Sex, Lies and New Orleans: Part Three

by Red Monster

When I got back to the room, my teammates were there, playing a game of Go-Fish on one of the double beds. I took a seat next to Tabitha and handed her the aloe vera gel.

"Thanks," she said. "Can you hold my cards while I put this stuff on?"

"Sure," I said, and took the cards from her.

"Is something wrong, Terry?" Dani asked.

"Nothing, why?" I lied. In truth, I was so relieved to be getting along with Tabitha that I wasn't about to open the old argument up again.

"Jesse, do you have any fours?" Tabitha asked.

"No, go fish," he said.

"Well, you look worried," Dani said to me while I drew a card from the pile and added it to Tabitha's hand. "You look like something's eating you. Surely a trip to the drugstore couldn't be that bad."

"She's right, Terry, you look like you're having a bad day," Tabitha said. "We're your friends, now `fess up."

"I ran into Gloria at the store," I admitted. "And she wasn't too happy to see me."

"What did she say to you?" Jesse asked.

"Well, today while you were in town, I went to her apartment to check on James. You know, to make sure she wasn't working for Sledge or anything like that again."

"Was she?" Jesse asked.

"No, Jimmy was there, and he was okay. She was actually very polite to me while I was there, but then when she saw me in the store, she started to give me a hard time about it," I explained.

To my surprise, Tabitha didn't say anything about my visiting James that day. "I'm sorry about that," was all she said.

"Is that James sitting on the curb out there? If so, he doesn't look happy, either," said Jesse.

I looked up, and through the opened-up vertical blinds I could see a very large man sitting on a curb across the parking lot. I handed Tabitha's cards back to her and got up off the bed. "You all stay here, I'm going out to talk to him," I said. "If that's not Jimmy out there, I'll be back in a minute."

"If that's him, I hope he's okay," said Dani.

Jimmy was sitting on the curb with his head down, looking so despondent that I'd rather have Gloria prove me wrong and make me look like the villain a hundred times over than let him feel that way. I hadn't seen him slumped in on himself like that since I'd brought her up when we first went on the road.** I almost didn't want to know what she'd done to him. But I needed to find out.

"Jimmy, is that you there?" I asked. He looked up, and I saw it was him. "What happened? What's the matter?" I asked.

"I found Damien's birth certificate."

"What did it say?"

"Gloria told me he was born last August, and he's almost nine months old now. The birth certificate says he was born in September, a full month later than she told me. He's not nine months, he's eight months."

"But why would she lie about her baby's age?" It didn't strike me just yet. "How long were you with her?"

"I was only with her in Florida for a couple weeks. I went back to Westchester and got separated from her in November. September minus nine months is?" he waited for my answer.

"December," I finished, and I'd finally gotten his point.

"So she couldn't have gotten pregnant until after I left her. There is no way that baby is my kid, and she knew it all along."

"Then she lied to you again."

"That's right. She knew how much a child would mean to me, and she used it against me."

"How did you leave her? I mean, did you pack up and walk out before she came back, or did you let her explain herself?"

"I wasn't going to leave the baby home alone, even if he's not mine. No, Damien went to sleep before Gloria got back, and when she came in, I confronted her."

He waited in the living room of her apartment until she came back, and as he told me, it went something like this:

"Oh! You will not believe who I ran into at the Quik-E-Mart! Well, actually, you probably will believe it, but the point is, I can't wait until they leave town! James, where's the baby?" asked Gloria.

"He's asleep. Look what I found on the dining room table," he said, and held up Damien's birth certificate.

"Oh, you found it! Thank God, I've been looking for this since we moved in here." She took it out of his hand and started towards her bedroom.

"You told me he was born in August," he said.

She stopped, and turned her head back to him. "Yeah?"

"And that says September."

She turned around to face him again. "You know, I think I said my due date was in August..."

"No, you told me that baby was born in the middle of August, but that piece of paper says he was born in the middle of September," he said while walking towards her slowly.

"So, what does that mean to you?"

"I remember the dates of when I was with you in Florida. If Damien was born in the middle of September, then he can't be my kid."

"Wait a minute, James, stop. He was born late, that's all. I'm not asking you to raise some other guy's baby."

"I don't believe you, Gloria..." He began to shake his head.

"Why not?!"

"If he was born late, why did you tell me he was nine months old? Why didn't you just tell me the truth for once?"

"'For once'? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you've lied to me before, and you're doing it again."

"Oh my God, you're bringing that up again, you sound just like her. Look, I know I hurt you, but I'm telling you, there was no way around it! I was under specific orders from Sledge--" she began.

"--and you weren't willing to risk telling the truth," he cut her off. "But you have a choice now."

"And I'm telling you the truth this time. Don't leave," she pleaded.

"Then why didn't you tell me he was born late the first time around?"

"Because I didn't think you'd believe me."

"Because you couldn't believe it yourself." He went to gather up his belongings.

"So then there's nothing I can say that'll convince you?" she asked while following him.

"You could try telling me they made a mistake on Damien's birth certificate, but I think you've already said too much to pull that off." He stuffed the few things he'd brought with him into the backpack I'd brought over.

"James, you've only been here for a day..."

"So I'd best be out of here before your son gets too attached to me."

"Does it really bother you so much that I may have slept with someone else?"

"No, that's just the thing, you see--I don't care who else you slept with." He looked over to face her. "I don't even care whose genes that baby has. I care that you can't stop lying to me, and that's all that ever kept us together. Now can you at least tell me the truth about who that kid's real father is? Not that it's my business, I just want to know how I got drafted for this."

"He's a creep, James. He doesn't know about Damien and I don't want him to. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

"I'm sorry to hear your kid's father's a creep," he sighed, "but I can't do this anymore," and headed for the door.

Just before he was out, she said, "James, we could've been so happy together in another life."

"But obviously not this one." And he left.

"Jimmy, I'm sorry about all of this," I said when he was finished telling his story.

"It's not your fault. At least I found out the truth before I stayed there too long, right?"

"Yes, I suppose there's that." Maybe it was the wrong thing to be bringing up, but he didn't look quite so crushed since he told me what happened, and the questions from walking back to the motel were nagging at me again. There was still something I just had to know. "So now just tell me, what did I do wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing, what are you talking about?"

"What did you tell her about me?"

He nodded, with that look that said he understood.

"Why does Tabitha think I'm too late to be looking out for you? Why, when you first went missing, did Domino tell me that I no longer had the right to be worried about you? And is it just me, or are the rest of them looking at me like I hurt you worse than she did?"

"Did Domino really say that to you?"

"When I expressed concern about your disappearance, her exact words were, 'You can pull that jack with someone else, Terry.' What did you say to them?"

"I didn't say anything to them."

"Then how did I become the bad guy in all of this?"

"I didn't know you were the bad guy." He shook his head. "But if you are, I guess it's because, before I met Gloria, I was really frustrated over the way things were going between us. I was totally head over heels for you, and you didn't seem to care one way or the other, and I think that's what they saw. But I never blamed you for what was going on."

"What about Gloria? What did you tell her?"

"Probably some things I shouldn't have said," he admitted. "You have to understand that at the time I woke up from Selene's attack, and found Gloria taking care of me, I felt like you had been jerking me around. I don't think that anymore, but, like I said, I was frustrated then. So I told her about you." He paused, and looked up at me. "That I felt strongly about you, and you were blowing hot and cold at me." He looked at me without saying anything, again, as if waiting for me to answer. "I also told her about our trip to Ireland."

"That was very personal."

"I know. Maybe I also said some kind of cynical things about you while I was with her. But she doesn't know you; I do."

"Why do you think I came to visit you today?"

"To make sure she hadn't drugged me and sent me off to another far-off city. That she wasn't pulling another fast one on me. To let me know you still considered me part of the team. Is that what you were going for?"

"Yes, that's about right," I smiled.

"I respect that," he nodded. "You're a good leader, Theresa.

"And an even better friend."

"Oh, Jimmy. You don't know how much that means to me."

"So don't worry about what the others think about what's happened between us."

"So then, why did she go and do this, anyway? What was she trying to accomplish this time?"

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume she wanted me back. She got really attached to me while she was lining me up for Sledge, and decided to try again. To her credit, none of this was planned out more than a day in advance. Her pregnancy was completely accidental, and she never expected to see me again once she moved down here."

"And when did she move down here?"

"Well, once she brought me in to Sledge, her debt to him was paid, so she moved in with some relatives around here to have her baby."

"Oh my God."

"What's the matter?"

"I never thought about it before; I screamed a pregnant woman up against a wall."

"What are you talking about?"

"When we went after Risque in Florida, looking for you, I sonic-screamed her up against a wall so she'd stop running away from us. I didn't know she was pregnant then."

"It's rough, I know, but that seems to be the least of what she holds against you. And she should've thought about that before she decided to piss you off by selling me out. Either way, Damien's a healthy, happy kid. You don't seem to have hurt him."

"Well, thank goodness for that."

I sat down beside him, and neither of us said anything for a few minutes.

Finally, he spoke up. "I don't care about all that crap anymore."

"Which crap are you talking about?"

"Back when I was frustrated with you and thought you were jerking me around; I don't care about any of that garbage now. Ever since I got back from bringing the Vanisher back for Sledge, you've been such a good friend to me, none of that old crap matters anymore. Even if the others do think you broke my heart, don't worry about what they think. I know you didn't mean to hurt me."

"No, Jimmy. I didn't."

Again we sat together without saying anything, and again he was the one to break the silence. "You wanna know something about me and Gloria?" he asked.

"What is it?"

"The time we spent together was more of a vacation than a relationship, for both of us," he told me. "I got to be with a girl who showed me a good time, and she got to be with a guy who wouldn't steal her money or give her an STD. It was fun for a little while, but there was no substance behind it. I didn't see that until it was over. Can't believe I didn't see anything wrong from the beginning, with the way we met."

"You were lonely," I said, "and you needed the attention she gave you. I don't blame you for being drawn in. I didn't trust her when I first met her, but then I wasn't in the same place as you, and in truth, I didn't know any better than you did. I just made a luckier guess is all."

Jimmy looked over at me. "You made a luckier guess this time, too, and I'm glad you were willing to say it out loud."

"No 'I told you so' here; I just hope she didn't hurt you too badly this time."

"I think I'll get over it, just as long as I stay far away from her."

"Then are you ready to come home with us?"

"Yeah," he said, standing up from the curb.

"Good. We'll leave tomorrow morning." I got up, put my hand in his, and we walked back into the motel.

back to RedMonster's stories | X-Force archive | comicfic.net