Chapter 128 - You Can Go To War

Unable to sleep real good since their accident, Monica woke just before dawn and couldn't get back to sleep.  As she laid there next to her husband, her thoughts kept going to the night before.  

Their fight in the car, the make up after the fight and the conversation that they had about their song.  She's excited about the news that they heard over night and knows that she is in for the ride of her own life, this one based on her talent, her passion and she's aware that it wouldn't have been made had it not been for Jon and the guys.  She looks over at Jon, his back to her.  Gently she moves into him and softly kisses his back.  Over and over.  He doesn't move a muscle.  

She loved that song and she can see Jon's point, but they're a team.  There shouldn't have been a heated discussion about a song they wrote, even though she used it in her movie.  Her words were part of it, her thoughts we all over it and him for him to be angry, well, that wasn't sitting right with her.  She needed to clear her head, she needed to clear her uncertainty and most of all, she needed to get out of the bed.  She knows that if she tossed and turned too long, she's wake her sleeping beauty. 

She quietly and with ease climbs out of bed and grabs her running clothes.  With her sweat pants, tshirt and socks on she quickly brushes her teeth, throws her hair up in a ponytail and gets ready to go for a run.  She didn't want to wake Jon to tell him, so, with her brightest red lipstick she scribbles a note on the bathroom mirror.

 Babe, went for a run.  Back soon.  Love you more than words - Mon

And she's off, doing what she's always loved to do.  A morning run has always been something that she's done when her head is polluted and messing with her heart.  She needs to feel the stress release with ever foot that pounds the pavement.  She's taking her favorite route, looking forward to stopping at the pond and watch the ducks.

The morning is crisp.  As she inhales the cool salt air, she feels a happiness that she's missed.  Being one with nature has always made her feel better, regardless of what's going on.  She really misses running with Jon.  They would run almost daily, even when they were travelling, but lately he never feels like it.  His leg has been bothering him since the accident and he tries to save it, it's ability to work right, for shows.  She understands that, but she does get upset because he refuses to do the exercises and the physical therapy that the doctor strongly recommended for him.   

She takes her usual route, passing by Richie's house.  She notices that there are no lights on, assuming everyone was still in bed.  The sun hasn't yet broke the horizon and as she runs, she doesn't see many people outside.  Not only is it too early, it's also a bit chilly.  That doesn't stop her.  As she jogs, she can't help but think of the response to her film.  She can't help but smile at how well it was received and how much the band liked it.  She's quite proud of herself and now thinking of what she can do with the footage that she has left over.  She thinks to herself, "Maybe I'll go into my studio later today and take a look at what I have left."  With that thought bouncing around in her head, she decides to just go with it and see what she comes up with.

Six miles.  She's whooped when she makes it back to the house.  She tries to get in the back door quietly, even though Jon hasn't fixed the creaking screen door.  When she gets in and takes inventory she can see that Jon has been up.  "Babe?" she calls out.  With her right foot, she slides off her left shoe.  Then with her left foot, she works off her right shoe.  "Babe, are you up?"  She calls out again.

Nothing.  She stops at the kitchen sinks and quickly downs a glass of cold water.  When she finishes, she sets the glass on the counter and tip toes off to find Jon.  He's not in the living room.  Nor the dining room.  The only other place he could be was in their office (the guest room), in the bathroom or their bedroom.  Walking through the house, he isn't in any of them.  She stops and looks around the bedroom, to see if there are any clues of where he could be.  She was only gone for just under an hour.  As she makes her way back into the kitchen, she spots him, sitting in the backyard wrapped in a blanket.  She stops and watches him for a second.  She can see that he's lost in thought and possibly a little chilled.  

With a warm cup of coffee in her hand, she goes out to the back yard to check on him.  "Hey."

"Hi babe.  How was your run?"  he asks her over his shoulder.  She makes her way to him, bends over and kisses his head.

"It was good.  What are you doing up?"  She asks, stepping back to let him get up.

"Let's go in, I'm cold."  he takes her hand and pulls her toward the back door.  "The phone rang again." he tells her, quite flat. 

"Oh really, who was it?" she questions, taking a seat next to him at the kitchen table, still breathing heavy from her run.   She looks over his head at the clock on the wall.  Noticing that it's only 7:18 am, she can't even imagine who'd be calling.

He lifts his head from his hands and starts to stand up.  Monica can see that he's a little tense.  "It was Liz."  He steps away from her, knowing that what's about to come won't be much good.  "Do you want some coffee?"  He pours himself a cup and waits.  When it takes her longer to respond than what he thought, he looks over at her.  She's in a trance.  "Babe?"  he blurts at her.

Monica snaps out of her deep thought, "Huh, what?  I'm sorry."  she smiles at him, kind of.

Jon holds up his mug, "Coffee?"

"Yes please.  Liz who?"  and there it is.  It's not the response that he was waiting for and it was a response that he mentally prepared for.   

Jon pours her cup of coffee, adding the perfect amount of milk to it, for her.  He hands it to her and can see that she really can't figure out who Liz is.  Taking his seat back at the table he simply tells her, "My ex, Liz."  again, he waits for some type of response that would normally come from a wife when an ex girlfriend calls.

"Okay, what did she want?" Monica takes a sip of her coffee.  She then takes her socks off, tossing them toward the basement door.  She leans back in her chair, resting her feet on Jon's leg.  "Why would an ex girlfriend be calling you at 7 in the morning?"  She cocks an eyebrow and smiles.  She really has no memory of Liz, that's probably why she's not upset about it.

"She was at your release last night."  he starts to tell her, thinking she knows who she is.

"Did she call to say that she loved it?" she innocently asks him, thinking there isn't anyone on the planet that wouldn't love her film.

"Not exactly." he leans back, crosses his arms and continues.  ""She wants credit?"

Unsure what that could even mean, especially coming from a person that she doesn't even know.  "Credit for what?  Her ticket?  Did she think it was that bad?" Monica leans forward, placing her elbows on the table, felling a bit uneasy.  

"She's in your film?" 

"In my film, where?" Monica is baffled.

"She's in a few of those still shots that you used."  Monica looks at him puzzled and he can see that.  "Do you know who I'm talking about?"

Slowly, Monica shakes her head no.  "Should I?" 

"Yeah."

"I don't know any of your ex's."  she tells him as a matter of fact.

"You know Liz.  You have slapped Liz." he informs her, noticing that she really doesn't know who he's talking about.

"I hit her?"  Monica is shocked.  "When did I hit her?  Why did I hit her?'  her fingers cover her mouth.  "and what does she mean by credit?"  Monica is blown away.

"After I broke up with her and started seeing you, she started to date Alec.  She was on the road with us for a while, don't you remember that?"

"No."

"You don't remember slapping her across her smart mouth?"  he can't help but chuckle thinking back to that night.  "I think we were in Moscow, I don't remember exactly."

"And I just slapped her?"  

"Yeah.  She was running her mouth getting into band business and you had had enough."  he leans over to her and gently brushes some of her bangs off of her face.  "You shut her up right quick."

"I'm so embarrassed."

"Don't be."

"What did Alec do?" she questions.

"No one really had time to react.  I'm more concerned with the fact that you don't remember her."