Disclaimer: I don't own. Kinda figures, right?
:}
By the time Jade arrived at Tori's house, she was exhausted. They met with a chaste kiss, then went right into things. "So, how'd it go?" Tori asked.
"He brought his new wife." Jade said, knowing it would take a bit for her to add more. She had so much anger towards him, but at the same time, a lot of it was still directed back at her. 'So many years, trying to win his approval, and he was never gonna give it to me.'
"I suppose he wanted her to be like a mother to you.." Tori tried.
"He knew I was molested, and did nothing to stop it." Jade said, cutting off any defense of her father.
"Sounds like a productive session." Tori said, not sure what else she could add.
"I need to talk to your dad." Jade added, looking frazzled. "Please..." She felt she had to do one thing, to confirm one part of the stories she'd heard.
"Sure." Tori said, pulling out her phone and using it to dial the number on Jade's phone.
Seconds later, Jade had Tori's dad on the phone. He was at the station, doing some paper work. "Officer Vega, two years ago, my mom worked with the police to apprehend a man, and I just wanted to know how long he would be locked up, or is he already out?" Jade asked with a shaky voice.
"Just let me look things up." He said. "You're mothers name?"
"Martha West. Yea, I know, hell of a name." Jade gave him other information, like her mothers date of birth, and her maiden name. 'Lets make sure she was telling the truth, thought it certainly feels like she was. Gotta know if I can trust her, now that I understand just what I went through...'
"Okay, here's the file." The police officer said. "Gotta love computers. Says here she was taken hostage, tried to get away, and was shot by a taiser, but it was hard to tell what the object in the mans hand was, so the police attempted to subdue him with a few rounds. He died on the operating table hours later. Says here we told your mother he was arrested and confessed, so there wouldn't need to be a trial. We didn't want her thinking she'd helped kill a man."
"H-he's dead?" Jade asked, still shaky.
"I suspect, to him, dying was better then going back to prison as a child molester." David Vega explained. "Oh wow, it gets worse. Looks like, for the first offense, he'd been sent to a minimum security facility. This time, he was likely to be facing a more restrictive environment as a repeat offended. I doubt he'd have wanted to go to jail tagged as a man who tried to rape the same child twice, once at either end of his prison sentence."
"Thanks." The goths voice was faint, barely there. She let the phone go dead, then said to Tori "He's dead. He got shot after he taised my mom."
Tori wrapped her arms around her girl. "It'll be all right. Just relax, it's gonna be fine."
They sat there for a bit, just holding one another. Trina came in during that time, with a big smirk on her face. "Guys, Ryder and Alex met, and she had the perfect plan." The older Latina gushed. "She played the wounded dove, angry at men for what her ex did to her. Said he'd cheated on her, and the way she'd found out was priceless. Get this, she told him she was recovering from gonorrhea, that being checked out for discharges was her big alert. Now, due to late treatment, she couldn't risk anything sexual for a bit. Said she needed time for the antibiotics to work."
"She told him she had gonorrhea?" Tori asked. "Why?"
"It's treatable, but there's an antibiotic resistant strain thats going around, requiring more intensive treatment. Like I said, her excuse for not getting freaky for a bit." Trina explained. "But, whats important here is she's come across as vulnerable, a victim of cheating. Ryder may have been involved in cheating, according to Tony, but never went after someones girl. Sometimes the other man is just the one available when the girl decides to cheat. But she drew him in, set boundaries, gave him a challenge to overcome while leaving sex off the table for a few weeks. That means they can date, and with luck, we'll have another girl hanging out with us when the guys go get drunk and discuss sports."
"What do you guys talk about?" Tori asked, smiling.
"Not really ready for that discussion." Jade reminded her girl.
"Oh, right." Tori said, hugging her girl. "Trina, Jack popped out at Jade's therapy meeting,. And things kinda spilled out."
"Oh, how bad was it?" Trina asked.
"I have a lot of skeletons in my closet I didn't know about before today, and my stepmother got an earful of them." Jade admitted.
"Well, at least now you know, so you can deal with it, right?" Tori tried to be optimistic. "And you know your mother cares, so it's good."
"My therapist said I was far from done." Jade replied.
"According to Tony, knowing the cause of a psychological problem is only part of the healing process. Frued's big fail was he believed that when a patient knew what was causing their problems, they could deal with them. But, we know, or suspected, what was behind a lot of your chiz." Trina explained. "So, if my therapist is right, you still need to process everything. Face the emotions, the fears, the hurts. Hell, knowing what happened is a big step, but all that work, it still needs to be done. You still need to put in the time and figure everything out. But you have your shrink, to help guide you, so now comes the heavy lifting."
"Thanks." Jade said, and despite her desire to be sarcastic, sardonic, or just bitchy, she meant it.
"No prob." The older girl replied. "So, anyways, Alex has him now, if she can play the wounded dove just right, he'll fall, and she'll reel him in, hook, line and sinker."
"Mixing metaphors there, Treen." Tori said, smiling. "But, what happens when he discovers she was lying to him?"
"With luck, she'll tell him, when the times right." Jade answered. "This relationship, it's gotta be based on honesty, but he's a player, despite his best efforts. Molly, god, we had her meet with Alex yesterday, just to work things out. Lucky us, pot doesn't make her talkative, girl is good at keeping secrets. Otherwise, she'd tell him everything. Did you know she practically lives at Ryders place now? He'd object, but she cleans when high, and his dorm room never looked better."
"Drifting." Tori warned.
"Yea, but Molly's kinda, I don't know, somewhere between precious special and short buss special." The blue eyed girl remarked.
"Gonna forgive you, cause your tired." Tori informed her girl. "But, just to be clear, your not fooling around with this Molly girl, are you?"
"She offered, but I said no." Jade replied. "I. Don't. Cheat!" She forced out through gritted teeth.
"Oh, more daddy issues." Trina poked.
"Okay, Trina, when were you gonna tell your family about your new show?" Jade asked. "You know, the one to replace the lame one that was canceled?"
"I was trying to figure that out, and came to one startling conclusion," The older girl started. "They set me up to fail. Think about it, I was left to create a show, with no idea what kind of work went into doing something like that. I was thinking interview show, but I only know one famous person, and apparently the producers arrange the interviews."
"She knows someone famous?" Tori asked.
"You, dear." Jade whispered to her girl.
"So then I thought about s show that highlighted my talents, but as I was writing it, I realized I'd have to writer a new episode every week, or faster. I'd need a show runner, to control things, and to interview and hire the crew. It'd be a lot of ongoing work." Trina looked frazzled.
"So your giving up?" Tori asked.
"Nope." Her sister replied, looking proud of herself. "I'm recruiting people to do all of that for me. Was gonna go with interns, but then I had a better idea. I'm gonna get Ryder, and Beck, and Andre, and Cat, and Jade, Jack, and maybe even that Sam girl that lives with Cat, and have you guys do the heavy lifting to get me a show."
"And why would we?" Jade asked, but she was smiling now.
"Cause you like me." Trina said, but hesitated. "And there's money in it."
"As you said, lots of work." Jade echoed. "But we could do something like that, as work study. Hell, it'd be the closest to actual work study Hollywood arts ever had. We use it as a showcase for out talents, with a lot of quickly put together acts, like the original iCarly show. Who knows, we get Sicowitz to be the faculty adviser, put on acts and songs and whatever, admittedly in Spanish, and see where it takes us. I assume our budget will barely cover lunch, right?"
"We pitch the idea, and see what kind of budget they give us to film a pilot." Trina replied.
"And if we sell, they get the majority of the profits." Jade grossed.
"And we get out names out there." Tori countered. "It'd be professional grade work, done by Sikowitz's class and Vega Star productions."
"And your name is on it why?" Jade asked, eying her girl.
"It's Trina, and thus my, last name." Tori said calmly. "My names also gonna help sell it, and believe it or not, as much as we'll need your talents, we'll need Robbie, and probably this Sam girls, more. So, lets get that written up, and present it to Sikowitz so he can be part of the presentation to the studio. But first, Jade, I feel like celebrating. You up for some fun?"
"Like?" Jade asked.
"I think she means sex." Trina said bluntly.
"Nahh, I was thinking cuddling and a movie. My girl had a rough day." Tori cooed. Then she whispered to Jade, "But, if your up to it, I'm willing..."
:}
Love how this always seems to happen in my stories. Someone is working towards a big break. If this were the show, they'd succeed, only to have something in the way. However, I gave Trina a chance, and she did what every great leader does, got the best help available.
So thoughts, comments, angry that I had such a neat, clean ending for Jade's tormentor? Let me know with a well placed review.