Sorry for the extreme absence - don't know if anyone is still interested in this story however I am planning to finish it, when I don't know but I will.

Chapter 11: Jack

Troy walked into the police station. He had made several telephone calls throughout the morning and had found out which prosecutor was assigned to the case and who the defence attorney was. On his way to the station he had given the prosecutor a call and the man was waiting for him when he got there. Sometimes it helped when you were a lawyer from a powerful firm that had branches all over the world. With a few phone calls he had found out more than an average person would have been able to do.

"Mr. Bolton," said a young powerful looking man coming over and shaking his hand. Troy had found out that this man was on the fast track of becoming the next district attorney and he didn't like to lose. Troy did not like that idea, he knew enough about trial law to know that his father might walk if he got a sympathetic jury. He was after all the legendary coach of the Wildcats, dedicated his life to rising the next generation. He had lost his wife to a drunk driver and in the view of these people had a moment of insanity and lost it. The case might not even go to trial and Troy was not going to let that happen.

"Mr. Jackson, I presume," he said shaking the man's hand. It was like he had guessed; the guy told him that his father might be out within a few weeks with a not guilty charge.

"You might want to get him some counselling when he gets out but he should be home in a few weeks."

"Mr. Jackson let me get something straight, are you implying that my father is going to walk away from this and that I should be happy about it?"

The man had been surprised that Troy did not rejoice at this particular piece of information, it was not surprising when Troy found out after a few moments that he had also been a student of Coach Bolton, before Troy's time. After a few moments he flat point asked Troy.

"Do you want your father to go to jail?"

Troy looked over at the man who probably had worshiped his father while he was in high school. "He put my sister in the hospital and no matter what my feelings for the situation are I would like justice to take place. I have decided to become a lawyer and I swore to up hold the law, I would have hoped that you would have had the same feelings and beliefs especially since you are a prosecutor." At this the man seemed a bit thrown off balance and Troy did not give him time to regroup. "If this was to go to trial and a guilty verdict came what would he get?"

Jesse Jackson was embarrassed enough to answer, "New Mexico has some of the harshest sentences against child abuse, he could get up to 25 years if the case was very harsh and he had a history of abusing someone. But you yourself know that this case is not, he does not have a history of abuse and if the case goes before a jury and a guilty verdict comes, he would likely get 8 to 10 years because of what he did to your sister."

After a moment of thought Troy asked, "what if he were to plead guilty, what would you offer him?"

"There is no reason why he would plead guilty. His attorney probably has just told you everything I have and more and he will not plead guilty," he repeated just to make himself be clear.

Troy was losing his patience with the man, "what if he were?" he asked very short and a hint of his anger could be heard in his voice.

Jesse Jackson hadn't come to the position of prosecutor at this young age because he was an idiot, he suddenly knew that Troy Bolton wasn't telling him everything and he wondered if things like these might have happened before. He also knew that many cases of child abuse never came to see the light of day. He had been born and raised in Albuquerque, he had been a Wildcat himself he also knew of Troy Bolton and his many achievements and if there had been a case of abuse in the past there would have been no way the Captain of the basketball team would have come forward. He knew if he himself were to be in the same position he would have not.

He had never before been easy on cases of child abuse cases no matter how mild they had been but after 13 years as a prosecutor he had found out that he was going to let a man go because he knew and admired him. Suddenly a man he admired and was thinking of getting out of this situation lost all formal glory in his eyes.

He answered truthfully, "because Mr. Bolton has no prior arrests and there is no history of child abuse and as he is an outstanding member of the community if he were to plead guilty I would offer him the lightest conviction given in these circumstances." He waited for a moment to see if Troy had a comment to make when there was no information fort coming he went on.

"That would be five years in a minimum security prison with a chance at parole at three because of the severity of this case." He waited to see if Troy Bolton would add anything and went on, "of course this is for the current situation however if you know of anything that would change the situation," he said prying a little.

At the question Troy looked up at the man. And no he did not have anything to add to the situation, he did however know what he was going to do. "Please call Mr. Wickham who is defending my father and offer him the deal."

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Jack Bolton walked into the visitor's room wondering who could possibly be seeing him. He had talked to his lawyer just that morning and he was told that his chances of walking were very high. They had worked out a battle plan; he was going to plead 'not guilty' to the charges tomorrow and he was likely to walk out here tomorrow because after the charges his lawyer was going to ask for bail and he was sure the judge would go easy on him.

He regretted losing control with Jess but he had suddenly been very angry and he couldn't even remember what had made him so angry. He wasn't even told how she was. He never knew what was happening and he remembered that Mel was there at one point but he had come to his senses when a police officer had dragged him away. Until that time it hadn't even been his daughters that he was with. He couldn't take it that Jess was smart mouthing off and it had just that Troy had never answered back to him and when he had thought of Troy he had remembered his first wife that had walked out on him – the bitch!

As he walked in the room he stopped in his tracks and froze in his place. He couldn't believe it, he was just thinking about him and never thought that he would never show up. But thinking over it, who else was going to come? Jack had no family. He was an only child and his parents had had him late and passed away when Troy was very little.

He suddenly found himself remembering a Christmas they had when everything had been going fine. Troy was about three and he had gotten his first real size basketball and they had gone outside to throw baskets. They had spent several hours outside with Troy learning to handle a real basketball. Troy had made his first basket with Jack lifting him up and making sure that he could reach the basket.

Jack was brought out of his musings when a cold and insincere voice asked, "something wrong?"

He looked at his eldest; he had no one to blame but himself for his sons' cold demur. "Sit down," came the unkind request from Troy.

He looked over his son, he looked well and healthy. Jack had no idea what to say to him. How did you say you were sorry in a situation like this? Especially under the current happenings, it was several years ago, six to be exact when he had realized that he had lost his son.

Of course he had known that he had lost the boy the moment he had announced that he was moving to New York half way through his senior year. There had been nothing he could have done, the boy had been over eighteen. Jack had not gotten him anything for his birthday or at least anything that he gave the boy. The special edition sports watch that he got the boy for his birthday still sat specifically engraved in his bedside drawer. He had never had the guts to hand it to his son.

He had noticed that the older the boy got, the more perfect he became because of his unforgiving behaviour, the further away his son went and it was six years ago when he woke up and noticed that his son would have turned twenty-one that day. It had been twenty-one days ago that in the morning they had handed him a beautiful blue eyed baby boy. It was one of the happiest days of his life but he had no one to blame for the loss but himself.

That morning he had gotten up and locked himself in the bathroom turned on the shower and the tap and cried. That day should have been him and his son enjoying his first alcoholic beverage together at a bar, a day of celebration that he had become a man. Jack also knew that there would never be anyway he could say he was sorry or anyway that they could ever have a relationship.

He looked into eyes just like his own however they were cold and filled with loathing as they looked onto him. He swallowed and took a seat across from his son in silence.

"You are going to call your lawyer and change your plea to guilty," stated his son calmly as he was commenting on the weather.

"What? No!" burst out Jack no matter how shocked he was, he was not!

"Quiet!" came the chilling comment, "let me tell you how this is going to happen Jack," said Troy and Jack's heart skipped a beat. He realized he did not remember his son calling him Dad. He had always called him 'sir' or 'coach,' when was the last time that he called him 'dad'?

"You will plead guilty and the district attorney will offer you five years in minimum security with a chance to parole at three."

Troy held up a hand silencing Jack who would have made a comment.

"Let me tell you what would happen if you do plead not guilty," said Troy and stared Jack right in the eye and went on, "your lawyer thinks you will get off because you are an upstanding member of the community," he said with a sneer, "they think you have no history of child abuse, that this was a moment of insanity."

"But Dad," he said emphasizing the 'dad' and Jack wished that he had not called him that even as he had wished for it moments before, "we both know that you might be an upstanding citizen but you are a low life scum who enjoys abusing his own children."

"That's not true!" Jack couldn't help but protest, "I have never laid a hand on either Jess or Mel..." he trailed off, "the other night was a mistake, I don't know what happened. But it won't happen again!" he said with conviction.

"Oh, so you just enjoyed hurting me than is that it?" asked his son and it was like someone had poured a bucket of ice water on him at the comment and he found himself effectively silenced.

After a moment Troy continued, "however you are right it won't ever happen again because you are not going to come near Mel and Jess for the reasonable future. After your jail time if they wish to see you then you can pursue a relationship with them."

"I am not going to plead guilty," said Jack. This was a mistake when he got out of here he would prove it to his daughters.

"Yes, you are," hissed his son and Jack was reminded of a rattle snake, a very very dangerous and poisonous rattle snake that was shaking it rattle letting you know that it will strike. "Because if you do not, I will make sure that this case will go to trail and that every single person in this town will know what kind of a father you are."

Troy let that sink in for a moment, "I might have thought what you were doing was just when I was a child however I do know once the jury finds out how you made your son a super star I am sure they will return with a guilty verdict. And do you know that you might even get up to 25 years in jail for this."

He waited for a breath before going on, "personally I would love to see you go to jail for the next 25 years and your upstanding reputation get dragged through the mud."

Jack found a bit of his voice back, "it would be your say against mine," he said not with real conviction.

"You think the jury would choose you over me? Why would I have any reason to lie? I am a very successful lawyer from New York, why would I come back to this place and place myself on the stand against my loving father," he said sarcastically.

"And further more your reputation will be ruined no matter which way the verdict goes," he stated.

"I made you!" hissed Jack finally getting angry.

"Yes you did," said his son really calm, "because of you I became a state champion basketball player and even went to Harvard due to my academic record and not sports but let's see if the jury agrees with your methods of motivation."

Troy had enough, Jack was anything but stupid he should understand what was at stake or at least call his lawyer to ask about his options now. He got up signalling that this meeting was over.

"I would change my plea if I were you," he said looking down his father, "after all when I set my mind to it I have been classically conditioned never to lose at anything in my life and if you go up against me you will find out just how effective your methods have been. Because Dad I don't lose. I can't lose." With that he turned around and started to leave.

He stopped in his tracks when he heard a soft, "Troy." He did not turn back around.

"My office," started Jack but stopped in his tracks when he saw that Troy's shoulders tense up. How many times he had said that to his son for it turn rather unpleasant for Troy? "My desk, third drawer on the right hand side," he said.

Troy waited for a millisecond more to see if the bastard would say anything else when nothing else was forthcoming he walked out the door. Hoping against all hope that Jack for the first time in his life would do the right thing and change his plea.