Chapter Three.
“Mr Chasez?” An older man, with grey hair asked looking at JC with curiosity. JC nodded and stood up, straightening out his jacket he extended his hand out to the man.
“Yeah that’d be me, you can call me Josh,” JC said shaking the older man’s hand.
“Hi Josh, I’m Joel Patty, Private Investigator. Mr Wright called me informing me that you were in need of my services?” Mr Patty asked and JC nodded.
“Yes, shall we sit down?” JC asked gesturing to the empty seat next to him.
“Sure thing, so what is it that you require my services for?” Mr Patty asked sitting down and taking out a not book to make notes in.
“Well, Mr Patty…” JC began but Mr. Patty cut in.
“Call me Joel, Mr Patty’s my dad,” he said with a sheepish smile, JC nodded and continued.
“Well, Mr Patty, um Joel, I need you to find someone for me,” JC said shyly not knowing how to phrase himself. Mr. Patty, um, Joel, smiled.
“And is this someone a relative?” Joel asked writing something down. JC nodded.
“Yes, in fact I’d like you to find my daughter,” JC said and Joel looked up and raising an eyebrow at JC.
“Well, I never figured...” he began and JC smiled.
“Yeah, not many people do. A lot of people don’t know that I have a child,” JC said, “I tend to keep my private life very private.” Joel nodded in understanding.
“And what would her name be?” he asked looking back down at his paper.
“Alexandra Kylie Chasez, or it might be Pitter, her last name, it was her mother’s,” JC said recalling his ex-wife.
“And her name would be? The mother,” Joel asked writing down what JC had just said.
“Laney. Laney Anna Pitter,” JC replied nervously as he remembered the details.
“And your daughter would be how old now?” Joel asked writing still.
“She will be sixteen next spring, on March the twenty-first,” JC said smiling at how old his little girl would be.
“Ah, a spring baby,” Joel commented looking up to catch a glimpse of joy in JC’s eyes, “My daughter was born in spring too.”
“What else do you need to know?” JC asked wanted to get this over and done with quickly so the search could begin.
“Well let’s see,” Joel said flicking through the notes. “I’ll need all of your daughter’s information, as well as your wife’s. That includes medicals, birth certificates and your marriage certificates. A picture could also be useful so we can do a picture update on our system to see if we can age the pictures to see what they may look like now. Oh yes, and why did you say you and your wife divorced?”
“I didn’t,” JC said not remembering, “How did you know we divorced?”
“Oh a wild guess, the good ones usually are. If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine. Although it may help with the case,” Joel said not wanting to pressure JC into anything.
“No, it okay. If it’ll help the case,” JC said and Joel nodded. “Well, Laney had a bit of a drinking issue which she could never control, so I left her. I was supposed to come by the next day after the hearing to pick up Alexandra, but when I got to the house they weren’t there.”
“She took the child out of state? Even though you’d won the custody hearing?” Joel asked raising an eyebrow and JC nodded.
“Yeah, the court knew it was illegal and even set out a warrant for her, but nothing,” JC said, “They sort of disappeared.”
“I’m really sorry Josh,” Joel said sympathetically.
“It’s okay. So you think we’ve got a chance?” JC asked with hope, Joel nodded and smiled at him.
“Yes, we’ll give it our best shot,” he replied, and he hoped they did, because Josh really needed it.
JC sat alone in his empty house and wondered when it would be filled with his daughter’s laugh, if she was still alive that is. He tried not to think negatively because he didn’t need it, but it could be possible that Alexandra was no longer alive, but something inside him didn’t believe that.
He had kept a room especially for her, every year updating it so that it would match her age. Now his daughter would be fifteen going on sixteen, and if Joel was successful, she would be home with him and know who he was.
JC also knew that Laney most probably had influenced Alexandra against him, because to be honest Laney had never really been happy. She was always jealous of the fact that JC made more money then her, that he was famous. She would get jealous of the other guys, never wanting him to spend time with them, and that was something he couldn’t live with.
So he’d asked for a divorce, much to Laney’s disgust, and when it was over he fought for custody for their daughter, Alexandra. Because on top of everything, Laney was also an alcoholic who was psychologically unstable, and as the court ruled, she was not a suitable guardian for Alexandra. But for some odd reason, Laney did not agree with the courts, and on the day JC went to pick up his little girl from the house she’d grown up in, she was not there. Nothing of hers was left, not even a memory.
“Josh?” Alexa’s voice broke through his thoughts as JC was doing some paper work for the investigation to find his daughter.
“Yeah?” JC asked looking up to see Alexa’s head poking through the door; he smiled at the sight of her.
“Are you busy?” she asked shyly and JC shook his head.
“Nah, not really just filling out some paper work, come in,” he replied closing the file he was writing in and turned his full attention to her. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t want to disturb you,” she said shyly taking a few steps into the room, JC waved her off and gestured for the seat next to him.
“Nah, you’re not disturbing me. Actually I could use a break,” he said stretching. “Come on in.” Alexa smiled shyly and walked into JC’s office at the Compound where Johnny had all his business run from.
“Thanks,” Alexa said shifting her guitar from her shoulders and sitting down. “Wow, this is a nice office; did you win all those awards?” JC blushed and looked behind him to where she was gesturing to all the Nsync awards and Gold records hanging on the walls and in the one glass cabinet in the corner.
“Yeah I guess you could say that. When I was in the band with my friends,” JC said modestly and Alexa smiled.
“It must have felt great to be so recognised in the industry. I wish one day that’d be me,” Alexa said still in awe of his accomplishments.
“And one day you will be,” JC told her, “Just give it time. So what can I do you for?”
“Oh,” Alexa said blushing, “I was actually wondering if you could help me out a bit. I was working on a song last night and kindda got stuck for a verse, I mean I have the chorus down and everything, it’s just this one verse.”
“Sure. I’d love to, let’s hear what you have so far,” JC said gladly. Alexa nodded and picked up her guitar, and began to warm it up.
“It’s a song about my father,” she said softly. JC smiled at her as she began to sing, there was something very melodic about her voice, something soothing and calm, he almost forgot what he was doing.
“I remember Daddy’s hands,
Folded silently in prayer,
And reaching out to hold me,
When I had a nightmare,
You could read quite a story,
In the callousness and lines,
Years of work and worry,
Had left their mark behind.
I remember Daddy’s hands,
How they held my Mama tight,
And patted my back,
For something done right,
There are things I’ve forgotten,
That I loved about that man,
But I’ll always remember,
The love in Daddy’s hands.
Daddy’s hands,
Were soft when I was cryin’,
Daddy’s hands,
Were as hard as steel when I’d done wrong,
Daddy’s hands,
Weren’t always gentle but I’d come to understand,
There was always love in Daddy’s hands.
I remember Daddy’s hands,
Working till they bled,
Sacrificed unselfishly,
Just to keep us all fed,
If I could do things over,
I’d live my life again,
And never take for granted,
The love in Daddy’s hands. “
Alexa finished her song and looked up to JC with expectant eyes, he felt something familiar about what she’d sung and at the same time very sad.
“Well what do you think?” Alexa asked after a moment of silence, JC snapped out of his trance and looked at her tears brimming his eyes.
“I think it was amazing,” JC said softly and Alexa blushed.
“Thanks, but I don’t know how to end it,” she said and JC frowned.
“I think its perfect just the way it is, don’t change it. You must have gone through a hard time when he left,” JC said and Alexa nodded.
“Yeah, I did. I couldn’t really understand why he did it, but I’ve always known that deep down he’s always loved me, I don’t care what my mother says,” Alexa added softly. JC smiled sadly at her realizing what she’d just said.
“You’re mom doesn’t think he was a good guy?” he asked softly and she shook her head.
“No, she thought he didn’t love us, she said he left us because he had more important things to do, but I doubt that’s true,” Alexa replied and JC could tell she was about to cry. He got up and walked to her side of the desk and hugged her, something she wasn’t expecting.
“I’m really sorry Alexa, that you had to go through that,” JC said softly rubbing the young girl’s hair. Alexa smiled and pulled away from him.
“It’s okay,” she said now embarrassed. “I just know that one day he’ll come looking for me.”
“He will,” JC said trying to encourage her, “I’m sure he loves you.”
“Me too Josh,” Alexa said. “Me too.”
Chapter End Notes:
i cant remember the song credits but i credited it last time i had the story up :)
Story Tags: daddyjc
