Chapter 8
Kristin and JC found themselves in silence completely focused on the job at hand, clearing off the mountain of papers on JC's desk.  JC looked up from his paperwork and saw Kristin busily shuffling through a stack of papers.  He stopped what he was doing, thinking about her and silently wished that he could look at her but knew he couldn't because of the obvious  A small smile crossed over Kristin's face.  "You know, this is kinda nice.  The two of us working side by side."

Kristin looked up at JC and then back down at her stack of paper. "If you say so."

JC sighed, his attempt at friendship with Kristin was failing miserably.  He opened her mouth to protest Kristin's continuing coldness toward him but decided against it knowing it was a waste of his breath.  

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Kristin knocked on the door that belonged to JC's parents.  JC nervously chewed on Kristin's hair as he awaited his parents to open the door.  Kristin turned to herself and brushed the hair out her mouth.  "Will you stop?!  You’re driving me crazy.  Why are you so nervous?  They're your parents."

"I know!  And YOU'RE in my body.  What if they start asking you questions you don't know the answer to?"

"JC, how often do your parents try to figure out if you're really you?  You're parents aren't going to know the difference."  Kristin fixed her hair, tucking the chewed portion of her ear.  As she was doing that, she looked into her own eyes, a feeling coming over her that she was finding to be very common in JC's body.  The two held their gaze between each other a moment longer.  The sound of the front door opening broke the gaze.  

JC's mom stood there, a pleased, shocked look on her face.  "Hi, Baby," she said quickly, then turned to Kristin.  "JC is this you're girlfriend?  She's just adorable."

Kristin looked at JC in shock, he shook his head not knowing what his mother was talking about.  JC's mother took Kristin's hand in her and shook it. 

"It's nice to finally meet you, JC hasn't talked about anything but you since you two got together.  It's 'Kristin' this and 'Kristin' that.  He's really fond of you.  I've never heard him talk so much about a girl he's dating."

Kristin shifted uncomfortably in JC's body, causing him to receive a look from JC's mother.  "Am I embarrassing you, Sweetie?" she asked.  Before waiting for an answer she continued.  "Don't be so modest, JC.  It never hurts to tell a girl how you feel about her.  Where are my manners?  Come in, come in." 

Mrs. Chasez opened the door wider allowing the two to enter.  She walked past them and into the dinner room, calling to her husband.  "Roy, the kids are here."

JC went to follow his mother but felt Kristin pulling back on the shirt he wearing.  JC looked at Kristin curiously, only to be met by his own angry eyes.  "What the hell was she talking about, JC?" Kristin whispered harshly.

"I don't know.  I swear, Kristin I have never once mentioned you to my parents."

"Then how the hell did she know my name?  JC I swear to God..."

JC's mother walked back to the entryway where she found JC and Kristin talking, the faces fairly close to one another.  "Come on you two, no more smooching.  It's time for dinner."

Kristin glared at JC once more, watching her face as it changed to a light shade of pink.  She followed JC's mother into the dinning room, JC not trailing too far behind, cursing silently to himself.

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"So, Kristin, what is it you do?" JC's father asked, trying to start a conversation.  The conversation up to that point hadn't been much more than small talk up to that point and JC's parent were stalling before they had to tell their son something that would change his life.

JC looked at Kristin and swallowed hard.  "Um,...well, I was a waitress, but uh, I found that it was taking away from my schoolwork, so I quit," JC stuttered, his father's look causing him to feel uncomfortable.

"A girl with her priorities straight," he said a smile on his face.  "JC, I think she's a keeper."

Kristin shifted nervously, something she was slowly becoming used to in JC's house, around his parents.  "Dad didn't you say you and mom had something to tell me?  Isn't that why you ask me to dinner?"

JC's parents looked at one another and then back at Kristin.  "Yes, honey, there is something that we'd like to discuss but..." Mrs. Chasez looked at Kristin and opened her mouth to continue but JC interrupted her.

"Don't mind me, Mr. and Mrs. Chasez.  I don't mind."

JC watched the nervous look that his mother gave his father.  "Do you think we should, Roy?"

"Well, she's apart of his life, I guess he would tell her eventually any way."

JC bit Kristin's lip stopping himself from urging them to continue.  He kicked Kristin, telling her she needed to do it for him.  Kristin threw a small glare at JC and then said, "Just tell me, Mom, Dad.  I'm dying of curiosity."

"Right," Mrs. Chasez said reluctantly.  "Josh," Mrs. Chasez paused, Kristin looked at JC, confused by the name she'd used for him.  "Josh, your father and I..." Mrs. Chasez found it hard to continue. "Son, your mother and I aren't happy together.  We've decided..."

"We've decided to get a divorce," Mrs. Chasez finished, seeing her husband was having just as much trouble as she was having, telling their only son news that would tear his world apart.

JC looked back and forth between his parents and then at Kristin who was looking back at him.  Tears began to form in Kristin's eyes as the emotion was too much to handle.  "Excuse me," JC said getting up and running toward the front door.  He had to get out of there, though that left Kristin alone with his parents. 

His parents were looking at JC, halfway waiting for his reaction, halfway looking for an explanation for the behavior they'd just seen their son who looked like Kristin show.  Kristin desperately racked her brain trying to think of a reason for JC's behavior.  "Um, her parents just got a...she's still hurting a...excuse me."  Kristin stood up and walked after JC leaving his parents in utter confusion.

The two looked at each other not knowing exactly what had just happened.  "Well that went well," Mr. Chasez said sarcastically.

Kristin found JC outside, crying into her hands, her body shaking from the cold.  Kristin took JC's jacket off, placing it around her shoulders, hoping it would warm JC.  Her touch startled her as he looked up at her.  She saw the make up on her face running down her cheeks.  Kristin slowly brushed the mascara trail away from her cheek as JC looked up at her.  "This is why I don't cry in public," Kristin said matter-of-factly.

"I hate being in your body.  All these emotions, I can't control the tears."  JC paused looking down at her hands.  "What are you doing out here?  What'd you tell my parents?  They probably think I'm crazy...well, for that matter, you're crazy."

"Gee thanks.  You're parents aren't the important people right now.  You're the important one.  Are you going to be okay?" Kristin asked, shocked by her own concern for him.

"What do you care?" JC asked, returning the coldness she'd been giving him.

Kristin glared angrily, then decided now wasn't the time to be arguing with him.  She realized that he was hurting and he needed support, not criticism.  "JC, I'm just trying to..."

"How do you think I'd feel right now?  My parents just told me they're getting a divorce.  You think I'm going to feel good right now?"  JC supported Kristin's head with her hand, her head starting to throb with a headache.  "Why is this happening to me now?" Tears formed in Kristin's eyes once again.

Kristin hesitated a moment but then lifted JC to his feet.  She wrapped her arms around him, comforting him the best she could.  It still felt weird, comforting him.  He was JC, they didn't have the best of relationships, but JC needed comfort now, and she was the only one there to give it to him.  "Shouldn't we go back inside?  You're parents are probably wondering what's going on."

"Screw them.  Screw them both," JC said angrily.  "I can't look at them, I can't handle to even be in the same room as them.  Damn it!  Why did they do this to me?  How could they do this?  They love each other.  They can't be getting a divorce."

"JC you have to have questions about this and this is the only time you'll get to ask those questions.  They're not doing this to hurt you JC.  It's not your fault.  They just fell out of love."

"No!" JC said louder than he planed.  "If you truly love someone," JC paused, finding himself staring into his own eyes, which he saw Kristin in.  JC's voice softened a little, before he finished, "you don't ever fall out of love with that person."

Kristin looked away finding herself frightened by the intensity of JC's stare.  She cleared her throat before talking.  "Um, regardless of how you're feeling right now, I need to get back in there and say something on your behalf."

"No, don't go back in there.  They don't deserve to talk to me.  I'm never going to talk to either of them again."

"Is it your time of the month?" Kristin asked, without even realizing she just said the comment that she hated more than anything when guy naturally assumed that just because a woman was emotional.  "I can't believe I just said that," she said quietly to herself.  "JC, you're going to have to talk to them eventually.  You work for your father.  Are you going to avoid him every day at work?"

JC let out a sigh of frustration.  "You're right.  I guess we have to go back in there."

"Do you think that's such a good idea?  I mean, do you think you can control your mouth?  They already think I'm weird, I don't need you to jump down their throat so they think that I'm rude too."

"I'll control myself.  What are you going to say?"

"I don't know.  I thought I'd allow them to explain."

JC lowered his eyes, knowing that Kristin's method was a lot more practical that what he had originally done.  "I guess I over reacted a little.  Maybe I should apologize for you."

"Definitely," Kristin said firmly.  The two walked back into the house, Kristin placing JC's hand on the small of her back, as the walked into the dinning room.  Before the two had even sat back down, JC began to say his apologies.

"Mr. and Mrs. Chasez, I've very sorry about the way I reacted.  This is really none of my business, it just hurt me to see that a couple as lovely as yourself, would think about divorcing one another.  I know I've only know you for a few hours now, but I can see there is a love between you two.  I just think it's a waste to throw it away."

"You don't need to apologize, Dear," Mrs. Chasez said sweetly.  "We shouldn't have dropped this bomb while you were here.  It was very insensitive of us."

"Mom, Dad," Kristin jumped in.  "I don't understand why you to think that you're not in love anymore.  I can't remember the last time I saw you fight, and..."

"Son, keep in mind you haven't lived with us for the last few years.  Not to mention we never argued in front of you.  Your mother and I agreed to that before you were born never to raise our voices in front of you."

"Your father and I just aren't happy, Josh.  But it has no affect on the love we have for you.  We love you just the same as we ever did and our decision to end our marriage had nothing to do with you.  We love you, it's just..."

"You don't love each other any more," Kristin finished, knowing that's what JC desperately wanted to say.  "I'm sorry Mom but I find that VERY hard to believe.  You've been together over 30 years.  I threw your 25th anniversary party," Kristin recalled Joey and Libby talking about that.  "If you two truly didn't love one another, you wouldn't have stayed together this long."

Kristin's words sank into the minds of JC's parents as Kristin stood taking a hold of JC's hand, lifting him as well.  "Mom, Dad, please, just think about what I've said, and before you throw away a beautiful marriage, think hard about the years you've had together, and answer yourself honestly, do you want to throw it away."

"Thank you for dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Chasez, it was lovely," JC said trying to think of what Kristin would have said.  He followed Kristin out of the house.

Mrs. Chasez turned to her husband practically in shock.  "Wow, I wasn't expecting that."  A small sigh escaped her lips.  "When did our son become so smart, Roy?"

Mr. Chasez smiled.  "I always knew."

Outside, as the two walked to JC's car, JC turned to Kristin placing a hand on his forearm.  "Thank you, Kristin."

"You don't have to thank me," Kristin said modestly, hanging her head in embarrassment.  Kristin looked up and saw JC was staring at her.

"Yes I do.  If it had been me in there talking to my parents, I would have blown my top and only made matters worse, causing tension between my father and me at work, and nothing would have changed.  My parents would still get divorced and I would never be able to talk to them the same again."  JC smiled at the thought of what she did in there.  "But you," JC paused, "you went in there, with a level head on your shoulders, and you talked to the calmly and rationally.  Thanks to you, my parents may have a shot at being happy with one another.  And how on Earth did you know that I threw my parents a 25th wedding anniversary surprise party?"

Kristin smiled, the two reaching JC's car.  "I remember Joey talking about it a few years back.  I hadn't remembered it until that exact moment, it just came into my mind and I said it, really without even thinking.  JC, everything I said in there was the same thing that you said out here, I just said it in a different, calmer state of mind.  The only reason I could do that JC was because those aren't my parents.  They're yours.  If they were mine, I would have reacted the same way.  Your reaction was completely normal."

"Still, I thank you.  You held everything together.  I don't think my parents ever suspected things weren't normal with their son."

"You know there is something that I've been wondering about since dinner."

JC thought about something that Kristin could be curious about and he assumed it was about the whole girlfriend thing.  "Kristin, honestly, I never said that you were my girlfriend.  I think I may have complained about you once or twice and my mom thought that I had feelings for you or some nonsense like that and assumed that..."

"That's all quite interesting and all, but that's not what I was talking about."

"Well then what is it?"

"Josh?" she said curiously.

A slight shade of pink came over Kristin's face, JC unable to hid his embarrassment.  "Didn't you know that was my name?" he tried to cover.

Kristin laughed at his embarrassment.  "I had no clue JC stood for something.  What does it stand for?  Josh Charles?  Josh Chad?  Josh Cameron?"

JC laughed at her attempts to figure out his real name.  "Joshua Scott," he said simply.

Kristin looked at him confused.  "And that is 'JC' how?"

JC laughed.  "Joshua Scott Chasez.  Joshua Chasez.  JC."  JC laughed again at the enlightened look of his face.

"I get it," she laughed slightly.  "You learn something new every day."

"Yeah you do," JC said, then added, "If you take the time to get to know someone."
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