#Made In USA Clothes in Alabama | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

smurphyse · 3 years ago

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Chapter 6 of Over Your Shoulder

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Jasper Donnelly Keaton (Long Lost Love AU)

Word Count: ~10k (WHOOPS)

Summary: The following day at the B&B! and then on to the station! Don't worry, after this chapter we're leaving Alabama and delving into the plot finally <3

Warnings: Talks of Torture/violence. There is a scene with a dog that attacks a character, but nothing happens and the dog is NOT hurt!

Animal House, Georgetown, USA- 15 years ago

“C’mon, kid,” Derek laughed as he pulled Spencer into the college bar, “All of these girls are your age, maybe you’ll get lucky.”

Spencer was still in the academy, but had already begun some of his work within various units in the FBI. Derek Morgan was one of his training officers and was working with him in his profiler training. He insisted on bringing him ‘out for a night on the town.’

Spencer didn’t want to go.

He didn’t like going to places like this. It was too busy, too loud, and he was too out of place. He somehow felt like a fly on the wall and the focus of the freakshow all at once. He didn’t like to drink much, and he definitely didn’t like to dance, so there was no point in him even being there.

“Girls there are smart. You wear that Caltech sweater of yours and you’ll get laid in no time,” Derek said, clapping an uncomfortable Spencer on the shoulder.

“But I don’t really care about ‘getting laid,’” he said, using air quotes, “I have this book I got at the Carl Sagan lecture I went t-”

“Kid, kid,” Derek hushed, “You gotta get outta that pretty little head of yours and meet some people your own age.”

He gave Derek a pleading look, but ultimately was forced into coming. Derek all but shoved the CALTECH emblazoned sweater over Spencer’s button up, then mussed up his hair like he was a toddler.

“Perfect. Let’s go, genius.”

So, there he was, standing awkwardly with a horrible drink in his hand while Derek talked up a group of co-eds next to the bar.

It was a relatively small place, packed to the edges with students and military personnel on leave. Cigarette smoke wafted through the air, and it made him itch for one himself. He was trying to quit smoking, it was a terrible habit. Even his mother, in her often distant state, noticed the smell, no matter how many showers he’d had or how many times he washed his clothes before visiting. She always knew.

A group huddled around the pool table, joking and laughing around a stack of beer glasses and cans. Others milled about the walls and chatted. Everyone seemed coupled up besides him.

He wouldn’t normally mind, but Derek was his ride home, and it looked more and more like Spencer would be taking the bus by the way he was flirting with one of the girls.

A set of booths lined one wall, a variety of couples sitting in them and chatting. From where he stood Spencer could see a pretty girl sitting alone at one, dark untamed hair poofing around her shoulders. She looked bored, adjusting her large glasses with one hand while she twisted a whiskey tumbler with the other.

Maybe Derek was right, maybe he should try and meet some new people. He really didn’t care too much about ‘getting laid,’ as Derek put it, but he definitely wouldn’t mind if it happened. Especially with someone as cute as her. It had been a while.

Just as he thought about going over there she looked up at him, big brown eyes meeting his and holding him in place. She gave him a polite smile, blushing a sweet shade of red before turning back to her drink.

“Alright, baby, here we go,” a man said behind him, scooting around Spencer with two drinks in his hands. He sat down at the booth with the woman, handing her one of the shot glasses. She didn’t look too excited about the drinks, but she flashed Spencer an apologetic smile before she took it.

Spencer turned away from them. Oh well, at least that ended before he managed to get himself punched. The man with her was large, not as tall as Spencer, but well-muscled and heavily tattooed with a nose that looked like it had been broken a few times. His dark hair was cropped tight on the sides, the middle left a little longer and curly.

He’d probably die if he took a hit from that guy. No thank you.

He people-watched for another hour or so, only half listening to whatever Derek was spewing at the girl he had his arm around. Spencer eventually decided he should go off on his own, a little tired of hearing Derek’s macho flirting.

He turned on his heel without looking and slammed into a waitress and her full tray of drinks. She let go of the tray to steady herself, dumping it’s entire contents on the small woman from the booth, who had been walking toward the door. The man with her side-stepped the whole thing, bursting into laughter as the whole bar seemed to focus in on the commotion.

Her grey Marines shirt was soaked through with various brightly colored alcohols, her curly hair drenched at the ends. She took off her glasses and shook them off, her mouth open in shock as Spencer’s face melted under a beet red blush.

“What. The. Fuck,” she growled, turning her anger to Spencer. Her dark eyes filled with rage as he looked down at her. Had the look on her face not been so fierce, he might have thought it comical how angry this tiny woman was, teeth bared and wild hair flying around her shoulders, barely coming up to his chest. The waitress took one look at her and scurried off to the back.

“I, shit . I am so- I’m so sorry,” Spencer sputtered, his hands clenching tightly at his sides as he tried to come up with some reasoning for destroying her clothes. Derek had turned around, watching the whole thing in amusement as Spencer stuttered. He could see him out of the corner of his eye, laughing to himself.

“This is my favorite shirt,” she grumbled, half-heartedly wiping the excess liquid down her body. Her nipples poked through the thin fabric, and Spencer felt his chest flutter a bit when he noticed that they were most definitely pierced.

Her friend was still laughing, his hands on his knees. He straightened a bit, reaching his hand out and clapping Spencer on the shoulder, “Thank you for that. Seriously, thank you. That was the funniest shit I’ve seen in months.”

“You’re an asshole, Jack,” she seethed, glaring at both of them as though they were in cahoots.

“Oh, Jasper,” he sighed happily, “you look like a drowned poodle.”

“Well…” Spencer offered, trying to ease the tension that was building up his spine. He was dangerously close to imploding. “I think you look just as good wet as you did before.”

The man, Jack, burst into laughter again, as did Derek behind him. Spencer’s jaw snapped shut as he realized what he said, while the woman took a predatory step forward.

“Shit, no. That’s not what I meant. Here,” he said, pulling off his sweater and holding it out to her. “Something dry to change into. I’m so sorry.”

She snatched it from his hands, her little jaw set tightly in place. She watched him for a moment, a look he would later recognize as her sizing him up, “What’s your name, Stick? ”

“Dr. Spencer Reid,” Derek chuckled, coming to stand next to Spencer. He put a protective hand on his shoulder, letting him know he was there now that he’d gotten his amusement out of the situation.

“Spencer,” she said, pointing a finger at him with the hand clutching his sweater, “I’m gonna remember that.”

She turned and stalked off toward the bathrooms, flipping off her friend as she went. He stayed behind laughing. He wiped his eyes as he turned toward the other two men. He had a smile that put you at ease, and a laugh that made you want to laugh with him, but Spencer couldn’t muster it. He was horrified at himself.

“That was fucking beautiful.” He thrust his hand out to a mortified Spencer, “Jack Keaton. It was nice to meet you before you died.”

-----------------------------------------------

Americana Inn, Ellison, Alabama- 4:52 a.m., Present Day

Jasper’s eyes flew open, her chest heaving as she launched herself upwards and onto her knees. Sweat poured off her in waves, her brain trying to catch up with her body as she scanned the room around her for details.

Nightstand, dresser, mirror on top of dresser.

Bathroom door- open, east facing door- closed, probably an exit.

Table- badge, gun, phone.

Badge, gun, phone.

Badge.

Alabama. The FBI. She was in fucking Alabama in a stupid B&B looking for a serial killer… with goddamned Spencer Reid.

After coming in from the porch, Jasper had collapsed on the floor of her room. She spent a few minutes letting the tears stream down her face in silence before she heard Spencer’s footsteps outside the door.

Jasper knew it was him. He shuffled nervously for a few minutes, mumbling to himself too quietly for her to hear whatever he was saying. She held her breath, listening until she heard his door open and shut.

She’d dragged herself over to the bed, pulled the covers over her head and fell into a fitful, sweaty sleep for a few hours, only to be woken by another memory.

She was still coughing. As soon as she cleared her throat, another cough hit. She watched the blood spray against the wall every time another sob wracked her body.

Blood trickled down her arms and along the sides of her neck. She had long since given up on trying to hold herself up, instead letting the full weight of her body hang on the wires securing her wrists to the piping.

The blood that had pooled over her shoulders was beginning to dry, painfully crusting and pinching her skin when she moved. Her eyes were sluggish, closing and opening slowly as she tried to stay conscious.

It was no use, she was dying. She was going to die here. After everything, she was going to die in a drug den in fucking Texas.

She might as well be her mother. This might as well be the trailer she grew up in.

“Baby,” a voice came suddenly, next to her and worried. She hadn’t heard anyone come in. Her eyes fluttered open, and she began struggling against the hands that cupped her face.

She had nothing, nothing but the inability to die quietly, so she snapped her jaws at the warmth in front of her, trying to catch flesh and tear. She’d leave them something to remember her by.

“Baby, stop!” a voice pleaded as the pressure around her wrists eased. Her arms flopped uselessly at her sides, the pain beginning anew as blood rushed back to them, only to flow back out of her open wounds.

She fell limply into someone’s arms. She could see the bones sticking through her skin, and she sickly wondered if she could use them as weapons against whoever was manhandling her.

“I’m gonna take you home, Sugar, I’m gonna get you safe.”

She knew that voice.

“Jack?”

Jasper ripped back the covers. She couldn’t stay here. She needed to get out, run, run, run.

She pulled on a sports bra and some running shorts before tugging on her Nike’s. She jogged down the stairs, trying to keep as quiet as possible, but also hurrying to avoid anyone else who might not be able to sleep at five in the morning.

As soon as the front door to the hotel shut behind her, she sprinted off. She could stretch later, but now she needed to go.

The B&B’s yard was expansive. The grass could have used a mowing, but she relished the dew brushing against her ankles as she set off toward the woods. The hot early morning sun filtered through the trees, setting the yard ablaze with streams of glittering haze as it peeked over the horizon. The birds chirped as they zipped back and forth across the sky, and she felt her heart lift a little watching them.

She hit the trees at a sprint, beelining for the small path she had noticed when they arrived yesterday. She didn’t know where it was going to lead, but she didn’t care. If it took her off a cliff, she just might just swan dive down to the bottom.

She hated running before. After she lost the ability to walk for months because of Wren’s bullet, she took up running just to take advantage of her legs. It took a long time for her to be able to run with the tight and efficient form she had now, but that’s what over ten years of near daily practice got you- perfection.

There was no limp in her step anymore, she didn’t struggle to breathe as she pushed herself harder, faster, further.

Keep going until your legs collapse and your lungs start comin’ out of your nose, Sugar. Keep going until you forget. Until your body hurts more than your mind.

Memories. The ones she’d hidden away years ago kept bubbling to the surface ever since she set foot in the States two days ago.

There was no use in trying to run from memories, from pain. She had learned that long ago. It always caught back up with you. It always found you. All you can do is make new pain to ease the old.

Just like Spencer Reid, catching up with her. She walked out of his door fourteen years ago and hadn’t looked back, running from the pain he caused her by getting herself shot, stabbed, blown up, beaten with a bat . Yet, here he was, in the room next to her, touching her in the hot night and setting her skin aflame.

Jasper wished Jack was here. She wished she could just call him up and ask him what to do. He’d probably tell her to stick it out, to think about the good parts of dating Spencer, and not the parts that had shredded her to pieces.

Spencer had almost killed her, and still, his hand resting on her neck the night before had felt like a safe haven. She wanted to lean against it, wanted to have him hold her like that all night long.

You can’t trust him, especially not with something so fragile as your scabbed torn up excuse for a heart. He was so careless with it a decade and a half ago, what’s to stop him from hurting you again?

That’s what love is, isn’t it? You hand someone a knife, hold it to your own throat and tell them where to cut you, how to bleed you like a pig. The real danger is in trusting them not to. Trust is more important than love.

Spencer had pulled a part of her to light that she thought was gone. She had lost most of her hope years before, when Sam died, and then a little more when Eli found her, took her to Church and ripped the rest of it out of her tired body. She thought she had died in that place, but Spencer had shown her that a piece of the old Jasper survived, and that some of the girl that Sam had loved was still there.

She had trusted him not to cut her, but he did anyway. He did it so efficiently, it was as though the thinnest, sharpest blade sliced right through her heart in a single swipe, and then everything fell to pieces. All the blood rushed out of her.

Maybe she finally died that night.

Maybe she had been a ghost ever since, wandering the Earth in search of the life that had been stolen from her time and time again.

Jasper eventually rounded back to the edge of the property, the house coming back into sight as her chest began to ache. She could see a figure sitting on one of the rocking chairs on the porch.

It was Luke, holding a coffee cup and sipping from it. He lifted one from the table next to him and held it out for her as she climbed the stairs. He didn’t flinch at her scars, didn’t even look twice at them. He had seen them all before.

“Heard you take off like a bat out of hell,” he yawned, swiping a hand across his chin, “thought you could use this when you came back.”

“Mmm,” she grunted as she took the mug. Jasper leaned against the railing across from his seat, taking a sip of the coffee and avoiding his gaze. The dew from the grass began drying on her ankles and socks, the morning sun warming her back as she glared into the dark liquid.

“Luke, I can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what?” he asked, but the look on his face when she glanced up at him told her that he knew exactly what she was talking about.

“This job,” she said quietly. She trusted Luke, she really did. Jasper had done nothing but lie to him ever since she met him, but she really did trust him with her life. She almost felt guilty for lying so much to someone who cared about her as much as Luke did.

“Did you love him?”

“No,” she lied.

Luke nodded, taking another drag from his cup, “For a minute I really thought you wanted to work for the BAU.”

Jasper looked up at him, her mouth set in a grim line. Now she didn’t feel so bad.

“I do.”

“Why are you here, Jasper?” he asked, his tone laced with annoyance and disbelief.

“I told you. I wanted a change.” Never give in. Always stick to the lie, always stick to the cover. There’ll come a day when the lie is the only weapon you have to protect yourself, Sugar, and if there’s even the smallest crack in your cover, you ain’t makin’ it out alive.

Luke leaned forward in his chair, his shoulders rounding and tense as he rested his elbows on his knees. She steeled herself, his pose threatening her comfortability, her upper hand.

“I’ve always trusted you, Jasper,” he began, clenching his jaw in between sentences, his frustration bubbling to the surface. “Always.”

“I understand that in Iraq, over there , you had to lie to me. I was a Ranger, I was there to be your support team, not to be your supervisor. It wasn’t my job to know what your job was. It was my job to make sure you got where you needed to go, and that you came back.

“Even when you went into a building and came out covered in blood and brains and bruises, I knew you were doing something you had to, and I didn’t need to know what that was.”

He pointed to her scars angrily as he spoke. “Even when Jack showed up at my place at two o’clock in the morning and dragged me to a crack house in Dallas to find you beaten within an inch of your life, I didn’t ask why.”

“What’s your point, Luke?” She watched him with pointed disinterest, keeping her features calm and schooled though inside she was bristling.

“ I trust you. Even now. You don’t have to tell me why you’re here,” he sighed, “I know it’s got nothin’ to do with me, but these are good people. They’re not throw-aways like we were in the desert. These people, Jasper? They see for a living. All they do is theorize, observe, think . Eventually they’ll wonder why you’re here, and Spencer is just going to be another wrench in whatever plan you have.”

“Point?” she asked again, her jaw tight and her back coiled, ready to lash out if needed.

“ I don’t know what happened between you and Spencer, but the way you’re eyeing each other? That’s not something that’s just going to go away.”

“I’m leaving the BAU, Luke. I can’t move on with my life if he’s here. I can’t get the change I need around him,” she lied again. Never give in, never give up the lie, even when you’re caught. Especially when you’re caught. “I want to have a life here.”

“Fine. You want a change. You want a home. This is what you’re looking for,” Luke smiled smugly at her, “I’m not helping you leave the BAU.”

“What?” she growled dangerously, standing up straight from the railing. Luke rose from his chair, crossing his arms and looking down at her, his jaw set and his gaze full of steel.

“You’ll never admit it, but you trust me. You trusted me to have your back in a war-zone, and I’m asking you to trust me again. Get to know these people. If you ever decide you need help with whatever mission you’re on, this is the team that’s gonna get it done. I’ve got your back, just like I did in Iraq.

“And maybe, when you’re done causing whatever murder and mayhem you have planned, you’ll settle back down. Maybe with Dr. Reid in there. Make a baby or two, have a life. After everything he’s been through, God only knows he deserves it. You do, too.”

Jasper’s mask of emotional detachment dropped in an instant, “What the hell do you mean, ‘all he’s been through?’”

Luke shrugged, “It’s not my place to talk to you about that, Jasper.”

“Is he…” she started, bringing her free hand up to rub her forehead, “is he at least… okay?”

“He’s doing a lot better than he has any right to, considering.”

She thought about that for a moment as her chest tightened painfully. She never wanted anything bad to happen to Spencer. In fact, all Jasper ever wanted to do was protect him. He had said he wanted to do the same but still he was the one who went and...

Fuck that. Fuck him. Fuck them both.

“I’m not on a mission,” she said, putting the mask back on. Back to the matter at hand, getting out of the BAU.

“You’re a talented liar, Jasper. The best I’ve ever seen,” Luke shrugged, throwing his hands up in defeat, “I’m gonna keep on trusting that you’re here because you have something important to do. But don’t you dare use your history with him to back out of this. You got a job to do? Get it done. Figure your shit out with Spencer and move on.”

They stared at one another for a few moments. It was the first time she’d seriously thought about killing Luke Alvez.

Not really. Well, not completely. More like, incapacitate so he can’t fucking look at her like that anymore. Like he knew her.

He didn’t know shit.

-----------------------------

Spencer did not sleep.

He had been in complete shock when he saw Jasper’s scars. The protective part of him that tried to hold her broken pieces together so long ago had lurched out of his chest without his permission.

He hadn’t meant to touch her. In fact, he had made a mental note not to. Her skin was seething hot, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if his hands had molded to her soft skin.

God, she was soft.

Even with all her cracked and sharp edges, Jasper was soft. He still burned from where he’d touched her. His hand slid up her neck so easily, resting under her jaw with practiced ease and comfort, his fingers tracing that scar on her thigh without any hesitation, just trying to soothe.

Fourteen years. He had gone fourteen years without touching Jasper Donn- Keaton.

It was like coming home.

It was like she never left him.

Back then, she had always relaxed under his touch, sighed deeply and melted into his arms. Hours ago she had stiffened up, her whole body turning rock solid and tense as he touched her. That deer in the headlights look haunted him.

Was it his touch that had frightened her? Was it his touch? Was it his touch?

He didn’t want to think about that.

He had hurt her, he knew that. After what he did, Spencer was lucky Jasper hadn’t slapped him for daring to put his hands on her. He was lucky all she’d done was pull away and leave him on the porch with his mind racing.

What happened to her? He didn’t have the right to ask her. He didn’t have the privilege of knowing anything about her anymore.

Jasper moved to his lap on the couch, her strong thighs cradling his hips as she ground down against him. She muttered to herself in between kisses, about how stupid it was that he wore shirts like this in the first place, how he didn’t need this many buttons.

Finally he slapped away her hands and unbuttoned them himself, smiling against her mouth as she huffed in annoyance.

“I could’ve gotten it off myself,” she grumbled, running her hands over his chest as he tugged the shirt off his shoulders.

“Yeah, in a decade,” he laughed, kissing her again as he reached for the hem of her t-shirt.

She stopped him, resting her hands over his and squeezing once. Spencer looked up at her, moving his hands to her thighs, giving her a light squeeze back as she nervously held his gaze.

“I didn’t come back from Iraq because my tour ended,” she said quietly, her voice hardly above a whisper.

He didn’t want to ask, didn’t want to push her. The few times he had asked about her time over there she had changed the subject. He only nodded, moving one hand to cup her jaw and trace light circles behind her ear. She leaned into his palm, sighing softly.

“I have… a scar.” Jasper’s voice shook a bit as she tugged on the edges of her shirt, “It’s not pretty.”

“It’s yours,” Spencer whispered back. He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to the tip of her nose, smiling when it scrunched up. “It’s beautiful.”

Jasper said nothing, her eyes searching for any hint of uncertainty. He had none. He knew he would love every piece of her body, scarred or not. He didn’t need to know what happened to know that.

She pulled her shirt over her shoulders slowly, clutching the fabric to her chest when her arms came down. She grabbed one of his hands from her thigh and pressed it against her chest.

He gasped when he felt it. It was big. He could feel the raised skin, hard and hotter than the rest of her under his touch. Spencer lightly tugged the shirt away from her chest so he could see the scar properly.

He smiled as it fell away, happy to know his hunch about her nipples being pierced was right. He placed a kiss between her breasts, smiling once more as she sighed and leaned into him.

The scar was big. It ripped from her ribs in a jagged line around to her back, smaller healed rips in her soft skin peppered around the biggest parts of it. An explosion? That made sense to him. What happens to soldiers? They get blown up with IEDs.

“Told you,” Spencer said, leaning down and kissing her ribs. She sucked in a breath as she watched him, and he just grinned back at her. “Beautiful.”

“You’re a sap, Stick.”

“That might be true,” he laughed, “but I’m always right.”

He stood suddenly, earning him a yelp as Jasper wrapped her legs around his waist. He walked into the bedroom and dropped her on the bed. She leaned back on her arms as she watched him unbuckle his pants and drop them.

Her wild hair flew around her shoulders as she hurried to pull hers down. She kicked them off, leaning back once more as Spencer admired her.

“Now,” he said, hooking his hands underneath her knees and tugging her toward him, “let’s see just how right I was about you looking good wet .”

Spencer scrubbed his face with his hands and sighed. He didn’t want to think about this, about how good things used to be. In the beginning they were happy. They were totally and completely in love with each other from the first- well, the second day they met.

The first night he met her he’d been terrified of her, but the very next day… that had been different.

Spencer had been hurrying to a profiling class when he heard a voice call his name. He’d turned, and there stood Jasper, still wearing his CALTECH crewneck, a pair of tight jeans and some Chucks, looking like she hadn’t slept all night.

She flashed him a tired smile, a cigarette in one hand as she leaned against a building. Sleepless bruises stained into her warm skin under her glasses. The sweatshirt hung halfway down her thighs, and she had the sleeves cuffed at the wrists so they wouldn’t hang over her hands.

If he thought she was pretty the night before, in the haze of the bar, she was stunning in the morning. The orange light from the rising run bounced off her curls, revealing a depth in the color he hadn’t noticed before. Her sleepy grin sent a warmth pooling down his spine, and suddenly he was glad he was such a klutz.

You ain’t getting this back, Stick.

I was gonna say, you should keep it. It looks better on you.

That was the first time he’d ever skipped a class. Derek had been furious with him until he told him that he’d managed to talk her into breakfast at Moe’s, even though he had just left there twenty minutes before. Derek listened with a big grin on his face as Spencer recalled their impromptu date.

He watched her make a little house with her waffles and some toothpicks, while he showed off his building prowess with a pancake hut of his own. The owner, Maureen “Moe'' McArthur, had been thrilled to see Spencer there with someone, and told Jasper she was tired of seeing him reading in the booth alone, much to Spencer’s embarrassment.

Jasper had smiled sweetly and asked for more stories, grinning as Moe prattled on. He watched her from across the booth, thinking about how he never wanted to eat pancakes again if it didn’t include an architectural adventure with Jasper.

Derek was proud, but told Spencer never to ditch class again, or he’d track him down and really embarrass him.

That had been a good day.

Spencer decided now was as good a time as any to get out of bed. He showered quickly and made his way downstairs, only to find the team standing in the dining room. They all were facing the windows, craning their necks to look out onto the porch.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked as he made his way into the room, looking around the buffet table for the coffee.

“Looks like the Wonder Twins aren’t getting along,” Rossi said over his coffee mug, pointing out the window.

Spencer moved to see Luke and Jasper standing on the porch. Jasper’s jaw was tight, her eyes narrowed as Luke spoke to her, standing tall with his arms crossed over his chest. Her anger seemed to drop off her face at one point, a look of shock taking over her usually stoic features.

The team scurried to look casual when Luke and Jasper came inside, chatting idly and sipping their drinks as they hit their seats. Spencer turned to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup without thinking.

Jasper came up next to him, holding her cup out for a refill. She glanced over to his mug, her brows knitting together as he filled hers.

“Since when do you drink your coffee black?” she asked.

Shit. He had been so busy trying to look busy that he hadn’t put any sugar or cream into his mug. Welp , he decided, can’t tell her I was watching her on the porch like a creep. He picked up the cup and took a sip, trying to school his features as the bitter liquid hit his taste buds.

Disgusting.

“Whenever the feeling hits, I guess,” he shrugged.

Jasper watched him take another drink, a smile playing along her lips. He scrunched up his nose at the taste. Black coffee really was the worst.

“I saw you guys spying from the window,” she laughed, her shoulders shaking as she watched him try to choke it down.

“Then why are you giving me grief?” he grinned, a bit proud of the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled at him. He finally grabbed the sugar and dumped it into the damned cup.

“Stick, you’ve never been able to fake nonchalance. It’s good to know some things never change.”

“Alright, maybe I was distracted. You’re not wearing any clothes,” he said, motioning to her scantily clad body, trying to ignore the scars that sent a violent shock down his spine when he saw them. She looked down, like she’d forgotten she was only in a sports bra and shorts.

“Not like you haven’t seen it before,” she shrugged, as though last night never happened, as though his reaction hadn’t been what sent her running back inside. She avoided his gaze, looking into her cup instead, but she didn’t move away.

“You look pretty much the same,” he said, chewing on the inside of his lip. This was so damn awkward. Would this ever not be?

“You don’t,” she said quietly, finally looking up at him. She only came up to his chest. He didn’t know why the thought always tickled him, it’s not like she was going to grow , but he liked the fact that she was still so small compared to him. “You grew up, Stick. Well, you’re not really a stick anymore, are ya?”

Spencer patted his belly, a little self-conscious. He’d bulked up a bit, finally taking up working out after leaving prison, never wanting to feel that vulnerable again. He’d never tell Derek, but he enjoyed lifting weights, but that probably had to do with the fact that Luke was more fun to exercise with than ‘Give-Me-One-More-Pretty-Boy’ Morgan

“I didn’t mean like that, you goober,” she chuckled, shaking her head, “I meant you… you look good, Spence. You look like you’re good.”

“I am, Jazz. It’s been a… heavy couple of years but I am good ,” he made a face as he said ‘good.’ After all, it was all relative, but he had felt good as of late.

“Heavy, huh?” her brows knitted together again, concern coating her soft features. Spencer's arm twitched, yearning to brush that stray curl behind her ear and have her lean into his palm. To make that sad face of hers change into one of comfort.

“I’m sorry about Jack,” he said suddenly, bringing up the only bad thing he knew that had happened to her since he last saw her. Dumbass, why would you say that?

Jasper’s eyes widened a bit, his change of conversation throwing her off balance. She opened her mouth and closed it, then opened it again as she shook her head, “You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”

“I mean it, though. I know what he meant to you.”

Her eyes hardened, soft puddles of brown backed by steel for a swift moment, “You don’t have anything to be sorry about, Spence.”

She smiled at him again, moving on , taking a step away from him and turning on her heel, “I’m gonna go take a shower and I’ll be back down.”

She took the coffee cup with her, poofy ponytail swinging behind her, and Spencer couldn’t help but smile as he remembered her fondness for drinking coffee in the shower. It was such an odd thing to enjoy, but he’d found it endearing, even when he started finding coffee mugs on the tub wall every morning.

They watched her climb the stairs, then all turned on Spencer.

“Stick?” Emily laughed, a big grin splashed across her face. Tara chuckled beside her, trying to hide her amusement behind her coffee mug.

“How’s she still walking around with scars like that?” Walker asked, “They look brutal.”

“Jasper’s tough, man,” Luke sighed, plopping himself down at one of the chairs. “Always has been.”

“She wasn’t kidding about that sniper taking off her leg,” Rossi said, “It must have taken her months to start walking again after that.”

“I remember when it happened. I visited her in the hospital. She said at the time she thought she’d exploded,” Luke nodded solemnly, “Said it took a few seconds for her brain to catch up to her body. She didn’t even feel it at first.”

“And the others?” Rossi leaned forward in his chair, “Did she feel those?” Luke watched Rossi for a moment, seemingly to decide what to say, “I, uh, I’m sure she did.”

“Do you know what happened?” Emily asked.

Luke glanced over at Spencer and scratched his temple as he thought, “Uh, yeah. Yeah, just in the line of duty stuff. You guys know how it goes.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed her,” JJ spoke up, having been quiet since he came down, “Last night, I mean.”

“I’m sure she doesn’t care,” Spencer smiled at her, patting her shoulder softly. “She probably liked that you were so straightforward. As much as she avoids her own feelings, Jasper likes when people just say what they mean.”

“Yup,” Luke nodded, “I bet you ten whole dollars she would’ve done the same thing to someone who was ignoring obvious questions about a significant other.”

“That’s a very specific set of parameters,” Emily chuckled, leaning across the table and thrusting her hand out to Luke, who took it with a grin, “You’ve got a deal.”

“You watch it, sister, I’mma win that money.”

--------------------------------------------

Jasper was about to snap.

Sure, she understood that she cut an interesting figure. Crazy hair, rage-backed eyes, tiny frame that gave her an unassuming air, sure. But what she could not understand was the capacity for straight men to continually hit on women even after they explicitly show disinterest.

She looked over at Spencer. He was already looking at her, watching as she half-listened to whatever the sheriff’s deputy was spouting at her. She tried to focus on the murder board in front of her, focus on the dead boys who needed her help. Focus on the mission.

“...you never know, you might have fun,” Deputy… Dunlop? Dunlap? Was saying to her.

“I’m sorry?” she asked, turning her attention to him, away from Spencer’s gaze.

She’d decided to wear the cardigan again over a linen tee and jeans. She didn’t normally like talking about her scars, or showing them off. People either got awkward, or they were too interested, wanting all the gory details. She peeled it off as she stared down the much taller man, revealing the deep scarring around her wrists and arms.

If the ring on her left hand didn’t deter him, the scars surely would. She saw Spencer sit up straighter out of the corner of her eye, sucking in a breath as he saw them once more. She knew it bothered him, but fuck him. They weren’t about him.

Jasper crossed her arms as she glared at the deputy, “I wasn’t listening.”

“Oh,” he sputtered, his face turning red as he eyed her scars and ignored the look on her face. Spencer stood from his chair, his hands snaking into his pockets as his chest puffed out. Luke glanced over at them, no doubt recognizing the beginnings of a situation.

The deputy was handsome enough, and in another situation she might take him up on whatever sexual escapade he was not-so-subtly suggesting to her, but right now her mind was being pulled in too many directions to teach Deputy Dumbass how to give head in a remotely satisfying way.

“I was just saying,” he drawled, pulling back some of the confidence he’d lost, “after we catch this guy I could show you the flower fields over the hill. They’re real pretty.”

“Are you asking me out in front of the pictures of a bunch of dead kids?”

“Uh- I-”

“I’m going to assume not,” she took a predatory step forward, eyes narrowed, backing him up against the wall, “because if you ask me out one more time after I told you no three times yesterday, I’m gonna have to take that pathetic little pants pinkie of yours and toss it out to the squirrels just to drive home how little I want to do with you outside of this precinct.”

“Alright,” Luke said, coming up behind her and putting a protective hand on her shoulders. He pulled her closer to his chest and away from the deputy, who looked seconds away from pissing himself. “Let’s get back to what we were doing.”

“That’s all we need from you, Deputy Dunlap,” JJ smiled sweetly, eyes following him as he high-tailed it out of the room.

“Rough being this good lookin’, huh?” Rossi joked, sidling up next to her at the board. Luke gave her a squeeze before letting go of her arms, warning her to keep her temper intact. He knew how she could be.

She liked Rossi. He was tough and grizzled but soft enough that you just knew he had your back. She didn’t like that , didn’t like that she wanted to trust him, but that’s what teams do. They trust one another.

She trusted her team.

Ugh. When they found out about this, they’d never let her hear the end of it.

“Oh, you’d know more about that than I would, sir,” she smiled, her peripheral vision still trained on Spencer’s staring problem.

“Good answer,” he laughed. He gestured to her arms, and then to the chair behind them she’d tossed the cardigan on. “I’m surprised it took you this long to shuck that thing.”

Jasper shrugged, “Sometimes it’s easier to cover them up than to talk about them.”

“You don’t seem like the type to be ashamed of something that trivial.”

Jasper turned toward him, smiling. She really liked Rossi, but he scared her. This whole team did. They saw too much, and Spencer knew too much about her.

She’d loved him too much. She showed him too many parts of herself that before she had kept hidden from everyone. He knew her tells, her fears- how she sounded when she was scared, waking up screaming and crying, trying to run from the blood and guts and piss and violence that was now part of her daily life.

“I’m not,” she said slowly, “I guess there’s someone here who knew me before I had them, and I’ve never really had that before.”

“Move on a lot?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

She looked at him again, studying his face. He wore a nonchalant smirk, and had she not known of his profession, and not been so good at hers, she might see it as passive disinterest. But it was the opposite. Rossi was curious. They all were, all hungry to know more about the girl who’d slept with Spencer Reid.

She knew Spencer. In the past fourteen years he probably hadn’t had too many serious girlfriends, instead shrinking in on himself and not putting himself out there. The team probably hadn’t met too many exes of his. Hell, the only reason she even looked at him twice was because he was standing in the middle of the bar as Jack went to get those stupid shots all those years ago.

She’d been clocking Jack’s movements, struggling to be in such a public place without a gun on her person. Jack had made her leave them at home, though she never told him she’d kept the knife in her Chucks. He’d probably known, but let her keep it anyway.

He wanted her to unwind that night, to take a breath and reintegrate with a society that had long-since thrown her away. She didn’t think she needed it. Doing the job they did, she could easily go the rest of her life not creating relationships or talking with any of those people. If it were up to them she’d be locked up in a six-by-six cell with no windows. That’s probably where she should be.

Jack had been furious when she came back from the mission in Iraq nearly split in two by a humvee door. She thought for a moment, in her drug-fueled hospital bed haze, that he might actually kill Eli for sending her to a warzone. He’d been against it, been against her going out without him for backup.

She’d awoken in so much pain in some Army hospital in Germany. Her ribs crackled with every breath and her head was pounding as she took stock. After she’d gotten over the shock of being in a safe room instead of the desert, she finally noticed Jack’s hand clasped in hers as his head rested on the bed next to her, fast asleep.

Eli was sitting in the chair in the corner, his face lighting up when she finally noticed him. A shiver had run down her spine. She hated seeing him smile. Bad things happened when Eli smiled.

Welcome back to the world, Sugar. I thought I lost my best girl there for a moment.

Rossi was still looking at her expectantly. She decided she might as well get it over with quickly. She held her arms out in front of her and twisted them, showing Rossi how the scars went through both sides of her forearms.

“Someone tied me up and decided to play whack-a-mole.”

“Looks like it hurt.”

“It did.”

“Did you get the guy?”

“Something like that,” she said, giving him a pointed look.

Rossi measured her gaze, trying to look past the steel and into whatever she was hiding. She knew he wouldn’t find anything, she was too good at putting it in a box and walking away from it.

“Good girl.”

“I want you to say goodbye, Sugar,” Eli said, chewing on the end of his cigar as he pointed toward the approaching building. Church, as he called it.

“A piece of you is going to die in there, and you’re never going to get it back. You might not notice it’s gone tomorrow, but ten years, hell maybe even in two months, you’re going to feel a piece of you let go. You’re gonna bathe in this shit. You’ll be up to your goddamned eyeballs and you don’t have the luxury of holding on to the hope that things’ll just work out in the end. You either make it or you don’t. Survive or die.”

He pulled a pistol out of his hip holster and pointed it between her eyes. She didn’t flinch, and she didn’t blink in surprise as her fucked up brain thought about how much colder the metal was than she’d thought it would be.

“Your choice, Sugar. You comin’ inside with me or am I leavin’ you out here?”

“Who’s Sugar?” she asked, turning away from the gun and looking toward the horizon. She could say the piece of her that had hope died right there, but with how easily it seemed to slink into the ether, she wondered if she hadn’t lost it long before.

“Good girl.”

Teams like the BAU, ones who see the nitty gritty, but don’t actually have to wade in the blood themselves, they don’t see self defense as anything more than ‘that guy tried to kill me, so I killed him.’ In Jasper’s world it was different. You didn’t wait for someone to kill you, you killed them before they even saw you. Any other margin of contact, any bit of error, could be the life and death of hundreds.

She wasn’t scared to kill, or to die, but she was scared of Eli.

Thank God he was dead.

“I forgot that people do that,” Spencer said, plopping back into chair, leaning back as he flicked a pencil between his fingers anxiously.

“Do what?” she asked, painfully aware of the rest of the team milling about the room. They had no doubt seen the bit with her arms, probably watched as the deputy hit on her while she was lost in thought.

“Ask you out even if it’s highly inappropriate,” he smiled awkwardly, nodding to himself.

“Oh,” she said. She had forgotten, or at least she had gotten used to it over the years. When they had dated, people did that constantly. They had no idea she was so incredibly in love with the skinny genius she didn’t even notice them until they poked her on the shoulder and interrupted her ‘let’s stare at Spencer’ moment.

“It’s not like anyone could ever pull me away from you, anyways, Stick,” she said without thinking.

“Stick?” Tara asked amusedly, a deep grin on her face as she turned toward them.

Jasper felt the blush rip up the back of her neck and over her cheeks. Stick . She only ever called him that in private, as he would get embarrassed by it in public. He didn’t mind when she called him that at home, prancing around in one of his shirts, happily sinking to her knees to make up for it. To tell the truth, she could’ve stayed on her knees forever for Spencer Reid. She would’ve done anything to look up at any moment and see his head thrown back in bliss, a soft blush patching over his shoulders and face as he lost himself in her.

“What do you think of this guy? Mark Halsten” she asked, looking away from Spencer and his stupid staring and holding up a file. “Hits all the right places- super-pedo, anger issues, lives in a remote area.”

Luke snatched the file from her hands, flipping through it quickly. Emily reached over and snagged it from him as well, nodding as she read.

“How about you and JJ go and interview him? We’ll keep going through the paper files and see if we can find anything else.”

Jasper and JJ glanced at one another, unsure eyebrows cocked at the idea of a partnership. Jasper understood JJ, understood why she was the way she was. She was protective of Spencer, and could probably see that having Jasper around had stretched the team dynamic just a bit.

“Cool,” Jasper smiled, picking up the SUV keys from the table, “I’ll drive.”

------------------------------------

Halsten’s house was about ten minutes outside of town, somewhere in the boonies. JJ and Jasper rode in silence, JJ rubbing her temple and looking over and over again like she wanted to speak, only to turn back to the window and snap her jaw shut.

Jasper ignored her for the most part, focusing on the terrain in front of her. As soon as they left Ellison city limits the road turned to gravel and remote fields. It was a desolate countryscape, and not knowing the lay of the land was making her nervous. There could be snipers in the treeline, or camouflaged men lying in wait in the tall grass.

“I’m sorry about last night,” JJ finally blurted. Jasper had figured that was what she’d been so upset about. Walking on eggshells when yesterday she wouldn’t stop pestering Jasper with questions.

“For what?” she deadpanned, taking a turn up a small hill. She kept scanning their surroundings. She had a bad feeling about this.

“I shouldn’t have pushed you to talk about your husband.” “Did you know he was dead?”

“What?” JJ asked, turning her body toward Jasper in shock.

“Did you know he was dead? Did you kill him?”

“No,” she shook her head, “of course not. How could I?”

“Exactly,” Jasper grunted, already over this conversation. Nobody needed to know about Jack or their relationship. “It’s not a big deal. He’s been dead for over a decade. I’ve moved on.”

“Why do you still wear your wedding ring, then?”

Jasper’s jaw clenched, her thumb moving to rub the small band. It was a small diamond set with two pearls on a gold band. It was one of the only personal possessions she’d consistently kept with her. The rest were in a storage unit in Arlington.

“It’s not really my wedding ring,” she sighed, “Someone gave me a ring but then he died. After Jack was gone, I melted both bands down and had them remade with the gems from both of them. Jack’s gave me a diamond, the other gave me the pearls.”

“Were you and this guy together?”

Jasper turned into the driveway of Mark Halsten. She stepped on the brakes just a little too hard, jerking JJ forward in her seat. She glared at the blonde agent, trying to contain herself.

“Yes,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “This was the easiest way to keep them both with me while I was working.”

She kicked open the driver’s door as she turned off the ignition. JJ followed out from her side, hands on both their holsters as they approached the Halsten residence.

It was a run-down ranch style home on a big property with a sagging porch. There was a barn behind the house that looked like it hadn’t been used for farming in years. The grass was long, almost up to their knees as they stepped up the stone path to the door. Jasper could smell that familiar scent, rancid heat-soaked remains, but it could be anything this far out in the country.

Suddenly the screen door flew open, a streak of brown fur and teeth shooting out toward them. JJ bolted back toward the car, climbing the hood, but Jasper stood her ground. As the pitbull followed JJ for running, Jasper waited for it to pass her, grabbing his collar and twisting tightly.

The dog jerked back in her grip, his jaws snapping and snarling. JJ’s gun was pointed toward them, but Jasper just twisted the collar tighter, kicking the dog's legs out from underneath it and pinning it to the ground in one swift movement. She set one knee down on the back of the dog’s neck, just under her grip on the collar, the other on it’s back hips.

“ Stay,” she snarled into the dog’s ear, pinching the collar tightly against its neck. It whimpered and stilled underneath her, looking up at her in fear.

“ Hey, hey, hey! ” a voice burst from the door. A young white man in jeans and an old t-shirt shoved it open and stepped onto the porch. “You best not hurt that dog!”

“Sir, you ne-,” JJ started, still standing on top of the SUV, pointing her gun at the man.

“Give me a leash, or I put a bullet in it , and then you ,” Jasper snapped, holding her gun against the dog’s head. She wouldn’t really shoot the damned thing if she couldn’t subdue it, but this asshole didn’t know that.

“ Slowly, ” JJ warned as the man opened the door back up. He sluggishly pulled a leash from behind the main door, shaking it like an asshole toward Jasper before he threw it to her.

She clipped the dog’s collar, twisting the leash tightly in her hand so it was taut. She let the dog sit up slowly, holstering her gun as they both stood. It watched her, unsure what to make of her.

“Booger, come ,” the man said, patting his thigh. The dog glanced back up at Jasper, who tugged the leash tighter. It looked back at the man, but stayed in it’s spot.

“Are you Mark Halsten?” Jasper asked.

He glared at her, looking between her and Booger before answering, “Yeah, what’s it to you?”

“We’re with the FBI, we’d like to ask you a few questions about the child murders that have been going on over the last few months.”

“I ain’t had nothin’ to do about that. I don’t need to talk to feebs, anyways,” he sneered, hands on his hips. Jasper just wanted to shoot this pedo and be done with it.

“You’re on parole, right?” JJ asked, stepping down from the hood of the car. “All it takes is one call to your parole officer and your little property is crawling with us feebs .”

Halsten looked at her for a moment, bouncing on his toes. He bolted, taking off toward the barn.

JJ and Jasper followed, but he was taller than them both, and faster. He made it to an old pickup behind the house before they could stop him, throwing it in drive and tearing ass back toward them.

“Move!” Jasper yelled, tackling JJ out of the way of the truck. As it passed she pulled her back to her feet and dragged her back toward the SUV. The dog watched it all unfold, sitting obediently where Jasper had left him.

Jasper jumped into the driver’s seat, barely waiting for JJ to climb into her side before pulling the SUV into reverse and following Halsten down the driveway. She flipped it into drive as she exited the driveway, wincing as the bumper hit a tree before she switched gears.

“Be advised,” JJ ordered into the walkie, holding onto the ‘oh-shit’ handle, “Agents Keaton and Jareau are in pursuit of an 2000’s model Chevy pickup truck, color blue, down Route 6 toward Ellison. Suspect’s name is Mark Halsten, twenty-nine, white male, blue eyes and blonde hair, approximately six-foot three.”

“Affirmative,” Luke’s voice cracked through the speaker, “We’re five minutes out.”

They followed his erratic driving around the hills for a few minutes, just making sure he didn’t hit anyone else and didn’t crash until backup could arrive. She wished Billy was driving, he was their pilot and driver. He was way better at this shit than her.

Jasper turned another bend, closing in on Halsten’s pickup. He made a hairpin turn, using his vehicle as a battering ram as it came back toward them.

“Jasper!” JJ screamed, holding tightly to the handle and the center console. Just before the truck hit them, Jasper pulled the emergency brake as hard as she could, turning the car so the impact would hit just behind the driver’s seat.

Jasper tried not to squeeze her eyes shut as the grill of the truck slammed into their car. The sound of crunching glass filled the air, followed by the airbags smashing into Jasper’s nose and launching her into unconsciousness.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kudos and Comments are writer fuel! Please let me know what you enjoyed so far! Let me know your feelings on what's going on!

Do you guys like the long chapters? I feel bad writing short ones when you wait a week to read the chapter? And I never know how to stop prattling on.

- Smurph❤

Forever Tag:

@simplyparker, @spencerreidsmommy

(Lol I know this is Chapter 6, but like... yeah I've been posting these all day)

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usaclothingmanufacturer · 5 years ago

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weallwantabetterlife · 1 year ago

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The Christmas Coat

A man was fumblin around one day in a women’s clothing store. He’d found his wife a Christmas coat and was headed for the door. When he bumped into a little boy that looked like he was lost. He said “Mister can you help me find out how much something costs?"

It's almost Christmas and the nights are gettin cold. Winter time is on us and my mom don’t have a coat. I’ve been workin for the neighbors

and saving for a time”. In his tiny outstretched hand was a dollar and a dime.

His gaze went from that big eyed boy to that pretty Christmas coat. He finally cleared away the lump that had gathered in his throat. He said “Son that’s just what this coat costs we’re lucky that we found ‘er”. He turned around and gave a wink to the lady at the counter.

She put it in a pretty box and wrapped it up just so and went off to the back to find a big red Christmas bow. He said “ I thank you for your help sir and I kindly thank you ma’am.

I hope y’all are gonna have a big Christmas

cause now I know I am”.

Well the man walked home busted except for the dollar and the dime thinkin he’d just have to buy the coat another time. He told his wife that Christmas this year wouldn’t be much fun. He gently took her in his arms and told her what he’d done. She said “ why you old softie

I wouldn’t trade you for a farm, I’ve got two or three old coats and your love to keep me warm “.

She put that money in a matchbox and placed it beneath their tree and said “that is the grandest gift you’ve ever given me”.

The years went by like years will do when people are in love. Their marriage was a golden bond that was forged by God above.

Then one day came some bitter news that filled his heart with fright, the doctor told the old man’s wife that she was going to lose her sight. He said “there’s an operation we can do but it puts me on the spot. It’s a quite complex procedure and it’s going to cost a lot”.

The old man said “doctor I’m a failure I’ve made no preparation, we don’t have the money

For that kind of an operation “. The doctor got the strangest look and he sat there for a while and then he slowly nodded as hhe broke out in a smile.

He said “ why sir you can’t fool me you’re a very wealthy man. You long ago invested in the world’s best savings plan. I’ll see she gets the best of care she’s going to be just fine

and the total cost to you old friend

Is a dollar and a dime”.

The old man stared in disbelief, then he recognized that smile. The one he’d seen those years ago on a loving thoughtful child.

He said “what you gave to me that day

was more than just a coat, you gave me the gift of giving and you gave my mother hope.

My mother’d been mistreated, neglected and abused but she gave life just one more chance and it was all because of you. Now every year she takes that coat and lays it beneath our tree, she says it represents to us the things

that Christmas ought to be.

She says that when we leave this world for a better home someday, the only things that we’ll take with us are the things we gave

away “.

Credits: Unknown

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usaclothingmanufacturerinusa · 5 years ago

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Diana Ross

Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) is an American singer, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Ross rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group The Supremes, who during the 1960s became Motown's most successful act, and are the best-charting female group in US history, as well as one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. The group released a record-setting twelve number one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", "Stop! In the Name of Love", "You Can't Hurry Love", "You Keep Me Hangin' On", "Love Child", and "Someday We'll Be Together".

Following her departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross released her eponymous debut solo album that same year, featuring the No. 1 Pop hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". She later released the album Touch Me in the Morning in 1973; its title track was her second solo No. 1 hit. She continued a successful solo career through the 1970s, which included hit albums like Mahogany and Diana Ross and their No. 1 hit singles, "Theme from Mahogany" and "Love Hangover", respectively. Her 1980 album Diana produced another No. 1 single, "Upside Down", as well as the international hit "I'm Coming Out". Her final single with Motown during her initial run with the company achieved her sixth and final US number one Pop hit, the duet "Endless Love" featuring Lionel Richie, whose solo career was launched with its success.

Ross has also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award–nominated performance in the film Lady Sings the Blues (1972); she recorded its soundtrack, which became a number one hit. She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany (1975) and The Wiz (1978), later acting in the television films Out of Darkness (1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum (1999).

She is the only female artist to have number one singles as a solo artist; as the other half of a duet (Lionel Richie); as a member of a trio; and as an ensemble member (We are the World-USA for Africa). In 1976, Ross was named the "Female Entertainer of the Century" by Billboard magazine. In 1993, the Guinness Book of World Records declared her the most successful female music artist in history, due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any female artist in the charts, with a career total of 70 hit singles with her work with the Supremes and as a solo artist. She had a top 10 UK hit in every one of the last five decades, and sang lead on a top 75 hit single at least once every year from 1964 to 1996 in the UK, a period of 33 consecutive years and a record for any performer.

In 1988, Ross was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Supremes, alongside Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard. She was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2007, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016. Ross is also one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of the Supremes. In Billboard magazine's Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Artists chart, she ranked 16th as the lead singer of the Supremes and 26th as a solo artist. Diana Ross ranks among the Top 5 artists of the rock era (1955 to date) on the Billboard Hot 100 when combining her solo and Supremes' hits.

Early life

Diana Ross was born in Detroit, Michigan on March 26, 1944. She was the second-eldest child of Ernestine (née Moten; January 27, 1916 – October 9, 1984) and Fred Ross, Sr. (July 4, 1920 – November 21, 2007). Ross's elder sister is American physician Barbara Ross-Lee.

According to Ross, her mother actually named her "Diane", but, a clerical error resulted in her name being recorded as "Diana" on her birth certificate. She was listed as "Diane" during the first Supremes records, and she introduced herself as "Diane" until early in the group's heyday. Her friends and family still call her "Diane".

Ross's grandfather John E. Ross, a native of Gloucester County, Virginia, was born to Washington Ross and Virginia Baytop. Virginia Baytop's mother Francis "Frankey" Baytop was a former slave who had become a midwife after the Civil War.

Ross and her family originally lived on Belmont Road in the North End section of Detroit, near Highland Park, Michigan, where her neighbor was Smokey Robinson. When Ross was seven, her mother contracted tuberculosis, causing her to become seriously ill. Ross's father moved with his children to live with relatives in Bessemer, Alabama. After her mother recovered, her family moved back to Detroit.

On her 14th birthday in 1958, her family relocated to the working-class Brewster-Douglass Housing Projects settling at St. Antoine Street. Attending Cass Technical High School, a four-year college and preparatory magnet school, in downtown Detroit, Ross began taking classes including clothing design, millinery, pattern making, and tailoring, as she had aspired to become a fashion designer. She also took modeling and cosmetology classes at the school and participated in three or four other extracurricular activities while being there.

Ross also worked at Hudson's Department Store where it has been claimed in biographies, she was the first black employee "allowed outside the kitchen". For extra income, she provided hairdressing services for her neighbors. Ross graduated from Cass Tech in January 1962.

Career

The Supremes: 1959–1970

At fifteen, Ross joined the Primettes, a sister group of a male vocal group called the Primes, after being brought to the attention of music manager Milton Jenkins by Primes member Paul Williams. Along with Ross, the other members included Florence Ballard, the first group member hired by Jenkins, Mary Wilson, and Betty McGlown. Following a talent competition win in Windsor, Ontario, in 1960, the Primettes were invited to audition for Motown records.

Later, following local success via live performances at sock hops, etc., Ross approached former neighbor (and rumored childhood former boyfriend), William "Smokey" Robinson, who insisted that the group audition for him first. Robinson agreed to bring the Primettes to Motown, in exchange for letting him and the Miracles hire the Primettes' guitarist, Marv Tarplin, for an upcoming tour. Tarplin played in Robinson's band(s) for the next 30-plus years.

In her autobiography, "Secrets of a Sparrow", Ross wrote that she felt that deal was "a fair trade". The Primettes later auditioned for Motown Records, before various Motown executives. In Berry Gordy's autobiography, To Be Loved, Gordy recalled he was heading to a business meeting when he heard Ross singing "There Goes My Baby" and Ross's voice "stopped me in my tracks". He approached the group and asked them to perform it again but, learning of their ages, Gordy advised them to come back after graduating from high school.

Undeterred, the group went to Motown's Hitsville U.S.A. headquarters regularly, offering to provide extra help for Motown's recordings, often including hand claps and background vocals. That year, the group recorded two tracks for Lu Pine Records, with Ross singing lead on one of the tracks. During the group's early years, Ross served as hair stylist, make-up artist, seamstress, and costume designer. In late 1960, having replaced McGlown with Barbara Martin, the Primettes were allowed to record their own songs at Hitsville's studio, many written by "Smokey" Robinson, who, by then, was vice president of Motown ("Your Heart Belongs to Me" and "A Breathtaking Guy"). Gordy, too, composed songs for the trio, including "Buttered Popcorn" (featuring Ballard on lead) and "Let Me Go the Right Way". While these songs were regional hits, they were not nationwide successes.

In January 1961, Gordy agreed to sign the group on the condition they change their name. Eventually, Janie Bradford approached Florence Ballard, the only group member at the studio at the time, to pick out a new name for the group. Ballard chose "Supremes", reportedly, because it was the only name on the list that did not end with "ette". Upon hearing the new name, the other members weren't impressed, with Ross telling Ballard she feared the group would be mistaken for a male vocal group (a male vocal group was, indeed, named the Supremes). Gordy signed the group under their name on January 15, 1961.

A year later, Barbara Martin left the group, reducing the quartet to a trio. In late 1963, the group had their first hit with "When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes", peaking at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. At the end of the year, Gordy assigned Ross as the group's lead singer, even though Ballard was usually the lead vocalist.

The group scored their first number-one hit with "Where Did Our Love Go", paving the way for unprecedented success: between August 1964 and May 1967, Ross, Wilson, and Ballard sang on ten number-one hit singles, all of which also made the UK top 40. The group had also become a hit with audiences both domestically and abroad, going on to become Motown's most successful vocal act throughout the sixties. Following significant issues with her comportment, weight, and alcoholism, Florence Ballard was fired from the Supremes by Gordy in July 1967, hiring Cindy Birdsong from Patti LaBelle and the Blue-Bells as Ballard's replacement.

Gordy renamed the group Diana Ross & the Supremes, making it easier to charge a larger performance fee for a solo star and a backing group, as it did for other renamed Motown groups. Gordy initially considered Ross leaving the Supremes for a solo career in 1966 but changed his mind because the group's success was still too significant for Ross to pursue solo obligations. Ross remained with the Supremes until early 1970.

The group appeared as a trio of singing nuns in a 1968 episode of the popular NBC TV series Tarzan. Between their early 1968 single "Forever Came Today" and their final single with Ross, "Someday We'll Be Together", Ross would be the only Supremes member to be featured on many of their recordings, often accompanied by session singers the Andantes or, as in the case of "Someday, We'll Be Together", Julia and Maxine Waters and Johnny Bristol. Still, Wilson and Birdsong continued to sing on recordings.

Gordy, drove Ross diligently throughout this period and Ross, due to anxiety arising from Gordy's demands of her, began suffering from anorexia nervosa, according to her autobiography, Secrets of a Sparrow. During a 1967 performance in Boston, Massachusetts, Ross collapsed onstage, and had to be hospitalized for exhaustion.

In 1968, Ross began to perform as a solo artist on television specials, including the Supremes' own specials such as TCB and G.I.T. on Broadway, The Dinah Shore Show, and a Bob Hope special, among others. In mid-1969, Gordy decided that Ross would depart the group by the end of that year, and Ross began recording her initial solo work that July. One of the first plans for Ross to establish her own solo career was to publicly introduce a new Motown recording act.

Though she herself did not claim their discovery, Motown's publicity department credited Ross with having discovered the Jackson 5. Ross would introduce the group during several public events, including The Hollywood Palace. In November, Ross confirmed a split from the Supremes in Billboard. Ross' presumed first solo recording, "Someday We'll Be Together", was eventually released as a Supremes recording and became the group's final number-one hit on the Hot 100. It was also the final number-one Billboard Hot 100 single of the 1960s. Ross made her final appearance with the Supremes at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 14, 1970.

Solo career,Touch Me in the Morning, Duets album, Lady Sings the Blues soundtrack and diana: 1970–1981

In May 1970, Ross released her eponymous solo debut, which included her signature songs, "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)" and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", the latter becoming Ross' first number-one solo single. Follow-up albums, Everything Is Everything and Surrender came out shortly afterwards. In 1971, the ballad "I'm Still Waiting" became her first number-one single in the UK. Later in 1971, Ross starred in her first solo television special, Diana!, which included the Jackson 5.

In 1972, the soundtrack to her film debut, Lady Sings the Blues, reached number one on the Billboard 200, selling two million units. In 1973, Ross had her second number-one hit with the ballad "Touch Me in the Morning". Later in the year, Motown issued Diana & Marvin, a duet album with fellow Motown artist Marvin Gaye. The album became an international hit. Touring throughout 1973, Ross became the first entertainer in Japan's history to receive an invitation to the Imperial Palace for a private audience with the Empress Nagako, wife of Emperor Hirohito.

In April 1974, Ross became the first African-American woman to co-host the 46th Academy Awards, with John Huston, Burt Reynolds, and David Niven.

After the release of a modestly successful LP, Last Time I Saw Him, Ross had a third number-one hit with "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", from her second feature film, Mahogany. A year later, in 1976, Ross released her fourth solo number-one hit, "Love Hangover", a sensual, dramatic mid-tempo song that bursts into an uptempo disco tune. Later that year, Ross launched her "An Evening with Diana Ross" tour. The tour's success led to a two-week stint at Broadway's Palace Theatre and a 90-minute, Emmy-nominated television special of the same name, featuring special make-up effects by Stan Winston, for a scene in which Ross portrayed legendary cabaret artist Josephine Baker and blues singers Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, and a Special Tony Award.

The albums Baby It's Me and Ross sold modestly. In 1979, Ross released The Boss, continuing her popularity with dance audiences, as the title song became a number-one dance single. On July 16, 1979, Ross guest-hosted an episode of Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, featuring Lynda Carter, George Carlin, and Muhammad Ali as guests. Later that year, Ross hosted the HBO special, Standing Room Only, filmed at Caesar's Palace's Circus Maximus Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada, during her "Tour '79" concert tour. This concert special is noted for its opening, during which Ross literally makes her entrance through a movie screen. In November of that year, Ross performed The Boss album's title track as a featured artist during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, in New York City.

In 1980, Ross released her most successful album to date, Diana. Composed by Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, the album included the hits "I'm Coming Out" and "Upside Down", the latter becoming her fifth chart-topping single. Prior to leaving Motown, Ross recorded the duet ballad "Endless Love", with Lionel Richie. The song would become her sixth and final single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Ross began negotiations to leave Motown at the end of 1980. After over 20 years with the label, Ross received US$250,000 as severance. RCA Records offered Ross a $20 million, seven-year recording contract, which gave her complete production control of her albums. Allegedly, before signing onto the label, Ross asked Berry Gordy if he could match RCA's offer. Gordy stated that doing so was "impossible". Ross then signed with RCA on May 20, 1981. At the time, Ross's was music history's most expensive recording deal.

Film career: 1972–1999

In 1971, Diana Ross began working on her first film, Lady Sings the Blues, which was a loosely based biography on singer Billie Holiday. Despite some criticism of her for taking the role, once the film opened in October 1972, Ross won critical acclaim for her performance in the film. Jazz critic Leonard Feather, a friend of Holiday's, praised Ross for "expertly capturing the essence of Lady Day". Ross's role in the film won her Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. The soundtrack to Lady Sings the Blues became just as successful, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200 staying there for two weeks.

Ross's second film, Mahogany, was released in 1975. The film reunited her with Billy Dee Williams, her co-star in Lady Sings the Blues and featured costumes designed by Ross herself. The story of an aspiring fashion designer who becomes a runway model and the toast of the industry, Mahogany was a troubled production from its inception. The film's original director, Tony Richardson, was fired during production, and Berry Gordy assumed the director's chair himself.

In addition, Gordy and Ross clashed during filming, with Ross leaving the production before shooting was completed, forcing Gordy to use secretary Edna Anderson as a body double for Ross. While a box-office success, the film was not well received by the critics: Time magazine's review of the film chastised Gordy for "squandering one of America's most natural resources: Diana Ross."

In 1977, Motown acquired the film rights to the Broadway play The Wiz, an African-American reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The film initially was to include the stage actors who had performed on the play, but, producer Rob Cohen could not garner the interest of any major Hollywood film studios. It was not until Ross convinced Cohen to cast her, (instead of Stephanie Mills, who portrayed Dorothy on Broadway) as Dorothy that Universal Pictures agreed to finance the production. This casting decision led to a change in the film's script, in which Dorothy went from a schoolgirl to a schoolteacher. The role of the Scarecrow, also performed by someone else onstage, was eventually given to Ross's former Motown labelmate, Michael Jackson.

The film adaptation of The Wiz had been a $24 million production, but upon its October 1978 release, it earned only $21,049,053 at the box office. Though pre-release television broadcast rights had been sold to CBS for over $10 million, the film produced a net loss of $10.4 million for Motown and Universal. At the time, it was the most expensive film musical ever made. The film's failure ended Ross's short career on the big screen and contributed to the Hollywood studios' reluctance to produce the all-black film projects which had become popular during the blaxploitation era of the early to mid-1970s for several years. The Wiz was Ross's final film for Motown.

Ross had success with movie-themed songs. The soundtrack for Lady Sings the Blues peaked at number one on Billboard's Pop chart, selling over 300,000 copies in its first eight days of release. While her version of Holiday's "Good Morning Heartache" only performed modestly well in early 1973, her recording of "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" gave Ross her third number-one hit, in late 1975.

Three years later, Ross and Michael Jackson had a modest dance hit with their recording of "Ease on Down the Road". Their second duet, actually as part of the ensemble of The Wiz, "Brand New Day", found some success overseas. Ross scored a Top 10 hit in late 1980 with the theme song to the 1980 film It's My Turn. The following year, she collaborated with former Commodores singer-songwriter Lionel Richie on the theme song for the film Endless Love. The Academy Award-nominated title single became her final hit on Motown Records and the number-two record of the year.

Several years later, in 1988, Ross recorded the theme song to The Land Before Time. "If We Hold on Together" became an international hit, reaching number one in Japan.

In 1993, Ross returned to acting with a dramatic role in the television film, Out of Darkness. Ross won acclaim for her role in the TV movie and earned her third Golden Globe nomination, although she did not win. In 1999, she and Brandy Norwood co-starred in the television movie, Double Platinum, which was aired prior to the release of Ross's album, Every Day Is a New Day.

Continued solo career and development: 1981–1999

In October 1981, Ross released her first RCA album, Why Do Fools Fall in Love. The album sold over a million copies and featured hit singles such as her remake of the classic hit of the same name and "Mirror Mirror". Shortly thereafter, Ross established her production company, named Anaid Productions ("Diana" spelled backwards), and also began investing in real estate and touring extensively in the United States and abroad.

Before the release of Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Ross hosted her first TV special in four years, Diana. Directed by Steve Binder, the concert portions of the special were filmed at Inglewood, California's 17,500-seat The Forum indoor stadium and featured performances by Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Dallas actor Larry Hagman, music impresario Quincy Jones and members of The Joffrey Ballet.

In early 1982, Ross sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl XVI and appeared on the dance show Soul Train. The program devoted a full episode to her and Ross performed several songs from the Why Do Fools Fall in Love album.

On May 6, 1982, Ross was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 1982, she followed up the success of Why Do Fools Fall in Love with Silk Electric, which featured the Michael Jackson-written and -produced "Muscles", resulting in another top-ten success for Ross. The album eventually went gold on the strength of that song. In 1983, Ross ventured further out of her earlier soul-based sound for a more pop rock-oriented sound following the release of the Ross album. Though the album featured the top 40 hit single, "Pieces of Ice", the Ross album did not generate any more hits or achieve gold status.

On July 21, 1983, Ross performed a free concert on Central Park's Great Lawn, aired live worldwide by Showtime. Proceeds of the concert would be donated to build a playground in the singer's name. Midway through the beginning of the show, a torrential downpour began. Ross tried to continue performing, but, the severe weather required that the show be stopped after 45 minutes. Ross urged the large crowd to exit the venue safely, promising to perform the next day.

The second concert held the very next day was without rain. The funds for the playground were to be derived from sales of various memorabilia. However, they were destroyed by the storm. When the mainstream media discovered the exorbitant costs of the two concerts, Ross faced criticism from New York City's then-mayor Ed Koch and the city's Parks Department commissioner and poor publicity. During a subsequent mayoral press conference, Ross handed Koch a check for US$250,000 for the project. The Diana Ross Playground was built three years later.

In 1984, Ross released Swept Away. The album featured All of You, a duet with friend Julio Iglesias. The single was featured on both Ross' album and Iglesias' 1100 Bel Air Place, his first English-language album. It became an international hit, as did the Lionel Richie-penned ballad "Missing You", composed as a tribute to Marvin Gaye, who had died earlier that year. Swept Away garnered gold record sales status.

Her 1985 album, Eaten Alive, found major success overseas. "Chain Reaction" reached number one on the UK charts as well as in Australia and Ireland and the title track also performed well. Both songs had strong music videos that propelled the tracks to success. The Eaten Alive video was patterned after the 1960s horror film, The Island of Dr. Moreau while the "Chain Reaction" music video saluted the 1960s American Bandstand-style music shows. "Experience", the third international single's video reignited the "Eaten Alive" romantic storyline with Diana and actor Joseph Gian. The track, Eaten Alive, a collaboration with Barry Gibb and Michael Jackson, became a top 20 hit internationally.

The Barry Gibb-produced album garnered an international number one in "Chain Reaction" and a Top 20 selling album. It is believed Michael Finbarr Murphy, a distant cousin of Alan Murphy, guitarist for singer Kate Bush, Level 42 and others, played the guitar parts on "Chain Reaction". Michael was the producer for Unknown Quantity, the backing vocalists featured on the "Chain Reaction" track, are also featured as Ross' backing singers in the track's video. There were four members of Unknown Quantity, however, only 3 were needed for the video.

Earlier in 1985, Ross appeared as part of USA for Africa's '"We Are the World"' charity single, which sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Ross's 1987 follow-up to Eaten Alive, Red Hot Rhythm & Blues (No. 39 Billboard Top R&B Albums chart; No. 12 Sweden), found less success than the prior album. The accompanying acclaimed television special was nominated for three Emmy Awards, winning two (Outstanding Costume Design for a Variety or Music Program - Ray Aghayan and Ret Turner; Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Miniseries or a Special - Greg Brunton).

On January 27, 1986, Ross hosted the 13th annual American Music Awards. Ross returned the next year to host the 14th annual telecast.

In 1988, Ross chose to not renew her RCA contract, and had been in talks with her former mentor Berry Gordy to return to Motown. When she learned of Gordy's plans to sell Motown, Ross tried advising him against the decision though he sold it to MCA Records in 1988. Following the sale of the company, Ross was asked to return to the Motown label with the condition that she have shares in the company as a part-owner. Ross accepted the offer.

Ross' next album, 1989's Workin' Overtime was not a commercial success, despite the title track reaching the top three of the Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The album peaked at number 34 on the Billboard Hot R&B Albums chart, and achieved top 25 placings in Japan and the UK, attaining a silver certification in the latter country. Subsequent releases, such as The Force Behind the Power (1991), Take Me Higher (1995), and Every Day Is a New Day (1999) produced similar results. Ross's albums achieved more international than domestic success.

In 1991, Ross became one of the few American artists to have headlined the annual Royal Variety Performance, performing a selection of her UK hits before Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London.

"The Force Behind the Power" sparked an international comeback of sorts when the album went double platinum in the UK. led by the No. 2 UK hit single "When You Tell Me That You Love Me". The single's duet version with Irish group, Westlife, also hit No. 2 in the UK in 2005. The album performed well across Europe and into Japan as "The Force Behind the Power" achieved Gold record status in the nation. The album produced an astounding 9 singles across international territories, including another Top 10 hit, "One Shining Moment".

In 1994, One Woman: The Ultimate Collection, a career retrospective compilation, became a number one hit in the UK, selling quadruple platinum, and selling well across Europe and in the English-speaking world. The retrospective was EMI's alternative to Motown's box set Forever Diana: Musical Memoirs.

Ross performed during the Opening Ceremony of the 1994 FIFA World Cup held in Chicago, where she infamously missed a penalty kick that was part of her act, and during the pre-match entertainment of the 1995 Rugby League World Cup final at Wembley Stadium.

On January 28, 1996, Ross performed the halftime show at Super Bowl XXX. Earlier that month, Ross' Tokyo concert, "Diana Ross: Live In Japan" filmed live at the city's Nippon Bodukan Stadium, was released.

In May, 1996, Ross received the World Music Awards' Lifelong Contribution to the Music Industry Award.

On November 29, 1996, EMI released the compilation album, Voice of Love, featuring the singles "In the Ones You Love", "You Are Not Alone" and "I Hear (The Voice of Love)".

On February 8, 1997, EMI released the Japanese edition of Ross' album, A Gift of Love, featuring the single, "Promise Me You'll Try".

In May, 1997, Ross performed with operatic tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras again at the Superconcert of the Century concert, held in Taipei, Taiwan.

On May 6, 1997, Ross inducted The Jackson 5 into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

On February 19, 1998, Ross hosted the Motown 40 telecast on ABC.

In 1999, Ross was named the most successful female singer in the history of the United Kingdom charts, based upon a tally of her career hits. Madonna would soon succeed Ross as the most successful female artist in the UK. Later that year, Ross presented at the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards in September of the year and shocked the audience by touching rapper Lil' Kim's exposed breast, pasty-covered nipple, amazed at the young rapper's brashness.

Supremes reunions, Return to Love and 2002 solo tour

Ross reunited with Mary Wilson first in 1976 to attend the funeral service of Florence Ballard, who had died in February of that year. In March 1983, Ross agreed to reunite with Wilson and Cindy Birdsong for the television special "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever". The Supremes did not rehearse their performance for that evening, due to time constraints. A scheduled medley of hits was cancelled.

Instead of following producer Suzanne dePasse's instructions to recreate their choreography from their final Ed Sullivan Show appearance, Wilson (according to her autobiography) planned with Birdsong to take a step forward every time Ross did the same, then began to sing lead on the group's final number-one hit song, "Someday We'll Be Together", on which Wilson did not perform.

Later, Wilson introduced Berry Gordy from the stage (unaware that the program's script called for Ross to introduce Gordy), at which point Ross subtly pushed down Wilson's hand-held microphone, stating, "It's been taken care of." Ross then re-introduced Gordy. These moments were excised from the final edit of the taped special, but still made their way into the news media; People magazine reported that "Ross [did] some elbowing to get Wilson out of the spotlight."

In 1999, Ross and mega-tour promoter SFX (which later became LiveNation) began negotiations regarding a Diana Ross tour which would include a Supremes segment. During negotiations with Ross, the promoters considered the creation of a Supremes tour, instead. Ross agreed. As the tour's co-producer, Ross invited all living former Supremes to participate. Neither Jean Terrell nor late 1970s member Susaye Greene chose to participate. 70s Supremes Lynda Laurence and Scherrie Payne were then touring as Former Ladies of the Supremes.

Ross contacted Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong, who then began negotiations with SFX. Negotiations with Wilson and Birdsong (who allowed Wilson to negotiate on her behalf) failed when Wilson refused SFX's and Ross' offer of $4 Million for 30 performances. Following the passage of SFX's final deadline for Wilson to accept their offer. Payne and Laurence, already negotiating with SFX, signed on to perform with Ross on the tour.

Laurence and Payne would later say that they got along well with Ross. The newly formed group performed together on The Today Show and The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as VH1's Divas 2000: A tribute To Diana Ross. The Return to Love tour launched in June 2000, to a capacity audience in Philadelphia. The tour's final performance was at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The tour was cancelled by SFX shortly thereafter, due to mediocre ticket sales, despite glowing reviews from media as varied as Billboard magazine, The Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Times and The Village Voice newspapers.

On December 5, 2000, Ross received a Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS). The Heroes Award is the highest distinction bestowed by the New York Chapter.

Diana Ross' first public post-RTL appearance was at a fundraiser for former President Bill Clinton. In January 2001, "Love & Life: The Very Best of Diana Ross" was released in the United Kingdom, becoming Ross' 17th gold album in that country. In June, Ross presented costume designer Bob Mackie with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the American Fashion Awards.

Two days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ross performed "God Bless America" at the U.S. Open tennis championships before the tournament's women's final, between Venus and Serena Williams. Immediately following the attacks, Ross performed the song again at Shea Stadium, before the Mets first game, after driving cross-country to be with her children(In the wake of the attacks, flying in the U.S. was temporarily restricted.). Ross teamed with legendary singers Patti LaBelle, Eartha Kitt among others for a Nile Rodgers-produced recording of Sister Sledge's classic disco hit, "We Are Family", recorded to benefit the families of 9/11 victims.

In May 2002, Ross and all five of her children appeared on Barbara Walters' Mother's Day television special. Shortly thereafter, Ross admitted herself into the 30-day substance abuse program at the Promises Institute in Malibu, California, after friends and family began to notice a burgeoning alcohol problem. Ross left the program three weeks later, and began to fulfill previously scheduled concert dates, beginning with a performance before a 60,000-strong crowd at London's Hyde Park, for Prince Charles' Prince's Trust charity.

U.S. ticket sales for the new tour were brisk, from coast to coast. Venues such as Long Island, New York's Westbury Music Fair and California's Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts and Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay attempted to add extra shows, due to public demand. Sold-out performances in Boston and Ontario, Canada, followed. In August, shortly after the tour began, however, Ross re-entered the Promises Institute's substance abuse rehabilitation program. That December, during her stay at Arizona's Canyon ranch Health Resort, Ross was pulled over by Tucson police for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. She failed a breathalizer test and was arrested for a DUI. Ross was later sentenced to 48 hours in jail, which she served near her home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

In January 2003, Ross was honored as Humanitarian of the Year by Nile Rodgers' We Are Family Foundation. Shortly thereafter, Ross was feted as an honored guest at the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters Awards. Later that year, Ross was the guest performer at that year's Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's annual gala, in an ensemble custom-designed by designer Tom Ford, followed by an appearance as the surprise celebrity model for American couturier Dennis Basso's runway show.

In February, 2003, The Supremes were honored by The Rhythm & Blues Foundation honored The Supremes with its Pioneer Award.

Later career: 2004–present

In May 2004, Ross and daughter Tracee Ellis Ross appeared on the cover of Essence Magazine, in celebration of its 50th anniversary. On December 8, 2004, Ross was the featured performer for Stevie Wonder's Billboard Awards' Billboard Century Award tribute.

On January 14, 2005, Ross performed at the Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope TV concert to help raise money for Indonesian tsunami victims. On January 20, 2005, Ross launched her M.A.C. Icon makeup collection, as part of the beauty corporation's Icon Series. In 2005, Ross participated in Rod Stewart's Thanks for the Memory: The Great American Songbook, Volume IV recording a duet version of the Gershwin standard, "I've Got a Crush on You". The song was released as promotion for the album and later reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary chart, marking her first Billboard chart entry since 2000. Ross was featured in another hit duet, this time with Westlife, on a cover of Ross's 1991 hit "When You Tell Me You Love Me", repeating the original recording's chart success, garnering a number 2 UK Singles Chart hit (number 1 in Ireland).

Also in 2005, Ross was featured as an honored guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball Weekend, a three-day celebration honoring 25 African-American women in art, entertainment and civil rights. On May 22, 2006, a year after the celebration, a one-hour program about the weekend aired on ABC, including celebrity interviews and behind-the-scenes moments. On March 22, 2006, Ross' televised Central Park concerts, entitled "For One & for All", are named TV Land Awards' Viewer's Choice for Television's Greatest Music Moment.

In June 2006, Universal released Ross's shelved 1972 Blue album. It peaked at number two on Billboard's jazz albums chart. Later in 2006, Ross released her first studio album in seven years with I Love You. It would be released on EMI/Manhattan Records in the United States in January 2007. EMI Inside later reported the album had sold more than 622,000 copies worldwide. "I Love You" peaked at No. 32 on Billboard's Hot 200 albums chart and No. 16 on Billboard's Top R&B Albums chart. Ross later ventured on a world tour to promote I Love You. In 2007, Ross was honored with the BET Awards' Lifetime Achievement Award and, later, as one of the honorees at the Kennedy Center Honors.

On August 28, 2008, Ross performed at the opening of the US Open tennis tournament, as part of a tribute to Billie Jean King. Ross headlined the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway.

In October 2009, Ross was the featured performer at the annual "Symphonica in Rosso" concert series, held at the GelreDome Stadium in Arnhem, Netherlands.

In 2010, Ross embarked on her first headlining tour in three years titled the More Today Than Yesterday: The Greatest Hits Tour. Dedicated to the memory of her late friend Michael Jackson, the concert tour garnered positive reviews, nationwide.

In 2011, Diana Ross was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

In February 2012, Ross received her first Grammy Award, for Lifetime Achievement, and announced the nominees for the Album of the Year. In May, a DVD of her Central Park concert performances, For One & For All, was released and featured commentary from Steve Binder, who directed the special. A month later, on December 9, she performed as the marquee and headlining performer at the White House-hosted Christmas in Washington concert, where she performed before President Barack Obama. The event was later broadcast as an annual special on TNT. In 2013, Ross completed a tour in South America and a tour in the United States. On July 3, 2014, Ross was awarded the Ella Fitzgerald Award for "her extraordinary contribution to contemporary jazz vocals", at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. On November 20, 2014, Ross presented the Dick Clark Award for Excellence to Taylor Swift at the American Music Awards.

In 2015, Ross appeared in the video for the song "How to Live Alone" performed by her son Evan Ross. On April 1, 2015, Ross began the first of nine performances as a part of her mini-residency, The Essential Diana Ross: Some Memories Never Fade at The Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada. On November 27, 2015, Motown Records/Universal released the album Diana Ross Sings Songs from The Wiz, recorded in 1978. The album features Ross' versions of songs from the film version of the musical The Wiz, in which she starred along with Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Richard Pryor and Lena Horn.

In February 2016, Ross resumed her In the Name of Love Tour, which began in 2013. On November 22, 2016, Ross was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

In December 2016, Billboard magazine named her the 50th most successful dance artist of all time.

On June 30, 2017, Ross headlined the Essence Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her daughter Rhonda Ross-Kendrick performing as the opening act. On November 19, 2017, Ross received the American Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. Ross performed several of her hits, ending with "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", during which she brought all of her grandchildren onstage. Her eldest grandson, eight-year-old Raif-Henok Emmanuel Kendrick, son of Rhonda Ross-Kendrick and husband, Rodney, performed an impromptu dance behind Ross, which gained attention. Ross was then joined onstage by all of her children, their spouses, first ex-husband Robert Ellis, Smokey Robinson (who brought Ross to Motown) and Motown founder, Berry Gordy.

In December 2017, Ross appeared on the Home Shopping Network to promote her first fragrance, Diamond Diana. The fragrance sold out within hours. Ross made several hour-long appearances on the network, and also released a tie-in CD retrospective collection of her music entitled Diamond Diana. Diamond Diana peaked at number six on the Billboard R&B Albums chart and number five on its Top Album Sales chart. The CD's first single release, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough 2017", remixed by Eric Kupper, reached number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

On February 8, 2018, Ross began a new mini-residency at The Wynn Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. On August 4, 2018, Ross scored another No. 1 hit on Billboard's Top Dance Chart with "I'm Coming Out/Upside Down 2018" She performed a song from a to-be-released compilation Christmas album at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 22, 2018.

In December 2018, Diana Ross consolidated her status as a dance diva by ranking #3 in the Billboard Dance Club Songs Artists year-end chart.

On February 10, 2019, the Recording Academy honored Ross at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. Ross performed "The Best Years of My Life" and "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". In 2019 her song "The Boss" was remixed by Eric Kupper as "The Boss 2019", and reached number one on Billboard's Top Dance Chart on April 13.

On October 10, 2019, it was announced that Diana Ross would play the Sunday legends slot on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival for the festival's 50th anniversary.

Personal life

Relationships and family

Ross has been married twice and has five children.

In 1965, Ross became romantically involved with Motown CEO Berry Gordy. The relationship lasted several years, resulting in the birth of Ross's eldest child, Rhonda Suzanne Silberstein, in August 1971. Two months into her pregnancy with Rhonda, in January 1971, Ross married music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein, who raised Rhonda as his own daughter, despite knowing her true paternity. Ross told Rhonda that Gordy was her biological father when Rhonda was 13 years old. Beforehand, Rhonda referred to Gordy as "Uncle B.B."

Ross has two daughters with Silberstein, Tracee Joy and Chudney Lane Silberstein, born in 1972 and 1975, respectively. Ross and Silberstein divorced in 1977, and Ross moved to New York City in the early 1980s, after living in Los Angeles since Motown relocated to the area in the early 1970s.

Ross dated Gene Simmons, bass guitarist and singer for the band Kiss, from 1980 to 1983. They began dating after Cher, who had remained friends with Simmons following their break-up, suggested he ask Ross to help him choose her Christmas present. Simmons, in his autobiography, contends that he was not dating Cher when he met Ross. Ross ended her relationship with Simmons when he gave Ross the erroneous impression that he had resumed his relationship with Cher. Simmons' story differed in 2015 when he revealed that he fell in love with Ross while dating Cher, which ended Ross and Cher's friendship.

Ross met her second husband, Norwegian shipping magnate Arne Næss Jr., in 1985, and married him the following year. She became stepmother to his three elder children; Katinka, Christoffer, and folk singer Leona Naess. They have two sons together: Ross Arne (born in 1987) and Evan Olav (born in 1988). Ross and Næss divorced in 2000, after press reports revealed that Naess had fathered a child with another woman in Norway. Ross considers Næss the love of her life. Næss fell to his death in a South African mountain climbing accident in 2004. Ross remains close with her three ex-stepchildren.

Ross has six grandchildren: grandson Raif-Henok (born in 2009 to her daughter Rhonda); grandsons Leif (born on June 5, 2016) and Idingo (born 2017), born to her son Ross Næss; granddaughters Callaway Lane (born in 2012) and Everlee (born October 2019) born to Ross's daughter Chudney; and granddaughter Jagger Snow (born in 2015 to Ross's son Evan).

Religious views

Diana Ross considers herself a Baptist. She used to sing in a church, where she gained her initial musical experience. Her mother Ernestine's father, Reverend William Moten, served as a pastor in the Bessemer Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama. The Ross children spent considerable time with their maternal grandparents during their mother's bouts with tuberculosis.

2002 arrest

Diana Ross was arrested for DUI on December 30, 2002, in Tucson, Arizona, while undergoing substance abuse treatment at a local rehabilitation facility. She later served a two-day sentence near her Connecticut estate.

Legacy

Ross has influenced many artists including Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Madonna, Jade Thirlwall, Questlove, Ledisi and the Ting Tings.

Various works have been inspired by Ross's career and life. The character of Deena Jones in Dreamgirls was inspired by Ross.

Several of Ross's songs have been covered and sampled. "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" has been featured in the film Chicken Little. The song has also been covered live and on albums by Jennifer Lopez, Amy Winehouse. Janet Jackson sampled "Love Hangover" on her 1997 song "My Need" (featured on the album The Velvet Rope), having already sampled "Love Child" and "Someday We'll Be Together" by Ross & the Supremes on her 1993 tracks "You Want This" and "If" (both released as singles from the janet. album). "Love Hangover" was also sampled in Monica's 1998 number 1 "The First Night" as well as being sampled by Will Smith, Master P (who also sampled "Missing You"), Heavy D and Bone Thugs N Harmony, "It's Your Move" was sampled in 2011 by Vektroid for her song "Lisa Frank 420 / Modern Computing", which appeared in her ninth album Floral Shoppe under her one-time alias Macintosh Plus.

Motown: The Musical is a Broadway musical that launched on April 14, 2013. It is the story of Berry Gordy's creation of Motown Records and his romance with Diana Ross.

As a member of the Supremes, her songs "Stop! In the Name of Love" and "You Can't Hurry Love" are among the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, and entered into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2004, Rolling Stone placed the group at number 96 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

As lead singer of the Supremes and as a solo artist, Ross has earned 18 number-one singles (12 as lead singer of the Supremes and 6 as a solo artist). While Mariah Carey is the only solo female artist to have 18 number-one U.S. singles, Ms. Ross is the only female artist to have number one singles as a solo artist; as the other half of a duet (Lionel Richie); as a member of a trio (the Supremes); and, as an ensemble member (We are the World-USA for Africa). Ross was featured on the Notorious B.I.G.'s 1997 number-one hit, "Mo Money Mo Problems" as her voice from her 1980 hit, "I'm Coming Out", was sampled for the song.

Billboard magazine named Ross the "female entertainer of the century" in 1976. In 1993, she earned a Guinness World Record, due to her success in the United States and United Kingdom for having more hits than any other female artist in the charts with a career total of 70 hit singles. Ross is also one of the few recording artists to have two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one as a solo artist and the other as a member of the Supremes. After her 1983 concert in Central Park, Diana Ross Playground was named in her honor with a groundbreaking opening ceremony in 1986.

Ross was given credit for the discovery of the Jackson 5. Her "discovery" was simply part of Motown's marketing and promotions plan for the Jackson 5. Consequently, their debut album was titled Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5. It was actually Motown producer Bobby Taylor who discovered the Jacksons. Even so, Ross embraced the role and became a good friend of Michael Jackson, serving as a mother figure to him.

In 2006, Diana was one of 25 African-American women saluted at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball, a three-day celebration, honoring their contributions to art, entertainment, and civil rights.

Diana Ross was named one of the Five Mighty Pop Divas of the Sixties along with Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Martha Reeves, and Dionne Warwick.

Awards and nominations

On November 16, 2016, Ross was announced as one of the 21 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

Discography

Studio albums

Diana Ross (1970)

Everything Is Everything (1970)

Surrender (1971)

Touch Me in the Morning (1973)

Diana & Marvin (with Marvin Gaye) (1973)

Last Time I Saw Him (1973)

Diana Ross (1976)

Baby It's Me (1977)

Ross (1978)

The Boss (1979)

Diana (1980)

Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1981)

Silk Electric (1982)

Ross (1983)

Swept Away (1984)

Eaten Alive (1985)

Red Hot Rhythm & Blues (1987)

Workin' Overtime (1989)

The Force Behind the Power (1991)

A Very Special Season (1994)

Take Me Higher (1995)

Every Day Is a New Day (1999)

Blue (2006)

I Love You (2006)

Soundtrack albums

Diana! (1971)

Lady Sings the Blues (1972)

Mahogany (1975)

The Wiz (1978)

Endless Love: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1981)

Live albums

Live at Caesars Palace (1974)

An Evening with Diana Ross (1977)

Greatest Hits Live (1989)

Stolen Moments: The Lady Sings... Jazz and Blues (1993)

Christmas in Vienna (with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras) (1993)

Filmography

Lady Sings the Blues (1972)

Mahogany (1975)

The Wiz (1978)

Out of Darkness * (1994)

Double Platinum * (1999)

(* = made directly for television)

Television

T.A.M.I. Show (with the Supremes) (1964)

Tarzan (with the Supremes) (1968)

TCB (with the Supremes) (1968)

The Dinah Shore Special: Like Hep (with Dinah Shore and Lucille Ball) (1969)

G.I.T. on Broadway (with the Supremes and the Temptations) (1969)

Diana! (1971)

The Jackson 5ive (1971)

Make Room for Granddaddy (1971)

Here I Am: An Evening with Diana Ross (1977)

The Muppet Show (1977)

Standing Room Only (HBO) (1980)

Diana! (TV Special) (1981)

Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983)

Diana Ross: Live in Central Park/For One and For All (Showtime) (1983)

Diana Ross: Red Hot Rhythm and Blues (1987)

Diana Ross: Workin' Overtime HBO: World Stage (1989)

Diana Ross Live! The Lady Sings... Jazz & Blues: Stolen Moments (1992)

Christmas in Vienna (1992)

BET Walk of Fame (1993)

Always is Forever: 30th Anniversary (1993)

1994 FIFA World Cup (1994)

Super Bowl XXX (1996)

Super Concert of the Century (1997)

An Audience with Diana Ross (1999)

VH1 Divas 2000: A Tribute to Diana Ross (2000)

The Making and Meaning of We Are Family (documentary) (2002)

Tsunami Aid (2005)

BET Awards 2007 (2007)

Kennedy Center Honors (2007)

Nobel Peace Prize Concert (2008)

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Farewell and Salute (2011)

Christmas in Washington (2012)

The Voice (2014)

HSN (2017)

Ashlee+Evan (2018)

Stage

An Evening with Diana Ross (1976)

Tours

Headlining

Co-headlining tours

Superconcert of the Century (with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras) (1997)

Return to Love Tour (with former members of the Supremes) (2000)

#03/26

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smurphyse · 3 years ago

Text

Over Your Shoulder

Smurphyse - Masterlist

Prefer to read on ao3 or want to read the tags/warnings? Read it here.

Chapter 6: Booger

Summary: The following day at the B&B! and then on to the station! Don't worry, after this chapter we're leaving Alabama and delving into the plot finally <3Like I said, I see Jack Keaton as Jake Johnson from Stumptown, 100%! I just think Jack's character has the same funny guy/buff secretive dude ratio that he has lol. This chapter clocks in at just under 10k words, so I'm sorry lol

Notes: CW: Talks of Torture/violence CW: There is a scene with a dog that attacks a character, but nothing happens, and the dog is NOT hurt!