Snapshot is the umbrella title for this series of short stories about OLTL characters. These stories were written for a prompt challenge at Soap Fan Fiction, link in my bio.

The Life He Found

"A snowstorm in Texas? You got to be kidding me!" Rex smacked his own self in the head, then mouthed "Ouch."

He was staring forlornly out the window of the Bon Jour Diner, which looked to be where he would be sleeping on Christmas Eve this year- unless the grouchy grease stained owner, Mo, kicked his ass out onto the curb. There was a motel across the street but the parking lot was jam packed with semi trucks and a neon sign flashed No Vacancy.

From behind him Gigi said, as she wiped down the counter, "You call that a snowstorm? We saw worst in October back in Detroit."

"Yeah," he spun around to face her again, flashing back in time as he did. For
a moment he saw her at seventeen standing by her locker." But back in Detroit people still managed to function with one inch of snow on the ground. Here, your down home cowboys, run and hide under the covers, and ground their planes. The plane I need to get back home to my almost fiancee!" He sighed dramatically, hoping for sympathy, but Gigi only rolled her eyes.

Adrianna, if she was here, would have rushed to his side, rubbed his back, assured him all would work out well, whispered something hot in his ear, some promise of what they could do on a cold winter night in the Lonestar State, and Rex would have felt taken cared of. Somewhere in the back of his mind it nagged at him that as much as he liked the response he would have gotten out of the woman he loved, it would have felt forced, fake...like what she thought he wanted her to do. But Gigi wasn't about to play that sort of game. He remembered how she never put up with any crap from him when they were kids- no lying, no cheating, no keeping secrets- and how he hadn't felt like he had to hold back any part of who he was with her...she liked him, as is, not for the man she hoped he would turn into one day. She had been a hot, fun girlfriend- his first everything, including heartbreak- but more than that she had been one hell of a friend.

As she wiped down the counter, Gigi said "So you stay one more night then head home, you'll be there by Christmas dinner still, in time to give that girl of yours that ring you bought off me."

"Stay? Stay where? In the freezer here? Or that booth over there? I don't suppose this place has a bathtub I could crash in till morning?"

"Nope. Sorry. Maybe you could go home with Mo..."

"A Yankee on my couch?!" the cook, and sole proprietor, bellowed from the kitchen. "My mama would kick me out of the family. Y'all gonna have to come up with something else and quick. Cause we're closing in five minutes."
"Oh, cool your jets," Gigi told him "I'm still refilling these here salt shakers and then I have the ketchups to get to."

"Then get to it, girly. You've been moving slow as molasses since your former sweetheart came moseying in here today. And don't think the customers didn't notice either."

"I'm the best waitress you got and you know it," she called back to him. "You better be nice to me or I might up and quit you for good."

"Oh, you ain't gonna go no where, Gigi," Mo grumbled under his breath.

Gigi shook her head at him as she kept working. Rex pulled out his cell and tried to call a cab. The dispatcher told him that none of the drivers would go out in this hazardous weather. Rex was saying "But...but...but.." when the person hung up "I need a ride!" he told the dail tone. Now he couldn't even sleep at the airport on the floor. "Great. Just freaking great. Well," he slowly turned and met Gigi's eyes again, this time seeing her as she looked the very first day they met, when she was smoking behind the school and he bummed one off her. "It looks like you are stuck with me tonight."

Her eyes widened with something that looked close to fear. It wasn't the response he expected. Back in the day, she would have snarked at him Well, one night is all any woman could stand of you, Balsam.

And he would have shot back And yet you're still here, Morasco.

Rex moved close to the counter, leaned on it until his face was inches in front of hers, and said "Just one night. One night, okay? For your old friend Rex?"

"You...you want to sleep at my place?"

"It's not like I know anyone else in Paris, Texas or Paris, France for that matter. I have a few friends in Llanview, and Adrianna, Roxy, my sister, Bo...and I have you. That's about it for my friends worldwide, unless you count MySpace, but I don't." He gave her a sad puppy dog face. He used the same exact expression when he talked her out of her bra for the first time. "Please...don't make me sleep in my car. It's cold out there."

"It's Texas."

"It's snowing."

"Its Texas snow, that hardly counts." Her mind was racing with all the reasons she couldn't let him go back to her place, the biggest being a ten year old version of the very man who stood before her who was there right now with his babysitter.

Mo came out of the kitchen. "You two figure out where this hobo is going for the night?"

"Hey!" Rex complained "I'm a P.I. on a case, not some vagrant."
Mo countered, as he headed for the door, "You don't got no place to sleep, that's makes you homeless. Now if you want waffles or pancakes or grits, you come back in the morning, if you got any cash on you. Don't think I didn't see Gigi slip you that pecan pie earlier. But until 6 am the Bon Jour Diner is closed. Now, both of you, skeedadle." Mo held open the door, giving Gigi no choice but to grab her coat and head out.

Her mind was racing with what to tell Rex. She couldn't just abandon him on the side of the road and yet, if she took him back to her apartment, it could be a disaster. And the one that would get hurt most would be her little boy...their son.

XXXXXXXX

She slipped into the door cautiously. The house was quiet. Rex came in after her. "Nice place."

"It's a hole, and you know it."

"No worse than where Roxy tried raising me before Aunt Corinne took me in. And I survived."

Survived, the word hit Gigi like hurricane, washing away all her pretenses. Surviving, she thought, that is all I have been doing for the last decade. Raising Shane and surviving...not living. Sure as hell not loving. Surviving. I am a survivor. Goody for me.

Lonnie slipped out of the bedroom and made her way down the hall. Softly she whispered "He just fell asleep. We got his math homework done and he ate three pieces of broccoli."

"Three? You are a miracle worker. I've never managed more than two before he starts fake gagging." Gigi introduced the baby sitter to Rex, paid her, and then Lonnie left.

Gigi hurried to grab some blankets and a pillow to give to Rex so she could escape behind the closed door of her room, away from him and all the memories that were tormenting her mind ever since he walked into her job. She was lucky she didn't faint dead away at the sight of him, or punch his lights out right on the spot. He was damn lucky he got off with one little slap.

"So when is your flight out?" she asked him "Seven am? So you need to leave by five right? Shane and me, we'll still be asleep. That kid don't wake up till I shake him and yell that the bus is coming down the block so...it was good to see you."

"You too," he whispered.

A nostaglic look came over his face, one she had seen many times already today, and one that threatened to break her heart in two if she had to see it one more time. It was as if he missed them...her...what they had. And she couldn't let herself think that he did, not even for a second, because if she did...she'd lose it. She'd get lost in what if, and should haves, and probably blurt out the whole truth about the child they shared. That would only lead to pain because Rex couldn't stay here and be the father Shane always longed for or the friend Gigi missed like crazy every single day. His life was back in Pennsylvania with some chick named Adrianna...his Adrianna...his almost fiancee.

Ah, hell and damnation! Gigi silently spewed a long string of curse words at how bad her life sucked sometimes. When would she get a lucky break? When would some guy...her guy...her Rex...be desperate to get back to where she was, like he was over Adrianna right now? When? She was pretty sure the answer was never.

"Good night, Rex."

"Night."

Gigi headed down the hall but stopped when she heard Rex say "This is your son?" in a surprised tone.

She turned to see him looking at a picture of Shane, dressed in his little league outfit.

Rex said "This is the kid from the diner...I saw him earlier...you didn't say he was yours."

"I didn't? Sure I did."

His eyes remained on the photo, his voice was soft and thoughtful. "I thought your son was younger."

Nervously, she picked at her fingernail, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, forced her voice to sound light and asked "What would have made you think that?"

"I don't know..." Rex's voice faded off. His eyes were still stuck on the photo. "Cute kid. But he don't look a thing like you."

"He takes after his father."

Rex looked around the room, his eyes moving from photo to photo. "Oh yeah? Where is the guy anyway? I don't see even one shot of him anywhere."

"He died when Shane was a baby. He was in the Special Forces."

"Oh yeah? A real hero for Shane to look up to, huh?" His eyes narrowed in on hers.

"He can't really remember him but I tell him stories." For a moment, Gigi thought her story would work, like it had everytime before. Sure, Shane looked a little like Rex, but it wasn't like he was a replica or anything. All she had to do was fudge his birthday a little, a few months tops, and Rex would think she moved on from him quickly after he left Michigan, that Shane's father was someone else, anyone else.

One part of her heart was aching for Rex to know the truth but the other part was too scared to say it. Shane was hers, all hers, and had been since his first breath. Back then, she wanted to share him with Rex. She cried when she looked into her baby boy's eyes and knew that she couldn't turn to his father and say Isn't he adorable? but in time she let go of her fantasties of Rex ever tracking them down, or Corinne ever giving her Rex's number. She moved on and made this new life in Texas. Maybe if there was no Adrianna, young and pretty, Gigi knew from the picture Rex showed her, at home waiting for him...maybe it would be different. Maybe then Gigi could give Shane what he longed for most, a flesh and blood father, but she wouldn't offer her child that just to have Rex leave them behind for the second time.

Rex broke into her thoughts when he asked "What was his name?"

"Who?"

"Shane's father. What was his name?"

"REX! What is this? An interrogation? I said you could sleep on my couch, not write a memoir about me. If you want to sleep, go to sleep. If you want to talk, I suggest you call Adrianna cause I am dead on my feet." She faked a yawn. "Mo runs me ragged, I swear. It's been great catching up with you but I'm beat and the subject of Shane's father...well, its just too hard to remember that time in my life, realizing I would have to raise that precious, perfect little boy all on my own. But I've done it. A damn good job, too. Sometimes I wonder if I'll make it till he is eighteen, going like this, working these minimum wage jobs and everything but ...I will. I will make it. Because I don't have a choice. Now, good night."

Gigi turned to leave but he hurried closer to her and gently grabbed her shoulder, then turned her around. "Not so fast."

Their eyes locked in on each other.

Rex asked, holding up the picture with one hand, "Is this my son?"