Warning

"Now Billie, since we didn't have a whole lot of time yesterday to talk, what's been new with you?" Billie Joe's mom asked as she sat down at the outside table with Billie Joe and Adrienne.

"Well, I've been working at a paper, which sucks. I found Adrienne, which was fucking awesome." He grinned at Adrienne. "And. . . I've been working on a book."

"Really?" Ollie's eyebrows hiked up in surprise. "What kind of book?"

"I, uh," Billie Joe shrugged as he struggled to put words to his vision. "I don't really know yet. It's kind of a work in progress whenever the characters want me to say something and whenever something I see when I go out to shows and stuff makes me thing of something for it. . . so. . . yeah." He scratched his nose. "And that's about it."

Ollie nodded her head and turned to Adrienne. "And you are the famous Adrienne I have heard so much and so little about the past decade. It's nice to finally meet you."

Adrienne grinned. "You too. You have quite a son."

"I know I do." Ollie gave Billie Joe a mysterious look. "Hello darlings." She called over their heads to Katrina and Anna's oldest daughter Jessie, who was also 11. They were both wearing swimsuits and were getting ready to jump in the pool.

"Hey Grandma." Jessie kissed Ollie's cheek.

"How do I look?" Katrina spun in her borrowed swimsuit for Billie Joe and Adrienne.

"It's cute. I like the print." Adrienne said.

"Where's the rest of it?" Billie Joe huffed. He did not like the fact that it was a bikini and he was seeing parts of Katrina he honestly didn't want to see.

"Aw, come on Uncle Billie." Jessie scratched the top of Billie Joe's head as she passed by. "It's not that bad."

"She's not the only one I'm talking to. Where's the rest of yours?" Billie Joe was not liking this series of events.

"Billie, baby, it's okay," Adrienne told him as she put her hand on his knee. "They're covered and they're not showing any boob or butt so they're fine. Stop acting like you've never seen a girl in a bikini before. Ooops, but Kat, I can see your birthmark on your hip." Adrienne had turned her attention to her daughter and moved the material to hide the small strawberry like mark on her hip.

Billie Joe's jaw had dropped. "It is not that. I just don't want to see my eleven year old niece and Katrina looking like they just got back from the casting call of Girls Gone Wild."

Jessie's eyes brightened. "Really? Awesome!" She jumped in the pool followed by Katrina.

"It's not awesome!" Billie Joe shouted at their submerged forms. "I don't like this."

"It'll be okay." Adrienne kissed him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I'm just glad Katrina found someone to interact with. She called Jessie her 'soul sister' and asked if she had a Myspace and everything."

"That's good." Billie Joe leaned his head on her head. "And I'm so glad Joey is acting like a brother to Jakob. If he didn't, I'd bury him. I really think I would."

Adrienne laughed. "Don't be mean or morbid. They're in there now playing video games. And Jakob is acting like Joey is God. Everything Joey does, Jakob wants to do."

"Sounds like they have a brotherly bond all ready," Ollie said from across the table, Billie Joe and Adrienne had quite forgotten she was there. She gave the couple a strange gaze before she gave one last look at the girls and went inside, leaving Billie Joe and Adrienne quite puzzled.

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"Katrina is spending the night with Jessie and the boys are at the movies with your mom. Oh, whatever shall we do?" Adrienne leaned up against the doorframe of the room she and Billie Joe were sharing.

Billie Joe, who had been laying on the bed, gave her a devilish smile. "I think I can think of something to do."

Adrienne giggled wickedly. "Really? Me too." She crawled onto the bed and on top of him. "Say it."

Billie Joe shook his head as he kissed her. "Uh uh."

"I wanna hear it." She pulled his shirt over his head.

"Uh uh."

"Uh huh." Adrienne kissed the hollow of his neck. "Please?" She moved her body on his and began to kiss the tattoo on his upper chest.

Billie Joe, losing his self control with every peck she laid on him, lifted her head up and pulled it close to his so he could whisper softly into her ear. "80, please keep taking me away."

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As Billie Joe slept and the moonlight danced across his features as he dreamt, Adrienne sat on the old desk with her cell phone to her ear. She was listening to all the messages David had left her. Each one was more hateful and harsh than the last.

"I will find you, you adulteress whore! Women like you used to be burned at the stake and I swear I'll do it to you! Just wait till I get my hands on you and our kids. Just you wait Adrienne. You're gonna get it!"

Tears were streaming down Adrienne's cheeks silently so she wouldn't wake Billie Joe. She shook her head as she listened to the next message about how Katrina and Jakob were going to pay for her mistakes. A quiet sob escaped her lips.

"Adie?"

Adrienne swirled around to face Billie Joe. He had one hand on her shoulder and the other holding on to the bed sheet he had wrapped around his waist. His light eyes were filled with concern at her tears as he moved his hand to her face to wipe away the tears.

Adrienne moved the phone away from her ear and Billie Joe could hear the manic ravings of David. In one quick, smooth movement he grabbed the phone and turned it off. "You don't have to listen to that."

"Billie," Adrienne's voice was barely above a whisper. "I'm scared. I'm so scared."

"Don't be." He wrapped his arms around her, his chin resting on the top of her head. "You have nothing to be scared of."

"Yes I do." Adrienne's tears were causing the skin on his shoulder to be damp, but it didn't matter.

"No," Billie Joe insisted firmly, "You don't. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."

They stood there for a few moments, just like that, man to woman in tender cradle. Billie Joe eventually led Adrienne back to the bed and laid down with her, still holding her tight in his arms. He hummed her song to her as her breathing became slow and deep and her eyes were sheltered from the world.

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It was boxed up. All of her favorite things while the rest was sold at a rainy yard sale. She had big plans and was leaving friends and a westbound sign weighed out her choices on a scale. Prevailing? Nothing made sense. Just transportation and a blank decision. She was taking off. There was no time and no copping out. She was burning daylight and petrol. She had blacked out the rearview mirror heading westward on. Strung out on confusion and ten minute nervous breakdowns along with Xanax and a beer for thought and she determined that she was taking off; only to be remembered as 'Whatsername.'

"Whatcha doing?"

Billie Joe removed his attention from his computer screen to find Katrina standing before him in the backyard. "Nothing," he said as he took his feet out of the extra chair. "Just working a little. What's up?"

Katrina just shrugged and sat down. "Nothing. Do we really have to go back tomorrow?"

Billie Joe gave a small laugh. It was the day after New Year's and time for them to return to Minneapolis in the morning, a task nobody wanted to partake in. "Yeah, I'm afraid so. Your mom and I have work and you guys have school, so, yeah, we do. I'm glad you had a good time though."

"Oh. I did," Katrina gushed. "It was almost like I was, like, finding myself you know?" She laughed and bent her head down. "It's weird I know. But it's true. Like, back home, I have my friends but we, like, you know, never really connected on that level."

Billie Joe said nothing but sat back and listened.

"And here, I feel that I can do something special instead of something ordinary. Me and Jessie, I don't know, I've only known her for a week or so but I feel more like I know her than someone I've been friends with since daycare." Katrina paused to scratch her nose. "I don't know. It's weird. Do I make sense."

"Yeah." Billie Joe murmured. "I know exactly what you mean." Mentally, he thought to himself that he needed to call Mike before the night was over.

Katrina was silent for a few moments. "I don't know. I just really like it out here and it's gonna suck to leave. I guess I'll go to bed now. Night Billie." Katrina crossed the table to give Billie Joe a hug and then departed into the house.

Billie Joe sat there for a moment and appreciated the silence of his hometown late at night. He typed a bit more before he stopped and sighed. Things were so different now than they were six months ago and completely different from the way they were eleven years ago.

He could faintly hear the laughter of Adrienne and Jakob in the house as she put him to bed, the soft light eventually going out in the room. Without realizing it, a smile had crept over his face.