Chapter 26
To say that Jackie had been given some food for thought was putting it mildly. Jackie couldn't understand why she'd never seen this side of Remy before. Okay sure, when she'd been a little kid maybe, but older? When she knew about things like depression and alcoholism?
She was also somewhat perturbed by the idea that she was capable of 'snapping him out of it'. Did that mean his self-esteem was completely dependant on her? That she was somehow responsible for keeping him sane and happy? No, Jackie decided. If her father was truly that dependant on her, he wouldn't have taken things are far as he did with Marie. Now she didn't know if she was happy or not about that. As much as she enjoyed having her father wrapped around her little finger, as it were, she didn't really want him that tightly wrapped around her finger.
"Oh hey, Jackie," said Edmund, approaching her in the hallway. "I'm glad I caught you."
Jackie frowned slightly at him. "You okay?"
"Uh no, actually," Edmund replied, not looking her in the eye. "Actually I just found out my father died."
"Mon dieu, Ed, I'm so sorry," Jackie said. This seemed to be her day for bad news about fathers.
"Thanks. I'm umm, I'm going to be flying home for the funeral, umm..." Edmund fished a key out of his pocket. "Look, would you mind feeding my fish while I'm away? I left instructions by the tank."
Jackie nodded and accepted the key, resisting the urge to mention she could pick his lock any time she wanted.
"Sure," she said. "Anything else you need me to do?"
"No, just the fish," Edmund said. "And you can hide out in there if the harpies start screeching again."
"Thanks," Jackie replied, offering him a sympathetic smile. "May I ask how he went?"
"Aneurysm. He went like that." Edmund snapped his fingers. "Guess I should be glad he didn't suffer."
Jackie nodded and gave him and hug. "You have a good flight, okay?"
"I will, thanks."
Edmund turned from her then, and went back into his apartment.
Jackie continued down the hall and let herself into the apartment she shared with Phillis and Lisha. The two women were curled up on the lounge and watching TV, looking very cute and in love. It was sickening. Jackie wondered how long before the next hat dropped and they started shrieking at each other again.
Jackie continued into her room and set Edmund's key down on the desk. She turned her computer on and tried to get her thoughts in order while it started up.
How could her father hate himself? Why would he blame his cousin's death on himself? Death was something that happened, and it wasn't like Remy would have killed him himself or anything. Jackie frowned at that thought; okay so she didn't know exactly how Etienne died, only that they'd been 'escaping from slavers'. Still, Jackie found it hard to believe that Remy wouldn't have done everything he could have to keep Etienne alive. More likely something happened when he was at Strykers. Torture could do all sorts of psychological damage to a person.
Jackie had almost convinced herself that Styker must have been the real cause of Remy's problem, when it occurred to her that this was the first she ever heard of a little brother of Theoren's, and Remy, like most Thieves, had a very different attitude to death than Assassins. Jackie was having a hard time wrapping her head around a death screwing someone up like that, but then remembered how dispirited Edmund looked talking about his father's death just a few moments ago. She remembered her mother talking about how much she loved her brother, and how she feared that one day she might have to make the decision to execute him. It was very easy to kill someone you didn't know, Bella Donna had told her once, a lot harder to kill someone you loved.
The computer finished starting up and Jackie sat down. She decided she didn't like this train of thought. The idea of seeing a loved one die screwing you over for life was not a concept she was happy with. The idea of killing someone who had screwed you over, however, had a great deal of appeal.
Jackie shivered slightly as Perry came back to her mind. She wished his memory would stop haunting her. She'd dealt with him. Why wouldn't he go away? Stupid upstart amateur trying to kill her. She should have done more than just burning him alive from the balls first. She didn't like to think how close he'd come to succeeding.
A thought occurred to her, and she picked up her Guild phone, with its lovely secured line, and called up Marie.
"Hello?" said Marie upon answering.
"Hey Marie," Jackie said. "Have you got a minute?"
"Yeah sure, I was just working on another paper anyway," Marie replied. "Interruptions are good."
Jackie chuckled a little.
"I was wondering, umm...the thing with Perry," she said hesitantly, then barrelled on quickly before Marie could say anything. "How did I survive the ether? Do you know? I mean, I figured my powers were responsible, but I just... I mean, ether's highly flammable and I... Well I thought I made things go boom but apparently I have this micro-kinesis thing and I...yeah."
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment.
"Well, I can't actually access the memory on cue, so I can't tell you exactly what happened," Marie replied seriously. "I can give you a theory."
"That'll do."
"Well, you know how our bodies have automatic responses to things? This extends to mutant abilities. Like, my friend Logan has a healing factor. I once saw him shot in the head. He was out for the count, but he didn't die, because the moment he was shot, his healing factor kicked in and took care of the damage. I imagine something similar happened with you: Your body registered that you were breathing in a lethal dose of ether, and it took steps to deal with it. I'm assuming that it rearranged the particles making up the ether and turned it into something harmless or otherwise found a way to expel it from your system. You didn't need to be conscious for that part, because it was something your body's automatic defences was able to take care of on its own."
"And I can do that? Rearrange particles?"
"You have been doing it," Marie said gently. "You've been doing it to make your 'illusions'. That's why you can only work with what you have."
"Oh right," Jackie said, just now remembering Marie had already told her that. "Heh, at least now I don't feel so inadequate about not being able to create big, scenery altering illusions any more."
Marie laughed.
"Anyway, I should go," Jackie said, hesitated briefly while she wondered if she should mention Remy, and decided against it. "Thanks for clearing that up for me. It's been bothering me."
"I can understand that. If you ever need any more help with your powers, just let me know," Marie said.
"I will. Speaking of which, I should have asked earlier," said Jackie. "How are your powers coming?"
"It's weird actually," said Marie, "but it's been really easy to settle into the idea that I've got them under control. I haven't absorbed anyone—other than you, of course—and all my voices are just as quiet as ever. I guess it kind of helps having you in my head to reassure me I have everything under control."
"Glad I could help."
Marie chuckled and they hung up not long after that.
Jackie tapped on the desk. She felt a little better hearing Marie's theory on how she survived the ether, but Jakcie was still unsettled about the whole incident. It frustrated her: it had been just before Thanksgiving last year that it happened. She should be over it by now.
But she wasn't.
And then she was hearing Bella Donna saying in one ear that Remy needed therapy, and Marie in the other, repeating her suggestion that she go to a rape victims support group.
Jackie sighed and opened her internet browser to do a search for such groups in the area. She felt really stupid; she didn't even remember the act itself—only being knocked out and then taking her revenge—yet the incident kept coming back to haunt her, and it was driving her crazy. She found a few phone numbers to call, which she doubted she would, but she also found a few addresses which she made note of with the intention of checking them out.
When the research started making Jackie think about the incident far too much for her liking, making her feel small and powerless, which she hated, she closed the relevant windows. She started a new search, this one on aneurysms, because she found that reading about blood vessel walls weakening and the possibility of strokes and death from rupturing was much more comforting to read.
Remy couldn't believe he was actually nervous about spending the day with his daughter. Nervous before going on a first date? Sure. Nervous before going on a special date that he'd put a lot of time and effort into planning and really wanted to be well accepted? Frequently. But going out with his daughter? Why should he be nervous about that? And yet he was.
He was also happy as a clam when she pulled up outside his house and knocked on the door. She greeted him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and he joined her in the car, much too happy about his reception than to feel disconcerted about sitting in the passenger seat for the first time in years.
Jackie took them out to the Cafe Du Monde for breakfast. They made small talk over their coffee and beignets, catching up with each other while avoiding hot button topics like Marie, Bella Donna, and astronaut vs caveman.
"So," said Remy when the last of his coffee was gone, "what's the plan for today?"
"I have no idea," Jackie replied. "I'm just making it up as I go along."
Remy chuckled.
"Bowling?" he suggested. "Pool? Go-karting? Plaster painting?"
Jackie laughed.
"Let's go plaster painting," she said, grinning at him. "Wait...would they be open now?"
Remy shrugged. "We can drive by and find out."
They finished up at the Cafe Du Monde, then headed out to the plaster painting place. It wasn't open for another hour or so, and they decided to just sit in the car while they waited. For some reason, conversation in the car felt more awkward than over breakfast.
Once the store did open, they spent a good fifteen minutes looking through the available models and trying to decide what they wanted to paint. Jackie eventually decided on a flying horse and Remy selected a mermaid.
"Trust you to want to paint a topless woman," Jackie said.
Remy shrugged. "Her hair covers up all the fun parts."
Conversation ceased while they concentrated on their painting, the only words they said to each other were things like "that's looking good" and "can you pass the pink?"
"Papa?" Jackie said after a moment watching Remy paint his mermaid.
"Mmm?" Remy replied, carefully putting just a little more brown paint on his brush.
"Are you trying to paint Marie?"
"No..."
"Then why does she have white hair at the front?"
"I just haven't finished painting it brown yet," Remy replied seriously.
"Uh huh," Jackie said skeptically. "And I notice she has green eyes."
"They match her green tail," Remy said with a nod.
"Uh huh."
"Hey, I'm just painting a mermaid that can blend in with her environment," Remy said.
"Any resemblance to people real or fictional is coincidental?" Jackie as dryly.
"Exactly! See, the green tail will help her blend in with sea weed and the brown hair with rock," Remy said nodding.
"Oh yeah? Why the pale skin?"
"Sand, or maybe when other sea creatures look up she'll blend in with the surface of the water."
"With rocks and seaweed."
"Exactly!"
"I think brown skin would work better for blending in, or maybe a pale blue."
"Paint your own mermaid then."
"If I was going to paint my own mermaid, I'd screw this bending in nonsense," said Jackie. "She'd be pink."
Remy laughed. "She might be able to blend in with a coral reef then."
"Yeah maybe," Jackie said, grinning at him.
"How's Pegasus coming?" Remy asked.
"This is not Pegasus," Jackie informed him. "Pegasus is white. My flying horse is pink."
"Oh, right. My mistake."
"Oui, it was. Now, where's the glitter paint?"
Once they were satisfied with their models, they took them up to the counter to be glossed and waited for them to dry.
"Huh," Remy said looking at his watch. "Much later than I thought. Wanna stop somewhere for lunch?"
"What time is it?" Jackie asked, while looking at the clock on her phone. "Hmm, I think lunch is a good idea, but we need to go by my place first."
"Oh?"
"Lisha and Phillis will be home and I want to pretend I've forgotten something," Jackie said, her eyes bright with mischief. "You'll have to wait outside though, but I shall conveniently forget to close the front door because I'll 'only be a second'."
Remy snickered. "You want me to freak out your man-hating housemates, hein?"
"As long as you don't so much as put a toe through the front door, they can't say I've brought a male into their female-only zone," Jackie said gleefully. "I've been having so much fun pushing things. I was cooking dinner a few weeks ago and I deliberately put everything I was using—utensils, ingredients, whatever—into 'dick and balls' arrangements."
Remy laughed.
"Freaked Phillis out completely, especially when I licked the spatula," Jackie said. "Phallic symbols are awesome. And best of all I was able to act all innocent like I had no idea what they were talking about. When I was, ahem, 'enlightened', I got to accuse them of having dirty minds. You have got to meet them."
"Alright then," said Remy. "Guess I've got to meet them."
Two dry plaster models and a car trip later, Remy was leaning on the wall outside the apartment that Jackie shared. He caught a glimpse of her two housemates when she opened the door, although they didn't notice him immediately.
"Bonjour mam'selles," Remy said when they did catch his eye.
"Jackie!" Lisha called shrilly. "You've left the damn door open and now all the perverts can see in!"
Remy kept his laughter to himself.
"Whoops, désolé chère, I'll be out in a second," Jackie called back.
Lisha pulled herself out of the couch, and stalked over to the door.
"Back off, and take your tiny dick with you," she snapped.
"I'm just waiting for Jackie," Remy replied mildly. "Don't mean to intrude."
"Jackie," Lisha screeched again. "Get your ugly-ass boyfriend out of here."
"First," Jackie said, emerging from her room, "he's not in the apartment. Second, that's not my boyfriend, that's mon pere. You're disgusting."
"I don't care what he is. He's a man, he needs to go."
"Don't get your knickers in knot," Jackie replied. "I'd just forgotten my phone, and now I'm going to go back to spending some long overdue quality time with Papa. I don't know why you're freaking out; if I hadn't forgotten to shut then door you wouldn't have even known he was there."
Jackie departed, making sure to shut the door behind her and grinned at Remy. "Remind me to bring chocolate cake home tonight."
"Oh?" Remy inquired.
"It's their weakness," Jackie said, her eyes twinkling with mischief. "If I come bearing chocolate cake to share tonight, it won't matter if they've plotted to kick me out after this or not: they won't."
Remy laughed as he followed her down the hallway. "Got them all figured out, have you?"
"Oui. According to Ed they went through three housemates in seven months or something," Jackie said. "I've been with them four months now."
"I'm suitably impressed," said Remy. "Ed's the neighbour, right?"
"Yeah," Jackie said, getting quiet. "His father died this week. He's gone back to England for the funeral."
"Ahh," Remy said. "Well, next time you see him, pass on my condolences."
"I will."
Remy wondered as they headed back down to Jackie's car and got in, if maybe that was why Jackie had decided on this father/daughter day. He was so sure after what happened with Marie that he'd irreparably ruined his relationship with Jackie. He'd never intended for it to go that way, but there was no way for him to explain to Jackie how he felt about Marie that she'd appreciate. And then when Jackie had gone after Marie with her knife... Well, that should have been it then. Putting Jackie in a position where she thought she needed to kill her best friend? Remy had been convinced there was no coming back from that. He certainly wasn't going to jeopardise things again.
They stopped for lunch at one of their favourite places, and finally decided to go back to Remy's place to play board games.
"Battleship?" Jackie suggested, going through Remy's collection in the store under the staircase.
"Uhh," Remy said awkwardly, his mind going straight to the game of Strip Battleship he'd played with Marie only last week. "Not today. How about Monopoly?"
"Nah, I'm not in the mood for Monopoly," Jackie replied. "Oooh, let's play Ticket to Ride. We haven't played that in ages."
"Heh, okay," Remy agreed.
He pulled down the board game and while he set it up, Jackie continued looking at the available board games. She noticed a shoe box on one shelf, relatively dust free, and opened it up. Inside she found three G I Joe action figures and their accessories.
"Papa?" Jackie said, a slight frown on her face, "since when did you play with dolls?"
"Huh?" Remy asked, looked up from the table and then spotted the shoe box. "Oh that. I... Marie gave me those. She seemed to take it as a personal affront that I never really had any toys as a kid."
He went back to busying himself with setting up the game.
"She has some weird ideas sometimes," Jackie said, shaking her head and putting it back in the cupboard. "So, have you played with them?"
"Uhh...maybe."
Jackie grinned at Remy as she sat down at the table. "Did you make them kiss?"
Remy caught Jackie's eyes. Jackie started giggling.
"You did, didn't you?" she teased him as he sat down.
"It's like an unwritten law or something," Remy replied.
"Since when do you care about laws, written or otherwise?" Jackie asked.
"I always care about laws when they work in my favour."
Jackie laughed and the game began.
"So, uhh," Remy said, picking up his destination cards. "How is Marie? Have you spoken to her at all?"
"Not about you, if that's what you're asking," Jackie replied, keeping her eyes on the board and her voice professional.
"No, just...just a general inquiry," Remy said.
"She's fine," Jackie said tersely. "We've come to an understanding about the whole security risk thing, so I don't have to kill her after all. Oh, and her powers are under control too."
Remy nodded. "Good to know."
He regretted bringing the subject up. It was nice to know that Marie was okay, but the atmosphere had become noticeably tense. He looked for a way to change the subject and relieve the tension, and ended up saying the first thing that came to mind, wasn't actually a change of subject at all:
"The first one was real."
Jackie looked up, a slight frown on her face. "Come again?"
"The first dose of the Cure I gave her," Remy said quietly. "It was real."
"I thought you were out," Jackie said.
"It was my last one. I was saving it for a...special occasion."
Jackie fell silent, not really sure what to say to that. They continued playing; picking up cards, putting down cars and keeping track of the score with the markers around the edge of the board. As they played, Remy felt more and more compelled to talk about it, even knowing Jackie probably didn't want to discuss it.
"I wasn't going to ask her to be my mistress for subsequent doses," Remy said softly, when he could hold his tongue no more. "I was going to show you my vault, and well, there's quite a bit in there. If a vial went missing occasionally, I wouldn't have noticed."
Jackie set down her cars on the board with careful precision. He had originally planned not to exploit Marie? To let her 'steal' from him?
"So...why didn't you?" Jackie asked finally.
Remy was silent for a long moment. Finally he sighed.
"It's going to sound stupid," he said.
"Well, we've gotten this far in the conversation," Jackie replied blandly, keeping her eyes on the game and not looking at her father at all.
"She called me Swamp Rat."
"You're right, that does sound stupid."
"It was a symptom of the real...umm, problem," Remy replied ruefully. "She's my type. And I don't just mean physically, I mean personality, mentally, that kind of thing. I got this little taste of her during the deux weeks we were together and I just... I had to get to know her better. But I knew we wouldn't really get to know each other the conventional way, so I made an opportunity."
"Well, you know, if you had stuck to your original plan you might have had that opportunity," Jackie said.
Remy reply to that was to raise his eyebrow and wait until Jackie had noticed his silence and looked at him.
"Yeah, okay, probably not," she reluctantly conceded and went back to picking up cards. "But in my defence, within minutes of meeting Marie you asked her for sex and—"
Jackie broke off, the significance of that request only now occurring to her: Remy had been drunk that night. Did that mean...? Had he been depressed that night? She could practically hear Bella Donna's voice echoing in her head: "sex is confirmation that he's worthy of love."
"Point taken," Remy said, not seeming to notice anything wrong with her abrupt silence. "Look, Jackie, I swear, I never meant to hurt you, and I am so sorry for putting you in that position."
Jackie didn't reply.
"I knew so many times that I should just end things but I..." Remy hesitated, then barrelled on: "I know you're not going to like hearing this, but somewhere along the line I...I fell in love, and I couldn't let her go."
"That's not love, that's an overload of hormones and pheromones and a great big dose of self-deception," Jackie replied. "What? Do you like lying to yourself?"
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she could hear her mother's voice saying "He even lies to himself when he sleeps with women he's paid."
"Well, I lie to everyone else," Remy replied evenly. "Anyway, it's...it's over now."
Jackie didn't feel like it was really over, but she didn't say anything and conversation drifted off while they finished their game. Remy used up the last of his cars, and Jackie had her final turn. They tallied up the bonuses on their destination cards and Jackie was declared the winner.
"Is it really over?" Jackie asked as she watched Remy pack up the game.
"Is what over?" Remy asked.
"You and Marie. You're not going to go chasing after her again?"
Remy sighed as he scooped up the plastic cars and put them away.
"Honestly? There's nothing more I'd like to do than to go after Marie and see if I can convince her to forgive me," he said. "But I'm not putting you in the pot again, Sunshine."
Jackie smiled faintly at the poker reference.
"And Marie's made it very clear to me on multiple occasions that she doesn't want to date a married man." There was no hiding his bitter tone. "Even if she did forgive me, I doubt we could just be friends."
"Huh," Jackie said, frowning slightly.
"What?" Remy asked, putting the last of the pieces into the box.
"I just... You don't usually step down from challenges," Jackie said. "It's not really like you to play dead."
"Au contraire, Sunshine," Remy replied, placing the lid on the box. "Sometimes playing dead is a bigger risk than running. You never know when some guard is going to come up to and give you a good kick in the side to see if you're still alive."
Jackie laughed lightly and Remy grinned at her.
"Like I said, I ain't putting you in the pot again," he said. "Some stakes are too high."
"Never thought I'd hear you say that," Jackie said wryly.
"One of the tricks to being successful in poker? Knowing when to fold," Remy said.
"You can only play the hand you're dealt?" Jackie suggested with a slight smile.
"Exactly," Remy said, pulling out a deck of playing cards. "And right now I'm looking at two and a seven, off suit."
"Worst opening hand you can get right?"
"Oui," he said, shuffling the cards.
Jackie leaned forward. "What if the Flop is all twos and sevens?"
"You kick yourself for folding," Remy replied with a grin.
"Well, not if you had the big blind," Jackie pointed out. "If you had the big blind and no one raised, you get a free look at the flop."
"True."
"And a Full House is the second best hand."
"Also true."
"See? You can still win on the worst opening hand in the game."
Remy gave Jackie a long look. "Are you encouraging me to go after Marie?"
Jackie froze. "N-no, I was just...you know...playing devil's advocate."
"Just checking," Remy said. "I wouldn't want there to be any misunderstandings between us."
"Neither," Jackie said, watching Remy shuffling the cards still. "You going to deal or what?"
Remy shrugged. "Any particular game? I was just fidgety."
"No, not really, I was just wondering."
There was silence for a moment, and then:
"You could still beat a full house of twos and sevens," said Remy. "If one of the other players had, say, a three and a seven, and the Turn or the River turned out to be a three, they'd win. That's assuming deux of the cards in the Flop are sevens."
"The Turn's the fourth community card and the River's the fifth, right?" Jackie asked.
"Oui."
"Oh good. I'm always getting them mixed up."
Remy chuckled.
"Still, if a two and a seven is the worst hand, and you've got the big blind, why would another player play a three and a seven?" Jackie asked.
"Maybe they're a beginner and don't know any better. Or maybe they had the small blind and decided to go for it," Remy replied, paused then added: "Or maybe they had a hunch."
Jackie laughed.
"Doesn't have to be a three," said Remy. "I just picked that because it's higher than two."
"Everything's higher than two," Jackie said.
"Exactly," Remy said with a nod. "Two's a very weak card on his own. He needs the support of others to amount to anything, whether it's the company of other twos, or others of the same suit, or others to make up a straight. Aces, of course, are at the top of the food chain: Deux aces is the best opening hand you can get, and you could still lose."
"Like, if say, you have a two and a seven, the big blind and the Flop turns out to be trois twos?" Jackie asked mischievously.
Remy laughed.
"Oui," he said. "Four of a Kind will beat a Full House."
He put down the cards and reached across the table to touch Jackie's cheek.
"I'm very proud of you," Remy said fondly. "I just want you to know that."
Jackie smiled and curled her fingers in his.
"Merci, Papa," she said. "I'm proud of you too."
Remy chuckled. "Nice to know."
He pulled his hand away again, and started fiddling with the cards once more. There was quiet for a time, then Remy stood up.
"Come on," he said. "I think it's well past time I showed you the vault."
"Oooh 'the vault'," Jackie said as she stood. "That sounds ominous."
Remy chuckled and walked into the laundry. "I had always intended to show you and give you access to it. I know you don't really live here, but this is your home...kind of...and I think you have a right to know about it."
"Well, thanks," Jackie said.
She watched curiously as Remy opened up one of the doors to the laundry cupboard and peered inside when he gestured for her to do so. The only thing in this half of the cupboard was an ironing board, which surprised Jackie a little as she didn't think her father did any ironing.
"Put your hand up there, right in the corner," Remy said, pointing to the far top corner.
Jackie stepped gingerly into the gap, avoiding the ironing board, and put her hand up into the indicated corner. Her finger found a depression.
"Found it?" Remy asked.
"Oui."
"Push it in."
Jackie did so. There was a faint clicking noise and then the back of the cupboard slid open, revealing a key pad and a door handle on the right side. Jackie turned her head to look at Remy and receive further instructions.
"Okay, on the left side, opposite to the handle, you should be able to feel a slot," Remy said.
Jackie used her left hand to feel for the slot and found it running vertically. "Found it."
"Bon," Remy said and handed her a playing card. "Slide this into it."
Jackie did so. There was another click, and Remy reached in to give the door a good push. The opened door inwards, and revealed a small room.
"Wait so...what's the key pad for?" Jackie asked, gesturing to the key pad in question, and the unused door handle.
"Red herring," Remy replied, grinning, "or booby trap, take your pick."
Jackie laughed softly and walked through the doorway. She stopped in the middle of the room and looked around. One wall was full of monitors, each one focused on a different part of Remy's house. There was a combined fridge and freezer, a table, a chair and a microwave in one corner and a toilet in the other. There were also a couple of cupboards and plenty of shelves. On the wall opposite all the monitors there was a cabinet full of photos, photo albums, and other things of sentimental value.
Remy closed the door behind him and found Jackie staring at all the photos.
"They're all copies," he said, "in case anything happens to the copies in the house or on the computer."
Jackie nodded. Most of them were family photos. There were lots of photos of her growing up. There were even a couple of photos of Marie, from their camping trip by the looks. There was one photo of them sitting next to each other, Remy with his arm around Marie and Marie leaning into him, actually looking sincerely happy. Jackie turned away.
"What's this about?" Jackie asked gesturing to the kitchen facilities. "Planning for a siege?"
Remy shrugged. "This was the original laundry that came with the house, toilet and all. I figured, hey, if there's a toilet in here, I may as well provide a use for it. 'Sides, all of this is planning for the worst case scenario."
Jackie looked back at all the monitors.
"I had no idea this place was under surveillance," she said, looking for any monitor depicting her room.
"Good," Remy said. "I'd be very disappointed if you could find the cameras. They're tiny little things, blend in very well with their environment. They were state of the art when I stole them."
Jackie chuckled. "Where's my room?"
Remy pointed to two of the uppermost screens. "That's your window on the outside, and that's the doorway in the hall."
"So...there's none in my room?" she asked cautiously.
"The point of the cameras is to be able to record uninvited guests," Remy said. "I'm not interested in spying on you, especially not in your bedroom, Sunshine. There aren't any in the bathrooms or my bedroom either; just on entry and exit points. And public areas of course."
Jackie nodded, glancing at the monitor for the living room before looking back at her father.
"Now, this over here," Remy said, gesturing to a key pad on the wall, "is not a red herring."
Jackie chuckled and joined him.
"Password is 'sunshine' backwards and converted to numbers," Remy said, tapping it in.
Jackie had no chance to comment on this before another door opened, this one revealing a server rack.
"This is the computer which takes care of the monitoring system," Remy said. "I keep everything that's been recorded, and since I put this all in right after I moved, there's a lot of footage in here."
"I just bet there is," Jackie replied.
Remy talked her through how the system worked and Jackie listen carefully.
"And there you have it," Remy said, shutting things up again. "Now, before you leave, just check that screen there to make sure no one's in the laundry."
Jackie glanced at the screen in question, and they soon left the vault.
"Well," said Jackie as they returned to the dining room. "That was certainly enlightening."
Remy chuckled. "I'm sure it was, Sunshine. Just remember, when you're in the laundry cupboard getting in, close the door."
"I will. You keep the Cure in there?"
"Oui," Remy said wryly. "Not that that's useful information any more."
Jackie shrugged as they sat back down at the dining table.
"Good to know, anyway," she said, paused, and then went on: "I notice you have some photos of Marie in there."
"Yeah," was Remy's only reply.
"Camping trip?"
"Oui."
Jackie considered her father thoughtfully, particularly in the light of his terse reply.
"You guys had fun on the trip, didn't you?" she asked.
"That we did," Remy replied, looking towards the liquor cabinet in the kitchen. "That's when I knew I'd fallen in love with her."
Jackie winced, and Remy met her eyes. Jackie got his message: "Drop it, I don't walk to talk about it."
"When you knew you'd, ahem, 'fallen in love'?" she asked anyway, having a perverse need to prod at his wounds. "As opposed to the day you had actually 'fallen in love'? Like it's possible to deceive yourself prior to making the decision to deceive yourself?"
Remy was silent for a long moment. He leaned on his arms on the table.
"Sometimes your heart knows how you feel about someone before your mind does," he said with stiff patience. "At some point I feel in love with Marie. It was during the camping trip that my mind finally got the message. I've loved women before, Jackie, but the intensity of what I feel about Marie is...is unmistakable. What I feel for her, makes all the love I've ever felt for any other girlfriend—including your mère—pale in comparison."
There was silence for a moment, and then:
"And I swear, Jackie, I really hope that one day you feel for someone what I feel right now for Marie," he said, almost sounding angry. "Because even though our relationship is down the crapper, those few precious moments of happiness we had are completely worth every ounce of heartache I'm feeling right now."
Jackie frowned thoughtfully and dismissed the curse of self-deception he'd just wished on her. After all, if her mother was right about her father hating himself, and lying to himself about why prostitutes slept with him, then believing in 'true love' was probably to be expected. The words that were really making her edgy now, however, were 'few precious moments of happiness'.
Remy sighed, closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. Jackie looked at him with her own feelings of unhappiness.
"Well, I...I only have a problem with you dating," Jackie said slowly. "I wouldn't have a problem with you being friends, you know, if Marie could be persuaded to forgive you."
"Marie might be able to do the 'just friends' thing," Remy said quietly. "But I'm not sure I could. It wouldn't even be the whole 'no dating' thing either; it would be seeing her with other men, or at least hearing about her dating other men. Even if you were okay with us dating—which I know you're not—I just don't think I could handle her being with anyone else, knowing the whole time that it could have been me if I just could've gotten a damn divorce."
Jackie didn't know what to say to that, knowing full well how much both parents wanted to get divorced.
"But that's impossible," Remy said, his voice bitter. "The only way Belle and I could possibly get a divorce is if weren't the leaders the the Guild any more."
"And that's a long way away. On the bright side, you'll probably be a grand-père by then, and you'll get to spend time with the grandkids," Jackie said, attempting to change the subject to something lighter. "Personally, I'm hoping for twins."
"Twins?" Remy repeated, opening his eyes and looking at her.
"Oui, or triplets," Jackie said. "A multiple birth means I only need to get pregnant once to have 'a heir and a spare'."
"It'll be a lot of work raising multiple newborns at once," Remy said. "To say nothing of toddlers."
Jackie shrugged. "It's not like I'll have to do it all by myself. I'll have you and Maman, and maybe their father depending on our arrangement. And I'll have anyone else who I can con or otherwise shanghai into helping me. Besides, delegating assignments and stuff is all part of being a leader."
Remy froze and Jackie looked at him curious, recognising her father's 'light bulb' look.
"You've had an idea?" she asked.
Remy didn't answer at first, and seemed reluctant to look her in the eye.
"It's nothing," he said.
"Nu-uh, I don't believe you," Jackie said. "That's not a 'it's nothing' idea look."
Remy cracked a weak smile.
"So?" Jackie prodded. "Aren't you going to tell me?"
"Do I have a choice?" Remy asked.
"Not really, no, as I do intend on nagging you until you 'fess up," Jackie said.
She gave Remy her brightest, cutest smile. There were definite benefits to having her father wrapped around her little finger.
"Okay fine but... it's just an idea," Remy said seriously. "It's not a suggestion or a request or anything, and just remember that you asked me to tell you."
"Okay," Jackie replied, now even more curious.
"If at any time, Belle and I decided to step down from Guild leadership, for whatever reason, you would take over. And once you're the leader of the Guild, there's no reason why you couldn't delegate the day to day work to someone else, like, your mère and I," Remy said, feeling a little awkward saying it. "Especially if say, you were in the FBI at the time, and couldn't take over full time even if you wanted to. I mean, your grand-pères retired early so that the Guild would be united under Belle and I when we got married. In reality, we were only nineteen, and definitely not ready to take over the Guild leadership. Especially me, as I had been away for deux years. Our pères stayed on as 'advisors' for quite a few years until they deemed us competent enough to go on by ourselves."
"So if you and Maman were to step down right now, I would take over as the leader, delegate most if not all of my new responsibilities to you deux, and you could quietly divorce?" Jackie asked.
"In theory. The Guild would be united under a Boudreaux and and LeBeau united through body instead of marriage, so I can't see why any divorce between Belle and I would give anyone a cue to try and split the Guild apart again," Remy replied, then took Jackie's hand and looked her quite seriously and sternly in the eyes. "And I repeat, Jackie, it's just an idea. I have no intention of—"
"You should run it by Maman and see what she thinks," Jackie said.
"Sunshine—"
"Do it on Monday. I'll pop by the office after work."
"It's not a request, Jackie," Remy said firmly.
Jackie grinned at him. "Neither is mine."