The Brighter Side of Ugly
Wet Hot Demonic Summer
Disclaimer: I do not own Ugly Americans. Though I wish I did because if I did I would go to FX and to Netflix and to ScyFy and everywhere else I could think of to get it back on the air. I really hope that Devin Clark is doing that. This show has so much promise left in it and potential for character development that I hope someone picks it up and it comes back, maybe with longer seasons and less wait between groupings of new episodes.
A/N: Since I've stalled on "Love or Life" for the time being and there's been such a lack of new UA Fanfiction of late, I thought I'd do a series of post-eps showing the relationship between Mark and Callie otherwise known as the heart of the show. I put it out there right now that I am a hopeless romantic and these may be a little too mushy for your taste. If you don't like it, I dare you to write something you consider better. Seriously, we need to beef up the UA Fanfiction section. I hope you enjoy my first post-ep.
Mark Lilly was gullible. But he was very aware that he was gullible. Of course in hind sight all things were so much clearer. He had gone back to the apartment alone and locked himself in his room, Randal didn't notice that he wasn't being very talkative.
He mentally kicked himself over and over again for not realizing that he was being used. He had to be the biggest idiot on the planet. Or at least the biggest idiot in all of New York. Things made sense now that hadn't added up before but he'd been too excited about being a camp councilor again that he'd allowed himself to get carried away.
He was always getting carried away like that. It was one of his many faults. He spent most of his life trying to ignore his own shortcomings in the pursuit of helping others but every once in a while those shortcomings became painfully obvious, so much so that he felt as though he needed to reevaluate his entire life and the choices he'd made.
He was feeling particularly low. Leonard had almost been killed, along with a lot of other wizards. He didn't like knowing thast he'd been used. He threw himself back against the pillows on his bed and shut his eyes, hoping that a good night's sleep might erase some of the guilt but knowing it probably wouldn't.
Only a few moments later there was a tap on his window. He rolled over and opened his eyes just a crack. He groaned as he saw Callie waiting expectantly. She was perhaps one of the last people he wanted to see at that moment. He sighed and sat up. If he didn't let her in she'd find a way and he'd only succeed in incurring her wrath.
He opened the window and allowed his girlfriend to enter the room before returning to the bed. He rolled onto his side so that he was facing away from her. He wasn't in the mood for sex. He wasn't in the mood for her.
Callie was uncharacteristically slow to approach the bed. When she did she sat carefully on the edge. She remained silent for a long time. She wasn't stupid. She knew that using her boyfriend in this way, with the intent to cause mass mayhem, was something he wouldn't appreciate. But what could she have done about it, denied her father? She was torn between two worlds. But only recently, since she'd become involved with Mark, had she truly felt that she even belonged to the human world in any part.
Slowly she stretched out on the bed beside him and tapped his shoulder. He didn't so much as acknowledge her. Part of her wanted to hit him, lash out, to be just as violent and abusive as she could. After all, who was he to make her feel guilt? How dare he make her feel as if she owed him an explanation for what she'd done?
But she couldn't. She knew she couldn't take her frustrations out on him, not right now at least. She took a deep breath and attempted to start a conversation "Did all your students get home alright?" she decided on a neutral topic, not that she cared about any of Mark's students but she knew that he did and that might just be enough to get him to talk.
"Yeah," he answered noncommittally, still facing away from her. He knew she didn't give a crap about the topic and he didn't give a crap about her attempt to make conversation.
The air in the room seemed incredibly thick and heavy to Callie at that moment. She reached out and grabbed Mark's shoulder. Gently at first she tried to turn him to face her. When he resisted and shrugged her off she forced him onto his back and strattled him.
She stared down into his face in the glow cast by the city outside. His face was unusually blank, it rattled her, more than she cared to admit. He showed no sign of excitement at the closeness of their bodies, no twinge of fear from not knowing what she'd do next and most terrifying to her, no love. There was no love in his eyes. His eyes always held a certain sparkle when he looked at her that Callie didn't realize until that minute that she desired almost more than the sex.
She almost backed down, she almost walked away. But it wasn't in her nature to give up. So she took a deep breath "What was I supposed to do?" she asked, her eyes clenching shut, no longer able to look at him.
"You could have warned me," he suggested, his voice low and even.
Callie shook her head "Yeah, because that would have gone over so well with Daddy…" she sighed and then added "Anyway, I sort of did…"
"When it was already too late," Mark pointed out.
Callie rolled off of Mark and stretched out beside him again, daring to reach an arm across his chest to keep him from rolling away from her. "I don't have a choice in these things Mark," she told him.
He propped himself up on his elbow and looked at her. His expression had morphed from nonexistent to unreadable "You can always choose," he told her firmly.
Callie wasn't sure she'd ever heard him speak with such conviction before and it made a chill run down her spine. She knew she could choose but she was also aware that in wanting to choose she was admitting that everything that she'd grown up believing wasn't as right as she'd once thought.
"It's complicated," she replied.
Mark nodded in the near darkness and made a move to wrap his arms around her. He knew it was complicated for her. He knew that just in her deciding to remain involved with him was a source of internal conflict for her. "One day it won't be," he assured her softly.
Callie wanted to laugh. Things would never be simple for her again. She smiled faintly and opened her eyes. Her gaze caught his and her smile grew as her heart, tiny as she claimed it was, swelled with happiness. She'd caught that special glint in his eyes.
They didn't end up having sex that night. Instead Callie fell asleep in Mark's arms, feeling safe and protected. She knew things would never be simple but it didn't matter because she was loved.
A/N: So there you have it, just over a thousand words and the first thing I've posted in months. I will take requests for the post-ep I should right next but I must tell you right now that I will not write any post-eps for "Soulsucker" because Moonchild10 already wrote one called "Human" which I would never dare to top.