I do not own American Horror Story: Freak Show.

And I can no longer call this a freak show or a horror story anymore. It's just a story. ;)

Jimmy, Not Moses

The Present, the Past, and the Unknown Future

Jimmy walked in the door that October afternoon to three smiling faces.

The first two were his darlings, Bette and Dot, as they approached to hug and lightly kiss him home.

The third was their friend Lucy, who waved and smiled from her cup of coffee.

"Well, how is everyone this afternoon?" the man of the house greeted them happily.

The twins beamed.

"A bit tired, but feeling good," Dot responded gaily.

Jimmy gently pressed a silver hook to their steadily expanding belly.

A month or two, surely no more.

The beloved belly was getting big and round and taut.

He moved deeper into the living room, thinking to head into the bedroom and remove his work appendages from his tired stumps.

But stopped.

Something was . . . different.

He stood immobile, only his eyes moving as he carefully took in his surroundings.

"The living room is different," he finally concluded. "The furniture's moved."

Dot and Bette followed his gaze proudly.

Yes, it was different.

The couch was pushed over to the opposite wall.

The television had changed position as well, along with lounge chair.

It didn't look bad. It looked comfortable and the space itself bigger.

But . . .

"You did this?" he queried them, trying to sound casual instead of irritated.

They nodded back at him, looking very self-satisfied at their afternoon accomplishment.

He glanced over at Lucy, who after years of spousal abuse, felt the tension emanating from the handless man, and was slowly tightening up, still her gut reaction to a situation such as this.

She knew her friends shared a kind, loving relationship.

That their Jimmy would never hurt with words or physicality.

But such learned reactions can take a long time to overcome.

She managed to keep her hands light on the blue coffee cup.

As Jimmy took a deep breath.

"That television is heavy," he commented calmly. "I know. I moved it first."

Bette and Dot nodded again, acquiescing the weight of the electronic furnishing.

"Oh, we know. But Lucy helped us with that one. We more . . . pushed by walking it with our legs."

Jimmy pressed his lips together tightly as he gazed at his glowing wives.

You've got my baby in there! Be a little more careful with it, would ya?!

He glanced over at the tensing Lucy and then back at his darlings.

Took another deep, calming breath.

"It looks good. Just . . . be careful, okay?"

He reached out and briefly stroked the mound that cradled his child within.

They nodded a final time, smiling.

"Of course, darling."

"Now let us show you what we've done to the baby's room!"

Ah, jeez. Give me strength. I bet they carried in an entire elephant just to make me worry.

He went with them.

It was actually quite adorable.

The painted up, carefully arranged room.

Not a heavy elephant in sight.

And he didn't stress out at all.

Well, not much.

"Oh, did you hear about the fearless Miss Elsa Mars?" Bette gushed over a light supper of vegetable beef stew and cornbread. "She's doing a Halloween special! On Halloween night!"

Jimmy paused, raising his eyebrows a bit as he absorbed this new information.

Lucy, their supper guest, friend, and household cleaning help now that the sisters were beginning to struggle with such bending and stretching, furrowed her brow prettily.

"So? A lot of shows do those."

The three Walkers exchanged secret looks.

They had never really spoken of their direct correlation to the famous Miss Mars with anyone, not even Lucy, with whom they were quite close.

And they certainly weren't going to start now.

"Well," Jimmy began, smirking his dimple. "Miss Mars is known to be very . . . superstitious about some things."

Lucy didn't seem to understand.

"There's a story among . . . performers," Bette began carefully. "Of a ghost named Edward Mordrake."

Lucy's entire face was a question.

"Some believe if you perform on Halloween, Edward Mordrake will come and take you away to be part of his troupe of the undead."

Jimmy remained quiet through this simplified telling of the specter that still haunted his dreams on occasion.

"I've never heard of that," Lucy gasped, mystified. "How do you know of it?"

Dot shrugged nonchanltly.

"We like stories."

Lucy's lovely eyes goggled.

"But if he comes for performers on Halloween, then how come there are any performers left when they all do those shows?!"

Bette winked, even as she caught sight of Jimmy's almost imperceptibly paling face.

"Because it's just a story," she shrugged.

Jimmy barely suppressed a shiver.

No, no it's not. Not at all. Not in the least.

Lucy did shiver, from head to toe.

"Well, it's certainly a good Halloween one."

You have no idea, Jimmy retorted silently.

But he had to break the deep freeze his body was sitting in before the women noticed.

"She's got guts though, I gotta give her that," he declared. "Being that superstitious, that's practically inviting Edward Mordrake to show up."

Dot patted his knee affectionately, if a little mischievously.

"Well, just think about it. Those awful Christmas albums of hers that you bought to torture us with will be valuable memorabilia if she flops over onstage on Halloween night."

Jimmy shivered then forced himself to throw forth a carefree grin.

"Just the fortune we've been waiting for then."

And the Walkers chuckled to each other as their baffled friend Lucy gaped in horror.

"You people are twisted!"

Then she broke into muffled giggles almost against her will.

Bette smiled and squeezed her hand and sent bonds of secret silence to her cohorts.

"You have no idea."

"After all these years, do you regret what we did?"

Dot's question hung in the air between the three of them later that night as Jimmy entertained himself by balancing a plastic waterglass on the basketball belly bump of his child.

He didn't respond right away.

And his darlings, of course, waited.

Because he would answer.

Because he didn't have a choice.

So he did.

"To Dandy? No. He was evil and deserved to die. He deserved to be played with because he played with others."

The baby kicked.

The glass tipped.

Jimmy grabbed it.

And set it back on the baby bump.

"I regret saying it's what Ma woulda wished. I'm not sure that was really true. Elsa, maybe. But Ma . . . I'm not so sure about that one."

Bette and Dot considered this.

The three of them had discussed these things before, long ago, and put them to rest. But every so often (such as when The Elsa Mars Hour was set to play its first ever Halloween special), it rose again into their minds.

"She put us through so much. Twisted everything up 'til we could barely see and think straight. Tried to turn us against each other even more so that we already were . . ."

Bette trailed off, thoughts adrift.

"And Dandy, he was so disturbing. So childlike yet so deadly and sadistic at the same time. We . . . just needed someone to pay for all the wrong that had been done to us. Everyone who shunned us. Hurt us. Like Elsa. And him."

Jimmy listened intently, even as he focused his rapt attention on the moving mound of tummy.

The baby kicked.

The glass tipped.

Jimmy grabbed it.

And set it back in its baby bump position.

"Do you think we'll ever pay for what we did?" Dot wondered. "I mean . . . after . . ."

The three of them thought about that.

The future.

The past.

The unknown.

Jimmy spoke, quietly and carefully.

"I don't know. We're . . . we're different people now. We have more options. That was revenge and desperation."

He paused.

"And maybe a little insanity."

The girls nodded in agreement.

They sat for a while, watching the glass bounce as the baby practiced its enthusiastic calisthenics just below the surface of their stetched skin.

"Do you think that's really why Elsa is doing the Halloween special? Does she want Edward Mordrake to come get her and take her away?"

That was a new thought.

A dark, frightful one.

Maybe Elsa was tired of the hiding, tired of the games, of running away from what she had done, of what she had become.

Maybe she just wanted it to be over.

Or maybe she just wanted the money and attention she would garner from a Halloween special.

They certainly weren't going to ask.

But in a few days, they would certainly watch.

I wonder if Desiree will be watching too?

The baby kicked.

The glass tipped.

Jimmy missed the grab.

And ice water went everywhere.

And the twins gasped.

"Jimmy! That's cold!"

He grinned shamefacedly (but not really).

"Sorry."

And then he helped them clean up.

Thanks to DinahRay, midnightrebellion86, haily94, Bumblebee93, Jurana Keri, autumnrose2010, The Cry-Wank Kid, cherryblossom53, and my mystery guest (who did thankfully survive the molds *winks) for all these great reviews.

Final chapter tomorrow. It's just about one of my favorites I've ever written (not to be bragging of course) and I really hope you enjoy it. :) I'm sure you'll let me know either way.