Episode Seven

Bowen Apartment

The next morning, Mike woke to the smell of fresh coffee and bacon. He yawned as he got out of bed and padded down the hall to find Jamie, all ready dressed, cooking.

"You know, I always thought the parent was suppose to cook on the kid's first day of school," he commented as he sat down at the kitchen table with a thump.

Jamie snorted. "That's when the parent can cook."

"I can cook!"

"Remember your attempt at Spaghetti a few years ago? You forgot about it and by the time you remembered the water had completely boiled away and the bottom of the pot was brown!"

Mike chuckled and accepted a mug of coffee. "Good point, shorty."

Jamie shook his head. "I'm as tall as you, dad."

"So? You'll always be my shorty."

"And you'll always be the guy who can't cook," Jamie replied as he sat down across from Mike and passed him a plate with bacon and eggs on it.

"Do you have a ride to school?"

"Diego and Maria are picking me up," Jamie said around a mouthful of eggs.

"All right, if you need a ride home, give me a call."

Jamie swallowed and looked up. "Are you going in to work?" he asked.

Mike shook his head. "Nope, I'll be home most of the day. I might go run a few errands, but I'll be home by the time school lets out."

"Well, I'll probably go by the Bodega or something. Diego's friend Matt's sister Summer is Maria and I's age, so we're gonna help her get used to school and town."

"Oh yeah, and Heaven Falls is so huge and complicated," Mike joked.

Jamie laughed. "Good point. But we're gonna show her the Bodega, and a few other places we hang out so she'll feel more at home."

"All right, be careful and have fun."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "You say that anytime I go aywhere."

"I know," Mike said.

Jamie rolled his eyes as the buzzer sounded. He stood and went to the door. "Yeah?"

"It's us!" came Maria's voice, muffled slightly by static.

"I'll be right down," Jamie replied.

Mike came into the living room and handed Jamie 20 dollars. "Don't be a freeloader. Pay Pilar for some of the food you eat," he ordered.

Jamie chuckled and grabbed the money. He shoved it into his pocket, since his wallet had been stolen by the man who... he shuddered slightly as his thoughts briefly visited the memory of what had happened.

"No, please, stop! You're hurting me!"

"Jamie?" Mike said, noticing the shudder. "You okay, shorty?"

"Yeah, fine. I just remembered that my wallet is gone, the mugger took it. I need to get a new one."

"All right, well I'll pick one up for you while I'm out today."

"Thanks, Dad."

Mike suddenly stepped forward and kissed the side of Jamie's head. "I love you, kid."

Jamie smiled. "Love you too, Dad. Even when you burn everything you try to cook." With that he grabbed his backack and left the apartment.

Mike chuckled as he returned to his own breakfast.

Heaven Falls High School

Diego pulled his truck into a parking space and turned it off as the engine started spurting loudly.

"That can't be good," Maria commented.

"Definitely not good," Jamie said as he opened the door and got out.

Diego rolled his eyes. "Really? You think? I need a new starter, but it'll cost me almost $200 bucks that I don't have."

"You could just pay for the starter and do the work yourself. Get Matt to help you," Maria suggested.

"Oh, I bet you'd love that," Diego teased, grinning at his little sister.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Maria asked.

"It means he knows you have a thing for Matt Brady," Jamie supplied.

"No I don't! I'm dating Aaron!"

"Yeah, the great and wonderful Aaron Grant!" Jamie said, rolling his eyes.

"The guy is an ass. Plain and simple," Diego added.

"Who are we talking about?" Aaron asked as he joined the group.

"Commisioner York," Diego replied. "He never should have sent Mr. Bowen into Med Center."

"Wasn't your uncle one of the hostages?"

"Yeah," Maria said. "But Uncle Drew doesn't have any kids, Mr. Bowen does. It's just not logical to risk a man with a kid who needs him to save 2 people with no kids."

Jamie smiled and leaned against the front of the truck. "Exactly."

"So they should have let Dr. Reed and Dr. Sanchez die?" Aaron asked.

"No, but they could have handle things better," Jamie said, getting pissed at Aaron all ready, and the school day hadn't even started.

A red car pulled into the parking space next to Diego, and Matt climbed out. "Hey guys!" he called, waving.

"Hey man!" Diego called back.

Inside the car, Summer was staring at the dark haired guy who was leaning casually against the front of the truck. Despite his casual stance, she could see he was tense about something. And there was definitely a dislike between him and the blonde guy standing next to the hispanic girl.

"Hey, you gonna get out sometime soon?" Matt said as he leaned in the window.

Summer stuck her tongue out at him and opened her door.

Jamie's attention was drawn away from Aaron and his continuing attitude to the blonde climbing out of Matt's car. 'This has to be Summer,' he thought. Her hair was pulled back into a simple braid, and she wore a kneelength light blue sundress with daisys on it.

"Everyone, meet my sister Summer," Mat said. "Summer, meet everyone."

"Oh, that helps, Matt!" Summer said, rolling her eyes.

Jamie snickered. "Yeah, and we all love being lumped together as one entity."

Matt rolled his eyes. "You met Diego last week when he stopped by, so I'll skip over him..."

"Thanks a lot," Diego said.

"The latina lovely is Maria Montoya, Diego's sister, the blonde guy is Aaron Grant, Maria's boyfriend. And the guy leaning on Diego's truck is Jamie Bowen, the quintessential good boy cop's kid," Matt joked.

"Yeah, who got himself mugged and beaten up night before last!" Diego said.

"Are you oaky?" Summer asked Jamie.

"Yeah, except my wallet, along with my money and stuff, is gone and my pride is more than a little dented," Jamie replied.

"It's not surprising, considering the neighborhood you live in," Aaron said.

Maria hit his arm. "Aaron! You make it sound like Jamie's poor or something! The Bowen's have more money than us Montoyas!"

"And I wasn't anywhere near home when it happened. I was out near the Drive," Jamie corrected.

"The Drive?" Summer asked.

"Juniors and seniors go up there to make out and stuff," Maria explained. "And what were *you* doing there, James?" she asked, using Jamie's full first name for emphasis.

"I went with Laura and David to a party and they ditched me to get drunk, so I started walking home and got jumped. No big deal," Jamie explained.

Just then, a blonde in designer clothes stalked up and grabbed Jamie's arm. "Did you tell my dad David and I ditched you?" she demanded.

Jamie glared at her, angry. "You did, Laura! You know I don't drink, and I don't like being around people who are drinking, but you two insisted that I come with you to a party with drinking and drugs, and then you disappeared and left me alone with a bunch of people I don't know, most of whom were probably college kids! How is that not ditching me?" he demanded.

Laura Randall returned his glare. "I'm grounded for a week for that?! We were around, if you had looked you would have found us!"

"Whatever you say Laura! Everyone knows you're right about everything because you're the great and magnificent Laura Randall!" Jamie replied, letting his temper get the better of him. "Well guess what? You were wrong that night and I could have gotten killed because of you!" he blurted out, not even realizing until he said it that it was true.

Hands on him... knife pressed against his neck... harsh voice in his ear. "Move and I'm gonna rip you open."

Jamie jolted back to reality as he heard Laura's voice.

"You are so full of it!" she said. "What, you don't think you'll get enough attention from Uncle Mike trying to play hero yesterday so you're making up a life threatening situation?"

"Shut up, Laura. You don't know what happened that night," Jamie said before turning and walking quickly towards the school. A blue car entered the parking lot and Laura headed towards it without a word to the rest of the group.

"He's not usually so...grouchy," Maria told Summer. "He got mugged, and then his dad almost got killed yesterday, and Laura is a bitch. Unfortunately she's also his cousin, so he has to put up with her."

"That's a bummer," Summer said.

"Ya' think?" Matt asked.

Maria chuckled and took Summer's arm. "Come on, I'll help you find your locker and then we'll find Jamie so I can whack him upside the head and tell him to stop being a jerk and help me show you around."

Summer laughed and let Maria lead her inside. "Sounds like a plan to me!"

"Good thing they get along. I don't want Summer feeling alone here or anything," Matt said.

"Well, Maria will help her figure out school, so will Jamie once he snaps out of his mood," Diego said. "No worries, man."

End Of Episode Seven