoming I was hoping for." She glanced back to Keesha and the obviously rumpled bed behind her. "I’m going in the living room," she said with a broken voice as she turned abruptly to leave the room.
Jax looked at Keesha, and she signaled for him to follow Brenda. He tried to discern her feelings, but she was a closed book to him. He saw as she sank on the bed, and he moved to comfort her, but she only shook her head. He understood that she needed to be alone, so he reluctantly left and joined Brenda in the living room.
"Well," Brenda said sitting on the couch as Jax joined her, "I wanted this to be a night of surprise, and I wasn’t disappointed."
He could barely bring himself to look at her, but he finally did. She looked as she always looked, beautiful and healthy. There were no signs of prolonged illness or injury. Why, then, was she away for an entire year? He waited for her to explain.
"Well, Jax, what do you have to say?" she said giving him a reprimanding look.
He was taken aback at her look and what she said. She was asking him to explain himself. He smiled as he stared at her. He could not believe her. She thought she deserved an explanation. "What the hell," he said shaking his head. He looked at her again. "You will have to excuse me. Stay right here," he commanded her.
He went back into the bedroom, and found Keesha where he had left her. She had her eyes closed when he walked into the room, and she kept them closed. He walked over to her and sat on the bed. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her closer. He was relieved when she allowed herself to rest her head on his shoulder.
"Are you going to join us?" he asked her softly.
"Is there any reason I need to?" she mumbled. "Are you telling me to leave?"
He felt her start to shake, and he knew she was crying. They had both been so happy just a few minutes before, and now this. "Of course I’m not. You don’t need to worry about that." He lifted her head and saw her tears. He could swear that he hated Brenda for making her cry, but he didn’t know the whole story yet. "You have to understand how much I love you, and nothing, not dead fiancées coming back from the dead will change that. You are the woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with."
She blinked, and more tears fell down her cheek. She angrily wiped them away. "Can you be so certain about that? I know how much you loved Brenda. I was here after she died, remember."
"Yes, you were, but you also had to realize that I got over her. I moved on with my life a long time ago, and I know that I love you. She died, and I put her behind me. I can’t go back to the past, Keesha. I want to go to the future, with you."
She raked her fingers through her hair, and began to stand up. "Are you ready to face her? She who brought us together, and she who will seek to tear us apart."
"Very, I want to know her very good reason for disappearing for a year, and then seeking to return. I’m dying to know."
Brenda was surprised when she saw them walking down the stairs holding hands. She also noticed Keesha’s almost menacing look as she caught her eye. She swallowed hard and sat down on the couch.
"Well," Keesha said, "you can begin anytime, Brenda. After a year, I think that you have a lot to talk about." She sat on the couch opposite of Brenda, and Jax sat near her.
Brenda looked at them sitting side by side. How could he do this to her? She thought that he loved her. She pushed her hair behind her ears and looked away trying to formulate her thoughts. "This is a little difficult for me."
"It’s a little difficult for all of us," Jax observed. "Just tell us what happened, and why after a year you have decided to come back into our lives."
"I don’t know how to begin…," Brenda said.
"Just start from the beginning," Keesha said impatiently. She was growing a little tired of Brenda’s obvious dodging of the question. "You were in the car with your mother, the car went over the bridge. What happened next?"
She was a little surprised at Keesha’s brusque manner about the situation. How could she be so mean to her when she was the one sleeping with her fiancee? "Since you want it simple, here it is. After the accident, I was unconscious for a couple of weeks. I had been found by a woman and her husband, Whitney and Gerard. They basically nursed me back to health. I was going to come back here as soon as I recovered, about a month later. But, I was so confused, and I needed to do some thinking about what I really wanted before I came back."
Jax nodded, "So, you were better within a month’s time." He gave a short laugh, "Do you want to know how long it took me to ‘recover’ after I thought you were dead?"
"Jax," she pleaded, "I’m sorry, but I needed that time to sort things out. I needed to know what I really wanted, and I found out that was you. You are the reason that I’m back. Don’t you see that?"
"Brenda, you were away for over a year thinking about what you want. Did you expect me to wait forever for you? Did you expect me to not be upset and take you back whenever you decided to return? If you did, I’m sorry, but that is not going to happen."
"Jax, you said that you loved me. You said you would never love anyone like you love me. Jax, I’m here now. Can’t you give us another chance; can’t we just get back what we had?"
"What the hell?" Keesha said incredulously. "Am I not sitting here? Do you realize that he is with me now? I was here when everyone thought you were dead. I was here when Jax was grieving for you. I saw what he went through, how hard your ‘death’ was on him. I will not allow you to hurt him like that ever again, Brenda. Never, do you understand me?"
Brenda’s tears began to flow freely. Jax found himself unmoved by them. There was a time when he never wanted to see her cry or cause her any pain. But, so much time had passed, and now he realized that Keesha was the woman whose tears could cause him pain, not hers. "Brenda," he said standing, "I think that you should leave now. Do you have someplace that you can go?"
She looked up at him with tears clinging to her eyelashes. "I…I can’t believe you are doing this to me, Jax. I love you!"
"I asked do you have somewhere to stay. Nikolas has bought the cottage, so you don’t have that anymore. I’m sorry, but I had to sell it. I thought you were dead, remember."
The coldness in his voice when he said that made her finally realize that she had better leave. "Can we talk about this later? We can’t let things end like this," she said moving to the door to pick up her bags. "Please, Jax."
He nodded, "Whatever, just leave, all right."
"I love you, Jax. Even if you’re not willing to fight for us, I am," she said closing the door.
Jax let out a sigh as she left the penthouse. He felt Keesha’s hands on his back. She lightly pressed her head on his back as well. He was afraid that if he turned around, he would find her crying again. He could not believe that he was causing her so much pain.
"It’s not your fault," she said softly. "You thought she was dead when you proposed to me, and allowed yourself to fall in love with me. I understand if you want to make things work with Brenda."
"Keesha," he said turning around now to face her. She looked up at him with hurt in her eyes, and he could tell that she was determined to remain strong through out this. "You are a wonderful woman, but sometimes you can be a little deaf. Did I not tell you that you are the woman that I love, the woman that I want to marry? Brenda’s return from the dead will not change that. Her reason for keeping the fact that she was alive away from us only added to the fact that I do not want her. I want to be your husband, that is if you’ll still have me."
She smiled, "Jax, I want to have you from this night forward. I do love you; you know that, and I don’t want to imagine my life without you," she said wrapping her arms around his waist and looking up at him.
He bent down and kissed her gently. "Are you still tired?"
"No, never too tired for you," she mumbled against his lips.
*****
Jerry walked into the restaurant and spotted Jax at a table reading the newspaper. He walked over and seated himself. "I’m here, what was so important?"
He put the newspaper down. "Well, good morning to you too, Jer," he said sarcastically.
"Well, I’m sorry that I was not very courteous, but you said this was an emergency."
Jax shrugged, "Maybe I exaggerated just a little bit. You won’t believe who showed up at my penthouse last night."
"A guessing game, Jax. I don’t think that I will ever be able to guess. You’ll just have to tell me."
"Brenda," he said shortly. He studied Jerry’s face for a reaction, and he got one.
"Brenda? Jax, have you lost your mind, you do realize that Brenda is dead, and the dead do not usually show up at penthouses."
"How about Miranda?" Jax said and the change in Jerry prompted him to apologize. "Look, I’m sorry, but she wasn’t dead when I thought she was, and it seems that I was wrong about Brenda as well. It seems that she has been off somewhere thinking about her future."
"What? So, she is fine, health wise, I mean."
He nodded, "It would seem so. And, it would also seem that she is planning to start a life with me again. She is no longer confused, or so she says anyway."
"You’re not considering going back to her again, are you? Because if you do, I think that you should be the one sent to Ferncliff."
"Don’t worry about that," he said smiling understanding his brother’s concerns. It seemed that although he loved Brenda, he had been unhappy most of the time he was with her. "I have a wonderful woman in my life, and I’m not going to do anything stupid to jeopardize that in anyway."
"Good, I don’t want you to go through the trials of Ms. Brenda Barrett any more. Keesha is the perfect woman for you. She tells you what to do, and you do it."
He laughed, "And you’re not like that with Lucy? I think that you are as much whipped as I am." He shrugged, "It doesn’t matter, though. She is my much better half, and I love her for it. There is a problem, though. Brenda is threatening her happiness, and I will not allow anyone to do that. She claims she is fine, but I can tell she is a little insecure. Jerry, we must make sure that Brenda does not come between us."
"You think that Brenda was involved in more than she is telling?" Jerry asked drinking some orange juice.
"I am certain of it. I don’t know what exactly, but I’m sure it’s something. I do know she was involved with someone, most likely. I have learned that she cannot be without a man in her life for an extended period of time. We can bring him to her, or send her to him, so that she will leave Keesha and me alone. That is all that I want. I want no harm to come to her, but I do want her gone from the equation. Can you make that happen, Jer?"
Jerry gave Jax one of his trademark smiles, and nodded, "Consider it done, little brother."
*****
"Thank you for meeting with me," Laura said giving Keesha a small hug as she came in the house. "I wasn’t sure if you would be able to on such short notice."
"That wasn’t your fault. I should check my messages sometime," she joked. "What can I do for you?" she asked settling on the couch.
"It may be more of a question of what we can do for each other. Lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of reopening the Ward house. Before you say anything, listen. Working at the hospital with the youth has convinced me more than ever that there is a need for the house to be open."
Keesha’s eyes brightened at that idea. She thought that was a wonderful idea. And it couldn’t have come at a better time. If she were going to keep her sanity, then this project would be the ticket. She didn’t have to worry about planning the wedding, because Jax insisted that they meet later so she could tell him what she wanted, and he would make sure everything would be taken care of. This was perfect. She was about to answer when Laura grabbed her left hand to examine her ring.
"My goodness, Keesha, this ring is incredible," she gushed.
Smiling, "Thank you, Laura. I thought it was pretty impressive, too."
"Am I to assume that Jax has finally given you a proposal. If yes, then I am extremely happy for you," she said hugging her again.
"Wow, has everyone had in mind that Jax should marry me. If so, why didn’t you let him know this sooner?"
"We knew he would figure it out. I guess that you’ll be too busy planning a wedding that you won’t have time to concentrate on the house, and I understand. We’ll just do this at another time."
"No, I think that it’s a wonderful idea. Jax is going to take care of everything with the wedding, so that leaves me with a lot of free time, so I would like nothing better than to rebuild Ward House. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile, but I really haven’t been able to do it."
"Won’t you be missing out on the fun of planning a wedding for yourself?" Laura asked a little sarcastically.
"Yeah, well, it doesn’t really matter. As long as we get married, I’m pretty much fine with how ever he wants to do it. I really want to get started on this right away. I’m so exited about this. Where should we begin?"
"Of course, we will need some financial backing for this. I could go to Stefan and get the funding through GH," Laura said pouring the coffee that sat on the table in front of them.
"If it’s all the same to you, Laura, I would rather this not be funded through GH," she said taking the cup from Laura.
"Will you get the funding from Jax, then?" she said cutting the pastry to put on the plates.
She thought about that. That would make Jax involved with something she loved, but that might not be such a good idea, she thought. "No, not entirely. I want him to be involved with this of course, and I know he won’t overstep his boundaries, because I won’t let him, but this is something I want to be a part of as well. I have money, Laura, that will be perfect for this."
She knew immediately that she was referring to the inheritance left to her by Justus. Laura still could hardly believe that Justus was gone. It seemed like only yesterday that he, his cousin, and grandmother came to town. And, now two of them were gone. She sighed, "Justus’ inheritance? Are you going to use that?"
She nodded, "Seems fitting doesn’t it. Justus wasn’t a bad person; I still believe that. He just did not make the best choices, but using his money to do good seems like it will somehow make what happen worth it. Something good can come of his death; I believe that is important."
Laura smiled. Keesha was just as strong and as strong-willed as her grandmother. "I believe that is important, too. I hoped that Justus wouldn’t feel so guilty about what happened with Damain Smith. I forgave him; I had hoped that would be enough, but I guess it wasn’t. Are we going to go ahead with this plan?"
"Definitely. I can’t wait to get started. It will give me something to do. We must always remember that ‘idle hands are the devil’s workshop’."
"Yes, we must. Where should I contact you about the information? Will you be at your apartment, or should you give me the number at the penthouse?" Laura teased her.
"Do you have a piece of paper and a pen?" Keesha asked laughing.
*****
"Jax," V said as she noticed him standing behind her. "How long have you been there?"
"Oh," he said smiling, "a while. It seems that you are deeply enthralled in your work. Always the studious Venus."
She rolled her eyes. She could not stand to be called by her given name. Deciding to be equally mean, she inquired, "So, Jasper, what brings you here?"
"You wound me, my lady," he said sitting on the couch and waited for her to join him. "Ashton isn’t here, is he?"
"No, he had a business meeting this morning, so I am here all by myself," she answered sitting down.
"Good. I want to ask of you a favor." She nodded prompting him to continue. "I have Jerry working on something already for me, and I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t have a choice."
"Okay, come on, Jax. Just ask me," she said nodding.
"Brenda is not dead."
"What?! What do you mean Brenda is not dead. You were there; you saw her car go off the side of that bridge. There is no way that she can be alive. I thought you came to terms with that, Jax."
"Calm down, V. I know all of that, but she showed up at my penthouse very much alive last night. If you still think that I am just crazy, Keesha was there, and she saw her as well."
"Oh my goodness, Jax, she is alive. What happened? Are you two going to get back together?"
"No, we are not going to get back together. She was away for a year, and did not let me know what was going on with her, so I think that it is highly unlikely for me to get back together with her. Besides, I have someone new in my life that, as odd as it may seem, that I love more than I ever loved Brenda."
V smiled and nodded. Once she had gotten over her initial jealousy of Keesha, the two of them had become very good friends. "So you finally did it, huh. Good for you; good for the both of you," she said reaching over to give him a hug.
"Thank you. That brings me to why I’m here. Jerry is going to find out exactly what happened during the past year. It’s going to be a little difficult, because we were unable to find out that she was still alive. I want you to help Jerry, lend some of your cop know how to him. Jerry is good, but he may be a little too emotionally involved to be the best."
"I will, Jax. I will offer any help that I possibly can." She understood what Jax meant. Jerry had ever liked Brenda. He almost hated her for what she continually put Jax through.
"Thank you, V. This is very important to me, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this," he stood to leave. "Are you free for lunch now? Maybe I can try to repay you with lunch."
"That will be fine, but are you sure that Keesha won’t mind?" she said smiling as she stood.
"How did you know that I was meeting her for lunch?"
"Come on, Jax. V knows everything," she said pushing him towards the door and then following him out.
*****
"Jax told me about the two of you," V said sitting down at the table. "I’m so happy to hear that you two are finally deciding to get married."
"Thank you, V. It seems that is the consensus. Had I know that was the opinion of everybody we know, I would have talked Jax into asking me sooner."
"I wish that I would have known that you would have said yes sooner." He glanced up; "There is Lucy. Everyone in town that doesn’t already know, will in a few minutes."
"Oh my gosh, Jax!! Why didn’t you tell me that you and the lovely Ms. Ward were going to tie the knot? I am family you know, it would be nice to be included in these things," she said spotting them.
"Hello, Lucy. I knew that Jerry would pass the information along to you," Jax said giving her one of his biggest smiles.
"Well, next time, buddy, make sure I’m in on it first. Have you started to make plans yet, Keesha?" she asked sitting down in the extra chair at the table.
"Well, actually, I do have some plans in mind, but Jax is mainly going to be in charge of the actual planning. He doesn’t want me too stressed out about everything."
"No, no," Lucy said. "I love to plan weddings. I love to plan anything. Let me help you do this. Jax, you are far too busy to do it. Jacks’ and Deception can run themselves for a little while. Come on Keesha, this will be fun. Oh, V, you can help, too. This will be great."
"Lucy, you’re the one who shouldn’t be under stress right now," Keesha said referring to Lucy’s pregnancy. It was still hard to believe that Jerry was going to be a father.
Patting her stomach, she said, "Little Chester or Anastasia will be just fine. I really want to help you with this. Don’t make me beg, Keesha, because you know I will," she joked.
She smiled at her soon-to-be sister-in-law. Lucy’s enthusiasm was highly contagious, and she would like to work with her on this. "Okay, that will be great. I could use some help with this, and Jax is very busy. Speaking of busy, Jax. I met with Laura this morning, and we have decided to reopen the Ward House."
"Really, that sounds great. Will that take up a lot of your time?" he asked a little concerned.
"Don’t worry about that. I will make sure that it doesn’t. Actually, I am going to look for someone else to work with Laura. I really think that it is a good idea to reopen the house, but I don’t know if I can work too closely with it; for personal reasons you know," she said and then remained quiet for a while. It was still hard for her to think about her grandmother although she had been gone for a long time.
Jax noticed that, but he didn’t say anything, and neither did the two women. Jax glanced over at V, who returned his look. She knew that he would never let anything hurt Keesha. Brenda had better watch out if she ever tried.
*****
"Hello, Brenda how did things go last night?" Whitney asked her friend.
Brenda threw herself on the bed of the hotel room. "Not well. Nothing went the way I planned."
"What do you mean?" she asked quite concerned. "Wasn’t Jax there?" Whitney looked up when she saw Gerard enter the room. He would not like this turn of events. He wanted Brenda to get back with Jax, or his plan would not work.
"Yes, but he wasn’t the only one there. It seems that Jax has gotten himself another woman. I can’t believe this, I thought he loved me. How could he do this to me?"
Whitney shook her head; this was going to mess everything up. "I think that he still loves you. A love like you said the two of you shared does not just go away. It may take some time, but I’m sure he will come to his senses and realize how much he still loves you. You can’t give up, Brenda. You have to be strong and fight for him."
Brenda nodded as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "You’re so right, Whitney. I have to fight for Jax. It took me a long time to realize that he was the best for me, and I’m not going to lose him now. Thank you, Whitney; that was just the pep talk I needed. I’ll talk to you later."
"Was that Brenda?" Gerard asked as Whitney hung up the phone. "Does she bring us happy greetings from Port Charles?"
She shook her head, "Hardly. It seems as if Mr. Jacks’ love for Brenda has completely waned. He is involved with another woman."
Gerard chuckled, "Of course he would be. I hardly think that he would be without a woman. He is a rich man; women are always going to be a part of his life. I mean, she was gone for an entire year, what does she expect the man to be, a monk."
"Okay, so you took this into account, what now? How is she going to get back into his good graces?"
"Please, Brenda is his weakness. I know enough about this man to know that. He has given up a lot for her, and I know that she can work wonders to get herself back into his life. She may need a little help though."
"Are you proposing that we go to Port Charles?" Whitney asked.
"Maybe, we’ll just have to see. It’s been a while since I’ve been to the States. It might be good to go," he mused.


