Chapter 35

"Got room for me?" she hears as she's rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. She peeks out through a slit in her eye and watches him undress, one article of clothing at a time.  "You look so good in there."  he tells her.

"Well, you look pretty good out there, but you would look better in here." she responds, filling her mouth with water.  As soon as he's in behind the glass, she spits the water at him, "What took you so long?"

"I stood there and watched my kids sleeping."

"They're growing fast, aren't they?"  she slides sideways, giving him room to get in the water.  They both are exhausted and all they want to do is sleep. 

Working his head under the water he tells her, "It's not so much that, it's what they have been through in their short lives."

"Typical stuff, Jon."  Olivia states, "They are going through what many families go through, and I'm not saying that's okay, but what can you do?"

"I know."  he lathers his hair, "It's just hard to see that.  I'm supposed to protect them and look at what I've done."

"What have you done?" she rests her hand on his chest, "You haven't done anything but love them, protect them and provide for them."

"You know what I mean."

Olivia looks him in the eye, "Do you think that staying in a loveless, respect-less marriage is good for them?"

"No."

"Do you think that living a lie is good for them?"

"No Olivia, I don't." he starts to get heated, "I just hate to think that I'm the reason that they are hurting and that I'm the reason they now have a two parent home."

"Are you kidding me?" she snaps, running her finger nails down his chest, "Why would you think that?"

Rinsing the suds from his hair, with the water running over his mouth he says, "I never thought that I would ever get divorced.  Ever."

Olivia doesn't know what to say, he has never expressed that to her.  She's quite taken back by it.  She gathers her thoughts, her tired and exhausted thoughts, "Did you think that you could have been with me forever and never been found out?"

"No."

"Was I the last kept woman?" she questions, not really giving it thought before, "Was I the only one?"

That makes him laugh, "Now you ask that?"

"Was I?"

"Yes, babe.  You were the only mistress that I kept."

"But not the only one that you slept with?" she's starting to feel a little anger, mixing up with some jealousy.  "How many were there?"

As they finish their shower he explains to her, "When I was with you, you were the only one that I was with."

"Meaning?"

"That you were the only person that I was sleeping with."

"How many have there been?  One on each continent?"

Again, she makes him laugh, "Not that many.  Who could keep up with that?"

"Jon!"

"Liv, I am only teasing.  I have been with a lot less women than everyone thinks.  I was faithful to Dorothea until you.  Regardless what anyone says."

"Okay, so be it - but does that make you a bad dad?" she's quick to fire back, "And if I was the only one, they should never have found out about me until now."

"They didn't."

"So, if they didn't know about me, then how can you take on that responsibility?  I think that you're both to blame."

"That may be the case, but I can't just act like it's no big deal."  he steps out and grabs a towel.  "And I can't pretend that my kids aren't affected by it and the decisions that I've made."  He reaches for another towel and hands it to Olivia and she steps out.

"Well, as a doctor and knowing the kids like I do, I would say that they have come through this quite well, until now." she makes reference to Dorothea dragging the children clear across the country to catch Jon cheating.  "And anything that happens from this point forward, I would say is more Dorothea than you simply because of the way that she's handling it."

"I agree." he wraps his towel around his waist, "But I need to some how do damage control."

Olivia agrees with him, as she dries her body, "We just need to make sure that we are honest with them all the way.  Nothing off limits and nothing secret."

"True."

"And you," she walks into Jon, "Need to stop blaming yourself.  Anyone that knows the two of you knew that you were on borrowed time."

"What does that mean?" he kisses her on the forehead and applies his Right Guard, "Borrowed time?"

"Romeo." was all she said, as she winked and walked away.

"What about Romeo?" he asks, tailing behind her into the bedroom.  "I don't get it?"

"Well, when she came into my office for the first time with Jake and Romeo, I could see that they were oops babies or a save babies."

"What the hell does that mean?" he grabs a pair of shorts from his bag and pulls them on.  "What's a save baby?"

Olivia can't unsay what she just said, so she told him what she thought, "With the age difference, between Jesse and Jake, it leads a medical professional to wonder why there is that gap.  I figured they were either accidents, or she was trying to save her marriage."

Jon sits next to her, a little deeper in thought now.  He looks around the dated hotel room, it has a slight odor of cigarette smoke and furniture polish, "No, they can't be.  When we got pregnant for both, we were good."

"Define good." she reaches over and lays her hand on his leg, "I'm just telling you what I observed years ago Jon.  It means nothing now."

"I know, I know.  But what made you think that about me and my boys?" he takes her hand and kisses her fingers, one at a time.  

She smiles and tries to put the conversation to rest, "It was just a noticeable age difference between your first two and the last two, that's all."  She can see that he's now lost in the thoughts, he's taking himself back to the time in his life when Jake and Romeo were conceived, and she's going to leave him there.   Not for any reason other than he needs to see that he is not solely responsible for the breakdown of the marriage.  "Let's go to bed, babe."

He looks at her crooked and smiles, "There is no place that I would rather go."  Leaning over to kiss her, he whispers, "I have missed you, you have no idea."

"I'm glad to be back.  I'm sorry that I ever left."

They aren't in bed 5 minutes before they are both sound asleep.  The next thing they remember is house keeping knocking on the door.  "House keeping!"

Jon lifts his head and looks at the alarm clock on the bedside table.  "Fuck, it's 11:30!"  He sits straight up in bed.  

"House keeping!"

"GO AWAY!" he yells at the woman.  "Come back later."

Olivia sits up next to him.  She brushes the hair off of her face and starts to slide out of bed.  "Where are the kids?"  She goes to the adjoining door and opens it to find the room empty.  "The kids are gone."  She turns to Jon.  "The beds are empty and their bags are gone."

"That bitch!" he gets out of bed, looking for his cigarettes.  "That stupid bitch."

"Jon."

"No fuck that, she took them like that to punish me."

"Maybe they are having breakfast?" Olivia tries to defuse the situation, but she's only making it worse.  "I'll call down and see if she's checked out."

"Save yourself the time.  She bailed as soon as she could, and she did it sneaky."  He inhales a long hit of his cigarette, "Have you seen my cell phone?"

Olivia scurries over and digs through his bag, "It's right here."  She tosses it to him and goes into the bathroom.  With the bathroom lit up, she sees a note written in lipstick on the mirror.  Dad, we are going home.  Mom made us get up early.  I'll call you when we get home.  Steph.  "Hey babe!"  Olivia calls to Jon, "Come here."

After a few seconds, Jon appears with his cell phone to his ear, "What?"  Olivia points to the mirror.  Jon reads it and flips the flip phone closed, with anger.  "See!  She did it to be mean."

"I see that now, but don't let it upset you.  You know they're safe."  He turns and leaves Olivia to do her business.

"Hungry?" he yells back to her, "I'll order room service."

From the bathroom she replies, "Do we have time, you have that interview at 12:30?" 

He forgot all about that interview.  He forgot everything as soon as they got of f the elevator last night and seen Dorothea with four kids in tow.  "Well, we need to eat.  If I'm late, I'm late."

She's not going to remind him of his work ethic, he knows it.  She's going to let this one go.  "I guess I could do some oatmeal and toast.  It looks chilly out there."

"Coffee?"

"And juice, please."

He places their breakfast order and jumps back in the shower.  "I'll hurry.  How fast can you be?"

"I could walk out the door right now.  Face is washed and teeth are brushed."

"You showering?" he asks as he stumbles, sliding his shorts off.  "Even though it feels like we just got out of one."

She nods her head, "No you go ahead.  I'll wait for room service."

Jon showers and she gets ready to face the day in cold damp Seattle.  She just left the Northwest, she's not too thrilled to be back.  She makes sure that all of their stuff is where it needs to be for when house cleaning does come in.  Valuables are locked in the safe and the rest of the important stuff she crams into her pocket book.

The afternoon in Seattle wasn't too bad.  Jon did his interview and when they were done with that they did a little shopping to kill time before sound check.

Sound check goes off without a hitch, even though the entire band and staff are spent.  Exhausted beyond belief and they just want to get home.  "I think whoever schedules the next tour, needs a tour guide."  Richie says, lacing up his boot.  "This climate hopping sucks ass!"

"it is bad this time, isn't it?"  Dave replies, "I had a bloody nose this morning."

"That's altitude."  Richie affirms.

Dave, pulling on a t-shirt says, "The sit kills my hair too."

Richie laughs, "My point exactly.  We need to stay in one climate and run that, and then hop over.  Florida to Washington is extreme, specially this time of year."

"We're almost done."  Jon reminds them as they hear 5 minutes boys.  Olivia knows that that is her cue.  She leaves the guys and heads to her spot side stage and is mesmerized, every time that she sees it, the adoration of several thousand fans.

Lights go out, music stops and the crowd goes crazy.  Frenzied flashlights guide the 4 of them on stage and when it's time for Jon, he walk up the steps and right to his microphone.  As soon as he's there, David starts to play.  Spotlight on him and the crowd is even crazier.  He gets through the introduction of These Days, joined by Richie and Jon jumps in .. I was walking around just a face in the crowd.  The crowd was so loud Olivia couldn't even hear Jon.  She stands there, leaning on a barricade and watches another amazing show.

These Days was all they needed to kick the show in the ass.  The energy was high, the guys were tight and Seattle loved Bon Jovi.  Even more so when they were a headline, other than another sold out show.

Rock Star Jon Bon Jovi collapses during sell out show at the Seattle Stadium, in front of 67,000 fans.  Stay tuned for more details as the emerge.