I'm going to call this a fill-in story; it takes place during the tail end of Asylum. Although, what they
showed us was absolutely beautiful I wanted to see Jude with the children and the way they lived
together. This is my first AHS story and if you like it, I may write another one.
American Horror Story is creative property of Ryan Murphy, FX and a whole host of other entities.
None of whom include me.
"Thomas!" Jude shrieked. "Thomas, my boy! No, not him!"
Kit bolted for the front door, he'd left his son in the front of the house with Jude and a bicycle while Julia slept. He didn't want to leave his six year old daughter inside the house alone and Thomas was barely five and he begged to go outside.
Kit's eyes stuck to the crushed bicycle on the shoulder of the road, the front tire was still spinning from the impact. With horror stamped in his gut he found Jude hovered on her knees in the grass crouched over Thomas.
"Is he hurt?" Kit skidded to a halt next to Jude. She didn't notice him; she was too busy screaming. "Not him, not Thomas!" Hysterical tears streamed down her face as she held him.
"Jude!" On instinct, Kit grabbed her shoulders, "You gotta let me see him!" He said. She moved slightly,
her body still curled protectively around the fragile little boy.
Kit knelt on the grass, a pair of dark eyes looked up at him, "Hi Daddy. NaGlimpsena pulled me out of the way."
"Jesus Christ," Kit breathed out in relief, "I thought you were hurt."
Jude froze, there was no color in her face. "It was just for a second-I saw the truck; Thomas was
watching the dog in the back. The car behind it was going too fast, there's never any traffic on this road. I thought it was safe for him to ride his bike out here."
"You were watching him." Kit said, he didn't know what else to say, his son was alive and that was the most important thing. "You protected him," he amended.
"Look at his face," she threw back bitterly and gingerly ran her thumb against the bruise forming on the
child's cheek. "Look at his forehead!" There was a purplish lump blossoming against his hairline.
"It's nothing a little ice won't fix. Let's go inside." He took Jude's arm, she trembled under his grip.
"What about my bike?" Thomas cast a forlorn look across the street, the hunk of metal across the street glinted in the waning sunlight.
She ran her hand lovingly against his soft face, "Your father's going to get you a new bike." She tapped his nose and winked, "I'll make sure of it." Then she scooped him up into her arms, Thomas just held her tight, soaking up the affection.
Kit grinned at the exchange, when Jude was with the kids it was like they were in a world all their own
and he had to wait until they allowed him entrance. "He can walk." Kit reminded her and held open the screen door to the house.
"I know; I don't want him to." She followed him over the clapboard porch and through the door. She laid Thomas gently across the sofa.
"Now, you stay right there and don't move an inch; while I get your ice pack." She tapped him on the tip of his nose with her fingertip. She loved that little nose and hated the blueness that was slowly spreading across his cheek. His whole face would be black and blue by morning. She made her way across the living room and ducked around the island separating the kitchen from the living room. Kit was already filling the ice pack and puffing away at a cigarette.
"You look like you could use one." He stabbed his cigarette out in the ashtray and slide the pack towards
her. "Are you okay?"
She reached for the freezer with shaking hands and struggled to harden her resolve. The past had snuck up on her again.
"I-I didn't mean to."
"Thomas is fine." Kit insisted.
"Not Thomas." She shook her head violently, blonde curls swished over her shoulders. Her voice took on
a husky tone of repressed emotion, she'd never told anyone, not even Mother Claudia.
"Is there something I need to know?" Kit asked.
He hadn't considered it before when he'd blindly trusted Jude with his children, simply because she needed them. When he took her away from the madhouse and into his home, he knew that she needed him, needed them, needed a family. She was the only person in the world who knew without a doubt, without any creative license, what horrors Briarcliff was hiding.
Never mind how many of those horrors she had inflicted. None of that mattered at the time.
"Everything I did at Briarcliffe was in an act of redemption," her voice trailed off. If you can believe beatings, the isolation, sending you to bed without supper. All of it was an effort to save souls. Mine, first and foremost."
"You can tell me," he pressed.
"It was years ago and I was drunk—it was very late and she was riding her bike. My fiance left me, I lost my job. Everything… and I was trying to drown my sorrows. She came out of nowhere and I couldn't stop my car fast enough."
She couldn't look at Kit, instead her eyes stayed fixated on the hardwood of the kitchen island. "That little blue coat—it haunted me for years. When I left Briarcliff, I went back, I wanted to talk to her parents; I wanted to beg their forgiveness for taking their child from them. I wanted them to know that I was sorry…. But before I could get the words out, she walked through the door…" Jude finally looked at Kit.
A single tear trailed down her weathered cheek; but a small, soft smile graced her lips. "Can you believe that? She was all grown-up with a baby of her own."
"That's great, Jude." What else could he say?
"That morning, after the accident…" That's what she always called it. She could never admit what she had done, until now. "I kept driving. I didn't know where to go or who to contact. So I kept going."
"Jude, you didn't?"
She nodded. "And when the car finally stopped, I had slammed right into the angel statue at Briarcliff. In the middle of the lawn."
"No way!" The image of stern and sometimes evil 'sister Jude' falling down drunk and driving into anyone's front yard, was unbelievable and it should have been funny. Except, somehow it wasn't. To Kit, it was just sad.
"I fell right into Mother Claudia's arms and I never left."
"Until now."
"I wanted children of my own, you know?" She continued, her eyes focused on the little boy who lay just feet from her. "But, Casey- he made it impossible."
"What did he do?" Kit prodded.
"He ran off, two months before the wedding. When I found him he was passed out drunk in a shabby motel room with some bar fly."
"Ouch."
"Oh, it gets better." She pointed a finger towards Kit. "Just you wait "
Kit lit another smoke and inhaled deeply. Nodding for her to continue.
"He sickened me and stole my fertility and when I told him that I could never have his children, he walked out for good."
"Now wait a minute," Kit interjected, " If he left you for something he did, he was either too ashamed to look you in the eye everyday for the rest of his life or he was a bastard from the beginning and my money's on bastard." Kit growled.
"Probably."
"And as far as kids go, I have two who love you very much and you seem to love them. So I don't see a problem."
She smiled then, "I do love them." She whispered. "I should get Thomas his ice pack. With genuine gratitude she said, "Thank you, for listening."
"Anytime, Jude. I'll get dinner started."
Feeling lighter than she ever had, she ducked around the kitchen island and stuck the ice pack to Thomas's head. "There you go, Baby." She muttered softly.
Kit wasn't ashamed of eavesdropping, he saw his son wince as she gently applied the ice to his head, he listened to her comfort him as he cuddled on her lap with his head on her chest. This was not the same woman who turned him over her desk and beat him to the point of bleeding.
For a moment, he thought he saw a glimpse of who she used to be, before a man turned her world upside down.
A little tug on his shirt pulled Kit away from his thoughts. He smiled down at Julia. "Hey Little Lady."
"What did I miss?" she ask softly.
"Oh, nothin' Thomas fell off his bike, that's all." He scooped her up and sat her on the counter in front of him.
"Can I see Nana?"
"Sure thing." He let her down and watched as she curled around Jude's leg as the older woman tenderly ran her hand over Julia's hair. To Kit it was something out of a painting and he wanted to keep in his mind forever, but for now, now was all they needed.