The following night

It's 6:59pm, Stacey and Lisa are standing outside Neil's office. His secretary Liz, ushers them in.

"Where's your cousin?" Neil asks, looking directly at Stacey.

She hesitates and stammers, "Um."

Shane walks in.

"She's been punished enough, Neil, so I'm here in her place." His tone and posture dare Neil to challenge him.

"Well, that's not really your call now, Admiral. Is it?" Neil glares at Shane.

The two rams have locked horns.

"Girls, ask Mrs. Curtis to take you to the cafeteria where you can sit and have a soda. I need to have a few moments alone with your guardian."

Although they're curious to see how things play out, Lisa and Stacey are more than happy to leave, knowing it means delaying their punishment.

"Have a seat, Admiral Donovan, and plead your case." Neil unbuttons his suit coat and takes a seat behind his desk while motioning for Shane to sit across from him.

After taking a seat, Shane replies, "Paddling her on top of the belting..."

Neil interrupts, "Beating."

Shane bites his tongue and breathes in deeply through his nostrils to keep from losing his temper and telling Neil off. He continues as if Neil never interrupted him, "...I gave her, would serve no purpose other than to be cruel."

"Interesting, that now you find cruelty to be objectionable." Neil's passive aggressive criticism of the way Shane punished Julie that night at the park is starting to get under the Admiral's skin.

"I did what I had to do, Neil." Shane loosens the tightly clenched fist of his right hand, realizing he's dangerously close to allowing Neil to goad him into an uncontrolled outburst.

"We're never going to see eye to eye on that matter, Admiral, so let's just drop it and agree to disagree. Shall we?" Neil knows he can only push Shane so far before it becomes counterproductive.

"Agreed." Shane knows he needs to pick his battles.

Neil continues, "I hold Julie more responsible than Stacey and Lisa for the events that transpired that night because she made the decision to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. Surely you must agree, Admiral, as your course of discipline that evening was predetermined to penalize Julie much more severely than either Stacey or Lisa. Am I correct in that assumption?"

"Yes sir. You are correct in assuming I also hold Julie to be more responsible as the driver of the

vehicle." Shane doesn't disagree with Neil on this point. "Neil, you yourself said you would be holding Mike and I responsible for the girls' behavior, so why not punish me instead?"

"Judging by what I know about your background, you've spent the better part of the last two decades punishing yourself and take it from me, Admiral, self flagellation is ultimately an unsatisfactory and ineffective form of penance."

Shane sighs and leans back in his chair. He's honestly a little unnerved by how well Neil has psychoanalyzed him.

Appreciating Shane's desire to protect Julie from further punishment, albeit for somewhat selfish reasons, Neil is willing to compromise to reach an agreeable solution. He gets to his feet, buttons his suit coat, stands shoulders squared with his hands clasped together at his waist.

"I'm willing to forego punishing Julie on one condition."

Shane sits up straight, eager to hear Neil's terms.

"I won't paddle Julie if Mike agrees to punish her however he sees fit."

"Agreed."

Shane trusts Mike's level of restraint much more than Neil's.

After Shane leaves, Neil has Liz bring Stacey and Lisa back to his office where he quite skillfully and painfully administers their second paddling.

Mike's room

Mike's pov

Shane fills me in on Neil's terms regarding Julie's punishment. Truth be told, I've been wanting to address her behavior that night. I need her to know how I feel about all the terrible choices she made. My hands are kind of tied here as to how I can punish her though. Neil's already grounded them for the remainder of the summer.

"Sit down, darlin,' we need to talk about what happened the other night in Rockwell."

Julie takes a seat in the chair by my bed. It's obvious she's anxious as she avoids eye contact with me and picks at her fingernails. She has good reason to be, afterall. If Shane hadn't taken matters into his own hands with the side trip to the park that night, she definitely would've answered to me before Neil.

"Tell me what made you think stealing Shane's car, going to a party without permission, drinking alcohol, and getting behind the wheel while intoxicated would be okay?" Just picturing how much worse things could've ended that night, has my blood boiling. I pace restlessly, hands on hips, awaiting her response, but Julie remains silent staring at the floor. "For the love of God, Julie, explain your thought process that night. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"

I didn't want to lose my temper but dammit, all I can picture is mangled metal, ambulances, and a lifetime of regret. I feel a painful tightness in my chest, realizing the nightmare scenario I'm picturing is a reality for Shane. I really need to sit down with him, talk this out and let him know I'm here for him in whatever capacity he needs but right now, I need to keep my focus on Julie.

"ANSWER ME, JULIE, RIGHT NOW!" She's not going to avoid this conversation because it's uncomfortable.

"I DIDN'T WANT TO, OKAY! I KNEW IT WAS WRONG. I'M NOT AN IDIOT!" Julie has definitely found her voice and it's a loud one. "I didn't know what else to do. The police were coming and we didn't want to get caught." She's much quieter now as she is close to tears.

I lean down, my hands on either side of her chair, inches from her face.

"Raise your voice to me one more time and I will not hesitate to remove my belt and ensure you never make that mistake again. Understood?" I leave no room for misinterpretation in my tone. I keep my eyes on her until she responds.

"Yes sir," not so brazen now.

I push myself off her chair and stand in front of her, my hands once again on my hips.

"If you knew it was wrong, why did you do it, Julie?" I need her to really examine what motivated her choices that night so she knows what went wrong and how not to repeat it. "Do not even think for a second that I will accept I don't know as an answer."

I see Julie hesitate as that was going to be her stock reply. Crossing my arms over my chest, I wait somewhat impatiently for a different answer.

"In the moment, I didn't see any other option."

Good, I'm glad she's actually reflecting on what led her to make those choices that night.

"What would you do differently next time, should this situation ever arise again? Make no mistake about it, Julie, I'm not condoning you put yourself in this situation ever again but I'm also a realist."

Julie's pov

I know what Mike wants to hear but I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said it.

"You want the right answer or the honest one?"

"Know your audience," Mike replies.

"Honestly, Mike, I would probably do the same thing. I'm sorry, I know that's not what you want me to say but it's the truth." Shit, Mike looks pissed but he shouldn't fault me for being honest. Right?

"I appreciate your honesty, Julie, but now we need to find a way to change how you would react. You can understand that. Right?"

I roll my eyes, dreading the say no to drugs speech I know is on the horizon.

"Roll your eyes at me again and I'll have your phone for a week. First and only warning. Am I clear?"

Oops, I didn't think he saw that.

"Yeah."

"Give me your phone."

"What? I said yes."

"No, what you said was yeah and the correct response was yes sir."

Mike holds his hand out and I reluctantly place my phone in his palm.

"You can have it back tomorrow, barring any more disrespect." He gives me his stern warning look where he raises one eyebrow.

"Yes sir," I say, in a deflated voice.

"Good Lord, Julie, it's one day without your phone. Don't act like you had a limb amputated."

Mike has no idea what a lifeline a cellphone is to a teenage girl.

"Let's get back to the matter at hand now. Shall we?"

I nod in response, wanting to put an end to this interminable discussion.

"You do realize how things could have turned out if the police hadn't pulled you over when they did. Right?"

"Yes sir."

"Then tell me."

Mike's not gonna let this go anytime soon.

"By the way, we are going down to the police station tomorrow to thank the officers in person who stopped you."

No lie, that's low key embarrassing but that one cop was hella cute, so I'll make do.

"I know what could've happened, Mike. I get it, okay." Why does he have to belabor this point? I get it. I'm not stupid.

"That's one more day without your phone and no, it's not okay. I want to hear you say it, out loud."

Keep beating that dead horse, Mike.

"Okay, fine. We could've got in an accident an' got hurt."

"And..." Mike prompts me to elaborate but I'm not havin' it.

I shrug and shake my head.

"We both know, Mike. Why do I have to say it?"

Mike's pov

Julie continues to stubbornly resist. I need her to voice it out loud, to give it validity and make it real. She needs to face this head on. She can't continue to hide behind the fact that it turned out okay in the end. We both know, it could have ended very differently and I need to hear her say it so she can accept responsibility for what could have been. I actually want her to raise her voice, yell even, in this case.

"I'm not giving you a choice, Julie. SAY IT!" I lean back down, straddling her chair I get in her face again. "SAY IT, NOW!"

Her cheeks are red. She's clearly angry and frustrated.

"ALRIGHT! I COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEBODY! I COULD'VE FUCKIN' KILLED STACEY OR LISA. I COULD'VE KILLED MYSELF. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR?"

Julie's in tears now. She's finally broken down.

"I get it okay. I know we could've been hurt, or killed, or killed someone else and it would've been all my fault. I get it," she says softly between sobs, practically in a whisper.

"Come here," I say, gently pulling her up into my open arms. Tears come to my eyes too as I truly face how easily I could've lost three of my girls that night. Shane and I could've just as realistically been called down to the hospital or the morgue. Things could've ended tragically. I hold her tight, not wanting to let her go, knowing she's safe here in my arms, knowing my world could've changed in the blink of an eye.

After she's calmed down, I pull back and firmly cup her face in my hands.

I look directly in her eyes and say, "I love you and your sisters so much that the thought of harm coming to any one of you, is a fate worse than death."

"I'm sorry, Mike. I never meant for any of this to happen. We didn't realize until it was too late that we didn't have a designated driver." She looks down, ashamed to see the sadness in my eyes.

Continuing to hold her face in my hands, I wipe a stray tear off her cheek with my thumb.

"I know you're sorry, darlin,' but you know I can't let putting yourself and your sisters in danger go unpunished. You're going to be spanked and I'm keeping your phone for a week for swearing at me a minute ago."

I pull the chair she was sitting on over to me and take a seat. I tap my thighs twice.

"Now I need you over my lap." I gently guide her over my knees, keeping my right hand on her upper back, careful of the bruises born from Shane's belt. "I'm going to need to bare you so I can see where I'm spanking you. I don't want to injure you. Okay?"

I hear her sniffle, "Yes sir," as I pull down her shorts and underwear. It breaks my heart to see the marks made by Shane's belt in anger. I know why he did what he did but I still don't agree with it. Feeling her tense up, I gently rub the only unpunished part of her bottom with my left hand before I begin. I don't want to hurt her, I just need her to know how much I care about her safety and well-being.

I carefully place each sound slap, knowing this spanking isn't about inflicting pain on her backside. Instead, it's to let her know I won't tolerate her putting herself or her sisters in harm's way. Once the pale spots of her bottom have been colored bright pink by my firm hand, it's time for the last ten.

"I need you to count these final ten, followed by I'm sorry I put myself and my sisters in danger sir. Understand?"

Julie manages to choke out, "Yes sir," amidst her tears, so I begin. There's no way around it, these ten are going to sting. I spank a pink spot on her right buttcheek, feeling the sting in the palm of my open hand.

"One, I'm sorry I put myself and my sisters in danger, sir."

I rub her upper back and tell her nine more to go. By the time I reach ten, Julie's crying hard. No spot on her bottom is unpunished. Sitting down is going to hurt for quite awhile. I pull her underwear and shorts back up, causing her to grimace. I stand her between my knees and grip her chin.

Knowing what's expected, Julie apologizes unscripted, "I'm really sorry, Mike. We shouldn't have stolen Shane's car and went to a party and I shouldn't have driven after I was drinking."

"No, you shouldn't have been driving at all and certainly not while intoxicated. Don't ever do that again." I stand and put the chair back in its rightful place. Without turning back around, I say, "I love you, Julie, and I don't ever want to lose you."