Title: Post-Traumatic Stress
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, AU/speculation on episodes that should have aired a long time ago and I'm done waiting for
Pairing: Beck/Jade
Summary: On his way home from the airport on a Saturday night, Beck finds a man in a diaper and a Prom Queen. / Continuation of Prom Wrecker.
Notes: I have been intending to write this since Prom Wrecker premiered. But I'm glad I waited, because Opposite Date gave me some insight on where they might be taking Jade's character that I based some of Senior!Jade on.
Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious.
The clock on the dashboard of his dad's minivan had just ticked past ten o'clock, and the GPS estimated that they were twelve minutes away from home. Not that the GPS was necessary since they were back on the streets that even Beck knew like the back of his hand, but his dad hadn't felt the need to shut it up yet, and the music from his headphones drowned out the directions, so he couldn't care less either way.
Eleven minutes now, according to TimTim, until he would be back in his RV, where he could throw his bags into a corner to be dealt with later and call his girlfriend over. And she could go on the longest rant ever about how much she hated Tori, and he would watch because, most of the time, when she was really angry she was also really pretty. Then she would probably ask him how miserable Canada was, so she could take consolation in the fact that she wasn't the only one who'd had a shitty week. (and, if she was in a bad enough mood, he would make up some lie about how horribly Canadian and not-American it was to cheer her up)
When he saw a half-naked (more like four-fifths naked, honestly) man with a struggling girl in a princess carry being followed by a midget holding a boom box over his head, he was torn between a need to tip off the police and shaking his head at LA's nightlife. Then another car's headlights flashed over the group, shining into the girl's face for an instant, and the situation became infinitely less amusing.
"Stop the car." He said, yanking out his headphones. Half of his brain felt like it was slipping into shock while the half that was way too influenced by Jade was categorizing ways to break the fucker's hand. "Dad, stop the car!"
"What, why?" He asked, but he was already hitting the brake. Beck futilely tugged on the handle on the passenger's side door. If not for the van's damned "safety features", he would have leapt from the car while it was still rolling.
As it were, he had enough time before his dad undid the locks to sputter out half an explication. "That's Jade!"
Then cold raindrops hit his face and his shoes met concrete, and he was yelling "Hey!" as he stalked up to the pair of men.
The one in a diaper, who was clutching Jade in his arms while being seemingly oblivious to her struggles against him, turned around too quickly, his face slack in confusion before he reached his own conclusion as to what Beck wanted.
"Oh, no way, man. This is my Prome Queen, go get your own." Meanwhile, his friend had shut the boom box off and slipped into the shadow of a building, appearing content to see how it played out.
"No," he growled, forcibly prying one of the man's hands away from Jade's bare thigh, giving her legs room to fall to the ground and allowing her to gain some footing. "She's MY girlfriend. Let her go!"
"Beck?!" Jade squawked as she finally caught up with the rapid chain of events. But the man latched onto her before she could turn to face him or step away.
He squinted and swayed as he processed Beck's words. Suddenly, he pouted and looked down at Jade. "Aww, baby, you cheated?"
Beck tried to break the man's grip on Jade and seriously considered decking the guy when he failed. But a voice from over his shoulder stopped him.
"Sir, the girl you appear to be kidnapping is a minor, and I'm fairly certain you're pushing the limits of some kind of indecent exposure law. I'm calling the police." He hadn't even heard his dad get out of the car, but he was eternally grateful. In response to the threat, the man held both hands up defensively, which meant releasing Jade. Beck grabbed her arm and pulled her several steps away before planting himself solidly between her and the man. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the midget focused on casually walking away from the scene, abandoning his boom box.
"Hey, dude, Doug the Diaper Guy abides by all California state laws. All slips of the diaper are accidental, so it doesn't count. I have to mean to bust all the junk out of this trunk."
Beck cringed at the mental image, but quickly shifted his focus to his girlfriend. "Jade, are you okay?" He asked as gripped her arms and pushed her just far enough away to inspect her. "Jesus, you're cold. And soaked. How long was he carrying you?"
Before Jade could answer, Doug interrupted them. "Man, you can have her. She was a bitch anyway."
Beck glared and took half a step towards him before Jade latched onto his arm, holding him back. "Okay," she hissed in his ear, just loud enough for him to hear. "This has been very heroic and chivalrous. Seriously, panties are dropping. But he's big, and drunk, and wearing a diaper. Now is not the time to pick a fight."
Beck scowled, but stepped back toward the car. His dad put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back more. "Come on, it's cold and we need to get home. I think there's a blanket in the back for Jade."
Sighing, he shot one last glare at Doug before wrapping his arms around Jade and leading her to the van. While his dad started it and threw the heat on full, Beck climbed into the back row of seats and pulled a blanket out of the trunk. Communicating between the front and back of the car required shouting, so he and Jade were granted some semblance of privacy.
"Ugg," Jade groaned as she pulled the blanket tightly around her. "I hate rain. I hate being wet. I'm all soggy and gross."
"You also hate the word panties." He pointed out, still slightly confused by her speech earlier.
"Yeah. Oh, I hope you didn't think I meant mine. No, I was talking about the dumb bimbos who would find almost picking a fight with a drunk guy three times your size to be oh, so romantic." She explained, utilizing her mocking-Tori voice. "Their panties would have left craters in the ground."
"Meanwhile, you..."
"Don't wear panties. You know that."
The noise he made was an odd combination of a sigh and a chuckle. "Yeah. Anyway. How long was he carrying you?"
She crossed her arms over her chest and shrugged. "You know. Couple of streets."
"Couple of-" He started to repeat, stunned, when she cut him off.
"Maybe a mile."
"A mile?" He parroted. "Where the hell did he... pick you up?" He stumbled over the phrase, resorting to making vague, awkward hand gestures to demonstrate that he meant literally lifting her off the ground rather than the usual meaning. Jade muttered something, pretending to find a thread on the seat VERY interesting for an excuse not to look him in the eye. "What?"
"I said, at the Prome!" She snapped.
He hesitated for a moment before realizing what she meant. "You mean Tori's Prom thing?"
"Yes, but she called it a Prome."
"Uh-huh." He sighed disinterestedly. "And, can you tell me, where were our friends when you were getting carted away by a large, hairy man in a diaper?"
Jade's eyes sparked with the glee she always got when she realized someone was in trouble and it wasn't her. "Oh, they loved it. They cheered. Everybody did." And just as quickly as her joy had bloomed, it died rapidly before his eyes. "Just like when you kissed Tori."
He winced. Part of him wished she would just let that go, but the larger part knew it was a bit hard to forget instances when even the people she counted as friends absolutely relished her betrayal and public humiliation.
As if she was reading his mind, she turned away and muttered "Every fucking time, it's like Munchkinland after the Wicked Witch dies. I bet they'll have a song and dance ready by the next one. The 'Look, Everyone, Jade's Life's Gone To Shit! Bring The Cake!' Oh, and they'll have a cake, too."
He reached over and gently took her hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. He couldn't say anything that would help, so he didn't try. Honestly, in his opinion, her reaction was good progress. The fact that she was so bitter about their "betrayal" spoke volumes about how much she'd allowed herself to trust them. And that she was, more likely than not, going to keep trusting them in spite of it said even more.
"Maybe I should tell them that my parents just got divorced." She said with an angry smile. "It'd be a much better reason for them to have a party than 'Tori felt like it'."
He was spared from trying to come up with an answer by his dad parking the van.
"Come on," he said instead. "You can change into some dry clothes inside."
Later, when they were sprawled on his bed watching TV, with Jade wearing a pair of his pajama pants and one of his tank tops and her hair shoved into a half-assed bun because she couldn't stand wet hair in her face, she rested her head on his shoulder, pressing her forehead against his neck.
"So, how miserable was Canada?"
"Terribly." He answered immediately. "Not American at all."
She smirked, her lips brushing his skin and leaving tingles behind. "Told you."
That Monday afternoon, he rushed to the Asphalt Cafe so he'd have plenty of time before Jade got there. He smiled (in a way that was three-fourths muscle memory, one-forth insincerity and bitterness, and totally not learned from Jade) when he spotted his friends.
"Hey, guys." He greeted with faux-cheerfulness. "So, I got home Saturday night, and I found something interesting on my way back from the airport." He sat down and leveled a stare at Andre, who was the only one who seemed to notice the rapidly growing tension. "And I want you to explain it to me." Actually, he didn't, but it was a good lead-in, nonetheless.
"What?" Tori asked, blindly stumbling into a minefield.
"Oh, you know. A dark, abandoned street in downtown LA. Where a big, drunk, naked guy was manhandling my girlfriend. Oh, and she said that you, Tori, sent her off with him, and all of you cheered it on."
Tori suddenly looked like she had swallowed her tongue, and Cat's jaw had fallen. Andre was the first to regain his footing. "Look, man, she was being a giant gank all night..."
He laughed, sharp and angry. (he was channeling Jade a lot in this conversation) "I don't care. Look, I heard all of Jade's side already, and I'm sure that she was being absolutely insufferable. And it probably seemed like a great joke. But she could have gotten hurt. So if I ever see my girlfriend in another situation that makes me suspect she's been roofied and find out you put her there? We won't be friends anymore, and we will have some major problems."
With that, he stood and stalked away from the table without giving them a chance to respond. He smiled, sincerely this time, when he caught Jade on her way out of the school building and kissed her on the cheek before pulling her to the opposite side of the Cafe than usual. He didn't think he'd be able to look at his friends and eat.
Beck didn't think about Doug the Diaper Guy again until after he and Jade broke up (for real this time, lasting for a little over a year rather than less than seventy-two hours) and got back together. A party during the tail end of Senior year found them, Robbie, Tori, Cat, and Andre in Tori's living room playing truth or dare while said party raged outside.
"Beck," Tori called, playfully challenging. "Choose your poison: truth or dare."
"Truth." He announced, tightening his arm around Jade's waist, because being less possessive and high-strung didn't mean being cool with Tori getting an opportunity to make him do whatever she wanted.
"What... is your most frightening memory?"
Jade snorted, most likely finding the question lame. In his opinion, it was just highly likely to get a "downer" answer. "Beck doesn't get scared." Jade reminded Tori.
Beck paused to take a swig of his beer. "Seeing my girlfriend being kidnapped by Doug the Diaper Guy."
"What?" Jade questioned, twisting to look at him and therefore missing how everyone else in the room suddenly looked ashamed and guilty. Downer answer, indeed.
He nodded. "I didn't get scared. Until then."
"That scared you? It was Doug the Diaper Guy. Yeah, you pulled the Knight in Shinning Armor routine, but the only thing you 'saved' me from was learning what soggy diaper against my knee felt like when I kicked him in the balls."
He shrugged. "Sure. But I was still worried."
A few hours later, almost everyone had gone home, Tori had passed out on her couch, Robbie was cuddling a pillow on the floor beside it, Cat and Andre managed to comfortably fall asleep in the downstairs bathtub, and Beck and Jade had taken Tori's room. Jade was getting comfortable on the remaining pillows after disposing the pink ones onto the floor.
"Hey, babe." He sighed as he slipped onto the bed behind her, throwing an arm around her waist.
"Hmm?"
"I didn't almost punch Doug the Diaper Guy in the face to impress you or anyone else." He pressed a kiss to the back of her neck. "I did it because I thought you were in trouble, and it scared the shit out of me, and I wanted to get you out of there."
Two years before she would have snorted in disbelief and written it off as a lie. Instead, she let her hand drift to his, then clutched it tightly. "Thank you for rescuing me." She whispered.
"Any time." He promised, pressing a final kiss to her bare shoulder then snuggling into it. "G'night."
"Night." She answered, sounding, for Jade, surprisingly happy and content.