Heading In The Right Direction

Chapter 01

Author's Notes:

I haven't done a M/F fic for a while but these two have been nagging at me to start writing for quite some time now. I have no idea where this is going or how long it is going to be but join me in this adventure, won't you? Have no fear though, I'm definitely no abandoning our boys lives...just giving us all a change of scenery.J💕💕💕

Heading In The Right Direction

Manhattan

Late 2003

The city was cold and wet, the streetlights glinted off the puddles left between the pavers.

Just outside the safety of the apartment foyer, the solitary figure fished a box of cigarettes out of the inside pocket of his jacket, tapping the packet against his palm until one appeared in the small tear in the protective foil. Placing his bounty between his lips, Jon withdrew his lighter and lit it up, watching the tiny spark on the flint catch the fluid, making it swell in the darkness. Touching the flame to the end of his cigarette, he inhaled the smoke into his lungs, the cherry end glowed brightly, as he snapped the lighter lid closed and slipped it back inside his jacket with his remaining cigarettes.

Jon pulled his cap down lower and the collar of his jacket up around his ears and stepped out into the night with a nod to the concierge. He had no plan; just to walk the streets for a bit. He'd been cooped up inside the four walls for too long and working was proving almost impossible with his mind as scattered as it was.

The band was on a two-year break to allow him, their fearless and indefatigable leader, to deal with the unmitigated shitshow his personal life had become.

Never in his wildest dreams did he ever expect to find himself the jilted one in his marriage but here he was with a looming divorce court date, an empty bed and a dull, lifeless heart. He'd moved into the Manhattan apartment, leaving the New Jersey house under Dorothea's control.

He missed his kids desperately but, like the schmuck he was, he followed the rules even though they favoured Dorothea in every way.

In the first few days after Dot's bombshell request for divorce, it had taken a lot for his children to understand that if he had any chance of continuing to see them, he had to stay within the boundaries that their mother had stipulated.

Confused and frustrated, tantrums and tears had filled the lives of his children who only wanted their mother and father to stop yelling at each other and return to the days filled with laughter, for the wine bottles to stay full and intact instead of lying shattered and empty against the walls during fights.

Tonight had been one of those tough ones.

He'd been allowed to visit with the kids at a pizza joint near the big house, that they'd all loved before the...well, before, and Jon knew the proprietors well enough that they provided them with a booth toward the back, well away from prying eyes.

Like every stereotypical losing party, Jon indulged his children with all their requests for food and drink and let them chatter around him whilst waiting for their order, only stepping in now and again when the ribbing between the siblings became one-sided.

Jon had only picked at his slice of pie, not really hungry but wishing he had a drink in front of him that wasn't soda. However, as per Dot's rules, he had to be sober to have the children on visitation days.

It almost killed him to walk them back to their mother's car at the end of the allotted visitation time. Jon hugged them fiercely and told them once more, like he did every time, exactly how much he loved them and missed them, whilst Dorothea waited on the sidewalk for him to finish.