Upside Down
Disclaimer: This story is being written for enjoyment only. I do not own any of the characters and no profit is being made from it.
Author's Note: This is a "What happened instead" story. Though I liked 9/26/05's episode of GL, I don't think Jonathan would have given up so easily upon his quest to locate Dinah just to be with Tammy. So this is a "what might have happened instead story" if he hadn't.
In one moment his life was to turn upside down. With a final slam, the canister within his grasp forced open the metal door in front of him.
He had watched minutes earlier as Edmund entered the alley way. Following his suspicious uncle into this deserted corner of Springfield, he reached a dead end. The dim pathway ended at a bricked enclosure, cloaked on one side by a dumpster and debris while at the other was a steel doorway.
"Could it be the back entryway into some local office or business?" Jonathan wondered. One thing was for sure, he determined, Edmund had entered this alleyway and he hadn't come out. Jonathan turned towards his only viable option and began to pound upon the opposing metal in front of him as he called out. "Hey, is there anyone in there?"
His hand began to ache, but he did not let up upon his ceaseless tattoo against this frustrating barrier. He could have sworn he heard a voice from inside respond to his initial inquiry, but it came back to him muffled by the solidness of the doorway blocking his progress.
"Hey, is there anybody in there?" He repeated as his searching gaze fell upon a discarded canister just a few feet away from him. Picking it up, he rammed it with all his might against the impediment in front of him. "What was Uncle Eddie up to?" he wondered. "Could Dinah be in there? Was Edmund keeping her locked away?" He was determined to find out.
"Dinah?" He called out. "Are you in there? Are you okay?"
Once again, he could have sworn he heard a muffled reply to his boisterous concern, but he could not make out the words being said, causing the resolve now building within him to only quicken in its urgency.
Again and again he rammed the canister against the door frame as the sweat from his exertions tricked under the weight of his dark hair before dampening his neck then back.
"Dammit!" He cursed in frustration. "What have you got here, Uncle Eddie , Fort Knox?"
Finally, however, his ceaseless efforts began to pay off as he felt the door jam first groan then splinter in response to his one final impact until at last it gave way completely and the door burst open. He barely had time to register the secret room revealed behind it before a bright flash momentarily blinded him and his body was propelled backwards. His momentum came to a crashing halt upon the pitch black pavement of the alleyway; the collision knocking the breath from him as a groan of pain caught in his throat.
But it was the next sensation that caught him completely off guard. The pain in his back was nothing compared to the burning sensation that now took hold of his gut. Reaching down instinctively, he cupped his hand against his abdomen unprepared for the growing dampness that met his palm. As his eyes quickly glanced downwards, he noted with alarm a seeping puddle of crimson gathering beneath his hand as his mind returned to the shattering events of mere moments before.
"The flash, the impact, the burning pain taking hold of his stomach, God, he'd been shot! But who, why, how?"
Shakily he tried to refocus as his eyes looked suddenly forward to see who it was that had done this to him. His answer was immediate. Edmund entered into the alleyway wild eyed as he raised the gun within his grasp again pointing it directly towards his young nephew.
"My God! He's deranged!" Jonathan observed as Edmund continued his menacing approach towards him. Fear took hold of Jonathan's heart as Edmund prepared to take aim once more.
"What are you doing, Uncle Eddie ?" He gasped out trying to stop his uncle from repeating the unthinkable, while desperately trying to gain some foothold of control over this escalating situation.
"You shouldn't have come here!" The tall man responded. "You couldn't leave things alone! Why couldn't you keep your nose out of this? Nobody cares about Dinah! No one cares that she left town! Good riddance to bad trash! But you, you…You couldn't leave matters alone… you had to snoop, and now you're going to pay the consequences of such an ill decision, Jonathan!"
"So you killed Dinah!" Jonathan spat out, his body now trembling from the shock of his injury and this revelation.
"No…no…" Edmund shook his head in immediate denial. "I was keeping her here. She's safe… I just needed to keep her quiet…keep her from talking to Cassie, but you've ruined things…you've changed everything."
Jonathan's dark eyes widened in alarm, "You haven't hurt her, Edmund? "
"No..no…" Edmund answered once again as if almost in an eerie trance. " I had to subdue her, though... I had to stop her from calling out to you…."
"But she's alive?"
"Yes…"
Jonathan's wheezed a sigh of relief, but his breath hitched in his throat, while he gritted his teeth against the growing pain burning within his belly.
"Look…you can't do this…You've got to stop this, Edmund…You can't go on with this insane plan of yours… You've got to tell everyone about the baby…"
"No! No!" Edmund's denial rang out instantaneously. No, I can't. I did this for Cassie!"
Tears of pain filled Jonathan's eyes as he continued to argue with is uncle. "No, you didn't! You did this for yourself! But you can't go through with this. Too many people know…too many people are going to find out…They're going to be asking questions. First Dinah, then the baby…now me… You have too many tracks to cover up now, Uncle Eddie …You can't go on like this without someone discovering what you've been up to…You may have been able to explain Dinah's absence away…but what about me? My mom, Josh, Billy, the employees at the bar… people are going to start snooping around… They're going to start asking questions…You can't silence us all…." Jonathan's insistent voice began to fade along with his strength.
An incredulous look of disdain filled Edmund's countenance at Jonathan's words as a sneer took hold of his face. "You're riff raff, just like her…Who's going to miss you, Jonathan? Perhaps Reva for a fleeting moment, but you've been a thorn in her side ever since you came to town. No, nephew, it will be good riddance, the same as dear old Dinah." Edmund finished gesturing towards the open doorway behind him.
Jonathan's worry grew along with the pain filling his gut. The strange trembling that had taken hold of his limbs short moments before was now accompanied by waves of nausea sweeping over him making him first cough then gag. His body crumpled forward in increased agony in reaction to it, as he at last acknowledged that his uncle was clearly insane. In the final moments of his uncle's macabre triumph, the suffering boy had come to realize the lengths Edmund would go to, to get what he desired. Fleetingly, his now hazy mind grasped how it came to be all those years earlier that Reva felt the necessity to give him up for fear of Edmund's reprisal upon her infant son. And now here he was many years later, fighting for his life again with the same mad man.
"No, don't hurt her!" Jonathan cried out as he curled into himself trying to appease the incessant pain flooding throughout his body. "Don't hurt, Dinah!" He choked out through gritted teeth.
"Look, do what you want with me…God, knows I deserve it, but don't hurt her! Bring her somewhere else…another country, a deserted island…pay her off… bribe her….. We all know Dinah's mercenary instinct….She'll tow the line, Edmund…just give her a chance to let it sink in to her pretty little head…We all know Dinah's out for number one and once she realizes what's she up against, she'll do what's best for her…"
Edmund hesitated as his finger relaxed against the trigger of the gun within his possession as if considering his young nephew's words.
"But what of you, Jonathan?" He spoke out at last. "There's no out for you , is there?…You're in bad shape… I can't go dropping you off at some emergency room's doorway without discovery…It wasn't my intention to shoot you, but that's after the fact. You've made your bed…now you're going to have to lie in it.
Darkness was taking hold of Jonathan's periphery vision as the image of his uncle swam in and out of focus before him. Swallowing hard once again, the boy answered. "Like you said, Uncle Eddie , I'm in a pretty bad way…Just finish the job….With my track record, they'll figure someone with a grudge against me plugged me…some disgruntled bar patron or some shady acquaintance from my first days in town… No one will ask any questions…
"You may have a point there," Edmund replied while raising the gun once more considering the previous arguments of his now fading nephew.
"Just do it…" Jonathan attempted to cry out just before his wounded body grew slack in response to the overwhelming blood loss affecting him.
Edmund studied the motionless boy for long moments before allowing the cocked gun fall to his side while exclaiming, "Well at last you've done me a favor, nephew…I won't have to chance another shot bringing forth any more unwanted guests."
Then pocketing the weapon, the tall man went back into the room behind him before returning moments later with an inert Dinah slung over his shoulder. Without a second glance towards the crumpled form of the boy, the harried man proceeded down the darkened passageway with his heavy bundle.
Long moments later, the peal of a cell phone broke into the eerie silence of this now vacant crime scene; its persistent ring effectively rousing the injured young man from his previous stupor. Shivering violently, Jonathan fumbled towards his pocket trying to retrieve the device. It fell from his hand to clank against the cold, unforgiving pavement beneath him only to ring again and again as his clumsy hand uselessly tried to locate it. When at last he did, it was too late. Heavy lidded eyes attempted in vain to focus upon the lighted dial listing the number of the last call made to him. Finally able to read it, he gasped out the identity of his caller in both longing and regret, before sinking back again into oblivion.
"Tammy!"
TBC
Author's Closing Note: Well thank you for reading Upside Down. I hope you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think of it. I have some ideas for a concluding chapter to wrap up the aftermath of this situation involving the rest of 9/26's episode( the Jonathan and Tammy aspect of it.) This will not be a long story, just a two shot deal most likely, no pun intended.