A Certain Time and Place

Chapter 5

**This chapter contains a flashback and description of domestic abuse and threatening words.  It could be a trigger for some readers***

After Blaine and Douglas finally left Friday night and Charlie went to bed,  I cleaned up the games and empty pizza boxes and took a long hot bath.

The truth was Dominic was never far from my thoughts.  I just kept in a special place in mind that was only for me.  If I let him out,  he would distract me and I would never have been able to be who I am today.  I would have never found the strength to fight John in court,  I wouldn't have finished school as a single mom and build my business to one of the most successful in northern California.   I knew he had gotten married not too long after Charlie was born.  I had thought of calling him or showing up on his door a million times after John.  He had been right about John.  I wanted to tell him I should have listened.  But when I heard he was happily married,  I put Dominic King in the box in my mind.  The most I let him out was when Charlie was ten.

We had move into a new house and Charlie came across a box of old photos.  A box the contained every photo of Dominic and I together ever taken.  Some of just him an some of him and Jensen and some of all three of us.  The Three Musketeers as Jensen nicknamed us.  Charlie had dropped the box and pictures went everywhere.   He had asked who the boys were so I spend the better part of the afternoon introducing him to my two best friends from high school including telling him of the pact and I thought he would forget all about it.  I was shocked when he brought it up. I should have known.  Charlie has always had the memory of an elephant.

And now Blaine knew and who knows what he would plan.  What if's filled my brain.  What if he doesn't even remember me?  What if he does but doesn't remember the pact?  What if he is married or with someone who makes him deliciously happy?  What if he doesn't care?

And then....what if he is thinking about me?  What if he is as lonely as I am?  What if he is planning on fulfilling his side of the pact?

I jumped out of bathtub now in a panic.  Even though there was a towel sitting right in the edge of the tub a scrambled around the bathroom to search for one.  Which made me slip on some water.  I landed right on my ass.  Humiliated even though no one saw me.  I stood up and started to grab the towel but caught my image in the mirror.  I really looked at myself.  I was about to turn 40.  And to my surprise.  I liked what I saw.  I was in great shape.  No extra anything anywhere.  My breasts were still were they should be.  My ass was tight high and round.  My legs were long and strong.  I had a few scars.  Battle Wounds.  Doctors had done an amazing job and you could barely see how bad they had once been. I looked at my face.  I knew where the scars were hidden but I didn't look 40.  I looked to be in my early to mid 30's.  Just last week someone asked Charlie if I was his sister.  He was embarrassed but I laughed the rest of the day about it. 

I wrapped the towel around me and went out into my bedroom to find something cozy to wear.  As I was changing, I noticed an envelope in the bottom of the drawer I gotten some fleece pants from.  I finished getting dressed and grabbed the envelope and walked over to my bed and sat down.  I grabbed my reading glasses from my nightstand.  Okay at least one thing on my body was definitely 40.  I put them on and opened the envelope.   I let out a gasp.

Why the fuck did I keep this?  Inside was a letter from John.  One I had used as evidence when we went to court.  It was the piece of evidence that got his parental rights taken away and helped put him prison,  where he still was. 

FLASHBACK 1998

"Please stop John!". I screamed.  My pleading did no good.  His fist slammed into the side of my head.  I tried to fight the dizziness and the light fading as I struggled to stay upright. Somehow I was able to get to the dining room table and find the voice recorder the domestic violence officer had given me and pressed record and hid it under some papers.