Jamie had hustled Jennie back out of the room as soon as it was evident that her mom was giving Ryan a hard time, but Jim stayed in the living room with his mouth gaping open. "How could anyone care so little for their child?" he cried as he sank down onto a chair.
"She told me to toss her out on the street so she learns her lesson," Ryan reported, shaking her head slowly.
"That's unconscionable!"
"I agree, and I wish she didn't have to go back, but tossing a rebellious, gay kid into the foster care system is no picnic either. She does pretty well in the group home," Ryan informed him. "It's a good atmosphere for her. Lots of structure-she has little jobs to do around the house, really firm curfew. The problem is that the court doesn't often approve permanent placements with a home like that."
"Why not?" Jim asked.
"Well, for one thing, it's much more expensive than keeping a kid in a foster home. For another, it's hard to supervise one troubled kid, much less eight or ten. The older kids can sometimes prey on the younger ones; they really need to be watched constantly."
"How old is she?" Jim asked.
"She just turned 14," Ryan said, "but she's seen more in 14 years than I have in 24."
"Has she a father?"
"Yeah, and Jennie's crazy about him." Ryan rolled her eyes to show that she didn't agree with the child's opinion. "He's career Navy, remarried with a new baby. He pays child support-the Navy sees to that-but all he's good for is a few broken promises per year. Besides, he's on a ship for months at a time, and the stepmother has no interest in having a 14-year-old to take care of. I doubt she'd be better off with him-even if he'd have her."
"No grandparents? Aunts? Uncles?" Jim asked, grasping at straws.
"No one who wants to be involved. She's really on her own," she said softly, the pain she often felt when she thought of Jennie's situation grabbing her heart yet again.
Jamie and Jennie came back into the living room, and Jennie gave Ryan a very cautious look. "Can I stay?"
"Yeah, you can stay. I'll take you upstairs and get you settled," Ryan said. She placed an arm around her shoulders and guided her upstairs, asking, "Did you get a little snack?"
"Yeah, Jamie fixed me up," she said as they walked up to the second floor.
Jim sat in a depressed silence as the pair went upstairs. "I have such a hard time believing that sweet little girl is so horrible to live with!"
"I don't think she is, Daddy. Her mother is trying to force her to be straight in every sense of the word. She won't let her hang out with other gay kids, she makes her dress very conservatively, she forces her to go to some conservative church where they try to pray her sexuality out of her. It's just a mess. It would be one thing to try to guide Jennie, but her mom just lays down these inflexible rules and then punishes her severely when she breaks one. And she invariably breaks one," she said with a smirk. "Usually a big one." As Ryan descended the stairs, Jamie asked, "What happened this time?"
"She stayed out all night with one of her friends. Hard to imagine she thought she was going to get away with that one," she chuckled.
"Nonetheless," Jim argued, "you don't throw your child out of the house because you don't approve of her behavior."
"Obviously we agree with that opinion, Daddy," Jamie said, as the upstairs door opened and Jennie came out into the hall and looked over the railing. She was dressed in a pair of Jamie's flannel pajamas, the roomy red and black plaid outfit making her look even younger than her fourteen years. "I'm going to bed," she announced. "I just wanted to say goodnight."
"Goodnight, Jennie," Jamie said as she ran up the stairs and kissed her cheek and gave her a hug. "Do you have everything that you need?"
"Yeah, this is an awesome house, Jamie."
"You're welcome any time," Jamie told her, giving her another squeeze. "But next time don't make Ryan spend the evening in jail first, okay?"
"Okay, I won't," she said, an adorable little blush climbing up her cheeks.
"Goodnight, Mr. Evans," she said politely. "It was good to meet you. And thank you for coming to get me. I would have been outside all night if you hadn't."
"My pleasure," he said briskly, but Ryan caught just a glimmer of a catch in his voice.
This has really affected him
, she marveled.
After Jennie went back upstairs, Jim got ready to leave. "You were a lifesaver tonight," Ryan acknowledged gratefully. "If I had gone back alone, they probably would have arrested me again."
"They didn't look very fond of you," Jim admitted with a chuckle.
Jamie slid her arm around her partner's waist and said, "But to know her is to love her."
Jim wasn't ready to make that concession, but he shook Ryan's hand in a friendly manner and said, "I admire how much you've tried to help that child. You can tell it means a lot to her."
"Thank you," Ryan said. "She means a lot to me too."
"See you Friday," he said as he kissed Jamie goodbye.
Ryan walked over to the love seat and flopped down with a groan as she said, "I thought I was tired at seven!"
"Let's get to bed, jailbait," Jamie said, tugging her to her feet.
"Jailbait is what they call a minor who sleeps with an adult, Babe," she informed her, chuckling a little at Jamie's faux pas.
"Nope. If you were in jail, I'd commit a crime just to get in there with you. You would definitely be jail bait!"
As they snuggled in bed, Jamie softly said, "I guess we should be good chaperones and just go to sleep, huh?"
"Yeah, we should. Besides, I've had enough exploration of my more intimate parts for one day," Ryan chuckled.
"What?" she exclaimed indignantly, abruptly sitting up.
"They booked me, Honey. Before they put you in a cell, they do a very thorough pat down."
"Somebody had their hands on you?" she whispered fiercely.
"Yep," she admitted. "It was not an experience I would like to revisit."
"You poor thing! They manhandled you!"
"It was a hell of a night," Ryan agreed, trying to stifle a yawn. "I guess monogamy isn't as restrictive as I thought, though," she chuckled. "I thought you'd be the last woman to touch me quite that intimately."
"Well, you'd better not have gotten aroused by her," Jamie whispered as she climbed on top of Ryan and touched noses.
"Honey, this woman was absolutely scary! If she had aroused me, I'd seek professional help!"
"Boy it makes my blood boil to think of those people roughing you up," Jamie sighed, rolling off her partner. "It just frightens me how easy it is to abuse power."
"Well, in their defense, it did look pretty incriminating. And since I'm so much in favor of cracking down on pedophiles, I guess I can't really complain."
"I can complain plenty," Jamie said. "And if I ever see the woman who put her hands on you, I'll give her a pop!"
"Honey, Mike Tyson would run from this woman. She looks like she eats nails for breakfast. She'd crush you like a grape."
"I would go up against a hydra to defend you, Sweetness. She doesn't scare me!"
"She'd scare you plenty if you saw her snapping a rubber glove onto those big mitts! I'm used to a more delicate touch," she teased, lifting Jamie's small hand and kissing each finger. "And just for the record, I'd be very happy if no other hands ever touched me again."
As a concession to Jamie, Ryan managed to remain in bed until eight o'clock, when she padded downstairs to rustle up breakfast. She was on her second helping of oatmeal when Jennie's sleepy face peeked into the kitchen. "Hi," she yawned as she shuffled in and sat down. "Got any more breakfast? I'm starved."
"Sure. You name it and I can make it for you," Ryan offered. "Breakfast is my specialty."
"Can you really cook?" Jennie asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I cook pretty well. Why, does that surprise you?"
"I don't know. You just seem like the type who would have people cooking for you."
Ryan smirked at her assessment, thinking it a little too accurate for her comfort. "Well, Jamie does most of the cooking," she admitted honestly, "but I can handle myself just fine, thank you. Now what will it be?"
"Can you make pancakes?" Jennie asked hopefully, not often meriting a hot breakfast at home.
"Absolutely. What do you want in them?"
"Uhh…syrup?" she asked, unsure of her choices.
"Don't you want to spice them up? I like mine with bananas and blueberries or pecans or chocolate chips."
"Really? You can do that?"
"Yes, Jennie, I can do that. Now, make a decision," she ordered as she started to mix the ingredients together.
"I'll have them the way you make them for yourself," she decided.
"Okay. Bananas and blueberries coming right up." She mixed the ingredients together and put a little butter on the griddle. Waiting until the butter was hot, she took a paper towel and wiped the pan until the butter was invisible. "Trick of the trade," she said with a wiggling eyebrow. "Too much butter makes the first pancake turn out flat."
"This is fun," Jennie said happily. "I wish I could live with you," she added wistfully.
Ryan gave her a crooked grin as she said, "I'd like that too."
Two minutes later the first pancake was ready, and Jennie dove into it like she hadn't eaten in days. "This is so totally fine," she said happily. "You really can cook!"
"I don't lie to you, Jennie," Ryan responded seriously. "And I hope you don't lie to me." She removed the pan from the heat and sat down next to the young woman. "Tell me what happened on Tuesday night."
"Umm, I went out with my friend Axel," she said simply.
"Why did you stay out all night?"
"His parents were gone, and we were just hangin' out. You know."
"What were you doing?" Ryan persisted.
"Nothing much," she said, still trying to evade the question.
"Jennie, tell me what you did that night. There's no reason for you to stay out all night if you weren't fucked up somehow."
She stared at her plate for a long moment as she tried to decide how honest she had to be. "We had some wine," she finally admitted.
"What else?" Ryan persisted.
"A little ganja."
"Anything else?"
"Huh-uh, that's it."
"How many times have we had the conversation about drinking and doing drugs, Jennie?" she asked, her eyes darkening.
"Um…a bunch?"
"A bunch sounds about right," Ryan agreed. "Has nothing I've said reached you, Jen? Do you understand why it's dangerous to do these things at your age?"
Her little bald head nodded, and she mumbled, " 'Cause my brain's not cooked yet."
"That's right," Ryan insisted, grasping her chin to force eye contact. "Your brain isn't fully mature, Jennie, and exposing it to drugs and alcohol can permanently impair its ability to form itself properly. I'm being totally honest with you here, Jen. I'm not just saying this because I disapprove of drugs and alcohol. It's truly dangerous at your age, and it can have lasting consequences." The child nodded again, her sweet, innocent-looking face making Ryan's heart clench with emotion. "What did you do all night?" she asked. "It doesn't take all evening to drink a little and smoke a little." Ryan's tone indicated that she thought "a little" might have been an inaccurate description of the girl's consumption.
"We were just playing around, you know."
"No, I don't know. I want you to tell me." There was something very evasive about the child's demeanor; she seemed almost embarrassed. Acting on a hunch, Ryan asked, "Did you have sex with your friend, Jennie?"
She laughed nervously, her eyes never leaving her empty plate. "He's gay, Ryan."
"Did you have sex with him?" Ryan asked again in a quiet but determined voice.
Her full lips were pressed together so hard that they were nearly invisible. "Not really…I mean…well, maybe…but just a little bit," she stuttered.
Ryan placed her hands on the wooden back of the chair. She easily moved it so that Jennie was facing her fully, then lowered her head just enough to be able to stare into the girl's eyes. "Tell me exactly what happened," she said gravely. "I want every detail."
A heavy sigh came from the small body, but she blinked slowly and began her tale. "We were a little high. Not that bad, but just enough. I've never really seen a guy, and he's never really seen a girl, and after a while we started undressing each other. It was kinda fun 'cause it was really different, you know?"
"I know," Ryan said, blinking slowly as she fought the nausea that was starting to build. "Go on."
"Well, when we were naked, I asked if I could touch him and he said okay. It was really weird but kinda cool, so I played with it for a while. He got hard and said he wanted to do it, but I was afraid. You know?" she asked with a childlike expression on her sweet face.
"I know," Ryan assured her as she placed her hand on the thin shoulder. "Go on, Jen, tell me the rest."