Chapter Twelve

Jon dialed back his anger as she shouted into his face. "Young lady you will not shout at me like that, I don't care if you think that I am not your father but you will show me some god damned respect.t" Jon breathed deeply trying relentlessly to calm down.

CC just shook her head as Bongiovi vs Bongiovi had began.

"I give respect to those that EARN it, those who respect me. Right now you aren't even on my list." Frankie muttered and closed her eyes. Damn the room was beginning to tilt.

"Darlin are you ok?" Richie asked as he grabbed her by the shoulders as she was unsteady "You shouldn’t be on your feet after that painkiller.

Jon fumed feeling his blood rush to his head "God damn you WILL respect me, and you will not talk to me like that, I gave you fucking life and this is how you treat me?" he spat ignoring that Richie was fussing all the fuck over her again/

She smiled, a simple sweet smile that screamed Bongiovi to all who watched. "NOPE. You don't deserve it." She opened one eye and glanced at her mom. "YOU LIKED THIS GUY?"

She inhaled sharply and muttered as the room swam in and out of focus, the only thing keeping her upright was the man standing firmly at her back. "Jesus save me from jackasses!"

CC couldn’t watch anymore. "Jon, calm down NOW, and Frankie go back to bed, Richie be a doll and take her there, I need to talk to Jon" CC said as she glared at Jon.

Frankie shuddered at the mom tone. "Mommmm you don't need this shit. YOU KNOW what the doctors said." She took a deep breath and pulled in her rage, leaving it simmering just under her skin. "Besides if we go in there, he ain’t coming out til morning."

"Frankie, I am fine baby, I need to talk to your fath- Jon. And take Richie in there, he can stay with you if it will calm you down" she said

"Come on princess lets go" Richie said trying hard not to catch Jon's fiery gaze as he knew he would be fuming right now, and the only thing that would be stopping him from dealing to Richie would be the two woman present in the room. Richie scooped her up and carried her back in and as expected she was dead to the world when they got there, Richie laid her down and snuggled in beside her, a million thoughts running though his mind.

~~~~

She turned and snuggled into him, her legs tangling into his, one in between and one on top. Miraculously she had managed to prop the injured foot up on top. Slender hands reached up to twine into his hair as a satisfied lil whimper whispered from her lips.

CC looked at Jon shaking her head "I see you still have that temper of yours" she chuckled.

Jon sighed and studied the woman in front of him. "So that part of the note wasn't a pity ploy." He winced as he finally noticed the pallor beneath her Bahama tan. "What's wrong?"

"No it wasn't Jon, I never wanted pity and definitely not from you" she sat back down and sighed. "I have terminal cancer Jon, started as pancreatic cancer and spread to my kidneys and liver. So once that happens, not much you can do about it" she said.

He moved to her and knelt in front of her. "Dammit, why didn't you contact me sooner?? I have resources, we could have gotten you the best doctors."

She looked into those steel blue eyes that she once adored so much, and hell she still did. Just like the old Jon he always wanted to make things better for someone if he could. "Jon, I hardly was going to contact you and ask yu for that after what I did to you" she said softly.

"Why the fuck not? I coulda helped dammit." He took a deep breath and dialled the anger back further. "I coulda helped."

"You don't know that you could of Jon, it may of still been too late. No point playing the what if game now Jon" CC had never cried for a long time but having Jon, her first love in front of her right now, was just too much.

"I just worry for her Jon"

He stood then bent over and scooped her into his arms before moving to the couch to sit. "I know you do baby, I know you do. Hell she hates me right now, but I promise you I won't let her be alone. I won't."

She clung to him finally having the chance to release all her built up worry and anxiety to another grown up. She'd been so strong for so long. She was a realist and knew that there was nothing she could do about dying. She had accepted that and made peace with it, and having Frankie grow up to be where she was she couldn’t have been prouder. The one regret she did hold in life was about the man that was holding her right now. God what if she had just stayed? Things could have been so different. She let her sobs ring true into his chest, she couldn’t do anything to control it, it just came.

He held her tightly, his heart and mind aching as it finally hit him that all the hopes and dreams that he'd buried all those years ago were still as viable and real as they had been all those years ago and it was too late to do anything about it now. "I'll take care of her CC. I promise I will."

CC pulled away and pulled herself together "Sorry honey, I didn’t mean for that to happen" she straightened herself up and wiped away the tears.

"Jon, do you really have an issue with her being with Richie, look at him with her tonight, does’nt take a genius to see he's besotted with her" she chuckled

He sighed, "Looks like whether I have an issue or not I gotta shelve it. Man he’s my best friend, My brother, we've beent hrough alot, and I KNOW he'd treat a lady well, but god.. it was just finding out that way. Ya know?"

"But Jon, don't you see that he was drawn to her, the way he is drawn to you? He loves you like a brother so it really doesn’t surprise me he's drawn to a woman that’s very much like you" she said thoughtfully. "And yes I can understand the way that you found out wasn’t the best, but don't blame Richie too much for this".

He snorted. "CC we are talking about the King of Swing here. I mean hell his life went into the crapper. Heather divorced him, shit right as his dad was diagnosed with cancer. He had this really bad relationship. I worry about him, he's been drinking way too much, and for Richie, well you know him, it’s always to the excess. I'm just afraid he's rebounding, or escaping. I don't want them hurt dammit."

CC shook her head " Poor Rich, that's just awful. But maybe Jon, he is escaping, but he's escaping somewhere that's good, she's a good girl, well mostly. She needs some fun in her life too you know, things haven’t been easy for her lately either" she reached out her hand and took his "I know you're worried but maybe in this instance we need to trust them.”

Trust, that was something he'd done for over twenty years with Richie. Why was it so hard to want to do it in this instance? He shook his head and huffed out a long breath. "Guess that's all I can do, if I wanna get to know my daughter."