September first, 1998

20

That evening, while Jenna was finishing up her homework, JD and Veronica embarked on the mission of forming some sort of escape plan that wouldn't raise suspicion with the police, and wouldn't make Jenna suspect that anything was out of the ordinary. Considering JD would have to leave his job, they couldn't pretend to her that they were simply being moved around because of his work, so they had to think of something else.

"Okay, why don't you tell your boss that you need to move out of town because of some family emergency, I doubt they'll ask many questions about that" Veronica suggested, tying her hair back as she did so.

"Sure, they probably wouldn't be that interested anyway" JD rolled his eyes thinking about his dopey coworkers.

"Do you think they'll find any new evidence surrounding the case?"

"I don't think so" he said "it's taken them eight years to dig anything up, and they don't have that many funds to go off. Still, I'm slightly worried that someone like Martha will get through to them, but I'm hoping she would just put trust into the fact that I reported everything she said in full. Have you thought of anything to convince Jenna yet?"

Veronica shook her head.

"Maybe we could just say that I grew up there, and I needed to move back to my home town for something, and you wanted to come with me. I mean, I'm pretty sure we lived in Seattle for a couple of weeks when I was four, so it's not a total lie" he suggested, even though he had no idea how many states he had lived in at that point. For all he knew he could have lived on the street they were moving to.

"I guess so, we'll just have to emphasise the fact that she'll finally be living with her dad, and hopefully she'll be too excited to care."

JD smiled to himself at this. There was actually someone in his life, even though he'd only known her for a couple of days, who might want to drop everything just to spend time with him. He vowed to himself then and there that if Jenna did agree to the move, that he would never be the father that he had grown up with. He would never raise a hand to her, he would never threaten her, he would look after her like the dad he wished he had. He would help her with her art projects, attend her dance recitals, learn how to braid her hair, and watch those crappy cartoons that kids seemed to love. He just wanted to be there for her.

"Okay," he said "if you call the landlord now to see if it's still available, is it okay if I go and speak to Jenna about the idea of moving?" He asked, and was surprised when Veronica nodded her head and reached for the phone. He didn't think she would trust him with a conversation like this. Nervously, he went upstairs and knocked on Jenna's door, not knowing how she was going to react.

"Come in!" She called from her desk.

"Hey kid, it's only me" he said, opening the door and sitting on the armchair in the corner of the room, "what you working on?"

"Just some sums, I'm pretty much finished now" she beamed.

"Wow impressive! Okay look, there's something I need to ask you."

"Sure, hey, are you moving in with us?" Jenna asked hopefully, catching JD off guard. He hadn't expected her to trust him this much yet.

"Well, that sort of depends on you kid" he began "you see, I need to move up to Seattle for a while. I grew up there. And your mom was wondering, now that I'm back in her life and everything, if we could all move up together, you know, like a family. But neither of us would want to move if you weren't happy with it, since it would mean moving schools and stuff. What do you think?"

Jenna paused for a while, causing JD to subconsciously hold his breath. He had never felt so intimidated by and eight year old before. Finally, she smiled brightly.

"That sounds great! On one condition" at this, JD's stress levels rose slightly "can I have a TV in my room if I agree?"

He rolled his eyes and laughed "fine. But only if your mom agrees. I think she's the boss around here" he joked.

"Yay!" She squealed, running over to hug JD "thanks Dad!"

As he hugged his daughter, JD realised that he had never been called Dad before, and he struggled not to let his emotions show. This was all he had wanted since that day on the football field. He wanted to turn his life around, to become beautiful on the inside, to be part of a family. He had been so lonely living in the shadows, even before he had met Veronica back in 89. And now he was "dad". It was overwhelming, but he loved it.

"No problem, thank you for agreeing to move" he said "now, let's go and tell your mom!"

As they headed downstairs, JD could hear Veronica talking to someone on the phone, and he struggled to judge if she was happy or annoyed. He was hoping they had the house, considering he had actually managed to get Jenna on board. As she put down the phone, JD held his breath in anticipation to see what her reaction was, and was relieved to see Veronica smiling to herself.

"So..."

"We can have the house!" she exclaimed "we just need to send over the deposit, but I think we should have enough. It may be a struggle for a while, but we should be able to get by pretty easily. What do you think, Jenna?"

"I'm so excited!" She beamed, causing Veronica to sigh in relief. She smiled up at JD, unable to believe that something good seemed to be happening for them. It was a rare moment to say the least, but it was one that they could finally enjoy as a family.

JD scooped Jenna up into his arms and pulled Veronica towards them as they all shared the first of many family hugs. Yes, they were dysfunctional, they still had a lot of things to work through, and they could never truly relax while the investigation continued, but in that moment none of that mattered. JD wasn't alone anymore. He turned to Veronica and whispered something to her out of earshot of Jenna, something that made her feel like everything was going to be okay.

"Our love is god."