Chapter 62 - Innocence In Faded Smiles

With a little help from Jack, the guys managed to get a few songs written between pulling pranks on one another and sharing road stories. 

Monica was grateful to be there to document their silliness, their seriousness and all the looks that they give one another. She was in the middle of what would become a very tight knit family. When they all realize that they have had enough to drink, one by one they make it into the house and claim a couch or a chair for the night. Richie makes himself at home in the spare bedroom, pushing whatever Monica had on the bed onto the floor.

Jon and Monica were the last to get to bed, and when they did, Monica kisses him on the cheek and says, "Welcome home." He instantly throws his arms around her, holding her to him. His lips make is way from her ear, to her cheek and finally landing on her lips. They briefly kiss until Monica wants to lay down. She's pretty tired and Jon could see it in her eyes.

"Babe, you look exhausted." he says, laying his hand on her thigh.

She yawns and admits, "I'm pretty whooped."

"It's been a long day, come here" he pats his chest, "Come tell me your woes and I'll put you to sleep."

She turns her head and looks at him, "Oh you think you have the power to do that?"

“I know I can.”  Monica does as she is told and rests her head on his chest. 

She’s thankful and thrilled that he will be with her every night now, she wasn’t sure that he would move in.  Who in their right mind would ever want to leave their mother?

His arm is around her; lightly he caresses her skin and kisses her head, “I love you.”

“I love you.”

There was a thud and what sounded like pots and pans banging together.  Monica is startled awake and leaps out of bed.  Remembering that her house was full of men, she grabs her robe and quickly puts in on.  

As she enters the living room, she sees that everyone is sleeping except Richie.  He’s the one making all of the noise.  “Richie, what are you doing?” She asks, wiping the sleep from her eyes, as she yawns a big yawn.

“Good morning beautiful.  Did I wake you?”

“Yeah you did.  What’s going on?” she responds.  “Why all the racket.”

Richie walks over to her and kisses her good morning.  “Sorry babe.  I just wanted to make breakfast for everyone.”

“They’re still sleeping, though.” She reminds him.  “Is the coffee ready?”

“Yeah, all you had was decaf though.” He states, not happy with it, but coffee is coffee, right?

She grabs a mug from the cupboard and pours herself a cup of decaf, reminding him, “I can’t have caffeine, remember?”

He gives her a look, thinks for a moment and then remembers, “Oh yeah, you’re preggo so you can’t have anything that tastes good.”  He laughs.  “Can you refill my cup?”

Monica tops of his cup and hands it to him, “What are you doing up so early, you were shit faced last night.”

“You know me.”

“I do.”  She sits at the small table that’s in the kitchen and adds, “Let them sleep, you all were pretty drunk.  Sit with me, let’s catch up.”  She sips her coffee, “I feel like we’ve lost touch.”

He  sits next to her at the table, leans back with his legs stretched out in front of him, legs crossed at the ankles, “We have lost touch with us both being so busy.  How are you?”

She smiles and looks at him, “I’m doing well.”  A small sip, “Jon moved in last night.” She says in a mousy little sister voice, waiting for approval from her big brother.

“It’s about damn time.  My mom asked me yesterday if he did yet.” Richie tells her, “She’ll be happy to know that he’s doing the right thing.”

“Right thing?” she questions.

Richie sits up and leans toward her, “He knocked you up, he should be here taking care of you.”

“He is and has been.” She states, with no hesitation.

“I know that, but you know my mom.  You’re the daughter she never had.”

Monica smiles at that, as he is speaking the truth.  She and Richie have been friends their whole lives and Mrs. Sambora has always treated Monica like family.  She at one point had hoped that her and Richie would date, but as they grew older and she seen the lady’s man that Richie has become, she was thankful that Monica and Richie were and are just friends.  Monica would be the perfect daughter in law, and any man would be lucky to have her.

“How are your parents doing?”  She asks her best friend, “I haven’t seen your dad outside much.”

“He’s been sick, but he’s getting better.  Other than that they both are doing great.  How are your parents?” he turns it around on her.

Monica tells him, “Jon and I went over there for dinner the other night.  They’re both doing great, and are very excited about being grandparents.”

There was a knock on the door that scared the hell out of both of them.  Monica looks at Richie,  “Go answer it, I’m scared.”  She laughs.  She pushes Richie, “Please go see who it is.”

“Hang on, give me a second.” He works his way out of the chair, the hangover headache makes him move at a slower than normal pace.  When he gets to the door, he looks out the window and sees a man and a woman and starts to laugh from his belly.  “This is just too damn funny; you are not going to believe who is here.”  He looks back at Monica.

She whispers, “Who is it?”  paying no attention to the fact that Richie is at door laughing and the two people on the other side of the door can hear him.

“It’s Jon’s mom and dad.” He laughs some more.

Crossing his heart he says, “I swear to God.”

“Bullshit.” She blurts, “He’s sleeping.”

“You better go wake him up.”  Richie tells her as he starts to unlock the door.  Monica gets up and bolts to the bedroom, paying no attention to Alec as she jumps over him.  

She can hear Richie talking with Jon’s parents, “Monica just went to wake him up.  Come in.”

“Thanks Rich.” Says Jon’s dad.

“I see you boys had some fun last night?”  Mrs. B states, “Did Jon get this drunk?” She isn’t impressed.

Monica, on the other hand is shaking Jon, “Get up, get up.  Your mom and dad are here.”

“What?”

She shakes him some more, “Your mom and dad are here.”

He sits up and looks at her, “For what?”

“I don’t know, they just knocked on the door.  They’re in the living room.” She tells him. 

Looking at the clock and seeing that it’s 10:04am, he rubs his eyes and heads to the bathroom.   Monica sits on the bed and waits for him, she’s thinking that this isn’t going to go too well.  “Let’s go.” He says as he walks out of the bathroom and grabs a t shirt.  “She’s pissed.”

“I’m not going out there.”

“Why?”

“I told you not to leave like that Jon.”

“Well, she must have figured it out.”

Monica crosses her eyes at him and says, “We could have gone over there and told her today, you didn’t need to leave like that.”

He runs his fingers through his long frosted hair and says, “Come on, let’s get it over with.  She just wants an explanation and an apology.”

“Then you go give it to her.”  Monica can hear additional voices joining a conversation that she can’t make out.  She’s thinking Great, now they all know that she’s mad at me.

Jon leaves the bedroom, leaving Monica behind.  When he enters the living room his mother says, “Well, there he is.  Mr. Big Shot.”

“Ma, stop.” Jon says, not wanting to do this first thing in the morning, but she left him no choice.  He makes his way into the kitchen and pours himself a cup of coffee, sipping it, he remembers that it decaf and makes a face that says such.  “Ma, Pops do you want a cup of coffee?”

Jon’s dad does, but his mother doesn’t.  “Jonny, I got no sleep last night after I found out that you moved out.”

“Ma, you knew it was going to happen.”

“Why did you have to do it while your father and I were bowling?” she snaps at him, almost crying.

“I only grabbed a few things, I didn’t move all the way out.”

“I knew you were gone when I seen that both of your guitars were gone.  That broke my heart; I sat on your bed and cried.”

“Mom, that’s enough already.  I haven’t slept there in months”

“But I knew you would come back.” She wimpers.

“I’m just a few miles away.  We will still see each other.”

Jon’s dad jumps in and adds his two cents for what it was worth, “Carol, they are having a baby and they need to be together, I told you that.  You promised that you wouldn’t act this way when we came over.” He looks at his son, “I’m sorry, she said she was okay.”

“You two don’t understand.  He’s the first to leave the house, I wasn’t ready for him to leave.”

“Ma, like pop said, I’m starting a family.  I need and want to be with the woman that’s having my baby.  Not with you and seeing her on occasion.” Jon informs his mother.

“Did you have to do it now?”

Monica appears from the bedroom dressed and ready to face the day.  As soon as John sees her, he walks up to her, “Hello dear, how are you feeling?” he gives her a hug.

“I’m great Mr. Bongiovi, how are you?”

“Good dear, good.  Ma and I are good.”

Monica walks over to Mrs. Bongiovi and says hello to her as well, giving her a hug.  “Please sit down, can I get you anything?”

“Nothing for me, I’m fine.” Blurts Carol, “John, do you want anything?”

He just shakes his head no.  The longer that Mrs. Bongiovi is there, the angrier that she gets.  There are 3 men passed out on the living room floor of Monica’s house and she can only wonder, is it like this all the time?

Monica gets herself a cup of coffee and stands next to Jon.  He’s in sweat pants and a tshirt, his hair is a fine mess.  She kisses him and says, “Good Morning.”  He smiles at her.

“Jon, are you partying a lot?” his mother questions.

“No.”

“Are there people all over the floor often?” she snaps

“Mom, this is my band and no, it doesn’t happen all the time.”  He stops and looks at his dad, “Pop, help me out here.”

“Carol, he’s a rock star, of course they party.” Mr. Bongiovi states. 

It was then that Richie had heard and seen enough.  He sees that Jon is doing nothing but respecting his mother, by keeping his mouth shut.  Jon wants to scream at her and make her leave, but that was his mother.  And not only that, if he even tried it his dad would kick his ass.  “Mr. and Mrs. B., Jon is not a partier.  As soon as they found out that they were pregnant, he stopped.  He says if she can’t party – he can’t either.  And as for us crashing here, we know better than to drive when we’re like that and this is the first time that it happened.”  Richie looked at Jon and he could see that he was pissed, pissed that he divulged anything to his mom.  She didn’t need to know what they were up to and what goes on in his house, it’s his business.

Carol looks at Jon, “Would it have been hard for you to tell me that?”

“Mother, I am a grown man.”  He finishes his coffee and heads to the bathroom, along the way he gently kicks Dave, Alec and Tico; waking them up.  

The three of them were dead to the world until they were woken up by Jon.  And all three of them had no idea what to do when they sit up and see John and Carol Bongiovi standing in the living room.