2

Jon walks away and makes his way to Richie's dressing room.  As he enters, he tells him, "Beth is here."

Richie looks up at him with a surprise look on his face, "Did she get the papers?"

"Yeah!"  Jon walks over to Richie's makeshift bar and pours himself a glass of Jack Daniels.  Downing it, he slams the glass on the bar top and says, "She had the nerve to bring the kids here."

"The little ones?" 

"Yes, she brought Brianna to the dressing room and Steph has Jon Spencer back here somewhere." Jon can't hide his disappointment in that, he can't hide the fact that he's pissed off about it.  "I didn't think she'd get them until we left for Europe, but Peter wanted to get them going before she caught wind of it."

"Good move on his part."

"She's heartbroken, man."

"And you're not?"  Richie asks his long time friend and favorite brother.  

"Of course I am, but I cannot keep living like this."  Jon tries to ease some of the tension, running his fingers through his sweat soaked hair.  "I can't stay in a relationship that's so toxic, so unhealthy."

"Is it really toxic?"  Richie asks, never hearing their relationship described in such a negative way.  "It's not normal, but who has a normal relationship?"

Jon takes a seat on the couch, throwing himself back against the cushion, "I was married to Dorothea longer than I have been Beth and I can honestly tell you that I did;t have half the shit with Dot as I do with Beth.  Isn't it supposed to get easier as we go along, as we get older?"

Richie gets up and pour Jon another shot of Jack Daniels and then one for himself.  As he hands it to Jon he reminds him, "You didn't love Dorothea like you do Beth, you can't compare them Jon."

In one gulp, Jon finishes the J.D. and responds, "The love has nothing to do with it anymore.  It just seems that lately we try to one up each other and fix each others problems."

"Did you ever find out where she went?"

"No, but I can guess.  She went to see either Brian or his parents."

"What the fuck for?"  Richie practically jumps down his throat.  "She has no reason to go see either of them."

Sitting up and leaning forward, Jon tells his friend, "She received an anonymous letter that reminded her and questioned her about the deaths of the babies.  Told her she was a terrible mom and other things.  She didn't tell me about it, but I found it."  Jon stands trying to shake of the buzz that was coming on, "I had the letter investigated and found out who wrote it and went to see Brian's dad - that's who sent it."

"Well, what happened when you seen him?  And if you seen him, why would she need to?"

"She's Beth.  She does what she wants with no regard for anyone else."

"Come on Jon, you know she's not like that.  She had to have a reason to go see them, you did."

Jon gives Richie a look, "There is too much uncertainty and I'm sick of it."

Richie walks to his friend, with his hand on his shoulder, "I love Beth to death, but you have to do what's best for you and the kids.  If you're not happy, get out."

"I have to get out.  I have to have some sense of stability, specially now that the twins are older."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jon leaves Richie's dressing room and starts to look for Stephanie and Jon Spencer.  As he makes his way down the backstage hallway, he runs into Beth again.  He can see that she has been crying since he left her in his dressing room.  She doesn't have Brianna with her anymore.

"Where's Brianna?" he quietly barks at her, not wanting to alert anyone around them that something is wrong. 

"Stephanie took them home."

"Why?"

"Other than it's late, she thought that we needed to talk."  Beth's mascara has run down her cheeks, her nose is red from the sand paper kleenex that's backstage and Jon can see that she's cried so hard that she's finding it hard to breathe.  

"In my dressing room." he orders her.  Beth turns and walks to his dressing room.  Once inside, she takes a seat on the arm of the couch.  Jon stands in front of her, looking down with an unhappy look on his face.  "What is there to say?"

"Why didn't you come to me before you filed?"  she can't even say that without breaking into tears. "Why didn't you talk to me first."

"So you could talk me out of it?"

"Was it possible?" she gasps for air.

"No, probably not."

"Why Jon, why?" she reaches over and takes his hand, pulling him close.  "Why didn't you tell me that you were going file?"

"Because Beth, that's not the way it's done.  I made up my mind that I don't want to be in this marriage anymore so I filed." he states, trying not to show any emotion.  "We don't belong married."

"Yes we do."

"No.  No we don't." he steps back.  "People that love and respect one another don't do the shit that we do."

Beth lets that sink in for a moment before she responds, "We try to protect one another, I'd say that's the definition of love."

Jon is getting frustrated, simply because he's exhausted.  They are normally out of the arena by this time, but now their exit is delayed.  "If this is love Beth, I don't want it anymore.  I don't want to always look over our shoulder and wonder what will happen next."

"I had no control over that letter, Jon."

"You controlled whether I seen it or not.  How could you keep that from me like you did?"

"I didn't want you to worry."

"What were you going to do about it?"

"NOTHING!" she states, "I was going to let it lay and not give it another thought." 

Jon turns on his heel, having to walk away.  "You kept this from me, and you had no idea who it was from.  After all that we have been through, did you ever consider that the sender of that letter would act further and maybe hurt you, or God forbid one of my kids?"  Jon is now pissed at how shallow Beth was thinking about this.

"I thought I was protecting you, the kids.  I thought I was protecting US."