Chapter 2
8 months later...
"Ahhh shiiiitttt! Daddy!!! Daddy hellppp!" Julie reached out for her father's hand but only found air. Her only comfort was the sound of the doctors voice, and her screaming for her father. Where was he? Why wasn't he there? She needed him, she needed him to hold her hand, and reassure her. Hold her and be her father. She thrashed around on the small matress that was served for her comfort while she went through this. Through this alone...he was gone, they were all gone, her future was gone...All she had left was this life coming out from her.
Flashbacks of her telling her parents the news months earlier came back to her, and she remembered the rage in her mothers eyes, and the hurt in her fathers. Her mother had slapped her so hard she hit the ground and called her a whore, which caused her father to start fighting with her mother again. They went at it, and that was that. Her father stopped talking to her and refused to help, and her mother kicked her out of the house. She was forced to stay with her Aunt, who didn't like her much either, and said that once she had the baby she had to move out. Now here she was...in labor...
"Push Ms. Pierce! Push harder!" The doctor was ordering, sweat pouring from his forehead. "Keep going, I see the head!" It was only a few more seconds before the pain dissapeared, and her screams ceased to sobs. "Congratulation Ms. Pierce, it's a beauitful baby girl!" The nurses all cooed, and the doctor looked on in pride. He cut the baby's cord, and handed her bloody, blue baby to her. Julie stopped crying, and her heart suddenly soared. For the first time in years she TRULY smiled. It was her beauitful baby, her gorgeous daughter. "I'm going to call you Danni...and I'm gonna love you..." Julie promised her new baby just as the nurses took her away.
* * *
"Hey guys, what's going on?" A.J. asked, walking into the Jive Records office. He chomped heartily on his red apple without a care in the world. He noticed the confused and weirded out looks on his bandmates faces and frowned. "Whats going on guys?" "Why don't you tell us...?" Kevin said, standing to his feet, and threw a bunch of papers that were in his hands onto the table. "Huh?" A.J. asked, even more confused than the guy's were. "Look at these papers A.J." Jordie Rock, one of Jive's producers ordered, getting up from his spot around the rounded conference desk as well. A.J. slowly sat down in a chair, and pulled the stack of papers to him and skimmed through them. They were transcripts...from a phone conversation. It was titled "Julie Pierce Statement." The name didn't ring a bell at all.
"Do you recgonize...anything?" Jordie asked. A.J. just shrugged, and let the papers fall back down onto the desk. "Julie Pierce A.J.! Did you ever spend time with this woman?" A.J. just looked at Jordie, a quizzical look in his eyes. "This woman, 18 years old, from Ohio, claims that your the father of her newborn daughter." Jordie explained, throwing his hands around fiercly, showing that he was upset. At that, A.J. jumped up. "WHAT!?" 'It's true A.J. Some woman called early this morning claiming that you two slept together on January 23rd of this year, and a month later she found herself pregnant. She said she didn't sleep with anyone else. Do you remember this night?" A.J. tried hard to think back to that night. January 23rd...January 23rd...shit, why was it so hard to remember? "Maybe this picture will help." Howie said, throwing a picture in front of him of a gorgeous young red-head with curls galore. She was smiling at the camera, but in her eyes she didn't seem that happy.
As he studied the picture he than realized he recgonized the woman. "Yes, I do remember. I met her at our concert in Ohio that night, I took her back to my hotel room, and we...we...we did..." "Did you not wear a condom?" Brian wondered. "No, I did, we did! It must be a mistake...She has got to be lying..." A.J. said, in shock. "Well thats we here think too. So we're flying her down here tonight. We're going to get a DNA test to prove it. If it's true A.J., you could get yourself into lots of trouble. First and foremost it could ruin the band, and second, I don't know if you realize this but when you slept with this woman she was seventeen. A minor A.J. That could send you to jail." Jordie told him. "Well wait a minute, so if its mine...this could ruin me?" A.J. asked. Jordie nodded, and the guys stayed silent. "Well it can't be mine, I'm always safe. I always have protection." A.J. tried to assure himself. "And if it is...well its her word over mine." "It doesn't exactly work that way A.J. She is really serious. Apparently, from her statement she has no where to go, and since the child is yours she wants you to pay child support. She's asking for you to help her out or she is going to get you for statutory rape." Kevin said.
A.J.'s eyes widened. "She's blackmailing me??!!" "I'm afraid so. So if it is...I suggest you does was she asks...or this could send your career and your life down the tubes." A.J. sighed as he listened to Jordie, slumping back down into his chair, feeling defeat.