September first, 1998

8

As usual, Jenna woke up at six o'clock on the dot. She was even hungrier this morning, because after everything that had happened the night before, she had gone to bed without any dinner.

She crept past her mom's room even though she knew there was no chance of her waking up, before running down the stairs into the kitchen. As she was trying to decide what she was going to eat, she suddenly noticed that the officer from the night before was flat out asleep on the sofa. She wondered why her mom had punched the guy in the face, especially after how nice he had been to her when she had run away from home. They must have known each other, or else he wouldn't still be in her house. Even so, Jenna was hungry, and she wanted pancakes.

However, pancakes seemed to be a mistake, considering as soon as she opened the pan cupboard, it's entire contents fell out, crashing to the ground. She winced at the noise, knowing it would have definitely woken up their guest. Just as she expected, JD came rushing into the kitchen to see what had happened, but simply laughed with relief when he realised it was just Jenna.

"Shit kid, you scared me" he laughed, rubbing his eyes with fatigue.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Also, mom would kill you if she knew you'd said shit in front of me."

"Shit don't repeat that, I mean, oh crap, WAIT NO don't repeat that either". JD wasn't used to talking to kids, let alone his own daughter, not that she'd known that. By this point Jenna was in hysterics.

"Hehe moms gonna kill you" she joked.

"Wouldn't be the first time" he muttered to himself.

"What?"

"Erm, nothing, what are you making?"

"Pancakes" Jenna exclaimed proudly. Her energy definitely didn't match the fact that it was still dark outside, "do you want to help?"

"Sure, okay" JD yawned. He hadn't been up this early in a while. But he was more excited to spend some time with his daughter as opposed to going back to sleep.

"Yay! Okay, I'll get everything and mix the batter, you can do the frying!" Jenna ran around the kitchen gathering ingredients as JD watched her, a weird sense of pride running through him he'd never felt before.

Twenty minutes later, the pair were sat at the kitchen counter, each with their own impressive stack of pancakes. JD was impressed with how funny and sarcastic Jenna was, even though sarcasm was probably not supposed to be the main quality a parent strived for in their children.

"So how do you know my mom?" Jenna asked, knowing that Veronica never usually let people stay over at their house.

"Well, we were close back in high school" Jd admitted. He had decided that he wasn't lying to his daughter as long as he didn't tell her the full truth of anything. None of it was his call to make, so he couldn't tell Jenna that he was her dad. And of course, he could never tell her about the murders, no one could know about that.

Jenna suddenly became a quieter, more serious version of herself, like something was troubling her.

"You okay kid?" JD asked, scared he had said something wrong.

"Did you know my dad?" She asked, looking up at JD with her sad, but hopeful, brown eyes. He hadn't expected that question, and it felt like it stabbed him from the inside.

"What makes you say that?" He asked cautiously, suddenly becoming very interested with his pancake stack.

"It's just, I know my mom met my dad in high school, but he died before she had me. She doesn't really like talking about him, so I don't know anything about him. Did you ever meet him?"

Shit. How was he supposed to answer that?

"Well, yes actually, I did know him"

Jenna's face lit up, hopeful that she would finally know something about her father. It broke JD's heart realising that he really hadn't been there for his daughter at all, even if it wasn't his fault.

"What was he like?" She seemed so excited.

"Well, I think you would have liked him, and I know for a fact that he would have really loved you. He was kind of quiet, he always wore this black trench coat thing, and like you, he really liked slushies" Jenna giggled at that, but also felt bad when she realised that was probably why Veronica never let her drink them.

"How did he die" she asked. JD was surprised that Veronica had never told Jenna how she thought he died, or even at least made up some sort of cover story.

"I'm not sure, kid, I'm sorry"

"What are you guys talking about?" Veronica asked sleepily, dragging herself towards the kettle for her coffee. Even in the morning, JD thought Veronica looked beautiful, not that he would admit that.

"Mom? You're never awake this early!" Jenna exclaimed, surprised to see her mom awake without having had to drag her out of bed.

"Jenna, don't expose me!" she laughed " I just wanted to make sure our guest had something to eat, but I see you've got that covered."

"If you want I could put some more on for you" JD offered.

"No that's fine thanks, I'm never hungry in the morning. So go on, what we're you chatting about?" She realised it must have been something important, as both Jenna's and JD's faced dropped.

"JD what have you told her?" Veronica was trying to keep calm, but there was definitely a tone of panic in her voice.

"I was just asking him about my dad, I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to upset you" Jenna whimpered as though she was in serious trouble.

"You told her" Veronica quickly turned to JD angrily, who panicked as he realised what she was about to say but didn't have time to stop her "I can't believe you Jason Dean! How dare you! You had no right to tell her that you were her dad, you promised me you wouldn't! How could you?"

Veronica was furious, but quickly realised by the shocked look on Jenna's face and the what the fuck Veronica look on JD's that she had messed up. She realised JD hadn't told Jenna anything at all, and she had ruined everything.

"Well quel surprise indeed" JD said sarcastically, leaning against the back of his chair as he waited for the drama to unfold. For once he wasn't the one who had messed up, so he was kind of relieved Veronica had done so before he had had the chance to.