244. Madness

Warning: language, brief nudity

Bridgeport, present day

When J.D.s' camp stirred to life Sunday morning, the whole of Bridgeport was already abuzz with news of his arrest.

Every music channel and radio station had extensive coverage on the story. The clip of the actual arrest was replayed at least a million times. It was also the third most viewed video on YouTube that morning.

J.D., Krimsyn and Michaela (in that order) made it on Twitter's trending list for the first time ever at the same time.

It wasn't clear who or how J.D.'s mug shot got leaked, but no one really cared. His fan girls were just grateful that someone had had the sense to not keep all his awesomeness buried in the archives of Bridgeport's Police Department.

They screamed and fawned over the photo doing the rounds on the internet. They always knew that underneath his clean image, J.D. is a bad boy through and through, and now they had his mug shot to prove it!

The shot  inspired thousands of females to unleash their inner poets and write J.D. some very long love e-mails, most offered to be his booty calls and mistresses, a few professed their undying love, one or two didn't mind being his baby-mama even though Krimsyn was still very much in the picture.

The arrest was big, almost as big as Siley Myrus' twerking, raunchy routine at Bridgeport's Musical Festival just last month. But unlike Bridgeport's wildest child star, the Frost-Summers clan didn't want or need the attention.

No one knew the real reason for the arrest, but it didn't stop them from speculating. And speculate they did. 

Some thought he'd been caught with insane amounts of cocaine; a few were convinced it was fraud; he'd been embezzling money from O+ Records. Others suspected it was a race thing; cops had targeted him simply because he's a Vampire.

Only one blogger came close to the truth with his blog post title: JUSTICE FOR THE CLARKE’S KIDS AT LAST? He'd been following the investigation very closely, and while there was never any evidence linking the Frost-Summers clan to the hit, he always believed they'd had something to do with it. Of course J.D.’s fans came out in droves and bombarded him with angry comments, some threatened violence unless he took down the post, and others promised to ‘unfollow’ his blog. The war of words continued amidst more threats and three hundred comments later, the blogger finally caved and took down the post.

At arraignment, on a bleak Monday morning, following his lawyer's advice, J.D. entered a not guilty plea.

The prosecution didn't want to grant him bail. They thought he's a flight risk, and could possibly tamper with witnesses. Jessica objected fiercely to this, and pointed out her client had never been in trouble with the law, he had strong ties to the community, and he'd recently had a baby, being away from home could have an adverse impact on both mother and child.

The judge granted bail on condition that J.D. would surrender his passport.

Given the gravity of the crime the bail amount was considerably high, but Jessica had come prepared. A trial date was set and with a final bang of his gavel, court was dismissed and J.D. was free to go.

It was a small victory for the Frost-Summers clan, but they all knew the next few weeks would be grueling on all of them as they prepared for J.D.’s trial.

Jessica got down to business as soon as they left the courthouse, the trial was a month away, and time was a luxury she didn't have.

She beefed up her legal team, and had numerous consultations with Thornton, she valued his input, after all he’d mentored her.

She also suggested Krimsyn and J.D. get married ASAP, that way they could invoke spousal privilege at any point during the trial.

For hours Krimsyn and J.D. locked themselves in the guest room, talking it over. Krimsyn wanted to go through with it to protect J.D. But he didn’t want them to have a rushed wedding, he felt Krimsyn deserved the dream wedding she’d always wanted.

“None of that matters now. It doesn’t matter how we get married. What’s important is that I’m marrying you!” Krimsyn yelled at some point. 

Lots of heated words were exchanged, lots of tears were shed too. Eventually J.D. agreed. He couldn’t bear to see Krimsyn in so much distress. And so the wedding was arranged. Thornton was very good at organizing marriage licences and wedding officiants at short notice.

Three days later, Krimsyn and J.D. were married at the courthouse, with Krisis and Leigh as their witnesses.

At 5pm, just as they were wrapping up their celebratory lunch, a court official served Michaela, Cameron and Katie with papers. They were being subpoenaed to appear as hostile witnesses in the trial.

Jessica was called in to do damage control. J.D. and Krimsyn were furious with her for her failed preemptive strike, they would never have gotten married if they’d thought Michaela would be called to take the stand. They explained to her over and over why their daughter couldn’t take the stand. She was just starting to pull herself together after the whole ordeal with Joshua, they were petrified she wouldn’t survive the pressure of the trial.

Jessica was just as flabbergasted by the prosecution’s move, but it wasn’t unusual, and she assured them with proper coaching, Michaela would do beautifully on the stand.

Krisis retained Ben's PI services; they had to trace the anonymous source who'd leaked the information from the print firm since the prosecution had built their entire case solely on those records. They were convinced if they discredited the source, the whole case would fall apart. 

"I don't have to tell you how important this is," Krisis warned the PI.

"Of course man, when have I ever let you down?" Ben smiled wolfishly at him.

"You dragged your fucking feet when Leigh went missing. I can't have that this time Ben. I need to know you're on top of things. If you can't give this case your hundred percent, let's cut our losses right now and I'll find someone who can!"

"I'm on it, man, you need to relax!"

"No, you need to do your job properly this time!" With that, Krisis shoved the envelope with the payment in Ben's hands. "Don't blow it all on strippers!" He said as he walked to his car...

Cruz  was running out of time.

During his nightly stakeouts, he'd noticed suspicious activity at the facility, every night between 9 and 10 pm, there were usually dozens of moving vans shipping in and out of the Lab. He guessed they were relocating to some other facility. So far though, he hadn't noticed any patients being transported out, but if they were moving house, he knew it wouldn't be long before Jupiter and the others were forever out of reach.

True to her word, Eloise had set up the meeting with Thornton for the following week, but in light of Morcu Corp's possible relocation, Cruz knew he couldn't wait that long, he had to act fast and get Thornton to intervene and put an end to the experiments.

A few cockroaches fell out as he lifted the mattress to retrieve the dossier he'd been compiling since his sister's disappearance. Some of the pages had grown dog ears since the last time he'd opened the folder, and he suspected the brownish marks on a few were bugs' excrement or something equally disgusting. But other that, his research was still in a good condition.

He sat down at the small dining table in the corner, and read through the file, double checking his findings. He also printed his latest observations about the possible relocation and added them to the dossier. When he was satisfied with his handiwork, he set out to find the man who could save his sister and the others.

Outside the Vampire Council's Headquarters, he paced for a bit, trying to muster up some courage to go in. Entering the building was suicidal, he estimated there were at least a hundred vampire officials inside, and they would rip him limb to limb before he even made it to the reception area. But he had no other choice, Jupiter was counting on him to come through for her. He couldn't let his sister down.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered under his breath as he came out the shadows and approached the imposing structure.

He almost barked with relief when he saw Thornton leave the building with a tall brunette at his side. From the recording device in her hand, and the way she held it close to Thornton, Cruz guessed the woman is his PA, probably recording notes or doing whatever it is that PAs do for their bosses.

A dark Bentley pulled up and a bodyguard jumped out to open the door for Thornton. 

Cruz had to act fast, if the man got in the car, he'd never get such an opportunity again. 

"Mr. Thornton!" He raised his voice just a little to attract the other man's attention.

"Wolf!" The bodyguard screamed as he drew his weapon, while another leapt from the car at frightening speed and pinned Cruz to the ground, ready to rip him apart.

But Thornton put an end to the bloodbath before it could start. He pulled his bodyguard away from Cruz and chastised him, "Roman, we are not animals, that's not how we behave. Get yourself cleaned up!"

Roman tried to argue but Thornton hushed him up with a wave of his hand. "Make it quick, I'll be late for my meeting!"

Turning to Celina, he asked pointedly, "Don't you have minutes to type up?"

A brief look of annoyance flickered across Celina's face, she didn't appreciate being dismissed like that, especially in the presence of a wolf. She threw Cruz one long dirty look before she clicked off the recorder and, and strutted towards the building in an angry haze, her six inch stilettos clanking loudly on the marble paving.

"I'm running late for my meeting, I suggest you start the car," Thornton told his driver.

"Yes, sir," the other man complied with no hesitation.

Thornton held out his hand to Cruz and helped him up from the ground. "That was a foolish thing to do!" He murmured with a hint of admiration in his voice.

"I know," Cruz rubbed his jaw with one hand, making sure it was still intact, the other, miraculously clutched at the file, he was surprised the dossier hadn’t taken a beating like he had.

"You could have been killed," Thornton carried on.

"I'm aware of that. It's a chance I had to take."

Thornton stared at him for a while, trying to decide what to make of him. Evidently he concluded Cruz wasn't so bad, he slipped in the back of the of the car and motioned for him to join him.

"So we finally meet.You're a week early though," Thornton began as soon as the doors were closed. "I imagine Eloise passed on the message? I was very curious about what sort of man sends a woman to do his dirty work!

"Dirty or not, she was my only way in." Cruz sounded almost defensive, rightfully so, the head of the Vampire Council had questioned his manhood and indirectly insulted him.

Thornton ignored his outburst, he rubbed his chin contemplatively, his eyes glued to the file on Cruz's lap. "What treasures do you bring me today?"

"I know you’re  busy man, so I’ll get to the point-" Cruz began, and for five minutes he had his attention as he told Thornton about the botanists, the ensuing plague and the move to Bridgeport’s Science facility, ending off with the months of research on the facility, prompted by Jupiter’s disappearance. 

“I’m begging you, please help me,” Cruz said as he handed him the file.

"In exchange for what?" Thornton leafed through the file, his eyebrows raising just a notch at the data Cruz had compiled.

"For my head of course. You wanted it on a silver platter sadly I'm shit broke, I can't buy any silver platters, so here it is, still attached to the rest of me."

Thornton frowned at him, he didn't like his cockiness, and ordinarily he would have handed him to the VIA as soon as he’d sniffed him out, but he had to admire him for still having a sense of humor despite everything he'd been through.

"You realize what this means?"  Thornton asked.

"Of course."

"Good. Leave the file. I'll take a look at it, and if it's something that interests me, I'll be in touch."

"No! I can't leave without a definite answer from you! Don't you see what's at stake here? My sister could be gone tomorrow and you have the power to stop this!"

"I don't take orders from you, young man!" Thornton reminded him calmly. "Consider yourself very lucky that you're still breathing."

"But my sister-"

"I don't give a shit about you or your sister. My son-in-law is facing a possible death penalty, so forgive me if I think your plight means nothing in the grand scheme of things!"

"I'm sorry about your family, but surely you can understand where I'm coming from," Cruz tried again.

"Of course, I appreciate your dilemma, but right now my priority is ensuring my daughter's mate comes out of this hellscape alive." Just then the bodyguard came back and Thornton dismissed Cruz; the meeting was over.

Cruz let himself out of the car, but just as he was about to close the door, Thornton stopped him.

“This research of yours is impressive. How did you get all these records?”

“I studied informatics,” Cruz replied, simply. “I’m six credits away from graduating.”

“So you stole the data?”

“Stealing is such a strong word,” Cruz grinned wickedly before he closed the door and disappeared from view…

For the remainder of his trip to Krisis' beach house, Thornton lost himself in the research Cruz had done on the science facility, it was incredibly detailed, his findings concise.

The first part of the document confirmed what Thornton had suspected all along. There was never a plague. The humans had lied. An entire village of gypsies was almost wiped out because of incompetent botanists, and rather than own up for the chemical spill at the gypsy camp, the health department had concocted the story of the plague.

The spill may have been accidental, but it had certainly caused a domino effect. While treating the supposed plague, Scientists at MorcuCorp had discovered an 'abnormal' gene in the DNA of the survivors. Cruz and a few others were lucky enough to have made it out of the facility. But others, like his sister, were still being used in a series of gene sequencing experiments; the humans were replicating the vampire and werewolf DNA and combining it with that of humans.

The research was still in its infancy stage, but the final result would be a superior race, something much, much better than vampires and wolves combined. This new race would possess all the supernatural abilities while (hopefully) still retaining their humaneness.

The proposed idea was to package the mutated gene as a drug, and make it available to the general public at nominal cost, in hopes of slowing down the rapid rise of human/vampire relationships.

"Madness! Madness!" Thornton dumped the file on the seat beside him and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, trying to drive away the sudden migraine threatening to ruin his already shitty afternoon.

If Cruz's research was true (he had little doubt that it wasn't), then the humans were playing a very dangerous game. Suddenly this was bigger than Cruz and his sister and a bunch of gypsies; this was bigger than all of them…

He called his P.A. He had to confirm Cruz’s research. 

"I need everything on MorcuCorp and the plague in Moonlight Falls!" He told her when she finally picked up the phone.

Celina breathed in sharply on her end, she was still pissed at the way he’d dismissed her earlier.

“MorcuCorp? Why the sudden interest?"

"I don't pay you to question me." Thornton reminded her. 

Celina had known him long enough to know when to back off, and this was one of those times.

"And put together a team of the best nerds if you have to, give them everything they need, I want them happy," Thornton added as he was about to hang up.

“Nerds, Bill? Isn’t that a bit extreme?" This time Celina couldn't hold back on her thoughts. 

He let out a frustrated sigh. She was overstepping her boundaries and he didn't appreciate being second guessed. But he trusted her with his life; her loyalty to him knew no bounds. And she was right of course, getting a team of hackers was extreme, but he didn't trust humans, if MorcuCorp was conducting illegal experiments and dodgy research, he was pretty certain none of it would be in the official reports Celina would dig up shortly.

He told Celina to shut the door; he didn’t want people listening on their conversation. His PA did as he asked, and a moment later she was back on the phone.

"Talk to me, Bill. What’s going on?"

"This stays between us for now," he warned her before he filled her in on his meeting with Eloise a week earlier and his discussion with Cruz that afternoon.

Celina didn't like his involvement with the wolves; Eloise had been nothing but trouble from day one. "Do you trust them?" she asked.

"I'll be foolish to trust them. But there may be something in the research. We don’t want humans blindsiding us, we have to be prepared!" He told her…

Later, after a quick dinner at his house with Katie, Thornton disappeared into his study and spent most of his evening poring over Cruz’ research and the reports Celina had sent over. Like he'd suspected, MorcuCorp looked squeaky clean on the books.

He was still studying the reports when Katie came to find him. “Are you coming to bed at all tonight? Or should I just swap this for my fat suit?” She asked, waving at the sexy lingerie she’d put on just to seduce him.

“No, no fat suit!” Thornton growled as he pushed the file away. Katie in that small piece of sheer cloth would win hands down over some boring science research any day.

In a heartbeat he had her in his arms, and she was squealing like a school girl. 

“No fat suit.” He said again as he left light kisses on her neck. 

Katie laughed at the seriousness in his voice; she knew how much he hated the “granny pajamas" she always wore when she's angry with him. He hated them so much he’d dubbed them the ‘fat suit’.

“I’ll race you to the bedroom, and if you’re there in five minutes, I won’t bring out the fat suit.” With that Katie sprung out of his grasp and sprinted away, laughing the whole time.

She didn’t make it to the bedroom though, Thornton caught up with her easily, and tackled her to the couch in front of the fire place in the living room; the skimpy lingerie came off, followed by his clothes. And for the longest time only the sounds of their heavy breathing filled the room as they brought each to their peaks.

Much later, as they lay in a post-coital haze, Thornton did the one thing he always said he’d never do after Margaret broke his heart.

He proposed. “Marry me.”

“Why?” Katie asked shrilly, he could tell she was bewildered.

“Because I love you."

“I don’t want to be turned.” Katie burst into tears. “I like being human. This is who I am.”

“Hey,” Thornton was thoroughly confused, but he pulled her in his arms and held her. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“But Leigh and Krisis—” She didn’t get to finish what she wanted to say. Thornton shut her up with a kiss.

“Krisis and Leigh made the right decision for them. I would never force you to do anything you don’t want to do."

“But I’ll grow old and be all wrinkly.”

“And I’ll love each and every one of your wrinkles. I love you just the way you are, Katie, and I want to spend the rest of your life with you.”

“You love me?” Katie asked in a small voice.

“You sound surprised.”

“You’ve never said it before.”

“I know. And I’m sorry. But after Margaret I swore I’d never leave myself open to that kind of hurt again. I tried not to fall for you, but you and your songs, your love for life, the way you opened up to me, the way you accepted me with no questions,  no reservations. You got me. You got me good.” Thornton had tears in his eyes.  “So here I am, falling hard and not caring an inch that you might not be there to catch me when I reach ground, because over the past few months with you I’ve learned that sometimes it’s not about the landing, it’s about letting go and enjoying the fall. I’m sorry it took me long to say it, but I love you.”

“Come here,” Katie pulled him to her face and kissed him, her tears mingling with his.

“Does this mean?” Thornton dared not to ask, but he had to know.

“Yes. I’ll marry you, but only if the idea of waking up next to a wrinkly eighty year old doesn’t turn you off.”

“Bring on the wrinkles!”  He told her as he laid her down back on the rug and kissed every part of her body, “I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you!”

“Not as much as I love you.” Katie sighed much, much later when they finally came up for air…

AN: As always thank you Ozzy for your help with the images.