Disclaimer: Rights belong to their respected owners. A/N: I had Jertherine feels while watching this movie. Song is I'm a Bitch, I'm a lover by Meredith Brooks. I've changed Frankie to West, you'll know why when you meet Katherine's husband, and Miranda & Grayson are alive in this. Enjoy x
The Rebound
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I'm a bitch, I'm a lover,
I'm a child, I'm a mother,
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint,
I do not feel ashamed...
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Katherine Pierce drove her Suzuki Swift down the highway singing to the radio, after dropping her two children, West and Sadie to school. It was Thursday, and she was a stay-at-home mum, while her husband worked at the office. She had a routine nowadays, doing the housework before 11am, watching Oprah about midday, lunch, and afternoon tea at 1.30pm, before sitting down at her laptop to write. Once she even collated a book of statistics on her schedule, for her own amusement.
Waiting for her laptop to charge, Katherine poured herself a green smoothie, pulling her hair elastic out and fixing her hair again. She did a few stretches, then opened her husband's laptop, staring at their wedding photo on his desktop. It was those charming blue eyes that caught her attention. Katherine Whitmore, it sounded so chic, and he could be reasonable in bed, fine, better than reasonable, so she married him. Katherine bit her lip, recalling their pre-kids days, and morning sex. She typed in Wes' password and continued to peruse photographs of her son's fifth birthday party, laughing at some and clicked on a video file, fiddling with her wedding ring while it loaded, thinking about what to make for dinner.
The silence made her look up and she squinted at the screen where she could see Wes, leaning against the kitchen counter. Puzzled, Katherine moved the pointer further ahead, hearing herself and her kids singing happy birthday in the next room. She turned up the volume, and saw her husband's hands massaging somebody else's head. The cheating bastard, Katherine fumed, throwing the laptop across the room where it smashed against the tiles, she'd seen enough. Shaking with anger, she packed a bag, and two others for her children, she couldn't stay...she wouldn't stay to hear his pathetic excuses. In the car, Katherine dialled her friend Genevieve, asking if she and the kids could stay the night.
The next morning, Tyler poured coffee into two disposable cups, and wiped the coffee machine clean. He sighed, gazing at his best friend who looked as glum as he had two months ago. "You need to get a life!" Jeremy rolled his eyes, used to these sudden tirades. "Monique was just using you to get a green card, and then she slept with her brother!" Jeremy held up a dirty rag. "Boyfriend, posing as her brother," he corrected.
Tyler took the cash from a customer, thanking them and handing them a pamphlet to his art gallery opening. "You didn't know that at the time, but this is messed up, man, you need to move on. Come clubbing with us, Liv knows some pretty cool chicks from Whitmore?" Tyler wiggled his eyebrows at him. Jeremy turned him down. "Fine, stay home with your French movies, and while you're being pathetic, you'll miss out on finding your true love." Jeremy pretended to be cleaning the table, seeing his ex-wife's reflection in the shop window, and feeling depressed. He didn't tell Tyler he had another job interview after work because it was for a woman's shelter. He hoped his reference from his Women's Studies professor was enough to get him the job.
The job interview went well, and he was asked to stay for the afternoon. "Do you have any other experience with women's things?" Rebekah asked stuttered. "Excuse me? Uh, I used to buy tampons for my mother..." He was asked to try on a fat suit. "Here's your script, just do what it says and you'll be fine." He followed her into a large room, unnerved by the line of women glaring at him from the other side.
Jeremy wiped down the coffee tables at work when a flustered woman in her mid thirties entered, ladled with grocery bags, and a five year old boy on her left hip. "I don't want to live here, mum.." the boy said, taking in their rustic decor with a frown. An inquisitive eight year old ordered a coffee and two hot chocolates from Tyler. Their mother smiled. "Hello, I just saw your sign, I was wondering if I could have a look at the loft upstairs?" Katherine asked. Jeremy looked at Tyler, who put him on coffee duty while he showed her upstairs, winking at Jeremy. "Sure, I'll show you around," Tyler said.
Jeremy stirred some cinnamon into the hot chocolates and topped it up with extra foam and chocolate for the kids. "I'm West," the boy said, taking some serviettes. "That's my sister, Sadie," he pointed beside him. Sadie picked up some sticks of sugar, and pressed the coffee lids onto their drinks while he made Katherine's coffee, hearing Tyler coming back down the stairs. Jeremy leaned on the counter, giving West a smile when he licked the foam from his lid. Katherine took a sip of her coffee. "We'll take it, I can move in tomorrow." She paused. "Do I know you?" she asked Jeremy.
Jeremy shook his head, puzzled. "No, we've never met before." Katherine shook her head and ushered her children out the door, thanking him for the drinks. Tyler rounded on Jeremy, as soon as she'd gone. "You were totally making eyes at her!" Jeremy denied it, but smiled when his back was turned, she had definitely made an impression, he thought.
Genevieve swatted Katherine's arm, ruining her relaxing playlist and causing her to remove her earphone. "How are you so well adjusted?" Genevieve panted. "You just got divorced?" Katherine shrugged, jogging on the spot. She was taking care of herself, and maybe it was those blueberry muffins she'd eaten for breakfast, since moving into the loft. Genevieve scrutinised her. "You're glowing! You've met someone! Tell me right this minute!" Katherine sighed, taking a sip of water. She turned off her machine and filled her best friend in as they exited the gym.
Katherine saw the boy from the coffee shop jogging with his earphones in across the street. Genevieve caught her line of sight, and grinned. "NICE ASS, COFFEE BOY!" she shouted getting elbowed by Katherine while Jeremy looked around. Genevieve rolled her eyes. "Seriously, babe, you need to have some fun! I'm going to set you up with all my guy friends." Katherine sighed, allowing Genevieve to drag her along, thinking maybe she could lie and say she had something on, like organising her shoe closet.
"Oh, I've just thought of the perfect guy, you remember, Vaughn? He's a chiropractor, yes, I'm going to see if he's free!" Katherine groaned, hitting the decline button on her phone when Wes called again. She wondered who she could ask to babysit, and checked her watch, making sure she wasn't late for picking the kids up from school. Katherine waited in the car circling jobs in the newspaper and rang the number advertised for a marketing position at a sports' agency. They wanted to meet with her on Monday. It was Thursday night, a week after she'd discovered Wes had cheated on her with his secretary.
So cliché, she thought. If she didn't have kids she would have blocked his number from her phone, but her doctor wanted her to go to marriage counselling, and she didn't want to ban Wes from her kids entirely, or did she? When the kids were in the car, before driving to their new apartment, Katherine asked their opinion on her dating again. "It's a positive step," Katherine tried to convince herself. "Are you going to have sex?" Sadie asked, pulling on her seatbelt. Katherine raised her eyebrows, caught off guard. "That's an important question...one we'll discuss later." She sighed, putting on a brave face, and looking forward to relaxing in front of the television.
It was Jeremy's second day at the women's shelter, and he monotonously read his lines, playing the perpetrator in the scenario. Rebekah marched up and down the threatening line of women, rallying the troops, or so she said. Jeremy adjusted his fat suit, and put his helmet on, bracing himself for their retaliation. At least he was helping people, he tried to convince himself, catching the end of Rebekah's speech.
"All of us, as women, have developed a reservoir of resentment and anger, and these reservoirs, put together, form an ocean, and this ocean is available for all of us to draw from. It holds the collective power of every woman who has ever been wronged. An inappropriate sexual remark, being underpaid for a job you've done better than a man, an ancestor who was a slave, or rice picker, or simply low man on the totem pole, a husband who has wronged you, who has cheated and lied to you, or you, or you, or you." Jeremy rolled up and down on his heels, waiting to be called.
Rebekah called for a volunteer, and Jeremy was surprised to see Katherine Pierce walk through the parted crowd. She didn't recognise him, which might've been a good thing, judging by what Rebekah wanted her to do next. "Read the line!" Rebekah ordered Jeremy, who muttered something along the lines of an insulting sexist remark. "Tell him to zip it." His heart raced. "Tell him what you want to say to your husband?" Katherine nodded, raising her fists in a boxing stance, like Rebekah had shown her.
The women encouraged her with kind words. Katherine took a deep breath, punching him in the arm. It didn't hurt, the protective suit covered him, but it did rough him up a little bit, especially after seeing her crazy eyes. "ZIP IT PERP!" Katherine kicked him in the groin, sending him back several steps. Each word accompanied with several punches and kicks. "Dirty little fucking scumbag!" she yelled. Rebekah told her to embrace the fury.
Jeremy wondered whether he had a safe word. "Take your disease-riddled whore and fuck her in hell, for all eternity! While the devil burns you with hot, jagged metal! And suffocates you, with molten fury!" Jeremy gritted his teeth while she continued to beat him up, pushing him to the ground.
Eventually she stopped, resting her head against his fat-suit. Sweaty, but still beautiful, Jeremy thought. Unsure of how to comfort her, he patted her hair in an awkward manner. "It's ok," he murmured. Katherine raised her chin. "Do I know you?" she asked. He didn't say anything, interrupted by West and Sadie who helped their mother stand, impressed by her meltdown. He sighed, left alone, and grateful that his shift was almost over.
A/N: Please review and point out any typos, thanks muchly :)
