(no subject)

"Just act normal." Bonnie says to the boys as she pulls up to the school. "Ain't nobody outside our family's business so don't go tellin' 'em."

"No fear." Stuart says, already more than a little relieved that Bonnie wears overalls to work and that the suspicious bulge only shows when she's wearing tighter clothes. Neither he nor Ted need that kind of attention right now.

Sure enough, the other students seem far more interested in seeing one another again than anything any teacher has been up to. Stuart and Ted linger back with one another, neither of them really having a close friend yet, as Bonnie heads towards the teacher's lounge. Suddenly, from behind, she feels the familiar backside slap from the sports coach.

"Put a little meat on your ass over the holiday Murdock?" Calhoun leers.

Bonnie swings around.

"Pretty sure I told you if you ever touch my ass again I'll have all the wheels off yer car." she snaps.

"What still?" Calhoun pouts.

"I got a better idea." Stuart pushes through the other kids who are starting to snigger. "You touch her ass again, and me and Ted'll break all your fingers."

"All right Stuart, thought appreciated but too far." Bonnie says, steering him away before the coach can give Stuart detention.

"Are you planning to extricate the wheels of his car?" Stuart asks.

"Yeah, got a class on tyre changin' this afternoon, whether we put them all back on again is another matter." Bonnie says. "Thanks Stuart but don't worry, I can handle him."

She heads towards the shop class. Stuart goes back to join Ted.

"You still worried if she'll adopt you?" Ted asks him.

"No." Stuart says. "She keeps her word. Quit bugging me about it."

"I just don't get why you want to not keep Dad's name, my name." Ted says quietly. "You liked Dad as much as I did before he died."

Stuart looks at the floor.

"I felt bad about that." he says. "But I don't want Mom or Jean to ever get custody of me ever again. For definite. Aunt Bonnie's the only one who ever believed in me. I want to be a Murdock."

"Yeah, well John's a Murdock too." Ted says, closing his locker. "Just remember that."

***

At the end of school Stuart has debate team practice, and Ted wants to head via the comic book store, so Bonnie takes the opportunity to make a trip across town she's also been dreading. Turtle needs the date of his divorce in order to get a marriage licence in the state of California, and although they now are pretty certain they want to marry in Vegas anyway, Bonnie wants there to be no doubt that their marriage is legal.

She parks outside and heads up the drive of a reasonably well-to-do house in the suburbs. Turtle had been doing pretty well right up until the divorce, when his wife Cassandra had taken him for everything he had. Which even at the time Bonnie had considered pretty unfair, given Cassandra was clearly the one who cheated*, and Turtle had done his best to rear the two children he knew almost certainly were not his.

She knocks on the door. At first there is no answer, then just as she's about to go, she notices the twitch of a curtain. She knocks again, and eventually Cassandra deigns to open the door.

"Hell you doin' here Red?" she asks, glowering.

"I need to talk to you, can I come in?" Bonnie asks.

"If you must." Cassandra glares but lets her in. "What do you want?"

"To talk. How are you keepin'?" Bonnie asks.

"Badly. You tell Turtle from me that he owes me alimony." Cassandra says.

Bonnie stops herself telling Cassandra to go and get a job like a normal person.

"That's what I came to talk to you about." she says calmly. "Turtle and I are engaged. And we really need the date of your divorce please, if you would, so we can get a licence."

Cassandra stares at her, then bursts out laughing.

"You think I'm goin' to give you what you need to get married?" she laughs cruelly. "Go to hell Murdock."

"Why not?" Bonnie asks. "You never wanted him, you were the one that initiated the divorce. Let me get him out your hair, and he'll be livin' with me so he'll be better able to afford your alimony."

"I never wanted him?" Cassandra almost spits. "Why do you think our marriage broke down? How was he ever supposed to make it work with me when he was in love with you?"

"I was never officially with Turtle before or when you two were married." Bonnie says. "It was just sex. You rode with us fer a while, you know what the biker life was like, practically all of us our age were bangin'. Until I got together with Bill."

"Yeah, you married Bill, and Turtle couldn't have you, so he married me." Cassandra snaps.

Bonnie stares at her. She's always known Cassandra was jealous whenever Turtle spoke to other women - it came up often while they were married - but she tries to think back to when they were young, whether Turtle really had been in love with her.

"I don't think he was in love with me." she says quietly. "I think he loved me because we went through a lot together, just like now."

"So why marry him now? What changed?" Cassandra demands.

Bonnie hesitates. She doesn't really want to tell Cassandra the real reason. But the other woman is watching her and her eyes are narrowing.

"We just decided it was the right time."

"No you didn't, you just said you're not in love with each other, and you're certainly not afraid of sex outside of marriage." Cassandra says. Suddenly, her mouth twists into a cruel smile, and she laughs, getting up and getting right in Bonnie's face.

"He's knocked you up? At your age? Look at the state of you, I'm surprised he'd even want to touch you."

Bonnie gets up. "Are you going to give me the date or not?"

"Go to hell." Cassandra shakes her head. "Get out of my house."

Bonnie doesn't stick around. Vegas it is, then.




[*Turtle had deduced this by the fact that he, a redhead, and she, a blonde, somehow managed to produce two sons with black hair and a rather Japanese appearance]