Time Waits for No One

Chapter 1 - After the Dance

Real ones know.

Jacqueline tried to hide her jitters while she sat in her glam chair, being fawned and preened over by a cluster of hands, brushes, and hot hair appliances. In a room filled with hair and make-up professionals, producers and sound guys with their voices and equipment buzzing and humming, and a handful more varied "staff" from runners to publicists and even a lawyer or two milling about, the most famous wife in the world behind Princess Diana thought she could make herself so small that maybe they would forget she was even there. Maybe then she'd never get her cue and be able to call out of the circus just this once.

Despite her fantasizing, she could never go unnoticed, but for many, her nerves were undetectable. A seasoned professional socialite, Jacqueline knew how to not let anyone see her sweat (literally; all the hot lights were changing the atmosphere considerably), stuffing all her nervous tics somewhere beneath the artificial glamour. On the inside, however, she was feeling like she might vomit.

Real ones always know.

"When you guys finish touching her up, can I borrow V for a minute before she has to do her segment?" A heavy New York accent broke through the Valley Veneer in the Santa Barbara home, a voice that could only belong to Jacqueline's favorite sister-in-law without her husband's last name, Margaret. Snapped out of dissociation Jacqueline looked up at her with an expression that was a mix of relief, dread, and hope. Hope that maybe this would be her chance to disappear and just hop in the car and go. If anyone would be willing to make the dash with her, it was Margie.

"Yeah, girl! Let me just liven up these curls real quick and she's all yours!" Jacqueline's longtime stylist Freddie replied.

"We've got about 10 minutes before we need her on set. Is it something quick?" One of the production assistants asked, with a tone that said she was telling more than asking. Swiftly, Margaret cocked her head to the side with a tense smile, looking the PA dead in the eye.

"Maybe. Just run another commercial if you need to, get your money's worth." She cut back, her barely there attempt to be polite not curling all the way over. Freddie just barely choked back a laugh, not taking their eyes off the curling wand.

"We'll just be a moment. Thank you Anna." Jacqueline said with a rehearsed smile to the little white girl with a clipboard, careful to not leave the wrong impression on the strangers in her house, knowing what little comments like that could turn into in the press.

A few minutes later, the fully pressed and coiffed beauty in a red dress and stiletto heels slipped out of the makeshift dressing room that had been created in the sitting room of the ranch she barely even slept in anymore, flanked by big sis, her older brother's wife. Margaret looked around to make sure she was out of relative earshot, still being careful of how she would say what she needed to say in case Jacqueline had a hot mic or the sisters were otherwise vulnerable to nosy ears.

"Are you okay, Juju?" Margaret asked firmly, looking her in the eye, trying to pierce through all the noise about the house and create as intimate of a moment between them as could be possible.

"I'm not sure I can do this, honestly. I don't want to do this." Jacqueline answered, her resentment for this whole affair drenched in her tone.

"Who says you have to?"

Jacqueline made a face that said more than enough; about 62 million live viewers and a contract with ABC said she most certainly had an obligation to fulfill her duties.

"I definitely have to, I'm just so tired of this shit. I'm literally nauseous at the thought of having to go out there and put on a smile and answer questions like everything is fine. I just want to go be with my babies.." Jacqueline trailed off, trying to keep her composure as she felt her emotions swelling thinking about her youngest baby boy who was being watched by a nanny. She overheard the producers in the next room murmuring about her needing to head out in two minutes and heaved a deep sigh. Margaret took her younger sister's hands and squeezed them tight.