The next morning JC came downstairs after a shower and followed the smells of bacon and eggs. He stopped right before he went into the dining room and noticed the two women sitting across from each other in complete silence. Mrs. Charles was sitting at the table reading the newspapers. Laura was sitting quietly eating and glancing at her mother and then out the window every few seconds. JC though it seemed strange, but figured it was something normal in their household.

"Good morning, ladies." JC said as he entered the room. "How are you feeling, Mrs. Charles."

Laura's mom put down her newspaper and sipped her coffee. "I'm in a little pain, but better than I was yesterday. Thanks for asking." she responded as she looked down at his hand.

Laura grabbed a glass and filled it up with orange juice and handed it to him. He smiled at her as she started to make his plate. Connie sat back and watched the two of them. She folded her arms and cleared her throat. "So when is the baby due?"

Laura had to cover her mouth with a napkin to keep from spitting her orange juice all over the place. "Excuse me?" she coughed as she looked at her mother in dismay.

"Well I may be old, but I am not blind just yet." she said as she pointed to Laura's hand.

JC looked down towards Laura's stomach with concern.

Laura looked at where his gaze was directed and put her hand in his face. "She means the ring, JC." Laura looked back over at her mother. "I was going to tell you before, but I wanted to wait until you were feeling better. I didn't want to pile on too much too soon, mom."

"Is that what you were nagging to talk to me about before? When you left those messages on my answering machine?"

"Yes. You never returned my call, so I didn't know if you ever received my message." she said as she looked down in disappointment realizing her mother had been ignoring her calls.

"When is the baby due? That is obviously why you would go and get married out of the blue. Especially to someone your best friend was about to marry." she said as she ate a piece of her toast.

"I'm not pregnant." Laura replied.

"Then what were you? Drunk?" she asked as she went to sip her coffee.

The room was completely silent as both JC and Laura looked at one another. "You were, weren't you?" her mother asked. Neither of them replied. "Well that figures." she said nonchalantly as she finished eating her toast.

"Does Rachel know?" Connie asked with a concerned look on her face.

"Not yet. We were waiting to tell her in person. She's been rather busy lately though."

"Yeah, well I guess I would be too when my own best friend was stabbing me in the back."

JC was appalled at the way her mother was speaking to her, but he did not want to make matters worse by interrupting. "I wasn't stabbing her in the back, mom." Laura said as she stood up and gathered plates to take into the kitchen.

Laura's mother rolled her eyes as her daughter left the room and went into the kitchen. "I don't know how she got you into this mess, JC, but I hope you are fully covered with insurance, cause by the time she is done with you, I don't know if there will be anything left." she whispered as she looked him up and down.

JC went to respond but Laura walked back into the dining room to gather the rest of the plates. "We are going to do this right though, mom. We are having a formal ceremony and the whole 9 yards very soon."

"Do you honestly think that going in the church and standing before God is going to make all the pain you've caused disappear?" she yelled after her. Laura stood over the sink as she ran water across the dishes.

She took in a few deep breaths and looked towards the ceiling to keep from crying. She slowly walked back into the dining room and looked towards JC. "I need to go and get a few things to make dinner with later on tonight. Could you help my mom with anything she needs while I am gone please."

"Of course." he replied as he looked at her with concern.

"I should be back shortly, mom. I am very sorry if I disappointed you in any way with what I have done." she said as she quickly kissed her mother's forehead.

"I kept telling you the path you were taking was only going to lead to trouble...And I was right. Look at you now. You just gotta be more responsible, Laura!" she called after her as she walked out the front door.

JC sat there staring at Mrs. Charles and tried to make sense of what had just happened. He shook his head in disbelief and was about to speak, but she spoke first. "So..." she said before pausing. "...Son-in-law..." she shook her head and smiled to herself. "Tell me more about yourself. All I know is what Rachel used to tell me about you and what Laura has said here and there. You are a musician right?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am. I sing...I write...I play."

"Just like Laura's father." she said as she looked out the window. "Did Laura tell you about her father?" she asked. Not really looking for an answer from him, she continued to talk. "He used to play his piano all the time around here. I finally had to make him put his piano and his other equipment in the basement. Our neighbors would complain when he would get an idea and be up at 3am banging away at the keys." she laughed in remembrance. She stood up and winced in pain.

JC quickly got up, "Are you ok?"

Mrs. Charles smiled. "Yeah. Just stood up too fast. Come with me." she said as she limped out of the dining room and down the hall. She opened the door to the basement and put her hand on JC's shoulder to gain balance as she slowly went down the steps. Once they reached the bottom, he followed her to the very back of the basement. There was a big red door with the words KEEP OUT written across it. She asked JC to slide his hand above the door frame to find a key.

~~~~

Laura sat in the parking lot of the grocery store and finally let the tears fall. She rested her head against the steering wheel and just broke down and cried.

~~~~

"I might as well show you this now, so that there aren't any uncomfortable questions later on down the road." Mrs. Charles said as she nodded for him to unlock the door. "Laura isn't even allowed in here. So we will just keep this between the two of us, ok?"

JC nodded. He gently pushed the door open. He could feel cold gust of wind hit his body and instantly got goose bumps. Mrs. Charles slid her hand inside and flipped up the switch. The bright light illuminated the room as JC slowly walked inside. He immediately noticed the black piano sitting up against the wall. He gazed in awe at all the pictures and posters. There seemed to be hundreds of photos of Laura's father with different singers and musicians all over the country. JC noticed old posters of jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong, Frank Mangione, and Charlie Parker framed in glass with their signatures and personal messages to him.

"This is incredible..." he said as he kept looking at photos.

He noticed three pictures sitting on top of the piano. One was of Laura and her father sitting at the piano together. The other was of Laura and her mother. Mrs. Charles was sitting on the porch with Laura on her lap as she puckered her lips towards the camera and a 5 year old Laura had her arms wrapped around her neck and her lips planted deep on her mothers cheek. The last photo was of the three of them cuddled together on the porch swing. "She looks like her father a lot." JC smiled.

"Yes...I know." she replied never smiling back. JC looked down next to the piano and noticed 4 crates full of sheet music. He looked towards Mrs. Charles who was still standing outside the door.

"May I?" he asked.

"Sure." she replied.

He leafed through a few pages and shook his head. "This is just amazing."

He placed the sheet music back into the crate and turned around to find a tiny wooden piano and miniature sized stool in the corner along with a box of toys sitting next to it.

Laura's mother looked in the direction of his gaze. "Laura used to sit down here for hours with her father while he played. I would be all the way upstairs in the kitchen and I could hear her singing along so loudly to the music he played." she said as she starred at the tiny piano. "He used to sit her up at the piano and they would play together. I used to have to drag her upstairs some nights because she would always want to stay up 'help dada' with his songs."

JC smiled as her mother continued to speak about Laura's younger years. He noticed 6 radios sitting on the floor piled on top of one another.  "That's a lot of radios." he commented.

"Yeah. I don't have a need for music in this house anymore. I've had enough music around here to last me a few lifetimes. " she quickly stated.

JC was puzzled by her response, but didn't feel he had any right to ask her why. Mrs. Charles looked as though she were ready to go back upstairs. JC took one last look as he turned off the light. He locked the door and placed the key back where he found it and helped her back upstairs.

Laura came home and found her mother sitting in the living room watching television while JC was in the kitchen writing. "Mom. I went and picked up some shrimp to cook for dinner tonight. I know its your favorite." she yelled towards the living room.

"I'm going out to eat with your Aunt Dorothy tonight. You and JC can have it." she yelled back.

"Oh..." Laura said as she placed the bags onto the counter. "I didn't know you had other plans."

"Yeah. You should have asked me before you went and bought all that stuff."

'This woman is psychotic' JC's mouthed to himself as he looked towards the living room.

"That's ok. We can just have more shrimp for the two of us, Laura." JC said trying to make her feel better. Laura nodded her head in agreement as she began to put the food away.

A loud knock came at the front door. "Come in!" Connie yelled.

"Mrs. Charles? It's me, Rick."

"Oh, hey Ricky! How is your sister doing?"

JC looked up from the table and leaned to see who had just come into the house.

"Oh she is doing pretty good." the voice said.

"Oh, man! Ricky?" JC yelled as he stood up to go into the other room.

"What's up man?" Ricky grinned as he walked over to JC and shook his hand before giving him a hug.

"I haven't seen you in so long. How are you?"

"I'm doing pretty good." Ricky said. "I just came by to pick up a couch Mrs. Charles said we could have."

Laura walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. Ricky looked over at her. "Wow." he paused as he scanned her body with his eyes. "Hey Laura."

"Hey Rick." she replied as she went over and gave him a hug. JC could tell Laura felt awkward during the embrace.  He noticed Rick hugged her just a little too long and a little too tight. JC suddenly felt uncomfortable.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I came to pick up a couch your mother said Janine could have."

"Oh. Which one?"

"The white one in the basement."

"The brand new one I had sent over to you a month ago?" she asked.

"It's still in the plastic they delivered it in. I don't have any use for it, Laura, so I told Janine she could have it."

"Oh," Laura replied.

"Why don't you help him with it, JC. Its pretty heavy." Mrs. Charles said.

"Sure."

"Rachel is on her way into town. She told me to tell you that she will be over as soon as she gets in." Rick told Mrs. Charles.

"She is?" Laura and her mother said simultaneously in surprise.

"Yeah. She called around looking for you and found out from Justin that you were here. She was worried like we all were so she and Jerry took the first flight they could to get here."

"She's such a sweet girl." Mrs. Charles said. Rick nodded. "Well I better hurry up and get back home." he said as he leaned down and hugged Laura's mother. He stopped in front of Laura on his way into the hallway. "It was nice seeing you again, Laura."

"You too, Rick."

The two men went down into the basement and started to take the couch out of the house.

"You and Laura are rather close these days."

"We've always been close." JC said as he struggled to climb the stairs.

"Yeah...That's true. You two do have Rachel in common. And the two of them are like sisters, so I guess I could see how you two are inseparable."

"What's up with Laura and her mother?" JC asked.

Rick stopped. "What do you mean?"

"Her mother seems kinda....Kinda cold blooded."

"Yeah....Let's wait till we get outside to talk about that." Rick explained.

Once they were outside and had loaded the couch into the truck, Rick and JC got in and began to drive down the street. "Ever since Mr. Charles died, things haven't been the same in that house…."

Rick went on to explain that Mrs. Charles tried everything in her power to keep Laura from following in her father's footsteps. First she locked up his studio where the piano was and forbid Laura to ever go in there. She used to have a large padlock on the door when Laura used to live here. Then she got rid of all the radios in the house. She signed Laura up for other activities that had nothing to do with music. She took down all the pictures that had anything to do with music. She had become emphatic that there be no music in that house. 

"...She is still a great lady, but she has never been able to deal with his death properly." Rick said as they neared the house.

"I thought I was just imagining shit." JC said.

"No. It's good that you are here with her though. I'm sure she wouldn't have been able to handle her without you."

"She doesn't seem to really like me much."

Rick laughed. "You're a musician. She probably hates you, JC...She seemed rather interested to know you back when Rachel would brag about you. She doesn't know about anything that went down between you guys though. The whole thing with little Nikolas has remained a big secret too."

"Nikki? What do you mean?" JC asked.

As they pulled up to the blue house on the corner, JC noticed the limo.

"Look, the jackass is finally here." Rick said as he saw Jerry grabbing bags out of the trunk. "Look, I'll explain later, JC. Let's just hurry up and get this in the house so we both can get the hell out of here."

JC smiled. He hated Jerry, but knew Rick hated him even more. Rick got out of the car and asked the limo driver to move the vehicle out of his way. JC saw Jerry turn around and walk towards him in the truck.  JC quickly looked down at his hand, scared that Jerry would leak the news of his recent marriage to Rachel before he and Laura could.  But he was mostly afraid Jerry would leak the news to the press to gain more publicity. JC quickly pulled his wedding ring off his hand and stuffed it down in his pocket.

"JC. What the hell are you doing here? I have been trying to call you non-stop since yesterday."

"I came up to see about Laura's mother with her."

Jerry seemed far from interested in the condition of Laura's mother.  "Oh. How are you two coming along with the album."

"It's moving along. Our schedules have been a bit hectic...Especially with emergencies like this."

"Well I need you guys to put some petal to the metal with this. You only have a couple months left."

"I know Jerry."

"Good. As long as you know our asses are on the line with this." he pointed out.

"I could give a fuck about your ass, Jerry." JC laughed.

Jerry was not amused. "Well then think about Laura's. She's got a great deal riding on this."

"Look...We'll have it done by deadline."

"That's what I like to hear." Jerry said as he walked back towards the house. JC rolled his eyes before getting out of the car to help Rick bring the couch into the house.