Cory & Shawn's Miracle Soap: Conclusion

Cory sighed heavily as he raked leaves into a pile on the football field of John Adams High. He still had ten yards left to go, plus bagging the leaves and taking them to the trash. If that wasn't bad enough, it was a record hot October day.

He paused for a rest and leaned on the handle of the rake for support. He could see Shawn in the distance carrying several large trash bags to the dumpster. Shawn had a discouraged look on his face; similar to the one he had when his dad first left. Cory scratched his head. Shawn had been abnormally quiet since Miss Andrews left for New York and Cory wasn't sure why. His friend had been in no mood to discuss it when Cory tried to ask about it that morning. In time, he knew, Shawn would talk to him. Until then, Cory wished he could do something to make Shawn feel better.

A call from his dad would help, Cory thought. A surge of anger towards Chet Hunter swelled inside of him. Surely the man could have found a pay phone and called. So what if he didn't have the change for it? Mr. Turner wouldn't mind taking a collect call.

"Hey, kid!" Cory spun around, startled by the shout. Janitor Bud stood of the edge of the field. "This ain't no break time. Get back to work."

Cory sighed again and went back to his raking.

_______________________________________________________________________________

"Why do you have to bring this up every time we get together?" Jon pulled away from Katherine and got off the couch.

"Because," she said defensively. "I want a commitment from you."

"But marriage?" He paced the area by the front door. "Do you know what you're asking?"

This time Katherine jumped up in a huff. "Yes, Jonathan, I do actually. Why do you think marriage is so terrible, huh?"

"I never said that!" he snapped irritably. "Don't put words in my mouth. I'm just not ready to get married."

Katherine gave a irritated grunt. She didn't want to fight with him, but this was important to her and his resistance was frustrating.

"As long as we've been dating and you don't feel any inclination to get married?"

"First of all," Jon stopped his pacing and faced her. "A few months is not a long time. And secondly, maybe I don't feel any inclination to get married because you keep pressuring me!"

"Don't you love me?"

Jon felt a headache coming on. He put his hand to his forehead and tried to pull himself together. He had no desire to argue with Katherine, but this was getting to be too much for him to handle. Every time she came over lately, they ended up in the same argument that always ended the same way- with someone angrily storming out.

"We've been over this, Kat," he said tiredly.

"And you've never given me a straight answer," she shot back.

He sighed. That much was true. He supposed he owed her an honest answer.

"I don't know," he admitted, sounding defeated.

The hurt in her eyes bothered him.

"I care about you, Kat, I really do. But I just can't tell what you want hear right now."

Katherine nodded. "Will you ever?" Her chin began to quiver; she was close to tears.

"Yes," he said immediately. "Probably. I just...I need time, okay? Shawn's about all I can deal with right now. He comes first."

Katherine pursed her lips together. "Yes, I know."

"Don't say it that way, Kat. He needs me."

Katherine looked at him sharply. "So do I."

She was angry again; Jon could see it in her eyes.

"Then tell me what to do," he said, sitting down on the arm of the couch. She stared at him. "Do you really want me to marry you now?"

She frowned at him. "Of course, I do."

"Then just let me ask you this," he said. "Do you want me to marry you because you've pressured me into it or would you rather it be because I love you?"

"You know the answer to that," she replied quietly.

"Then give me some time."

The phone rang three times before Shawn finally answered it.

"Hello?" he said sleepily. He had just gotten home from detention.

"May I speak to Shawn Hunter?"

"Audrey!" he cried excitedly. He was fully awake now.

"Hey, bud. What's up?"

"Nothing. I just got back from school." Shawn pulled a kitchen stool over to the phone so he could sit down. "Feeny worked me and Cory like dogs."

Audrey laughed. "Poor babies."

"You're telling me!" Shawn couldn't believe that she'd actually called. "You wanna talk to Jon?"

"I called to talk to you."

"Yeah? Cool! So how's New York?"

"It's cold," she said. "They're expecting snow by Monday night. I'm glad I'll be back in town tomorrow night."

"You don't think you'll get stuck there, do you?"

"Nah," she said lightly. "Weather report is predicting snow after midnight. I'll be back long before that."

"Good," Shawn breathed a sigh of relief.

"So what have I been missing so far?"

Shawn fill her in on the details of his and Cory's punishment duty and his plans for the rest of the day. He left off mentioning that Miss Tompkins had been over earlier.

In return, Audrey told him about her dance sessions at the American Ballet Company. One class she was about to be late for.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk to Jon?" Shawn asked again. "He ought be back in a few minutes."

"No," Audrey assured him. "I'll call back after class and talk to him."

"Okay, I'll tell him you called. Thanks for calling, Audrey."

" No prob, bud. I miss you, you know."

Audrey couldn't see Shawn's face light up, but she could hear it in his voice. "Yeah? I miss you too."

They said their good-byes and Shawn hung up the phone. He felt much better.

Shawn grabbed the TV remote and flopped down on the couch, but he couldn't concentrate on any of the programs. Audrey said she would call and she did. Just to talk to him. Just to tell him that she missed him. Shawn smiled. If Audrey could do that, then why couldn't his dad?

The front door opened. Jon was back from taking Katherine home. He looked stressed and not particularly happy.

Shawn sat up when he heard his guardian come in.

"Hey, Jon," he grinned.

Jon gave him a funny look. He noticed the drastic change in Shawn's attitude. That morning, the boy had been in a rotten mood.

I wonder if his dad called, he thought. Somehow he doubted it.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked.

Shawn shrugged and laid back down on the couch. "Audrey called."

"Oh?" Jon moved Shawn's feet so that he could sit on the couch. "What'd she call about."

Shawn smiled at the television. "To tell me she missed me."

You're a saint, Audrey, Jon thought.

"She say anything about me?"

"Nope," Shawn didn't take his eyes off of the screen. "She was going to be late for class so she said she'd call back later to talk to you."

Jon smiled to himself. Audrey had a knack for cheering Shawn up.

"Shawn?"

"Hmm"

"Isn't there something else on beside Bugs Bunny?"

Sunday:

"I don't see her!" Shawn was standing on his toes, trying to see over the crowd that had just disembarked.

Jon grabbed Shawn's jacket to keep him from falling over. "She probably hasn't gotten off yet. Be patient."

Shawn stood back on flat feet, shifting impatiently from one foot to another.

It seemed like a thousand people passed them before he saw the redhead.

"Audrey!" Shawn rushed to meet her.

He nearly knocked her down with his bear hug. She laughed and hugged him back. For good luck, she ruffled his hair.

"You and Cory haven't tried to sell anything else while I was gone, have you?" she teased him.

Shawn grinned. "Nope. Not yet."

"Don't even joke like that," Jon said. He greeted his student teacher with a hug as well, surprised by just how much he had missed her.

"Have a good trip?" he asked as they went to baggage claim to pick up Audrey's luggage.

"Uh, huh." Audrey brushed her hair out of her eyes. "It was rushed but I loved every second of it. It felt fantastic to be back at ABC."

The trip back went by quick. They had barely gotten in the door of Jon's apartment when Shawn asked, "What'd ya bring me?"

Audrey laughed and Jon rolled his eyes. "My, what impressive manners you have," he told Shawn.

"Actually," Audrey said, taking a large plastic bag out of her duffle bag. "This is for you."

"Cool! You're the best!"

Shawn immediately started going through his sack.

"Oh," Audrey said to Jon. "I got something for you, too."

Jon looked pleasantly surprised. "You didn't have to do that."

"I know," she said and pointed to large rectangular parcel wrapped in brown paper. " But you mentioned that you were looking for it and I found it at a little shop on it Fifth Avenue."

Jon couldn't recall mentioning anything of that nature to Audrey.

"Cool!" Shawn cried. "Check out all the bags of peanuts. Look at the barf bags!"

"I'd rather not," Jon shook his head and smiled as he lifted the package onto the kitchen table.

"You got the shirts, too!" Shawn pulled his "I love NY" shirt on over the other two shirts he was wearing. He dug in the bag a little further. "There's four shirts." He held up another white one and two black shirts.

Audrey turned to him. "I thought you and Cory might like a little variety."

"Thanks."

"Oh, Audrey." Jon held up her gift, thoroughly overwhelmed. It was a large, black-framed painting of the New York skyline after dark. "This is exactly the one I was looking for."

Audrey grinned.

"Jon, look." Shawn held up a large snow globe. Inside of the globe, was a magnificent Statue of Liberty standing proudly on an island. He turned it upside down and saw a little knob. He turned it several times and was rewarded by hearing it play "The Star-Spangled Banner". His grin lit all corners of his face. "Jon," he said again. "She brought me Ellis Island!"