tag you're it // heathers au

prologue part three // looking for jason dean

After a few more weeks of settling into their new apartment, there was a knock at the door. Veronica got up from the couch where an episode of some generic game show was holding her attention. She walked to the door and opened it up.

"Hi, I'm looking for Jason Dean or Veronica Sawyer." A woman, in a suit jacket and pencil skirt, said to Veronica.

"I'm Veronica. How can I help you?" Veronica asked.

"Is your fiance here too?" The woman asked.

"JD!" Veronica yelled, moving out of the doorway to let the woman in. "Come in."

"What is it, Ronnie?" JD asked, drying his hair with a towel as he walked out of his and Veronica's room.

"I have no idea honestly." She replied.

"Hi, I'm Angela West, you must be Jason Dean." The woman said, smiling as if she was filming a commercial for toothpaste.

"I am, can I help you?" He asked.

"Well, actually, I'm here about your son." Angela said.

"My what?" JD asked.

"Your son, Jesse." Angela explained. "You've been paying child support for a while now."

"No, I haven't. I didn't even know I had a son!" JD shouted as Veronica stood beside him with a slack jawed expression.

"Oh, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you then." Angela apologized robotically. "Anyways, he was taken out of the custody of his mother for abuse and we always check with the other parent before sending the child to a relative or foster care."

"Who is his mother?" JD asked.

"Tara Smith, she's from Reno." Angela answered.

"How old is he?" JD asked, not really recognizing the name of the woman who he apparently impregnated.

"I believe he is about to be three." Angela replied and Veronica scoffed.

"Who else would he go to if we don't take him?" JD asked.

"He has his maternal grandparents and an aunt." Angela said.

"Are they good people?" JD asked.

"JD!" Veronica hissed, annoyed that her fiance would try to not take in his own son. "We have to take him in. He is your son."

"Okay. Is he here, in Ohio?" JD asked.

"Yes, you can come with me to meet him." Angela said. JD and Veronica exchanged weary looks and weak smiles. They were going to meet a child they were going to raise.

Once they arrived, they were taken to a small room with a few chairs and toys. Angela left and soon she came back with a small boy walking behind her. The boy was the spitting image of JD, with curly black hair and blue eyes. JD stood, leaning against a wall with his arms folded over his chest. It was Veronica who crouched down to the little boy's level.

"You must be Jesse," Veronica said to him and he nodded. "You are so cute! Well, I'm Veronica. You can call me Ronnie if you want." She smiled at him and he smiled back at her.

"That's the first time I've seen him smile." Angela laughed.

"JD come say hi, he looks just like you I swear!" Veronica said as JD walked over. He crouched down beside his fiance and looked into his son's blue eyes, much like his own.

"I'm your dad," JD said, not knowing what else to say. Jesse cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes. "We're gonna take care of you." JD told him.

Jesse walked away to play with the toys.

"You said he was abused?" JD asked Angela, who sighed and said yes.

"Well what happened to him?" Veronica asked, feeling appalled when Angela explained the details of his abuse. The boy wore a bruise on his face already but that wasn't the worst of what happened to him. JD and Veronica listened and were told that Jesse might have a hard time adjusting to living with them. But he didn't, Jesse was happy with JD and Veronica.

He was especially close to Veronica, and weary of JD from his abuser being a man. Eventually he warmed up to JD too and they were happy.

Then JD and Veronica's daughter was born. That was the day Jesse changed.