The Greens of Jericho

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the television show Jericho or any part of it. The characters are not mine in any way. I am just borrowing them for a bit. I am not affiliated with CBS, the television show Jericho or the writers of Jericho.

I would like to give credit to my husband for helping me get in the mind of a man for parts of this chapter.    He is a great sounding board for my story.

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The click of the door was the loudest sound Heather had ever heard.   It echoed over and over again in her mind.    The dark closed in around her and seemed to press in on her.

She stood there silently.   For a brief moment the only sound was the ever increasing heaviness of her breath.

Jake could see the terror playing across her face in the dim light cast by the flashlight.   He moved as quickly as he could across the dark room.     He got to her as she started sobbing.

"Jake, I'm sorry," she said with a heaving sob.

"Hey, its OK.   We'll be OK," he said.   He was talking to her softly like he would to Jacob when he was having a nightmare.    It broke his heart to see her so upset.   "It'll be alright," he said, hugging her.

"But we're locked in.   How will we get out?", she whispered.

"My mother and April knew I was coming out here.   If I don't come home tonight they will be here to look for me in the morning.    So we are here 1 night, tops.   Everything will be OK," Jake said, tilting her head up to kiss her forehead.

He held her a few more minutes while she collected herself.   She'd had a rough few days and her being upset was totally understandable.

Heather wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.   She pulled away from Jake and stood straight and squared her shoulders.  The voice that came out was the self sufficient, lets get it done Heather, not the scared, hated to be alone, afraid of the dark inner Heather that she kept hidden from most people.    Jake had gotten only the briefest glimpse of the real Heather.

"OK, are there any candles or lanterns?   We need to take stock and see what we have here," Heather said in her in charge teacher voice.

Jake was surprised at the sudden change but covered it well.

"Uh, there should be.   Bring that flashlight over here," Jake said.

Jake took the light and shown it on a set of shelves close to the door.    On the second shelf from the top there were 4 lanterns,  4 boxes of candles and 4 candle holders and 3 oil lamps.    Most importantly there was a box of matches.

Heather got an oil lamp lit and looked around the large room.    Against the far wall was a set of old fashioned iron bunk beds with the mattresses rolled up at the foot.     There was also a full bed.     In the middle of floor was a small table with 2 chairs.    There was a small counter area on the wall near where she and Jake was standing.    There were 4 flats of bottled water sitting on the counter.    Heather could see shelves underneath, one of which held the first aid kit.

"Ok...so we just have to figure out what to do for til tomorrow," Heather said.   "I am going to ask an obvious question but I have to ask.   Is there an extra key hidden somewhere in here?"

"Unfortunately, no.    We all have a key.   This hasn't ever happened.    A key in here would have been a good idea, huh?", Jake said sounding muffled.

While Heather had been inspecting the room Jake had been over looking thru the shelves underneath the counter.     Jake starting laughing as he pulled the shelves out from under the counter.

"Oh, I cannot believe this is still here.    I thought surely they would have found it by now," Jake said.

"What?", said Heather.

Heather could hear the scrapping of cement.  

"Back a few years ago, I wasn't the upstanding pillar of the community that you see before you," Jake said laughing.    "I was a bad bad boy.   I used to come out here quiet a bit and get drunk and for other things.   I have had quiet a few of those headaches you had this morning.     I always kept an emergency supply right here in this hiding place.   Look what I found."       Jake set 2 bottles of Boone's Farm wine and a box of strawberry and grape fruit rollups out on the floor.    "Yum... Apple Blossom and Strawberry Hill flavors.   What more could you ask for huh, fruit and wine,"  Jake turned back to the shelves and picked up a box of cheese crackers, "and of course the cheese!"

Heather was laughing by this point.    "Your own little seduction room.   Now if only you had music you would be all set."

"Wait wait....I just might have that covered.    My grandfather built this room to withstand a tornado so it is really strong.   He did this by reinforcing the walls with metal.   Do you know what a faraday room is?   Metal walls will usually block an EMP pulse.    Lets just see if I am remembering correctly here."   He walked over to one of the sets of bunkbeds and reached under it.    "Ah ha, here we go," Jake said as he pulled the box out.   Heather walked over and looked down in the box.   There was a CD player/radio in the box with some CDs.   He hit play on the CD player and Poison's "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" blared out.   He quickly turned it off.

"Ok....this should get you all hot and bothered.   Now we have wine, fruit, cheese AND music.    Interested? Huh?", Jake said, with an exaggerated lear.

Heather continued to laugh, "Ummmm, not now, maybe later."

Jake walked back over to the counter and replaced the cement block and pushed the shelf back underneath.   He started looking at the food on the shelf.

"Seriously, are you hungry?   There are crackers, chips, protein bars and some little cans of fruit.    It looks like my mom stocked this room last.   There is a box of flavor packets for water."

"Well, I don't want to mess up the whole seduction scene you have going but those cheese crackers look pretty good," Heather said smiling.  

"Here you start on these," Jake said handing her the box of crackers.  "I am smelling pretty gamey after cutting that stuff up.    I am going to take a bottle of water and a bar of soap and try to clean up a little bit."  

Heather sat down on the bed and started looking thru the box with the CDs in it.  

Jake walked over to the table and sat down pulling on his shirt.    He grabbed a protein bar and a bottle of water.  

"How are you feeling?   I'm sorry, Heather, this is all my fault.  I should have had those keys in my pocket.   I just wasn't thinking.", Jake asked looking over at her.

"I'm alright.   Sorry I lost it back there."

They smiled at each other in a silent agreement that the sorrys were done.    They listened to music and munched on snacks for a while longer.  

Jake got up from the table and went over to the bed and laid down on the side not taken by Heather and the CD player.    He stretched and rolled over on to his side and propped his head on his good hand.

"So....what are we going to do until the calvary gets here?", Jake said.

"Hmm...sleep?", Heather said.

Jake smiled, "Now that's boring.   We could talk about what happened before I left for Rogue River."

Heather blushed, "Why don't you tell me about San Diego?   I haven't ever been there.   I've never even seen the ocean except from an airplane."

"Now that is excellent avoidance of the subject," Jake laughed.   "What do you want to know about San Diego?  And how did you know I lived there by the way?"

"Emily told me," Heather told Jake, blushing deeper.    "Did you live close to the ocean?   Was the water warm?"

"The 4 of us lived in a beach house.   The deck was 100 yards from the water,"  Jake smiled, "it was so relaxing to hear the waves every night while you went to sleep.   Nothin' beats sitting out on the deck at night with a bucket of Coors Light on ice watching the waves."

"I bet Jacob's mother loved it.    What happened to her?", Heather asked trying to appear casual.

Jake knew what she was up to but didn't want to embarrass her.   He sat up and rubbed her back.  
"Heather, I wasn't referring to Jake's mother.   We haven't seen her or heard a word from her since he was 18mo old.    I was putting the baby in the carseat and while I was doing that, she got in her car a drove away like a bat out of Hell.   The only explanation was a note taped to the car saying Jacob was a mistake that never should have happened.    No word of any kind since then.   I hated her for a long time but I am over that.   I just want what's best for my boy.    I have full custody due to abandonment.   I did look for her about a year ago...just to see where she was in case I ever needed anything medically for Jake.   She wasn't a bad or evil person...she was just someone who couldn't cope with everything that went with being a single mom.   Turns out she had gotten married and had 3 more kids.    At that point she was still living in Rogue River.   I never contacted her....I just wanted to know where she was in case the need ever came up"

"Oh my God, Jake, how awful for you and Jacob," Heather gasped.

"We have been fine.   It was a rough go in the beginning but it evened out pretty quick.   When I said "the 4 of us" I was referring to me, Jake, Nana Kate, the nanny slash housekeeper and Brandee, the German Shepard.    I didn't even have a real girlfriend.   I was away with my job so much that I didn't even bother--no time to devote to a relationship."

"What was your job?   Why did you have to leave so much?   How did that effect Jacob?", Heather asked.   She wanted to ask about the dog tags but wasn't brave enough yet.

"I did a little bit of everything for the company.   Nothing really specific.   I fixed problems.   Unfortunately, those problems made me have to travel a lot.   I have so many frequent flyer miles I could go round the world first class.      Jacob was fine with it.   I found a gem with Nana Kate.    She was a wonderful mother for Jake,  for both of us to be honest."

"Oh, I bet," Heather laughed.   "I bet she was a young, blonde, Swedish woman with big bazoombas."

"Nope.   She was a 54 year old widowed English woman.    She reminded me a lot of my mother...only her hair was dark brown."   Jake laid back down and pulled Heather down beside him.  "What about you?"

"What about me?   You know all about me.    I was the textbook high school geek, never had a boyfriend in high school,  didn't go to the prom, got a full scholarship to KSU and now I teach 3rd grade at Jericho Elementary School."

"That seems a little abbreviated.    No boyfriend here in Jericho?", Jake asked stroking her arm.

Heather raised up and looked at him, "Jake, this is Jericho.   Think about what you just asked.    Did you date a lot of people when you lived here before?"

"Good point," Jake said, smiling.

"I've dated a few guys since coming back to Jericho but nothing serious.   I even went out with Stanley a few times.    We decided that it was too much like brother and sister dating so it never got past 3 dates.   Me and him and Bonnie go out a lot together but only as friends doing something together."   Heather skipped over her relationship with Joey in college.   That wasn't something she was ready to talk about.

Jake bent down and lightly kissed her while stroking her cheek not certain how far to take it.  A nearly silent sigh and a gentle movement toward his body alleviated some of Jake's uncertainty.  But still he couldn't help but feel that there was a sense of hesitancy in her movement.

Heather pulled away before it could go too far.   She didn't want Jake to know that she had never, that she was a..... she didn't even want to think the word.

Jake took a deep breath and laid back down "I hope I didn't push" he thought.

Jake looked at her and touched her hair, "I'm sorry."

With a gentle caress to his chest she said, "Don't be."

Heather looked around and took a deep breath, "So tell me, how does the original Jericho Bad Boy deal with being a single father?"

With a smile that was 1% understanding and 99% confusion,  he sighed, sat up, propped himself against the cold cement wall, ran his fingers thru his hair and said quietly, "I guess I'm not that bad anymore."

Heather, acting as if she didn't hear him, repeated the question.

"Just a minute," Jake said, getting up, walking across the room and getting the bottle of Strawberry wine and box of Cheez-Its.   He grabbed a couple of paper cups and came back to the bed.

Jake opened the wine and poured himself a cup, "Not the most romantic stemware but it serves its purpose.   Want some?", he said offering her the bottle and the box.

"Sure," Heather said.

"Now," Jake said settling himself against the wall again, "what was it, single parenting.    The most important thing I can tell you about being a single parent is that it is a hard job.   Harder than any job you can go out and get.   I am lucky enough now to have a nanny.   When it was just Jake and me, there were days I didn't know how I was going to make it thru the day, sometimes the next 5 minutes.   But somehow you just do.   Screaming tantrums, 103 degree temps and ear infections, asthma attacks, puking and no sleep.   It's hard enough when there is someone there to help so you can walk away for a minute alone but when it is just you and a kid you can't walk any farther than the bathroom and forget doing that alone.    I can't tell you how many times I left a screeching 2 year old in the hall while I went in the bathroom and locked the door for a few minutes.      I was lucky enough to be able to move to a good neighborhood and hire a nanny when Jacob was almost 4."   Jake smiled to himself, "But on the other hand, there is nothing like being the one who gets all the kisses and hugs either.   Jake is 8 now but I still can remember all words to every Wiggles and Barney song.    Now its iPod, XBox and Playstation.   I guess I deal alright with it.    He doesn't seem to screwed up yet."

Jake looked down into the cup of wine and then looked at Heather and smiled, "This stuff is really bad ain't it."

Heather smiled back, "It's not that bad."

Jake refilled his cup and offered  the bottle to Heather.   She shook her head no and continued sipping on the wine in her cup.  

"So what does a 26 year old, single 3rd grade teacher do in the roving metropolis of Jericho?"

"How do you know I'm 26?", Heather asked.

"Yeah, I can ask questions too.    I know that you are 26 years old and that you haven't seriously dated anyone since you moved back and started teaching here.    I also know that you were the Salutatorian of your senior class at good ole Jericho High School.   And I also know that you have a lead foot," Jake said laughing.  "So, tell me, how do you get a vehicle up to 70 on Main Street.    I know that your Explorer is a V8 but Main Street isn't that long....how did you manage to get it up to 70?"

Heather blushed and laughed, "It wasn't 70, it was 68.   I was mad and just wanted to get home.   It was 1:30am so there wasn't anyone on the street, except Bill of course.   Deputies are supposed to keep that kind of stuff quiet, not tell everyone!"

She took the wine bottle and refilled her cup.   "Being a 3rd grade teacher in Jericho was a pretty cush job.    Everywhere has their problem kids, but for the most part the kids were good and the parents decent.   I had years where I had a lot of parent help and could relax and years where I had no volunteers at all and worked my butt off.   All in all it was a very satisfying job."   She was quiet for a minute and then looked over at Jake, " I miss it, Jake, I really do."

Jake took another drink of wine and rubbed her leg, "I know you do.   I can see what a good teacher you are when you are around Jake.   Anyone could tell that you love kids.    Hopefully, people will decide that the kids have to have an education and will reopen the school in some form."

"The best thing about bad wine is, sooner or later it's gone."   He poured the last of it in his cup.   He looked at the bottle, "This was how I spent most weekends before I left.  In this room, on this bed drinking myself to sleep.   Life sure has changed."   He looked over at Heather and smiled at her, "For the better, definitely for the better."   He didn't feel the need to tell Heather that most of those weekends were spent with Emily, but the wine of choice would have been the Apple Blossom not the strawberry.                                                                                                                                        

This room and sitting on this bed with a bottle of wine was playing hell with his memory.    Those were stories best left for another place and time and probably not with Heather.    

Conversation slowed as fatigue and the wine took their toll.    

Jake looked at Heather, "A toast.   Till tomorrow, when someone opens that door."    They raised their cups and finished the last of the wine.

To be continued......