Title: "Ten Days Wonder" 1/?
Author: Mala
E-mail: malisitayahoo.com
Fandom: "One Life to Live"
Rating/Classification: PG-13, Rex/Adriana (Rex/Lindsey, River/Adriana implied), angst, adult situations.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, but the story idea is totally mine!
Summary: When you make bets on lives, on hearts, you're bound to lose. An AU of the early June 2004 "Rex solves his financial crisis" storyline.
The footsteps echoed along the corridor and he automatically tensed, rolling over gingerly on the bunk to face his visitor. Vega again? Garcia? McBain?
Worse.
She wrapped her hands around the bars, watching him sit up. Her dark eyes were so much more cynical now. They saw everything, catalogued every wince, every creak of his muscles. "Hello, Rex," she greeted, softly, just the barest hint of a question in the words.
"I ran into a door," he quipped, smoothing down his coveralls, lingering over his ribs. Underneath the cloth, his skin was dotted with bruises in various shades of yellow, blue, and green.
"A door named Antonio?" she arched an eyebrow and that, too, was something new. Something she'd picked up from him.
"Go figure. I tripped over the Thin Blue Line when they brought me down from booking." He gave her the non-answer. There was no question of filing police brutality charges. He'd have done the same if anybody had messed with Natty. Messing with a cop's cousin just meant there were more people around to administer the ass-kicking. He dragged a hand through his hair, asking, wearily, "Why are you here?"
She cocked her head. "You really don't know?" The naive little furrow... he was almost relieved to see it was still a part of her. One thing he hadn't taken away.
"No. I don't...I don't get it. Shouldn't you be off wearing a lace mantilla and saying 'I do' to River Carpenter?" His mouth twisted as he taunted her, and himself, with the image. It was less cruel than others. Than how he'd last seen her...unbuttoning her blouse and asking him to--"Why would you want to see me?" he choked out.
She stared at him for the longest minute in the world. And it sucked the breath out of him more effectively than any punch to the gut. It made him remember...
Watching her face as she read a copy of 'Craze' and memorized whatever silly fashion tips she felt like she needed to know.
And...
Dancing slow...his hands sliding up her shirt...stopping...only to have her take them and move them higher.
And...
"You wanted my money?" she demanded, face a mask of pain, of betrayal. "River was right, wasn't he? All you've wanted all along..."
"No. No, that's not all..." He held out his hand to her, pleading with her to believe him...to believe in him just this once.
"Oh, claro que si...of course that's not all." Her fingers trembling as she worked the buttons of her blouse. "You want this, too, right? Isn't that what you told me the first time we met? That all guys are after one thing?" Standing bare in front of him. "Well, take it, Rex...take it. It's yours."
"I...please...Baby..."
Please.
He stared up at her, stricken. "Why?"
"Love, Rex," she whispered. "Something you'll never understand."
He waited till she was gone to roll over and hide his face in the threadbare pillow. When his shoulders shook, he blamed it on the chill from the cinderblocks that lined the basement. The dampness on his cheeks, too.
He refused to blame love.
She was wrong. He understood it way too well.
She threaded her way through the crowd on the Ultra-Violet dance floor. Follow the music. That tended to be the key with River. You had to follow the music or the musicians or somebody who had an iPod.
The fingers circling around her wrist caught her off guard. Tight, twisted, she looked back at the blond man who was staring down at her hand with something like disgust in his eyes. The owner.
"Either my door guys need glasses or you snuck in," he said, his voice clearly audible over the grinding rock soundtrack that was all ready giving her a headache.
"I...I..." There were no Xs. No wristband. She shrugged, helplessly. "I'm not here to drink," she assured, feebly. "I just came to find someone."
He snorted, hand traveling up to her elbow so he could expedite her trip towards the exit. "And I'm Samuel Adams."
Her brows furrowed. "I thought River said your name was Rex."
She had to be kidding. He stopped stock still on the edge of the dance floor, looking back at the girl's big, dark, eyes. Totally guileless. She really...oh, man. Rex shook his head, wishing he could go back and hide in his office for the next week, month, year. "My name is Rex," he muttered, guiding her to the bar. "And all I need is for the liquor license guys to come in and find you here. I all ready got shut down once this year."
"Look...all I want to do is find River Carpenter. And Shannon McBain," she said the second name with a shudder. Like it was a synonym for "radioactive waste." And as he searched his memory banks for a face to go along with it...stopping on the clingy groupie who always hung around Riley and the boys...he couldn't necessarily fault the reaction.
"You mean there's more of you crawling around? Great," he growled. One look over the crowd revealed that River and Shannon were sitting with a couple of the Midnight Logic guys. Shmoozing. An expert glance at the drinks near them told him they were sodas. Nothing to worry about. Well, nothing to worry about except the fact that Clingy Girl was all over the spiky-haired kid.
And he had no intention of telling Adriana that.
Of course he knew who she was. He wasn't stupid. Every grifter in town knew about Dorian Lord's 30 million dollar trust fund baby. She was the Holy Grail of marks. Emphasis on 'holy.' Her simple white blouse buttoned up to her throat. Her skirt? Conservatively cut at the knees. She looked like a Catholic school girl. Hell, she probably was a Catholic school girl. And if she'd walked in the front door, he was most definitely firing Drew and Reuben.
She tried to fidget away from his insistent grip and look around the club as he pushed her to the bar and onto a stool.
"Sit!" he ordered, shaking a finger at her. One of the same fingers that had been around her wrist. Suntanned, perhaps only a shade lighter than her own natural skin tone. He was one of those men whose skin grew darker as their hair grew paler. Like the creatures of summer who had always flocked to the beaches of Puerto Rico when she was growing up.
He was awfully young for someone who owned a club. He looked barely old enough to be out of college. If he had gone at all. His dark eyes were fixed on her as if she had "idiota" tattooed on her forehead. David often looked at her the same way, but he was her confidante, her friend...she was rapidly coming to think of him like a father. Rex was anything but paternal.
He moved around the bar, fiddling with bottles and glasses. "Here," he said, pushing something across to her. It was pink, with cherries in it. "A Shirley Temple," he informed, still looking at her as if she had some contagious disease.
"I'm not going to cause any trouble," she protested, squirming under his scrutiny.
"You're a walking case of trouble, Kid," he assured, dryly.
"Am I?" She laughed, playing with the swizzly stick in the glass. She certainly didn't feel like trouble. "Then why isn't River with me?" She didn't wait for him to answer. Not that he would. He didn't look like the advice-giving type. "Oh...right...I pushed him right back into Shannon's arms."
Rex wondered, not for the first time, if this girl was the genuine article. "Wait...you're telling me...you dump the guy for fooling around on you... and now you're here trying to write another chapter in your teenage love story?" Sure, he'd had his share of bumps in the road with Jen...and with Lindsey...but come on.
"I'm not stupid, okay?" she cried, defensively. "I love River."
He rolled his eyes, leaning on the bar. "Look, Kid...what are you, sixteen? Everybody thinks they're in love when they're sixteen." He waved his hand, dismissively. "I thought I was in love with the prettiest girl in Michigan. Of course...she wouldn't give it up...so I 'fell in love' with somebody who would."
"River...River's not like that!" she sputtered.
"Got news for you, Babe. All guys are like that."
She looked like he'd slapped her. Yeah, he'd hit the right note. And it looked like nobody had ever talked to her that way before. He almost...almost...felt sorry for being the one to do it. He made a point of never really being sorry for anything.
Except maybe going into business with RJ Gannon.
Because it was starting to look like he couldn't make his loan payments. And if he missed one ...well...serving underage girls was going to be the least of his problems.
Rex was staring off somewhere over her shoulder, ignoring her now, and Adriana's stomach lurched with a mix of pity and hurt. Did he really think love didn't exist? What a sad life. But...but what if he was right? What if she'd lost her chance because of her promise to God, to her mother and David?
"No...no, you're wrong," she denied, quietly. More to herself than to him.
"Am I?" he mocked her earlier question, focusing on her once more. She was, after all, much prettier than RJ. And...and richer.
The Holy Grail.
The jackpot.
His mouth went dry.
And then he smiled at her. "Prove it," he dared, outrageously. "Prove to me that your love story is worth it."
"All right!" She met the challenge in his eyes, raising her chin and giving him her best stubborn Cramer Woman glare. "I'll prove it."
"Not tonight, though. Tonight, I want you outta my club."
"Tomorrow, then?"
"Sure. Meet me at Foxy Roxy's."
He'd bet her inheritance that she was going to fail.
She'd bet her heart that she was going to succeed.
