Chapter Three

When David, Tico and Hugh arrived, Richie was wide awake. The reason was quiet simple, something was so damn wrong with Jon. He wasn’t paying attention to anything, seemed to be miles away with his thoughts and he and Dot seemed to be fine, there was no tention between them. What the fuck is going on here?

The others realized it as soon as they were in the living room. Jon had handed them some milk instead of coffee. Only Hugh had a happy smile on his face. He loved milk and most of the time the others made fun of him about that. Now he took a deep gulp of the cold white liquid and sighed happily. Tico watched him with disgust.

David eyed Jon surprised “Are you ok, buddy?”

“Yeah.” he answered absently.

Tico looked at Richie who just shrugged his shoulders. “Did you and Dot have a fight.” The drummer asked carefully. Holding the glas of milk like it was poison. He really hated that stuff.

“Yeah.” Jon answered again, not paying attention. Richie shook his head no.

David looked at him, squeezing his eyes evily together “Will you give me all your money, Jon?”

“Yeah.”

“You all heard it.” David rubbed his hands happy and had a huge smile on his face.

“Oh, keep it Joker.” Richie said, walked over to Jon and grabbed him by his shoulders.

“What’s wrong buddy?” he asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Jon blinked.

“Well, you are acting a bit weird, we are worried, what’s going on?”

“Weird? What do you mean with weird?” Jon asked slightly pissed.

“Well, do you think I can have a cookie with my milk?” Tico asked him dryly.

“Cookie? What milk?…you don’t drink milk Tico…ohh.” Jon said, realizing the unusual drinks of his friends. He sat down on the couch and let out a sigh.

“Ok, listen…I have a daughter.” He said.

“Yeah, we know….her name’s Stephanie.” Richie was really starting to worry now. Did he lost his mind? Or maybe his memory? Dot didn’t mention an accident…

“No, no, no…” Jon ran his hands through his hair in frustation. “I mean, yes. Steph is my daughter…. But I have another daughter!”

Four pairs of eyes looked at him stunned. “Ok, buddy slow down and start at the beginning.” Richie demanded.

Jon explained what had happened this morning.

The visit of Miss Johnson, her shocking message, that he had to go to the hospital later to make the paternity test. That Dot didn’t freak out like he had expected, his friends were surprised as well, and that she was completely calm about it, not because she thought that it is not his kid, but knows that he didn’t know that Susi was pregnant.

After he ended his friends stay calmed. Nobody knew what to say.

Richie watched Jon sitting on the couch, nervously running his hands through his hair again and again. He could feel for him. This situation was his own little worst nightmare.

He always expected that someday someone would stand at his door step and would say “Hi, I’m your daughter” well or son. Actually it was surprising that it didn’t happen yet, with all those girls he met back in the ‘80.

“Would someone of you jerks please say something!” Jon nearly screamed. They all looked at each other…yep, close to break down. Something that rarely happened.

“Wow, that’s…wow!” was all David could say.

“Yeah, thanks a lot smartass, I already figured that out on my own.” Jon snorted.

“I have no idea how to tell my parents and how to deal with the girl….I mean she’s probably completely upside down, she had just lost her mom, has to leave her friends, anything she knows…..I don’t even know whether she speaks english or not.” Jon realized shocked.

“Well, I think first of all you should calm down, Johnny.” Tico said. “It’s not helpful if you panic…especially not for the kid.” Jon nodded and tried to relax a bit.

“And don’t expect her to love you the minute she walks through the door, if she likes you, you can be really happy, but she will probably hate you….remember she wanted to know who her father is and her mother didn’t tell her, she propably doesn’t know that you didn’t know anything about the pregnancy, for her you are the asshole, who wasn’t there…and if she’s only a bit like you…She’ll be pissed!” Tico ended his lecture.

Jon looked at him, realisation finally kicking in. “Oh, God!” He let himself fall back on the couch. “I’m so dead! How should I handle a teenage girl with my temper?”

The others laughed. “Well, you should get some earplugs…” Jon looked confused at David.

”…as far as I remember you lost your temper on a daily basis as a teenager and you know you have to protect your ears, we are going on tour next year.” David said with a huge grin on his face.

The others laughed even harder while Jon put his head in his hands and groaned. Damn, David was right, he wasn’t really able to control his temper as a kid or teenager. And when he is seeing how often Steph is already loosing it…..oh, shit and she’s only six, no hormones kicking in that make everything more complicated. Lord help me!