When a Mother Loves

Finis

"I just need to lay down, darling," JD whispered as Veronica helped him into the back seat of his car, kissing his forehead and noting with growing concern that it seemed to be much too warm for the cool winter day. "I just need to sleep...I haven't been sleeping well lately, that's why," JD kept saying, his voice cracking and his lips moving as no sound came out. He looked exhausted, his eyes fluttering shut and Veronica lay her cool, manicured hand on his fevered head, offering a cool relief to the heat that plagued him, settling the heachache building behind his eyes.

Veronica bit her lip as she saw his breathing even out and his chest began to rise and fall to a rhythm that only his body knew. He looked so peaceful in sleep, none of the demons that plagued him in his waking life seemed to be there to interrupt his dreams. Of course he hadn't been sleeping lately-There had been deaths in the school. There had been talk of stopping school all together until they could figure out what was going on, why students disappeared from their beds and then were found in the school with jaw breakers in their dead throats, little notes scribbled near them in an unknown script. JD wasn't involved, he had promised Veronica that (and she trusted him) but he knew something...she knew that for sure. He knew a little about everything.

Kissing his forehead she climbed from the back seat of his old, barely running car and started it up, the deep rumbling of the engine sending shivers up her spine as she pulled out of the school lot and started towards JD's house. She knew his father wouldn't be home. He hardly ever was these days...if he was it would be a shock. Veronica could deal with shock. What she couldn't deal with at the moment was the wet coughing coming from the back seat of the car, and the pitiful whimper that followed.  

Being prepared to be shocked always pays off, as Veronica knew well enough, and as she pulled into the Dean's driveway she spotted JD's father's red and black sports car, and saw that the lights were on in the house. It looked like they would have company that night, and it wasn't going to be enjoyable for either of them. Gritting her teeth and preparing to be annoyed with Mr. Dean (she was pretty sure she was the only person who ever called him that, but then again, it had stuck) Veronica gathered herself and stepped out of the car, opening the back seat and waking JD so she could help him into the house.

JD shivered even during the short walk to his doorstep, leaning heavily on Veronica though he continued to tell her that he just needed to lie down and she continued to say that he would get to do so as soon as they got into the house. It was, however, an empty promise as she learned soon as she unlatched the door and stepped over the threshold and into the entryway of the ugly mansion house JD was sad to call 'home'.

"Why, hello Dad!" Boomed Mr. Dean as soon as they had stepped (or stumbled in JD's case) into the house, and he walked forward patting JD on the shoulder and winking at Veronica. He was the only living person Veronica could think of that could make a friendly wink look annoying and send shivers of anticipation up one's spine. "And what might you two esteemed adults be doing here?" He asked, his tone both patronizing and painful.

JD whimpered into Veronica's shoulder, struggling to sit up straight and look his father in the eye so he could find some sort of reply and make him leave them alone. Of course, that would be wishful thinking, but hey, he was the king of wishful thinking. He used Veronica's shoulder to help him stand up straighter, glad when she wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him out.

"Nothing, son," he said, using the usual backwards language of their household. "Mom and I were just going upstairs to get some work done," he supplied, nodding at Veronica though it hurt his head badly. He could feel his stomach sloshing around and he hoped they would be able to get around his father soon or some sort of karma might just take his old man's shoes. "Could we scoot by then, son?"