Chapter Twelve → We could have everything but all we got is heart ache and pain

Joanna quickly made herself home at the Talliway place, polite and courteous, she helped with the chores and fixed things when they broke, usually due to Suzanna, really, that child had the worst luck when it came to things. Although the fact that Joanna liked to spend a lot of her time in her underwear did grate on Cherie's nerves a little.

"I would really prefer it if you were slightly more.... 'put together' when wandering around the house." Cherie said one morning to the house guest, she did her best not to let it show but Cherie actually didn't approve of Joanna very much. She knew what went on at Haven, she'd busted the place a few times herself back when she was a rookie cop. 

"You don't want me walking around in my panties anymore, right?" Joe asked, sounding like she didn't really like where the conversation was heading.

"My teenage daughter still lives here and while i know you and Zane are.... friends, i still would like it if you wore clothes while you waltz around the place like you own it."

Joanna made a teeth sucking noise. "If you want me to leave, just say."

"Oh, don't worry, i will." Cherie said before she turned to walk away, leaving Joanna alone in front of the house.

Joanna wore a blank look on her face quite a bit, people rarely spoke about it, but it worried Zane. He knew she had been through some horrible things, things she refused to talk about and that they had left her scarred, in more ways than one. He sometimes wondered about her hollow tone and her listless stares, how she would spend moments just tuned out, seeming to see something beyond the realm of the normal, the living.

Late one night, Joanna headed into Zane's room opposed to her own, the woman flopping on his bed like it was her own. "Long night?" He started.

"You have no damn idea buddy." She said with a sigh, pushing herself up on his pillows with her elbows. 

"Work?"

"Something like that." She said vaguely.

"Joe, i know what you do." He said, deciding that it was better to just put it out in the open because the song and dance was getting tiring.

"Lemme guess, you're ma told ya?" The brunette sighed.

"I'm not exactly stupid."

"So it was your ma?"

"Yeah." Zane admitted with a nod.

"Listen, you can just forget the fucking speech, cause i ain't gonna listen to ya."

"I don't have a speech Joanna." Zane said with a chuckle. 

"You don't?"

"No, it's your life, you're entitled to live it the way you want. If you want to do what you do, then that's none of my business. Just so long as it is what you want, if someone's forcing you -"

"No one's forcing me to do shit." Joanna cut in. "If i didn't wanna do what i do, i wouldn't do it. I don't hook cause i hate myself or because daddy never loved me or whatever else daytime soap opera bull you've got running through that pretty golden head of yours." Zane just smirked. "I do what i do because i'm good at it, damn good at it."

"Really?" Zane arched an eyebrow.

"I ain't never had any complaints." She said with a smirk and a suggestive leer.

"Uh.." Zane chuckled. "I dunno."

"I'm clean if that's what you're worried about."

"Well, that's good to know, just, I...." He trailed.

"You're a virgin aren't you?" Joanna laughed, although she wasn't laughing at him more that the idea of someone who looked like he did hadn't been jumped yet. "You bent?" She asked, ever the wordsmith she was.

"No." Zane chuckled. "I guess i just haven't, i dunno, found the ri-"

"Stop right there, no such thing as the 'right girl'." Joanna said before she rolled over so she could crawl onto his lap. "Lemme prove it."

The next morning while Cherie was out getting the morning paper she was surprised to run into a familiar face. "Cora! Look at you, you look fabulous." The elder woman said to the young redhead who was walking up the path.

"Thanks Mrs. T." The younger woman said, giving Cherie a friendly hug.

"How's the big city treating you?" She asked.

"Meh, Bridgeport was, well, crazy. I really missed it here, so after i finished up with some pre-med stuff, i figured i'd come back here."

"Going to be a doctor are you? That's great." Cherie said with approving pat on the girl's shoulder.

The younger just chuckle, pausing when Joanna went running past the with a quick 'bye!' to Cherie. "I was... uh, looking for Zane. Was that Joanna Nuzoka?" She asked rather randomly, motioning to the car leaving with the woman in question behind the wheel.

"Yes." Cherie sighed. "She's staying here for a while it seems." Cora just nodded, looking slightly worried. "As for Zane, he's at work right now, but i'll tell him you stopped by." Cherie said. "Thanks." 

Life carried on for a while like normal, Zane working at the science facility, usually grabbing lunch with Cora who was doing her internship at the local hospital. Cherie and Kinsley still worked, although less and less since time was quickly causing them to slow down. Suzanna was about to graduate, so her mind was pretty jumbled with books and marks. As for Joanna, well she did what she did best. Even helped Jarrod keep the cops off their tails, for a price of course.

A lot of things seemed to come with a price.

So it was off to the hospital, for some medical advice.

On day after work, Zane was surprised when Cora showed up at the door, looking less than pleased. "Can we talk?" She asked before brushing past her friend and into the house, not waiting for an invite.

"Uh, yeah, sure." He said, watching her as she sat at the dinner table. "Want a coffee?"

"No, listen, Zane, I... What's going on with you and Joanna?"

"Going on? Nothing, i mean, i don't think anything is going on, why?"

Cora sighs. "I could lose my job for telling you this, but i know you won't tell your mother or anyone else who could do that."

"Right." Zane with a little nod.

"Last night Joanna came into the clinic for some advice and a bit of treatment."

"Okay?"

"She needed penicillin." Zane just nodded, giving the woman an expectant look. "Penicillin Zane! God!" Cora huffed, rolling her eyes. "She's got an STD, so, whatever you do, don't.... put it in her again!"

Zane gave Cora a look before calming. "Okay, first, don't say it like that. And secondly, how the hell did you even find out."

"Because she's pregnant, everyone knows it." Zane was shocked. "You didn't know? She's been pregnant for months Zane, rumor is it's yours."

"Wait, rumor? Hold on." He got up, stopping the woman before she could head to the door. "What rumors?"

"That you took the hooker in, are sleeping with her and now have your own little mistake on the way." Cora said tersely.

"I didn't...."

"They're true aren't they?" Cora asked, sounding sad. When Zane didn't answer, mostly because he didn't know how to answer, the woman just gave a little nod. "Yeah, that was enough." She said, meaning his non-response.  "I've gotta go." And with that she was gone, the door slamming behind her, leaving Zane in what he sure was a heap of trouble although he wasn't entirely sure why.

Chapter Notes:

Okay, so i've been having massive issues with my game and computer the last little bit and it's driving me nuts. First my active lots house started acting like a public lot, meaning, it would fade away if i zoomed the camera in too close, the walls refusing to go down which made working with my characters impossible. Then last night  my game glitched out while i was trying to move a then adult Suzanna out, was 'processing' for hours, had to finally restart it meaning i lost a wedding, a birth, all sorts of stuff. But i got pictures of it all and i will still use them in the story while i attempt to get my characters back to where they were when the game crashed. In case you hadn't figured out, Cora will be Zane's 'second chance'. She's an NPC child from Sunset Valley that i sorta fell in love with many many games ago, she's the paper girl, normally in a white shirt with a rainbow on it. So yes, she did actually go to school with Zane just never seen before. What always drew me to her was her odd red hair color with her dark skin, it's beautiful on her. Although i gotta fix her boobs, the game likes to go crazy with the body sliders sometimes lol, when she stands in profile she looks like she has a shelf on her chest.

I rolled for my third generation and got Couple, three kids, primary job is Journalism and the secondary is Artist. The generation goal is change of scenery and the mis fun i originally rolled was 'living in the past' but i re-rolled and got tattoo addict. No, i'm not cheating, there is a very good reason for this. I've tried the 'living in the past' type of game play before with tribal games, while hard, not impossible. But i have an extreme issue with fire, it's a personal reason that's a long story involving house fires, my childhood and death that i honestly don't feel like getting into right now. But i do not put fireplaces into ANY of my sims houses and if it's a pre-made house with one it in, i remove it. Never any fire pits, i don't even like the sculpting and inventing benches very much because of how often the sims will set themselves on fire. The stove fires happen very rarely on my lots because i always have one sim who has a high enough handiness to make them fire proof, after the one fire that happened in generation one, i made the stove fire proof. I even have a mod to make the meteor strikes happen less, like i said, watching the sims slowly burn to death is not something i'm willing to do. So, the firefighting career and 'living in the past' fun will be things i will not be doing and will re-roll. If this makes me a cheater so be it, but that doesn't mean i'm going to stop the legacy because i like it.

Oh and btw, the day Joanna found out she was pregnant she really did get an STD, the prostitution mod allows the working girls/guys to get STD's. I was surprised it took her so long to get one, she's quite the workaholic.