In the Rose Garden

Stella lifted two fingerprints from the blue Catholic Prayer Book and put them through AFIS. One print matched the victim, Trina, while the other print came back unknown since the prints were not on file. Stella looked up in thought and realized just who the print more than likely belonged to. Now it was time to pay a visit to the priest.

Joe walked into his bedroom to find Addison deeply invested in an episode of CSI: NY she's seen many times before. She could tell anyone who asked about the basics of the cases: the victims, the suspects, and the final whodunit. Joe set the Starbucks java chip frappuccino on the side table and sat next to her on the other side of the bed. He knew not to say anything because one thing you didn't do was talk during CSI: NY. He finally realized that after the thousandth time she's told him to hush while watching an episode. Finally after a few more minutes, the episode ended and Jerry Bruckheimer's name appeared on the screen.

"Hey, babe," Joe said as the credits started to roll.

Addison stretched and looked over at Joe. "Hey, thanks for the coffee."

"No problem," Joe responded as he looked at the television screen. The episode menu popped up.

"I'll spare you," Addison said and laughed, "for now anyway."

"If you want to keep watching, by all means, don't let me stop you. If you want to continue to stare at the dude with the hair then keep on keeping on."

"No really, it's all right. Besides, you ask too many obvious questions and Eddie Cahill may be something but I think I prefer Eric Szmanda a little more."

"I hope you prefer me over all of them…"

"Maybe but I'm not sure." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh! You're such a tease."

Addison took a sip of her iced coffee and said, "If you say so, Jonas."

Joe leaned over and kissed her forehead. Addison climbed off the bed and pulled her CSI DVD out of the DVD player and put it away in its case. She left the complete season sitting on the dresser and sat back on the bed across from Joe.

"So, are you glad that the recording of your demo is finally over?" Joe asked.

"Yes, I mean, I'll be all right if I never sing those songs again."

"Don't say that because next comes a little show here and there. You know, an acoustic show here, opening for a Jonas Brothers show there…"

"Yeah, I don't think so."

"We'll just see about that."

"Okay, Nick Jonas!"

Joe's face contorted to a look of shock and he acted appalled. "Well I never!"

"Sure, you don't," she said as she moved across the bed and into Joe's arms. Joe wrapped his arms around her and they sat in silence for a moment.

"I love you."

"I love you, too," she responded just before there was a knock at the door. She and Joe stood up and he opened the door. Mrs. Jonas stepped in.

"Your father and I are going out tonight and we're taking Frankie with us. We were just wondering if you two would care to join us."

"Oh, we can't," said Joe. "Addison and I have that thing tonight."

"What thing?" Joe's mother and girlfriend questioned in unison and then shouted, "Jinx! Double jinx!"

"If you stop, I'll buy you both a soda," Joe said in an attempt to stop them. The two women just shrugged their shoulders and nodded their heads. "But yeah, we have plans tonight and we're leaving around six and I have no clue when we'll be back."

"This isn't going to be a repeat of the last time you two went out, is it?" Mrs. Jonas asked.

"Don't worry, Mom. I don't have any more rings hidden up my sleeves."

"All right, good," she said and stepped out of the room. Addison turned to Joe and crossed her arms over her chest.

"So you're making plans for me now without telling me?"

Joe approached her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Awe babe, they're plans you're going to like. Trust me on this."

"I shall trust you this time. What time is it anyway?" Joe checked his watch and they still had some time to kill. Addison put her CSI: NY disc back in and was able to get one last episode in before they left.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Addison adjusted the seatbelt in the passenger seat of Joe's Range Rover. They left the Jonas residence at least twenty-five minutes ago and she jokingly asked Joe every five minutes if they were there yet. His answer was always "Not quite yet." Whenever she asked him where they were going, he always responded with "You'll see."

Addison stared out the window as they drove past other cars on the freeway. She was lost in her thoughts when she received a text message. She pulled it out of her purse and looked at it. It was a text from Lily. Addison wasn't sure if she was ready for this yet. Three weeks ago was the last time they talked when Lily apologized.

"Maybe you should try talking to her and see what she has to say," Joe suggested. When he glanced over at her, he knew by the look on her face that it had to have been something to do with Lily. He knew all about the problems they were having and he never objected to being Addison's sounding board when it came to Lily. He not only was the sounding board for Addison but he was also the sounding board for Garbo who was going through the same thing with Lily. So Joe had both sides of the story and he felt that they should get over the misunderstanding and kiss and make up already. He had no problems with Kissy; Kissy was being a great friend to them but she was simply wasn't Lily.

Addison pressed a button to open the text message and read it. 'Are you busy tonight?'

"She wants to know if I'm busy tonight for some reason," Addison said. She replied with 'Yes, Joe and I are going out of town for the night and probably won't be back until really late.' Before she sent it, she quickly added in 'Why?' She flipped her phone upside down so she couldn't see the screen.

"I'm sure she probably just wants to hang out with you and talk," Joe said as he glanced in his rearview mirror before switching lanes.

Addison turned her body towards Joe and looked at him for a long moment before asking, "Is there something you know that I don't?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know; Garbo's your best friend, not mine."

"Garbo hasn't said anything to me about Lily. Well… nothing that would be of use to you anyway."

"So he does talk to you about her?" she asked in an accusatory tone of voice.

Joe let out an irritated sigh and said, "What are you trying to do? What do you want me to say? Do you want to me to tell you not to give her a second shot? Well guess what? I'm not going to say that. As a matter of fact, I'm done talking about Lily altogether."

Addison sighed and rolled her eyes as she sat back. She flipped her phone back over when Lily finally responded.

'Oh. Call me tomorrow then so we can talk.'

Addison shoved the phone in her purse and set it on the floor. She leaned her head back and went back to staring out the window.

After another ten minutes, Joe parked in the Plex parking lot and got out to help Addison out of the Range Rover. Whenever she was with him, he normally took the sedan but it was in the shop so she was stuck riding in his other vehicle. Addison shut the glove compartment as Joe opened her door and held his hand out to her. She took it and climbed out.

"Why are we here at the Plex?" she asked.

"Matt Nathanson is playing a secret show," he responded.

"Wait, did you say Matt Nathanson?"

"Yes."

"Joe, I love that man!"

"I know, why do you think we're here?"

"Dude, you're amazing."

Joe nodded his head and smugly said, "Yeah, I can be at times." He took her hand and they headed into the Plex.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

The former lead singer of the Click Five, Eric Dill, opened the show and played for an hour. Once his set was done, they took half an hour to forty-five minutes to switch out his bands' instruments with Matt Nathanson's and then he started his set and played for an hour and forty-five minutes. In between songs, he talked with the audience and shared stories like the time he split his pants in St. Louis and just joked around with everyone.

Joe and Addison stood back as people started to clear out when the show was over. She leaned over to Joe and said, "That was totally amazing."

"Good. I'm glad you enjoyed it," he responded. He took her hand and led her over to some guy with a black security shirt on. Joe showed him something he dug out of his pocket and the guy let them through the door.

"Where are we going?" Addison asked.

"To meet him," he casually responded.

"What! Are you serious? Why do you say it like it's an everyday thing?"

"It's just one of the perks of being Joe Jonas from the Jonas Brothers I guess." They quickly found the room Matt Nathanson was in and someone let them in. Addison hid behind Joe as they approached him and he stood up. They exchanged hellos and then Joe pushed Addison in front of him.

"She's the real reason we're here though," Joe said to Matt.

"Oh. My. God! I love you," Addison blurted out and then covered her mouth. "Sorry, I didn't mean to go all fan-girl on you. It's just that I think you're amazing. You're the reason why I write songs and play guitar and I don't even want to be a performer."

"Thanks, that's pretty awesome. I'm glad I could inspire one person at least," Matt responded.

"You have no idea," Joe said which made him and Matt laugh. They spent at least fifteen minutes with Matt before his personal assistant came in and said that they needed to get him to the hotel for the night. By the time Joe and Addison were in the car, it was going on midnight.

"Thanks for tonight, Joe. That was extremely awesome," Addison said as he started the car.

Joe leaned over and kissed her. "You only make me happy every day of my life, it's the least I could do. So instead of going straight home, we're going to check into a hotel for the night. I'm kind of beat."

"Whatever works for you," Addison said and shrugged her shoulders.

They drove for at least ten minutes before they got back onto the main road and Joe quickly found a hotel. He parked in front of the office doors and told Addison he'd be right back. He wanted to make sure they had rooms available first before he made her get out of the car and everything. He ran back out a few minutes later and parked the car somewhere else. He helped Addison out before going into the backseat and grabbing an overnight bag.

"How'd you know we'd need that?" Addison asked.

"Hunch," Joe responded as he took her hand. They went inside the hotel. Addison noticed the girl behind the desk was staring at Joe as they walked past. It was a look of lust and desire that Addison hasn't even given Joe yet. Without thinking about it, Addison pulled her hand out of Joe's and put her arm around his waist and pulled him against her. Joe glanced out the corner of his eye at Addison and smirked.

As soon as they were in the elevator, Joe asked, "Jealous much?"

"What? Did you see how she was staring at you? It was like she wanted to rip your clothes off and have her way with you. As your girlfriend, I don't fucking think so."

Joe laughed. "I wouldn't let her do that anyway. That's something that's reserved for you when the time comes."

"That's quite a way's away though."

"You never know," he said and looked at her. Addison didn't respond as they arrived on the sixth floor where their room was. Joe used the keycard to open the door and he let his girlfriend in first. He set the overnight bag down by the bedroom doors and tossed his jacket on the couch before going in search of the bathroom. Addison sat on the bed and looked around for a moment. She took her phone out of her purse and looked at the time. It was only 12:20. Joe came back a minute later and sat next to her before falling back on the bed.

"Come here," he said as he reached over and touched her back. She laid next to him and put a hand on his stomach. "You're so beautiful."

"Naturally," she responded.

He moved so he was now resting on his elbow. "I love you, Addison."

"I love you, too," she said as he climbed on top of her.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Addison grabbed a hair tie out of her purse and walked into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, she gathered her hair into a ponytail and pulled the hair tie through it. Just when she finished, Joe stepped in behind her.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Fine-tuning my plot to gain world domination," she said as she turned to face him. He lifted her up onto the counter and started to unbutton his red flannel shirt that she was wearing.

"Is that so?" He undid the fourth button and she stopped him.

"What are you doing, Mr. Jonas?"

"Apparently not getting far," he responded.

"We didn't get far last night, no reason to think we will this morning," she said as she took the shirt from him. She kissed him and then told him to leave the bathroom so she could take a shower and he could have it after her.

"Okay," he said feigning disappointment and walked out of the bathroom.

After thirty minutes, they were both ready to go and were headed back down to the lobby. When they got there, they saw the same girl from the night before. Someone else was also behind the desk so she was getting off shift.

"We'll be right with you," the other person said and went back to what they were doing. Once again, the girl felt the need to stare at Joe with a suggestive look. This time, it was Joe's turn. Joe wrapped his arms around Addison and laid one on her and didn't hold back on the passion. The girl finally looked away.

"Score one for Jonas," he whispered as he let his girlfriend go. The other person sent the girl over to take care of them. She asked them if everything was all right and checked them out. They got back into Joe's car and went home.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆ ⋆

"She's right you know. We are always together. You sleep here more than you do at your dad's. You practically live here," Joe said.

"Really Joe, seriously!" Addison paced the room. The conversation they were having had somehow turned to Lily and Joe was basically taking Lily's side as Addison saw it. She stopped abruptly and turned to Joe. "I might as well go then since you too think I apparently spend too much time with you." She turned to head out the door.

"Addison! I didn't say that!" He followed her downstairs.

"You didn't say that? Really Joseph? Yes you did! You said that she's right therefore you said it too."

"Addison!" he shouted as she walked out the door. Addison pulled her sunglasses out of her bag as she headed for her car which was parked by the curb. Across the street, someone started snapping photos of her and she had to restrain herself from giving them the finger. She knew that would be worse for Joe's image than her own. She may be mad at Joe but she still loved him.

Inside, Kevin put his arm around Joe's shoulders. "First fight, huh?"

"Yeah," Joe mumbled.

"Welcome to the party." Joe just sighed and continued to stare at the front door.