Esha Napoleon: Yeah I know. He's not really going to win when it comes to this…but he's a stubborn boy and don't want to accept that. It's just how he is. NeroAnne: Oh yeah, I agree, she's scary as fuck when she goes off like that. I felt bad for Cooper having to deal with that like he did. EternalxInsanity: Oh yeah, of course he's obsessively protective. Mindy's his Baby Doll, she brings it out of him.
…
Cooper just laid there in the bathtub, almost slipping into unconsciousness a couple of times but then ending up just staying awake. His body was starting to go numb which was really really nice for him. Numbness was good. Numbness meant there was no pain. Of course this was only a relief from his physical pain. Emotionally he was still pretty much a wreck. Mindy's screams were ringing in his ears as were James's words to him and it was making him grab a hold of his legs and pulling them up to his chest so he could curl up into the fetal position. He felt so fucking lost and confused and his head hurt and it sucked because he didn't know how to make it all stop. He had chickened out of his own suicide and Mindy had kicked his ass for even daring to attempt it. He was definitely going to be feeling every blow she had dealt out in the morning but he wasn't too worried about that yet. The alcohol in his system and his complete and utter misery would not let him do that yet.
"Okay Bub, bath time is over," Mindy said, coming back with some clean clothes for Cooper to change into. "Come on, get up."
Cooper moved his head in her direction but didn't look her in the eye. He was honestly too ashamed and scared to do so. "I can stay in here," he slurred out, his eyes drooping tiredly. "I can stay in here and go to sleep-"
"You can't sleep in here stupid," she snapped. "You'll drown." She grabbed him by the arm and pulled on it until he got up to his feet. "And you're not drowning on me you son of a bitch." She tightened her grip on him as he stepped out of the tub, handing him a towel so he could dry himself off. "You hear me?"
Cooper whimpered and started trying to dry himself off, falling back into the wall because he couldn't keep his balance. He was shivering so much his teeth were chattering and he quickly started trying to pull his clothes on as fast as he could, which only resulted in him falling forward and banging himself up even more than he already was.
Mindy sighed loudly before helping him pull his clothes on. "This is what you get for trying to be a beerhead you dummy." She pulled him back up to his feet and began dragging him out of the room. "I'm not evens supposed to be helping you right now you know. Daddy told me to leave you in the tub until he got back and he would put you into bed."
"Then why you do this?" he asked, his unfocused eyes carefully looking towards her.
She shrugged. "Because." She opened his bedroom door and practically threw him on to his bed. "Daddy should be back soon so you stay in here for the night. We're playing babysitter so you don't decide to just throw yourself off another building." She grabbed the small trashcan that was by the desk and moved it over closer to the bed. "If you have to puke, puke in here or in the toilet. Daddy and I do not want to clean up your mess." She ran his hand through his hair and shook her head at him. "Daddy does not want to be here all night bub and he don't want me here either. But I tolded him we had to watch you before you did something completely RETARDED again like trying to KILL yourself."
Cooper sighed and pulled his blanket over him, returning to the fetal position he had been in in the tub. "Dad probably wants me to do it," he pointed out. "He wants me dead-"
"Stop it," Mindy snapped. "Don't talk like that. I love Daddy very much but that doesn't mean you get to say the mean stuff he says." She petted his hair, twirling her fingers around in it and pulling on it. "Your orange is coming in."
He groaned loudly at that. "No. No orange. I hate the orange."
"Well you haven't been dyeing your hair Bub. The orange won't stay away on its own."
"I'll make it go away," he mumbled. "No more orange. I don't want the orange. Tell the orange to go bye bye."
"Tell it yourself Bub," Mindy shot back. "I'm mad at you right now."
"I'm sorry," he whimpered, grabbing on to her arm and hugging it tight. "Don't be mad at me Mommy. I didn't mean it I'm sorry."
She sighed and gently pried her arm away from him. "Go to sleep," she ordered. "You're fucking smashed. You need to sleep so when you wake up I can give you an ass kicking you'll actually remember."
He whimpered again and tried to reach out for her again but his hand ended up just dropping weakly. His eyes were feeling very heavy and he could barely even keep them open anymore. "Mommy…" He tried to sit up but he didn't get anywhere. He was slipping into unconsciousness and there was absolutely no stopping it. "Love you…" His eyes finally closed and he passed all the way out, not knowing that Mindy adjusted his blankets and kissed the side of his head before taking away anything he could use to off himself when he woke up and then going downstairs to wait for James.
…
James made a very very fast trip to home, then White Castle and then the video store, breaking quite a few traffic laws in the process of being gone for no more than ten minutes. He honestly was not crazy about spending the night at Cooper's house just so he wouldn't go and try to off himself again. It just seemed ridiculous and counter productive to him. But Mindy was convinced she had to baby-sit him and so he would stay too because she was not spending an entire night in a house alone with Cooper. Absolutely, positively no way. James didn't even care if Cooper was passed out the entire time. It was just not happening and that was that.
When he pulled back into the driveway, he was greeted by the sight of Mindy happily bouncing out of the house. He barely got out of the car before she jumped all over him (not that he really even cared-he was perfectly fine with her tackling him). "Hi!" she chirped while planting kisses all over his face. "I missed you!"
"I missed you too," he said, returning her kisses quite eagerly. "I've got our food and the movie."
"Good!" Mindy nipped at his lower lip playfully. "Cooper's in bed so we don't have to worry about him. His new TV is in the Bee-"
"How did the Bee get here?" James asked, knowing that the car hadn't been there when he had come the first time around."
Mindy shrugged. "I'm Mindy Lawson. I make things happen."
He chuckled and carried her, the food, the paints and movie into the house. "I'll hook it up after we eat," he promised.
"Good." She kissed him as he plopped down on the couch. If they were going to be eating and spending the night here, he planned on making a big old mess just out of spite. "He got it from some place….what was it…something about best…"
"Best Buy?" James guessed, his lips twitching in amusement. Despite living in America for all this time, Mindy was quite oblivious about some things. She had never stepped foot in a place like Best Buy and that probably was never ever going to change.
"Yes!" she said with an emphatic nod. "That's the place. I could have gotten him a kickass TV from Sony itself but no! He had to go to Best Buy and I don't even know what they sell there-"
"Electronic stuff mostly," James informed her. "He loves that fucking place. His computer, his camera, all his shit like that is from there. It's home of the fucking Geek Squad, that's what it is. I've always liked Walmart better just because I could get every fucking thing in one shot and not have to run fifty fucking places."
Mindy just stared at him blankly. "Walmart?"
"Yeah." James frowned as she continued to give him a blank look. "Baby Doll…" His eyes widened as he realized why she was giving him that look. "Baby Doll, do you not know what Walmart is?"
She shook her head. "Do they sell stuff for walls there?"
He snickered loudly despite himself at that, making her pout her lips and glare at him. "What?" she huffed. "Why is that funny?"
He kissed her and began rubbing her back with one of his hands. "I just think it's cute." He kissed her lightly on the lips and began rubbing her back with one of his hands. "They sell pretty much everything-"
"Do they have Gucci and Versace?"
"Well no…"
"Then they don't sell everything," Mindy concluded smugly.
He chuckled slightly. "Well most people who shop at Walmart can't afford Gucci and Versace," he pointed out. "It's more of a store for normal people."
She frowned and shook her head. "You're not normal though Jamie. You're rich. You've been rich for years and years you never had to go to a store like that."
"Yeah but I've never really cared about that," James said with a shrug. "I mean I've always liked having money because I've never had to worry about it but in all honesty, it's never really meant anything to me. It's just something I have, not something that defines who I am." He ran his hand through her hair. "You know how you had that goal to get me to gamble in a casino?"
"Yeah."
"Well I have a goal now. I'm going to get you into a Walmart at about one in the morning and we're going to ride around on the electric carts that are meant for the crippled people." That was actually something he, Natalya, Cooper and Connor had done a couple of times and it had thoroughly annoyed the employees because it had turned into a game of bumper cars but what was more important to him was the fact that it had been fun.
She raised her eyebrows at that. "Oh yeah? And how are you going to do that?"
"I'm your Jamie. When I have a will, I will find a way."
…
Cooper was running. He didn't know where he was or where he was going, but he was running as hard and as fast as he could. It was so dark that he could barely see and he was sure that he was going to run into something. He didn't though; he tripped and fell a few times, scraping himself up even more but he didn't care. He just got back up to his feet and resumed his running. His heart was pounding a million miles a minute inside of his chest and he could barely breathe but still he ran. "Mom!" he gasped out, unwisely using some of the remaining oxygen in his lungs to cry out for help. "Mommy!"
There was no answer from Mindy. She was nowhere to be found. Nearly hysterical, Cooper blindly made a right and found absolutely no more ground to run on. He began to fall and fall and fall…
Cooper woke back up and groaned, his head pounding horribly and his vision blurry from the sleep in his eyes. He tried to mumble some cuss words but everything came out completely incomprehensible. His stomach was lurching horribly on him and he quickly leaned over the bed and stuck his head in the nearby trash can, throwing up so violently that it felt like his lungs and intestines were going to come out too. "Ugh," he grunted, wiping his mouth off with the back of his hand. He spit one last time in the can and then rolled back over and passed out into his not so peaceful slumber.
…
"Jamie?" Mindy said after the movie was over.
"Yeah?" James said as he put the DVD in the case and turned off the player and the TV. They weren't going to need either one on anymore.
"I talked to Connor about the hen we're getting and then he asked me lots of weird questions about chickens and eggs and I tolded him that I would talk to you about it because I didn't know."
James winced. He knew where this was going and he didn't like it. This always made his brain hurt. "He asked you if the chicken or the egg came first didn't he?"
Mindy nodded. "Which is it Jamie?"
He shrugged and sat back down with her, eyeing the paints that had been recently found. "Nobody knows Baby Doll. I mean chickens come from eggs but eggs come from chickens. So it's like impossible to figure out which came first because they come from each other." He pulled her back into his lap and nuzzled her neck.
"So do I tell Connor that?" Mindy asked as she hugged James tightly.
"Nah. He wouldn't get it. Just say the word squirrel every time he asks from now on. That'll keep him nice and distracted."
She started to giggle but then she frowned. "What if that just makes him want a squirrel?"
James's eye twitched at the thought. Oh Lord, what if Connor did want a squirrel? Oxa would probably eat the thing and the tantrum Connor would throw immediately afterwards would be totally terrifying. "Let's not go there," he decided. "Let's talk about art class." He nodded at the paints that were sitting near by. I went back home and brought them with me just for us." He began kissing her throat, his hands wandering all over her body to make her forget that checking on Cooper probably wouldn't be a bad idea. The fact that they were even there at all was going to have to be enough.
"It is time for your lesson," Mindy agreed, gasping as James's hands teased her breasts. "But Cooper-"
"Is probably not even going to wake up until tomorrow afternoon," James said. "Believe me, I've seen the idiot plastered. If you think it takes an army to get him up on a sober day, try doing it when he gets like that. Fucking impossible is what it is. Besides-" He stopped and gave her a nice, slow, sensuous kiss "we can't let him spoil all our fun."
She smiled as she kissed him back, already melting at his words. "Okay," she agreed. He was probably right about Cooper anyway. Once he passed out he didn't wake up for forever, so they had all the time in the world. "Let's paint."
James grinned and waited for her to wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck before he got up and grabbed their paints and heading up to Cooper's spare bedroom. He kicked open the door with his foot and then kicked it shut once they were in the room, not caring about the damage he did to the door. "I'm going to put such pretty pictures on you Jamie," Mindy said as they eagerly kissed.
"Oh I don't doubt that," he said with a nod. He reluctantly put her down so he could take off his clothes and plop down on the bed. "So you don't have any restrictions" was his explanation for that.
She giggled and stuck her tongue between her teeth before taking off her own clothes. "So I don't get paint on them," she said as she straddled James's lap.
"We wouldn't want that," James agreed with a nod. He licked his lips and kept both of them on her as she began to paint on his chest and stomach. The paintbrush tickled his skin but he stayed as still as he possibly could. "What ya paintin'?"
"I thought I told you artists can't explain their paintings," Mindy said without looking up.
"Oh yeah." He licked his lips and watched her go, trying to be a good subject for as long as he could. He watched as she painted a heart on his chest and then she started like giving him wings and shit and he didn't know what that was all about. But she looked so cute because she was concentrating so hard that he couldn't just do nothing about it. Both of his hands began to knead her breast, making her pout her lips at him.
"You're distracting me."
"I know," he said deviously. He moved his head up and began working her breasts with his mouth while one of his hands moved down and began rubbing the area between her legs.
"Oh fuck," Mindy whimpered, dropping the paint and the brush as she desperately began to rock against his hand. He grinned triumphantly and slipped one of his fingers inside of her and not waiting too long before slipping two more fingers into her. He really didn't need to do any work at all. She was already rocking her hips and riding the long, thick digits. He could feel his cock hardening at the sight of her but he was too hypnotized by her to do anything but watch as she came to orgasm, giving him quite the idea.
"Well then…" He removed his fingers and licked them clean before rolling them over so he was on top. "I think for my art project…" he began to kiss his way down her body "I'm going to see how much I can make you scream…"
